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INDIAN WARS 
 
 ¥0 I 
 AND 
 
 Pioneers of Texas. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN HENRY BROWN. 
 
 L. E PA VI ELL, Publisher, 
 -in, Texas. ^^.^ 
 
 M. 
 
3fc ^2.U 
 
 [0 3 
 
 Press of -UECKTOLD — 
 
 liixon-Jor,es Printing Company. Phinting and Buok Mfg. Co. 
 
 St. I.OUiS, Mo. ST. LODIS, MO. 
 
v^ 
 
 ^'V 
 
 DEDICATORY PREFACE. 
 
 The reader of this volume is introduced to a series of advancing scenes in a 
 drama that had its beginning in the fii'st feeble attempts that were made at the 
 settlement of the country, and to a succession of actors from the solitary explorer 
 of seventy years ago to the men of to-day. 
 
 To one of the most nsefnl, honored and capable of the latter, our esteemed 
 friend — 
 
 Mr. George Sealy, 
 
 of Gnlveston, 
 
 this work is respectfully dedicated. 
 
 The book leads the reader through the pnst to the present and here leaves him 
 amid active and progressive men who are advancing, along with him. toward the 
 future. 
 
 Including, as it does, lives of men now living, it constitutes a connecting link 
 between what has gone before and what is to come after. It is therefore fitting 
 that it should be dedicated to a prominent man of our day in jireference to one of 
 former times. The matter presented, in the nature of things, is largely biographical. 
 
 There can be no foundation for history without biography. History is a 
 generalization of particulars. It presents wide extended views. To use a para- 
 dox, history gives ns but a part of history. That other part which it does not 
 give us, the part Avhich introduces us to the thoughts, aspirations and daily life 
 of a people, is supplied by biography. 
 
 When a good action is performed we feel that it should be remembered 
 forever. When a good man dies, there is nothing saddei- than the retlec-tion thnt 
 he will be forgotten. No record has been preserved of the greater number of 
 
 (3) 
 
DEDICATORY PREFACE. 
 
 iioI)k' actions. Tho names of some of the men who have done most to make 
 history have fonnd no place upon its pages. 
 
 As Thoinas-a-Kempis hath truly said : " To-day the man is here ; to-moi'row he 
 hath disappeared. And when he is out of si^-ht, ([iiiekly also is he out of mind. 
 
 •' Tell me now, where are all those doctors and masters, with whom thou wast 
 well acquainted, while they lived and flourished in learning?'? ISTow others possess 
 their livings and jjerhaps do scarce ever think of them. In their lifetime they 
 seemed something, but now they are not spoken of." 
 
 The men whose deeds are recorded in this book were or are deeply identi- 
 fied with Texas, and the preservation in this volume in enduring form of some 
 remembrance of them — their names, who and what they were — has been a 
 pleasant task to one who feels a deep interest and pride in Texas — its past 
 iiistory, its heroes and future destiny. The book is presented to the reader 
 with the hope that he will find both pleasure and profit in its perusal. 
 
INTRODUCTORY 
 
 TO thp: 
 
 Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas. 
 
 The first contest on the soil of Texas between 
 Americans and Indians antedates the visit of Moses 
 Austin to the country in 1820 ; but the combatants 
 were not colonists ; they were a part of the second 
 expedition of Capt. James Long in aid of the 
 patriots in the Mexican revolution. His first ex- 
 pedition, entering East Texas by land, had been 
 defeated in detail and driven from the country by 
 the troops of Spain, sent from San Autouio. This 
 second expedition came by water to Bolivar Point, 
 opposite the east end of Galveston Island, and forti- 
 fied that place. Some of the expedition, under 
 Don Felix Trespalacios, and among whom was the 
 subsequently distinguished martj'r of Bexar in 1835, 
 Col. Benjamin R. Milam, sailed down the coast 
 and landed nearTampico. Fifty-two men remained 
 with Long, among whom were John Austin (com- 
 mander at Velasco in 1832), .John McHenry, 
 deceased in Jackson County in 1885, and a number 
 of educated and daring Americans from different 
 States of the Union. In December, 1853, in De 
 Bow's New Orleans Review, the author of this work, 
 after repeated interviews with Capt. McHenry, 
 long his neighbor, gave this account of that first 
 strictly American-Indian fight in Texas, late in the 
 autumn of 1819. Its verity has never been ques- 
 tioned : — 
 
 While Long was at Bolivar, a French sloop 
 freighted with wines and Mexican supplies, bound 
 to Cassano, stranded on Galveston Island near the 
 present city. The Carancahua Indians, to the 
 number of 200 warriors, were then encamped in 
 the immediate vicinity, and at once attacked and 
 butchered all on board the sloop, plundered the 
 craft, and entered upon a general jollification and 
 war-dance. Long (discovering these facts) deter- 
 
 mined to chastise them for their baseness. Accord- 
 ingly after nightfall, at the head of thirty men 
 (including McHenry), he passed over in small 
 boats to the island, and made an unexpected assault 
 upon the guilty wretches, who were then greatly 
 heated by the wines. 
 
 The Carancahuas, however, though surprised, 
 instantly seized their weapons, and yelling furiously, 
 met their assailants with determined courage. 
 With such superior numbers, they were a full match 
 for Long. The combatants soon came to a hand- 
 to-hand fight of doubtful issue ; but Long directed 
 his men in a masterly manner and effected a retreat 
 to his boats, leaving thirty-two Indians killed, three 
 of his own men dead, and two badly besides several 
 slightly wounded. George Early was severely 
 wounded. Long's party took two Indian boys 
 prisoners, and retained them, one of whom was 
 accidentally killed some time afterwards. This is 
 doubtless the first engagement known between the 
 war-like Carancahuas and the Americans. 
 
 THE FIRST CONTEST WITH THE COLONISTS. 
 
 The first two schooner loads of immigrants to 
 Texas, under the auspices of Stephen F. Austin, 
 landed on the west bank, three miles above the 
 mouth of the Colorado, late in March, 1822, having 
 left New Orleans on the 7th of February. The first 
 of the two vessels to arrive was the schooner Only 
 Son, owned by Kincheloe and Anderson, two of the 
 immigrants, and commanded by Capt. Benjamin 
 Ellison, who made many subsequent trips to our 
 coast and died at his home in Groton, Connecticut, 
 July 17, 1880. [The writer met him at his own 
 home in 1869 and 1870, and found him to be a 
 refined and elegant old Christian gentleman, with 
 
 (5) 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 kind i-ecollections of the early pioneers on our 
 coast, and 3'et retaining a warm interest in the wel- 
 fare of Texas.] Among those arriving on the 
 Onlj' Son were Abram M. Clare, from Kentucky, 
 who, till his death about forty years later, was a 
 worthy citizen; Maj. George Helm, of Kentucky, 
 who died on the eve of leaving to bring out his 
 family, one of whose sons, John L. Helm, was 
 afterwards Governor of Kentucky, while another is 
 the venerable Rev. Dr. Samuel Larue Helm, of the 
 Baptist Church, still of that State ; Charles Whitson 
 and family, James Morgan and familj' ; Greenup 
 Hayes, a grandson of Daniel Boone, who did not 
 remain in the country ; Mr. Bray, who settled at the 
 mouth of Bray's bayou, now Harrisburg, and his 
 son-in-law. While in Galveston Bay a number of 
 the colonists died of yellow fever, before reaching 
 Matagorda Bay. Among those who arrived by the 
 other vessel were Samuel M. Williams, afterwards 
 so long Secretary of Austin's Colony, and Jonathan 
 C. Peyton and wife, Angelina B.. a sister of Bailie 
 Pe\ton of Tennessee, afterwards the wife of Jacob 
 Eberly, by which name she was widely known and 
 esteemed throughout Texas, till her death about 
 1860. These personal facts are mentioned in justice 
 to those who were the first of our countrymen to 
 cross the gulf and seek homes in the wilderness of 
 Texas — the first, in that mode, to vindicate the 
 grand conception of the already deceased Moses 
 Austin, at the very moment that his son and suc- 
 cessor, Stephen F. Austin, was encountering in San 
 Antonio de Bexar the first of a long series of 
 obstacles to the prosecution of the enterprise — an 
 enterprise in the fruition of wbich, as time has 
 alread}^ shown, was directly involved the welfare of 
 two and a half millions of people now on the soil of 
 Texas, besides indirectly affecting other vast mul- 
 titudes now resident in California, Nevada, Utah, 
 Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. The politico- 
 economical aspect of this question would fill a 
 volume in following the march of our race 
 from Jamestown, Plymouth and Beaufort to the 
 present time, both interesting and edifying to the 
 highest order of political philosophers ; but its 
 discussion does not fall within the scope of this 
 work. 
 
 These immigrants, leaving a small guard with 
 their effects, somewhat aided by a few persons who 
 had settled on and near the Colorado, within the 
 present bounds of the counties of Colorado and 
 Fayette, moved up iti that portion of the wilderness. 
 James Cummins, Jesse Burnham, and a few others 
 constituted the infant settlements referred to at 
 that time. 
 
 Before leaving their supplies under guard those 
 
 savages of the coast, the Carancahuas,* had visited 
 the immigrants, professed friendship, and entered 
 into a verbal treaty of good will. But, -in keeping 
 with their instincts, as soon as the families and 
 main strength of the party had been gone sufficiently 
 long, they clandestinel}' assailed the camp — the 
 guard escaping more or less wounded — and seized 
 its contents. On learning this a party marched 
 down and chastised a small encampment of the 
 Indians, giving them a foretaste of what they real- 
 ized, when too late, that they must either in good 
 faith be at peace with the Americans or suffer an- 
 nihilation. Thirty j'ears later their once powerful 
 tribe — long the scourge of wrecked vessels and 
 their crews — was practically, if not absolutelj', 
 extinct. This was the first blood shed between the 
 settlers and the Indians. 
 
 The Carancahuas were both treacherous and 
 troublesome, often stealing from the settlers and 
 often firing upon tliem from ambush. The earlier 
 colonists living in proximity to the coast were 
 greatly annoyed by them. But there is no reliable 
 account of many of their earlier depredations. 
 About 1851 a small volume was published, purport- 
 ing to consist of letters by an early settler in the 
 section mentioned to a friend in Kentucky, giving 
 current accounts of events from 1822 to about 1845, 
 when in fact thej' were written by another, and a 
 stranger in the countiy, from the verbal recitals 
 from memoiy of the assumed author. The gross 
 inaccuracies in regard to events occurring much 
 later, especially in 1832 and 1840, necessarily 
 weaken confidence in his statements in regard to 
 earlier occurrences. We must, therefore, be con- 
 tent with more or less imperfect summaries of the 
 conflicts with the Carancahuas for the first few years 
 of the colonj'. 
 
 Among the first of which any account has been 
 preserved was an attack from ambush by these 
 savages upon three young men in a canoe in the 
 Colorado river, in the spring of 1823. The locality 
 is now in Colorado County. Loy and Alley (the lat- 
 ter one of several brothers) were killed. Clark, their 
 companion, escaped to tiie opposite bank, severely 
 but not mortally wounded. On the same day another 
 young man named Robert Brothertou was fired upon 
 and wounded by them, but escaped on horseback to 
 convey the news to the settlers above, these two 
 attacks being near the mouth of Skull creek. 
 
 * I follow the correct Spanish spelling of the names 
 of the Texas Indian tribes, giving also the correct pro- 
 nunciation. Thus, Caran-ca-hua, pronounced Kar-au- 
 ka-wah. There hasbeen no uuiforraitv in the orthography 
 of these names among American writers. All, however, 
 will agree that there should be. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 This was Robert Brotherton from St. Louis 
 County, Missouri, of which his two brothers, James 
 and Marshall, were successively sheriff, from 18o4 
 to 1842. Robert died unmarried at Columbus, 
 Texas, about 1857, leaving his estate to his nephew, 
 Joseph W. McClnrg, who, after a short residence 
 in Texas, returned to Missouri, to become later a 
 congressman and Governor of the State. 
 
 A part}' of the settlers, numbering fourteen or 
 fifteen, by a cautious night march arrived at the 
 Indian camp in time to attack it at dawn on the 
 following morning. Completely surprised, the 
 Indians fled into the brush, leaving several dead. 
 This was on Skull creek, a few miles from 
 Columbus. 
 
 The depredations of the Carancahuas continued 
 with such frequency that Austin determined to 
 chastise and if possible force them into pacific 
 behavior. [Having left San Antonio very unex- 
 pectedly for the city of Mexico in March, 1822, to 
 secure a ratification of his colonization scheme by 
 the newly formed government of Iturbide, the 
 original concession of 1821 to Moses Austin having 
 been made by the expiring authorities under 
 Spain, Austin was now, in the summer of 1824, at 
 his new home on the Brazos, clothed temporarily 
 with authority to administer the civil and judicial 
 affairs of the colony, and to command the militia 
 with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.] Capt. 
 Randall Jones, in command of twenty-three men, 
 in the month of September, moved down the 
 Brazos in canoes. On the lower river he was 
 visited by some of the Indians who, on seeing his 
 strength, manifested friendship. But learning that 
 about thirty warriors of the tribe were encamped 
 on a tributary of the Bernard, about seven miles 
 distant, and also that about a dozen others had 
 gone to Bailej^'s, further up the river, to bu}' 
 ammunition, Capt. Jones sent two messengers 
 up the river for help. These two found a small 
 number already collected to watch the party at 
 Bailey's. Becoming assured of their hostile intent, 
 the settlers attacked them, killed several and the 
 others fled. 
 
 Without waiting for reinforcements, Capt. 
 Jones determined to attack the party on the creek. 
 Crossing to its west side he moved down in the 
 night abreast the Indian camp, which was on the 
 margin of a marshy expansion of the creek, covered 
 with high grass, reeds, etc. At daylight the wiiites 
 fired, charging into the camp. In a moment the 
 Indians were secreted in the rank vegetation, hurl- 
 ing arrows with dangerous precision into their 
 exposed assailants. In another moment one or two 
 of the whites fell dead, and several were wounded. 
 
 To maintain their position was suicidal ; to charge 
 upon the hidden foe was madness ; to retire as 
 best they could was the dictate of common sense. 
 This they did, pursued up the creek to where they 
 recrossed it. They had three men killed, bearing 
 the names of Spencer, Singer, and Bailey, and 
 several wounded. It was claimed that fifteen 
 Indians were killed, but of this there was no 
 assurance when we remember the arms then in use. 
 Be that as it may, it was a clear repulse of the 
 whites, whose leader, Capt. Jones, was an expe- 
 rienced soldier of approved courage. Such a result 
 was lamentable at that period in the colon j''s 
 infancy. It was this affair which caused the name 
 of "Jones" to be bestowed on that creek. 
 
 Soon after this the Carancahuas, a little above 
 the mouth of the Colorado, captured an American 
 named White and two Mexicans, in a canoe, who 
 had gone from the San Antonio to buy corn. They 
 let White go under a promise that he would bring 
 down corn from the settlement and divide it with 
 them — the canoe and Mexicans remaining as hos- 
 tages. When White reported the affair to the 
 people above, Capt. Jesse Burnham, with about 
 thirty men, hastened to the spot agreed upon, and 
 very soon ambushed a canoe containing seven or 
 eight Indians, nearly all of whom were slain at the 
 first fire, and it was not certain that a single one 
 escaped. 
 
 Col. Austin, near this time, raised about a 
 hundred volunteers and marched from the Brazos 
 southwesterly in search of the Carancahuas. Some 
 accounts say that he went to meet them, at their 
 request, to make a treaty. Others assert that he 
 started forth to chastise them, and that after 
 crossing the Guadalupe at Victoria he met messen- 
 gers from the Indians, sent through the priests of 
 Goliad, proposing to meet and enter into a treatj' 
 with him. This is undoubtedly the true version. 
 Austin started pi'cpared and determined to punish 
 the Indians for their repeated outrages, or force 
 them to leave the limits of his colony. Had he 
 only gone in response to their invitation, he would 
 not have taken with him over a dozen men. He 
 met them on the Menahuilla creek, a few miles 
 east of La Bahia, and, being much persuaded 
 thereto by the clergy and Alcalde of that town, 
 made a treaty with them, in which they pledged 
 themselves never again to come east of the San 
 Antonio river. More than one writer has been led 
 to assert that the Carancahuas kept that pledge, 
 which is notoriously untrue, as they conunitted 
 occasional depredations east of that river at inter- 
 vals for twenty-one years, and at other intervals 
 lived at peace with settlements, hunting and some- 
 
8 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 times picking cotton for tlie people. In 1842 they 
 were living on the margins of Matagorda Bay, 
 often seen by the author of this work, while during 
 the succeeding December, with the Somervell 
 expedition, he saw perhaps a dozen of the tribe 
 on the banks of the Rio Grande. The last Ameri- 
 can blood slied by them was that of Capt. John 
 F. Kempeu, in Victoria County, whom they mur- 
 dered in November, 184.5. [Vide Victor M. Rose's 
 History of Victoria Couutj', page 21.] 
 
 Austin's movement was a wise one. It con- 
 vinced those unfaithful creatures that the Ameri- 
 cans had become strong enough to hold the couutrj' 
 and punish their overt acts. They had formerly 
 been partially under the influence of the mission- 
 aries, and still had their children baptized by the 
 priests who stood somewhat as sponsors for them 
 in the treaty, probably a stroke of policy mutually 
 understood by them and Col. Austin, as sure to 
 have no evil effect, and with the hope that it might 
 exert a salutary influence, as it doubtless did. We 
 must not forget that those were the days of infancy 
 and small things in Texas. 
 
 As to the number of Indians in Texas in its first 
 American settlement, we have no reliable statistics. 
 The following semi-official statement, published in 
 the Nashville (Tenn.) Banner of August 1, 1836, 
 is deemed authentic as far as it goes ; but it does 
 not include those tribes or portions of tribes — as 
 for instance the Comanches — pertaining to Texas, 
 or south of the Arkansas river and west of the 
 100th degree of longitude west of Greenwich : — 
 
 Mr. Editou — As the public mind has been and 
 still is somewhat excited with regard to the situa- 
 tion of our western frontier, and the State being 
 now under a requisition of Gen. Gaines for a 
 regiment of mounted gun men to maintain its 
 defense, I have thought it would not be uninter- 
 esting to the public to know the names and numbers 
 of Indian tribes on that frontier. The statement 
 is taken from an estimate accompanying a map of 
 survey showing the geographical and relative posi- 
 tions of the different tribes, which was prepared at 
 the topographical bureau during the present year, 
 which I have not yet seen published. 
 
 The names and numbers of the Indians who 
 have emigrated to the west of the Mississippi : — 
 
 Choctaws 15,003 
 
 Apalachicoles 265 
 
 Cherokees 5,000 
 
 Creeks 2,459 
 
 Seuecas and Shawnees 211 
 
 Senecas (from Sandusky) 231 
 
 Potowatomies 141 
 
 Peorias and Kaskaskias 132 
 
 Pienkeshaws 1G2 
 
 Wees 222 
 
 Ottoways 200 
 
 Kickapoos 470 
 
 Shawnees 1,250 
 
 Delawares 826 
 
 The names and numbers of the Indian tribes 
 resident west of the Mississippi : — 
 
 lowas 1,200 
 
 Sacs, of the Missouri 500 
 
 Omahas 1,400 
 
 Ottoes and Missourians 1,600 
 
 Pawnees 10,000 
 
 Comanches 7,000 
 
 Mandons 15,000 
 
 Mineterees 15,000 
 
 Assinaboins 800 
 
 Crees 3,000 
 
 Crosventres 3,000 
 
 Crows 45,000 
 
 Sioux 27,500 
 
 Quapaws 460 
 
 Caddos 800 
 
 Poncas 800 
 
 Osages 5,120 
 
 Konsas 1,471 
 
 Sacs 4,800 
 
 Arickaras 8,000 
 
 Chazenes 2,000 
 
 Blackfeet .30,000 
 
 Foxes 1,600 
 
 Areehpas and Keawas 1,400 
 
 There is yet remaining east of the river in the 
 Southern States a considerable number: the five 
 principal tribes are the Seminoles, Creeks, Chero- 
 kees, Choctaws and Chickasaws. 
 
 Seminoles, yet remaining east 2,420 
 
 Choctaws, yet remaining east 3,500 
 
 Chickasaws, yet remaining east 5,420 
 
 Cherokees, yet remaining east 10,000 
 
 Creeks, yet remaining east 22,668 
 
 Those stated as western tribes extend along the 
 whole western frontier. And taking as true the 
 opinions of the department, that the average 
 number of an Indian family is four, it may be seen 
 what number of warriors, by possibilitj^ might be 
 brought into the field, and what number on the 
 other hand might be required to keep them in 
 check. 
 
 By publishing the foregoing statement, you will 
 oblige your humble servant, 
 
 Thomas J. Porter. 
 
CHIEF AT HOME. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 At that time there were in East Texas the Chero- 
 kees and their twelve associate bands of United 
 States Indians, embracing portions of the Dela- 
 wares, Shawnees, Kickapoos, Alabamas, Coosh- 
 attes, Caddos, Pawnees, and others. 
 
 There were also remnants of ancient Texas 
 Indians - — some almost extinct — such as the 
 Achaes, Jaranenies, Anaquas, Bedwias — still 
 formidable bodies of Carancahuas, Tasahuas, 
 Lipaus, Tahnacarnoes, Wacos, Wichitas, Keechies, 
 lonies, Towdashes, and others, besides the still 
 principal tribes of the Comanches, Kiowas and 
 
 to their west the Apaches, Navajoes, and others 
 more strictly pertaining to New Mexico, but often 
 depredating in Texas, as did the Mescalaros and 
 other tribes from beyond the Eio Grande hailing 
 from Coahuila and Chihuahua. 
 
 Our work is hereafter confined to events after the 
 American settlements began. It covers the period 
 from 1822 to 1874, fifty-two years, and much is 
 untold, but the early struggles in every part of this 
 State are given as illustrations of what the pioneers 
 of Texas suffered. 
 
 Mrs. Jane Long at Bolivar Point — 1820. 
 
 Bolivar Point lies, green and inviting, a high 
 point of land in sight of Galveston. It seems to 
 say to pleasure-seekers, " Come and visit me. I 
 have shad3' groves, fresh breezes, and in the season 
 fine melons and fruits to offer, but there are events 
 of historic and romantic interest connected with 
 me, which add tenfold to my attractiveness." Yes, 
 truly, seventy-six years ago Bolivar was the scene of 
 events now known to comparatively few, except per- 
 haps members of old Texas families, who have 
 heard them related by the remarkable woman who 
 there displayed a heroic devotion and courage rarely 
 equaled in modern times. 
 
 First we see her, in the V'ear 1815, at Natchez, 
 Miss., with sun-bonnet hiding her clustering curls, 
 and school satchel on arm, as she wends her way to 
 the academy. The same day she meets, for the 
 first time, Dr. Long, who has just distinguished 
 himself in the battle of New Orleans, where he won 
 from Gen. Jackson the sobriquet of "The 
 Young Lion." The stream which separates simple 
 acquaintance from passionate love was soon crossed, 
 and the boy surgeon of twenty and Jane Wilkinson, 
 the school girl of fifteen, became husband and wife. 
 A' few years of quiet domestic life, and the adven - 
 turous spirit and manly ambition of the soldier 
 assumed full swaj' over a mind which could not be 
 content with the peaceful pursuits of the farmer, nor 
 yet with the humdrum traffic of the merchant, which 
 Long successively engaged in after his marriage. 
 
 Mexico was struggling to be free from Spain, and 
 in 1819 Gen. Long became the leader of a gal- 
 lant band of men raised in Natchez for the purpose 
 of wresting that portion of Mexico called Texas 
 
 from the Spanish yoke. Through the many excit- 
 ing scenes incident to a soldier's life in this almost 
 unknown country, Mrs. Long followed her husband, 
 content if she could but be near him. In 1820 she 
 found a resting place in a rude fort at Bolivar 
 Point, fortified and provisioned by Gen. Long 
 before his departure for La Bahia, or Goliad. Here 
 the adoring wife long awaited a return, of whose 
 impossibility her boundless faith would not allow 
 her to conceive. As time wore on, and no news of 
 the General's fate arrived, Bolivar was deserted by 
 the two men who constituted the guard. Although 
 several vessels touched at the point for the purpose 
 of conveying Mrs. Long to New Orleans, she, with 
 her little daughter and negro servant girl, Kian, 
 determined, at all hazards, to await her husband's 
 return. 
 
 When we look upon the Galveston Island of to- 
 daj', with its citj' rising from the sea, its market 
 gardens and dairy farms, its beach gay with costly 
 equipages, and surf noisy with the shouts of bathers, 
 it is difficult to recognize in it the Galveston Island 
 of seventy-six years ago. At that time, deserted 
 even by the pirate Lafitte, the red house and the 
 three trees the only objects that rose above the 
 water's edge, the cry of seagulls and pelicans, 
 mingled with the doleful sighing of breaking waves, 
 the only sounds to reach the ear of the brave woman 
 who kept her lonely watch at Bolivar, as we view 
 the incoming ships, laden with freight from every 
 quarter of the globe, and the sailing yachts bearing 
 pleasure parties perhaps to the very spot whence 
 Mrs. Long often strained her eyes to descry a dis- 
 tant sail which might bring good tidings, it is 
 
10 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 almost impossible to form a true conception of tlie 
 extreme desolateness of her situation. 
 
 In tlie midst of a region little known by whites, 
 the only human beings she could expect to see were 
 the savage Carancahua Indians, who might be 
 tempted to retnrn to their old haunts on the island, 
 now that Lafitte had deserted the place, or other 
 Indians who might approach from the Trinity. 
 Wlieuever they came near enough to cause her to 
 dread an attack, she had presence of mind to fire 
 off the cannon, and give other iudications that the 
 fort was occupied by a formidable force. There 
 were times when, not daring to go out by da}% Kian 
 would visit the beach at night, in order to get 
 oysters, which were often their only article of 
 food. Great was the rejoicing when, during that 
 severe winter of 1820-21, which converted the bay 
 into a sheet of ice, Kian found numbers of be- 
 numbed or frozen fish beneath the icy surface, and, 
 with Mrs. Long's assistance, a hole was cut, and a 
 good supply obtained and packed in the brine of 
 mackerel barrels. The cold was at this time so in- 
 tense that the ice was strong enough to bear the 
 weight of a bear which calmly pursued its way 
 across the bay, unmolested save by the barking of 
 Mrs. Long's dog, "Galveston." 
 
 At length the period of lonely waiting drew to 
 a close. One daj' there came a Mexican from 
 San Antonio, sent by Gen. Palaeios, bearing 
 a message ; but how different were the tidings 
 from those for which the devoted wife had fondly 
 hoped ! 
 
 The tragic manner of Gen. Long's death in 
 the city of Mexico is well known to readers of 
 Texas history, but none can ever know the shock 
 which his young wife experienced at this rude 
 awakening from her long dream of a happy reunion. 
 Some weeks later a second messenger came, pro- 
 vided with mules to convey' her and her little family, 
 consisting of two girls (an infant having been born 
 during her sojourn at Bolivar) and the faithful ser- 
 vant, to San Antonio. Here she was treated with 
 marked distinction by the Mexican government, as 
 the widow of a patriot and a hero. 
 
 Her long life of widowhood, intimately bound up 
 with the history of Texas, came to a close, at the 
 age of eighty-two, on the 30th of December, 1880, 
 at Richmond, Texas, where her son-in-law, Judge 
 Sullivan, and granddaughter still reside. Her 
 Spartan qualities became the legacy of Texians, for 
 historians have concurred in bestowing upon her 
 the worthy title, " The Mother of Texas." 
 
 The Cherokee Indians and Their Twelve Associate Bands 
 Fights with the Wacos and Tehuacanos — 
 1820 to 1829. 
 
 A little before 1820, dissatisfied portions of the 
 great Cherokee tribe of Indians, who had, from the 
 earliest knowledge we have of them, occupied 
 a large, romantic and fertile district of country, 
 now embraced in East Tennessee, Western North 
 Carolina and the upper portions of South Carolina, 
 Georgia and Alaljama, began emigrating west of 
 the Mississippi. Before tlie close of that year a 
 portion of them reached and halted temporarily on 
 Eed river, in the northeast corner of Texas. The 
 larger portion located in the valley of the Arkansas, 
 between Little Rock and Fort Smith, and there 
 with annuall}' increasing numbers, remained a 
 number of years, until the main body yet remain- 
 ing in the loved land of their fathers, under treaty 
 stipulations with the United States, began their 
 fmul removal to the magnificent territory now be- 
 
 longing to them; a migration occuiiying a number 
 of j'ears, and not completed until 1837. In that 
 time those along the Arkansas joined them. Those 
 coming down to Red river also received acces- 
 sions, for a number of years, from the different 
 migrating bodies, including small colonies from 
 twelve other partiallj' civilized tribes. 
 
 Very soon, perhaps before the close of 1820, and 
 certainly in 1821, they explored the country south 
 of them and began locating in East Texas, in what, 
 from that time till their expulsion in 1839, was 
 known as "the Cherokee country," now embrac- 
 ing the county of Cherokee and adjoining territory, 
 where they and their twelve associate bands, grad- 
 ually established homes, building cabins, opening 
 farms and raising domestic animals. Some joined 
 them as late as 1830 and '31. In 1822 when 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 11 
 
 Stephen F. Austin and Green De Wilt of Missouri, 
 Haden Edwards of Mississippi, and Robert Leftwich 
 of Nashville, Tennessee (the original grantee in 
 what subsequently became Robertson's Colon}'), 
 were in the cit}' of Mexico, seeking colonial privi- 
 leges in Texas, three Cherokee chiefs, Bowles, 
 Fields and Nicollet, were also there, seeking a 
 grant, or some sort of concession, to the district in 
 which they were locating, not a contract for colon- 
 ization, as desired by the gentleman named, but a 
 specific grant to their people in tribal capacity. 
 But thej' did not succeed, receiving only polite 
 promises of simething wiien Mexican affairs should 
 be more settled. 
 
 In 182G Fields and John Dunn Hunter (both of 
 mixed blood, Hunter possibly altogether white, but 
 of this there is no positive knowledge, and both of 
 good education) visited the Mexican capital on a 
 similar mission for the Cherokees, but they also 
 failed and returned to their people in an ill humor, 
 just in time to sympathize with Haden Edwards 
 and his colonists in their outrageous treatment by 
 the Mexican Governor of the State of Coahuila and 
 Texas, in declaring, without trial or investigation, 
 the annulment of his contract and ordering the 
 expulsion of himself and brother from the countrJ^ 
 Fields and Hunter, smarting under what they con- 
 sidered the bad faith of Mexico, induced their 
 people to treat with and sustain the Edwards party 
 in what received the name of the Fredonian war. 
 But this had a brief existence. Bean, as agent of 
 Mexico, seduced the Indians from their agreement 
 and secured their support of the Mexican troops 
 then advancing, which caused the Fredonians to 
 yield the hopeless contest and leave the country. 
 Not only this, but the Cherokees turned upon their 
 two most enlightened and zealous champions. 
 They basely assassinated both Fields and Hunter 
 This ended that embroglio. The Cherokees claimed 
 a promise from Bean that Mexico, in reward for 
 their course, would graut them the lands desired. 
 Whether so promised or not, the grant was never 
 made. 
 
 A band of Cherokees, en route to their people in 
 Texas, halted on Red river, in order to raise a 
 crop of corn, in the winter of 1828-9. An account 
 of what followed was written and published in 1855, 
 and is here repi'oduced. » » * They had not 
 been at this place very long before their villages 
 were discovered by a party of Wacos, on a robbing 
 expedition from the Brazos ; and these freebooters, 
 true to their instincts from time immemorial, lay 
 concealed till the silent midnight hour, and then, 
 stealthily entering the herds of the sleeping Chero- 
 kees, stampeded their horses, driving off a large 
 
 number. To follow them was labor in vain — but 
 to quietly forget the deed was not the maxim among 
 the red sons of Tennessee. 
 
 A council was held and the matter discussed. 
 After the opinions of the warriors had been given, 
 the principal war-chief rose, and in substance said: 
 " My brothers! the wild men of the far-off Brazos 
 have come into our camp while the Cherokee slept ! 
 They have stolen our most useful property. With- 
 out horses we are poor, and cannot make corn. 
 The Cherokees will hasten to plant their corn for 
 this spring, and while that is springing from the 
 ground and growing under the smiles of the Great 
 Spirit, and shall be waving around our women and 
 children, we will leave some old men and women to 
 watch it, and the Cherokee braves will spring upon 
 the cunning Wacos of the Brazos, as the}' have 
 sprung upon us." 
 
 The corn was planted, and in the month of May, 
 1829, a war party of fifty-five, well armed, left the 
 Red river villages on foot in search of the Wacos. 
 At this time the [nincipal village of the Wacos was 
 on the bluff where the beautiful town of Waco now 
 greets the eye on the west bank of the Brazos. 
 One band of theTehuacano (Ta-wak-a-no) Indians, 
 who have always been more or less connected with 
 the Wacos, were living on the east bank of the 
 river, three miles below. Both bands had erected 
 rude fortifications, by scooping up the earth in 
 various places and throwing up a circular embank- 
 ment three or four feet high, the remains of which 
 still are to be seen. The principal work of this 
 kind at the Waco village occupied a natural sink in 
 the surface. 
 
 The Cherokees struck the Brazos above the vil- 
 lage some forty miles, and traveled downward 
 until they discovered signs of its proximity, and 
 then secreted themselvfs in the cedar brake till 
 night. The greater portion of the night was spent 
 in examining the position, through experienced 
 scouts. Having made the necessary observations, 
 the scouts reported near daylight, when the war- 
 chief admonished them of what they had come 
 for — revenge ! Waco scalps ! ! horses I ! ! — and 
 led them forth from their hiding place, under the 
 bank of the river, to a point about four hundred 
 yards from the wigwams of the slumbering Wacos. 
 Here they halted till raj's of light, on that lovely 
 May morning, began to gild the eastern horizon. 
 The time for action had come. Moving with the 
 noiseless, elastic step peculiar to the sons of the 
 forest, the Cherokees approached the camp. But 
 a soUtary Waco had aroused and was collecting the 
 remains of his fire of the previous night, prepara- 
 tory to his morning repast. His Indian ear caught 
 
12 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 the sound of footsteps on the brush — a glance of 
 his lynx-eye revealed the approaching foe. A 
 single shrill yell from him, which echoed far and 
 near through the Brazos forest, brought every 
 Waco to his feet. The terrible Cherokee war- 
 whoop was their morning greeting, accompanied 
 by a shower of leaden rain. But, though surprised, 
 the Wacos outnumbered their assailants mauy 
 times — ^ their women and children must be pro- 
 tected or sacrificed — their ancient home, where 
 the bones of their fathers had been buried for ages, 
 was assailed by unknown intruders. Their chief 
 rallied the warriors and made a stand — the fight 
 became general, and as the sun rose majestically 
 over the towering trees of the east, he beheld the 
 red men of Tenuessee and the red men of Texas in 
 deadly strife. But the bows and arrows of the 
 Waco could not compete with the merciless rifle of 
 the Cherokee. The Wacos were falling rapidly, 
 while the Cherokees were unharmed. 
 
 After half an hour's strife, amid yells aud mutual 
 imprecations, the AVacos signaled a retreat, and 
 they fell back in confusion, taking refuge in the 
 fortified sink-hole. Here, though hemmed in, the}' 
 were quite secure, having a great advantage. In- 
 deed, they could kill every Cherokee who might 
 peradventure risk his person too near the brink. 
 
 The Cherokees had already killed many, and now 
 held a council, to consider what they should do. 
 It was proposed by one brave that they should 
 strip to a state of nature, march into the sink-hole 
 in a body, fire their pieces, then drop them, and 
 with tomahawks alone endeavor to kill every man, 
 woman and child among the Wacos. A half-breed 
 named Smith, who was in favor of this desperate 
 measure, as an incentive to his comrades, stripped 
 himself, fastened half a dozen horse-bells (which 
 he had picked up in the camp) round his waist, 
 and commeuced galloping and yelling around the 
 sink-hole, now and then jumping on the embank- 
 ment and then back, cursing the Wacos most lustily. 
 Arrows were hurled at him by scores, ).)ut he fell 
 uot. 
 
 Just as the Cherokee council was coming to a 
 close, at about an hour after sunrise, they heard a 
 noise like distant thunder on the opposite side of 
 the river and delayed a few moments to discover its 
 cause. Very soon they discovered a large bodj' of 
 mounted Indians rising the river bank a little 
 below them. What could it mean? they murmured 
 one to another. The story is soon told. A mes- 
 senger had rushed from the Wacos in the outset, 
 for the Tehuacauo village, begging help, and now 
 two hundred Tehuacano warriors, mounted and 
 ready for the fray, were at hand. The whole aspect 
 
 of the day was changed in a moment. To conquer 
 this combined force was impossible — to escape 
 themselves would require prudence. The Tehua- 
 cauos, in coming up, cut off a Cherokee boy, 
 twelve years old, killed and scalped iiim, and plac- 
 ing his scalp on a lance, held it up defiantly to the 
 view of the Cherokees. The boy was an only 
 child, and his father beheld this scene. The brave 
 man's eye glared with fury. Without a word he 
 threw from his body every piece of his apparel, 
 seized a knife in one hand, a tomahawk in the 
 other. "What vi^ill you?" demanded the chief. 
 " Die with my brave boy. Die slaying the wild 
 men who have plucked the last rose from my 
 bosom!" The chief interceded, and told him it 
 was madness; but the Cherokee listened not ; with 
 rapid strides he rushed among the Tehuacanos, 
 upon certain death ; but ere death had seized its 
 victim, he had killed several and died shouting 
 defiance in their midst. 
 
 The Tehuacanos occupied the post oaks just 
 below the Cherokees, and kept up a lusty shouting, 
 but ventured uot within rifle-shot. The latter, see- 
 ing that on an open field they could not resist such 
 numbers — having taken fifty-five Waco scalps 
 (equal to their owu number) ^ — -having lost two 
 men and the boy — now fell back into the cedar 
 brake aud remained there till night. They were 
 convinced that their safety depended upon a cau- 
 tious retreat, as, if surrounded on the prairies, they 
 would be annihilated. When uight came on, they 
 crossed the river, traveled down the sand bank a 
 mile or two, as if they were going down the coun- 
 try, thence, turning into the stream, waded up the 
 edge of the water some six or seven miles (the river 
 being low aud remarkably even), and thus eluded 
 pursuit. In due time, they reached their Eed 
 river villages, without the thousand horses they 
 anticipated, but with fifty-five Waco scalps — glory 
 enough in their estimation. The tribe was speedily 
 called together for a grand war-dance. For miles 
 around the American settlers were surprised to see 
 such a commotion and gathering among the Indians. 
 A gentleman, my informant, was there visiting a 
 widowed sister. He rode up to the Cherokee 
 encampment, inquired into the cause of the move- 
 ment, was invited to alight and spend the day. 
 He did so, and witnessed one of the grandest war- 
 dances he ever saw, and he was an old Indian 
 fighter. A very intelligent man, a half-breed, 
 named Chisholm, one of the fifty-five, gave 
 him a full history of the whole transaction. He 
 noted it carefully, aud from him I received it in 
 1855. 
 That gentleman was Capt. Thomas H. Barron, 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 13 
 
 formerly of Washington County, then residing near 
 Waco. When he first visited Waco in 1834, he at 
 ouce recognized the battle-gronnd and sink-hole as 
 
 described by Chisholm. The Cherokees did not 
 forget the Tehuacauos, but held them to a strict 
 account. 
 
 Cherokee and Tehuacano Fight in 1830. 
 
 After the Cherokees returned to their temporary 
 home ou Red river, from the attack on the Wacos, 
 in 1829, they determined to take vengeance on the 
 Tehuacanos for their interference in that engage- 
 ment ou behalf of the Wacos. It seems that early 
 in the summer of 1830, they fitted out a war party 
 for this purpose, numbering about one hundred and 
 twenty fighting men. 
 
 The Tehuacanos, like the Wacos, had several 
 principal villages, favorite places of resort, from 
 some peculiarity, as flue springs of water, abun- 
 dance of buffalo, etc. One of them, and perhaps 
 their most esteemed locality, was at the southern 
 point of the hills of the same name, now in the 
 upper edge of Limestone County, and the pres- 
 ent site of Tehuacano University. Around these 
 springs there is a large amount of loose limestone 
 on the surface, as well as in the hills, and the 
 whole surrounding country is one of rare beauty and 
 loveliness. 
 
 The Tehuacanos had erected several small in- 
 closures of these loose stones, about three feet high, 
 leaving occasional spaces some two feet square re- 
 sembling the mouths of furnaces. Over the tops 
 they threw poles and spread buffalo- hides, and 
 when attacked, their women, old men, and children 
 would retreat into these cells while the warriors 
 would oppose the attacking party from without, 
 until too closely pressed, when they, too, would 
 seek refuge in the same, and lying flat on the 
 ground, would send their arrows and bullets 
 through these apertures whenever an enemy came 
 within range. From the attacks of small arms 
 such a protection, however primitive, was gen- 
 erally quite effective. 
 
 This party of Cherokees, having been informed 
 of the localitj' of this place, and the value set upon 
 it by the Tehuacanos, and knowing that it was a 
 considerable distance from the Wacos, determined 
 to seek it out and there wreak vengeance upon 
 those who had by their own act called forth feel- 
 ings of hostility. Guided by an Indian who had 
 explored the country as a trapper, they reached 
 
 the place in due season. When discovered, the 
 Tehuacanos were engaged at a play of balls around 
 the little forts. The Cherokees stripped for action 
 at ouce. while the ball-players, promptly ceasing 
 that amusement, rushed their women and children 
 into their retreats, and prepared for defense. 
 They had quite a large village, and outnumbered 
 the Cherokees in fighting-men. 
 
 A random fight commenced, the Cherokees using 
 the surrounding trees as protection and taking the 
 matter as a business transaction, made their ad- 
 vances from tree to tree with prudence. Their 
 aim, with the " rest" against the trees, told with 
 effect, and one by one, notwithstanding their hid- 
 eous yells and capering, to and fro, the Tehuacanos 
 were biting the dust. 
 
 The moment one was wounded, unless a ver}- 
 brave fellow, he would crawl into the hiding-place 
 among their women and children, unless, per- 
 chance, on his way, a Cherokee ball brought him 
 to the ground. 
 
 The fight continued this way an hour or more, 
 when, upon a signal, the whole body retired within 
 their breastworks. At this time, the Cherokees, 
 elated by what they supposed to be a victor}', 
 charged upon the openholes, ringing their victori- 
 ous war-whoop most furiously. But they were soon 
 convinced that though concealed, the besieged were 
 not powerless, for here they received a shower of 
 arrows and balls from the hidden enemy which 
 tumbled several of their braves alongside of those 
 they killed on the other side. Yet, excited as the}' 
 had become, they were not easily convinced that 
 prudence in that case was the better part of valor. 
 On the contrary, they maintained the unequal con- 
 test for some time, until one of their old men 
 advised a talk. 
 
 They withdrew a short distance, and held a con- 
 sultation. Their leaders said they had come there 
 for revenge and they would not relinquish their 
 design so long as a Cherokee brave was left to 
 fight — that to go back to their people and report 
 a defeat would disgrace them — they would die oa 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 the field rather than beai- such tidings! " Where 
 there's a will there's a way," is a trite old adage, 
 and at this juncture of affairs it was verified by the 
 Cherokees. The old man who had advised the 
 "talk" now made a suggestion, which was sec- 
 onded by all. He proposed that a party should be 
 sent off a short distance to cut dry grass and bring 
 a lot; that men, loaded with this combustible 
 material, should cautiously approach each hole in 
 the breast- woi-ks, from the sides, using the grass 
 as a shield on the way ; that the door-holes should 
 be stopped up with it (with new supplies constantly 
 arriving), and set on fire, by which very simple 
 process the inmates would be suffocated or com- 
 pelled to throw off the hides and leap out, breath- 
 less and more or less blinded through the smoke, 
 while the Cherokees, stationed round in circles, 
 would have an easy time in butchering their 
 astounded red brethren. This was a rich idea, 
 and, delighted with the anticipated fun on their 
 part, and misery among their enemies, the Chero- 
 kees speedily made all their arrangements and dis- 
 posed of their fighting-men to the best advantage. 
 The grass was placed in the requited position, and 
 at the same moment, set on fire. For a moment 
 or two no response was heard from within ; but 
 very soon the smoke was seen escaping through the 
 rocks and from under the skins, proving that each 
 little refuge was full of the strangulating exhala- 
 tion. To endure such a torture long was bej'ond 
 human power ; and in a little while a doleful howl 
 issued forth, followed by a significant upheaving of 
 the buffalo-skin roofs, and a rush of the gasping 
 victims, blinded by smoke, leaping over the walls, 
 they knew not where. To render the picture more 
 appalling, the exulting Cherokees set up a terrible 
 
 yelling, and dealt death to the doomed creatures 
 with their guns, tomahawks, and scalping knives 
 until all were slain or had made their escape from 
 the dreadful sacrifice bj' headlong flight. Quite a 
 number of squaws and children, and perhaps a few 
 men, had been unable to rise, and died from suffo- 
 cation inside the works. 
 
 And thus ended this tragic scene in the course 
 of our Indian warfare. Comparatively few of the 
 Tehuacauos escaped. The surviving women and 
 children were preserved prisoners, and a consider- 
 able number of horses, blankets, skins, and indeed 
 the entire camp equipage, fell into the hands of the 
 victors, who returned to their people on Red river 
 in triumph, displaying not only their available 
 booty but a large number of the greatest of all 
 Indian symbols of glory, scalps. 
 
 These facts I obtained in 1842 from an old 
 Spaniard, who composed one of the party, and I 
 have little doul)t but thej^ were furnished by him 
 with fidelit}\ 
 
 This old Spaniard, whose name was Vasquez, 
 was a native of New Madrid, Missouri, and had 
 passed much of his life with different Indian tribes. 
 About 1840 he appeared at Gonzales, Texas, where 
 I formed his acquaintance. He fought with the 
 Texians at .Salado, in September, and at Mier in 
 December, 1842. Escaping from the latter place 
 he returned to Gonzales, his home being with Capt. 
 Henry E. McCulloeh, to suffer a cruel death soon 
 after. In 1843 he was captured by Mexican 
 banditti, west .of the San Antonio, who, knowing 
 his fidelity to Texas, suspended him to a tree by 
 the heels, in which position he died and was a few 
 days subsequently found. 
 
 First Settlement of Gonzales in 1825 — Attack by the Indians in 
 
 1826— Murder of French Traders in 1835 at Castleman's 
 
 Cabin — Battle of San Marcos — 1825 to 1835. 
 
 The settlement of Gonzales and De Witt's colony, 
 of which it was the capital, is replete with matters 
 of unusual interest in the pioneer history of Texas 
 and its Indian wars. At its birth it was baptized 
 in blood, and for twenty years a succession of 
 l)loody episodes attended its march towards peace- 
 ful civilization. 
 
 As soon as Green De Witt, tlien of Ralls County. 
 
 Missouri, entered into contract with the Jlexiean 
 authorities for colonizing that beautiful district of 
 country, now embracing all of Gonzales, Caldwell, 
 Guadalupe and De Witt counties and portions of 
 Lavaca, Wilson and Karnes, he left for Missouri to 
 bring out his family. At the same time, Maj. 
 James Kerr was appointed surveyor of the colony, 
 with authority to lav out the capital town and sub- 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 15 
 
 divide tbe dedicated four leagues of land upon 
 which it was to be located into small farm lots to be 
 allotted to the settlers of the towa. In fulGUment 
 of his duties, Maj. Kerr, with bis negro servants 
 and six single men, arrived on the present site of 
 Gonzales in Jul}', 1825, he thereby becoming tbe 
 first American settler, as the head of a family, west 
 of the Colorado river in Texas. 
 
 The six single men who accompanied him to 
 Gonzales, and for a time remained in his service as 
 chainmen, rodmen or hunters, were the afterwards 
 famous Deaf Smith, Bazil Durbin, John Wight- 
 man, Strickland, James Musick and Gerrou 
 
 Hinds. 
 
 His chief servants were Shade and Anise, the 
 parents and grandparents of numerous offspring, 
 who became widely known to the future settlers of 
 the couutr}' and greatly esteemed for their fidelity 
 to every trust aud their patriotism in everj' conflict. 
 
 Soon after Maj. Kerr's settlement, Francis 
 Berry, with a family of children and two step- 
 children, John and Betsy Oliver, arrived and settled 
 half a mile below him. Cabins were erected and 
 their new life auspiciously begun. 
 
 The little settlement remained in peace for a year, 
 receiving occasional calls from passing parties of 
 Indians, professing friendship, aud occasional visits 
 from Americans exploring the country. Among 
 these were Elijah Stapp, from Palmyra, and Edwin 
 Moorehouse, from Clarksville, Missouri, both of 
 whom settled in Texas five or six }'ears later. 
 
 Capt. Henry S. Brown, brother-in-law of Maj. 
 Kerr, having arrived on the lower Brazos as a Mex- 
 ican trader in December, 1824, made his first trip 
 into Mexico in 1825, and halted his caravan for rest 
 at the new settlement on both his outward and 
 return trip. 
 
 In the meantime, Maj. Kerr prosecuted his 
 labors in the survey of lands, his people subsisting 
 on wild meat and coffee. Each household opened 
 a field and planted crops in the spring of 1826. In 
 June, Maj. Kerr was absent on the Brazos. 
 There was to be a primitive barbecue on the Colo- 
 rado at Beson's, seven miles below the present 
 Columbus. It was agreed among the pilgrims that 
 they must be represented, notwithstanding the dis- 
 tance was about seventy miles. Bazil Durbin, 
 John and Betsy Oliver and Jack, son of Shade aud 
 Anise, were selected as the delegates. On the 
 afternoon of Sunday, July 2d, this party left on 
 horseback for Beson's. At that time Deaf Smith 
 and Hinds were out buffalo hunting; Musick, 
 Strickland and the colored people were spending 
 the afternoon at Berry's, and John Wightman was 
 left alone in charge of the premises, consisting of a 
 
 double log house, with passage between aud two or 
 three cabins in the yard. No danger was appre- 
 hended as no indications of hostility by the Indians 
 had been observed. 
 
 Durbin and party traveled fourteen miles, en- 
 camped on Thorn's branch and all slept soundly, 
 but about midnight they were aroused by the war- 
 whoop and firing of guns. Springing to their feet 
 they discovered that their assailants were very near 
 and in ambush. Durbin fell, but was assisted into 
 an adjoining thicket where all found safety. The 
 Indians seized and bore away their horses and all 
 their effects. Durbin had a musket ball driven 
 into his shoulder so deep that it remained there till 
 his death in Jackson County in 1858, thirty-two years 
 later. He suffered excruciating pain, from which, 
 with the loss of blood, he several times fainted. 
 Daylight came and they retraced their steps to 
 headquarters ; but on arriving were appalled to 
 find the house deserted and robbed of its contents, 
 including Maj. Kerr's papers and three surveying 
 compasses, aud Wightman dead, scalped and his 
 mutilated body lying in the open hallwaj'. Hast- 
 ening down to Berry's house they found it closed, 
 and written on the door with charcoal (for Smith 
 and Hinds) the words: "Gone to Burnam's, on 
 the Colorado." It was developed later that when 
 Musick, Strickland and the colored people returned 
 home late in the evening they found this condition 
 of affairs, returned to Berry's and all of both 
 houses left for the Colorado. As written by the 
 writer more than forty years ago, in the presence 
 of the sufferer: " Durbin's wound had already 
 rendered him very weak, but he had now no alter- 
 native but to seek the same place on foot, or perish 
 on the waj'. Three days were occupied in the trip, 
 the weather was very warm and there was great 
 danger of mortification, to prevent which mud 
 poultices, renewed at every watering place, proved 
 to be effectual." 
 
 And thus was the first American settlement west 
 of the Colorado baptized in blood. 
 
 Maj. Kerr then settled on the Lavaca and made 
 a crop there in 1827. His place temporarily served 
 as a rallying point for De Wilt and others, till the 
 spring of 1828, when the settlement at Gonzales 
 was renewed. Maj. Kerr remained permanently 
 on the Lavaca, but continued for some years as 
 surveyor of De Witt's colony. The temporary set- 
 tlement on the west of the Lavaca was subsequently 
 known as the "Old Station," while Maj. Kerr's 
 headright league and home were on the east side. 
 
 In the autumn of 1833, John Castleman, a bold 
 and sagacious backwoodsman, from the borders of 
 Missouri, with his wife and four children and his 
 
16 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 wife's mother, settled fifteen miles west of Gonzales, 
 ou the San Antonio road and on Sandy creek. He 
 was a bold hnnter, much in the forest, and had four 
 ferocious dogs, which served as sentinels at night, 
 and on one occasion had a terrible fight with a 
 number of Indians in the yard endeavoring to steal 
 the horses tied around the house. They evidently 
 inflicted severe punishment on the savages, who 
 left abundant blood marks on the ground and were 
 glad to escape without the horses, though in doing 
 so, in sheer self-defense, they killed each dog. 
 Caslleman, in his meanderings, was ever watchful 
 for indications of Indians, and thus served as a 
 vidette to the people of Gonzales and persons 
 traveling on that exposed road. Many were the 
 persons who slumbered under his roof ratlier than 
 camp out at that noted watering place. 
 
 In the spring of 1835, a part^' of thirteen French 
 and Mexican traders, with pack mules and dry 
 goods from Natchitoches, Louisiana, en route to 
 Mexico, stopped under some trees a hundred yards 
 in front of the cabin. It was in the forenoon, and 
 before thej' had unpacked Castleman advised them 
 that he had that morning discovered ''Indian 
 signs" near by and urged them to camp in his 
 yard and use his house as a fort if necessary. 
 They laughed at him. He shrugged his shoulders 
 and assured them they were in danger, but they 
 still laughed. He walked back to his cabin, but 
 before he entered about a hundred mounted 
 savages dashed among them, yelling and cutting 
 out every animal of the party. These were guarded 
 by a few in full view of the camp, while the main 
 body continued the fight. The traders improvised 
 breastworks of their saddles, packs and bales of 
 goods and fought with desperation. The engage- 
 ment lasted four hours, the Indians charging in a 
 circle, firing and falling back. Finally, as none of 
 their number fell, the besieged being armed only 
 with Mexican escopetas (smooth-bored cavalry 
 guns) they maneuvered till all the traders tired at 
 the same time, then rushed upon and killed all who 
 had not previously fallen. Castleman could, many 
 times, have killed an Indian with his trusty rifle 
 from his cabin window, but was restrained by his 
 wife, who regarded the destruction of the strangers 
 as certain and contended that if her husband took 
 part, vengeance would be wreaked upon the 
 family — a hundred savages against one man. 
 He desisted, but, as his wife said, " frothed at 
 the mouth" to be thus compelled to non-ac- 
 tion on such an occasion. Had he possessed a 
 modern Winchester, he could have repelled the 
 whole array, saving both the traders and their 
 goods. 
 
 The exultant barbarians, after scalping their 
 victims, packed all their booty on the captured 
 mules and moved off up the counti'y. When night 
 came, Castleman hastened to Gonzales with the 
 tidings, and was home again before dawn. 
 
 In a few hours a band of volunteers, under Dr. 
 James H. C. Miller, were on the trail and followed 
 it across the Guadalupe and up the San Marcos, 
 and finally into a cedar brake in a valley surrounded 
 by high hills, presumably on the Rio Blanco. 
 This was on the second or third day after the 
 massacre. Finding they were very near the 
 enemy. Miller halted, placing his men in ambush 
 on the edge of a small opening or glade. He sent 
 forward Matthew Caldwell, Daniel McCoy and 
 Ezekiel Williams to reconnoitre. Following the 
 newly made path of the Indians through the brake, 
 in about three hundred yards, they suddenly came 
 upon them dismounted and eating. They speedily 
 retired, but were discovered and, being only three 
 in number, the whole crowd of Indians furiously 
 pursued them with such j-ells as, resounding from 
 bluff to bluff, caused some of the men in ambush 
 to flee from the apparent wrath to come ; but of the 
 whole number of twenty-nine or thrity, sixteen 
 maintained their position and their senses. Daniel 
 McCoy, the hindmost of the three scouts in single 
 file, wore a long tail coat. This was seized and 
 tightly held by an Indian, but " Old Dan," as he 
 was called, threw his arms backward and slipped 
 from the garment without stopping, exclaiming, 
 "Take it, d — n you! " Caldwell sprang first Into 
 the glade, wheeled, fired and killed the first Indian 
 to enter. Others, unable to see through the brush 
 till exposed to view, rushed into the trap till nine 
 warriors lay in a heap. Realizing this fact, after 
 such unexpected fatality, the pursuers raised that 
 dismal howl which means death and defeat, and 
 fell back to their camp. The panic among some of 
 our men prevented pursuit. It is a fact that 
 among those thus seized with the " buck ague," 
 were men then wholly inexperienced, who subse- 
 quently became distinguished for coolness and 
 gallantry-. 
 
 Among others, besides those already named, who 
 were in this engagement were Wm. S. Fisher, 
 commander at Mier seven years later ; Bartlett D. 
 McClure, died in 1841 ; David Hauna, Landon 
 Webster and Jonathan Scott. 
 
 Dr. James H. C. Miller, who commanded, soon 
 after left Texas and settled in Michigan. His 
 name has sometimes been confounded with that of 
 Dr. James B. Miller, of Fort Bend, long distin- 
 guished in public life under the province and 
 republic of Texas. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 17 
 
 An Adventure in 1826. 
 
 In the year 1826 a party of fourteen men of the 
 Red river settlements, of which Eli Hoplilns was 
 quasi-leader, made a trip to the west, hunting and 
 trading with Indians. Besides Hoplxius I have 
 been able to gather the names of Henry Stout, 
 Jamas Clark, Charles Birkham, Charles Hum- 
 
 phrej's, Ford, Tyler, and Wallace — 
 
 eight of the fourteen — though the only published 
 allusion to the matter I have ever seen (in the 
 Clarksville Times about 1874), only names Messrs. 
 Hopkins and Clark and states the whole number 
 at twenty men — nor does it give the j'ear of the 
 occurrence. I obtained the date, the number of 
 men and the additional six names from Henry Stout, 
 some j'ears later. 
 
 It seems that on their return trip homewards, these 
 fourteen men were surrounded and beset by a large 
 party of Indians, some of whom had been trading 
 in their camp before. Instead of opening fire, the 
 Indians demanded the surrender of Humphreys to 
 them, describing him by the absence of a front 
 tooth (a loss they had discovered in their previous 
 visit and now pretended to have known before), 
 alleging that on some former occasion Humphreys 
 
 had depredated upon them. This was known to 
 be false and a ruse to gain some advantage. So, 
 when the chief and a few others (who had retired 
 to let the party consult), returned for an answer, 
 they were told that Humphreys was a good man, 
 had done them no wrong and they would die rather 
 than surrender him. Wallace was the interpreter 
 and had been up to that time suspected of coward- 
 ice by some of the party. But in this crisis they 
 quickly discovered their error, for Wallace, with 
 cool and quiet determination, became the hero, 
 telling them that he would die right there rather 
 than give up an innocent man to such murderous 
 wretches. His spirit was infectious. Every man 
 leveled his gun at some one of the Indians, Hop- 
 kins holding a deadly aim on the chief, till they all 
 agreed to leave the ground and not again molest 
 them. 
 
 They at once retired, evidently unwilling to 
 hazard an attack on such men. Intrepid coolness 
 saved them while timidity would have brought their 
 destruction. As it was thej' reached home in 
 safet3\ 
 
 The Early Days of Harris County — 1824 to 1838. 
 
 The first political subdivision of the large dis- 
 trict of which the present large county of Harris, 
 containing a little over eighteen hundred square 
 miles, formed but a part, was erected into the 
 municipality of Harrisburg not long before the revo- 
 lution began, in 1835. It is, at this day, interest- 
 ing to note the first settlement of that now old, 
 historic and wealthy district, embracing the noble 
 citj' of Houston, in which the whole State feels 
 justifiable pride. For a short while also the island 
 of Galveston formed a part of Harrisburg 
 '•county" — so called under the Republic, after 
 independence in March, 1836. 
 
 The first Americans to cultivate the earth in that 
 region were Mr. Knight and Walter C. White, who, 
 at the time of Long's expedition in 1820, burnt off 
 a canebrake and raised a crop of corn on the San 
 Jacinto, near its mouth ; but they did not remain 
 
 there, becoming subsequentlj' well-known citizens of 
 Brazoria. For an account of the first actual set- 
 tlers of the district during the first ten or twelve 
 j-ears, I am indebted to the fine memory and facile 
 pen of Mrs. Mary J. Briscoe, of Houston, whose 
 evidence dates from childhood days, her father, 
 John R. Harris, the founder of Harrisburg, having 
 settled there in 1824, and laid out the town in 182G. 
 He built the first steam saw mill in Texas, for which 
 he received as a bounty two leagues of land. He 
 became also a merchant, established a tannery and 
 owned the schooner " Rights of Man," which plied 
 between Harrisburg and New Orleans. In 1828 his 
 brother David came ; in 1830 William P. Harris 
 came, accompanied by " Honest " Bob Wilson, and 
 in 1832 came Samuel M. Harris, a fourth brother, 
 all of whom came from Cayuga County, New York, 
 and were valuable men. Mary J., daughter of the 
 
IXDIAX WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 first immigrant, John R. Harris, subsequently mar- 
 ried Capt. Andrew Briscoe, wlio, as the colleague of 
 the grand Mexican patriot, Don Lorenzo de Zavala, 
 from that municipalit}', signed the declaration of 
 independence, and fifty days later commanded one 
 of the largest companies at San .Jacinto. He was 
 also the first Chief .Justice of Hanisburg County 
 and so remained for many years. The well known 
 De Witt C. Harris, who died in 1860, was a brother 
 of Mrs. Briscoe, as is also Lewis B. Harris, of San 
 Francisco, who was my fellow-soldier on the Rio 
 Grande in 1842. 
 
 According to the notes of Mrs. Briscoe the first 
 actual settlers arrived in April, 1822, of whom 
 Moses L. Choate and William Pettus were the first 
 settlers- on the San Jacinto, and a surveyor 
 named Ryder, unmarried, settled on Morgan's 
 Point, on the bay. In June John Ijanis, with his 
 wife and two youthful sons arrived, of whom John, 
 the elder, then fifteen years old, still lives in Hous- 
 ton, aged 82, a tribute certainly to the climate in 
 which he has lived sixty-seven years. They settled 
 at Cedar Point, afterwards a favorite home of Gen. 
 Sam Houston. Johnson Hunter settled near Mor- 
 gan's Point, but ultimately on the Brazos. In the 
 same year Nathaniel Lynch settled at the confluence 
 of the San Jacinto and Buffalo bayou, where 
 Lynchburg stands ; John D. Taylor on the San 
 Jacinto at tlie place now called Midway; John 
 Jones, Humphrey Jackson and John and Frederick 
 Rankin, on the same river, where the Texas and 
 N. O. railroad crosses it. Mr. Callahan and Ezekiel 
 Thomas, brothers-in-law, located as the first set- 
 tlers on Buffalo bayou. Mrs. Samuel W. Allen, 
 youngest daughter of Mr. Thomas, still resides in 
 Houston — another tribute to the climate. In the 
 .same year four brothers, William, Allen, Robert 
 and John Vince, all young men, settled just below 
 the mouth of Vince's bayou, rendered famous in 
 connection with Vince's bridge immediately before 
 the battle of San Jacinto, the destruction of the 
 bridge by order of Gen. Houston, leading to the 
 capture of Santa Anna. William Vince had a horse 
 power sugar mill on his place. During the same 
 j'ear, Mrs. Wilkins, with her two daughters and her 
 son-in-law. Dr. Phelps, settled what is now known 
 as Frost-town in the city of Houston, being the 
 first settlers there. In 1824 came Enoch Bronson, 
 who settled near Morgan's Point; also Wm. Blood- 
 good and Page Ballew, with families, and several 
 young men who settled in the district ; also Arthur 
 McCormick, wife and two sons, who settled the 
 league on which, twelve years later, the battle of 
 San Jacinto was fought. He was drowned soon 
 afterwards in crossing Buffalo bayou, as was his 
 
 surviving son, Michael, a long time pilot on a 
 steamboat, in 1875. It was suspected that the 
 widow, eccentric, well-to-do and living alone, was 
 murdered by robbers and burnt in her dwelling. 
 George, Jesse, Reuben and William White, in 1824, 
 settled on the San Jacinto, a few miles above its 
 mouth ; William Scott at Midway, together with 
 Charles E. Givens, Fresh' Gill and Dr. Knuckles, 
 who married Scott's daughter, while Samuel M. 
 Williams married another. [Mr. Williams was 
 the distinguished secretar3' of Austin's Colony and 
 afterwards, long a banker in Galveston.] 
 
 In 1824, Austin, with Secretary Williams and the 
 Commissioner, Baron de Bastrop, visited the settle- 
 ment and issued the first titles to those entitled to 
 them. 
 
 In 182.5 the Edwards family settled on the bay 
 at what has since been known as Edwards' Point. 
 Ritoon Morris, a son-in-law of Edwards, and a man 
 of wealth, came at the same time. He was greatly 
 esteemed and was known as " Jaw-bone Morris," 
 from a song he and his negroes sang while he picked 
 the banjo. He settled at the mouth of Clear Creek. 
 About 1829 Mr. Clopper, for whom the bar in Gal- 
 veston bay is called, bought Johnson Hunter's 
 land and afterwards sold it to Col. James Morgan, 
 who laid out a town destined never to leave its 
 swaddling clothes, calling it New Washington. Its 
 chief claim to remembrance is in the visit of Santa 
 Anna a day or two before his overthrow under the 
 war cry of '-Remember the Alamo." Sam Mc- 
 Curley and others were early settlers on Spring 
 Creek. David G. Burnet, afterwards President, 
 came in 182G. In 1831 he brought out the machin- 
 ery for a steam mill which was burned in 1845. 
 With him came Norman Hurd and Gilbert Brooks, 
 the latter still Uving. President Burnet built his 
 home two or three miles from Lynchburg. Lynch- 
 burg, and San Jacinto, opposite to it, were de- 
 stroj'ed by the great storm and flood, on the 1 7th 
 of September, 1875. 
 
 Passing over the intervening years, we find that 
 in 1835 the municipality of Harrisburg abounded 
 in a splendid population of patriotic citizens, the 
 noble Zavala having become one of them. In the 
 Consultation of November 3-14, 1835, her delegates 
 were Lorenzo de Zavala, William P. Harris, Clem- 
 ent C. Dyer, John W. Moore, M. W. Smith and 
 David B. McComb. In the convention which de- 
 clared independence, March 1-18, 1836, her dele- 
 gates were Lorenzo de Zavala and Andrew Briscoe, 
 as previously stated. When the provisional gov- 
 ernment of the Republic was created David G. 
 Burnet was elected President and Lorenzo de 
 Zavala Vice-president, both of this municipal- 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 19 
 
 ity. Harrisburg, grown to be quite a village, 
 was the seat of justice, and from March 22d 
 to April 13lh, 1836, it was the seat of govern- 
 ment, but abandoned on the approach of the Mexi- 
 can army, by which it was burned. The first Lone 
 Star flag had been improvised there in March by 
 Mrs. Dobson and other ladies — that is, the first 
 in Texas, for that by Miss Troutman, of Georgia, 
 had been made and presented to the gallant Capt. 
 (afterwards Colonel) William Ward two or three 
 months earlier. The ladies also, says Mrs. Briscoe, 
 cut up all their flannel apparel to make cartridges, 
 following the example of Mother Bailey, in Groton, 
 Connecticut, in the war of 1812. 
 
 In August, 1836, the brothers A. C. and John K. 
 Allen laid out the town of Houston. The First Con- 
 gress of the Republic, at Columbia, on the 15th of 
 December, 1836, selected the new town as the seat 
 of government, to continue until the session of 1840. 
 The government was removed there prior to May 
 1st, 1837. Soon afterwards the county seat was 
 moved from Harrisburg to Houston, and the latter, 
 under such impulsion, grew rapidly. This was 
 one of those enterprising movements at variance 
 with natural advantages, for all know that Harris- 
 burg, in facilities for navigation, was greatly supe- 
 rior to Houston, and, as a town site otherwise, fully 
 as desirable. But notwithstanding all these, pluck 
 and enterprise have made Houston a splendid city. 
 
 The first sail vessel to rpach Houston was the 
 schooner Rolla, on the 21st of April, 1837, four 
 days in making the trip of 10 or 12 miles by water 
 from Harrisburg. That night the first anniversary 
 of San Jacinto was celebrated by a ball, which was 
 opened by President Houston and Mrs. Mosely 
 Baker, Francis R. Lubbock and Miss Mary J. Har- 
 ris (now Mrs. Briscoe), Jacob W. Crugerand Mrs. 
 Lubbock and Mr. and Mrs. Welchmeyer. 
 
 The first marriage license signed under the laws 
 of the Republic, July 22, 1837, by DeWitt C. Har- 
 
 ris, county clerk, was to Hugh McCrory and Mary 
 Smith, and the service was performed next day by 
 the Rev. H. Matthews, of the Methodist church. 
 Mr. McCrory died in a few months, and in 1840 the 
 widow married Dr. Anson Jones, afterwards the 
 last President of Texas. She still lives in Houston 
 and recently followed to the grave her popular and 
 talented son. Judge C. Anson Jones. 
 
 At the first District Court held in Houston, Hon. 
 Benjamin C. Franklin presiding, a man was found 
 guilty of theft, required to restore the stolen money 
 and notes and to receive thirty-nine lashes on his 
 bare back, all of which being accomplished, it is 
 supposed the victim migrated to other parts. 
 Thieves, in those days, were not tolerated bj' foolish 
 quibbles or qualms of conscience. There were no 
 prisons and the lash was regarded as the onlj^ avail- 
 able antidote. 
 
 In 1834 the Harris brothers brought out a small 
 steamboat called the Cayuga, but the first steamer 
 to reach Houston was the Laura, Capt. Thomas 
 Grayson. On the first Monday in January, 1838, 
 Dr. Francis Moore, Jr., long editor of the Tele- 
 graph and afterwards State geologist, was elected 
 the first mayor of Houston. He and his partner, 
 Jacob W. Cruger, early in 1837, established the 
 first newspaper, by removing the Telegraph from 
 Columbia. On the 21st of May, 1838, agrandball 
 was given by the Jockey Club, in Houston. " The 
 ladies' tickets," says Mrs. Briscoe, "were printed 
 on white satin, and I had the pleasure of dancing 
 successively, with Generals Sam Houston, Albert 
 Sidney Johnston and Sidney Sherman." 
 
 I have condensed from the interesting narrative 
 a portion of its contents, omitting much of interest, 
 the object being to portray the outlines of how the 
 early coast settlements passed from infancy to self- 
 sustaining maturity. Locally, the labors of this 
 earh' Texas girl — now ranking among the mothers 
 of the land — are of great value. 
 
 Fight of the Bowies with the Indians on the San Saba in 1831. 
 
 In 1832 Rezin P. Bowie furnished a Philadelphia 
 paper with the following narrative. It has been 
 published in several books since. Col. James 
 Bowie made a report to the Mexican Governor at 
 San Antonio, not so full but in accord with this 
 report. It gives an account of one of the most 
 extraordinary events in the pioneer history of 
 America. 
 
 "On the 2d of November, 1831, we left the 
 town of San Antonio de Bexar for the silver mines 
 on the San Saba river ; the party consisting of the 
 following named persons : Rezin P. Bowie, James 
 Bowie, David Buchanan, Robert Armstrong, Jesse 
 Wallace, Matthew Doyle, Cephas D. Hamm, James 
 Coryell, Thomas McCaslin, Gonzales and Charles, 
 servant boys. Nothing particular occurred until 
 
20 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 the 19th, on which day, about 10 a. m. we were 
 overhauled by two Comanche Indians and a Mexican 
 captive, who had struclv our trail aud followed it. 
 The\' stated that they belonged to Isaonie's part}', 
 a chief of the Comanche tribe, sixteen in number, 
 and were on their way to San Antonio with a drove 
 of horses, which they had taken from the Wacos 
 aud Tawackauies, and were about returning to 
 their owners, citizens of San Antonio. After smok- 
 ing aud talking with them about an hour, and 
 making them a few presents of tobacco, powder, 
 shot, etc., they returned to their party, who were 
 waiting at the Llano river. 
 
 " We continued our journej' until night closed 
 upon us, when we encamped. The next morning, 
 the above named Mexican captive returned to our 
 camp, his horse was much fatigued, and who, 
 after eating and smoking, stated that he had been 
 sent by his chief, Isaonie, to inform us we were 
 followed by one hundred and twenty-four Tawac- 
 kauie and Waco Indians, and forty Caddos had 
 joined them, who were determined to have our 
 scalps at all risks. Isaonie had held a talk with 
 them all the previous afternoon, and endeavored to 
 dissuade them from their purpose ; but they still 
 pers'sted, and left him enraged and pursued our 
 trail. As a voucher for the truth of the above, the 
 Mexican produced his chief's silver medal, which 
 is common among the natives in such cases. He 
 further stated that his chief requested him to say, 
 that he had but sixteen men, badly armed and 
 without ammunition ; but if we would return and 
 joiu him, such succor as he could give us he would. 
 But knowing that the enemy lay between us and 
 him, we deemed it more prudent to pursue our 
 journey and endeavor to reach the old fort on the 
 San Saba river before night, distance thirty niilea- 
 The Mexican then returned to his party, aud we 
 proceedeil on. 
 
 " Throughout the day we euconutered bad roads, 
 being covered with rocks, and the horses' feet be- 
 ing worn out, we were disappointed in not reaching 
 the fort. In the evening we had some little difficult}' 
 in picking out an advantageous spot where to en- 
 camp for the night. We however made choice of 
 the best that offered, which was a cluster of live- 
 oak trees, some thirty or forty in number, about 
 the size of a man's body. To the north of them a 
 thicket of live-oak bushes, about ten feet high, forty 
 yards in length and twenty in Ijreadth, to the west, 
 at the distance of thirty-five or forty yards, ran a 
 stream of water. 
 
 "The surrounding country was an open prairie, 
 interspersed with a few trees, rocks, and broken 
 land. The trail which we came on lay to 
 
 the east of our encampment. After taking the 
 precaution to prepare our spot for defense, hy cut- 
 ting a road inside the thicket of bushes, ten feet 
 from the outer edge all around, and clearing the 
 prickly-pears from amongst the bushes, we 
 hobbled our horses and placed sentinels for the 
 night. We were now distant six miles from the 
 old fort above mentioned, which was built by the 
 Spaniards in 1752, for the purpose of protecting 
 them while working the silver mines, which are a 
 mile distant. A few years after, it was attacked 
 by the Comanche Indians and every soul pnt to 
 death. Since that time it has never been occupied. 
 Within the fort is a church, which, bad we reached 
 before night, it was our intention to have occupied 
 to defend ourselves against the Indians. The fort 
 surrounds about one acre of land under a twelve- 
 feet stone wall. 
 
 "Nothing occurred during the night, and we 
 lost no time in the morning in making preparations 
 for continuing our journey to the fort ; and when 
 in the act of starting, we discovered the Indians on 
 our trail to the east, about two hundred yards dis- 
 tant, and a footman about fifty yards ahead of the 
 main bodj', with his face to the ground, tracking. 
 The cry of ' Indians ' was given, and ' All hands to 
 arms.' We dismounted, and both saddle and jjack- 
 horses were made fast to the trees. As soon as 
 they found we had discovered them, they gave the 
 war whoop, halted and commenced stripping, pre- 
 paratory to action. A uumlier of mounted Indians 
 were reconnoitering the ground ; among them we 
 discovered a few Caddo Indians, by the cut of 
 their hair, who had always previously beeit friendly 
 to Americans. 
 
 " Tlieir number being so far greater than ours 
 (one hundred and sixty-four to eleven), it was 
 agreed that Eezin P. Bowie should be sent out to 
 talk with them, and endeavor to compromise with 
 them rather than attempt a tight. He accordinglj' 
 started, with David Buchanan in company, and 
 walked up to within about forty 3'ards of where 
 they had halted, and requested them in their own 
 tongue to send forward their chief, as he wanted to 
 talk with him. Their answer was, "how-de-do? 
 how-de-do?" in English, and a discharge of twelve 
 shots at us, one of which broke Buchanan's leg. 
 Bowie returned their salutation with the contents of 
 a double barreled gun and a pistol. He then took 
 Buchanan on his shoulder, and started back to the 
 encampment. They then opened a heavy fire upon 
 us, which wounded Buchanan in two more places 
 slightly, and pierced Bowie's hunting shirt in sev- 
 eral places without doing him any injury. When 
 they fou)id their shot failed to briug Bowie down. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 21 
 
 eight ludians ou foot took after him with their 
 tomahawiis, and when close upou him were dis- 
 covered by his party, who rushed out with their 
 rifles and brought down four of them — the other 
 four retreating back to the main body. We then 
 returned to our position, and all was still for about 
 five minutes. 
 
 " We then discovered a hill to the northeast at 
 the distance of sixty yards, red with Indians who 
 opened a heavy fire upou us with loud yells, their 
 chief, on horseback, urging them in a loud and 
 audible voice to the charge, walking his horse per- 
 fectly composed. When we first discovered him, 
 our guns were all empty, with the exception of Mr. 
 Hamm's. James Bowie cried out, ' Who is 
 loaded?' Mr. Hamm observed, 'I am.' He 
 was then told to shoot that Indian on horseback. 
 He did so, and broke his leg and killed his horse. 
 We now discovered him hopping around his horse 
 on one leg, with his shield on his arm to keep off 
 the balls. By this time four of our party being re- 
 loaded, fired at the same instant, and all the balls 
 took effect through the shield. He fell and was 
 immediately surrounded by six or eight of his tribe, 
 who picked him up and bore him off. Several of 
 these were shot by our party. The whole party 
 then retreated back of the hill, out of sight, with 
 the exception of a few ludians who were running 
 about from tree to tree, out of gun-shot. 
 
 "They now covered the hill a second time, 
 bringing up their bowmen, who had not been in 
 action before, and commenced a heavy fire with 
 balls and arrows, which we returned by a well 
 directed aim with our rifles. At this instant, 
 another chief appeared on horseback, near the spot 
 where the last one fell. The same question of who 
 was loaded, was asked ; the answer was nobody ; 
 when little Charles, the mulatto servant, came run- 
 ning up with Buchanan's rifle, which had not been 
 discharged since he was wounded, and handed it to 
 James Bowie, who instantly fired and brought him 
 down from his horse. He was surrounded by six 
 or eight of his tribe, as was the last, and borne off 
 ujider our fire. During the time we were engaged 
 in defending ourselves from the Indians on the 
 hill, some fifteen or twenty of the Caddo tribe had 
 succeeded in getting under, the bank of the creek in 
 our rear at about forty yards distance, and opened 
 a heav}^ fire upon us, which wounded Matthew 
 Doyle, the ball entering the left breast and passing 
 out of the back. As soon as he cried out he was 
 wounded, Thomas M'Caslin hastened to the spot 
 where he fell, and observed, ' Where is the Indian 
 that shot Doyle?' He was told by a more 
 experienced hand not to venture there, as, from 
 
 the report of their guns, they must be riflemen. At 
 that instant they discovered an Indian, and while 
 in the act of raising his piece, M'Caslin was shot 
 through the center of the body and expired. 
 Robert Armstrong exclaimed, ' D — n the Indian 
 that shot M'Caslin! Where is he? ' He was told 
 not to venture there, as they must be riflemen ; but, 
 on discovering an Indian, and while bringing his 
 gun up, he was fired at, and part of the stock of 
 his gun cut off, and the ball lodged against the 
 barrel. During this time our enemies had formed a 
 complete circle around us, occupying the points of 
 rocks, scattering trees and bushes. The firing then 
 became general from all quarters. 
 
 " Finding our situation too much exposed among 
 the trees, we were obliged to leave it, and take to the 
 thickets. The first thing necessary was to dislodge 
 the riflemen from under the bank of the creek, who 
 were within point-blank shot. This we soon suc- 
 ceeded in, by shooting the most of them through 
 the head, as we had the advantage of seeing them 
 when they could not see us. 
 
 ' ' The road we had cut around the thicket the 
 night previous, gave us now an advantageous situ- 
 ation over that of our enemies, and we had a fair 
 view of them in the prairie, while we were com- 
 pletely hid. We baffled their shots by moving six 
 or eight feet the moment we had fired, as their onlj' 
 mark was the smoke of our guns. They would put 
 twenty balls within the size of a pocket handkerchief, 
 where they had seen the smoke. In this manner 
 we fought them two hours, and had one man 
 wounded, James Coryell, who was shot through 
 the arm, and tbe ball lodged in the side, first cut- 
 ting away a bush which prevented it from penetrat- 
 ing deeper than the size of it. 
 
 "They now discovered that we were not to lie 
 dislodged from the thicket, and the uncertainty of 
 killing us at a random shot ; they suffering very 
 much from the fire of our rifles, which brought a 
 half a dozen down at every round. They now 
 determined to resort to stratagem, by putting fire 
 to the dry grass in the prairie, for the double pur- 
 pose of routing us from our position, and under 
 cover of the smoke, to carry away their dead and 
 wounded, which lay near us. The wind was now 
 blowing from the west, they placed the fire in that 
 quarter, where it burnt down all the grass to the 
 creek, and bore off to the right, and leaving around 
 our position a space of about five acres that was 
 untouched by fire. Under cover of this smoke they 
 succeeded in carrying off a portion of their dead 
 and wounded. In the meantime, our part3' were 
 engaged in scraping away the dry grass and leaves 
 from our wounded men and baggage to prevent the 
 
22 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 fire from passing over it ; and likewise, in pulling 
 up rocks and bushes to answer the purpose of a 
 breastwork. 
 
 " They now discovered they had failed in routing 
 us by the fire, as they had anticipated. They then 
 re-occupied the points of rocks and trees in the 
 praiiie, and commenced another attack. The filing 
 continued for some time when the wind suddenly 
 shifted to the north, and blew very hard. We now 
 discovered our dangerous situation, should the 
 Indians succeed in putting fire to the small spot 
 which we occupied, and kept a strict watch all 
 around. The two servant boys were emplojed in 
 scraping awa\' dry grass and leaves from around 
 the baggage, and pulling up rocks and placing them 
 around the wounded men. The remainder of the 
 party were warmly engaged with the enemy. The 
 point from which the wind now blew being favora- 
 ble to fire our position, one of the Indians succeeded 
 in crawling down the creek and putting fire to the 
 grass that had not yet been burnt ; but before he 
 could retreat back to his party, was killed by 
 Robert Armstrong. 
 
 " At this time we saw no hopes of escape, as the 
 fire was coming down rapidly before the wind, 
 flaming ten feet high, and directly for the spot we 
 occupied. What was to be done? We must either 
 be burned up alive, or driven into the prairie 
 among the savages. This encouraged the Indians ; 
 and to make it more awful, their shouts and yells 
 rent the air, they at the same time firing upon us 
 about twenty shots a minute. As soon as the 
 smoke hid us from their view, we collected together 
 and held a consultation as to what was best to be 
 done. Our first impression was, that they might 
 charge us under cover of the smoke, as we could 
 make but one effectual fire, the sparks were flying 
 about so thickly that no man could open his powder 
 horn without running the risk of being blown up. 
 However, we finally came to a determination had 
 they charged us to give them one fire, place our 
 backs together, and draw our knives and fight 
 them as long as any one of us was left alive. 
 The next question was, should they not charge us, 
 and we retain our position, we must be burned up. 
 It was then decided that each man should take 
 care of himself as best he could, until the fire 
 arrived at the ring around our baggage and 
 wounded men, and there it sliould be smothered 
 with buffalo robes, bear skins, deer skins, and 
 blankets, which, after a great deal of exertion, we 
 succeeded in doing. 
 
 " Our thicket l)eing so much burned and scorched, 
 that it afforded us little or no shelter, we all got 
 into the ring th:it was around our wounded men 
 
 and baggage, and commenced building our breast- 
 work higher, with the loose rocks from the inside, 
 and dirt dug up with our knives and sticks. 
 During this last fire, the Indians had succeeded 
 in removing all their killed and wounded which 
 lay near us. It was now sundown, and we 
 had been warmly engaged with the Indians 
 since sunrise, a period of thirteen hours ; and 
 they seeing us still alive and ready for fight, 
 drew off at a distance of three hundred 3'ards. 
 and encamped for the night with their dead and 
 wounded. Our party now commenced to work in 
 raising our fortification higher, and succeeded in 
 getting it breast high by 10 p. m. We now filled 
 all our vessels and skins with water, expecting 
 another attack the next morning. We could dis- 
 tinctly hear the Indians, nearly all night, crying 
 over their dead, which is their custom ; and at 
 daylight, they shot a wounded chief — it being 
 also a custom to shoot any of their tribe that are 
 mortally wounded. They, after that, set out with 
 their dead and wounded to a mountain about a 
 mile distant, where they deposited their dead in a 
 cave on the side of it. At eight in the morning, 
 two of the party went out from the fortification to 
 the encampment, where the Indians had lain the 
 night previous, and counted forty-eight bloody 
 spots on the grass where the Indians had been lying. 
 As near as we could judge, their loss must have 
 been forty killed and thirty wounded. [We after- 
 wards learned from the Comanche Indians that 
 their loss was eighty-two killed and wounded.] 
 
 " Finding ourselves much cut up, having one man 
 killed, and three wounded — five horses killed, 
 and three wounded — we recommenced strength- 
 ening our little fort, and continued our labors 
 until 1 p. m., when the arrival of thirteen Indians 
 drew us into the fort again. As soon as thej' 
 discovered we were still there and ready for action 
 and well fortified they put off. We, after that, 
 remained in our fort eight daj-s, recruiting our 
 wounded men and horses, at the expiration of 
 which time, being all in pretty good order, we set out 
 on our return to San Antonio de Bexar. We left 
 our fort at dark, and traveled all night and until 
 afternoon of the next day, when we picked out an 
 advantageous spot and. fortified ourselves, ex- 
 pecting the Indians would, when recruited, follow 
 our trail ; but, however, we saw no more of them. 
 
 " David Buchanan's wounded leg here mortified, 
 and having no surgical instruments, or medicine of 
 any kind, not even a dose of salts, we boiled some 
 live oak bark very strong, and thickened it with 
 pounded charcoal and Indian meal, made a i)oul- 
 tice of it, and tied it around his leg, over which we 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 23 
 
 sewed a buffalo skiu, and traveled along five da3-s 
 without looking at it ; when it was opened, it was 
 in a fair way for healing, which it finally did, 
 and the mortified parts all dropped off, and his 
 leg now is as well as it ever was. There was none 
 
 of the party but had bis skin cut in several places, 
 and numerous shot holes through his clothes. 
 
 " On the twelfth day we arrived in good order, 
 with our wounded men and horses, at San Antonio 
 de Bexar." 
 
 The Scalping of Wilbarger and Death of Christian and 
 Strother, in 1833. 
 
 In the year 1828, Josiah Wilbarger, recently 
 married to a daughter of Lemau Barker, of Lin- 
 coln County, Mo., arrived at Matagorda, Texas. 
 Tlie writer of this, then in bis eighth year, knew 
 him intimately. The Wilbarger family adjoining 
 the farm of my parents, lived on a thousand arpents 
 of the richest land, one mile east of the present 
 village of Ashlej', Pike County, Missouri, sixteen 
 miles from the Mississippi river and seventj'-five 
 miles above St. Louis. In the autumn of 1826, 
 Capt. Henry S. Brown, father of the writer, tem- 
 porarily returned home from Texas, after having 
 spent two years in that then terra incognita and 
 Northern Mexico. His descriptions of the country 
 deeply impressed young Wilbarger, as well as a 
 large number of persons in the adjoining county of 
 Lincoln, wbose names subsequently shed luster on 
 the pioneer life of Texas. The remainder of the 
 Wilbarger family, or rather two brothers and three 
 sisters of their number, came to Texas in 1837. 
 Josiah spent a year in Matagorda, another in Col- 
 orado County, and in 1831 settled on his headright 
 league, ten miles above Bastrop on the Colorado, with 
 his wife, child and two transient young men. He 
 was temporarily the outside settler, but soon others 
 located along the river below and two or three 
 above, the elder Reuben Hornsby becoming the 
 outer sentinel, and so remaining for a number of 
 years. Mr. Wilbarger located various lauds for 
 other pai'ties in that section, it being in Austin's 
 second grant above the old San Antonio and Nacog- 
 doches road, which crossed at Bastrop. 
 
 In August, 1833, accompanied by four others, 
 viz., Christian a surveyor, Strother, Standifer and 
 Haynie, Mr. Wilbarger left on a laud-locating 
 expedition, above where Austin now is. Arriving 
 ou the ground and on the eve of beginning work, 
 an Indian was discovered on a neighboring ridge, 
 watching their movements. Wilbarger, after vainly 
 
 beckoning to him to approach, rode toward him, 
 manifesting friendship, but the Indian, pointing 
 toward a smoke rising from a cedar brake at the 
 base of a hill, in plain view, indicated a desire for 
 his visitor to go to camp and galloped away. The 
 party, after a short pursuit, became satisfied there 
 was a considerable body of Indians, hostile in feel- 
 ing, and determined at once to return to the settle- 
 ment. They started in, intending to go directly to 
 Hornsby's place, but they stopped at a spring on 
 the way to take lunch, to which Wilbarger objected, 
 being quite sure the Indians would pursue them, 
 while the others thought otherwise. Very soon, 
 however, about sixty savages suddenly charged, 
 fired and fell back under the protection of brush. 
 Strother fell dead and Christian apparently so. 
 Wilbarger's horse broke away and fled. He fol- 
 lowed a short distance, but failed to recover him. 
 Hastening back, he found the other two men 
 mounted and ready to flee, and discovered that Chris- 
 tian, though helpless, was not dead. He implored 
 the two mounted men to stay with him in the I'a- 
 vine, and endeavor to save Christian. Just then 
 the Indians renewed the fire at long range and 
 struck Wilbarger in the hip. He then asked to be 
 taken behind one of the men, but seeing the 
 enemy approaching, they fled at full speed, leaving 
 him to his fate. The Indians, one having mounted 
 Christian's horse, encircled him on all sides. He had 
 seized the guns of the fallen men and thus with 
 these partly protected by a tree just as he was 
 taking deliberate aim at the mounted warrior, a 
 ball entered his neck, paralj'zing him, so that he fell 
 to the ground and was at once at the mere}- of the 
 wretches. Though perfectly helpless and appar- 
 ently dead, he was conscious of all that transpired. 
 A knife was passed entirely around his head and 
 the scalp torn off. While suffering no pain, he 
 ever asserted that neither a storm in the forest nor 
 
24 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 the roar of artillery could have sounded more 
 terrible to a sound man than did this scalping pro- 
 cess to him. The shrieks and exultant j'ells of the 
 brutes were indescribable. 
 
 Christian's life ebbed away, all three were 
 stripped and scalped ; the savages retired and Wil- 
 barger lay in a dreamy state of semi-consciousness, 
 visions flitting through his mind bordering on the 
 marvelous and the supernatural. 
 
 The loss of blood finally aroused him and he 
 realized several wounds unknown to him before. 
 He crawled to a limpid stream close bj' and sub- 
 merged his body in it both to quench a burning thirst 
 and stop the flow of blood, and succeeded in both ; 
 but in an hour or two became greatly chilled and 
 crawled out, but vpas so weak he fell into a sound 
 sleep — for how long he knew not — on awakening 
 from which he found his wounds covered with 
 those disgusting insects, •' blowflies." Occasionally 
 refreshing himself in the pool, the hours sped and 
 night came. He had realized that the escaped men 
 would spread the uews and as soou as the few 
 settlers below could collect, relief might come. 
 After dark and many efforts he was able to rise and 
 stand — then to stagger along — aud resolved to 
 make an effort to reach the Hornsb}' place. He 
 traveled about a quarter of a mile, utterly failed 
 in strength aud sank under a large tree, intensely 
 suffering with cold. When morning came he was 
 unable to move and his suffeiing, till the sun rose 
 aud warmed him, was intense. He became able to 
 rise again, but not to walk. He atBrmed that while 
 reclining against the tree his sister, Margaret,* 
 vividly appeared before him, saying, " Brother 
 Josiah ! you are too weak to go in by yourself ! 
 Eemain here and before the sun sets friends will 
 take you in." She disappeared, going directly 
 towards the settlement. He piteously called to her : 
 "Margaret, my sister, Margaret! stay with me 
 till they come! " But she disappeared, and when 
 relief did come he told them of the vision and 
 believed till that time that it was a realit}'. 
 
 During the day — that long and agonizing day — 
 between periods of drowsy slumber, he would sit 
 or stand, intensely gazing in the direction Margaret 
 had taken. 
 
 The two men who fled gave the alarm at 
 Hornsby's, and runners were sent below for aid, 
 which could not be expected before the next day ; 
 and here occurs one of those incidents which, 
 however remarkable, unless a whole family and 
 several other persons of unquestionable integrity 
 
 * This sister was Mrs. Margaret Cliftou, who had died 
 the day Ijefore at Florissant, St. Louis County, Missouri. 
 
 were themselves falsifiers, is true, and so held by 
 all the early settlers of the Colorado. During the 
 night in which Wilbarger lay under the tree, not- 
 withstanding the two men asserted positively that 
 they saw Wilbarger, Christian and Strother killed, 
 Mrs. Hornsby, one of the best of women and 
 regarded as the mother of the new colony, about 
 midnight, sprang from bed, aroused all the house 
 and said: "Wilbarger is not dead! He sits 
 against a large tree and is scalped ! I saw him 
 and know it is so! " Those present reassured and 
 remonstrated, even ridiculed her dream, and all 
 again retired. But about three o'clock, she again 
 sprang from the bed, under intense excitement, 
 repeated her former statement and added : "I saw 
 him again ! As sure as God lives Josiah Wilbarger 
 is alive, scalped and under a large tree by himself ! 
 I saw him as plainly as I now see you who are 
 present ! If you are not cowards go at once or he 
 will die! " " But," said one of the escaped men, 
 " Mrs. Hornsby, I saw fifty Indians around his 
 body and it is impossible for him to be alive." 
 
 " I care not what you saw," replied the seem- 
 ingly inspired old mother, "I saw as plainly as 
 you could have seen, and I know he is alive! Go 
 to him at once." Her husband suggested that if 
 the men all left before help came from below she 
 would be in danger. "Never mind me! I can 
 take to the dogwood thicket and save myself! 
 Go, I tell you, to poor Wijbarger! " 
 
 The few men present determined to await till 
 morning the arrival of succor from below, but 
 Mrs. Hornsby refused to retire again, and busied 
 herself cooking till sunrise, so as to avoid any 
 delay when aid should come. When the men came 
 in the morning, she repeated to them in the most 
 earnest manner her dual vision, urged them to eat 
 quickly and hasten forward and, as they were 
 leaving, took from her bed a strong sheet, handed 
 it to them and said: " Take this, you will have to 
 bring him on a litter; he cannot sit on ahorse." 
 The men left aud after long search found and 
 l>uried the bodies of Christian and Strother. 
 
 Wilbarger spent the day in alternate watching 
 and dozing till, late in the evening, completely ex- 
 hausted, having crawled to a stump from which a 
 more extended view was obtained, he was sinking 
 into a despairing slumber, when the rumbling of 
 horses' feet fell upon his ear. He arose and now 
 beheld his deliverers. When, after quite a search, 
 they discovered the ghastly object — a mass of 
 blood — they involuntarily halted, seeing which he 
 beckoned and flually called : " Come on, friends ; it 
 is Wilbarger." They came up, even then hesi- 
 tating, for he was disfigured beyond recognition. 
 
GEN. PJDWARD BURLESON. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 25 
 
 He begged for water! water! which was promptly 
 famished. He was wrapped in the sheet, placed 
 on Mr. Hornsby's horse and that gentleman, 
 mounting behind, held him in his arms, and thus, 
 slowly, he was borne to the house, to be embraced 
 with a mother's warmth by her who had seen him 
 in the vision. 
 
 The great loss of blood prevented febrile ten- 
 dencies, and, under good nursing, Mr. Wilbarger 
 recovered his usual health ; but the scalp having 
 taken with it the inner membrane, followed by two 
 days' exposure to the sun, never healed. The dome 
 of the skull remained bare, onlj' protected by arti- 
 ficial covering. For eleven years he enjoyed 
 health, prospered and accumulated a handsome 
 estate. At the end of that time the skull rapidly 
 
 decayed, exposed the brain, brought on delirium, 
 and in a few weeks, just before the assurance of 
 annexation and in the twelfth year from his 
 calamity, his soul went to join that of his waiting 
 sister Margaret in that abode " where the wicked 
 cease from troubling and the weary are at rest." 
 Recalling the days of childhood, when the writer 
 often sat upon his lap and received many evidences 
 of his kindly nature, it is a pleasure to state that 
 in 1858 he enjoyed and embraced the opportunity 
 of honoring his memory by naming the county of 
 Wilbarger jointly for him and his brother Matthias, 
 a surveyor. 
 
 John Wilbarger, one of the sons of Josiah, while 
 a ranger, was killed by Indians in the Nueces 
 countrj', in 1847. 
 
 Events in 1833 and 1835 — Campaigns of Oldham, Coleman, 
 
 John H. Moore, Williamson, Burleson, Coheen — Fate 
 
 of Canoma — Choctaw Tom— The Toncahuas. 
 
 In the year 1833, a stranger from the United 
 States, named Reed, spent several days at Tenox- 
 titlau, Falls of the Brazos, now in the lower part of 
 Falls Count}'. There were at that time seven 
 friendly Toncahua Indians at the place, with whom 
 Reed made an exchange of horses. The Indians 
 concluded they had been cheated and pretended to 
 leave; but secreted themselves and, on the second 
 day afterwards, lying in ambush, they killed Reed 
 as he was leaving the vicinity on his return to the 
 United States, and made prize of his horse and 
 baggage. 
 
 Canoma, a faithful and friendly Indian, was the 
 chief of a small band of Caddos, and passed much 
 of his time with or near the Americans at the Falls. 
 He was then in the vicinity. He took seven of his 
 tribe and pursued the Toncahuas. On 'the eighth 
 daj' he returned, bearing as trophies seven scalps. 
 Reed's horse and baggage, receiving substantial 
 commendation from the settlers. 
 
 In the spring of 1835 the faithful Canoma was 
 still about Tenoxtitlan. There were various indi- 
 cations of intended hostilit}' by the wild tribes, but 
 it was mainly towards the people on the Colorado. 
 The wild Indians, as is well known to those conver- 
 sant with that period, considered the people of the 
 two rivers as separate tribes. The people at the 
 
 Falls, to avert an outbreak, employed Canoma to 
 go among the savages and endeavor to bring them 
 in for the purpose of making a treaty and of recov- 
 ering two children of Mr. Moss, then prisoners in 
 their hands. 
 
 Canoma, leaving two of bis children as hostages, 
 undertook the mission and visited several tribes. 
 On returning he reported that those he had seen 
 were willing to treat with the Brazos people ; but 
 that about half were bitterly opposed to forming 
 friendly relations with the Coloradians, and that at 
 that moment a descent was being made on Bastrop 
 on that river by a party of the irreconcilables. 
 
 The people at the Falls immediatel}' dispatched 
 Samuel McFall to advise the people of that infant 
 settlement of their danger. Before he reached his 
 destination the Indians had entered the settlement, 
 murdered a wagoner, stolen several horses and left, 
 and Col. Edward Burleson, in command of a small 
 party, was in pursuit. 
 
 In the meantime, some travelers lost their horses 
 at the Falls and employed Canoma to follow and 
 recover them. Canoma, with his wife and son, 
 armed with a written certification of his fidelity to 
 the whites, trailed the horses in the direction of and 
 nearly to the three forks of Little river, and re- 
 covered them. On his return with these American 
 
2(5 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 horses, Burleson and party fell in with him, but 
 were not aware of his faithful character. He ex- 
 hibited his credentials, with which Burleson was dis- 
 posed to be satisfied ; but his men, alread}' incensed, 
 and finding Canoma in possession of the horses 
 under such suspicious circumstances, gave rein to 
 unreasoning exasperation. They killed him and his 
 son, leaving his wife to get in alone, which she lost 
 no time in doing. She reported these unfortunate 
 facts precisely as they had transpired, and as the}' 
 were ever lamented by the chivalrous and kind- 
 hearted Burleson. 
 
 This intensely incensed the remainder of Cano- 
 ma's party, who were still at the Falls. Choctaw 
 Tom, the principal man left among them, stated 
 that thej' did not blame the people at the Falls, but 
 that all the Indians would now make war on the 
 Coloradians, and, with all the baud, left for the 
 Indian country. 
 
 Soon after this, in consequence of some depreda- 
 tions; Maj. Oldham raised a company of twenty- 
 five men in Washington, and made a successful 
 attack an the Keechi village, on the Trinify, now in 
 Leon County. He routed them, killed a number 
 and captured a considerable number of horses and 
 all their camp equipage. 
 
 Immediately after this, Capt. Robert M. Cole- 
 man, of Bastrop, with twenty-five men, three of 
 whom were Brazos men well known to many of the 
 Indians, made a campaign against the Tehuacanos, 
 at the famous springs of that name now in Lime- 
 stone County. He crossed the Brazos at Washing- 
 ton on the 4th of July, 1835. He was not 
 discovered till near the village. The Indians 
 manifested stubborn courage. A severe engage- 
 ment ensued, but in the end, though killing a 
 considerable number of Indians, Coleman was com- 
 pelled to retreat — having one man killed and four 
 wounded. The enemy were too numerous for so 
 small a party ; and it was believed that their recog- 
 nilion of the three Brazos men among their assail- 
 ants, stimulated their courage and exasperated 
 them against the settlers on that river, as they were 
 already towards those on the Colorado. 
 
 Coleman fell back upon Parker's fort, two and a 
 half miles above the present town of Groesbeck, 
 and sent in an express, calling for an augmentation 
 of force to chastise the enemy. Three companies 
 were immediately raised — one commanded by 
 Capt. Robert M. Williamson (the gifted, dauntless 
 and eloquent three-legged Willie of the popular 
 legends), one by Capt. Coheen and a third by Dr. 
 George W. Barnett. Col. .John H. Moore was 
 given chief command and Josepli C. Neill (a 
 
 soldier at the Horseshoe) was made adjutant. 
 They joined Coleman at the fort and rapidly- 
 advanced upon the Tehuacanos at the springs ; 
 but the wily red man had discovered them and 
 fled. 
 
 The}' then scoured the country up the Trinity as 
 far as the forks, near the subsequent site of Dallas, 
 then passed over to and down the Brazos, crossing 
 it where old Fort Graham stands, without encoun- 
 tering more than five or six Indians on several 
 occasions. They, however, killed one warrior and 
 made prisoners of several women and children. 
 One of the women, after her capture, killed her 
 own child, for which she was immediately shot. 
 Without any other event of moment the command 
 leisurely returned to the settlements. 
 
 [Note. Maj. Oldham was afterwards one of 
 the Mier prisoners. Dr. Barnett, from Tennessee, 
 at 37 years of age, on the second day of the next 
 March (1836), signed the Declaration of Texian 
 Independence. He served as a senator for a num- 
 ber of years and then moved to the western part of 
 Gonzales County, where, in the latest Indian raid 
 ever made into that section, he was killed while 
 alone, by the savages. The names of Robert M. 
 Williamson and John H. Moore are too intimatelj' 
 identified with our history to justify farther notice 
 here. As a Lieutenant-Colonel at San Jacinto, 
 Joseph C. Neill was severely wounded. Robert 
 M. Coleman was Ijorn and reared in that portion of 
 Christian County, Kentucky, which afterwards be- 
 came Trigg County. He came to Texas in 1830. 
 He, too, at the age of 37, signed the Declaration 
 of Independence and, fifty- one days later, com- 
 manded a company at San Jacinto. He was 
 drowned at the mouth of the Brazos in 1837. In 
 1839 his wife and 13 year-old-son were killed at 
 their frontier home in Webber's prairie, on the 
 Colorado, and another son carried into captivity by 
 the Indians, never to be restored to civilization. 
 Two little girls, concealed under the floor by their 
 heroic child brother before his fall, were saved. 
 Henry Bridger, a j'oung man, then just from Cole 
 County, Missouri, afterwards my neighbor and close 
 friend in several campaigns and battles — modest 
 as a maiden, fearless as a tiger — also a Mier pris- 
 oner, saw his first service in this campaign of Col. 
 Moore. Sam McFall, the bearer of the warning 
 from the Falls to Bastrop, from choice went on 
 foot. He was six feet and three inches high, lean, 
 lithe and audacious. He was the greatest footman 
 ever known in Texas, and made the distance in 
 shorter time than a saddle horse could have done. 
 He became famous among the Mier prisoners at 
 Perote, 1843-4, by feigning lunacy and stampeding 
 whenever harnessed to one of the little Mexican 
 carts for hauling stone, a task forced upon his 
 comrades, but from which he escaped as a 
 "lunatico." He died in McLennan County some 
 years ago, lamented as an exemplar of true, inborn 
 nobility of soul and dauntless courage.] 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 27 
 
 The Attempted Settlement of Beales' Rio Grande Colony in 
 1834— Its Failure and the Sad Fate of Some of the Col- 
 onists — Twelve Murdered — Mrs. Horn and Two 
 Sons and Mrs. Harris Carried into 
 Captivity — 1834 to 1836. 
 
 Before narrating the painful scenes attending 
 the attempt to form a colony of Europeans and 
 Americans on the Rio Grande, about thirty miles 
 above the present town of Eagle Pass, begun in 
 New York in November, 1833, and terminating in 
 bitter failure and the slaughter of a portion of the 
 colonists on the 2d of April, 1836, a few precedent 
 facts are condensed, for the more intelligent and 
 comprehensive understanding of the subject. 
 
 Dr. John Charles Beales, born in Aldborough, 
 Suffolk County, England, March 20, 1804, went to 
 Mexico, and, in 1830, married the widow of Richard 
 Exter, an English merchant in that country. She 
 was a Mexican lady, her maiden name having been 
 Maria Dolores Soto. Prior to his death Mr. Exter 
 had become associated in certain empresario con- 
 tracts for introducing colonists into northern or 
 rather New Mexico with Stephen Julian Wilson, an 
 English naturalized citizen of Mexico. 
 
 In 1832 Dr. Beales and Jose Manuel Roquella 
 obtained from the State of Coahuila and Texas the 
 right to settle colonists in the following described 
 limits: — 
 
 Beginning at the intersection of latitude 32° 
 north with longitude 102° west from London, the 
 same being the southwest corner of a tract peti- 
 tioned for by Col. Reuben Ross ; thence west on 
 the parallel of latitude 32° to the eastern limit of 
 New Mexico ; thence north on the line dividing 
 New Mexico and the provinces (the State) of Coa- 
 huila and Texas, to a point twent}' leagues (52f 
 miles) south of the Arkansas river; thence east to 
 longitude 102°, on the west boundary (reallj' the 
 northwest corner) of the tract petitioned for by 
 Col. Reuben Ross ;^ thence south to the place of 
 beginning. Beales and Roquella employed Mr. A. 
 Le Grand, an American, to survey and mark the 
 boundaries of this territory- and divide it into twelve 
 or more blocks. Le Grand, with an escort and 
 proper outfit, arrived on the ground from Santa Fe, 
 and established the initial point, after a series of 
 observations, on the 27th of June, 1833. From 
 that date till the 30th of October, he was activelj' 
 engaged in the work, running lines north, south. 
 
 east and west over most of the large territory. In 
 the night, eight inches of snow fell, and on the 
 30th, after several days' examination of its topog- 
 rapliy, he was at the base of the mountain called 
 b3" the Mexicans " La Sierra Oscura." Here, for 
 the time being, he abandoned the work and pro- 
 ceeded to Santa Fe to report to his employers. 
 Extracts from that report form the base for these 
 statements. Neither Beales and Roquella nor Col. 
 Reuben Ross ever proceeded farther in these enter- 
 prises ; but it is worthy of note that Le Grand pre- 
 ceded Capt. R. B. Marcy, U. S. A., twenty-six 
 years in the exploration and survey of the upper 
 waters of the Colorado, Brazos, Red, Canadian and 
 Washita rivers, a field in which Capt. Marcy has 
 worn the honors of first explorer from the dates of 
 his two expeditions, respectively, in 1849 and 1853. 
 Le Grand's notes are quite full, noting the cross- 
 ing of every stream in all his 1800 to 2000 miles 
 in his subdivision of that large territory into dis- 
 tricts or blocks numbered 1 to 12. 
 
 Le Grand, in his diary, states that on the 14th 
 of August: " We fell in with a partj' of Riana In- 
 dians, who informed us they were on their way to 
 Santa Fe, for the purpose of treating with the 
 government. We sent by them a cop}- of our jour- 
 nal to this date." 
 
 On the 20th of August they visited a large en- 
 campment of Comanche Indians, who were friendly 
 and traded with them. 
 
 On the night of September 10th, in the country 
 between the Arkansas and Canadian, Ave of the 
 party — Kimble, Bois, Caseboth, Boring and 
 Ryon— deserted, taking with them all but four 
 of Le Grand's horses. 
 
 On the 21st of September, near the northeast 
 corner of the tract they saw, to the west, a large 
 body of Indians. This was probably in " No Man's 
 Land," now near the northeast corner of Sherman 
 County, Texas. 
 
 On the night of September 27th, twenty miles 
 west of the northeast corner, and therefore near 
 the northwest corner of Sherman County, they 
 were attacked by a body of Snake Indians. The 
 
28 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 action wa? short but furious. Tlie Indians, evi- 
 dently expecting to surprise and slaughter the 
 party while asleep, left nine warriors dead on the 
 ground. But the victors paid dearly for the 
 triumph ; they lost three killed, McCrummins, 
 Weathers and Jones, and Thompson was slightly 
 wounded. They buried the dead on the 28th and 
 remained on the ground till the 29th. The country 
 over which this party cari-ied the compass and 
 chain, between June 27th and October 30th, 183.3, 
 measuring on the ground about eighteen hundred 
 miles, covers about the western half of the present 
 misnamed Texas Panhandle, the eastern portion 
 (or a strip thereof) of the present New Mexico, 
 the western portion of "No Man's Land," and 
 south of the Panhandle to latitude 32. The 
 initial or southeast corner (the intersection of 
 longitude 102 with latitude 32), judging by our 
 present maps, was in the vicinity of the present 
 town of Midland, on the Texas and Pacific Eailwaj', 
 but Le Grand's observations must necessarily have 
 been imperfect and fixed the point erroneously. It 
 was, however, sixteen miles south of what he called 
 throughout the '"Red river of Texas," meaning 
 the Colorado or Pasigono, while he designates as 
 "Red river" the stream still so called. This 
 large territory is now settled and being settled bj' 
 stock raisers, with a. decided tendency towards 
 farming pursuits. The writer of this, through the 
 press of Texas, ever since 1872, has contended that 
 in due time Northwest Texas, from the Pacific 
 road to latitude 3()° 30', notwithstanding consid- 
 erable districts of worthless land, would become 
 the seat of an independent and robust agricultural 
 population. It is now being verified. 
 
 BEALES COLONY ON THE KID OKANDE. 
 
 Dr. Beales secured in his own name a right to 
 settle a colony extending from the Nueces to the 
 Rio Grande and lying above the road from San 
 Antonio to Laredo. Next above, extending north 
 to latitude 32°, was a similar privilege granted to 
 John L. Woodbury, which expired, as did similar 
 concessions to Dr. James Grant, a Scotchman 
 naturalized and married in Mexico (the same who 
 was killed by the Mexican army on ils march to 
 Texas, in Februar}^ 1836, in what is known as the 
 Johnson and Grant expedition, beyond the Nueces 
 river), and various others. Dr. Beales entered 
 into some sort of partnership with Grant for 
 settling colonists on the Rio Grande and Nueces' 
 tract, and then, with Grant's approval, while re- 
 taining his official position as empresario, or con- 
 tractor with the State, formed in New York an 
 
 association styled the " Rio Grande and Texas 
 Land Company," for the purpose of raising 
 meaus to encourage immigration to the colony 
 from France, Ireland, England and Germany, in- 
 cluding also Americans. Mr. Egerton, an English 
 surveyor, was sent out first to examine the lands 
 and select a site for locating a town, and the first 
 immigrants. He performed that service and 
 returned to New York in the summer of 1833. 
 
 The Rio Grande and Texas Land Company organ- 
 ized on a basis of capital " divided into 800 shares, 
 each containing ten thousand acres, besides sur- 
 plus lands." Certificate No. 407, issued in New 
 York, July 11, 1834, signed, Isaac A. Johnson, 
 trustee ; Samuel Sawyer, secretary, and J. C. Beales, 
 empresario, with a miniature map of the lands, was 
 transmitted to me as a present or memento, as the 
 case might be, in the j-ear 1874, by my relative, 
 Hon. Wm. Jessop Ward, of Baltimore, and now 
 lies before me. As a matter of fact, Beales, 
 like all other empresarios under the Mexican 
 colonization laws, contracted or got permission 
 to introduce a specified number of immigrants (800 
 in this case) and was to receive a given amount of 
 premium land in fee simple to himself for each 
 hundred families so introduced. Otherwise he had 
 no right to or interest in the lands, and all lands 
 not taken up by immigrants as headrights, or 
 awarded him as premiums within a certain term of 
 years from the date of the contract, remained, as 
 before, public domain of the State. Hence the 
 habit generally adopted by writers and map-makers 
 of styling these districts of country ^^ grants" to 
 A., B. or C. was and ever has been a misnomer. 
 They were in reality only permits. 
 
 The first, and so far as known or believed, the 
 only body of immigrants introduced by Dr. Beales, 
 sailed with him from New York, in the schooner 
 Amos Wright, Capt. Monroe, November 11th, 1833. 
 The party consisted of fifty-nine souls, men, women 
 and children, but how many of each class cannot be 
 stated. 
 
 On the Gth of December. 1833, the Amos Wright 
 entered Aransas bay, finding nine feet of water 
 on the bar; on the 12th they disembarked and 
 pitched their tents on the beach at Copano and 
 there remaineil till .January 3, 1834, finding there 
 only a Mexican coast-guard consisting of a corporal 
 and two men. On the loth of December Don Jose 
 Maria Cosio, collector of customs, came down from 
 Goliad (the ancient La Bahia), and passed their 
 papers and goods as correct and was both courteous 
 and kind. Throughout the remainder of December, 
 January and February there were rapidly succeed- 
 ing wet and cold northers, indicating one of the 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 29 
 
 most inclement winters known to tlie inhabitants — 
 flooding tlie coast prairies and causing great dis- 
 comfort to tlie strangers, who, liowever, feasted 
 abundantly on wild game, fish and water fowl. 
 
 On the 20th Dr. Beales, his servant, Marcelino, 
 and Mr. Power started to Goliad to see the Alcalde, 
 Don Miguel Aldrete, and procure teams for trans- 
 portation, the roads being so flooded that, although 
 the distance was only about fortj' miles, they did 
 not arrive till the 22d. Returning with animals to 
 draw their vehicles, they arrived at Copano late on 
 the 31st of December, having halted, both in going 
 and returning, at the Irish settlement of Power's 
 and Hewetson's infant colony, at the old mission 
 of Refugio. (This colonj' had for empresarios Mr. 
 James Power and Dr. James Hewetson, both 
 well known in the subsequent history of that sorely 
 desolated section. ) 
 
 The party left Copano on the 3d of January, 
 1834, and after numerous vexatious and minor 
 accidents, arrived at Goliad, crossed and encamped 
 on the east bank of the San Antonio river on the 
 16th, having thus left behind them the level and 
 flooded coast lauds. Dr. Beales notes that, while 
 at Goliad, " some of the foreigners in the town, 
 the lowest class of the Americans, behaved ex- 
 ceedingly ill, endeavoring, by all means in their 
 power, to seduce my families away." But onl}- 
 one man left, and he secured his old Majordomo 
 (overseer or manager), John Quinn, and a 
 Mexican with his wife and four children, to 
 accompany the party. He also notes that on 
 Sunday' (19th) a Carancahua Indian child was 
 baptized by the priest in Goliad, for which the 
 collector's wife, Senora Cosio, stood godmother. 
 
 On the 20th of January, with freshly purchased 
 oxen, they left for San Antonio and, after much 
 trouble and cold weather, arrived there on the 6th 
 of Februar3\ A few miles below that place (a 
 fact stated by Mrs. Horn, but not found in Beales' 
 diarj') they found Mr. Smith, a stranger from the 
 United States, lying b3' the roadside, terribly 
 wounded, and with him a dead Mexican, while two 
 others of his Mexican escort had escaped severely 
 wounded. They had had a desperate fight with a 
 small party of Indians who had left Mr. Smith as 
 dead. Dr. Beales, both as physician and good 
 Samaritan, gave him every possible attention 
 and convej^ed him to San Antonio, where he 
 lingered for a time and died after the colonists 
 left that place. While there a j'oung German 
 couple in the parly were married, but their names 
 are not given. 
 
 On the 18th of February, with fifteen carts and 
 wagons, the colonists left San Antonio for the 
 
 Rio Grande. On the 28th they crossed the Nueces 
 and for the first time entered the lauds designated 
 as Beales' Colony. Mr. Little carved upon a 
 large tree on the west bank — " Los Primeros 
 colonos de la Villa de Dolores pasaron el 28 de 
 Febrero, 1834," which being rendered into Eng- 
 lish is: "The first colonists of the village of 
 Dolores passed here on the 28th of Februaiy, 
 1834," many of them, alas, never to pass again. 
 
 On the 2d of March Mr. Egerton went forward 
 to Presidio de Rio Grande to examine the route, 
 and returned at midnight with the information that 
 the best route was to cross the river at that point, 
 travel up on the west side and recross to the pro- 
 posed locality of Dolores, on the Las Moras creek, 
 which is below the present town of Del Rio and ten 
 or twelve miles from the northeast side of the Rio 
 Grande. They crossed the river on the 5th and on 
 the 6tli entered the Presidio, about five miles from 
 it. Slowly moving up on the west side, hy a some- 
 what circuitous route and crossing a little river 
 called bj' Dr. Beales " Rio Escondido," the 
 same sometimes called Rio Chico, or Little river, 
 which enters the Rio Grande a few miles below 
 Eagle Pass, they recrossed to the east side of the 
 Rio Grande on the 12th and were again on the 
 colony lands. Here they fell in with five Shawnee 
 Indian trappers, two of whom spoke English and 
 were not only ver^' friendly, but became of service 
 for some time in killing game. Other Shawnee 
 trappers frequently visited them. Here Beales left 
 a portion of the freight, guarded by Addicks and 
 two Mexicans, and on the 14th traveled up the 
 couutiy about fifteen miles to a creek called " El 
 Sancillo," or " El Sauz." On the 16th of March, 
 a few miles above the latter stream, they arrived at 
 the site of the proposed village of Dolores, on the 
 Las Moras creek, as before stated said to be ten or 
 twelve miles from the Rio Grande. The name 
 "Dolores" was doubtless bestowed bj' Doctor 
 Beales in honor of his absent wife. 
 
 Preparations were at once undertaken to form 
 tents, huts and cabins, by cleaning out a thicket 
 and building a brush wall around it as a fortifica- 
 tion against the wild Indians who then, as for gen- 
 erations before and for Mly years afterwards, were 
 a terror to the Mexican population on that frontier. 
 On the 30th, Dr. Beales was unexpectedly com- 
 pelled to go to Matamoras, three or four hundred 
 miles, to cash his drafts, having failed to do so in 
 Monelova. It was a grave disappointment, as 
 money was essential to meet the wants of the peo- 
 ple. Beyond this date his notes are inaccessible 
 and subsequent events are gleaned dimly from other 
 sources. It must suffice to sav that without irri- 
 
30 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 gation the colonists, in the remainder of 1834 and 
 all of 1835, failed to raise crops and, though 
 guarded part of the time by a company of Mexi- 
 cans employed for that purpose, were ever uneasy 
 lest they should be attacked by the savages. As 
 time passed dissatisfaction arose and the colonists 
 in small parties left the settlement, at one time four 
 families leaving, all probably to the Mexican towns 
 of Monclova, Santa Rosa and San Fernando, but of 
 their ultimate fate no information is at hand. 
 From Mrs. Horn's narrative it is learned that after 
 many had left and sometime in the winter of 1835-6, 
 a new settlement of seven men and a boy (their 
 nationality not being given), some thirty or forty 
 miles distant, while two of the men were absent for 
 a few hours, "was attacked. Four of the men and 
 the boy were killed — the fiflh man left for dead 
 and all of them scalped. The wounded man, much 
 mutilated, was conveyed to San Fernando, about 
 twenty miles distant, one arm amputated, and, 
 scalpless, he recovered, only to exist as an object 
 of pity and charity. 
 
 This last calamity determined all the remainder, 
 excepting Mr. Power and seven others, to abandon 
 the country and return to the gulf and their native 
 lands. Power and party went to San Fernando, 
 in vain to await the arrival of other immigrants. 
 What became of them is not known. 
 
 This brings us to the sad story of the murder of 
 the twelve colonists and the captivity of Mrs. 
 Harris, Mrs. Horn and two children. Mrs. Horn 
 has been several times mentioned in this narrative 
 and before proceeding with it, her history previous 
 to leaving New York, on the Amos Wright, 
 November 11th, 1833, maybe briefly stated from 
 her own notes. The youngest of ten children of a 
 Mr. Newton, she was born in 1809 in Huntingdon, 
 sixtjr miles north of London, her parents being 
 respectable and sincerely pious people. When 
 three years old she was left fatherless. Her 
 mother successfully fulfilled her doubled mission 
 and trained all her children in the strictest prin- 
 ciples of virtue and religion. At the age of 
 eighteen this baby daughter, on the 14th of 
 October, 1827, in St. James church, Clerkenwell, 
 Loudon, married Mr. John Horn, who proved to 
 be all, as husband and father, that her heart 
 desired. They settled in Arlington, No. 2 Moon 
 street, Giles Square, London. Her mother resided 
 with her till her death late in 1830. Mr. Horn 
 was well established in mercantile Inisiness in a 
 small establishment. Soon after this many English 
 people of small means were migrating to America 
 to improve their condition. Mr. Horn was seized 
 with the same desire and, after due deliberation. 
 
 they sailed from Loudon, July 20, 1833, in the 
 ship, Samuel Robinson, Capt. Griswold (or 
 Chriswold), and arrived in New York on the 27th 
 of August. They took lodgings at 237 Madison 
 street, and Mr. Horn procured a satisfactory 
 clerkship with Mr. John McKibben. About this 
 time Dr. Beales, from Mexico, was in New York 
 preparing for the colonization trip to the Rio 
 Grande, already described. Omitting many 
 strange incidents and forebodings of evil — pre- 
 sentiments, as generally expressed — on the part of 
 Mrs. Horn, they sailed on the voyage as has been 
 narrated, November 11th, 1833. 
 
 On the 10th of March 1836, the disconsolate 
 party which we are now to follow, left Dolores with 
 the intention of reaching the coast by way of San 
 Patricio, on the lower Nueces. It consisted of 
 eleven men, including Mr. Horn, his wife and two 
 little sons, John and Joseph, and Mr. Harris, his 
 wife and girl baby, about three months old, prob- 
 ably the only child born at Dolores — in all fifteen 
 souls. To the Nueces, by slow marches, they 
 traveled without a road. Santa Anna's invading 
 hosts had but recently passed from the Rio Grande 
 on the Laredo and Matamoras routes, to San 
 Antonio and Goliad. The Alamo had fallen four 
 days before this journey began and Fannin sur- 
 rendered near Goliad nine days after their depart- 
 ure, but these ill-fated colonists knew of neither 
 event. They only knew that the Mexicans were 
 invading Texas under the banner of extermination 
 to the Americans, and they dreaded falling into 
 their hands almost as much as they dreaded the 
 wild savages. They remained on the Nueces, near 
 a road supposed to lead to San Patricio, several 
 days, protected by thickets, and while there saw 
 the trains and heard the guns of detachments of 
 Mexican soldiers, doubtless guarding supply trains 
 following Santa Anna to San Antonio. 
 
 They resumed their march from the Nueces, on 
 the San Patricio trail, on the 2d of April. Early 
 in the afternoon of the 4th, they encamped at a 
 large lake, containing fine fish. Not loqg after- 
 wards, while the men were occupied in various wa3-s 
 and none on guard, they were suddenly attacked b}^ 
 fifty or sixty mounted Indians, who, meeting 
 no resistance, instantly murdered nine of the men, 
 seized the two ladies and three children, plundered 
 the wagons and then proceeded to their main camp, 
 the entire party being about 400, in an extensive 
 chaparral, two or three miles distant. Here they 
 remained till next morning, tying the ladies' hands, 
 feet and arms, so tight as to be extremely painful. 
 Next morning, before starting, a savage brute 
 amused his fellows by tossing the infant of Mrs. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 31 
 
 Hai-ris in the air and letting it fall to the ground 
 till it was killed. Next they brought into the pres- 
 ence of the ladies, Mr. Harris and a young Ger- 
 man, whom the}' had supposed to be dead, but 
 who were only wounded. Compelling the heart- 
 broken wife, and the already widowed Mrs. Horn 
 to look on, they shot arrows and plunged lances 
 into the two men until they were dead, all the while 
 yelling horrid shouts of exultation. The mind 
 directing the pen recording this atrocious exercise 
 of savage demonisin, as it has recorded and yet has 
 to record innumerable others, involuntarilj- reverts 
 with inexpressible disgust to the sickening twaddle 
 of that school of self-righteous American humani- 
 tarians, who utter eloquent nonsense about the 
 noble savage and moral suasion, and dainty food at 
 public expense, as the onl}' things needful to render 
 him a lamb-like Christian. In New York in 1870, 
 I wrote for Putnam's Magazine an article exposing 
 the misapplied philanthropy on that subject — 
 then upheld for gain by many villainous Indian 
 agents, contractors and licensed traders, and many 
 misinformed good people — contending that the 
 only road to civilization to these inhuman monsters, 
 was to whip them into fear of American power ; 
 then concentrate them into communities ; and after 
 this to treat them with humanity, honesty and fair- 
 ness. The magazine in question, while admitting 
 the correctness of the positions assumed, had not 
 the courage to publish an article so in antagonism 
 to the mistaken and oftentimes mock philanthropy, 
 just then holding high carnival in the eastern 
 section of the Union. 
 
 For some time before her capture Mrs. Harris 
 had been suffering greatly from a rising in her 
 breast, from which her infant was denied nourish- 
 ment, and had been tenderly cared for b}' Mrs. 
 Horn. Though the little innocent was now dead, 
 the mother, in addition to brutal treatment other- 
 wise, suffered excruciatingly in her breast, the 
 heartless wretches for days not allowing Mrs. Horn 
 to dress it. But finally she was permitted to do so 
 and had the sagacity to dress and cover it with a 
 pouliice of cactus leaves, than which few things are 
 better. Its effect was excellent. Both ladies 
 almost, and the little boys entirel}', denuded of 
 clothing, their bodies blistered and the skin peeled 
 off, causing intense suffering. 
 
 From the scene of slaughter the savages traversed 
 the country between the lower Nueces and the 
 lower Rio Grande, killing all who came within their 
 power. 
 
 They came upon the body of a man apparently 
 dead for about a month, which, from Mrs. Horn's 
 statement, 1 have no doubt was that of Dr. James 
 
 Grant, the Scotchman, previously mentioned as 
 associated with Dr. Beales, who was killed by 
 Mexican cavalry, near the Agua Dnlce creek, 20 
 or 30 miles beyond the Nueces, March 2, 1836, 
 some distance from the spot where his men were 
 slain, he and Col. Reuben R. Brown, having been 
 chased four or five miles, from their party. Grant 
 killed and Brown captured, to be imprisoned in 
 Matamoras till the following December, when he 
 and Samuel W. McKneel}', who was captured in 
 San Patricio by the same party, escaped and made 
 their waj' into the settlements of Texas — Brown 
 ever since living at the mouth of the Brazos and 
 commanding a Confederate regiment in the civil 
 war, and McKneelj' deceased in 1889 atTexarkana, 
 Texas. The}' also passed the bodies of those killed 
 at the original point of attack, the Indians saying 
 they were "Tivos," or Americans. This event, 
 together with the night surprise at San Patricio, the 
 killing of some, the capture of others and the 
 escape of Col. Frank W. Johnson, Daniel J. Toler, 
 John H. Love and James M. Miller, was the dis- 
 astrous termination of what is known in Texian 
 history as the Johnson and Grant expedition, part 
 of a wild and disorganizing series of measures set 
 on foot or countenanced and encouraged by the 
 faction-ridden council of the provisional govern- 
 ment of Texas, against the wise and inflexible 
 opposition of Governor Henry Smith and Gen Sam 
 Houston, and culminating in the surrender and 
 subsequent slaughter of Fannin and nearly 400 
 noble and chivalrous men. 
 
 During this raid in that section the Indians 
 caught and killed a very genteel, well-dressed Mex- 
 ican, then surrounded and entered his house, kill- 
 ing his young wife and two little children, and then 
 rushed upon a neighboring house, killing two men 
 near it and one inside. At another time along a 
 road, they waylaid and murdered a handsomely 
 dressed Mexican and his servant. At another a 
 portion of them rushed across a creek when, 
 through the timber, Mrs. Horn saw them advanc- 
 ing upon a man, who exclaimed " Stand back ! stand 
 back!" but seemed to have no arms. Numerous 
 guns fired, all apparently by the Indians, when all 
 the party, four or five in number, lay dead upon 
 the ground. So far as Mrs. Horn could determine 
 they were all Americans. This occurrence and the 
 surrounding facts, considering the locality and the 
 fact that no party of Americans could have been 
 there from choice, can only be explained on the 
 hypothesis that these men had escaped from prison 
 in Matamoras, and, without arms, were endeavor- 
 ing to return to Texas. If so, their fate was never 
 known in Texas, for only through these two cap- 
 
32 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 live ladies could it have been made known and this 
 tbey had no opportunity of doing excepting after 
 their recovery and through the narrative from 
 which these facts are collected. Neither was ever 
 afterwards in the settled parts of Texas, and indeed 
 never were before, excepting on the trip from 
 Copano, via Goliad and San Antonio, to the Rio 
 Grande. 
 
 On another occasion, after traveling for a short 
 distance on a large road, evidently leading to 
 Matamoras, they arrived near a rancho, near a 
 lake of water. The main body halted and a part 
 advanced upon the house which, though near, could 
 not be seen by the captive ladies, but they heard 
 the fight going on, firing and defiant shouts, for a 
 considerable time, when the Indians I'eturned, 
 bearing two of their comrades severely 
 wounded, and showing that they had been 
 defeated and feared pursuit. They left the road 
 and traveled rapidly till night, and then made 
 no fire. On the following day they moved in 
 haste, as if apprehensive of attack. They made 
 no halt till night, and then for the first time 
 in two days, allowed the prisoners water and a 
 small quantity of meat. After two hours' travel 
 nest morning, to the amazement of the captives, 
 they arrived at the spot where their husbands and 
 friends had been murdered and where their naked 
 l)odies still la\', untouched since they left them, and 
 only blackened in appearance. The little boys, 
 John and Joseph, at once i-ecognized their father, 
 and poured forth such wails as to soften anj' but a 
 Iirutal, savage heart. They soon passed on to the 
 spot where lay the bodies of Mr. Harris and tlie 
 young German, who, Mrs. Horn says, fell 
 upon his face and knees and was still in that 
 position, Ijeing the only one not stripped of his 
 clothing. 
 
 Startnig next morning b}' a different route from 
 that first pursued, thej' traveled rapidly for three 
 days and reached the spot near where they had 
 killed the little Mexican and his family and had 
 secreted the plunder taken from his house and 
 the other victims of their barbarity. This, Mrs. 
 Horn thought, was on the 18th day of April, 1836, 
 being the fifteenth day of their captivity. This 
 being but three dajs before the battle of San 
 Jacinto, when the entire American population of 
 Texas "was on, or east of the Trinity, abundantly 
 accounts for the fact that these bloody tragedies 
 never become known in Texas; though, as will be 
 shown farther on, they accidentally came to my 
 knowledge in the year 1839, while in Missouri. 
 
 Gathering and packing their secreted spoils, the 
 savages separated into three parties of about equal 
 
 numbers and traveled with all possible speed till 
 about the middle of June, about two months. Much 
 of the way was over rough, stony ground, pro- 
 visions scarce, long intervals without water, the 
 sun on the bare heads and naked bodies of the 
 captives, very hot, and their sufferings were great. 
 The ladies were in two different parties. 
 
 The narrative of Mrs. Horn, during her entire 
 captivity, abounds in recitals of cruelties towards 
 herself, her children and Mrs. Harris, involving 
 hunger, thirst, menial labor, stripes, etc., though 
 gradually' lessened as time passed. To follow them 
 in detail would become monotonous repetition. As 
 a rather extreme illustration the following facts 
 transpired ou this long march of about two months 
 from extreme Southwest Texas to (it is supposed) 
 the head waters of the Arkansas. 
 
 Much of the route, as before stated, was over 
 rough and stony ground, "cut up by steep and 
 nearly impassable ravines, with deep and dangerous 
 fords." (This is Mrs. Harris' language and aptly 
 applies to the head waters of the Nueces, Guadalupe, 
 the Conchos and the sources of the Colorado, 
 Brazos and Red rivers, through which they neces- 
 sarily passed. ) At one of these deep fords, little 
 Joseph Horn slipped from his mule while ascending 
 the bank and fell back into the water. When he 
 had nearly extricated himself, a burly savage, en- 
 raged at the accident, pierced him in the face with 
 a lance with such force as to throw him into deep 
 and rapid water and inflict a severe wound just be- 
 low the eye. Not one of the demons offered remon- 
 strance or assistance, but all seemed to exult iu the 
 brutal scene. The little sufferer, however, caught 
 a projecting bush and succeeded in reaching the 
 bank, bleeding like a slaughtered animal. The 
 distracted mother upbraided the wretch for his con- 
 duct, in return for which he made the child travel 
 on foot and drive a mule the remainder of the day. 
 When they halted for the night he called Mrs. 
 Horn to him. With a knife in one hand and a whip 
 in the other, he gave her an unmerciful thrashing, 
 butin this as in all her afflictions, she says : "I have 
 cast myself at His feet whom I have ever been 
 taught to trust and adore, and it is to Him I owe it 
 that I was sustained in the fiery trials. When the 
 savage monster had done whipping me, he took his 
 knife and literally sawed the hair from my head. 
 It was quite long and when he completed the oper- 
 ation, he tied it to his own as an ornament, and, I 
 suppose, wears it yet. At this time we had tasted 
 no food for two days, and in hearing of the moans 
 of my starving children, bound, as on ever}- night, 
 with cords, I laid down, and mothers may judge, if 
 they can, the measure of my repose. The next day 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 33 
 
 a wild horse was killed and we were allowed to par- 
 take of the flesh." 
 
 The next day, sa3's the captive lady, they came 
 to a deep, rapid stream. The mules had to swim 
 and the banks were so steep that the riders had to 
 dismount in the edge of the water to enable them 
 to ascend. They then soon came to the base of a 
 mountain which it was difHcult to ascend. Arriv- 
 ing at the summit, they halted, when a few of the 
 Indians returned to the stream with the two little 
 bo3's and enjoj'ed the barbaric sport of throwing 
 the little creatures in till life would be almost 
 extinct. Reviving them, the}' would repeat the 
 torture and this was done time and again. Finally 
 they rejoined the party on the mountain, the chil- 
 dren being unable to stand, partially unconscious 
 and presenting a pitiable spectacle. Their bodies 
 were distended from engorgement with water and 
 Joseph's wounded face was terribly swollen. 
 Water came from their stomachs in gurgles. Let 
 Eastern humanitarians bear in mind that this was 
 in the spring of 1836, before the Comanches had 
 any just pretense for hostility towards the people 
 of Texas (however much they may have had in 
 regai'd to the Mexicans), and that this narrative 
 comes not from a Texian, but from a refined En- 
 glish lady, deeply imbued with that spirit of reli- 
 gion whose great pillars are " Faith, Hope and 
 Charity." My soul sickens in retrospective con- 
 templation of that (to the uninformed) somewhat 
 plausible gush of philanthropy, which indulges in 
 the Pharisaical " I am holier than thou " hypocrisy 
 at home, but soars abroad to lift up the most 
 inferior and barbaric races of men ! — a fanaticism 
 which is ever blind to natural truth and common 
 sense on such subjects — ever the fomentor of 
 strife rather than fraternity among its own people — 
 and which is never enjojing the maximum of self- 
 righteousness unless intermeddling with the affairs 
 and convictions of other people. 
 
 Referring to the stream and mountain just de- 
 scribed and the probable time, in the absence of 
 dates, together with a knowledge of the topography 
 of the country, and an evidently dry period, as no 
 mention is made in this part of the narrative of 
 rain or mud, it is quite certain that the stream was 
 the Big Wichita (the Ouichita of the French. ) The 
 description, in view of ,all the facts, admirably 
 applies to it and to none other. 
 
 On the night of this day, after traveling through 
 the afternoon, for the first time Mrs. Horn was 
 allowed the use of her arms, though still bound 
 around the ankles. After this little unusual hap- 
 pened on the journey, till the three parties again 
 united. Mrs. Harris, when they met, seemed barely 
 
 to exist. The meeting of the captive ladies was 
 a mournful renewal of their sorrows. Mrs. H.'s 
 breasts, though improved, were not well and her 
 general health was bad, from which, with the want 
 of food and water, she had suffered much. The 
 whole band of four hundred then traveled together 
 several days, till one day Mrs. Horn, being in front 
 and her children in the rear, she discovered that 
 those behind her were diverging in separate parties. 
 She never again saw her little sons together, though, 
 as will be seen, she saw them separately. They 
 soon afterwards reached the lodges of the baud she 
 was with, and, three days later, she was taken to 
 the lodge of the Indian who claimed her. There 
 were three branches of the family, in separate tents. 
 In one was an old woman and her two daughters, 
 one being a widow; in another was the son of the 
 old woman and his wife and five sons, to whom 
 Mrs. Horn belonged ; and in the third was a son- 
 in-law of the old woman. The mistress of Mrs. H. 
 was the personification of savagery, and abused her 
 captive often with blows and stones, till, in des- 
 peration Mrs. Horn asserted her rights by counter- 
 blows and stones and this rendered the cowardly' 
 brute less tyrannical. She was employed con- 
 stantly by daj' in dressing buffalo robes and deer 
 skins and converting them into garments and moc- 
 casins. She was thrown much with an old woman 
 who constituted a remarkable exception to the 
 general brutality of the tribe. In the language of 
 the captive lady: "She contributed general!}- by 
 her acts of kindness and soothing manners, to 
 reconcile me to my fate. But she had a daughter 
 who was the very reverse of all that was amiable 
 and seemed never at ease unless engaged in some 
 way in indulging her ill-humor towards me. But, 
 as if bj' heaven's interposition, it was not long till 
 I so won the old woman's confidence that in all 
 matters of controversy between her daughter and 
 myself, she adopted my statement and decided in 
 my favor." 
 
 Omitting Mrs. Horn's mental tortures on ac- 
 count of her children, she avers that the sufferings 
 of Mrs. Harris were much greater than her own. 
 That lady could not brook the idea of menial 
 service to such demons and fared badly. They 
 were often near together and were allowed occa- 
 sionally to meet and mingle their tears of anguish. 
 Mrs. Harris, generally, was starved to such a degree 
 that she availed herself of every opportunity to get 
 a mite of meat, however small, through Mrs. Horn. 
 
 In about two months two little Mexican boy 
 prisoners told her a little white boy had arrived 
 near by with his captors and told them his mother 
 was a prisoner somewhere in the country. By per- 
 
34 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 missiou she went to see him and foimd her little 
 Joseph, who, painted and his head shaven except- 
 ing a tuft on the crown, recognized her at a distance 
 and ran to her overflowing with cries and tears of 
 joy. She was allowed to remain with him only half 
 an hour. 1 draw the veil over the heartrending 
 scene of their separation. 
 
 It was four months before she heard of John, 
 her elder son, and then she saw him passing with a 
 party, but was not allowed to go to him. But 
 some time later, when the different bands congre- 
 gated for buffalo hunting, she was allowed to see 
 him. Time passed and dates cannot be given, but 
 Mrs. Horn records that "some of Capt. Coffee's 
 men came to trade with the Indians and found me." 
 They were Americans and made every effort to 
 buy her, but in vain. On leaving, they said they 
 would report to Capt. Coffee and if any one could 
 assist these captives he could and laould. Soon 
 afterwards he came in person and offered the 
 Indians any amount in goods or money ; but with- 
 out avail. Mrs. Horn says: "He expressed the 
 deepest concern at his disappohitment and wept 
 over me as he gave me clothing and divided his 
 scanty supply of flour with me and my children, 
 which he took the pains to carry to them himself. 
 It is, if possible, with a deeper interest that I 
 record this tribute of gratitude to Capt. Coffee be- 
 cause, since my strange deliverance, I have been 
 pained to learn that he has been charged with 
 supineness and indifference on the subject ; but I 
 can assure the reader that nothing can be more un- 
 just. Mrs. Harris was equally the object of his 
 solicitude. The meeting with this friend in the 
 deep recesses of savage wilds was indeed like water 
 to a thirsty soul ; and the parting under such 
 cloomy forebodings opened anew the fountain of 
 grief in my heart. It was to me as the icy seal of 
 death fixed upon the only glimmering ray of hope, 
 and my heart seemed to die within me, as the form 
 of him whom I had fondly anticipated as my deliv- 
 ering angel, disappeared in the distance." 
 
 (The noble-hearted gentleman thus embalmed in 
 the pure heart of that daughter of sorrow, was 
 Holland Coffee, the founder of Coffee's Trading 
 House, on Red river, a few miles above Denison. 
 He was a member of the Texian Congress in 1838, 
 a valuable and courageous man on the frontier and, 
 to the regret of the country, was killed a few years 
 later in a difficulty, the particulars of which are not 
 at this time remembered. Col. Coffee, formerly 
 of Southwest IMissouri, but for many years of 
 Geort^etown, Texas, is a brother of the deceased.) 
 Soon after this there was so great a scarcity of 
 meat that some of the Indians nearly starved. 
 
 Little John managed to send his mother smaU 
 portions of his allowance and when, not a great 
 while later, she saw him for the last time, he was 
 rejoiced to learn she had received them. He had 
 been sick and had sore throat, but she was only 
 allowed a short interview with him. Soon after this 
 little Joseph's party camped near her and she was 
 permitted to spend nearly a day with him. He had 
 a new owner and said he was then treated kindly. 
 His mistress, who was a young Mexican, had been 
 captured witii her brother, and remained with them, 
 while her brother, by some means, had been restored 
 to his people. He was one of the hired guard at 
 the unfortunate settlement of Dolores, where Jose|jh 
 knew him and learned the story of his captivity and 
 that his sister was still with the savages. By acci- 
 dent this woman learned these facts from Joseph, 
 who, to convince her, showed how her brother 
 walked, he being lame. This coincidence estab- 
 lished a bond of union between the two, greatly to 
 Joseph's advantage. As the shades of evening 
 approached the little fellow piteously clung to his 
 mother, who, for the last time, folded him in her 
 arms and commended his soul to that beneficent 
 God in whose goodness and mercy she implicity 
 trusted. 
 
 Some time in June, 1837, a little over fourteen 
 months after their capture, a party of Mexican 
 traders visited the camp and bought Mrs. Harris. 
 In this work of mercy they were the employes of 
 that large-hearted Santa Fe trader, who had pre- 
 viously ransomed and restored Mrs. Rachel 
 Plummcr to her people, Mr. William Donoho, of 
 whom more will hereafter be said. They tried in 
 vain to buy Mrs. Horn. Although near each other 
 she was not allowed to see Mrs. Harris before her 
 departure, but rejoiced at her liberation. They 
 had often mingled their tears together and had been 
 mutual comforters. 
 
 Of this separation Mrs. Horn wrote: "Now 
 left a lonely exile in the bonds of savage slavery, 
 haunted by night and by day with the image pf my 
 murdered husband, and tortured continually' by an 
 undying solicitude for my dear little ones, my life 
 was little else than unmitigated misery, and the 
 God of Heaven only knows why and how it is that 
 I am still alive." 
 
 After the departure of Mrs. Harris the Indians 
 traveled to and fro almost continually for about 
 three months, without any remarkable occurrence. 
 At the end of this time they were within two days' 
 travel of San Miguel, a village on the Pecos, in 
 eastern New Mexico. Here an Indian girl told 
 Mrs. Horn that she was to be sold to people who 
 lived in houses. She did not believe it and cared 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 35 
 
 but little, indeed dreaded lest thereby she might 
 never see her children, but hope suggested that as 
 a prisoner she might never again see them, while 
 her redemption might be followed by theirs. A 
 great many Indians had here congregated. Her 
 old woman friend, in reply to her questions, told 
 her she was to be sold, wept bitterly and applied 
 to her neck and arms a peculiar red paint, symbolic 
 of undying friendship. They started early next 
 morning and traveled till dark, encamping near 
 a pond. They started before day next morning 
 and soon reached a river, necessarily the Pecos or 
 ancient Puerco, which they forded, and soon 
 arrived at a small town on its margin, where they 
 encamped for the I'emainder of the day. The 
 inhabitants visited the camp from curiosity, among 
 them a man who spoke broken English, who asked 
 if Mrs. Horn was for sale and was answered 
 affirmatively by her owner. He then gave her to 
 understand that if he bought her he expected her 
 to remain with him, to which, with the feelings of 
 a pure woman, she promptly replied that she did 
 not wish to exchange her miserable condition for 
 a worse one. He offered two horses for her, how- 
 ever, but they were declined. Finding he could 
 not buy her, he told her that in San Miguel there 
 was a rich American merchant, named Benjamin 
 Hill, who would probably buy her. Her mistress 
 seemed anxious that she should fall into American 
 hands, and she was herself of course intenselj^ 
 anxious to do so. 
 
 They reached San Miguel on the next daj' and 
 encamped there. She soon conveyed, through an 
 old woman of the place, a message to Mr. Hill. 
 He promptly appeared and asked her if she knew 
 Mrs. Harris, and if she had two children among the 
 Indians. Being answered in the affirmative, he 
 said: "You are the woman I have heard of," and 
 added, " I suppose you would be happy to get away 
 from these people." "I answered in the affirmative, 
 when he bid the wretched captive ' Good morning,' 
 and deliberately walked off without uttering another 
 word, and m}' throbbing bosom swelled with unut- 
 terable anguish as he disappeared." 
 
 For two days longer she remained in excruciating 
 suspense as to her fate. Mr. Hill neither visited 
 nor sent her anything, while the Mexicans were very 
 kind (it shouldbe understood that, while at Dolores, 
 she and her two little boys had learned to speak 
 Spanish and this was to her advantage now, as it 
 had been among her captors, more or less of whom 
 spoke that language.) 
 
 On the morning of the third day the Indians be- 
 gan preparations for leaving, and when three-fourths 
 of the animals were packed and some had left, a 
 
 good-hearted Mexican appeared and offered to buy 
 Mrs. Horn, but was told it was too late. The ap- 
 plicant insisted, exhibited four beautiful bridles and 
 invited the Indian owning her to go with her to his 
 house, near by. He consented. In passing Hill's 
 store on the way, her mistress, knowing she pre- 
 ferred passing into American hands, persuaded her 
 to enter it. Mr. Hill offered a wortliless old horse 
 for her, and then refused to give some red and blue 
 cloth, which the Indians fancied, for her. They 
 then went to the Mexican's house and he gave for 
 her two fine horses, the four fine bridles, two fine 
 blankets, two looking glasses, two knives, some 
 tobacco, powder and balls, articles then of very 
 great cost. She sa3's : "I subsequently learned 
 that for my ransom I was indebted to the benevo- 
 lent heart of an American gentleman, a trader, then 
 absent, who had authorized this Mexican to pur- 
 chase us at any cost, and had made himself respon- 
 sible for the same. Had I the name of m^' bene- 
 factor I would gratefully record it in letters of gold 
 and preserve it as a precious memento of his truly 
 Christian philanthropy." 
 
 It will be shown in the sequel that the noble 
 heart, to which the ransomed captive paid homage, 
 pulsated in the manly breast of Mr. William 
 Douoho, then of Santa Fe, but a Missourian, and 
 afterwards of Clarksville, Texas, where his only 
 surviving child, Mr. James B. Donoho, yet resides. 
 His widow died there in 1880, preceded by him in 
 1845. 
 
 The redemption of this daughter of multiplied 
 sorrows occurred, as stated, at San Miguel, New 
 Mexico, on the 19th of September, 1837 — one 
 year, five months and fifteen da3^s after her capture 
 on the 4th of April, 1836, on the Nueces river. 
 
 On the 21st, much to her surprise, Mr. Hill sent 
 a servant requesting her to remove to his house. 
 This she refused. The servant came a second 
 time, saying, in the name of his master, that if she 
 did not go he would compel her to do so. A trial 
 was had and she was awarded to Hill. She re- 
 mained in his service as a servant, fed on mush 
 and milk and denied a seat at the luxurious table 
 of himself and mistress till the 2d of November. 
 A generous-hearted gentlemen named Smith, 
 residing sixty miles distant iu the mines, hearing 
 of her situation, sent the necessary means and 
 escort to have her taken to his place for temporary 
 protection. She left on the 2d and arrived at Mr. 
 Smith's on the 4th. The grateful heart thus notes 
 the change: "The contrast between this and the 
 house I had left exhibited the difference between 
 a servant and a guest, between the cold heart that 
 would coin the tears of helpless misery into gold 
 
30 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 to swell a miser's store, and the generous bestowal 
 of heavenly friendship which, in its zeal to relieve 
 the woes of suffering humanity, gives sacred 
 attestation that it springs from the bosom of ' Him 
 who, though He was rich, j^et for our sakes became 
 poor that we, through His poverty, might become 
 rich.' " 
 
 Her stay at the home of Mr. Smith was a daily 
 repetition of kindnesses, and she enjoyed all that 
 was possible in view of the ever present grief over 
 her slaughtered husband and captive children. 
 
 In February 1838, she received a sympathetic 
 letter from Texas, accompanied with presents in 
 clothing, from Messrs. Workman and Rowland, 
 Missourians, so long honorably known as Santa Fe 
 traders and merchants, whose families were then 
 residing in Taos. They advised her to defer leav- 
 ing for Independence till they could make another 
 effort to recover her children and invited her to re- 
 pair, as their guest, to Taos, to await events, pro- 
 vided the means for her doing so, placing her under 
 the protection of Mr. Kinkiudall (probabl3' Kuy- 
 kendall, but I follow her spelling of the name). 
 
 " But," she records, " friends were multiplying 
 around me, who seemed to vie with each other in 
 their endeavors to meet my wants. Other means 
 presented themselves, and I was favored with the 
 compauj^ of a lad^- and Dr. Waldo." 
 
 She left Mr. Smith and the mines on the 4lh of 
 March, 1838, and after traveling in snow and over 
 rocks and mountains part of the way, arrived at 
 Taos on the 10th. From that time till the 22d of 
 August, her time was about equally divided between 
 the families of Messrs. Workman and Rowland, who 
 bestowed upon her everj' kindness. 
 
 She now learned that these gentlemen had for- 
 merly sent out a company to recover herself and 
 Mrs. Harris, who had fallen in with a different tribe 
 of Indians and lost several of their number in a 
 fight. Her friend, Mr. Smith, had performed a 
 similar service and when far out his guide faltered, 
 causing such suffering as to cause several deaths 
 from hunger, while some survived by drinking the 
 blood of their mules. While Mrs. Horn remained 
 with them these gentlemen endeavored through two 
 trading parties, to recover her children, but failed. 
 A report came in that little John had frozen to 
 death, holding horses at night; but it was not 
 believed by many. Mrs. Harris and Mrs. Plummer 
 reached Missouri under the protection of Mrs. 
 Donoho. On the 2d of August, all efforts to recover 
 her children having failed, leaving only the hope 
 that others might succeed, Mrs. Horn left in the 
 train and under the protection of Messrs. Workman 
 and Rowland. She was the only lady in the paity. 
 
 Nothing unusual transpired on the journey of 700 
 or 800 miles, and on the last day of September, 
 1838, they arrived at Independence, Missouri. Oa 
 the 6th of October, she reached the hospitable home 
 of Mr. David Workman at " New " Franklin. 
 
 This closes the narrative as written by Mrs. Horn 
 soon after she reached Missouri and before she 
 met Mr. Donoho. Her facts have been faithfully 
 followed, omitting the repetition of her sufferings 
 and correcting her dates in two cases where her 
 memory was at fault. She sailed from New York 
 on the 11th of November, 1833, a year earlier than 
 stated by her, hence arrived at Dolores a year 
 earlier, and consequently remained there two years 
 instead of one, for it is absolutely certain that she 
 arrived there in March, 1834, and left there in 
 March, 1836. I have been able also, from her 
 notes, to approximate localities and routes men- 
 tioned by her, from long acquaintance with much 
 of the country over which she traveled. 
 
 Mr. Donoho, in company with his wife — a lady 
 of precious memory' in Clarksville, Texas, from 
 the close of 1839 till her death in 1880 — conveyed 
 Mrs. Plummer (one of the captives taken at Parker's 
 Fort, May 19, 1836), and Mrs. Harris, from Santa 
 Fe to Missouri in the autumn of 1837. He escorted 
 Mrs. Plummer to her people in Texas, left his wife 
 and Mrs. Harris with his mother-in-law, Mrs. Lucy 
 Dodson in Pulaski Count}', Missouri, and then 
 hastened back to Santa Fe to look after his property 
 and business, for he had hurried away because of a 
 sudden outbreak of hostilities between the New 
 Mexicans and Indians formerly- friendly, and this 
 is the reason he was not present to take personal 
 charge of Mrs. Horn on her recovery at San Miguel. 
 When he reached Santa Fe Mrs. Horn had left 
 Taos for Independence. Closing his business in 
 Santa Fe, he left the place permanenth* and 
 rejoined his family at Mrs. Dodsou's. Mrs. Horn 
 then, for the first time, met him and remained several 
 months with his famil}*. Prior to this her narrative 
 had been written, and she still saw little of him, he 
 being much absent on business. Mrs. Harris had 
 relatives in Texas but shrunk from the idea of going 
 there ; and hearing of other kindred near Boonville, 
 Missouri, joined them and soon died from the expos- 
 ures and abuse undergone while a prisoner. Mrs. 
 Horn soon died from the same causes, while on a 
 visit, though her home was with Mrs. Dodson. 
 Both ladies were covered with barbaric scars — their 
 vital organs were impaired — and they fell the 
 victims of the accursed cruelty known only to 
 savage brutes. 
 
 Mr. William Donoho was a son of Kentucky, 
 born in 1798. His wife, a Teuuesseean, and 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 37 
 
 daughter of Dr. James Dodsou, married him in 
 Missouri, in 1831, where their first child was born. 
 From 1833 till the close of 1838, they lived in Santa 
 Fe, where the second daughter, born in 1835, and 
 their first son, born in 1837 (now Mr. J. B. Don- 
 oho, of Clarksville, the only survivor of six chil- 
 dren), were the two first American children born 
 in Santa Fe. Mr. Donoho permanentlj' settled at 
 Clarksville, Texas, late in 1839 and died there in 
 1845. 
 
 In verification of the facts not stated by Mrs. 
 Horn, because, when writing, they were unknown 
 to her, I have the statements of Dr. William Dod- 
 son and Mrs. Luc}- Estes, of Camden County, Mis- 
 souri, brother and sister of Mrs. Donoho, who were 
 with all the parties for nearly a year after they 
 reached Missouri. 
 
 A copy of Mrs. Horn's memoir came into my 
 possession in 1839, when it had just been issued 
 and so remained till accidentally lost many years 
 later, believed to have been the only copy ever in 
 Texas. The events described by her were never 
 otherwise known in Texas and have never been be- 
 fore published in the State. This is not strange. 
 Beales' Colony was neither in Texas at that date, 
 nor in anywise connected with the American col- 
 onies or settlements in Texas. It was in Coahuila, 
 though now in the limits of Texas. When its short 
 life terminated in dispersion and the butchery of 
 the retreating party on the Nueces, the Mexican 
 army covered every roadway leading to the in- 
 habited part of Texas, before whom the entire 
 population had fled east. None were left to re- 
 count the closing tragedy excepting the two 
 unfortunate and (as attested by all who subse- 
 quently knew them), refined Christian ladies whose 
 travails and sorrows have been chronicled, both of 
 whom, as shown, died soon after liberation, and 
 neither of whom ever after saw Texas. 
 
 Fortunately, through the efforts of Mr. James 
 B. Donoho, of Clarksville, and his uncle. Dr. Dod- 
 son, and aunt, Mrs. Estes, of Missouri, I have 
 been placed in possession of a manixscript copy of 
 
 Mrs. Horn's narrative, made by a little school girl 
 in Missouri in 1839 — afterwards Mrs. D. B. Dod- 
 son, and now long deceased. Accompanying its 
 transmission, on the 5lh of February, 1887, Mr. 
 James B. Donoho says : — 
 
 "As it had always been a desire with me to 
 some time visit the place of my birth, in the summer 
 of 1885, with my wife and children, I visited Santa 
 Fe, finding no little pleasure in identifying land- 
 marks of which I had heard my mother so often 
 speak, being m3^self an infant when we left there. 
 I had no trouble in identifying the house in which 
 my second sister and self were born, as it cornered 
 on the plaza and is now known as the Exchange 
 Hotel. While there it was settled that my sister, 
 born in 1835, and myself, born in 1837, were the 
 first Americans born in Santa Fe, a distinction (if 
 such it can be called) previously claimed for one 
 born there in 1838." 
 
 The novelty of this historj^, unknown to the peo- 
 ple of Texas at the time of its occurrence, has 
 moved me to extra diligence in search of the truth 
 and the whole truth in its elucidation. As a deli- 
 cate and patriotic duty it has been faithfullj^ per- 
 formed in justice to the memory of the strangely 
 united daughters of England and America, and 
 of those lion-hearted yet noble-breasted American 
 gentlemen, Messrs. Donoho, Workman, Rowland 
 and Smith, by no means omitting Mrs. Donoho, 
 Mrs. Dodson and children, nor yet the poor old 
 Comanche woman — a pearl among swine — who 
 looked in pity upon the stricken widow, mother and 
 captive. 
 
 Lamenting my inabihty to state the fate of Uttle 
 John and Joseph, and trusting that those to 
 come after us may realize the cost in blood through 
 which Texas was won to civilization, to enlightened 
 freedom and to a knowledge of that religion by 
 which it is taught that — " Charity suffereth long 
 and is kind — « * » beareth all things, believeth 
 all things, hopeth all things, and endureth all 
 things," I do not regret the labor it has cost me to 
 collect the materials for this sketch. 
 
38 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 The Heroic Taylor Family of the Three Forks of 
 Little River — 1835. 
 
 lu the autumn of 1835 the outermost habitation 
 on the waters of Little river was that of the Taylor 
 famil}'. It stood about three miles southeast of 
 where Belton is, a mile or so east of the Leon river 
 and three miles or more above the mouth of that 
 stream. The junction of the Leon, Lampasas and 
 Salado constitutes the localit}' known as the " Three 
 Forks of Little River," the latter stream being 
 the San Andres of the Mexicans as well as of 
 the early settlers of Texas. This change of name 
 is not the only one wrought in that locality, for 
 the names " Lampasas " (water lily) and "Sal- 
 ado " (saltish) were also most inappropriately 
 exchanged, the originals being characteristic of 
 the two streams, while the swap makes descriptive 
 nonsense. At an earlier period the same incon- 
 gruous change occurred in the names of the 
 " Brazos " and " Colorado " rivers. 
 
 The home of the Taylors consisted of two long 
 cabins with a covered passage between. The 
 family consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Taylor, two 
 youthful sons and two daughters. One of the 
 latter, Miss Frazier, was a daughter of Mrs. Tay- 
 lor by a former husband, and afterwards the wife 
 of George W. Chapman, of Bell County. 
 
 In the night of November 12th, 1835, eleven 
 Indians attacked the house. The parents and girls 
 were in one room — the boj's in the other. The 
 door to the family room, made of riven boards, 
 was a foot too short, leaving an open space at the 
 top. The first indication of the presence of the 
 enemj' was the warning of a faithful dog, which was 
 speedily killed in Ihe yard. This was followed by 
 a burly warrior trying to force the door, at the 
 same time in English demanding to know how 
 many men were in the house, a supply of tobacco 
 and the surrender of the family. By the bright 
 moonlight they could be distinctly seeu. Mrs. 
 Taylor defiantly answered, " No tobacco, no sur- 
 render," and Mr. Taylor answered there were ten 
 men in the house. The assailant pronounced the 
 latter statement false, when Taylor, through a 
 crack, gave him a severe thrust in the stomach with 
 a board, which caused his hasty retreat, whereupon 
 Mrs. Taylor threw open the door, commanding the 
 boj'S to hasten in across the hall, which they did, 
 escaping a flight of balls and arrows. The door 
 was then fastened, a table set against it, and on it 
 the smallest boy, a child of onlj' twelve years, was 
 
 mounted with a gun and instructed to shoot 
 through the space over the door whenever an 
 Indian appeared. There were not many bullets on 
 hand, and the girls supplied that want by moulding 
 more. Taylor, his wife and larger son, watched 
 through cracks in the walls to shoot as opportunity 
 might occur. Very soon a warrior entered the 
 passageway to assault the door, when the twelve 
 years' "kid," to use a cant phrase in use to-day, 
 shot him unto death. A second warrior rushed in 
 to drag his dead comrade away, but Mr. Taylor shot 
 him, so that he fell, not dead but helpless, across 
 his red brother. These two admonitions rendered 
 the assailants more cautious. They resolved to- 
 effect by fire that which seemed too hazardous by 
 direct attack. The}' set the now vacated room on 
 fire at the further end and amid their demoniac 
 yells the flames ascended to the roof and made 
 rapid progress along the boards, soon igniting those 
 covering the hallway. Suspended to beams was a 
 large amount of fat bear meat. The burning roof 
 soon began to cook the meat, and blazing sheets of 
 the oil fell upon the wounded savage, who writhed 
 aud hideously yelled, but was powerless to extri- 
 cate himself from the tortune. Mrs. Taylor had 
 no sympathj' for the wretch, but, peeping through 
 a crack, expressed her feelings by exclaiming: 
 " Howl! you yellow brute! Your meat is not fit 
 for hogs, but we'll roast you for the wolves! " 
 
 As the fire was reaching the roof of the besieged 
 room, Mr. Taylor was great!}' dispirited, seeming 
 to regard their fate as sealed ; but his heroic wife, 
 thinking not of herself, but of her children, rose 
 equal to the occasion, declaring that they would 
 whip the enemy aud all be saved. From a table 
 she was enabled to reach the boards forming the 
 roof. Throwing down the weight poles, there 
 being no uails in the boards, she threw down 
 enough boards in advance of the fire to create an 
 empty space. There was a large quantity of milk 
 in the house and a small barrel of home-made 
 vinegar. These fluids were passed up to her by 
 her daughters, and with them she extinguished 
 the fire. In doing so her head aud chest formed 
 a target for the enemy ; but while several arrows 
 and balls rent her clothing, she was iu nowise 
 wounded. 
 
 While these matters were transpiring, Mr. Taylor 
 and the elder son each wounded a savage in the 
 
QUANAH PAUKKR. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 39 
 
 yard. Having accomplished iier hazardous mission, 
 Mrs. Taylor resumed the floor, and soon discovered 
 an Indian in the outer chimney corner, endeavoring 
 to start a fire and peering through a considerable 
 hole burnt through the "dirt and wooden" jam. 
 Seizing a wooden shovel, she threw into his face 
 and bosom a shovelful of live coals and embers, 
 causing him to retreat, uttering the most agonizing 
 screams, to which she responded " Take that, you 
 yellow scoundrel!" It was said afterwards that 
 her warm and hasty application destroyed his eye- 
 sight. 
 
 After these disasters the enemy held a brief con- 
 sultation and realized the fact that of their group 
 of eleven, two were dead and partially barbecued, 
 two were severely wounded, and one was at least 
 temporarily blind under the "heroic" oculistical 
 treatment of Mrs Taylor. What was said by them, 
 one to another, is not known ; but the}- retired 
 
 without further obtrusion upon the peace and 
 dignity of that outpost in the missionary field of 
 civilization. 
 
 An hour later the family deemed it prudent to 
 retire to the river bottom, and next morning fol- 
 lowed it down to the fort. A small party of men 
 then repaired to the scene of conflict and found the 
 preceding narrative verified in every essential. 
 The dead Indians were there, and everything 
 remained as left by the family. Excepting Mrs. 
 Chapman, all of that familj' long since passed away. 
 Before the Civil War I personally knew Brown 
 Taylor, one of the sons, then a quiet, modest joung 
 man, carrying in his breast the disease destined to 
 cut short his days — consumption. 
 
 This all happened more than fifty years ago. 
 To-daj' two large towns, Belton and Temple, and 
 half a dozen small ones, and two trunk line rail- 
 roads are almost in sight of the spot. 
 
 Fall of Parker's Fort in 1836 — The Killed, Wounded and Cap- 
 tured — Van Dorn's Victory in 1858 — Recovery of 
 Cynthia Ann Parker — Quanah Parker, 
 the Comanche Chief. 
 
 In the fall of 1833 the Parker family came 
 from Cole County, Illinois, to East Texas — one or 
 two came a little earlier and some a little later. 
 The elder Parker was a native of Virginia, resided 
 for a time in Georgia, but chiefly reared his familj' 
 in Bedford County, Tennessee, whence, in 1818, he 
 removed to Illinois. The family, with perhaps one 
 exception, belonged to one branch of the primitive 
 Baptist Church, commonly designated as Two Seed 
 Baptists. 
 
 Parker's Fort, or block-bouse, a mile west of the 
 Navasota creek and two and a half northwesterly 
 from the present town of Groesbeck, in Limestone 
 County, was established in 1834, with accessions 
 afterwards up to the revolution in the fall of 1835. 
 At the time of the attack upon it. May 19, 183G, it 
 was occupied by Elder John Parker, patriarch of 
 the family, and his wife, his son, James W. Parker, 
 wife, four single children and his daughter, Mrs. 
 Rachel Plummer, her husband, L. T. M. Plummer, 
 and infant son, 15 months old ; Mrs. Sarah Nixon, 
 another daughter, and her husband, L. D. Nixon; 
 
 Silas M. Parker (another son of Elder John), his 
 wife and four children ; Benjamin F. Parker, an 
 unmarried son of the Elder; Mrs. Nixon, Sr., 
 mother of Mrs. James W. Parker ; Mrs. Elizabeth 
 Kellogg, daughter of Mrs. Nixon ; Mrs. Duty ; 
 Samuel M. Frost, wife and children ; G. E. Dwight, 
 wife and children;' David Faulkenberrj', his son 
 Evan, Silas H. Bates and Abram Anglin, a j'outh of 
 nineteen years. The latter four sometimes slept in 
 the fort and sometimes in their cabins on their farms, 
 perhaps two miles distant. They, however, were in 
 the fort on the night of May 18th. 
 
 On the morning of May 19th, James W. Parker 
 and Nixon repaired to their field, a mile dis- 
 tant, on the Navasota. The two Faulkenberrys, 
 Bates and Anglin went to their fields, a mile 
 further and a little below. About 9 a. m. several 
 hundred Indians appeared in the prairie, about 
 three hundred yards, halted, and hoisted a white 
 flag. Benjamin F. Parker went over to them, had 
 a talk and returned, expressing the opinion that the 
 Indians intended to fight ; but added that he would 
 
40 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 go back and try to avert it. His brother Silas 
 remonstrated, but he persisted in going, and was 
 immediately surrounded and killed ; whereupon 
 the whole force sent forth terrific yells, and charged 
 upon the works, the occupants numbering but three 
 men, wholly unprepared for defense. Cries and 
 confusion reigned. They killed Silas M. Parker on 
 the outside of the fort, while he was bravely fight- 
 ing to save Mrs. Plummer. They knocked Mrs. 
 Pluramer down with a hoe and made her captive. 
 Elder John Parker, wife and Mrs. Kellogg attempted 
 to escape, and got about three-fourths of a mile, 
 when they were overtaken, and driven back near to 
 the fort, where the old gentleman was stripped, 
 murdered and scalped. They stripped and speared 
 Mrs. Parker, leaving her as dead — but she revived, 
 as will be seen further on. Mrs. Kellogg remained 
 captive. 
 
 When the Indians first appeared, Mrs. Sarah 
 Nixon hastened to the field to advise her father, 
 husband and Plummer. Plummer hastened down 
 to inform the Faulkenberr3's, Bates and Anglin. 
 David Faulkenberry was first met and started im- 
 mediately to the fort. The others followed as 
 soon as found by Plummer. J. W. Parker and 
 Nixon started to the fort, but the former met his 
 family on the way, and took them to the Navasota 
 bottom. Nixon, though unarmed, continued on to- 
 ward the fort, and met Mrs. Lucy, wife of the dead 
 Silas Parker, with her four children, just as she 
 was overtaken by the Indians. They compelled 
 her to lift behind two mounted warriors her nine- 
 3'ear-old daughter, Cynthia Ann, and her little boy, 
 John. The foot Indians took her and her two 
 younger children back to the fort, Nixon following. 
 On arriving, she passed around and Nixon through 
 the fort. Just as the Indians were about to kill 
 Nixon, David Faulkenberry appeared with his rifle, 
 and caused them to fall back. Nixon then hurried 
 away to find his wife, and soon overtook Dwight, 
 with his own and Frost's family. Dwight met J. 
 W. Parker and went with him to his hiding-place 
 in the bottom. 
 
 Faulkenberry, thus left with Mrs. Silas Parker 
 and her two children, bade her follow him. With 
 the infant in her arms and the other child held by 
 the hand, she obeyed. The Indians made several 
 feints, but were held in check by the brave man's 
 rifle. One warrior dashed up so near that Mrs. 
 Parker's faithful dog siezed his pony by the nose, 
 whereupon both horse and rider somersaulted, 
 alighting on their backs in a ditch. 
 
 At this time Silas Bates, Abram Anglin and 
 Evan Faulkenberry, armed, and Plummer, un- 
 armed, came up. They passed through Silas 
 
 Parker's field, when Plummer, as if aroused from 
 a dream, demanded to know what had become of 
 his wife and child. Armed only with the butcher 
 knife of Abram Anglin, he left the party in search 
 of his wife, and was seen no more for six days. 
 The Indians made no further assault. 
 
 During the assault on the fort, Samuel M. Frost 
 and his son Eobert fell while heroically defending 
 the women and children inside the stockade. 
 
 The result so far was: — 
 
 Killed — Elder John Parker, Benjamin F. Parker, 
 Silas M. Parker, Samuel M. Frost and his son 
 Robert. 
 
 AVounded dangerously — Mrs. John Parker and 
 Mrs. Duty. 
 
 Captured — Mrs. Elizabeth Kellogg, Cynthia 
 Ann and John, children of Silas M. Parker, Mrs. 
 Rachel Plummer and infant James Pratt Plummer. 
 
 The Faulkenberrys, Bates and Anglin, with Mrs. 
 Parker and children, secreted themselves in a 
 small creek bottom. On the way they were met 
 and joined by Seth Bates, father of Silas, and Mr. 
 Lunn, also an old man. Whether they had slept 
 in the fort or in the cabins during the previous 
 night all accounts fail to say. Elisha Anglin 
 was the father of Abram, but his whereabouts do 
 not appear in any of the accounts. At twilight 
 Abram Anglin and Evan Faulkenberry started 
 back to the fort. On reaching Elisha Anglin's 
 cabin, they found old mother Parker covered with 
 blood and nearly naked. They secreted her and 
 went on to the fort, where they found no one alive, 
 but found $106.50 where the old lady had secreted 
 the money under a book. They returned and 
 conducted her to those in the bottom, where they 
 also found Nixon, who had failed to find his wife, 
 for, as he ought to have known, she was with her 
 father. On the next morning. Bates, Anglin and 
 E. Faulkenberry went back to the fort, secured 
 five horses and provisions and the party in the 
 bottom were thus enabled to reach Fort Houston 
 without material suffering. Fort Houston, an 
 asjdum on this as on many other occasions, stood 
 on what has been for many years the field of a wise 
 statesman, a chivalrous soldier and an incorruptible 
 patriot — John H. Reagan — two miles west of 
 Palestine. 
 
 After six days of starvation, with their clothing 
 torn into shreds, their bodies lacerated with briars 
 and thorns, the women and children with unshod 
 and bleeding feet, the party of James W. Parker — 
 2 men, 19 women and children — reached Tinnin's, 
 at the old San Antonio and Nacogdoches crossing 
 of the Navasota. Being informed of their approach, 
 Messrs. Carter aud Courtney, with five horses, met 
 
INDIAX WARS A^D PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 41 
 
 them some miles away, and thus enabled the 
 women and children to ride. The few people 
 around, though but returned to their deserted 
 homes after the victory of San Jacinto, shared all 
 they had of food and clothing with them. Plum- 
 mer, after six days of wanderings, joined the 
 party the same day. In due time the members of 
 the party located temporarily as best suited the 
 respective families. A party from Fort Houston 
 went up and buried the dead. 
 
 The experienced frontiersman of later days will 
 be struck with the apparent lack of leadership or 
 organization among the settlers. Had they existed, 
 combined with proper signals, there can be little 
 doubt but that the Indians would have been held 
 at bay. 
 
 THE CAPTIVES. 
 
 Mrs. Kellogg fell into the hands of the Keechis, 
 from whom, six months after her capture, she was 
 purchased by some Delawares, who carried her 
 into Nacogdoches and delivered her to Gen. Hous- 
 ton, who paid them $150.00, the amount they had 
 paid and all they asked. On the way thence to 
 Fort Houston, escorted by J. W. Parker and 
 others, a hostile Indian was slightly wounded and 
 temporarily disabled by a Mr. Smith. Mrs. Kel- 
 logg instantly recognized him as the savage who 
 had scalped the patriarch, Elder John Parker, 
 whereupon, without judge, jury or court-martial, 
 or even dallying with Judge Lynch, he was invol- 
 untarily hastened on to the happy hunting-ground 
 of his fathers. 
 
 Mrs. Rachel Plummer, after a brutal captivity 
 through the agency of some Mexican Santa Fe 
 traders, was ransomed by a noble-hearted Amer- 
 ican merchant of that place, Mr. William Donoho. 
 She was purchased in the Rocky Mountains so far 
 north of Santa Fe that seventeen days were con- 
 sumed in reaching that place. She was at once 
 made a member of her benefactor's family, after 
 a captivity of one and a half years. She, ere long, 
 accompanied Mr. and Mrs. Donoho to Independ- 
 ence, Missouri, and in due time embraced her 
 brother-in-law, Nixon, and by him was escorted 
 back to her people. On the 19th of February, 
 1838, she reached her father's house, exactly 
 twenty-one months from her capture. She had 
 never seen her infant son, James P., since soon 
 after their capture, and knew nothing of his fate. 
 She wrote, or dictated au account of her sufferings 
 and observations among the savages, and died on 
 the 19th of February, 18.39. About six months 
 after her capture she gave birth to a child, but it 
 was cruelly murdered in her presence. As remark- 
 
 able coincidences it may be stated that she was born 
 on the 19th, married on the 19th, captured on the 
 19th, released on the 19th, reached Independence 
 on the 19th, arrived at home on the 19th, 
 and died on the 19th of the month. Her 
 child, James Pratt Plummer, was ransomed and 
 taken to Fort Gibson late in 1842, and reached 
 home in February, in 1843, in charge of his grand- 
 father. He became a respected citizen of Ander- 
 son County. This still left in captivity Cynthia 
 Ann and John Parker, who, as subsequently 
 learned, were held by separate bands. John grew 
 to manhood and became a warrior. In a raid into 
 Mexico he captured a Mexican girl and made her 
 his wife. Afterwards he was seized with small-pox. 
 His tribe fled in dismay, taking his wife and leaving 
 him alone to die ; but she escaped from them and 
 returned to nurse him. He recovered and in dis- 
 gust quit the Indians to go and live with his wife's 
 people, which he did, and when the civil war broke 
 out, he joined a Mexican company in tiie Confed- 
 erate service. He, however, refused to leave the 
 soil of Texas and would, under no circumstance, 
 cross the Sabine into Louisiana. He was still liv- 
 ing across the Rio Grande a few years ago, but up 
 to that time had never visited any of his Texas 
 cousins. 
 
 RECOVERY OF CYNTHIA ANN PARKER. 
 
 From May 19th, 1836, to December 18th, 1800, 
 was twenty-four years and seven months. Add to 
 this nine years, her age when captured, and, at the 
 latter date Cynthia Ann Parker was in her thirty- 
 fourth year. During that quarter of a century no 
 reliable tidings had ever been received of her. 
 She had long been given up as dead or irretriev- 
 ably lost to civilization. As a prelude to her 
 reclamation, a few other important events may be 
 narrated. 
 
 When, in 1858, Major Earl Van Dorn, United 
 States dragoons, was about leaving Fort Belknap 
 on his famous campaign against the hostile tribes, 
 Lawrence Sullivan Ross (the Gen. " Sul " Ross, 
 a household favorite throughout Texas to-day), 
 then a frontier Texas youth of eighteen, had just 
 returned for vacation from college. He raised and 
 took command of 135 friendly Waco, Tehuacano, 
 Toncahua and Caddo Indians and tendered their 
 services to Van Dorn, which were gladly accepted. 
 He was sent in advance to " spy out the land," the 
 troops and supply trains following. Reaching the 
 Wichita mountains, Ross sent a confidential Waco 
 and Tehuacano to the Wichita village, 75 miles east 
 of the Washita river, hoping to learn where the 
 
42 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 hostile Comanches were. On approaching he 
 village these two scouts, to their surprise, found 
 that Buffalo Hump and his band of Comanches, 
 against whom Van Dorn's expedition was intended, 
 were there, trading and gambling with the Wichitas. 
 The scouts lay concealed till night, then stole two 
 Comanche horses and hastily rei'oined Ross with the 
 tidings. With some difficulty Ross convinced Van 
 Dorn of the reliability of the scouts and persuaded 
 him to deflect his course and make a forced march 
 for the village. At sunrise, on the first day of 
 October, they struck the village as a whirlwind, 
 almost annihilating Buffalo Hump and his power- 
 ful band, capturing horses, tents, equipage and 
 numerous prisoners, among whom was the white 
 girl, " Lizzie," never recognized or claimed by 
 kindred, but adopted, educated and tenderly reared 
 bj' Gen. Ross and subsequently married and died 
 ill California. Van Dorn was dangerously wounded ; 
 as was also Ross, by a rifle ball, whose youthful 
 gallantry was such that every United States otfleer, 
 while yet on the Ijattle field, signed a petition to 
 the President to commission him as an officer in the 
 regular army, and he soon received from Gen. 
 Winfield Scott a most complimentary official recog- 
 nition of his wise and dauntless bearing. 
 
 Graduating at college a year later (in 1859), in 
 1860 and till secession occurred in the beginning 
 of 18f)l, young Ross was kept, more or less, in the 
 frontier service. In the fall of 1860, under the 
 commission of G6vernor Sam Houston, he was 
 stationed near Fort Belknap, in command of a com- 
 pany of rangers. Late in November a band of 
 Comanches raided Parker County, committed serious 
 depredations and retreated witli many horses, creat- 
 ing great excitement among the sparsely settled 
 inhabitants. Ross, in command of a party of his 
 own men, a sergeant and twenty United States 
 cavalry, placed at his service by Capt. N. G. 
 Evans, commanding at Camp Cooper, and seventy 
 citizens from Palo Pinto County, under Capt. Jack 
 Curington, followed the marauders a few days 
 later. Early on the 18th of December near some 
 cedar mountains, on the head waters of Pease 
 river, they suddenl3' came upon an Indian village, 
 which the occupants, with their horses already 
 packed, were about leaving. Curington's compan}' 
 was several miles behind, and twenty of the rangers 
 were on foot, leading their broken-down horses, 
 the only food for them for several days having been 
 the bark and sprigs of young eottonwoods. With 
 the dragoons and only twenty of his own men, 
 seeing that he was undiscovered, Ross charged the 
 camp, completely surprising the Indians. In less 
 than half an hour he had complete possession of the 
 
 camp, their supplies and 350 horses, besides killing 
 many. Two Indians, mounted, attempted to escape 
 to the mountains, about six miles distant. Lieut. 
 Thomas Killiher pursued one ; Ross and Lieut. 
 Somerville followed the other. Somerville's heavy 
 weight soon caused his horse to fail, and Ross pur- 
 sued alone till, in about two miles, he came up with 
 Mohee, chief of the band. After a short combat, 
 Ross triumphed in the death of his adversary, 
 securing his lance, shield, quiver and head-dress, 
 all of which remain to the present time among 
 similar trophies in the State collection at Austin. 
 Very soon Lieut. Killiher joined him in charge of 
 the Indian he had followed, who proved to be a 
 woman, with her girl child, about two and a half 
 years old. On the way back a Comanche boy was 
 picked up by Lieut. Sublett. Ross took charge of 
 him, and he grew up at Waco, bearing the name of 
 Pease, suggested doubtless by the locality of his 
 capture. 
 
 It soon became evident that the captured woman 
 was an American, and through a Mexican interpre- 
 ter it became equally certain that she had been cap- 
 tured in childhood — that her husband had been 
 killed in the fight, and that she had two little boys 
 elsewhere among the band to which she belonged. 
 Ross, from all the facts, suspected that she might 
 be one of the long missing Parker children, and on 
 reaching the settlements, sent for the venerable 
 Isaac Parker, of Tarrant County, son and brother 
 respectively of those killed at the Fort in 1836. 
 On his arrival it was soon made manifest that the 
 captured woman was Cynthia Ann Parker, as per- 
 fectly an Indian in habit as if she had been so born. 
 She recognized her name when distinctly pro- 
 nounced by her uncle ; otherwise she knew not an 
 I^nglish word. She sought every opportunity to 
 escape, and had to be closely watched for some 
 time. Her uncle brought herself and child into 
 his home— then took them to Austin, where the 
 secession convention was in session. Mrs. John 
 Henry Brown and Mrs. N. C. Raymond interested 
 themselves in her, dressed her neatly, and on one 
 occasion took her into the gallery of the hall while 
 the convention was in session. They soon realized 
 that she was greatly alarmed by the belief that the 
 assemblage was a council of chiefs, sitting in judg- 
 ment on her life. Mrs. Brown beckoned to her 
 husband, who was a member of the convention, who 
 appeared and succeeded in reassuring her that she 
 was among friends. 
 
 Gradually her mother tongue came back, and 
 with it occasional incidents of her childhood, includ- 
 ing a recognition of the venerable Mr. Anglin and 
 perhaps one or two others. She proved to be a 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 4S 
 
 sensible and comely woman, and died at her 
 brother's in Anderson County, in 1870, preceded a 
 short time by her sprightly little daughter, " Prairie 
 Flower." 
 
 One of the little sons of Cynthia Ann died some 
 years later. The other, now known as Capt. 
 Quanah Parker, born, as he informed me, at Wich- 
 ita Falls, in 1854, is a popular and trustworthy 
 chief of the Comanches, on their reservation in the 
 Indian Territory'. He speaks English, is consider- 
 ably advanced in civilization, and owns a ranch 
 with considerable live stock and a small farm — 
 withal a fine looking and dignified son of the 
 plains. 
 
 Thus ended the sad story begun May 19th, 1836. 
 Various detached accounts have been given of it. 
 
 Some years ago I wrote it up from the best data at 
 command. Since then I have used every effort to 
 get more complete details from those best informed, 
 and am persuaded that this narrative states cor- 
 rectly every material fact connected with it. 
 
 Note.' Elder Daniel Parker, a man of strong 
 mental powers, a son of Elder John, does not figure 
 in these events. He signed the Declaration of In- 
 dependence in 1836, and preached to his people till 
 his death in Anderson County, in 1845. Ex-Rep- 
 resentative Ben. F. Parker is his son and successor 
 in preaching at the same place. Isaac Parker, 
 before named, another son, long represented Hous- 
 ton and Anderson Counties in the Senate and 
 House, and in 1855 represented Tarrant County. 
 He died in 1884, not far from eighty-eight years of 
 age. Isaac D. Parker of Tarrant is his son. 
 
 The Break-up in Bell County in 1836 — Death of Davidson and 
 
 Crouch — The Childers Family — Orville T.Tyler — 
 
 Walker, Monroe, Smith, Etc.— 1836. 
 
 When the invasion of Santa Anna occurred, from 
 January to April, 1836, there were a few newly 
 located settlers on Little river, now in Bell County. 
 The}' retreated ea%t, as did the entire population west 
 of the Trinity. Some of these settlers went into the 
 army till after the victory at San Jacinto on the 
 21st of April. Some of them, immediately after 
 that triumph, with the family of Gouldsby Childers, 
 returned to their deserted homes. During the pre- 
 vious winter each head of a familj' and one or two 
 single men had cleared about four acres of ground 
 on his own land and had planted corn before the 
 retreat. To cultivate this corn and thus have bread 
 was the immediate incentive to an early return. 
 Gouldsby Childers had his cabin and little field on 
 his own league on Little river. Robert Davidson's 
 cabin and league were a little above on the river, 
 both being on the north side. Orville T. Tyler's 
 league, cabin and cornSeld were on the west side 
 of the Leon in the three forks of Little river, its 
 limits extending to within a mile of the present 
 town of Belton. Wm. Taylor's league was oppo- 
 site that of Tyler, but his cornfield was on the 
 other land. At this time Henry Walker, Mr. Mon- 
 roe, and James (Camel Back) Smith had also 
 returned to their abandoned homes, in the edge of 
 the prairie, about eight miles east of the present 
 
 town of Cameron, in Milam County, their cabins 
 being only about a hundred yards apart. This 
 was the same James Smith who, in October, 1838, 
 escaped, so severely wounded, from the Surveyor's 
 Fight, in sight of the present town of Dawson, in 
 Navarro County, as narrated in the chapter on that 
 subject. 
 
 Nashville, on the Brazos, near the mouth of 
 Little river, was then the nearest settlement and 
 refuge to these people, and the families of those 
 who returned to cultivate their corn in the new 
 settlement, remained in that now extinct village. 
 • The massacre at Parker's Fort on the Navasota, 
 occurred on the 19th of May. In the month of 
 June, but on what day of the month cannot be 
 stated, two young men named John Beal and Jack 
 Hopson, arrived as messengers from Nashville to 
 advise these people of their great peril, as large 
 bodies of hostile Indians were known to be maraud- 
 ing in the country. On receipt of this intelli- 
 gence immediate preparations were made to retreat 
 in a body to Nashville. Their only vehicle was a 
 wagon to be drawn by a single pair of oxen. They 
 had a few horses but not enough to mount the 
 whole party. The entire part}' consisted of Capt. 
 Gouldsby Childers, his wife, sons, Robert (now 
 living at Temple), Frank (17 years of age, and 
 
44 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 killed in Erath's fight with the Indians, on Big Elm, 
 in the same section, in January, 1837), William 
 and Prior Childers, small boys ; his two grown 
 daughters, Katherine (afterwards Mrs. E. Lawrence 
 Stickney); Amanda (afterwards Mrs. John E. 
 Craddock, and still living in Bell County) ; and 
 Caroline, eight years old (now the widow of Orville 
 T. Tyler and the mother of George W. Tyler, liv- 
 ing in Belton), the whole family consisting of nine 
 souls — also an old man named Rhoads, living with 
 
 the Childers family, Shackleford, Orville T. 
 
 Tyler, Parson Crouch and Robert Davidson (whose 
 families were in Nashville), Ezekiel Roberson and 
 the two messengers, John Beal and Jack Hopson — 
 total souls, seventeen, of whom eleven were able 
 to bear arms, though Mr. Rhoads was old and 
 infirm. 
 
 On the evening of the first day they arrived and 
 encamped at the house of Henry Walker, where 
 the families of Monroe and Smith had already 
 taken refuge. It was expected that these three 
 families would join them in the march next morn- 
 ing ; but they were not ready, and the original 
 party, when morning came, moved on. When two 
 or three miles southeast of Walker's house, on the 
 road to Nashville, via Smith's crossing of Little 
 river, Davidson and Crouch being about three hun- 
 dred, and Capt. Childers about one hundred yards 
 ahead and two or three men perhaps two hundred 
 yards behind, driving a few cattle, the latter discov- 
 ered about two hundred mounted warriors advanc- 
 ing from the rear at full speed. They gave the 
 alarm and rushed forward to the wagon. Capt. 
 Childers, yelling to Crouch and Davidson, hastened 
 back. They reached the wagon barely in time to 
 present a bold front to the advancing savages and 
 cause them to change their charge into an encircle- 
 ment of the apparently doomed party ; but in 
 accomplishing this purpose the enemy discovered 
 Blessrs. Crouch and Davidson seeking to rejoin 
 their companions. This diverted their attention 
 from the main party to the two unfortunate gentle- 
 men, who, seeing the impossibility of their attempt, 
 endeavored to escape by flight, but being poorly 
 mounted, were speedily surrounded, killed and 
 scalped. Then followed great excitement among 
 the Indian?, apparently quarreling over the dispo- 
 sition of the scalps and effects of the two gentle- 
 men. This enabled the main party to reach a 
 grove of timber about four hundred yards distant, 
 where they turned the oxen loose, and only sought 
 to save their lives. At this critical crisis and just 
 as the savages were returning to renew the attack, 
 Beal and Hopson, who had won the friendship of 
 
 all by coming as messengers, and by their conduct 
 up to that moment, made their escape from what 
 seemed certain death. 
 
 For a little while the Indians galloped around 
 them, yelling, firing and by every artifice seeking 
 to draw a fire from the little band ; but thej' pre- 
 sented a bold front and fired not a gun. Shackle- 
 ford could speak the Indian tongue and challenged 
 them to charge and come to close quarters, but the 
 Indians evidently believed they had pistols and 
 extra arms in the wagons and failed to approach 
 nearer than a hundred yards and soon withdrew. 
 In close order, the besieged retreated changing 
 their route to the raft, four or five miles distant, 
 on Little river, on which they crossed, swimming 
 their horses. Carolina Childers, the child of eight, 
 rode behind her future husband, Orville T. Tyler, 
 who had a lame foot and was compelled to ride, 
 while others, for want of horses, were compelled to 
 travel on foot. They doubted not the attack would 
 be renewed at some more favorable spot, but it 
 was not. Thus they traveled till night and 
 encamped. They reached Nashville late next day. 
 
 During the next day Smith, Monroe and Walker, 
 with their families, arrived. Immediately on leav- 
 ing the former party the Indians had attacked the 
 three families in Walker's house and kept up a fire 
 all day without wounding either of the defenders, 
 who fired deliberately through port-holes whenever 
 opportunity appeared. While not assured of kill- 
 ing a single Indian, they were perfectly certain of 
 having wounded a considerable number. As night 
 came on, the Indians retired, and as soon as satis- 
 fied of their departure, the three families left for 
 Nashville, and arrived without further molestation. 
 
 Note. Robert Davidson was a man of intelli- 
 gence and merit, and was the father of Wilson T. 
 Davidson and Mrs. Harvey Smith of Belton, Mrs. 
 Francis T. Duffau of Austin, and Justus Davidson 
 of Galveston, all of whom have so lived in the 
 intervening fifty-one j'ears as to reflect honor on 
 their slaughtered father. Of the family of Mr. 
 Crouch I have no knowledge. Mrs. Stickney died 
 in Coryell County, December 24, 1880. Prior 
 Childers died in Falls County in 18G7 or 1868. 
 William Childers died in the Confederate army in 
 1864, having served from the beginning of the 
 war. 
 
 O. T. Tyler was born in Massachusetts, August 
 28, 1810; landed in Texas in February, 1835; 
 married Caroline Childers in 18.50 ; was the first 
 chief-justice of Coryell County, and filled various 
 other public stations; and full of years and the 
 honors of a well-spent life, died at his elegant home 
 in Belton, April 17th, 1886. His son. Senator 
 George W. Tyler, of Belton, was the first white 
 child born in Coryell County. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 45 
 
 The Murder of the Douglas and Dougherty Families — 1836. 
 
 The month of March, 1836, ranks overwhelmingly 
 as the bloodiest and yet, in one respect, the brightest 
 in the annals of Texas. On the second day of that 
 month, at Washington on the Brazos, the chosen 
 delegates of the people, fifty-two being present, 
 unanimously declared Texas to be a free, sovereign 
 and independent Republic, according to Gen. Sam 
 Houston, their most distinguished colleague, the 
 opportunity of subscribing his name to the solemn 
 declaration, the second of its kind iu the. history of 
 the human family, on his birthday, an event not 
 dreamed of by his noble mother when in Rockbridge 
 County, Virginia, on the second day of March, 1793, 
 she first clasped him to her bosom. On the 4th of 
 March, Gen. Houston was elected commander-in- 
 chief of the armies of the Republic, as he had been 
 in the previous November of the armies of the Pro- 
 visional, or inchoate, government. On the 11th, 
 Henry Smith, the Provisional Governor, one of the 
 grandest characters adorning the history of Texas 
 and to whom more than to any one man, the cause 
 of Independence was indebted for its triumph, sur- 
 rendered his functions to the representatives of the 
 people. On the 2d, Dr. Grant and his partj^ 
 beyond the Nueces, were slaughtered by Urrea's dra- 
 goons, one man only escaping massacre, to be held 
 long in Mexican dungeons and then escape, to 
 survive at least fifty-five years, with the fervent hope 
 by hosts of friends that he may yet be spared many 
 years to see a commercial city arise where he has 
 resided for over half a centurj'. The veteran 
 gentleman referred to is Col. Reuben R. Brown, of 
 Velasco, at the mouth of the Brazos. On the 6lh 
 the Alamo and its 182 defenders went down to 
 immortality under the oft-repulsed but surging 
 columns of Santa Anna. On the 19th Fannin 
 capitulated to Urrea on the plains of Coleto. On 
 the 27th be and his followers, to the number of 
 about 480, were massacred in cold blood, under the 
 specific orders of that arch traitor and apostate to 
 liberty, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, whose life, 
 twenty-four days later, when a prisoner in their 
 hands, was spared through a magnanimity unsur- 
 passed in the world's history, by the lion-hearted 
 defenders of a people then and ever since, by prej- 
 udiced fanatics and superficial scribblers, charac- 
 terized as largely composed of outlaws and quasi- 
 barbarians, instead of being representatives, as they 
 were, of the highest type of American chivalry, 
 American civilization and American libertv. 
 
 While these grand events were transpiring, the 
 American settlers on the Guadalupe, the Lavaca 
 and farther east were removing their families east- 
 wardly, flying from the legions of Santa Anna as 
 from wild beasts. Many had no vehicles and used 
 horses, oxen, sleds or whatever could be improvised 
 to transport the women, children, bedding and food. 
 Among those thus situated were two isolated 
 families, living on Douglas' or Clark's creek, about 
 twelve miles southwest of Hallettsville, in Lavaca 
 County. These were John Douglas, wife and 
 
 children, and Dougherty, a widower, with 
 
 three children. The parents were natives of 
 Ireland, but had lived and probably married in 
 Cambria County, Pennsylvania, where their children 
 were born and from which they came to Texas in 
 1832. They were worthy and useful citizens, and 
 lived together. Thej' prepared sleds on which to 
 transport their effects, but when these were com- 
 pleted the few people in that section had already 
 left for the east. On the morning of the 4th of 
 March Augustine Douglas, aged fifteen, and Thad- 
 eus Douglas, aged thirteen, were sent out by their 
 father to find and bring in the oxen designed to 
 draw the sleds. Returning in the afternoon, at a 
 short distance from home, they saw that the cabins 
 were on fire, and heard such screams and war 
 whoops as to admonish them that their parents and 
 kindred were being butchered ; but they were 
 unarmed and powerless and realized that to save 
 their own lives they must seek a hiding-place. 
 This they found in a thicket near by, and there 
 remained concealed till night. When dark came 
 they cautiously approached the smoldering ruins 
 and found that the savages had left. A brief 
 examination revealed to them the dead and scalped 
 bodies of their father, mother, sister and little 
 brother and of Mr. Dougherty, one son and two 
 daughters, lying naked in the yard — eight souls 
 thus brutally snatched from earth. Imagination, 
 especially when assured that those two boys were 
 noted for gentle and affectionate natures, as per- 
 sonally known to the writer for a number of years, 
 may depict the forlorn anguish piercing their young 
 hearts. It was a scene over which angels weep. 
 
 There were scarcely an3'thing more than paths, 
 and few of them, through that section. Augustine 
 had some idea as to courses, and speedily deter- 
 mined on a policy. With his little brother he pro- 
 ceeded to the little settlement in the vicinity of 
 
46 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 where Hallettsville is, but found that every one liad 
 retreated. The^' then followed the Lavaca down 
 about thirty-five miles to where their older sister, 
 tiie wife of Capt. John McHenry, and a few others 
 lived — but found that all had been gone some 
 time. They then took the old Atascosita road 
 from Goliad which crossed the Colorado a few 
 miles below where Columbia is. Near the Colo- 
 rado, almost starved to death, they fell in with 
 some Mexican scouts and were conducted to the 
 camp of the Mexican general, Adrian Woll, a 
 Frenchman, who could speak English and to whom 
 they narrated iheir sad story. Woll received them 
 kindlj' and had all needful care taken of them. In 
 a few days the boys were taken by a Frenchman 
 named Auguste, a traitor to Texas, to his place on 
 Cummins' creek, where he had collected a lot of 
 negroes and a great many cattle belonging to the 
 retreating citizens, from which he was supplying 
 Gen. "WoU with beef at enormous prices. The 21st 
 of April passed and San Jacinto was won. Very 
 soon the Mexicans began preparations for retreat. 
 Auguste, mounting Augustine Douglas on a fine 
 horse, sent him down to learn when Woll could 
 start. In the meantime a party of Texians, headed 
 by Alison York, who had heard of Auguste' s 
 thieving den, hurried forward to chastise him before 
 lie could leave the country with his boot}'. He 
 punished them severely, all who could fleeing into 
 the bottom and thence to Woll's camp. When 
 York's party opened fire, little Thadeus Douglas, 
 
 not understanding the cause, fled down the road 
 and in about a mile met his brother returning from 
 Woll's camp on Auguste's fine horse. With equal 
 prudence and financial skill they determined to save 
 both themselves and the horse. Thadeus mount- 
 ing behind, they started at double quick for the 
 Brazos. They had not traveled many miles, how- 
 ever, when they met the gallant Capt. Henry W. 
 Karnes, at the head of some cavalry, from whom they 
 learned for the first time, of the victory of San 
 Jacinto, and that they yet would see their only sur- 
 viving sister and brother-in-law, Capt. and Mrs. 
 McHenr}'. In writing of tliis incident in De Bow's 
 Review of December, 1853, eighteen years after 
 its occurrence, I used this language : — 
 
 "These boys, thus rendered objects of sym- 
 pathjT, formed a link in the legends of the old 
 Texians, and still reside on the Lavaca, much re- 
 spected for their courage and moral deportment." 
 
 It is a still greater pleasure to say now that they 
 ever after bore honorable characters. One of the 
 brothers died some years ago, and the other in 
 1889. The noble old patriot in three revolu- 
 tions — Mexico in 1820, South America in 1822, 
 and Texas in 1835 — preceded by gallant conduct 
 at New Orleans in 1815, when only sixteen years 
 old — the honest, brave and ever true son of Erin's . 
 isle, Capt. John McHenry, died in 1885, leaving 
 a memory sweetly embalmed in many thousand 
 hearts. 
 
 Erath's Fight, January 7, 1837. 
 
 Among the brave and useful men on the Brazos 
 frontier from 1835 till that frontier receded far up 
 the river, conspicuously appears the name of the 
 venerable Capt. George B. Erath. He was born in 
 Austria. His first services were in Col. John H. 
 Moore's expedition for the relief of Capt. Robert 
 M. Coleman, to the Tehuacano Hill country, in 
 July, 1835. Though green from the land of the 
 Hnpsburgs, he won a character for daring courage 
 in his first engagement, leading in the charge and 
 gaining the soubriquet of " The Flying Dutchman." 
 His second experience was on the field of San Ja- 
 cinto, April 21, 1836. In the summer of that year 
 he located at Nasiiville, at the falls of the Brazos, 
 and ever after resided in that vicinity and McLen- 
 
 nan county. As surveyor and ranger for ten years 
 or more he had many adventures and was in many 
 skirmishes and engagements with the Indians. He 
 served. in the Congress of the Republic, and after- 
 wards in the one or the other house of the Legisla- 
 ture, at intervals, till 1865. 
 
 His third engagement as a soldier occurred on 
 the 7th of January, 1837, on Elm creek, in 
 Milam County. At that time Lieut. Curtis com- 
 manded a small company of illy equipped rangers 
 at a little fort at the three forks of Little river, in 
 Bell County, subsisting chiefly on wild meat and 
 honey. Erath, as a lieutenant, was first there and 
 erected several cabins, but on the arrival of Curtis 
 he became the ranking oflicer. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 47 
 
 A man arriving at the fort reported a fresh 
 " foot " Indian trail twelve miles east and bearing 
 towards the settlements below. It was agreed that 
 Erath should pursue them. He started on the 
 morning of the 6th with thirteen men and boys, 
 nearly half being on foot. Three of the number 
 were volunteers for the trip, and eleven were sol- 
 diers, viz. : Lishley (a stranger), Robert CLilders 
 (now living at Temple) and Frank Childers, his 
 boy-brother, volunteers ; the soldiers were Lieut. 
 Erath, Sergt. McLochlan, Lee R. Davis, David 
 Clark, Empson Thompson, Jack Gross, Jack 
 Houston, and four boys, viz. : Lewis Moore, 
 Morris Moore, John Folks and Green McCoy, 
 a boy from Gonzales. They traveled twenty- 
 three miles east, striking the trail and finding that it 
 was made by about a hundred Indians on foot. At 
 night they heard the Indians, who were encamped 
 in the bottom, on the bank of Elm creek, eight 
 miles west of the present town of Cameron, in 
 Milam County. They remained quiet till nearly day- 
 light, then, after securing their horses, cautiously 
 approached along ravines and the bed of the creek 
 till they secured a position under the bank within 
 twenty-five yards of the yet unsuspecting savages, 
 who very soon began to move about and kindle 
 their fires. When it was sufficiently light each man 
 and boy took deliberate aim and about ten Indians 
 tumbled over. With revolvers (then unknown), 
 they could easily have routed the whole band. But 
 each one had to reload by the old process. During 
 the interval the Indians seized their guns, there not 
 being a bow among them, and, realizing the small 
 number of their assailants, jumped behind trees 
 and fought furiously. Some of them entered the 
 creek below to enfilade Erath's position, and this 
 compelled a retreat to the opposite bank, in accom- 
 plishing which David Clark was killed and Frank 
 Childers wounded. Erath continued to retreat by 
 
 alternation, one half of the men covering the retreat 
 of the other half for thirty or forty yards at a time, 
 so that half of the guns were alternately loaded and 
 fired. The bottom favored this plan till they 
 reached their horses at the edge of the prairie. On 
 the way, Frank Childers, finding his life ebbing, 
 reached a secluded spot on one side, sat down 
 by a tree against which his gun rested, and there 
 expired, but was not discovered by the enemy, 
 who, instead of continuing the fight, returned to 
 their camp and began a dismal howl over their 
 own dead. 
 
 There were numerous narrow escapes, balls out- 
 ting the clothes of nearly every man. One broke 
 McLochlan's ramrod, another the lock of his gun, 
 a third bursted his powder horn, a fourth passed 
 through his coat and a fifth through the handker- 
 chief worn as a turban on his head. At that time 
 the families of Neil McLennan and his sons-in-law 
 were living eight miles distant. The men were ab- 
 sent, and, but for this attack of the bold " Flying 
 Dutchman," the women and children would have 
 fallen easy victims to the savages. A month later 
 one of McLennan's young negroes was carried into 
 captivity by them. David Clark was past middle 
 age and was a son of Capt. Christopher Clark, of 
 near Troy, Lincoln County, Missouri, known to the 
 writer of these sketches from his infancy. Green 
 McCoy was a maternal nephew of Clark and a 
 paternal nephew of Jesse McCoy, who fell in the 
 Alamo. The Childers brothers were maternal 
 uncles of George W. Tyler, the first child born (in 
 1854) in Coryell County. Capt. Erath, Robert 
 Childers and Lewis Moore, of McLennan County, 
 are the only survivors of this episode of nearly 
 fifty-two years ago. Of the whole party, men and 
 boys, every one through life bore a good character. 
 They were in truth of the " salt of the earth " and 
 " pillars of strength " on the frontier. 
 
 The Surveyors' Fight in Navarro County, in October, 1838. 
 
 At this date the long since abandoned village of 
 " Old " Franklin, situated in the post oaks between 
 where Bryan and Calvert now stand, was the 
 extreme outside settlement, omitting a few families 
 in the Brazos valley, in the vicinity of Marlin, and 
 was the county seat of the original Robertson 
 County, with its immense unsettled territory. 
 
 including the west half of Dallas County and terri- 
 tory north and west of it. It was a rendezvous 
 for both surveying parties and volunteers on expe- 
 ditions against the Indians. Its male population 
 was much larger than the female, and embraced a 
 number of men of more or less note for intelligence 
 and courage. Among these were Dr. Georcre W. 
 
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Hill, long a senator and once in President Houston's 
 Cabinet, for whom Hill County was named ; Capt. 
 Eli Chandler, a brave frontiersman ; E. L. R 
 Wheelock, Cavitt Armstrong, the father of the 
 Cavitt family of later times, and others. 
 
 There was a great desire on the part of both dis- 
 charged soldiers and other citizens who had just re- 
 ceived bounty and head-right certificates for land to 
 have them located and the land surveyed. In the 
 early summer of 1838, near Richland creek, twelve or 
 fourteen miles southerly from Corsicana, three men 
 belonging to a surveying party were surprised and 
 killed. Their names were Barry, Holland, and 
 William F. Sparks, a land locator from Nacog- 
 doches. The remainder of the party, too weak for 
 defense against the number of the savages, cau- 
 tiously and successfully eluded them and returned 
 home. 
 
 Early in October of the same year William F. 
 Henderson, for many years since an estimable 
 citizen of Corsicana, fitted out a surveying party 
 to locate lands in what is now the southwest por- 
 tion of Navarro County. He and his assistant each 
 had a compass. The entire party consisted of 
 twenty-four men and one boy, and was under the 
 command of Capt. Neill. 
 
 The party arrived on the field of their labors and 
 encamped at a spring or water hole about two mile 
 northwest of what after that expedition was and 
 ever since has been known as Battle creek. 
 
 Here they met with a large body of Indians, 
 chiefly Kickapoos, but embracing some of several 
 tribes, who were encamped in the vicinity, killing 
 buffalo. They professed friendship, but mani- 
 fested decided opposition to having the lands sur- 
 veyed, assuring the party that if they persisted 
 the Comanches and lonies would kill them. But it 
 was believed their design was only to frighten 
 them awaj'. After a day or two a trial of the 
 compasses was made, when it was found one of 
 the needles had lost its magnetism and would not 
 work. William M. Love, afterward a well-known 
 citizen of Navarro County, and a Mr. Jackson were 
 sent back to Franklin for a magnet to recharge 
 the needle, thus reducing the party to twenty- 
 three. Early on the following morning Henderson 
 ran a line for a mile or so, more or less Indians 
 following and intently watching the manipulation 
 of the compass, one of them remarking: "It is 
 God's eye." The part)', after a satisfactory trial, 
 returned to camp for breakfast, and after that was 
 over, returned to, and were about resuming their 
 work, when from a ravine, about forty yards dis- 
 tant, they were fired upon by about fifty Indians. 
 The men, led by Capt. Neill, at once charged upon 
 
 them, but in doing so, discovered about a hundred 
 warriors rushing to aid those in the ravine from 
 the timber behind them. At the same time about 
 the same number of mounted Indians charged 
 them from the prairie in their rear. Neill retreated 
 under heavy fire to the head of a branch in the 
 prairie with banks four or five feet high. There 
 was some brush and a few trees ; but seventy-five 
 yards below them was another cluster, of which 
 the enemy took possession. This was between !) 
 and 10 o'clock a. m., and there the besieged were 
 held under a fluctuating fire until midnight. 
 Every one who exposed himself to view was killed 
 or wounded. Euclid M. Cox for an hour stood 
 behind a lone tree on the bank doing much execu- 
 tion, but was finally shot through the spine, upon 
 which Waller P. Lane, afterwards a distinguished 
 Brigadier-general in the Confederate arm}-, jumped 
 upon the bank and dragged him into the ravine, 
 in which he died soon afterwards. A man named 
 Davis, from San Augustine, having a fine horse, 
 attempted to escape through the line of Indians 
 strung in a circle around the little band, but he 
 was killed in sight of his comrades. A band of 
 mounted Indians, not participating in the fight, 
 collected on an elevation just out of gunshot, and 
 repeatedly called out, " Come to Kickapoo! Kick- 
 apoo good Indian! " and by gesticulations mani- 
 fested friendship, in which our men placed no 
 possible confidence ; but among them was Mr. 
 Spikes, a feeble old man of eighty-two years, who 
 said his days were few at best, and as he could not 
 see to shoot he would test their sincerity. He 
 mounted and rode up to them and was mercilessly 
 butchered. Night brought no relief or cessation 
 of the attack, and a number of our men were dead 
 in the ravine. The moon shone brightly until 
 midnight. But when it sank below the horizon, 
 the survivors determined to make an effort to reach 
 the timber on a brushy branch leading into a creek 
 heavily covered with thickets and trees, and dis- 
 tant hardly half a mile. Three horses yet lived, 
 and on these the wounded were placed, and the 
 fiery ordeal began. The enemy pressed on the 
 rear and both flanks. The wounded were speedily 
 shot from their horses. Capt. Neill was wounded 
 and immediately lifted on one of the horses, but 
 both fell an instant later. A hundred yards from 
 the brush Walter P. Lane was shot in the leg, 
 below the knee, shattering, but not breaking the 
 bone. He entered the brush with Henderson and 
 Burton. Mr. William Smith entered at another 
 place alone, and Mr. Violet at still a different 
 place, terril)!y wounded, and at the same instant 
 another man escaped in like manner. Once under 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 49 
 
 cover, in the dark, each lone man, and the group 
 of three, felt the necessity of perfect silence. 
 Each stealthily and cautiously moved as he or they 
 thought best, and the fate of neither became 
 known to the other until all had reached the settle- 
 ments. Smith, severely wounded, traveled by 
 night and lay secreted by day till he reached the 
 settlements on the Brazos, distant over forty miles. 
 The unnamed man, slightly wounded, escaped 
 eastwardly and succeeded, after much suffering, 
 in reaching the settlements. Henderson, Lane 
 and Burton found lodgment in a deep ravine lead- 
 ing to the creek. Lane became so weak from the 
 loss of blood that Henderson tore up his shirt to 
 stanch and bandage the wound, and succeeded in 
 the effort. Passing down some distance, they 
 heard the Indians in pursuit, and ascended the 
 bank and lay in brush with their guns cocked. 
 The pursuers passed within three or four feet but 
 failed to discover them. About an hour before 
 day they reached the creek and traveled down to 
 a muddy pool of water. On a log they crawled 
 onto a little island densely matted with brush, 
 under which they lay concealed all day. They 
 repeatedly heard the Indians, but remained undis- 
 covered. When night came as an angel of mercy, 
 throwing its mantle over them, they emerged from 
 their hiding place ; but when Lane rose up, the 
 agony from his splintered leg was so great that he 
 swooned. On recovering consciousness he found 
 that Burton, probably considering his condition 
 hopeless, was urging Henderson to abandon 
 him ; but that great-hearted son of Tennessee 
 spurned the suggestion. The idea inspired Lane 
 with indignation and the courage of desperation. 
 In words more emphatic than mild he told Burton 
 to go, and declared for himself that he could, and 
 with the help of God and William F. Henderson, 
 would make the trip. By the zigzag route they 
 traveled it was about thirty miles to Tehuacano 
 springs. They traveled, as a matter of course, 
 very slowly, and chiefly by night, Lane hobbling 
 on one leg, supported by Henderson. For two 
 days and nights after leaving their covert they had 
 neither food nor drink. Their sufferings were 
 great and their clothing torn into rags. On the 
 third daj', being the fourth from their first assault 
 by the enemy, they reached the springs named, 
 where three Kickapoos were found with their 
 families. At first they appeared distant and sus- 
 picious, and demanded of them where and how they 
 came to be in such condition. Henderson 
 promptly answered that their party, from which 
 they had become separated, had been attacked by 
 Comanches and lonies, and that they, in their dis- 
 
 tress, had l)een hoping to fall in with some friendly 
 Kickapoos. This diplomacy', however remote from 
 the truth, had the desired effect. One of the red 
 men thereupon lighted his pipe, took a few whiffs, 
 and passed it to Henderson, saying, "Smoke! 
 Kickapoo good Indian!" All smoked. Provis- 
 ions were offered, and the women bathed, dressed 
 and bandaged Lane's leg. Henderson then offered 
 his rifle to one of them if he would allow Lane to 
 ride his horse into Franklin. After some hesita- 
 tion he assented, and they started on ; but during 
 the next day, below Parker's abandoned fort, 
 hearing a gunshot not far off (which proved to 
 belong to another party of Kickapoos, but were 
 not seen), the Indian became uneasy and left 
 them, taking both his pony and the rifle. It should 
 be stated that Lane's gun had been left where they 
 began their march, at the little island, simply 
 because of his inability to carry it ; hence Bur- 
 ton's gun was now their last remaining weapon. 
 But now, after the departure of the Indian, they 
 were gladdened by meeting Love and Jackson, 
 returning with the magnet, ignorant, of course, of 
 the terrible calamity that had fallen upon their 
 comrades. Lane was mounted on one of their 
 horses, and they hurried on to Franklin, arriving 
 there without further adventure. 
 
 A party was speedily organized at Franklin to 
 go to the scene and bury the dead. On their way 
 out at Tehuacano springs, by the merest accident, 
 they came upon Mr. Violet in a most pitiable and 
 perishing condition. His thigh had been broken, 
 and for six days, without food or water, excepting 
 uncooked grasshoppers, he had crawled on his 
 hands and knees, over grass and rocks and through 
 brush, about twenty-five miles, in an air line, but 
 much more, in fact, by his serpentine wanderings 
 in a section with which he was unacquainted. His 
 arrival at the springs was a providential interposi- 
 tion, but for which, accompanied by that of the 
 relief party, his doom would have been speedy and 
 inevitable. Two men were detailed to escort him 
 back to Franklin, to friends, to gentle nursing, and 
 finally to restoration of healih, all of which were 
 repaid by his conduct as a good citizen in after 
 life. 
 
 The company continued on to the battle-ground, 
 collected and buried the remains of the seventeen 
 victims of savage fury, near a lone tree. 
 
 It mav well be conceived that heroic courage and 
 action were displayed by this little party of twentj'- 
 three, encircled by at least three hundred Indians — 
 not wild Comanches with bows and arrows, but the 
 far more formidable Kickapoos and kindred asso- 
 ciates, armed with rifles. It was ascertained after- 
 
50 
 
 I^WTAy ^VAKS axd pioneers of texas. 
 
 warils that they had sustained a loss in killed equal 
 to double the number of the Texians, besides many 
 wounded. It was believed that Euclid M. Cos, 
 before receiving his death wound, killed eight or 
 ten. 
 
 The Surveyors' Fight ranks, in stubborn courage 
 and carnage, with the bloodiest in our history — 
 with Bowie's San Saba fight in 1831, Bird's victory 
 and death in Bell County in 1839, and Hays' 
 mountain fight in 1844, and others illustrating sim- 
 ilar courage and destructiveness. 
 
 THE SLAIN. 
 
 Of the twenty-three men in the fight seventeen 
 were killed, viz. : Euclid M. Cox, Thomas Barton, 
 Samuel Allen, — Ingraham, — Davis, J. Hard, 
 Asa T. Mitchell, J. Neal or Neill, William Tremier, 
 — Spikes, J. Bullock, N. Barker, A. Houston, P. 
 M. Jones, James Jones, David Clark, and one 
 whose name is not remembered. 
 
 Those who escaped were William F. Henderson, 
 Walter P. Lane, wounded as described, and Bur- 
 ton, who escaped together; Violet, wounded as de- 
 scribed ; William Smith, severely wounded in the 
 shoulder; and the man slightly wounded, who 
 escaped towards the east — 6. Messrs. Love and 
 Jackson, though not in the fight, justly deserve to 
 be classed with the party, as they were on hazard- 
 ous duty and performed it well, besides relieving 
 Lane and then participating in the interment of the 
 dead. 
 
 In the year 1885, John P. and Rev. Fred Cox, 
 sons of Euclid, at their own cost, erected, under 
 the shadow of that lone tree, a handsome and befit- 
 ting monument, on which is carved the names of 
 .all who were slain and all who escaped, excepting 
 
 that one of each class whose names are missing. 
 The tree and monument, inclosed by a neat fence, 
 one mile west of Dawson, Narvarro County, are in 
 plain view of the Texas and St. Louis railroad. 
 
 Note. This William Smith, prior to this dis- 
 astrous contest, but at what precise date cannot be 
 stated, but believed to have been in the winter of 
 1837-8, lived in the Brazos bottom. The Indians 
 became so bad that he determined to move, and 
 for that purpose placed his effects in his wagon in 
 his yard, but before starting his house was at- 
 tacked. He barred his door and through cracks 
 between the logs fired whenever he could, nearly 
 alwa3's striking an Indian, but all his reserve 
 ammunition had been placed in the wagon and the 
 supply in his pouch was nearly exhausted, when 
 Mrs. Smith opened the door, rushed to the wagon, 
 secured the powder and lead and rushed back. 
 Balls and arrows whizzed all about her but she 
 escaped with slight wounds and immediately began 
 moulding bullets. She thought not of herself but 
 of her little children. Honored forever be the 
 pioneer mothers of Texas and thrice honored be 
 such as Mrs. Smith. It was my pleasure after- 
 wards, personally, to know- her and some of her 
 children, and to serve on the Southwestern frontier 
 with her fearless husband, an honest Christian 
 man. One of their sons was the late Prof. Smith 
 of Salado College, a son worthy of such parents. 
 Mr. Smith crippled so many of his assailants that 
 they retired, leaving him master of the situation, 
 when he removed farther into the settlements. 
 There is one fact in connection with this affair 
 that, as a Texian, I blush to state. There was an 
 able-bodied man in Mr. Smith's house all the time 
 who slunk away as the veriest craven, taking 
 refuge under the bed, while the heroic father and 
 mother " fought the good fight and kept the 
 faith." I have not his name and if it were known 
 to me would not publish it, as it may be borne by 
 others of heroic hearts, and injustice might be 
 done ; besides, the subsequent life of that man must 
 have been a continuing torture. 
 
 Karnes' Fight on the Arroyo Seco, August 10, 1838. 
 
 Prom the beginning of 1837, lo his death in 
 August, 1840, Henry W. Karnes, a citizen of San 
 Antonio, stood as a pillar of strength and wall of 
 defense to the Southwestern frontier. He was ever 
 ready to meet danger, and often commanded small 
 bodies of volunteers in search or pursuit of hostile 
 Indians. He had numerous skirmishes and minor 
 encounters with them and was almost invariably 
 successful. 
 
 In the summer of 1838, in command of twenty- 
 one fearless volunteers, while halting on the Arroyo 
 Seco, west of the Medina, and on the 10th day of 
 August, he was suddenly and furiously assailed by 
 two hundred mounted Comanehes ; but, ever alert 
 and prepared for danger, in the twinkling of an eye 
 his horses were secured and his men stationed in 
 their front, somewhat protected by a ravine and 
 chaparral, and fired in alternate platoons, b}' which 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 51 
 
 one-third of their guns were always loaded to meet 
 the attaeli at close quarters. Their aim was deadly 
 and warriors were rapidly tumbled to the ground. 
 Yet, knowing they were ten to one against the 
 Texians, the Comanches were not willing to give up 
 the contest till over twenty of their number lay 
 dead, and doubtless as many more were wounded. 
 Col. Karnes, in his intense and unselfish desire to 
 both save and encourage his men, greatly exposed 
 himself and was severely wounded, this being the 
 only casualty to his party, though nearly all his 
 horses were more or less wounded. It was a gal- 
 lant and successful defense against immense odds, 
 and served to cement more closely the already 
 
 strong ties that bound the modest but ever faitliful 
 and fearless Karnes to the hearts of the people of 
 San Antonio and the whole Southwest. Living, 
 fighting and dying in the country without family or 
 kindred ; leaving no trace on paper indicating his 
 long and faitliful service ; largely winning achieve- 
 ments of which neither official nor private record 
 was kept ; though personally having had very slight 
 acquaintance with him, it has ever been to the writer 
 a sincere pleasure to rescue from oblivion his many 
 gallant deeds, and place his memory where it right- 
 fully belongs in the galaxy composed of the truest, 
 best, most unselfish and bravest men who wrought 
 for Texas at any time between 1821 and 1846. 
 
 The Captivity of the Putman and Lockhart Children in 1838. 
 
 In the summer of 1837, succeeding the great 
 exodus of 1836, Mr. Andrew Lockhart returned to 
 his frontier home on the west side of the Guad- 
 alupe, and nearly opposite the present consider- 
 able town of Cuero, in DeWitt County. He was 
 accompanied, or soon joined, by Mitchell Putman, 
 with his wife and several children. Mr. Putman 
 was a man of good character, and had been honor- 
 ably discharged from the army oiter having served 
 a full term and being in the battle of San Jacinto. 
 The two families temporarily lived in the same 
 yard. 
 
 When the pecans began ripening in the fall, the 
 children of both families frequented the bottom 
 near by to gather those delicious nuts, which, of 
 course, were highly prized at a time when nearly 
 all, and oftentimes all, the food attainable was 
 wild meat, indigenous nuts and fruit. 
 
 On one occasion, in October, 1838, Matilda, 
 daughter of Mr. Lockhart, aged about thirteen, 
 and three of Mr. Putman's children, a small girl, 
 a boy of four and a girl of two and a half years, 
 left home in search of pecans. The hours flew 
 by — night came, and through its weary hours 
 parental hearts throbbed with anguish. Signal 
 fires were lighted, horns blown and guns fired — 
 the few accessible settlers were notified, but the 
 morning sun rose upon two disconsolate house- 
 holds. The four children, as time revealed, had 
 been cunningly surprised, awed into silence, and 
 swiftly borne away by a party of wild Indians. 
 Pursuit was impracticable. There were not men 
 
 enough in the country and the families neeiled 
 nightly'protection at home. 
 
 Mr. Lockhart, more able to do so than Mr. Put- 
 man, made every effort to recover his daughter and 
 the other children. For this purpose he accompa- 
 nied Col. John H. Moore on expeditions into the 
 mountains in both 1838 and 1839. In one of these 
 expeditions Col. Moore made a daylight attack on 
 a large hostile village on the San Saba, or rather 
 just as day was dawning. Despite the remon- 
 strances of others the resolute seeker of his lost 
 child rushed ahead of all others, exclaiming in 
 stentorian voice: "Matilda Lockhart! Oh, my 
 child ! if you are here run to me. I am your 
 father! " He continued so to shout, and, dear 
 reader, Matilda heard and recognized that loved 
 voice repeatedly ; but the moment the fight opened 
 she was lashed into a run by squaws and speedily 
 driven into the recesses of thickets. So time 
 passed, the stricken father seizing upon every hope, 
 however faint, to recover his child. 
 
 Negotiations were opened with the hostiles, by 
 direction of President Lamar, in the winter of 
 1839-40, seeking a restoration of all our captive 
 children, and there was known to be quite a number 
 among them. The wily foe betrayed the cunning 
 and dissimulation of their race from the first. 
 They promised much in two or. three interviews, 
 but performed little. 
 
 During the spring of 1840 the little boy of Mr. 
 Putman was brought in and restored to his parents. 
 The elder daughter was not heard of until during 
 
52 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 the late war, in 1864, twenty-seven years after her 
 captivity, when she was providentially restored to 
 her family at Gonzales, and it happened in this wise : 
 Judge John R. Chenault, of Southwest Missouri, 
 who had, in former years, been an Indian agent 
 west of that State, refugeed to Gonzales, where he 
 had kindred. In his family was a girl he had in 
 that day recovered from the Indians, and educated. 
 She was identified beyond doubt as the missing 
 daughter of Mr. Putinan and resumed her place 
 among her kindred. Judge Chenault died several 
 3'ears since, a citizen of Dallas Count}'. 
 
 In fulfillment of one of their violated promises 
 to bring in all the prisoners they had, the warriors 
 only brought in one poor woman, who had been 
 cruelly treated throughout her captivity — her body 
 burnt in small spots all over — and this was Matilda 
 Lockhart. 
 
 Restored to her family and adorned in civilized 
 costume, she speedily developed into one of the 
 prettiest and most lovely women in the surround- 
 ing country, becoming a great favorite, distin- 
 guished alike for modesty, sprightliness, and 
 affectionate devotion to her kindred and friends. 
 A few years later a cold contracted at a night 
 party, fastened upon her lungs, and speedily closed 
 her life, to the regret of the whole surrounding 
 country. The story, from her own lips, of the 
 cruelties practiced upon her throughout her cap- 
 tivity, would fill a small volume, the reason for 
 which was unknown to her and unesplainable at 
 home. Temporary brutality to captives is common 
 among the wild tribes, but in a little while the young 
 are treated as other children. 
 
 This leaves the little girl of Mi'. Putman alone to 
 account for. She was two and a half years old 
 when she was captured in 1838. 
 
 Another party of warriors in the spring of 1840, 
 brought in and delivered up at San Antonio a little 
 girl of about five, but who could not or would not 
 tell where she was captured, and no one there from 
 her appearance, could imagine her to be one of the 
 lost children of whom he had any information. 
 The child could not speak a word of English and 
 was wild — afraid of every white person — and 
 tried on every occasion to run away. The military 
 authorities were perplexed and knew not how to 
 keep or how to dispose of her. Here, again, came 
 providential interposition. 
 
 The District Court was in session, the now 
 lamented Judge John Hemphill presiding for the 
 first time. In attendance as a lawyer was his pre- 
 decessor, Judge James W. Robinson, who then 
 lived two miles above Gonzales, and one mile below 
 him lived Arch Gipson, whose wife was a daughter 
 
 of Mitchell Putman, and a sister of the missing 
 little girl. Hearing of the child he examined her 
 closel}', trusting she might show some family re- 
 semblance to Mrs. Gipson, whom he knew well and 
 whose father lived onlj- fifteen miles from Gonzales. 
 He could recognize no resemblance, but deter- 
 mined to take the little stranger home with him, 
 for, as he assured the writer, he had a presenti- 
 ment that she was the Putman child, and had a 
 very sympathetic nature. He, Judge Hemphill and 
 John R. Cunningham (a brilliant star, eclipsed in 
 death as a Mexican prisoner two years later), made 
 the trip on horseback together, the little wild crea- 
 ture alternating behind them. The)' exhausted 
 every means of gentling and winning her, but in 
 vain. It was necessary to tie her in camp at night 
 and watch her closely by day. In this plight they 
 arrived at Judge Robinson's house as dinner was 
 about ready, and the Judge learned that Mrs. Gip- 
 son was very feeble from recent illness. He deemed 
 it prudent to approach her cautiously about the 
 child, and to this end, after dinner he rode for- 
 ward, alone, leaving the other gentlemen to follow 
 a little later with the child who, up to that time, had 
 not spoken an English word. 
 
 Judge Robinson gently related all the facts to 
 Mrs. Gipson, said it could not be her sister, but 
 thought it would be more satisfactory to let her 
 see in person and had therefore brought the little 
 thing, adding: " Be quiet, it will be here very 
 soon." 
 
 The gentlemen soon rode up to the j'ard fence, 
 the child behind Judge Hemphill, on a very tall 
 horse. I quote b}' memory the indelible words 
 given me by Judge Robinson a few days after- 
 wards: — 
 
 "Despite my urgent caution Mrs. Gipson, from 
 her first realization that a recovered child was 
 near at hand, presented the strangest appearance 
 I ever saw in woman, before or since. She 
 seemed, feeble as she was, to skip more as a bird 
 than as a person, her eyes indescribably bright, 
 and her lips tightly closed — but she uttered not a 
 word. As the horsemen arrived she skipped over 
 the fence, and with an expression which language 
 cannot describe, she stood as if transfixed, peering 
 up into the little face on horseback. Never before 
 nor since have I watched any living thing as I 
 watched that child at that moment. As if moved 
 b)' irresistible power, the instant it looked into 
 Mrs. Gipson's face it seemed startled as from a 
 slumber, threw up its little head as if to collect 
 its mind, and with a second piercing look, sprang 
 from the horse with outstretched arms, clasping 
 Mrs. Gipson around the neck, piteously exclaim- 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 53 
 
 Dg: 'Sister, sister!'" And tears of joy 
 mingled with audible sobs fell from three of the 
 most distinguished men of Texas, all long since 
 gathered to their fathers — Cunningham in Mexi- 
 can bondage in 1842, Robinson in Southern Cali- 
 
 fornia about 1850, and Hemphill in the Confederate 
 Senate in 1862. But when such tears flow do not 
 the angels sing piuans around the throne of Him 
 who took little children "up in His arms, put His 
 hands upon them and blessed them ! " 
 
 Texas Independence — A Glimpse at the First Capitals, Harris- 
 burg, Galveston, Velasco, Columbia, the First Real 
 Capital, Houston, and Austin, the 
 First Permanent Capital. 
 
 Independence was declared in a log cabin, with- 
 out glass in its windows, in the now almost extinct 
 town of Washington-on-lhe-Brazos, on the second 
 day of March, 1836. The government ad interim, 
 then established, with David G. Burnet as Presi- 
 dent, and Lorenzo de Zavala as Vice-president, first 
 organized at Harrisburg, but soon fled from Santa 
 Anna's army down to the barren island of Galveston, 
 where it remained till a short time after the battle 
 of San Jacinto, when it moved to Velasco, at the 
 mouth of the Brazos. After the first election under 
 the Republic, President Burnet, by proclamation, 
 assembled the First Congress, President and Vice- 
 president, at the town of Columbia, on the Brazos, 
 on the 3d of October, 1836. No other place in 
 Texas, at the time (excepting, perhaps, Nacog- 
 doches, in the extreme east), had suflicient house 
 room to meet the emergency. There was in 
 Columbia a large two-story house, divided in the 
 center by a wide hall and stairway into large rooms 
 above and below — one on each side of the hall, and 
 an ell containing several rooms. It had been 
 erected and occupied in 1832-3 by Capt. Henry S. 
 Brown, father of the author, and in it he died on 
 July 26, 1834, his attending phj'sician being Dr. 
 Anson Jones, afterwards the last President of the 
 Republic. This building was torn down early in 
 1888. 
 
 In this building tlie First Congress of the Repub- 
 lic of Texas assembled under President Burnet's 
 proclamation on the third of October, 1836. In it 
 on the 22d of the same month, President Burnet 
 delivered his farewell message, and at the same 
 time Sam Houston, as first constitutional Presi- 
 dent, and Mirabeau B. Lamar, as Vice-president, 
 took the oath of office and delivered their inaugural 
 
 addresses. In it all of the first Cabinet took the 
 oath of office, viz. : Stephen F. Austin as Secre- 
 tary of State (died on the 27th of December fol- 
 lowing) ; Ex-Governor Henry Smith, as Secretary 
 of the Treasury (died in the mountains of Cali- 
 fornia, March 4, 1851) ; Thomas J. Rusk, as Secre- 
 tarj' of War (resigned a few weeks later and was 
 succeeded by William S. Fisher, who died in 1845, 
 while Gen. Rusk died in 1857) ; and Samuel Rhoads 
 Fisher, as Secretary of the Navy (who died in 
 1839.) A portion of the officers were in other 
 buildings and for a time one House of the Congress 
 occupied a different building. 
 
 In this really first Capitol of Texas were enacted 
 all the original laws for organizing the Republic and 
 its counties, and the afterwards famous law defining 
 its boundaries, the western line of which was the 
 Rio Grande del Norte from its source to its en- 
 trance into the Gulf of Mexico; and in it Robert 
 J. Walker, of Mississippi, then a distinguished 
 member of the United States Senate, was received 
 as the guest of the infant nation. 
 
 From Columbia the capital was moved to the 
 new town of Houston in the spring of 1837. From 
 Houston it was removed to the newly planned 
 frontier town of Austin in October, 1839, and here 
 is where I propose to locate what follows. 
 
 The government was established at Austin in 
 October, 1839. Mirabeau B. Lamar, one of the 
 truest knights of chivalry that ever figured on Texas 
 soil, was President ; David G. Burnet, the embodi- 
 ment of integrity — learned and experienced — was 
 Vice-president ; Abner S. Lipscomb, one of the 
 trio who subsequently gave fame to the judicial 
 decisions of Texas, was Secretary of State ; 
 Albert Sidney Johnston, the great soldier and 
 
54 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 patriot who fell at Sbiloh on the Gtb of April, 1862, 
 was Secretary of War ; Louis P. Cooke, who died 
 of cholera at Brownsville in 1849, and had been a 
 student at West Point, was Secretary of the Navy ; 
 Dr. James H. Starr, of Nacogdoches, was Secretary 
 of the Treasury ; John Rice Jones was Postmaster- 
 General ; John P. Borden was Commissioner of the 
 Land Office ; Thomas J. Rusk was Chief Justice of 
 the Supreme Court, the Associates being the Dis- 
 trict Judges of the Republic; James Webb was 
 Attorney-General; Asa Brigham, Treasurer; E. 
 Lawrence Sticknej', Stock Commissioner ; Wm. G. 
 Cooke, Quartermaster-General ; Hugh McLeod, 
 Adjutant-General; Wm. L. Cazneau, Commissary- 
 General ; Jacob Snively, Paymaster-General ; 
 Peter H. Bell (afterwards Governor), Inspector- 
 General; Edward Burleson was Colonel command- 
 ing the regular army ; Charles DeMorse was Fund 
 Commissioner, or something of that sort. 
 
 These men arrived in Austin as the government, 
 in September and October, 1839. Austin was the 
 outside settlement on the Colorado and so remained 
 until annexation was perfected on the 19th of 
 February, 1846. Through those six years it 
 remained exposed to the forays of all the hostile 
 Indians in upper Texas, from which manj' valuable 
 lives were lost and quite a number of women and 
 children carried into savage captivity. Just com- 
 pleting my eighteenth year, I became a denizen of 
 Austin at its birth, setting type on one of the two 
 newspapers then started, and so remained for a 
 considerable time, in which it was my privilege to 
 make the personal acquaintance of each of the 
 gentlemen named as officials of the government, 
 and ever after to enjoy the friendship of nearly' all 
 of them, the exceptions arising from earl}' and per- 
 manent separation by distance. 
 
 No new town, in this or any other country, ever 
 began its existence with a larger ratio of educated, 
 talented and honorable men, especially of young 
 men. A few of the latter now, in the fiftieth year 
 afterwards, still live there. Among them are James 
 H. Raymond, John M. Swisher, Joseph Lee, James 
 F. Johnson, James M. Swisher, Fenwick Smith, 
 Wm. S. Hotchkiss. Among those known or be- 
 lieved to be living elsewhere, are Henry H. Collier, 
 in Canada; *Thomas Gales Forster, in Cincinnati; 
 Wm. B. Billingsly, in Bastrop; Archibald C. Hyde, 
 of Uvalde County (the first postmaster and one of 
 the first justices of the peace at Austin) ; John P. 
 Borden, of Colorado County ; Gen. Geo. W. Morgan, 
 of Mount Vernon, Ohio (then Captain in the Texian 
 arm}') ; *Rev. Joseph A. Clark, living at Thorp's 
 Spring, and founder of Ad Ran College ; Parry W. 
 Humphries, of Aransas Pass ; John Adriance, in 
 
 Columbia; Ales. T. Gayle, Jackson County ; and 
 ex-Governor Bell, living in North Carolina. Of 
 those who are dead I recall George J. Durham, who 
 died in 1869 ; James M. Ogdeu, Thos. L. Jones 
 and *Martin C. Wing, all of whom drew black beans 
 and were put to death in Mexico, March 25, 1843 ; 
 Capt. Ben. Johnson, killed by Mexicans near the 
 Nueces soon afterwards; — -Dodson and — Black, 
 killed by Indians opposite Austin, in 1842; Henry 
 W. Raglan, Richard H. Hord, died in Kentucky; 
 George D. Biggar, Capt. Joseph Daniels, died in 
 San Francisco in 1885; M. H. Nicholson, *Joel 
 Miner, *Alexander Area, *William Clark, Ambrose 
 B. Patlison, died in Onondaga Hollow, N. Y. ; 
 Maj. George W. Bonnell (editor, and killed 
 as one of the guard at Mier, December 26, 
 1842) ; *James Glasscock (a Mier prisoner) ; 
 * — McClelland, died in Tyler; *William Carleton, 
 Wm. H. Murrah, Alex. C. McFarlane, George 
 K. Teulon (editor), died in Calcutta; Maj. Samuel 
 Whiting (founder of the first paper in Austin), 
 died in New Jersey; Rev. Edward L. Fontaine, 
 died in Mississippi; John B. Ransom (poet), 
 accidentally killed in 1841 ; John W. Lann, died a 
 Santa Fe prisoner ; Thos. Ward and Col. Thomas 
 Wm. Ward, Dr. Richard F. Brenham (killed in 
 the rescue of the Mier prisoners at Salado, Mexi- 
 co, February — 1843); Horace L. Upshur, M. H. 
 Beatty, M. P. Woodhouse, Wm. H. H. Johnson, 
 James W. Smith (first Judge of Travis Count}'), 
 killed by Indians in sight of Austin, in 1843; 
 Harvey Smith died in Bell County ; Thomas W. 
 Smith (their father), killed by Indians near 
 Austin in 1841 ; Francis P. Morris, died a dis- 
 tinguished Methodist preacher in Missouri ; *W. 
 D. Mims, Dr. Moses Johnson (first Mayor of 
 Austin), died in Lavaca ; Charles Schoolfield, killed 
 by Indians ; Henry J. Jewett, Judge Luckett, 
 Alfred W. Luckett, Wm. W. Thompson, died in 
 Arizona; Wayne Barton (the first sheriff), killed 
 in Washington County in 1844; Capt. James G. 
 Swisher, "George W. Noble, died in Mobile ; Mus- 
 grove Evans, Charles Mason (respectively first and 
 second Auditors), James Newcomb, L. Vancleve, 
 Capt. Mark B. Lewis, killed in 1843 ; Jesse C. 
 Tannehill, Jacob M. Harrell, Wm. Hornsby, Na- 
 thaniel Townsend, Samuel Browning, Capt. Stephen 
 Crosby, Abner H. Cook, Alfred D. Coombs, Neri 
 Chamberlain, Joseph Cecil (both arms shot off), 
 Massillon Farley, John Green, Joseph Harrell, 
 Anderson Harrell, Mrs. Angelina Eberly, died in 
 Kentucky ; Mrs. Eliza B. Logan, Mrs. Anna C. 
 
 * All those marked thus *, including myself, were 
 
 priuters. 
 
lyniAX WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Luckett, R. D. McAnelly, Nelson Merrill, A. B. 
 McGill, B. D. Noble, Dr. Joseph VV. Robertson, 
 Mrs. Ann T. J. Wooldridge, Moses Wells, Joseph 
 Waples, Thos. G. Western, Michael Ziller, Charles 
 R. Sossaman, Martin Moore, Charles De Morse. 
 
 These names, drawn from memory, in a very large 
 sense, apply to persons who then or subsequently 
 became widely known in the public service — • in- 
 deed, in their respective spheres valuable men in 
 the country. Of course I can only recall a portion 
 of those entitled to honorable mention in an article 
 of this character. Gathered together from all 
 parts of the Union, and a few from Europe, their 
 bones are widely asunder, at least as far as from 
 New York to San Francisco, and one in China. 
 
 The then future of Austin, seemingly bright, was 
 invisibly portentous of evil. On the capture of 
 San Antonio by Mexicans, in March, 1842, Austin 
 was abandoned as the seat of government, and so 
 remained for four years, or until February, 1846. 
 Many of the inhabitants thereupon left their homes, 
 and with a greatly depleted population, the town 
 ■was left open to savage attacks from the north, 
 east and west. Their trials and deprivations were 
 great. The day of comparative deliverance came 
 when, in connection with annexation, the govern- 
 
 ment was returned to Austin, from which period 
 the place slowly grew until railroads reached it, 
 since which lime its increase in population, wealth 
 and costly edifices has been rapid, until, with ample 
 public buildings, and four State asj'lums, and a 
 State House pronounced equal in grandeur and 
 appointments to any in the Union, it is regarded 
 with pride by the State and admiration by stran- 
 gers as one of the most charming and beautiful 
 of State capitals of the Union. Though jierhaps 
 the youngest of its self-governing inhabitants 
 at the time of its birth, it was my privilege on 
 numerous subsequent occasions, covering a period 
 of twenty years, to represent other portions of the 
 State in its deliberative bodies assembled there, 
 and I have never ceased to feel a deep interest in 
 its prosperity. Hence, on this fifty-third anniver- 
 sary of Texian independence, and in the fiftieth of 
 the life of our State capital, with the utmost sin- 
 cerity, I can and do salute thee, oh! thou dearly 
 won but beautiful city of the Colorado, and would 
 gladly embrace each of its survivors of fifty years 
 ago — male and female — and their children and 
 grandchildren as well, were it practicable to do so. 
 May the God of our fathers be their God and bless 
 them. 
 
 A Succession of Tragedies in Houston and Anderson Counties 
 
 Death of the Faulkenberrys — Cordova's Rebellion — A 
 
 Bloody Skirmish— Battle of Kickapoo — Slaughter 
 
 and Cremation at John Edens' House — 
 
 Butchery of the Campbell Family — 
 
 1836 to 1841 — Etc., Etc. 
 
 In the account of the fall of Parker's fort, prom- 
 inent mention was made of David Faulkenberry, 
 his son Evan, a youth, and Abram Anglin, a boy 
 of eighteen. They with others of the defeated 
 party temporarily located at Fort Houston, as 
 before stated, a mile or two west of where Palestine 
 now stands. In the fall of 1836 these three, with 
 Columbus Anderson (one account gives this name 
 as Andrews), went down to the Trinity to the 
 point since known as Bonner's ferry, crossed to the 
 west bank for the purpose of hunting, lay down 
 under the bank and all fell asleep. James Hunter 
 
 was in the vicinity also, but remained on the east 
 bank. While gathering nuts near by he heard the 
 guns and yells of Indians, and hastening to the 
 river, witnessed a portion of the scene. At the 
 first fire Columbus Anderson received a death 
 wound, but swam the river, crawled about two 
 miles and died. David Faulkenberry, also mortally 
 wounded, swam over, crawled about two hundred 
 yards and died. Both of these men had pulled 
 grass and made a bed on which to die. 
 
 A bullet passed through Abram Anglin' s powder 
 horn and into his thigh, carrying fragments of the 
 
56 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 horn, but he swam the river, climbed its banjj, 
 mounted behind Hunter, and escaped, to live till 
 1875 or 1S76, when he died, in the vicinity of his 
 first home, near Parker's fort. Of Evan Faulken- 
 berry no trace was ever found. The Indians after- 
 wards said that he fought like a demon, killed two 
 of their number, wounded a third, and when scalped 
 and almost cloven asunder, jerked from them, 
 plunged into the river and about midway sank to 
 appear no more — adding another to the list of 
 heroic boys who have died for Texas. Honored be 
 his memory! The dead were buried the next day. 
 
 THE MEXICAN REBELLION. 
 
 At the time of the revolution there was a consid- 
 erable resident Mexican population in and around 
 Nacogdoches. About the first of September, 1838, 
 Jose Cordova, at the head of about two hundred of 
 these people, aided bj- Juan Flores, Juan Cruz and 
 John Norris, rose in rebellion and pitched camp on 
 the Angelina, about twenty miles southwest of 
 Nacogdoches. Joined by renegade Indians, they 
 began a system of murder and pillage among the 
 thinly scattered settlers. They soon murdered the 
 brothers, Matthew and Charles Roberts, and Mr. 
 Finley, their relative. Speedily, Gen. Thomas J. 
 Rusk, at the head of six hundred volunteers, was 
 in the field. Cordova retired to the village of 
 "The Bowl," Chief of the Cherokees, and sought, 
 unsuccessfully, to form an alliance with him ; but 
 succeeded in attaching to his standard some of the 
 more desperate of the Cherokees and Cooshattas. 
 In a day or two he moved to the Kickapoo village, 
 now in the northeast corner of Anderson County, 
 and succeeded in winning that band to his cause. 
 Rusk followed their line of retreat to the Killough 
 settlement, some forty miles farther. He became 
 convinced of his inability to overhaul them ; also, 
 that they had left the country, and returned home, 
 disbanding his forces. 
 
 BATTLE OF KIOKAPOO. 
 
 Rusk had scarcely disbanded his men, when the 
 numerous family of Killough was inhumanly butch- 
 ered by this motley confederation of Mexicans and 
 Indians, wliich alarmed and incensed the people 
 exposed to their forays. The bugle blast of Rusk 
 soon re-assembled his disbanded followers. Maj. 
 Leonard H. Mabbitt then had a small force at Fort 
 Houston. Rusk directed hira to unite with him at 
 what is now known as the Duty place, four miles 
 west of the Neches. Mabbitt, reinforced by some 
 volunteers of the vicinity under Capt. W. T. Sad- 
 dler, started to the rendezvous. On the march, six 
 miles from Fort Houston, a number of Mabbitt's 
 
 men, a mile or more in rear of the command, were 
 surprised by an attack of Indians and Mexicans, 
 led by Flores and Cruz. A sharp skirmish ensued, 
 in which the little band displayed great gallantry, 
 but before Mabbitt came to their rescue, Bullock, 
 Wright and J. W. Carpenter were killed, and two 
 men, McKenzie and Webb, were wounded. The 
 enemy, on seeing Mabbitt's approach, precipitately 
 fled. This occurred on the 11th or 12th of Octo- 
 ber, 1838. The dead were buried. Only one 
 Indian was left on the field, but several were 
 killed. 
 
 On the 13th a spy company was organized, under 
 Capt. James E. Box, and on tlie 14th Mabbitt re- 
 newed his march for a junction with Rusk. On the 
 afternoon of the 15th a few Indians were seen pass- 
 ing the abandoned Kickapoo village, evidently 
 carrying meat to Cordova. Gen. Rusk soon arrived, 
 his united force being about seven hundred men. 
 It was nearly night, and he pitched camp on a 
 spot chosen as well to prevent surprise as for de- 
 fense. 
 
 At dawn on the l(5th, Rusk was furiously assailed 
 by about nine hundred Kickapoos, Delawares, 
 lonies, Caddos, Cooshattas, a few Cherokees, and 
 Cordova with his Mexicans. Indians fell within 
 forty or fifty feet of the lines. Many were killed, 
 and after an engagement of not exceeding an hour, 
 the enemj' fled in every direction, seeking safety in 
 the dense forest. The assaults were most severe on 
 the companies of Box, Snively, Bradshaw, Saddler 
 and Mabbitt's command ; but owing to the sagacity 
 of Rusk in the selection of a defensive position, his 
 loss was only one man, James Hall, mortally wound- 
 ed, and twenty-five wounded more or less severel3', 
 among whom were Dr. E. J. DeBard, afterwards 
 of Palestine, John Murchison, J. J. Ware, Triplett 
 Gates, and twentj'-one others. It was a signal defeat 
 of Cordova and his evil-inspired desire for vengeance 
 upon a people who had committed no act to justify 
 such a savage resolve. He retired to Mexico, and 
 thence essayed to gratify his malignant hatred by a 
 raid, under Flores, in the following year, which was 
 badly whipped by Burleson, six or eight miles from 
 where Seguin stands, and virtually destroyed by 
 the gallant Capt. James O. Rice, in the vicinity' of 
 the present town of Round Rock, on the Brushj', 
 in Williamson County. His last attempt to satisfy 
 his thirst for revenge was in the Mexican invasion 
 of September, 1842, in command of a band of 
 Mexican desperadoes and Carrizo Indians. In the 
 battle of Salado, on the 18th of that month, a yager 
 ball, sent by John Lowe, standing within three feet 
 of where I stood, after a flight of about ninety 
 yards, crushed his arm from wrist to elbow and 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 57 
 
 passed through his heart. This, however, is 
 digression. 
 
 The wounded of Gen. Rusii were borne on litters 
 back to Fort Houston. Hall survived about twenty 
 days — the other twenty-five recovered. 
 
 THE TERRIBLE TRAGEDY AT JOHN EDENS' HOUSE. 
 
 When the citizens of that locality volunteered 
 under Capt. W. T. Saddler, a soldier of San Jacinto, 
 to acconapany Maj. Mabbitt in the Cordova-Kicka- 
 poo expedition, the families of several of the party 
 were removed for safety to the house of Mr. John 
 Edens, an old man, and there left under the protec- 
 tion of that gentleman and three otlier old men, 
 viz.: James Madden, Martin Murchison (father of 
 John, wounded at Kiekapoo), and Elisha Jloore, 
 then a prospector from Alabama. The other per- 
 sons in the house were Mrs. John Edens and 
 daughter Emily, Mrs. John Murchison, Mrs. W. T. 
 Saddler, her daughter, Mrs. James Madden, and 
 two little sons, aged seven and nine years, Mrs. 
 Robert Madden, and daughter Mary, and a negro 
 woman of sixty years, named Betsey or Patsey. 
 This is the same place on which Judge D. H. Edens 
 afterwards lived, in Houston County, and on which 
 he died. The ladies occupied one of the two rooms 
 and the men the other, a covered passageway 
 separating them. On the fatal night, about the 
 19lh of October, after all the inmates had retired, 
 the house was attacked b}' Indians. The assault 
 was made on the room occupied by the ladies and 
 children. The savages broke down the door and 
 rushed in, using knives and tomahawks. Mrs. 
 Murchison and her daughter, Mrs. Saddler, were 
 instantly killed. Mrs. John Edens, mortally 
 wounded, escaped from the room and crossed two 
 fences to die in the adjoining field. Of Mary, 
 daughter of Robert Madden ; Emily, daughter of 
 John Edens, each three years old, and the two 
 little sons of James Madden, no tidings were ever 
 heard. Whether carried into captivity or burned 
 to ashes, was never known, but every presumption 
 is in favor of the latter. The room was speedily 
 set on fire. The men durst not open the door into 
 the passage. Mrs. Robert Madden, dangerously 
 wounded, rushed into the room of the men, falling 
 on a bed. One by one, or, rather, two by two, the 
 four men ran the gauntlet and escaped, supposing 
 all the others were dead. Early in the assault 
 Patsey (or Betsey), seized a little girl of John 
 Edens', yet living, the beloved wife of James 
 Duke, swiftly bore her to the house of Mr. Davis, 
 a mile and a half distant, and then, moved by an 
 inspiration that should embalm her memory in every 
 
 generous heart, as swiftly returned as an angel of 
 mercy to any who might survive. She arrived in 
 time to enter the rapidly consuming house and 
 rescue the unconscious Mrs. Robert Madden, but 
 an instant before the roof fell in. Placing her on 
 her own bed, in her unmolested cabin in the yard, 
 she sought elsewhere for deeds of mercy, and found 
 Mrs. James Madden, utterly helpless, under the 
 eaves of the crumbling walls, and doomed to 
 speedy cremation. She gently bore her to the 
 same refuge, and by them watched, bathed, poul- 
 ticed and nursed — aye, prayed ! — till the morrow 
 brought succor. However lowly and humble the 
 gifts of the daughters of Ham, every Southron, 
 born and reared among them, will recognize in this 
 touching manifestation of humanity and affection 
 elements witli which he has been more or less 
 familiar since his childhood. Honored be the 
 memory and cherished be the saintly fidelity of this 
 humble servant woman. 
 
 Mrs. James Madden, thus rescued from the 
 flames, bore upon her person three ghastly wounds 
 from a tomahawk, one severing her collar bone, two 
 ribs cut asunder near the spine, and a horrible 
 gash in the back. But it is gratifying to record 
 that both of these wounded ladies recovered, and 
 in 1883, were yet living near Augusta, Houston 
 County, ob'ects of affectionate esteem by their 
 neighbors. 
 
 On the day following this horrid slaughter, the 
 volunteers — the husbands and neighbors of the 
 victims — returned from the battle of Kiekapoo, in 
 time to perform the last rites to the fallen and to 
 nurse the wounded. The late venerable Capt. 
 William Y. Lacey, of Palestine, Robert Madden, 
 Elder Daniel Parker, and others of the Edens and 
 other old families of that vicinity were among 
 them. 
 
 ANOTHER BLOODT TRAGEDY MURDEK OF MRS. CAMP- 
 BELL, HER SON AND DADGHTER. 
 
 In the year 1837, Charles C. Campbell arrived in 
 the vicinity of Fort Houston, and settled on what 
 is now called Town creek, three miles west of Pal- 
 estine. His family consisted of himself, wife and 
 five children — Malathiel, a youth of twenty; Pa- 
 melia, aged seventeen ; Hulda, fourteen ; Fountain, 
 eleven ; George, four, and two negro men. They 
 labored faithfully, built cabins, opened a field, and 
 in 1838J made a bountiful crop. 
 
 In February, 1839, Mr. Campbell sickened and 
 died. During a bright moon, about a week later, 
 in the same month, soon after the family had re- 
 tired, the house was suddenly attacked by a party 
 
58 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 of Indians. The only weapon in the house was an 
 okl rifle with a defective flint lock. AVilh this Mala- 
 thiel heroically endeavored to defend his mother 
 and her children. The negro men. Laving no means 
 of defense, managed to escape. Mrs. Campbell 
 caused Pamelia. the elder daughter, to take refuge 
 under the puncheon floor, with her little brother 
 George, enjoining upon her silence as the only means 
 of saving herself and the child. The son soon 
 found that the gun lock refused to work, and the 
 mother sought to ignite the powder with a brand of 
 fire, but in doing so stood so near the door that an 
 Indian, forcing it slightly ajar and thrusting in his 
 arm, nearly severed her arm from her body. The 
 door was then forced open, the Indians rushed in, 
 and iu a moment tomahawked unto death Mrs. 
 Campbell, Huldah and Fountain. Malathiel, knife 
 in hand, sprang from the room into the yard, but 
 was speedily slain by those outside. While these 
 things were being enacted in the house Pamelia, 
 with little George, steallhil3' emeiged from her hid- 
 ing place and nearly escaped unobserved ; but just 
 as she was entering a thicket near by, an arrow 
 struck the back of her head, but fortunatel}' it 
 glanced around without entering the skull, and she 
 soon reached Fort Houston to report her desola- 
 tion. 
 
 The Indians robbed the house of its contents, 
 including six feather-beds (leaving the feathers, 
 however), a keg of powder, four hundred silver 
 dollars, and a considerable amount of paper money, 
 which, like the feathers, was cast to the winds. At 
 daylight the bloody demons crossed the Trinity 
 eight miles awaj-, and were thus beyond pursuit 
 by the small available force at hand ; for the west 
 side of the river at that time teemed with hostile 
 savages. 
 
 Pamelia Campbell, thus spared and since de- 
 
 prived by death of the little brother she saved, yet 
 lives, the last of her family, respected and beloved, 
 the wife or widow of Mr. Moore, living on Cedar 
 creek, Anderson County. 
 
 THE LAST RAID. 
 
 The last raid in that vicinity was by one account 
 in 1841, by another in 1843, but both agree as to the 
 facts. A small party of Indians stole some horses. 
 They were pursued by Wm. Frost, who escaped 
 from the Parker's Fort disaster in 1836, and three 
 others. They came upon the Indians while they 
 were swimming the Trinity at West Point. Frost 
 fired, killing an Indian, on reaching the bank a 
 little in advance of the others, but was instantly 
 shot dead by a warrior already on the opposite 
 bank. The other three men poured a volley into 
 the enemy yet under the bank and in the liver. 
 Four were killed, when the remainder fled, leaving 
 the horses in the hands of the pursuers. 
 
 In 1837 there was a severe encounter in Maine's 
 prairie, Anderson County, but the particulars are 
 not before me, nor are those attending the butchery 
 of the Killough family, which led to the battle of 
 Kickapoo, and was one of the impelling causes of 
 the expulsion of the Cherokees and associate bands 
 from the countr3'. 
 
 In the accounts here given some conflicting state- 
 ments are sought to be reconciled. The unrecorded 
 memory of most old men, untrained in the habits 
 of preserving historical events, is often at fault. 
 Unfamiliar with the localities, it is believed that 
 substantial accuracy is attained in this con- 
 densed account of these successive and sanguinary 
 events, illuminating the path of blood through 
 which that interesting portion of our beloved State 
 was transferred from barbarism to civilization. 
 
 Some Reminiscences — First Anniversary Ball in the Republic 
 of Texas, and other Items of Interest. 
 
 The following relating to the first anniversary 
 celebration of Texian Independence and the battle 
 of San Jacinto, respectively given at Washington, 
 March 2d, 1837, and at the newly laid out town of 
 Houston, April 21, 1837, will doubtless interest 
 the reader. 
 
 The invitation to the first or Independence ball 
 ran thus : — 
 
 Washington, 28th February, 1837.^ — The pleas- 
 ure of your company is respectfully solicited at a 
 party to be given in Washington on Thursday, 2d 
 
INDIAN- WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 59 
 
 March, to celebrate the birthday of our national 
 independence. 
 
 Devereau J. Woodlief, Thos. Gay, R. Stevenson, 
 W. B. Scates, Asa Hosey, James R. Cook, W. W. 
 Hill, J. C. Hunt, Thos. P. Shapard, managers. 
 
 All these nine now sleep with their fathers. Mr. 
 Scales, the last to die a few years since, was a 
 signer of the Declaration of Independence ; Wood- 
 lief was terribly wounded at San Jacinto; the gal- 
 lant James R. Cook, a lieutenant at San Jacinto and 
 a colonel under Somervell in 1842—1:3, was killed 
 in a momentary difficulty about the first of April, 
 1843, a deeply lamented occurrence. 
 
 For a description of the ball in Houston credit is 
 due the gifted pen of a lady survivor of the scene, 
 then little more than a child : — 
 
 "Following the impulses common to humanity, 
 as the 21st of April, 1837, drew near, the patriotic 
 citizens of Texas, with the memory of San .Jacinto 
 still fresh in their minds and appreciating the ad- 
 vantages resulting from it, resolved that the event 
 should be celebrated at the capital of the Republic, 
 which this victory had made possil)le, and which 
 had been most appropriately named for him who 
 wore the laurel. The city of Houston was at that 
 time a mere name, or at best a camp in the woods. 
 While tents and temporary structures of clapboards 
 and pine poles were scattered here and there near 
 the banks of the bayou, the substantial log house of 
 the pioneer was rare, or altogether wanting, it being 
 the intention of the builders soon to replace what 
 the needs of the hour demanded, with buildings 
 fitted to adorn the capital of a great Republic. 
 
 "The site of the capitol had been selected where 
 now stands the fine hotel bearing its name, but the 
 materials for its construction had not yet arrived 
 from Maine. There was, however, a large two- 
 story building about half finished on the spot now 
 occupied by T. W. House's bank. It was the 
 property of the firm of Kelsey & Hubbard, and, 
 having been tendered for the free use of the public 
 on this occasion, men worked night and day that it 
 might at least have floor, walls and roof, which 
 were indeed the chief essentials of a dancing hall. 
 As there was neither time nor material at hand for 
 ceiling or laying the second floor, a canopy of green 
 boughs was spread over the beams to do away with 
 the unpleasant effect of skeleton timbers and great 
 space between floor and pointed roof. 
 
 " Chandeliers were suspended from the beams 
 overhead, but they resembled the glittering orna- 
 ment of to-day in naught save use for which they 
 were intended. Made of wood, with sockets to 
 hold the sperm candles, and distributed at regular 
 distances, each pendant comprised of five or six 
 
 lights, which shed a dim radiance, but alas, a liberal 
 spattering of sperm upon the dancers beneath. 
 The floor being twenty-five feet wide, by fifty feet 
 in length, could easily accommodate several cotil- 
 lions, and, although the citizens of Houston were 
 very few, all the space was required for the large 
 number who came from Brazoria, Columbia, San 
 Felipe, Harrisburg and all the adjacent country. 
 Ladies and gentlemen came in parties on horseback, 
 distances of fifty and sixty miles, accompanied by 
 men servants and ladies' maids, who had in charge 
 the elegant ball costumes for the important occa- 
 sion. From Harrisburg they came in large row 
 boats, that mode of conveyance being preferable 
 to a horseback ride through the thick under- 
 growth, for at that time there was nothing more 
 than a bridle path to guide the traveler between 
 the two places. 
 
 " Capt. Mosley Baker, a captain at San Jacinto, 
 and one of Houston's first citizens, was living with 
 his wife and child (now Mrs. Fannie Darden), in a 
 small house built of clapboards ; the house com- 
 prised one large room designed to serve as parlor, 
 bed-room and dining-room, and a small shed-room 
 at the back. The floor, or rather the lack of the 
 floor, in the large apartment, was concealed by a 
 carpet, which gave an air of comfort contrasting 
 strongly with the surroundings. 
 
 " As the time for going to the ball drew near, 
 which was as soon as convenient after dark, several 
 persons assembled at Capt. Baker's for the purpose 
 of going together. These were Gen. Houston, 
 Frank R. Lubbock, afterwards Governor, and his 
 wife, John Birdsall (soon after Attorney-General), 
 and Mary Jane Harris (the surviving widow of 
 Andrew Briscoe.) Gen. Houston was Mrs. Baker's 
 escort, Capt. Baker having gone to see that some 
 lady friends were provided for. When this party 
 approached the ball room, where dancing had 
 already begun, the music, which was rendered by a 
 violin, bass viol and fife, immediately struck up 
 ' Hail to the Chief,' the dancers withdrew to each 
 side of the hall, and the whole party. Gen. Houston 
 and Mrs. Baker leading, and maids bringing up the 
 rear, marched to the upper end of the room. Hav- 
 ing here laid aside wraps, and exchanged black 
 slippers for white ones, for there was no dressing 
 room, they were ready to join in the dance, which 
 was soon resumed. A new cotillion was formed by 
 the party who had just entered, with the addition 
 of another couple, whose names are not preserved, 
 and Mr. Jacob Cruger took the place of Mr. Bird- 
 sail, who did not dance. Gen. Houston and Mrs. 
 Baker were partners, Mrs. Lubbock and Mr. Cru- 
 ger, and Mr. Lubbock and Miss Harris. Then 
 
60 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 were the solemn figures of tbe stately cotillion exe- 
 cuted with care and precision, the grave balancing 
 steps, the dos-a-dos, and others to test the nimble- 
 ness and grace of dancers. 
 
 " Gen. Houston, the President, was of course the 
 hero of tbe day, and his dress on this occasion was 
 unique and somewhat striking. His ruffled shirt, 
 scarlet cassimere waistcoat and suit of black silk 
 velvet, corded with gold, was admirably adapted 
 to set off his fine, tall figure ; his boots, with short, 
 red tops, were laced and folded down in such a 
 way as to reach but little above the ankles, and 
 were finished at the heels with silver spurs. The 
 spurs were, of course, quite a useless adornment, 
 but they were in those days so commonly worn as 
 to seem almost a part of the boots. The weakness 
 of Gen. Houston's ankle, resulting from the wound, 
 was his reason for substituting boots for the slip- 
 pers, then universally worn by gentlemen for dan- 
 cing. 
 
 "Mrs. Baker's dress of white satin, with black 
 lace overdress, corresponded in elegance with that 
 of her fscort, and the dresses of most of the other 
 ladies were likewise rich and tasteful. Some wore 
 white mull, with satin trimmings; others were 
 dressed in white and colored satins, but naturally 
 in so large an assembly, gathered from many differ- 
 ent places, there was great variety in the quality of 
 costumes. All, however, wore their dresses short, 
 cut low in the neck, sleeves generally short, and all 
 wore ornaments or flowers or feathers in their hair, 
 some flowers of Mexican manufacture being partic- 
 ularly noticeable, on account of their beauty and 
 rarety. 
 
 " But one event occurred to mar the happiness of 
 the evening. Whilst all were dancing merrily, the 
 sad news arrived that the brother of the Misses 
 Cooper, who were at the time on the floor, had been 
 killed by Indians at some point on the Colorado 
 river. Although the young ladies were strangers to 
 most of those present, earnest expressions of sym- 
 pathy were heard on all sides, and the pleasure of 
 their_imraediate friends was of course destroyed. 
 
 " At about midnight the signal for supper was 
 given, and the dancers marched over to the hotel of 
 Capt. Ben Fort Smith, which stood near the middle 
 of the block now occupied by the Hutchins House. 
 This building consisted of two very large rooms. 
 
 built of pine poles, laid up like a log house, with a 
 long shed extending the full length of the rooms. 
 Under this shed, quite innocent of floor or carpet, 
 the supper was spread ; the tempting turkeys, veni- 
 son, cakes, etc., displaj'ed in rich profusion ; the 
 excellent coffee and sparkling wines invited all to 
 partake freely, and soon the witt}' toast and hearty 
 laugh went round. 
 
 "Returning to the ball room, dancing was re- 
 sumed with renewed zest, and continued until the 
 energy of the musicians began to flag, and the 
 prompter failed to call out the figures with his ac- 
 customed gusto ; then the cotillion gave place to 
 the time-honored Virginia reel, and by the time 
 each couple had enjoyed the privilege of " going 
 down the middle," daylight began to dawn, parting 
 salutations were exchanged, and the throng of dan- 
 cers separated, many of them never to meet again. 
 
 " Ere long the memory of San Jacinto's first ball 
 was laid away among the mementos of the dead, 
 which, being withdrawn from their obscurity only 
 on each recurring anniversary, continue to retain 
 their freshness even after fifty years have flown. 
 
 " Of all the merry company who participated in 
 that festival, only a few are known to be living at 
 the present day. They are ex-Governor Lubbock, 
 Mrs. Wynns, Mrs. Mary J. Briscoe and Mrs. 
 Fannie Darden." 
 
 Addenda. In January, 188G, the following an- 
 cient item in a Nashville paper, announcing the 
 death of Noah W. Ludlow, the old theatrical man- 
 ager, appeared, viz. : — 
 
 "In Jul}', 1818, in Nashville, an amateur per- 
 formance of Home's tragedy of Douglas was given, 
 in which Mr. Ludlow appeared as Old Norval. 
 There were remarkable men in that performance. 
 The manager of the amateur club was Gen. Jno. H. 
 Eaton, afterward Secretary of War during Gen. 
 Jackson's presidential term. Lieut. Sam. Houston, 
 afterward Gen. Sam Houston, of San Jacinto fame, 
 played Glenalvon; Wm. S. Fulton, afterward Gov- 
 ernor of Arkansas, was the young Norval ; E. H. 
 Foster, later United States Senator from Tennessee, 
 was a member of the club, and the part of Lord 
 Randolph was taken by W. C. Dunlap, who, in 18.39, 
 was a member of Congress from Tennessee. Gen. 
 Andrew Jackson was an honorary member of the 
 same dramatic club." 
 
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 61 
 
 Death of Capt. Robert M. Coleman in 1837— Murder of " Mrs. 
 
 Coleman and her Heroic Boy" and the Battle 
 
 of Brushy in 1839. 
 
 Robert M. Coleman, a native of Trigg County, 
 Kentucly, born in 1799, is elsewhere mentioned in 
 connection witli the expedition under himself first, 
 and Col. John H. Moore, secondly, into the 
 Tehuacano Hill region, in 1835. He was a gallant 
 man, courageous and impetuous, and settled on the 
 Colorado, near Bastrop, io 1830. He was in the 
 siege of Bexar, in the fall of 1835, signed the 
 Declaration of Independence on the second of 
 March, 1836, and commanded a company at San 
 Jacinto, on the 21st of April, his wife and children 
 being then among tiie refugees east of the Trinit)'. 
 In the summer of 1837, while on a mission to 
 Velasco, at the mouth of the Brazos, he was 
 drowned while bathing in the river. This was 
 justly deplored as a great loss to the frontier of the 
 country. He left, besides his wife, three sons and 
 two daughters. 
 
 Mrs. Coleman returned to their former home in 
 what was called Wells' prairie, a prolongation of 
 the lower end of Webber's prairie, perhaps twelve 
 miles above Bastrop, her nearest neighbors being 
 the late Geo. W. Davis and Dr. J. W. Eobertiion, 
 of Austin, and one or two others. Her cabin and 
 little field stood in the lower point of a small 
 prairie, closely flanked on the east, west and south 
 by dense bottom timber, the onl3' approach being 
 through the prairie on the north, and it was very 
 narrow. She and her sons made a small crop there 
 in 1838. 
 
 On the 18th of February, 1839, while Mrs. 
 Coleman and four of her children were emplo3'ed 
 a short distance from the cabin, a large body of 
 Indians, estimated at from two to three hundred, 
 suddenly emerged from the timber, and with the 
 wildest yells, rushed towards them. They fled to 
 the cabin and all reached it except Thomas, a 
 child of five years, who was captured, never more 
 to return to his kindred though occasionally heard 
 of many jears later as a Comanche warrior. At 
 the moment of the attack James Coleman and 
 — Rogers were farther away, separated from the 
 others by the Indians, and being powerless, es- 
 caped down the bottom to notify the people 
 below. 
 
 As Mrs. Coleman reached the door of the cabin, 
 Albert and the two little-girls entered, when, missing 
 
 little Thomas, she halted to look for him. It was 
 but for an instant, but long enough for an arrow 
 to pierce her throat. In the throes of death she 
 sprang inside. Albert closed acd barred the door, 
 and she sank to the floor, speedily to expire. 
 Albert was a boy under fifteen years of age, but 
 a worth}' son of his brave sire. There being two 
 or three guns in the cabin, he made a heroic figlit, 
 holding the enemy at bay for some time, certainly 
 killing four of their number; in the meantime 
 raising a puncheon, causing his two little sisters 
 to get under the floor, replacing the puncheon, 
 and enjoining upon them, whether he survived or 
 perished, to make no noise until sure that white 
 men called them. Soon after this he received a 
 fatal wound. As life ebbed he sank down, re- 
 peated his former injunction to his little sisters, 
 then, pillowing his head on his mother's pulseless 
 bosom, died. A year later, in the Congress of 
 Texas, my youthful heart was electrified on hear- 
 ing the old patriot, William Menefee, of Colorado, 
 in a speech on the "Cherokee Land Bill," utter 
 an eloquent apostrophe to " Mrs. Coleman and 
 her heroic boy." 
 
 For some reason, doubtless under the impression 
 that there were other men in the house, the Indians 
 withdrew. They next appeared at the house of 
 Dr. RDbertson, captured seven negroes and, the 
 doctor being absent, robbed the house. 
 
 At twilight John D. Anderson, a youth who lived 
 within a few miles (afterwards distinguished as a 
 lawyer and an orator), rode to the cabin and called 
 the children by name. They recognized his voice 
 and answered. He then raised a puncheon and 
 released them. Remounting, with one before and 
 one behind him, he conveyed them to Geo. W. 
 Davis' house, where the families of the vicinity had 
 assembled for safety — possibly at a different 
 house, but Mr. Davis remained in charge of the 
 guard left to protect the women and children. 
 
 Speedily two squads of men assembled at the 
 locality — twenty-five under Capt. Joseph Burleson 
 and twenty-seven commanded by Capt. James 
 Rogers. Thus, fifty-two in number, they pursued 
 the savages in a northerly direction. On the next 
 forenoon, near a place since called Post Oak Island 
 and three or four miles north of Brushy creek, they 
 
62 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 came in sight of tlie enemy, who, all being on foot, 
 sought to reach the thicket on a branch, somewhat 
 between the parties. To prevent this a charge was 
 ordered to cut them off, and if need be, occupy the 
 thicket as a base of defense ; but some of the men 
 hesitated, while others advanced. Skirmishing 
 began, confusion ensued, followed by a disorderly 
 retreat, some men gallantly dismounting time and 
 again, to hold the enemy in check. In this engage- 
 ment Capt. Joseph Burleson was killed, while dis- 
 mounted and trying to save the daj'. The horse of 
 W. W. (afterward Captain) Wallace escaped and 
 was caught and mounted by an Indian. A. .J. 
 Haynie, seeing this, gallantly took Mr. Wallace up 
 behind him and thus saved his life. 
 
 The whole party, notwithstanding the disorder, 
 halted on reaching Brushy. 
 
 While remaining in a state of indecision, Gen. 
 Edward Burleson (of whom Joseph was a brother) 
 came up with thirty-two men. All submitted at 
 once to his experienced leadership. Ruorganizing 
 the force, with Capt. Jesse Billingsley commanding 
 a portion, he moved forward, and about the middle 
 of the afternoon found the Indians in a strong 
 position, along a crescent-shaped branch, partly 
 protected by high banks, and the whole hidden by 
 brush. Burleson led one party into the ravine 
 above and Billingsey the other into it below the 
 Indians, intending to approach each way and drive 
 the enemy out. But each party found an inter- 
 vening, open and flat expansion of the ravine, in 
 
 passing which they would be exposed to an enfilad- 
 ing fire from an invisible enemy. Hence this plan 
 was abandoned and a random skirmish kept up until 
 night, a considerable number of Indians being 
 killed, as evidenced by their lamentations, as they 
 retreated as soon as shielded by darkness. Burle- 
 son camped on the ground. 
 
 The next day, on litters, the dead and Mr. 
 Gilleland were carried homeward, the latter to die 
 in a few days. 
 
 The men of Bastrop were ever famed for gal- 
 lantry, and many were the regrets and heart-burn- 
 ings among themselves in connection with the first 
 engagement of the day ; but ample amends were 
 made on other fields to atone for that untoward 
 event. 
 
 Doubtless interesting facts are omitted. Those 
 given were derived long ago from participants, sup- 
 plemented by a few points derived at a later day 
 from Mr. A. D. Adkisson, who was also one of 
 the number. 
 
 For several years succeeding the raids into and 
 around Bastrop, stealing horses, and killing, some- 
 times one and sometimes two or three persons, 
 were so frequent that their narration would seem 
 monotonous. In most cases these depredations 
 were committed by small parties early in the night, 
 and by sunrise they would be far away, rendering 
 pursuit useless. They were years of anguish, 
 sorely testing the courage and fortitude of as 
 courageous a people as ever settled in a wilderness. 
 
 Cordova's Rebellion in 1838-9 — Rusk's Defeat of the Kicka- 
 
 poos — Burleson's Defeat of Cordova — Rice's Defeat 
 
 of Flores — Death of Flores and Cordova — 
 
 Capt. Matthew Caldwell. 
 
 At the close of 1837, and in the first eight or 
 nine months of 1838, Gen. Vicente Filisola was in 
 command of Northern Mexico, with headquarters 
 in Matamoros. He undertook, by various well- 
 planned artifices, to win to Mexico the friendship 
 of all the Indians in Texas, including the Cherokees 
 and their associate bands, and unite them in a per- 
 sistent war on Texas. Through emissaries passing 
 above the settlements he communicated with the 
 Cherokees and others, and with a number of Mexi- 
 
 can citizens, in and around Nacogdoches, and suc- 
 ceeded in enlisting many of them in his schemes. 
 The most conspicuous of these Mexicans, as devel- 
 oped in the progress of events, was Vicente Cor- 
 dova, an old resident of Nacogdoches, from which 
 the affair has generally been called " Cordova's 
 rebellion," but there were others actively engaged 
 with him, some bearing American names, as Nat 
 Norris and Joshua Robertson, and Mexicans named 
 Juan Jose Rodriguez, Carlos Morales, Juan Santos 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 63 
 
 Coy, Jose Vicenti Micheli, Jose Ariola, and An- 
 tonio Corda. 
 
 Tbe first outbreak occurred on tlie 4tli of August, 
 1838, wliena party of Americans who liad pursued 
 and recovered some stolen liorses from a Mexican 
 settlement in Nacogdoches County, were flred upon 
 on their return trip and one of their number lulled. 
 
 Tiie trail of the assailants was followed and 
 found to be large and made by Mexicans. On the 
 7th Gen. Rusk was informed that over a hundred 
 Mexicans, headed by Cordova and Norris, were 
 encamped on the Angelina. He immediately re- 
 cruited a company of sixty volunteers and posted 
 them at the lower ford of that stream. The enemy 
 were then on the west side. On the 10th it was 
 reported that about 300 Indians had joined Cor- 
 dova. On the same day President Houston, then 
 in Nacogdocbes, who bad issued a proclamation to 
 the immigrants, received a letter signed by the per- 
 sons wiiose names have been given, disavowing 
 allegiance to Texas and claiming to be citizens of 
 Mexico. 
 
 Cordova, on the 10th, moved up towards the 
 Cherokee Nation. Maj. H. W. Augustin was 
 detailed to follow his trail, while Gen. Rusk moved 
 directly towards the village of Bowles, the head 
 chief of the Cherokees, believing Cordova had 
 gone there; but, on reaching the Saline, it was 
 found that lie had moved rapidly in the direction 
 of the Upper Trinity, while the great body of his 
 followers had dispersed. To the Upper Trinity and 
 Brazos, he went and remained till March, 1839, in 
 constant communication with the wild Indians, 
 urging them to a relentless war on Texas, burning 
 and destroying. the homes and property of the 
 settlers, of course with the deadly horrors of their 
 mode of warfare, and promising them, under the 
 instructions of Gen. Filisola first, and his succes- 
 sor, Gen. Valentino Canalizo, secondly, protection 
 under the Mexican government and fee simple 
 rights to the respective territories occupied by 
 them. He sent communications to the generals 
 named, and also to Manuel Flores, in Blatamoros, 
 charged with diplomatic duties, towards the Indians 
 of Texas, urging Flores to meet with him for con- 
 ference and a more definite understanding. 
 
 In the meantime a combination of these lawless 
 Mexicans and Indians committed depredations on 
 the settlements to such a degree that Gen. Rusk 
 raised two hundred volunteers and moved against 
 them. On the 14th of October, 1838, he arrived at 
 Fort Houston, and learning that the enemy were in 
 force at the Kickapoo village (now in Anderson 
 County), he moved in that direction. At daylight 
 on the 16th he attacked them and after a short, but 
 
 hot engagement, charged them, upon which they 
 fled with precipitation and were pursued for some 
 distance. Eleven warriors were left dead, and, of 
 course, a much larger number were wounded. 
 Rusk bad eleven men wounded, but none killed. 
 
 The winter passed without further report from 
 Cordova, who was, however, exerting all his powers 
 to unite all the Indian tribes in a destructive war- 
 fare on Texas. 
 
 On the 27th of February, 1839, Gen. Canalizo, 
 who had succeeded Filisola in command at Mata- 
 moros, sent instructions to Cordova, the same in 
 substance as had already been given to Flores, 
 detailing the manner of procedure and direiiting 
 the pledges and promises to be made to the Indians. 
 Both instructions embraced messages from Canalizo 
 to the chiefs of the Caddos, Seminoles, Biloxies, 
 Cherokees, Kickapoos, Brazos, Tebuacanos and 
 other tribes, in which he enjoined them to keep 
 at a goodly distance from the frontier of 
 the United States, — a policy dictated by fear 
 of retribution from that country. Of all the 
 tribes named the Caddos were the only ones 
 who dwelt along that border and, in consequence 
 of acts attributed to them, in November, 1838, 
 Gen. Rusk captured and disarmed a portion of the 
 tribe and delivered them to their Atnerican agent 
 in Shreveport, where they made a treaty, promis- 
 ing pacific behavior until peace should be made 
 between Texas and the remainder of their people. 
 
 CORDOVA EN ROUTE TO JIATAMOROS. 
 
 In his zeal to confer directly with Flores and 
 Canalizo, Cordova resolved to go in person to 
 Matamoros. From his temporary abiding place on 
 the Upper Trinity, with an escort of about seventy- 
 five Mexicans, Indians and negroes, he set forth in 
 March, 1839. On the 27th of that month, his 
 camp was discovered at the foot of the mountains, 
 north of and not far from where the city of Austin 
 now stands. The news was speedily conveyed to 
 Col. Burleson at Bastrop, and in a little while that 
 ever-ready, noble and lion-hearled defender of his 
 country found himself at the head of eighty of his 
 Colorado neighbors, as reliable and gallant citizen 
 soldiers as ever existed in Texas. Surmising the 
 probable route of Cordova, Col. Burleson bore 
 west till he struck his trail and, finding it but a 
 few hours old, followed it as rapidly as his horses 
 could travel till late in the afternoon of the 
 29th, when his scouts reported Cordova near 
 by, unaware of the danger in his rear. Burleson 
 increased his pace and came up with the enemy in 
 an open body of post oaks about six miles east, or 
 
64 
 
 INDIAN WAES AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 probably nearer southeast, from Seguin, on the 
 Guadalupe. Yoakum says the enemy fled at the 
 first fire. He was misinformed. Cordova promptly 
 formed his men, and, shielded by the large trees 
 of the forest, made a stubborn resistance. Bur- 
 leson dismounted a portion of bis men, who also 
 fought from the trees for some time. Finally see- 
 ing some of the enemy wavering, Burleson charged 
 them, when they broke and were hotlj' pursued 
 about two miles into the Guadalupe bottom, which 
 they entered as twilight approached. Further pur- 
 suit was impossible at night and Burleson bore up 
 the valley six miles to Seguin, to protect the few 
 farnilies resident there against a possible attack by 
 the discomfited foe. The conduct of Gen. Bur- 
 leson in this whole affair, but especially during the 
 engagement in the post oaks, was marked by 
 unusual zeal and gallantry. The lamented John D. 
 Anderson, OwenB. Hardeman, Wm. H. Magill and 
 other participants often narrated to me, the writer, 
 then a youth, how gloriously their loved chief bore 
 himself on the occasion. All the Bastrop people 
 loved Burleson as a father. Cordova lost over 
 twenty-five in killed, fully one-third of his follow- 
 ers, Burleson lost none by death, but had several 
 wounded. 
 
 PURSUIT OF COKDOVA BY CALDWELL. 
 
 At the time of this occurrence Capt. Matthew 
 Caldwell, of Gonzales, one of the best known and 
 most useful frontier leaders Texas ever had, was in 
 command of a company of six montiis' rangers, 
 under a law of the previous winter. A portion of 
 the company, under First Lieut. James Camp- 
 bell, were stationed in the embryo hamlet of 
 Seguin. The other portion, nnder Caldwell, was 
 located on the Guadalupe, fourteen miles above 
 Gonzales and eighteen miles below Seguin, but 
 when the news reached them of this affair, during 
 the night succeeding Cordova's defeat, Capt. 
 Caldwell was in Gonzales and Second Lieut. 
 Canoh C. Colley was in command of the camp. 
 He instantly dispatched a messenger, who readied 
 Caldwell before daylight. The latter soon sent 
 word among the yet sleeping villagers, calling for 
 volunteers to join him by sunrise. Quite a number 
 were promptlj' on hand, among whom were Ben 
 McCuUoch and others of approved gallantry. 
 
 Traveling rapidly, the camp was soon reached 
 and, everything being in readiness, Capt. Caldwell 
 lost no time in uniting with Campbell at Seguin, 
 so that in about thirty-six hours after Burleson had 
 driven Cordova into the Guadalupe bottom, Cald- 
 well, with his own united company (omitting the 
 
 necessary camp guards), and the volunteer citizens 
 referred to, sought, found and followed the trail of 
 Cordova. 
 
 But when Cordova, succeeding his defeat, 
 reached the river, he found it impracticable to 
 ford it and, during the night, returned to the up- 
 lands, made a detour to the east of Seguin, and 
 struck the river five miles above, where, at day- 
 light, March 30th, and at the edge of the bottom, 
 he accidentally surprised and attacked five of 
 Lieut. Campbell's men returning from a scout, and 
 encamped for the night. These men were James 
 M. Day, Thomas R. Nichols, John W. Nichols, 
 D. M. Poor and David Reynolds. Always on the 
 alert, though surprised at such an hour by men using 
 fire-arms only, indicating a foe other than wild 
 Indians, they fought so fiercely as to hold their as- 
 sailants in check sufl[iciently to enable them to reach 
 a dense thicket and escape death, though each one 
 was severely wounded. They lost their horses and 
 everything excepting their arms. Seeing Cordova 
 move on up the river, they continued down about 
 five miles to Seguin, and when Caldwell arrived 
 early next morning gave him this information. 
 Besides those from Gonzales Caldwell was joined 
 at Seguin by Ezekiel Smith, Sr., Peter D. Ander- 
 son and French Smith, George W. Nichols, Sr., 
 William Clinton, H. G. Henderson, Doctor Henry, 
 Frederick Happell, George H. Gray and possibly 
 two or three others. 
 
 Caldwell pursued Cordova, crossing the Guad- 
 alupe where New Braunfels stands, through the 
 highlands north of and around San Antonio and 
 thence westerlj- or northwesterly to the Old Pre- 
 sidio de Rio Grande road, where it crosses the Rio 
 Frio and along that road to the Nueces. It was 
 evident from the "signs" that he had gained 
 nothing in distance on the retreating chief who 
 would easily cross the Rio Grande thirty or forty 
 miles ahead. Hence farther pursuit was futile and 
 Caldwell returned, following the road to San 
 Antonio. He had started without provisions, rely- 
 ing upon wild game; but Cordova's party had, for 
 the moment, frightened wild animals from the line 
 of march and after a serpentine route of a hundred 
 and sixty miles through hills, the men were in need 
 of food and became much more so before traveling 
 a hundred and ten additional miles to San Antonio. 
 Arriving there, however, the whole town welcomed 
 them with open arms. In a note to the author 
 written August 24, 1887, more than forty-eight 
 years later, Gen. Henry E. McCulloch, who was a 
 private in Caldwell's Company, says: "The 
 hospitable people of that blood-stained old town, 
 gave us a warm reception and the best dinner pos- 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 65 
 
 sible in tlieir then condition, over whicli the lieroic 
 and ever lamented Coi. Henry W. Karnes pre- 
 sided. Tliey also furni«lied supplies to meet our 
 wants until we readied our respective encamp- 
 ments." 
 
 On the way out Caldwell passed at different 
 points wounded horses abandoned by Cordova. 
 One such, in the mountains, severely wounded, 
 attracted the experienced eye of Ben McCulloch as 
 a valuable horse, if he could be restored to sound- 
 ness. On leaving San Antonio for home by per- 
 mission of Capt. Caldwell, with a single companion, 
 he went in search of the horse. He found him, 
 and bj' slow marches took him home, where, under 
 good treatment, he entirely recovered, to become 
 famous as " Old Pike," McCulloch's pet and 
 favorite as long as he lived — a fast racer of rich 
 chestnut color, sixteen hands high, faultless 
 in disposition and one of the most sagacious 
 horses ever known in the country. The tips 
 of his ears had been split for about an inch, 
 proving his former ownership by one of the Indian 
 tribes. Another coincidence may be stated, viz., 
 that returning from a brief campaign in June, 
 1841, when at a farm house (that of Mrs. Sophia 
 Jones), eight miles from Gonzales, the rifle of an 
 old man named Triplett, lying across his lap on 
 horseback, with the rod in the barrel, accidentally 
 fired, driving the ramrod into Old Pike's shoulder 
 blade, not over four feet distant. McCulloch was 
 on him at the time and the writer of this, just dis- 
 mounted, stood within ten feet. The venerable 
 Mrs. Jones (mother of the four brothers, William 
 E., Augustus H., Russell and Isham G. Jones), 
 wept over the scene as she gazed upon the noble 
 animal in his agonizing pain, and strong men wept 
 at what they supposed to be the death scene of 
 Old Pike. But it was not so. He was taken in 
 charge by Mrs. Jones ; the fragments of the shat- 
 tered ramrod, one by one, extracted, healthy sup- 
 puration brought about ; and, after about three 
 months' careful nursing, everyone in that section 
 rejoiced to know that Old Pike " was himself 
 again." In a chase after tsvo Mexican scouts, 
 between the Nueces and Laredo, in the Somervell 
 expedition, in December, 1842, in a field of per- 
 haps twenty-five horses, Flacco, the Lipan chief, 
 slightly led, closely followed by Ha^'s on the horse 
 presented him by Leonard W. Grace, and Ben 
 McCulloch, on Old Pike. Both Mexicans were 
 captured. 
 
 PURSUIT AND DEATH OF MANUEL FLORES. 
 
 Bearing in mind what has been said of Cordova's 
 correspondence with Manuel Flores, the Mexican 
 
 Indian agent in Matamoros, and his desire to have 
 a conference with that personage, it remains, in 
 the regular order of events, to say that Flores, 
 ignorant of the calamitous defeat of Cordova (on 
 the 29th of March, 1839), set forth from Mata- 
 moros probably in the last days of April, to meet 
 Cordova and the Indian tribes wherever they might 
 be found, on the upper Brazos, Trinity or east of 
 the latter. He had an escort of about thirty 
 Indians and Mexicans, supplies of ammuni- 
 tion for his allies and all his official papers 
 from Filisola and Canalizo, to which reference 
 has been made, empowering him to treat with 
 the Indians so as to secure their united friend- 
 ship for Mexico and combined hostility to Texas. 
 His march was necessHrily slow. On the 14th of 
 May, he crossed the road between Seguin and San 
 Antonio, having committed several depredations on 
 and near the route, and on the loth crossed the 
 Guadalupe at the old Nacogdoches ford. He was 
 discovered near the Colorado not far above where 
 Austin was laid out later in the same year. 
 
 Lieut. James O. Rice, a gallant young ranger, 
 in command of seventeen men, fell upon his trail, 
 pursued, overhauled and assailed him on Brushy 
 creek (not the San Gabriel as stated by Yoakum), 
 in the edge of Williamson County. Flores en- 
 deavored to make a stand, but Rice rushed for- 
 ward with such impetuosity as to throw the enemy 
 into confusion and flight. Flores and two others 
 were left dead upon the ground, and fully half of 
 those who escaped were wounded. Rice captured 
 and carried in one hundred horses and mules, 
 three hundred pounds of powder, a large amount 
 of shot, balls, lead, etc., and all the correspond- 
 ence in possession of Flores, which revealed the 
 whole plot for the destruction of the frontier 
 people of Texas, to be followed up by the devast- 
 ation of the whole country. The destruction of 
 the whole demoniacal scheme, it will be seen, was 
 accomplished by a train of what must be esteemed 
 providential occurrences. 
 
 THE FATE OF VICENTE CORDOVA. 
 
 Cordova, after these admonitions, never returned 
 to East or North Texas, but remained on the Rio 
 Grande. In September, 1842, in command of a 
 small band of his renegade Mexicans and Indians, 
 he accompanied the Mexican General, Adrian Woll, 
 in his expedition against San Antonio, and was in 
 the battle of Salado, on Sunday the 18th of that 
 month. While Woll fought in front, Cordova led 
 his band below the Texian position on the creek and 
 reached a d'-y ravine where it entered the timbered 
 bottom, at right angles with the corner of the creek. 
 
66 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 At intervals were small thickets on the ravine, with 
 open spaces between. Cordova, in the nearest 
 open space to the bottom and about ninety yards to 
 the right of my company, when in the act of firing, 
 was shot dead by John Lowe, who belonged to the 
 adjoining company on our right and stood about 
 thirty feet from me, while I was loading my gun. 
 I watched the affair closely, fearing that one of 
 our. men might fall from Cordova's fire. There 
 could, at the instant, be no mistake about it. 
 Others saw the same ; but no one knew it was Cor- 
 dova till his men were driven from the position by 
 Lieut. John K. Baker of Cameron's Company, when 
 old Vasquez, a New Madrid Spaniard in our com- 
 mand, recognized him, as did others later. And 
 thus perished Cordova, Flores, and largely, but Ijy 
 no means entirely, their schemes for uniting the 
 Indians against the people of Texas. The great 
 invasion of 1840, and other inroads were a part of 
 the fruit springing from the intrigues of Filisola and 
 Canalizo. 
 
 These entire facts, in their connection and rela- 
 tion to each other, have never before been pub- 
 lished ; and while some minor details have been 
 omitted, it is believed every material fact has been 
 correctly stated. 
 
 In subsequent years contradictory statements 
 were made as to the manner of Cordova's death, or 
 rather, as to who killed him. I simply state the 
 absolute truth as I distinctly saw the fact. The 
 ball ran nearly the whole length of the arm, hori- 
 zontally supporting his gun, and then entered his 
 breast, causing instant death. I stated the fact 
 openly- and repeatedly on the ground after the 
 battle and no one then asserted differently. 
 
 Caldwell's Company of six months' men, while 
 failing to have any engagement, rendered valuable 
 service in protecting the settlers, including Gonzales 
 and Seguin, on the Guadalupe, the San Marcos and 
 La Vaca. In the summer of 1839, Capt. Caldwell 
 also furnished and commanded an escort to Ben 
 McCulloch in surveying and opening a wagon road 
 from Gonzales to the proposed new capital of Texas, 
 then being laid out at Austin, the course, from the 
 court house at Gonzales, being N. 17° W., and the 
 distance, by actual measurement, fifty-five and one- 
 fourth miles. Referring back to numerous trips 
 made on that route from soon after its opening in 
 1839 to the last one in 1869, the writer has ever 
 been of the impression that (outside of mountains 
 and swamps), it was the longest road for its meas- 
 ured length, he ever traveled. 
 
 The Expulsion of the Cherokees from Texas in 1839. 
 
 When the revolution against Mexico broke out in 
 Texas in September, 1835, all of what is now called 
 North Texas, excepting small settlements in the 
 present territory of Bowie, Red river and the 
 northeast corner of Lamar counties, was without a 
 single white inhabitant. It was a wilderness occu- 
 pied or traversed at will by wild Indians. The 
 Caddos, more or less treacherous, and sometimes 
 committing depredations, occupied the country 
 around Caddo and Soda lakes, partly in Texas and 
 partly in Louisiana. The heart of East Texas, as 
 now defined, was then the home of one branch of 
 the Cherokees and their twelve associate bands, the 
 Shawuees, Kickapoos, Delawares and others who 
 had entered the country from the United States 
 from about 1820 to 1835. It has been shown in 
 previous chapters that in 1822 three of their chisfs 
 visited the city of Mexico to secure a grant of laad 
 and failed: how in 1826, two of their best and 
 most talented men, John Dunn Hunter and • — 
 
 Fields, visited that capital on a similar mission and 
 failed, returning soured against the Mexican gov- 
 ernment ; how, in the autumn of that year, in con- 
 sequence of that failure, they united with Col. 
 Haden Edwards, himself outraged by Mexican in- 
 justice, as the head of a colony, in opposition to 
 the Mexican government, in what was known as 
 the Fredonian war, and how, being seduced from 
 their alliance with Edwards through the promises 
 of Ellis P. Bean, as an agent of Mexico, they 
 turned upon and murdered Hunter and Fields, 
 their truest and best friends, and joined the Mexi- 
 can soldiery to drive the Americans from Nacog- 
 doches and Edwards' colony. 
 
 So, when the revolution of 1835 burst forth, the 
 provisional government of Texas, through Gen. 
 Sam. Houston and Col. Jno. Forbes, commissioners, 
 in February, 1836, formed a treaty with them, 
 conceding them certain territory and securing their 
 neutrality, so far as paper stipulations could do it. 
 
I2^^DIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 67 
 
 But it was soon suspected that Mexicans were 
 among tliem, and when it became known that the 
 whole population west of the Trioity must flee to 
 the east of that stream, if not to and across the 
 Sabine, perhaps two or three thousand men — hus- 
 bands, fathers and sons — were deterred from join- 
 ing Gen. Houston's little band of three hundred at 
 Gonzales, in its retreat, from March 13th to April 
 20th, to the plains of San Jacinto. It was a fear- 
 ful moment. Being appealed to, on the ground 
 that these were United States Indians, Gen. 
 Edmund P. Gaines, the commander at Fort Jessup, 
 near Natchitoches, Louisiana, encamped a regiment 
 of dragoons on the east bank of the Sabine, which 
 was readily understood by the Indians to mean that 
 if they murdered a single Texian family, these 
 dragoons would cross that river and be hurled upon 
 them. This had the desired effect. 
 
 Again, in the early summer of 1836, when a 
 second and much more formidable invasion of 
 Texas seemed imminent, it became known that 
 Mexican emissaries were again among these In- 
 dians, and great apprehensions were felt of their 
 rising in arms as the Mexicans advanced. Presi- 
 dent David G. Burnet, on the 28th of June, at the 
 suggestion of Stephen F. Austin, who had arrived 
 at Velasco on the 26th from the United States, 
 addressed a letter to Gen. Gaines, asking him for 
 the time being, to station a force at Nacogdoches, 
 to overawe the Indians. Austin also wrote him of 
 the emergenc}'. That noble and humane old soldier 
 and patriot assumed the responsibility and dis- 
 patched Col. Whistler with a regiment of dragoons 
 to take post at Nacogdoches. This had the desired 
 effect on the Indians. The Mexican invasion did 
 not occur, and the crisis passed. 
 
 But the seeds of suspicion and discord between 
 the whites and Indians still existed. Isolated mur- 
 ders and lesser outrages began to show themselves 
 soon afterwards. The Pearce family, the numer- 
 ous family of the Killoughs and numerous others 
 were ruthlessly murdered. 
 
 Gen. Houston, who had great influence with the 
 Cherokees, interposed his potential voice to allay 
 
 the excitement and preserve the peace. In 
 
 , 1838, Vicente Cordova headed an insur- 
 rection of the Mexicans of Nacogdoches and took 
 position in the Cherokee country, — and sustained 
 more or less by that tribe, and joined by a few of 
 them, greatly incensed the whites against them. 
 
 In November, 1838, Gen. Rusk fought and 
 defeated a strong force of Kickapoo and other 
 Indians. Gen. Houston retired from his first 
 presidential term in December, and was succeeded 
 by Gen. Mirabeau B. Lamar, who was in deep 
 
 sympathy with the people, and had probably 
 brought with him from Georgia a measure of 
 prejudice against those who had fought and slain 
 his kindred and fellow-citizens in that State. 
 
 President Lamar resolved on the removal of 
 these people from the heart of East Texas, and 
 their return to their kindred west of Arkansas — by 
 force if necessary. He desired to pay them for 
 their improvements and other losses. He ap- 
 pointed Vice-president David G. Burnet, Gen. 
 Albert Sidney Johnston, Secretary of War, Hugh 
 McLeod, Adjutant-general, and Gen. Thomas J. 
 Rusk to meet and treat with them for their peace- 
 ful removal ; but if that failed then they were to be 
 expelled by force. To be prepared for the latter 
 contingency, he ordered Col. Edward Burleson, 
 then in command of the regular army, to march 
 from Austin to the appointed rendezvous in the 
 Cherokee country, with two companies of regulars 
 and the volunteer companies of Capts. James 
 Ownsby and Mark B. Lewis, about two hundred 
 strong, and commanded by Maj. William J. 
 Jones, still living at Virginia Point, opposite Gal- 
 veston. On the ground they found the com- 
 missioners and about the same time Gen. Kelsey 
 H. Douglas arrived with several hundred East 
 Texas militia and took chief command. Burleson 
 took with him also Capt. Placido, with forty 
 Toncahua warriors. 
 
 After three days' negotiation terms were verbally 
 agreed upon. The Indians were to leave the 
 country for a consideration. The second day fol- 
 lowing was fixed for signing the treaty. But the 
 Indians did not appear. The rendezvous was 
 ten miles from their settlements. Scouts sent out 
 returned reporting the Indians in force moving off. 
 It turned out that Bowles, the principal chief, had 
 been finessing for time to assemble all his warriors 
 and surprise the whites by a superior force. His 
 reinforcements not arriving in time, he had begun 
 falling back to meet them. Col. Burleson was 
 ordered to lead the pursuit. He pressed forward 
 rapidly and late in the afternoon (it being July 
 16th, 1839), came up with them and had a. severe 
 engagement, partly in a small prairie and partly in 
 heavy timber, into which Burleson drove them, 
 when night came on and our troops encamped. I 
 now quote from the narrative of Maj. Wm. J. 
 Jones, who was under Burleson in the first as well 
 as the last engagement on the 17th of July. He 
 says: — 
 
 " It soon became apparent that the reinforce- 
 ments looked for by Bowles had not reached him 
 and that he was falling back to meet them. This 
 he succeeded in accomplishing next morning (the 
 
G8 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 17th daj' of July), at the Delaware village, now in 
 Clierokee Couut^', occup}'ing an eminence in the 
 open post oaks, with the heavily timbered bottom 
 of the Neches in their immediate rear. When our 
 forces overtook them the main bodj' of the enemy 
 were in full sight occupying tiie eminence where the 
 village was located, while a detachment was posted 
 in a ravine, tortuous in its course, and was 
 intended to conceal their movements towards our 
 rear, with a view to throw themselves between our 
 men and their horses. But the watchful eye of 
 Col. Burleson, who well understood the Indian 
 tactics, discovered this movement in good time, 
 when he ordered his entire force of three hundred 
 men to charge and drive the Indians from their 
 place of concealment. Although the weather was 
 extremely hot and the men all famished for water, 
 lliis order was executed with promptness, routing 
 the Indians and driving them baclv towards the 
 village, surrounded by fences and cornfields. 
 Oen. Rusk, with all the force (about 400) of East 
 Texas under his immediate* command, had in the 
 meantime advanced upon the enemy's front and 
 kept them so hotly engaged in defense of their 
 women and children that no reinforcement could 
 be spared from that quarter for the support of 
 those who had been driven from the ravine. When 
 they retreated upon the main body, their entire 
 force was terrorized and fell back in great disorder 
 upon the cornfields, then in full bearing, and the 
 dense timber of the river bottom. It was here that 
 Bowles evinced the most desperate intrepidity, and 
 made several unavailing efforts to rally his trusted 
 warriors. * * * It was in his third and last 
 effort to restore his broken and disordered ranks, 
 that he met his death, mounted upon a very fine 
 sorrel horse, with blaze face and four white feet. 
 He was shot in the back, near the spine, with a 
 musket ball and three buckshot. He breathed 
 a short while only after his fall. * • » 
 
 " After this defeat and the loss of their great and 
 trusted chief," the Indians disappeared, in the 
 jungles of the Neches and, as best they could, in 
 squads, retreated up the country, the larger por- 
 tion finally joining their countrymen west of 
 Arkansas; but as will be seen a band of them led 
 by John Bowles (son of the deceased chief) and 
 Egg, en route to Mexico, were defeated, these two 
 leaders killed and twenty-seven women and children 
 captured, near the mouth of the San Saba, on 
 Christmas day, 1839, by Col. Burleson. These cap- 
 tives were afterwards sent to the Cherokee Nation, 
 
 The victory at the Delaware village freed East 
 Texas of those Indians. It had become an imper- 
 ative necessity to the safet}' and population of the 
 
 country. Yet let it not be understood that all of 
 RIGHT was with the whites and all of wrong with 
 the Indians — for that would be false and unjust, 
 and neither should stain our history. From their 
 standpoint the Cherokees believed they had a 
 moral, an equitable, and, at least, a quasi-legal 
 right to the country, and such is truth. But be- 
 tween Mexican emissaries on the one hand, mis- 
 chievous Indians on the other and the grasping 
 desire of the unprincipled land grabbers for their 
 territory, one wrong produced a counter wrong 
 until blood flowed and women and children were 
 sacrificed by the more lawless of the Indians, and 
 we have seen the result. All the Indians were not 
 bad, nor were all the whites good. Their expul- 
 sion, thus resolved into the necessity of self-preser- 
 vation, is not without shades of sorrow. But it has 
 been ever thus where advancing civilization and its 
 opposite have been brought into juxtaposition for 
 the mastery. 
 
 But to return to the l)attle-field of Delaware vil- 
 lage. Many heroic actions were performed. Vice- 
 president Burnet, Gen. Johnston and Adjt.-Gen. 
 McLeod were each wounded, but not dangerously 
 so. Maj. David S. Kaufman, of the militia 
 (afterwards the distinguished congressman), was 
 shot in the cheek. Capt. S. W. Jordan, of the 
 regulars (afterwards, by his retreat in October, 
 1840, from Saltillo, styled the Xenophon of his 
 age), was severely wounded when Bowles was 
 killed, and one of his privates, with " buck and 
 ball," says Maj. Jones, " had the credit of killing 
 Bowles." 
 
 [In a letter dated Nacogdoches, July 27, 1885. 
 Mr. C. N. Bell, who was in the fight under Capt. 
 Robert Smith, and is vouched for as a man of in- 
 tegrity, says: " Chief Bowles was wounded in the 
 battle, and after this Capt. Smith and I found him. 
 He was sitting in the edge of a little prairie on the 
 Neches river. The chief asked for no quarter. 
 He had a holster of pistols, a sword and a bowie 
 knife. Under the circumstances the captain was 
 compelled to shoot him, as the chief did not surren- 
 der nor ask for quarter. Smith put his pistol right 
 to his head and shot him dead, and of course had no 
 use for the sword." So says Mr. Bell, but the in- 
 quisitive mind will fail to see the compulsive neces- 
 sity of killing the disabled chief when his slayer 
 was enabled " to put his pistol right to his head 
 and shoot him dead." I well remember in those 
 daj^s, however, that the names of half a dozen men 
 were paraded as the champions, who, under as 
 man\' different circumstances, had killed Bowles.] 
 
 In this battle young Wirt Adams was the Adjutant 
 of Maj. Jones' battalion. He was the distinguished 
 
INDIAN WAES AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 69 
 
 Mississippi Confederate General who was killed in 
 some sort of personal difficulty a year or two j'ears 
 ago. Michael Chavaliier, subsequently distinguished 
 as a Texas ranger, drew his maiden sword in this 
 fight. Maj. Henry W. Augustine, of San Augustine, 
 was severely wounded in it. Charles A. Ogsbury, 
 now of Cuero, was a gallant member of Capt. Owns- 
 by's Company. John H. Reagan,* then a youth, 
 recently arrived in the countr}', was in the hottest of 
 the engagement, and now sits in the Senate of the 
 United States. David Rusk, standing six feet six 
 
 in his stocking feet, was there, as valiant as on San 
 Jacinto's field. The ever true, ever cool and ever 
 fearless Burleson covered himself with glory and by 
 his side rode the stately and never faltering chief, 
 Capt. Placido, who would have faced "devils and 
 demons dire" rather than forsake his friend and 
 beau ideal of warriors, "Col. Woorleson," as he 
 always pronounced the name. 
 
 I cannot give a list of casualties, but the 
 number of wounded was large — of killed 
 small. 
 
 Col. Burleson's Christmas Fight in 1839 — Death of Chiefs John 
 Bowles and the " Egg." 
 
 After the double defeat of the Cherokees in East 
 Texas, in the battle of July 16th and 17lh, the 
 whereabouts of those Indians was unknown for a 
 considerable time. Doubtless a considerable por- 
 tion of them sought and found refuge among their 
 kindred on the north side of the Arkansas, where 
 Texas had long desired them to be. The death of 
 their great chief, Col. Bowles, or "The Bowl," as 
 his people designated him — the man who had been 
 their Moses for many years — had divided their 
 counsels and scattered them. But a considerable 
 body remained intact under the lead of the younger 
 chiefs, John Bowles, son of the deceased, and 
 "The Egg." In the autumn of 1839, these, with 
 their followers, undertook to pass across the coun- 
 try, above the settlements, into Mexico, from which 
 they could harass our Northwestern frontier with 
 impunity and find both refuge and protection 
 beyond the Rio Grande and among our national 
 foes. 
 
 At that time it happened that Col. Edward Bur- 
 leson, then of the regular army, with a body of 
 regulars, a few volunteers and Lipan and Toncahua 
 Indians as scouts, was on a winter campaign against 
 the hostile tribes in the upper country, between the 
 Brazos and the Colorado rivers. 
 
 On the evening of December 23d, 1839, when 
 about twenty-five miles (easterly) from Pecan 
 bayou, the scouts reported the discovery of a large 
 trail of horses and cattle, bearing south towards 
 
 * Since above was written, resigned from United 
 States Senate, and is now a member of the Texas State 
 Railroad Commission. 
 
 the Colorado river. On the following day Col. Bur- 
 leson changed his course and followed the trail. 
 On the morning of the 25th, Christmas day, the 
 scouts returned and reported an encampment of 
 Indians about twelve miles distant, on the west 
 bank of the Colorado and about three miles below 
 the mouth of the San Saba. (This was presumably 
 the identical spot from which Capts. Kuykendall 
 and Henry S. Brown drove the Indians ten years 
 before in 1829.) 
 
 Fearing discovery if he waited for a night attack, 
 Col. Burleson determined to move forward as 
 rapidly as possible, starting at 9 a. m. By great 
 caution and the cunning of his Indian guides he 
 succeeded in crossing the river a short distance 
 above the encampment without being discovered. 
 
 When discovered within a few hundred yards of 
 the camp, a messenger met them and proposed a 
 parley. Col. Burleson did not wish to fire if they 
 would surrender ; but perceiving their messenger 
 was being detained, the Indians opened a brisk 
 fire from a ravine in rear of their camp, which was 
 promptly returned by Company B. under Capt. 
 Clendenin, which formed under cover of some 
 trees and fallen timber; while the remainder of the 
 command moved to the right in order to flank their 
 left or surround them ; but before this could be 
 executed, our advance charged and the enemy 
 gave way, and a running fight took place for two 
 miles, our whole force pursuing. Favored by a 
 rocky precipitous ravine, and a dense cedar brake, 
 the warriors chiefly escaped, but their loss was 
 great. Among the seven warriors left dead on 
 the field were the Chiefs John Bowles and " The 
 
70 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Egg." The whole of their camp equipage, horses 
 and cattle, one man, five women and nineteen 
 children fell into the hands of the victors. Among 
 the prisoners were the motiier, three children and 
 two sisters of John Bowles. 
 
 Our loss was one Toncahua wounded and the 
 brave Capt. Lynch of the volunteers killed — shot 
 dead while charging among the foremost of the 
 advance. 
 
 The prisoners were sent under a guard com- 
 manded by Lieut. Moran to Austin, together with 
 important papers found in the cam|i. 
 
 Col. Burleson made his official report next day 
 to Gen. Albert Sydney Johnston, Secretary of 
 War, from which these details are derived. He 
 
 then continued his original march, scouring the 
 country up Pecan bayou, thence across to the 
 Leon and down the country. Several bodies of 
 Indians were discovered by the scouts — one being 
 large — but tiiey fled and avoided the troops. 
 Two soldiers deserted on the trip, and both were 
 killed by the hostiles. Among others in this 
 expedition were Col. Wm. S. Fisher, Maj. Wyatt, 
 the gallant Capt. Matthew Caldwell, Lieut. Lewis, 
 Dr. Booker and Dr. (then Capt.) J. P. B. Jan- 
 uary, who died in Victoria, Texas, a worthy sur- 
 vivor of the men of '36. 
 
 A few months later, after an amicable under- 
 standing, the prisoners were sent to their kindred 
 in the Cherokee Nation, west of Arkansas. 
 
 Bird's Victory and Death in 1839. 
 
 In 1839 the savages, flushed with many trophies, 
 became exceedingly bold, and were constantly 
 committing depredations. The settlers on the 
 upper Brazos, Colorado and Trinity called upon 
 the government for some measure of relief and 
 protection. Under an Act of the Congress in the 
 beginning of that year several companies of three 
 months' rangers were called out. 
 
 The fraction of a company, thirty-four men, 
 recruited in Houston, and under the command of 
 Lieut. William G. Evans, marched from that city 
 and reached Fort Milam the 3d of April, 1839. 
 This fort, situated two miles from the present town 
 of Marlin, had been built by Capt. Joseph Daniels, 
 with the Milam Guards, a volunteer company, also 
 from Houston. William H. Weaver was Orderly 
 Sergeant of Evans' Company. Evans was directed 
 to afford all the protection in his power to the 
 settlers. 
 
 A company of fifty-nine men from Fort Bend 
 and Austin counties, was mustered into the ser- 
 vice for three months, on the 21st of April, 1839, 
 under the command of Capt. John Bird, and 
 reached Fort Milam on tlie 6th of May. Capt. 
 Bird, as senior officer, took command of both com- 
 panies, but leaving Evans in the fort, he quartered 
 in some deserted houses on the spot where Marlin 
 now stands. 
 
 Nothing special transpired for some little time, 
 but their provisions gave out, and the men were 
 compelled to subsist on wild meat alone. This 
 
 occasioned some murmurs and seven men became 
 mutinous, insomuch, as, in the opinion of Bird, to 
 demand a court-martial ; but there were not 
 officers enough to constitute such a tribunal, and 
 after their arrest he determined to send them under 
 guard to Col. Burleson, at Bastrop. For this pur- 
 pose twelve men were detailed under First-Lieut. 
 James Irvine. At the same time Bird detailed 
 twelve men, including Sergt. Weaver, from Evans' 
 command, to strengthen his own company, and 
 determined to bear company with the prisoners 
 on a portion of the route towards Bastrop. 
 
 They reached the deserted fort on Little river on 
 the night of the 25th of June and camped. Next 
 morning, leaving Lieut. Wm. R. Allen in charge, 
 Bird and Nathan Brookshire accompanied the 
 guard and prisoners for a few miles on their route 
 and then retraced their steps towards the fort. 
 On the way, they came upon three Indians, skin- 
 ning a buffalo, routed them and captured a horse 
 loaded with meat. 
 
 About 9 o'clock a. m., and during Bird's ab- 
 sence, a small party of Indians, on the chase, ran 
 a gang of buffaloes very near the fort, but so soon 
 as they discovered the Americans they retreated 
 north over the roiling prairie. Sergt. Weaver 
 was anxious to pursue them, but Allen refused, 
 lest by so doing they should expose Bird and 
 Brookshire. So soon as the latter arrived, and 
 were informed of what had been seen. Bird directed 
 an examination into the condition of their arms, 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 71 
 
 and ordered " To horse," and a rapid march in 
 the direction the Indians had gone, leaving two 
 men in the fort as guard. In about four miles 
 they came in view of fifteen or twenty Indians and 
 chased without overhauling Ihcm. The enemy 
 were well mounted and could easily elude them, 
 but seemed only to avoid gun-shot distance, and 
 continued at a moderate speed on the same course, 
 through the broken prairie. Now and then, a sin- 
 gle Indian would dart off in advance of his com- 
 rades and disappear, and after pursuing them some 
 four or five miles small parties of well mounted 
 Indians would frequently appear and join the first 
 body ; but still the retreat and the pursuit were 
 continued. 
 
 After traveling some twelve miles in this way, 
 through the prairie, the Indian force had been ma- 
 terially augmented, and they halted and formed on 
 the summit of a high ridge. Bird immediately 
 ordered a charge, which was firmly met by the 
 enemy and they came into close quarters and hot 
 work. As they mingled with the Indians on the 
 elevated ridge, one of Bird's men, pointing to the 
 next ridge beyond, sang out: "Look yonder, 
 boys! What a crowd of Indians! " and the little 
 band of forty-five men beheld several hundred 
 mounted warriors advancing at full speed. They 
 immediately surrounded our men and poured a 
 heavy fire among them. The intrepid Weaver 
 directed Capt. Bird's attention to a ravine two hun- 
 dred 3'ards distant and at the base of the hill, as an 
 advantageous position. Bird, preserving the ut- 
 most composure amid the shower of bullets and 
 arrows, ordered his men to dismount, and leading 
 their horses in solid column, to cut their way down 
 to the position named. 
 
 Cutting their way as best they could, they reached 
 the head of the little ravine and made a lodgment 
 for both men and horses, but a man named H. M. 
 C. Hall, who had persisted in remaining on his 
 horse, was mortally wounded in dismounting on 
 the bank. This ravine was in the open prairie with 
 a ridge gradually ascending from its head and on 
 either side, reaching the principal elevations at 
 from two hundred and fifty to three hundred 
 yards. For about eighty yards the ravine had 
 washed out into a channel, and then expanded 
 into a flat surface. Such localities are com- 
 mon in the rolling prairies of Texas. The party 
 having thus secured this, the only defensible point 
 within their reach, the enemy collected to the 
 number of about six hundred on the ridge, stripped 
 for battle and hoisted a beautiful flag of blue and 
 red, perhaps the trophy of some precious victory. 
 Sounding a whistle they mounted and at a gentle 
 
 and beautifully regular gallop in single file, they 
 commenced encircling Bird and his little band, 
 using their shields with great dexterity. Passing 
 round the head of the ravine then turning in front 
 of the Texian line, at about thirty yards — • a trial 
 always the most critical to men attacked by supe- 
 rior numbers, and one, too, that created among 
 Bird's men a death-like silence and doubtless tested 
 every nerve — the leading chief saluted them with: 
 "How do you do? How do you do?" repeated 
 by a number of his followers. At that moment, 
 says one of the party, my heart rose to my throat 
 and I felt like I could outrun a race-horse and I 
 thought all the rest felt just as I did. But, just as 
 the chief had repeated the salutation the third time, 
 William Winkler, a Dutchman, presented his rifle 
 with as much self-composure as if he had been 
 shooting a beef, at the same time responding: " I 
 dosh tolerably well ; how dosh you do, God tarn 
 you! " He fired, and as the chief fell, he con- 
 tinued: " jVbro, how dosh you do, you tam red 
 rascal ! " Not another word had been uttered up to 
 that moment, but the dare-devil impromptu of the 
 iron-nerved Winkler operated as an electric battery, 
 and our men opened on the enemy with loud and 
 defiant hurrahs — the spell was broken, and not a 
 man among them but felt himself a hero. Their 
 first fire, however, from the intensity of the ordeal, 
 did little execution, and in the charge, Thomas Gay 
 fell dead in the ditch, from a rifle liall. 
 
 Recoiling under the fire, the Indians again formed 
 on the bill and remained about twenty minutes, 
 when a second charge was made in the same order, 
 but in which they made a complete circuit around 
 the Texians dealing a heavy fire among them. But 
 the nerves of the inspirited defenders had now be- 
 come steady and their aim was unerring — they 
 brought a goodly number of their assailants to the 
 ground. They paid bitterly for it, however, in the 
 loss of the fearless Weaver, who received a death 
 ball in the head, and of Jesse E. Nash, who was 
 killed by an arrow, while Lieut. Allen and George 
 W. Hensell were severely wounded and disabled ; 
 and as the enemy fell back a second time, Capt. 
 Bird jumped on to the bank to encourage his men; 
 but only to close his career on earth. He was shot 
 through the heart with an arrow by an Indian at 
 the extraordinary distance of two hundred yards — 
 the best arrow shot known in the annals of Indian 
 warfare, and one that would seem incredible to 
 those who are not familiar with their skill in shoot- 
 ing by elevation. 
 
 They were now left without an officer. Nathan 
 Brookshire, who had served in the Creek war under 
 Jackson, was the oldest man iu the companj', and 
 
72 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 at the suggestion of Samuel A. Blain, was unani- 
 mously called upon to assume the command. He 
 assented, and requited the confidence reposed in a 
 most gallant manner. 
 
 For the third time, after a brief delay on the 
 ridge, the enemy came down in full force, with ter- 
 rific yells, and an apparent determination to triumph 
 or sacrifice themselves. They advanced with impet- 
 uosity to the very brink of the ditch, and, recoiling 
 under the most telling fire from our brave boys, 
 they would rally again and again with great firmness. 
 Dozens of them fell within twenty or thirty feet of 
 our rifles — almost every shot killed or wounded an 
 Indian. Brookshire's stentorian voice was heard 
 through the lines in words of inspiring counsel. 
 The stand made by the enemy was trul}' desperate; 
 but the death-dealing havoc of the white man, fight- 
 ing for victory or death, was too galling for the red 
 man, battling for his ancient hunting-grounds, and 
 after a prolonged contest, they withdrew with sullen 
 stubbornness to the same position on the ridge, leav- 
 ing many of their comrades on the field. It was 
 now drawing towards night, and our men, wearied 
 with the hard day's woik, and not wishing to pro- 
 voke a feeling of desperation among the discom- 
 fited foe, concluded it would be unwise to hurrah 
 any more, as they had done, unless in resisting a 
 charge. 
 
 The Indians drew up into a compact mass on the 
 ridge and were vehemently addressed by their prin- 
 cipal chief, mounted on a beautiful horse and 
 wearing on his head a buffalo skin cap, with the 
 horns attached. It was manifest, from his manner 
 and gesticulations, that he was urging his braves 
 to another and last desperate struggle for victory — 
 but it would not do. The crowd was defeated. 
 But not so with their heroic chief. Failing to 
 nerve the mass, he resolved to lead the few who 
 might follow him. With not exceeding twelve 
 warriors, as the forlorn hope, and proudly waving 
 defiance at his people, he made one of the most 
 daring assaults in our history, charging within a 
 few paces of our lines, fired, and wheeling his 
 horse, threw his shield over his shoulders, leaving 
 his head and neck only exposed. At this moment, 
 the chivalrous young James W. Robinett sent a 
 ball through his neck, causing instant death, ex- 
 claiming, as the chief fell, "Shout boys! I struck 
 him where his neck and shoulders join! " A tre- 
 mendous hurrah was the response. The Indians on 
 the hill side, spectators of the scene, seeing their 
 great war chief fall within thirty feet of the Amer- 
 icans, seemed instantly possessed by a reckless 
 frenzy to recover his body ; and with headlong 
 impetuosity, rushed down and surrounded the 
 
 dead chief, apparently heedless of their own dan- 
 ger, while our elated heroes poured among them 
 awful havoc, every ball telling upon some one of 
 the huge and compact mass. This struggle was 
 short, but deadly. They bore away the martyred 
 chief, but paid a dear reckoning for the privilege. 
 
 It was now sunset. The enemy had counted 
 our men — they knew their own force — and so 
 confident were they of perfect victory, that they 
 were careful not to kill our horses, only one of 
 which fell. But they were sadly mistaken — they 
 were defeated with great loss, and as the sun was 
 closing the daj^ they slowly and sullenly moved 
 off, uttering that peculiar guttural howl — that 
 solemn, Indian wail — which all old Indian fighters 
 understand. 
 
 Brookshire, having no provisions and his heroic 
 men being exhausted from the intense labors of 
 the day, thought it prudent to fall back upon the 
 fort the same night. Hall, Allen and Hensell were 
 carried in, the former djing soon after reaching 
 there. The next day Brookshire sent a runner to 
 Nashville, fifty miles. On the second day, his 
 provisions exhausted, he moved the company also 
 to Nashville. Mr. Thompson received them with 
 open arms and feasted them with the best he had. 
 Brookshire made a brief report of the battle to the 
 Government, and was retained in command till 
 their three months' term of service expired, with- 
 out any other important incident. " Bird's Vic- 
 tor}'," as this battle has been termed, spread a 
 gloom among the Indians, the first serious repulse 
 the wild tribes had received for some time, and its 
 effect was long felt. 
 
 I have before me copies of the muster rolls of 
 both Bird's and Evans' companies, in which are 
 designated those who were in the battle, excepting 
 one person. The list does not show who composed 
 the prisoners or guard. Lieut. Irvine and L. M. 
 H. Washington, however, were two of the guards. 
 As the muster rolls have been burnt in the Adjutant- 
 General's ofHce, these rolls are the more important 
 and may be preserved in this sketch. The names 
 are classed and hereto appended. 
 
 bird's COMPANr. 
 
 Those known to be in the fight were: John Bird, 
 Captain ; Wm. R. Allen, Second Lieutenant ; Wm. 
 P. Sharp, Second Sergeant; Wm. P. Bird, First 
 Corporal. Privates: Nathan Brookshire (Captain 
 after Bird's death), William Badgett, James 
 Brookshire, Tillman C. Fort, James Hensley, 
 William Hensley, H. M. C. Hall, J. H. Hughes, 
 
 A. J. Ivey, Edward Jocelyn, Lewis Kleberg, Green 
 
 B. Lynch, Jesse E. Nash, Jonathan Peters, William 
 
GEN. BEN. MoCULLOCH. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 73 
 
 Peters, E. Rector, Milton Bradford, Warren Hast- 
 ings, T. W. Lightfoot, G. W. Pentecost, Eli Fore- 
 man, A. G. Parker, Daniel Bradle\', Geo. W. 
 Hensel, Benj. P. Ku3-ger, John D. Thompson, 
 Joseph H. Slack, Thomas Bradford — 32 and one 
 omitted — say 33. Left in charge of the fort, 
 Joseph S. Marsh and F. G. Woordward — 2. Ab- 
 sent (as before stated, including the man in the 
 fight not remembered), James Irvine, First Lieuten- 
 ant. Privates: Bela Vickery, Wm. Blair, Second 
 Corporal, George Allen, Wm. Ayres, Joshua O. 
 Blair, Lewis L. Hunter, W. Hickson, Neil Me- 
 Crarey, J. D. Marshall, James Martin, J. W. 
 Stoddard, Henry Verm, Joseph H. Barnard, 
 Stephen Goodman, M. J. Hannon, C. Beisner, 
 Jackson E. Burdick, James M. Moreton, .Joseph 
 McGuines, Wm. J. Hodge, Charles Waller, L. M. 
 H. Washington, John Atkinson, Joshua O. Blair — 
 25. 
 
 LIEDT. EVANS' COMPANY. 
 
 Those in the fight were: William H. Weaver, 
 First Sergeant ; Samuel A. Blain, Second Corporal; 
 Privates: Thomas Gay, Charles M. Gevin, W. W. 
 Hanman, Robert Mills, Thomas S. Menefee, H. A. 
 Powers, James M. Robinett, John Romann, William 
 
 Winkler, Thos. Robinett— 12. Those left at Fort 
 Milam were: Wm. G. Evans, First Lieutenant; 
 J. O. Butler, Second Sergeant; Thos. Brown, 
 First Corporal ; A. Bettinger, Musician ; Piivates: 
 Charles Ball, Littleton Brown, Grafton H. Boatler, 
 D. W. Collins, Joseph Flippen, Abner Frost, James 
 Hickey, Hezekiah Joner, John Kirk, Laben Mene- 
 fee, Jarrett Menefee, Thomas J. Miller, Frederick 
 Pool, Washington Rhodes, Jarrett Ridgway, John 
 St. Clair, John Weston, Thomas A: Menefee — 22. 
 Joseph Mayor crippled and left in Houston — total 
 company, 35. 
 
 RECAPITULATION. 
 
 Bird's men in the battle 33 
 
 Evans' " " " 12—45 
 
 Bird's men not in the fight 26 
 
 Evans' " •' " " 22—48 
 
 Aggregate force of both commands 93 
 
 The classification of the names was made by one 
 of those in the battle, from memory. It may pos- 
 sibly be slightly incorrect in that particular; but 
 the rolls of each company as mustered in are 
 official. 
 
 Ben McCulloch's Peach Creek Fight in 1839. 
 
 Among the survivors of that day, it is remem- 
 bered as a fact and b}' those of a later day, as a 
 tradition, that in February, 1839, there fell through- 
 out South and Southwest Texas, the most destruc- 
 tive sleet ever known in the country. Great trees 
 were bereft of limbs and tops by the immense 
 weight of ice, and bottoms, previously open and 
 free of underbrush, were simply choked toimpassa- 
 bility by fallen timber. The cold period continued 
 for ten or twelve days, while ice and snow, shielded 
 from the sun, lay upon the ground for a much 
 longer period. This occurred in the latter half of 
 February, 1839, in the same year but several 
 months before Austin, or rather the land upon 
 which it stands, was selected as the future seat of 
 government. 
 
 At that time Ben McCulloch, who had entered 
 Texas just in time to command a gun at San 
 Jacinto, was a young man in his twenty-eighth year 
 residing at Gonzales, having been joined by his 
 brother, Henry E., his junior by several years. 
 
 during the preceding year. At the same time the 
 Toncahua tribe of Indians were encamped at the 
 junction of Peach and Sandy creeks, about fifteen 
 miles northeast of Gonzales. 
 
 Just prior to this great sleet Ben McCulloch had 
 made an agreement with a portion of the Toncahuas 
 to join him and such white men as he could secure 
 in a winter expedition against the hostile Indians 
 above. The sleet postponed the enterprise and, 
 when the weather partially resumed its usual 
 temperature, it was difficult to enlist either whites 
 or Indians in the contemplated enterprise. Both 
 dreaded a recurrence of the storm. But following 
 Moore's San Saba trip and in hope of recovering 
 Matilda Lockhart and the Putman children, Mc- 
 Culloch deemed that an auspicious time to make 
 such a trip, and about the first of March left the 
 Toncahua village for the mountains. The party 
 consisted of five white men — Ben McCulloch, Wil- 
 son Randall, John D. Wolfin, David Henson and 
 Henry E. McCulloch — and thirty-five Toncahua 
 
74 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 warriors commanded by their well-linown and wily 
 old chief, " Capt. Jim Kerr," a name that he 
 assumed in 1826 as an evidence of his friendship 
 for the first settler of Gonzales, after that gentle- 
 man had been broken up by other Indians in July 
 of that j'ear. The medicine man of the party was 
 Chico. 
 
 On the second day out and on the head waters of 
 Peach creek, they struck a fresh trail of foot 
 Indians, bearing directly for Gonzales. This, of 
 course, changed their plans. Duty to their threat- 
 ened neighbors demanded that they should follow 
 and break up this invading party. 
 
 They followed the trail rapidly for three or four 
 hours and then came in sight of the enemy, who 
 promptly entered an almost impenetrable thicket 
 bordering a branch and in a post oak country. 
 The hostiles, concealed from view, had every 
 advantage, and every attempt to reach a point from 
 which they could be seen or fired upon was ex- 
 posing the party attempting it to the fire of the 
 unseen enemj'. Several hours passed in which 
 occasional shots were fired. From the first Capt. 
 Jim refused to enter or allow his men to enter the 
 thicket, saying the dangei was too great and Ton- 
 cahuas too scarce to run such hazards. One of 
 his men, however, from behind the only tree well 
 situated for defense, was killed, the only loss sus- 
 tained by the attacking party. Finally, impatient 
 of delay and dreading the approach of night, 
 McCulloch got a promise from Capt. Jim to so 
 place his men around the lower end of the thicket 
 as to kill any who might attempt to escape, while 
 he, his brother, Randall and Henson would crawl 
 through it from the upper end. Wolfln declined a 
 ticket in what he regarded as so dangerous a lot- 
 tery. Slowly they moved, observing every possible 
 precaution till — " one by one " — each of the four 
 killed an Indian and two or three others were 
 wounded. The assailed Indians fired many shots 
 and arrows, but seemed doomed to failure. In 
 thickets nothing is so effective as liie rifle ball. 
 
 Finally the survivors of the enemy (nine of an 
 original thirteen) emerged in the branch at the 
 lower end of the thicket and were allowed by Capt. 
 Jim to escape. When the whites effected an exit 
 the enemy was beyond reach, sheltered in a j'et 
 larger thicket. 
 
 This closed the campaign. The Toncahuas, 
 scalping the four dead hostiles, felt impelled by a 
 patriotic sense of dut}' to hasten home and celebrate 
 their victory. They fleeced off portions of the 
 thighs and breasts of the dead and all started in ; 
 but they soon stopped on the way and went through 
 most of the mystic ceremonies attending a war 
 dance, thoroughly commingling weird wails over 
 their fallen comrade with their wild and equally 
 weird exultations over their fallen foes. This cere- 
 mon}^ over, they hastened home to repeat the savage 
 scenes with increased ferocity. McCulloch and 
 party, more leisurely, returned to Gonzales, to be 
 welcomed by the people who had thus been pro- 
 tected from a night attack by the discomfited 
 invaders. Such inroads by foot Indians almost 
 invariably resulted in the loss of numerous horses, 
 and one or more — alas! sometimes many — lives 
 to the settlers. 
 
 This was forty-eight and a half years ago ; yet, 
 as I write this, on the 19th day of August, 1887, 
 Henry E. McCulloch, hale, well-preserved and spot- 
 less before his countrymen, is my guest at the 
 ex-Confederate reunion in Dallas, and verifies the 
 accuracy of this narrative. Our friendship began 
 later in that same year, and every succeeding year 
 has been an additional record of time, attesting a 
 friendship lacking but eighteen months of ha f a 
 century. After 1839 his name is interwoven with 
 the hazards of the Southwestern frontier, as Texas 
 ranger — private, lieutenant and captain — down 
 to annexation in 1846 ; then a captain in and after 
 the Mexican war under the United States ; later as 
 the first Confederate colonel in Texas, and from 
 April, 1862, to the close of the war, as a brigadier- 
 general in the Confederate army. 
 
 Moore's Defeat on the San Saba, 1839. 
 
 In consequence of the repeated and continued 
 inroads of the Indians through 18.37 and 1838, at 
 the close of the latter year Col. John. H. Moore, 
 of Fayette, already distinguished alike for gallantry 
 and patriotism, determined to chastise them. Call- 
 
 ing for volunteers from the thinly settled country 
 around him, he succeeded in raising a force of fifty- 
 five whites, forty-two Lipan and twelve Toncahua 
 Indians, an aggregate of one hundred and nine. 
 Col. Castro, chief of the Lipans, commanded his 
 
ly^DIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 75 
 
 warriors, assisted by the rising and ever faithful 
 young chief, Flacco, whose memory is honored, 
 and whose subsequent perfidious fate is and ever 
 has been deplored by every pioneer of Texas. 
 
 Among this little troup of whites was Mr. Andrew 
 Lockhart, of the Guadalupe, impelled by an 
 agonizing desire to rescue his beautiful little 
 daughter, Matilda, who had been captured with 
 the four Putman children near bis home. Her 
 final recovery, at the time of the Council House 
 fight in San Antonio, on the 19th of March, 18-10, 
 is narrated in another chapter. 
 
 The advance scouts reported to Col. Moore the 
 discovery of a large Comanche encampment, with 
 many horses, on the San Saba river, yet the sequel 
 showed that they failed to realize its magnitude in 
 numbers. 
 
 With adroit caution that experienced frontiers- 
 man, by a night march, arrived in the vicinity be- 
 fore the dawn of day, on the 12th of February, 
 1839, a clear, frosty morning. They were in a 
 favored position for surprising the foe, and wholly 
 undiscovered. At a given signal every man un- 
 derstood his duty. Castro, with a portion of the 
 Indians, was to stampede the horses grazing in the 
 valley and rush with them beyond recovery. The 
 whites and remaining Indians were to charge, with- 
 out noise, upon the village. The horses of the 
 dismounted men of both colors were left tied a mile 
 in the rear in a ravine. 
 
 As light sufficiently appeared to distinguish 
 friend from foe, the signal was given. With thirty 
 of his people the wily old Castro soon had a 
 thousand or more loose horses thundering over 
 hill and dale towards the south. Flacco, with 
 twelve Lipans and the twelve Toncahuas, remained 
 with Moore. The combined force left, numbering 
 seventy-nine, rushed upon the buffalo tents, firing 
 whenever an Indian was seen. Many were killed 
 in the first onset. But almost instantly the camp 
 was in motion, the warriors, as if by magic, rush- 
 ing together and fighting ; the women and children 
 wildly fleeing to the coverts of the bottom and 
 neighboring thickets. It was at this moment, amid 
 the screams, yells and war-whoops resounding 
 through the valley, that Mr. Lockhart plunged 
 forward in advance of his comrades, calling aloud: 
 " Matilda! if you are here, run to me! Your 
 father calls!" And though yet too dim to see 
 
 every word pierced the child's heart as she recog- 
 nized her father's wailing voice, while she was 
 lashed into a run with the retreating squaws. 
 The contest was fierce and bloody, till, as the 
 sunlight came, Col. Moore realized that he had 
 only struck and well-nigh destroyed the fighting 
 strength of the lower end of a long and powerful 
 encampment. The enraged savages from above 
 came pouring down in such numbers as to 
 threaten the annihilation of their assailants. Re- 
 treat became a necessity, demanding the utmost 
 courage and strictest discipline. But not a man 
 wavered. For the time being the stentorian voice 
 of their stalwart and iron-nerved leader was a law 
 unto all. Detailing some to bear the wounded, 
 with the others Moore covered them on either 
 flank, and stubbornly fought his way back to the 
 ravine in which his horses had been left, to find 
 that every animal had already been mounted by a 
 Comanche, and was then curveting around them. 
 All that remained possible was to fight on the 
 defensive from the position thus secured, and this 
 was done with such effect that, after a prolonged 
 contest, the enemy ceased to assault. Excepting 
 occasional shots at long range by a few of the most 
 daring warriors, extending into the next day, the 
 discomfited assailants were allowed to wend their 
 weary way homewards. Imagine such a paity, 
 150 miles from home, afoot, with a hundred miles 
 of the way through mountains, and six of their 
 comrades so wounded as to perish in the wilder- 
 ness, or be transported on litters home by their 
 fellows. Such was the condition of six of the 
 number. They were William M. Eastland (spared 
 then to draw a black bean and be murdered by the 
 accursed order of Santa Anna in 1843) ; S. S. B. 
 Fields, a lawyer of La Grange ; James Manor, 
 Felix Taylor, — Lefflngwell, and — Martin, the 
 latter of whom died soon after reaching home. 
 Cicero Rufus Perry was a sixteen-year-old boy in 
 this ordeal. Gonzalvo Wood was also one of the 
 number. 
 
 After much suffering the party reached home, pre- 
 ceded by Castro with the captured horses, which the 
 cunning old fox chiefly appropriated to his own tribe. 
 
 Col. Moore, in his victorious destruction of a 
 Comanche town high up the Colorado in 1840, 
 made terrible reclamation for the trials and adver- 
 sities of this expedition. 
 
76 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 The Famous Council House Fight in San Antonio, March 19, 
 1840 — A Bloody Tragedy — Off icial Details. 
 
 From the retreat of the people before Santa 
 Anna in the spring of 1836, clown to the close of 
 1839, the Comanches and other wild tribes had 
 depredated along our entire line of frontier, steal- 
 ing horses, killing men, and carrying into captivity 
 women and children, more especially the latter, 
 for they often murdered the women also. 
 
 On several occasions, as at Houston in 1837, and 
 perhaps twice at San Antonio, they had made quasi- 
 treaties, promising peace and good behavior, but 
 on receiving presents and leaving for home they 
 uniformly broke faith and committe<l depredations. 
 The people and the government became outraged 
 at such perfidy and finally the government deter- 
 mined, if possible, to recover our captives and 
 inculcate among the hostiles respect for pledges 
 and a desire for peace. 
 
 The seat of government in the fall of 1839 was 
 removed from Houston to Austin, a newly planned 
 town, forming the outside settlement on the Colo- 
 rado. There was not even a single cabin above or 
 beyond the place, west, north, or east, above the 
 falls of the Brazos. So stood matters when the 
 first day of January, 1840, arrived, with Mirabeau 
 B. Lamar as President, David G. Burnet as Vice- 
 President, and Albert Sidney Johnston on the eve 
 of resigning as Secretary of War, to be succeeded 
 by Dr. Branch T. Archer. 
 
 On the 10th of January, 1840, from San Antonio, 
 Col. Henry W. Karnes (then out of ottlce), wrote 
 Gen. Johnston, Secretary of War, announcing that 
 three Comanche chiefs had been in on the previous 
 day, expressing a desire for peace, stating also that 
 their tribe, eighteen days previously, had held a 
 council, agreed to ask for peace and had chgsen a 
 prominent chief to represent them in the negotia- 
 tion. They said they had rejected overtures and 
 presents from the hostile Cherokees, and also of 
 the Centralists, of Mexico, who had emissaries 
 among their people. Col. Karnes told them no 
 treaty was possible unless they brought in all 
 prisoners and stolen property held by them. To 
 this they said their people had already assented in 
 council. They left, promising to return in twenty 
 or thirty days with a large party of chiefs and 
 warriors, prepared to make a treaty, and that all 
 white prisoners in their hands would be brought in 
 with them. 
 
 F'rom their broken faith on former occasions, and 
 
 their known diplomatic treachery with Mexico from 
 time immemorial, neither the President, Secretary 
 of War nor Col. Karnes (who had been a prisoner 
 among them) had any faith in their promises, be- 
 yond their dread of our power to punish them. 
 Official action was based on this apprehension of 
 their intended duplicity. 
 
 On the 30th of January Lieut. -Col. William S. 
 Fisher, commanding the First Regiment of Infan- 
 try, was instructed to march three companies to San 
 Antonio under his own command, and to take such 
 position there as would enable him to detain the 
 Comanches, should they come in without our pris- 
 oners. In that case, says the order of Gen. John- 
 ston, " some of their number will be dispatched as 
 messengers to the tribe to inform them that those 
 retained will be held as hostages until the (our) 
 prisoners are delivered up, when the hostages 
 will be released." The instructions further say: 
 "It has been usual, heretofore, to give presents. 
 For the future such custom will be dispensed 
 with." 
 
 Following this military order, and in harmony 
 with the suggestion of Col. Karnes, President Lamar 
 dispatched Col. Hugh McLeod, Adjutant-General, 
 and Col. William G. Cooke, Quartermaster-General, 
 as commissioners to treat with the Comanches, 
 should they come in, and with instructions in ac- 
 cord with those given Col. Fisher. They repaired 
 to San Antonio and awaited events. 
 
 On the 19th of March, in the morning, two Co- 
 manche runners entered San Antonio and announced 
 the arrival in the vicinity of a party of sixty-five 
 men, women and children, and only one prisoner, 
 a girl of about thirteen years, Matilda Lockhart. 
 In reporting the subsequent facts to the President 
 on the next day Col. McLeod wrote: — 
 
 " They (the Indians) came into town. The 
 little girl was very intelligent and told us that she 
 had seen seTeral of the other prisoners at the prin- 
 cipal camp a few days before she left, and that they 
 brought her in to see if they could get a high price 
 for her, and, if so, they intended to bring in the 
 rest, one at a time. 
 
 " Having ascertained this, it became necessary 
 to execute j'our orders and take hostages for the 
 safe return of our people, and the order was 
 accordingly given by Col. William G. Cooke, act- 
 ing Secretary of War. Lieut. -Col. Fisher, First 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 77 
 
 Infantry, was ordered to march up two companies 
 of his command and post them in the immediate 
 vicinity of the council room. 
 
 " The chiefs were then called together and asked : 
 ' Where are the prisoners you promised to bring in 
 to the talk?' 
 
 " Muke-war-rah, the chief who held the last talk 
 with us and made the promise, replied : ' We have 
 bi ought in the only one we had ; the others are with 
 other tribes.' 
 
 " A pause ensued because, as this was a palpa- 
 ble lie, and a direct violation of their pledge, 
 solemnly given scarcely a month since, we had the 
 only alternative left us. He observed this pause 
 and asked quicklj- : ' How do you like the an- 
 swer ? ' 
 
 "The order was now given to march one com- 
 pany into the council room and the other in rear 
 of the building, where the warriors were assembled. 
 During the execution of this order the talk was 
 re-opened and the terms of a treaty, directed b^J^ 
 3'our excellency to be made with them in case the 
 prisoners were restored, were discussed, and they 
 were told the treaty would be made when they 
 brought in the prisoners. They acknowledged 
 that they had violated all their previous treaties, 
 and yet tauntingly demanded that new confidence 
 should be reposed in another promise to bring in 
 the prisoners. 
 
 "The troops being now posted, the (twelve) 
 chiefs and captaius were told that the}' were our 
 prisoners and would be kept as hostages for the 
 safety of our people then in their hands, and that 
 they might send their young men to the tribe, and 
 as soon as our friends were restored they should be 
 liberated. 
 
 " Capt. (George T.) Howard, whose company 
 was stationed in the council house, posted sentinels 
 at the doors and drew up his men across the 
 room. We told the chiefs that the soldiers they 
 saw were their guards, and descended from the 
 platform. The chiefs immediately followed. One 
 sprang to the back door and attempted to pass the 
 sentinel, who presented his musket, when the 
 chief drew his knife and stabbed him. A rush 
 was then made to the door. Capt. Howard col- 
 lared one of them and received a severe slab from 
 him in the side. He ordered the sentinel to Are 
 upon him, which he immediately did, and the 
 Indian fell dead. The}' then all drew their knives 
 and bows, and evidentl}' resolved to fight to the 
 last. Col. Fisher ordered: 'Fire, if they do not 
 desist! ' The Indians rushed on, attacked us des- 
 perately, and a general order to fire became 
 necessary." 
 
 "After a short but desperate struggle every one 
 of the twelve chiefs and captains in the council 
 house lay dead upon the floor, but not until, in the 
 hand-to-hand struggle, they had wounded a num- 
 ber of i)ersons. 
 
 " Tlie indoor work being finished, Capt. Howard's 
 company was formed in front to prevent retreat in 
 that direction ; but, in consequence of the severity 
 of his wound, he was relieved by Capt. Gillen, who 
 commanded the company till the close of the action. 
 
 "Capt. Redd,* whose company was formed in 
 the rear of the council house, was attacked by the 
 warriors in the yard, who fought like wild beasts. 
 They, however, took refuge in some stone houses, 
 from which they kept up a galling fire with bows 
 and arrows and a few rifles. Their arrows, wher- 
 ever they struck one of our men, were driven to 
 the feather. A small part}' escaped across the 
 river, but were pursued by Col. Lysander Wells 
 with a few mounted men and all killed. The only 
 one of the whole band who escaped was a renegade 
 Mexican among them, who slipped away unob- 
 served. A single warrior took refuge in a stone 
 house, refusing every overture sent him by squaws, 
 with promise of security, and killing or wounding 
 several till, after "night, when a ball of rags, soaked 
 in turpentine and ignited, was dropped through the 
 smoke escape in the roof onto his head. Thus, in a 
 blaze of flre, he sprang through the door and was 
 riddled with bullets. 
 
 " In such an action — so unexpected, so sudden 
 and terrific — it was impossible at times to distin- 
 
 * Note. Cap. Redd and Col. Wells fought a duel in 
 Sau Antonio later the same year and killed each other. 
 Judge Robinson died iu San Diego, California, in 1853. 
 Judge Hemphill died during the Civil War* a member of 
 the Confederate Senate. Capt. Matthew Caldwell, then 
 of the regulars and a famous Indian fighter, died at his 
 home in Gonzales in the winter of 1842-3. Col. McLeod, 
 commanding a Texas regiment, died at Dumfries, 
 Virginia, during the Civil War. Col. William S. Fisher, 
 afterwards commander at Mior and a "Mier prisoner," 
 died in Galveston in 1845, soon after his release. Col. 
 Wm. G. Cooke died at Navarro ranch, on the San Gero- 
 nirao, in 1847. He came as Lieutenant of the NewOrleans 
 Grays iu 1835. succeeded Burleson as Colonel of the 
 regulars in 1840. He married a daughter of Don Luciano 
 Navarro. He was Quartermaster-General, a commis- 
 sioner to Santa Fe and a prisoner, and was a noble man. 
 Col. Henry W. Karnes died in San Antonio, his home, in 
 the autumn of 1S40. Henry Clay Davis was a volunteer 
 in the fleht on horseback. An Indian sprang up behind 
 him and, while trying to kill him with an arrow used as 
 a dirk, Davis killed him with one of the first lot of Colt's 
 revolvers ever brought to Texas. Davis settled at Rio 
 Grande City, married a Mexican lady, was once in the 
 Senate, and was killed accidentally by his own gun while 
 out hunting. 
 
78 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 guish between the sexes, and three squaws were 
 killed. The short struggle was fruitful in blood. 
 Our losses were: — 
 
 "Killed: Judge Hood, of San Antonio ; Judge 
 Thompson, of Houston; Mr. Casey, of Mata- 
 gorda County ; Lieut. W. M. Dunnington, First 
 Infantry; Privates Kaminske and Whitney, and a 
 Mexican — 7. 
 
 "Wounded: Capt. George T. Howard, Lieut. 
 Edward A. Thompson and Private Kelly severely ; 
 Capt. Matthew Caldwell, Judge James W. Robin- 
 son, Messrs. Higgenbottom, Morgan and Car- 
 son — 8." • 
 
 "John Hemphill, then District Judge and after- 
 ward so long Chief Justice, assailed in the council 
 house by a chief and slightly wounded, felt reluct- 
 antly compelled (as he remarked to the writer 
 afterwards) to disembowel his assailant with his 
 bowie knife, but declared that he did so under a 
 sense of dutj', while he had no personal acquaint- 
 ance with nor personal ill-will towards his antag- 
 onist. 
 
 "The Indian loss stood: Thirty chiefs and war- 
 riors, 3 women and 2 children killed. Total, 35. 
 
 "Prisoners taken : Twenty-seven women and chil- 
 dren and 2 old men. Total, 29. 
 
 "Escaped, tlie renegade Mexican, 1. Grand 
 total, 6.5." 
 
 Over a hundred horses and a large quantity of 
 buffalo robes and peltries remained to the victors. 
 
 By request of the prisoners one squaw was 
 released, mounted, provisioned and allowed to go 
 to her people and say that the prisoners would be 
 
 released whenever they brought in the Texas 
 prisoners held by them. 
 
 A short time afterwards a party of Comanches 
 displayed a white flag on a hill some distance from 
 town, evidently afraid to come nearer. When a 
 flag was sent out, it was found that they had 
 brought in several white children to exchange for 
 their people. Their mission was successful and 
 they hurried away, seeming to be indeed "wild 
 Indians." 
 
 These are the facts as shown bj' the official 
 papers, copies of which have been in my possession 
 ever since the bloody tragedy. At that time a few 
 papers in the United States, uninformed of the 
 underlying and antecedent facts dictating the 
 action of Texas, criticised the affair with more or 
 less condemnation ; but the people of to-day, 
 enlightened by the massacre of Gen. Canby in 
 Oregon, the fall of the chivalrous Gen. Custer, the 
 hundreds of inhuman acts of barbarism along the 
 whole frontier of the United States, and the recent 
 demonisms of Geronimo and his band of cut- 
 throats, will realize and indorse the genuine spirit 
 of humanity which prompted that as the only mode 
 of bringing those treacherous savages to a real- 
 ization of the fact that their fiendish mode of 
 warfare would bring calamities upon their own 
 people. Be that as it may, the then pioneers of 
 Texas, with their children in savage captivity, 
 shed no tears on that occasion, nor do their sur- 
 vivors now. Their children of to-day dispense 
 with that liquid, eye-yielding manifestation of 
 grief. 
 
 The Great Indian Raid of 1840 — Attack on Victoria — Sacking 
 
 and Burning of Linnville — Skirmish at Casa Bianca 
 
 Creek — Overthrow of the Indians 
 
 at Plum Creek. 
 
 Of this, the most remarkable Indian raid in the 
 annals of Texas, numerous fragmentary and often 
 erroneous, or extremely partial, accounts in former 
 years have been published. It was a sudden and 
 remarkable inroad by the savages, took the countrj' 
 by surprise, drew the fighting population together 
 from different localities for a few days, to speedily 
 disperse to their homes, and there being no official 
 
 control, no one was charged with the duty of re- 
 cordingHhe facts. The great majority' of the par- 
 ticipants, as will be seen in the narrative, witnessed 
 but a portion, here or there, of the incident. 
 
 The writer was then nineteen years old and, 
 though living on the Lavaca near Victoria and Linn- 
 ville, happened to be with a party from that vicinity 
 that passed to the upper and final field of opera- 
 
coiJANciiK \VAia;i()i;s. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 79 
 
 tions — a part}' that saw more of the entire episode 
 than any other one party. More than this, he took 
 care at once to gather all the facts not seen by him 
 and made copious notes of all, which have ever 
 since remained in his possession. In January, 1871, 
 in the town of Lavaca, the successor of Linnville, 
 he delivered (for a benevolent purpose) to a large 
 audience, embracing both ladies and gentlemen 
 resident in that section at the time of the raid, a 
 lecture historically narrating the events connected 
 with it, and received their public thanks for its 
 fullness, fairness and historical accuracy. These 
 remarks are justified by the false statements in 
 " Dewees' Letters from Texas," giving the credit 
 of fighting the battle of Plum Creek to four com- 
 panies of citizen volunteers, he claiming to have 
 been Captain of one of them, when in fact not one 
 of such companies was in the fight or even saw the 
 Indians. This falsehood was exposed by tiie writer 
 hereof, on the appearance of Dewees' book, in the 
 Indianola Bulletin of January, 1853, an exposure 
 unanswered in the intervening thirty-five years. 
 
 At the time of this raid the country between the 
 Guadalupe and San Marcos, on the west, and the 
 Colorado on the east, above a line drawn from Gon- 
 zales to La Grange, was a wilderness, while below 
 that line it was thinly settled. Between Gonzales 
 and Austin, on Plum creek, were two recent set- 
 tlers, Isom J. Goode and John A. Neill. From 
 Gonzales to within a few miles of La Grange there 
 was not ft settler. There was not one between Gon- 
 zales and Bastrop, nor one between Austin and San 
 Antonio. A road from Gonzales to Austin, then in 
 the first year of its existence, had been opened in 
 July, 1839. 
 
 This Indian raid was known to and encouraged 
 by Gen. Valentin Canalizo, commanding in 
 Northern Mexico, with headquarters in Matamoras. 
 The Comanches were easily persuaded into it in 
 retaliation for their loss of thirty-odd warriors in 
 the Council fight in San Antonio during the previous 
 March. Renegade Mexicans and lawless Indians 
 from some of the half-civilized tribes were induced 
 to join it. Dr. Branch T. Archer, Secretary of 
 War, from information reaching him gave a warning 
 to the country two months earlier ; but as no enemy 
 appeared, the occasion became derisively known as 
 the " Archer war." 
 
 On August 5, 1840, Dr. Joel Ponton and Tucker 
 Foley, citizens of the Lavaca (now Hallettsville) 
 neighborhood, en route to Gonzales, on the road 
 from Columbus and just west of Ponton's creek, 
 fell in with twenty-seven mounted warriors, and 
 
 were chased about three miles back to the creek. 
 Foley was captured, mutilated and killed. Ponton 
 received two wounds, but escaped, and during the 
 following night reached home. The alarm was 
 given, and next day thirty-six men, under Capt. 
 Adam Zumwalt, hastened to the scene, found and 
 buried Folej', and then pursued the trail of the 
 savages.* 
 
 In the meantime the mail carrier from Austin 
 arrived at Gonzales and reported a large and fresh 
 Indian trail crossing the road in the vicinity of 
 Plum creek, bearing towards the coast. Thereupon 
 twenty-four volunteers, under Ben McCulloch, has- 
 tened eastwardly to the Big Hill neighborhood, 
 about sixteen miles east. This is an extended 
 ridge bearing northeast and southwest, separat- 
 ing the waters of the Peach creeks of the Guad- 
 alupe from the heads of Rocky, Ponton's, and 
 other tributaries of the Lavaca and the latter 
 stream itself. . Indian raiders, bound below, 
 almost invariably crossed the Columbus and 
 Gonzales road at the most conspicuous elevation 
 of this ridge — the Big Hill. Hence McCul- 
 loch's haste to that point. On the Gth McCulloch 
 and Zumwalt united on the trail and rapidly fol- 
 lowed it in the direction of Victoria. Some miles 
 below they fell in with sixty-five men from the 
 Cuero (now De Witt County) settlements on the 
 Guadalupe, and some from Victoria, commanded 
 by Capt. John J. Tumlinson. The latter assumed 
 command of the whole 125 by request and the march 
 was continued. 
 
 On the same afternoon the Indians approached 
 Victoria. At Spring creek, above the town, they 
 killed four negroes belonging to Mr. Poage. On 
 the Texana road, east side of town, they met and 
 killed Col. Pinkney Caldwell, a prominent cit- 
 izen and soldier of 1836. They chased various 
 persons into the town, killing an unknown Ger- 
 man, a Mexican, and three more negroes. A 
 partj' hastily repaired to the suburbs to confront 
 the enemy. Of their number Dr. Gray, Varlan 
 Richardson, William McNuner and Mr. Daniels 
 were killed, a total of thirteen. 
 
 The Indians retired and passed the night on 
 Spring creek, having secured about fifteen hundred 
 horses and mules on the prairie in front of Victoria, 
 
 * Arthur Foley was killed ia the Fannin massacre, 
 March 27, 183G; James Foley was killed by Mexican 
 marauders west of the Nueces in 1839; Tucker was the 
 third brother to fall as stated. They were the sons of 
 an eccentric but wealthy planter (Washington Green Lee 
 Foley), who died in Lavaca County some years ago. 
 The father of Dr. Ponton was killed by Indians near his 
 home, on Ponton's creek, about 1834-35. 
 
80 
 
 INDIAN WARS A^W PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 a large portion of which, belonging to "Scotch" 
 Sutherland, had just arrived en route east. On 
 Frida}', August 7, the Indians reappeared, made 
 serious demonstrations, but were held in check by 
 citizens under cover of houses. Securing several 
 hundred more horses, they bore down the country 
 to Nine Mile Point, where they captured j'oung 
 Mrs. Crosby, a granddaughter of Daniel Boone, 
 and her infant. They then deflected to the east, 
 across the prairie in the direction of Liunville. 
 They camped for a portion of the night on Placido 
 creek, killed a teamster named Stephens, but failed 
 to discover a Frenchman ensconced in the moss 
 and foliage of a giant live oak over their heads. 
 
 Moving before dawn on Sunday, August 8, as 
 they approached Liunville, its inhabitants entirely 
 unconscious of impending danger, they killed Mr. 
 O'Neal and two negro men belonging to Maj. H. 
 O. Watts. The people, believing the enemy to be 
 friendly Mexicans with horses to sell, realized the 
 fearful truth only in time to escape into the sail- 
 boats anchored in shoal water about one hundred 
 yards from shore. In attempting this, Maj. 
 Watts was killed in the water. His young bride, 
 negro woman, and a little son of the latter were 
 captured. There was an immense amount of goods 
 in the warehouses destined for San Antonio and 
 the Mexican trade. Rapidly were these goods 
 packed on horses and mules, but it consumed the 
 day, and late in the afternoon everj- building but 
 one warehouse was burned, the citizens, becalmed 
 all day in their boats, witnessing the destruction of 
 their homes and business houses. 
 
 During the night the jubilant savages began their 
 return march for their mountain homes, taking a 
 route that passes up the west side of the Garcitas 
 creek, about fifteen miles east of Victoria. 
 
 On the 8th of August (Sunday) while Linnville 
 was being sacked, Tumlinson reached Victoria 
 about sunset, rested for a time, received some sup- 
 plies, left about twenty-five men and receired about 
 an equal number, continuing his effective force at 
 12.5 men. ' They moved east on the Texana i-oad 
 and at midnight camped on the Casa Blanca creek, 
 a small tributary of the Garcitas from the west. 
 George Kerr was dispatched for recruits to 
 Texana, but at Kitchen's ranch, on the east side of 
 the Arenoso, near tidewater junction with the Gar- 
 citas, he found Capt. Clark L. Owen of Texana 
 with forty men. It was then too late to unite with 
 Tumlinson. The enemy in force had come between 
 them. Owen sent out three scouts, of whom Dr. 
 Bell was chased and killed. Nail escaped by the 
 fleetness of his horse towards the Lavaca, and the 
 noble John S. Meuefee (deceased in 1884) escaped 
 
 in some drift brush with seven arrows piercing his 
 body, all of which he extracted and preserved to 
 the day of his death. 
 
 Thus Tumlinson early in the day (August 9) con- 
 fronted the whole body of the Indians with their 
 immense booty, on a level and treeless prairie. 
 He dismounted his men and was continually 
 encircled b}' cunning warriors, to divert attention 
 while their herds were being forced forward. 
 McCulloch impetuously insisted on charging into 
 the midst of the enemy as the only road to victory. 
 The brave and oft- tried Tumlinson, seeing hesitancy 
 in his ranks, yielded, and the enemy, after immate- 
 rial skirmishing, was allowed to move on with herds 
 and booty. Later in the day Owen's party joined 
 them and desultorj' pursuit was continued, but the 
 pursuers never came up with the Indians, nor did 
 any other party till the battle of Plum creek was 
 fought by entirely different parties. In this skir- 
 mish one Indian was killed and also Mr. Mordecai 
 of Victoria. 
 
 On reaching the timber of the Chicolita, some 
 twenty miles above the Casa Blanca, writhing 
 under what he considered a lost opportunity, Ben 
 McCulloch, accompanied by Alsey S. Miller, 
 Archibald Gipson, and Barney Randall, left the 
 command, deflected to the west so as to pass the 
 enemy, and made such speed via Gonzales that 
 these four alone of all the men at any time in the 
 pursuit, were in the battle of Plum creek. The 
 pursuers, however, were gallant men, and many of 
 them reached the battle ground a few hours after 
 the fight. 
 
 Let us now turn to the series of movements that 
 culminated in the overwhelming overthrow of the 
 Indians at Plum creek, and of much of this the 
 writer was an eye-witness. On the night of 
 August 7, advised by courier of the attack on 
 Victoria twenty-two volunteers left the house of 
 Maj. James Kerr (the home of the writer) on the 
 Lavaca river. Lafayette Ward was called to the 
 command. The writer, then a boy of nineteen, was 
 the youngest of the party. Reaching the Big 
 Hill, heretofore described, and finding the In- 
 dians had not passed up, the opinion prevailed that 
 they had crossed over and were returning on the 
 west side of the Guadalupe. They hastened on 
 to Gonzales where the old hero, Capt. Matthew 
 Caldwell, had just arrived. He adopted the same 
 view, and announced that the Indians would 
 recross the Guadalupe where New Braunfels now 
 stands. In an hour he was at the head of thirty- 
 seven men, making our united number fifty-nine. 
 We followed his lead, traveled all night, and at 
 sunrise on the 10th, reached Seguin. As we did so, 
 
INDIAN M'AHS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 81 
 
 " Big" Hall, of Gonzales, on foaming steed, over- 
 took us with the news from Victoria and Linnville, 
 and that the Indians, pursued, were retreating on 
 their downward made trail. The old veteran Cald- 
 well at once said we must meet and fight them alPlum 
 creek. After rest and breakfast, and strengtiiened 
 by a few recruits, we moved on and camped that 
 night at the old San Antonio crossing of the San 
 Marcos. The 11th was intensely hot, and our 
 ride was chiefly over a burnt prairie, the flying 
 ashes being blinding to the eyes. Waiting some 
 hours at noon, watching for the approach of the 
 enemy after night, we arrived at Goode's cabin, on 
 the Gonzales and Austin road, a little east of Plum 
 creek. Here Felix Huston, General of militia, with 
 his aide, James Izard, arrived from Austin about 
 the same time. We moved two or three miles and 
 camped on Plum creek, above the Indian trail. 
 Here we met the gallant Capt. James Bird, of 
 Gonzales, with about thirty men, who had come up 
 the road directly from that place, and with the 
 indefatigable Ben McCulloch and his three com- 
 rades. Our united force was then one hundred 
 men. We camped at midnight and sent pickets to 
 watch the trail. Men and horses were greatly jaded, 
 but the horses had to eat while the men slept. 
 
 At daylight the pickets dashed in and 
 reported the Indians advancing about three 
 miles below. In twenty minutes every man 
 was mounted and in line. Capt. Caldwell, in 
 the bigness of his heart, rode out in front and 
 moved that Gen. Felix Huston take command. 
 A few responded aye and none said nay, but in 
 fact the men wanted the old Indian fighter Caldwell 
 himself to lead. Thej' respected Gen. Huston 
 as a military man in regular war. They knew he 
 had no experience in the business then in hand, but 
 thej' were too polite to say nay, having a real 
 respect for the man. The command moved forward 
 across one or two ravines and glades till they entered 
 a small open space hidden from the large prairie 
 by a branch, thickly studded with trees and bushes. 
 At this moment the gallant young Owen Hardeman, 
 and Reed of Bastrop dashed up with the infor- 
 mation that Col. Edward Burleson, with eighty- 
 seven volunteers and thirteen Toncahua Indians 
 (tiie latter on foot) were within three or four miles, 
 advancing at a gallop. They were too invaluable 
 to. be left. A halt was called. Gen. Huston 
 then announced his plan: a hollow square, open in 
 front, Burleson on the right, Caldwell on the left. 
 Bird and Ward forming the rear line, under Maj. 
 Thomas Monroe Hardeman. During this delay we 
 had a full view of the Indians passing diagonally 
 across our front, about a mile distant. They were 
 
 singing and gyrating in divers grotesque ways, 
 evidencing their great triumph, and utterly ob- 
 livious of danger. Up to this time they had lost 
 but one warrior, at the Casa Blanca ; thej' had 
 killed twenty persons, from Tucker Foley, the first, 
 to Mordecai, the last; they had as prisoners Mrs. 
 Watts, Mrs. Crosby and child, and the negro 
 woman and child ; they had about 2,000 captured 
 horses and mules, and an immense booty in goods 
 of various kinds. Before Burleson arrived the 
 main body had passed our front, leaving only 
 stragglers bringing up bunches of animals 
 from the timber in their rear. It must be under- 
 stood that the whole country, about forty miles 
 from the Big Hill to the north side of Plum creek, 
 is heavily timbered, while beyond that it is an open 
 prairie to the foot of the mountains, with the Clear 
 Fork of Plum creek on the left and parallel to the 
 Indian trail. 
 
 Here is an appropriate place to speak of the 
 number of Indians. Their number was variously 
 estimated, but from all the facts and the judg- 
 ment of the most experienced, it is safe to say 
 they numbered about 1,000. Our force was: — 
 
 Number under Caldwell, including Bird and 
 
 Ward 100 
 
 Under Burleson, 87; and 13 Indians... 100 
 
 Total 200 
 
 As soon as Burleson arrived the troops were 
 formed as before mentioned, and the advance made 
 at a trot, soon increasing into a gallop. The main 
 body of the Indians were perhaps a mile and a 
 half ahead. As soon as we ascended from the 
 valley on to the level plain, they had a full view of 
 us, and at once prepared for action. Small par- 
 ties of their more daring warriors met and con- 
 tested with a few of our men voluntarily acting as 
 skirmishers, and some heroic acts were performed. 
 I remember well the gallantry of Capt. Andrew 
 Neill, Ben McCulloch, Arch. Gipson, Reed of 
 Bastrop, Capt. Alonzo B. Sweitzer (severely 
 wounded in the arm), Columbus C. DeWitt, Henry 
 E. McCulloch, and others then personally- known 
 to me. 
 
 The Indians, as we neared them, took position 
 in a point of oaks on the left, with the Clear Fork 
 in their rear, and a small boggy branch on their 
 left, but in the line of their retreat. It was only 
 boggy a short distance, and was easilj' turned on 
 our right advance. 
 
 When within about two hundred yards of the 
 enemy we were halted and dismounted on the open 
 
82 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 plain. Bands of warriors then began encircling us, 
 firing and using their shields with great effect. 
 From the timber a steady Are was kept up, by 
 muskets and some long range rifles, while about 
 thirt\' of our men, still mounted, were dashing 
 to and fro among the mounted Indians, illustrating 
 a series of personal lieroisms worthy of all praise. 
 In one of these Reed of Bastrop had an arrow 
 driven through his body, piercing his lungs, though 
 he lived long afterwards. Among the dismounted 
 men several were wounded and a number of horses 
 were killed. In all this time the herds and pack 
 animals were being hurried onwards, and our oldest 
 fighters, especially Burleson, Caldwell, Ben Mc- 
 Culloch, and others, were eager for a charge into 
 the midst of the savages. At last, perhaps half an 
 hour after dismounting, an Indian chief, wearing a 
 tremendous head dress, who had been exceedingly 
 <laring, approached so near that several shots struck 
 him, and he fell forward on the pommel of his 
 saddle, but was caught by a comrade on either 
 side and borne away, evidently dead or dying, for 
 as soon as he was led among his people in the oaks 
 they set up a peculiar howl, when Capt. Caldwell 
 sang out, " Now, General, is your time to charge 
 them! they are whipped!" The charge was 
 ordered, and gallantly made. Very soon the 
 Indians broke into parties and ran, but ran fight- 
 ing all the time. At the boggy branch quite a 
 number were killed, and they were killed in clusters 
 for ten or twelve miles, our men scattering as did 
 the Indians, every man acting as he pleased. 
 There was no pretense of command after the 
 boggy branch was passed. A few of our men pur- 
 sued small bodies for twelve or more miles. In 
 one of these isolated combats it fell' to my lot to 
 dismount a warrior wearing a buffalo skin cap sur- 
 mounted with the horns. He was dead when I dis- 
 mounted to secure the prize, which was soon after- 
 wards sent by Judge John Hayes to the Cincinnati 
 museum, and was there in 1870. 
 
 During the running light Mrs. Watts was severely 
 wounded in the breast by an arrow, but fell into 
 our hands. The negro woman shared ^ similar 
 fate, and her little son was recovered without 
 wounds. IVIrs. Crosby, by some means (probably 
 her own act), was dismounted during the retreat 
 near a small thicket, and sought to enter it, but in 
 the act a fleeing warrior drove a lance through her 
 heart. With several others, at about a hundred 
 
 yards distance, I distinctly witnessed the act; but 
 though at full speed none of us could overtake the 
 bloody wretch. 
 
 The heroic action of Placido, chief of the Ton- 
 cahuas, attracted universal praise. He seemed 
 reckless of life, and his twelve followers, as rapidly 
 as mounted, emulated his example. All being on 
 foot, the}' could only be mounted by each vaulting 
 into the saddle of a slain Comanche, but they were 
 all mounted in a marvelously short time after the 
 action commenced. 
 
 Great numbers of the loose and pack animals 
 stampeded during the engagement, and were seen 
 no more ; but large numbers on the return were 
 driven in, and about the middle of the afternoon the 
 men had generally returned to the point where the 
 action began, and near which a camp was pitched. 
 A welcome shower proved refreshing about this 
 time. Later in the afternoon Col. John H. Moore, 
 of Fayette, Capt. Owen, previously mentioned, 
 and in all about 150 men arrived on the ground, 
 having followed the trail that far. 
 
 The trophies, during the next day, were classi- 
 fied, numbered, and drawn by lot. I only remember 
 that a horse, a fine mule, §27 worth of silk, and 
 about $.50 worth of other goods fit for ladies' use 
 fell to my lot, and the latter were so donated. I 
 gave the horse to a poor man as a plow horse, and 
 sold the mule for SlOO on trust to a stranger whose 
 horse died on the road, and never received a cent 
 thereof; and although he so treated me, an inex- 
 perienced boy, I was verj' sorry some j'ears later 
 when the Indians shot on arrow through his breast. 
 It was impossible to determine how many Indians 
 were killed. They sank many in the creek, and 
 many died after reaching their haunts, as was 
 learned from prisoners afterwards reclaimed. From 
 this source of information it was ascertained that 
 fifty-two so died in a few days, and I became sat- 
 isfied by the after discovery of secreted and sunken 
 bodies and the number found on the field that at 
 least eighty-six were killed in the action, being a 
 total of 138 certainly killed. 
 
 The Indians lost everything. The defeat was 
 unexpected — a surprise, complete and crushing. 
 Followed by a great victory over them in the fol- 
 lowing October, near where Colorado City now 
 stands, won by Col. John H. Moore and his brave 
 volunteers, the Comanches were taught lessons 
 hitherto unknown to them. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 83 
 
 Moore's Great Victory on the Upper Colorado, in 1840. 
 
 Following Cul. Moore's defeat on the San Saba 
 in January, 1839, came the Cherokee battles, of 
 July and December, and many engagements or 
 calamities of lesser magnitude during that year, 
 including the massacre of the Webster party of 
 fourteen men and one child and the capture of 
 Mrs. Webster, her other two children and negro 
 woman, on Brushy creek, in what is now William- 
 son County. In March, 1840, occurred the 
 Council House fight, in San Antonio, and in Au- 
 gust the great Indian raid to the coast, the rob- 
 bery and burning of the village of Linnville, two 
 miles above the present Lavaca, and the final defeat 
 and dispersion of the Indians in the decisive battle 
 of Plum Creek, on the r2th day of that month. 
 
 Following this last raid the veteran soldier, Col. 
 John H. Mooie, of Fayette, sent forth circulars 
 calling for volunteers to again penetrate the country 
 of the hostiles, on the upper waters of the Col- 
 orado, as another lesson to them that the whites 
 were determined to either compel them to abstain 
 from robbing, murdering and capturing their fel- 
 low-citizens or exterminate them. A prompt 
 response followed, and about the first of October 
 the expedition left Austin, at once entering the 
 wilderness. Col. Moore commanded, with S. S. B. 
 Fields, a lawyer of LaGrange, as Adjutant. Capts. 
 Thomas J. Rabb and Nicholas Dawson, of Fayette, 
 commanded the companies, the latter being the 
 same who commanded and fell at the Dawson 
 massacre in 1842. There were ninety men in all. 
 Clark L. Owen, of Texana (who fell as a Captain, 
 at Shiloh, in 1862), was First Lieutenant in Eabb's 
 Company. R. Addison Gillespie (who fell as a 
 Captain of Texas rangers in storming the Bishop's 
 palace at Monterey, in 1846), was one of the 
 lieutenants, his brother being also along. Nearly 
 all the men were from Fayette and Bastrop, but 
 there were a few from the Lavaca, among whom I 
 remember Isaac N. Mitchell, Mason B. Foley, 
 Joseph Simons, of Texana, Nicholas J. Ryan and 
 Peter Rockfeller (Simons and Rockfeller both 
 dying in Mexican prisons, as Mier men in 1844 or 
 1845.) I started with these young men, then my 
 neighbors, but was compelled to halt, on account 
 of my horse being crippled at the head of the 
 Navidad. Col. Moore also had with him a detach- 
 ment of twelve Lipan Indians, commanded by Col. 
 Castro, their principal chief, with the famous 
 young chief Flacco as his Lieutenant. 
 
 The command followed up the valley of the 
 Colorado, without encountering an enemy, till it 
 reached a point now supposed to be in the region of 
 Colorado City. The Lipan scouts were constantly 
 in advance, and on the alert. Hastily returning, 
 while in the vicinity mentioned, they reported the 
 discovery of a Comanche encampment fifteen or 
 twenty miles distant, on the east bank and in a 
 small horseshoe bend of the Colorado, with a high 
 and somewhat steep bluff on the opposite bank. 
 
 Col. Moore traveled by night to within a mile or 
 two of the camp, and then halted. It was a clear, 
 cold night in October, and the earth white with 
 frost, probably two thousand feet above the sea 
 level. The men shivered with cold, while the un- 
 suspecting savages slept warmly under buffalo- 
 robes in their skin-covered tepees. In the mean- 
 time Moore detached Lieut. Owen, with thirty 
 men, to cross the river below, move up and at dawn 
 occupy the bluff. This movement was success- 
 fully effected, and all awaited the dawn for sufficient 
 light to guide their movements. 
 
 The stalwart and gallant old leader, mounted 
 on his favorite steed, with a few whispered words 
 summoned every man to his saddle. Slowly, 
 cautiously they moved till within three hundred 
 yards of the camp, when the rumbling sound of 
 moving horses struck the ear of a warrior on watch. 
 His shrill 3'ell sounded the alarm, and ere Moore, 
 under a charge instantly ordered, could be in their 
 midst, every warrior and many of the squaws had 
 their bows strung and ready for fight. But pell- 
 mell the volunteers rushed upon and among them. 
 The rifles, shot-guns and pistols of the white man, 
 in a contest largely hand-to-hand, with fearful 
 rapidity struck the red man to the earth. Sur- 
 prised and at close quarters, the wild man, though 
 fighting with desperation, shot too rapidly and 
 wildly to be effective. Seeing their fate a consid- 
 erable number swam the narrow river and essayed 
 to escape by climbing the bluff. Some were shot in 
 their ascent by Moore's men from across the 
 stream and tumbled backwards. Every one who 
 made the ascent to the summit of the bluff was 
 confronted and slain by Owen's men. At the onset 
 two horses were tied in the camp. On these two 
 warriors escaped. Besides them, so far as could be 
 ascertained, every warrior was killed, excepting a 
 few old men and one or two young men, who sur- 
 rendered and were spared. 
 
84 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Many of the Indian women, for a little wiiile, 
 fought as stoutl}' as the men and some were killed, 
 despite every effort to save them. In the charge 
 Isaac Mitchell's bridle bit parted asunder and his 
 mule rushed ahead into the midst of the Indians — 
 then halted and " sulked " — refused to move. A 
 squaw seized a large billet of wood and by a blow 
 on his head tumbled him to the ground ; but be 
 sprang to his feet, a little bewildered, and just as 
 his comrades came by, seeing the squaw springing 
 at him knife in hand, they sang out, "Kill her, 
 
 Mitchell! " With a smile, not untinged with pain, 
 he replied: " Oh, no, boys, I can't kill a woman!" 
 But to prevent her killing himself, lie knocked 
 her down and wrenched the weapon from her 
 hands. 
 
 A hundred and thirty Indians were left dead on 
 the field. Thirty-four squaws and children and 
 several hundred horses were brought in, besides 
 such camp equipage as the men chose to carry 
 with tliem, among which were goods plundered at 
 Linnville the previous August. 
 
 A Raid into Gonzales and Pursuit of the Indians in May, 1841 — 
 Ben McCulloch in the Lead. 
 
 Lnte in April, or early in May, 1841, a party of 
 twenty-two Indians made a night raid into and 
 around Gonzales, captured a considerable number 
 of horses and, ere daylight came, were in rapid 
 flight to their mountain home. It was but one of 
 oft-recurring inroads, the majority of which will 
 never be known in history. In this case, however, 
 as in many others, I am enabled to narrate every 
 material fact, and render justice to the handful of 
 gallant men who pursued and chastised the free- 
 booters. 
 
 Ben McCulloch called for volunteers ; but not, as 
 was most usual, to hurry off in pursuit. He knew the 
 difficulty and uncertainty of overliauling retreating 
 savages, with abundant horses for frequent change, 
 and preferred waiting a few days, thereby inducing 
 the red men, who always kept scouts in the rear, to 
 believe no pursuit would be made, and in this he 
 was successful. 
 
 When ready, McCulloch set forth with the fol- 
 lowing sixteen companions, every one of whom was 
 personally well known to the writer as a brave and 
 useful frontiersman, viz. : Arthur Swift, James H. 
 Callahan (himself often a captain), Wilson Randle, 
 Green McCoy (the Gonzales boy who was in 
 Erath's fight in Milam County in 1837, when his 
 uncle, David Clark, and Frank Childress, were 
 killed), Eli T. Hankins, Clement Hinds, Archibald 
 Gipson (a daring soldier in many fights, from 1836 
 to 1851,) W. A. Hall, Henry E. McCulloch, 
 James Roberts, Jeremiah Roberts, Thomas R. 
 
 Nichols, William Tumlinson, William P. Kincannon, 
 Alsey S. Miller, and William Morrison. 
 
 Tliey struck the Indian trail where it crossed the 
 San Marcos at the mouth of Mule creek and fol- 
 lowed it northwestwardly up and to the head of 
 York's creek ; thence through the mountains to the 
 Guadalupe, and up that stream to what is now 
 known as " Johnson's Fork," which is the principal 
 mountain tributary to the Guadalupe on the north 
 side. The trail was followed along this fork to its 
 source, and thence northwestwardly to the head of 
 what is now known as " Johnson's Fork " of the 
 Llano, and down this to its junction with the 
 Llano. 
 
 Before reaching the latter point McCulloch 
 halted in a secluded locality, satisfied that he was 
 near the enemy, and in person made a reconnoisance 
 of their position, and with such accuracy that he 
 was enabled to move on foot so near to the encamp- 
 ment as, at daylight, to completely surprise the 
 Indians. The conflict was short. Five warriors 
 lay dead upon the ground. Half of the remainder 
 escaped wounded, so that of twenty- two only about 
 eight escaped unhurt ; but their number had prob- 
 ably been increased after reaching that section. 
 
 The Indians lost everything excepting tlieir arms. 
 Their horses, saddles, equipages, blankets, robes, 
 and even their moccasins, were captured. It was 
 not only a surprise to them, but a significant warn- 
 ing, as they had no dread of being hunted down 
 and punished in that distant and remarkably 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 85 
 
 secluded locality. In March and April, 18C5, in 
 command of 183 men, the writer, as a Confederate 
 officer, made a campaign through and above that 
 country, following the identical route from the 
 mouth of Johnson's Fork of the Guadalupe to the 
 
 spot where this conflict took place twenty-four 
 years before, and found it still a wild mountain 
 region — ^ still a iiiding-place for savage red men, 
 and at that particular period, for lawless and dis- 
 reputable white men. 
 
 Red River and Trinity Events in 1841 — The Yeary and Ripley 
 
 Families — Skirmish on Village Creek and Death 
 
 of Denton — Expeditions of Gens. Smith 
 
 and Tarrant. 
 
 For a great many years I have had notes on the 
 expedition in which John B. Denton was killed, 
 furnished at different times by four different per- 
 sons who were participants, viz.. Cols. James Bour- 
 land and Wm. C. Young, Dr. Lemuel M. Cochran 
 and David Williams, then a boy ; but there has 
 appeared from time to time in former years such a 
 variety of fiction on the subject that I determined 
 to publish nothing until thoroughly convinced of 
 the accuracy of the statements thus obtained — all 
 the while hoping for a personal interview with m}' 
 venerable friend of yore, Henry Stout, of Wood 
 County — who, besides Denton, was the only man 
 hurt in the trip. This I now have together with a 
 written statement from Dr. Cochran, dated Gon- 
 zales, September 2G, 1886, and the personal recol- 
 lections of John M. Watson, Alex W. Webb and 
 Col. Jas. G. Stevens, then a youth. 
 
 As a prelude to the expedition it is proper to say 
 that late in 1840, the house of Capt. John Yeary, 
 living on Sulphur, in the southeast part of Fannin 
 County, was attacked by a party of ten Indians 
 while lie and a negro man were at work in his field 
 three hundred yards from the house. Mrs. Yeary, 
 gun in hand, stood on the defensive, inside of the 
 closed door. Yeary and the negro man, armed 
 with a hoe each, rusiied towards the house and 
 across the yard fence, fought the assailants hand to 
 hand, in which Yeary received an arrow just above 
 the eye, which glanced around the skull without 
 penetrating. Mrs. Y'^eary, with a gun, ran out to 
 her husband, but in doing so was shot in the hip. 
 Thus strengthened in the means of defense, the 
 Indians were driven off, without further casualty 
 to the family. 
 
 Early in April, 18-11, a part of the Ripley family 
 
 on the old Cherokee trace, on Riplej' creek, in Titus 
 County, were murdered by Indians. Ripley was 
 absent. Mrs. Ripley was at home with a son 
 scarcely twenty years old, a daughter about six- 
 teen, two daughters from twelve to fifteen, and 
 several smaller children, living some distance from 
 any other habitation. The Indians suddenly ap- 
 peared in daj'light, shot and killed the son as he 
 was plowing in the field, and rushed upon the house, 
 from which the mother and children fled towards a 
 canebrake, two hundred yards distant. The elder 
 daughter was shot dead on the way. The second 
 and third daughters escaped into the cane; the 
 mother and the other children were killed with 
 clubs ; one child in the house, probably asleep. 
 The Indians then plundered tlie house and set it on 
 fire, the child inside being consumed in the flames. 
 This second outrage led to a retaliatory expedi- 
 tion, which required some time for organization, in 
 tlie thinly populated district. By prior agreement 
 the volunteer citizens, numbering eighty (as stated 
 by Dr. Cochran, who was Orderly Sergeant; but, 
 seventy, according to Henry Stout's statement), met 
 in a body on Choctaw bayou, eight miles west of the 
 place since known as Old Warren, on the 4th of May, 
 1841, as shown by the notes of John M. Watson, 
 yet (188G) living in Fannin County. On the next 
 morning they organized into a company by electing 
 James Bourland, Captain, William C. Young, 
 Lieutenant, and Lemuel BI. Cochran, Orderly Ser- 
 geant. John B. Denton and Henry Stout were 
 each placed in charge of a few men as scouts. 
 Edward H. Tarrant, General of militia, was of the 
 party without command, but was consulted and 
 respected as a senior officer. On the same day the 
 company moved west to the vacant barracks, 
 
86 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 erected during the previous winter by Col. William 
 G. Cooke, senior officer in command of the regular 
 troops of Texas. At the barracks, which stood 
 in the immediate vicinity of the present town of 
 Denison, the company remained two or three days 
 for a portion of the volunteers, who had been de- 
 tained. On their arrival the command moved west 
 on the old Chihuahua trail, leading to Natchitoches. 
 Jack Ivej', a man of mixed Indian and African blood, 
 was pilot. At that time Holland Coffee, who was one 
 of the part3', lived eight miles above the barracks. At 
 some point on the trip, but exactly when or vrhere, I 
 have been unable to learn, he, with a man named 
 Wm. A. (Big Foot) Wallace, Colvill, and seven 
 others, left the company andj^returned to his post 
 or trading house. This doubtless accounts for the 
 disparity in numbers given by Cochran and Stout. 
 
 It was believed that the depredating Indians 
 were encamped on a creek which enters the west 
 fork of Trinity from the northeast side, where the 
 town of Bridgeport now stands, in Wise County, 
 the reputed village being at a broken, rocky spot, 
 four or five miles up the stream, which now bears the 
 name of " Village" creek. The expedition moved 
 under that belief, passing where Gainesville now is, 
 and thence southwesterly to the supposed Keechi 
 village, but founil it abandoned, without any evi- 
 dence of very recent occupancy, beyond some fresh 
 horse tracks, not far away. 
 
 The next day they crossed to the west side of 
 the Trinity, and for two days traveled south 
 obliquely in the direction of the Brazos. Find- 
 ing no indication of Indians, they turned north- 
 easterly, and on the afternoon of the second 
 day recrossed the Trinity to the north and trav- 
 eled down its valley, camping in the forks of 
 that stream and Fossil creek. On the next day, 
 near their cami), they found an old buffalo trail, 
 leading down and diagonally across the river, and on 
 to an Indian encampment on Village creek, a short 
 distance above, but south from where the Texas and 
 Pacific Kaihoad crosses that creek, which runs from 
 south to northeast, and is some miles east of Fort 
 Worth. On this trail they found fresh horse tracks, 
 and followed them. Henry Stout then, as through- 
 out the expedition, led an advance scout of six 
 men. Nearing the camp referred to, they dis- 
 covered an Indian woman cooking in a copijer ket- 
 tle, in a little glade on the bank of the creek. See- 
 ing he was not observed, and being veiled by a 
 brush-covered ris^e in the ground, Stout halted and 
 sent the information back to Tarrant. While 
 thus waiting, a second woman rose the bank and 
 joined the first, one of them having a cliild. As 
 Tarrant came up the squawsdiscovered them, gave 
 
 a loud scream, and plunged down into the bed of 
 the creek. The men charged, supi»osing the war- 
 riors were under the bank. A man named Alsey 
 Fuller killed one of the squaws, not knowing her 
 to be a woman, as she ascended the opposite bank. 
 The other woman and child were captured. 
 
 Here the men scattered into several different 
 parties in quest of the unseen enemy. Bouriand, 
 with about twent3^ men, including Denton, Coch- 
 ran and Lindley Johnson, crossed the creek and 
 found a road along its valley. The3- galloped along 
 it down the creek a little over a mile, when they 
 came upon a large camp, when Bouriand, with 
 about half of the men, bore to the right, and Coch- 
 ran, with the others, to the left, in order to flank 
 the position, but the Indians retreated into the 
 thickets on the opposite side. Cochran and Elbert 
 Early both attempted to fire at a retreating 
 Indian, but their guns snapped. On reaching the 
 creek the Indian fired at Early but missed. The 
 whole command became badly scattered and con- 
 fused. Eight men again crossed the creek and in a 
 short distance came upon a third camp just deserted. 
 Tarrant ordered them to fall back to the second 
 camp. When they did so about forty were pres- 
 ent. While waiting for the others to come up, Den- 
 ton asked and obtained Tarrant's reluctant consent 
 to take ten men and go down the creek, promising 
 to avoid an ambuscade by extreme caution. After 
 Denton left, Bouriand took ten men and started in 
 a different direction ; but about a mile below they 
 came together, and after moving together a short 
 distance Bouriand and Calvin Sullivan crossed a 
 boggy bi-anch to capture some horses, one of 
 which wore a bell. The others bore farther down 
 the branch into a corn-field, crossed it and found a 
 road leading into the bottom. At the edge of the 
 bottom thicket they halted, Denton to fulfill his 
 promise of care in avoiding an ambush. Henry 
 Stout then rode to the front saying, "If you are 
 afraid to go in there, I am not." Denton brusquely 
 answered that he would follow him to the infernal 
 regions and said " Move on!" In about three hun- 
 dred yards they came to and descended the creek 
 bank. Stout led, followed by Denton, Capt. 
 Griffin and the others in single file. When the 
 three foremost had traveled up the creek bed about 
 thirty paces from a thicket on the west bluff they 
 were fired upon. Stout was in front, but parti}' 
 protected by a small tree, but was shot through his 
 left arm. He wheeled to the right, and in raising 
 his gun to fire, a ball passed through its butt, caus- 
 ing the barrel to strike him violently on the head, 
 and five bullets pierced his clothing around his 
 neck and shoulders. Denton, immediately behind 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 87 
 
 Stout, was shot at the same instant, wheeled to the 
 right-about, rode back up the bank, and fell dead, 
 pierced by three balls, one in his arm, one in his 
 shoulder and one through his right breast. The 
 other men, being in single file, did not get in 
 range, being screened by a projection in the bank, 
 and some had not quite reached the creek bed. 
 Those firing upon Stout and Denton fled in the 
 brush after a single volley, and in a little time the 
 savages were securely hidden in the surrounding 
 thickets. Griffin was grazed by a ball on his 
 cheek, and several passed through his clothes. 
 
 The men hastily countermarched to the field, 
 where Capt. Bourland met them. They were con- 
 siderably demoralized. Pretty soon all were 
 rallied at the first point of attack. Bourland 
 took twenty-four men, went back and carried 
 off the body of Denton. Eighty horses, a consid- 
 erable number of copper kettles, many buffalo 
 robes and other stuff were carried away. Our men 
 retraced their steps to the Fossil creek camp of the 
 previous night, arriving there about midnight, 
 after losing much of the spoil. Next morning, 
 crossing Fossil creek bottom to its north side, they 
 buried Denton under the bank of a ravine, at the 
 point of a rocky ridge, and not far from where 
 Birdville stands. Ten or twelve feet from the 
 grave stood a large post oak tree, at the roots of 
 which two stones were partly set in the ground. 
 This duty performed they traveled up the country 
 on the west side of the Cross Timbers and Elm 
 Fork, until they struck their trail outward at the 
 site of Gainesville, and then followed it back to the 
 barracks, where they disbanded, after a division of 
 the captured property. The Indian woman escaped 
 on the way in. Gen. Tarrant kept the child, but it 
 was restored to its mother some two years later, at 
 a council in the Indian Territory. 
 
 The expedition was unsuccessful in its chief 
 objects and, from some cause, probably a division 
 of responsibility, the men, or a portion of them, at 
 the critical moment, were thrown into a degree of 
 confusion bordering on panic. 
 
 On returning home from tliis fruitless, indeed 
 unfortunate, expedition, measures were set on foot 
 for a larger one, of which Gen. Tarrant was again 
 to be the ranking officer. 
 
 At that time Gen. James Smith, of Nacogdoches, 
 was commander of the militia in that district. He 
 led an expedition at the same time to the same 
 section of country, there being an understanding 
 that he and Tarrant would, if practicable, meet 
 somewhere in the Cross Timbers. 
 
 The volunteers of Red river, between 400 and 
 500 in number, assembled from the 15th to the 
 
 20th of July, 1841, at Fort English, as the home 
 of Bailey English was called, and there organized 
 as a regiment by electing William C. Young as 
 Colonel and James Bourland as Lieutenant-Colonel. 
 John Smither was made Adjutant, and among the 
 captains were William Lane, David Key and Robert 
 S. Hamilton. 
 
 Gen. Tarrant assumed command and controlled 
 the expedition. Simultaneously with this assem- 
 bling of the people two little boys on the Bois 
 d'Arc, lower down, were captured and carried off 
 by Indians, to be recovered about two j'ears later. 
 
 The expedition moved southwest and encamped 
 on the west bank of the Trinity, probably in Wise 
 County, and sent out a scouting party, who made no 
 discoveries ; yet, as will be seen, the Indians dis- 
 covered Tarrant's movements in time to be unseen 
 by him and to narrowly escape a well-planned attack 
 by Gen. Smith. Without discovering any enemy, 
 after being out several weeks, Tarrant's command 
 returned home and disbanded. 
 
 In the meantime Gen. Smith, with a regiment of 
 militia and volunteers, moved up northwesterly in 
 the general direction of the present city of Dallas. 
 On arriving at the block houses, known as King's 
 Fort, at the present town of Kaufman, he found 
 that the place had been assaulted by Indians during 
 the previous evening and a considerable fight had 
 occurred, in which the assailants had been gallantly 
 repulsed and had retired, more or less damaged. 
 
 Gen. Smith fell upon and followed the trail of 
 the discomfited savages, crossing Cedar creek (of 
 Kaufman Count}'), the " East Fork," White Rock 
 and the Trinity where Dallas stands, this being a 
 few months before John Neely Bryan pitched his 
 lonely camp on the same spot. On the spring 
 branch, a mile or so on the west side of the river, 
 the command halted, enjoying limpid spring water 
 and an abundance of honey, from which one of the 
 springs derived the name it still retains — Honey 
 spring. From this camp Gen. Smith dispatched a 
 scout of twelve men, under Capt. John L. Hall, to 
 seek and report the location of the Indian village. 
 Besides Capt. Hall there were in this scout John H. 
 Reagan (then a buckskin attired surveyor — years 
 later United States senator, having first entered the 
 lower House of Congress in 1857), Samuel Bean, 
 Isaac Bean, John I. Burton (of race-horse fame), 
 Hughes Burton, George Lacey, Warren A. Ferris, 
 a Creek Indian named Charty, and three others 
 whose names have not been obtained. They crossed 
 Mountain creek above or south of the Texas and 
 Pacific railroad of to-day, thence passed over the 
 prairie into the Cross Timbers and to within a short 
 distance of Village creek. From the number of 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 fresh trails, apparently converging to a common 
 center, it became evident they were in the vicinity 
 of an Indian town. Secreting his party in a low 
 and well hidden spot, Capt. Hall sent Judge 
 Reagan and Isaac Bean on foot, to discover the 
 exact location of the village and the best means of 
 approaching and surprising it. These brave but 
 cautious men, well-skilled in woodcraft, spent over 
 half a day in " spying out the lay of the land," 
 finding the Indians in quiet possession of their 
 camp and that it was approachable at both the 
 upper and lower ends of the village. Thus informed 
 they lost no time in reporting to Capt. Hall, who, 
 as soon as night came, cautiously emerged from his 
 hiding-place with his party, and hastened with the 
 information to Gen. Smith, who, by the way, was a 
 gallant old soldier in the Creek war under Gen. 
 Jackson. Camping at night on Mountain creek, 
 after starting as soon as possible after the arrival 
 of Hall, Gen. Smith reached the village about noon 
 
 next day. The command was divided into two 
 battalions, respectively commanded bj' Gen. Smith 
 and Lieut. -Col. Elliott. 
 
 Judge Reagan acted as guide in conducting Smith 
 to the upper end of the village, while Bean per- 
 formed the same service in guiding Elliott to the 
 lower. Both moves were successfully made ; but, 
 when the crisis came and the entliusiasm of the 
 men was at fever heat, it was found that the enemy 
 had already precipitately fled, leaving some supplies 
 and camp fixtures. 
 
 The simple explanation was that the Indians had 
 discovered Tarrant's force and fled barely in time to 
 elude Smith. Pursuit, under such circumstances, 
 would be useless. 
 
 Without meeting, each command, in its own wa}', 
 returned homeward ; but, though bloodless, the 
 invasion of the Indian country, in such force, had 
 a salutary effect in preparing all the smaller hostile 
 tribes for the treaty entered into in September, 18-i3. 
 
 Death of McSherry and Stinnett — Killing of Hibbins and 
 Creath and the Capture of Mrs. Hibbins and 
 Children — 1828 to 1842. 
 
 In 1828, there arrived on the Guadalupe river a 
 j'oung married couple from the vicinity of Browns- 
 ville, Jackson County, Illinois — .John McSherry 
 and his wife, Sarah, whose maiden name was Cre.ath. 
 They settled on the west side of the Guadalupe, 
 near a little creek, which, with a spring, was some 
 two hundred yards in front of the cabin they erected. 
 This was in the lower edge of DeWitt's Colony, as 
 it is now in the lower edge of DeWitt County. 
 Their nearest neighbor was Andrew Lockhart, ten 
 miles up the river, and one of a large family of 
 sterling pioneers on the Guadalupe, bearing that 
 name. Mrs. McSherry was a beautiful blonde, an 
 excellent type of the country girls of the West in 
 that day, very handsome in person, graceful in 
 manner and pure of heart. Mr. McSherry was an 
 honest, industrious man of nerve and will. They 
 were happily devoted to each other. 
 
 Early in 1829, their first child, John, was born in 
 that isolated cabin, in one of the most lovely spots 
 of the Southwest. 
 
 Later in the same year, about noon on a pleasant 
 day, Mr. McSherry went to the spring for a bucket 
 
 of water. As he arose from the bank, bucket in 
 hand, a party of Indians with a wild yell, sprang 
 from the bushes and in a moment he was a lifeless 
 and scalped corpse. His wife hearing the yell, 
 sprang to the door, saw him plainly and realized 
 the peril of herself and infant. In the twinkling of 
 an ej^e, she barred the door, seized the gun and 
 resolved to defend herself and baby unto death. 
 The savages surveyed the situation and manoeuvered 
 to and fro, but failed to attack the cabin and soon 
 disappeared. Thus she was left alone, ten miles 
 from the nearest habitation, and without a road to 
 that or any other place. But truly, in the belief 
 of every honest person of long frontier experi- 
 ence, the ways of providence are inscrutable. 
 About dark John McCrabb, a fearless and excel- 
 lent man, well armed and mounted, but wholly 
 unaware of the s.ad condition of matters, rode up to 
 the cabin to pass the night. Hearing the recital his 
 strong nerves became stronger, and his heart pul- 
 sated as became that of a whole-souled Irishman. 
 
 Ver}' soon he placed the young mother and babe 
 on his horse and, by the light of the stars, started 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 89 
 
 on foot, through the wilderness, for the house of 
 Andrew Lockhart, reaching it before daylight, 
 where warm hearts bestowed all possible care and 
 kindness on those so ruthiesslj' stricken in the 
 wilderness and so remote from all kindred ties. 
 
 Mrs. McSherry, for a considerable time, found a 
 home and friends with the Lockharts ; but a few 
 years later married John Hibbins, a worthy man, 
 who settled on the east side of the Guadalupe, in 
 the vicinity of where the town of Concrete now 
 stands, in DeWitt County. 
 
 In the summer of 1835, with her little boy, John 
 McSherry, and an infant by Mr. Hibbins, she re- 
 visited her kindred in Illinois. She returned via 
 New Orleans in the winter of 1835-6, accompanied 
 by her brother, George Creath, a single man, and 
 landed at Columbia, on the Brazos, where early in 
 February, 1836, Mr. Hibbins met them with an ox 
 cart, on which they began the journey home. 
 They crossed the Colorado at Beason's and fell into 
 the ancient La Bahia road on the upper Navidad. 
 In due time they arrived at and were about 
 encamping on Rocky creek, six miles above the 
 subsequent village of Sweet Home, in Lavaca 
 County and within fifteen or sixteen miles of their 
 home, when they were suddenly attacked by 
 thirteen Indian warriors who immediately killed 
 Hibbins and Creath, made captives Mrs. Hibbins 
 and her two children, took possession of all the 
 effects and at leisure moved off up the country 
 with perfect unconcern. They traveled slowly up 
 through the timbered country, the Peach creek 
 region between the Guadalupe and the Colorado, 
 securely tjnng Mrs Hibbins at night and lying 
 encircled around her. About the second day, at 
 one of their camps, the baby cried with pain for 
 some time, when one of the Indians seized it by the 
 feet and mashed its brains against a tree, all in the 
 presence of its helpless mother. For two or three 
 days at this time Mrs. Hibbins distinctly heard 
 the guns in the siege of the Alamo, at least sixty 
 miles to the west. That she did so was made cer- 
 tain a little later by her imparting the news to 
 others till then unaware of that now world- 
 renowned struggle. 
 
 In due time her captors crossed the Colorado at 
 the mouth of Shoal creek, now in the city of 
 Austin. They moved on three or four miles and 
 encamped on the south edge of a cedar brake, 
 where a severe norther came up and caused them 
 to remain three nights and two days. On the third 
 night the Indians were engaged in a game till late 
 and then slept soundly. Mrs. Hibbins determined, 
 if possible, to escape. Cautiously, she freed her- 
 self of the cords about her wrists and ankles and 
 
 stepping over the bodies of her unconscious guards, 
 stole awa}', not daring even to imprint a kiss on 
 her only and first-born child, then a little over six 
 years of age. 
 
 Daylight found her but a short distance from 
 camp, not over a mile or two, and she secreted 
 herself in a thicket from which she soon saw and 
 heard the Indians in pursuit. The savages com- 
 pelled the little boy to call aloud, "Mama! Ma- 
 ma!" But she knew that her only hope for her- 
 self and child was in escape, and remained silent. 
 After a considerable time the Indians disappeared. 
 But she remained concealed still longer, till satisfied 
 her captors had left. She then followed the creek 
 to the Colorado and, as rapidly as possible, traveled 
 down the river, shielded by the timber along its 
 banks. 
 
 The crow of a chicken late in the afternoon sent 
 a thrill through her agonizing heart. The welcome 
 sound was soon repeated several times and thither 
 she hastened with a zeal born of her desperate con- 
 dition, for she did not certainly know she was in a 
 hundred miles of a habitation. In about two miles 
 she reached the outer cabin on the Colorado, or 
 rather one of the two outer ones — Jacob Harrell 
 occupying the one she entered and Reuben Horns- 
 by the other. She was so torn with thorns and 
 briars, so nearly without raiment, and so bruised 
 about the face, that her condition was pitiable. 
 Providentially (as every old pioneer untainted with 
 heathenism believed), eighteen rangers, the first 
 ever raised under the revolutionarj' government of 
 Texas, and commanded by Capt. John J. Tum- 
 linson, had arrived two days before and were 
 encamped at the cabin of Hornsby. To this warm- 
 hearted and gallant officer Mrs. Hibbins was per- 
 sonally known and to him she hastily narrated her 
 sad story. 
 
 Tumlinson knew the country somewhat and felt 
 sure he could find the Indians at a given point 
 further up the country. He traveled nearly all 
 night, halting only a short while before day to rest 
 his horses and resuming the march at sunrise, and 
 about 9 o'clock came upon the Indians, encamped, 
 but on the eve of departure. I have the privilege, 
 as to what followed, of quoting the exact language 
 of Capt. Tumlinson, written for me fort}- years ago, 
 as follows : — - 
 
 " The Indians discovered us just as we discov- 
 ered them, but had not time to get their horses, so 
 they commenced running on foot towards the 
 mountain thickets. I threw Lieut. Joseph Rogers, 
 with eight men, below them ■ — and with the others 
 I dashed past and took possession of their route 
 above them. The Indians saw that the route 
 
no 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 above and below them was in our possession, and 
 struck off for the mountain thicket nearest the side 
 of the trail. I ordered Lieut. Rogers to charge, 
 and fell upon them simultaneously. I saw an 
 Indian aiming his rifle at me, but knew that he 
 must be a better marksman than I had seen among 
 them to hit me going at my horse's speed, and did 
 not heed him till I got among them. Then I 
 sprang from my horse quick as lightning, and 
 turned towards him ; at the same instant he fired ; 
 the ball passed through the bosom of my shirt and 
 struck my horse in the neck, killing him immedi- 
 ately. I aimed deliberately and fired. The Indian 
 sprang a few feet into the air, gave one whoop and 
 fell dead within twenty-five feet of me. The fight 
 now became general. Pell-mell we fell together. 
 The Indians, thirteen in number, armed with bows 
 and rifles, were endeavoring to make good their 
 retreat towards the thicket. Several of them fell, 
 and two of my men were wounded ; when finally 
 they effected an entrance into the thicket, which 
 was so dense that it would have been madness to 
 have attempted to penetrate it, and we were forced 
 to cease the pursuit. I dispatched Rogers after 
 the child, the horses and mules of the Indians, 
 whilst I remained watching the thicket to guard 
 against surprise. He found the child in the Indian 
 camp tied on the back of a wild mule, with his 
 robe and equipments about him fixed on for the 
 day's march, and had to shoot the mule in order to 
 get the child. He also succeeded in getting hold 
 of all the animals of tiie Indians, and those they 
 had stolen. My men immediately selected the best 
 horse in the lot, which they presented to me in place 
 of the one that was killed. 
 
 ''We watched for the Indians a while longer; 
 and in the meantime sent a runner for the doctor 
 to see to the wounded. I sent a portion of the 
 men under the command of Rogers with the child, 
 and the wounded men and I brought up the rear. 
 The wounded were Elijah Ingram, shot in the arm, 
 the liall ranging upwards to the shoulder; also 
 Hugh M. Childers, shot through the leg. Of the 
 Indians, four were killed. We arrived that night 
 at Mr. Harrell's, where we found Mrs. Hibbins, 
 the mother of the child. Lieut. Rogers presented 
 the child to its mother, and the scene which here 
 ensued beggars description. A mother meeting 
 with her child released from Indian captivity, re- 
 covered as it were from the very jaws of death! 
 Not an eye was dry. She called us brothers, and 
 every other endearing name, and would have fallen 
 on her knees to worship us. She hugged her child 
 to her bosom as if fearful that she would again lose 
 him. And — but 'tis useless to say more." 
 
 Lieut. Joseph Rogers was a brother of Mrs. Gen. 
 Burleson, and was killed in a battle with the Indians 
 a few years later. Thus the mother and child, 
 bereft of husband and father, and left without a 
 relative nearer than Southern Illinois, found them- 
 selves in the families of Messrs. Harrell and 
 Hornsby, the outside settlers on the then feeble 
 frontier of the Colorado — large-hearted and sym- 
 pathizing avant-couricrs in the advancing civili- 
 zation of Texas. The coincident fall of the Alamo 
 came to them as a summons to pack up their effects 
 and hasten eastward, as their fellow-citizens below 
 were already doing. 
 
 The mother and child accompanied these two 
 families in their flight from the advancing Mexi- 
 cans, till they halted east of the Trinity, where, in a 
 few weeks, couriers bore the glorious news of vic- 
 tory and redemption from the field of San Jacinto. 
 Soon they resumed their weary march, but this 
 time for their homes. In Washington County Mrs. 
 Hibbins halted, under the friendly roof of a sym- 
 pathizing pioneer. There she also met a former 
 neighbor, in the person of Mr. Claiborne Stinnett, 
 an intelligent and estimable man, who, with Capt. 
 Henry S. Brown (father of the writer of this) 
 represented De Witt's Colony in the first delibera- 
 tive body ever assembled in Texas — the able and 
 patriotic convention assembled at San Felipe, 
 October 1, 1832. 
 
 After a widowhood of twelve months, Mrs. Hib- 
 bins married Mr. Stinnett and they at once (in the 
 spring of 1837) returned to their former home on 
 the Guadalupe. In the organization of Gonzales 
 County, a little later, Mr. Stinnett was elected 
 Sheriff. Late in the fall, with apackhorse, he went 
 to Linnville, on the bay, to buy needed supplies. 
 Loading this extra horse with sugar, coffee, etc., 
 and with seven hundred dollars in cash, lie started 
 home. But instead of following the road by Vic- 
 toria, he traveled a more direct route through the 
 prairie. When, about night, he was near the 
 Arenosa creek, about twenty miles northeast of 
 Victoria, he discovered a camp fire in a grove of 
 timber and, supposing it to be a camp of hunters, 
 went to it. Instead, it was the camp of two " run- 
 away" negro men, seeking their way to Mexico. 
 They murdered Mr. Stinnett, took his horses, pro- 
 visions and money, and, undiscovered, reached 
 Mexico. The fate of the murdered man remained 
 a mystery. No trace of him was found for five 
 years, until, in the fall of 1842, one of the negroes 
 revealed all the facts to an American prisoner in 
 Mexico (the late Col. Andrew Neill), and so de- 
 scribed the locality that the remains of Mr. Stinnett 
 were found and interred. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 )1 
 
 Thus this estimable lady lost her tliird husband — 
 two by red savages and one by black — and was 
 again alone, without the ties of kinship, excepting 
 her child, in all the land. Yet she was still young, 
 attractive in person and pure of heart, so that, two 
 years later, she was wooed and won by Mr. Philip 
 Howard. Unwisely, in June, 1840, soon after their 
 marriage, thej' abandoned their home on the Guad- 
 alupe and removed to the ancient Mission of San 
 Juan, eight miles below San Antonio. It was a 
 hundred miles through a wilderness often traversed 
 by hostile savages. Hence they were escorted by 
 seven young men of the vicinity, consisting of Byrd 
 Loekhart, Jr. (of that well-known pioneer family), 
 young McGary, two brothers named Powers (one 
 of whom was a boy of thirteen and both the sons of 
 a widow), and three others whose names are for- 
 gotten. On arriving at the mission in the fore- 
 noon their horses were hobbled out near by and 
 little John McSherry (the child of Mrs. How- 
 ard, recovered from the Indians in 1836, and at 
 this time in his eleventh year) was left on 
 a pony to watch them ; but within half an 
 hour a body of Indians suddenly charged upon 
 them, captured some of the horses, and little John 
 barel}' escaped by dashing into the camp, a vivid 
 reminder to the mother that her cup of affliction 
 was not yet full. In a day or two the seven young 
 men started on their return home. About noon 
 next day, a heavy shower fell, wetting their guns; 
 but was soon followed by sunshine, when they all 
 fired off their guns to clean and dr^' them. Most 
 imprudently they all did so at the same time, leav- 
 ing no loaded piece. This volley attracted the 
 keen ear of seventy hostile Comanches who other- 
 wise would not have discovered them. In a 
 moment or two they appeared and cried out that 
 
 they were friendly Toncaluias. Tne ruse succeeded 
 and they were allowed to approach and encircle the 
 now helpless young men. Six of them were in- 
 stantl3' slain, scalped and their horses and effects, 
 with the boy i Powers, carried off. During the 
 second night afterwards, in passing through a 
 cedar brake at the foot of the Cibolo mountains, he 
 slid quietly off his horse and escaped. In three or 
 four days he reached the upper settlements on the 
 Guadulupe, and gave the first information of these 
 harrowing facts. 
 
 Thus again admonished, Mr. and Mrs. Howard 
 removed low down on the San Antonio river, below 
 the ancient ranch of Don Carlos de la Garza, in the 
 lower edge of Goliad County, confident that no hos- 
 tile savage would ever visit that secluded locality. 
 But they were mistaken. Early in the spring of 
 1842, the hostiles made a night raid all around 
 them, stole a number of their horses, murdered 
 two of their neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Gilleland, and 
 carried off their little son and daughter ; but a party 
 of volunteers, among whom were the late Maj. 
 Alfred S. Thurmond, of Aransas, and the late Col. 
 Andrew Neill, of Austin, overhauled and defeated 
 the Indians and recaptured the children. The boy 
 is now Wm. M. Gilleland, long of Austin, and the 
 little girl is the widow of the late Rev. Orseneth 
 Fisher, a distinguished Methodist preacher. 
 
 Following this sixtii admonition, Mr. and Mrs. 
 Howard at once removed to the present vicinity of 
 Hallettsville, in Lavaca County, and thencefoward 
 her life encountered no repetition of the horrors 
 which had so terribly followed her footsteps through 
 the previous thirteen j-ears. Peace and a fair share 
 of prosperity succeeded. In 1848 Mr. Howard was 
 made County Judge, and some years later they 
 located in Bosque County. 
 
 The Snively Expedition Against the Mexican Santa Fe 
 Traders in 1843. 
 
 The year 1843 was one of the gloomiest, at least 
 during its first half, ever experienced in Texas. 
 The perfidious and barbarous treatment given the 
 " Texian Santa Fc " prisoners of 1841, after they 
 had capitulated as prisoners of war, preceded by 
 the treason of one of their number, a wrelch named 
 William P. Lewis, had created throughout Texas a 
 
 desire for retaliation. The expedition so surren- 
 dered to tiie overwhelming force of Armijo, the 
 Governor of New Mexico, was both commercial 
 and peaceful, but of necessity accompanied by a 
 large armed escort to protect it against the hostile 
 Indians, covering the entire distance. The wisdom 
 and the legality of the measure, authorized by 
 
92 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 President Lamar, ou his own responsibility, were 
 severely criticised by many ; but Texas was a unit 
 in indignation at tlie treacherous, dastardly and 
 brutal treatment bestowed upon their brave and 
 chivalrous citizens after honorable surrender, 
 among whom were many well-known soldiers and 
 gentlemen, including Hugh McLeod, the com- 
 mander, Jose Antonio Navarro, William G. Cooke 
 and Dr. Eichard F. Brenham as Peace Commis- 
 missioners, Capt. Matthew Caldwell, Geo. W. 
 Kendall of New Orleans, young Frank Coombes 
 of Kentucky, Capt. Houghton and an array of 
 first-class privates, the choice spirits of the coun- 
 try, of whom ray friend of forty-eight years, 
 Thomas W. Hunt, now of Bosque County, is still 
 an honorable sample. 
 
 The triplicate Mexican raid of 1812, ending with 
 the glorious but unsuccessful battle of Mier, inten- 
 sified the desire for retaliatory action towards 
 Mexico and especially so towards New Mexico. 
 
 As the result of this feeling, on the 28th of 
 January, 1843, Jacob Snively, who had held the 
 staff rank of Colonel in the Texian army, applied 
 to the government for authority to raise men and 
 proceed to the upper boundaries of Texas, and 
 capture a rich train belonging to Armijo and other 
 Santa Fe Mexicans. Permission was issued by 
 George W. Hill, Secretary of War, on the 16th of 
 February, with provisos that half the spoils should 
 go to the government and should only be taken in 
 honorable warfare. 
 
 On the 24th of April, near the present town of 
 Denison, the expedition, about 175 strong, was 
 organized, with Snively unanimously chosen as 
 commander. A few others joined a day or two 
 later, making a total of about 190. They followed 
 the old Chihuahua trail west till assured of being 
 west of the hundredth meridian, then bore north, 
 passing along the western base of the Wichita 
 mountains, and on the 27th of May encamped on 
 the southwest bank of the Arkansas. This was 
 said to be about forty miles below the Missouri- 
 Santa Fe crossing, but was only eight or ten miles 
 from the road on the opposite side of the river. 
 
 It was known before they started that a Mexican 
 train of great value (for that day) would pass from 
 Independence to Santa Fe, some time in the spring, 
 and as the route for a long distance lay in Texas, it 
 was considered legitimate prey. 
 
 They soon learned from some men from Bent's 
 Fort that six hundred Mexican troops were waiting 
 above to escort the caravan from (he American 
 boundary to Santa li'e. Snively kept out scouts 
 and sought to recruit his horses. His scouts in- 
 spected the camp of the enemy and found their 
 
 number as reported, about six hundred. On the 
 20th of June a portion of the command had a fight 
 with a detachment of the Mexicans, killing seven- 
 teen and capturing eighty prisoners, including 
 eighteen wounded, without losing a man, and 
 securing a fine supply of horses, saddles and arms. 
 Snively held the prisoners in a camp with good 
 water. On the 24th three hundred Indians sud- 
 denly appeared, but, seeing Snively's position and 
 strength, professed friendship. There was no con- 
 fidence, however, in their profession, excepting so 
 far as induced by a fear to attack. 
 
 The long delay created great discontent and 
 when scouts came in on the 28th and reported no 
 discovery of the caravan, a separation took place. 
 Seventy of the men, selecting Capt. Eli Chandler 
 as their commander, started home on the 29th. 
 Snively, furnishing his wounded prisoners with 
 horses to ride, the others with a limited number of 
 guns for defense against the Indians and such pro- 
 visions as he could spare, set the whole party at 
 liberty. Whereupon he pitched another camp 
 farther up the river to await the caravan, perfectly 
 confident that he was west of the hundredth meri- 
 dian and (being on the southwest side of the Ar- 
 kansas, the boundary line from that meridian to 
 its source), therefore, in Texas. Subsequent sur- 
 veys proved that he was right. By a captured 
 Mexican he learned that the caravan was not far 
 distant escorted by one hundred and ninety-six 
 United States dragoons, commanded by Capt. 
 Philip St. George Cooke. On June 30th they were 
 discovered by the scouts and found to have also 
 two pieces of artillery. Cooke soon appeared, 
 crossed the river, despite the protest of Snively 
 that he was on Texas soil, and planted his guns so 
 as to rake the camp. He demanded unconditional 
 surrender and there was no other alternative to the 
 outrage. Cooke allowed them to retain ten guns 
 for the one hundred and seven men present, com- 
 pelled to travel at least four hundred miles through 
 a hostile Indian country, without a human haliita- 
 tion ; but their situation was not so desperate as 
 he intended, for a majority of the men, before it 
 was too late, buried their rifles and double-barreled 
 shot-guns in the friendly sand mounds, and meekly 
 surrendered to Cooke the short escopetas they had 
 captured from the Mexicans. Cooke immediately 
 re-crossed the liver and slept. He awakened to a 
 partial realization of his harsh and unfeeling act; 
 and sent a message to Snively that he would escort 
 as many of his men as would accept the invitation 
 into Independence, Missouri. About forty-two of 
 the men went, among whom were Capt. Myers F. 
 Jones of Fayette County, his nephew John Rice 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 93 
 
 Jones, Jr., formerly of Washington County, Mis- 
 souri, and others whose names cannot be recalled. 
 With Cooke, on a health-seeking trip, was Mr. 
 Joseph S. Pease, a noted hardware merchant of 
 St. Louis, and an old friend of the writer, who 
 bitterly' denounced Cooke and defended the cause 
 of the Texians on reaching St. Louis. 
 
 Col. Snivel5' hastily dispatched a courier advising 
 Capt. Chandler of these events and asking him to 
 halt. He did so and on the 2d of July the two 
 parties re-united. On the 4th the Indians stam- 
 peded sixty of their horses, but in the fight lost 
 twelve warriors, while one Texian was killed and 
 one wounded. 
 
 On the 6th the scouts reported that the caravan 
 had crossed the Arkansas. Some wanted to pursue 
 and attack it — others opposed. Snively resigned 
 on the 9th. Sixty-five men selected Chas. A. War- 
 field as leader (not the Charles A. Warfield after- 
 wards representative of Hunt County, and more 
 recently of California, but another man of the 
 same name who, it is believed, died before the Civil 
 War.) Col. Snively adhered to this party. They 
 pursued the caravan till the 13th, when they found 
 the Mexican escort to be too strong and abandoned 
 the enterprise and started home. Warfield resigned 
 and Snively was re-elected. On the 20th they were 
 assaulted by a band of Indians, but repulsed them, 
 anfl after the usual privations of such a trip in 
 mid-summer, they arrived at Bird's Fort, on the 
 West Fork of the Trinity, pending the efforts to 
 negotiate a treat3' at that place, as elsewhere set 
 
 forth in this work. Chandler and part}', including 
 Capt. S. P. Ross, had already gotten in. 
 
 Besides those already named as in this expedition 
 was the now venerable and honorable ex-Senator 
 Stewart A. Miller, of Crockett, who kept a daily 
 diary of the trip, which was in my possession for 
 several years and to which Yoakum also had access. 
 The late founder of the flourishing town bearing 
 his name, Robert A. Terrell, was also one of the 
 party, and a number of others who are scattered 
 over the country, but their names cannot be 
 given. 
 
 When this news reached St. Louis, the writer 
 was on a visit to that city, the guest of Col. A. B. 
 Chambers, editor of the Repiiblican, in whose 
 familj' six years of his boyhood had been passed. 
 The press of the country went wild in bitter de- 
 nunciation of the Texians as robbers and pirates. 
 The Repuhlican alone of the St. Louis press 
 seemed willing to hear both sides. Capt. Myers 
 F. Jones and party published a short defensive card, 
 supplemented by a friendly one from Mr. Joseph 
 S. Pease. That was nearly forty-five years ago, 
 when the writer had just graduated from contests 
 with Mexican freebooters, runningfor the ten months 
 next prior to the battle of Mier. He could not 
 submit in silence, and published in the Republican 
 a complete recapitulation of the outrages, robberies 
 and murders committed in 1841 and 1842 by the 
 Mexicans upon the people of Texas, closing with a 
 denunciation of the conduct of Capt. Philip St. 
 George Cooke. 
 
 The Thrilling Mission of Commissioner Joseph C. Eidridge to 
 
 the Wild Tribes in 1843, by Authority of President 
 
 Houston — Hamilton P. Bee, Thomas Torrey — 
 
 The Three Delawares, Jim Shaw, John 
 
 Connor and Jim Second Eye — 
 
 The Treaty. 
 
 When the year 1843 opened, Gen. Sam. Houston 
 was serving his second term as President of the 
 Republic of Texas, and the seat of government was 
 temporarily at the town of Washington-on-the 
 Brazos. He had uniformly favored a peace policy 
 toward the Indians, whenever it miwht become 
 
 practicable to conclude a general treaty with the 
 numerous wild and generally hostile tribes inhabit- 
 ing all the western and northwestern territory of 
 the republic. On this policy the country was 
 divided in opinion, and the question was often 
 discussed with more or less bitterness. Nothing 
 
94 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 could be more natural, respeclioga policy affecting 
 so deeply the property and lives of tLie frontier 
 people, who were so greatly exposed to the raids of 
 the hostiles, and had little or no faith in their 
 fidelity to treaty stipulations ; while the President, 
 realizing the sparsity of population and feebleness 
 in resources of the government and the country, 
 hoped to bring about a general cessation of hostili- 
 ties, establish a line of demarcation between the 
 whites and Indians, and by establishing along the 
 same a line of trading houses, to promote friendly 
 traffic, with occasional presents by the government, 
 to control the wild men and preserve the lives of 
 the people. 
 
 At this time Joseph C. Eldridge,* a man of 
 education, experience, courage, and the highest 
 order of integrity, was appointed by the President 
 as Commissioner of Indian Affairs. About the 
 same time a delegation from several of the 
 smaller tribes visited the President, in order to 
 have a talk. Among them were several Delawares, 
 nearly civilized, and among them were persons who 
 spoke not only our language, but all the tongues 
 of the wild prairie tribes, some speaking one 
 and some another tongue. It occurred to the 
 President, after frequent interviews, that he could 
 utilize these Delawares, or the three chief men 
 among them, Jim Shaw, John Connor and Jim 
 Second Eye, as commissioners in inducing all the 
 wild tribes to meet the President and peace com- 
 
 * Joseph C. Eldridge was a native o£ Connecticut, and 
 of an aucieut and honorable family. Of him Gen. Bee 
 writes nie: "He was an airairable character, brave, 
 cool, delerrained in danger, faithful to public trusts aud 
 loving iQ his friendships. He did more thau his duty on 
 this trip. He served as Paymaster in the United States 
 navy from ISlfi, and died the senior officer of that corps 
 in 1881, at his home in Brooklyn, New York. His stern 
 sense of duly was displayed oq our way out, when, north 
 of Red river, we met aud camped all night with a com- 
 pany of men under Capt. S. P. Ross, returning from the 
 Ill-fated Snively expeditiou. They urged us to return 
 home, as the ludians on the plains were all hostile — our 
 trip would be fruitless, and the hazards were too great 
 for such a handful. Only Eldridge's courage and high 
 sense of duty caused him to reject the advice and pro- 
 ceed; but pending our trial in the Comanche council we 
 all regretted not having yielded to the warnings of Capt. 
 Ross. Capt. Eldridge died of softening of the brain. He 
 had a sou, Houston Eldridge, named for the President 
 after their temporary unpleasantness, a most promising 
 young officer of the navy, who died not long after his 
 father. John C. Eldridge, a cousin of Joseph C, also 
 figured honorably in Texas for a number of years, and 
 their names were sometimes confounded. Charles W. 
 Eldridge, another coushi, deceased in Hartford, Con- 
 necticut, was a brotlier-iu-law to the writer of this his- 
 torv. 
 
 missioners, at a point to be designated, for the 
 purpose of making a treaty. Subsequent events 
 went to show that the Delawares had imbibed that 
 idea; but President Houston Anally decided to 
 commission Capt. Eldridge for that onerous and 
 hazardous mission, to be accompanied by two or 
 three white men of approved character, together 
 with llie Delawares and a few Indians of other 
 tribes. Capt. Eldridge eagerly applied to his young 
 and bosom friend, Hamilton P. Bee, to accompany 
 him. They had crossed the gulf together on their 
 first arrival in Texas in 1837— Bee accompanying 
 his mother from South Carolina to join his father, 
 Col. Barnard E. Bee, already in the service of 
 Texas, and Eldridge coming from his native State, 
 Connecticut. He selected also Thotnas Torrey, 
 already an Indian agent, and also a native of 
 Connecticut. 
 
 The preparations being completed, the party left 
 Washington late in March, 1843, and consisted of 
 Joseph C. Eldridge, commissioner, Thomas Tor- 
 rey, Indian agent, the three Delawares as guides 
 and interpreters, several other Delawares as hunt- 
 ers, helpers and traders, Acoquash, the Waco head 
 chief, who was one those who had been to see 
 
 the President, and Hamilton P. Bee. There may 
 have been a few other Indians. They had a small 
 caravan of pack mules to transport their provisions 
 and presents for the Indians. They also had with 
 them for delivery to their own people two Comanche 
 children about twelve years old, one a girl named 
 Maria (May-re-ah) aud the other a boy who had 
 taken the name of William Hockley, being two of 
 the captives at the Council House fight, in San 
 Antonio, on the 19th of March, 1840, elsewhere 
 described in this work. They also had two young 
 Waco women, previously taken as prisoners, but 
 these were placed in charge of Acoquash. 
 
 They passed up the valley of the Brazos, passing 
 Fort Milam, near the present Marlin, around which 
 were the outside habitations of the white settlers.. 
 Further up, on Tehuacano creek, six or seven 
 miles southeast of the present city of Waco, they 
 reached the newly established trading house of the 
 Torrey brothers,* afterwards well known as a 
 
 * There were four of the Torrey brothers, all from 
 Ashford, Connecticut, the younger following the elder to 
 Texas 1836 to 18i0. David was the head of Torrey's 
 Trading House. He was the third one in the order of 
 death, being killed by Indians on the Brazos frontier, 
 not far from the time of annexation. James, a gallant 
 and estimable young man, kindly remembered by the 
 writer of this for his social and soldierly virtues, was one 
 of the seventeen justly celebrated Mier prisoners who 
 drew black beaus at the hacieuda of Salado, Mexico, 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 95 
 
 resort for Indians and traders. Here the}' found a 
 large party of Delawares. 
 
 The Uelawares accompan3'iiig Eldridge also had 
 mules freighted with goods for tralliu with tiie wild 
 tribes, and, among other commodities, a goodly 
 supply of that scourge of our race — - whisk}' — 
 doubtless intended for the Delawares found here, 
 as ex|>ected by those with Eldridge, for at tliat 
 time the wild tribes did not drink it. 
 
 On the arrival of the commissioner, all became 
 bustle and activity. The liquor was soon tapped 
 and a merry time inaugurated, but soon after dark 
 every Indian surrendered his knife and firearms to 
 the chiefs, by whom they were secreted. Then 
 loose reign was given to unarmed warriors, and 
 throughout the night pandemonium prevailed ac- 
 companied by screams, hideous yells, fisticuffs, 
 scratching, biting, and all manner of unarmed per- 
 s mal combat, causing wakefulness and some degree 
 of apprehension among the white men. But no 
 one was killed or seriously injured, and in due 
 time, sheer exhaustion was followed by quiet 
 slumber, the red man showing the same maudlin 
 beastliness when crazed by mean whisky as, alas! 
 characterizes his white brother in like condition. 
 It required two days to recover from the frolic, 
 and then Eldridge resumed his march into the 
 wilds beyond. His instructions were to visit as 
 man}' of the wild tribes as possible, and the head 
 chief of the Comanches — to deliver to them the 
 words of friendship from their Great Father, the 
 President, and invite them all to attend a grand 
 council to be held at Bird's Fort, on the north side 
 of the main or west fork of the Trinit}', com- 
 mencing on the 10th of August (1843), where 
 they would meet duly accredited commissioners 
 and the President in person to treat with them. 
 
 and were shot to death by order of Santa Anna, on the 
 19lh of March, 1843. Thomas, the companion of Eld- 
 rid<;e and Bee on this hazardous mission, a worthy 
 brottier of such men as David and James, was a Santa 
 Fe prisoner in 1841-42, marched in chains twelve hundred 
 miles, from Santa Fe to the city of Mexico, and was there 
 imprisoned with his fellows. He passed the terrible 
 ordeal narrated in this chapter, as occurring in the 
 council of Pajhayuco — separated from Eldridge and Bee 
 at the Wichita village, successfully reached Bird's Fort, 
 with detachments of the wild tribes, there to sicljen and 
 die, as success largely crowned their efforts to bring 
 about a general treaty. John F. Torrey, the only sur- 
 vivor of the four brothers, the personification of enter- 
 prise, built and ran cotton and woolen factories at New 
 Braunfels. Floods twice swept them and his wealth away. 
 At a goodly age he lives on his own farm on Comanche 
 Peali, Hood County. Honored be the name of Torrey 
 among the children of Texas! 
 
 This fort was about twenty- two miles westerly 
 from where Dallas was subsequently founded. 
 
 At a point above the three forks of the Trinity, 
 probably in Wise or Jack County, the expedition 
 halted for a few days and sent out Delaware ines- 
 sengers to find and invite any tribes found in the 
 surrounding country to visit them. Delegations 
 from eleven small tribes responded by coming in, 
 among them being Wacos, Anadarcos, Towdashes, 
 Caddos, Keechis, Tehuacanos, Delawares, Bedais, 
 Boluxies, lonies, and one or two others, constitut- 
 ing a large assemblage, the deliberations of which 
 were duly opened by the solemnities of embracinof, 
 smoking, and a wordy interchange of civilities. 
 Capt. Eldridge appeared in full uniform, and Bee * 
 performed the duties of secretary. The council 
 opened bj' an address from the Delaware interpre- 
 ters, and the whole day was consumed in a series 
 of dialogues between them and the wild chiefs, 
 Capt. Eldridge getting no opportunity to speak, 
 and when desiring to do so was told by the Dela- 
 wares that it was not 3'et time, as the}' had not 
 talked enough to the wild men. So, at night, the 
 council adjourned till next day when Eldridge de- 
 livered his talk, which was interpreted to the differ- 
 ent tribes by the Delawares. Finally Eldridge 
 said: "Tell them I am the mouth-piece of the 
 President, and speak his words." Two of the Dela- 
 wares interpreted the sentence, but Jim Shaw re- 
 fused, saying it was a lie. The other two conveyed 
 the language to ail. The result was satisfactory, 
 and the tribes present all agreed to attend the 
 council at Bird's Fort. Returning to bis tent, 
 Capt. Eldridge demanded of Shaw, who was the 
 leader and more intelligent of the Delawares, the 
 meaning of his strange conduct, to whi,ch he replied 
 that the three Delawares considered themselves the 
 commissioners, Eldridge being along only to write 
 down whatever was done. He also charged that 
 Eldridge bad their commission, attested by seals 
 
 * Hamilton P. Bee is a native of Charleston, South Car- 
 olina, favorably and intimately linown to the writer for 
 half a century as an honor to his country in all that con- 
 stitutes a true and patriotic citizen — a son of the Hon. 
 Barnard E. Bee, who early tendered bis sword and ser- 
 vices to struggling Texas, and a brother of Gen. Barnard 
 E. Bee, who fell at Manassas, the first General to yield 
 his life to the Confederate cause. Hamilton P. Bee was 
 Secretary to the United States and Texas Boundary Com- 
 missioB, 1839-40; Secretary of the first State Senate in 
 1846; a gallant soldier in the Mexican war; eight years a 
 member of the Legislature from the Rio Grande, and 
 Speaker of the House in 1855-oC; a Brigadier-General in 
 the Confederate army, losing a handsome estate by the 
 war, and later served as Commissioner of Insurance, 
 Statistics and History of the State of Texas. 
 
9G 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 and ribbons, with his baggage. This document 
 being Eldridge's instructions as commissioner, was 
 brought out, read and explained by Bee. Jim Shaw 
 was greatl}' excited, and had evidently believed 
 what he said ; but Eldridge bore himself with great 
 composure and firmness. After the reading Jim 
 Shaw said: " I beg your pardon, Joe, but I have 
 been misled. I thought the Delawares were to 
 make the treaties. We will go no farther, but go to 
 our own country', on the Missouri river — will start 
 to-morrow, and will never return to Texas." Eld- 
 ridge, alarmed at this unexpected phase of affairs, 
 appealed to the trio to stay and guide him, as the 
 President expected them to do ; but they seemed 
 inflexible. To proceed without them was madness, 
 and in this dilemma Eldridge sent for Jose Maria, 
 the noted chief of the Anadarcos, who had been so 
 severely wounded in his victorious fight with the 
 whites, in Bryant's defeat near Marlin, in January, 
 1839. He explained to him the facts just related, 
 and asked him if he would escort him back into the 
 settlements. Greatly pleased at such a mark of 
 confidence — his keen Ijlack eyes giving full expres- 
 sion to his gratified pride — he promptly and sol- 
 emnly promised to do so. 
 
 On the next morning, while Eldridge was pack- 
 ing and mounting for his homeward march, sur- 
 rounded by his promised escort of one hundred 
 Anadarco warriors, well mounted and armed with 
 bows and lances, w'th Jose Maria at their head, 
 Jim Shaw sent word to Capt. Eldridge that he had 
 changed his mind and would continue the trip. An 
 interview followed and a full understanding was 
 entered into, acknowledging Capt. Eldridge as the 
 sole head of the expedition ; but after this the manner 
 of the Delaware trio was formal and reserved, and 
 their intercourse long confined to business matters. 
 Continuing the march, they next reached the 
 principal village of the Wacos, whither they had 
 been preceded bj' Acoquash, witii the two released 
 Waco girls, who greeted them warmly. During 
 their stay he was their guest, and most of the time 
 had his family on hand. It was a little odd, but 
 his friendship was too valuable to be sacrificed on 
 a question of etiquette. Here the Delawares 
 announced that it would be necessary to send out 
 runners to find the Comanches ; that this would 
 require fifteen days, during which time the trio — 
 Shaw, Connor and Second E3'e — • would take the 
 peltries they had on hand to Warren's trading 
 house down on Red river, for deposit or sale, and 
 return within the time named. During the delay, 
 Eldridge camped three miles from the village, but 
 was daily surrounded and more or less annoyed by 
 the W.icos. men, women and children. The wife of 
 
 Acjquash became violently ill, and he requested his 
 white brothers to exert their skill as medicine men. 
 Mr. Bee administered to her jalap and rhubarb, 
 which, fortunately for them, as will be seen later, 
 speedily relieved and restored her to health. 
 
 The runners returned on time with rather encour- 
 aging reports ; but the essential trio, so indispen- 
 sable to progress, were absent twenty-eight instead 
 of fifteen days, causing a loss of precious time. 
 
 Their next move was for the Wichita village, at 
 or near the present site of Fort Sill. The3' were 
 kindly received by this warlike tribe, who had heard 
 of their mission and promised to attend the council 
 at Bird's Fort. 
 
 They next bore westerly for the great prairies and 
 plains in search of the Comanches, Acoquash and 
 his wife being with them. It was now in Jul}^ and all 
 of their provisions were exhausted, reducing them 
 to an entire dependence on wild meat, which, how- 
 ever, was abundant, and they soon found the tal- 
 low of the buffalo, quite unlike that of the cow, 
 a good substitute for bread. They carried in 
 abundant strings of cooked meal on their pack 
 mules. 
 
 After twenty days they found Indian" signs " in 
 a plum thicket, " the best wild plums," wrote Young 
 Bee, "I ever saw." They saw where Indians 
 had been eating plums during the same day, and 
 there the}' encamped. Pretty soon an Indian, 
 splendidly mounted, approached, having a boy of 
 six years before him. He proved to be blind, but 
 a distinguished chief of the Comanches — a man 
 of remarkable physique, over six feet in height, a 
 model in proportions and his hair growing down 
 over his face. He told the Delaware interpreter 
 the locality' in which they were, and that the town 
 of Payhayuco, the great head chief of the 
 Comanches, was only a few miles distant. 
 
 As soon as the blind chief's boj' — a beautiful 
 child, handsomely dressed in ornamented buck- 
 skin — gathered a supplj' of plums, they mounted 
 and returned to their town, accompanied by a few 
 of the Delawares. In the afternoon a delegation 
 of the Comanches visited Eldridge and invited him 
 and his partj' to visit their town. Promptly sad- 
 dling up and escorted by about 500 Comanche 
 warriors, in about two hours' ride, they entered 
 the town of the great chief 
 
 PAYHATLOO, 
 
 and for the first time beheld the pride and the glory 
 of the wild tribes — the Comanche Indian in his 
 Bedouin-like home. With considerable ceremonj' 
 they were conducted to the tent of Payhayuco, who 
 was absent, but the honors were done by the chief 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 97 
 
 of his seven wives, wlio caused the best tent to be 
 vacated and placed at the disposal of her white 
 guests. It was hot, August weather, anil such 
 crowds of Comanches, of all ages and sexes, pressed 
 in and around the tent that it became so suffocat- 
 ing as to necessitate the erection of their own tent, 
 which was open at bath ends. First getting the 
 consent of their hostess, this was done. 
 
 Finding that the chief would be absent a week 
 yet to come, and their business being with him, 
 they could only patiently await his arrival. They 
 were ceaseless curiosities to all the younger Coman- 
 ches, who had never seen a white man, and who 
 continued to crowd around and inspect them ; roll- 
 ing up their sleeves to show their white arms to the 
 children, etc. While thus delayed the Comanches 
 twice moved their town, and our peo()le were aston- 
 ished at the regularity with which each new location 
 was laid off into streets and the precision with 
 which each family took its position in each new 
 place. Mr. Bee accompanied the warriors on two 
 or three buffalo hunts, and was surprised at their 
 wonderful dexterity. 
 
 Payhayuco arrived On the afternoon of August 
 9 (1843), and occupied the tent adjoining the 
 whites. They were soon informally presented to 
 him and courteously received, but no clue was 
 obtained as to the state of his mind. At sunrise 
 next morning about a hundred warriors met in 
 council in a large tent, sitting on the ground in a 
 series of circles diminishing from circumference 
 to center, wherein Payhayuco sat. Our friends, 
 not being invited, took a brief glance at them 
 and retired to their own tent, leaving their case 
 with the Delawares, who attended the council. 
 About 10 a. m. a sort of committee from the 
 council waited on them to say that a report 
 had come from the Waco village, where they 
 had tarried so long, charging that they were bad 
 men and had given poison to the Wacos, and 
 wanted to know what they had to say about it. 
 This was supremely preposterous, but it was also 
 gravely suggestive of danger. They repelled the 
 charge and referred to the old Waco chief, 
 Acoquash, then present, their companion on the 
 whole trip, and whose wife they had cured. 
 What a hazard they had passed ! Had that poor 
 squaw died instead of recovering under Bee's 
 treatment, their fate would have been sealed. A 
 Choctaw negro, who understood but little Co- 
 manche, told them the council was deliberating 
 on their lives and talking savagely. They sent for 
 the Delawares and told them of this. The Dela- 
 wares denied it, and reassured them. But half an 
 hour later their favorite Delaware hunter, the only 
 
 one in whose friendship they fully confided, in- 
 formed them that the Comanches were going to kill 
 them. They were, of course, very much alarmed 
 by this second warning, and, again summoning 
 the trio, told .Jim Shaw they were not children, but 
 men, and demanded to know the truth. Shaw re- 
 plied that he had desired to conceal their peril 
 from them as long as possible, and for that reason 
 had told them a lie ; but in truth the council was 
 clamorous and unanimous for their death ; that all 
 the chiefs who had a right to speak had done so, 
 and all were against them ; that they (Shaw and 
 Connor) had done all they could for them ; had 
 told the council thej' would die with them, as they 
 had promised the White Father they would take 
 care of them and would never return without them ; 
 and that Acoquash had been equally true to them. 
 They added that only Payhayuco was yet to speak, 
 but even should he take the opposite side they did 
 not believe he had influence enough to save their 
 lives. "Nest came into our tent" (I quote the 
 language of Gen. Bee on this incident), " our dear 
 old friend Acoquash, where we three lone white 
 men were sitting, betraying the most intense feel- 
 ing, shaking all over and great tears rolling from 
 his eyes, and as best he could, told us that we 
 would soon be put to death. He said he had told 
 them his father was once a great chief, the head of 
 a nation who were lords of the prairie, but had 
 always been the friends of the Comanches, who 
 always listened to the counsel of his father, for 
 it was always good, and he had begged them to 
 listen to him as their fathers had listened to his 
 father, when he told them that we (Eldridge, Bee 
 and Torrey) were messengers of peace ; that we 
 had the ' white flag,' and that the vengeance of 
 the Great Spirit would be turned against them if 
 they killed such messengers ; but he said it was of 
 no avail. We had to die and he would die with us 
 for he loved us as his own children. Poor old In- 
 dian ! My heart yearns to him yet after the lapse 
 of so many years." [Gen. Bee to his children.] 
 
 Acoquash then returned to the council. Our 
 friends, of course, agonized as brave men maj' who 
 are to die as dogs, but they soon recovered com- 
 posure and resolved on their course. Each had 
 two pistols. When the party should come to take 
 them out for death, each would kill an Indian with 
 one, and then, to escape slow torture, empty the 
 other into his own brain. From 12 to 4 o'clock 
 not a word was spoken in that council. All sat in 
 silence, awaiting the voice of Payhayuco. At 4 
 o'clock his voice was heard, but no one reported to 
 the doomed men. Then otber voices were heard, 
 and occaskinally those of the Delawares. A little 
 
98 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 later confusion seemed to prevail, and many voices 
 were heard. Bee said to P^ldridge : "See the set- 
 ting sun, old fellow ! It is the last we shall ever 
 see on earth! " At the same instant approaching 
 footsteps were heard. Each of the three sprang to 
 his feet, a pistol in each hand, when "dear old " 
 Acoquash burst into the tent and threw himself 
 into the arms of Eldridge. Bee and Torrey 
 thought the old Spartan had come to redeem his 
 pledge and die with them, but in a moment realized 
 that his convulsive action was the fruit of uncon- 
 trollable joy. The next moment the Delawares 
 rushed in exclaiming, "Saved! saved!" "Oh! 
 God ! can 1 ever forget that moment ! To the 
 earth, from which we came, we fell as if we had 
 been shot, communing with Him who reigns over 
 all — a scene that might be portrayed on canvas, 
 but not described! Prostrate on the earth lay the 
 white man and the red man, creatures of a common 
 brotherhood, typified and made evident that day 
 in the wilderness ; not a word spoken ; each bowed 
 to the earth — brothers in danger and brothers in 
 the holy electric spark which caused each in his 
 way to thank God for deliverance." [Gen. Bee to 
 his children.] 
 
 After this ordeal had been passed, succeeded l)y 
 a measure of almost heavenly repose, the inter- 
 preters, now fully reconciled to Eldridge, explained 
 that after that solemn silence of four hours, Pay- 
 hayuco had eloquently espoused the cause of 
 mercy and the sanctity of the white flag borne by 
 the messengers of peace. His appeal was, perhaps, 
 as powerful and pathetic as ever fell from the lips 
 of an untutored son of the forest. Upon con- 
 clusion, amid much confusion and the hum of 
 excited voices, he took the vote per capita and was 
 sustained by a small majority. The sun sank at 
 the same moment, reflecting rays of joy upon the 
 western horizon, causing among the saved a solemn 
 and inexpressibly grateful sense of the majesty and 
 benignity of the King of kings — our Father in 
 Heaven. 
 
 As darkness came, the stentorian voice of Pay- 
 hayuco was successively heard in the four quarters 
 of the town, its tones denoting words of command. 
 Our countrymen demanded of the interpreters to 
 know what he was saying. The latter answered : 
 " He is telling them you are under his protection 
 and must not, at the peril of their lives, be hurt." 
 A hundred warriors were then placed in a circle 
 around the tent, and so remained till next morning. 
 No Indian was allowed to enter the circle. 
 
 When morning came they were invited to the 
 council, when Capt. Eldridge delivered the message 
 of friendship from President Houston, and invited 
 
 them to accompany him in and meet the council at 
 Bird's Fort; but this was the 11th of August, a 
 day after the date heretofore fixed for the assem- 
 blage, and a new date would be selected promptly 
 on their arrival, or sooner if runners were sent in 
 advance. The presents were then distributed and 
 an answer awaited. 
 
 On their arrival the little Comanche boy had been 
 given up. He still remembered some of his mother 
 tongue and at once relapsed into barbarism. But 
 now Capt. Eldridge tendered to the chief, liitle 
 Maria, a beautiful Indian child, neatly dressed, 
 who knew no word but English. A scene followed 
 which brought tears to the eyes of not only the 
 white men, but also of the Delawares. The 
 child seemed horrified, clung desperately and im- 
 ploringly to Capt. Eldridge, and screamed most 
 piteously ; but the whole scene cannot be described 
 here. It was sim];]y heartrending. She was taken 
 up b}' a huge warrior and borne away, utteiing 
 piercing cries of despair. For years afterwaids she 
 was occssionally heard of, still bearing the name of 
 Maria, acting as interpreter at Indian councils. 
 
 Succeeding this last scene they were informed 
 that the council had refused to send delegates to 
 the proposed council. Payhayuco favored the 
 measure, but was overruled by the majority. 
 Within an hour after tiiis announcement (August 
 11th, 1843) our friends mounted and started on 
 their long journey home — fully five hundred miles, 
 through a trackless wilderness. I pass over some 
 exciting incidents occurring at the moment of tiieir 
 departure between a newly arrived party of Dela- 
 ware traders, having no connection with Eldridge, 
 and a portion of the Comanches, in regard to a 
 Choctaw negro prisoner bought from the Comanches 
 by the traders. It was dreaded by our friends as a 
 new danger, but was settled without bloodshed by 
 the payment of a larger ransom to the avaricious 
 Comanches. 
 
 Without remarkable incident and in due 
 time, our friends arrived again at the principal 
 Wichita village (at or near the present Fort Sill) 
 and were again kindly received. The day fixed for 
 the treaty having passed, Eldridge knew the Presi- 
 dent would be disappointed and impatient ; so, 
 after consultation, it was agreed that Torrey, with 
 Jim Shaw, John Connor and the other Indian 
 attaches, still with them, should return on the route 
 they had gone out, gather up the tribes first men- 
 tioned in this narrative, and conduct them to Bird's 
 Fort ; while Eldridge, Bee and their most trusted 
 Delaware hunter, with Jim Second Eye as guide, 
 would proceed directly to the fort. Thus they 
 separated, each party on its mission, and to 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 99 
 
 Eldridge and Bee it was a perilous one. I sliall 
 follow them. 
 
 On the second day, at 3 p. m., they halted in a 
 pretty grove, on a beautiful stream, to cook their 
 last food, a little Wichita green corn. This en- 
 raged Second Eye, who seized the hunter's gun, 
 and galloped away, leaving them with only holster 
 pistols. The Delaware hunter was a stranger in 
 the country and could only communicate by signs. 
 For three days he kept a bee line for Warren's 
 trading house on Red river, as safer than going 
 directly to Bird's Fort, guided by the information 
 he had casually picked up from his brothers on the 
 trip, for neither of the white men knew the countr3'. 
 On the third day tliey entered the Cross Timbers 
 where brush and briers retarded their progress, 
 and camped near night on a pretty creek. The 
 Delaware climbed a high tree and soon began joy- 
 ful gesticulations. Descending he indicated that 
 Eldridge should accompany him, leaving Bee in 
 camp. He did so and they were gone two or three 
 hours, but finally returned with a good supply of 
 fresh corn bread, a grateful repast to men who had 
 been without an ounce of food for three days and 
 nights. The camp visited proved to be that of a 
 party of men cutting hay for Fort Arbuckle, on the 
 Washita, who cooked and gave them the bread and 
 other provisions, with directions to find the trading 
 house and the information that they could reach it 
 next day. With full stomachs they slept soundly; 
 started early in the morning and about 2 p. m. 
 rode up to Warren's trading house. The first 
 man seen was Jim Second Eye, the treacherous 
 scoundrel who had left them at the mercy of any 
 straggling party of hostile or thieving savages. 
 He hastened forward with extended hand, exclaim- 
 ing: "How are you, Joe? How are you, Ham? 
 Glad to see you ! " 
 
 The always courteous Eldridge, usually gentle 
 and never given to profane language, sprang from 
 his horse and showered upon him such a torrent of 
 denunciatory expletives as to exhaust himself ; then, 
 recovering, presented himself and Mr. Bee to Mr. 
 Warren, with an explanatory apology for his violent 
 language, justified, as he thought, towards the base 
 wretch to whom it was addressed. Quite a crowd 
 of Indians and a few white men were present. Mr. 
 Warren received and entertained them most kindly. 
 They never more beheld Jim Second Eye. 
 
 After a rest of two days Eldridge and Bee, with 
 their faithful Delaware, left for Bird's Fort, and, 
 without special incident, arrived there about the 
 middle of September, to be welcomed by the com- 
 missioners, Messrs. George W. Terrell and E. H. 
 Tarrant, who had given them up as lost. The 
 
 President had remained at the fort for a month, 
 when, chagrined and greatly disappointed, he had 
 left for the seat of government. 
 
 Capt. Eldridge, anxious to report to the Presi- 
 dent, tarried not at the fort, but with Bee and the 
 still faithful Delaware, continued on. On the way 
 Mr. Bee was seized with chills and fever of violent 
 type, insomuch that, at Fort Milam, Eldridge left 
 him and hurried on. Mr. Bee finally reached the 
 hospitable house of his friend. Col. Josiah Crosl)j', 
 seven miles above Washington, and there remained 
 till in the winter, before recovering his health. 
 Capt. Eldridge, after some delay, met and reported 
 to the President, but was not received with the 
 cordiality he thought due his services. Jim Shaw and 
 John Connor had preceded him and misstated vari- 
 ous matters to the prejudice of Eldridge, and to 
 the amazement of many who knew his great merit 
 and his tried fidelity to President Houston, he was 
 dismissed from office. Very soon, however, the old 
 hero became convinced of his error ; had Eldridge 
 appointed chief clerk of the State Department 
 under Anson Jones, and, immediately after annexa- 
 tion in 184G, secured his appointment by President 
 Polk, as Paymaster in the United States Navy, a 
 position he held till his death in his long-time home 
 in Brooklj'n, New York, in 1881. Excepting only 
 the incident referred to — deeply lamented by 
 mutual friends — the friendship between him and 
 President Houston, from their first acquaintance in 
 1837, remained steadfast while both lived. Indeed 
 Capt. Eldridge subsequently named a son for him — 
 his two sons being Charles and Houston Eldridge. 
 
 A TREATY MADE. 
 
 On the 29th of September, 184.3, a few da}^s after 
 Eldridge and Bee left, a treaty was concluded by 
 Messrs. Tarrant and Terrell, with the following 
 tribes, viz. : Tehuacanos, Keechis, Wacos, Caddos, 
 Anadarcos, Ionics, Boluxies, Delawares, and thirty 
 isolated Cherokees. The Wichitas and Towdashes 
 were deterred from coming in b}- the lies of some 
 of the Creeks. Estecayucatubba, principal chief 
 of the Chickasaws, signed the treaty merely for its 
 effect on the wild tribes. Leonard Williams and 
 Luis Sanchez, of Nacogdoches, were present and 
 aided in collecting the tribes, who failed to assemble 
 on the 10th of August, because of the non-return of 
 Eldridge and his party. Roasting Ear, S. Lewis 
 and IMcCulloch, Delaware chiefs, were present at 
 the signing and rendered service in favor of the 
 treaty. 
 
 The most potent chief in the council, to whom 
 the wild tribes looked as a leader, was Kechikoro- 
 qua, the head of the Tehuacanos, who at first 
 
100 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 refused to treat with any one but the President ; 
 but finally yielded, after understanding the powers 
 of the commissioners. 
 
 A line of demarcation was agreed upon between 
 the whites and Indians, along which, at proper in- 
 tervals, trading houses were to be established. 
 Three points for such houses were selected, which 
 indicate the general line chosen, viz. : one at the 
 junction of the West and Clear Forks of the Trin- 
 
 ity ; one at the Comanche Peak ; and one at the 
 old .San Salia Mission. 
 
 From undoubted data this narrative has been pre- 
 pared, the first ever published of this most thrilling 
 succession of events in our Indian history^, It 
 reflects the highest credit on the three courageous 
 young men who assumed and triumphed over its 
 hazards, though sadly followed by the death of the 
 heroic and much loved Thomas Torre}'. 
 
 Scenes on Red River — Murder of Mrs. Hunter, Daughter 
 
 and Servant. 
 
 From the first settlements along and near Red 
 river in the counties of Fannin and Grayson, cov- 
 ering the years from 1837 to 1843, the few and 
 scattered inhabitants were at no time free from the 
 sneaking savages, who in small parties, often clan- 
 destinel}' entered the vicinity of one or more of 
 the new settlers and lay in wait till opportunity 
 siiould offer for their murderous assaults under cir- 
 cumstances promising them greater or less immun- 
 ity from danger to tliemselves. The number of 
 such inroads during those years was considerable, 
 and relatively many lives were lost, besides quite 
 a number of women and children being carried into 
 captivity. It must seem incredible to those who 
 have ever lived in peace and security in old com- 
 munities, that men, in no sense compelled to 
 abandon such localities on account of crowded 
 population, should, with their wives and children, 
 thrust themselves forward entirely beyond the arm 
 of governmental protection, or even the aid of their 
 own countrymen. To such persons thousands of 
 the hazards thus voluntarily assumed must appear 
 as the offspring of inexcusable temerity. The idea 
 of voluntarily subjecting women and helpless chil- 
 dren to the constant hazard of such fiendish horrors, 
 is appalling to those who are born, live and die in 
 the older States of our country. All this seems 
 unreasonable to those around the peaceful firesides 
 of home, in the midst of population, comfort, 
 schools, churches, law and government. But the 
 liolitical philosopher as well as the enlightened stu- 
 dent of American histor}', meets these tender sen- 
 sibilities of the human heart with the stubborn and 
 all-pervading fact, that had it not been for this 
 trait in the Anglo-Saxon character, this loft}' defi- 
 
 ance of danger and love of adventure, the Ameri- 
 can Union to-day would scarcely have passed the 
 Ohio in its march towards the West. The truth of 
 this opinion, in a large degree, if not in its entiret}', 
 is attested by the blood of the slain in ten thousand 
 places west and southwest of the AUeghanies, and 
 by the heroism, the anguish, the tears and the 
 prayers of more than ten thousand mothers ascend- 
 ing to the throne of God pleading for their children 
 " because they were not." It is a truth the 
 quintessence of which should ever comfort every 
 American freeman as one of the great testimonials 
 by which he enjoys life and liberty, home and hap- 
 piness in much the larger portion of this Republic 
 of Republics, reaching from the Eastern to the 
 Western ocean, entirely across the New World. Of 
 all men on earth such a freeman should be a good 
 citizen, jealous of his rights, as sacred boons, con- 
 ferred that he and his fellows might stand forth as 
 true men — the unfaltering friends of good govern- 
 ment and of liberty, regulated by wise and just 
 laws. 
 
 As samples of the horrors referred to, the sub- 
 joined narrative of one of the lesser demonisms 
 pertaining to our pioneer settlements is given. 
 
 In the year 1840, Dr. Hunter and family located 
 in the valley of Red river, about eight miles east 
 or below the trading house or village of Old Warren 
 and several miles from any other habitation. The 
 family consisted of the parents, a son nearly 
 grown, three daughters, aged about eighteen, 
 twelve and ten, and a negro woman. They soon 
 erected cabins, and the elder daughter married Mr. 
 William Lankford of Warren, and settled at a new 
 place. The family were pleased with the surround- 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 101 
 
 ings and labored assiduously in opening up a 
 permanent home. Like thousands before them, 
 they finally fell into a state of fancied security 
 and became careless, till on one occasion, the 
 fatiier and son both left home to be absent till 
 night. 
 
 Late in the afternoon of the ill-fated day, the 
 two little girls went to the spring, about a hundred 
 yards from the cabin, for a bucket of water. But 
 as they started on their return to the house, a party 
 of eleven lurking savages sprang from the brush, 
 shot one of the children to death and seized the 
 other so suddenly that neither made the slightest 
 noise. Scalping the slain child and holding fast to 
 the other, they noiselessly approached the cabin, 
 unheard and unseen till they sprang into the door 
 and there, in tlie presence of the captive, merci- 
 lessly killed and scalped her mother and killed, 
 without scalping, the negro woman. As speedily 
 as they could they plundered the house of all they 
 could carry off and left at dark, of course bearing 
 away the child prisoner. 
 
 Before they had passed beyond hearing young 
 Hunter reached home and hallooed for some one to 
 come out. The Indians increased their pace, a 
 stout warrior carrying the child on his shoulders. 
 Eeceiving no answer the young man entered the 
 
 house and before he could strike a light, stumbled 
 over his dead mother. The light, when struck, 
 revealed the dead bodies and the destruction other- 
 wise wrought. He lost no time in mounting and 
 hastening for help, but the people were too few and 
 scattered to make any effective pursuit. Arriving 
 at the place next day the dead little girl was found, 
 and this led to grave apprehensions as to the fate 
 of the other. It had rained all night, rendering it 
 impracticable to rapidly follow the trail of the 
 retreating marauders. 
 
 Subsequent developments showed that the Indians 
 traveled all night in the rain, but during the next 
 day slackened their pace and thereafter traveled 
 slowly for several days to their villages. At night, 
 before the fire, the little cajitive was compelled to 
 work in dressing her mother's scalp. Months 
 passed and no tidings came of the missing one ; 
 but perhaps a year later the father and son learned 
 that a party of Choctaws had bought such a child 
 from wild Indians. The son hastened into the 
 country of those friendly people and after three or 
 four days' travel, found and recovered his sister. 
 He hastened her back to the embraces of her 
 stricken father and sister, to cherish through life, 
 however, an everpresent recollection of the ghastly 
 scene she was compelled to witness. 
 
 Captivity of the Simpson Children — The IVIurder of Emma and 
 the Recovery of Thomas — 1844. 
 
 Among the residents of Austin in the days of its 
 partial abandonment, from the spring of 1842 to 
 the final act of annexation in the winter of 1845-6, 
 was an estimable widow named Simpson. During 
 that period Austin was but an outpost, without 
 troops and ever exposed to inroads from the In- 
 dians. Mrs. Simpson had a daughter named Emma, 
 fourteen years of age, and a son named Thomas, 
 aged twelve. On a summer afternoon in 1844, her 
 two children went out a short distance to drive 
 home the cows. Soon their mother heard them 
 scream at the ravine, not over 400 yards west 
 of the center of the town. In the language of Col. 
 John S. Ford, a part of whose narrative I adopt: 
 "She required no explanation of the cause; she 
 knew at once the Indians had captured her darlings. 
 Sorrowing, and almost heartbroken, she rushed to 
 
 the more thickly settled part of the town to implore 
 citizens to turn out, and endeavor to recapture 
 her children. A party of men were soon in the 
 saddle, and on the trail. 
 
 "They discovered the savages were on foot — 
 about four in number — and were moving in the 
 timber, parallel to the river, and up it. They found 
 on the trail shreds of the girl's dress, yet it was 
 difficult to follow the footsteps of the fleeing red 
 men. From a hill they descried the Indians just 
 before they entered the ravine south of Mount Bon- 
 nell. The whites moved at a run, yet they failed 
 to overtake the barbarians. A piece of an under- 
 garment was certain evidence that the captors had 
 passed over Mount Barker. The rocky surface of 
 the ground precluded the possibility of fast trail- 
 ing, and almost the possibility of trailing at all. 
 
102 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Every conceivable effort was made to track the 
 Indians, and all proved unavailing. Tbey were 
 loth to return to Austin to inform the grief-striclven 
 mother her loved ones were indeed the prisoners of 
 savages, and would be subject to all the brutal 
 cruelties and outrages of a captivity a thousand 
 times more terrible than the pangs of death. The 
 scene which ensued, when the dread news reached 
 Mrs. Simpson's ears, can not be painted with pen 
 or pencil. The wail of agony and despair rent the 
 air, and tears of sympathy were rung from fron- 
 tiersmen who never quailed when danger came in 
 its most fearful form. The pursuing party was 
 small. All the names have not been ascertained. 
 Judge Joe Lee, Columbus Browning and Thomas 
 Wooldridge, were among them." 
 
 Pursuit under the then condition of the almost 
 defenseless people of Austin was impossible. No 
 further tidings of the lost children were had for a 
 j-ear or more. About that time Thomas Simpson 
 was ransomed by a trader at Taos, New Mexico. 
 He was finally returned to his mother, and tlien the 
 fate of Emma became manifest. Thomas said 
 '• his sister fought the Indians all the time. They 
 carried her by force — dragged her frequently, 
 tore her clothing and handled her roughly. 
 Thomas was led by two Indians. lie offered no 
 resistance, knowing he would be killed if lie 
 did. 
 
 " When the Indians discovered they were fol- 
 lowed they doubled, coming back rather in the 
 direction of Austin. They made a short halt not 
 far from Hon. John Hancock's place. Thomas 
 begged his sister not to resist, and told her such a 
 course would cause her to be put to death." 
 
 The Indians then divided for a short time, the 
 
 sister in the charge of one and the brother of the 
 other couple. When they reunited on Shoal creek, 
 about six miles from Austin, Thomas saw " his 
 sister's scalp dangling from one's belt. No one 
 will ever know the details of the bloody deed. 
 Indeed, a knowledge of Indian customs justifies 
 tlie belief that the sacrifice of an innocent life 
 involved incidents of a more revolting character 
 than mere murder. In the course of time the 
 bones of the unfortunate girl were found near the 
 place where Mr. George W. Davis erected his 
 residence, and to that extent corroborated the 
 account of Thomas Simpson. It is no difficult 
 matter to conceive what were the impressions 
 produced upon parents then living in Austin b}' 
 this event. It is easy to imagine how vivid the 
 conviction must have been that their sons and 
 daughters might become the victims of similar mis- 
 fortunes, suffering and outrages." 
 
 In the language of Col. Ford: " Let the reader 
 extend the idea, and include the whole frontier of 
 Texas in the scope, extending, as It did, from Red 
 river to the Rio Grande, in a sinuous line upon the 
 outer tiers of settlements, and including a large 
 extent of the Gulf coast. Let him remember that 
 the country was then so sparsely populated it was 
 quite all frontier, and open to the incursions of 
 the merciless tribes who made war upon women 
 and children, and flourished the tomahawk and the 
 scalping-knife in the bedrooms and the boudoirs, 
 as well as in the forests and upon the bosoms of 
 the prairies. When he shall have done this he can 
 form a proxim.ate conception of the privations and 
 perils endured by the pioneers who reclaimed Texas 
 from the dominion of the Indian and made it the 
 abode of civilized men." 
 
 Brief History of Castro's Colony. 
 
 With the declaration of Texian independence, 
 March 2d, 183G, all prior colonial grants and con- 
 tracts with Mexico or the State of Coahuila and 
 Texas ceased. Really and practically thej' ceased 
 on the 13th of November, 1835, by a decree of the 
 first revolutionary assembly, known as the consulta- 
 tion, which, as a preventive measure against frauds 
 and villainy, wisely and honestly closed all land 
 otfice business until a permanent government could 
 be organized. Hence, as a historical fact, the 
 
 colonial contracts of Stephen F. Austin, Austin & 
 Williams, Sterling C. Robertson, Green De Witt, 
 Martin DeLeon, Power & Hewetson and McMullen 
 & McGloin ceased on the 13th of November, 1835. 
 The concessions to David G. Burnet, Joseph 
 Vehlein and Lorenzo de Zavala, previously trans- 
 ferred to a New York syndicate, known as the New 
 York and Galveston Bay Company, of which Archi- 
 bald HotchkHS, of Nacogdoches, was made resi- 
 dent agent, and which, in reality, accomplished 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 103 
 
 'little or nothing, also expired by the decree of the 
 13th of November, 1835. 
 
 The Republic was bora March 2, 1836, and for 
 the five succeeding years, until February 4th, 1841, 
 in the last year of Lamar's administration, there 
 was no law authorizing colonial contracts. But on 
 the last named day a law was passed authorizing 
 the President, under conditions set forth, to enter 
 into contracts for the colonization of wild lands in 
 Northwest and Southwest Texas. That act was 
 amended January 1st, 1843. 
 
 President Lamar entered into a contract for 
 what became known as Peters Colony, in North 
 Texas, August 30, 1841, which was altered Novem- 
 ber 20, 1841, and, by President Houston, on the 
 26th of July, 1842, Houston having succeeded 
 Lamar as President. Under this law, besides the 
 Peters Colonj', already granted. President Houston 
 made grants to Henry F. Fisher and Burchard 
 Miller, for what afterwards became known as the 
 German Colony, which did much to populate the 
 beautiful mountain country drained by the Perder- 
 nales, Llano and San Saba rivers. 
 
 On the 15th of January, 1842, Henry Castro 
 entered into a contract with President Houston for 
 settling a colony west of the Medina, to continue 
 for five years, the eastern boundary being four 
 miles west of the Medina and cutting him off from 
 that beautiful stream ; but he bought from private 
 parties the lands on it and thereby made the Bledina 
 his eastern boundary. At the same time President 
 Houston appointed Mr. Castro Texian Consul-Gen- 
 eral to France. 
 
 Who was Henry Castro? He was an educated 
 and accomplished Frenchman, bearing a Spanish 
 name, and was rightfully Henri de Castro. Owing 
 to the invasion of Texas in 1842 and other 
 obstacles, on the 25th of December, 1844, after 
 he had brought over seven hundred immigrants, 
 on seven different ships, chartered at his own 
 cost, his contract was prolonged for three years 
 from its original period of termination — a just 
 and honorable concession by Texas to one of such 
 approved zeal and energy. 
 
 A volume of interest could be written descriptive 
 of the efforts of Mr. Castro to settle his colony, 
 then exposed to the attacks of bandit and guerrilla 
 Mexicans but a little to its west, and to all the 
 hostile Indians north and west of his proposed 
 settlement. He hurried to France and besides his 
 official and personal affairs, did great service in 
 aiding Gen. James Hamilton, the Texian minister, 
 in popularizing the cause of Texas in France. He 
 encountered great obstacles, as the French govern- 
 ment was using immense efforts to encourac'e 
 
 migration to its colony in Algiers; but on the 13th 
 of November, 1842, he dispatched the ship, Ebro, 
 from Havre with 113 immigrants for Texas. Soon 
 afterwards the ships Lj'ons, from Havre, and the 
 Louis Philippe, from Dunkirk, followed with im- 
 migrants, accompanied by the Abbe Menitrier. 
 These were followed from Antwerp on the 25th of 
 October, 1843, by the ship, Jeane Key ; and on 
 May 4th by the Jeanette Marie. The seven ships 
 named brought over seven hundred colonists. In 
 all, in thirtj'-seven ships, he introduced into Texas 
 over five tliousand immigrants, farmers, orchard- 
 ists and vine-growers, chiefly from the Rhenish 
 provinces, an excellent class of industrious, law- 
 abiding peeple, whose deeds " do follow them " in 
 the beautiful gardens, fields and homes in Medina 
 and the contiguous counties on the west. 
 
 On the 3d of September, 1844, after many 
 delays, the heroic Castro, at the head of the first 
 party to arrive on the ground, formally inaugurated 
 his colony as a living fact. A town was laid out 
 on the west bank of the Medina, and by the unani- 
 mous vote of the colonists, named Castroville. It 
 was a bold step, confronting dangers unknown to 
 the first American colonists in 1822, for besides 
 hostile savages, now accustomed to the use of fire 
 arms, it challenged inroads from the whole Rio 
 Grande Mexican frontier, which, in 1822 furnished 
 friends and not enemies to foreign settlement in 
 Texas. It was doing what both Spanish and Mex- 
 ican power had failed to do in 153 years — 1692 to 
 1844 — since the first settlement at San Antonio. 
 It was founding a permanent settlement of civilized, 
 Christian men, between San Antonio and the Rio 
 Grande, the settlements and towns on which, from 
 Matamoros (Reynosa, Camargo, Mier, Guerrero, 
 Larioredo, Dolores, San Fernando, Santa Rosa, 
 Presidio del Rio Grande, Presidio del Norte), 
 bristled in hostility to Texas and its people. It 
 was an achievement entitling the name of Henri de 
 Castro to be enrolled among the most prominent 
 pioneers of civilization in modern times. Yet the 
 youth of to-day, joyously and peacefully gallopincr 
 over the beautiful and fertile hills and valleys he 
 rescued from savagery, are largely ignorant of his 
 great services. 
 
 The gallant Col. John. C. Hays, the big-hearted 
 Col. George T. (Tom) Howard, John James, the 
 survej'or, and, among others, the pure, warm- 
 hearted and fatherly John M. Odin, the first Cath- 
 olic Bishop of Texas, besides many generous 
 hearted Americans, visited Castroville and bade 
 godspeed to the new settlers from La Belle France 
 and the Rhine. Bishop Odin (friend of my youth 
 and of m}' mother's house), laid and blessed the 
 
104 
 
 INDIAN WAES AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 corner-stone of the first house dedicated to the 
 worship of God — a service rendered before the 
 settlers had completed respectable huts to shelter 
 their families. On his return from this mission the 
 good bishop dined at my mother's house, and, 
 though a Baptist, both by inheritance and forty-sis 
 years of membersiiip, in the broader spirit of civil- 
 ization and tliat spirit which embraces all true and 
 pure hearts, regardless of party and creed, she 
 congratulated him on the work he had done. But 
 in fact every man, woman and child who knew 
 Bishop Odin (0-deen) in tiiose years of trials and 
 sorrow in Texas, loved him, and sorrowe 1 when he 
 returned to and died in his native Lombardy. 
 
 Mr. Castro, soon after inaugurating his colony, 
 was compelled to revisit France. He delivered a 
 parting farewell to his people. On the 25th of 
 November, 1844, to the number of fifty-three heads 
 of families, they responded. Their address is 
 before me. They say: "We take pleasure in 
 acknowledging that since the first of September — 
 the date at wliich we signed the process verbal of 
 taking i)OSsession — you have treated us like a 
 liberal and kiird father. * * * Our best wishes 
 accompany you on your voyage and we take this 
 occasion to express to you our ardent desire to see 
 you return soon among us, to continue to us your 
 paternal protection." Signed by Leopold Mentrier, 
 J. H. Burgeois, George Cuppies, Jean Baptiste 
 Lecomte, Joseph Weber, Michael Simon and forty- 
 seven others. 
 
 The Indians sorely perplexed these exposed peo- 
 ple. In the rear of one of their first immigrating 
 parties, the Indians, forty miles below San Antonio, 
 attacked and burnt a wagon. The driver, an 
 American, rifle in hand, reached a thicket and 
 killed s 'veral of them ; but thej- killed a boy of 
 
 nineteen — a Frenchman — cut off his head and 
 nailed it to a tree. In the burnt wagon was a 
 trunk containing a considerable amount of gold 
 and silver. In the ashes the silver was found 
 melted — the gold only blackened. This was one 
 of the first parties following the advance settlers. 
 
 In this enterprise Henry Castro expended of his 
 personal means over one hundred and fifty thousand 
 dollars. He fed his colonists for a year — furnished 
 them milch cows, farming implements, seeds, medi- 
 cines and whatever tliey needed. He was a father, 
 dispensing blessings hitherto unknown in the col- 
 onization of Texas. He was a learned, wise and 
 humane man, unappreciated by many, because he 
 was modest and in nowise self-asserting, and his 
 tastes were literary. He was a devoted friend of 
 Presidents Lamar, Houston and Jones, all of whom 
 were his friends and did all in their power, each 
 during his term, to advance his great and patriotic 
 idea of planting permanent civilization in South- 
 west Texas. He was a devout believer in tlie 
 capacity of intelligent men for self-government, and 
 abhorred despotism as illustrated in the kinglj' gov- 
 ernments of Europe — the rule of nations by suc- 
 cession in particular families regardless of sense, 
 honor or capacity. He believed with Jefferson, in 
 the God-given right of every association of men, 
 whether in commonwealth, nations or empires, to 
 select their own officers, and, by chosen represent- 
 atives, to make their own laws. Hence he was, in 
 every sense, a valnable accession to the infant 
 Republic of Texas. 
 
 When war raged and our ports were closed, Mr. 
 Castro sought to visit the land of his birth, and, to 
 that end, reached Monterey in Mexico. There he 
 sickened and died, and there, at the base of the 
 Sierra Madre, his remains repose. 
 
 The "Chihuahua-El Paso" Pioneer Expedition in 1848. 
 
 When the Mexican war closed and the last of the 
 Tesian troops returned home in the spring of 1848, 
 the business men of San Antonio and other places 
 became deeply interested in opening a road and 
 establishing commercial intercourse with El Paso 
 and Chihuahua. The U. S. Government also 
 desired such a road. Meetings were held and the 
 plan of an expedition outlined. A volunteer party 
 of about thirtv-five business men and citizens was 
 
 formed, among whom were Col. John C. Hays, Mr. 
 Peacock, Maj. Mike Chevalier, Capt. George T. 
 Howard, Maj. John Caperton, Samuel A. Maverick, 
 
 Quartermaster Ralston, Dr. a German from 
 
 Fredericksburg, and a young friend of his, Lorenzo, 
 a Mexican, who went as a guide and who had been 
 many years a prisoner among the Comanches. 
 
 At that time Capt. Samuel Highsmith was in 
 command of a company of Texas rangers, stationed 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 105 
 
 opposite the little German settlement of Castell, on 
 the Llano river. In response to a request from the 
 citizens interested, Capt. Higbsmith was directed 
 to detail thirty-five of his company and escort 
 the expedition. Col. Ha3's commanded the com- 
 bined forces. Capt. Highsmith, instead of making 
 an arbitrary detail, called for volunteers. Instantly 
 more men stejjped forth than were required, but 
 the matter was amicably arranged. Among those 
 who went were bugler A. K. Barnes, now of Lam- 
 pasas, Calvin Bell, Joseph Collins, Jesse Jerkins, 
 — Jerkins, John Hughes, — Measbe, Herman 
 L. Raven, still of Travis County, Solomon Ramsey, 
 James Sims, Thomas Smith, John Warren and 
 John Conner, a noted Delaware Indian who was 
 the regular guide of the company. My informant, 
 Herman L. Raven, can only recall these names. 
 
 The San Antonio party arrived at Highsmith's 
 camp about the 1st of August, 1848. The troops 
 were given a pack mule to each mess of four men 
 and carried rations for thiity days. The com- 
 mand, seventy in all, moved up the valley of the 
 Llano to the source of the South or Paint Rock 
 fork. They then crossed the divide and reached 
 the upper Nueces river. The route then pursued 
 passed the Arroyo Las Moras, a tributary of the 
 Rio Grande (on which Beales' unfortunate party 
 essayed the establishment of an English-American 
 colony in 1834, as will be seen in the remarkable 
 narrative of Mrs. Horn, one of the victims, else- 
 where in this work), and thence to Devil's river, 
 near its confluence with the Rio Grande. This 
 stream had previously acquired the name of San 
 Pedro ; but after occupying three days in getting 
 across and away from it, accompanied by several 
 accidents, the expedition voted that it should ever 
 more bear the name of El Rio del Diablo, or the 
 Devil's river. It required three days to pass from 
 this to the Pecos river, the water found on the way 
 being reddish and brackish. Thenceforward no 
 man in the expedition knew the country. Having 
 crossed the Pecoa they found themselves in 
 the rough, broken and unknown region 
 lying between that stream and the Rio Grande. 
 To men whose rations, as at this time, were 
 about exhausted, it was a dismal succession of 
 barrenness in hill, vale and barranca. Lorenzo, 
 the guide, failed to recognize the landmarks and 
 became bewildered. In a day or two their supplies 
 gave out. There was no game in the country, and, 
 as many had been driven to do before, they re- 
 sorted to their pack mules, the flesh of which was 
 their only food for ten or twelve days. Fortun- 
 ately a party of Mescalero Indians discovered them 
 and, as Col. Hays, from prudential motives with 
 
 reference to Indians in that region, always had a 
 white flag flying, came close enough to invite a talk, 
 for which purpose three of their number met three 
 of the Texians. After mutual explanations, easily 
 understood on both sides through the Spanish lan- 
 guage, and a liberal distribution of presents, with 
 which the San Antonians were well supplied, they 
 gave the party careful directions how to reach and 
 cross the Rio Grande, and get to the Rancho San 
 Carlos, on the Mexican side. Before reaching the 
 river a doctor of the San Antonio parly became de- 
 ranged and wandered off. Five days after leaving 
 the Mesealeros they arrived at San Carlos in a pitia- 
 ble condition, where they procured a supply of food. 
 After resting one day they continued their march 
 about forty miles further up the country, recross- 
 ing the Rio Grande to Fort Leaton, on the east 
 side and nine miles below Presidio del' Norte, on 
 the west side, where they arrived on the forty- 
 seventh day from the initial point on the Llano. 
 Fort Leaton (pronounced "Laytou") was a sort 
 of fortified trading house kept by two or three 
 brothers of that name, the senior of whom, Ben- 
 jamin Leaton, a Tennesseean and an old Apache 
 trader, was personally known to the writer of this. 
 The expedition remained there sixteen days recruit- 
 ing their animals and providing supplies, during 
 which lime the proprietors gave them a barbecue, 
 the chief elements being meat, tortillas (Mexican 
 corn pancakes), and that most cheiished of all 
 beverages among old Texians — coffee ! The 
 Bishop of Chihuahua sent them also some supplies. 
 For reasons deemed sufficient it was determined 
 to prosecute the enterprise no farther. Winter was 
 close by. They had left to be absent only sixty 
 days. At the expiration of that time they were 
 not yet recruited at Leaton's. The troops, having 
 started in August, had only summer clothing. The 
 result showed the wisdom of their determination 
 to return. 
 
 About the first of November the return march 
 was begun. The men had thirty days' rations; of 
 meat, beeves to be driven on foot, and more or 
 less " Pinola" or parched corn meal. Their route 
 was by Lost Springs, where they arrived after a 
 fast of two and a half days without water. They 
 struck the Pecos at the Horsehead crossing, and 
 followed that stream down to Live Oak creek, 
 where Fort Lancaster was afterwards established. 
 It was in this locality that the command separated. 
 Twenty-eiglit of the San Antonio party started in a 
 direct route for that city and safely arrived at their 
 destination. Col. Hays, with six men, returned by 
 waj' of the Las Moras and also got in safely, but 
 both parties suffered much. 
 
106 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 From Live Oak creek Capt. HighsmitU bore 
 across the country towards the sources of the South 
 Concho. On the way, on one occasion, some of 
 the men fell in the rear on account of their failing 
 horses, and at night camped in a thicket of small 
 bushes. While asleep at night a party of Indians 
 furiously rode over them, seizing a saddle and some 
 other articles and suecessfull}' stampeded their 
 horses. On foot they overhauled the company at 
 camp next morning. On the head of South Concho 
 they encamped for the night. One of the sentinels 
 fell asleep and at daylight it- was found that the 
 Indians had quietly taken off thirteen of their 
 horses. Thenceforward about half the men traveled 
 on foot. 
 
 At the head of Brady's creek, these men, clad 
 only in their now tattered and torn summer gar- 
 ments, encountered a violent snow storm. Capt. 
 Highsmith, with a few men, pushed forward to his 
 quarters on the Llano, to relieve the anxiety of the 
 country as to their safety, correctly conjecturing 
 that intense anxiety among the people must exist 
 on account of their prolonged absence. Tlie other 
 men remained shivering in an open camp for five 
 daj's. The sufferings of both parties were terrible. 
 Their beef was exhausted and wild game was their 
 only food, but it was abundant in deer, antelope 
 
 and turkey. On the forty-seventh day from Fort 
 Leaton the last party reached the camp on the 
 Llano. Thus with forty-seven days each on the 
 outward and inward trip and eighteen days at 
 the Fort, they had been absent 112 instead of 
 60 days. The re-united company was marched to 
 Austin, and on the 26th day of December, dis- 
 charged, their term of service having expired. 
 From the sufferings of this trip, in less than a 
 month, Capt. Sam Highsmith died. From 1826 to 
 184S be bad justly borne the character of a noble 
 pioneer — warm-hearted, generous, brave; yet, 
 most tender in nature and ever considerate of 
 the rights of others, he never had personal difficult- 
 ies. I knew him well, and as he had been a long- 
 time friend and comrade of my then long deceased 
 father, his friendship was prized as priceless. 
 
 Col. Hays brought in a little son of Mr. Leaton, 
 to be sent to school. 
 
 The doctor who became deranged and wandered 
 off, fell into the hands of a party of Indians, 
 by whom his hunger was appeased and he was 
 kindly treated, as is the habit of those wild tribes 
 towards insane persons. He gradually recovered 
 and, after he had been mourned by his wife as dead 
 for over a year, suddenlj' presented himself to her, 
 sound in mind and body. 
 
 The Bloody Days of Bastrop. 
 
 Before and immediately after the Texas revolu- 
 tion of 1835-6, Gonzales, on the Guadalupe, and 
 Bastrop, on the Colorado, with the upper settlements 
 on the Brazos, were more exposed to Indian depre- 
 dations than any other distinct localities in Texas. 
 These sketches have more fully done justice to Gon- 
 zales and the Brazos, than to Bastrop, the home of 
 the Burlesons, Coleman, Billingsley, Wallace, 
 Thomas H. Mays, Wm. H. Magill, the brothers 
 Wiley, Middleton and Thomas B. J. Hill, Washing- 
 ton and John D. Anderson, Dr. Thomas J. Gasley, 
 /L. C. Cunningham, Wm. A. Clopton, Bartlett 
 Sims, Cicero Rufus Peiry,'nlie Wilbargers, Dr. J. 
 W. Robertson, John Caldwell, Hurch Reed, John 
 H. Jenkins, Hon. William Pinkney Hill, for a time 
 Robert M. Williamson, the eloquent orator and 
 patriot, Highsmith, Eblin, Carter Anderson, Dal- 
 rymple, Eggleston, Gilleland, Blakey, Page, Pres- 
 ton Conley, the Hardemans, the Andrews brothers. 
 
 the Crafts, Taylor, the Bartons, Pace, John W. 
 Banton, Martin Wolner, Geren Brown, Logan Van- 
 deveer, George Green, Godwin, Garwood, Halde- 
 man~Miller, Holder, Curtis, Bain, Hood, McLean, 
 Graves, Allen, Henry Jones, Thomas Nicholson, 
 Vaughan, Hugh Childers, Hancock and John 
 Walters. 
 
 Aside from many important battles, in which a 
 large per cent of those men and others not named,' 
 participated, as at and around San Antonio in 1835- 
 at San Jacinto in 1836 (in which fifty of them fought 
 under Col. Burleson in Capt. Jesse Billingslej^'s 
 company, and in which Lemuel Blakey was killed, 
 and Capt. Billingslc}', Logan Vandeveer, Washing- 
 ton Anderson, Calvin Page and Martin Walter were 
 wounded), at Plum creek in 1840, in wiiich a hun- 
 dred of them and tliirteenToncahua Indians fought 
 under Burleson, and other important contests, for 
 fifteen j'ears they were exposed to Indian forays and 
 
mDTAX WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 107 
 
 bad numberless encounters and also fruitless pur- 
 suits after those ever active and cunning enemies. 
 Some of these sanguinary incidents have been de- 
 scribed ; but, many have not and some, from the 
 death of the participants and failing memories, 
 never will be. But enough has been preserved to 
 shed a halo of honor on those pioneers, by this 
 writer many years ago styled — "The brave men 
 of Bastrop." 
 
 In this chapter, availing myself somewhat of the 
 recollections of Mr. John H. Jenkins, I will briefly 
 summarize some of the incidents not heretofore 
 given. 
 
 By a false alarm of Mexican invasion in 1837, 
 as in 183G, the people of Bastrop fled from their 
 homes, but the alarm passed and they soon returned 
 from near the Brazos. 
 
 Near where Austin is, later in 1837, Lieut. 
 Wreun, of Coleman's Company, surprised a body 
 of warriors, killed several, had one man shot in 
 the mouth and killed, defeated the Indians and 
 captured all their horses. 
 
 In the same fall the Indians attacked the home of 
 Mr. Gocher (or Gotier) east of Bastrop, killed him, 
 his wife and two sons, and carried off Mrs. Craw- 
 ford, his widowed daughter, one of his little sons 
 and a little son and daughter of Mrs. Crawford. 
 This tragedy was discovered by Col. Burleson 
 some days later, when too late to pursue the mur- 
 derers. Mrs. Crawford and the children, after 
 several years of captivity, were bought by Mr. 
 Spaulding, a trader, who married the widow and 
 brought tiiem all back to live in Bastrop County. 
 
 Not far from this time a part3' of Indians robbed 
 a house below Bastrop. Burleson drove them into 
 a cedar brake on Finey creek, above town, and 
 sent back for more men. While waiting, the 
 Indians slipped out and retreated east toward the 
 
 headwaters of the Yeguas. Reinforced, Burleson 
 followed their trail at half speed, overtaking them 
 late in the afternoon, and drove them headlong, 
 after quite a chase, into a ravine, from which they 
 escaped unhurt and soon reached their camp, but 
 most of them only to die. They had gorged them- 
 selves on fat pork, killed in the woods, and soon 
 after arriving among their people nearly all of them 
 died, proving that stomachs overcharged with fat 
 and fresh hog meat were not prepared for rapid foot 
 races, the deceased sons of the forest having been 
 on foot. Mrs. Crawford was then a prisoner in 
 the camp and verified these facts. 
 
 The next raid was made in daylight. A party of 
 Comanches came in sight of town and drove off 
 fifteen horses. They were hastily followed by a 
 few citizens, who overhauled them eight miles out. 
 A running fight ensued — the Indians abandoned 
 their own and the stolen horses and found security 
 in thickets. No one was killed on either side, but 
 the citizens returned with their own and the Indian 
 horses. Richard Vaughan's horse, however, was 
 killed under him. 
 
 Early in 1838 the Indians entered the town at 
 night, killed Messrs. Hart and Weaver and es- 
 caped. 
 
 Soon afterwards, about three miles east of town, 
 Messrs. Robinson and Dollar were making boards. 
 Fifteen Indians charged upon them. Each sprang 
 upon his horse, near by, but Robinson was killed 
 at the same moment, while Dollar was pursued and 
 hemmed on a high bank of the river ; but, leaving 
 his horse, he leaped down the bank about twenty 
 feet, swam the Colorado and then hastened to town. 
 Soon afterwards he started to leave the country and 
 was never again heard of. No doubt was enter- 
 tained, however, of his having been killed by 
 Indians. 
 
 Raid into Gonzales and De Witt Counties in 1848 — Death of 
 
 Dr. Barnett, Capt. John York and Others — Death 
 
 of Maj. Charles G. Bryant in 1850. 
 
 For several j-ears prior to ISiS the country fore unprepared for it. Early in October, 1848, 
 
 between the Guadalupe and San Antonio rivers they realized, however, tliat they were open to 
 
 escaped annoyance from the Indians, though their savage fury. A party of Indians descended from 
 
 depredations beyond were frequent. The people the mountains along the valley of the Cibolo, and 
 
 in the section referred to had ceased to regard thence southeasterly to the " Sandies," a set of 
 
 themselves as exposed to danger, and were there- small streams in the western part of Gonzales 
 
108 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 County. On the Sandies they came across and 
 killed Dr. George W. Barnett, also a recent settler 
 in that locality — the same gentleman mentioned 
 in my chapter on the events in 1833 and 1835, as a 
 Captain in '35, a signer of the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, a soldier at San Jacinto and a senator of 
 the Repul)lic. Another party of Indians, presumed 
 to be of the same band, and acting in concert with 
 them, crossed from the west to the east side of the 
 San Antonio, and formed a junction with the first 
 named party, the two bands numbering thirty-five 
 or forty warriors, including, it was believed, some 
 outlawed Mexicans, the Indians being Lipans, then 
 living in the border Mexican State of Coaliuila, be- 
 yond the Rio Grande. Before their junction, about 
 the 5th of October, the second named or lower 
 gang had killed a Mr. Lockard (or Lockhart) and 
 a young man of Goliad County, son of Mr. Thacker 
 Vivian, at the Goliad and San Antonio crossing of 
 the Ecleto creek. 
 
 These events alarmed the settlers on the west side 
 of the Guadalupe, the remainder of the district 
 mentioned being still a wilderness, and a company 
 of thirty-two men and boys from the west side of 
 the river in De Witt County, assembled to meet 
 and repel the raiders. John York, a brave old 
 soldier who commanded a company in the storming 
 of San Antonio in 1835, was made Captain ; Richard 
 H. Chisholm, another veteran, Lieutenant, with H. 
 B. McB. Pridgen and Newton Porter, Sergeants, 
 and Joseph Tumlinson, guide. 
 
 On the night of October 10th, these hastily col- 
 lected volunteers encamped on the head waters of 
 the Cabcsa, twenty-five miles above Goliad. On 
 the morning of the 11th they traveled some miles 
 up the country, and then struck the trail of the 
 Indians, which bore southerly towards the mouth 
 of the Eseondida, a tributary of the San Antonio 
 from the southwest side. It became evident the 
 enemy had secured a considerable number of horses, 
 were leaving the countr}', and the pursuit was 
 quickened. Passing the San Antonio, on its west 
 bank they found the recently abandoned camp of 
 the savages, wiUi a letter and some trifling articles 
 proving they were the murderers of Lockard and 
 Vivian. The letter found was from George ^V. 
 Smyth, Commissioner of the General Land Office, 
 to a citizen of Robertson County, on official busi- 
 ness, and sent by Lockard. Young Vivian was 
 the son of a neighbor of my parents when I was a 
 child in Missouri, and a kinsman of Mrs. Dr. A. 
 A. Johnston, of Dallas. Believing that they had 
 been discovered, and that the Indians were hastily 
 
 retreating, Capt. York pressed forward rapidly till, 
 on reaching the brushy banks of the Eseondida, 
 about five miles beyond the abandoned camp, and 
 while a portion of the pursuers were a little behind, 
 those in front received a heavy fire from ambush, 
 accompanied by yells of defiance and imprecations 
 in broken English, which threw some of the inex- 
 perienced into confusion, causing a recoil, and this 
 disconcerted those in the rear, but the brave old 
 leader ordered the men to dismount in a grove of 
 trees, and was obeyed by a portion of his followers, 
 who returned and kept up the fire. Lieut. Chis- 
 holm (Uncle Dick, who cast the first cannon ball in 
 the Texas revolution) tried to rally the halting, 
 but the panic was on them and he tried in vain. 
 James H. Sykes, a stalwart man of reckless daring, 
 dashed up to the dense chaparral in which the 
 Indians were sheltered, and was killed. James 
 Bell, a son-in-law of Capt. York, and a man of ap- 
 proved nerve, was shot down between the contend- 
 ing parties, when Capt. York ran to him and while 
 stooping to raise him up was shot through the 
 kidnej's. The brave couple expired in the embrace 
 of each other. Joseph Tumlinson and Hugh R. 
 Young were severely wounded, and James York, 
 son of the dead captain, one of the handsomest 
 boj's I ever knew, was shot centrally through the 
 cheeks from side to side, supposed at the time to 
 be fatally, but he rode home and finally recovered, 
 though greatly disfigured. The contest was kept 
 up about an hour, when both parties retired, ours 
 only a little down the creek to get water for the 
 wounded. It was believed the Indians lost six or 
 seven in killed, but of this there was no certaintj'. 
 Besides those already named among those who 
 stood to their colors to the last were William R. 
 Taylor (Goliad), Johnson, A. Berry, and others 
 whose names cannot be recalled. Some men of 
 unquestioned courage were among the victims of 
 the panic, and others were inexperienced boys who 
 had never been under fire. 
 
 This, so far as is remembered, was the last raid 
 in that section of country below the Seguiu and 
 San Antonio road ; but above that line the pioneers 
 of the frontier, till some years after the Civil War, 
 were the victims of a predatory and brutal w.ar, in 
 which the most remorseless cruelties were more or 
 less practiced. 
 
 The facts as herein narrated were communicated 
 to me by a number of the participants on the 20th 
 of October, only nine days after the fight, and have 
 been so preserved ever since. I personally knew 
 every one named in connection with the engagement. 
 
UKNRY M.CLLLOCH. 
 
INDFAX WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 109 
 
 Death of Maj. Charles G. Bryant. 
 
 The isolated murder of this estimable gentleman, 
 by the Indians, occurred about fourteen months 
 after the events herein described, but being in the 
 same section of the State, the facts are added to 
 tliis ciiapter, with some other matters of interest 
 in relation to him and bis famil3r. 
 
 Cliarles G. Bryant was born in 1803 at Thomas- 
 ton, Maine, and was long captain of a company in 
 Bangor, being of an ardent military temperament. 
 Being also a warm sympathizer with the rebellion 
 in Canada in 1837-8, he crossed the border in the 
 latter year and joined his fortunes with those in 
 arms against the British power. In their final de- 
 feat he was captured, tried and sentenced to death. 
 By the intervention of friends, at great hazard to 
 themselves, on the night before his appointed exe- 
 cution, he escaped from prison, and by relays of 
 horses previously provided, rode in a gallop from 
 Montreal to Bangor. A large reward was offered 
 for him, dead or alive, and to escape extradition he 
 chartered a small vessel, on which, with his elder 
 son, Andrew Jackson Bryant, leaving the remainder 
 of his family beiiind, he sailed for Galveston, arriv- 
 ing there in January, 1839. His son entered the 
 Texas navy, as midshipman, won esteem as such, 
 and in the naval battle off Campeechy in the spring 
 of 1843, was fearfullj' wounded, displaying the 
 highest order of heroism. He sailed from Galves- 
 ton for New York a few months later for medical 
 treatment and to bring out his mother and the other 
 children, but the vessel went down at sea. No tid- 
 ings of it or any of its human freight were ever 
 received. In January, 184.5, Mrs. Bryant arrived 
 in Galveston, accompanied by their sons, Charles 
 
 C. (now an cmplo3'ee on Texas Farm and Ranch'), 
 Martin, Clinton and Wolfred N. (now of Dallas). 
 
 During the Mexican war, probably in 1846 or 
 1847, Maj. Bryant removed his familj^ from Gal- 
 veston to Corpus Christi. It had been reinforced 
 at Galveston by the birth of a son named Edwin, 
 and a daughter, now of Dallas, and known through- 
 out the State from her brilliant and patriotic poet- 
 ical effusions, as Mrs. Welthea Bryant Leaehman, 
 a favorite pet of the Texas Veteran Association, to 
 whom she is endeared by ties honorable to her 
 mind, her genius and her heart. 
 
 Maj. Bryant was a prominent and valued citizen 
 of Corpus Christi. He was mustering officer of the 
 three companies of Texas rangers, commanded 
 respectively by Capts. John S. Ford, John G. 
 Grumbles and Charles M. Blackwell. On the 11th 
 of January, 1850, he left Corpus Christi on horse- 
 back for Austin, on business growing out of this 
 official position, crossing the reef at the head of 
 Corpus Christi bay. Early on the next day, about 
 nine miles from Black Point, and in plain view of 
 several persons who had fortunately discovered the 
 danger and concealed themselves in some chaparral, 
 he was completely surprised, murdered and robbed 
 by a party of nine Indians. He had on his person 
 several hundred dollars in gold, and a large amount 
 in bank bills. In that locality he had no reason to 
 apprehend danger, but though surprised, he fought 
 with desperation, till overwhelmed by the odds 
 against him. The concealed and unarmed specta- 
 tors, though being unseen by the Indians, and see- 
 ing their approach in time to save themselves, could 
 give no warning to him whose life was at hazard. 
 
 The Southwest Coast in 1850 — Henry McCulloch's Fight on 
 the San Saba in 1851. 
 
 In 1849 and 1850, while Gen. Brooke, with head- 
 quarters at San Antonio, was in command of the 
 United States troops in Texas, there wae such a 
 succession of Indian raids into the coast country 
 between the San Antonio and Nueces rivers, and 
 west of the latter stream in rear of Corpus Christi, 
 
 as to create a constant sense of insecurity among 
 the scattered population of that section. It will be 
 remembered, as shown elsewhere, that on the 11th 
 of January, 1850, Maj. Charles G. Bryant, of Cor- 
 pus Christi, was killed by one of those raiding 
 parties. 
 
no 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Gen. Brooke, in view of tliese increasing depre- 
 dations, called into service a company of Texas 
 rangers, who were mustered in at Austin, Novem- 
 ber 5, 1850. Henry E. McCulIoch, for the fifth 
 time since June 8, 1846, was elected Captain, Jolin 
 R. King, First Lieutenant, Calvin S. Turner, Second 
 Lieutenant, and Wm. C. McKean, was Orderly 
 Sergeant. 
 
 The company formed a central camp on the 
 Aransas, between the Nueces and San Antonio, 
 and kept up an active system of scouts from the 
 one river to the other, and successively discovered, 
 pursued and broke up two or three raiding parties, 
 capturing their horses and outfits, though the sav- 
 ages in each case escaped into the almost impene- 
 trable chaparrals of that section. Two Indians, 
 however, during the stay of the company in that 
 locality, slipped inside the lines, captured a small 
 boy, son of Hart, at the Mission Refugio, and suc- 
 cessfully escaped ; but this in a period of five 
 months, was the only success they achieved, being 
 wholly defeated in every other attempt, and confi- 
 dence was restored. The company, being' six 
 months' men, were discharged at Fort Merrill, on 
 the Nueces, on the 4th of May, 18-51, but reor- 
 ganized as a new company for another six months 
 on the next day. Capt. Gordon Granger (a 
 Federal General in the civil war) was the oflficer 
 who mustered out the old company and remus- 
 tered them in the new. 
 
 Of this second compan3' (the sixth and last one 
 in the service of the United States commanded by 
 the same gentleman) Henry E. McCulloch was 
 unanimously elected Captain, MilburnHarrell, First, 
 and Wm. C. McKean, Second Lieutenant, Oliver H. 
 P. Keese, Orderly Sergeant, the other Sergeants 
 being Houston Tom, Thomas Drennan and James 
 Eastwood ; the corporals were John M. Lewis, 
 Abner H. Beard, Thomas F. Mitchell and Archi- 
 bald Gipson ; Wm. J. Boykin and James E. Keese, 
 buglers ; John Swearinger, blacksmith ; Thomas 
 Sappington, farrier. There were seventj'-four 
 privates and a total in rank and file of eighty- 
 nine. 
 
 In the mean time Gen. Brooke died in San 
 Antonio and Gen. Wm. S. Harney had succeeded 
 to the command. He directed Capt. McCulloch to 
 take such position in the mountains, covering the 
 head waters of the Guadalupe, Perdenales, Llano 
 and San Saba, as, by a system of energetic scout- 
 ing, would enable him best to protect the settle- 
 ments inside, in reality covering most of the 
 country between the upper Nueces and the Colo. 
 rado. About the 1st of June Capt. McCulloch 
 established his headquarters on the north branch of 
 
 the Llano river, about ten miles above the forks, 
 and thenceforward had daily reports from a long 
 line of observation. This active service, without 
 any important action or discovery, continued until 
 early in August, when the scouts reported a con- 
 siderable and fresh Indian trail to the west of the 
 encampment bearing from the lower country in a 
 northerly direction. 
 
 Capt. McCulloch, with a detail of twenty-one 
 men, started in immediate pursuit. 
 
 Following the trail, rendered very plain by the 
 number of stolen horses driven by the Indians, it 
 became manifest that the robbers apprehended no 
 danger and were traveling leisurely. On reaching 
 the south branch of the San Saba, not far from its 
 source, it became certain that the enemy was near 
 by, Capt. McCulloch halting the company, with 
 Chris. McCoy went forward, soon to discover the 
 Indians encamped on a deep branch, tvidently feel- 
 ing secure, and their horses grazing at some distance 
 from them. A plan of attack was at once adopted. 
 A charge was so made as to cut the horses off and 
 the Indians took position in the branch, but be- 
 trayed more of a desire to escape than to fight. 
 The rangers, inspired by their captain, crowded 
 upon them whenever and wlierever it could be done 
 without reckless exposure to their invisible shots. 
 Some of the squaws with bows and arrows, fought as 
 men, and two would have been killed in the deadly 
 melee but for the discovery of their sex, upon which 
 they were overpowered and disarmed, this being 
 the highest manifestation of chivalry possible under 
 the circumstances, including, of course, the safe 
 custody of the captured ladies. Herman L. Raven 
 was wounded by one of the squaws. Jeremiah 
 Campbell's horse was killed b^' a rifle ball. The 
 Indians were closely pressed as they retreated 
 down the branch until they found security in the 
 thickets on its borders. 
 
 Seven or eight warriors were left dead on the 
 ground. Ail the horses and other property of the 
 Indians were captured. It became evident that the 
 raiders had been robbing Mexicans on the Rio 
 Grande. On reflection Capt. McCulloch furnished 
 the two squaws horses and outfits, telling them 
 to find their people and say to them that if they 
 would come into Fort Martin Scott (two and a half 
 miles east of Fredericksburg, and on the Perde- 
 nales), bring in any prisoners they might have, and 
 pledge themselves to cease depredations on the 
 frontier, their horses and effects would be restored 
 to them. This offer was accepted and carried into 
 effect. Ketemsi, chief of the defeated party, con- 
 tended that he had been warring on Mexicans only, 
 and it was not right for Texians to attack him — a 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 iir 
 
 position untenable while he passed over and occu- 
 pied Texas soil in his hostile movements against 
 people with whom we were at peace. But in truth 
 he was ready to rob and slay Texians as well as 
 Mexicans. 
 
 The company continued in active service till the 
 expiration of their period of enlistment, when on the 
 
 5th of November, 1851, they were mustered out at 
 Fort Martin Scott. As previously stated, the}' 
 were mustered in at Fort Merrill by Capt. Gordon 
 Granger, afterwards a distinguished Union General 
 in the war between the States. They were mustered 
 out by James Longstreet, an equally distinguished 
 General on the Confederate side in the same war. 
 
 Governor Fitzhugh Lee's Hand-to-Hand Fight with a Stalwart 
 
 Warrior in 1855. 
 
 I am unable to give the date or precise locality 
 of the incident about to be narrated ; but it was 
 about 1855, and not far from one of the U. S. mil- 
 itary posts then on our western frontier, and the 
 facts are derived from Capt. Hayes, the only wit- 
 ness of the scene. The hero of the occasion was 
 Fitzhugh Lee, then a young Lieutenant of cavalry 
 in the United States armj', afterwards distinguished 
 as a General of cavalry in the Confederate army and 
 still later as Governor of Virginia. He is a nephew 
 of Gen. Robert E. Lee, and a son of Com. Sidney 
 Smith Lee, deceased, of the United States navy. 
 
 Capt. Hayes (then, I think, a lieutenant), and 
 Lieut. Lee, on the occasion referred to, were roam- 
 ing through a forest when they espied a large and 
 robust warrior quite near and mounted on horse- 
 back. As soon as he discovered them he gave a 
 stentorian war whoop and darted off through the 
 timber, pursued by Lee and Hayes. The chase con- 
 tinued for a considerable distance, first one and then 
 the other party gaining ground, till finally, owing 
 to thick brush on the bank of a creek, the Indian 
 was forced to abandon his horse and seek conceal- 
 ment, in doing which he leaped down the creek 
 bank where it was about ten feet high. 
 
 The pursuers dismounted, Lee passing down 
 the creek on one side and Hayes on the other. 
 Id a little while Hayes saw Lee stoop down and 
 pick up a fine blanket, dropped by the Indian, and 
 called to him to be cautious, as the owner must be 
 near at hand. He had scarcely done so when the 
 savage sprang from behind a ledge of rocks, not 
 over four feet distant, and with a wild yell, seized 
 Lee, and a life and death struggle began. The 
 Indian was much the stronger of the two and 
 very soon had Lee down. The former had a 
 lance and a bow and arrow on his back while 
 
 Lee had a pistol and carbine, but, at the first 
 onset, the lance and carbine, respectively, were 
 dropped. Lee, being agile, rose to his feet, tightly 
 clenched by his antagonist, but was again thrown 
 to the ground. His pistol fell and rolled beyond 
 the reach of either. Lee rose a third time and was 
 again thrown, when they rolled over and over each 
 other. Lee, with his left hand, seized the Indian's 
 throat and endeavored to suffocate him, but his 
 hand was seized by the savage and restrained. 
 Lee continued his efforts — they again rolled over 
 each other and finally Lee found himself on top and 
 renewed his choking operation ; but at the same 
 instant discovered that they had rolled within reach 
 of his pistol, seizing which, unseen by the Indian, 
 he held it near the ground and fired, the ball pass- 
 ing through the Indian's cheeks. 
 
 The savage then made a powerful effort to 
 " turn " Lee and get possession of the pistol. In 
 the language of Capt. Hayes: " Each man fought 
 with superhuman strength, and each knew that it 
 was a battle unto death." 
 
 In all this time, and it was but a moment, Capt. 
 Hayes had seen the struggle and hastened to reach 
 the spot in aid of his friend, for he dare not fire 
 unless immediately at them, lest he might kill Lee, 
 but he was delayed by brush and the bluff in cross- 
 ing the creek. " But," says he, " just as I reached 
 Fitz he fired again and the ball went crashing 
 through the Indian's heart, killing him. Lee then 
 arose and I said to him : That was a close call, 
 Fitz. He replied: 'Yes, I thought I was gone.' 
 Afterward I asked him how in the world he man- 
 aged to turn the heavy Indian? In his own peculiar 
 way Fitz replied : ' I tell you what saved my life, 
 Jack. When I was a boy at school in Virginia I 
 learned a litt'e trick in wrestling that the boys 
 
112 
 
 IXDTAX WARS AXD PIOXEEIiS OF TEXAS. 
 
 called the back heel, and the thought struck me, 
 when he had me down, that if I trieil that Virginia 
 bade heel on him I would get him. I tried it and I 
 got him.' " 
 
 An account of this rencounter speedily spread all 
 over the frontier of Texas and gave Fitzhugh Lee 
 a hold ou the people which is a pleasant remem- 
 brance among the surviving pioneers unto this day, 
 and has never been weakened by any act of his 
 since ; but, on the conirar}', thej- have ever followed 
 and rejoiced over his brilliant career as soldier, and 
 statesman, with a pride akin to kinship. Not long 
 after the occurrence, he visited Dallas in charge of 
 
 an escort to a supply train, where the people gave a 
 ball and supper in his honor — then sent a commit- 
 tee to escort him on his return as far as McKinney. 
 where the same honors were paid. 
 
 As Governor of Virginia he worthily occupied a 
 seat honored aforetime by his grandfather. Light 
 Horse Hany Lee, of glorious memory, but erecting 
 another monument to the fact that since Richard 
 Lee, first of the name in America, came to the 
 colony of Virginia as secretary to Governor Sir 
 William Beverly, in IGtl, no Lee has ever left 
 a stain upon his name or proved untrue to his 
 country. 
 
 Van Dorn's Fight at the Wichita Village, October 1, 1858. 
 
 Some years since Capt. (now ex-Governor) L. S. 
 Koss wrote the following brief account of this 
 battle, Maj. Van Dorn being of the U. S. Cavalry 
 and severely wounded : — • 
 
 "In 1858 I returned from school and found 
 Maj. Van Dorn was at Belknap organizing an ex- 
 pedition against the Comanches, then supposed to 
 he somewhere on the head waters of the Arkansas 
 and Canadian rivers. I went at once to the Indian 
 agency and raised one hundred and thirt^'-five 
 Waco, Tehuacano, Toncahua and Caddo warriors, 
 and with them reported to Maj. Van Dorn for 
 co-operation in the expedition. He sent me in ad- 
 vance to the Wichita mountains, while he followed 
 with trains, supplies, and troops, expecting to 
 establish a depot there for supplies, etc. When I 
 reached the mountains, I sent a Waco and a Tehua- 
 cano Indian to the Wichita village, seventy-five 
 miles east of the Washita river, hoping to learn 
 through them where the Comanches were to be 
 found. When the scouts came in sight of the vil- 
 lage they found, to their surprise, " Buffalo Hump " 
 with his band of Comanches (the very ones we 
 were hunting), encamped there, trading and gam- 
 bling with the Wichitas. The scouts concealed 
 themselves until after dark, and then stole two 
 
 Comanche horses and returned to me to report the 
 facts. With difficulty I convinced Maj. Van Dorn 
 that the Indians could be relied upon and induced 
 him to turn the direction of his columns, and by a 
 forced march we reached the village at sunrise 
 October 1st, 1858, surprising and almost completely 
 destroying that band of the Comanches, capturing 
 their horses, tents, supplies and several prisoners, 
 among whom I captured the white girl named 
 " Lizzie," subsequently raised by ray mother, and 
 of whose family or parentage no trace has been 
 discovered. For their services Maj. Van Dorn 
 gave the Indians of my command the spoils cap- 
 tured, horses, etc. I received for my pay a dan- 
 gerous gun-shot wound, still a painful reminder of 
 the occasion, together with a petition, signed on 
 the battle-field by every U. S. officer present, re- 
 questing my appointment by the Government in 
 the regular army for distinguished gallantr}^ and 
 after due time came a complimentary order from 
 Gen. Winfield Scott, which documents I still have, 
 but have never made or attempted to make use of 
 them." 
 
 This, when but twenty years old, was the 
 beginning of Gen. Ross' brilliant career as a 
 soldier. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 113 
 
 A Story of Gen. Lee— His Attack Upon a Band of Savages in 
 1860, While on the Way to the Rio Grande. 
 
 " Col. A. G. Brackett, who in 1886 and for sev- 
 eral years commanded at Fort Davis, Texas, spent 
 the better part of a long and arduous military career 
 in Indian fighting and the roughest of frontier worli 
 generally," writes a correspondent of the St. Louis 
 Globe-Democrat; and then continues: " For years 
 prior to the war, when Sati Antonio was but a far 
 outlying post, when railways were an unknown 
 quantity in Texas' taxable values, and the Coman- 
 ches and Mexicans practically owned creation, 
 Col. Brackett was holding up his end of government 
 guard duty, and of necessity became intimate with 
 most of the men who for some portion of their lives 
 lived on the then far frontier, and afterward be- 
 came heroes of national story and song. To a 
 group of interested listeners Col. Brackett detailed 
 the following hitherto unprinted episode in the life 
 of Gen. Robert E. Lee — in I860 a Colonel in com- 
 mand of the departmeut of Texas, and in 1865 the 
 Confederacy's grandest soldier. 
 
 " ' Robert E. Lee,' says Col. Brackett, ' was on 
 his way from San Antonio to the Rio Grande for the 
 purpose of doing what he could toward bringing the 
 Cortinas war to a close and settling the disturbances 
 connected therewith. He had for his escort my 
 company of the Second Cavalry, and was marching 
 as rapidly as possible. He had done what he could 
 in his office, and now found his only safe plan was 
 to go himself to the spot where hostilities were pro- 
 gressing. He was a man who always attended to 
 everything himself as far as possible. Utterly with- 
 out pretension, he held every man to a strict per- 
 formance of his duty, and spared nothing in having 
 his plans carried out. He was an able department 
 commander, and foreshadowed many of those quali- 
 ties which made him famous in a more extended 
 sphere of action, and proved him one of the great- 
 est military leaders this country has produced. He 
 was strict in his waj's, but at the same lime was one 
 of the most benevolent and kind-hearted of men. 
 
 " ' As he approached .Seco river a messenger came 
 galloping up to him and reported that the Indians 
 were just ahead and were robbing the settlements 
 
 on and near that stream. It took but a moment to 
 pass the word to me. We dashed off with our 
 troops and were soon in the midst of the savages, 
 who, unaware of our proximity, were plundering 
 without hindrance and to their own great satisfac- 
 tion. But when the cavalry dashed in upon them 
 there were seen some amazing feats of horseman- 
 ship as with wild yells the Indians endeavored to 
 get out of the way. They had killed some head of 
 cattle, and were about to rob a house occupied by 
 women who had huddled together there, when Lee 
 appeared on the scene. Again they went in every 
 direction, but generally up the river toward the 
 mountains, the cattle lowing from fright, and the 
 big bay horses of the troopers bounding after the 
 red men over the rocks, stones and bushes in a 
 way to gladden the heart of every true horseman. 
 For a time the din was great as the troops tore 
 through the bushes. It was a race for life, and a 
 most exciting one, as all must admit. How many 
 were hurt was never accurately known to the whites, 
 as an Indian can conceal himself in a place which 
 would almost seem impossible. The chase was 
 kept up for a couple of miles, but in the broken 
 ground all further efforts were useless. The men 
 returned to the house, when a recall was sounded, 
 their horses being blown and their clothing in 
 strings from the brush and briers. The women 
 were dreadfully frightened, their husbands and 
 brothers being away from home at the time of the 
 attack, but as the soldiers returned they came in 
 and were profuse in their thanks to Lee for his 
 timely arrival and his handsome performance in 
 beating off the red rascals. He was as impassive 
 as ever, but it was plainly to be seen that he 
 thoroughly enjoyed the discomfiture of the Indians, 
 as well as the eagerness of his men to get at them.' 
 " In lengthy and interesting mention of the great 
 commander as one who had broken bread and lived 
 in camps with him, Col. Brackett speaks of the 
 Confederate General with the respect and tender 
 appreciation of a lifetime soldier for a gallant 
 foe." 
 
114 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 A Raid in Burnet County in April, 1861 — Death of James 
 
 Gracey — George Baker and Family's Escape — 
 
 Escape of John H. Stockman, a Boy. 
 
 In 1861 Thomas Dawson, a single man, lived 
 about nine miles westerly from Lampasas, and two 
 miles east of the road from Burnet to San Saba. 
 With him lived a fatherless boy of thirteen, John 
 H. Stockman, whose aunt, Miss Greenwood, subse- 
 (juently became the wife of Dawson. On the 10th 
 of April, 1861, James, the thirteen-year-old son of 
 John N. Gracey, then and still (in 1887) of 
 Lampasas, went to Dawson's in search of horses, 
 and remained all night. 
 
 On the morning of the 11th these two boys, on 
 foot, went out seeking the horses. When about 
 two miles from the house and very near the Burnet 
 and San Saba road, while Stockman was trying to 
 kill a turkey a short distance from Gracey, and in 
 a body of post oaks, he heard a rumbling sound — 
 then shouts, and, on looking, discovered fifteen 
 Indians in charge of about a hundred stolen and 
 frightened horses. Checking up the herd, three of 
 the savages seized little Gracey, stiipped off his 
 clothing, scalped him as he stood upon the ground, 
 then beckoned him to run, and as he did so, sent sev- 
 eral arrows through his body, causing instant death. 
 It was the work of but a moment, during which 
 Stockman stood among the trees as if paralyzed, not 
 doubting a similar fate ; but just as the wretches 
 were about to rush upon him, their attention was 
 directed to another party a short distance below on 
 the road. It consisted of George Baker, of Austin, 
 on horseback, his wife and infant, and Mr. Austin, 
 his father-in-law, in a buggy. Most of the Indians 
 were required to hold their restUss herd, but the 
 remainder attacked the party. Mr. Baker sought 
 to defend his precious charge till they could reach 
 some timber and brush perhaps two hundred yards 
 away. He had both a gun and pistols. He was 
 soon wounded, but killed the most daring of the 
 assailants at an instant when Mrs. Baker was for 
 a moment at their mere}'. But they were so san- 
 guine of killing the husband and holding the wife, 
 that the whole party succeeded in reaching the 
 desired haven and found partial protection. Mr. 
 Austin was an old man somewhat palsied in the 
 arms and could do nothing. Baker held them at 
 bay, firing several shots and wounding a second 
 Indian ; but he was wounded several times and 
 finally became unable to do more. Mrs. Baker 
 
 drew the arrows from his body ami staunched the 
 wounds as best she could ; but in the last dread 
 alternative stood in his stead, wielding his weapons 
 and holding the brutal creatures at a respectful 
 distance. An arrow entered the baby's stomach 
 through several folds of a Mexican blanket, but 
 not far enough to endanger its life. 
 
 In the meantime two other fortunate events 
 transpired. The boy, Stockman, seized the occa- 
 sion to escape. He found partial protection for a 
 short distance along a ravine. Having on a very 
 white shirt, easily seen at a considerable distance, 
 he cast it off. Having to cross a small prairie, he 
 crawled perhaps half a mile, lacerating his flesh 
 and limbs, and while so engaged, a part of the 
 Indians, in preventing a stampede of the horses, 
 rode almost upon, without seeing him, in the high 
 grass. Through brush and briers he ran rapidly, 
 by circuitous routes, six or eight miles, to reach 
 the house of Thomas Espy, two miles east of Daw- 
 son's place. He was severelj' torn and bruised, 
 but not otherwise injured, though frantic over the 
 horrors he had witnessed. 
 
 The other incident was that as the occupants 
 quit the buggy, the horse ran away, casting off one 
 of the four wheels, and, providentially leaving the 
 road, he went full speed to Dawson's house, near 
 which one or two of the Indians captured, unhar- 
 nessed and hurried him back to their fellows. This 
 was seen by Mr. Dawson, who mounted his own 
 horse and started in a run to give the alarm at 
 Lampasas ; but, again providentially, within a mile 
 he fell in with a hunting party from Lampasas, 
 consisting of Dempsey Pace, John Greenwood 
 George Weldy and Newton Knight, who, at half 
 speed, followed the trail made by the buggy, and 
 soon arrived on the scene, to find the enemy still 
 endeavoring to accomplish their object, without 
 losing any more of their own number. The savages 
 challenged them to combat at some distance on the 
 prairie ; but their purpose was to protect and save 
 the apparently doomed family. They prepared, as 
 best they could, for conveying them to the house 
 of Mr. Espy, the nearest family in that region. 
 The Indians soon retired with their booty, and the 
 rescuers safely conducted their charges in, carrying 
 Mr. Baker in a litter. He was gently nursed for 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 115 
 
 sis or eight weeks, and was then enabled to reach 
 his home, where he in due time recovered, as proud 
 of his heroic wife as he was thaul<ful for their pres- 
 ervation through such apparently hopeless dangers. 
 A party, accompanied by little Stockman, went 
 out during the succeeding night to recover the 
 body of little James Gracey, but were unable to 
 find it. They camped at the spot indicated by 
 Stockman, and when daylight came found it in 
 their midst, and then realized the cause of their 
 failure in the fact that the nude body, lying among 
 the white rocks, was not distinguishable in the 
 
 night time. The remains were conveyed to his 
 stricken parents and family, and interred in the 
 presence of a sympathizing concourse. 
 
 Stockman now lives in San Antonio, but has been 
 much about Dallas, and only a few days since 
 recounted to me his version of this bloody episode 
 in our border history. It will be of Interest to 
 many old residents of East and Southwest Texas to 
 know that he is a grandson of Elder Garrison 
 Greenwood, a sterling old Baptist preacher, who 
 settled in Nacogdoches County in 1833, and moved 
 west in 184G, finally to die in Lampasas County. 
 
 Raid into Cooke County, in Decennber, 1863. 
 
 On the 22d and 23d days of December, 1863, 
 occurred one of the most bloody and destructive 
 Indian raids to which our poorly protected frontier 
 was subject during and for some years after the 
 late war. At this time Col. James Bourland, one 
 of the bravest and truest of all our frontiersmen, 
 commanded a regiment of Confederate troops with 
 his headquarters at Gainesville, but at the lime of 
 this particular raid he was in Bonhara, on official 
 business with Gen. Henry E. McCulloch. Col. 
 Bourland had to protect with his regiment such an 
 extended reach of frontier that he was compelled 
 to scatter his troops in small squads far apart, and 
 for this reason it was impossible to concentrate any 
 considerable number of his troops at any given 
 point in time to repel such an invasion as this. 
 At this time Capt. Wm. C. Twitty, a brave and 
 true soldier, was in command of the few troops of 
 Col. Bourland's regiment, that then happened to 
 be at and near Gainesville not exceeding fifty or 
 seventy-five in number. 
 
 At the same time Capt. Jno. T. Rowland, a 
 brave and experienced Indian fighter, commanded 
 a company of Texas State troops. Capt. Rowland 
 was in camp at Red River Station, in Montague 
 County, and was the first to hear of the raid. The 
 Indians crossed Red river into Texas about 2 
 o'clock in the afternoon of the 22d of December, 
 1863, a few miles below Red River Station, 
 and at once commenced their fiendish work 
 of murder and burning. They first came upon the 
 house of Mr. Anderson. They killed his wife, and 
 left her with her feet so near a fire in the yard as 
 to roast her feet. At the residence of Wesley 
 
 Willet they killed Mr. Willet and one daughter, 
 while his wife and another daughter made their 
 escape. They burned and plundered Mr. Willet's 
 house, and then came upon the house of Mr. G. L. 
 Hatfield. Hatfield and his family made their es- 
 cape, but they had fled only a short distance before 
 they looked back and saw their home in flames. 
 After taking such things as they wanted the Indians 
 set fire to the house. Settlements at this time 
 along the Red river border were quite spare and 
 what was then known as the Wallace settlement, in 
 Sadler's bend in Cooke County, was the next set- 
 tlement below Hatfield's and was some twelve or 
 fifteen miles distant. The Indians started in the 
 direction of this settlement when they left the Hat- 
 field place, but they were closely pursued by Capt. 
 Rowland with about twenty-five men. The Indians 
 were between two and three hundred strong. 
 Before reaching the Wallace settlement the Indians 
 recrossed Red river and this led Capt. Rowland to 
 believe that they had abandoned the raid, as it was 
 their custom to make these sudden inroads upon 
 the settlements and then make their escape under 
 cover of night. Capt. Rowland and his men had 
 ridden very rapidly — the Indians had so much 
 the start of them, that their horses were 
 completely wearied out, so he thought it was 
 best to turn into Capt. Wallace's and rest 
 his men and horses for the night, and renew 
 the pursuit early next morning. The news of 
 the raid and the massacre of the Willet familv 
 with the usual exaggerations, had alreadv been 
 carried to the Wallace settlement, by some terrifie<l 
 settler, and when Capt. Rowland reached Wallace's 
 
116 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 he found that the whole settlement had forted there 
 as a means of protection. The news had also been 
 conveyed to what was known as the Elmore settle- 
 ment, on the head of Fish creek, about six miles 
 east of Wallace's ; also to what was known as the 
 Potter settlement, some four miles southeast from 
 Elmore's, and a fleet courier had also carried the 
 news to Gainesville. During the night of the 22d, 
 the few families in that settlement gathered at the 
 residence of James Elmore, and the few families 
 that composed the settlement around Capt. C. 
 Potter's were also gathered in there before daylight 
 of the morning of the 23d. Many of these families 
 were simply women and children, the husbands and 
 fathers being in the Confederate army, and the few 
 men in the county were armed with the poorest 
 class of firearms, all the best guns having been 
 given to those who joined the Confederate army. 
 
 When Capt. Twitty heard the news of the raid, 
 which reached him at Gainesville, in the earl^' part 
 of the night of the 22d of December, he imme- 
 diately dispatched about twenty-five men from 
 Capt. S. P. C. Patton's Company, to the scene of 
 the raid. These men, after a hard ride, reached 
 Capt. Wallace's a short time before daylight on 
 the morning of the 23d. Capt. Rowland, who was 
 not expecting reinforcements, and taking these 
 men for the enemy, came near firing upon them 
 before the mistake was discovered. But the 
 Indians, confident in their superior numbers, deter- 
 mined to do more devilment before leaving and early 
 next morning, recrossed Red riv-er and went in 
 below Capt. AVallace's. At sunrise they were scam- 
 pering over the prairies, stealing horses, shooting 
 cattle, and burning houses. They soon came to 
 the Elmore place and their number was so unpre- 
 cedencedly large, that they struck terror to the 
 hearts of the men and women crowded in the house, 
 and they at once fled to the woods, scattering in 
 every direction. Some were killed, others were 
 chased for miles — but most of them made their 
 escape, though they lay in the woods all that day 
 and the following night. Many thrilling incidents 
 could be related of this flight. Among others, a 
 Mr. Dawson, when the stampede began from 
 the house, seized a babe about six months old, 
 but not his own. When he reached a spot where 
 he thought he could safely hide, the child began to 
 cry and would not be comforted. Dawson could 
 see the Indians coming in his direction and knew 
 that they must soon hear the screams of the child, 
 if they had not alreadj' done so. So he ran deeper 
 into the woods, seeking the most inaccessible 
 places. The Indians continued to follow and the 
 child to cry, as poor Dawson thought louder than 
 
 ever. In utter despair of ever making his escape 
 with the babe, he laid it down in a deep dry branch 
 and covered it with leaves. The little thing went 
 to sleep in a moment. Dawson thus made his 
 escape and when the Indians left he went back, 
 got the babe and carried it to its almost frenzied 
 mother. After the people left Elmore's house the 
 Indians plundered it, took what they vranted and 
 set fire to it. The people forted up at Capt. 
 Potter's, soon saw the flames at Elmore's house 
 and knew that the Indians were coming on in their 
 direction. About a mile and a half south of Capt. 
 Potter lived the families of Ephraim Clark and 
 Harrison Lander. These families, contrary to 
 their usual custom, failed to go to Capt. Potter's, 
 as their neighbors had done when they received 
 the report of the raid. When the people at Pot- 
 ter's saw Elmore's house burning they knew that 
 it was too late to get Clark's and Lander's families 
 to Potter's. Hence they concluded that it was 
 best to go to Clark's or Lander's, as they lived 
 very near together. About the time they left 
 Potter's house, James McNabb, who had left 
 Potter's early that morning to go to his home . 
 a mile away to look after his stock, came flying 
 back, hotly pursued by a squad of Indians who 
 were in advance of the main body. McNabb made 
 a narrow escape. Before he dismounted the 
 Indians surrounded the house and tried to cut him 
 off from his horse, but he made his escape by 
 making his horse jump the fence. The people 
 forted at Capt. Potter's, as well as his own family, 
 made a hasty retreat to Lander's house going by 
 Clark's and getting his family. Many of the chil- 
 dren were taken from bed and without being 
 dressed were hurried into a wagon and driven 
 rapidly away. They had not reached Lander's 
 house before they saw the flames bursting from 
 the roof of Capt. Potter's house. Mr. Lander's 
 house was situated on a prairie knoll near a very 
 high and precipitous bluff. Here the affrighted 
 women and children were gathered in the house, 
 while four men and three boys, with poor and 
 uncertain guns in their hands, stood in the yard 
 and about the outhouses ready to protect as best 
 they could all that was dear to them. Soon the 
 Indians came in sight and a sight it was. They 
 came not in a body but in squads and strings. 
 They had bedecked their horses with the bed 
 clothing, sheets, quilts, counterpanes, table-cloths, 
 ladies wearing apparel, etc". 
 
 The women gathered in the house were frantic. 
 It was supposed that all had been killed at Elmore's 
 as the house had been seen to burn. It was known 
 that they had as much or more fighting force at 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 117 
 
 Elmore's than they had at Lander's and when the 
 overwhelming force of Indians came in sight strung 
 out for a considerable distance, with their yells and 
 queer decorations, all hope sank. Some women 
 prayed, others screamed and cried, while others 
 held their children to their bosoms in mute despair. 
 Soon the Indians were around the place and had 
 driven off the loose horses that had been driven 
 along by the fleeing people with the hope of saving 
 them. The horses that had been ridden and driven' 
 were brought inside the yard fence and tied. It 
 was some time before all the Indians congregated 
 and, as they would come up, they would stop near 
 the house, shoot arrows at the men in the yard, 
 occasionally fire a gun or pistol, and at times some 
 daring fellow would come within gun-shot, but the 
 citizens were too experienced in Indian warfare to 
 fire until it had to be done to save the dear ones 
 in the house. The Indians were so slow about 
 making an attack upon the house that it was thought 
 that the women and children might be hurried over 
 the steep bluff that was just north of the liouse and 
 down this the' Indians could not follow them on 
 their horses, and if the bluff could be reached 
 escape was certain to most of the party. A plan 
 was soon arranged ; the Indians were south of the 
 house and the main body of them three hundred 
 yards awaj'. The bluff was north of the house and 
 one hundred and fifty yards away. The men and 
 boys with guns were to mount their horses and 
 form a line for the protection of the women and 
 children, who were to make a break for the bluff. 
 The men were soon on their horses and the women 
 and children started, but as they poured out of the 
 house and out of the yard, the Indians set up an 
 unearthly yell, and all the women and children ran 
 back into the house. After some further delay, 
 another effort was made to carry out this scheme. 
 It might not have been successful, but about the 
 time the women and children got out of the yard, 
 the soldiers came in sight upon the brow of a high 
 hill a mile away to the north, and this gave the 
 Indians something else to do. They at once took 
 to their heels and ran for two miles to the highest 
 point of the divide between Fish creek and Dry 
 Elm and then halted. 
 
 The soldiers seen were Capt. Rowland with that 
 part of his own company that was with him the day 
 before, and that part of Capt. Patton's Company 
 that had joined them the night before at Wallace's, 
 as already related. They had learned early on the 
 morning of that day that the Indians had again 
 crossed Red river and were continuing their depre- 
 dations. Capt. Rowland immediately ordered a 
 pursuit and he found it no trouble now to trail the 
 
 Indians, as he could follow them by the burning 
 houses. But they had so much the start and 
 traveled so rapidly that long before Capt. Rowland 
 came in sight of them the horses of many of his 
 men were completely worn out and they could go 
 no farther. By the time the soldiers reached 
 Lander's, Capt. Rowland's own horse had given 
 out, but he was furnished another by Clark. Some 
 of his men also obtained fresh horses from the citi- 
 zens who were only too glad to show favors to those 
 who had just saved them and their families from 
 death. Some of the citizens joined the soldiers in 
 pursuit of the Indians. The Indians were over- 
 taken near the high point where they had first 
 stopped. Indeed they showed no disposition to get 
 away when they ascertained the small number of 
 whites. Capt. Rowland led his men through Capt. 
 Potter's prairie farm and, in going out on the south 
 side, the rail fence was thrown down and left down 
 in two or tln-ee different places. This fact proved 
 most fortunate to the whites, as will hereafter 
 appear. After going some three hundred yards 
 south of the fence, Capt. Rowland halted his com- 
 mand, but it was with great difficulty that he got 
 them into a tolerable line. The Indians soon 
 seemed to divide into two wings, one starting east 
 and the other west around the soldiers, to surround 
 them. The troops, without waiting for command, 
 commenced firing, but at such long range as to do 
 little damage. As the Indians got closer and be- 
 gan to fire upon the line, many of the soldiers 
 thinking the odds too great, broke line and started 
 to run. Capt. Rowland did all in his power to stop 
 this and to rally the men, but the panic soon be- 
 came general and the whole command fled. The 
 object seemed to be to go through the gaps 
 left in the fence and turn and fight the Indians 
 from behind the fence. The Indians at once 
 began a hot pursuit of the flying men, and with 
 their guns, and pistols, bows, arrows and spears, 
 they did fatal work on the poor men whose tired 
 horses could not carry them out of reach of the 
 Indians. Before the fence was reached three men 
 were killed and several others were wounded. Mr. 
 Green, of Capt. Pollard's Company, also another 
 man, whose napne is not remembered, were killed. 
 Mr. Pollard, an officer in Rowland's Company, was 
 severely wounded, having four arrows shot into his 
 back, which were pulled out by Capt. Rowland 
 after the men had reached the inside of the field, 
 but the spikes from some of the arrows were left in 
 his body. S. B. Potter, a son of Capt. Potter, was 
 also wounded in the head by an arrow that struck 
 the skull and then turned to one side. There was 
 quite a rush among the men to get through the gaps 
 
118 
 
 lynux WARS and pioneers of texas. 
 
 in the fence to a place of security behind it, as tlie 
 Indians were pressino; them hard. Men rode at full 
 speed against the fence, endeavoring to get through 
 the gaps. Capt. Rowland was about the last man 
 to pass through the gaps. He had purposeli' kept 
 near the rear, and did what he could to protect the 
 hindmost of the men, reserving his fire until a shot 
 was absolutely demanded. Just before riding into 
 the field he fired his double-barrel shot-gun at an 
 Indian not more than thirty yards from him, and 
 at the fire the Indian dropped his shield and gave 
 other signs of being badly hurt. It was afterwards 
 learned that this shot killed him and that he was 
 the chief. When the Indians saw the men forming 
 behind the fence they precipitately fled. Capt. 
 Rowland attempted to encourage his men to again 
 attack them, but they were too much demoralized 
 to renew the fight against such odds. Capt. Row- 
 land, finding that he could not hope to again fight 
 ihe Indians with the force he then had, dispatched 
 couriers to different points to give the alarm and 
 with a few men he went to the head of Elm in Mon- 
 tague County where there were a few families 
 without protection. The Indians soon continued 
 their raid, going south and east, and soon reached 
 the Jones' settlement on Dry Elm. Here they 
 came upon and mortally wounded Mr. White and 
 dangerously wounded his step-son, j'oung Parker. 
 Mr. Jones, their companion, escaped. Parker be- 
 longed to Wood's company of Fitzhugh's regiment. 
 He had been severely wounded in the battle at Mil- 
 lican's Bend, June 7th, 18G3, and was home on 
 sick furlough. 
 
 The Indians beat a hasty retreat that night and 
 crossed Red river with a large number of stolen 
 horses before daj'light next morning. Small squads 
 of Indians would scatter off from the main body 
 and commit all sorts of depredations. One of 
 their parties came upon Miss Gouna, who was carry- 
 ing water from a spring some distance from the 
 house. They thrust their spears into her body in 
 
 several places and cut off her hair, but she escaped 
 and finally recovered from her wounds. 
 
 Young Parker, above alluded to, saw the Indians 
 and heard the shooting in their fight with Capt. 
 Rowland, but did not believe it was Indians and 
 kept riding towards them, against the protests, too, 
 of his companion, Mr. Miles Jones. He did not 
 discover that it was Indians until a squad of them 
 dashed upon and mortally wounded him. He died 
 in ten days. 
 
 The following additional facts are taken from a 
 letter written by me at the time to the Houston 
 Telegraph : — 
 
 " At every house burnt, the savages derisively 
 left hanging a blanket, marked 'U. S.' During 
 the night of the twenty-third, they made a hast^' 
 retreat, left about fifty Indian saddles, numerous 
 blankets and buffalo robe's, and considerable of the 
 boot3- they had taken from houses. 
 
 " In the meantime nearly a thousand men had 
 reached Gainesville and made pursuit next day as 
 soon as the trail coul I be found ; but a start of 
 twenty-four hours by fleeing savages cannot be 
 overcome in the short and cold days of winter, when 
 they could travel at night and only be followed in 
 daylight. The pursuit, though energetic under Mai. 
 Diamond and aided by Chickasaws, was fruitless. 
 
 ''As soon as the news reached Col. Bourland, at 
 Bonhara, that old veteran spared neither himself 
 nor horse till he was on the ground doing his duty. 
 Capts. Patton, Mosby and many citizens were in 
 the pursuit under Diamond. Lieut.-Col. Showal- 
 ter, with Capts. Wm. S. Rather (then and now of 
 Belton), Wilson and Carpenter, with their compa- 
 nies, made a forced march from Bonham, hoping 
 for a tilt with the Indians ; but on reaching Red 
 river, some twenty miles northwest from Gaines- 
 ville, information from the advanced pursuers ren- 
 dered the effort hopeless. Being on detailed duty 
 at that time in Bonhara, I accompanied Col. Sho- 
 walter in this severe march." 
 
 The Murder of Mrs. Hamleton and Children in Tarrant County, 
 
 in April, 1867. 
 
 In the fall of 1860 James My res, wife and six 
 children, came from Missouri and settled on Walnut 
 creek, in the northwestern edge of Tarrant County. 
 His wife, Sally, was a daughter of Nathan Allman, 
 who had settled on Walnut creek in 1850 and on 
 
 whose land a countrj' church was built. Mr. 
 Myres died in the spring of 1861, and a year or so 
 later his widow married William Hamleton, bj' 
 whom she had two children. The tragedy about 
 to be related occurred in cotton-picking time in 
 
IXDIAX WARS AXD nONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 119 
 
 1867. The elulilren at that time were AVilliam 
 Myres, aged sixteen, Mahala Emilene, aged fifteen, 
 Eliza, thirteen, Sarina, eleven, Samuel, nine, and 
 John Myres, aged seven. The two Hamleton chil- 
 dren were Mary L., aged about five j'ears, and 
 Gus., aged about eighteen months. 
 
 On the day of the attaclc Mr. Hamleton had 
 gone some distance to mill ; the elder son, Will- 
 iam, was from home attending cattle. Mahala, 
 Eliza, Samuel and John were piclting cotton. 
 Sarina Myres, Mary and little Gus. were at the 
 house and their mother was weaving cloth in a 
 hand loom. 
 
 Such was the situation when a band of Indians, 
 said to have been led b3' the Comanche chief, 
 Santag — the same who, while a prisoner with 
 Santanta and Big Tree in 1871, was killed by the 
 guard — surrounded and entered the house. Mrs. 
 Hamleton was at once murdered ; and little Gus., 
 
 Sarina and Mary were seized. The house was 
 then plundered of everything portable desired by 
 the Indians, and with their little prisoners and 
 boot}' they left. Little Mar}-, from the effect of 
 chills, was very weak, so much so that on leaving 
 their camp next morning, they left her and started, 
 but she cried so wildly that they went back and 
 killed her. The only eye-witness to these double 
 horrors was Sarina, who was also in feeble health, 
 but had both the strength and fortitude to en- 
 dure without murmur the indignities and hardships 
 incident to her condition in the hands of such 
 brutal creatures. She was held by them about six 
 months and by some means recovered at Fort 
 Arbuckle, on the False Washita. Her brother, 
 William, as soon as advised of the fact, went to 
 the fort and escorted her home. 
 
 Mr. Hamleton died about two years after the 
 murder of his wife and children. 
 
 A Bloody Raid in Cooke County in 1868. 
 
 To man}- persons latterly drawn to the pretty and 
 prosperous little city of Gainesville, Cooke Count}', 
 it must be difficult to realize how that place was at 
 one time exposed to the inroads of murderous 
 savages. 
 
 On Sunday, January 5th, 1868, about a hundred 
 Indians suddenly appeared upon the head waters 
 of Clear creek, in the northwestern part of Cooke 
 County. They gathered horses wherever seen, 
 aggregating a large number, and killed during their 
 slay nine persons, Mr. Long, a young man named 
 Leatherwood, Tliomas Fitzgerald and wife, Arthur 
 Purkhill, an old man named Loney, and Mr. 
 Manascos. Previously they had killed Mrs. Car- 
 rolton and captured her sixteen-year-old daughter. 
 Mr. Manascos living about seventeen miles west of 
 Gainesville, on his way home from church discov- 
 ered signs of the Indians and immediately hastened 
 to the house of Edward Shegogg, his son-in-law, 
 whom he knew to be from home and whose wife and 
 infant were alone. Mr. Manascos took his daughter 
 and her child and started to his own house, near 
 which the savages fell upon and killed him and 
 made captive the mother and infant, the latter, 
 however, being killed soon afterwards. During the 
 succeeding night Mr. Shegogg, having returned 
 home and collected a few men, fired upon the sav- 
 
 ages on the overland mail road about fifteen miles 
 west of Gainesville. In the confusion produced 
 among them by this attack Mrs. Carrolton escaped 
 from them and followed that road till she ap- 
 proached the premises of Dr. Davidson, but, very 
 prudently fearing to go to the house lest she again 
 might fall into the hands of her captors, took shel- 
 ter in a ravine, covered with brush, and there 
 remained till morning came and she discovered 
 white persons in possession of the house. She then 
 hastened to it, having suffered much from cold 
 during the night. 
 
 The Indians had divided into two or more parties 
 and covered considerable territory. They captured 
 horses from St. Clair, Jones, Newton, Gilbert and 
 others southwest of Gainesville, and killed some. 
 They seem to have become bewildered, as during 
 the night they halted on the west bank of Elm 
 creek, immediately below the farm of Samuel Doss 
 and within a mile of Gainesville and remained there 
 about three hours. Yet, while this was transpiring, 
 another party, as discovered next day, had lialted 
 and built a fire a mile above town on the east side 
 of the creek, and another party, or scouts from one 
 of these two, had entered the town, apparently 
 without knowing of its existence, for they hurriedly 
 left it, crossed the creek and either l)y design or 
 
120 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 accident joined the party near Doss' place, maliing 
 such communication to them as to cause much ex- 
 citement and confusion. Mrs. Shegogg, taking ad- 
 vantage of this and the darkness of the night, man- 
 aged to escape and secrete herself till morning, 
 when almost nude and suffering greatly from cold, 
 she found refuge in Mr. Doss' house. The Indians 
 hastily retired as she escaped. The party that had 
 been in town had left so hurriedly that they left sev- 
 eral of their horses, with saddles on, one of which 
 was found next morning at the door of the hotel 
 stable — another with saddle, moccasins and other 
 Indian outfit, was in the yard of Mr. Patton, in a 
 few hundred j'ards of the court house — and various 
 articles of Indian toilet were found in different 
 parts of the town ; yet the inhabitants slept the 
 sleep of security, unconscious of the murderous 
 wretches being in the country till morning revealed 
 these facts, followed by the appearance and recital 
 of Mrs. Shegogg, who had not only been robbed of 
 most of her apparel, but also of her beautiful suit 
 of hair, clipped close to the scalp. 
 
 Near the time of the killing of Mr. Manascos, they 
 had captured two children of W. G. Manascos, and 
 a negro boy. Prior to that, on Clear creek, they 
 had robbed the houses of Joseph Wilson, Mr. Mc- 
 Crackin and Washington Williams, burning the two 
 former, and at the time of killing Mr. and Mrs. 
 Fitzpatrick, ca|)tured three of their children. Mrs. 
 Parkhill and children, in connection with the murder 
 of their husband and father, successfully secreted 
 themselves and escaped. In all seventeen women 
 and children were carried into brutal captivity in 
 the midst of winter and a cold period for that sea- 
 son, and being, without doubt, deprived of most of 
 their clothing, must have suffered greatly. Of 
 their ultimate fate I am not advised. 
 
 The citizens collected and did all in their power 
 to overhaul and chastise the enemy and recover the 
 captives, but the severity of the weather, the gen- 
 eral povert}' of the people in munitions of war 
 at that dark period of reconstruction, when some 
 of the most favored leaders of the people were 
 ostracised by the military despotism enthroned at 
 Austin and New Orleans, and when a majority of 
 the men felt bound to stand by their own families 
 during such a raid, abundantly accounts for their 
 inability to wreak vengeance on the raiders. It 
 was one of those blood-curdling desolations follow- 
 ing the war when, with abundance of troops, 
 munitions and supplies, the army, to the disgust 
 of its honorable otficers and men, was diverted 
 from its mission of protection to the people against 
 ■wild and bloody savages, to that of espionage and 
 
 constabulary duties for the annoyance, the arrest 
 and the imprisonment of men whose only offense, 
 as a general fact, had been fidelity to their own 
 State and section during the war, and who were 
 honored in becoming oljjects of vengeance to the 
 creatures then suddenly risen to the surface as 
 petty and (thank God) ephemeral rulers of a peo- 
 ple by the respectable and honorable portion of 
 whom they were despised ; and by none more than 
 by honorable officers of the army and civilians who 
 had been consistent Union men from convictions of 
 duty. Those classes never ceased to realize that in 
 a mighty issue, involving millions of people on both 
 sides, American freemen might differ and die in 
 their convictions, without being tainted with treason 
 or infidelit3' to human liberty. They left that soul- 
 less manifestation of littleness of heart, weakness of 
 intellect and meanness of spirit to such as chose to 
 follow the vocation of spy, informer and perse- 
 cutor. 
 
 On the 16th of the following June, five months 
 after the destructive assault on those frontier peo- 
 ple, a once famous resolution was introduced in the 
 reconstruction convention at Austin, among thou- 
 sands of others, specifically and forever disfranchis- 
 ing a large number of the very men exposed to this 
 raid, because during the war, and under the laws of 
 their country at the time, they had belonged to 
 Gen. Wm. Hudson's Brigade of State troops, whose 
 chief duty was the protection of the women and 
 children on the frontier against these barbarian 
 savages, whose mode of warfare " respected neither 
 age, sex nor condition." But from that Bedlam 
 of hate sprang forth a single fact more preciously 
 freighted with faith in the perpetuity of American 
 unity and American liberty than a thousand theories 
 and prophecies by political philosophers. It is the 
 simple fact that the American heart, as soon as time 
 for reflection had passed, disdained to tolerate per- 
 secution for opinion's sake ; that the opposing 
 soldiers in the Civil War are long since friends and 
 reconciled countrymen ; breaking bread together on 
 holy days ; voting together as seemeth to them best 
 now, regardless of the past ; sitting together in the 
 same sanctuary ; counseling together for the com- 
 mon weal as their conditions are now; partners in 
 business; their children intermarrying; jointly 
 burying their deceased comrades ; jointly aiding 
 their unfortunate comrades ; and jointly upholding 
 each other when unjustly assailed. Talk not of 
 American liberty failing through faction, when con- 
 fronted with this one ever-present, grand and 
 heaven-blest fact! Leave that bewailing whine to 
 moral dj'speptics and intellectual dwarfs. 
 
COMANCHP: INDIAN GROUP. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 121 
 
 Indian Massacres in Parker County, 1858 to 1873. 
 
 The first settlements in the present territory of 
 Parker County were made about 1853-4. The 
 county was created by the legislature, December 
 12, 1855, and organized March 2, 1856. It was 
 long exposed to forays by bands of hostile savages, 
 and while no important battle was ever fought, 
 life and property were insecure as late as 1873. 
 During the existence of the Indian reservation on 
 the Brazos, in Young County, and especially for 
 two years prior to the removal of the Indians to 
 Fort Cobb, north of Red river, in the summer 
 of 1859, it was alleged, and almost universally 
 believed by the border people, that many of the rob- 
 beries and murders were committed by the tribes 
 resident on the ten miles square embracing that 
 reservation. That matter will not be discussed 
 here. The writer was one of five commissioners 
 deputed by the Governor to investigate that matter, 
 in 1859, the board consisting of Richard Coke, 
 John Henry Brown, George B. Erath, Joseph M. 
 Smith and Dr. Josepbus M. Steiner. The writer 
 also commanded a company of Texas rangers for 
 some time before and during the removal of the 
 Indians, to prevent their leaving the reservation 
 before their removal or committing depredations on 
 the march. Hence he was well informed on the 
 existing matters in issue, which, for the moment, 
 vitrQ more or less distorted for political effect. It 
 is enough here to say that while many exaggerated 
 or false statements were scattered broadcast over 
 the countr}', arousing the people to such a frenzy 
 as to cause the killing of probably two small par- 
 ties of unoffending Indians, still it was unques- 
 tionably true that more or less of the depredations 
 committed along the frontier, from Red river to the 
 Guadalupe, were perpetrated by the Indians be- 
 longing to the one or the other of the two reserva- 
 tions — the second, at Camp Cooper, on the clear 
 fork of the Brazos, being exclusively occupied by 
 a portion of the Comanche tribe — while on the 
 other Brazos reservation were various small tribes, 
 embracing the Wacos, Tehuacanos, Keechis, Ana- 
 darcoes, Towashes, Toncahuas, lonies, Caddos 
 and perhaps one or two others, with a few indi- 
 viduals, or families of Choctaws, Delawares, Shaw- 
 nees and others. It is equally true that those 
 Indians left the localities named with the most 
 vengeful animosities towards such localities on the 
 frontier as they believed had been active against 
 them, and this feeling especially applied to Parker, 
 
 Wise, jjack, Palo Pinto, P>alh, Comanche and 
 other outside counties. 
 
 It is proposed in this chapter to briefly narrate 
 the successive massacres in Parker County, in so 
 far as I have the data, for portions of which I am 
 indebted to Mr. H. Smythe's history of that 
 county. 
 
 In December, 1859, following the removal of the 
 Indians, a party of five assaulted, killed and scalped 
 Mr. John Brown, near his residence about twelve 
 miles from Weatherford, and drove off eighteen of 
 his horses. Two miles away they stole seven 
 horses from Mr. Thompson, and next, with their 
 number increased to flft^', they appeared at the 
 house of Mr. Sherman, whose family consisted of 
 himself, wife and four children. They ordered the 
 family to leave, promising safety if they did. They 
 obeyed the mandate and hurried away on foot, but 
 in half a mile the savages overtook them, seized 
 Mrs. Sherman, conveyed her back to the house, 
 committed nameless outrages on her person, shot 
 numerous arrows into her body, scalped and left her 
 as dead ; but she survived four days, to detail the 
 horrors she had undergone. 
 
 In June, 1860, Josephus Browning was killed 
 and Frank Browning wounded on the Clear Fork 
 of the Brazos. At that time several citizens of 
 Weatherford were in that section and pursued the 
 murderers. The party consisted of John R. Bay- 
 lor, George W. Baylor (of Weatherford), Ellas 
 Hale, Minn Wright and John Dawson. On the 
 5th day of June, 1860, they overtook the Indians 
 on Paint creek and boldly attacked them, killing 
 nine and putting the remainder to flight. As attest- 
 ations of their achievment they scalped their 
 victims and carried the evidence thereof into the 
 settlements, along with sundry trophies won on 
 the occasion. 
 
 In the spring of 18G1 a party of eleven Indians 
 attacked David Stinson, Budd Slover, John 
 Slover, — Boj'd and — McMahon, a scout from 
 Capt. M. D. Tackett's Company, a few miles 
 north of Jacksboro, but they were speedily re- 
 pulsed, with the loss of one Indian killed and one 
 wounded. On the next day, AVilliam Youngblood, 
 a citizen, was killed and scalped, near his home, 
 by a party of nine Indians. The five rangers 
 named, reinforced by James Gilleland, Angle 
 Price, — Parmer and others, pursued and attacked 
 the enemj', and killed a warrior and recovered the 
 
122 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 scalp of Youngblood, wbich was conveyed to his 
 late residence in time to be placed in its natural posi- 
 tion before the burial. 
 
 In the summer of 1861, a party of Indians on 
 Grindstone creek attacked two .younn; men named 
 William Washington and John Killen, while stock 
 hunting. They killed Mr. Killen while Washington 
 escaped severely wounded, but recovered after 
 prolonged suffering. 
 
 In the same summer Mrs. John Brown, living on 
 Grindstone creek and having twin babies, started 
 to visit a neighbor, she carrying one and a young 
 girl the other infant. The girl was some distance 
 ahead, when the Indians appeared, and reached the 
 neighbor's house. Mrs. Brown retreated to her 
 own house and entered it, but was closely followed 
 l)y the murderous wretches, by whom she was 
 killed and scalped. The infant, however, was left 
 unharmed. 
 
 Prior to these tragedies, in January, 1861, Mrs. 
 Woods and her two sisters, the Misses Lemley, of 
 Parker County, were ruthlessly assailed by five sav- 
 ages, who murdered and scalped the former lady, 
 and shockingly wounded the young ladies, leaving 
 them as dead, but after great suffering, under the 
 assiduous treatment of Dr. J. P. Volintiue they 
 recovered. 
 
 In September, 1861, the house of Jas. Brown, on 
 the Jacksboro road, in his temporary absence, was 
 attacked by a small party of Indians, but they were 
 repulsed and driven off by Blrs. Brown, who under- 
 stood the use of fire arms ami used them most 
 effectually. 
 
 In the beginning of 1863, William and Stewart, 
 sons of Rev. John Hamilton, living in the valley 
 of Patrick's creek, while near their home, were 
 murdered, scalped and otherwise mutilated. 
 
 On the same day the house of Mrs. F. C. Brown, 
 in the same neighborhood, was attacked and the 
 lady killed. Her daughter, Sarah, aged sixteen, 
 and another fourteen years of age, on their return 
 home from the house of a neighbor, were both 
 wounded, but escaped — Sarah to die of her 
 wounds — the younger sister to recover. 
 
 A Mr, Berry, while at work in his field on Sanchez 
 creek, in September, 1804, was killed by a squad 
 of Indians. 
 
 In those same days of insecurity and bloodshed, 
 a child was captured and carried into captivitv from 
 the home of Hugh O. Black well, but was subse- 
 quently recovered at Fort Cobb, in the Indian 
 Territory. But soon after his return home from 
 the disbanded Confederate army in 186.5 Mr. Black- 
 well himself, while returning home from Jacksboro, 
 
 was killed by a party of these prowling assassins 
 and scalped. 
 
 In the same year Heiirj- Maxwell was murdered 
 by a similar band on his farm near the Brazos 
 river. 
 
 In June, 1865, Fuller Milsap was attacked by 
 two savages near his house, seeing which, his 
 heroic daughter, Donnie (subsequently Mrs. Jesse 
 Hitson), ran to hitn with a supply of ammunition, 
 when her brave father rebuked her temerity, but 
 must have felt an exalted pride in such a daughter, 
 who had on former occasions exhibited similar 
 courage, and was once shot through her clothing. 
 Honored be her name in her mountain home, far 
 away in Colorado! The father triumphed over his 
 foes, and they fled. 
 
 In July, 1865, in a fight with a small party of 
 Indians in Meek's prairie, A. J. Gorman was 
 killed, about a month after reaching home from the 
 Confederate army. Charles Rivers and his other 
 companions repulsed the attacking party. 
 
 In November, 1866, while working in his field 
 on Sanchez creek, Bohlen Savage was butchered 
 and scalped. His child, eight years old, ran to 
 him on seeing the assault, and was carried off, to 
 be recovered two years later at Fort Sill. The 
 wretches then passed over to Patrick's creek, 
 where James Savage, a brother of Bohlen, lived, 
 and where they murdered him with equal brutality. 
 
 In August, 1866, William, son of Hiram Wil- 
 son, of Spring creek, twelve years of age, and 
 Diana Fulton, aged nine years, were captured. 
 On the fourth day afterwards, in Palo Pinto 
 County, Captain Maxwell's Company attacked the 
 same Indians, killed several, routed the band, and 
 recovered the two children. 
 
 On Rock creek, in April, 1869, Edward Rippey 
 was attacked a short distance from his home. He 
 fled towards the house, calling to his wife to bring 
 the gun. She ran toward him with the weapon, 
 but before meeting her he was killei, when the 
 demons slew the devoted wife. In the house was 
 their only daughter and a boy named Eli Hancock. 
 This heroic lad quickly barred the door, and with 
 the arms still in the house, defied and beat off the 
 blood-stained vandals. On a priOr occasion, Mrs. 
 Rqipey, rifle in hand, had successfully held at bay 
 one of these roving bands. 
 
 On the 4th of July, 1869, while returning from 
 a visit to a neighbor, Mr. and Mrs. Light were 
 murdered near their home on Grindstone creek. 
 Both were scalped, but Mr. Light survived two 
 da3's. Their children were at home and thus 
 escaped a similar fate. 
 
 On the 16th of December, 1870, on Turkey creek, 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 123 
 
 George and Richard Joel repulsed an attack by 
 twelve Indians. Two hours later the savages fell 
 in with three gentlemen returning to their home on 
 the Brazos, from a business trip to Kansas. They 
 were Marcus L. Dallon (who had nearly $12,000 
 with him), James Redfield and James McAster. 
 They were evidently taken Viy surprise, speedily 
 slain and scalped. The freebooters secured five 
 horses and other effects, but failed to find the 
 money. They fell in Loving's valley, and their 
 mutilated bodies were discovered next day by 
 Green Lassiter, destined himself soon to share a 
 similar fate. He was horribly butchered in the 
 Keechi valle}' a few months later. 
 
 On the 23d of April, 1871, in sight of his father's 
 house, twelve miles west of Weatherford, Linn 
 Boyd CranflU, aged fifteen, and son of Isom Cran- 
 flU, was mortally wounded by a fleeing part}' of 
 savages, in full view of his sister, who gave the 
 alarm and caused the assassins to flee without 
 scalping him. 
 
 On the 14th of March, 1872, in front of the 
 iiouse of Fuller Milsap, on Rock creek, Thomas 
 Landrum was murdered by a party of red demons. 
 Mr. Milsap and Joseph B. Loving attacked and 
 pursued the murderers, killing one. It was on this 
 occasion that the heroic girl, Donnie Milsap, fol- 
 lowed her father with ammunition and received a 
 shot through her clothing. 
 
 On the 14th of July, 1872, two lads from the 
 Brazos, enroute to mill in Weatherford, viz., Jack- 
 
 son, aged thirteen, a son of Jesse Hale, and Martin 
 Cathey, aged eighteen (the boys being cousins) 
 were murdered by another of those bands, so often 
 appearing on the frontier. 
 
 In August, 1873, while standing in his yard, in 
 the northwest part of Parker County, Geo. W. 
 McClusky was instantly killed by an Indian con- 
 cealed behind an oat stack, and armed, as were 
 many of these marauders in the years succeeding 
 the Civil War, with Winchester or other improved 
 rifles. 
 
 These recitals may embrace inaccuracies in dates 
 and otherwise, but are believed to be substantially 
 correct; but they by no means embrace all the 
 bloody tragedies enacted in the years named. 
 
 Bear in mind that this is only a brief and very 
 incomplete recital of a portion of the fiendish 
 murders in Parker County alone for the fourteen 
 years from 1859 to 1873. In several other counties, 
 as Palo Pinto, Wise, Jack, Comanche Brown and 
 San Saba, the catalogue would be, in a general 
 average, full as bloody — in some much more so, 
 in others possibly less. The same calamities fell 
 upon the southwestern frontier from the San Saba 
 to the Rio Grande, and also upon the counties of 
 Cooke, Montague and Clay on Red river. 
 
 They are sad memorials of the trials, sufferings 
 and indomitable courage of those fearless and lion- 
 hearted men and women, by whom those portions 
 of Texas were won to peace, to civilization and to 
 Christianitj'. 
 
 The Heroism of the Dillard Boys in 1873. 
 
 On the 7lh day of August, 1873, Henry Dillard, 
 aged about twenty, and his brother Willie, aged 
 thirteen, made one of those heroic fights and 
 escapes which approach the marvelous even in the 
 hazards of frontier life. They lived on the Brazos ; 
 had been to Fort Griffin with a two-horse wagon 
 load of produce for sale ; had sold their commodi- 
 ties and, after sitting up late the previous night, in 
 attendance upon a ball at the fort, were quietly 
 returning home through an open prairie country. 
 Henry was armed with a six-shooter and a Win- 
 chester rifle — Willie with a six-shooting revolver 
 only. 
 
 When about fifteen miles from the fort, Henry, 
 who had fallen into a partial slumber, was aroused 
 
 by loud voices and the tramping of horses. Arous- 
 ing, he instantly realized that he had driven into a 
 band of thirty mounted Indians. Each brother 
 seized his arms and stood on the defensive. The 
 foremost Indian, abreast of and very near the 
 wagon, fired at Henry, cutting away one of his 
 temporal locks and powder-burning his bead. 
 Henry fired twice, but discovering that his balls 
 failed to penetrate the Indian shields, fired a third 
 ball lower down, breaking the thigh of an Indian 
 and the backbone of his horse. 
 
 Instructing Willie to f jIIow and be with him, 
 Henry then sprang from the wagon and determined, 
 if possible, to reach a branch about a quarter of a 
 mile distant. The Indians at once formed a circle, 
 
124 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 galloping; around anrl firing upon them. Walking, 
 running, hailing b}' alternation, the boys fired with 
 great precision, rarely failing to strike an Indian 
 or his horse, or both. Very soon the cylinder of 
 Willie's pistol was knocked out by a ball, and 
 thenceforward he could only carry cartridges for his 
 brother. At one time Henry tripped and fell on 
 his face. An Indian dashed up and dismounted to 
 scalp him, but while yet on the ground the brave 
 boy drove a pistol ball through his heart. At 
 another time Willie called out: "Henry! look 
 here! " On looking he found the little fellow run- 
 ning around a mesquite bush, pursued by an Indian 
 clutching at his clothes, but shot him dead, and the 
 boys, as before, continued their retreat, the enemy 
 charging, yelling and firing. The brothers con- 
 tinued firing, loading, dodging, turning, trotting or 
 running as opportunity offered, all the while realiz- 
 ing that to halt was death, and the only haven of 
 hope was in the thickets on the branch. As they 
 neared the covert the enemy became more furious, 
 but the boys, encouraged by their seeming miracu- 
 lous immunity from death or wounds, and thus 
 buoyed in the hope of safety, maintained perfect 
 self-possession, and finally reached the hoped for 
 refuge. But one savage had preceded them, dis- 
 mounted, and confronted their entrance. Henry 
 tried to fire his Winchesterat him, but it was empty. 
 The Indian, seeing this, remounted and charged 
 upon him, but Henry sent a pistol ball through his 
 body. The astounded red men, seeing their prey 
 escape from such fearful odds, seemed awe-stricken. 
 After a short parley they returned to the wagon, 
 took the horses and its contents and retired, bear- 
 ing their dead and wounded, and leaving five 
 horses dead on the ground. The day — August 
 7th, be it remembered — was very hot, and the 
 boys, following such a contest, came near dying 
 for water. 
 
 When night came the brothers sought the nearest 
 
 ranch, some miles away. Mounting horses there 
 they hurried back to Fort Griffin and reported the 
 facts to Gen. Buell, U. S. A., commanding that post. 
 That gentleman promptly dispatched a party of 
 dragoons in pursuit. Tlie pursuers discovered that 
 the Indians, bearing northwesterly, had divided into 
 twoparties, the left hand gang carrying off the killed 
 and wounded. In two or three days they came 
 upon a newly deserted camp in which were three 
 beds of grass gorged with blood. Discovering buz- 
 zards sailing round a mountain near by, some of 
 the party ascended it and found three dead Indians, 
 partially burled on its summit. They also found 
 in this camp Henr}' Dillard's memorandum book. 
 The gallant boy, let it be understood, was among 
 the pursuers. From this locality, which was about 
 the head of the Big Wichita, hopeless of over 
 taking the Indians, the dragoons returned to the 
 fort. 
 
 This is among the extraordinary episodes in our 
 frontier history. It seems almost incredible. The 
 officer commanding the pursuit, after all his dis- 
 coveries, asserted that the brothers had killed and 
 wounded eleven Indians, besides the five horses 
 left on the field. 
 
 The gentleman to whom I am chiefly indebted 
 for these details, says that Henry Dillard is a Ken- 
 tuckian, who came to Texas a boy five or six years 
 before this occurrence. He is about five feet nine 
 inches high, slender, erect and quick in movement, 
 with brown hair, handsome features and clear, 
 penetrating gray eyes. He afterwards set- 
 tled on the Clear Fork of the Brazos, near 
 the scene of this remarkable conflict, and stood as 
 a good citizen, enjoying the confidence and esteem 
 of the surrounding country — an acknowledged 
 hero of modest nature, void of all self-adulation 
 and averse to recounting his deeds of daring to 
 others. It is ever pleasant to record the merits of 
 such men. 
 
 Don Lorenzo De Zavala. 
 
 For one who loves truth and admires purity in the 
 character of public men and benefactors to the mul- 
 titude in the land of their birth or adoption, the 
 career of Don Lorenzo de Zavala possesses peculiar 
 interest. Only the oldest and best informed citi- 
 zens of Texas have an\' intelligent knowledge of 
 his character and services in the cause of human 
 
 liberty. But every scliool boy and school girl in 
 our State should be familiar with his history. 
 
 Lorenzo de Zavala was born in Madrid, Spain, 
 on the 3d of October, 1789. His father was a man 
 of education and refinement and belonged to that 
 class of men in Europe who had glimmerings of 
 human rights and yearnings to possess them. In 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 125 
 
 olliei' words, he was a Castilian of noble aspirations 
 and possessed of love for his fellow-beings. When 
 his child, Lorenzo, was but eighteen months old he 
 determined to quit Spain and seek a home where he 
 iioped for more liberty. Instead of going to the 
 United States and among a different race, where 
 liberty was a birthright, he went to Yucatan, which 
 was then not a part of Mexico, as now, but a dis- 
 tinct Captain-Generalcy under the Spanish crown. 
 He settled, in the infancy of his child, Lorenzo, in 
 the beautiful city of Merida, and hence it is that 
 the impression became general (including among 
 its believers not only enlightened Mexicans, but 
 also his first-born son, Lorenzo de Zavala, Jr.), 
 that he was born in that place ; and such was my 
 own impression till recently furnished with data 
 having the sanction of his own name. The father 
 gave Lorenzo every possible advantage to gain an 
 education, and kept him from his earliest boj'hood 
 at a fine school in Merida. The son advanced 
 beyond the liberal ideas of the father and began to 
 grasp the Jeffersonian idea of the rights of man. 
 He acquired a knowledge of the English language 
 and eagerly read everything he could reach to 
 enlighten his mind. While a student, he became 
 an intense Jeffersonian Republican. Passing on 
 the street one day the Governor, he failed to lift 
 his hat as an obeisance, whereupon his Excellency 
 struck him with his riding whip. The young Jef- 
 fersonian thereupon jerked the Governor from his 
 calesa (a sort of buggy) and gave him a pounding. 
 For this outrage on dignity (Ijy a compromise) he 
 was banished to Europe to complete his education. 
 He went, and studied with assiduity. 
 
 Returning in the year 1809, and in his twentieth 
 j'ear, on board the good ship which bore him he fell 
 in love with a Castilian maiden, the daughter of a 
 family on board. This maiden bore the name of 
 Toresa Correa. Soon after arriving in Yucatan, 
 Lorenzo and Toresa became husband and wife. 
 It was a happy union of pure hearts, and three 
 children were born to them. 
 
 The young Democrat arrived in Merida sur- 
 charged with a sense of political rights, and a 
 reformer against the outrageous oppressions borne 
 by the people of Spain, and more especially by 
 those of Spanish America. He became, by the 
 inspiration of his own sense of true manhood, 
 a missionary among a down-trodden people. 
 Newspapers did not exist. He found a substitute. 
 He organized a sort of political institute, to which, 
 at its regular weekly meetings, he read his own 
 productions, the grand, all-pervading idea of which 
 was that, under the providence of God, all men 
 were born free and equal and were entitled to a 
 
 fair and equal participation in the blessings of 
 government. He rejected in toto the idea that the 
 accident of birth should confer upon a particular 
 family — regardless of sense, honesty or merit — 
 the power to rule over a multitude, a common- 
 wealth or a nation of men. On this point, without, 
 perhaps knowing it, he was an assimilated disciple 
 of Thomas Jefferson. He exerted vast influence 
 in Y''ucatan, and became, for one so young, the idol 
 of the people, a fact of which I had abundant 
 evidence during my four months tour in Yucatan 
 in the winter of 18G5-G, for, when it became known 
 in Campeachy that an American gentleman of 
 Texas, who was a friend of Lorenzo de Zavala was 
 a guest of the son of the celebrated John McGregor, 
 the house was visited by many, and an old lady of 
 benevolent face, when introduced, said to my host: 
 " Will the gentleman permit one who loved Lorenzo 
 de Zavala to embrace him ? " Without waiting for 
 interpretation, as I perfectly understood her, I 
 said : " I'es, dear madam, with keenest pleasure ; " 
 and the embrace was mutual, a la Mexicana. My 
 heart yet warms to the dear old lady. I recall the 
 whole scene, too long to be described here, with 
 a pleasure which whispers to my heart that truth, 
 virtue, manhood, womanhood, patriotism, and all 
 the attributes pertaining to the highest developed 
 humanity, are not the peculiar and exclusive char- 
 acteristics of my own countrymen, but exist, in 
 some form or other, wherever the children of men 
 are found. "The wind bloweth where it listeth 
 but thou canst not tell whence it cometh nor whither 
 it goeth; such is the kingdom of God." So it is 
 in virtue, in honor, in love, in manhood and in 
 womanhood. 
 
 Returning to Merida with an education finished 
 in Europe, young Lorenzo was made secretary of 
 the city council of Merida (then a city of about 
 sixty thousand inhabitants), aud he filled that 
 ofBce through 1812-13, and until July, 1814, when, 
 in consequence of his liberal doctrines, he was 
 seized and imprisoned in the castle of San Juan de 
 Ulloa, in front of Vera Cruz. He was held in that 
 prison till 1817, covering three years of the Mexi- 
 can revolution (1810 to 1821). While in prison 
 his library and property were conQscated. Liber- 
 ated in the last half of 1817, and going forth bank- 
 rupt, he rallied on a previous study in medicine 
 and became a physician in Merida from the latter 
 part of 1817 to about the close of 1819. 
 
 It must be remembered that during the Mexican 
 revolution against Spain (1810 to 1821), I'ucatan 
 was a separate Captain-Generalcy and took no part ; 
 but that as soon as Mexican independence was 
 secured Yucatan joined the Mexican confedera- 
 
126 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 tion as a State. This is important to bear in mind 
 as a historical fact. 
 
 In 1820 Zavala was elected by Yucatan as a 
 deputy to the then ephemeral Cortes of Spain. He 
 attended the sessions of that body and proposed 
 a measure to establish a legislative bod}' for 
 Yucatan and other Spanish- American colonies, for 
 their local self-government ; but this caused among 
 the monarchists j)er se, a great cry against him, 
 and, to save his liberty, if not his life, he was 
 compelled to flee. He escaped into France and 
 thence found his way over to London and from 
 there sailed for his home. 
 
 In September, 1821, the Mexican revolution, 
 under Iturbide's plan of Iguala, triumphed. 
 Thereupon Yucatan determined to join her foi tunes 
 to Mexico, and in February, 1822, elected Don 
 Lorenzo as one of her deputies to the flrst Congress 
 of that country. He took his seat in that notable 
 assembly and was elected its President. That body 
 finally adopted the Republican constitution of 1824. 
 The first name signed to it is that of Lorenzo de 
 Zavala, President, and Deputy from Yucatan. 
 
 Under that constitution, the future Congress 
 being divided into a Senate and House of Repre- 
 sentatives, Zavala was senator from Yucatan in 
 1825 and 1826. In March, 1827, he was made 
 Governor of the State of Mexico, (including the 
 capital city), and held that office till 1830, when a 
 revolution fomented at Jalapa compelled him, as a 
 friend of free constitutional government, to flee to 
 the United States. During his exile he made a 
 tour of the United States and wrote a most valuable 
 volume on his observations, designed to enlighten 
 his countrymen as to the practical workings and 
 bentfits of free government. 
 
 On the triumph of Santa Anna, in 1833, as the 
 champion of the Republican constitution of 1824, 
 Zavala returned to Mexico. He had been a friend 
 of Santa Anna and the Liberal party, and incident- 
 ally a zealous friend of the American colonists in 
 Texas. Indeed he had bought land on Buffalo 
 bayou, in Texas, and resolved to make that his 
 home, that he might live among a free and liberty- 
 loving people ; but fate delaj'ed the consummation of 
 his wishes. His great and lucid mind seems to 
 have foreseen the future grandeur of Texas. He 
 acquired the right to found a colony in the eastern 
 part of the province, but his public duties forbade 
 his personal attention, and he transferred the right 
 to persons, or a company, who did nothing to carry 
 out the project. 
 
 On the triumi)h of Santa Anna, Zavala was 
 appointed Mexican Minister to France. In the 
 meantime Mrs. Zavala had died, early in 1831, and 
 
 he had married an accomplished lady in New York, 
 whose maiden name was Emily West, who was 
 born in New York, September 9, 1811. (This lad}', 
 subsequently Mrs. Hand, died in Houston, June 15, 
 1883, and was buried at the family cemetery, 
 Zavala's Point, opposite the battle ground of San 
 Jacinto.) Mrs. Zavala was considered at the court 
 of St. Cloud a beautiful and accomplished woman, 
 and was greatly esteemed for her social virtues. 
 
 Don Lorenzo repaired at once to his post in Paris 
 flushed with high hopes as to the future of his 
 country. He had scarcely arrived, however, when 
 ominous sounds rolled over the Atlantic — ^ sounds 
 SODU ren<lered certainties — admonishing him that 
 his old friend and chief, Antonio Lopez de Santa 
 Anna, had become a traitor to the cause of liberty 
 and was now the champion of despotism — of ihe 
 Church and State party — -and in fact was the 
 champion of the cast-off despotism of Spain, the 
 only difference being in a name. 
 
 When this whole fact, thrice repeated, came to 
 be understood by Zavala in Paris, his honest soul 
 revolted, and he promptly sent his resignation to 
 Mexico. He at once resolved to carry out his idea 
 of becoming a citizen of Texas — then a Mexican 
 province — where he hoped to rear his children in 
 an atmosphere of freedom. He sent his son 
 Lorenzo de Zavala, Jr., who was his Secretary of 
 Legation also, to Texas, to begin improvements on 
 the lands he had previously bought. He wrote 
 Santa Anna a letter worthy of his character, de- 
 nouncing the latter's apostasy to the cause of 
 liberty, and telling him that whereas, heretofore 
 his cause had prospered because it was right, now 
 that he had betrayed that cause, he would fall. 
 Truer prediction was never uttered, though it re- 
 quired nineteen }'ears to bring the grand truth 
 home to Santa Anna, and make him a refugee from 
 the wrath of his own countrymen, never more to 
 be tolerated on the soil of his birth, except when 
 old and decrepit, to be allowed the privilege to 
 return and die in the capital of the land he had 
 outraged. The poor old apostate did so return and 
 die, a veritable outcast, in the old Hotel Vergara, 
 about 1874. 
 
 Governor Zavala arrived in Texas early in 1835. 
 He was received with open arms by all classes, and 
 was consulted by all prominent men in regard to 
 the condition of the country. When the people 
 elected members to the first revolutionary conven- 
 tion (consultation), of November 3d, 1835, he was 
 a delegate, and aided in forming the provisional 
 government, of which that grand and noble patriot, 
 Henry Smith, was made chief. 
 
 When the second convention declared Texas to 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 127 
 
 be a free and independent nation, iMareli 2d, 
 1836, Zavala was a member and signed the docu- 
 ment. 
 
 When the convention of independence formed a 
 government ad interim for the Republic, on the 
 17th of March, 183G, David G. Burnet was elected 
 President and Lorenzo de Zavala, Vice-president. 
 Both held office until the formation of the con- 
 stitutional government, on the 22d of October, 
 1836. 
 
 Zavala's home was at Zavala's Point, on Buffalo 
 bayou. In crossing the bayou early in November, 
 just after yielding up the vice-presidency, in a 
 canoe, and with his son, Augustin, then only three 
 years old, the canoe capsized. It was a cold, 
 windy da}'. Securing his child on the bottom of 
 the capsized boat, be swam and guided it to the 
 opposite shore. In saving his child he became 
 chilled; pneumonia followed, and on the 16th of 
 November, 1836, the pure and noble soul of 
 Lorenzo de Zavala went to God. 
 
 Consider where and when this man was born ; 
 where and under what conditions he lived, how he 
 demeaned himself, and j'our judgment must be that 
 he was an honor to his race. His memory will be 
 hallowed while that of his apostate enemy and per- 
 secutor, Santa Anna, will be hissed as something 
 detestable between the teeth of freemen. Blessed 
 is the memory of one — detested that of the other. 
 
 In such a sketch I am compelled to epitomize 
 rather than enlarge on the subject-matter. Yet I 
 cannot withhold an expression of the opinion enter- 
 tained of the exalted and spotless character of this 
 noble man. That this is not a recent opinion is 
 shown by the fact that in the legislature of 1857-8, 
 while a member from Galveston, I introduced and 
 carried through the legislature a bill creating and 
 naming the county of Zavala. My visit to Yucatan, 
 in 1865-6 — being then " a man of sorrow and 
 acquainted with grief" — intensified the original 
 pleasure I had enjoyed in accomplishing that tribute 
 to his memory. Donna Joaquina Peon, of Merida, 
 made famous in Stephens' work on Central America, 
 being made sensible of the fact by the gentleman 
 who presented me, was profuse in expressions of 
 thankfulness, because, as she said, Don Lorenzo 
 was one of God's noblemen. 
 
 By his mariiage with Toresa Corrca, Governor 
 
 Zavala had three children, viz. : Lorenzo, Jr., who, 
 in 1881, lived in Merida. He was on the battle 
 field of San Jacinto, and part of the time acted as 
 interpreter between Santa Anna and Gen. Houston. 
 He left Texas in 18U and went to his native city 
 of Merida, where he still resided in 1881, though 
 he was absent during my visit there in 1865-6. 
 There was a daughter named Manuela, and a 
 daughter who died in infancy. 
 
 By his second marriage, late in 1831, to Miss 
 Emily West, of New York, he had three children, 
 viz. : — 
 
 1. Augustin de Zavala, born in New York, Janu- 
 ary 1, 1833, married Julia Terrell, and now lives in 
 San Antonio, Texas. Their children are Adina, an 
 educated and accomplished young lady (as I know 
 from correspondence with her), Florence, Mar}', 
 Zita, Thomas J., and Augustin P. 
 
 2. Emily de Zavala, born in February, 1834, mar- 
 ried Capt. Thomas Jenkins, a lawyer, and died in 
 Galveston, April 20, 1858, leaving a child named 
 Catherine. 
 
 3. Ricardo de Zavala, born in New York in 1835, 
 twice married and both wives dead. He still lives, 
 having two sons and two daughters. 
 
 In all my meditations on the men and history of 
 Texas — with an involuntary reverence for the char- 
 acters of Milam, Travis, Bonham, Bowie, and numer- 
 ous others — I dwell with fascinating delight on 
 the character of Lorenzo de Zavala. He must not 
 be judged and weighed in the same scale that we 
 apply to native born Americans, but by the times, 
 countrj', institutions and surroundings attending his 
 birth and growth into manhood. Tried by the test, 
 he presents one of the most spotless and exalted 
 characters of modern times, and his memory shouM 
 be cherished by the children of Texas as one of the 
 purest patriots of this or any other age. 
 
 He was one of the proscribed citizens of Texas, 
 and Santa Anna sought both through the civil 
 authorities and his military minions sent to overawe 
 Texas in 1835, to have him arrested and sent to 
 Mexico for trial. The civil authorities spurned the 
 infamous request, and the military at San Antonio 
 were impotent to effect it. Through his grand- 
 daughter, Adina, I have recently come into posses- 
 sion of the only picture of him ever in Texas, a 
 painting executed in Havana, about 1831. 
 
128 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 David G. Burnet. 
 
 David Gouveneur Burnet, son of a revolutionary 
 surgeon, was born at Newark, New Jersey, April 
 4tb, 1788. 
 
 His family ranked high for intelligence and 
 moral worth. His elder brother, .Jacob, was sen- 
 ator from Ohio and many years Chief Justice of 
 that State. Another brother, Isaac, was long 
 Mayor of Cincinnati. David G. received a thor- 
 ough education and when in his eighteenth year, 
 on the 1st of January, 1806, joined in New York, 
 the expedition of Gen. Francisco de Mirando, 
 a native of Venezuela, for the liberation of that 
 country from Spanish bondage. On that day he 
 received from that patriot chief a commission as 
 Second Lieutenant of infantry, the original of which 
 is in my possession, a gift from him in 18C9. The 
 sons of many noted families of New York, New 
 Jersey and Massachusetts, including a grandson of 
 President John Adams, were in the expedition. 
 The invading squadron entered the gulf of Venez- 
 uela, accompanied by the British frigate Buchante, 
 whose launch boat was commanded by Lieut. 
 Burnet, under whose orders the first gun was fired 
 in behalf of South American liberty. This was in 
 an attack on the fort protecting La Villa de Coro, 
 on that gulf. The assailants carried the fort, its 
 occupants retiring to the Interior. At Porto 
 Caballo, a number of the invaders were captured — 
 ten of whom were slaughtered, some condemned to 
 the mines, and others died. The death of Pitt, 
 Premier of England and patron of Mirando, caused 
 an abandonment of the enterprise and the return 
 of the survivors to New York. 
 
 In 1808 Mirando renewed the contest and secured 
 a position on the coast. Burnet hastened to him, 
 but he was persuaded by the patriot chief to 
 return home. Soon afterwards Mirando was cap- 
 tured and sent to Spain, where he died in prison. 
 Various thrilling incidents are omitted. 
 
 Burnet, a few years later, went to Cincinnati, 
 and early in 1817, to Natchitoches, Louisiana. 
 Threatened with consumption, in the autumn of 
 that year, he went among the wild Comanches and 
 lived about two years with them, recovering robust 
 health, and having as a companion for a part of the 
 time Ben R. Milam, who went among those wild 
 people to exchange goods for horses, furs and pel- 
 tries. On leaving them Burnet gave the Indians 
 all his effects in exchange for a number of Mexican 
 women and children held captives by them, all of 
 
 whom he safely returned to tlieir people, refusing 
 all offers of compensation. For the seven suc- 
 ceeding years, in Texas, Louisiana and Ohio, he 
 devoted his time to the study and practice of law. 
 Marrying a lady, whose memory is fondly cherished 
 wherever she was known, in 1826, he became a 
 permanent citizen of Texas, on the San Jacinto 
 river, near Galveston Bay, introducing a steam saw 
 mill, which proved a failure for want of people to 
 buy lumber. 
 
 In 1833 he was a member of the convention 
 which drafted and sent to Mexico a proposed con- 
 stitution for Texas as a State, and a long and able 
 memorial praying for its adoption. Gen. Sam 
 Houston was chairman of the committee which 
 drew the constitution; Burnet wrote the memorial, 
 and Austin, as commissioner, carried both to 
 Mexico. The base imprisonment of Austin and 
 utter refusal to adopt the constitution and allow 
 Texas to have a separate State government from 
 Coahuila were the causes, direct and indirect, of 
 the Texas revolution. 
 
 In 1834 a law was passed establishing a Supe- 
 rior Court in Texas, with a judge, and three dis- 
 tricts with a judge each — Bexar, Brazos and Na- 
 cogdoches. Burnet was appointed judge of the 
 district of Brazos, that is, all of Central Texas. 
 He held terms of court until superseded by the 
 revolutionary provisional government in November, 
 1835, and was the only person who ever held a 
 court of law in Texas prior to that time. 
 
 The convention which declared Texas independ- 
 ent and established its government as such, on 
 the 18th day of March, 183G (the last of its 
 session), elected David G. Burnet, President; 
 Samuel P. Carson, Secretary of State ; Thomas J. 
 Kusk, Secretary of War; Robert Potter, Secretary 
 of the Navy ; Bailey Hardeman, Secretary of the 
 Treasury, and David Thomas, Attorney General. 
 
 The presidency of this ad interim term con- 
 tinued till the 22d of October, when it was suc- 
 ceeded by officers elected by the people under the 
 constitution. Gen. Houston becoming President and 
 Mirabeau B. Lamar, Vice president. 
 
 The fame of President Burnet very largely rests 
 upon his administration through those eight months 
 of peril, gloom, disaster and brilliant success. 
 The Alamo had fallen twelve days before. The 
 butchery of Fannin and his o-to men occurred nine 
 davs later. Houston was then retreating before 
 
IXDIAN WARS AXD PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 129 
 
 Santa Anna. The sun of San Jacinto rose in 
 splendor and went down in blood thirty-four days 
 after Burnet's election, but its rays were reflected 
 over a land won to freedom. 
 
 Then followed grave problems. First the dis- 
 position to be made of Santa Anna; second, the 
 maintenance of an army in the field, without 
 money, supplies or resources in a country from 
 which the inhabitants had recently fled and were 
 returning without bread — the condition soon 
 aggravated by men poorly fed and idle in camp ; 
 third, the creation of a navy against Mexican 
 cruisers ; fourth, Indian ravages on the frontier ; 
 and flfth, the regular organization of the Republic, 
 by elections under and the ratification of the con- 
 stitution. Passions ran high ; demagoguery had 
 its votaries, and nothing short of superhuman 
 power could have escaped unjust criticism. But 
 to men of enlightened minds and just hearts it 
 has long been evident that the administration of 
 this over-burdened first President was wise and 
 eminently patriotic. It will bear the most rigid 
 scrutiny and be pronounced a durable monument 
 to the head and heart of its chief. 
 
 After remaining in retirement two years he be- 
 came Vice-president by a large majority in Decem- 
 ber, 1838, and served three years, several months 
 of the time as President. He participated in the 
 Cherokee battles of 1839, and was wounded. 
 
 With 1841 he retired to private life, but served as 
 Secretary of State through 1846 and 1847, with 
 Governor J. P. Henderson. 
 
 In 1866 he was elected to the United States 
 Senate, but was denied a seat on account of the 
 question of reconstruction. 
 
 The close of the war found him alone in the 
 world. His wife and three children lay buried on 
 his San Jacinto farm. His last child, the gallant 
 Maj. Wm. E. Burnet, had fallen in the battle of 
 Spanish Fort, near Mobile, March 31, 1865 — a 
 noble young man worthy of his noble parents. 
 
 President Burnet was not only a learned, wise 
 and upright man, but a man of sincere and pro- 
 found religious convictions, from which, neither in 
 youth nor manhood, did ho ever depart. 
 
 He was tendered and accepted a home in the 
 generous and estimable family of Mr. Preston 
 Perry, in Galveston, but in 1868 his kindred in 
 Newark, tendered him a home among them, on his 
 native spot. The affections of childhood returned 
 and he concluded to go. This becoming known in 
 Galveston, on the 23d of May, 1868, a farewell 
 letter was addressed to him signed by ninety-eight 
 gentlemen and twenty-seven ladies, embracing some 
 of the most eminent names in tlie State. That 
 letter, now before me, is touchingly beautiful and 
 as true as beautiful. It is too long for this place ; 
 but I want young people to read at least its con- 
 cluding paragraph. Here it is : — • 
 
 " Texas, whom you have loved and served, sends 
 you to-day from her mountain tops to her sea 
 board, from both sexes and all ages her affection- 
 ate greeting and farewell. It comes alike from the 
 few feeble voices that long ago, in the day of 
 youth and strength, elevated you to the supreme 
 authority in the Republic of Texas ; the heroic 
 few that won her independence and accepted her 
 destiny as their own ; from the lispings of child- 
 hood, who have learned from parental lips the 
 value of your services, and beauty of your char- 
 acter ; and from strangers, too, who have learned 
 to love in you all that is pure, unselfish, and_ noble 
 in man. And that God, in his goodness, may 
 bless and preserve you, is the earnest and universal 
 prayer of Texas and her people." 
 
 This letter to President Burnet, in its entirety, 
 with the names attached, is a proud monument to 
 his memor}'. 
 
 He went to his native place, but did not long 
 remain. The changes there had removed the 
 scenes of childhood and he moved among strangers. 
 The love of Texas — the product of fifty years' 
 association in manhood and its trials — came upon 
 him, by contrast, with resistless force. He came 
 back to die in the land of his love, and then to 
 sleep beside his wife and children. Peacefully, on 
 the 5th day of December, 1870, he departed from 
 life, aged eighty-two years and eight months, in 
 the home of Mrs. Preston Perry of Galveston, who 
 was to him all that a daughter could be. 
 
130 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 James Butler Bonham. 
 
 It is honorable to human nature to feel some- 
 thing akin to personal interest and, with many, 
 kinship, in the character of men whose deeds stamp 
 them as of the highest order of honor and heroism. 
 Of such is the character we have under considera- 
 tion. Most that is known among the multitude, 
 even of well-informed Texians, is that Bonham, a 
 South Carolinian, fell in the Alamo. The true 
 sublimity of his acts and bearing Lias been locked 
 in the hearts of a few, and never till recently, by 
 the writer of these chapters, given to the public, 
 and then only to contradict a published historical 
 misstatement awarding to another the credit due to 
 Bonham, and to Bonham only. 
 
 Who was this almost matchless hero, patriot and 
 friend — friend to the illustrious Travis, as David 
 and Jonathan were friends — a friendship hallowed 
 in Masonry and in the hearts of men three thousand 
 years after its manifestation in the days of Saul? 
 Very briefly I will answer. 
 
 The Bonham family, in so far as their American 
 history goes, are of Maryland origin. They 
 branched off more than a hundred years ago fiom 
 that State into South Carolina, Kentucky (from 
 Kentucky into Missouri and thence to Texas), and 
 elsewhere in the newer portions of the Union. 
 
 James Bonham, in the Eevolutionary War, was a 
 private soldier at fifteen 3'ears of age in a Mary- 
 land cavalry company, whose captain and oldest 
 member was but nineteen. They served at the 
 siege of Yorktown. The wife of this James Bon- 
 ham was iSophia Smith. They had 5ve sons and 
 three daugthers. Jacob, the eldest, died in child- 
 hood. The second, Simon Smith Bonham, died a 
 lawyer and planter in Alabama, in 1835. 
 
 The third, Malachi Bonham, died in Fairfield, 
 Freestone County, Texas, during the Civil War, and 
 has children there now. The fourth son was the 
 hero of Alamo, James Butler Bonham. The fifth 
 and last son was Milledgc L. Bonham. This son 
 was Adjutant of a South Carolina brigade in the 
 Florida war. He was Colonel of the 12th U. S. 
 Infantry in the Mexican war. He was Solicitor in 
 his district in South Carolina for nine years ; a 
 member of Congress from 18.57 to the Civil War in 
 1861. He was Major-General commanding all the 
 troops of South Carolina at the time of her seces- 
 sion from the Union, and so remained until April 
 19, 1861, when the State troops were merged into 
 the Confederate army, and Gen. Bonham, as a fact. 
 
 led the first brigade into that service. In the fall 
 of that year, however, he was elected to the Con- 
 federate Congress, in which he served one session, 
 and in 1862 was elected Governor of South Caro- 
 lina, serving till the close of 1864, when, as Briga- 
 dier-General, he re-entered the Confederate army 
 and so remained till the close of the war. He died 
 at the age of 80 years in 1890, while President of 
 the State Board of Railroad Commissioners. 
 
 Returning to Bonham, the martyr, it may be 
 stated that his sister, Sarah M., married John Lips- 
 comb, of Abbeville, S. C, while Julia married Dr. 
 Samuel Bowie, and died in Lowndes County, 
 Alabama. 
 
 James Butler Bonham, fourth son of Capt. James 
 Bonham, was born on Red Bank creek, Edgefield 
 County, South Carolina, February 7, 1807. Wm. 
 Barrett Travis, slightly his senior, and of one of the 
 best families of that country, was born within five 
 miles of the same spot. Their childhood and boy- 
 hood constituted an unbroken chain of endearment. 
 Both were tall, muscular and handsome men. Both 
 were noted for manly gentleness in social life and 
 fearlessness in danger. Travis came to Texas in 
 1830. His career thence to his death is a part of 
 our history. We turn to Bonham. He was well 
 educated, studied law, and was admitted to the bar 
 in 1830. In the fall of 1832, with the rank of 
 Lieutenant-Colonel, he was appointed Aide to Gov- 
 ernor James Hamilton (afterwards so justly en- 
 deared to Texas. ) That was when South Carolina 
 was a military camp in the time of nullification. He 
 was at Charleston in all the preparations for de- 
 fense. The citizens of Charleston, charmed by his 
 splendid physique, accomplished manners and gentle 
 bearing, made him Captain of their favorite artillery 
 company, which he commanded in addition to his 
 staff duties. The passage of Henry Clay's com- 
 promise averted the danger, and young Bonham 
 resumed his practice in Pendleton District; but in 
 1834 removed to Montgomery, Alabama, and at 
 once began a career full of brilliant promise. But 
 about September, 1835, there was wafted to him 
 whisperings, and then audible sounds, of the impend- 
 ing revolution in Texas. While the correspondence 
 is lost, it is certain that earnest and loving letters 
 passed between him and Travis. Communication 
 was slow and at distant intervals compared with the 
 present time ; but by November the soul of Bon- 
 ham was enlisted in the cause of Texas. He 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 131 
 
 abandoned everything and came — came with such 
 indorsements as commanded tlie confidence of Gov- 
 ernor Henry Smith, the leader of the party of in- 
 dependence, Gen. Houston, and all the prominent 
 men who advocated an absolute separation from 
 Mexico. At San Felipe he met and embraced his 
 loved Travis. Bexar had fallen. Wild schemes 
 not untinged with selfishness, and consequent de- 
 moralization, were in the air. Govenor Smith sent 
 Col. Travis to take command at San Antonio, after 
 Johnson, Grant and their self-organized expedition 
 to take Matamoros had depleted San Antonio of its 
 military supplies and left it as a defenseless out- 
 post. Travis hastened to his post of duty, pre- 
 ceded a short time by the friend of his youth, 
 Bonham. Travis, grand in intellect, unselfish in 
 spirit and noble in heart, organized his force as best 
 he could, determined to hold the advancing enemy 
 in check until Gen. Houston could collect and 
 organize a force sufficient to meet and repel him in 
 the open field. He trusted that Fannin, with over 
 four hundred thoroughly equipped men at Goliad, 
 would march to his relief. He sent appeals to him 
 to that effect, and finally, after Santa Anna's co- 
 horts had encircled his position in the Alamo, he 
 sent Bonham for a last appeal for aid, with in- 
 structions also to his lifetime friend to proceed 
 from Goliad to Gonzales in search of aid. This 
 mission was full of peril from both Mexicans around 
 San Antonio and Indians on the entire route of his 
 travel. As things were then, none but a man oblivi- 
 ous of danger would have undertaken the mission. 
 James Butler Bonham, then just twenty-nine years 
 of age, assumed its hazards. He presented the 
 facts to Fannin, but the latter failed to respond. 
 Thence Bonham, through the wilderness, without a 
 human habitation between the points, hastened from 
 Goliad to Gonzales, just as a few volunteers began 
 to collect there. In response to the appeals of 
 Travis thirty-two citizens of that colony had left 
 a day or two before, under Capt. Albert Martin, 
 to succor the 150 defenders of the Alamo. The 
 siege had begun on the 23d of February. These 
 thirty-two men had fought their way in at daylight 
 on the 1st of March. Bonham, supplied with all 
 the information he could gather, and satisfied he 
 could get no further present recruits, determined 
 to return to Travis. He was accompanied by John 
 W. Smith. When they reached the heights over- 
 looking San Antonio and saw that the doomed 
 Alamo was encircled by Santa Anna's troops, Smith 
 deemed it suicidal to seek an entrance. That was 
 the ninth day of the siege and the doom of the 
 garrison was inevitable. Smith, by his own hon- 
 orable statement afterwards, to both Gen. Sam 
 
 Houston and ex-Governor Milledge L. Bonham, in 
 Houston, in 1838, urged Bonham to retire with 
 him ; but he sternly refused, saying: " I will report 
 the result of my mission to Travis or die in the 
 attempt." Mounted on a beautiful cream-colored 
 horse, with a white handkerchief floating from his 
 hat (as previously agreed with Travis), he dashed 
 through the Mexican lines, amid the showers of 
 bullets hurled at him — the gate of the Alamo flew 
 open, and as chivalrous a soul as ever fought and 
 died for liberty entered — entered to leave no more, 
 except in its upward flight to the throne of God. 
 The soul communion between those two sons of 
 Carolina — in that noonday hour may be imagined. 
 Sixty-six hours later they and their doomed com- 
 panions, in all 183, slept with their fathers. 
 
 Bonham had neither wife nor child. He was but 
 twenty-nine years and fourteen days old when he 
 fell. His entrance into the Alamo under a leaden 
 shower hurled from an implacable enemy was 
 hailed by the besieged heroes with such shouts as 
 caused even the enemy to marvel. It was a per- 
 sonal heroism unsurpassed in the world's history. 
 In its inspiration and fidelity to a holy trust it was 
 sublime. 
 
 Such was James Butler Bonham. Shall any man, 
 after the immortal Travis, be more prominently 
 sculptured on the Alamo monument tlian he? Let 
 all who love truth and justice in history answer. 
 The spirit of truth and justice appeals to those who 
 would commemorate the deeds of the Alamo, that 
 the names to be most signalized should be arranged 
 with that of Travis in the foreground, then Bon- 
 ham, Bowie, who heroically died sick in bed, Albert 
 Martin, leader of the thirty-two from Gonzales, 
 after which should follow those of Crockett, Green 
 B. Jameson, Dickenson, Geo. W. Cottle, Andrew 
 Kent, and the others down to the last one of the 
 one hundred and eighty-three. 
 
 South Carolina went into mourning over Travis 
 and Bonham, sons in whom she felt a sublime 
 pride. I have before me the proceedings of several 
 public meetings held in that State when the truth, 
 in all its chivalrous glory, spread over her borders. 
 Carolina wept for her sons " because they were 
 not." She baptized them with tears of sorrow, not 
 uumingled with the consolatory resignation of a 
 mother who bewails the loss of her sons but rejoices 
 that they fell in a cause just and righteous — 
 gloriously fell that their country might be free. 
 Among many sentiments uttered at these meetings 
 in South Carolina, I extract the following: — 
 
 1. "The memory of Cols. Travis and Bonham: 
 There is cause for joy and not of mourning. The 
 District of Edgefield proudly points to her two gal- 
 
132 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 fant sons who fell in a struggle against a monster 
 tyrant, contending for those sacred principles which 
 are dear to every American bosom." 
 
 2. "The memory of Cols. Travis and Bonliam : 
 Martyrs in the cause of Texian liberty. We are 
 proud to say that this spot of earth gave them 
 birth ; and that here they imbibed those principles 
 in the maintenance of which they so gloriously 
 fell." 
 
 3. By James Dorn : "James Butler Bonham, 
 who perished iu the Alamo — a noble son of Caro- 
 
 lina. May her sons ever contend for that soil on 
 which he so nobly fought and died." 
 
 Throughout the State similar meetings were held, 
 and hundreds of Carolina volunteers hastened 
 to Texas, to save the land for which Travis, 
 Bonham, Bowie, Martin, Crockett and their com- 
 rades died. Bowie, by name, shared in the eulogies 
 pronounced, as did also Crockett. Each name is 
 dear to Texas ; but no name in the splendor of 
 manhood and chivalrous bearing can ever eclipse 
 that of James Butler Bonham. 
 
 Benjamin R. Milam. 
 
 The career of this chivalrous martyr to Texian 
 liberty possesses romantic interest from its incep- 
 tion to its close. 
 
 Born in Kentucky about 1790, of good stock and 
 reared in that school of republican simplicity and 
 unbending integrity so characteristic of a large ele- 
 ment of the people of that (then) district in old 
 Virginia, he entered upon man's estate, fortified by 
 sound principles of right and never departed from 
 them. He inherited the love of enterprise and 
 adventure, and among such a people, in passing 
 from childhood to manhood, this inheritance grew 
 into a passion. 
 
 In early manhood he was a daring soldier in the 
 " war of 1812," and won both the admiration and 
 affection of his comrades. In 1815 he and John 
 Samuel, of Frankfort, Kentucky, took a large ship- 
 ment of flour to New Orleans, but finding a dull 
 market, he and two others chartered a schooner and 
 sailed with the flour for Maricaibo. 
 
 On the voyage the yellow fever appeared in its 
 most malignant form, carrying off the captain and 
 nearly all the crew. A terrific storm disabled the 
 vessel. The adventure proved a total loss. The 
 survivors were finally conveyed to St. Johns, N. B., 
 and thence to New York. Milam ultimately reached 
 his Kentucky home. 
 
 We next find him, with a few followers, in 1818, 
 on the head waters of the Colorado, trading with 
 the wild Comanches. It was there that he first 
 met David G. Burnet, afterwards the first Presi- 
 dent of Texas, then among those wild men of the 
 plains, as has been elsewhere shown, successfully 
 striving to overcome the threatened inroads of 
 pulmonary consumption. They slept on the same 
 
 blanket among savages, few of whom had ever seen 
 an American. The closest ties of friendship speed- 
 idly united them in the warmest esteem, never 
 to be severed, except in death. It was a beautiful 
 affection between two noble men, whose souls, 
 dedicated to liberty and virtue, were incapable of 
 treachery or dishonor. They separated to meet 
 again as citizens of Texas. 
 
 Returning to New Orleans in 1819, Milam sailed 
 for Galveston Island and there joined Long's ex- 
 pedition for Mexico, in aid of the patriots of that 
 country. Milam, however, sailed down the Mexi- 
 can coast with General Felix Trespalacios, and a 
 small party, effecting a landing and union with 
 native patriot forces, while Long marched upon La 
 Bahia (now Goliad), Texas, and took the place, but 
 in a few daj's surrendered himself and fifty-one fol- 
 lowers to a Spanish royalist force. They were 
 marched as prisoners to Monterey, whence Long 
 was conveyed to the cit}' of Mexico. When he 
 reached there the revolution, by the apostasy of 
 Ilurbide from the royalist cause, had triumphed. 
 Long was then hailed as a friend. Trespalacios, 
 Milam, Col. Christy and John Austin (the two 
 latter having sailed with them from Galveston), 
 arrived in the capital about the same time. Ever^'- 
 thing, to them, wore a roseate hue and they were 
 the recipients of every courtesy. It was soon de- 
 termined by the new government to send Tres- 
 palacios as Governor of the distant province of 
 Texas. That personage, however, became jealous 
 of the influence of Long and basely procured his 
 assassination. This enraged Milam, Christy and 
 Austin, who had fought for Mexican liberty in sev- 
 eral battles. They left the capital in advance of 
 
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 133 
 
 Trespalacios, rejoined their companions at Mon- 
 terey, reporting to them the dastardly murder of 
 Lions. It was agreed among them to wreak ven- 
 oeance on the new Governor on his arrival at 
 Monterey, 
 
 Before his arrival, however, two of the party there 
 revealed the plan. Thereupon they were all seized 
 and sent to the city of Mexico and there thrown 
 into prison, with every prospect of being put to 
 death. At the close of 1822, on the arrival in that 
 city of Joel R. Poinsett, of South Carolina, as a 
 commissioner of observation from the United States, 
 he secured their liberation and return home. 
 
 After the formation of the constitutional govern- 
 ment in Mexico in 1825, Milam returned to that 
 countr}', and was recognized as a valiant soldier. 
 He was granted in consideration of his services, a 
 large body of land, which, unfortunately, he located 
 on that portion of Red river which proved to be in 
 Arkansas, and hence a total loss to him. Before 
 that discovery, however, he established a farm and 
 placed cattle on it. He also purchased a steam- 
 boat and was the first person to pass such a vessel 
 through and above the raft on Red river. He be- 
 came also interested with Gen. Arthur Wavell, 
 an Englishman, in a proposed colony farther up 
 that stream ; but from various causes the enter- 
 prise was not carried forward. Milam was almost 
 idolized by the few people scattered on both sides of 
 that stream. Of those most dearly attached to him 
 were that sturdy old patriot, Collin McKinney, his 
 wife and children, some of whom were then grown. 
 
 About 1826 Milam secured in his own right a 
 grant to found a colony between the Colorado 
 and Guadalupe rivers, bounded on the south by 
 the old San Antonio and Nacogdoches road, and 
 extending up each river a distance of forty-five 
 miles. This territory now includes all of Hays 
 and Blanco counties, the east part of Comal, the 
 upper part of Caldwell, the northwest quarter of 
 Bastrop and the west half of Travis. He appo Jited 
 Maj. .James Kerr, the Surveyor-general of De- 
 Witt's Colony, as his agent and attorney, in fact to 
 manage the affairs of his proposed colony. The 
 original power of attorney, drawn and witnessed 
 by David G. Burnet, dated in January, 1827, in 
 old San Felipe, and signed " Ben R. Milam," is a 
 souvenir now in my possession. But before mat- 
 ters progressed very far Milam sold his franchise 
 to Baring Brothers, London. They totally failed 
 to carry out the enterprise. 
 
 For three or four years prior to the opening 
 of 1835, Milam remained on Red river. In that 
 time the people became greatly alarmed in that 
 section in regard to their land matters and the 
 
 true boundary line between Texas (or Mexico) 
 and the United States. They appealed to Col. 
 Milam to intercede for them with the State govern- 
 ment of Coahuila and Texas at Monclova. He 
 could not resist. Early in 1835, alone on horse- 
 back, he started through the wilderness with a 
 little dried beef and parched meal, to travel about 
 seven hundred miles, trusting to his rifle for further 
 supplies of food. He made the trip, passing only 
 through San Antonio from Red River to the Rio 
 Grande. He found Governor Augustine Viesca 
 anxious to do all in his power in behalf of Milam 
 and his constituents ; but revolution was in the 
 air. Santa Anna had just given a death blow to 
 the constitutional government on the plain of 
 Zacatecas, and the fiat had gone forth for the 
 overthrow of the State government at Monclova. 
 Time rapidly passed. Governor Viesca, with 
 Milam and Dr. John Cameron, undertook to 
 escape into Texas. They were seized and impris- 
 oned. One by one they escaped and reached 
 Texas, Milam being the first to do so. On the 
 night of October 9th, 1835, he passed round 
 Goliad and fell into the road east of the town. 
 Hearing the approach of men on horseback, he 
 secreted himself in brush by the road side. As 
 the party came opposite him he heard American 
 voices and called : — 
 
 "Men! who are you?" 
 
 " We are volunteers, marching upon Goliad ; who 
 are you? " 
 
 " I am Ben Milam, escaping from prison in 
 Mexico! " 
 
 "God bless you, Col. Milam! we thought they 
 had killed you. All Texas will shout in joy at 
 your escape! Mount one of our horses and help 
 us take Goliad ! " 
 
 " Indeed I will, boys, and already feel repaid for 
 all my sufferings ! " 
 
 He soon realized that he was in the presence of 
 Capt. George M. Colliiisworih and fift3'-two volun- 
 teers from the lower Colorado, Lavaca and Navidad. 
 
 Noiselessly they approached the unsuspecting 
 fortress, a barricaded stone church, and, at the 
 pre-arranged signal, burst in. In five minutes they 
 were in full possession, with three Mexicans dead 
 and all the others prisoners, while Samuel McCul- 
 loch, fearfully shot in the shoulder, was the only 
 casualty among the assailants ; and on the 21st of 
 April, 1886, fifty-one and a half years later, he 
 was a guest of Col. W. W. Leake, at the semi- 
 centennial reunion of the Texas veterans in Dallas. 
 
 A few days later Col. Milam, as a private, joined 
 the volunteers in their march upon San Antonio, 
 then occupied by the Mexican General, Cos, with 
 
134 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 about eleven hundred men, afterwards increased to 
 fifteen hundred. From the 27th of October, to the 
 4th of December, varying in number from six hun- 
 dred to eleven hundred men, first under Austin and 
 then under Burleson, the volunteers had laid in a 
 mile or so of San Antonio, without any attack upon 
 the town. A brilliant victory was won b}' Bowie 
 and Fannin, at the Mission of Concepcion at day- 
 light on the 28th of October, before Austin's 
 arrival with the main body ; and on the 26th of 
 November, the day after Austin left, the Grass fight 
 occurred, in which a detachment of the enemy 
 were driven into the town with some loss ; but noth- 
 ing decisive had occurred. First under Austin and 
 next under Burleson propositions for storming the 
 place had failed. Dissatisfaction arose and men 
 came and went as they pleased. On the 4th of 
 December, the force had fallen from eleven hun- 
 dred to five or six hundred. On that daj' the last 
 proposition had failed and great discontent pre- 
 vailed. Milam became aroused and alarmed lest 
 the entire encampment should disband and go 
 home. He moved to and fro as a caged lion, till 
 late in the day he stepped out in plain view of all 
 and in a stentorian voice called out: — 
 
 " Who will follow Ben Milam into San Antonio? 
 Let all who will, form a line right here." 
 
 In the twinkling of an eye three hundred men 
 were in line. The plan was soon formed. During 
 the night the entrance was made in two divisions, 
 one led by Milam, the other by Francis W. John- 
 son. Under a heavy fire they effected lodgments 
 in rows of stone houses and then for five days tun- 
 nelled from room to room. On the 8th, while 
 crossing a back yard from one house to another, a 
 ball pierced Milam's head and he fell dead. But 
 his spirit survived. He had imparted it to his fol- 
 lowers, who continued to press forward his plans, 
 till on the 9th, after having been driven from the 
 town into the Alamo, Cos raised a white flag. On 
 the 10th he capitulated, verifying the genius, the 
 courage and ability to command of the grand and 
 
 glorious Milam, whose death was bewailed as a 
 personal loss in every hamlet and cabin in Texas. 
 In person Col. Milam was of commanding form — 
 tall, muscular and well-proportioned, with a face, 
 a countenance and manner that instantly won re- 
 gard and confidence. None of the heroes of Texas 
 was so universall3' loved. His intelligence in prac- 
 tical affairs was of the highest order. Unambitious 
 of official place, he was always and everywhere a 
 leader, because of the unbounded confidence men, 
 and women as well, had in his wisdom, his inflexi- 
 ble honesty, his kindness and his courage. I never 
 dwell on his character without emotions of grati- 
 tude to God for giving Texas in her infancy and 
 travail such an example of the highest and noblest 
 illustration of American manhood. 
 
 A DEFERRED MEMORIAL. 
 
 In the General Council of the Provisional Gov- 
 ernment, December 27th, 1835 (nineteen daj's 
 after Milam's death), the honorable John J. Linn, 
 member from Victoria, the official journal says: 
 " Presented a resolution providing for the erection 
 of a monument to the memory of Benjamin R, 
 Milam, at San Antonio de Bexar, which was 
 adopted ; and his excellency Governor Henry Smith, 
 James Cockran, John Rice Jones, Gail Borden and 
 John H. Money were appointed a central committee 
 to carry into effect the objects of the resolution." 
 (Journals of the Council, page 215, December 27, 
 1835.) 
 
 Mr. Linn died in Victoria on the 25th of Octo- 
 ber, 1885, in his 88th year. Fifty-six years, less 
 two months and two days, had passed since the 
 adoption of his resolution and other years have 
 been added to the past, and still there is no mon- 
 ument to Milam. Some men have become million- 
 aires in the town he won to liberty and a large 
 number have become wealthy. Every man on that 
 committee and every member of that council is 
 dead, and still there is no monument to Milam! 
 Will it for ever be tiius? God forbid! 
 
 Rezin P. and James Bowie — The Bowie Family. 
 
 An erroneous impression has ever prevailed in 
 regard to the Bowie family-, in the belief that they 
 sprang from Maryland. Such, until now, was my 
 own impression ; but I am now in possession of per- 
 fectly authentic facts to the contrarj'. Two of 
 
 three Scotch brothers of the name did settle in 
 Maryland and have a numerous posterity. But a 
 third brother, at the same time, settled in South 
 Carolina. His son, Rezin Bowie, born in South 
 Carolina, was wounded and taken prisoner by the 
 
KKZIN P. BOWJK. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 135 
 
 British. Wliile so held in Savannah, among other 
 American ladies who bestowed kindness upon him, 
 ■was a lovely and pious young lady named Elve 
 (sometimes written Elvy) Jones, of a large and 
 educated family. In 1782 Rezin Bowie and this 
 girl were married in Georgia and settled there. 
 They became the parents of the Texas Bowies. 
 Their first children, dying in infancy, were twin 
 girls, Lavinia and Lavisia. David, a remarkably 
 pious youth, died at the age of nineteen ; Sarah, 
 who married Mr. Davis and died in Opelousas, La., 
 in her first childbirth ; Mary, afterwards Mrs. 
 Abram Bird, and John J., who died a few years ago 
 in Issequana County, Miss. These six were born 
 in Georgia. The parents then removed to Elliott's 
 Springs, Tennessee, where, on the 8th of September, 
 1793, the distinguished Rezin Pleasants Bowie was 
 born. Two years later, in 1795, James Bowie, 
 martyr of the Alamo, was born at the same place, 
 followed by Stephen, who became a planter on 
 Bayou Boeuf, La., and Martha, who first married 
 James Nugent, who was accidentally killed, and 
 then Alexander B. Sterrett, who, it is claimed, was 
 the first settler at Shreveport, La., where he was 
 sheriff and was killed. He has grandchildren in 
 Shreveport, named Goocb, and a widowed daughter, 
 Mrs. Betlie Hull, whose only surviving child is her 
 widowed daughter, Mrs. Reizette Bowie Donley. 
 Presumably about 1802, Rezin Bowie, Sr. , removed 
 from Elliott's Springs, Tenn., to Catahoula parish, 
 Louisiana, thence to Bayou Teche, and finally to 
 the district of Opelousas, where he died in 1819. 
 His widow, nee Elve Jones, of Georgia, a woman 
 noted for charity and deeply religious principles, 
 died at the house of her son-in-law. Ales. P. Ster- 
 rett, in 1837 or 1838, in Shreveport. Having thus 
 sketched the family', we return to the two brothers, 
 whose names are linked with that of Texas. 
 
 Rezin P. Bowie, the elder of the two, at the 
 Catholic Church in Natchitoches, La., in 1812, 
 married Frances, daughter of Daniel Neville. 
 They had five children, two of whom died in child- 
 hood ; Martha A., died, aged twenty-one years, in 
 New Orleans, in 1853; Matilda E., married Joseph 
 H. Moore, and is a widow in New Orleans, residing 
 with my friend, her estimable son, Mr. John S. 
 Moore. Elve A., married Taylor Moore, and died 
 in Claiborne County, Miss., in 1872. Rezin P. 
 Bowie was three times a member of the legislature 
 of Louisiana, and filled other positions besides his 
 connection with Texas. He was an educated and 
 accomplished gentleman and a fine orator. He, 
 too, and not his brother James, was the designer of 
 the famous hunting instrument known as the Bowie 
 knife. He died in New Orleans, January 17, 1841. 
 
 Col. James Bowie, on the 22d of April, 1831, in 
 San Antonio de Bexar, Texas, married Maria 
 Ursula, daughter of Don Juan Martin de Vere- 
 mendi, Lieutenant-Governor of Coahuila and 
 Texas. I have before me the " propter nuptias," 
 authenticated by Jose Maria Salinas, the constitu- 
 tional Alcalde, in which he settled upon his beauti- 
 ful and lovely spouse the sum of fifteen thousand 
 dollars, and in which his estate, in Texas and the 
 United States, was shown to be worth $222,800. 
 The instrument is witnessed by Jose Francisco 
 Flores and Ygnacio Arocha. Two children blessed 
 this union, but on a visit to Monclova, in Coahuila, 
 in 1833, they and their young mother, as well as 
 Governor Veremendi, died of cholera. It was to 
 this quadruplicated atlliction that Bowie so patheti- 
 cally referred in his wonderful outburst of eloquence 
 before the Council of Texas, at San Felipe, in De- 
 cember, 1832. 
 
 These facts are authentic and meet the desires of 
 many to know the true genealogy of the Bowie 
 family. 
 
 The character of Col. Bowie has been grossly 
 misunderstood by the great mass of the American 
 people — a misunderstanding as great as that be- 
 tween a ruffian on the one hand and a high-toned, 
 chivalrous gentleman on the other. In no conceiv- 
 able sense was James Bowie a ruffian ; but, by 
 titles as indisputable as those under which the 
 people of Texas hold their homesteads, he was a 
 high-toned, chivalrous and great-hearted gentle- 
 man. He was one of several sons of moral, upright 
 parents, his mother especially being an exemplar of 
 Christian womanhood in her every-daj^ life, and 
 never, in all the vicissitudes of life, did the heart 
 of son more tenderly revere mother than did that 
 of James Bowie, who died in the Alamo, as he had 
 ever lived, a champion of liberty and free govern- 
 ment. 
 
 The Bowie family has long been conspicuous in 
 Maryland, in politics and jurisprudence, occupying 
 the highest social status. 
 
 Many statements in regard to James Bowie 
 which gained more or less currency through the 
 press were purely imaginary. He was not, as so 
 persistently repeated, the fabricator of the famed 
 Bowie knife. Rezin P. Bowie, in a written state- 
 ment after his brother's death, asserted positively 
 that he, and not James, whittled the model of that 
 knife, from which pattern a blacksmith made the 
 knives for hunting purpose. In common with the 
 general public I had entertained the contrary 
 opinion and had so written of the matter until a 
 few years since, when I met this statement. 
 
 Prior to locating in Texas, the two brothers wto 
 
136 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 planters and traders. James first entered Texas 
 with the view of locating, in 1824 —became a citizen 
 in 1826 — Ijut did not wholly give up his home in 
 Louisiana till 1828. He was fond of hunting and 
 camp life, and became deeply interested in explora- 
 tions for the discovery of gold and silver mines, 
 devoting much time at intervals for several years to 
 that search. 
 
 The celebrated flght on a sand bar near Natchez, 
 in 1828, vras the product of a feud in which oppos- 
 ing factions agreed upon that mode of adjusting 
 their difficulties. To that extent it was a duel in 
 which a number were engaged on either side. 
 Bowie fell from a wound and was unable to rise. 
 His antagonist closed upon him, and, though pros- 
 trate, Bowie, by the use of his knife, killed him. 
 After a time he recovered and suffered no perma- 
 nent disability. In the article before referred to 
 Rezin P. Bowie asserts that this was the only duel 
 in which he or his brother were ever engaged. On 
 the contrary, on many occasions, Bowie interposed 
 to prevent difficulties and to reconcile excited men 
 for whom he entertained kindly regard. He was, 
 to this extent, a peace-maker. 
 
 Bowie's noted fight with the Indians, on the 2d of 
 November, 1831, from an account furnished by 
 Rezin P. Bowie, to a Philadelphia paper in 1832, has 
 been described in almost every book on Texas. 
 The account appears in this volume. 
 
 Bowie arrived in Nacogdoches after the battle of 
 August 2d, 1832, between the Americans and the 
 Mexican garrison under Col. Jose de la Piedras. 
 The latter retreated during the night on the road 
 to the west. He was pursued and surrendered at 
 the Angelina on the 4th. Bowie escorted the 
 prisoners to San Antonio. 
 
 Bowie, in 1832, commanded a small company 
 into the Indian country to retaliate for their attack 
 upon him. But the red men received information 
 of his movement and fled as from a pestilence, 
 declaring him to be a " fighting devil." In a tour 
 of several hundred miles he never saw an Indian. 
 
 Bowie joined the volunteer citizen soldiery at 
 Gonzales in October, 183.5, and with Fannin com- 
 manded an advance of ninety-two men, who, at the 
 Mission of Concepcion, two miles below San 
 Antonio, at daylight, on the 28th of October, were 
 attacked by four hundred Mexicans, with two 
 cannon. They occupied a fine position on the bank 
 of the river, and after a short contest repulsed the 
 enemy with heavy loss, on their part losing but one 
 man, Richard Andrews. 
 
 On the 26th of November Bowie commanded in 
 the Grass Fight, on the west side of San Antonio 
 end drove the enemy into the town. 
 
 During tlie winter, pending the provisional gov- 
 ernment, he desired a commission under which he 
 could raise and command a regiment. Gen. Hous- 
 ton estimated him as an able and safe commander 
 and desired him in the field — indeed, assigned 
 him, for the moment, to an important position. 
 Bowie repaired to the seat of government and 
 applied to the legislative council for the authority 
 desired. That body was torn by faction and 
 delayed action. Bowie became impatient. Tired 
 of waiting, he suddenly appeared at the bar of the 
 council and essayed to speak. " Order! Order! " 
 rang through the hall, while Bowie stood erect, hat 
 in hand, the personification of splendid manhood 
 and fierce determination. The air was full of 
 revolution — Bowie the idol of a majority of the 
 people. A crisis was at hand. The presiding 
 officer quickly spoke, suggesting that Col. Bowie — 
 so long tried, distinguished and courageous — be 
 heard. The council, grasping the situation, invited 
 him to speak. 
 
 He was a splendid specimen of manhood — six 
 feet and one inch high, straight as an arrow, of 
 full but not surplus flesh, fair complexion, fine 
 mouth, well-chiseled features and keen blue eyes — 
 with grace and dignity in every movement. So 
 far as known this was his first and last public 
 speech. 
 
 Stepping inside the railing, still hat in hand, 
 with a graceful and dignified bow, he addressed 
 himself to the president and council, for nearly an 
 hour, in a vein of pathos, irony, invective and 
 fiery eloquence, that astonished and enraptured 
 his oldest and most intimate friends. He reviewed 
 the salient points of his life, hurled from him with 
 indignation every floating allegation affecting his 
 character as a man of peace and honor — admitted 
 that he was an unlettered man of the Southwest, 
 and his lot had been cast in a day and among a 
 people rendered necessarily, from political and 
 material causes, more or less independent of law ; 
 but brave, generous and infiuitely scorning every 
 species of meanness and duplicity ; that he had 
 honorably cast his lot with Texas for honorable 
 and patriotic purposes; that he had ever neglected 
 his own affairs to serve the country in the hour gf 
 danger; had betrayed no man, deceived no man, 
 wronged no man, and had never had a difficulty in 
 the country, unless to protect the weak from the 
 strong and evil-intentioned. That, yielding to the 
 dictates of his own heart, he had taken to his 
 bosom as a wife a true and lovely woman of a 
 different race, the daughter of a distinguished 
 " Coahuil-Texano ; " yet, as a thief in the night, 
 death had invaded his little paradise and taken his 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 137 
 
 father-in-law, his wife anil his little jewels, given 
 to Lim by the God his pious mother had taught 
 him to reverence and to love as " Him who doeth 
 all things well," and chasteneth those he loveth ; 
 and now, standing as a monument of Omnipotent 
 mercy, alone of all his blood in Texas, all he asked 
 of his country was the privilege, under its legis, of 
 serving it in the ileld, where his name might be 
 honorably associated with the brave and the true 
 in rescuing this fair and lovely land from the grasp 
 of a remorseless military despotism. 
 
 The effect was magical. Not an indecorous or 
 undignified word fell from his lips — not an un- 
 graceful movement or gesture — but there he 
 stood, before the astonished council and specta- 
 tors, the living exemplification of a natural orator. 
 
 He tarried not, but left, satisfied that in the more 
 perfect organization of the government he would 
 receive generous consideration, and returned to 
 San Antonio, soon to be immured in a sick room — 
 a dark, little, cell-shaped room in the Alamo — and 
 there, after a siege of thirteen da3's, to be perhaps 
 the last of the hundred and eighty-three martyrs to 
 yield up his life for his country. 
 
 It was never my fortune to meet Col. Bowie, but 
 I e-jjoyed close associations, in youth and early 
 manhood, with many good men, who knew him 
 long and well. Their universal testimony was that 
 he was one of nature's noblemen, infiexible in 
 honor, scorning double-dealing and trickery — a 
 sincere and frank friend, kind and gentle in in- 
 tercourse, liberal and generous, loving peace and 
 holding in almost idolatry woman in her purity. 
 He tolerated nowhere, even among the rudest men, 
 anything derogatory to the female sex, holding 
 them as "but a little lower than the angels." In 
 the presence of woman he was a model of dignity, 
 deference and kindness, as if the better elements 
 of his nature were led captive at the shrine of true 
 womanhood. But, when aroused under a sense of 
 wrong, and far more so for a friend than for him- 
 self, "he was fearful to look upon," and a dan- 
 gerous man to the wrong-doer. In 1834 Capt.Wm. 
 Y. Lacey spent eight months in the wilderness with 
 him, and in after years wrote me saying: "He 
 was not in the habit of using profane language and 
 never used an indecent or vulgar word during the 
 eight months I passed with him in the wilder- 
 ness." 
 
 I could multiply testimonials to his great worth, 
 including the exalted opinion of Henry Clay, but 
 space forbids. Many interesting incidents are 
 omitted. 
 
 One estimate, however, is added. Capt. Wm. 
 G. Hunt wrote some years ago tiiat he first met 
 
 Col. Bowie and his wife (then en route to Louis- 
 iana) at a party given them on the Colorado, on 
 Christmas day, 1831 ; that " Mrs. Bowie was a 
 beautiful Castilian lady, and won all hearts by 
 her sweet manners. Bowie seemed supremely 
 happy with and devoted to her, more like a kind 
 and tender lover than the rough backwoodsman 
 he has since been represented to be." 
 
 Is it not a shame that such a man, by the merest 
 fiction and love of the marvelous, should, for half 
 a century after his glorious death, be held in the 
 popular mind of his country as at least a quasi- 
 desperado — brave, truly, but a rough, coarse man, 
 given to broils and affrays? The children of 
 Texas, at least, should know his true character, 
 and, in some important aspects, emulate it. By 
 doing so they will make better men than by swal- 
 lowing much of the sensational literature now cor- 
 rupting the youth of the land. No boy taking 
 Bowie as a model will ever become an undutiful 
 son, a faithless husband, a brutal father, a treach- 
 erous friend or an unpatriotic citizen. 
 
 P. S. After the foregoing had been widely 
 published. North and South, an attache of the 
 Philadelphia Press sought to revive and wonder- 
 fully add to the old slanders of desperadoism, by 
 publishing a real or pretended interview with as 
 vile an impostor as ever appeared in historic 
 matters, attaching to the name of Bowie crimes and 
 acts never before heard of. 
 
 Some years ago the Philadelphia Times pub- 
 lished a tissue of falsehoods about the campaign 
 and battle of San Jacinto by a pretended partici- 
 pant, who had never been in that section, but was 
 really a reformed gambler. I exposed the fraud in 
 a courteous letter to the Times, which it refused 
 to publish. 
 
 When the interview hereafter referred to appeared 
 in the Philadelphia Press, on the 3d of October, a 
 venerable and noble citizen of that citj' sent me a 
 copy and urged that I should send him an exposure 
 of its falsehoods, saying he would have it published 
 in the Times. 
 
 I did so promptly, but it was not published. 
 
 Under conspicuous head lines appeared the inter- 
 view in question in regard to the Alamo, Bowie, 
 etc. Of the impostor the interviewer says: — 
 
 " In 1814 Samuel G. Bastian was born in this 
 city, at the southwest corner of Front and Spruce 
 streets. When he was ten years of age his father, 
 who was a gunsmith, removed to Alexandria, in 
 Louisiana, and to-day, after an absence of sixty- 
 three years, the son revisits his birthplace, a stal- 
 wart man despite his seventy-seven years. His 
 career has been a most eventful one. He is with- 
 
138 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 out doubt the onlj- surviving American who wit- 
 nessed the fall of the Alamo in the Texian revolu- 
 tion of 183G, and his account of it will show of how 
 little worth is jjopular opinion as material for 
 history. ' ' 
 
 " 'When I lived at Alexandria,' says Bastian, 
 ' it was a frontier town and the abiding-place of 
 many of the worst ruffians in the Southwest. 
 Prominent among these was Bowie. He devoted 
 himself to forging land titles, and it is amusing to 
 me to read accounts of his life, in which he is 
 spoken of as a high-toned Southern gentleman and 
 a patriot who died for the cause of Texian inde- 
 pendence. He has come down to these times as the 
 inventor of the Bowie knife, but my recollection is 
 this: Bowie had sold a German, named Kaufman, 
 a forged land title. Mr. Dalton, the United States 
 land registrar, refused to record it, Kaufman 
 threatened to prosecute Bowie and was promptl}' 
 stabbed to death for his presumption. In a suit at 
 law shortly after, the United States district judge 
 complained of the endless litigation over land 
 claims, and one of the attorneys answered sai'casti- 
 cally, ' that Bowie's knife was the speediest and 
 surest way of settling trouble about such disputes,' 
 and this, I believe, is the story of Bowie's connec- 
 tion with the historic knife.' " 
 
 In the days referred to the brothers Eezin P. 
 and James Bowie were quiet planters on Bayou 
 Lafourche, 124 miles from Alexandria, and rarely 
 in that place. This man's age was, according to 
 his own statement, then ranging from ten to sixteen 
 years. His statements about land titles, murders 
 and the Bowie knife, are notoriously false. At the 
 time he became sixteen. Col. James Bowie, from 
 being a casual, became a permanent citizen of 
 Texas, married the lovely and accomplished daugh- 
 ter of Governor Veramendi, of San Antonio, and 
 until the death of herself and two children was a 
 model and devoted husband and father. A happier 
 couple, by the testimony of all who knew them, 
 never lived. 
 
 Of the Alamo in 1836 the impostor says: " I 
 was in the Alamo in February. There was a bitter 
 feeling between the partisans of Travis and Bowie, 
 the latter being the choice of the rougher party in 
 the garrison. Fortunately Bowie was prostrated 
 by pneumonia and could not act. When Santa 
 Anna appeared before the place most of the garrison 
 were drunk, and had the Mexicans made a rush the 
 contest would have been short. Travis did his 
 best and at once sent off couriers to Colonel Fan- 
 nin, at Gonzales, to hurry up reinforcements. I 
 was one of these couriers, and fortunately I knew 
 
 the country well and spoke Spanish like a native, 
 so I had no trouble. On the 1st of March I 
 met a party of thirty volunteers from Gonzales 
 on the way to the Alamo and concluded to 
 return with them. When near the fort we were 
 discovered and fired on by the Mexican troops. 
 Most of the party got through; but I and three 
 others had to take to the chaparral to save our 
 lives. One of the party was a Spanish Creole from 
 New Orleans. He went into the town and brought 
 us intelligence. We were about three hundred 
 yards from the fort concealed by brush, which 
 extended north for twenty miles. I could see the 
 enemy's operations perfectly." 
 
 After the fall, March 6th, he says : " Disguising 
 mj'self, and in company with Rigault, the Creole, we 
 stole into the town. Everj'thing was in confusion. 
 In front of the fort the Mexican dead covered the 
 ground, but the scene inside the fort was awful." 
 The idea of the fellow being concealed as stated, 
 with thousands of Mexican troops camping on the 
 ground, is in any and every sense preposterous ; 
 but when we consider that at that time there was 
 no chaparral or thicket as stated by him, nor for 
 miles in that direction, it was absolutely impossi- 
 ble. Moreover, neither he nor any one else was 
 cut off from the Gonzales band. There were 
 thirt3'-two of them, and every one of them died in 
 the Alamo. He falsifies about bearing an express 
 to Fannin at Gonzales. Fannin was at Goliad, a 
 hundred miles nearer the coast, with a wilderness 
 and no road between them. 
 
 Here is another sample of his gifts. After 
 claiming to have spent some time in the Alamo — 
 long enough to see the dead — he says : — 
 
 " We now thought it time to look after ourselves, 
 and made for the chaparral, where our companions 
 were. We had nearl}' reached the wood when a 
 mounted lancer overtook us. Rigault awaited and 
 shot him dead, and so we made our escape. Our 
 good fortune did not end here, for we had to make 
 a detour to reach Gonzales and learned in time that 
 the place was invested, and so were spared the fate 
 of the garrison, for they and their commander. 
 Colonel Fannin, were massacred by the Mexicans." 
 Gen. Houston did not leave Gonzales till seven 
 and a half days after this man claims to have 
 started for that place. Fannin had not been there. 
 The place was never invested. The Mexicans did 
 not arrive till seven da3's after Houston left. 
 
 The fame of Bowie as a soldier, a patriot, a gen- 
 tleman, and as a husband and father, will pass 
 from father to son and mother to daughter, so long 
 as honor, justice and truth abide in Texas. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 139 
 
 Maj. James Kerr, the First Pioneer in Southwestern Texas. 
 
 Many noble pioneers who have wrought for tbe 
 settlement and civilization of Texas sleep in their 
 graves never to be resurrected in memory except 
 at the bar of God, with the welcome, " Well done, 
 thou good and faithful servant." Some left 
 kindred or friends to assert their merits and shield 
 their reputations in the record of the history of 
 their times. Many did not. There has been a 
 tendency to concentrate the entire honor and the 
 glory of settling Texas — with some, on one man — 
 with others on a handful of men. The truth is, 
 that near the same time half a dozen Americans 
 conceived substantially the same idea, among 
 whom stand the names of Moses Austin and Green 
 DeWitt of Missouri, Robert Leftwich of Tennessee 
 and several others. To the Americans of the first 
 quarter of this century, while Texas was a terjxt 
 incognita in fact, it was a paradise in the imagina- 
 tion of many. Its beauties and fertility had been 
 portrayed by traders and trappers and the adven- 
 turers under Toledo, in 1812-1.3. Moses Austin 
 received his right to introduce American immi- 
 grants just before the final fall of Spanish power in 
 1821. He returned home, sickened and died. 
 His son assumed his responsibilities and was ac- 
 corded his privileges, the whole being finally 
 perfected on the 14th April, 1823. From this 
 (begun in 1821) sprang the first American colony 
 of Texas. The applications of DeWitt and others, 
 almost simultaneously made, were delayed on 
 account of the rapidly changing phases of political 
 events in Mexico, till the spring of 1825, although 
 DeWitt' s grant was promised contemporaneously 
 with that of Austin. DeWitt, assured of success, 
 did not await the final consummation by the newly 
 organized government of Coahuila and Texas, but 
 proceeded to his home in Missouri to perfect ar- 
 rangements for the settlement of his colony, through 
 which ran the beautiful mountain rivers, Guadalupe 
 and San Marcos, while the limpid Lavaca formed 
 its eastern boundary. Yet he was again present 
 at the final consummation of his plan in April, 1825. 
 De Witt, in Missouri, secured the co-operation 
 of James Kerr, then a member of the senate of 
 that State, who became the suveyor-general of the 
 colony, its first settler, and for a time its chief 
 manager. Mr. Kerr was born near Danville, Ky., 
 September 24, 1790, removed with his father to 
 St. Charles County, Missouri, in 1808, was a 
 gallant soldier in the war of 1812-15 — a lieuten- 
 
 ant under Capt. Nathan Boone — had been sheriff 
 of St. Charles County, a representative in the 
 legislature and then a senator. He had a wife, 
 three little children and eight or ten favorite negro 
 servants. With these he arrived at the mouth of 
 the Brazos in February, 1825. Before the first of 
 July his wife and two of his little children had 
 died — the first in a camp, the others on the road- 
 side. During July he reached the present site of 
 Gonzales, accompanied by five or six single men 
 and his servants. He erected cabins, laid out the 
 town site as the capital of the future colony and 
 began the survey of its lands. On the 1st or 2d 
 day of July, 1826, in his absence, Indians attacked 
 his houses in the temporary absence of most of 
 the inmates, killed one man and severely wounded 
 another, robbed the establishment and then retired. 
 Thereupon Maj. Kerr removed nearer the coast, 
 to the Lavaca river, in what is now Jackson Countj-, 
 but continued his labors as surveyor of De Wilt's 
 colony, and subsequently, also, as surveyor of the 
 Mexican colony of De Leon, next below on the 
 Guadalupe. To his laborious duties, in January, 
 1827, were added the entire superintendence of the 
 affairs of Col. Ben. R. Milam, in his proposed 
 Southwestern colony. 
 
 From 1825 till 1832, Maj. Kerr's house was 
 the headquarters of Americanism in Southwest 
 Texas. Austin's colony on the one side, and De 
 Witt's and De Leon's on the other, slowly grew, 
 and he stood in all that time, and for several years 
 later, as a wise counsellor to the people. When 
 the quasi-revolution of 1832 occurred, he was 
 elected a delegate to that first deliberative body 
 that ever assembled in Texas, at San Felipe, 
 October 1, 1832, and was on several of its com- 
 mittees. That body of about fift}'-eight repre- 
 sentative men, so strangely overlooked by the 
 historians of Texas, laid the predicate for all that 
 followed in 1833-35-36, and caused more sensa- 
 tion in Mexico than did the better known conven- 
 tion of 1833, which did little more than amplify the 
 labors of the first assembly. 
 
 Maj. Kerr, however, was a member of the 
 second convention which met at San Felipe on the 
 first of March, 1833, and was an influential mem- 
 ber in full accord with its general scope and 
 design. He presided, in July, 1835, at the first 
 primary meeting in Texas, on the Navidad river, 
 which declared in favor of independence. 
 
140 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 He was elected to the third convention, or gen- 
 eral consultation, which met at San Felipe, Novem- 
 ber 3d, 1835, and formed a provisional government, 
 with Henry Smith as Governor, and a legislative 
 council. Being then on the campaign in wiiich the 
 battle of Lipantitlan was fought, on the Nueces, he 
 failed to reach the first assembly, but served about 
 two months in the council, rendering valuable ser- 
 vice to the country. 
 
 On the first of February, 1836, he was elected to 
 the convention which declared the independence of 
 Texas, but his name is not appended to that docu- 
 ment for the reason that the approach of the 
 Mexican army compelled him to flee east with his 
 family and neighbors, and rendered it impossible 
 for him to reach Washington in time to participate 
 in that grave and solemn act. But rightfully his 
 name belongs there. 
 
 Returning to his desolated home after the battle 
 of San Jacinto, he stood as a pillar of strength in 
 the organization of the country under the Republic. 
 It may be truly said that no man in the western 
 half of Texas, from 1825 to 1840, and especially 
 during the stormy period of the revolution, exerted 
 a greater influence for good as a wise, conservative 
 counsellor. His sound judgment, tried experience. 
 
 fine intelligence and candor, fitted him in a rare 
 degree for such a field of usefulness. 
 
 In 1838 he was elected to the last Congress that 
 assembled at Houston and was the author, in whole 
 or in part, of several of the wisest laws Texas ever 
 enacted. From that time till his death, on the 23d of 
 December, 1850, he held no official position but con- 
 tinued to exert a healthy influence on public affairs. 
 
 Nothing has been said of his perils and narrow 
 escapes from hostile savages during the twelve years 
 he was almost constantly exposed to their attacks. 
 Many of them possess romantic interest and evince 
 his courage and sagacity in a remarkable degree. 
 
 While no dazzling splendor adorns his career, it 
 is clothed from beginning to end with evidences of 
 usefulness and unselfish patriotism, presenting those 
 attributes without which in its chief actors Texas 
 could not have been populated and reclaimed with 
 the feeble means used in the achievement of that 
 great work. His name is perpetuated in that of 
 the beautiful county of Kerr, named, as the crea- 
 tive act says, " in honor of James Kerr, the first 
 American settler on the Guadalupe river." His 
 only surviving son, Thomas R. Kerr, resides in 
 Southwest Texas, and a number of his grand- 
 children live in South Texas. 
 
 Col. William S. Fisher, the Hero of Mier. 
 
 In the revolutionary days of Texas there were 
 three men of prominence bearing the name of 
 Fisher. The first and the earliest immigrant to the 
 country was Samuel Rhoads Fisher, of Matagorda. 
 He was a native of Philadelphia, and a man of edu- 
 cation, who came about 1830. He was a leader in 
 local affairs, holding municipal position, and the 
 husband and father of one of the most intelligent 
 and refined families in a community distinguished 
 for refinement and intelligence. Capt. Rhoads 
 Fisher of Austin is the junior of his two sons. He 
 represented Matagorda in the convention of 1836, 
 and signed the Declaration of Independence ; and 
 on the installation of Gen. Houston as President of 
 the Republic in October, 1836, he appointed Mr. 
 Fisher Secretary of the Navy. In 1838 he lost his 
 life in an unfortunate personal difficulty, greatly 
 lamented by the country. His memory was 
 honored by the high character of his famil}'. 
 
 John Fisher was a native of Richmond, Virginia, 
 
 and came to Gonzales, Texas, in 1833 or 1834. He 
 was a man of education, ability and sterling char- 
 acter, and was also a signer of the Declaration of 
 Independence, but died soon afterwards. 
 
 William S. Fisher, the subject of this chapter, 
 was a brother of John and, like himself, a native of 
 Virginia. He was also a man of finished education 
 and remarkable intelligence and one of the tallest 
 men in the country. As a conversationalist he was 
 captivating, ever governed b}' a keen sense of pro- 
 priety and respect for others — hence a man com- 
 manding esteem wherever he appeared. His first 
 experience as a soldier was in the fight with the 
 Indians on the San Marcos, in the spring of 1835 — 
 sixteen men against the seventy Indians who had 
 murdered and robbed the French traders west of 
 Gonzales, in which the Indians were repulsed, with 
 a loss of nine warriors. 
 
 His first appearance in public life was as a mem- 
 ber of the first revoluntionary convention (com- 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 141 
 
 monly called the Consultation) iu November, 1835. 
 He was also a volunteer in the first resistance to 
 the Mexicans at Gonzales and in the march upon 
 San Antonio in October. 
 
 In the campaign of 183G, he was early in the 
 field, and commanded one of the most gallant com- 
 panies on the field of San Jacinto, in which he won 
 the admiration of his comrades. He remained in 
 the army till late in the year, when he was called 
 into the Cabinet of President Houston to succeed 
 (ien. Rusk as Secretary of War, thereby becoming 
 a colleague of Governor Henry Smith, Stephen F. 
 Austin and S. Rhoads Fisher in the same Cabinet, 
 soon to announce the death of Austin in the follow- 
 ing order: — 
 
 " War Department, Coldmbia, Tex. 
 
 "December 27, 1836. 
 
 "The father of Texas is no more. The first 
 pioneer of the wilderness has departed. Gen. 
 Stephen F. Austin, Secretary of State, expired this 
 day at half-past 12 o'clock, at Columbia. 
 
 " As a testimony of respect to his high standing, 
 undeviating moral rectitude, and as a mark of the 
 nation's gratitude for his untiring zeal and invalu- 
 able services, all officers, civil and military, are 
 requested to wear crape on the right arm for the 
 space of thirty days. All officers commanding 
 posts, garrisons or detachments will, so soon as 
 information is received of the melancholy event, 
 cause twent3'-three guns to be fired, with an inter- 
 val of five minutes between each, and also have the 
 garrison and regimental colors hung with black 
 during the space of mourning for the illustrious 
 dead. 
 
 " By order of the President. 
 
 " Wm. S. Fisher, 
 
 Secretary of War." 
 
 The services of Col. Fisher were such that when 
 provision was made for a regular army by the Con- 
 gress of 1838-9, he was made Lieutenant- Colonel 
 of the only permanent regiment, of which the vet- 
 eran Burleson was made Colonel. In this capacity 
 he commanded the troops engaged in the Council 
 House fight with the Comanches, on the 19th of 
 March, 1840, and rendered other important ser- 
 vices to the frontier ; but in the summer of 1840 
 he resigned to become a Colonel in the Mexican 
 Revolutionary or Federalist army in the short-lived 
 Republic of the Rio Grande. But the betrayal of 
 Jordan and his command at Saltillo, in October of 
 the same year, followed by the latter's successful 
 retreat to the Rio Grande — an achievement which 
 has been likened to that of Xenophou — was fol- 
 
 lowed by the disbandment of the Federal forces and 
 the triumph of centralism, upon which Col. Fisher 
 and his three hundred Amercian followers returned 
 to Texas. 
 
 His next appearance was as a Captain in the 
 Somervell expedition to the Rio Grande in the 
 autumn of 1842. The history of that campaign is 
 more or less familiar to the public. There were 
 seven hundred men. From Laredo two hundred 
 of them, under Capts. Jerome B. and E. S. C. 
 Robertson, returned home. At the mouth of the 
 Salado river, opposite Guerrero, another division 
 occurred. Two hundred of the men (of whom I 
 was one) returned home with and under the orders 
 of Gen. Somervell. The remaining three hundred 
 reorganized into a regiment and elected Col. 
 Fisher as their commander. They moved down 
 the river, crossed over and entered Mier, three 
 miles west of it, on the Arroyo Alcantra, leaving 
 forty of their number as a guard on the east bank 
 of the river. They entered the town at twilight on 
 the 25th of December, amid a blaze of cannon and 
 small arms, in the hands of twenty-seven hundred 
 Mexicans, commanded by Gen. Pedro de Ampudia, 
 and for nineteen hours fought one of the most 
 desperate battles in American annals — fought till 
 they had killed and wounded more than double 
 their own number, and till their ammunition was so 
 far exhausted as to render further resistance hope- 
 less. Then they capitulated, to become the famed 
 Mier prisoners, or " the Prisoners of Perote ; " 
 to rise upon their guard in the interior of Mexico 
 and escape to the mountains — there to wander 
 without food or water till their tongues were 
 swollen and their strength exhausted, to become an 
 easy prey to their pursuers — then to be marched 
 back to the scene of their rescue, at the hacienda 
 of Salado, and there, under the order of Santa 
 Anna, each one blind folded, to draw in the lottery 
 of Life or Death, from a covered jar in which 
 were seventeen black and a hundred and fifty-three 
 white beans. Every black bean drawn consigned 
 the drawer to death — one-tenth of the whole to 
 be shot for an act which commanded the admira- 
 tion of every true soldier in Europe and America, 
 not omitting those in Mexico, for Gen. Mexia 
 refused to execute the inhuman edict and resigned 
 his commission. But another took his place and 
 those seventeen men were murdered. 
 
 The entire imprisonment of the survivors (some 
 of whom being in advance, were not in the rescue 
 and therefore not in the drawing) covered a 
 period of twenty-two months. They were then re- 
 leased and reached home about the close of 1844. 
 
 In 1845 Col. Fisher married a lady of great 
 
142 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 worth, but soon afterwards died in Galveston. 
 Neither he nor his brother John left a child to bear 
 his name, but the county of Fisher is understood 
 to be a common memorial to them and S. Rhoads 
 Fisher. 
 
 There was a fourth man of the name — George 
 Fisher — who figured in Texas before, during and 
 after the revolution, chiefly in the capacity of clerk 
 and translator, but be was a Greek and died in 
 California. 
 
 Maj. Richard Roman. 
 
 Was born in Fayette County, Ky., in 1810, 
 migrated to Illinois in 1831, and was an officer in 
 the Black Hawk war of 1832. In December, 183.5, 
 he landed at Velasco, Texas, and joined Gen. 
 Houston, as Captain of a company, on the Col- 
 orado, during the retreat from Gonzales to San 
 Jacinto, and performed gallant service in that 
 battle. He was next aide-de-camp to Gen. Rusk, 
 while he was in command of the army on the San 
 Antonio and Guadulupe. He settled in Victoria 
 and several times represented that county in the 
 Texian Congress ; also frequently serving in expe- 
 ditions against the Indians. 
 
 By the Congress of 1839-40 he was elected one 
 of the three members composing the traveling 
 board of commissioners for all the country west of 
 the Brazos river, for the detection of fraudulent 
 land certificates by a personal examination of the 
 records of each County Court and hearing proof, 
 a high compliment to both his capacity and integ- 
 rit}'. He was a senator in the last years of the 
 Republic and participated in all the legislation con- 
 nected with annexation to the United States. 
 
 In 1846 he entered the Mexican war as a private 
 soldier in the celebrated scouting company of 
 Capt. Ben McCulloch, in which were a number of 
 men of high character at that time and numerous 
 
 others who subsequently won more or less distinc- 
 tion. In this respect it is doubtful if a more 
 remarkable company for talent ever served under 
 the Stars and Stripes. But Private Roman, at the 
 instance of Gen. (then U. S. Senator) Rusk was 
 soon appointed by President Polk, Commissary of 
 Subsistence, with the rank of Major. As such he 
 was in the battle of Monterey, in September, 1846, 
 and Buena Vista in February, 1847. The Amer- 
 ican army evacuated Mexico in June, 1848, and 
 early in 1849 Maj. Roman started to California. 
 Following the admission of that State into the Union 
 in 1850, he was elected for the two first terms, 
 State Treasurer, and then came very near being 
 nominated by the dominant party for Governor. 
 By President Buchanan he was appointed Appraiser 
 General of Merchandise on the Pacific coast. 
 About 1863 he became severely palsied and so deaf 
 as to receive communication from others only 
 through writing. Never having married, his last 
 years were made pleasant in the family of a loving 
 relative in San Francisco till his death in 1877. 
 He was a man of ability, firmness, fidelity in every 
 trust and strong in his attachments and, unlike 
 man}' men of such characteristics, without bitter- 
 ness or prejudice. The name of "Dick" Roman 
 is cherished wherever it was known in Texas. 
 
IlEXRY ROSENBURG. 
 
HENRY ROSENBERG, 
 
 GALVESTON. 
 
 Grotius and Vattel, among the earliest and most 
 erudite of modern writers upon international law, 
 who from the pandects of Justinian, the maritime 
 code of Louis XIV, the laws of Oleron and the Han- 
 seatic League and other sources, with wonderful 
 brilliancy of genius and depth of philosophy, laid 
 the foundation of that science which now regulates 
 the intercourse of the community of nations, en- 
 riched their pages by illustrations drawn from the 
 history of many peoples, and from none more than 
 from that of the people of Switzerland, to which 
 they turned for the most striking examples of 
 fidelity to treaty obligations, jealous defense of 
 national honor, humanity, magnanimity and cour- 
 age. 
 
 Vattel declares that for more than three centuries 
 prior to his time, Switzerland, although surrounded 
 by nations almost constantly at war and eager for 
 the acquisition of new territory, had preserved her 
 independence, and enjoyed the confidence and 
 respect of her neighbors. It is related that in the 
 olden time, fifteen hundred Swiss, acting as the 
 advance guard of a French army, came suddenly 
 upon the full force of the opposing Austrians ; and, 
 disdaining to retreat, although overwhelmingly out- 
 numbered, charged into the midst of the enemy 
 and, no re-inforcements coming up, perished, all 
 save one man, who saved his life by flight and was 
 subsequently driven from his native canton to die 
 a despised wanderer in a foreign land. 
 
 Who does not remember the story of Martha 
 Glar? Her country invaded and the men to defend 
 it few in number, she called upon the women to 
 arm and strike with them for the liberties of Swit- 
 zerland and, later, fell sword in hand with her hus- 
 band, sons, daughters, and granddaughters upon a 
 bard contested field. Famous for their valor and 
 love of freedom, the Swiss are no less renowned for 
 their kindliness, justice and simple and unaffected 
 piety. Of this race was the subject of this memoir. 
 
 While his native land may well be proud of such 
 a son, she cannot alone lay claim to him. The 
 best years of his ripened manhood were spent in 
 Texas. Such men are true citizens of the world 
 
 and the memory of worthy deeds that they leave 
 behind them is the heritage and common property 
 of mankind. Deeply attached to the institutions 
 of the United States and to the people of Texas 
 and of Galveston especially, he never ceased to 
 love the land of his birth and his friends of long 
 ago. 
 
 " There is a land, of every land the pride, 
 
 Beloved by Heaven o'er all the world beside; 
 There is a spot of earth supremely blest, 
 A dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest. 
 
 " ' Where shall that land, that spot of earth be found? ' 
 Art thou a man? — a patriot? — look around! 
 O! thou Shalt find, where'er thy footsteps roam 
 That land thy country and that spot thy home! " 
 
 With this love of country was coupled a venera- 
 tion for the great and good of all climes. As will 
 be seen further on in this brief sketch of his life, 
 he has paid the most substantial tribute that has 
 yet been paid to the men who fought for Texas 
 independence, an act peculiarly fitting, as there is 
 a bond of common brotherhood that binds together 
 the hearts of the sons of Switzerland and the 
 defenders of liberty in all lands and that neither 
 time nor distance can affect. 
 
 Broad-minded, generous and true-hearted — a 
 genuine lover of his kind — the memorj' of Henry 
 Rosenberg is dear to the people of Texas. His 
 name will forever be associated with the history of 
 the city of Galveston, a city in which he spent more 
 than fifty of the most active and useful years of his 
 life. He was born at Bilten, Canton Glarus, 
 Switzerland, June 22, 1824. His early educational 
 advantages were restricted. He was apprenticed 
 when a boy and learned a trade which he followed 
 until past eighteen years of age, when he came to 
 America with one of his countrymen, John Hessley, 
 reaching Galveston in February, 184.3. He was 
 afterwards associated with Mr. Hessley in the mer- 
 cantile business, which he enlarged and carried on 
 for about thirty years, during which time he laid 
 the foundation for the fortune which he afterwards 
 accumulated. His latter years were devoted chieflv 
 
 (143) 
 
144 
 
 INDIAN WAIiS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 to bis banking interests, wliicli were founded in 1874 
 upon tlae organization of tlie Galveston Banli & Trust 
 Co., an incorporated institution of wliieli he was 
 one of tiie originators and wliich be bought out in 
 1882 and replaced with the Rosenberg Banlc, of 
 which he was thereafter sole owner. Early in his 
 career be began investing his means in Galveston 
 city property, and, later, in other real estate, im- 
 proved and unimproved, elsewhere in Texas and, as 
 a consequence, in time became the owner of a large 
 amount of realty, which, gradually appreciating in 
 value, contributed materially to the increase of his 
 wealth. Mr. Rosenberg was prominently identified 
 with many of the important enterprises and under- 
 takings which served to build up and promote the 
 growth of Galveston. 
 
 Prominent among these: — 
 
 The First National Bank — of which he was one 
 of the organizers and for many years the vice- 
 president ; The Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Rail- 
 way, — of which he was one of the organizers, 
 president from 1875 to and including 1878 (during 
 which period the first fifty miles of the road were 
 constructed), and of whose board of directors he 
 was an active member for ten years thereafter ; 
 the Galveston Wharf Company, ^ — -of which he 
 was a director for a long term of years, and for 
 three years vice-president, and the Galveston City 
 Railway Companj', of which he was president in 
 1871. He was tendered re-election to the last 
 named position but declined to accept that honor 
 as other important business interests demanded his 
 attention. He was an active and influential mem- 
 ber of the board of aldermen of the city of Gal- 
 veston in 1871-72 and again in 1885-87. As a 
 result of bis industry, strict application to business 
 and superior practical sagacity, aided by circum- 
 stances, be succeeded in amassing a fortune of 
 about 81,200,000.00. He contributed to and 
 took stock in nearly every worthy enterprise. He 
 was keenly alive to the interests and especially 
 proud of the city of bis adoption, manifesting 
 a deep concern in everything relating to its wel- 
 fare. 
 
 Mr. Rosenberg was long known among his more 
 intimate acquaintances as a man of generosity 
 and great kindness of heart, though be often times 
 appeared otherwise to strangers. " Henry Rosen- 
 berg," says an old and prominent citizen of Gal- 
 veston, " was one of the best men I ever knew. 
 He was pure, truthful, upright and just. He was 
 strict in business and demanded honesty in others. 
 He despised frauds and shams. 
 
 " In fact, he was cordial and companionable and 
 full of good nature in his social life. In the ordi- 
 
 nary business relations, he was exact and just, 
 but, impatient and aggressive when subjected to 
 unfair, unjust or unreasonable treatment, or de- 
 mands, from others. His superb gift to the chil- 
 dren of Galveston, the Rosenberg Free School 
 Building, erected in 1888, seating 1,000 pupils, 
 bis donation to Eaton Memorial Chapel of Trinity 
 Church in that city and his erection of a church in 
 his native village in Switzerland attested his interest 
 in the cause of education and Christianity and are 
 the best remembered of bis more important acts of 
 benevolence in which the public shared a knowledge 
 before his death. It was not, however, until after 
 his death and the provisions of bis will became 
 generally known, that bis character was fully ap- 
 preciated." After bequeathing to his surviving 
 widow, relatives and friends $450,000.00, he left 
 the remainder, about two-thirds, of bis entire for- 
 tune, to educational and charitable purposes, the 
 bulk of it going to the people of Galveston. After 
 remembering bis native place with two bequests, 
 one of 830,000.00 and the other of $50,000.00, be 
 made provision for the city of Galveston as fol- 
 lows: The Island City Protestant Orphans' Home, 
 $30,000 ; Grace Church parish (Protestant Episco- 
 pal), $30,000; Ladies' Aid Society of the German 
 Lutheran Church, $10,000; for a Women's Home, 
 $30,000; the Young Men's Christian Association, 
 $G5,000 ; for a monument to the memory of the 
 heroes of the Texas Revolution of 1835-6, $50,- 
 000 ; for drinking fountains for man and beast, 
 $30,000 ; and the residue of his estate to the 
 erection and equipment of a great free public 
 librarj'. 
 
 The following extract from the residuary clause 
 in his will providing a large sum for a public librarj-, 
 is pertinent in the latter connection: "In making 
 this bequest I desire to express in practical form 
 my affection for the city of my adoption and for the 
 people among whom I have lived for many years, 
 trusting that it will aid their intellectual and moral 
 development and be a source of pleasure and profit 
 to them and their children and their children's 
 children." The wisdom exercised by him in his 
 bequests is no less worthy of admiration than their 
 munificence. 
 
 Mr. Rosenberg's death occurred May 12tb, 18'J3. 
 Every appropriate mark of respect was shown to 
 his memory in Galveston and bis death was taken 
 notice of generally' by the press throughout the 
 State. Now that he has laid aside bis earthly bur- 
 dens he has left behind him on earth the imperish- 
 able memory of worthy deeds. 
 
 No marble monument, stately monolith or princely 
 sarcophagus can add to the merits of such a man. 
 
MRS. HENRY ROSENBURG. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 145 
 
 The Galveston Netvs of May iStli, 1893, contained 
 the following editorial: — 
 
 " Early yesterday morning tiie earthly career of 
 Heury Rosenberg closed after a painful illness. In 
 his death Galveston has lost a worthy and re- 
 spected citizen. Elsewhere will be found a sketch 
 of his public life and actions, but the Neios desires, 
 besides this, to briefly add its testimony to the 
 private virtues and charitable excellence of this 
 good man who has gone to his reward. In the 
 donation of the school which bears his name, to the 
 3'outh of Galveston, Mr. Rosenberg associated 
 himself with the city's best interests. He did not 
 leave this act to be performed after he himself had 
 passed away and was himself done with the world's 
 means and the world's ways, but in the vigor of his 
 own manhood and from means of his own acquiring 
 he saw erected and established an institution that 
 promises to generations yet unborn the opportunities 
 of education perhaps denied himself. 
 
 " It was not ostentation upon the part of Henry 
 Rosenberg that prompted the act. He was not an 
 ostentatious man. On many an occasion, known 
 to the writer, Henry Rosenberg's purse was placed 
 at the disposal of the needy, but always upon the 
 principle that his left hand should not know what 
 bis right hand was doing. Upon an especially large 
 donation to a worthy object some years ago the 
 writer requested of Mr. Rosenberg permission to 
 make known the fact through the columns of the 
 Neios. 'No;' said Mr. Rosenberg, 'you will 
 offend me if you do. Whatever I do in this way I 
 do because I like to do it, but it would be no source 
 of satisfaction to me to find it paraded before the 
 public' Such was the man. * « * Peace to 
 his ashes wherever they may rest." 
 
 As the news of his death spread over the city it 
 was followed by a wave of universal sorrow that 
 embraced in its sweep the entire population. The 
 remains laid in state at the Rosenberg Free School 
 building, where they were viewed by thousands who 
 loved him well. Impressive funeral services were 
 held in Assembly Hall. The remains were taken 
 from Assembly Hall to Grace Church, where the 
 beautiful and impressive funeral service of the 
 Episcopal Church was read by the rector, Rev. J. 
 R. Carter, after which the body was temporarily 
 deposited in Payne vault in the cemetery at Gal- 
 veston, to await removal to Baltimore, Md. Mr. 
 Rosenberg had been consul for Switzerland at Gal- 
 veston for more than thirty years, and at the time 
 of his death was first dean of the consular corps. A 
 message of condolence was received from the Swiss 
 minister at Washington and the consular corps met, 
 passed suitable resolutions and paid the last tribute 
 
 of respect to the memory of their friend and col- 
 league. 
 
 The vestry of Grace Episcopal Church, of 
 which for many years he had been a mem- 
 ber, City Council, School Board, board of 
 trustees of the Rosenberg Free School, and 
 other civil bodies, took similar action and a 
 great mass meeting (presided over by some of 
 the most distinguished men in Texas), assembled 
 in response to a proclamation issued by the mayor 
 of the city to listen to suitable speeches and pass 
 appropriate resolutions. At this meeting was read 
 the following poem: — 
 
 IN IIOXOK OF IIEXRV ROSENBERG. 
 
 " The freightage of the surf is many kind. 
 
 Both wreck and treasure ride the crested wave; 
 And ever as it frets its force away 
 
 Against unyielding shores, it builds the strand 
 For men to walk upon and trade and thrive. 
 
 There, bleaching lie, the shells of myriad life 
 That throbbed but briefly in a stifling sea 
 
 And perished. And some, untimely cast ashore, 
 Lie festering upon the sun-kissed sands, 
 
 Abhorred and pestilent; wliile some are ripe 
 To death and but repose in welcome rest; 
 
 And some are puny pygmies, sprawling prone, 
 And rudely crushed into forgetfulness 
 
 By hurrying heels of eager, searching crowds, 
 And some are of larger growth and stand erect, 
 
 Majestic emblems of a giant kind, 
 Impacted in the sands of time; behold, 
 
 Nor wind, nor tide, nor jostling jealousy 
 Can shake their adamantine base — unmoved 
 
 Of all the mutable that throng the earth. 
 
 " And there are those, who, in their speeding day, 
 
 While youth aud strength lent opportunity, 
 With frugal husbandry, wrought hard and fast 
 
 To garner yellow wealth in honest bins. 
 And when the sun shone golden in the West 
 
 And shadows deepened to the coming night, 
 They looked upon their stores and smiled to think 
 
 That Power now was minister to Wish, 
 And straightway loosed the locks and smote the bars 
 
 That old and young and mind and soul and beast 
 Might share the bleasings of a fruitful life. 
 
 And they live on. Along the pebbled way, 
 That stretches from the utmost to the end, 
 
 They mark the certain progress of mankind 
 And guide us up to Godlier destinies." 
 
 "The remains of Henry Rosenberg, the Texas 
 philanthropist," saj's the Baltimore Sun of June 
 1st, 1893, " were consigned to their final resting 
 place in Loudon Park Cemetery j'esterday after- 
 noon. The body was brought to Baltimore from 
 Galveston, of which city the deceased was an hon- 
 ored citizen. The funeral services held there were 
 elaborate, the whole city testifying to the esteem in 
 which he was held. * * * The pall-bearers were 
 
146 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Judge David Fowler, George French, Howell Gris- 
 wold, Richard G. Macgill, Jervis Spencer, Dr. Guy 
 Hollj'day, John Fowler and Patrick H. Macgill. 
 Among those present were Chas C. Tuvel, secretary 
 of the Swiss legation at Washington, representing 
 the Swiss government ; William Nichols, of Galves- 
 ton ; Mr. and Mrs. Peter Cokelet, of New York, 
 who had been close friends of Mr. Rosenberg for 
 more than forty years ; Dr. Chas. Macgill, of 
 Catonsville ; Miss Rouskulp, of Hagerstown ; Mrs. 
 Howell Griswold ; Mrs. Dr. Gibson ; Miss West ; 
 Miss Bettie Mason Barnes ; Mr. and Mrs. George 
 Gibson ; Mrs. Drewry, of Virginia ; Davidge Mac- 
 gill, of Virginia; Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Gary; Miss 
 Fowler ; the Misses Carter, of Catonsville ; Miss L. 
 R. Spencer; Mrs. George French, Col. Robert 
 Smith, and others." 
 
 Hundreds of editorial notices appeared in lead- 
 ing newspapers throughout the country. The fol- 
 lowing extracts are made from a few that appeared 
 in Texas papers : — 
 
 Galveston News: "Trite reflections upon the 
 lives and ends of such men have little force beyond 
 the circle of their immediate friends, but, many 
 will draw a serious lesson from that of the de- 
 ceased. * * * He was one of several who 
 accumulated large fortunes in Galveston and were 
 not spoiled by their possessions nor estranged from 
 those who had been less successful by the disparity 
 in their circumstances. He was regarded with 
 tender veneration by young and old, rich and 
 poor. A stranger on the Market street car line 
 micht have frequently observed a ruddy-faced and 
 cheery old gentleman getting on or off at Thirteenth 
 street, and on the outgoing trip the motorman 
 would generally bring the car to a stop on the near 
 side, though the rule would have taken it to the 
 other side. This was quietly done for Mr. Rosen- 
 berg, who always had .a smile for the laborer and 
 the poor. Coming down town in the morning he 
 was constantly nodding to his friends." 
 
 Waco Day-Glohe : " It was reserved for a Tex- 
 ian by adoption, a citizen who was born on foreign 
 soil, to make the first real practical move towards 
 honoring the memory of the fathers of Texas 
 liberty. In his will the late Henry Rosenberg, 
 of Galveston, born in Switzerland, bequeathed 
 $50,000 for the erection of an appropriate and 
 enduring memorial in honor of the heroes of the 
 Texas revolution. It may also be remarked that 
 this foreign-born citizen placed himself at the head 
 of the all too small list of Texas philanthro- 
 pists. * * * In the disposition of the accumu- 
 lations of his lifetime Mr. Rosenberg dealt out his 
 benefactions with an impartial hand. He seems 
 
 to have lost sight of creed or race. A profound 
 desire to benefit the human family was the ideal he 
 strove to reach and so sound was his judgment, so 
 broad and generous his impulses, that the money 
 he has left will bless his fellowmen through cen- 
 turies to come." 
 
 Hempstead News: "His name will go down to 
 after times as one of the best and noblest men of 
 his day. Oh! if there were more like him, this 
 world would be a better world." 
 
 Surviving him he left a widow, but no children. 
 He had been twice married ^ — marrj'ing first, June 
 11th, 1851, Miss Letitia Cooper, then of Galveston, 
 but a native of Virginia. This estimable ladj' died 
 June 4th, 1888, and November lolh, 1889, he 
 married Miss Mollie R. Macgill, daughter of Dr. 
 Charles Macgill. She was born at Hagerstown, 
 Md., February 28th, 1839. At the time of 
 Miss Macgill's birth Mr. Rosenberg's first wife 
 was visiting the family of Dr. Macgill and in- 
 duced the doctor to promise the child to her 
 and afterwards made several offers to adopt her, 
 which, however, were not accepted, as the parents 
 would not agree to part with her entirely even to 
 please so dear a friend. In September, 1856, Mr. 
 Rosenberg brought Miss Macgill to Texas, where 
 she remained eleven months as a guest of Mrs. 
 Rosenberg. In the fall of 1860 Mrs. Rosenberg 
 again sent for Miss Macgill, who arrived in Galves- 
 ton in September expecting to remain two years, 
 but returned to her parents in April, 1861, on 
 account of the war, and remained with them until 
 the close of the struggle. Returning to Galveston 
 in March, 1866, she joined the family permanently 
 and, Mrs. Rosenberg, becoming an invalid, Miss 
 Macgill, who reciprocated the deep affection she 
 felt for her, assumed full management of the house- 
 hold and continued her tender ministrations until 
 Mrs. Rosenberg's last illness, and was present at 
 her bedside when she quietly fell " asleep in Jesus." 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Rosenberg, with Miss Macgill, 
 paid annual visits to Miss Macgill's parents in 
 Richmond, Va. Miss Macgill's niece. Miss Minnie 
 Diewry, of Virginia, was with her during the 
 latter part of Mrs. Rosenberg's illness. The two 
 remained with Mr. Rosenberg, traveling during the 
 summer, and in the fall Miss Macgill and niece re- 
 turned with him to Galveston, where they remained 
 until the following July and then with him visited 
 Miss Macgill's mother in Richmond and from there 
 went to the Springs and New York Citj-, returning 
 to Richmond in the fall, where Mr. Rosenberg and 
 Miss Macgill were united in marriage November 
 13lh, 1889, at Grace Episcopal Church by Rev. 
 Hartly Carmichael of St. Paul's Church, assisted by 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 147 
 
 Rev. H. Melville Jackson of Grace Church, present 
 assistant Bishop of Alabama. Dr. Charles Macgill 
 was a native of Baltimore, Md. His grandfather 
 on the maternal side was Thomas Jennings, who filled 
 the position of King's Attorney under the Colonial 
 government of Maryland, and on the paternal side, 
 Rev. James Macgill, of Perth, Scotland, who settled 
 in Maryland in 1728 and was the first rector of 
 Queen Caroline Parish, Elkridge, Anne Arundel 
 County, Md. Dr. Macgill served as full surgeon 
 in the Confederate army during the war between 
 the States ; and was one of President Jefferson 
 Davis' family physicians. Dr. Macgill died in 
 Chesterfield County, Va., May 5th, 1881. Mrs. 
 Rosenberg's mother, now eighty-eight years of 
 age, lives with her at Galveston. Of Mrs. Rosen- 
 berg's brothers, Wm. D. enlisted at Palestine, 
 Texas, in Companj' A., Second Cavalry, and, after the 
 battle of Sharpsburg, was transferred to the First 
 Maryland Cavalry, Company C, and died in 
 Baltimore, Md., August 25, 1890; Davidge en- 
 listed in the First Maryland Cavalry, Company C, 
 under Col. Brown in 1861, and served throughout 
 the war. Dr. Chas. G. VV. Macgill was a surgeon 
 in Stonewall Jackson's brigade and .James enlisted 
 in the Confederate arm}' at sixteen years of age 
 and served in the same commands with his brother 
 Wm. D. until the close of hostilities. Dr. Chas. 
 G. W. Macgill and James Macgill surrendered with 
 the troops in Virginia as did their father Dr. Chas. 
 Macgill ; but Wm. D. and Davidge Macgill did not 
 surrender until April 20, 1865, as they managed to 
 get through the Federal lines and tried to make 
 their way to Johnston, who surrendered before they 
 reached him. A reader of the Birmingham Age- 
 Hercdd, living at Childersburg, Ala., in an interest- 
 ing and lengthy communication to that paper, 
 under date of October 11, 1890, contributes the 
 following: — 
 
 "In your issue of the 7th inst., under the 
 heading ' Some Persons of Prominence,' you 
 kindly give space to eulogizing Dr. Macgill and 
 familj', formerly of Hagerstowu, Md., and later of 
 Richmond, Va. , but more especially of Mrs. Helen 
 E. Swan, from the announcement of her death, 
 which occurred on the 22d of September last, at 
 the home of her brother-in-law, Dr. S. A. Drewry 
 in Richmond. 
 
 " Among other things, you give prominence to 
 their many intellectual, physical and social graces, 
 together with their political prominence. * * * 
 Now it may be that you ' reckoned better than 
 you knew ' and that you did not know that 
 there were some ex-Confederates who were con- 
 stant readers of your valuable paper and in 
 
 your immediate vicinity who have special cause to 
 honor and remember this illustrious and patriotic 
 family. I allude particularly to Capt. John 
 ('Piney,') Oden, Company, K., Tenth Alabama 
 Regiment, Confederate Volunteers, who was severely 
 and, at the time, thought by his comrades to be 
 mortally wounded, on Wednesday, September 17th, 
 1862, at Sharpsburg, receiving a wound fourteen 
 inches long, reaching the whole length of the thigh, 
 from which he has been a permanent cripple and 
 great sufferer ever since. Besides he received at 
 the same time a painful wound in the left side from 
 a piece of bomb-shell. * * * He lay upon the 
 battle-field in that helpless condition for twenty-six 
 hours. When all other efforts for removal failed, 
 he made some Masonic characters upon a piece of 
 paper and requested that they be carried to the 
 general in command of the Federal army, he being 
 then within the Federal lines. Very soon six men 
 came for him with an improvised litter, an old 
 army blanket. They made a slip gap in the fence, 
 near which he lay, and ran across the hill to a field 
 hospital with him upon the litter, which was more 
 than once punctured with balls from his friends' 
 guns, they not understanding what was going on. 
 He was finally removed to the Hagerstown, Md., 
 courthouse, which had been converted into a Federal 
 hospital. * * * Here he first met and learned 
 to love and honor the name of Macgill and the 
 members of the family, for the daughters that were 
 then at home came to the hospital and inquired 
 especially if there were any Confederate soldiers 
 among the wounded there. Capt. Oden being 
 pointed out, they began immediately to beseech, in 
 view of his condition, that he be paroled and they 
 be allowed to carry him to their private dwelling, 
 which request, at their earnest and importunate 
 solicitation, was granted. * * * y^j- gj^ 
 months the members of the family, including Dr. 
 Chas. Macgill, Jr., who was then at home, contin- 
 ued their ministrations. * * * At one time the 
 femoral artery sloughed in two and Capt. Oden's 
 life was despaired of, but every physical, and even 
 spiritual, aid was rendered him. Finally he rallied 
 and recovered, and lived many years thereafter to 
 call them blessed. Capt. Oden often said that he 
 was especially indebted to Miss Mollie Macgill, 
 now Mrs. Rosenberg, of Galveston, and named a 
 daughter Mollie Macgill Oden in honor and grate- 
 ful remembrance of her. The intimacy and friend- 
 ship between the Macgill and Oden families has 
 been kept up ever since the war by correspondence 
 and interchange of visits. * * * " 
 
 Capt. Oden died in Odena, Talledega County, 
 Ala., May 23, 1895. All this particularity of detail 
 
148 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 has been entered into to show that all that could be 
 said in praise of the Macgill family is well deserved 
 and that indeed, thousands of ex-Confederates 
 have cause to remember them kindly, generally, and 
 some especially. 
 
 Through an interview published in the Macon, 
 Ga., Daily Telegraph, of June 24th, 1894, Mr. 
 Chester Pearce, a leading citizen and politician of 
 Georgia, adds his quota of grateful recollections to 
 that of Capt. Oden. Mr. Pearce took part in the 
 battle of Sharpsburg as a soldier in the Eighteenth 
 Georgia, Hood's Texas Brigade; was shot entirely 
 through the body with a minnie ball ; laid on the 
 field many hours, and was finally carried to 
 Hagerstown, Md., nine miles distant, where he 
 was placed in tlie hospital at the courthouse. 
 Here the doctors declined to dress his wound, 
 saj'ing that it was useless as death would soon 
 come to relieve him of his suffering. For two 
 days he lingered in this miserable condition with- 
 out nourishment, no one even showing him the 
 kindness to bathe his face and hands. Then a 
 committee of ladies visited the hospital, among 
 them the daughters of Dr. Macgill. 
 
 "These daughters of Dr. Macgill," says the 
 interviewer, " ministering angels indeed, gave 
 guarantee bond for tiie return of the young sol- 
 dier, should he recover, and took him to their 
 elegant and palatial home. Here for the first 
 time he received medical attention. Dr. Chas. 
 Macgill, Jr., taking him in charge and dressing 
 his wounds. Miss Mollie Macgill, a beautiful 
 young lady, became his nurse. In two months' 
 time he was sufficiently recovered to go to Haiti- 
 more, the military post. Here Mr. James Carroll, 
 a friend of Southern soldiers, gave guarantee bond 
 for his safe-keeping and he was finally exchanged. 
 He rejoined the Confederate army, took part in the 
 murderous charge of Round Top — at the battle of 
 Gettysburg ; later was again captured by the Fed- 
 erals and was sent by them to Fort Delaware ; made 
 his escape, but was retaken and carried to Fort 
 Henry, where he was thrown into a dungeon with 
 the vilest of criminals and remained until exchanged. 
 He then a<j;aiu hurried to the front antl fought in 
 
 the lines until he surrendered with the other soldiers 
 of Gen. Lee's army at Appomatox. * * * In 
 the course of j'ears. Miss Mollie Macgill, who had 
 so tenderly nursed back to life the boy-soldier, 
 married a Mr. Rosenberg, a wealthy banker of Gal- 
 veston, Texas. There she met Mr. and Mrs. Dan 
 Henderson, of Camilla, Ga., and told them the 
 story of the young soldier she had nursed, and re- 
 quested them to discover his whereabouts, if 
 possil)le. 
 
 "Not long since Mr. Henderson read in the 
 Macon Telegraph, tiiat a Chester Pearce was a can- 
 didate for the legislature from Houston County. 
 Mrs. Rosenberg wrote to the candidate to know if 
 he could be the Chester Pearce whom she had 
 known in Maryland, sending her kindest regards, 
 and this was the letter that brought forth the ' war 
 record ' of Chester Pearce, — this was the letter of 
 which he so fondly spoke and that elicited from him 
 expressions of grateful remembrance, worthy of the 
 man and the kind friends who rescued him from an 
 untimely grave.'" 
 
 In peace and war, — through all the vicissi- 
 tudes of time and circumstance, the Macgills 
 have been the same true, generous and chivalric 
 race. Mrs. Rosenberg's life has been spent in 
 an earnest, Christian effort to do all the good within 
 her power and to render all about her happy. She 
 has been a memljer of the Episcopal Church since 
 she was sixteen years of age. After her husband's 
 death, when it became known that his remains were 
 to find sepulture out of the State, she was petitioned 
 by thousands of people to allow them to be interred 
 in one of the public squares of Galveston. She, 
 however, carried out the wish expressed by him in 
 his lifetime and consigned them to earth in Loudon 
 park cemetery in Baltimore, Md., where his first 
 wife is buried and a costly monument now marks 
 the spot. Mrs. Rosenberg is a lady of rare brill- 
 iancy and strength of mind. Her husband was 
 deeply attached to her. She was in full sympathy 
 with all his acts of beneficence and in everj' way 
 aided him to the full extent of her power in all his 
 undertakings. No lady in Galveston is more gen- 
 erally admired and beloved. 
 
John Sealy 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 149 
 
 JOHN SEALY, 
 
 GALVESTON. 
 
 Tbe late lamented John Sealy, during many 
 years a member of the famous banking house of 
 Ball, Hutchings & Company, of Galveston, Texas, 
 and an active promoter of the best interests of that 
 city, was born in the great Wyoming Valley at 
 Kingston, Luzerne County, Pa., October IS, 1822, 
 and when fourteen years of age entered a country 
 store as a clerk under an agreement to work for 
 l)oardand clothes until twenty-one years of age and 
 then receive as further payment SlOO.OOand an 
 extra suit of clothing. When he had reached eight- 
 een years of age his emplo3'er, although continu- 
 ing merchandising, engaged in developing coal 
 mines in addition thereto, and soon found that the 
 young employee was competent to look after these 
 outside interests and placed him in charge of them 
 as general manager, which position he continued to 
 fill, under the terras of agreement originally 
 entered into as to remuneration for personal ser- 
 vices, until he had attained his majority. He was 
 then retained on a salary until twenty-four years 
 of age, when he determined to cast his fortunes 
 with the people of the State of Texas. He arrived 
 in Galveston in 1846 with about seven hundred and 
 fifty dollars, saved from his earnings, and suc- 
 ceeded in securing employment as salesman in the 
 house of Henry Hubbell & Co., who were at that 
 time considered the leading dry goods merchants 
 in the city. He continued in this position for 
 about a year and during that time became ac- 
 quainted with, and an intimate friend of Mr. 
 .J. H. Hutchings, bookkeeper for the firm. Mr. 
 Hutchings had also saved from his salary 
 about seven hundred and fifty dollars. The two 
 young men decided to combine their means and go 
 into business upon their own account and with their 
 joint capital of fifteen hundred dollars succeeded 
 in purchasing from Hubbell & Company, who had 
 the greatest confidence in their integrity and 
 capacity, a stock of goods, valued at several thou- 
 sand dollars, which they took to the town of Sabine 
 Pass, Texas, where they opened a store in 1847, 
 under the firm name of Hutchings & Seal3'. They 
 soon won the confidence of the business community 
 and built up a fine trade, which they rapidly ex- 
 tended until they ranked as the leading merchants 
 of the section. They remained in business at 
 Sabine Pass, until 1854, when, having accumulated 
 about $50,000.00, they deemed it advisable to 
 
 close out there and change their base of f>peration9 
 to some larger place. Accordingly they wound up 
 their affairs at Sabine Pass, took a few months 
 much needed rest, and moved to Galveston, where 
 they formed a copartnership with Mr. George 
 Ball, under the firm name of Ball, Hutchings & 
 Company, and embarked in the general dry goods 
 and commission business. The commission busi- 
 ness was sold out in 1860 and the dry goods busi- 
 ness in 1865, when the firm went regularly into the 
 banking business. Two years later Mr. George 
 Sealy was admitted to the copartnership, which 
 continued with this personnel until the death of the 
 subject of this sketch, Mr. John Sealy, August 
 29th, 1884. Mr. John Sealy's widow, Mrs. 
 Rebecca Sealy, has been allowed to retain the 
 partnership interest of her late husband in the 
 business up to the present time, 1806. 
 
 Mr. Sealy was married to Miss Rebecca Davis 
 of Bedford, Pa., in 1857. Two children, John and 
 Jane Sealy, were born of this union. The son 
 will succeed to his father's interest and become a 
 full partner in the firm. Mr. Sealy was identified 
 with every important public enterprise inaugurated 
 in Galveston during his residence in that city and 
 was instrumental in originating many of them. 
 
 From the beginning he had a deep and abiding 
 faith in the continued growth and prosperity of the 
 city of his adoption and inspired all who came in con- 
 tact with him with like confidence. He was an officer, 
 or director, in nearly every corporation chartered 
 and doing business in Galveston, by reason of his 
 well recognized financial ability and the large stock 
 interests that he held. At the time of his death he 
 was the wealthiest man in Galveston, owning among 
 other property a lauded estate sufficiently large to 
 form a good sized principality. Among other gen- 
 erous bequests in his last will and testament he 
 set aside a sum of money for the erection of a char- 
 ity hospital which has since been erected at a cost 
 of §75,000.00 and been of great benefit to the suf- 
 fering poor of the State, as people from all parts of 
 Texas are admitted free of charge. He did not 
 wait until he no longer had a use for the things of 
 this world to put his wealth to good purpose. His 
 life was a long record of worthy deeds and silent 
 benefactions. As .between himself and others, 
 whether friends or enemies, he kept the scales of 
 justice evenly balanced. No man could ever say 
 
150 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 that he bad treated him unfairly. He was incapa- 
 ble of a little, mean or unworthy action. 
 
 He started in the race of life penniless and with- 
 out friends, other than those he had won by his 
 energy, truthfulness, faithful discharge of duty, 
 adherence to correct principles and purity of 
 thought, speech and living. He resisted and over- 
 came many temptations and encountered and sur- 
 mounted many obstacles, following alwa3's with 
 undeviating fidelity the lode-star of duty. His 
 career in all essential respects was identical with 
 that of bis brother, Mr. George Sealy, a biography 
 of whom appears elsewhere in this volume. The 
 following is from the Galveston News of Sundaj', 
 August 31, 1884: — 
 
 " To say that the news of the death of Mr. John 
 Sealy touched the whole community with a deep thrill 
 of sorrow yesterday, but poorly conveys the idea of 
 the sense of the community upon the sudden taking 
 away of one of its most prominent members. The 
 flags upon the Santa Fe general office, Custom- 
 House, Cotton Exchange, Galveston News building, 
 British, German, Russian, Norwegian and Austrian 
 consular ofHces, engine houses. Artillery Hall, Tur- 
 ner Hall, Beach Hotel, Mallory and Morgan ofHces, 
 Hendley, Reymershoffer, Blum Block, Oppenheimer 
 & Co.'s, Kauffman & Runge, Marwitz, and a num- 
 ber of other buildings, not now remembered, were 
 placed at half-mast in honor of the memory of Mr. 
 Sealy. An hour before the time set for the funeral, 
 clouds gathered heavily in the north, and the pros- 
 pect of a storm prevented many from attending the 
 funeral services, but, as it was, there were hun- 
 dreds present. The officers and employees of the 
 Santa Fe road formed at the general office in a 
 body and marched to the residence. A number of 
 the members of Hook and Ladder Company No. 
 1, were also present. 
 
 "The floral tributes were numerous and beauti- 
 ful, the casket being literally covered with choice 
 flowers most artistically arranged. 
 
 " At five o'clock, Rev. Dr. S. M. Bird, rector of 
 Trinity Church, began the reading of the solemn 
 and impressive service for the dead. Upon its con- 
 clusion he delivered the following beautiful and 
 touching comment upon the good man gone: — 
 
 " ' Words of eulogy flow almost spontaneously as 
 we stand amidst the funereal tributes to excellence 
 and worth. 
 
 " ' We have to restrain, rather than encourage, 
 the natural instincts of affection which inspire the 
 coronation of a successful and generous life. 
 
 " ' We look into the calm, dead face of our friend 
 and brother and read there all the story of amia- 
 bility, frankness and honor, and as we recall the 
 
 outlines of a life so suddenly closed, memory fully 
 anticipates the epitaph which will be carved upon 
 his tomb. We think of him as citizen, father, 
 friend, neighbor, and each chapter unfolds its 
 blending harmonies of goodness, purity and virtue. 
 When one of the old Patrician leaders of Rome 
 expired, it was the custom of the common grief 
 for each associate and colleague to bring to his 
 bier the eblematic tokens of the particular virtue 
 which most impressed itself upon the offerer. 
 One brought the laurels which crowned his brow 
 with the badges of noble bearing and courtly pride; 
 another placed in his dead hands, the white lilies 
 of purity, commemorating a gentle life and unself- 
 ish patriotism ; a third placed upon his shield the 
 red rose of unsullied courage and iron purpose ; 
 and thus, part by part, his catafalque was strewn 
 with the silent symbols of worthiness and renown. 
 I have thought if each one of ourselves could come 
 from our reserve and give out from the respective 
 treasures of our knowledge the impressions made 
 by the long and useful life of our departed friend, 
 the homage would be large indeed, for we would not 
 cease until we had robed his casket in a funeral 
 mantle, graceful as ever covered that of Roman 
 senator or conscript father. To his public spirit 
 and organizing industry our prosperous city is 
 indebted for large and enduring elements of its 
 permanency and present growth. Forecasting 
 with unerring genius the future of Galveston, 
 he conceived and carried out many of its in- 
 stitutions which contribute to-daj' to its stability 
 and wealth. Prompt with his judgment and good 
 will, he promoted every interest which looked to the 
 hapiiiness of the people and the increase of their 
 fortunes. Generous oftentimes beyond his share, 
 he led the way in the courses of liberality and im- 
 provements. His business and untiring industry 
 became a passion to him, which laid up its results 
 in strong material success for himself and in large 
 and generous returns for others. AVealth brings 
 power and responsibility, and so to his native 
 strength of purpose, we find in maturer j-ears this 
 new gift added to his resources — a gift used so 
 wisely that nearly every enterprise of public or 
 municipal interest was unprojected until his name, 
 his judgment, and his co-operation were first as- 
 sured. This done, his fellow-citizens and fellow- 
 capitalists were inspired by the one needed resolu- 
 tion which almost invariabl}' leads up to such positive 
 results as leava little to be desired. Responsibility, 
 too, was fully appreciated, and so we find the strong 
 and solid banking house, whose business he con- 
 tributed so much to enlarge and strengthen, became 
 identified directly and at once with every depart- 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 15t 
 
 ment of the city's life, and widely enough in the 
 progress of the entire State. The founder of a 
 city, who lays deeply those varied elements which 
 make up the security of its wealth, the integrity of 
 its credit and the happiness of its homes, must 
 outrank in the hightest verdict every one of those 
 who, with martial victories and trained warfare, 
 destroy and pull down the habitations of man. A 
 successful citizen is always a more interesting 
 man than a conquering soldier, as the spirit 
 of construction is always more large than the 
 spirit which destroys. In the later days of 
 his health and vigor many of his friends dis- 
 covered a strong ph3'sical and personal resem- 
 blance to the greatest soldier of the Northern 
 armies. The likeness was remarkable, and yet we 
 may be pardoned in rejoicing that our departed 
 friend and brother possessed powers of worth and 
 appliance of virtue so different and so much more 
 laudable, that thej' will endure in their fruits of 
 increase long after the ashes of smoking towns and 
 the ruin of a people's industries have faded from 
 the records which they so long disfigured. The 
 commonwealth is made up of its citizens, and its 
 best citizens are always the basis of its strength 
 and the welcome prophecies of its fortunes. If we 
 pass from his life as a citizen to his life as a man 
 of business we discover similar distinguishing 
 marks of excellence. One of the finest tributes I 
 ever heard to a man of business was awarded to 
 Mr. Sealy by his lifelong friend and partner at the 
 latter's house on the occasion of a brilliant marriage, 
 and the entire worthiness of the testimony was 
 seen in the hearty sanction of the moment, and is 
 echoed loudly by every one brought into commer- 
 cial relations with him. Whether as banker, rail- 
 road manager, president of a corporation, or a 
 private in the ranks — the same straightforward- 
 ness, integrity and painstaking, was the simple 
 secret which made him everywhere trusted, and, 
 most of all, by those whose dealings with him were 
 intimate, mutual and constant. He enriched him- 
 self never at the expense of others, while others 
 were made partakers with him in all his successes 
 and his fortunes. This is no small consideration in 
 these days when men are ' making haste to get 
 rich;' when, regardless of the social compact, 
 careless of all moral restraint, impatient at the 
 checks of conscience and defiant against every 
 principle of virtue, they trample down all obstacles 
 in the way of interest, until duty, honor and truth 
 are outraged — wrecked in the rapid eagerness to 
 achieve results — and high names and the highest 
 places, and highest trusts are prost'tuted, drag- 
 ged down in the financial scramble to the level 
 
 of common fraud and unblushing crime. Here 
 there is not a whisper of detraction or reproach. 
 If large wealth rewarded his industry and toil, it 
 was the normal issue of a large heart which refused 
 all unjust and ungenerous methods. His hands 
 are clean, even in death, because they never worked 
 in the lower ventures of avarice and greed ; and so, 
 too, his hands were liberal, with a liberality which 
 was always his own and not another's. The mer- 
 cantile spirit of the age was strong within him — 
 too strong, for it overtaxed his time and his strength. 
 In this mammon-loving countrj', I suppose his 
 temptations were strong and keen, as only success- 
 ful men can feel them ; but always they seemed 
 dominated by a justice and discretion which led us 
 all to recognize his calm superiority to passing 
 inducements and a ' conscience void of offense.' 
 More than twelve years continuously I have been 
 his neighbor. It is needless to say that in him I 
 always felt that I had a neighbor ; yea, more, a 
 friend, a counselor and confidant. His pleasing 
 manners and cheerful bearing made him accessible 
 to a fault. One was reassured at the outset, and 
 invited to the freest confidence. More than once I 
 have felt drawn to his side in my moments of doubt, 
 and depended upon him in my moments of hesita- 
 tion, and always I have met just what I required 
 and in the way that I wanted it. To my church he 
 gave a constant support, to my work an open hand, 
 and to myself a generous and unswerving friend- 
 ship. I may not intrude upon the inner circle of 
 his retired home, where he has been a father, a 
 husband, a brother — where his coming has been 
 always as the coming of the genial ligljt which 
 falls upon the flowers, where his intercourse 
 has been of that quiet and considerate careful- 
 ness which made blessings fall like sunbeams 
 upon every member of his family. Yesterday 
 the light of his house went down in thick 
 darkness. The shadows of eventide, coming with 
 the closing hours of his life, fell like a pall of night 
 upon all his home. A strong brother's arm is no 
 more within reach, and the strong voice of gentle 
 love, his children will wonder why they can no 
 longer hear. Home to him was his atmosphere, 
 his paradise. Rarely could he be drawn from its 
 charmed circle. Only affairs of urgent business 
 and necessity could tempt him abroa;!. This led 
 some to think him retiring and reserved, but his 
 home was his own creation, and the ideal of his 
 earthly life, made lovely by his own good heart and 
 stamped anew every day with his genial and kindly 
 nature. In this home the tears are falling fast, as 
 they will flow long. In this home hearts are 
 aching with strange and new sorrows, which come 
 
152 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 but once in a lifetime. Anil so, dear fiientls, 
 we gather here to join our weeping with those who 
 weep, to pour into these stricken souls the unction 
 of our kindliest sympathy and to unite our praise 
 to God, heart and spirit, over one who excelled in 
 virtue. The morning is not far off, when all this 
 ' thick darkness ' will disajipear from this home 
 and from all other homes of human woe and be- 
 
 reavement; the morning when Christ our Lord 
 will open the graves of the blessed dead and reveal 
 to us in fuller measure the one hope which now 
 sup|)orts us all, the almighty love of our Father, 
 out of which all human goodness comes, the tender 
 mercy of the Son, which to know is eternal life 
 indeed, and the consolation of the spirit of truth 
 which the world cannot understand.' " 
 
 JOHN H. HUTCHINGS, 
 
 GALVESTON. 
 
 The business world has its marks no less brilliant 
 and distinct than those which characterize the emi- 
 nence of what are called the learned professions, 
 made by men who have borne the banners of 
 progress along the pathways of moral, social and 
 material development; men who, free from all sub- 
 serviency to popular whims and popular delusions, 
 bed their footprints in the practical affairs and 
 utilities of life, and know nothing of the influences 
 prevailing in the race for political or professional 
 distinction. Theirs is a school of self-denial, of 
 patience, firmness of purpose, and above all, an 
 unswerving integrity, and the suppression of those 
 passions which promote the icinis fatuii of ambition 
 and fame. It is here that individual capacity and 
 action are made the tests of true merit and true 
 manhood ; and it is in this school that true benevo- 
 lence, practical philanthropy, and an enlightened 
 self-interest coincide in the various business and 
 social relations of husband, father, neighbor and 
 citizen. Endowed with excellence in all tliese rela- 
 tions, the subject of this sketch planted his foot- 
 steps in the pioneer paths of the commerce of a 
 great State, and led the advance in the development 
 of the prosperous city of his home and love. 
 
 John IL Hutchings, of Galveston, one of the 
 oldest and wealthiest business men of Texas, and 
 one of the most prominent and best-known bankers 
 of the South, was born in North Carolina, on the 
 2d of February, 1822. His early educational 
 advantages were very limited, and were, indeed, 
 confined to a desultory attendance, as opportunities 
 permitted, at a common country school, in which 
 reading, writing, and the elements of arithmetic 
 only were taught; and at the age of thirteen or 
 fourteen, he bade farewell to the school-room and 
 
 liegan mercantile pursuits, as clerk in a dry goods 
 store. 
 
 On attaining the age of maturity he found him- 
 self prepared for the battle of business life ; 
 and his ambitious spirit and enterprising nature 
 prompted him to seek more promising fields and 
 more extended opportunities, and he removed to 
 the city of New Orleans, but soon extended his 
 adventure to the Republic of Texas and, in the 
 winter of 1845, settled in the city of Galveston. 
 
 In December, 1847, he removed to Sabine, and 
 formed a copartnership in mercantile business with 
 the late John Sealy, which continued as long as Mr. 
 Sealy lived. The}' were very successful in their 
 business at Sabine; and, having accumulated a 
 considerable fortune at that place, they returned, 
 in 1854, to Galveston, which Mr. Hutchings during 
 all that time had considered his home. Here they 
 formed a copartnership with the late George Ball, 
 under the well-known firm name of Ball, Hutchings 
 & Co , which has continued to the present time. 
 This firm was originally devoted to a mixed dry 
 goods and commission business ; but in a year or 
 two they abandoned the dry goods trade and turned 
 their attention entirely to a combined commission 
 and banking business, in which they were, from the 
 beginning, eminently successful. 
 
 When, in 1861, the port of Galveston was block- 
 aded by the Federal fleets, the firm retired to Hous- 
 ton, and having established their house at that 
 place, engaged actively and extensively in the im- 
 portation of arms and other war materials into the 
 State, and became successful blockade runners. 
 They exported in this way large and frequent 
 shipments of cotton, and in turn imported large 
 quantities of military stores much needed by the 
 
J. H }iUTCHINGS 
 
lyfDlAI^ WARS AXD PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 1.53 
 
 Confedeiate Slates government. As tbe coast of 
 Texas was closel}' blockaded, goods of all kinds 
 soon became scarce in the State, and one of tbe 
 first importations made by tlie firm was a cargo of 
 fifty thousand pairs of cotton and wool cards, 
 which thej' brought in under a contract with the 
 State, to enable the people of Texas to manufacture 
 tlieir own clothing. These were introduced by way 
 of Mexico, through which country they continued 
 to make large shipments of cotton during the con- 
 tinuance of the blockade, while at the same time 
 thc3' employed foreign vessels to run war material 
 into the harbor of Galveston. In all of this they 
 were eminently successful, and Mr. Hutcbings is 
 still proud of the fact that, through the energy and 
 daring enterprise of the firm, vessels were, at the 
 close of the war, arriving at Galveston with arms 
 and munitions, and departing, laden with cotton, 
 on every change or dark of the moon, with almost 
 the regularity of mail steamers. 
 
 In 1865 the firm returned to Galveston and re- 
 sumed the banking business in the same building 
 which they had erected in 1855, and which they have 
 now occupied for thirty-seven years ; but Mr. 
 Hatchings still cherishes the kindest feelings for 
 the people of Houston, with whom he lived so hap- 
 pily and prosperously during the dark days of the 
 Civil War. Soon after their return to Galveston 
 thej' admitted as a partner Blr. George Sealy, who 
 was a brother of Mr. John Sealy, and had long 
 been in their service. The firm name, however, 
 remained unchanged. In March, 188i, Mr. George 
 Ball died, and in the following August Mr. John 
 Sealy died, leaving Mr. Mulchings and Mr. George 
 Sealy the only surviving members of the firm, and 
 they have continued the banking and excrhange 
 business under the same firm name until the present 
 time, and their rating for wealth and credit in bank- 
 ing circles is perhaps as high as that of any other 
 banking house in the world. 
 
 The old building, which, in simple strength, so 
 long and faithfully abided by the fortunes of the 
 firm, has just been replaced by another, con- 
 structed b3' Mr. Hutchings specially for their use 
 and having every feature of safety, comfort and 
 convenience suggested by the long conduct of the 
 banking business. This structure is the best 
 equipped and most thoroughly appointed bank 
 building in the South. 
 
 It is one of the handsomest buildings on the 
 strand. 
 
 In addition to being one of the two managers of 
 this great banking house, Mr. Hutchings has occu- 
 pied, and still holds, many important and responsi- 
 ble business positions. His sound judgment, his 
 
 solid integrity, his far-seeing enterprise, his great 
 activity, his superb business qualities, and remark- 
 able success in all his undertakings, have caused 
 his name and services to be almost indispensable in 
 a leading connection with everj' important enter- 
 prise of Galveston. He was for a long time presi- 
 dent of the Galveston Wharf Company and it 
 was during his presidency of this association 
 that a compromise was effected with the city, which 
 settled long disputed claims as to the title of the 
 wharf propertj'. In consideration of the value of 
 his services in negotiating this settlement, the com- 
 pany presented him with a handsome service of 
 silver. The McAlpine survey of the wharf was 
 also made during the same time, and improvements 
 were begun which have created valuable property 
 for the company, and given a spacious and beauti- 
 ful front to the city. He was the first president, 
 after the war, of the Galveston Gas Company, and 
 has continued ever since to be one of its directors, 
 and is now its president. He has long been a 
 director of the Southern Press Manufacturing Com- 
 pany of Galveston, and is at this time its president. 
 He was for some time a director of the Galveston 
 City Company, and is now the president of that 
 company. He was appointed by Judge E. P. Hill, 
 the Confederate States Judge for Texas, a Commis- 
 sioner of the Confederate Slates Court, which he 
 held as long as the Confederate States were in exist- 
 ence, and still preserves his commission from Judge 
 Hill and values it very highly. He was also one of 
 tbe original directors of the Gulf, Colorado and 
 Santa Fe Railroad Company, also of the Galveston 
 Oil Mills Company, of tbe Land and Loan Com- 
 pany, and also of the Galveston, Houston and Hen- 
 derson Railway Companj', and of the Galveston 
 Insurance Company. In 1859-60 be was an alder- 
 man of tbe tsity of Galveston, and negotiated the 
 bonds for the first bridge built over the bay. He 
 was the author of the plan for raising money to 
 open the inner bar in Galveston harbor, and 
 drafted the ordinance of June 25, 1869, which 
 put his plan into successful execution, He was 
 tbe originator and chief promoter of the estab- 
 lishment of the splendid line of steamers plying 
 between Galveston and New York, so well known 
 as tbe Mallory line, and now incorporated as tbe 
 New York and Texas Steamship Company, and be 
 is one of the five directors of this company. He 
 accomplished this splendid enterprise bj' inducing 
 tbe Galveston Wharf Company, of which he was 
 president, to take a fourth interest in tbe four first 
 steamers built for tbe line, by taking stock himself 
 and inducing his partners to do likewise ; and the 
 present firm still owns a large interest in tbe line. 
 
154 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 He and bis partner, John Sealy, formed a company 
 and built the Factor's Cotton Press, but the com- 
 pany was soon afterwards merged into the Southern 
 Cotton Press and Manufacturing Company, the 
 suggestion and accompHsbment of wliich was the 
 work of Mr. Ilutchings, and his associates, appre- 
 ciating his sliill, industry, and ability in the adjust- 
 ment of that matter, presented him with a gold 
 watch and chain of the most costly kind, which he 
 prizes highly and wears daily. 
 
 It is said of Mr. Hatchings that in all these 
 varied and exacting business relations, with their 
 multitudinous demands upon his time and energy, 
 he has never been known to fail in an appointment ; 
 and he has maintained this course throughout a 
 lifetime of hard work, extending through more than 
 fifty years. He early found his task, and has 
 faithfully stood to it. There has been no time in 
 such a life for idle dreams. To him all true work 
 has been held sacred — as wide as the earth, with 
 its summit in heaven; and if genius be, as has been 
 said by one, " an immense capacity for taking 
 pains; " or, as said by another, " a great capacity 
 for discipline," in either character we find it in 
 an eminent degree in the life of Mr. Hatchings. 
 Being asked by the author the measure of his suc- 
 cess, and the qualities and conditions to which he 
 chiefly attributed it, he answered promptly: " Suc- 
 cess in life depends much upon honesty, sobriety, 
 industry, economy, and a disposition to promote 
 the best interests of the community in which one 
 lives. This disposition is always observed and 
 appreciated ; and the measure of a man's success 
 depends much upon the kindly disposition of his 
 neighbors towards him. Success in life consists 
 not so much in making money as in being use- 
 ful ; and the man who has been the most useful 
 in his day and generation is the most successful 
 man." 
 
 The life uf Mr. Hutchings grandly illustrates-his 
 views of usefulness and success. Few men have 
 taken the lead in so many enterprises that pro- 
 moted the interests of the communities in which 
 they lived ; and he has always faithfully discharged 
 every duty which devolved upon him, laboring at 
 all times for the public good, as well as for the 
 interests and welfare of those who were directly 
 concerned in his undertakings or affected by them ; 
 and amid all the advantages and opportunities 
 afforded by his official positions, he has never 
 speculated upon his knowledge, his power, or his 
 influence. 
 
 He has strong faith in the future of Galveston 
 as a great commercial city, and in the illimitable 
 growth and prosperity of Texas. For nearly 
 twenty years, he has taken a warm and active 
 interest in every project for deepening the channel 
 over Galveston bar, as being not onl}' of the 
 greatest importance to the welfare of the city, 
 but of the whole State. 
 
 During all this time, while so busily engaged in 
 enterprises of a public character, he has not failed 
 to attend with equal minuteness and promptitude 
 to his private affairs. Earl}^ and late he has 
 always been found at his bank during business 
 hours, and is still found there at the proper time. 
 He believes strongly in the old adage, that it is 
 better to wear awa^' than to rust away. 
 
 While Mr. Hutchings, like all long-disciplined 
 and successful business men, is stern and strict 
 in his business habits, in social life he is 
 kind, courteous, and genial. He is devoted 
 to his family and warmly attached to his friends, 
 and kind to all who have dealings with him. 
 He was married in Galveston on the 18lh of 
 June, 1856, to Miss Minnie Knox, a lady of supe- 
 rior refinement and excellence of character, who 
 was the niece of Robert Blills, at that time the head 
 of the then well-known banking house of R. & D. 
 G. Mills. They have reared a large and interest- 
 ing family of children. Their third daughter was 
 married a few years since to Mr. John W. Harris, 
 an excellent young man, and a son of the late 
 Judge John W. Harris, a distinguished pioneer of 
 the Texas bar. 
 
 Mr. Hutchings has a marked fondness for tlie 
 beauties of nature, and claims great skill in the 
 transplanting and nurture of trees. He has 
 beautified his home in Galveston with an enchant- 
 ing verdure of live oaks, flowers, and shrubbery ; 
 and a visit to his hospitable mansion will well repay 
 those who have a taste for the combined embellish- 
 ments of art and nature. 
 
 And yet the crowning virtue of the life and char- 
 acter of Mr. Hutchings is his deep-founded faith 
 in the precepts and promises of Christianity. He 
 has long been a devout communicant of the Episco- 
 pal Church ; and he considers spiritual attainment 
 and a Christian life far above all earthly possfs- 
 sions and worldly successes — the golden crown of 
 a successful life, of which all other qualifications 
 are but parts. He is a liberal supporter of the 
 church, and wears upon the brow of age the 
 chaplet of many noble charities and benefactions. 
 
M^'- JH.HUTCHINGS 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 155 
 
 GEORGE BALL, 
 
 GALVESTON. 
 
 It has often struck me that the real is the most 
 unreal. David Copperfleld was a more real person- 
 age and will longer exercise an influence in shaping 
 the course of human lives and ultimate human des- 
 tinies than many of the persons who are living and 
 have actually lived. The ordinary human life, 
 except in so far as it concerns the individual 
 soul and affects those with which it mediately 
 or immediately comes in contact, is void of 
 lasting effect. As to itself, it passes away like a 
 sh.adow and is remembered no more. But there 
 have been lives whose influence will extend to 
 remotest time and of these was the life of the sub- 
 ject of this memoir, Mr. George Ball. 
 
 It is doubtful if there ever was an intrinsically 
 noble man who did not have a noble mother, and it 
 is doubtful if any man ever accomplished much 
 worthy of commemoration, who was not sustained 
 and cheered by the companionship and counsel of a 
 noble wife. Mr. Ball possessed both and few men 
 have done more to entitle themselves to an honorable 
 place upon the pages of the State's history. 
 
 He was born May 9th, 1817, at Gausevoort, 
 Saratoga County, N. Y., where he resided until 
 twelve years of age, when he went to live with 
 his uncle, George Hoyt, at Albany, in that 
 Stale. He learned the trade of silversmith and 
 jevreler from his uncle and was indebted to him also 
 for most excellent training in business affairs. On 
 reaching his majority, he set out to seek a location 
 for himself, traveling extensively through the 
 Western and Southern States, and finally set 
 tling for a time in Shreveport, La. There he 
 came to hear a great deal of Texas, and being 
 influenced by favorable reports, at last decided to 
 try his fortunes in the then infant republic. 
 Returning to New York, he formed a copartner- 
 ship with his brother Albert, and, procuring a stock 
 of general merchandise and lumber sufficient to 
 erect a small store house, embarked for Galveston, 
 and arrived there in the fall of 1839, during the 
 disastrous epidemic of yellow fever that prevailed 
 that year. Nothing daunted by the gloomy sur- 
 roundings that environed him, he landed his cargo 
 and, leasing a lot on Tremont street, between 
 Mechanics and Market streets, proceeded to erect 
 his building and open his business. His brother 
 joined him the following year, and their business 
 proving successful, they moved to the vicinity of 
 
 Strand and Twenty-second streets, at that time 
 much nearer to the center of trade than the first 
 site selected. After a few years this firm was dis- 
 solved, Albert entering the clothing business and 
 George continuing that of dry goods. 
 
 In 18.54, Mr. Ball disposed of his mercantile 
 interests and, associating himself with John H. 
 Hutchings and John Sealy, formed the firm of Ball, 
 Hatchings & Co., for banking and commission pur- 
 poses. As senior member of this firm, Mr. Ball 
 showed himself to be a man of good ability. Under 
 his management it soon took rank among the first 
 in the city and eventually became the first In the 
 State. During the four years of the late war (from 
 1861 to 18G5) this firm transacted an extensive 
 business with Europe in the interests of the Con- 
 federate government through Mexico and after- 
 wards, in 1873, tided over that year of panic and 
 failure. Ball, Hutchings & Co., met all demands 
 and, by integrity and business skill, have met and 
 weathered all subsequent financial storms that have 
 wrecked so many business concerns and are now 
 one of the most famous banking houses that the 
 United States can boast. From the first Mr. 
 Ball manifested his belief in the future of Gal- 
 veston and took great interest in everything per- 
 taining to its welfare. There were very few enter- 
 prises started in the city in which he was not 
 one of the foremost workers. To a number of cor- 
 porations and scores of private undertakings, he 
 was a stanch friend and valued contributor. He 
 early saw the advantages that Galveston possessed 
 as a shipping point and advocated and promoted 
 the adoption of all measures that tended to the de- 
 velopment of the transportation interests of the 
 city. He took the first $10,000.00 worth of stock 
 in the Mallory Steamship Company on its organiza- 
 tion. On April 19, 1843, Mr. Ball married Miss 
 Sarah Catherine Perry, a native of Newport, R. I., 
 and a daughter of Capt. James Perry, who set 
 tied at Galveston in 1839. Capt. Perry was con- 
 nected with the Custom House in early days and 
 was for many years a respected citizen of Galves- 
 ton. Of this union six children were born, but two 
 of whom survive : Mrs. Nellie League of Galveston 
 and Frank Merriam Ball. Mr. Ball sought no pub- 
 lic oflSce, his family and business occupying all cf 
 his time and attention. He was a man of quiet 
 tastes and retired habits, known for his great kind- 
 
156 
 
 lAWfAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 ncss of heart aud tiisposilioii to be helpful to others. 
 He came tobe the possessor of much wealth, which, 
 liowever, he sought to use in such a manner as to 
 accomplish the most good for himself and his fellow- 
 men. The year preceding his death, he donated 
 fifty thousand dollars for the erection of a building 
 in Galveston for public school purposes, lo which 
 donation, while the building was in course of con- 
 struction, he added $20,000.00 more. This build- 
 ing was barely finished when his life drew to a 
 close, at 1 : 15 o'clock on the morning of March 
 13, 1884. 
 
 The following letter of acknowledgment was 
 addressed to him by the trustees of the city public 
 free schools, through their secretary: — 
 
 " Office ok Supeuin-tendent, ( 
 " Galvestox, Texas, June Oth, 1883. ) 
 
 " George Ball, Esq., Galveston, Texas: 
 
 " Dear Sir — I have the honor to inform 3-ou that 
 at a regular meeting of the Board of Trustees of 
 the Public Free Schools of the city of Galveston, 
 held June 7th, 1883, Col. W. B. Denson offered 
 the following resolution, which was adopted by a 
 unanimous vote, viz. : — 
 
 " ' Resolved, by the Board of Trustees, that we 
 have received notification of the generous and mag- 
 nificent donation of our fellow-townsman, George 
 Ball, in donating $50,000.00 to be used in the 
 erection of a public school building in the citj' of 
 Galveston, and, as the representatives of the pub- 
 lic free schools of this city, we tender him our 
 sincere and profound gratitude and we bespeak for 
 this broad philanthropy of Mr. Ball the commenda- 
 tion of a grateful people.' 
 
 " I have the honor to further inform you that at 
 the same meeting of the Board of School Trustees, 
 on motion of Col. Denson, the action of the City 
 Council in leaving the construction of the building 
 aforesaid to your direction and supervision was 
 indorsed bj' the Board. 
 
 " Respectfully yours, 
 
 " Foster Rose, Secy." 
 
 His will provided funds in trust, for other char- 
 ites, the chief of which was a fund of §50,000,00 
 to hid the poor of the city. Mr. Ball was buried 
 March 4th, 1884, with all the honors a grateful 
 people could confer upon the memory of one so 
 universally mourned. 
 
 The following is an extract from an editorial that 
 appeared in the columns of the Galveston Daily 
 News oi the morning of March 15th, 1884:^ 
 
 " In all the histor}' of Galveston there has never 
 been a more spontaneous and frevent manifestation 
 
 of sorrow at the death of a member of the commun- 
 ity than that which was given yesterday upon the 
 funeral of Mr. George Ball. The city wore a 
 Sunday-like appearance and, except that the scores 
 of flags that were at half-mast told their own story 
 of the sorrow of the community, a comer to the 
 city would have wondered at the quiet that pre- 
 vailed. At 12 o'clock the Cotton Exchange and 
 banks closed for the day, and between that hour 
 and three o'clock a large number of stores closed 
 their doors. During the day numeroivs tender gifts 
 of flowers were sent to the residence, many of 
 them elegant and elaborate. Among the handsome 
 floral tributes each district school sent a gift, while 
 the children of the Grammar scliool contributed a 
 number of beautiful crosses, crowns and wreaths 
 into which were wrought the initials G. B. Very 
 handsome and artistic floral offerings were sent by 
 Mrs. Kopperl, Mrs. Adoue, Mrs. George Sealy, 
 Capt. Bolger, Mr. and Mrs. W. H. AVillis, Mrs. A. 
 G. Mills, Miss Sorley, the Ladies Aid Societj^ and 
 Miss Garley. One of the tenderest tributes was 
 brought by a little girl, who went to the door of the 
 residence and offered a little cross, saying, ' Please 
 put this on the colHu ; it is the best I could do.' 
 The little giver can rest assured that her offering 
 of love was given a place upon the casket. The 
 funeral services were held at three o'clock, but long 
 before that hour citizens of high and low estate, 
 old and young, white and black, had begun to 
 gather at the residence. The body, inclosed in a 
 handsome casket, rested in the drawing room, where 
 it was viewed by hundreds. Those who knew Mr. 
 Ball in life, could not help noting the naturalness 
 which marked the features in death. The face 
 wore a look of calm, placid rest, as though Mr. 
 Ball had ' wrapped the mantle of his couch about 
 him and laid down to pleasant dreams.' 
 
 "The funeral services, which were held at the 
 bouse, were conducted by the Reverend Mr. Scott, 
 of the Presbj'terian Church. After reading, b}' 
 special request, the beautiful and impressive service 
 of the Episcopal Church, Mr. Scott continued and 
 said : — 
 
 " ' It needs not, dear friends, that I speak with 
 you to-day of him who is no longer with us, nor 
 would it be consonant with the feelings and wishes 
 of those most dearly' concerned that I should do 
 so. The deepest aud truest grief alwa3fs courts 
 silence and retirement. His life was spent in your 
 midst; his record is bef )re you, as a man, 
 a citizen, a philanthropist, a benefactor, he 
 is known to you all ; and I see in this vast throng, 
 here assembled, representing all classes and 
 orders among us, a clear evidence that our whole 
 
-ajV.-H S.C Kos---oet5 KT 
 
 George Ball_ 
 
INDIAX WAh\S AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 157 
 
 ciU', in all ber borders, sits to-day under tlie shadow 
 of a common grief. The aged and the young, the 
 little children of our homes, whose friend he was — 
 arc gathered, notonl}' under an impulse of sympathy 
 with those who have been so sorely bereaved, but 
 under a sense of personal sorrow and loss. And 
 now, while our hearts are touched and attentive, 
 maj' I not, as God's servant, entreat you to lay to 
 heart this admonition ' in the midst of life we are 
 in death ' and ask you to receive God's tender over- 
 tures of grace and salvation, so that when your 
 summons comes to go it may find you in perfect 
 charity with man, at peace with God, in the enjoy- 
 ment of ' a reasonable religious and holy hope ' the 
 result of a life spent with the constant intention to 
 follow the course mapped out by the divine Savior 
 of the world. And let us bear upon the arm of our 
 powerful sympathy those whose grief and sorrow 
 are to-day so great, endeavoring to draw from that 
 great well of comfort to the bereaved, those con- 
 solations which a merciful God gives to the broken 
 heart.' 
 
 "Mr. Scott then read sundry appropriate and con- 
 solatory scriptures, quoting in conclusion Elliott's 
 beautiful lines: — 
 
 " My God and Father while I stray 
 
 Far from my home in life's rough way, 
 O, help me from my heart to say: 
 Thy will be done. 
 
 " Let but my fainting heart be blest 
 
 With Thy sweet spirit for its guest; 
 My God, to Thee I leave the rest; 
 Thy will be done. 
 
 " Renew my will from day to day, 
 
 Blend it with Thine, and take away 
 All that makes it hard to say 
 Thy will be done. 
 
 " Then when on earth I breathe no more, 
 That prayer, oft mixed with tears before, 
 I'll sing upon a happy shore, 
 Thy Will be done. 
 
 "The casket was, upon the conclusion of the 
 services at the residence, taken in charge by the 
 pall-bearers — Mr. Rosenberg, Judge Ballinger,Mr. 
 John Sealy, Mr. George Sealy, Mr. J. H. Hutchings, 
 Mr. Waters S. Davis, Mr. A. J. Walker, Capt. A. N. 
 Sawyer, Mr. James Sorley, Capt. Chas. Fowler, Capt. 
 Bolger and Capt. Lufkin — and conveyed to the 
 hearse. The procession formed with the following 
 societies in the lead in the order named and repre- 
 sented by the numbers stated: — 
 
 " Screwmen's Benevolent Association, 195 men; 
 Longshoremen's Association, 65 : Longshoremen's 
 Benevolent Union, 40 ; Fire Department, 70 ; Gal- 
 veston Typographical Union, 00; Employees of the 
 
 Mallory Steamship Company, 60 ; Bricklayers As- 
 sociation, 40; G. C. P. E. B. and P. Association, 
 60; Franklin Assembly, K. of L., 25; Pioneer 
 Assembly, K. of L., 35; Trades' Assembly, 32; 
 Pressmen's Union, 10; 
 
 " Next came the employees of the bank, on foot ; 
 then the pall-bearers in carriages. The hearse 
 followed, and after it the family and friends. 
 There were eighty-three f-arriages in the procession, 
 which extended over a mile and a quarter on Broad- 
 way. 
 
 "The procession on its way to the cemetery 
 passed the Ball School building, which was draped 
 in mourning. While the funeral cortege was pass- 
 ing through the streets the bells of St. Mary's 
 Cathedral, Trinity Church and St. John's church 
 were tolled. The streets were lined with people 
 along the whole route and at the cemetery the 
 street was crowded with old and young. The 
 flags of the societies, all draped in mourning, were 
 stationed in a square around the grave. The casket 
 was lowered into its final resting-place, a feelincr 
 prayer was offered by Rev. Mr. Scott, and the floral 
 offerings were deposited in the grave, and the 
 tributes were ended. 
 
 "While most of the children of the Grammar 
 school were busily engaged in making the floral 
 tributes placed by them on the casket, several of 
 them passed resolutions of respect to the memory of 
 Mr. Ball. After the committee had finished their 
 work they collected all the pupils in one room, read 
 the resolutions to them and they were unanimously 
 adopted. They are as follows: — 
 
 " ' Whereas, God having taken from us our friend 
 and benefactor, Mr. George Ball, we the children 
 of the Grammar school, as the immediate recipients 
 of his kindness, offer the following resolutions : — 
 
 " ' 1. We heartily sympathize with the family in the 
 act of Providence, which has deprived them of a 
 kind husband and father and us of a true friend. 
 
 " ' 2. We, the children to whom he has endeared 
 himself by this, the crowning work of his life, can 
 only regret that it was not the will of God that he 
 should live to see its completion, and our daily 
 efforts to show our appreciation of the benefits he 
 has placed within our reach. 
 
 "'3. That his name shall be forever cherished 
 among us as that of one to whom it will be said: 
 ' Well done thou good and faithful servant.' 
 
 " '4. That a copy of these resolutions be pre- 
 sented to the bereaved family, and published in the 
 Galveston papers. 
 
 " ' Lewis Sorlev. 
 " ' (Ninth Grade) Grammar.' 
 
 "'Fannie A. Stephenson, Maud F. Royston, 
 
158 
 
 IXDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Waters S. Davis, Jr. (Ninth Grade) ; Anna M. 
 Swain, Virginia M. Sanford, Mamie Boyd (Eighth 
 Grade) ; Maggie A. Maher, Marie Foeke, Sebas- 
 tian Tinslej, Harry Martin (Seventh Grade).' " 
 
 Elsewhere in the News of the same issue appeared 
 the following: "To-day all that was mortal of a 
 man whose memory will be cherished as long as the 
 city stands, will be consigned to the tomb to be 
 seen no more foi-ever in the city in which he was an 
 important member for more than forty years. Re- 
 tiring and quiet in his tastes and habits, his name 
 was yet as familiar as that of the city itself, and 
 the notoriety which he shunned was supplanted by 
 the substantial respect and friendship of the peo- 
 ple, who admired his virtues and integrit}' of char- 
 acter and felt the benefits of his designs and far- 
 reaching public spirit and charily. In the presence 
 of the chaste and severe simplicity of such a char- 
 acter the ordinary forms of praise are out of place, 
 and only those who know perfectly — and none 
 knew more than partially — the beneficent acts 
 which he performed under a cold demeanor or con- 
 cealed even from the beneficiaries, can realize to a 
 fair extent the admirable equipoise of his character. 
 As a man of business, he was as methodical and 
 regular as a machine. In his charities, he would, 
 if possible, have been so, but in the impossibility 
 of discriminating in all demands upon it, he doubt- 
 less erred in being too liberal rather than too rigid. 
 The great commercial house of which he was the 
 senior member has doubtless given far more for 
 religious and charitable purposes and aided more 
 in enterprises for the public good than any other in 
 Texas. There is probably not one among the many 
 churches of Galveston which has not been aided by 
 them. Hospitals and asj'lums for the orphan and 
 aftlictedhave been equally remembered, while steam- 
 ships and railroads have been greatly aided by their 
 ample means. Mr. Ball himself was the reputed 
 owner of about one-eighth interest in the famous 
 New York and Galveston Line of steamships. The 
 house of which he was a senior member was doubt- 
 less the main instrument in making the Santa Fe 
 Railroad, what it has proved, the most important 
 element of its kind in the prosperity of Galveston. 
 Hotels and city railroads have received important 
 aid at their hands, and no enterprise for the benefit 
 of the city has asked help from the firm in vain, 
 while the business men of the city, whether mer- 
 chants or mechanics, have often been sustained and 
 encour.iged by the house. It would be hard to 
 name a worthy object needing aid which has not 
 received it at their hands. But, besides this, Mr. 
 Ball's private charities are known to have been 
 large though even his nearest friends do not know 
 
 their extent. He studiously concealed many of 
 them. Even the crowning gift that became public 
 before his death was made to take effect during his 
 life with much reluctance, because he dreaded the 
 talk and notoriety it would cause. It is under- 
 stood that he had last year or before made pro- 
 vision by will for the appropriation of $100,- 
 000.00 out of his estate to provide a home for aged 
 women, but on reflection he concluded to give half 
 of the amount for the erection of the public school 
 building which is now arising as a fitting monument 
 to his fame, which is destined to rise higher after 
 his long and useful life has ended. * * * Though 
 a strictly business man and supposed to look mainly 
 to profitable results, he loved a good name better 
 than riches, and would have preferred any pecuniary 
 loss to a tarnished reputation or any violence to his 
 own conscience. * * * Mr. Ball's was in every 
 sense of the word a remarkable and admirable 
 character. Indeed he may have been taken as the 
 type of the ideal business man. Of a fine and im- 
 pressive personal appearance, with a massive and 
 well-shaped head and keen, yet kindly eyes, his 
 outward appearance rightly indicated his mental 
 and moral qualities. It has been said by good 
 judges, themselves able business men, that, in their 
 opinion, Mr. George Ball was the most sagacious 
 business man in the State and, perhaps, in the 
 South. He was possessed of an eminently con- 
 servative turn of mind, of a sharp insight into men 
 and affairs, and, when occasion demanded it, he 
 acted promptly and decisively. The admirable 
 blending of these two qualities, caution and decision 
 of character, gave him the kej' to that success which 
 he invariably commanded. 
 
 " By a wise management of his affairs, Mr. Ball 
 acquired a large estate. 
 
 " No man will ever know the amount of unosten- 
 tatious beneficence that is surely credited to this 
 self-poised but truly modest and kind-hearted 
 man. * * * He ever and conscientiously de- 
 clined election to public office. His life was 
 wholly occupied by his business and his family, 
 and, dying, he left no enemies, no animosities, no 
 heart-burnings behind him. His self-reliant and 
 yet retiring disposition shaded him, as it were, 
 from public notoriety, but those who knew him well 
 will not think it at all extravagant when we say 
 that he possessed abilities that would have enabled 
 him to fill any position in the country with dis- 
 tinction. And that as a symmetrical character 
 and an upright man we do not know of his 
 superior." 
 
 It is a hard struggle to fight one's way to finan- 
 cial independence and harder still to achieve that 
 
■^^ Sarah C. Ball. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 159 
 
 independence and at the same time maintain a 
 philanthropic interest in the welfare of others, even 
 those who are contemporaneous, and almost im- 
 possible as regards posterity ; yet, Mr. Ball was 
 one of the few wlio succeeded in spite of all 
 obstacles, and, notwithstanding the manj' chilling 
 influences that every successful man must en- 
 counter, entertained a genuine love for his fellow- 
 men and a deep interest in the future welfare of 
 his country and his kind. He did not care for 
 money in itself, but simply for the power it gave 
 him for good. His benefactions were many and 
 continuous, but perhaps the most permanently 
 beneficial was the donation for the public school 
 building in Galveston. In a free country where 
 every citizen is intrusted with the privilege and 
 invested with the duties of suffrage the question of 
 popular education, above all others, is the most 
 vitally important, for the reason that the sole hope 
 of constitutional freedom and good government 
 
 must ever rest upon tlie intelligence of the citizen. 
 It is almost impossible to estimate the ultimate 
 value of this donation, equally notable for the 
 wisdom and enlightened and noble spirit that 
 inspired it — ^ a donation worthy of all praise and 
 of emulation. It is sufficient to say that it is 
 fraught with blessings to the State. In every 
 walk of life be was a potential factor. He left his 
 impress deep upon the times in which he lived. 
 Subsequent to Mr. Ball's death, Mrs. Ball had 
 the school building beautifully remodeled and a 
 handsome mansard roof put on it, at an additional 
 cost of $40,000.00, and spent $10,000.00 more in 
 suitably furnishing it. She was one of the organiz- 
 ers of the First Presbyterian Church established in 
 Galveston and is the only survivor of those whose 
 names appear upon the first roll. A cultured, 
 gracious and exceptionally talented lady, she is 
 one of the brightest ornaments of the refined 
 society of the Oleander City. 
 
 GEORGE SEALY, 
 
 GALVESTON. 
 
 George Sealy, than whom no other man in Texas 
 has contributed more to the development of the 
 commerce of the State of Texas or to the develop- 
 ment of its general resources, and than whom in 
 this commonwealth there is none who has made a 
 deeper impress on the times in which he lives, was 
 born in the famous Wyoming Valley, Luzerne 
 Co., Pa., on the 9th day of January, 1835. 
 His parents, Eobert and Mary (McCarty) Sealy, 
 were born in Cork, Ireland. They were married 
 and came to America in the year 1818. His father 
 was one of eight children — four sons and four 
 daughters. Quite a large family estate was owned 
 in Ireland, but it was entailed and his father, being 
 the fourth son, receivedonly what the eldest brother 
 was willing to concede to him. This, however, at 
 the time of Robert Sealy's marriage, amounted to 
 several thousand dollars, which he brought with him 
 to America. He had also learned a trade (which 
 was customary at that time), to fall back on if nec- 
 essary. The trade that he selected was that of a 
 locksmith. It was well that he learned a trade, for 
 he found it useful in later life. He settled down 
 in Pennsylvania but engaged in no active business, 
 content, apparently, to live on his capital, instead 
 
 of endeavoring to increase it. As his capital de- 
 creased his family increased and, as time rolled on, 
 he became the father of ten children — eight daugh- 
 ters and two sons. Next to the oldest child came 
 his son John and next to the last, the subject of 
 this memoir, George Sealy. His family having 
 thus grown and his money gone, he applied himself, 
 from necessity, with energy and patience to the 
 trade he had learned in his younger days, in order 
 to earn a support for himself, wife and children. 
 When reduced to this condition he ceased all cor- 
 respondence with his family in Ireland and his 
 older brother, supposing him dead, and having no 
 male offspring of his own, broke the entail, and gave 
 the property to his nephew. This put an end to all 
 Robert Sealy's claims to the estate. 
 
 These facts are mentioned to show that he had 
 apparently little desire for the acquisition of 
 wealth. He dieii in 1855, when sixty-six years 
 of age. All that he left to his children was 
 a name as an honest man and a reputation as a 
 consistent member of the Presbyterian Church. 
 His wife was also a member of the same church and 
 a most devout Christian woman. Her influence 
 over the children was much more effective in mold- 
 
160 
 
 INDIAN WAES AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 ing their after lives than that of the father. Her 
 constant prayers and advice to them was to be 
 industrious, economical, honest, and truthful. 
 Example and precept were all she had to give 
 them. 
 
 Very early in life the subject of this memoir 
 felt the necessity of caring for himself and experi- 
 enced an ambition to, at some future time, become 
 independent. He attended common schools until 
 twelve years of age, and then undertook to take 
 care of himself. His first earnings were gained by 
 working for ten cents per day and his board, his 
 employment being to sit on the end of a plow beam 
 to hold the point of the plow in the ground when- 
 ever the plowman had to cross gravel beds. He 
 would walk from one streak of gravel to another 
 and mount the end of the plow beam until it 
 was passed. He next worked on a farm for five 
 dollars per month and board and went to school 
 three months during the winter season, working 
 during these three months, nights and mornings, 
 for his board. The three following years he 
 worked in a country store, selling goods, sweeping 
 out and keeping books nine months in the year at 
 five dollars per month, and the other three months 
 attending the Wyoming Seminary, at Kingston, 
 Pa., working mornings and evenings for his board. 
 When eighteen years of age the Lackawana and 
 Bloomsburg Railroad was built into the Wyoming 
 valley — the first railroad to enter the great coal 
 valley of the Wyoming— and he accepted the posi- 
 tion of station agent at Kingston and held it until 
 he was twenty-two years of age. At that time his 
 salary had been increased to fifty dollars per 
 month and he had saved eleven hundred dollars. 
 In the si)ring of 1857 he decided to come to Texas, 
 and, to better his chances for a posit'on in a busi- 
 ness house, went to Pittsburg, Pa., and took a 
 course in a commercial college. 
 
 After graduating there he took one hundred dol- 
 lars of his money to pay his expenses to Texas and 
 left one thousand with his mother for her use in 
 case of necessity, or for the use of his unmarried 
 sisters. He reached Galveston in November, 1857, 
 during the great panic of that year, with $25 in his 
 pocket. His ambition, as already stated, was to 
 become financially independent, and this ambition 
 could only be accomplished by hard work and 
 economizing in every way. His idea was that any 
 boy or young man, with good health and with no 
 one but himself to care for, could save enough of 
 his earnings to eventually become independent of 
 others, but to thus succeed he must deprive him- 
 self of what might be considered the luxuries of 
 tobacco, cigars and liquors of all kinds, simplj', if 
 
 for no other reason, because of expense. He spent 
 no money on these articles until late in life. His 
 advice to all young men has been never to decline 
 work on account of the salary offered, and never to 
 abandon a situation unless another is offered at an 
 increased salary. A living should be the first con- 
 sideration of every poor boy or man, and if his 
 services are valuable, his present employers will 
 testify their appreciation of that fact by offering 
 him proper compensation therefor, or others will 
 discover his qualities and engage his services. 
 
 On his arrival in Galveston in November, 1857, 
 he offered his services to Ball, Hatchings & Com- 
 pany, with the understanding that he would work 
 one year and accept such salary, if any, as they 
 might determine upon. 
 
 His duties during the first year included those 
 of shipping clerk, opening the office, sweeping out 
 the store and any other work at which he could 
 make himself useful. He neglected no opportunity 
 to gain all the knowledge he could of the busi- 
 ness. He made it his business to volunteer to do 
 the work of any of the clerks who were sick, or 
 were allowed a vacation. In this way he soon 
 became competent to fill any position in the office. 
 To perform this extra labor he would commence 
 work at six o'clock in the morning and often 
 remain at his post until as late as eleven o'clock 
 at night. His willingness to work and eagerness to 
 make himself competent and valuable constituted 
 the basis of his after success. "The great 
 error," he has often said, "that young men 
 make, is being content to perform the only duties 
 they are paid for, and having no ambition to 
 advance themselves through the means of extra 
 labor for which they get no pay. As a result, 
 they are not competent to fill higher positions and 
 they, perforce, go through life receiving small 
 salaries and doing as little work as the}' possibly 
 can." 
 
 His salary was advanced from year to year, but 
 without an}' demand on his part. During the year 
 1859 he was offered a partnersliip in a large 
 grocery house, which was being considered liy him, 
 when Mr. George Ball heard of the offer and said 
 to him that the firm of Ball, Hutchings & Co., 
 would not allow him to leave their employ and 
 that all he had to do was to name a salary that 
 would be satisfactory and it would be cheerfully 
 given. A satisfactory arrangement was made and 
 the partnership in the grocery business abandoned. 
 Mr. Sealy's first vote was cast for John C. Free- 
 mont for President of the United States in 1856. 
 He was opposed to the extension of slavery into 
 new territory, but recognized the constitutional 
 
Y.rii ':'■:'/ H ?-- C Koe 
 
 GEOPGE SEALY 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 101 
 
 right of the then existing slave States to own 
 negroes as property ; not because he approved or 
 was in favor of the system of slavery, but because 
 it was the acknowledged law of the land and only 
 by war or by purchase of the negroes by the general 
 government could that law be rightfully abrogated. 
 War came and slavery was abolisiied. The election 
 of Mr. Lincoln as President of the United States in 
 18G0 brought about the secession of the Southern 
 States. The question then came up in the mind of 
 Mr. Sealy, what was his duty to himself? He 
 decided tliat, as he came to Texas to make it his 
 home, he would obey the laws of the State of Texas 
 and take his chances with the other people of the 
 State, even in war, although he was opposed to 
 secession. He continued his connection with Ball, 
 Hutchings & Co., but it became necessary in 1862 
 for him to join some military organization or be 
 subject to conscription. He accordingly enlisted 
 as a volunteer in the independent company of 
 cavalry organized by the late Col. H. B. Andrews 
 as one of its original members. Mr. Sealy says he 
 has always entertained a high opinion of the military 
 qualities of Col. Andrews, as the Colonel's inde- 
 pendent eompan}' was attached to perhaps eight or 
 ten battalions or regiments during the war; the 
 Colonel had a kind heart and was always willing to 
 allow his company to be attached for the time being 
 to a battalion to create the office of Major for some 
 military friend of his deserving the position, or to 
 be attached to a number of companies to form a 
 regiment so as to make a Colonel of a friend of his. 
 It, however, never reported to an}' Major or Colonel 
 to complete the organization and thus saw no active 
 service. 
 
 The company, as a matter of fact, was composed 
 of such valuable material that the members were 
 all detailed for the discharge of special and im- 
 portant duties, and the Colonel could never get his 
 men together in time to perfect a battalion or regi- 
 mental organization. The result was that the war 
 lid not last long enough to give the Colonel an 
 opportunity to lead his men to the front for targets. 
 They all survived the war and have been gratefu' 
 for the strategy exhibited by him during the war 
 for the purpose of securing their comfort and safety. 
 Mr. Sealy enlisted for three years, as the law 
 required in 1862. Being opposed to secession he 
 was consistent in not accepting anything in the way 
 of pay from the Confederacy for his services as 
 a soldier and lived at his own expense. He was 
 detailed to serve in the office of Gen. Slaughter, 
 commanding the Western Division of Texas, at 
 Brownsville, and in 1865 performed the last official 
 service that was rendered the Confederacy, signing 
 
 the parole, under official authority', of the soldiers 
 of the lost cause who surrendered at Brownsville on 
 the Rio Grande — the last to lay down their arms. 
 He served his full three years without pay, but not 
 without honor, as he was repeatedly offered higher 
 positions which he declined. The position he took, 
 from necessity, was that of a private, and he would 
 not do himself the injustice to accept, voluntarily, 
 any higher position, as he had promised himself to 
 comply simply with the existing laws of the land 
 and this he did faithfully. During the years 
 from 1862 to 1865 he was also representing Ball, 
 Hutchings & Co., at Blatamoros, Mexico, in 
 receiving and shipping cotton from Texas to 
 Liverpool and cotton-cards from Europe. Ball, 
 Hutchings & Co. had a contract with the State of 
 Texas to deliver 20,000 pairs of cotton cards. A 
 part of the consideration was, that they were 
 granted by the State the privilege of exporting a 
 certain number of bales of cotton free from anj' in- 
 terference on the part of the Confederate officers. 
 The war ended in May, 1865, and, after the army 
 at Brownsville was disbanded, Mr. Sealy signed his 
 own parole, having been authorized so to do, took 
 passage on a government transport and went to Gal- 
 veston. The city was still under the domination of 
 the Federal military authorities. Business was 
 allowed to go on unimpeded and Ball, Hutchings & 
 Companj' opened their office again as bankers. 
 
 This firm was established in the year 1855 and 
 was composed at that time of Geo. Ball, John H. 
 Hutchings and John Sealy. It is not necessary to 
 say anything of the members individually here, as 
 suitable biographical notices are to be found upon 
 other pages of this volume. When the firm was 
 established their business was that of wholesale dry 
 goods and commission merchants. In 1860 they 
 sold out thefr dry goods business and continued the 
 cotton commission business. It was during this 
 year, 18G0, that the subject of this memoir con- 
 ceived the idea of adding banking to the business 
 of the firm on his own responsibility ; demonstrated 
 the propriety and advantage of the step, had blanks 
 printed and distributed among the members of the 
 local business community and, in a short time there- 
 after, put into successful operation a regular bank- 
 ing business. From that time forward the firm of 
 Ball, Hutchings & Company became known as 
 bankers as well as commission merchants. It can 
 be truthfully said that the firm never solicited 
 patronage. That which came to it came voluntarily. 
 The firm has enjoyed from its beginning to the 
 present time an unbroken reputation for liberality 
 and fair dealing. In the year 1865 Mr. George 
 Sealy became interested in the business, being 
 
162 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEEliS OF TEXAS. 
 
 allowed a percentage of the profits, and in 1867 
 became a full partner and has since so remained, 
 having active management of the banking depart- 
 ment. Mr. Sealy has ever been a public spirited 
 citizen. He, and all the members of his firm, have 
 been called upon to lead in nearly every public 
 enterprise inaugurated in Galveston. It has fre- 
 quently been said that if Ball, Hutchings & Co. 
 declined to subscribe to any public enterprise, it 
 would necessarily fail. Consequently, Mr. Sealy 
 has always been expected to take an active part in 
 and use his influence for the promotion of such 
 movements. In 1873 the Gulf, Colorado & Santa 
 Fe Railway Co. was chartered and in 1877 about 
 fifty miles of road had been built, or rather, track 
 had been laid that distance, but the company had 
 no rolling stock, as there was no business on the 
 road. It extended into Fort Bend County, but the 
 company had neither money nor credit to extend 
 the line further, and the work therefore ceased. 
 Galveston County had contributed five hundred 
 thousand dollars, and its citizens had contributed 
 about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in 
 stock of the company-, and this amount (seven hun- 
 dred and fifty thousand dollars) bad been expended 
 on the road. There was great depression in Gal- 
 veston on account of discriminations in railroad 
 rates, and in 1878, Mr. Sealy, seeing the great 
 necessity of protecting the interests of Galveston 
 merchants by further extending the Gulf, Col- 
 orado & Santa Fe road, by his unaided efforts 
 organized a syndicate to purchase and extend the 
 line into the interior. This movement was suc- 
 cessful. The line was extended wholly b}' the 
 capital and credit of Galveston people, mainly 
 through the influence of Mr. Sealy and the other 
 members of the firm of Ball, Hutchings & Co. 
 By 1886 the road was built to Fort Worth, to San 
 Angelo and to Dallas, about seven hundred miles, 
 when Mr. Sealy, seeing the necessity of making a 
 connection with some system through which to 
 reach the great Northwest, entered into negotia- 
 tions with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Co. 
 to make an exchange of Gulf, Colorado & Santa 
 Fe stock on a basis satisfactory to both parties, 
 and the result of this action upon his part was 
 that the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Co. completed 
 its road to Paris, Texas, to a connection with the St. 
 Louis & San Francisco road and to Purcell, I. T., 
 to a connection with the Atchison Company, making 
 a total of 1058 miles of Gulf, Colorado & Santa 
 Fe road. Mr. Sealy remained president of the 
 company until this mileage was completed and 
 the management was transferred to the Atchison 
 Company. 
 
 The Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe road is the 
 only road in Texas that has not at some 
 time been sold out to satisfy creditors or placed 
 in the hands of receivers. Its finances were 
 managed entirely by Mr. Sealy and his bank- 
 ing firm. Every contract entered into by it was 
 carried out to the letter and the contractors 
 promptly paid in cash all amounts due them. 
 These facts are mentioned to show that Mr. Sealy 
 is entitled to be considered an able manager and 
 financier. For the sake of history, we might men- 
 tion that in the contract for the transfer, or ex- 
 change of stock of the Gulf, Colorado & Santa 
 Fe Co., to the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Co., 
 involving about twenty-five million dollars, includ- 
 ing stock and bonds, it was agreed by him for the 
 stockholders of the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Co. 
 that the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe should be de- 
 livered to the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Co. 
 free from floating indebtedrtess after the completion 
 of its line of road. Owing to bad crops and con- 
 sequent bad business, when the Gulf, Colorado 
 & Santa Fe mileage was completed the road was 
 not free from floating debt (debts due outside of 
 its bonded indebtedness), and Mr. Sealy so reported 
 to the Atchison Companj'. The Atchison Com- 
 pany, having every confidence in him, left the 
 matter entirely in his hands for adjustment. The 
 difference was made out bj' him and he submitted 
 the accounts to the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe 
 stockholders and asked them to pay an assessment 
 amounting to only .5 per cent on the stock to make 
 up the deficiency. This was freely paid by all of 
 the honest stockholders. A few, however, refused, 
 claiming that they could not be legally compelled 
 to pay on the ground that the constitution of the 
 State of Texas prohibits the consolidation with 
 railroad companies outside of Texas. Mr. Seal^' 
 said that the debt was honestly due and, for him- 
 self, he never looked for a legal loophole to get out 
 of an honorable business transaction. The few, 
 however, whose names we will not mention, whom 
 he designated in public correspondence at the time 
 as " Colonels " did not pa}' their assessments and, 
 in order to comply with the contract he had made 
 with the Atchison Company', he proposed to pay 
 what was due from the "Colonels" himself, but 
 the Atchison Company declined to permit him to 
 do so, because of this legally unsettled constitu- 
 tional question. In this transaction alone, Mr. 
 Sealy could have made a million of dollars, but he 
 acted in good faith as president of the Gulf, Col- 
 orado & Santa Fe, and every stockholder, large and 
 small, received the same for their stock that he 
 did. When he had the contract signed, in his 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 icr. 
 
 hands, he could have purchased the stock of the 
 "Colonels" at a much less price than they re- 
 ceived, but he was not made of their kind of 
 material, and was content to deal fairly with 
 his fellow-stockholders. The correspondence 
 that took place at the time would be interest- 
 ing [reading, but we have not space to intro- 
 duce it here. Mr. Sealy is president of the 
 Texas Guarantee and Trust Company, vice-presi- 
 dent of the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Ey. Co., 
 treasurer of the Galveston Cotton Exchange, Gal- 
 veston Rope and Twine Co., Galveston Free School 
 Board, Galveston Maritime Association, Galveston 
 Protestant Orphans' Home and Galveston J^vening 
 Tribune Publishing Co. ; a director in the Galves- 
 ton Wharf Co., Galveston Gas Co., Southern Kan- 
 sas & Texas Ry. Co., Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe 
 Ry. Co., Galveston Cotton & Woolen Mills Co., 
 Galveston Cotton Exchange, Galveston Maritime 
 Association, Texas Land & Loan Co., Rembert 
 Roller Compress Co., Southern Cotton Compress 
 Co., Blueflelds Banana Co., Galveston Agency 
 of the Galveston Meat Exporting Co., and the 
 Galveston Electric Light Co. He has never had 
 a desire for public office. Being urgently solic- 
 ited, he did, however, allow his name to go be- 
 fore the people of Galveston in the year 1872, as a 
 candidate for alderman and was elected to and 
 filled that position. During his term he advocated 
 and secured the introduction of reforms that were 
 valuable to the cit}'. When he entered the council, 
 city scrip was selling at fifty cents on the dollar. 
 This was caused largelj' by the fact of there being no 
 limitation to the expenditure of money in any 
 department of the city government. He saw the 
 necessit}' of ascertaining the probable revenue for 
 the coming year and of setting aside for the several 
 departments of the government a certain propor- 
 tion of the estimated revenues and confining ex- 
 penditures to the estimated resources for that 
 period. He also advocated the passage of an ordi- 
 nance providing that the mayor should bo subjected 
 to a penalty for signing any draft on the treasurer 
 of the city, when there was no mone^' in the hands 
 of the treasurer to cover it. Necessary ordinances 
 were accordingly enacted. These salutary reforms 
 accomplished, the credit of the city was restored, 
 and its affairs thereafter conducted on a cash 
 basis. These reforms have since been generally 
 adopted in other cities in the State. Mr. Sealy 
 realizes that politics and business do not har- 
 monize. He has frequently been called upon to 
 allow his name to be presented for congressman, but 
 has always declined. Had he consented, no doubt 
 he would have been nominated and elected. His 
 
 name has also been frequently mentioned as a busi- 
 ness candidate for the position of Governor of 
 Texas. He is well known to all classes, rich and 
 poor, black and white, young and old. It has 
 been a rule of bis life to recognize manhood in the 
 boy as well as the man, and he speaks pleasantly 
 to all, irrespective of their position as regards 
 color, wealth, or education. It has been reported 
 that on one occasion, when passing through a city 
 in Texas, a man engaged in a profitable business 
 stopped Mr. Sealy in the street and, extending his 
 hand, said: "You do not know me now, but I 
 want to shake your hand. I well remember that 
 when I was a boy in Galveston, serving as collector 
 for a wholesale house and earning only a few dol- 
 lars per month, you always spoke to me in passing 
 and I always felt better after meeting j^ou. It 
 made me think better of myself, and I know that 
 your kindljr recognition had a good influence over 
 me, as I believed that you considered me a boy of 
 character or you would not have spoken to me." 
 
 Kindness costs nothing, and it often exercises a 
 good and lasting influence. There is no envy in 
 Mr. Sealy's nature. He rejoices in the success of 
 his competitors and during times of panic and dis- 
 tress has frequently helped them with his means 
 and advice to escape failure. He contributes to all 
 classes of charities, because it is his pleasure to d& 
 so. He has acted upon the principle that it is 
 " more blessed to give than to receive." 
 
 Mr. Sealy was married to Miss Magnolia Willis, 
 the daughter of P. J. Willis, of the great commer- 
 cial house of P. J. Willis & Bros., of Galvestou, 
 in 1875. The}' have eight children, viz. : — 
 
 Margaret, Ella, George, Caroline, Rebecca, 
 Marj', Robert and William. 
 
 Mr. Sealy is not fond of display or notoriety. 
 He did, however, in order to gratify the desire of 
 his wife and children and to show his great confi- 
 dence in the future prosperity' of Galveston, con- 
 sent to erect an elegant residence, perhaps the most 
 expensive in the State. It has been said that its 
 cost amounted to two hundred and fiftj' thousand 
 dollars. 
 
 Mr. Sealy's firm. Ball, Hutchings & Co., perhaps 
 the wealthiest banking firm in the South, have been 
 most liberal bankers. They have been successful 
 and could afford to sustain occasional losses. 
 Their losses, however, have been nearly all in- 
 curred in trying to help some one to build up a 
 business in the interest of Galveston and the State 
 of Texas. From experience and observation Mr. 
 Sealy has concluded that, as statistics prove but 
 three men out of every one hundred succeed in 
 making more than a living, it is very riskj' to ad- 
 
164 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 vance money to any one who has not proved him- 
 self competent to accumulate something beyond 
 his expenses from year to year, however small his 
 capital may be at the outset. It has been said 
 that "success is the only measure of merit." 
 This truism applies not only to the making, or 
 accumulating of property but to all professions, 
 arts and sciences as well. Success is not a matter 
 of chance, the few exceptions noted by common 
 experience proving rather than militating against 
 the rule. 
 
 Show me your man who occupies a high and 
 useful place among his fellows and is adding to 
 the happiness and prosperity of the community 
 and country in which he lives and, nine times out 
 of ten, I will show you a man who has made his 
 own way, and that, too, against all manner of 
 opposition, to the eminence, independence and 
 usefulness of his present station. The life of no 
 man who has made the world better or wiser by 
 living, or liaving lived, or who has added to the 
 comfort of his fellow-beings, or has set an example 
 worthy of emulation, ever has been or ever can be a 
 failure. To really fail is to fail in all these things. 
 
 There are men in Texas to-daj- whose lives are 
 like salt leavening the mass ; whose lives are full 
 of wholesome lessons to the young; men whose 
 deeds have been prolific of good to the common- 
 wealth ; men who have helped to lay broad and 
 deep the foundations of the State's greatness. 
 The development of natural resources and the 
 
 march of natural progress along all lines during 
 the past thirty years is without parallel in any other 
 period of time of thrice its length in the annals of 
 human liistory. This has been particularly marked 
 in the South since the war. She now no longer 
 mainly boasts of her statesmen and soldiers, but 
 that, from her best brain and purpose she has 
 evolved a race of able financiers and city builders. 
 Many railroads now traverse her hills and plains 
 and valleys, rich argosies ride at anchor in her 
 ports, furnaces glow deep red in her valleys, the 
 whirr of ever-increasing spindles makes music in 
 her cities and a tide of hardy, industrious immi- 
 grants is flowing into her waste places. Texas has 
 not been behind her sister States in the march of 
 industrial and commercial progress. A change 
 has been wrought that the most sanguine little 
 dreamed of in those sad days that followed after 
 the close of the war. The men who have been 
 leading workers in the bringing about of this won- 
 derful increase of wealth, unfolding of resources 
 and general development, are worthy of all praise. 
 They have made history — some of its brightest 
 pages. The enduring monuments that they have 
 erected are stately cities, great transportation lines 
 and churches, school houses and industrial enter- 
 prises. 
 
 One of the foremost of this band has been the 
 subject of this memoir, whose financial skill, 
 energy, liberality, patriotic purpose and con- 
 structive genius have done much for Texas. 
 
 HENRY J. LUTCHER, 
 
 ORANGE. 
 
 Henry J. Lutcher, one of the wealthiest saw-mill 
 operators in the United Slates and one of the most 
 widely known citizens of Texas, was born in 
 Williamsport., Pa., on the 4th of November, 1836. 
 
 His parents, Lewis and Barbara Lutcher, natives 
 of Germanj^, came to America in 182C and located 
 in Williamsport, where they passed the remaining 
 years of their lives. The mother died in 1883 and 
 the father nine days later, leaving but little 
 propertj'. 
 
 The subject of this memoir was early thrown 
 upon his own resources. In 1857, he began busi- 
 ness upon his own account as a farmer and butcher 
 and continued in these pursuits for five years, dur- 
 
 ing which time he cleared about $15,000.00. He 
 then associated himself with John Waltman, under 
 the firm name of Lutcher & Waltman, and engaged 
 in the lumber business at Williamsport. At the 
 expiration of two years he induced his copartner 
 to sell his interest to G. Bedell Moore, who has 
 since been Mr. Lutcher's business associate, under 
 the firm name of Lutcher & Moore. Mr. Lutcher 
 while operating the mill at Williamsport, Pa. , bought 
 a large number of cattle which he shipped to that 
 place over the Philadelphia & Erie Railroad and 
 sold to local butchers. His profits from this source 
 amounted to about $50,000.00. In 1870 he visited 
 Texas for the purpose of prospecting for timbered 
 
.JoLrjTClHEK 
 
Emi^byWEfiathti: BaLynM Y 
 
 L^oJJoLQJTTC&aiEK. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 165 
 
 lands. He first traveled through the country lying 
 along the banks of the Neches as far up as Bevil- 
 port. He then traveled along the west side of the 
 Sabine to Burr's ferry, crossed the river there and 
 came down the east bank to Orange, penetrating 
 through the finest belt of long-leaf pine timber 
 that he had ever seen. He and his partner at 
 once invested largely in these lands and put up a 
 mammoth saw-mill at Orange. In 1889 they also 
 built at Lutcher, La., one of the largest and best 
 appointed saw-mills in the United States. Seven 
 hundred and fifty thousand dollars were expended 
 on this mill before it paid them a dollar. The two 
 mills cut 200,000 feet of logs a day and average an 
 output of sixty million feet of lumber annually, 
 which meets with a ready sale. These invest- 
 ments have increased in value until Mr. Lutcher 
 is now several times a millionaire. Messrs. 
 Lutcher & Moore maintained lumber yards for a 
 number of years at various points throughout the 
 State, but finally discontinued them and now do a 
 strictly wholesale business. They ran the mill 
 at Wiliiamsport, Pa., until about eight j'ears 
 ago, since which time they have confined their 
 attention to their Texas and Louisiana interests. 
 Mr. Lutcher says he knows that Orange and Beau- 
 mont, Texas, and Lake Charles, La., have the 
 best and most extensive saw-mill plants in the 
 world. The improved methods that he has intro- 
 duced in the operation of his properties have been 
 adopted by other mill owners and have been largely 
 influential in building up the lumber industry in 
 Texas and Louisiana to its present enormous pro- 
 portions. The mills at Orange (an attractive and 
 thriving town of forty-five hundred people) payout 
 upwards of $100,000 per month for labor, alone. 
 
 Mr. Lutcher was united in marriage to Miss 
 Frances Ann Robinson, daughter of David Robin- 
 son, Esq., of Wiliiamsport, Pa., January 23, 
 1858, and has two children, Mariam, wife of W. 
 A. Stark, Esq., and Carrie Launa, wife of Dr. E. 
 W. Brown ; both living at Orange. He early mani- 
 fested a taste for reading and although his business 
 interests have required close attention, has found 
 time to thoroughly familiarize himself with the 
 works of the best writers and thinkers of Europe 
 and America, in ancient and modern times, in the 
 domains of science, art, philosophj', history, litera- 
 ture, sociology and political economy'. The study 
 of the ethnic character, political institutions and 
 history of the various peoples who have figured on 
 the world's great stage of action, from the dim day- 
 dawn of the race to the present time, has been a 
 source of deep and absorbing interest to him. 
 Seated in his cosy library at night, when the 
 
 business cares of the day are laid aside, he has 
 found it a pleasure to follow the rise and fall 
 of the Grecian republics, to trace step by step 
 the evolution of the Roman republic and its 
 progress through days of unexampled glory 
 to its final decay and the rise and decline of the 
 Roman Empire built upon its ruins, to follow the 
 growth and development of the British cocstitution 
 and to study our own institutions. There are few 
 public men in this country who have such an ac- 
 curate knowledge of the events that preceded the 
 American revolution, who are so familiar with the 
 history of parties, who have acquired a truer in- 
 sight into the Federal constitution or who better 
 understand the purpose, scope and genius of our 
 free institutions. Of a singularly clear and un- 
 clouded mentality, he fully comprehends and 
 aopreciates the gravity of the problems that the 
 people will be called upon to solve in the days that 
 are moving toward us from the unknown future — 
 riddles propounded by the sphinx of destin}' and 
 that must be answered rightly to avoid disaster. 
 He is neither an optimist nor pessimist, but appre- 
 hends facts as thej' exist and looks forward with 
 the prevision that comes of a wide-extended knowl- 
 edge of the past. Like many other of our ablest 
 thinkers, he appreciates the necessity for reforms 
 in many directions, the checking of the processes 
 of corruption now at work in many departments of 
 our national. State and municipal life, and for the 
 rekindling of the fires of true patriotism that have 
 lost much of the glow and warmth of earlier years. 
 There was' a time when the very existence of this, 
 the greatest of all republics, exercised a potential 
 influence upon the destinies of older States and 
 acted as a beacon to guide liberty-loving men along 
 the path to freer institutions. Then such a monu- 
 ment as Bartholdi's statue " Liberty P^nlighten- 
 ing the World " would have been truly representa- 
 tive of the spirit and mission of our country, but 
 can this be truly said to-day, when we begin to 
 hear of " upper," " middle," and " lower classes," 
 when there has been a general and wide-spread 
 departure from the plain republican simplicity of 
 the fathers, when the burdens of government are 
 borne by the many and the benefits enjoyed by the 
 very few, when we are threatened with a pluto- 
 cratic aristocracy in which money and not merit is 
 to decide the rank and standing of those within its 
 pale, and when the press can no longer be consid- 
 ered the secure palladium of the people's liberties! 
 No one man can hope to avert the evils that threaten 
 to undermine national life, for that must be the work 
 of many patient, toiling minds, drawing their inspira- 
 tion from an unselfish love for their country and 
 
106 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 for their fellow-men, yet each man capacitated for 
 the task can point out the defects that he has dis- 
 covered and suggest the remedies that he deems 
 sufficient to repair them. Mr. Lutcher has done 
 much thinking along this line and has been solicited 
 by the editors of several of the leading magazines 
 of the country to prepare a series of articles for 
 publication in their periodicals, and will probably 
 accede to their request during the coming j^ear. 
 Thoroughly familiar with his subject, an elegant 
 and trenchant writer, possessed of a mind stored 
 with the "spoils of time," these productions will 
 be looked for with interest and will doubtless cause 
 something more than a ripple in the world of con- 
 temporaneous thought. Mr. Lutcher has a large 
 and carefully selected library and one of his great- 
 est home-pleasures is to spend the evening hours 
 with his books. He agrees with Ruskin, who said 
 that it seemed strange to him that a man would 
 fritter awaj' his time in idle conversation, when, by 
 going to the shelves of his book-case, he could talk 
 with the great and good of all ages, with Plato and 
 Socrates, with Plutarch and Marcus Aurelius — the 
 kings and princes in the realm of letters. 
 
 He is an indefatigable worker, every hour having 
 its appointed duties. He says that he owes much 
 of his success in life to the aid given him by his wife 
 
 and that as they have journeyed down the stream of 
 time she has " steered him clear of many a danger- 
 ous snag." She is thoroughly convei'sant with his 
 business affairs and he consults her judgment in all 
 matters of importance. Their palatial home covers 
 a beautiful site of four acres on the west bank of 
 the Sabine, overlooking that stream, and here they 
 dispense a royal hospitality to their numerous 
 friends in Texas and other States. Mr. Lutcher has 
 taken a deep interest and been a pot-ent factor in 
 the development of the Texas coast country. 
 Every worthy enterprise has found in him a liberal 
 supporter. He has been a power for good in 
 Southern Texas. His is a strong, magnetic per- 
 sonality that would make itself felt in any assem- 
 blage, however distinguished, or in any field of 
 effort. He is an ardent Democrat, but with his 
 father was bitterly opposed to the late war. He 
 believes that it was brought on by scheming and 
 reckless demagogues, indifferent to the long train of 
 miseries they heaped upon their distracted country. 
 In the prime of a vigorous mental and physical 
 manhood and approaching the meridian of an un- 
 usually successful and brilliant career as a financier, 
 and full of plans for the future, his influence will 
 be strongly felt in the future growth and develop- 
 ment of his adopted State. 
 
 JAMES H. RAYMOND. 
 
 AUSTIN. 
 
 The present, with all that belongs to it, is the 
 outgrowth and summing up of the entire past. Its 
 meaning to be comprehended must be interpreted 
 by the past. 
 
 To the young it is the border-line that separates 
 them from the land of promise in which they are to 
 be the dominant factors in the fight for mastery ; 
 to the old the Pisgah height from which they gaze 
 backward over the past through which they have 
 journeyed, and forward to the future in which 
 others will continue the work they have begun. 
 
 The Texas of to-day is far different from the 
 Texas of the days of the Republic. There have 
 been many changes and transformations since the 
 first rifle shot of the Revolution was fired in 1835. 
 Many men of remarkable genius have trod its soil 
 and toiled with hand and brain and voice and pen 
 (0 shape its destinies and direct the commonwealth 
 
 along the upward course which it h!is pursued to 
 its present proud position among the States of the 
 American Union. 
 
 The leaders in the work of pioneer settlement, 
 the daring spirits who fomented and led the 
 pre- revolutionary movements, the heroes and 
 martyrs of the struggle for independence, the 
 presidents and cabinet oflficers of the da3's of the 
 Republic and the men who laid the foundation of 
 our State institutions have nearly all passed away. 
 
 The only surviving Treasurer of the Republic of 
 Texas is the subject of this sketch, Mr. James H. 
 Raymond, now a resident of the city of Austin, 
 with whose prosperity he has been identified for 
 many years and where he has rounded out a career 
 as a financier that, in point of success and brill- 
 iancy, is paralleled by that of few other men in 
 the State. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 167 
 
 James Harvey Raymond was bora the 30tli 
 day of June, 1817, in Washington County, New 
 York. He was named after Dr. Harvey, the re- 
 nowned religious and metaphysical writer. 
 
 William Raymond, father of the subject of this 
 biographical sketch, was born in Connecticut, and 
 <lied in Genesee County, New York, in 1847, 
 having located there in 1825. He was a merchant 
 trader, and was well and favorably known in the 
 community where he resided. He married Mary 
 Kellogg, daughter of Justin Kellogg, one of the 
 native farmers of Connecticut. She was an exem- 
 plary wife and mother, remarkable for all those 
 qualities of mind and heart which shine with 
 undimmed brilliancy around the domestic hearth, 
 and to her is the son indebted for the practical 
 habits of his life. The greater portion of his early 
 life was passed in Genesee County, New York, 
 upon a farm, where he was inured to hard labor, 
 enjoying no other educational advantages than 
 were afforded by the ordinary country schools, 
 which he was only permitted to attend at intervals. 
 In 1832, being then but fifteen years old, he aban- 
 doned his home and the State of his nativity, and 
 came to Cincinnati, Ohio, where, and at Newport 
 across the Ohio river in Kentuckj', he was engaged 
 in clerking until 1836. In that year he returned 
 to New York and clerked at Batavia until 1839, 
 when he determined to emigrate. Texas was 
 selected as the objective point, and his plans were 
 immediately put into execution. 
 
 He started, but on the way stopped at Natchez, 
 Miss., where he remained a short time, proceeding 
 from thence to Woodville, Wilkinson County, 
 Miss. Here he passed nearly a year stud3nng 
 and practicing the rudiments of surveying with 
 the intention of following that occupation on his 
 arrival in Texas. In July, 1840, he landed in 
 Galveston and proceeded thence to Houston, from 
 which place he went on foot to Franklin, in Robert- 
 son County. Here he was employed as Deputy 
 Surveyor to accompany an expedition to the upper 
 Brazos country. However, in a few days, and 
 after all necessary preparations were nearly com- 
 pleted, hostile Indians approached the locality and 
 the contemplated expedition was abandoned, much 
 to his chagrin. In October following he went 
 to Austin in company with Geo. W. Hill, after- 
 ward Secretary of War under President Houston, 
 but at that time a member of the Congress of the 
 Republic of Texas. On his arrival at Austin he 
 was made Journal Clerk of the House of Repre- 
 sentatives of the Fourth Congress. In April, 
 1841, Gen. Lamar, who was then President 
 of the Republic, appointed him Acting Treas- 
 
 urer, the duties of which office he discharged 
 with fidelity and marked ability. In November, 
 1841, he was elected by the Fifth Congress Chief 
 Clerk of the House of Representatives and iu 
 this office he was retained by continued annual 
 elections until 1845, when the Republic ceased its 
 existence and Texas became a member of the Fed- 
 eral Union. In 1842 he served as a soldier in 
 the expedition organized to repel the Vasquez and 
 WoU invasions, and in 1844 was appointed Treas- 
 urer by Gen. Houston, and discharged the duties 
 of that office in connection with his other offices. 
 In 1845 he was secretary of the convention that 
 framed the first State constitution and in February, 
 J 846, was elected chief clerk of the House of Rep- 
 resentatives of the legislature convened after the 
 admission of Texas into the Union as a State. He 
 served but a few days, when he resigned and was 
 elected State Treasurer, the first Treasurer of the 
 State of Texas. To this office he was continually 
 chosen by annual election until November, 1858. 
 Two years afterward he began banking at Austin 
 as a member of the banking house of John W. 
 Swisher & Company, which, iu 1861, changed its 
 name to Raj^mond & Swisher, and in 1868 to Ray- 
 mond & Whites. In June, 1876, Mr. Frank Hamil- 
 ton and James R. Johnson purchased the interest 
 of Mr. Whites, and since that time the business 
 has been conducted under the firm name and style 
 of James H. Raymond & Company. The State 
 Agricultural and Mechanical College was erected 
 under the supervision of a commission of which he 
 was a member. As a member of this commission 
 and in other official positions of minor importance 
 that he has since held from time to time, he has 
 discharged the duties intrusted to him in a most 
 satisfactory manner. 
 
 In 1843 he was married in Washington, Texas, 
 to Miss Margaret Johnston, then recentlj- from 
 Troy, Ohio. 
 
 His political connections have been those of the 
 dominant party in the South and marked bj' firm- 
 ness and consistency and a fearless advocacy. He 
 has never been blind to the political wants of his 
 section. 
 
 In developing the great resources of Texas he 
 has performed an important part. In religion he 
 is a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, 
 and has been one of the wardens of Austin Church 
 for fifteen years. 
 
 The most attractive scenes with which nature de- 
 lights the eye owe their charm to the effects of 
 light and shade. It would be impossible even for 
 an Angelo to give expression to the visions that flit 
 across the horizon of his soul if he employed only 
 
168 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 pigments that were bright. Virtue and honor and 
 courage would be but idle names if there were no 
 temptations to evil, no allurements to draw the un- 
 wary from the path of rectitude, and no dangers 
 arose on the waj'. Human life would loseitsbeauty, 
 its pathos and its purpose but for the trials that 
 accompany it. Sad it is to note those who fall, but 
 deep and lasting and full of usefulness are the 
 lessons taught by the lives of those who guide 
 their course by the pole-star of duty and perform 
 the tasks that Providence allots them. 
 
 Mr. Raymond has lived be3'ond three score 
 years and ten. He has been a moving spirit in 
 
 some of the most stirring scenes that have trans- 
 pired upon the continent and the intimate associate 
 not only of such men of an earlier day, as Houston, 
 but of those who have succeeded them as pilots of 
 the ship of State. If has fallen to his fortune to, 
 in a quiet way, perform many valuable public ser- 
 vices. He has done his duty, as he saw it, faith- 
 fully under all circumstances, and now, in the quiet 
 evening of his life and in the enjoyment of the 
 financial independence that has come to him as 
 the reward of the labors of former years, he enjoys 
 the confidence and sincere esteem of the people of 
 Texas. 
 
 MOSES AUSTIN BRYAN, 
 
 BRENHAM. 
 
 The life and labors of this well remembered 
 patriot, honored citizen and faithful public servant, 
 were such as to entitle his name to a place upon 
 some of the brightest of the und3'ing pages of his 
 country's history. He was born at Bryan's Mines 
 on the banks of the Hazel Run, a branch of the 
 Tar Blue river, in St. Genevieve County, in the 
 then territory of Missouri, on the 25th day of Sep- 
 tember, 1817. 
 
 He was the third son of James and Emily Mar- 
 garet (Austin) Bryan. His father, a merchant and 
 also a miner and smelter of lead ore at Hazel Run, 
 died at Herculaneum, on the Mississippi river, 
 twentj'-five miles below St. Louis, in 1823. 
 
 Mrs. Bryan married in 1824 James F. Perry, a 
 merchant at Potosi, Washington County, ]\Io., a 
 town laid off by her father, Moses Austin, when the 
 territory belonged to Spain. Young Bryan at- 
 tended school at Potosi until eleven j-ears of age 
 and was then employed as a clerk in Perry & 
 Hunter's store about a year when the firm deter- 
 mined to move to Texas. He accompanied W. W. 
 Hunter with the goods down the Mississippi river 
 to New Orleans, and January 3, 1831, the schooner 
 Maria, upon which he was a passenger, entered 
 the mouth of the Brazos, and three daj^s later he 
 put foot upon Texas soil at the town of Brazoria 
 and proceeded with Mr. Hunter to San Felipe de 
 Austin, reaching that place January 10, 1831. In 
 three or four weeks Perry & Hunter's store was 
 opened and Bryan worked in it as a clerk during 
 1831, selling goods to pioneers, hunters and Lipan 
 
 and Carancahua Indians. In June of that year he 
 boarded with "Uncle Jimmy" and "Aunt 
 Betsey " AVhitesides, who were among the settlers 
 of Stephen F. Austin's first colony. Col. Ira Ran- 
 dolph Lewis, with his wife and two daughters, 
 Cora and Stella, arrived in San Felipe at this time 
 and boarded at the same house. Cora Lewis was 
 then an infant. In after years, when she reached 
 lovely womanhood, she became Blaj. Biyan's wife. 
 Stephen F. Austin was absent from San Felipe 
 when young Bryan arrived. When he returned, 
 the latter, who had not seen him for more than 
 ten years, called upon him at the house of Samuel 
 M. Williams, who was Secretary of Austin's colony, 
 and was cordially received. 
 
 Stephen F. Austin was then a member of the leg- 
 islature of Coahuila and Texas and invited his 
 nephew to accompany him, as his private secretary, 
 to the city of Saltillo, capital of the provinces. 
 The offer was accepted and, after an interesting 
 journey through a country then almost entirely un- 
 inhabited, they arrived at Saltillo, reaching their 
 destination about the first of April, 1832. In June 
 the legislature adjourned until fall and Austin left 
 for Matamoros to see Gen. Terran, commander 
 of the military district including the Eastern States 
 bordering on the Rio Grande. While leisurely 
 prosecuting this journey he heard of the troubles 
 occurring in Texas and that Gen. Mexia had been 
 sent with four armed vessels and troops to the 
 mouth of the Brazos to quell the outbreak. He 
 therefore hastened forward with the utmost dis- 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 169 
 
 patch, joined Mexia and went with him to Texas, 
 leaving bis horses, mules and traveling equipage 
 with Mr. Bedell, expecting to return in the 
 autumn and attend the session of the legisla- 
 ture. However, he found the political waters so 
 stirred by the battles of Anahuac and Velasco be- 
 tween the colonists and Mexican soldiers, that he 
 concluded to remain, and wrote to his nephew that 
 Mr. Bedell and three or four friends would take 
 goods to the State fair at Saltillo to be held on the 
 10th of September, the anniversary of the declara- 
 tion of Mexican independence, and he could return 
 with them to Blatamoros, where Mr. Bedell would 
 give him the horses, mules and baggage and furnish 
 a trusty Mexican to pilot the way to San Felipe. 
 
 On approaching Goliad, the Mexican heard the 
 people talk of the battles of Anahuac and Velasco 
 and refused to proceed further. The alcalde of 
 the town, however, furnished a guide for the re- 
 mainder of the journey. On reaching his destina- 
 tion Bryan at once visited his mother o,t her home 
 on Chocolate Bayou. In December, 1832, bis step- 
 father moved the family to Peach Point, ten miles 
 below Brazoria, where Mrs. Perry, Maj. Bryan's 
 sister-in-law, now resides. 
 
 After visiting his mother, Maj. Bryan returned 
 to San Felipe, where he re-entered Perry & Hunter's 
 store. He clerked for them until 1833 and then 
 clerked for Perry & Somervell. In 1835 be was a 
 clerk in the land-office of Austin's colony and when 
 Austin, in August, 1835, returned to Texas, after 
 his long imprisonment in Mexico, and was made 
 chairman of the Central Committee of Safety at 
 San Felipe, served with Gail Borden, as Austin's 
 secretary. In September of the same year Maj. 
 Bryan participated in the attack upon Thompson's 
 Mexican warship the Carreo. He was also among 
 the first to respond to the call to arms that fol- 
 lowed the battle of Gonzales (the Texas Lexing- 
 ton) between the colonists and Mexican troops, the 
 latter led by Ugartechea, who, following instruc- 
 tions from Santa Anna, had demanded a cannon 
 which bad been given to the people of Gonzales 
 and they had refused to surrender. When Austin 
 was elected General of the patriot forces Bryan 
 went with him to San Antonio in the capacity of 
 private secretary, and after Austin left on a mis- 
 sion to the United States, remained with the army 
 and took part in the storming and capture of San 
 Antonio under Johnson and Milam. He was after- 
 ward more or less intimately associated witb Austin 
 as his private secretary until that remarkable man's 
 death, which occurred on the 27tb of December, 
 1836, at Columbia, in Brazoria County, and owned 
 the sword that Austin wore while commander of 
 
 the Texian army. Maj. Bryan, as a spectator, 
 and as secretary of Lieutenant-Governor and Act- 
 ing Governor Robinson, was at the meeting of the 
 plenary convention that assembled at Washington 
 on the Brazos, in March, 1836, and was present 
 when the committee reported a declaration of in- 
 dependence, and it was voted on and adopted. As 
 a sergeant in Capt. Mosley Baker's Company, he 
 was with Gen. Sam Houston (often acting as his 
 interpreter) on the retreat from Gonzales to the 
 San Jacinto river. While on this march be was 
 ordered by Capt. Baker (who acted under instruc- 
 tions from headquarters) to burn the town of San 
 Felipe. The order was the result of an erroneous 
 report, made by scouts, that the enemy were close 
 at hand and about to enter the place. Bryan asked 
 to be excused, on the ground that he felt a natural 
 repugnance to having any share in putting the torch 
 to the first town built in the wilderness by bis uncle. 
 He was relieved from the necessity of performing 
 this unpleasant duty and the town of San Felipe de 
 Austin was destroyed by other bands. At last the 
 fateful day (April 21, 1836) arrived that was to 
 decide the future destinies of Texas. Although 
 Maj. Bryan was almost prostrated witb fever be 
 insisted upon taking part with his company in the 
 charge of Burleson's regiment made at ever memor- 
 able San Jacinto, and behaved witb distinguished 
 gallantry. Three boles were shot through bis coat 
 before the regiment carried the breast-works by 
 storm. After victory bad been won, be did what 
 he could to check the indiscriminate slaughter of 
 Mexicans that followed, but the memory of the 
 massacres at the Alamo and Goliad was fresh in 
 the minds of the Texas soldiers and bis noble 
 efforts were in vain. He was present when Santa 
 Anna was brought before Gen. Houston b}' Col. 
 Hockley and Maj. Ben Fort Smith, who had taken 
 charge of the prisoner soon after he bad been 
 brought in by the scouts, Sylvester and Matthews. 
 Col. Hockley said: "General Houston, here is 
 Santa Anna." Brj'an was perhaps the only mem- 
 ber of the party who understood Santa Anna's reply. 
 
 Gen. Santa Anna said in Spanish: " Yo sole 
 Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, Presidente de 
 Mexico, commandante in jefe del exercito de 
 operaciones y me pongo a la disposicions del vali- 
 antes General Houston guiro ser tatado comodeber 
 seren general quando es prisoners de guerra." 
 
 His speech in English was: " I am Antonio 
 Lopez de Santa Anna, President of Mexico, com- 
 mander-in-chief of the army of operations, and I 
 put myself at the disposition of the brave General 
 Houston. I wish to be treated as a general should 
 be when a prisoner of war." 
 
170 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 At the close of this speech Gen. Houston rose 
 up on his right arm (he was then suffering from a 
 wound received the day before, a ball having 
 passed through the bones of his right leg three 
 inches above the ankle joint) and replied: "Ah! 
 ah, indeed! General Santa Anna! Happy to see 
 you. General. Take a seat, take a seat," moving 
 his hand toward an old tool-chest near by. 
 
 In the subsequent interview Col. Almonte acted 
 as interpreter. Santa Anna made a proposition to 
 issue an order for Gen. Filisola to leave Texas 
 with the troops under his command. Gen. Rusk 
 replied that, his chief being a prisoner, Filisola 
 would not obey the order. Santa Anna replied 
 that such was the attachment of the officers and 
 soldiers of the army to him, they would da any- 
 thing that he told them to do. Gen. Rusk then 
 said: " Col. Almonte, tell Santa Anna to order 
 Filisola and ami}' to surrender as prisoners of 
 war." 
 
 Santa Anna replied that he was but a single Mex- 
 ican, but would do nothing that would be a dis- 
 grace to him or his nation and they could do with 
 him as they would. He said that he was willing to 
 issue an order to Fdisola to leave Texas. It was 
 finally decided that he should do so, the order was 
 issued and a body of mounted Texians, commanded 
 for a time by Col. Burleson and afterwards by Gen. 
 Thomas Rusk, followed close upon Filisola's rear 
 and saw that the mandate was promptly obeyed. 
 Upon this service Maj. Bryan accompanied Gen. 
 Rusk as a member of his staff, in which capacity 
 he rendered valuable assistance as Spanish inter- 
 preter. The command reached Goliad June 1, 
 183G, and two days thereafter gave Christian bur- 
 ial to the charred remains of the men who were 
 massacred with Fannin at that place on the 27th of 
 the preceding March, by order of Santa Anna. 
 Geu. Rusk, standing at the edge of the pit, began 
 an address, but was so overcome by emotion that 
 he could not finish it. It was a most affecting and 
 solemn ceremony-. 
 
 At this time Maj. Bryan became the bearer of 
 dispatches from Gen. Rusk to the Spanish General, 
 Andrada, demanding the surrender of all prisoners 
 held by him, a demand that was promptly acceded 
 to. A few days later a Mexican courier arrived at Gen. 
 Rusk's headquarters with a letter from two Texas 
 colonels, Karnes and Teel, prisoners at Matamoros, 
 stating that the Mexicans were assembling a large 
 army under Gen. Urrea for the purpose of Invading 
 Texas. The letter was concealed in the cane han- 
 dle of the courier's quirt and was translated by 
 Maj. Bryan. A copy was sent to President Bur- 
 net, who at once (June 23, 1836), issued a proc- 
 
 lamation calling upon the people to hold themselves 
 in readiness to respond to a call to arms. 
 
 Santa Anna, called upon to make good his 
 pledges, stirred up, through his friends in Mexico, 
 a revolutionar}' movement that effectually prevented 
 Urrea from carrying his plans for the invasion of 
 Texas into execution. 
 
 In January, 1839, Maj. Bryan was appointed 
 Secretary of the Texas legation at Washington, D. 
 C, by President Mirabeau B. Lamar, and served as 
 such for a number of months. Dr. Anson Jones 
 was the Texian minister to the United States at the 
 time. 
 
 In February, 1840, Maj. Bryan married Miss 
 Adeline Lamothe, daughter of Polycarp Lamothe, 
 a prominent planter of Rapides parish, Louisiana. 
 In 1842, as first lieutenant of a company organized 
 at Brazoria, he participated in the Rio Grande 
 expedition commanded by Gen. Somervell, that 
 resulted in bringing to an inglorious close the 
 attempt made by the Mexican general, Adrian 
 Woll, to invade and find a foothoUl in Texas. 
 After passing through the thrilling experiences 
 connected with tliis expedition, Maj. Brj'an de- 
 voted himself to looking after his plantations in 
 Brazoria and Washington counties. In May, 1854, 
 Mrs. Bryan died, and in November, 1856, he mar- 
 ried Miss Cora Lewis, daughter of Col. Ira Ran- 
 dolph Lewis, an eminent lawyer, who served with 
 distinction during the trying times of the Texas 
 revolution. In 1863, Maj. Bryan, fearing an inva- 
 sion of the coast-country by the Federals, removed 
 his family to Independence, Washington County, 
 which place became his permanent residence. 
 
 At the beginning of the war between the States 
 he enlisted in the Confederate army as a private 
 soldier in the Third Regiment of Texas State troops, 
 and was elected Major of his regiment. Upon the 
 organization of the reserve corps he was elected 
 Major of the First Regiment, and served as such in 
 Texas until the close of hostilities, making an 
 excellent record as a soldier and officer. He, 
 with a few others, was the founder of the Texas 
 Veterans' Association, organized in May, 1873. 
 He was elected and served as its seeretarj' until 
 April, 1886, when he resigned the position and 
 nominated as his successor his friend. Col. Stephen 
 H. Darden, who was duly elected. Maj. Bryan 
 was one of the Association's chief promoters and 
 leading spirits. He devoted for several years 
 a large share of his time to correspondence with 
 its members, gathering a mass of valuable historical 
 data and papers now in the hands of his son, Hon. 
 Beauregard Bryan, of Brenham. This matter will 
 be of great service to the future historian. 
 
TNDIAX WARS AXD PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 171 
 
 Maj. Bryan served for a time as a member of 
 the Commissioner's Court of Brazoria County', was 
 active in the building of the Columbia Tap Rail- 
 road and was at all times an energetic worker in the 
 cause of higher education. He served for twenty 
 years as trustee of Baylor University, then located 
 at Independence, and donated largelj' to its sup- 
 port, being a warm friend of its founder, Judge 
 Baylor. He has done mucji for the upbuilding of 
 his section and the State at large, every worthy 
 enterprise receiving his encouragement and sup- 
 port. He was a member of the celebrated tax- 
 payers convention which met in Austin in 1871, 
 representing Washington CountJ^ He was one of 
 the committee of five who were appointed to notify 
 Governor E. J. Davis of the acts of the conven- 
 tion. 
 
 In religion he was an Episcopalian and in politics 
 always a Democrat, attending as a delegate all the 
 State and county Democratic conventions up to the 
 year 1880. Maj. Bryan died at the home of his 
 son (Hon. Beauregard Bryan) in Brenham, March 
 IG, 1895, after a brief illness. He left five chil- 
 dren: James, Beauregard, L. R., S. J., and Austin 
 Bryan, who were present at his bedside during his 
 last moments. His wife had died June 9th, 1889. 
 As the wires conveyed the intelligence of his 
 death to all parts of the State, the public heart was 
 stirred as it could have been stirred by few events, 
 for all realized that a father in Israel had passed 
 away, that a man whose life connected the present 
 with all that is brightest and best and most glori- 
 ous in the past history of the commonwealth had 
 journeyed " across the narrow isthmus that divides 
 the sea of life from the ocean of eternity that lies 
 beyond." 
 
 The Twenty-fourth legislature was then in session 
 and, on the 19th of March, out of respect to the 
 distinguished dead, passed by unanimous votes the 
 following resolutions: — 
 
 Senate Resolution, offered by Senator Dickson : — 
 
 " Whereas, One of our most distinguished and 
 honored citizens and patriotic gentlemen has been 
 called from our midst in the death of the late Bloses 
 Austin Bryan and. 
 
 " Whereas, In his death we recognize the fact 
 that the State of Texas has sustained a loss of one 
 whose true and honored name has become of great 
 pride and held in highest esteem by all citizens of 
 Texas, therefore be it. 
 
 " Resolved, That the Senate of the Twenty-fourth 
 legislature of Texas do hold in sacred memory his 
 good name and patriotism, and do extend to his 
 beloved children and relatives their heartfelt S3'm- 
 pathies and condolence in this their hour of deepest 
 sorrow and distress." 
 
 House Resolution, offered by Giddings and 
 Rogers : — 
 
 " Whereas, We have learned with deep regret of 
 the death of Moses Austin Bryan, of Brenham, on 
 Saturda}', March IGth last, and 
 
 " Whereas, In him we lose another of those grand 
 old heroes, who by their valor, patriotism and 
 devotion to the principles of liberty, achieved the 
 independence of Texas and left it as a princely 
 heritage to posterity, therefore be it 
 
 " Resolved, First. That while we realize that 
 there is no escape from the relentless hand of Time 
 and recognize that he had passed the allotted age of 
 man, and had rounded out a long life of devotion 
 to our loved State, yet it is with feelings of pro- 
 found sorrow that we see him taken from our midst. 
 Second. That we extend to his sorrowing relatives 
 and friends our sincere sympathy for the great 
 personal loss they have sustained." 
 
 The remains were interred in the cemetery at 
 Independence, Washington County, Te.xas, and 
 were followed to their last resting-place by the 
 largest funeral cortege known in the history of 
 that place. The people, without distinction, united 
 in paj'ing tribute to the memory of the fearless 
 soldier, stainless citizen, and blameless patriot, 
 who had lived among them through so many years, 
 and been such a faithful neighbor and friend, and 
 who, as he passed among them, had scattered all 
 about his path of life seeds of kindness, that, 
 sprung into life from the soil in which they fell, 
 and filled with the incense of heaven's own flowers 
 the tranquil evening hours of his departing day. 
 
172 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 IRA RANDOLPH LEWIS. 
 
 The subject of this sketch, Ira Randolph Lewis, 
 was one of the patriots, who, as an associate of 
 Austin, Houston, Travis and their compeers, severed 
 Texas from Mexico by tlie revolution of 1835-183G. 
 He was a prominent and distinguished lawyer and 
 political actor in those times. He was a delegate 
 from and represented the Municipality of Matagorda 
 in the convention of 1833, the first ever called by the 
 people of Texas, and of which Stephen F. Austin 
 was president and Frank W. Johnson secretary. 
 
 This convention set forth the grievances of the 
 colonists in Texas of Anglo-American origin, in a 
 paper of unparalleled strength, prepared by David 
 G. Burnet, and addressed to the Mexican govern- 
 ment. S. F. Austin, W. H. Wharton and J. B. 
 Miller were commissioned by the convention to pre- 
 sent this paper to the government of Mexico at the 
 city of Mexico. Wharton and Miller refused to go 
 and encounter the dangers incident to such a mis- 
 sion, but Austin undertook the necessary task. His 
 imprisonment and sufferings in a Mexican dungeon 
 are matters familiar to every student of Texas 
 history. 
 
 Again, in the consultation of 1835, Matagorda sent 
 Mr. Lewis to represent it, together with R. R. 
 Royal. What was done by these conventions is a 
 part of the history of Texas and the reader is 
 referred to volume one of Brown's History of 
 Texas, which gives in full the proceedings of both 
 conventions. 
 
 He was again honored by being chosen a mem- 
 ber of the General Executive Council, consisting of 
 two members from each county, or municipality 
 as they were then called. The object of this coun- 
 cil was to assist the executive, Governor Smith, in 
 conducting the affairs of the Provisional Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 While performing his duties in the Executive 
 Council in February, 1836, Governor Henry Smith 
 commissioned T. J. Chambers, wiih rank as Gen- 
 eral, to go to the United States and enlist volun- 
 teer soldiers and raise funds to aid Texas in her 
 struggle with Mexico. Chambers appointed Lewis 
 on his staff with rank of Colonel and, with Cham- 
 bers' indorsement and Governor Smith's written 
 permission, he left the council in the latter part of 
 February, 183G, and proceeded at once to the 
 United States. 
 
 Col. Lewis, in his capacity as Commissioner for 
 Texas, actively canvassed in rapid succession the 
 
 towns and cities most accessible to him in those 
 days of the ox-cart, stage coach and river steamer. 
 But for this absence he would have participated in 
 the battle of San Jacinto. 
 
 On his return to Texas he made an official report 
 to the President of the Republic, who was Gen. 
 Sam Houston. The report is as follows : — 
 
 " To the President of the Republic of Texas: 
 
 " In obedience to official duty and for the fur- 
 ther purpose of announcing to the proper author- 
 ities, for what otherwise might appear a wanton 
 absence from the country of my adoption during 
 her greatest difficulties, while in the United States 
 for the last ten months, I beg leave to communicate 
 the following information and report, which your 
 Excellency will be pleased to receive and transmit 
 to the officer of the proper department where it 
 belongs. 
 
 "On the 9th day of January, of the present 
 year, the then existing government of this Re- 
 public passed a law authorizing T. J. Chambers, 
 Esq., to raise, arm, equip and command a division 
 as an auxiliary army for the defense of the cause 
 of Texas ; the particulars of which will more fully 
 appear by reference to said law, a copy of which is 
 herewitli transmitted and made a part of the report, 
 being marked No. 1 ; the original is on file in the 
 archives of this government. 
 
 "After Gen. Chambers was commissioned and 
 instructed to go to the United States to procure 
 men and means to constitute his division, and put 
 it in motion and serve in Texas, he offered me 
 an office on his staff as paymaster of said division, 
 which I accepted and was immediately com- 
 missioned by the proper executive of this govern- 
 ment, a copy of which commission is here attached 
 and marked No. 2 ; a proper record of the original 
 is to be found in the war office. 
 
 " At the time I received m}' appointment, which 
 was in February last, and from all the information 
 then obtained, the enemy was expected to appear 
 in the months of May or June last, and as the corps 
 was to be raised in the United States, I received an 
 order from Gen. Chambers to repair forthwith 
 with him to the United States to aid and assist in 
 procuring the men and means necessar}' to place the 
 division in Texas for service as speedily as possi- 
 ble ; and in obedience to which order, I set out 
 from San Felipe for the United States for the object 
 
IKA LEWIS. 
 
INDIJX WAJiS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 173 
 
 mentioned in the order, a copy of which is here 
 attaelied, marijed No. 3. 
 
 " On the da}- of leaving San Felipe the news, or 
 nnuor, from the interior, gave information that tlie 
 enemy was in motion about Saltillo, and might be 
 expected in April and sooner than had been antici- 
 pated, which prompted a more speedy action on our 
 part, with a view of throwing aid into the country 
 in time to be of use in the first contest, but nothing 
 is more common than disappointment, for when we 
 readied Natchez the news had reached there in 
 authentic shape that Santa Anna had besieged the 
 Alamo at San Antonio about the first of March and 
 in a few daj^s the melancholy news arrived that the 
 garrison had fallen, and all its gallant defenders 
 had been put to the sword. 
 
 "Gen. Chambers and myself immediately com- 
 municated with the most respectable and influential 
 citizens of that place and explained the situation 
 and unhappy condition of our country. In a short 
 time the most enthusiastic feeling was found to 
 prevail there — and large meetings were held by the 
 inhabitants to manifest this feeling, and offer aid 
 to suffering Texas. And at that time (in the mouth 
 of March last) I had the high gratification to learn 
 from Judge Quitman and Gen. F. Huston that they 
 would visit Texas, and enlist in her war ; and men 
 of their influence, wealth and distinction, I knew 
 would induce much etficient aid from Mississippi. 
 At Natchez I received further orders to proceed 
 forthwith to the eastern country to explain the 
 cause of the war, the situation of our country, and 
 obtain men and means for her aid ; which order is 
 here attached in copy, marked No. 4. 
 
 " In obedience to said order, I set out on the first 
 of' April last for Louisville, where I arrived on the 
 12th of that month. When I made known the object 
 of ray visit, and consulted with many of the lead- 
 ing gentlemen of that place, as to the best course 
 to pursue, I found the best of feeling prevailing 
 for our cause and in a few days amass meeting vvas 
 called, which I had the honor, by invitation, to 
 address on behalf of Texas, and had the pleasure 
 to have the most generous responses made to the 
 call for aid. By unremitting efforts I procured to 
 be raised and dispatched. Col. C. L. Harrison's 
 Louisville Battalion, the van of which, was Capt. 
 Wiggonton's company of near one hundred men, 
 and the balance soon followed, being aided to do 
 so by the munificence of the generous citizens of 
 that city. From there I proceeded to Lexington, 
 by invitation to meet a State convention then being 
 held in that place. 
 
 " To the convention and inhabitants of Lexington 
 and the surrounding country, I proclaimed tiie 
 
 cause of Texas, their condition and want of aid in 
 a public address. Here I remained for two weeks 
 making constant exertion for our cause and having 
 man\' meetings upon the subject, which resulted in 
 a display of the most generous and noble sympathy 
 and friendship in our favor and, ultimately, the 
 raising and dispatching of the Lexington Battalion 
 of about three hundred men, and the money for 
 their outfit and transportation to New Orleans, fur- 
 nished by the generous donations of the high-minded 
 and chivalrous inhabitants of that city and its 
 vicinity. From Lexington I proceeded to Cincinnati, 
 where I made known my oljjects, and, by the aid of 
 the most influential gentlemen of that place, a ver}' 
 large meeting was convened, which I addressed in 
 favor of our cause ; which resulted in the raising 
 of a fine company of about eighty men, who were 
 furnished with an excellent outfit and means for 
 transportation as far as New Orleans, by the dona- 
 tions of the well-tried friends of our cause in that 
 great metropolis. In all of these four named 
 places I had the good fortune to be aided by ad- 
 visory committees, composed of gentlemen of dif- 
 ferent places, of the first standing and influence ; 
 and the different corps were raised and dispatched 
 and the means procured by superintending com- 
 mittees for that purpose in each place, appointed 
 by the citizens of the same, who procured the 
 means by donations and also disbursed the same 
 for the purix)se of purchasing the supplies and out- 
 fits for the different corps and if any surplus re- 
 mained, the respective committees paid over the 
 same to the persons who took command of the 
 different detachments. 
 
 " This course was adopted and pursued by my 
 own request and suggestion, to secure the influence 
 of the committees, and secure as far as possible 
 entire satisfaction. All this was done and the most 
 of the different corps had set out for Texas during 
 this period, when the melancholy news was daily 
 reaching the United States of the fall of the Alamo 
 the massacre of Fannin, of Ward and of King, and 
 that Santa Anna was passing triumphantly over the 
 country, burning and devastating as he went and 
 that he was in a short time to be looked for on the 
 banks of the Sabine. It was not until late in Ma}' 
 last that the news arrived in that part of the United 
 States, in such a shape as to be believed, of the 
 glorious battle of the San Jacinto, and the capture 
 of the monster, Santa Anna, or as his own vanity 
 induced him to call himself, " the Napoleon of the 
 West." Many delays necessarily took place from 
 the confused and distorted statements concerning 
 this country, which frequently got into circulation 
 there, and much time was lost and operations had 
 
174 
 
 TXDIAX WAJfS AXD PIOXEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 to be dela3'ed in order to obtain counter-informa- 
 tion to correct them, but every effort was made to 
 get our men on as rapidly as possible, and I gave 
 written information of all done, to Gen. Chambers at 
 Nashville, where he was stationed, and to President 
 Burnet, through the Texas agent in New Orleans, 
 and as fast and in the order in which I progressed, 
 but I am surprised to find that nothing exists in the 
 archives of this government to show that I have 
 done anything or communicated any information to 
 this government. 
 
 " My own communications may have shared the 
 fate and miscarriages of those of Messrs. Carson 
 and Hamilton, who I am fully sensible addressed 
 the government frequently and from different parts 
 of the United States, for I saw their letters ; but, 
 like myself, 1 am told, not a word has been heard 
 from them. 
 
 " Shortly after my effort before the public in 
 Cincinnati, I fell sick and was confined with a fever 
 and painful illness for near a month. During this 
 time I received orders to proceed to Pittsburg, to 
 purchase some cannon, and from there to Phila- 
 delphia and New York and, if practicable, to effect 
 a loan on the credit of Texas for fifty thousand 
 dollars to complete the outfit of the division then 
 being raised, which order is herewith submitted in 
 a true copy and marked No. 5. 
 
 '• In obedience to the last named order, I set 
 out from Cincinnati on the first of JuHie, that being 
 as soon as I could travel, or information from this 
 country would authorize it ; passing by Pittsburg 
 but found that no cannon could be procured at that 
 time, inasmuch as the only foundry which made 
 them had a large contract on hand for the United 
 States, and would not make any others before fall. 
 From there I proceeded to Washington City on my 
 way to the East, and for the purpose of learning 
 the disposition of that government in relation to 
 Texas ; thinking at the same time that such infor- 
 mation might be wanting, on my attempting the 
 loan I wished to make, and my anticipations proved 
 true. In Washington I found our commissioners, 
 Messrs. Hamilton and Childress, making every 
 possible exertion for our cause, and with happy 
 effect, Gen. Austin, Wm. H. Wharton and Dr. 
 Archer, the former commissioners, then being on 
 their way home, and all as I found having produced 
 by their able efforts impressions of the most en- 
 couraging character in favor of our cause. From 
 there I proceeded to New York, by way of Balti- 
 more and Pliiladelphia. There I made propositions 
 for the money I wanted, and with the aid and under 
 the auspices of S. Swartwout, Esq., and James 
 Treat, Esq., two of the most noble and devoted 
 
 friends that Texas ever had, or ever will have, I 
 was told that the money could be had if the gov- 
 ernment of the United States would recognize our 
 independence, or take action upon the subject, 
 which would be tantamount thereto, or manifest 
 a favoral)le disposition ; and at this point did 
 my negotiation for a loan cease for a time. Also 
 one other proposed loan of another commissioner, 
 Mr. R. Hamilton, for five hundred thousand 
 dollars, and which had been set in operation by the 
 first commissioners with a heavy banking house of 
 that city. During this suspension I was advised 
 by some friends of Texas to return to Washington 
 City, and see what was likely to be done there, 
 which I did, and had the gratification of meeting 
 our Secretary of State, Col. S. P. Carson, there, 
 but in bad health, notwithstanding which he gave 
 great aid and assistance to the cause of Texas, and 
 much credit is due him for the successful passage 
 of the favorable resolution in the Congress of the 
 United States concerning Texas. From Washing- 
 ton, Messrs. Carson, Hamilton, Childress, and 
 myself went up to New York, for the purpose of 
 concluding, if possible, the two loans which had 
 been proposed previously. In a short time after 
 we reached there, and as everything was assuming 
 a highly favorable aspect in relation to our busi- 
 ness, there appeared in public prints that famous 
 proclamation of his Excellency, President Burnet, 
 denouncing, without distinction, all agents and com- 
 missioners then in the United States and announc- 
 ing that Mr. T. Toby was the only Texas agent. 
 The same mail which announced his appointment, 
 also brought the intelligence of the failure of 
 Messrs. Tobj' & Bro. ; all of which was well 
 calculated to produce what followed, namely, that 
 state of confusion and distrust in the public mind 
 which prevailed in the United States, after conclu- 
 sion of the late administration of Burnet, and a 
 loss to Texas at that time, of more than half a 
 million of dollars, which aid she was on the eve of 
 obtaining. 
 
 "Immediately on seeing the proclamation, be- 
 fore alluded to, we withdrew all propositions for 
 money and made no further exertions of that 
 nature. In a short time after this, which was about 
 the latter part of July last, I set out for the South 
 on my way home, and met Gen. Chambers at Cin- 
 cinnati, to whom I communicated the result of my 
 mission and who I found had sacrificed a large 
 portion of his private fortune to advance the cause 
 and aid the country. I found there that another 
 famous proclamation of his E.xcellency President 
 Burnet, had issued that no more volunteers were 
 wanted from the United States, which I found had 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 no 
 
 produced great confusion and dissatisfaction in 
 that country, particularly to those (and there were 
 many within m}' knowledge) who had prepared and 
 determined to emigrate to Texas, from " the dark 
 and bloody ground " of our existence, and when 
 to everj' rational mind it was supposed the war 
 would be prosecuted with vigor. 
 
 " But in a short time after the proclamation, last 
 alluded to, other threatened invasions by the Mex- 
 icans became imminent, and produced another 
 proclamation calling on the generous and S3'mpa- 
 thizing of the world to come to the aid of suffering 
 Texas, but then it was too late in the season, as the 
 people of the North were afraid to come South until 
 fall. 
 
 " General Chambers made and was still making, 
 preparations to bring on a fine band of gallant 
 emigrants (in addition to those already in this 
 countrj'), who were to start in a short time after 
 Messrs. Wilson and Postlethwaite's return from 
 Texas. 
 
 " I think their slanderous publications destroyed 
 all these efforts and for a time turned the tide of feel- 
 ing against Texas. On the first of September, I left 
 Louisville on my way home, but unfortunately was 
 taken sick on the river, and after I reached Natchez 
 was confined for near a month. After my recov- 
 ery I had some private business which detained me 
 for a short time, and news of an unfavorable char- 
 acter after that was concluded, I proceeded home- 
 wards, and arrived at this place on the eighth of 
 this month. 
 
 " The last service I did for the cause of Texas 
 was in Natchez, when I aided the quarter-master 
 general, at his request, in selling land scrip, and 
 assisted in obtaining some fiftj' thousand dollars for 
 the government to purchase provisions for the army ; 
 and that of refuting the pamphlet publication con- 
 taining the calumnies against Texas of Messrs. 
 Wilson and Postlethwaite. I had the pleasure of see- 
 ing before 1 left the United States, that the highest 
 friendly feeling was again up for Texas and perfect 
 confidence was displayed throughout that country, 
 on the receipt of the news of the election of the 
 hero of San Jacinto to the presidencj', and the 
 appointment of his able Cabinet, and the policies of 
 the same. 
 
 " The present Congress I contracted no debt for, 
 or on account of this government, nor made it re- 
 sponsible for one thing. 
 
 "The foregoing services herein related I per- 
 formed at my own expense, and free of charge to 
 the government in any manner whatever. 
 
 " By my absence I left exposed and unprotected 
 all m}- property and effects on earth ; also my office, 
 
 papers and books of all kinds (professional and 
 private), which were all destroyed and thereby 
 leaving me damaged, with others (and worse than 
 the}', for most of them saved their papers at least), 
 to a large amount of property and effects, and worse 
 than all, subjected to incalculable difficulties and 
 confusion, by the loss of my books and papers. 
 
 "The foregoing is faithfully submitted to your 
 Excellency and a candid world, to show the cause 
 of my absence from the country at a time when I 
 should have rejoiced to have marched with your 
 Excellency and all my countrymen in arms, and 
 perhaps gained some of the brilliant honors by 
 many achieved, or died with the immortal slain. 
 And the same is submitted to account for the delays 
 and disappointments before explained. 
 
 " In the foregoing report I have discharged a 
 conscientious duty, in giving a plain and candid 
 expose, but not as full as I would have given had 
 it been required or compatible with official obliga- 
 tion, and of this I shall content myself as in all 
 other matters of my life with a quiet and approving 
 conscience, knowing that I have faithfully and 
 honorably discharged my duty to my country. 
 
 " I have the honor to be, with high regard, 
 
 " Your obedient and humble servant, 
 
 "I. R. Lewis. 
 
 "Columbia, December 12th, 18.36." 
 
 "P. S. For the high and generous feeling of 
 kindness and sympathy, which I found prevailing 
 in Kentucky for our cause, the highest credit is due 
 our distinguished fellow-citizens. Gen. S. F. Austin 
 and Dr. B. T. Archer, two of our first commission- 
 ers, but a short time previously had passed through 
 that country on their waj' East and who, by their 
 zealous and able efforts, had prepared the public 
 mind in the happiest manner to respond promptly 
 and generously to any call which might be made in 
 behalf of Texas, and made my efforts more profit- 
 able than I could have otherwise anticipated. 
 
 " In New York I had the pleasure of meeting one 
 of the last commissioners sent out bj' President 
 Burnet, viz., our distinguished and worth\' fellow- 
 citizen, James Collinsworlh, just as I was on the 
 eve of leaving that city." 
 
 Col. Lewis also served as a volunteer in the cam- 
 paign of 1842 against the invasion by Woll of 
 Texas. 
 
 After the overthrow of Mexican rule in Texas, 
 Col. Lewis busied himself with his profession, 
 practicing principall}' in the counties of Matagorda, 
 Brazoria, Fort Bend and Wharton, until he acquired 
 considerable property, when he retired from the 
 
176 
 
 TNDTAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 practice to plantations purchased by liim and com- 
 menced farming witli negro slaves. 
 
 Tliough proficient in law and literature, Col. 
 Lewis discovered that he was not cut out for a 
 planter and, after meeting reverses, abandoned 
 farming and returned to the practice, in which he 
 continued until his death, which occurred at the 
 home of his son-in-law, Maj. Moses Austin Bryan, 
 at Independence, in August, 1867. 
 
 The antecedents and family history of this public 
 servant and distinguished citizen are clearly traced 
 and well known, as he left behind him all his private 
 and public papers and correspondence, which are 
 numerous and carefully preserved ; all of which is 
 in the possession of his descendants living in Texas, 
 hereafter noted. These papers, if ever published, 
 will throw much light on what are now obscure 
 places in Texas history, during the most trj-ing 
 period. Col. Lewis was born in Virginia, Septem- 
 ber 25th, 1800. His mother was a Miss Randolph, 
 of the Virginia family of that name, and his father 
 was a physician. Doctor Jacob Lewis, who was 
 born the 13th day of October, 1767, in Somerset 
 Count}', State of New Jersey, and lived to a ripe 
 old age, dying in 1852 in Cincinnati, Ohio, the then 
 place of his residence. 
 
 The father of Dr. Lewis was a soldier in the 
 Revolutionary War, serving under Washington in 
 repelling the invasion of New Jersey and New York 
 by the British. 
 
 While in the Continental patriot army he con- 
 tracted camp fever and died. 
 
 The autoliiography of Dr. Lewis, speaking of 
 the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, relates 
 the following incident: — 
 
 "After peace was proclaimed, the fourth day of 
 Ja]y was appointed as a day to be set apart for 
 thanksgiving and rejoicing. The plains where 
 Soraerville now stands, in Somerset County, New 
 Jersey, was the place of meeting. The largest 
 collection of people I think I ever saw was collected 
 there to congratulate each other on the happy event 
 of gaining our independence. A circle formed, and 
 Gen. Frelingliuyson, on his war horse, rode in the 
 center and gave us a truly patriotic lecture ; spoke 
 much on our ease and comfort, and that the form 
 of our government would be that of a Republic ; 
 and further went on and explained the meaning of 
 a Republican form of government, viz., that our 
 legislators would be bound to act for the good of 
 the nation, not local or sectional." 
 
 The Lewis family are of French Huguenot 
 descent, tracing their ancestry directly back to 
 the flight of the Huguenots from France after the 
 revocation of the Edict of Nantes, A. D. 1688. 
 
 Fleeing from religious persecution in France, the 
 ancestors of Col. Lewis settled first in Holland, 
 then removed to Wales and then to America in 
 about the year 1700. 
 
 The Lewis family were of that baud of French 
 Huguenots that history records as settling in little 
 squads in the States of New Jersey, Delaware, 
 Maryland and South Carolina. 
 
 In the year 1802, Dr. Lewis, the father of the 
 subject of this sketch, removed to the then Terri- 
 tory of Ohio, a part of Virginia, which was created 
 a State out of Virginia in February, 1803. 
 
 He settled in. the town of Hamilton, or rather 
 what became the city of Hamilton, Ohio. Here he 
 practiced his profession and prospered until the 
 war of 1812 came on with Great Britain, called the 
 second war of independence. He enlisted in this 
 war against the oppression of the British, as his 
 father had done before him in the Revolution. By 
 virtue of his profession he was appointed surgeon's 
 mate, or assistant surgeon, in the First Regiment, 
 Third Detachment, Ohio militia, on the 13th day of 
 Februar}', 1813, and served throughout the war. 
 
 Col. I. R. Lewis was educated by his father. Dr. 
 .Jacob Lewis, in the best schools of Cincinnati, 
 Ohio, and grew up and was reared to be a highly 
 accomplished young man. Choosing the law as his 
 profession, he entered upon its study under the 
 greatest advantages and auspices, being under 
 Nicholas Longworth, the great Ohio lawyer. His 
 father had planned for him a quiet and prosperous 
 career, as a Cincinnati lawyer, starting as he did as 
 a protege of Longworth and associate and compan- 
 ion of Thomas Corwin, who became so famous as a 
 lawyer and statesman. 
 
 Just after coming of age, he married, in 1822, 
 Miss Eliza Julia Hunt. Miss Hunt was a native of 
 Mississippi, born in Natchez, November 23d, 1802, 
 and was left an orphan at an early age. Miss 
 Hunt's uncle, Jesse Hunt, took her to Kentucky, 
 where the Hunt family came from, and from there 
 she was sent to be educated in the schools of 
 Cincinnati and met young Lewis. As soon as 
 married and in control of his wife's property, 
 which consisted of large landed estates and slaves, 
 the self-reliant and venturesome spirit of his ances- 
 tors cropped out and, to the dismay and chagrin of 
 his father and friends. Col. Ira Lewis announced 
 that he had quit law and would move to Mississippi 
 and take charge of his wife's propertj' and become 
 a jjlanter with slaves. Residing in and near Nat- 
 chez, Col. Lewis operated his plantation, dispens- 
 ing a generous and refined Southern hospitalit}'. 
 
 After several 3-ears residence in Mississippi, he 
 sold out and purchased a plantation near Baton 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 177 
 
 Rouge and Donaldson, La., and continued to live 
 there until tbe year 1830, when he concluded to go 
 to Austin's Colony in the then Mexican Province of 
 Texas. He had heard of Texas from persons he 
 had met in New Orleans when visiting that place to 
 purchase supplies for his plantation. Visiting 
 Texas in 1830, he satisfied himself that it was tiie 
 coming empire of the Southwest and, returning to 
 the United States, sold out his interests in Louisi- 
 ana and embarked his family in a sailing vessel in 
 May, 1831, bound out of New Orleans for Texas. 
 Passage by sea proved stormy and disastrous, re- 
 sulting in the wrecking of the vessel off the coast 
 of Texas. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis with their four 
 children, all girls, were saved in the boats and, after 
 undergoing terrible hardships for several days at 
 sea, tossed about at tbe mercy of the waves, they 
 were landed near the town of Matagorda, in Mata- 
 gorda County, on the coast of Texas, tlien a part 
 of Austin's Colony. Everything was lost in the 
 wreck. All that was left was on their shivering 
 bodies. Relics and mementoes, as well as furniture 
 and wearing apparel, luxuries and necessaries of 
 life, were all swallowed up in the Gulf of Mexico. 
 
 With hospitality, cliaracteristic of life in a new 
 country, the people of Matagorda took into their 
 arms the Lewis family and provided for them until 
 they procured a home. This crushing blow well- 
 nigh crazed Mrs. Lewis and she implored her hus- 
 band to return to tlie United States, but he insisted 
 on remaining. As soon as the means could be pro- 
 cured it was determined that San Felipe de Austin, 
 the seat of government of Austin's Colony, was 
 the proper place to settle and practice his profes- 
 sion of law. 
 
 A writer of the period between 1831 and 1833, 
 speaking of the people of San Felipe de Austin, 
 under the head of " Early Days in Texas," says: 
 "San Felipe was established by S. F. Austin, in 
 1824, on the Brazos, and was named by Governor 
 Garcia as the capital of Austin's Colony. It was 
 the first Anglo-American town established in Texas. 
 Stephen F. Austin, the empresario, and Samuel M. 
 Williams, his secretary, lived here. Here was kept 
 the land office ; here met the Ayuntamiento, the 
 colonists to designate their lands, an ' to receive 
 their titles, and strangers who visited the country ; 
 here resided the prominent lawyers of the colonists 
 of Austin, among whom were W. B. Travis, W. H. 
 Jack, Ira R. Lewis, T. J. Chambers, Luke Lesas- 
 sier, Thomas M. Duke, Hosea League, Robert M. 
 Williamson (three-legged Willie) and others. The 
 society of San Felipe at that day was good. The 
 colonists were required by Austin to bring with 
 them from their former places of residence, certifi- 
 
 cates of good character. By printed notices they 
 were informed if they failed in this, their applica- 
 tion to be received as colonists would be rejected. 
 San Felipe could boast of elegant, refined and 
 beautiful women, as well as noble and cultured 
 men. Mrs. Ira R. Lewis, Mrs. James F. Perry 
 (the sister of S. F. Austin), Mrs. W. H. Jack, Mrs. 
 Nancy McKinney, Mrs. Townsend, Mrs. Peyton 
 (sister of Bailey Peyton), Mrs. Parmer and others, 
 from their personal attractions, lovely womanly 
 character, would command attention and admira- 
 tion anywhere. Here was established the first 
 Sunday school, the first newspa^ier and the first 
 Masonic Lodge in Texas. Here assembled the 
 representative men to consult and plan for the 
 weal of Texas, and it so continued until it was 
 destroyed by fire on the approach of the Mexican 
 army, under Santa Anna, in 183G. But for this 
 destruction it would have, in all probahilit}', have 
 been selected as the capital of the Republic of 
 Texas." 
 
 After practicing his profession for several years 
 at San Felipe, Col. Lewis returned to Matagorda, 
 which place became for many years his permanent 
 place of residence. 
 
 Mrs. I. R. Lewis died Januaryllth, 1887, at the 
 residence of her son-in-law, Maj. M. A. Bryan, 
 and was interred in the family cemetery at Inde- 
 pendence, Texas. 
 
 Colonel and Mrs. Lewis had four children, all 
 girls, viz., Laura, born in 1824, at Natchez; Louisa, 
 born near Baton Rouge, La., in December, 1825, 
 Cora and Stella, born in Baton Rouge, La., in the 
 years, respectiv^ely, 1828 and 1830. 
 
 Laura married at Matagorda, Texas, Dr. A. F. 
 Axson and was the mother of three children, viz., 
 Lewis, Clinton J. and B. Palmer, all born in New 
 Orleans. Louisa married Hon. Geo. Hancock of 
 Austin, Texas, and was the mother of one child, 
 viz., Lewis, born in Austin, Texas. Cora married 
 Moses Austin Bryan of Brazoria, November 3d, 
 185G, and was the mother of six children, to wit. 
 Gum M., who died at the age of two years, in 
 Brazoria ; Stella Louisa, who died at the age of four 
 years, at Independence; Lewis Randolph, born 
 October 2d, 1858; Beauregard, born January Ifith, 
 1862; Austin Y., born December 20th, 1863; 
 Stonewall Jackson, born February 2d, 1866. Of 
 these children the first four were born in Brazoria 
 County, Texas, on their father's plantation on 
 Oyster creek, called " Retire." The last two 
 were born near Independence on their father's 
 plantation. Stella married Maj. Hal. G. Runnels, 
 of Harris County, Texas, an only son of Governor 
 Hiram G. Runnels and cousin of Governor Hardin 
 
178 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND FIONEEES OF TEXAS. 
 
 R. Runnels, and was the mother of two children, 
 Sue and Harry G. Stella died near Independence, 
 Texas. Laura died in September, 1876, in New 
 Orleans, La., the place of her residence, and was 
 
 interred in Metarie Cemetery in that city. Cora 
 died June 9th, 1889, in Bienham, Texas, and is 
 interred in the family cemetery at Independence, 
 Texas. 
 
 CHARLES FOWLER, 
 
 GALVESTON. 
 
 The late lamented Capt. Charles Fowler, of 
 Galveston, was born in Guilford, Connecticut, in 
 1824 ; went to sea at the age of fourteen, was mas- 
 ter of a ship at twent^'-one and followed that 
 vocation until 18iiG, when he became agent for the 
 Morgan line of steamers at Galveston, which posi- 
 tion he held from that time until the time of his 
 death, a period of twenty-five years. 
 
 He came to Galveston in 1847 as captain of the 
 brig, Mary. Three years later he returned to Con- 
 necticut and was married at Stratford to Miss Mary 
 J. Booth, daughter of Isaac Patterson Booth. 
 
 Upon the commencement of hostilities between 
 the States he entered the naval branch of the Con- 
 federate service ; at the famous engagement at 
 Sabine Pass participated in the capture of the 
 enemy's fleet and was subsequently made prisoner 
 and detained until the close of the war. On 
 returning to Galveston he was made captain of one 
 of the Morgan ships, from which position he was 
 transferred to the Galveston agency. Though 
 never aspiring to political preferment, he was elected 
 an alderman of Galveston as far back as 1873, 
 afterwards frequently served in that capacity and 
 at the time of his death, March 17th, 1891, was a 
 member of the board, having served continuously 
 since 1885. His last tenure of office began under 
 a system of municipal reform and his discharge of 
 duty was so accei)table to the people at large that 
 they insisted again and again upon his standing for 
 election. As alderman (from 1885 to 1891) he. 
 always held the position of honor as chairman of 
 the committee on finance and positions on all other 
 leading committees. He was, in fact, recognized 
 as intellectually and, in a business way, the strong- 
 est man in the council, and his straightforwardness, 
 integrity and devotion to duty easil}' entitled him 
 to this position. 
 
 Though not a civil engineer by profession he was 
 a man possessed of strong and valuable practical 
 ideas ui)on matters of engineering, and in 1868, 
 
 took charge of the work of deepening the water on 
 the inner bar, on which there was a depth of eight 
 feet of water at high tide, all vessels being subject 
 to a pilotage of $3.00 per foot besides the $4.00 per 
 foot over the outer bar. In 1869, as president of 
 the board of pilot commissioners, he handed in a 
 report, showing a depth of fifteen feet over the in- 
 ner bar, and recommended the abolition of pilotage 
 over same, a recommendation that was followed 
 forthwith. Through his long and intimate acquaint- 
 ance with municipal affairs and all classes of the 
 people, no man was better qualified to serve the 
 people of Galveston and foster the best interests of 
 the city. He was often urged to accept the mayor- 
 alty but declined to become a candidate for the 
 honor. Physically he was a noble specimen of 
 manhood. He possessed in full measure solid public 
 and domestic virtues. His wife and three children 
 survive him, viz., a married daughter, Mrs. A. 
 Bornefeld ; a son, Charles Fowler, Jr., and a 
 younger daughter, Miss Louise. In reporting the 
 fact of his death, the Galveston Netvsof March 18th, 
 1891, contained the following: " The friends and 
 acquaintances of Capt. Charles Fowler, and their 
 number in Galveston is legion, have for the past two 
 days been hourly anticipating his death. Some ten 
 days ago he was taken to his bed with a chill to which 
 no particular importance was attached, but as days 
 passed his malady grew more complicated, finally 
 developing into a serious kidney complication, 
 resulting in a fatal case of uremic poisoning. He 
 died last night at 8-30 o'clock, and in his death 
 no ordinary man passed away. Few citizens 
 have died in Galveston who were more universally 
 respected and esteemed by all classes, or whose 
 death will be more universally regretted. Since it 
 has been known that death was inevitable the 
 inquiry upon every lip upon the street has been in 
 regard to Capt. Fowler's condition and if any evi- 
 dence was wanting as to his popularity, it was 
 clearly demonstrated by all classes of citizens over 
 
CHARLES FOWLER. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 179 
 
 his critical condition. Those of liigU and low station, 
 rich and poor, dis|)layed an abiding sorrow at the 
 announcement tliat the life-tide of Charles Fowler 
 was ebbing away and that his death was but a 
 question of a few short hours. The universal 
 sentiment expressed was that ' in the death of 
 Charles Fowler Galveston will lose one of her best 
 and noblest citizens,' and when the sad ncvs came 
 last night that all was over it fell like a pall upon 
 the busy streets." 
 
 That paper said editorially: "The mortal re- 
 mains of Capt. Charles Fowler were yesterday con- 
 signed to the earth, whence they came. In the 
 death of Capt. Fowler this city has lost one of her 
 best and most useful citizens. * * * Trained 
 to the sea, with its dangers and vicissitudes, he was 
 ever ready in emergency and always manl}' and 
 brave in act. Yet how loving and kindly in all the 
 relations of life. To the general public he dis- 
 charged his full duty — to his immediate family all 
 that mortal man could do. The tribute paid to his 
 memory yesterday by the citizens of Galveston was 
 worthy of his character. Among the many who 
 accompanied his remains to their last resting-place 
 were those of every degree and station in life — the 
 professional man, the merchant, the civic authority 
 and official, the laborer, the domestic. It was not 
 an outpouring of popular curiosity, but a real trib- 
 ute to worth and manhood. The man who worked 
 for his daily wages upon the docks was as sincerely 
 grief-stricken as the man of wealth who may have 
 considered Capt. Fowler his more Immediate com- 
 panion or his coadjutor in public affairs. The 
 tribute was beautiful in itself and pleasant to think 
 over, because it demonstrates that human nature 
 has a fine touch of grandeur after all in its recogni- 
 tion and appreciation of the manly virtues. The 
 spotless integrity and loving kindness of Charles 
 Fowler's nature drew from the hearts of the people 
 of Galveston yesterday as fine a poem as ever poet 
 penned." 
 
 At a called meeting of the city council held 
 March 20th, 1891, Mayor R. L. Fulton submitted a 
 message in which he pronounced an eloquent eulo- 
 gium upon the deceased, and upon motion that 
 body adopted the following resolutions: — 
 
 " Whereas, Galveston has just lost by death one 
 of her most eminent, patriotic and distinguished 
 citizens in the person of Capt. Charles Fowler, who 
 
 for a great number of years has been prominently 
 identified with the city government as alderman, 
 member of the Board of Health, chairman of the 
 Committee on Finance and Revenue, and member 
 of many other useful committees, where at all times 
 he manifested the utmost zeal for the public welfare, 
 great ability as a financier, enterprise, energy, a 
 spirit of progress in keeping with the times, and a 
 moral and physical courage which enabled him to 
 stamp his convictions on his associates and thus 
 give to the city of his love the full benefit of his 
 wise counsels, legislative and executive ability and 
 patriotism ; and 
 
 "Whereas, He never hesitated to expend his 
 time, energy and great abilities for the benefit of his 
 fellow citizens ; tlierefore, l)e it 
 
 "Resolved, By the city council of the city of 
 Galveston, that on no more melancholy and regret- 
 table an occasion was this council ever before 
 convened. 
 
 " Resolved, Further, That on Saturday, the 21st 
 inst., the day of his interment, as a mark of 
 respect, all the city offices be closed ; that the 
 different branches or departments of the city 
 government attend the funeral; that the city hall 
 and council chamber be draped in appropriate 
 emblems of mourning and respect for the loss of 
 this good and useful private citizen and public 
 officer. Be it also 
 
 " Resolved, That his chair in the municipal cham- 
 ber be left unoccupied during the remainder of the 
 municipal term, this council pledging itself to his 
 constituents the same careful attention to their 
 interests, and that these resolutions be spread upon 
 the minutes and copies be furnished the members 
 of his immediate family, and that the daily papers 
 be requested to publish same. Be it also 
 
 " Resolved, That this council does hereby request 
 the business houses of this city to close during the 
 funeral to-morrow, Saturday, March 21sl." 
 
 Who would not lead such a life of modest use- 
 fulness ? Who would not leave such a memory 
 behind him when he passes from the scenes of life? 
 Tiie cynic and the idler may well draw lessons of 
 profit from this brief chronicle and those who seek 
 for happiness, if not honor, in dubious ways, 
 should lay speedily to heart the truth that: " It is 
 only noble to be good," and that there is no haj)pi- 
 ness aside from duty. 
 
180 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 R. W. LOUGHERY, 
 
 MARSHALL. 
 
 In this brief memoir it is the intention of the 
 author to present an outline of the main incidents 
 in the career of a man who, for many j'ears, figured 
 prominently upon the scene of action in this Stale, 
 and whose memory, though his form has been con- 
 Bigned to earth, which at last must receive us all, 
 is still revered by many of the older people of this 
 State, who either knew him personally or by 
 reputation. 
 
 His was a truly noble character. He was so 
 slow to think evil of others and unselfish, he failed 
 to ask for, and often refused to accept, the rewards 
 that his services had richly earned, and that, at the 
 time, would have been freely accorded hira, but 
 which later, when he greatly needed substantial 
 recognition by his party, was denied him under a 
 system of politics that leads those in power to be- 
 stow their favors not as rewards of merit, but with 
 an eye-single to personal aggrandizement — to pre- 
 fer an obscure crossroads politician, who can com- 
 mand one vote in the State convention, to an old 
 veteran, who has grown gray in the service of his 
 country. He saved the frail barques of many politi- 
 cians from disaster and built up the political fortunes 
 of several men who have since held high positions in 
 the councils of the nation, but sought no honors 
 for himself, when (for instance, within a few years 
 after the overthrow of the Military Commission at 
 Jefferson) he could have secured any office within 
 the gift of the people of Texas. 
 
 These traits were a part of his mental and 
 spiritual make-up and bore fruit that, while it did 
 not embitter (for nothing could embitter) saddened 
 the later years of his life, until at last he sank into 
 the welcome grave. 
 
 He was ambitious, not to secure political pre- 
 ferment, social position, influence or other reward, 
 or to gratify personal vanity by parading the fact 
 that he was patriotic, true, honorable, pious, 
 kindly, generous and charitable; but, ambitious 
 alone to possess, cultivate and practice those vir- 
 tues. The pathetic appealed to him as it does to 
 few men. He wept with those who mourned and 
 rejoiced with those who rejoiced. He was above all 
 petty jealousj^ He not only saw but applauded 
 the merits of others, and cheered them on in efforts 
 that led to distinction. He never permitted a case 
 of suffering to go unrelieved, that it was in his 
 power to relieve, and he never turned a tramp or 
 
 other beggar from his door. When the world cried ^ 
 "Crucify!" he was ever found on the side of 
 mercy. He never deserted his friends, but was- 
 quick to fly to their defense when they appealed to 
 him, or when he saw that they needed his aid, and 
 as a result, there are thousands who remember him 
 and sincerely mourn his loss. He never failed to 
 inspire the respect even of his political enemies. 
 He had the rare faculty of doing the right thing at 
 the right time, and was a consummate master of the 
 higher tactics of political warfare. He was an in- 
 domitable and trusted defender of right, and never 
 failed to be the first to throw himself squarely into 
 the breach in time of public danger. He was 
 physically and morally intrepid. He was quick to 
 espouse every worthy cause, and advocate it with 
 might and main. He was not only kind and benev- 
 olent to men and women, both great and small, 
 rich and poor, black and white ; but, to God's 
 creatures, the lower animals, not one of whom he 
 ever injured, or permitted to be injured in his 
 presence, without reproof. He turned, instinctively, 
 to the defense of the weak and defenseless. He 
 never did an intentional wrong, and never com- 
 mitted a wrong unintentionally through error aris- 
 ing from mistake of judgment or misrepresentation 
 of facts that he did not sorel3' repent, and imme- 
 diately seek to atone for. He never sacrificed 
 principle to exjjediency. 
 
 It may be said truthfully of him that he was the 
 "Father of Texas Democracj'." "When he estab- 
 lished his newspaper at Marshall in 1849 (three 
 years after Texas was admitted to the Union) the 
 two great parties in the United States (Whigs and 
 Democrats) had no representative local organiza- 
 tions in Texas. Seeing the confusion that prevailed 
 and deprecating the practice of conducting cam- 
 paigns merely on personal and local issues, he, for 
 six years, zealously taught, through the columns of 
 his paper, the tenets of Democratic faith, as to 
 which there were many misconceptions (men run- 
 ning for office who claimed to be Democrats, and 
 who did not understand or believe in the first 
 principles of Democracj') and sought to bring 
 about party alignments, which he at last suc- 
 ceeded in doing, as the State convention of 185» 
 was tiie result of his labors and the labor of those 
 who aided him in the work. While he believed in 
 that concerted action in political matters, which car^ 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 181 
 
 alone be secured through perfect party organiza- 
 tions, he was of too manly and independent a spirit 
 and too clear-headed and wise a man to erect party 
 into a fetich, to be bowed down before and wor- 
 shiped. He did not hesitate to criticise platforms, 
 candidates and officials — from the highest to the 
 lowest — when he deemed such criticism necessary 
 to the good of the country or party. He believed 
 in the great cardinal principles upon which rests 
 the school of political economy that claimed his 
 allegiance. If party leaders violated those princi- 
 ples he sought, as far as his influence extended, to 
 whip them back into line. If his views upon public 
 questions were not accepted and enunciated in the 
 platform utterances of his party, he did not cease 
 to advocate their adoption, neither did he quit his 
 party, for, with the author of Lacon, he believed 
 "that the violation of correct principles offers no 
 excuse for their abandonment," and was sure that 
 the Democratic masses would in time force their 
 leaders to adopt the correct course and retrace the 
 false and dangerous steps that were being taken. 
 He believed that if the principles enunciated by Mr. 
 Jefferson, Calhoun and their associates were prac- 
 tically applied to the administration of our national 
 and State affairs, we would have one of the most 
 enduring, freest and happiest governments that it 
 is possible for human genius to construct and human 
 patri(jtism and wisdom sustain. Part}', with him, 
 was merely a necessary means to a desirable end — 
 good government and constitutional integrity and 
 freedom — and he combated every movement, ut- 
 terance, or nomination that promised to impair its 
 strength or usefulness. 
 
 He was devoted to the Democratic flag with a 
 devotion akin to that of a veteran for his flag. His 
 was a bold aggressive personality, fitted for times 
 of storm and struggle. 
 
 Comparatively earlj' in his career it was charged 
 that Hon. Lewis T. Wigfall wrote the editorials for 
 the Texas Republican, but this piece of malicious 
 whispering was soon forever silenced, as he and 
 Wigfall became engaged in a newspaper controversj% 
 in which Wigfall was placed liors de combat. 
 
 He was born in Nashville, Tenn., February 2, 
 1820, and was educated at St. Joseph's College at 
 Bardstown, Ky., to which place his parents, Robert 
 and Sarah Ann Loughery (from the north of Ire- 
 land) removed during his infancy. At ten years 
 of age he was left an orphan and not long after 
 entered a printing office, where he learned the 
 trade. 
 
 News of the revolution in progress in Texas — 
 the massacres at the Alamo and Goliad and the 
 victory won at the battle of San Jacinto — fired him 
 
 with a desire to join the patriot army and strike a blow 
 for liberty and, although but sixteen years of age, he 
 went to Cincinnati, Ohio, and there joined a military 
 company and started with it for Texas. A frail, 
 delicate lad, he was taken sick en route to New 
 Orleans and was left in that city, where he remained 
 a year and a half, and then went to Monroe, La., 
 where he remained until 1846, part of the time con- 
 ducting an influential newspaper, and then again 
 went to New Orleans. On the 11th of February, 
 1841, he married, at Monroe, Miss Sarah Jane Bal- 
 lew, an estimable young lady, the daughter of a 
 leading pioneer settler in Ouachita parish. In 
 1847, he removed to Texas and during that year 
 edited a paper at Jefferson. He spent 1848 in 
 traveling over the State, often traversing solitudes 
 of forest and prairie for days together. He said 
 in after life that some of the most pleasant hours 
 that he ever spent were in the wilderness in silent 
 and solitary meditation as he rode along, far from 
 the haunts of men. 
 
 In May, 1849, he and Judge Trenton J. Patillo 
 established the Texas Republican at Marshall, one 
 of the most famous newspapers ever published in 
 Texas, and certainly the most wide!}' influential and 
 by far the ablest conducted in the State before the 
 war. The paper was named the Texas Republican 
 in honor of the party which advocated the adoption 
 of the American constitution. Judge Patillo sold 
 his interest to his son, Mr. Frank Patillo, in 1850, 
 and in 1851 Col. Loughery obtained sole control 
 of the paper by purchase, and conducted it alone 
 until August, 1869. The flies of the Texas Repub- 
 lican were purchased a few years since by the State 
 of Texas, and are now preserved in the archives of 
 the State Department of Insurance, Statistics and 
 History. Before the war this paper was the recog- 
 nized organ of the Democratic party in Texas. It 
 led the hosts in every contest. The fiery Know- 
 Nothing campaign of 1855 gave full scope for the 
 exercise of his varied abilities. The Know-Nothing 
 party was a secret, oath-bound organization, hostile 
 to Catholicism and opposed to immigrants from for- 
 eign lands acquiring right of citizenship in this 
 country. Largely, if not mainly, through the 
 efforts of Col. Loughery, a Democratic Slate Con- 
 vention was called (the first in the State), assembled, 
 nominated candidates for State offices, and drew 
 the Democracy up in regular arra}' to contest the 
 State with the opposition. He was bitterly opposed 
 to the methods and tenets of the Know-Nothing 
 party. 
 
 The following incident is illustrative of the temper 
 of the times. Hon. Pendleton Murrah, afterwards 
 Governor of the State, was a candidate for Con- 
 
182 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 giess and opened his carapaigu at Marshall. It 
 was impossible to estimate the strength of the 
 Know-Nothing party, as all its proceedings were 
 held in secret. This strength was greatly underesti- 
 mated by Miirrah and his friends. They believed 
 that the excitement was of an ephemeral character 
 and was confined to a few individuals who hoped 
 to secure otHce by playing the roles of political 
 agitators. Mr. Murrah assailed the leaders and 
 principles of Know-Nothingism with all the vigor 
 and venom of which he was capable, hoping to give 
 the American party, so far as his district was con- 
 cerned, its coup de grace. One of the leading 
 citizens of the county arose and declared that the 
 gentlemen who composed the American party had 
 been insulted, and called upon all members of the 
 party to follow him from the court room. There 
 was a moment of breathless expectation, succeeded 
 by the audience arising well-nigh en masse and 
 moving toward the door. Soon Mr. Murrah and 
 two or three friends alone remained. They wei'e 
 dumbfounded. The scene they had witnessed was 
 a revelation. They realized that there was no hope 
 of Democratic success in the district and that the 
 Know-Nothing party would sweep it. Mr. Murrah 
 declared his intention to at once withdraw from 
 the race. At this moment Col. Loughery stepped 
 up to him and urged liim to continue the campaign 
 and that with increased vigor, saying, among other 
 things: "If you retire now in the face of the 
 enemy, your political career will end to-day. 
 Although defeat is cert;iin, stand up and fight, and 
 when the Know-Notliing party is condemned by 
 the sober second thought of the people, you will be 
 remembered and honored." Mr. Murrah followed 
 Col. Loughery's advice and was afterwards elected 
 Governor. The campaign waxed hotter and hotter. 
 The Texas liepuhlicun' s philippics, many of them 
 unsurpassed by any written by the author of 
 the letters of Junius or uttered by Sheridan or 
 Burke, fell thicker and faster and party speakers 
 flew swiftly from point to point haranguing the 
 multitude, sometimes alone but more often in 
 fierce joint debate. At last came the fateful day of 
 election, a day of doom for the Know-Nothing 
 party (but not for its spirit, for that unfortunately 
 Is still alive) and of victory to the Democracy. 
 
 The next momentous epoch in the history of Col. 
 Loughery was that marked by the secession 
 movement. As to the right of revolution, it is 
 necessarilv inherent in every people. The time 
 wlien it shall be exercised rests alone in their dis- 
 cretion. The rigjjt of secession was of an entirely 
 different nature. It was in the nature of tiiat right 
 which a party claims when he witlidravvs from a 
 
 contract, the terms of whicii have been violated or 
 the consideration for which has been withdrawn, 
 and identical with that which nations who are 
 parties to a treaty of alliance, offensive and de- 
 fensive, reserve to themselves (although the com- 
 pact may in its terms provide for a perpetual 
 union) to consider the treaty annulled when its 
 terms are departed from or the connection no longer 
 continues to be pleasant or profitable. AVithdrawal 
 may, or may not, give offense and lead to a declara- 
 tion of war. If it does lead to hostilities, the 
 resulting struggle is one carried on by equals in 
 whicli heavy artillery and big battalions will settle 
 the fate of the quarrel. The question of moral 
 right must be left to the decision of the public 
 conscience of the world, or, if that conscience fails 
 to assert itself at the time, to posterity and the 
 impartial historians of a later period. At one time 
 in the history' of the English race, the trial by 
 battle was a part of legal procedure by which issues, 
 both civil and criminal, were judicially determined. 
 But in course of time men came to see that 
 skill, strengtii and courage were the sole factors 
 that controlled the issue of such contests and that 
 wrong was as often successful as right. A.s a 
 consequence the trial by battle fell gradually into 
 disuse and at last became extinct and is now only 
 rtmembered as a curious custom incident to the 
 evolution of our system of jurisprudence. What 
 has been said of the trial bj' battle may be said 
 with equal truth of war and the fate of war. The 
 fact that the Southern States were defeated, con- 
 sequently, has no bearing upon the question of 
 their right to secede. The States bound themselves 
 together to secure certain benefits and to remain so 
 associated so long as the connection proved desir- 
 able. He believed that every essential guarantee 
 contained in the constitution had been grosslj' vio- 
 lated and tiiat tlie Southern States could no longer 
 either expect peace or security to their rights, or 
 any benefit whatever by continuing under the same 
 governmental roof with the States north of Mason 
 and Dixon's line. He was in favor of a [)eaceful 
 withdrawal, if possible. 
 
 During the progress of the war Col. Loughery 
 opposed the passage of the conscript laws and the 
 invasion of the jurisdiction of civil authority by 
 military commanders. With all his powers of per- 
 suasion he sought to keep up the waning hopes of 
 the people as the months passed on into years. 
 Knowing that many of the families of Confederate 
 Soldiers then in the field were in need, he inaugu- 
 rated a movement that resulted in a mass meeting 
 at the Court House in Marshall, Texas, at which a 
 committee was appointed to solicit subscriptions of 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 183 
 
 money and provisions for the establishment of a 
 depot of supplies, at which such families could ob- 
 tain what tliey needed. He continued to publish 
 his paper throughout the war, never missing an 
 issue. The final result of the struggle did not un- 
 nerve him as it did many other public men, some 
 of whom, among the number the brilliant and 
 lamented Pendleton Murrali, fled the country to 
 find graves in alien lands. Those were dark days 
 that followed the surrender, and the establishment 
 of military rule. Some of those who boasted that 
 they would submit to no indignities, not only tamely 
 submitted but went entirely over to the Radicals, 
 accepted office under them and seemed to delight 
 in oppressing a defenseless people. This class 
 found no mercy at his hands. His course was 
 characterized by eminent good sense and was re- 
 markable for its fearlessness. Owing to the stand 
 that he took the iniquities that were perpetrated 
 fell far short in atrocity to what thej' would other- 
 wise have done, as he unhesitatingly not only venti- 
 lated, but denounced what was going on and his 
 palmers found their way to Washington. 
 
 In April, 1867, he started the Jefferson Times 
 (daily and weekly) and ran it in connection with 
 his paper at Marshall. 
 
 At this time a complete system of oppression and 
 tyranny prevailed. An army of thieves were sent 
 into the country, ostensibly to protect the negroes 
 and to hunt up Confederate cotton and other 
 alleged Confederate property. The Freedman's 
 Bureau had its agents in every county. The jails 
 were full of respectable people, charged with dis- 
 loyalty or alleged crimes, on the complaints of 
 mean whites or depraved negroes. Five military 
 despotisms prevailed in the South. Governors were 
 deposed, legislatures dispersed at the point of the 
 bayonet and citizens disfranchised. The press 
 was silenced and men were afraid to talk, but in 
 many places they became bolder, until they did not 
 see actual danger. 
 
 Such was the case in Jefferson, in 1869, when a 
 number of outraged citizens broke into the jail and 
 shot to death a man named Smith (who had often 
 threatened to have the town burned) and three 
 negroes. These killings inflamed the Radicals. 
 They cared nothing about Smith, whose conduct 
 was about as offensive to them as to the people, 
 but they seemed to rejoice at the opportunity this 
 incident afforded to oppress a people that they 
 hated. Col. Loughery, with both papers, attacked 
 the military organization and the military commis- 
 sion appointed to try the^e men and others incar- 
 cerated at Jefferson, charged with alleged crimes. 
 The commission prevailed for over six months, and 
 
 with it a reign of terror. Men talked in bated 
 whispers. A large number of men left the country 
 to escape persecution. A stockade was erected on 
 the west side of town, in which were imprisoned 
 over fifty persons. Martial law prevailed, the writ 
 of habeas corpus was suspended, and men were 
 tried by army officers in time of profound peace, 
 in plain, open violation of the constitution. His 
 position during this period was one of great peril, 
 as he reported the proceedings of, and boldly 
 assailed, the commission and its acts from day to 
 day. 
 
 Col. Loughery's able and intrepid course resulted 
 in the downfall of the commission, prevented the 
 arrest of many persons, and the perpeti'ation of many 
 outrageous acts that otherwise would have been 
 committed, and preserved the lives and liberties of 
 many of those confined in the stockade. With him 
 at the head of the Times, the military authorities 
 were compelled to restrain themselves, and think 
 well before they acted. They ordered him several 
 times to cease his strictures, but in each instance 
 he sent back a bold defiance, and the following 
 morning the Times appeare<l with editorials in keep- 
 ing with those of former issues. He had three 
 newspaper plants and all of his files destroyed by 
 fire in Jefferson, but notwithstanding these great 
 losses and heavy expense attendant upon the publi- 
 cation of a dail3r newspaper in those days, he con- 
 ducted the Times until , after which time he 
 
 published and edited papers at Galveston and Jef- 
 ferson, Texas, and Shreveport, La., and from 1877 
 until 1880, edited the Marshall Herald, at Marshall, 
 Texas, published by Mr. Howard Hamments. 
 Some of the best work that he ever did was on the 
 Herald. There was scarcely a paper in the State 
 that did not quote from the Herald's editorial 
 columns, and the editors of the State, as if by com- 
 mon consent, united in referring to him on all 
 occasions as the " Nestor of the Texas Press." 
 
 From a very early period Col. Loughery strongly 
 advocated the building of a trans-continental rail- 
 way through Texas to the Pacific ocean, and while 
 in New Orleans on one occasion was employed by 
 Col. Faulk, the original projector of what is now the 
 Texas and Pacific Railway, to write a series of 
 articles for the Picayune in defense of the corpo- 
 ration which Col. Faulk had then recently formed. 
 Later he became one of the stockholders and direct- 
 ors of the corporation. Throughout his life he felt 
 an interest in the fortunes of the Texas and Pacific, 
 and remained an earnest advocate of railway con- 
 struction. Every' worthy enterprise found in him 
 a staunch and zealous supporter. 
 
 In 1887 he was appointed by President Cleveland 
 
184 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Consul for the United States at Acapulco, Mexico, 
 and held the office until December 1st, 1890, 
 making one of the best officers in the foreign ser- 
 vice. He was often commended by the State 
 Department, and his reports were copied by the 
 leading commercial papers in Europe and America. 
 
 Col. Loughery was undoubtedly one of the 
 finest writers and clearest thinkers that the South 
 has ever produced, and deserves to rank with 
 Ritchie, Kendall and Prentice. It has been said 
 that journalism has greatly improved in recent 
 years. This is true with regard to the gathering 
 and dissemination of news, but not true in anj" 
 other particular. 
 
 He was married to Miss Elizabeth M. Bowers 
 near Nebo, Ky., November 23, 1853. His 
 widow and four children, Robert W., Jr. (born 
 of his first marriage), Augusta M., E. H., and 
 Fannie L., survive him. He died at his home in 
 Marshall, Texas, April 26, 1894, and was interred 
 in the cemetery at that place. 
 
 Mrs. E. M. Loughery was born in Christian 
 County, Kentuckj', is the daughter of the late Mr. 
 and Mrs. W. W. Bowers, is descended from two 
 of the oldest and most distinguished families of the 
 " Blue Grass State," was partly educated at Oak- 
 land Institute, Jackson, Miss., came to Texas 
 with her uncle, Judge Dudley S. Jennings, and 
 remained some time afterward with her uncle, 
 Gen. Thomas J. Jennings, well remembered as 
 a lawyer, Attorney-general of Texas and citizen of 
 Nacogdoches, San Augustine and Fort Worth. 
 Mrs. Loughery is a lady of superior culture and 
 attainments, and as a writer little inferior to her 
 talented husband. During the days of the military 
 commission at Jefferson, when Col. Loughery was 
 threatened with incarceration in the stockade, it 
 was understood that in case of his arrest, she was 
 to assume editorial control of the Times, and con- 
 tinue its strictures on the despotism that prevailed, 
 a work, that had it become necessary, she would 
 have been fully competent to perform. She has 
 recently written and published in pamphlet form 
 a memoir of the life, character and services of Col. 
 Loughery that possesses superior literary merits 
 and has met with favorable comment in the leading 
 newspapers in the State. 
 
 R. W. Loughery, Jr., was a soldier in the Con- 
 federate Army during the four years of the war, 
 carried the last dispatches into Arkansas Post, 
 fought through the Tennessee and Georgia cam- 
 paigns, was mentioned at the head of his regiment 
 for conspicuous gallantrj' at Chickamauga and fol- 
 lowed the flag until it was finally furled in North 
 Carolina. He was a printer on the old Dallas 
 
 Herald, and later on its successor, the Dallas News, 
 until recently, and is still living in Dallas. 
 
 Miss Augusta M. Loughery is one of the most 
 accomplished ladies in Texas. E. H. Loughery 
 edited newspapers at Jefferson, Texas, Shreve- 
 port. La., Paris, Texas, Abilene, Texas, and 
 Marshall, Texas, during the years from 1879 to 
 1891 ; edited Daniell's Personnel of the Texas 
 State Government (published in 1892), Col. John 
 Henry Brown's two-volume history of Texas, and 
 the present volume (Indian Wars and Pioneers of 
 Texas) ; has gotten out numerous special news- 
 paper editions in Texas, and has done various 
 writing at sessions of the Texas State legislature 
 during the past eleven or twelve years. Miss 
 Fannie L. Loughery is an excellent writer, and a 
 poetess of great promise. 
 
 The following are three of the hundreds of 
 notices that appeared in Texas papers concerning 
 him : — 
 
 " It is now definitely known that our townsman. 
 Col. R. W. Loughery, the Nestor of the Texas 
 press, has been appointed American Consul at 
 Acapulco, Mexico. Col. Loughery's reputation as 
 an able and fearless editor, as an honest and faith- 
 ful Democrat, is beyond question, and nothing we 
 might write could possibly add to his well-earned 
 and well-deserved reputation. If Col. Loughery 
 had done nothing more, his heroic, but perilous 
 fight with the military in the days of reconstruction, 
 when there was at Jefferson a military inquisition, 
 and the man who opposed it imperiled both life and 
 liberty, he would deserve the highest praise. As a 
 staunch, tried and true Democrat of the Jeffersonian 
 school, Col. Loughery is the peer of any and de- 
 serves liberal recognition from the party. Texas 
 owes him a large debt of gratitude and liberal 
 material recognition for the work he has done in 
 shaping her political fortunes when it cost much in 
 peril and sacrifice to defend her rights and auton- 
 omy against the combined power of Federal 
 authority and hireling satraps. As a writer 
 Col. Loughery is clear, incisive, strong, and 
 few men are better posted in the political 
 history of our national and Southern State politics, 
 and few, if any, are better able to defend a Demo- 
 cratic administration. As a consular representative 
 of our country in Acapulco, Mexico, he will bring 
 to his duties a mind well cultivated and a large 
 experience in the duties of American citizenship 
 and an accurate knowledge of the history of our 
 government. The Colonel will wield a pen able and 
 ready for any emergency in peace or war — a Dam- 
 ascus blade that has never yet been sheathed in the 
 presence of an enemy." — Marshall Messenger. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 185 
 
 " In May, 1872, Col. Loughery was commissioned 
 consul at Acapulco, Mexico, and at once assumed 
 the duties of bis office. In that city be found a 
 strong prejudice existing against Americans and 
 particularly against Texas, the heritage of a bloody 
 war and bis predecessors in office. His geniality 
 and kind, courteous and business-like manner 
 soon swept tbis away, and be succeeded in sup- 
 planting the strong anti-American sentiment with 
 admiration and respect for America and Amer- 
 icans as strong. By untiring efforts be succeeded 
 in giving his government far more information than 
 it bad ever before been able to obtain from this 
 portion of the Mexican republic. In fact, when be 
 was recalled at the expiration of President Cleve- 
 land's first term the relations between the United 
 States and tbis important port and coaling station 
 were in every way pleasant and the business of 
 the consulate was in better condition than ever 
 before." 
 
 "The death of Col. Loughery at Marshall, 
 April 2Gtb, 1894, was received here with deep regret 
 and profound sorrow, and a pall of gloom hangs 
 over his old home and around the scenes of his 
 glorious works and accomplishments during the 
 dark days of reconstruction. During those trying 
 times be stood as a champion of civil liberty, and 
 bold!}' defended the rights of the people against 
 usurpation of the powers that were imposing a 
 tyranny and rule that was abhorred bj' the civilized 
 world. The military commission organized in a 
 time of profound peace, and its inhuman practices, 
 is a stigma upon the dominant party and a disgrace 
 to the power that authorized and sanctioned its 
 outrages. Every means to degrade and oppress 
 the people were organized and run in conflict and 
 opposition to the law and order that the best ele- 
 ment here was anxious to prevail. A reign of 
 terror was imposed, and our innocent people were 
 incarcerated in a Bastile, and tried by a mock 
 tribunal for crimes they never committed, to gratify 
 a petty tyranny born and nutured in partisan spirit 
 and sectional hatred. At the beginning of this 
 stormy period Col. Loughery came to the rescue and 
 nobly and gallantly wielded the pen and fought for 
 principles and justice and boldly enunciated a law 
 and rule to restore common rights and liberty, that 
 the existing martial law bad stultified and sat upon 
 with impunity. The desired effect was at last 
 attained, and the commission was dissolved, and the 
 civil law was permitted to assume its rightful func- 
 tions and acknowledged superior to the military. 
 The gratitude of our people for his efforts along 
 this perilous line is a silent but eloquent tribute 
 
 to the memory of Col. Lougberj'. He has gone to 
 bis reward, and we join the craft in sincere sorrow, 
 and mourn in common with the family of our 
 esteemed old friend." — Jefferson Jimplicute. 
 
 The following poem was written by Col. Loug- 
 bery's youngest daughter, Miss Fannie L. Lough- 
 ery : — 
 
 SALEM ALEIKUM. 
 
 Peace be to thy sacred dust. 
 
 Cares of earth are ended ! 
 Through life's long and weary day 
 
 Grief and joy were blended. 
 
 Blessed is that perfect rest, 
 
 Free from pain and sorrow, 
 Death's dark night alone can bring 
 
 Sleep with no sad morrow. 
 
 Memory's holy censer yields 
 
 Fragrance sweet, forever. 
 Home holds ties, to loving hearts, 
 
 Parting can not sever. 
 
 Kindly words and noble deeds 
 
 Give thy life its beauty. 
 Brave and patient to the last. 
 
 Faithful to each duty. 
 
 True as steel to every trust, 
 
 Thy aims were selfish never. 
 Good deeds live when thou art gone. 
 
 Thy light shines brighter ever. 
 
 Good fight fought, and life work o'er. 
 Friends and loved ones round thee. 
 
 Garnered like the full ripe ear. 
 Length of days had crowned thee. 
 
 Slowly faded like a leaf. 
 
 Natural is thy slumber. 
 Thou livest yet in many hearts. 
 
 Thy friends no one can number. 
 
 Good night, father, last farewell. 
 
 Never we'll behold thee. 
 May the sod rest light on thee, 
 
 Gently earth enfold thee. 
 
 " Pax vobiscum " (solemn words). 
 
 Sadly death bereft us. 
 Lonely is the hearth and home. 
 
 Father, since you left us. 
 
 Sheaves of love and peace are thine. 
 No wrong thou dids't to any. 
 
 May thy life's pure earnest zeal 
 Strength impart to many. 
 
186 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 O. C. HARTLEY, 
 
 GALVESTON. 
 
 Oliver Cromwell Hartley was born in Bedford 
 County, Penn., March 31st, 1823, where bis ances- 
 tors, who emigrated from England, settled soon 
 after the American Revolution; was educated at 
 Franklin and Jlarshall College, from which he was 
 graduated aud honored with the valedictory of his 
 class in 1841 ; studied law in the office of Samuel 
 M. Barclay, an eminent lawyer of Bedford, and at 
 the age of twenty-one was admitted to the bar and 
 began the practice of his profession. In 1845 he 
 married Miss Susan C. Davis, of Bedford, and in 
 1846 moved to Texas and located at Galveston. 
 The Mexican war was then in progress, and, a call 
 being made for volunteers to rescue the army of 
 Gen. Taylor from its perilous position on the Rio 
 Grande, Mr. Hartley volunteered as a private, 
 and hastened with his company to the seat of hos- 
 tilities which he reached soon after the battles of 
 Palo Alto ami Resaca de laPalma had been fought, 
 victories fur the American arms which enabled 
 Gen. Taylor to assume the offensive and obviated 
 any immediate need for the services of the rein- 
 foi'cements which were at hand. 
 
 On the organization of Col. Johnson's Regiment, 
 Mr. Hartley was elected a Lieutenant in the com- 
 pany from Galveston, which, being disbanded dur- 
 ing the summer, he returned to the Island City and 
 resumed the practice of law. The statutes of the 
 State were at that time in much confusion as to 
 arrangement and the members of the bar greatly 
 felt tlie inconvenience occasioned by the want of a 
 sufficient digest. Mr. Hartley prepared a synopti- 
 cal index of tiie laws for his own use, which became 
 the basis of his admiralde " Digest of the Texas 
 Laws." This work was begun in 1848, and in the 
 spring of 1850 was submitted to the legislature, 
 which authorized the Governor to subscribe for 
 fifteen hundred copies for the use of the State. 
 His digest fully met the wants of the profession, 
 and was justly regarded as a work of great merit 
 and perfection. 
 
 In 1851, lie was elected to represent Galveston 
 County in the legislature and distinguished himself 
 as a useful and efficient member. It was said of 
 him tiiat " he was noted for the frankness and inde- 
 pendence of his bearing and his refusal to enter 
 into the intrigues and cabals by which legislation is 
 so often controlled." 
 
 While a member of the legislature he was 
 
 api)ointed reporter of the decisions of the Supreme 
 Court, and held that office until his death. His 
 skill as a reporter was recognized as eminent. 
 His analyses are accurate and thorough and his 
 syllabi present a clear and concise exposition of 
 the law. He was especially apt and felicitous in 
 eliminating distinctive principles and establishing 
 legal results from complicated relations and views 
 arising from a combination of facts, and his efforts 
 greatly aided in the development of the peculiar 
 system of Texas jurisprudence. 
 
 In February, 1854, he was appointed by the 
 Governor one of the three commissioners author- 
 ized by the legislature, " to prepare a code amend- 
 ing, supplying, revising, digesting and arranging 
 the Jaws of the State." The other members of the 
 commission were John W. Harris and James Willie, 
 and in their division of the labor, the preparation 
 of a " Code of Civil Procedure " was assigned to 
 Mr. Hartley. To this work he applied himself 
 with great zeal, and with an ambition that the civil 
 code of Texas should be superior to that of any 
 other State in the Union; and as an adjunct to its 
 value and merits he prepared a complete system of 
 forms to be used in all civil proceedings ; but the 
 State was not prepared to adopt a new civil code, 
 and its publication was postponed. 
 
 The assiduity with which he pursued his labors 
 upon this work, and which was unremittedly ap- 
 plied to his duties as court reporter and the de- 
 mands of his profession, finally undermined a 
 naturally robust and vigorous constitution. He 
 became a martyr to his industry and ambition, and 
 died of apo|)lcxy of the brain at his residence in 
 the city of Galveston on the 13th of January, 
 1859. 
 
 Mr. Hartley was a thorough scholar. Possessed 
 of a patient fondness for investigation and the 
 acquisition of knowledge, he had from his earl}' 
 youth devoted his life to its pursuit, and his mind 
 was disciplined by a thoi'ough and systematic 
 training, and expanded by constant intellectual 
 nourishment. Before he left his native State he 
 had attracted the attention of Judge Jeremiah 
 Black, who was at that time Chief Justice of 
 Pennsylvania, whose friendship he secured and 
 retained. He had also won the interest and esteem 
 of Mr. Buchanan, who gave him flattering testi- 
 monials as a sesame to public confidence in Texas. 
 
ARTLE^ 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 187 
 
 As a lawyer his philosophical turn of mind led him 
 to closely investigate the relations of things, and 
 to study their correct association ; hence his skill 
 in anal3'sis was acute and his powers of compari- 
 son of a high order. He was careful in the selec- 
 tion of his premises, and when conscious of their 
 correctness, his conclusions were deduced in a clear 
 and logical train. He had accustomed himself to 
 look at both sides of a question and, perceiving the 
 proper line of attack, he was prepared to adopt 
 the most effectual line of defense. 
 
 Nothwithstanding his devotion to his profession, 
 and his ambition to attain a higli position at the 
 bar, Mr. Hartley took a deep interest in the politi- 
 cal issues of his day, and sought to measure all 
 doubtful questions by the authority of the constitu- 
 tion. He was a good constitutional lawyer and his 
 patriotism was kindled by a discussion of its inter- 
 pretation and the merits of its provisions. He was 
 exemplary in his private and social life. Reared 
 hy a Christian mother, he was early guided into the 
 walks of piety and at his death was a member of 
 the Episcopal church. He v?as one of the few 
 precocious youths whose after-lives realized the 
 hopes of parental ambition and the promises of 
 early years. 
 
 He possessed a high sense of honor, and his con- 
 duct was guided by an enlightened judgment and 
 
 sensitive conscience. When the legislature author- 
 ized the Governor to subscribe for his digest it pre- 
 scribed that the binding should be " law calf " and 
 when his publishers remonstrated against that kind 
 of binding and suggested " law sheep," the usual 
 material for such works, he insisted that it should be 
 bound in tiie material designated by the legislature, 
 though it was apparent that the requirement was the 
 resulteitherof ignoranceorinadvertence. Inhispro- 
 fessional intercourse he was characterized by fair- 
 ness and candor; a temper rarely disturbed by pas- 
 sion and a judgment never betrayed by impulse. 
 The amenity of his manners and the unoblrusive- 
 ness of his character, added to a native goodness of 
 heart, endeared him to all and to none more than 
 his brethren at the bar. 
 
 He was greatly devoted to his family, and his 
 home life was pure, simple and almost pathetic in 
 its tenderness. Surviving him and residing at Gal- 
 veston, Mr. Hartley left a widow and one daughter. 
 His widow is still living, being now numliered 
 among the old residents of that city. His daughter. 
 Miss Jerian Black Hartley, died unmarried in 18SJ4. 
 His only son died in infancy, so that there are no 
 descendants now living of this pioneer lawyer, but 
 his works will preserve his name and memory 
 as long as there remains an annal of Texas 
 jurisprudence. 
 
 GEORGE CLARK, 
 
 WACO, 
 
 The history of Texas for the past quarter of a 
 century could not be truthfully written without a 
 resume of the career of Hon. George Clark. The 
 memorable Prohibition campaign of 1887 is still 
 fresh in the minds of the people. If a vote had 
 been taken in the earlier part of the campaign, the 
 pending amendment to the constitution prohibiting 
 the manufacture or sale of malt, spirituous or vinous 
 liquors in this State would have been adopted and, 
 under the provisions of that amendment, laws 
 would have been passed violative of the dearest 
 and most sacred liberties of the peo|)le, domicil- 
 iary visits inaugurated, and a system of espionage, 
 spying and perjury established out of touch with 
 this age and its civilization, necessarily tending to 
 breed animosities that it would have required years 
 to allay, and which, in fact, might never have been 
 
 allayed. The indications were that the Prohibi- 
 tionists would carry the State by storm. Politi- 
 cians are never in finer feather than when they can 
 parade themselves as fearless and unselfish leaders ; 
 but, as a matter of fact, the majority of them are the 
 most subservient of followers, sail-trimmers whose 
 greatest anxiety is to catch favorable popular 
 breezes with which to waft themselves into office 
 and keep themselves there. They regard such a 
 thing as personal sacrifice in the defense of 
 opinions very much as a majority of men do 
 suicide — as an act of insanity. This truth was 
 never more vividly illustrated than during the prog- 
 ress of the exciting contest referred to. One 
 public man of prominence after another, thinking 
 tiiat the amendment would be adopted, published 
 open letters favoring it, although by doing 
 
188 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 so they abandoned the position they had 
 previously' held. The larger number of lead- 
 ers who had not taken this step sulked in their 
 tents, or remained discreetly silent, wailing for the 
 outcome. At this critical moment Judge Clark 
 threw himself into (he breach, organized the anti- 
 prohibition forces and in a short time had the oppo- 
 sition on the run and begging quarter and, when 
 the sun set upon the day of election, he had led the 
 way to one of the most remarkable, signal and 
 brilliant political victories ever won in any State of 
 the American Union. The question was thoroughly 
 argued and was decided upon its merits. He was 
 the hero of the hour — the foremost and most dis- 
 tinguished figure in the political arena in Texas, 
 the idol of the people. If he had desired office, he 
 could have gotten anything within the gift of the 
 people, but he desired none. It was sufficient to 
 him to enjoy the calm consciousness of having done 
 his duty, without the expectation or desire of re- 
 ceiving any reward whatever. Nor did he there- 
 after consent to become a candidate until, as the 
 champion of principles upon whose triumph he 
 believed depended the prosperity of the country, 
 he led the forloin-hope in the Clark-Hogg guber- 
 natorial campaign of 1892 and conducted a cam- 
 paign, which led to more temperate action upon 
 the part of those in power than could otherwise 
 have been expected. He is now the recognized 
 leader in Texas in another great contest, that is 
 being made in the interest of what he believes to be 
 the maintenance of a sound financial system by 
 the United States. His purity of jiurpose and his 
 learning as a lawyer and exceptional ability as a 
 statesman are generally recognized throughout 
 Texas and throughout the country. 
 
 He was born in Eutaw, Alabama, July 18, 1841. 
 His father was James Blair Clark, a native of 
 Pennsylvania, who was partially reared at Chilli- 
 cothe, Ohio, when it was the capital of the State, 
 and in the State of Kentucky by his uncle, Alex- 
 ander Blair. His mother's maiden name was Mary 
 Erwin. She was a native of Virginia and was reared 
 and educated at Mount Sterling, Ky. James 
 B. Clark and Mary Erwin were married at Mount 
 Sterling in 1825, and at once emigrated to the State 
 of Alabama, where tlie former rose to eminence at 
 the bar and was for many years Chancellor of the 
 Middle Division of that State. He died in 1873 and 
 his wife in 18fi3. Nine children were born to them, 
 seven sons and two daughters. George was the 
 seventh son. He was educated in the private schools 
 of his native place and entered the University of 
 Alabama at Tuscaloosa in 1857. At the beginning 
 of the war between the States in 1861 he left college 
 
 and joined the Eleventh Alabama Regiment of In- 
 fantry as a lieutenant and went with his command 
 to Virginia ; in July of that year joined Gen. Joseph 
 E. Johnston at Winchester; was with the army in 
 its march across the mountains to a junction with 
 Beauregard but arrived too late to participate in 
 the first battle of Manassas ; was with the army in 
 its advance toward Washington in the autumn of 
 1861 ; went with his command to Yorktown in the 
 spring of 1862 ; participated in the battles of Seven 
 Pines, Gaines Mill, Sharpsburg, Fredericksliurg, 
 Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Mine Run, the Wilder- 
 ness, Spottsylvania, Hanover, Cold Harbor, Peters- 
 burg, the Mine, Reams' Station and many other 
 hot affairs around Petersburg in 1864 and was on 
 the retreat to Appomatox in April, 1865, but did 
 not surrender, having joined a squad of cavalry 
 which broke through Sheridan's line on the morning 
 of the surrender. He was wounded at Gaines' 
 Mill on June 27th, 1862, on the third day at Gettys- 
 burg, in Pickett's charge, and again at Reams' 
 Station on August 25th, 1864. 
 
 After the close of the war he returned home and 
 began the study of law under his father; was ad- 
 mitted to the bar in October, 1866; removed to 
 Texas in January, 1867, and located at Weatherford, 
 in Parker County ; removed to Waco, his present 
 home, in December, 1868 ; was a member of the 
 vState Democratic Committee in 1872 ; was appointed 
 Secretary of State in January, 1874 ; served as 
 Attorney-General of the State from 1874 to 1876 ; 
 served as one of the commissioners appointed to 
 revise and codify the laws of Texas from 1877 to 
 1879, and was one of the judges of the Court of 
 Appeals in the years 1879 and 1880, since which 
 time he has held no public office, but has devoted 
 his attention to the practice of his profession at 
 Waco. 
 
 During his term as Attorney-General, apart from 
 any criminal cases in which he represented the State 
 on appeal, and which may be found in the Texas 
 Reports, vols. 40 to 45 inclusive, he represented 
 the State successfully in many civil causes, among 
 others in Bledsoe v. The International Railway 
 Co. (40 Tex, 537), 
 
 Keuchler v. Wright, 40 Tex. 600, 
 
 The Treasurer v. Wygall, 46 Tex. 447 , 
 all involving great interests. His opinions on the 
 bench may be found in the 7th, 8th and 9lh 
 Court of Appeals Reports, among the more im- 
 portant of which are: — 
 
 Rothschild v. State, 7 Ct. of App. 519; 
 
 Jennings v. State, 7 Ct. of App. 350 ; 
 
 Hull V. State, 7 Ct. of App. 593 ; 
 
 Alford V. State, 8 Ct. of App. 545 ; 
 
GEORGE CLARK. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 i8;> 
 
 Kendall v. State, 8 Ct. of App. 569 ; 
 
 Guffee V. State, 8 Ct. of App. 187 ; 
 
 Albrecht v. State, 8 Ct. of App. 216. 
 As a lawyer he represents important railway and 
 commercial interests, and in a recent controversy 
 between the United States and the State of Texas, 
 in the Supreme Court, involving the title to Greer 
 County, Texas, was of counsel for the State and 
 participated in the argument. Few lawyers in the 
 State enjoy as large and lucrative a law practice. 
 He has long ranked among the ablest counselors in 
 the United States. His services in connection 
 with the codification of the statutes of the State 
 were invaluable. It was the first work of the kind 
 that was undertaken. The result of the labors of 
 the commission were the Revised Statutes of 1879. 
 The work was so thoroughly done, that, when the 
 legislature provided a few years since for a revision 
 of the laws of the State, the commissioners were 
 instructed not to change the general arrangement, 
 nor even the verbiage used by the former codifiers, 
 where such action was not rendered imperative by 
 later amendments to old, or the enactment of new, 
 laws. No greater compliment could have been 
 
 paid to Judge Clark and his colleagues. As 
 Attorney-General and. as one of the judges of the 
 Court of Appeals he fully sustained the high repu- 
 tation with which he came to those positions. 
 Before those important i)ublic offices were con- 
 ferred upon him he had become well known to the 
 people of Texas. In the dark days that followed 
 the war between the States, he was an earnest 
 worker for the re-establishment of honest, constitu- 
 tional government, and took a prominent part in 
 the great popular struggle that resulted in the 
 overthrow of the Davis regime and the restoration 
 of the control of the State to the citizens of Texas. 
 As a soldier, public servant, lawyer and citizen, he 
 has come fully up to every responsibility, and has 
 responded to every duty. As a member of an honor- 
 able profession, he has pursued it with zeal and 
 has devoted to it the full strength of his mind. 
 The people of Texas fully appreciate his high 
 character and important services. They have a 
 very warm spot in their heart of hearts for George 
 Clark and will not forget what he has done until 
 they grow to be grateful only for services they 
 expect to receive. 
 
 CHARLES S. WEST, 
 
 AUSTIN. 
 
 The State of South Carolina, in proportion to her 
 limits and population, has contributed as much, if 
 not more, towards developing and making the State 
 of Texas what she is to-day, as any of her sister 
 States. 
 
 To the judiciary she has sent James Collinsworth, 
 the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court under 
 the Republic ; Hon. Thomas J. Rusk, first Chief 
 Justice of the Appellate Court under the State 
 government and for so long a while her distin- 
 guished United States Senator ; Hon. John Hemp- 
 hill, who later filled the same position (from 1846 
 to 1858) and who, like his predecessor. Gen. Rusk, 
 represented his State in the United State Senate ; 
 then there was Hon. A. S. Lipscomb, also the 
 venerable and esteemed O. M. Roberts and Hon. 
 Charles S. West, the subject of this sketch, all 
 conspicuous examples of gallant sons of the 
 " Palmetto State " who have adorned the bench of 
 their adopted State of Texas. 
 
 The father of Judge West, John Charles West, 
 
 was a native of North Carolina, who at an early age 
 emigrated to Camden, South Carolina, where he 
 was teller in the old Camden Bank and for two 
 terms sheriff of Kershaw district (now county). 
 He was universally esteemed and respected. On 
 his mother's side Judge West was connected with 
 the Thorntons, Eccles, Copers, Clarks and other 
 old South Carolina families. His mother, Nancy 
 Clark Eccles, was a woman of more than ordinary 
 culture and education and possessed literary ability 
 of the higher order. 
 
 In the fall of 184G young West left Jefferson 
 College, Pennsylvania, and became a student of 
 South Carolina College, then presided over b}' tlie 
 celebrated orator, Hon. W. C. Preston. He gradu- 
 ated therefrom in 1848. During the years 1849-50 
 he was in very needy circumstances and for a living 
 taught a small school for the Boykin family at 
 their Pleasant Hill home, near Camden ; at the 
 same time studied law under Hon. James Chestnut, 
 afterwards a United States senator from South 
 
190 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Carolina, who became young West's personal 
 and valued friend. Judge West received his 
 license to practice law in South Carolina 
 on the law and equity sides of the docket, 
 respectively, the former May 13th, 1851, and the 
 latter May 12th, 1852, and' began the practice 
 at Camden, but with very moderate success. 
 About the last of November, 1852, he left his 
 native Slate and came to Texas, reaching the State 
 November 2, of that year, and located at Austin, 
 which was ever after his home. He reached Austin 
 with but $7.50 in his pocket and that was bor- 
 rowed money. In 1854 he formed a law-partner- 
 ship with Col. H. P. Brewster. He was in 1855, 
 when twenty-six years of age, elected to the 
 legislature from the Austin district, and took a 
 prominent part in the discussion of the issues of 
 those days. In 1856 Hon. John Hancock and 
 Judge West formed what was afterwards the well- 
 known law firm of Hancock & West and did a 
 large law business, handling heavy land litigation, 
 railroad and other corporation cases. The firm 
 continued up to and during the period of the late 
 war and until 1882, when Judge West became an 
 Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. He was 
 comparatively little in public life, eschewed politics 
 and confined himself closely to his profession. He 
 was for a short while Secretary of State, under 
 Governor F. E. Lulibock. In the constitutional 
 convention of 1875 he represented Travis and a 
 number of adjoining counties, comprising one dis- 
 trict, and served on important committees. Under 
 the act approved July 28Lh, 187G, Governor Coke 
 appointed Judge West as one of the five commis- 
 sioners to revise the laws of the State and he was 
 chosen chairman of the body. During the late 
 war he served with distinction in the Adjutant- 
 General's department, with the rank of Captain on 
 the staff of Gen. P. O. Hebert and, later, on 
 the staff of Gen. Magruder at the battle of 
 
 Galveston and received special official mention for 
 gallant conduct. During the latter years of the 
 war he served on the staff of Gen. E. Kirby 
 Smith and was witii him at Jenkin's Ferry on the 
 Sabine river in Arkansas and with Gen. Wm. R. 
 Scurry when that commander was killed in this 
 battle. For gallantry in this battle, Capt. West 
 was promoted to the rank of Major and was 
 assigned to duty in the Trans-Mississippi depart- 
 ment as Judge Advocate-General, whicli position 
 he ably filled until the downfall of the Confed- 
 eracy. He then returned to his law practice at 
 Austin and in 1874 was admitted to the bar of the 
 United States Supreme Court and argued before 
 that body some ver3' heavy and important cases. 
 In 1859 Judge West married Miss Florence R. 
 Duval, daughter of Judge Thomas H. Duval, for 
 many years United States District Judge for the 
 Western District of Texas. 
 
 Her grandfather was Hon. W. P. Duval, first 
 Governor of Florida and the " Ralph Ringwood " 
 of his friend Washington Irving's tales of Brace- 
 bridge Hall. 
 
 Mrs. West was an accomplished woman, a 
 charming vocalist and an ornament to society. 
 Judge West was not a member of any religious 
 sect or order, but was a regular attendant of the 
 Protestant Episcopal Church and filled before the 
 late war the office of vestryman of St. David's 
 Church at Austin, Texas. He was a generous and 
 kind-hearted gentleman and a just judge. Owing 
 to ill health he resigned his seat on the bench, 
 September 24th, 1885. He died at his home in 
 Austin, October 22, 1885. Mrs. West died No- 
 vember 19th, 1881. They left three sons: Robt. 
 G. West, an able lawyer of the Austin and Texas 
 bar and member of the firm of Cochran & West ; 
 Duval West, at present Assistant United States 
 District Attorney for the Western District of Texas ; 
 and William. 
 
 WILLARD RICHARDSON, 
 
 GALVESTON. 
 
 Willard Ricliardson was a native of Massachu- 
 setts, born in that State, June 24th, 1802. His 
 father was Zacharia Richardson, a retired capitalist 
 of Taunton, Mass. When fourteen years of age 
 the subject of this memoir and a brother ran away 
 from home in a spirit of boyish adventure, went 
 
 South and landed at Charleston, S. C, in the midst 
 of a yellow fever epidemic to which his brother 
 speedily succumbed. Young Richardson shortly 
 thereafter left the plague-stricken city and went to 
 Newberry district, where he taught school in the 
 hope of earning sufficient money to complete his 
 
WILLARD RICHARDSON. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 191 
 
 educalion. His manly struggle to attain this 
 worthy end attracted the attention and won for 
 him the friendship of Judge O'Neill, wlio supplied 
 him the means to complete his course in the State 
 college at Columbia. 
 
 He then accompanied Prof. Stafford to Tusca- 
 loosa, Ala., as an assistant teacher, and devoted his 
 first earnings to the reimbursement of his friend. 
 Judge O'Neill, for whom he ever afterward cher- 
 ished sentiments of the warmest gratitude and 
 esteem. Emigrating to Texas, in 1837, he pro- 
 ceeded to the West and employed himself in locat- 
 ing and surveying lands. He afterwards went to 
 Houston and established a school for young men. 
 Some time there after. Dr. Francis Moore, editor of 
 The Telegraph, who was regarded as one of the 
 most finished newspaper writers then in the State, 
 wished to spend a summer in the North and induced 
 Mr. Richardson to assume editorial control of the 
 paper. The versatility, force and literary excel- 
 lence of his writings immediately attracted atten- 
 tion, and probably the expression of public 
 appreciation of his efforts had much to do with 
 inducing him to adopt journalism as a profession. 
 He bent every energy to the upbuilding of the 
 paper and, prudent, cool and persevering, never 
 lost faith in the future of the city and in the 
 country nor in the ultimate success of his own 
 efforts. He was not content to keep abreast of 
 the times but sought to anticipate the general 
 march of progress and development, and move in 
 advance of others. As a result the News almost 
 immediately became a power in the land, a position 
 that it has ever since maintained. He took an 
 active part both with his pen and b^^ liberal contri- 
 butions from his private means, in aiding all worthy 
 [Uiljlic enterprises from old times down to the era 
 that inaugurated railroad building in Texas. He 
 made a powerful effort through the columns of the 
 News, devoting whole numbers and large extra edi- 
 tions of the paper to that purpose to induce the 
 adoption by the State of Texas of what was known 
 as the " Galveston Plan," under which the State 
 was asked to patronize a system of roads to diverge 
 from the navigable waters of Galveston Ba^' into 
 Eastern, Western and Central Texas. 
 
 The plan was simple, comprehensive and practi- 
 cable, but was not adopted by the legi:^lature and 
 the State has since struggled on without a system 
 and under many difficulties and distractions in the 
 construction of roads by private companies with 
 State aid and complications have resulted that 
 threaten protracted and vexatious litigation and hot 
 civil convulsions in the future. Diiven from Gal- 
 veston in the year of 18G1-2 by the Federal forces 
 
 he moved his extensive and valuable newspaper 
 plant to Houston, where it was a short lime there- 
 after entirely destro^'ed by fire. The establishment 
 was then, as now, by far the most valuable in the 
 State. It was wholly uninsured and there was no 
 chance to replace it in full owing to the blockade ; 
 but he met the heavy loss — probably $50,000 in 
 the original outlay — with entire equanimity and 
 immediately set to work to collect such material as 
 was available ; resumed the publication of the 
 paper and kept it up throughout the war, not 
 returning to Galveston until 18(JC, after the fall 
 of the Confederacy. During the war the News 
 was eminently conservative and outspoken, though 
 devoted to the Southern cause. He did not hesi- 
 tate to denounce the establ shmentand enforcement 
 of so-called martial law under pleas of military 
 necessity, under which so many private rights were 
 outraged and lawless acts perpetrated on both sides 
 of the contest by those claiming to exercise military 
 authority. It contained well-written and trencliant 
 articles protesting against the arbitrary acts of both 
 the Confederate congress and the military authori- 
 ties at a time when one, whose devotion to the 
 Southern cause was not so well established as that 
 of Mr. Richardson, would not have dared to speak 
 so freely. Nor did he feel bound, like so many 
 editors of the day, to give only such news as was 
 favorable to the South and represented her as 
 triumphant, when in fact the clouds of adverse 
 fortune were lowering upon her banners. 
 
 He did nothing, however, to discourage any just 
 hopes of his friends. The course that he pursued 
 was to publish the facts as he received them. 
 When the final collapse of the Confederacy came 
 he was prepared for it and ready to render all the 
 aid possible toward the political and material 
 rehabilitation of the country. He neither yielded 
 himself nor desired to see others yield to apathy and 
 despair; but, both by precept and example, taught 
 that the duty of the hour was to make a vigorous 
 and united effort to repair the ravages of war by 
 the development of the agricultural resources of 
 the State, increasing transportation facilities, culti- 
 vating commercial relations with the other Slates of 
 the Union and stimulating immigration. 
 
 Daring his long connection with the News, com- 
 mencing as editor in 1843, and afterwards as sole 
 proprietor or partner, Mr. Richardson presented a 
 model of persistent application to business. With- 
 out any ambition to figure in politics, caring noth- 
 ing for ordinary amusements, he found suiflcient 
 entertainment in the active pursuits of life and the 
 literary labors his vocation involved. He was a 
 hard worker, but he loved his work and for the 
 
192 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 most part was cheered by the successful results 
 of his enterprise and foresight. Whenever he 
 took a stand on any great public question he 
 did so after mature deliberation and adhered to 
 his views with consistency and firmness, apparently 
 as little disturbed by adverse prospects as elated 
 with success. His temperament and mental organ- 
 ism were not such as characterize the partisan or 
 popular politician. He was not capable of viewing 
 a question wholly from one standpoint, but natur- 
 ally considered it in all its bearings, and if he had 
 prejudices and prepossessions that warped his 
 judgment and influenced liis conclusions, they never 
 appeared in anything that he said or wrote. He 
 never indulged in the crimination and recrimina- 
 tion so common to the press in times of political 
 excitement, nor showed prejudice against a person 
 or cause on personal grounds. Neither did he 
 deal in vague generalities or exhibitions of feeling 
 or sentiment. Palpable facts and the most direct 
 and logical conclusions from them constituted the 
 means which he employed to influence public 
 opinion. Raised in the political school of Calhoun 
 and deeply imbued with its principles, he held with 
 constancy to the fixed political opinions of his 
 younger years, firm in the belief that they were 
 well founded and must, be ultimately vindicated 
 or the government lose the vital elements of lib- 
 erty. In his manner toward and intercourse with 
 otliers Mr. Richardson was singularly modest and 
 unobtrusive. With an abiding faith in the future 
 of Galveston and Texas, he invested the proceeds 
 of his business in property that grew in value with 
 the development of the country and spent his 
 money with a liberal hand in the erection of elegant 
 and costly buildings. The first four-story brick 
 building put up in Galveston was erected by him 
 before the war for the office of the News. The 
 opera house and stores connected with it, extend- 
 ing to and adjoining the office of the Netvs, fol- 
 lowed, involving investments which but few men 
 would have ventured to make at that time, but 
 which were all made with the cool calculation of 
 the man of business, as well as the laudable pride 
 of a man who had identified himself with the build- 
 ing up of the city and was willing to stand or fail 
 with it. He also made other valuable improve- 
 ments in other parts of Galveston and contributed 
 to almost every enterprise for the improvement of 
 the city and its connection with the commerce of 
 the interior. 
 
 In former years he sometimes served as alderman 
 and was once elected and served as mayor of Gal- 
 veston, altliough he had not announced himself as 
 a candidate. He declined to run for re-election. 
 
 He frequently expressed repugnance to office hold- 
 ing. He had no ambition to occupy a conspicuous 
 position in the public eye, either living or dead, and 
 placed little value upon ostentatious display, pre- 
 ferring the solid and useful to that which is ornate 
 and showy. With the increase of years and the 
 pressure of business he gradually relaxed his edi- 
 torial labors, having for some years prior to his 
 death retired from any active management of the 
 News. Though he found time afterwards to con- 
 tribute to its columns, he had ceased to do so 
 regularly for a long time and held no position in 
 the division of the labors of the establishment. 
 
 He took an active interest in the l)enevolent order 
 of Odd Fellows, of which he was a life-long member 
 and for which he exercised his pen even after he 
 had ceased to labor on the columns of the News. 
 At the session of the Grand Lodge of the United 
 States, held in April, 1874, it was resolved that the 
 history of the order should be written and an appeal 
 was made to members throughout the country for 
 aid in the work. In accordance with a resolution 
 then adopted by the Grand Lodge, Mr. Richardson 
 received the following appointment through the 
 Grand Master of Texas : — 
 
 " Office of R. W. Geand Master, ) 
 
 " R. W. Grand Lodge I. O. O. F. of the > 
 
 " State of Texas. J 
 
 "Waco, Texas, April 24th, 1874. 
 " By virtue of the authority in me vested, and in 
 compliance with the spirit and object of the en- 
 closed copy of circular letter, I hereby nominate, 
 constitute and appoint you Historiographer of our 
 beloved order in the State of Texas. While you 
 deservedly have the reputation of being the Nestor 
 of journalism in this great and rapidly growing 
 State, you are also esteemed properly by the 
 brothers of this jurisdiction as the father of Odd 
 Fellowship in Texas. No one in my knowledge is 
 more imbued with the cardinal virtues, and has 
 more interest in and zeal for our Order in Texas 
 than yourself, and no one is better prepared to 
 give accurately, thoroughly and attractively the 
 rise, progress and rapid development of Odd 
 Fellowship in Texas than yourself. Hoping that 
 you will accept the appointment, and at once open 
 correspondence with Brother Ridgeley, I am, fra- 
 ternally yours, etc. 
 
 " M. D. Herring, 
 
 " Grand blaster." 
 
 This labor of love Mr. Richardson, then seventy- 
 two years of age, at once set out to accomplish, 
 and the result in a short time was a handsome book 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 of three hundred and fifty pages, giving a complete 
 history of the Order in Texas, from tlie opening of 
 the first lodge in Houston, on the 24th of July, 
 1838, up to 1874, a period of thirty-sis years. 
 He held almost every office known to the Order 
 during his long connection with it and his name 
 appears in the list of chief oflicers of the Grand 
 Encampment of the State, as M. E. G. High 
 Priest for more than one term. For several years 
 successively preceding his death he was Grand 
 Representative to the National Grand Lodge, and 
 held that position at the time of his demise and 
 looked forward with pleasure to the period of the 
 Grand Reunion, which he was destined to never 
 more attend. 
 
 Time and space will not permit an examination 
 of the printed archives of the order to trace bis 
 varied work in its behalf and be left no personal 
 records of himself in this or in any other respect, 
 though he spoke freely of bis past life among his 
 friends. He returned to South Carolina in 1849 
 and June 6th of that year was united in marriage 
 to Miss Louisa B. Murrell, to whom be had been 
 engaged since early manhood. Mrs. Richardson 
 is a daughter of James and Louisa (Sumpter) 
 Murrell, at the time of her marriage residents of 
 Sumpter, South Carolina, where she was born in 
 1819. Her father was a planter. Gen. Thomas 
 Sumpter, of revolutionary fame, was Mrs. Richard- 
 
 son's maternal grandfather. The town of Sumpter 
 and Fort Sumpter in Charleston Harbor were named 
 for this distinguished military officer and citizen. 
 He also was a planter. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Richardson had one child, a 
 daughter, now the wife of Dr. Henry P. Cooke, of 
 Galveston. Dr. and Mrs. Cooke, have one son, 
 Willard Richardson Cooke, born in Galveston, 
 September 6th, 1888. 
 
 Mrs. Richardson lives in retirement in the beau- 
 tiful Oleander City by the sea surrounded by a 
 wide circle of friends and in the enjoyment of the 
 companionship of her daughter's family. 
 
 Mr. Richardson died at his home in Galveston, 
 July 26th, 1875. He was a man who had fixed 
 plans and aims in life and, though he lived to work 
 most of them out to successful results, it is known 
 to his more immediate confidants that he hoped to 
 crown the end of his career with a work that would 
 have inured to the benefit of the people of Texas 
 of after times and conferred enduring benefits on 
 the city which had been the scene of his labors. 
 His name deserves a place among those of the 
 many illustrious men who have in this country 
 adorned the profession of journalism. His char- 
 acter embraced many of the elements of true 
 greatness. He did much for the State of Texas 
 and deserves grateful remembrance at the hands 
 of her people. 
 
 THE CARR FAMILY OF BRYAN, 
 
 BRYAN. 
 
 The Bryan branch of the Carr family in Texas 
 dates back to the arrival of Allan Carr at the town 
 of Old Washington, on the Brazos, in 1858. He 
 came from Noxubee County, Mississippi, and 
 brought with him a family of five children, the 
 wife and mother having died in Mississippi. He 
 remained at Old Washington but a short time, 
 however, when, having purchased a farm on the 
 river in Burleson County, about twelve miles north- 
 west of Bryan, he settled there. 
 
 He brought with him from Mississippi one hun- 
 dred slaves, which he worked on his farm until 
 affairs. State and national, became unsettled and 
 then, in 1860, sold them (retaining only a few house 
 servants) to a Mr. William Brewer, of Old Inde- 
 
 pendence, in Washington County. Some of these 
 slaves still live in and about Independence, Brenham 
 and Bryan. 
 
 Allan Carr was a native of North Carolina and 
 was born in 1807. ^ 
 
 He led an active life until his death at his home 
 in Burleson County in 1861. He is remembered by 
 old settlers as a man of excellent impulses, strong 
 traits of character, and a good citizen. He was a 
 life-long planter and raised cotton and corn with 
 great success. 
 
 His early ancestors were Scotch-Irish and his 
 more immediate antecedents were directly traceable 
 to the earliest colonists of old Virginia. 
 
 He married Bliss Elizabeth Wooton, she being 
 
194 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 also of North Carolina birth. Of their children, 
 tliree are now living in Texas: Robert W., Jennie, 
 and Allan B. 
 
 Robert W. is a resident of Bryan and for twelve 
 years past treasurer of Brazos County. He was 
 born on Tar River, Greene Couaty, North Carolina, 
 October 2, 1831. When about six years of age his 
 father located with the family at West Point, Miss. 
 In 1850 young Carr went to California and followed 
 mining throughout the then newly developing gold- 
 dio-ffings. He passed through the most exciting 
 period of those lively early days in the " Golden 
 State." He remained in California until the break- 
 ing out of the late war, when he returned to the 
 South, coming via Panama, Aspinwall and New 
 York to St. Louis, from which place he made his 
 way into Arkansas, where he raised an independent 
 company of cavalry and equipped the men with the 
 best Sharp's rifles and six-shooting revolvers. With 
 this company he ranged through that region of 
 country and was with "Jeff." Thompson and his 
 command at the battle of Black River and also later 
 at Pocahontas, Missouri. 
 
 At this point, receiving news from home of the 
 dangerous illness of his father, he disbanded his 
 company and returned to Texas. His father died 
 at his Brazos valley farm, as before recited, and 
 Capt. Carr joined Capt. Hargrove's scouting com- 
 pany, which became a part of Hood's Brigade. 
 Capt. Carr soon received a commission to raise a 
 companj' of cavalry, which he did and was there- 
 upon ordered bj' Gen. Magruder to fight the " Yan- 
 kees " in the valley of the Rio Grande, which he 
 most cheerfully and effectually did. 
 
 The story of Capt. Carr's campaign on the Rio 
 Grande river, properly written, would, in itself, make 
 a fair-sized volume of more than ordinarj' interest. 
 
 Capt. Carr remained in the vallej' until the close 
 of the war and for a time commanded the post at 
 Brownsville, which was the base of supplies from 
 Mexico for the Confederate States. His companj' 
 fought and won the last battle of the war at Pal- 
 metto Ranch, about fifteen miles below Browns- 
 ville, which took place some time after Gen. Lee 
 had surrendered and hostilities had ceased. It 
 should be stated, however, that Brownsville was so 
 far distant from the seat of war and the means of 
 communication so impaired that the official news of 
 the cessation of hostilities had not reached them. 
 Upon the receipt of the news, Capt. Carr returned 
 to Texas and commenced merchandising at Milli- 
 can and, also, pursued farming on the Brazos until 
 18G7, when he went to Bryan and entered the cot- 
 ton business, in which he has been engaged since 
 about 1875. 
 
 Since the 3'ear 1884 he has continuousl}' held the 
 office of treasurer of Brazos County, having been 
 elected from time to time with increased majorities 
 over his opponents. 
 
 Capt. Carr married in 18fi7 Mrs. M. E. Farinholt, 
 whose maiden name was Mary E. Knowles. She 
 was born in Arkansas. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Carr have had four daughters, two 
 of whom are living, viz. : Mary E., who serves as 
 his deputj- in the treasurer's office, and LillieE., 
 who is the wife of Mr. John Davis, of Bryan. 
 
 Jennie, the second of the family now living, is 
 Mrs. T. C. Westbrook, of Hearne. 
 
 Allan B., the j'oungest living member of this 
 generation, is a resident of Bryan, where he has 
 lived since about 1873. He was born August 27, 
 1843, in Lowndes (since Clay) County, Miss., 
 at the town of West Point, where his father was the 
 first settler and erected the first buildings. Here 
 young Carr spent his boyhood and youth and was 
 about fifteen j'ears of age when he, with his father, 
 came to Texas. Soon after the settlement of the 
 family on their Brazos bottom-farm, the war broke 
 out and he promptlj' joined the armj', in defense 
 of the Confederate cause, as a member of the 
 Second Texas Infantry, commanded by Col. (later 
 Brigadier-General) John C. Moore, as a consequence 
 of whose promotion. Col. W. P. Rogers took regi- 
 mental command. Mr. Carr participated with his 
 regiment in the well-known and bloody engagements 
 at Shiloh, Farmington and luka, and was in the 
 second battle of Corinth, where Col. Rogers fell in 
 the heat of the struggle. Mr. Carr was at the time 
 serving as Col. Rogers' orderly. Mr. Carr remained 
 with the army until the final break-up and then 
 returned to Burleson County and engaged in farm- 
 ing (his father having died). He also conducted 
 a ferrj' across the Brazos river at the old San 
 Antonio crossing for about two j'ears, when he 
 removed to Bryan, where he has since resided. 
 
 Mr. Carr married in 1866 Miss Pandora Mosely, 
 a daughter of Augustus Mosely (deceased), a 
 pioneer of Burleson County (1857) and an exten- 
 sive Brazos-bottom planter. Thej' have two sons, 
 Charles O'Conor Carr, engaged in the insurance 
 business, and Allan B. Carr, Jr., one of the most 
 prosperous merchants at Bryan. 
 
 Mr. Carr for twenty-two years past has, without 
 intermission, held the office of secretary of the city 
 of Bryan. 
 
 His long continuance in office is evidence of the 
 esteem in which he is held as a citizen and faithful 
 official. Mr. Carr owns rural and city realty but 
 his time is largely absorbed with his official duties. 
 
 Others of the familv are deceased. Martha died 
 
TXDTAX WARS AXD PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 195 
 
 in Mississippi, the wife of Win. McMuUen ; Eliza- 
 beth (or Bettie) married T. P. Mills, was the 
 mother of two daughters and a son, and died in 
 Houston about 18G0. Titus came to Texas with 
 his father, married and in 1870 died at Brj'an, 
 leaving four children and a widow, who again 
 
 married ; and William came to Texas with the 
 family, married, and died in the United States 
 mail service at Fort Worth about 1885, leaving 
 one son, Westbrook. William had held a respon- 
 sible position in the United States service for up- 
 wards of twenty years. 
 
 ALEXANDER GILMER, 
 
 ORANGE. 
 
 Was born September 7, 1829, in County 
 Armagh, Ireland. His parents were George and 
 Jane Gilmer, both of whom died in Ireland. 
 
 He was educated in his native land, where he 
 remained until seventeen years of age, when he 
 came to America and located in Georgia, where he 
 engaged in getting out shipmasts for ths French 
 government, working under his brother, John, who 
 was the contractor. He followed this employment 
 fur three years, clearing about $700.00. He then 
 worked under his brother in building a schooner 
 and steamboat, putting all his earnings in the 
 steamboat, the Swan, which was to ply on the 
 Chattahoochie river. She was sunk during the 
 second season, leaving him but ten cents when she 
 went down, which he gave to a negro who blacked 
 his boots. He then helped to build a schooner, the 
 Altha Brooks, on the Chattahoochie river in Alabama 
 and came out to Texas on her, lauding at Galves- 
 ton, from which place he went to Orange to repair 
 a schooner. This work completed, he took a con- 
 tract with a man named Livingston to build a 
 schooner, which they completed, and then helped to 
 build another schooner, the Mary Ellen, 
 
 This done, he formed a copartnership with Smith 
 & Merriman and his cousin, George C. Gilmer, 
 and built the Alex Moore, which was run between 
 Orange and Galveston, and was employed in the 
 Texas coast-wise trade. 
 
 He and his cousin bought out Smith & Merri- 
 man' s interest in the schooner and started a 
 mercantile business at Orange, which they con- 
 tinued about fifteen years, until George C. Gil- 
 mer's death at Orange. 
 
 Mr. George C. Gilmer bequeathed half his inter- 
 est in the store, valued at about $10,000.00, to 
 George Gilmer, a son of the subject of this notice. 
 When twenty-seven years of age Mr. Alexander 
 
 Gilmer was united in marriage to Miss Etta Read- 
 ing, of Orange. No children by this marriage. 
 
 His second marriage was to Miss C. C. Thomas, 
 of Orange, in 1867. Nine children have been born 
 to them, seven of whom are living, viz. : Laura, now 
 Mrs. Dr. F. Hadra, of Orange ; Mattie, now Mrs. 
 H. S. Filson, of Orange ; Effie, now Mrs. R. M. 
 Williamson, of Waco ; Eliza, Cleora, Annie, and 
 Ollie. Two sons died in infancy. 
 
 Mr. Gilmer engaged in the saw-mill business in 
 1866. He sustained a number of severe losses by 
 fire, but in each instance by good management put 
 his financial affairs on a better basis than they 
 were before. 
 
 One of his largest mills was built at Orange in 
 1894. 
 
 Just before his last loss by fire, he established 
 lumber yards at Velasco ; bought one at Beeville 
 (which he closed in 1895), bought one at Yoakum, 
 one at Cuero, one at Runge, one at Karnes City, 
 one at Victoria, and established one at Brazoria, 
 which are valued at about $100,000.00. His mill 
 property is valued at about $75,000.00. 
 
 Mr. Gilmer's property interests now aggregate 
 about $300,000.00. He had but $500.00 when he 
 reached Texas. 
 
 He was on the G. H. Bell, commanded by 
 Charles Fowler, when the Morning Light was cap- 
 tured in the battle of Sabine Pass, during the war 
 between the States. 
 
 Later he ran the blockade with a schooner loaded 
 with cotton, commanded by Capt. Whiting, and 
 made a successful trip to Balize, Honduras ; then 
 made an equally successful trip from Columbia to 
 the Rio Grande ; sold one cargo from Galveston at 
 Havana; was captured at Sabine Pass, by the Hat- 
 teras, which was sunk by the Alabama, the day 
 after his boat was taken, and then chartered a brig 
 
196 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 at Jamaica and loaded her with coffee, sugar and 
 lumber, and took the cargo to Laredo, from which 
 place he sent it overland to Houston ; bought cotton 
 in Laredo, for which he was offered forty cents per 
 pound in gold, which he refused ; took the cotton to 
 Matamoros and lost money. 
 
 His partner in these ventures was Mr. M. A. 
 Kopperl, of Galveston. 
 
 Before and after the war Mr. Gilmer owned five 
 schooners, coasting in the lumber trade. He lost 
 four schooners, with two of which all of the crew 
 perished. 
 
 Mr. Gilmer is now, and has been for many years, 
 one of the most influential citizens and leading busi- 
 ness men of the section of the State in which he 
 resides. 
 
 WILLIAM HARRISON WESTFALL, M. D., 
 
 BURNET. 
 
 While there are few incidents of a sensational or 
 even novel kind in the ordinary lives of professional 
 men, there is yet in every successful career points 
 of interest and an undercurrent of character well 
 deserving of careful thought. However much 
 men's lives may resemble one another each must 
 differ from all others and preserve an identity truly 
 its own. The life histor3' of the subject of this 
 article, while it has many phases in common with 
 others of his profession, yet discloses an energy, 
 tact, mental endowments and discipline, and social 
 qualities, which acting together as a motive power 
 have enabled him to reach and successfully main- 
 tain a position of respectability in his profession, 
 and in the world of practical business, seldom 
 attained by members of that profession, dis- 
 tinguished as it is for men of intelligence and 
 general merit. 
 
 Dr. Westfall comes of good ancestry, not par- 
 ticularly noted, but respectable, strong, sturdy 
 Virginia stock, of Prussian extraction. He was 
 born in the town of Buchanan, in what is now 
 Upshur County, West Virginia, December IG, 
 1822. He was reared in his native place, in the 
 local schools of which he received his early mental 
 training. Opportunities for a collegiate educa- 
 tion were not open to him, but his energy, 
 force of character and persistent industry helped 
 in a great measure to neutralize this disadvan- 
 tage, and, having determined on a professional 
 career, he began preparation for it with sufHcient 
 mental equipment. He attended the medical de- 
 partment of the University of New York, in which 
 institution and in the hospitals of that city he spent 
 five years, enjoying the best advantages then open 
 to students. He did not enter immediately on the 
 practice of his profession after completing his edu- 
 
 cation, but laid aside his purpose for a while, being 
 induced to this by considerations which exercised a 
 controlling influence on the careers of many others 
 of his age. Those were the years in which the 
 country was swept by the great gold fever which, 
 breaking out in the wilds of California, spread to 
 the remotest parts of this continent, and of civili- 
 zation. Young Westfall was an early victim and 
 the spring of 1850 found him well on the overland 
 route towards the new El Dorado. He spent 
 several months in the gold fields, leading the desul- 
 tory life of a miner and adventurer. Then in the 
 winter of 1851 he returned to " the States," stop- 
 ping in Missouri. Up to this time his fund of 
 experience was considerably larger than his fund 
 of cash, hut he was not satisfied with either, and 
 shortly afterward determined to try his fortunes in 
 a speculative scheme with a bunch of cattle, which 
 he undertook with some assistance to drive to the 
 diggings in California. That drive, one of the 
 earliest in the history of the country, was an 
 undertaking, the magnitude and hazard of 
 which the average reader of this day can have but 
 little conception. The distance covered was 
 over 2,000 miles and the route lay through an 
 utterly desert and wilderness country infested 
 by savage Indians and subject to the perils 
 of storm, famine and flood. That it was accom- 
 plished witiiout serious mishap is to be wondered at, 
 but so it was, and, what is more, it turned outprof- 
 itably to those who were concerned in it. Dr. 
 Westfall remained in California on this trip till the 
 fall of 1853 when, in a better financial condition, he 
 returned to Missouri. He now felt that it was 
 time for him to take up his profession and, settling 
 at Clinton in Henry Count3% that State, he formed 
 a partnership with Dr. G. Y. Salmon, a well-known 
 
^;^,M„WESTr[F^LL, 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 197 
 
 and com))etent pbj'sician, anil, entered on his pro- 
 fessional labors. November 20, 1853, he married 
 Miss Mar3- A. Bates, of Clinton, whose parents, 
 Asaph W. and Sarah Bates, originallj' from Ken- 
 tucky, had settled in Henry County in pioneer 
 days, where Mrs. Westfall had been born and 
 reared. 
 
 After four j-ears' residence in Missouri Dr. 
 Westfall concluded to come to Texas, moving in 
 1857 to Austin, where he resumed the practice of 
 his profession, later purchasing land in Williamson 
 County, in the vicinity of Liberty Hill, which he 
 improved as a ranah. When the war came on he 
 transferred his residence from Austin to his ranch, 
 the returns from which, supplementing the income 
 from his profession, enabled him to support his 
 family during the period of hostilities. He was 
 exempt from military service by reason of his pro- 
 fession ; but, as a physician and citizen, he rendered 
 the cause of the Confederacy the best service in 
 his power, giving it the weight of his personal 
 influence and attending the families of the soldiers 
 in the fleld, free of charge. 
 
 In 1872, Dr. Westfall was elected to the lower 
 branch of the State Legislature from Williamson 
 County and served as a member of the Thirteenth 
 Gieneral Assembly. This was a new field for him 
 but one in which his energy and talents enabled him 
 to acquit himself with credit. It will be remem- 
 bered that the Twelfth, Thirteenth and Fourteenth 
 Legislatures were those which had so much to do 
 with shaping the policy of the State with respect 
 to schools, public funds and railways. Among the 
 general laws passed by the Thirteenth Legislature to 
 which he gave his support were those creating a 
 public school system and setting apart one-half of 
 the public domain for the support and maintenance 
 of the same ; the law providing for the better secu- 
 rity of the public funds ; the law regulating the 
 assessment and collection of taxes, and the law to 
 protect the agricultural .interests of the State by 
 providing adequate punishment for those guiltj' of 
 destroying gates and fences or committing other 
 trespasses, in which last act there was a hint of the 
 possible conditions which actually arose ten years 
 later and culminated in the celebrated fence-cutting 
 troubles. The special laws passed by the Thirteenth 
 Legislature, in which he took considerable interest, 
 favoring some and opposing others as seemed to 
 him proper at the time, were those incorporating 
 railway, canal and ship channel companies, incor- 
 porating and extending the corporate powers of 
 towns and cities, and those establishing by charter 
 real estate, building, savings and banking concerns, 
 private educational institutions and benevolent 
 
 associations, more than 200 acts of this character 
 being passed by that Legislature. The Thirteenth 
 was distinctively the Legislature which gave practi- 
 cal direction to the re-awakened energies of the 
 people after the war and prepared the way for the 
 era of prosperity which followed. 
 
 From the lower house Dr. Westfall went to the 
 upper by election in the fall of 1873, being chosen 
 from the senatorial district composed of Travis, 
 Williamson, Buruet, Lampasas, San Saba, Llano and 
 Blanco. During his term of service in the Four- 
 teenth General Assembly he pursued the same line 
 of conduct previously marked out, entering, if 
 anything, more actively into the work of legislation 
 because by that time he had become better ac- 
 quainted with the necessities and wishes of the 
 people, and more familiar with legislative methods 
 and proceedings. There were some important 
 amendments to the school law passed by that Legis- 
 lature, which as a member of tlie Committee on 
 Education, he was in a position to materially aid. 
 But during this, as at the previous silting, the rail- 
 roads came in for most of the time of the law- 
 makers. It was during the second session of the 
 Fourteenth Legislature that the act was passed 
 giving to the International & Great Northern Rail- 
 road Company, in lieu of the $10,000 per mile bonds 
 theretofore granted, twenty sections of land for each 
 mile of road constructed and exempting the lands 
 so donated and all of the property of the original 
 company from taxation for a period of twentj'-flve 
 years. This was in the nature of a compromise 
 and was regarded by many as a good settlement 
 for the State as well as being just and equitable 
 towards the railroad. At the outset Dr. Westfall 
 opposed it, being in favor of the bond subsidy. 
 But when it became known that such a subsidy 
 would not meet the approval of the then Governor 
 and believing that the best interests of the people 
 demanded a settlement of the question he, as a 
 member of the committee appointed to formulate a 
 bill that would receive the Governor's approval, sup- 
 ported this measure in accordance with his pledge 
 to stand by the action of a majority of the com- 
 mittee. 
 
 This Legislature aho did itself the honor of voting 
 increased pensions to the surviving veterans of the 
 revolution by which Texas was separated from 
 Mexico, including the Santa Fe and Mier prisoners, 
 the survivors of the company of Capt. Dawson, 
 who was massacred near San Antonio in 1842, the 
 survivors of those who were captured at San 
 Antonio in 1842 and imprisoned at Perote and the 
 survivors of Deaf Smith's Spy Company. And it 
 also made legal holidays of the second of March 
 
198 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 (Texas Independence Day) and the twenty-first of 
 April (San Jacinto Day), both of which patriotic 
 measures received the Doctor's cordial support. 
 
 With the expiration of his term as senator Dr. 
 Westfall gave up public affairs altogether and 
 turned his attention strictly to his professional and 
 business interests, which by that time had assumed 
 very gratifying proportions, gradually placing him 
 in a position where he could find wider fields for 
 active and profitable employment. He had moved 
 from Williamson County to Austin in 1S7G. From 
 Austin he moved to Burnet in 1879, having made 
 investments in the latter place which necessitated 
 this step. For a year or so after going to Burnet 
 he was interested in the mercantile and exchange 
 business there ; but, disposing of his mercantile in- 
 terest later, he engaged in the banking business, 
 associating with himself for this purpose his son- 
 in-law, W. H. Hotchkiss, the bank, a private insti- 
 tution, being opened under the firm name of W. II. 
 Westfall & Co. In 1883 it was converted into a 
 national bank and conducted as such for ten years, 
 at the end of which time it was denationalized and 
 again became a private institution, and so continues 
 under the old firm name. The denationalization 
 was resolved on and effected purely as a matter of 
 expedience and from a conviction that the old sys- 
 tem was the better adapted to existing conditions, 
 both systems having been given a fair trial. The 
 career of the bank under the national system had 
 been reasonably satisfactory to the stockholders 
 and eminently so to the Federal authorities, the 
 latter fact being evidenced both by repeated expres- 
 sions from the department and by the fact, of 
 seldom occurrence, that the Comptroller of the Cur- 
 rency accepted the statements of the oflScers of the 
 bank as to its condition and granted the stock- 
 holders a release without the formality of an inves- 
 tigation. This bank with the changes here indi- 
 cated is the only one the town of Burnet has ever 
 had and it has been an important factor in the 
 town's and county's financial and business affairs. 
 Its treatment of its patrons has always been fair 
 and reasonable and its liberality in this respect 
 together with its well-known conservative course in 
 all things has served to entrench it in the confidence 
 and good will of the people generally. It is 
 worthy of note that the bank voluntarilj' reduced 
 its rate of interest before the Legislature took action 
 on that question. 
 
 Dr. Westfall has invested more or less in outside 
 enterprises and has made considerable money by 
 his investments. He is largel}' interested in the 
 South Heights addition to San Antonio and in real 
 estate in Utah, owning fourteen houses and lots in 
 
 Salt Lake City and some irrigated properties in 
 near-by counties. It may be added that his in- 
 vestments have been made entirely out of his indi- 
 vidual means, and only when he has had means 
 which he felt he could safely use for such purposes, 
 his unalterable habit having been never to touch 
 a dollar of other people's money intrusted to 
 him. 
 
 An active man of business, with a keen percep- 
 tion of the commercial value of things. Dr. West- 
 fall was among the first to direct attention to the 
 great wealth locked up in the stone measures of 
 Burnet County and he was a staunch advocate of 
 the claims of that stone for building purposes long 
 before experts had passed favorably upon it or its 
 usefulness had been demonstrated b}' actual trial. 
 When the commissioners were hunting over the 
 State for material for the new capitol he put him- 
 self in communication with them, invited them to 
 Burnet County to inspect its resources, and person- 
 ally accompanied them in their travels, assisting 
 them in their investigations, confident that such 
 investigations, if fully and fairly made, would 
 result in the adoption of Burnet County stone for 
 the great work in hand. As is known, however, 
 the matter of selecting material for the building 
 was held in abeyance for some time and it was not 
 until the value of the product of Granite Mountain 
 had been thoroughly demonstrated and Dr. West- 
 fall and his associates, Col. N. L. Norton and Mr. 
 George W. Lacy, had offered to give to the State 
 all the stone needed, that it was decided to con- 
 struct the building of this material. The capitol 
 as a building speaks for itself. It also in some 
 measure may be considered a monument to the 
 wisdom, liberality and public spirit of those who 
 furnished free of cost the handsome and enduring 
 material out of which it is constructed. 
 
 After having developed the quarries of Granite 
 Mountain and shipped large quantities of the stone 
 throughout the State, notably for the jetties at 
 Galveston and the dam at Austin, the moun- 
 tain was sold by its owners at a fair profit, 
 but not until they had seen it through its entire 
 period of probation and fixed it firmly in pul)- 
 lic favor. With the development of this enterprise 
 began Dr. Westfall's connection with the Austin 
 & Northwestern Railroad, the latter being in 
 reality an outgrowth of the former. He was one of 
 the charter members of the road and for some time 
 its vice-president. He is still its chief surgeon. 
 All public enterprises — whatever will stimulate 
 industry or in any way result in good to the com- 
 munity — meet his cordial approbation and receive 
 his prompt advocacy and assistance. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 190 
 
 While Dr. Westfall has thus traveled far out of 
 the beaten path of his profession he has never lost 
 sight of its claims upon him nor ceased to feel an 
 abiding interest in it. Confining his attention 
 mainly to surger3', for which branch he has special 
 inclination, he responds promptly to all calls for his 
 services and follows up his duties in this connection 
 with zeal and efficiency. He has served as pres- 
 ident of the examining boards of the three judicial 
 districts in which he has lived, and not only with 
 the laity but with his medical brethren he stands 
 among the first. 
 
 Dr. Westfall is a zealous Mason, having been 
 
 made a member of the order more than forty years 
 ago. He belongs to Ben Hur Shrine and Colorado 
 Commandery, both of Austin. 
 
 A wife and widowed daughter constitute his 
 family. Not the least of the many creditable 
 things that can be truthfully said of him is that he 
 makes grateful acknowledgment for what he is and 
 what he has to the good wife, who, joining her for- 
 tunes with his more than forty years ago, has 
 shared in all his triumphs and reverses, counseling 
 with him, applauding and encouraging his efforts, 
 and rejoicing more than any one else in his 
 success. 
 
 THE COLE FAMILY. 
 
 BRYAN. 
 
 The permanent settlement of the late ven- 
 erable Ransom Cole in Texas dates back to the 
 year J 850, when he established himself in Cass 
 County, in the eastern part of the State. He had 
 lived, however, a short time during 1849, just over 
 the State line in Western Louisiana. He was a 
 native of South Carolina and was born in Edgefield 
 district, that State, .June 11, 1800. The family 
 history, so far as traceable, seems to be one of 
 pioneer record. 
 
 Daniel Cole, the father of Ransom Cole, was 
 among the early settlers of Virginia and as that 
 country became settled pushed on to the frontier 
 of South Carolina, and later advanced with the 
 progress of settlement into Georgia and later into 
 Alaljama. Thus it was that Ransom Cole, born 
 and reared in a then new country, became imbued 
 with the genuine pioneer instinct and preferred and 
 during bis active years lead a typical pioneer life. 
 He had Texas in his mind long years before his 
 final location in Cass County in 1850. ' Fifteen 
 years prior to that date (1835) he explored the 
 Brazos valley as far north as Waco springs and 
 there selected lands which he purchased. 
 
 Complications arose, however, touching land 
 titles in that vicinity, covering the tract he had 
 selected. The trouble very likely occurred with 
 the Indians, as the Wacos were still at that time 
 in almost absolute possession of the upper Brazos 
 valley and held sway for several years later and 
 relinquished their final hold not without contest and 
 jeven bloodshed. 
 
 Mr. Cole finally perfected his title to the land, 
 but never lived thereon, preferring to remain at his 
 Cass county home. 
 
 Daniel Cole, a younger brother of Ransom, also 
 came to Texas and located in Cass County in 1853. 
 He there pursued farming and lived until his death, 
 leaving a familj', some of whom still reside there. 
 
 Ransom Cole early suffered the loss 6f his wife, 
 Agatha (^ne<' Bostwick) Cole, December 1, 1854, in 
 her forty-eighth }'ear. She was born in 1806. She 
 was the mother of nine children and of these three 
 sons settled at Bryan in the infancy of the thrifty 
 count}' seat of Brazos County, and as merchants 
 and esteemed citizens have become conspicuous in 
 the business development and growth of the city, 
 standing a=i they do at the head of its mercantile 
 interests. The firm name of the house. Cole 
 Brothers, has become a household word throughout 
 the Brazos valley region. Ransom Cole remained 
 on his Cass County estate until, advanced in years, 
 he relinquished the cares of business to spend the 
 declining j'cars of his life with his children at Bryan 
 and vicinity and there died in the year 1887, at 
 eighty-seven jears of age. He was favorably known 
 as a man of quiet and unpretentious manners and a 
 kind, warm heart. 
 
 In view of the foregoing facts, space cannot be 
 more becomingly utilized than to recite tlie follow- 
 ing brief biographical facts touching the Bryan mem- 
 bers of this pioneer family, all of whom have seen 
 and taken an aggressive part in the growth of the 
 richest and most [)romising valley country in Texas. 
 
200 
 
 INDIAX WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Mason 1). Cole, the oldest of the famil}' of nine 
 children, was born in Pike County, Alabama, on his 
 father's farm, February 24, 1831. His boyhood 
 was for the most part spent in Macon County, Ala- 
 bama, and he there early engaged in agriculture 
 until the removal of the family to Louisiana and 
 soon after to Texas in 1849. He remained in Cass 
 County, this State, until he became identified with 
 the commissary department of the Confederate 
 government, in which he served during 1864 and 
 1865. He, in common with his fellow-countrymen, 
 suffered severe losses in consequence of the war ; 
 but, gathering up the remnants of his estate, he em- 
 barked in merchandising at Douglassville, Texas, 
 from 1865 to 1869, and in a measure repaired his 
 fortunes. His two brothers preceded him to Bryan 
 in 1867 and engaged in merchandising under the 
 firm name of Cole, Dansby & Co. Mr. Cole 
 came on, purchased Mr. Dansby's interest, and, 
 with his brothers, established the firm of Cole 
 Brothers, which dates its existence from 1869. 
 
 Mr. Cole married, ia 1872, his present and third 
 wife, Mrs. Mollie A. Covy, a widow lady, native of 
 Georgia. Of the children born of this union, two 
 sons survive, viz. : Houston and Jeff Cole. B3' a 
 former marriage, Mr. Cole has a son, J. R. Cole, 
 and a daughter, now Mrs. Simm Cooper, both resi- 
 dents of Brjan. 
 
 Mr. Cole devotes his time chiefly to the exten- 
 sive (\xy goods interests of his firm. He has 
 served fifteen years as trustee of the public schools 
 and in the city council and was one of the original 
 promoters of Bryan's public free school S3'stem. 
 
 Jasper N. Cole, general manager of the business 
 of the firm, was born in Macon County, Alabama, 
 January 14, 1837, and, like his elder brother, lived 
 on his father's farm until about fifteen years of age. 
 Upon the opening of the war between the States in 
 1861, he promptly enlisted as a private soldier in 
 the Third Texas Cavalry, in Greer's Regiment, but 
 "served for the most part under the regimental 
 command of Col. Walter P. Lane. 
 
 The record of the gallant Third Texas Cavalry, 
 under the leadership at various times of such in- 
 trepid and relentless fighters as Gens. Ben McCul- 
 
 loch. Price, Bragg, and Joseph E. Johnston, is a 
 part of the history of the great war waged in the 
 interest of the Southern cause. Mr. Cole fought in 
 the battles of Wilson Creek, Missouri ; Elk Horn, or 
 Pea Ridge, Arkansas; Corinth, Mississippi; and 
 those incident to all the great campaigns down to 
 Chattanooga, Tennessee, and on down into Georgia. 
 He returned to his home in Cass County after the 
 war and in 1867 went to Bryan and embarked in 
 merchandising in company' with a younger brother, 
 Noah B. Cole, present junior member of the firm. 
 
 Mr. Cole married, October 21, 1869, in Brazos 
 County, Miss Nannie Walker, daugliter of James 
 AValker, a pioneer of Brazos County. Nine chil- 
 dren born of this marriage are living, viz. : Mattie, 
 wife of Lemuel B. Hall, a well-known drug mer- 
 chant of Bryan ; May, unmarried ; Ella, wife, W. S. 
 Adams; Carl, Arrie, Alma, Nellie, Jasper, and 
 Ransom. Two, Claud and Earl, are deceased. 
 
 Mr. Cole is known in the financial circles of Texas 
 as the president of the Merchants and Planters 
 Bank of Brj-an since 1889. He is also president 
 of the Bryan Cotton Seed Oil Mill. 
 
 Noah B. Cole, the director of the hardware store 
 of the firm, was born in Alabama, August 19, 1847, 
 the j-oungest of nine children, and lived on his 
 father's farm until 1864, when, at seventeen years 
 of age, he joined Lane's Regiment, so well known in 
 the history- of the late war as the First Texas 
 Partisan Rangers, the services of which were con- 
 fined chiefly to the Trans-Mississippi Department. 
 He went through a lively Louisiana, Arkansas and 
 Missouri campaign of about eighteen months and at 
 the break-up returned home in August, 1865, un- 
 scathed. He came with his elder brother, Jasper 
 N. Cole, to Bryan, in 18G7, and engaged in business, 
 the outcome of which is three flourishing stores at 
 that place. 
 
 He has been twice married, first in 1879, to Miss 
 Mollie Rawles, who died December 5th, 1888, leav- 
 ing one son, Robert E. Cole. Mr. Cole married, 
 November 14, 1890, his second and present wife. 
 Miss Lula Davies, a daughter of Dr. Wm. Davies, 
 of Burleson Count}'. Two children have been born 
 to them, viz. : NoahD., and Walter R. Cole. 
 
mDIAX WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 201 
 
 E. M. PEASE, 
 
 AUSTIN. 
 
 We have selected for the subject of tliis memoir 
 lion. Elislia Marshall Pease, a man who, in his day 
 and generation, moved as a colossal figure upon 
 the stage of action in Texas. 
 
 His career covered the most momentous epochs 
 in the history of the State, the Texas revolution, 
 the days of the Republic, annexation, the war 
 l)etween the States, and the era of reconstruction. 
 
 A sufficient period of time has now elapsed since 
 the happening of those events for the formation of 
 a true estimate of his character and services, and 
 to enable the historian, by a dispassionate con- 
 sideration of the circumstances that surrounded 
 him, to obtain an insigbt into the motives that 
 prompted his public acts. 
 
 He was born at Enfield, Conn., January 3, 1812, 
 and enjoyed such educational advantages as were 
 afforded by the schools of his native town and a 
 short attendance at an academy at Westfleld, 
 Mass. His parents were Lorain Thompson, and 
 Sarah (Marshall), Pease. 
 
 At the age of fourteen he was placed in a coun- 
 try store where he remained three years. From 
 tliat time until 1834, he was a clerk at the post 
 office at Hartford. 
 
 The greater part of the year 1834 was spent in 
 traveling in the Northwestern States, and in the 
 fall he went to New Orleans. In that citj' he met 
 many persons from Texas, and, allured by the glow- 
 ing accounts which they gave of the character and 
 prospects of the country beyond the Sabine, de- 
 termined to seek a home and fortune within its 
 confines. Accordingly, in the month of Januar3', 
 1835, he took passage on a sailing vessel, landed at 
 the port of Velasco, and from thence made his way 
 to the frontier settlements on the Colorado, and 
 located at Mina, now the town of Bastrop, where 
 he began the studj' of law in the office of Col. D. 
 C. Barrett, who had but recently entered upon the 
 practice of the profession. 
 
 The times were not such, however, that a high- 
 spirited and mettlesome young man could sit 
 qiiietly in an office and pore over the musty pages 
 of the law and, while he applied himself with such 
 assiduity as was possible under the circumstances, 
 his studies were interrupted and he made little 
 progress therein until later and less stormy days. 
 The people of Texas were smarting under a long 
 train of injustices and oppressions inflicted upon 
 
 them bj' the Mexican government and were threat- 
 ened with the entire overthrow of their liberties. 
 The affairs at Anahuac and Velasco, in 1832, which 
 had resulted in the expulsion of Bradburn from the 
 country, were fresh in memory and the capture of 
 Anahuac by Travis and a few fearless followers was 
 near at hand, conventions had been held at San 
 Felipe in 1832 and 1833, askingfor reforms in many 
 directions and the reforms had been denied and the 
 complaints of the petitioners treated with haughty 
 and indignant contempt. The remnant of the once 
 powerful Liberal party in Mexico, that in time 
 past had responded to the clarion calls of Hidalgo 
 and Morelos, had made its last stand for the 
 constitution and been irretrievably defeated upon 
 the blood-soaked plains of Guadalupe and Zacatecas 
 by the minions of Santa Anna, whose baleful star 
 was then rising towards its zenith. A strong central 
 despotism, inimical to the Anglo-American settlers 
 of Texas, was no longer a danger threatened by 
 the future, but an accomplished fact. To the 
 dullest ear was distinctly audible the rum- 
 blings of the approaching revolution. A crisis 
 was upon the country. It was a time to try the 
 stoutest hearts — for patriots to stand firm, cpun- 
 sel resistance, and prepare for the impending 
 struggle, and for the timid to talk in bated 
 whispers and prate of compromise and peace, 
 when there could be no compromise and peace with- 
 out the dishonor of virtual slavery. On the one 
 hand was arrayed the i)Owerful Mexican nation, 
 numbering several millions of inhabitants and 
 possessing an army and navy, well equipped and 
 well officered ; on the other a small band of pio- 
 neers, possessed of no resources and widely scat- 
 tered over a vast expanse of hill and valley, plain 
 and forest, and with no facilities for bringing about 
 speedy concentration and concert of action. Such 
 was the prospect that confronted the people of 
 Texas. It was gloomy indeed. But there were 
 those among the pioneers (and not a few) who had 
 inbibed with their mother's milk detestation of in- 
 justice and tyranny in all its forms and that love of 
 liberty and those manly sentiments that in all ages 
 have taught the brave to count danger and death as 
 nothing when their rights, liberties or honor were 
 invaded and could only be maintained by a 
 resort to the sword. Descended from a race 
 whose sons were among the first to respond 
 
202 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 to their country's call in 1776 and strike for 
 the independence of the American Colonies, 
 young Pease was among the most outspoken of 
 those who precipitated the Texas revolution, 
 and in a few months, was elected secretary of 
 the Committee of Safety, formed by the people of 
 Mina, the first of its kind organized in Texas. In 
 the following September, when couriers from Gon- 
 zales brought an appeal for armed assistance, he 
 hurried to that place as a volunteer in the company 
 commanded by Capt. R. M. Coleman, and had the 
 honor to fire a shot in the first battle and to help 
 win the first victory of the revolution. In a few 
 weeks he was granted a furlough on account of 
 sickness and in the latter part of November went 
 to San Felipe, where he was elected one of the two 
 secretaries of the first provisional government of 
 Texas, in which position he remained until the 
 government ad interim wa.s organized, under Presi- 
 dent Burnet, March IS, 1836. 
 
 While he was not a delegate to the convention 
 that issued the declaration of Texas independence, 
 he was present at its sessions, was chosen and 
 served as one of its secretaries and helped to frame 
 the special ordinance that created the government 
 ad interim and the constitution for the republic 
 adopted by it. The latter was formulated subject 
 to ratification or rejection by the people as soon as 
 an election could be held for that purpose. 
 
 During the summer he served as chief clerk, first 
 in the navy and then in the treasury department, 
 and for a short time acted as Secretary of the Treas- 
 ury upon the death of Secretary Hardeman. 
 
 In November, when Gen. Sam Houston was 
 President, he was appointed clerk of the Judiciary 
 Committee of the House of Representatives, and 
 while in that position drew up most of the laws 
 organizing the courts, creating county offices and 
 defining the duties of county officers ; also the fee- 
 bill and criminal code. 
 
 Upon the adjournment of Congress in Decem- 
 ber he was tendered the office of Postmaster 
 General by President Houston, but declined it and 
 entered the office of Col. John A. Wharton at Bra- 
 zoria, where he diligently applied himself to the 
 study of law. He was admitted to the bar at the 
 town of Washington, in April, 1837, but in June 
 following was tendered by President Houston and 
 accepted the office of Comptroller of Public Ac- 
 counts, which he filled until December and then 
 returned to Brazoria, where he formed a copart- 
 nership with Col. Wharton and entered actively 
 upon the practice of his profession. In 1838, John 
 W. Harris became associated with them and after 
 the death of Col. Wharton, which occurred a few 
 
 months later, the firm of Harris & Pease continued 
 for many years and became one of the most dis- 
 tinguished in the State. During this period Mr. 
 Pease served as District Attorney for a short time, 
 and, after annexation in 1846, w;is elected from 
 Brazoria County to the House of Representatives 
 of the First State Legislature and was re-elected in 
 1847 to the Second Legislature. 
 
 These were exceedingly important sessions, as 
 the building of the framework for a State govern- 
 ment had to be done from the ground up and the 
 future prosperity of the commonwealth and hap- 
 piness of its people largely depended upon the 
 wisdom or unwisdom displayed in the enactment 
 of statutes and the formulation of lines of public 
 policy for later administrations to follow or reject. 
 Both branches of the legislature contained many 
 men of commanding talents (Texas' brightest and 
 best, among whom Mr. Pease moved as a recog- 
 nized leader) and accomplished the arduous duties 
 that devolved upon it in a manner creditable to the 
 members and satisfactory to the people. 
 
 During his terms of service in the House he drew 
 up very nearly all the laws defining the jurisdiction 
 of courts, aud, as chairman of the Judiciary Com- 
 mittee in the Second Legislature, originated and 
 pushed to enactment the probate laws of 1848. 
 
 In 1849 he was elected to the Senate of the Third 
 Legislature from the district composed of the 
 counties of Brazoria and Galveston, and at the 
 regular session of 1850 added to the laurels he had 
 ahead}' won and still further endeared himself to 
 a people not insensible to the merits of those who 
 had not only shown themselves true patriots and 
 devoted to the common cause in the darkest hour.s 
 of the country's history, but capable in time of 
 peace of guiding the ship of State. Being absent 
 from Texas when Governor Bell called an extra ses- 
 sion of the Legislature at a later period in 1850, he 
 resigned and terminated his services as a lawmaker. 
 Thereafter until 1853 he devoted himself to his 
 law practice, but continued a prominent figure and 
 potent factor in public life and indentified himself 
 with all principal movements that gave promise of 
 promoting the best interests of the country. 
 
 With other leading men he early saw the neces- 
 sity of railroads as a means of developing the vast 
 territory of the State, deprived as it was of interior 
 navigation except in neighborhoods not far remote 
 from the coast and at Jefferson on the extreme 
 Northeast, and advocated the construction of a 
 transcontinental railway to the Pacific ocean. 
 With Thomas J. Rusk, Gen. Sam Houston and 
 others, he earnestly favored the building of what is 
 now the Texas & Pacific Railroad, destined, after 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 203 
 
 passing through many changes and many doubtful 
 stages, and by the blending of many charters, to 
 ultimate conslruclion and completion in 1881. 
 
 Mr. Pease was not long suffered to remain in 
 retirement. In 1853 he was elected Governor of 
 Texas, as the successor of Governor Bell, and 
 re-elected in 1855, Hardin R. Runnels being elected 
 Lieutenant-Governor. That he was one of the 
 ablest and purest Governors Texas has ever 
 had, is the unanimous opinion of all who 
 are conversant with the facts. His messages to 
 the Legislature are model State papers, not only 
 on account of the knowledge of the condition and 
 needs of the country and the principles of civil 
 government that they display, but for the wisdom 
 of the recommendations that they contain and the 
 elegance and perspicuity of their diction. During 
 the four years that he filled the gubernatorial chair, 
 alternate sections of land were set aside to promote 
 the construction of railroads, and much of our 
 earliest railroad legislation was enacted, lands were 
 set apart for free school purposes, a nucleus for the 
 present munificent school fund was formed, and a 
 handsome appropriation was made for the establish- 
 ment of a State university, for no man felt a deeper 
 interest in popular education or more fully realized 
 that the hope of constitutional freedom must ever 
 rest upon the intelligence of the citizen ; a new 
 State capitol and other public buildings were erected, 
 and institutions for the insane, deaf and dumb, and 
 blind were founded, and liberal appropriations made 
 for their support. When his official life as Gov- 
 enor began, the State tax was twenty cents on the 
 one hundred dollars, and when his second term 
 expired it was fifteen cents and the State was 
 entirely free from debt. 
 
 In 1854, there was introduced into Texas a secret, 
 oath-bound, political organization, which became 
 known as the Know-Nothing or American party. 
 It transacted its business with closed doors and 
 in the latter year put forth a full ticket for State 
 oflSces. The principles of the new party were 
 designed to place restrictions upon foreign immi- 
 grants acquiring American citizenship, and to 
 impose restraints and civil disabilities upon those 
 professing the Catholic religion. Its methods, tenets 
 and purposes were assailed by Governor Pease. 
 A sturdy republican, he entertained an unconquer- 
 able hostility to secret political organizations, 
 believing that, while some excuse might be offered 
 for their formation under the despotisms of the old 
 world, none could be advanced for their existence 
 here. He considered them, j)sr se, inimical and a 
 menace to our free institutions. As to debarring 
 worthy foreigners from tlie blessings and advan- 
 
 tages attendant upon American citizenship, the 
 idea to him was utterly repugnant. He remembered 
 that our ancestors themselves were emigrees from 
 Europe, that man}' men of foreign birth had fought 
 in the Continental army and afterwards adorned 
 the walks both of public and private life in the early 
 days of the republic, that many such men emigrated 
 from their distant homes to settle in the wilderness 
 of Texas and that not a few had honorably borne 
 arms in the struggle that won for Texas her inde- 
 pendence, and he knew that men who would leave 
 the land of their birth to escape tyranny and, in 
 search of liberty, cross the stormy deep in the 
 hope of bettering their conditions amid alien scenes 
 and among a people to whose very language they 
 were strangers, were made of stuff that fitted them 
 for the patriotic discharge of the duties incident to 
 self-government. His was not the spirit of the 
 glutton, who, careless of the welfare of others, 
 wishes all for himself, but that nobler spirit that 
 led the fathers of 1776 to boast that they had estab- 
 lished an asylum to which the oppressed of every 
 land might turn with the assurance of safety and 
 protection. As to religion, he believed that to be a 
 matter of conscience that should rest between each 
 man and his God and that should in no way be 
 interfered with by private individuals or the State. 
 He believed the action the Know-Nothing party 
 contemplated taking against Catholics and foreign 
 immigrants to be contrary to the history and tradi- 
 tions of our government and the genius of our insti- 
 tutions. So believing, he entered the campaign as 
 the standard-bearer of the opposition, known as the 
 Democratic party, but containing men of widely 
 divergent views, and, after a spirited and exciting 
 contest, was elected at the polls and entered upon 
 his second term. 
 
 The ticket put in the field by the Know-Nothing 
 party contained the first nominations made by a 
 political party in Texas. In fact, prior to 1855 
 there were no party organizations, properly so 
 called, in the State. 
 
 Before the close of Governor Pease's second 
 term, the whole country was stirred from center to 
 circumference over questions that aroused the 
 bitterest sectional feeling. Under the terms of the 
 Missouri Compromise of 1820 and 1821, the terri- 
 tories of Kansas and Nebraska when admitted 
 would necessarily enter the Union as free States. 
 In 1854, Senator Douglass, of Illinois, introduced 
 in Congress what was known as the Kansas and 
 Nebraska Bill (which became a law), in which it 
 was declared that the Missouri Compromise — 
 " Being inconsistent with the principles of non- 
 intervention by Congress with slavery in the States 
 
204 
 
 INDIAN WARS AXD PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 and Territories, as recognized by tlie legislation of 
 1850, commonly called the Compromise Measures, 
 is hereby declared inoperative aud void, it being 
 llie true intent and meaning of this act, not to leg- 
 islate slavery into any Territory or State, nor to 
 exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people there- 
 of perfectl3' free to form and regulate their domestic 
 institutions in their own way, subject only to the 
 constitution of the United States." 
 
 Mr. Douglass' measure of course carried with it 
 the right of slave-owners to settle in Kansas and 
 Nebraska with their slaves. The Eastern portion 
 of Kansas was regarded by many as a desirable 
 region in which to employ slave labor and many 
 Southern people located in it. The conflicts and 
 bloodshed that followed are familiar matters of 
 iiistory. The passage of the act only served to in- 
 tensify sectional hatred. Gen. Houston, Senator 
 from Texas, voted against it for reasons which he 
 elaborated and which met with the sanction of Gov- 
 ernor Pease and others, who were firmly convinced 
 that any attempt to establish slavery in that section 
 would prove futile and only serve to widen the 
 breach that separated the Southern and Northern 
 States, which, if not healed, threatened armed con- 
 flict and, probable dissolution of the Union. They 
 were for pouring oil upon the troubled waters and 
 not for still further agitating them. Gen. Houston 
 offered himself as a candidate for the Governor- 
 ship in ojjposition to Hardin R. Runnels, the sec- 
 ond nominee of the Democratic organization, and, 
 although he made a fine canvass, was supported by 
 Governor Pease (the first nominee of that party and 
 then occupying the Governor's chair) and had many 
 devoted admirers and supporters, public sentiment 
 was such that he was defeated, Runnels receiving a 
 majority of over ten thousand votes. Such was 
 the condition of affairs on the 21st of December, 
 1857, when a change of administration took place. 
 Two years later. Gen. Houston was elected to suc- 
 ceed Runnels, but a great crisis was at hand. 
 Threats were openly made that, if Mr. Lincoln was 
 elected, the Southern States would withdraw from 
 the Union and form a Confederacy of their own, 
 threats that were afterwards carried into execution. 
 Governor Pease opposed secession, aud, finding that 
 his opposition was in vain, retired to private life. 
 
 He was a delegate from Texas to the convention 
 of Southern loyalists that met at Philadelphia in 
 18GG and was elected one of the vice-presidents of 
 that body. Later in the same year he was the can- 
 didate of the Union party for the office of Governor 
 of Texas, but was defeated b}' Hon. J. W. 
 Throckmorton. In August, 18G7, he was appointed 
 Provisional Governor of the Slate by Gen. Sheridan, 
 
 but resigned before the end of the j'ear because he 
 differed with the commanding general of the de- 
 partment, Gen. J. J. Reynolds, as to the course 
 that should be pursued in the reconstruction of the 
 State. He represented the State in the Liberal 
 Republican Convention of 1872 that assembled in 
 Chicago and nominated Horace Greeley for the 
 presidency. In later da3'S he attended various 
 State and national Republican conventions and 
 continued to act with the Republican party. 
 Shortly after the war it was charged that he was 
 an extremist, but, it is a fact well and gratefully 
 remembered by the people of Texas that, when he 
 saw during the administration of Governor Davis 
 to what iniquities the extreme policy that was being 
 pursued would lead, he opposed it and threw 
 the great weight of his influence into the scales of 
 conservatism. 
 
 The stormy days before, during and after the 
 war are gone and the waves of passion and preju- 
 dice that beat so fiercely have subsided. The war 
 was inevitable. Questions were settled by it that 
 had long vexed the people and been a prolific 
 source of discord and that could have been settled 
 in no other way. Old social and commercial con- 
 ditions were changed that could have been changed 
 in no other way. Mutual confidence, respect and 
 friendship were restored as they could have been 
 restored in no other way, and a fraternal, and it is 
 to be hoped, eternal. Union secured that could have 
 been secured in no other way. Now we can enter 
 into full sj'mpathy with those who could see neither 
 safety nor profit in continuing to live under a com- 
 pact of Union, every essential provision of which 
 they believed to have been violated, and who de- 
 termined to seek peace in a Confederation com- 
 posed of friendly States with interests in common. 
 We can also enter into full sj'mpathy with those who 
 opposed the polic3' of secession. They thought that, 
 if wrong had been done, it could be redressed within 
 the Union — that the slavery and all other ques- 
 tions could be settled there. Governor Pease aud 
 others of undoubted patriotism looked upon the 
 dissolution of the Union as the greatest calamity 
 that could befall the countr3-. Upon the continu- 
 ation of that Union he believed depended the 
 destinies and future welfare of the race, for its 
 fall, he well knew, would seal the doom of free 
 institutions, which in a few years would perish from 
 the earth. " Should the blood " said men of his 
 party " shed upon the battle fields of the Revolution 
 of 1776, be shed in vain? Should the labors of 
 Washington and Jefferson and their compeers 
 prove unavailing? A thousand times no! " They 
 were right in their prognostications of the evils that 
 
INDIA y WAR.S AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 ■205 
 
 would inevitably follow a dissolution of the Union. 
 They were wrong in the belief that the questions 
 that divided the people could be settled peace- 
 fully. From their standpoint they were right in 
 opposing secession. It is fortunate, all now agree, 
 that the attempt to secede was unsuccessful. It 
 was, however, written in the book of fate that it 
 should be made and fail. A stronger hand than 
 man's controlled the course of events and brought 
 about the beneficent results that have followed in 
 their train. We admire the moral and physical 
 courage that led men of both sides to brave ani- 
 madversion, the loss of prestige and death itself in 
 support of their opinions and principles that they 
 believed to be correct. They were animated by 
 that desire for the promotion of the general good 
 and by that spirit of their fathers that led Pym 
 and Hampden and Sidney to dare the block and the 
 soldiers at Concord to fire upon the British reg- 
 ulars. Let us strew flowers with impartial hand 
 upon those whom death has gathered in its cold 
 embrace and transmit their memories to posterity, 
 freed from reproach and with imperishable assur- 
 ances of our love and veneration for them. 
 
 There was nothing of the time-serving spirit in 
 Governor Pease's composition. He was incapable 
 of allowing a desire for personal aggrandizement or 
 for the promotion of any of his private interests to 
 induce him to compromise with what he believed to 
 be wrong. He stood for principles and, seeing 
 that they were about to be violated, he could not 
 remain silent and inactive. He had no superstitious 
 reverence for majorities. He knew full well that 
 majorities are often wrong and that the pages of 
 history are stained and blurred all over by records 
 of the mistakes they have made, and the crimes 
 they have committed. The majority believed for 
 centuries that the earth was flat and the center 
 of the universe ; in witches and wizards and neci'o- 
 mancy ; that it was impious to attempt by sanitary 
 measures to stay the pestilence, which they consid- 
 ered a divine visitation upon the people for their 
 sins, and it was in accordance with the will of 
 majorities that Christ was condemned to a shameful 
 death upon the cross, the fires of persecution were 
 kept ablaze at .Smithfield and Oxford, and many 
 noble lives were sacrificed and much cruel wrong 
 inflicted. He believed that the day had not yet 
 . come when majorities were invested with the attri- 
 butes of infallibility. If the majority was right, he 
 cheerfully went with it. If he considered it in error, 
 he as manfully opposed it, nor could he be com- 
 pelled by any consideration to cease his opposition. 
 Even his opponents at all times freely admitted his 
 honesty of character and purpose. He retired from 
 office enjoying the respect of all the people. 
 
 In 187-1: he was tendered the otHce of Collector of 
 the Port of Galveston by Secretary of the Interior 
 Bristow, but declined it. 
 
 In 1877 he retired from the active practice of law 
 in which he had been engaged, except when em- 
 ployed in the discharge of public duties, since 
 1837. 
 
 In 1879 he was tendered, without solicitation 
 upon his part, the CoUectorship of the port of Gal- 
 veston, and, this time, accepled,_it. This was his 
 last public service. 
 
 He was vice-president of the First National Bank 
 of Austin, at the time of his death, which occurred 
 at Lampasas Springs, Texas, August 26, 1883, where 
 he had gone in search of health. Tj^ His remains were 
 interred in the cemetery at^Auslin. 
 
 Governor Pease became a Mason in 1839, joinino- 
 St. John's Lodge, No. .5, at Columbia, Texas and took 
 all the regular degrees. He was not a member of 
 any religious organization, but attended the services 
 of the Episcopal Church, the church in which he 
 was reared. 
 
 As a law3'er he had few equals in the State. His 
 briefs were always clear, ,^fair and logical, and, 
 while his patient research armed him at every point 
 in a case, he never sought undue advantage. So 
 fixed were these traits [that Chief Justice Wheeler 
 once said that the statements of facts in his briefs 
 were always so lucid andj'ust he could rely upon 
 them without reference to the record. He was fre- 
 quently consulted upon important public matters 
 having a legal bearing, even after his retirement 
 from practice, and always rendered such services 
 without charge. 
 
 Sincerity and candor" and an observance of the 
 golden rule marked his intercourse with his fellow- 
 men. Courtl}' in manner, kindly and genial, he 
 enjoyed the affectionate regard of the circle of 
 friends whom he admitted to his acquaintance. He 
 had as much influence inframing the public policies 
 and general laws of the State as any man who ever 
 lived in Texas. lie was identified with the soil 
 from the days antedating the revolution. It was 
 his fortune to perform many important public ser- 
 vices. His career covered the most momentous 
 periods known to our history. He was the intimate 
 friend and associate of such men as Wharton, 
 Houston, Williamson, Rusk and Archer, and the 
 leaders of thought of later days, and his name de- 
 serves a place beside theirs upon the pages of the 
 State's history. 
 
 He was married in 1850 to Miss L. C. Niles, a 
 daughter of Col. Richard Niles, of Windsor, Conn. 
 This accomplished and most excellent lady and her 
 only surviving daughter, live at the family seat 
 near the city of Austin. 
 
206 
 
 INDIAN ]]'AliS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 ISABELLA HADDON GORDON, 
 
 CLARKSVILLE, 
 
 One of Red River County's early settlers, a noble 
 Christian woman who linked her name permanently 
 with that of the county's history, was born August 
 10th, 1805, in Montgomery County, Ky., and was a 
 (laughter of Frank and Katie (Elliott) Hopkins, of 
 Kentucky. Her paternal grandfather, Wm. Hop- 
 kins, was from one of the New England States, and 
 her maternal grandfather, James Elliott, was from 
 Viririnia. Her maternal grandmother was Katie 
 (Stewart) Elliott of Virginia. Her father was a 
 leading and wealthy planter of Kentucky. He 
 moved to Indiana the year of tlie battle of Tippe- 
 canoe, carrying with him all his slaves, which he 
 lost by some legal technicality. In 1823 he moved 
 to Texas, settling at the mouth of i\li!l creek, which 
 is now in Bowie County. At that time all the white 
 settlers lived in neighborhoods within a mile of 
 Red river, and it was ten years before there were 
 any white settlements on the prairie. The subject 
 of this sketch was married, April 18th, 1824, to 
 John Hanks, a native of IvLMitucky, who died in 
 1827. One child, Minerva, blessed this union, is 
 still living and is the widow of Robert Graham. 
 The subject of this notice was married the second 
 time to James Clark, then a member of the Arkansas 
 legislature and a son of Benjamin Clark, a native 
 of Tennessee, who at the time lived in Arkansas, 
 but moved soon after to Texas. To this union three 
 children were born. The first, Frank H., born 
 April 27th, 1830, attended law school at Lexing- 
 ton, boarding with Chief Justice Marshall, and had 
 the benefit of the advice and association of that 
 eminent jurist. This bright son and promising 
 lawyer died in 1856. The second son. Dr. Pat 
 Clark, is a physician and resident of Red River 
 County. The third and youngest son of this union 
 is Capt. James Clark, a leading and representative 
 citizen of Red River County. In the fall of 1832, 
 when Mr. Clark was a resident of Jonesboro, a 
 settlement on Red river. Gen. Sam Houston crossed 
 the river with five companions and with one of them 
 passed his first night in Texas at the house of the 
 subject of this sketch, his four other companions 
 being prepared to camp out. He remained with 
 the then Mrs. Clark awaiting guides to take him to 
 Nacogdoches, as at that time there were no roads. 
 The whole party were gentlemanly in dress and 
 conduct, contrary to a statement published as a 
 matter of history, that they were intoxicated and 
 
 disorderly ; the companions of Gen. Houston were 
 white men and not Indians, as erroneously declared 
 in the statement alluded to. James Clark died in 
 1838 at the late home of his widow in Clarks- 
 ville, Texas, which city is named in his honor. 
 This husband and the second of her brothers were 
 in the war of 183G, and fought for the independ- 
 ence of Texas and it was through the instrument- 
 ality of Mrs. Gordon, who at that time was Mrs. 
 Clark, that a large number of recruits were col- 
 lected and equipped at her expense and sent for- 
 ward to aid in gaining the independence of the 
 Lone Star Republic. The third husband of this 
 lady was Dr. George Gordon, of Covington, Ky. 
 John, their first son, died while discharging the 
 duties of a soldier in the Confederate army. 
 Belle was their second and Dick the third. Dr. 
 Gordon served in the Confederate arm}' as assistant 
 to her son (and his step-son) Dr. Pat Clark, who 
 was surgeon of Gen. Lane's Regiment. Prior to 
 the time of Mrs. Gordon's arrival in Texas, the 
 prairies were inhabited by hostile Indians, but from 
 about 1826 to 1836 settlements were made by 
 several tribes of friendly Indians, Kicka|ioos, 
 Delawares, and Shawnees, who were really a pro- 
 tection to the whites. There was one Delaware 
 chief who had lost a hand (he said in the battle of 
 Tippecanoe), and there is a creek in the neighbor- 
 hood that derives its name from him — "Cut- 
 hand." Mrs. Gordon knew many of these Indians, 
 as they came to trade with the white people. 
 After the war of 1836, Texas made no provisions 
 for these Indians, and they returned peacefully to 
 their homes. The Shawnee chief was (tailed 
 "Cow-leach," and lived on a prairie four miles 
 from Clarksville, and it stdl bears his name. 
 When our subject was first married, for one year 
 she lived within a mile of a village inhabited by- 
 friendly Choctaw Indians, and they were good 
 neighbors. Her nearest white neighbor, a Mr. ■ 
 Cullum, was four miles off. The white people at 
 an early day were in constant dread of hostile 
 Indians. There was a settlement of Caddos on the 
 Sabine river, about one hundred and fifty miles 
 distant, and one of them came and told Mrs. 
 Gordon that the friendly Indians near had planned 
 to kill the white people. This was a favorite 
 trick of the Indians to get the white people to 
 leave their homes so that the redskins could pillage. 
 
INDIAX WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 207 
 
 On this occasion the men took the Indian and 
 whipped him, the whipping taking place near the 
 house of a Mr. Murphy. Just one year after 
 a party of Caddos came, found Mr. Murphy alone 
 with his sled to haul rails, and mending his 
 fence. He had nothing to do with the whipping, 
 but they killed him, took his scalp, and had a war 
 dance over it at their village, as reported by a 
 trader, who said it was done for revenge, which 
 must have been the case, as they did not even take 
 away the horse. Mrs. Murphy heard the gunshot 
 and went to see what was the matter. The Indians 
 were gone, but she found her husband's bod3'. 
 She was entirely alone and carried water to wash the 
 body, covered it and took the horse from the sled 
 and rode two miles to her nearest neighbor to give 
 the alarm. 
 
 For the first year after Mrs. Gordon came to 
 Texas, unless the vessels wei'e brought with them, 
 the people had none but gourds. For some years 
 all the cloth was made from cotton, the seeds 
 picked out with the fingers, then spun and woven. 
 In those daj's there were cotton pickings, but not 
 like those of this day. In the long winter 
 evenings people would meet at a house and pick 
 out seeds. Then it was ready to spin for making 
 cloth. 
 
 The pioneers had no chairs, but made stools. 
 Beds were made fast to the wall. For seven years 
 Mrs. Gordon never saw a plank floor, as all floors 
 were made of puncheons — that is, lumber hewn 
 but of logs. For a number of years there were no 
 wagons, and people moved in canoes. The men 
 wore clothes made entirely of deer skins, the skins 
 of deer and cattle being tanned in a trough. The 
 nicest shoes were made of deer skins, and our sub- 
 
 ject was married to Mr. Clark in a pair made by a 
 shoemaker named Huey Shaw. 
 
 The people had an abundance of food at an early 
 date, deer and bear meat and fat wild turkeys 
 being plentiful. The woods w§re full of bee trees. 
 Bread was made by beating out the corn in a 
 mortar. Later the pcoi)le had steel mills which 
 they turned by hand. About once a year a keel- 
 boat would be pushed up Red river with such sup- 
 plies as sugar, flour and coffee. 
 
 Mrs. Gordon still has relatives living in Ken- 
 tucky and Indiana, among them the Hamiltons of 
 Montgomery County, in the former State. Judge 
 Elliott, who was killed at Frankfort, Ky., a few 
 years ago, by Judge Buford, was a great-grand- 
 nephew of her mother. 
 
 Mrs. Gordon's name is synonymous with all 
 that is good and charitable. The wealth which 
 a beneficent Providence entrusted to her care 
 was judiciously used for the relief and com- 
 fort of her fellow-creatures. Her whole life was 
 spent toward the advancement and good of her 
 country and its population. For many years her 
 life was not connected with any religious denom- 
 ination, but her life and its example could have 
 been followed to good purpose by many of those 
 who claimed to have passed through the purifying 
 fires of repentance. In 1864 she joined the Cath- 
 olic Church, of which she was thereafter a devout 
 and consistent member. 
 
 The love for this good woman is shown by the 
 numerous namesakes she has in the States of 
 Arkansas and Texas. She gave land, lots and 
 houses to many poor, but deserving, people. Hun- 
 dreds reverence her memory. 
 
 She died in June, 1895, and is buried at Clarksville. 
 
 T. C. WESTBROOK, 
 
 HEARNE. 
 
 Capt. T. C. Westbrook, born at West Point, 
 Mississippi, October 1st, 1842, of well-to-do and 
 highly respected parents, representatives of the 
 fine old Southern aristocracy of the halcyon days 
 before the war, had the advantage in youth of care- 
 ful training and thorough education, graduating 
 with the rank of Captain from the Military Insti- 
 tute, at Frankfort, Ky., when seventeen years of 
 of age, and soon after came to Texas with his step- 
 
 father, L. W. Carr, who located with his family on 
 the rich alluvial lands of the Brazos river bottom 
 near the town of Hearne, in Robertson County. 
 Mr. Westbrook entered the Confederate arm}' iu 
 the spring of 1862 as a soldier in Company B., en- 
 listing for three years, or so long as the war might 
 last, and was stationed with his command first on 
 Galveston Island, then at Virginia Point, and then 
 at Camp Speight, Texas, near Millican, where the 
 
i>08 
 
 IXDIAN WAB,S AXD PIONEERS OE TEXA!S. 
 
 Fifteenth Texas Infanti}' was organized, witLi J. W. 
 Speight as its Colonel, and M. D. Herring, Captain, 
 and the subject of this memoir Lieutenant of Com- 
 pany B. The regiment was ordered to Arkansas, 
 remained at Cam[) Daniels until 1862, readied 
 Little Rock in October following, and did garrison 
 duty at Camp Nelson and Camp Bayou Metre until 
 shortly before the fall of Arkansas Post, when 
 it was ordered to Fort Smith, and from thence 
 through the Indian Territory, to Camp Kiamisha on 
 Red river. In 1863 the Fifteenth, and the brigade 
 of which it formed a part, were ordered to Louisiana 
 to oppose, with the other troops under Gen. Tay- 
 lor, the advance of Gen. Banks. The brigade was 
 commanded by Gen. J. W. Speight, Sr. , Gen. 
 King and Gen. Polignac, in the order named, 
 and participated in the fights at Fordash, 
 Bayou Bourdeau, Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, Marks- 
 ville. Yellow Bayou, and numerous skirmishes 
 and smaller engagements. Capt. Westbrook was 
 slightly wounded at the battle of Mansfield. 
 When mustered out of the service at Houston, 
 Texas, after the final surrender of the Confederate 
 forces, he held the rank of Captain and was acting 
 Adjutant of his regiment. A friend, speaking of 
 his bearing as a soldier, sa3-s : "In camp he was 
 modest and unobtrusive, kind and jovial ; in the 
 thickest and hottest of the raging battle, cooler 
 than most men on dress-parade, prompt to act and 
 utterly fearless. He enjoyed the respect and con- 
 fidence of his men and brother and superior officers. 
 Knowing bim as I did, I can truthfully say that he 
 was as a friend as true and tried as tempered 
 Damascus steel; as a soldier and patriot, as brave 
 and devoted as any man who wore the gray." 
 
 Returning to his home in Robertson Count)' he 
 engaged in farming upon his own account. His 
 possessions increased from j'ear to year until he 
 took rank a.s one of the wealthiest planters in 
 Texas. He was an idea!, practical farmer — one 
 of the most successful in the State — and his large 
 Brazos bottom plantations near Hearne, on which he 
 continued to reside until his death, showed at all 
 times the perfection of good management. He 
 spared no expense in securing and enjo3-ing the 
 good things of life. He and his beloved wife 
 (formerly Mrs. Jennie Randle), to whom he was 
 married December 4lh, 1878, dispensed a generous 
 and wholesale hospitality at their palatial home to 
 their many friends and the chance " stranger within 
 their gates." It was his custom, assisted by his 
 wife, to see that every one on his plantation, black 
 or white, received each Christmas day some suitable 
 present. He lived in the half patriarchal, half 
 princel}' style of his ancestors and was a noble sur- 
 
 vival of the high-souled, warm-hearted and chivalric 
 gentlemen of a by-gone day. While exact in his 
 business methods, his hand dispensed liberally to 
 others of what it gathered. He sympathized with 
 human suffering and sorrow and souglit when he 
 could to relieve it, and few contributed so much to 
 the support of the church. It was chiefly through 
 his influence and exertions that the Hearne & 
 Brazos Vallej' Railroad was constructed and put into 
 successful operation. He was elected president of 
 the company upon its organization and served in 
 that capacity up to the time of his death, the road 
 earning handsome dividends on the money in- 
 vested, under his management. 
 
 He manifested a lively interest in and was active 
 in support of all worthy enterprises. He was a 
 life-long Democrat and ardent advocate of clean, 
 wholesome measures and always interested himself 
 in helping elect good meii to office. He was a 
 delegate to numerous county and State conventions 
 and was more than once importuned to become a 
 candidate for election to the legislature, but de- 
 clined, having no desire for political honors and 
 much preferring the quiet and peaceful home-life to 
 which he was accustomed. In July, 1893, he suf- 
 fered from a severe attack of la grippe from which 
 he never fully recovered. He sought restoration to 
 health by travel, sojourning for a time in Mexico, 
 and visiting, among other places, San Antonio, Hot 
 Springs and Wooten Wells. A month before the 
 coming of the end he was taken to Mineral Wells 
 and died there on the 17th of September, 1893, 
 leaving a wife, a daughter of Mrs. Westbrook by 
 her former marriage (Mrs. Monroe, Miller, of Aus- 
 tin), two brothers (C. A. Westbrook, of Lorena, 
 McLennan County, and M. L. Westbrook of 
 Waco), a sister (Blrs. S. C. Beckman, of Hearne), 
 a step-father, to whom he had been as a favorite 
 sou ; two nieces and a nephew and many score of 
 devoted friends to mourn his loss. The announce- 
 ment of his death cast a shade of sorrow over the 
 community of which he had been such a prominent, 
 useful and honored citizen. The remains were con- 
 veyed to Hearne in a special car and were followed 
 to their last resting-place in Oakwood Cemeterj- by 
 the largest funeral cortege known in the history of 
 the town, many of those in attendance coming from 
 a distance. So ended the career of a nol)le man. 
 There is something peculiarly sad in the reflection 
 that he was cut down in the full maturity of ripened 
 manhood and when he was surrounded by all the 
 endearments that render a continuance of life 
 desirable. However, if ever man was ready for 
 the summons, he was ready. To his devoted wife 
 is left the consolation that through her example and 
 
r ai 
 
 J. D. GIDDINGS. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 209 
 
 influence he was led to give liis lieart to Gotl and Mrs. Westbrook is a daughter of Allen Carr, who 
 
 to the perfect day of a happy immortality and came to Texas in 1858 and settled in Burleson 
 
 that a blessed reunion awaits them beyond the County, were he was for many years a prominent 
 
 grave. citizen and she was reared. 
 
 J. D. GIDDINGS, 
 
 BRENHAM. 
 
 Jabez Demming Giddings was one of eight sons 
 of James Giddings, a farmer of Susquehanna 
 County, Pa. 
 
 James Giddings was descended from George 
 Giddings, of Saint Albans, Hertfordshire, England, 
 a gentleman of property, who emigrated to America 
 in 1635, settling in the town of Ipswich, Mass. 
 James was born in Norwich, Conn., June 29th, 
 1780. At an early age, he entered the merchant 
 marine, rising to a captaincy, with full charge of 
 cargo on attaining his majority. 
 
 In consequence of a shipwreck off the Carolina 
 coast in 1810, by which was destroyed the fruits of 
 many years of daring adventure and successful 
 trading, he abandoned the sea and settled on a 
 farm in the then wilderness of Western Pennsyl- 
 vania. 
 
 He was a man of great firmness and bravery and 
 of an adventurous spirit, qualities generously 
 transmitted to his numerous progeny. 
 
 The mother of J. D. Giddings was Susie Dem- 
 ming, of Connecticut, whose ancestors were early 
 immigrants from France, and who distinguished 
 themselves, as did the descendants of George 
 Giddings, by their loyalty to the fortunes of the 
 American Colonies in the Revolutionary War. 
 
 In 1835 Giles A. Giddings, an older brother of 
 J. D. Giddings, came to Texas to select and sur- 
 vey a tract of land for a colony, but finding the 
 Texians engaged in a struggle with Mexico, joined 
 the army of Gen. Houston, just previous to the 
 battle of San Jacinto, and died from the effects of 
 wounds received in that engagement. The night 
 before the battle he wrote to his parents a letter 
 worthy of copying in full as a model of literary 
 excellence, but from which onl}' a few sentences 
 will be quoted, as disclosing the patriotic courage 
 and love of liberty which marks his family. 
 
 "It is reported Houston will attack them, 
 [Santa Anna's army] in the morning. What will 
 be the result or fate of Texas is hid in the bowels of 
 
 futurity. Yet I think we are engaged in the cause 
 of justice and I hope the God of battles will pro- 
 tect us. * * * I was born in the land of free- 
 dom, and taught to lisp the name of liberty with 
 my infant tongue and, rather than be driven out of 
 the country or submit to be a slave, I will leave my 
 bones to bleach on the plains of Texas. * * • 
 
 "Be not alarmed about my safety. I am no 
 better, and my life no dearer, than those who gained 
 the liberty you enjoy." 
 
 In 1838, Mr. J. D. Giddings, having completed 
 bis educational course at the Cassanovia Institute, 
 New York, came to Texas to settle the estate left 
 by his brother and, being pleased with the coun- 
 try, located in Washington County. For about 
 two years after his arrival he taught school, study- 
 ing law during his leisure moments. 
 
 On a call for volunteers to avenge the raids of 
 Vasquez and WoU and to rescue the prisoners held 
 by the Mexicans, he promptly responded and re- 
 mained with Gen. Somervell's army until it was 
 officially disbanded, when he, with the great major- 
 ity, returned home, thus escaping the slaughter at 
 Mier. 
 
 As a means of support during the prosecution of 
 his legal studies, he sought the office of district 
 clerk, was elected, and served four years. 
 
 In 1844, he married Miss Ann M. Tarver, 
 daughter of Edmund T. Tarver, a prominent farmer, 
 who had moved to the State from Tennessee in 
 1841. 
 
 On the expiration of his term of office as district 
 clerk, he was admitted to the bar, where he achieved 
 signal success, though numbering among his com- 
 petitors manj' of the greatest minds in the State. 
 
 Of a genial disposition and possessing a wonder- 
 fully retentive memory ; warmly sympathizing with 
 the distressed and aiding the needy with kindlj' gen- 
 erosity ; charitable to the faults of others, yet con- 
 trolling himself by the strictest code of moral princi- 
 ples, his acquaintance became extensive, and ties 
 
210 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 of personal friendship, strong and lasting, were 
 formed thus predisposing most juries to a favor- 
 able consideration of any cause that be might ad- 
 vocate. His intellectual processes were, however, 
 distinctly logical and, though impressing his hearers 
 with the sincerity of his own convictions l3y the 
 earnestness of his manner, he yet appealed directly 
 to their reason by a mastcrl}' marshaling of his 
 facts and the cogency of his arguments. His 
 energy was indomitable and patience tireless, no 
 detail of a case being considered unworthy of at- 
 tention. Tills completeness of preparation, com- 
 bined with cautiousness in the enunciation of 
 legal principles or iudicial rulings, gave him a mer- 
 ited influence with the courts and the degree of 
 confidence placed in his integrity and executive 
 capacity is shown by the frequency of his name on 
 the probate records as counselor or as the fiduciary 
 agent of estates. Though thorough in the examina- 
 tion of all questions, he was bold and progressive 
 in the advocacy of measures conducive to the 
 advancement of his town, county and State. 
 
 He was thus among the first to perceive the bene- 
 ficial possibilities of railroads and in 1856, in con- 
 nection with his distinguished brother, Hon. D. C. 
 Giddings, he assisted in the organization of a com- 
 jjany for the purpose of constructing a railroad 
 through Washington County and, to prevent the 
 failure of the enter|)rise, the firm of J. D. and D. C. 
 Giddings undertook the building of the road. 
 
 The self-abnegation, bravery and constructive 
 energy of the pioneer settlers of America has made 
 their history pleasant reading to all and their 
 example has fired the hearts of many struggling for 
 the political advancement of their race, but the 
 promoters of the first railroads built in America 
 are entitled to well-nigh equal admiration, for they 
 have shown equal ability, equal energy and equal 
 courage in grappling with difficulties and have, too, 
 frequently saciiSced the earnings of a lifetime in 
 their efforts to advance their own and the material 
 welfare of the country. Though the line built by 
 J. D. and D. C. Giddings was but a short one, yet 
 the troublous times during which the work was 
 completed and the faithfulness with which they 
 complied with all their obligations to Northern 
 creditors, not only elevated them to the highest 
 plane of business capacity, but laid the foundation 
 of Brenham's present prosperit}\ 
 
 Treasuring as a priceless jewel the liberty gained 
 on the field of San Jacinto, Mr. Giddings took a 
 lively interest in all political issues. His wide 
 
 acquaintance, knowledge of human nature, and 
 executive ability made him a party leader of ex- 
 ceptional power, but his fondness for the pleasures 
 of home and his aversion to the turmoil of public life 
 restrained his political aspirations and he refused 
 offers of office on all but one occasion. 
 
 In 186G, when the disorganization consequent 
 upon the cessation of the war between the States 
 was most complete, when questions of vital impor- 
 tance to the peace and happiness of his people were 
 to be settled, and when many of our best men were 
 dead or bowed down by discouragement, he accepted 
 a seat in the legislature and served one term. 
 
 He was a religious man. His God was his friend 
 and counsellor. His Bible was the source of dailj' 
 comfort and aid. 
 
 The support of his church, her ordinances and 
 ministers, was with him not only a duty but a posi- 
 tive pleasure and, though sparing of time and 
 means for personal indulgence, neither were too 
 valuable for the advancement of religion or the 
 cause of charit3\ This religious element in his 
 nature enabled him not only to fully appreciate the 
 sublime beauties of the Masonic ritual, but 
 prompted his aspirations to positions of honor in 
 the order and, as in his church he was elected to 
 the highest honors possible to a laj'man, so he held 
 the highest offices in the three grand divisions of 
 Masonry. 
 
 In 1878 he was thrown from bis buggy and, a 
 few days afterwards, on the 2oth of June, died 
 from internal injuries. 
 
 In 1880, the old frame church (in which as 
 superintendent of the Sunday school be ministered 
 for over twenty years) was torn down and a band- 
 some modern building erected on a more beautiful 
 spot and dedicated as the "Giddings Memorial 
 Church." 
 
 With qualities pre-eminentl}' fitting him for 
 political leadership, he sought onl}' the advancement 
 of his friends and the good of bis country. A 
 great lawyer and skilled in all the subtleties of his 
 profession, he was a willing friend and a chivalrous 
 opponent of youthful attorneys. 
 
 Forgetful of self, but ever indulgent of others, 
 a ready helper of those in need and denying ad- 
 vice to none in distress, welcoming all with gen- 
 erous hospitality, a devoted husband and father, a 
 true friend and good citizen, be will ever be held 
 in remembrance, by those who knew him best, 
 as a noble specimen of God's greatest work — a 
 Christian. 
 
INDIAN WARS AXD PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 211 
 
 WILLIAM CROFT, 
 
 CORSICANA. 
 
 Judge William Cioft, long a distinguished figure 
 in Texas and the oldest practicing attorney of the 
 Navarro Couutj' bar, is a native of Mobile, Ala- 
 bama, born February 9th, 1827. 
 
 His parents, William and Annie Willard Croft, 
 were natives, the father of England and the mother 
 of Pennsylvania. His father was for a number of 
 years a cotton commission merchant of New 
 Orleans, where he died when the subject of this 
 sketch was an infant. Judge William Croft, of 
 whom we here "write, was reared in New Orleans 
 and received his earlier education in the schools of 
 that city, finishing at Louisville, Ky. He read 
 law under the Hon. Isaac T. Preston, of New 
 Orleans, then Attorney-General and afterwards 
 Judge of the Supreme Court of Louisiana ; came to 
 Texas in April, 1847, and was admitted to the bar 
 on May 5th, 1848, at Richmond, Fort Bend 
 County, before the Hon. Joseph C. Megginson, of 
 the First Judicial District. He then entered the 
 practice at Richmond and followed it in Fort Bend 
 and adjoining counties until December, 1849, when 
 he came to Navarro County and took up his resi- 
 dence at Corsicana. He has since been a citizen 
 of Corsicana and has been actively engaged in the 
 practice of his profession at that place, except 
 while in the Confederate army, a period of two and 
 a half years. While the war was in progress there 
 was little or no practice in the courts. The first 
 session of the District Court, which Judge Croft 
 attended in Navarro County, was the spring term of 
 1850. The county having been organized in 1846, 
 there had been only two or three terms held prior 
 to that time and the machinery of the court had not 
 yet been put in good working order. The presid- 
 ing Judge was Hon. Bennett H. Martin. Judge 
 Croft attended all the sittings of the District Court, 
 as well as of the inferior courts, from 1850 up to 
 the opening of the war, receiving his share of the 
 business, both criminal and civil. He was young, 
 vigorous, well-grounded in a knowledge of the law, 
 skilled in the management of cases, and pursued 
 his profession with enthusiasm. His success fol- 
 lowed as a matter of course. For twenty-five 
 years he never finally lost a criminal case and, con- 
 sidering the great number of hard cases which he 
 defended in those years, there is good reason for 
 believing that manj- of the verdicts which he secured 
 were rather compliments to his skill and eloquence 
 
 than the result of sober reflection on the part of 
 juries. When the war came on he responded to 
 the call for volunteers, enlisting in Capt. B. D. 
 McKie's Company, which was the second raised in 
 the county, Bass's Regiment. He had been afflicted 
 with a throat trouble for some time and the 
 exposure, which active service in the field rendered 
 unavoidable, brought on a bad case of bronchitis, 
 which soon necessitated his retiring from active 
 duty. He was honorably discharged on account of 
 this disability. Returning home, he entered the 
 Quarter-master's Department, where he remained 
 until just before the surrender. After the war he 
 attempted to resume the practice of his profession, 
 at Corsicana ; but, on account of the unsettled 
 condition of affairs there at that time, this was 
 impossible. He accordingly moved to Houston, 
 where the courts had not been disorganized and 
 some show was still made of conducting public 
 business according to established forms and usages. 
 He practiced there and in the courts of that local- 
 ity for about two years and a half and then returned 
 lo Corsicana and took up the practice there, con- 
 tinuing uninterruptedly there since. Judge Croft 
 has devoted his entire life to his profession and his 
 efforts have been rewarded with more than ordinary 
 success. He had accumulated considerable prop- 
 erty when the war came on, but it was swept away 
 and he found himself, at the close, like thousands 
 of others, empty-handed and confronted with new 
 conditions which it was not easy to measure in all 
 their relations, nor master when fully understood. 
 But he survived it all and surveys the past as 
 serenely now as if his whole life had been one long 
 series of triumphs, thus displaying much philoso- 
 phy and good sense. It would be hard to imagine 
 a professional life better lived than his has been. 
 
 Judge Croft has been twice married. In 1851 he 
 married Miss Roxana Elliott, of Navarro County, 
 who died within a few months. He married again 
 in January, 1854, Miss Rebecca A. Lockhart, a 
 daughter of Charles J. C. Lockhart, an early 
 settler of the county. Two children now survive 
 this union: Charles W., now his father's law part- 
 ner, and Earnest T. , still in school. Earnest T. is 
 an accomplished musician and is said by some of 
 the most competent judges in the county to pos- 
 sess musical talent of the highest order. This is 
 already well cultivated and, with further develop- 
 
212 
 
 INDIAN WAES AXD PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 ment in this delightful field of art, there is no tell- 
 ing what he might accomplish. Judge Croft has 
 been a Mason since 1850, being one of the first 
 members initiated in the mother lodge of Navarro 
 County. He took his first degree in company with 
 A. Beaton, James M. Riggs and B. L. Ham, soon 
 after the lodge was organized, Gen. E. H. Tarrant 
 
 being the presiding officer. He is also a member 
 of the Cumberland Presbyterian church and, in 
 accordance with his means, a liberal contributor to 
 all worthy purposes. He has never voted any other 
 than the Democratic ticket. He has long been a 
 prominent figure in his section of the State and at 
 the bar of Texas. 
 
 E. P. BECTON. M. D., 
 
 SUPERINTENDENT STATE INSTITUTION FOR THE BLIND. 
 
 The subject of this brief historical notice. Dr. 
 Edwin Pinckney Becton is well known throughout 
 the State as a pioneer Texian, leading physician 
 and superintendent in charge of one of the State's 
 most important eleemosynary' institutions. 
 
 He was born in Gibson County, Tenn., June 
 27, 1834, and came to Texas in 1841 with his 
 parents, who settled at San Augustine, where he was 
 early placed at school and acquired the rudiments 
 of a good literary education. 
 
 His father, Rev. John May Becton, was born in 
 Craven County, North Carolina, Januarj' 8, 1806, 
 and was a Presbyterian clergyman of the old 
 school, much admired for his learning, piety and 
 zeal. 
 
 His mother's maiden name was Eleanor Emeline 
 Sharp. She was a daughter of James Sharp, and 
 is now (189G) living, at eighty-six years of age, at 
 Fort Worth with Mr. J. J. Nunnallj', who married 
 her granddaughter, Fannie. 
 
 Rev. John May Becton's parents were Frederick 
 Edwin and Fannie (May) Becton, who moved from 
 Craven County, North Carolina, when he was a little 
 past twelve months of age and located in Ruther- 
 ford County, Tennessee. There he was given such 
 school advantages as the county afforded, com- 
 pleting his education at Pebble Hill Academj-, 
 located on Stone's river. He began life as a 
 farmer, married Miss Eleanor Emeline Sharp, 
 January 9, 1827, and in 1831 moved to Gibson 
 Count}', Tennessee. 
 
 He was reared in the "Hard-Shell" Baptist 
 faith ; in July, 1833, professed religion at a Metho- 
 dist camp-meeting; during the year joined the 
 old school Presbyterian church, and in 1835 was 
 licensed to preach the gospel by the latter denom- 
 ination. In April, 1841, he was ordained and in 
 November of that year came to Texas and located 
 
 at San Augustine, where he preached and taught 
 school. In 1844 he moved to Nacogdoches County. 
 He died at Church Hill, nine miles east of Hen- 
 derson, in Rusk County, July 14, 1853. He was 
 one of the early and most active pioneer clergymen 
 of his church in Texas and it is believed organized 
 more churches than any other member of the de- 
 nomination in the State, among others the church 
 at Douglass, in Nacogdoches County, in 1844 ; one 
 in Henderson, in Rusk County, in 1845; one at 
 Rusk in Cherokee County, in 1849, or 1850, and 
 the church at Larissa, in Cherokee County, in 1849. 
 At the same time he and the Rev. Daniel Baker 
 organized the Palestine Presbyterian church, at 
 Palestine, and organized alone the one at Gum 
 Springs, Rusk County, in 1851, since known as the 
 Danvilla church. 
 
 He organized the Presbyterian church at Church 
 Hill in 1852, at which place he died, as above 
 mentioned. 
 
 He is said by old people who knew him, to 
 have been an elegant and fluent writer, and elo- 
 quent speaker and pulpit orator. 
 
 He was liberal and broad in his views, and, be- 
 ing a leader in church affairs in those days, drew 
 about him a large following and a wide circle of 
 friends and supporters. He was associated in his 
 work with such well-known pioneer clergymen as 
 the Rev. Dr. Baker, Rev. Hugh Wilson, Rev. 
 Peter Fullinwider, Rev. P. M. Warrener, and 
 others of those who blazed the way for Presby- 
 terianism in Texas. 
 
 At his death he left three sons and one daughter, 
 the latter of whom, Isabella, died in 1862. One 
 son, Joseph S. Becton, was a gallant soldier in the 
 Confederate army during the war between the 
 States and finally lost his life at the skirmish at 
 Spanish Fort, near Mobile, Ala., April 9, 1865, 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 213 
 
 the (lay of the final surrender of the Confederate 
 forces. He enlisted from Rusk County at seven- 
 teen years of age, and went to the front as a mem- 
 ber of Thompson's Company, Lock's Regiment. 
 
 John A. Becton, the second son, lives at Sulphur 
 Springs, Texas, and the third son is Dr. E. P. 
 Becton, the subject of this sketch. 
 
 Dr. Becton was but little more than six years of 
 age when his parents came to East Texas. He 
 spent his boyhood in San Augustine, Nacogdoches, 
 Cherokee and Rusk counties, attending the com- 
 mon schools of that day, and took a partial course 
 of study at Austin College, at Huntsville, Texas. 
 He then determined to adopt the practice of medi- 
 cine as a profession, and accordingly, entered the 
 office of Dr. A. R. Hamilton, at New Danville, 
 Texas (where the family had located), and Jan- 
 uary, 1855, began a course of systematic reading 
 and examinations preparatory to entering college. 
 In the winter of 1855-6 he attended lectures at 
 Nashville, Tenn., and at the close of the session 
 went to Murfreesboro, Tenn., where he read in the 
 office of James E. and Robert S. Wendel, physi- 
 cians of prominence in that State, continuing his 
 studies under those instructors until the opening of 
 the next regular session of the University of Ten- 
 nessee, when he entered the medical department of 
 that institution of learning and took a full course 
 of lectures. He graduated therefrom March 2, 
 1857, carrying off the honors of his class, one of 
 the prizes in anatom}-, for the highest standing in 
 the department of anatomy. Dr. Becton com- 
 menced the practice of medicine at New Danville, 
 Texas, the year of his graduation. Later he 
 attended medical lectures at the University of 
 Louisville, Kentucky, 1874; at the University of 
 Maryland, at Baltimore, 1879-80 ; at Tulane Uni- 
 versity, Louisiana, 1886, and in 1891 at the Poly- 
 clinic, in New York. He continued practice at 
 New Danville, in Rusk County, from 1857 to April, 
 1862, at which time he entered the Confederate 
 army as a private soldier in dipt. J. A. Pegue's 
 Company, Waterhouse's Regiment. He was 
 appointed Assistant-surgeon of Fitzhugh's Regi- 
 ment. McCuUoch's Brigade, Walker's Division, 
 and was soon thereafter recommended for promo- 
 tion by Chief Surgeon of Division Beall, examined by 
 the Armj^ Medical Board, passed to the rank of Sur- 
 geon, and assigned to duty with the Twenty-second 
 Regiment of Texas Infantry', commanded bv his 
 warm personal friend. Col. R. B. Hubbard (since 
 Governor of Texas and United States Minister to 
 Japan), and attached to Walker's Division. Dr. Bec- 
 ton remained at his post of duty until the war was 
 ended and then returned to Texas, and in February, 
 
 1866, located at Tarrant, in Hopkins County, and 
 resumed the practice of his profession. In March, 
 1874, he moved from Tarrant to Sulphur Springs, 
 in the same county, where he continued to reside 
 until appointed to his present official position. 
 
 Always a close and enthusiastic student of the 
 science and practice of medicine and surgery, he 
 has taken only that interest in matters outside his 
 profession that good citizenship required. Some- 
 what contrary to his tastes and wishes, he was, how- 
 ever, chosen to represent his district in the House 
 of the Twelfth Texas Legislature. He acquitted 
 himself in that body in a manner highly acceptable 
 to his large and intelligent constituency and that 
 won for him a place among the ablest and most 
 patriotic of his colleagues. 
 
 Dr. Becton is known throughout the State as 
 unalterably opposed to the liquor traffic and as a 
 supporter of its suppression by constitutional and 
 statutory prohibition. In the exciting State can- 
 vass on that issue in 1887 he took the stump in 
 favor of the prohibitory amendment to the State 
 constitution then pending before the people and 
 delivered a number of ringing addresses that will 
 be long remembered and that are destined to bear 
 good fruit in the future when the public conscience 
 arouses itself to the necessity for adequate action 
 upon this vitally important question. 
 
 He is a staunch advocate of organization in 
 medicine, is a member of the county and district 
 societies where he resided, and of the State and 
 national associations. As an evidence of the high 
 regard in which he is held by his confreres in Texas, 
 he was elected first vice-president of the Texas 
 State Medical Association at its meeting at Belton, 
 in 1884, and president at the subsequent meeting 
 in the city of Houston, in April, 1885, and presided 
 as such at the Dallas meeting the following year. 
 That meeting marked a crisis in the life of the 
 association. It was just before the Ninth Inter- 
 national Medical Congress was to assemble in 
 Washington City and the question came up on the 
 adoption of a resolution, instructing the delegates 
 to indorse and ratify the action of the American 
 Medical Association at New Orleans, with reference 
 to the exclusion of new-code men as delegates to 
 the congress by appointment by the committee on 
 organization. 
 
 Pending a discussion of this resolution. Dr. 
 Becton resigned the chair to the first vice-presi- 
 dent and, coming upon the floor, made a speech 
 strongly endorsing the resolution and favoring 
 instructing the delegates. The report was adopted. 
 
 His administration fell upon a stormy time in the 
 history of medicine in this country. Sentiment 
 
214 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 was somewhat divided in medical ranlis in Texas 
 and great care and discretion were necessary in 
 dealing with this question, to avoid alienating cer- 
 tain members, and thus disrupting the cherished 
 organization. Dr. Becton tooic a bold stand 
 for ever preserving the purity and integrity 
 of honorable, rational medicine, uncontarainated 
 by affiliation with those who would break down 
 all barriers and throw to the dogs the code of 
 medical ethics, the "bulwark and palladium of 
 the profession ; " and yet the meeting was con- 
 ducted to a peaceful termination and all elements 
 were harmonized. lu the course of his spetcli he 
 said, among other things: " We are in the midst of 
 the battle, and it is a grand sight to see the old 
 regulars presenting a solid front, standing like a 
 'stone- wall' against those who would break our 
 ranks. » » * Doubtless there are some good 
 and true men who honor the American Medical 
 Association and live up to the code, who question 
 the expediency of the action taken by the associa- 
 tion at its meeting in New Orleans last year ; but, 
 because of this, they are not willing to see it dis- 
 membered. With these we have no quarrel, but 
 are wilHng to meet them in a fraternal spirit, with 
 the view to an honorable and amicable adjustment 
 of the pending difficulty. But there are those who, 
 tired of salutary and needful restraint, seize upon 
 this as a pretext for destroying the association and 
 trampling under their feet the Code of Ethics, 
 thereby removing the last barrier between them- 
 selves and medical quackery. * * * The Texas 
 State Medical Association occupies a proud position 
 before the medical world on this question. It has 
 firmly planted itself upon the eternal principles of 
 truth and justice and, strong in the consciousness 
 of its own rectitude, fears not the consequences. 
 It has flung its banner to the breeze, and upon its 
 glittering folds is inscribed in letters of living light: 
 ' The perpetuity of the American Medical Asso- 
 ciation ; the honor, dignity, purity of Ameri- 
 can medicine ; for these we live, for these we 
 labor.' * * * These must and, with the bless- 
 ing of God, shall be preserved. Then let us con- 
 tinue to stand together ; let us give our hearts and 
 }aands to this great work, encircling the good and true 
 of the profession in that chain of sympathy that binds 
 us togethtr as one common brolherliood. Trusting 
 to the justness of our cause and the sanction of a just 
 God, let us have the courage to do our whole duty. 
 
 " Courage, the highest gift, that scorus to beud 
 To mean device for soiditi eud. 
 
 Courage! An icdeptnrient f park from hiaven's bright 
 
 throne, [aloue.' " 
 
 By which the soul stands raised, triumphant, high, 
 
 As an orator. Dr. Becton stands deservedly high 
 and his voice is in frequent request, both in and 
 out of the medical meetings. 
 
 December 12, 1889, on the occasion of the 
 burial of Jefferson Davis, when memorial services 
 were held tliroughout the South, he was chosen by 
 his fellow-citizens of Hopkins County to deliver 
 the oration at tlie meeting held by them at Sulphur 
 Springs, and this he did in athrillingly eloquent and 
 touching manner . 
 
 At the twentj'-fourth annual session of the Texas 
 Medical Association held at Tyler, April 26th, 27th, 
 and 28tli, 1892, he was called upon suddenly to de- 
 liver the closing address at the memorial services 
 held in honor of deceased members. Although he 
 had no adequate time for preparation, his oration 
 was pronounced a masterpiece, his references to 
 the tragic death of Dr. Reeves calling tears to eveiy 
 eye. Dr. Reeves had been superintendent of the 
 State Insane Asylum at Austin and, without a 
 moment's warning, had been shot down by an in- 
 sane assassin. Dr. Becton's beloved wife had been 
 recently removed from his side by the band of 
 death. In the early part of his remarks he took 
 occasion to say : ''To me this is a solemn hour; 
 the afllictive hand of Providence has rested heavily 
 upon me ; I know what sorrow is ; I know how to 
 sympathize with those who are in trouble. One 
 year ago four of our fellow-members were with us 
 in the enjoyment of health, of happiness and of the 
 privileges and pleasures that we this day enjoy. 
 Now, they sweetly sleep beneath the shade of the 
 trees on the other side of the river. Life's duty 
 done, they have no more to do with the things of 
 earth;" and then followed the address — one of 
 the finest tributes ever paid before the association 
 to departed worth. 
 
 As a writer Dr. Becton is polished and forcible. 
 He has made several contributions to current med- 
 ical literature. 
 
 He was united in marriage to Miss Mary Eliza 
 Dickson, November 17th, 1857. She died in 1860 
 leaving three children: Mrs. L. J. Wortham, Mrs. 
 J. J. Nunnally and Dr. Joseph Becton. In 1867 
 he married Mrs. Olivia L. Smith, widow of Dr. 
 P. L. Smith. She died at Sulphur Springs in 1891, 
 leaving three children : Mrs. Mary A. Chandler, 
 since deceased, Mrs. EUie Y. McDanell, of Sulphur 
 Springs, and E. B. Becton, Jr. She left by her 
 former marriage two children, viz. : Mrs. Kate 
 W. Garrett, wife of Dr. Garrett, of Sulphur Springs, 
 and Mrs. Fannie Laura Sterling, wife of Dr. Stir- 
 ling, of Sulphur Springs. 
 
 Dr. Becton is a Presbyterian, a Mason and a 
 member of the I. O. O. F. ; also a K. of P. In 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 215 
 
 politics he is a stauiiuli and unwavering Demo- 
 crat. 
 
 In January, 1895, be was appointed, by Governor 
 C. A. Culberson, superintendent of the State Institu- 
 tion for the Blind, at Austin, Texas, a deserved 
 honor that met with the hearty approbation of the 
 medical profession and people of Texas. The 
 board of trustees of the institution, under date of 
 November 1, 1895, in transmitting his official report 
 to the Governor, said: " The report of the superin- 
 tendent of the Institution for the Blind for the year 
 ending November 1, 1895, is so full and accurate 
 that we deem it unnecessary to supplement it with 
 any suggestions or recommendations. 
 
 "The general health of the pupils has been ex- 
 cellent for the past j'ear, better, perhaps, than in 
 many j'ears, and the general management of Dr. 
 Becton entirely satisfactory in all departments. He 
 entered upon the discharge of his duties, January 
 1, 1895, with a zeal and enthusiasm which he has 
 steadily maintained ; and the good order, fine dis- 
 cipline, and general progress and improvement of 
 the institution have been such as to commend him 
 and the institution to the continued favor of the 
 people of Texas." 
 
 One of the first matters that claimed his atten- 
 tion upon taking charge of the Institution was to 
 thoroughly systematize all the details of its manage- 
 ment, dividing the work into departments, over 
 which be placed competent heads, to whom he 
 delegated sufficient power for the discharge cf their 
 duties. He sought from the beginning to impress 
 them with a proper sense of responsibility. He has 
 met with their hearty co-operation. As a result, 
 everything connected with the institution moves 
 with the well-ordered regularity of clock-work. 
 There is no friction or waste of energy and the 
 highest state of efficiency has been attained in 
 every department. The children regard him with 
 the affection that they would a kind and beloved 
 father. 
 
 Tlie people of Texas have much to be proud of, 
 but of nothing more than of the enlightened states- 
 manship, wise foresight and tender human sym- 
 pathy displayed by the founders of the common- 
 wealth in making provision for the establishment 
 and maintenance of such public benefactions as the 
 State Institution for the Blind. 
 
 The absence of no other one of the senses is so 
 keenly felt as that of sight ; the deprivation of no 
 other one, under ordinary circumstances, renders 
 a person so helplessly and hopelessly dependent. 
 Yet, thanks to the existence of this institution, the 
 blind children of Texas are being taught useful 
 trades, by means of which, when they leave its 
 
 walls, they can take their places in the great army 
 of bread-winners. Besides, they are receiving 
 that culture that will enable them to participate 
 with their fellows in some of the pleasures incident 
 to higher mental and spiritual life. The delights 
 of music are open to them and they are also fur- 
 nished with the key to the golden treasure-house 
 of literature. Thus, while it is denied to them to 
 view the beauties of the visible universe, to note 
 the changes vprought by nature with the progress 
 of the seasons — to gaze upon the witchery of hill 
 and wood and stream — yet, in being taught the 
 science and art of the harmony of sound, they are 
 taught that universal language of the soul that 
 alone can give expsession to its highest longings 
 and aspirations. They are being introduced to the 
 thoughts of the great and good of all ages, in- 
 structed in the principles of morality and religion, 
 and taught the mysteries of the manual trades 
 thought to be best suited to their natural capaci- 
 ties. They will be sent out into the world 
 patient, earnest, hopeful, useful men and women. 
 It is a noble work that is being done. How 
 deplorable would be their condition but for the 
 existence and proper management of this institu- 
 tion! 
 
 No Governor of Texas, be it said to their credit, 
 has ever been influenced by partisan motives, or 
 by the desire for personal aggrandizement, in 
 making appointments to the superintendency of 
 the Institution for the Blind. Their purpose has 
 been to select men of high standing in the medical 
 fraternity, superior executive ability and that 
 firmness of character, warmth of sympathy for 
 others and purity of life that will insure the 
 efficient discharge of the duties of the sacred trust 
 confided to them. 
 
 Dr. Becton is no stranger to the people of 
 Texas. 'They expected much of him as the official 
 head of this institution and he has not disappointed 
 them. On the contrary he has come up fully to 
 the measure of their expectations. 
 
 The writer has visited many similar institutions 
 and feels no hesitation in saying that the Texas 
 Institution for the Blind, under the supervision of 
 Dr. Becton, is one of the best of the kind in the 
 country. He has, like every other worthy member 
 of the medical profession who has been long en- 
 gaged in practice, been the instrument under God 
 for the accomplishment of much good ; but, at no 
 time in the past have his efforts been employed in a 
 worthier cause or to better advantage than since 
 his appointment to his present position. He has 
 brought to the work the most earnest predeliction^ 
 of his nature and the best energies of his heart and 
 
216 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEEE.S OF TEXAS. 
 
 brain. What he has already succeeded in doing is 
 a sufBcient earnest of what he will yet accomplish 
 in the interest of the unfortunates committed to his 
 charge. 
 
 Although he is giving liis whole heart and all his 
 energies to the management of the institution he 
 gives a large measure of the credit of its success to 
 his teachers. 
 
 CARL HILMAR GUENTHER, 
 
 SAN ANTONIO. 
 
 As the pioneer history of Texas is being written 
 and put into print the fact is being developed that 
 the German Empire has contributed more of its 
 bone, sinew, and brain to the settlement and de- 
 velopment of the Lone Star State, than all of the 
 other nations of the world combined. The Ger- 
 mans were among the very (irst pioneers who made 
 their way into the region of country known as West- 
 ern and Southern Texas and as a rule they were 
 plain, honest people without means, who were ac- 
 customed to hardship and a rigid economy in ail of 
 the affairs of life and were especially adapted to 
 pioneering in a frontier country. The now vener- 
 able Carl Hilmar Guenther, of San Antonio, is a 
 fair type of the Texas pioneer, and a brief account 
 of his career will, therefore, be of interest to the 
 readers of this work. 
 
 Mr. Guenther was born in the town of Weissen- 
 fels, Prussia, March 19th, 182G. His father, Gott- 
 fried Guenther, was a successful business man of 
 tliat town, who, in early life, was a merchant and 
 later owned lands and pursued the avocation of a 
 farmer. He was a man of property and influence. 
 Hilraar Guenther spent his boyhood and youth on 
 his father's farm, received a liberal schooling and 
 learned the business of scientific milling in all of 
 its branches, which in those days not only involved 
 the operation of a mill, but also the arts of planing 
 and millwright. After learning his trade he held a 
 responsible position as manager of the largest mill 
 in the city of Zeitz, not far from his home. Upon 
 the breaking out of the great German revolution of 
 1848, not wishing to be involved therein, he em- 
 barked from Bremen for New York City on a sailing 
 vessel and reached his destination after a tedious 
 voyage of about nine weeks. He remained in New 
 York about one month, where he took up and pur- 
 sued the work of a carpenter. He then went to the 
 now old town of Racine, Wis., a port town on 
 Lake Michigan. Wisconsin was then a new and 
 unsettled State, Racine a small trading port, and 
 
 the present great cities of Chicago and Milwaukee 
 were but small frontier towns. At Racine Mr. 
 Guenther was employed as a miller a portion of 
 the time. There was not wheat enough raised in 
 that section to keep this, a merchant mill, in 
 operation more than three or four months in the 
 year. He therefore worked as a carpenter and 
 builder when not employed in his position 
 of miller. He remained at Racine something 
 over a year and then pushed on west to the 
 Mississippi river and took a steamboat for New 
 Orleans. Water in the river was low, however, 
 and the boat stranded at Lake Providence, La. 
 Here Mr. Guenther disembarked and took a con- 
 tract for building a residence for one Mr. Green, of 
 Green P. O., not far from Lake Providence. He 
 completed his contract in due time, drew his money 
 therefor and returned to New York, took out his 
 papers of citizenship, and made a trip to the father- 
 land to visit his parents. He remained at his home 
 about three months and then, with the full consent 
 and approval of his parents, returned to the United 
 States to make his fortune and his future home. 
 He landed this time at New Orleans where he pur- 
 chased himself a full kit of carpenter's and mill- 
 wright's tools and embarked for Texas, reaching 
 the little gulf port of Indianola in January, 1852. 
 While he had personally not much means, he had 
 received assurances from his father that if he found 
 a favorable opening for business in his line, the 
 money would be furnished him to engage therein, 
 and from Indianola he started on a prospecting tour. 
 He drove with an ox-team from Indianola to San 
 Antonio. Here for a time he worked as a carpenter 
 and, not long thereafter purchased a horse and 
 saddle and prospected for a business location at 
 Fredericksburg, then a considerable settlement of 
 German colonists. His coming to Fredericksburg 
 was welcomed by the people of the colony and his 
 proposition to build a mill met with much en- 
 couragement and promises of support, as, up to 
 
JOHN STUNEIIAM. 
 
INDIA X WABX AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 217 
 
 that time, the grinding of corn and wheat had all 
 been done in small hand-mills at the homes of the 
 settlers. Mr. Guenther located a water-power on 
 Live Oak Creek about three miles from Fredericks- 
 burg. He received means from home and erected 
 the first saw mill and grist mill ever built in that 
 section of country. 
 
 In October, 1859, Mr. Guenther removed to San 
 Antonio and developed two water-powers on the 
 San Antonio river in the city. His first mill, now 
 known as the Lower Mill, was a modest two-run mill 
 which was propelled by an under shot water wheel. 
 In 1866-7 he built a second mill on the San Antonio 
 on Arsenal street and nearer to the business center 
 of the city. This is known as the Guenther Upper 
 Mill. As the country settled up the city grew and 
 Mr. Guenther's business increased. The Upper 
 Mill has been converted into a hominy mill and grist 
 mill and the Lower Mill equipped as a full-fledged 
 roller flouring mill. The capacity of both mills 
 is now four hundred barrels. Mr. Guenther has 
 ever been an enterprising business man, always up 
 to and fully abreast of the times and alive to the 
 growing demands of a progressive citj'. As he 
 siicceded in business he invested his surplus in 
 local business enterprises and San Antonio prop- 
 erty. In 1870 he embarked in the manufacture of 
 
 ice on a small scale, and later organized the South- 
 ern Ice & Cold Storage Company, of which he is 
 president, and the enterprise has developed into 
 large proportions. 
 
 Mr. Guenther married at Fredericksburg, in 
 1855, Miss Dorethea Pape, a daughter of Mr. 
 Fritz Pape, one of the first settlers of the Fred- 
 ericksburg colony. She has proved a loving and 
 faithful wife and mother, and a genuine helpmeet, 
 sharing cheerfully in all of her husband's reverses 
 and enjoying with him his final prosperity. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Guenther have seven children. 
 Mr. Guenther has afforded his family excellent 
 school advantages. All are married and occupy 
 honorable positions in society and business circles. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Guenther live at their old home on 
 Guenther street in the quietude of declining years, 
 enjoying the fruits of honorable, successful and 
 well-spent lives, and in the enjoyment of the 
 society of their children, grandchildren, and a 
 wide circle of friends and acquaintances. 
 
 Mr. Guenther never cared to enter public life 
 or took especial interest in politics, but has been 
 essentially a business man, only taking such 
 interest in matters affecting the welfare of his 
 city, country and State, as good citizenship re- 
 quired. 
 
 THE STONEHAMS. 
 
 OF GRIMES COUNTY. 
 
 Bryant Stoneham, now in his eighty-eighth year, 
 is the sole surviving representative of the first gen- 
 eration of Stonehams that located on Grimes Prairie, 
 in Grimes County, Texas. His grandfather, per- 
 haps the first Stoneham that ever put foot on 
 American soil, came over from England in colonial 
 days, and settled in what is now Amherst County, 
 Va. He had four sons, George, Henry, Bryant, 
 and James, and two daughters. The oldest 
 son, George, enlisted as a private in the war of 
 1812 and was never heard of afterwards. His son, 
 Henry, at the age of fourteen, ran avray from home 
 to serve in the Revolutionary War; he served five 
 years in this war and was wounded at the battle of 
 Guildford's Court House. Henry afterwards mar- 
 ried, in Amherst County, Jane Dillard, a native of 
 Fredericksburg, Va., Bryant and James died in 
 
 Hancock County, Ga., at the ages respectively of 
 108 and 110 years. 
 
 Henry Stoneham and his wife Jane (Dillard) 
 Stoneham moved from Virginia to Georgia in the 
 year 1801. There were born to them eight sons, 
 viz. : George, Henry, John, William, James, Bryant, 
 Erastus, and Joseph, and seven daughters, Mary, 
 Susan, Jane, Eliza, Martha, Sophia, and Hester. 
 Henry Stoneham, the father of these children, died in 
 Hancock County, Ga., in 1815. His sons, tak- 
 ing their widowed mother, drifted westward from 
 Georgia, locating for a time in Alabama, but all 
 ultimately locating in Grimes County, Texas, except 
 Joseph, the second oldest, who died in Alabama, 
 leaving a number of small children. The minor 
 children of Joseph were brought to Texas by their 
 uncle and guardian, George Stoneham. 
 
218 
 
 IXDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Jane (Dillard) Stoiieham, died on Grimes Prairie, 
 June 3d, 1858, beloved and respected by all who 
 knew her, at the extreme age of 105 years. 
 
 The Stonehams of this generation (the children 
 of Henry and Jane Stonehara) and indeed for gen- 
 erations back, were an exceptionally hardy people ; 
 all owners of slaves, nevertheless hard workers 
 themselves, the women manufacturing, by the crude 
 means then known to Soulliern people, nearly all 
 the cloth used for the household and the slaves. 
 The men inured to much hardship, also actively 
 participated in outdoor sports and grew to be splen- 
 did examples of physical manhood. Their powers 
 of endurance, capacity for labor, industry, perse- 
 verance, integrity and manly deportment secured 
 them wealth and the respect and admiration of 
 their fellow-men, as well as accounted for their un- 
 failing cheerfulness and abidirg hopefulness of dis- 
 position, and their long and useful lives. The 
 sterling integrity, industry, thrift, enterprise and 
 hardiness of this generation of Stonehams may not 
 improperly be said to have been largely inherited 
 from their mother, for in her industry and enter- 
 prise were realized King Lemuel's description of the 
 ways of a virtuous woman; "She considercth a 
 field and buyelh it; with the fruits of her hands 
 she planteth a vineyard." 
 
 Several of Henry and Jane (Dillard) Stoneham's 
 children lived to a remarkable old age. Their son 
 Henry, long to be remembered for his Christian 
 character, his charity, his love for children and his 
 exalted integrity, died in Grimes County at the ad- 
 vanced age of ninety-five years. Their daughter, 
 Susan, never married, remarkable for her industry^ 
 respected and loved for her noble character, died in 
 Grimes County at the age of ninety-seven years. 
 Another daughter, Mrs. Thos. J. Shackelford, died 
 in Jackson County, Ga., in 1895, at ninety-one 
 years of age. 
 
 None of the sons of this generation of Stonehams 
 are now living except Bryant, and none have left 
 issue, to any extent, except Joseph. He married 
 Rebecca Crowder near Milledgeville, Ga., after- 
 ward moved to Alabama, and both he and his wife 
 died in Conecuh County in that State in 1835, leav- 
 ing six sons and two daughters. The two daugh- 
 ters (Caroline and Martha) married in Alabama. 
 The two youngest sons (William and Sebron) died 
 in Alabama in boyhood. The remaining four boys, 
 George, John, Henry, and Joe, are the minor chil- 
 dren referred to as having been brought to Texas by 
 their uncle and guardian, George Stoneham. 
 
 John Stoneham, a son of Joseph Stoneham, and 
 of the second generation of Stonehams that came 
 to Texas, was born in Conecuh County, Ala., 
 
 December 20, 1829. When a small boy he attended 
 school at Evergreen, Ala. His uncles being slave 
 owners, and desirous of obtaining richer and 
 cheaper lands than could be readily procured in 
 Alabama, left that State in 1845 and in preceding 
 3'ears, taking him with them and his orphan broth- 
 ers in 1845. Most of them made their way overland 
 with wagons and teams and camp equipage enough 
 to make the party comfortable. Those that came 
 with the orphans arrived on Grimes Prairie in 1845. 
 They found on Grimes Prairie and vicinity, upon 
 their arrival there, the following well-known people : 
 Judge Jesse Grimes, for whom Grimes County was 
 named ; Mrs. Margaret Mclntyre and her two sons ; 
 Franklin J. Greenwood and family; Maj. Pierson 
 and family ; Gwyn Morrison and family ; Andrew 
 and Edley Montgomery and their families. What 
 an inviting prospect this section of country must 
 have presented to the energetic and enterprising 
 Stonehams ! Rich lands of marvelous productive 
 cajiacity, well timbered and watered ; sleek cattle 
 on every hillside and an abundance of game were 
 all found there. Indeed this was a land flowing 
 with milk and honey and after over half of a cen- 
 tury of constant tillage these lands yield bountifully 
 to the hand of industry. 
 
 .John Stoneham and his orphan brothers, under 
 the influences of pioneer life, grew to manhood on 
 Grimes Prairie. Here they were sent by their 
 guardian to such schools as from time to time the 
 people of that sparsely settled country were enabled, 
 in that primeval day to secure. Upon John at- 
 taining to his majority, his guardian, who had 
 judiciously managed his father's estate, placed him 
 in possession of his portion. He at once invested 
 in lands and began to follow farming, the vocation 
 of his father. He was married to Evaline Green- 
 wood, daughter of the venerable Franklin J. Green- 
 wood, on the 20th of October, 1853. John Stone- 
 ham and his brothers George, Henry, and Joe, 
 served in different capacities on the Southern side 
 in the late war. Joe was killed at the battle of 
 Mansfield in Louisiana. He left a widow and four 
 sons, all of whom are dead. George never mar- 
 ried ; he died the 12th of July, 1874. Henry died in 
 Milam County, Texas, leaving a f.amilyof girls and 
 boys, most of whom are married and live in dif- 
 ferent counties of the State. Since the war John 
 Stoneham activelj' engaged in farming, and, to some 
 extent, stock-raising, and, for about ten j-ears prior 
 to his death, merchandised. He lived till his death 
 in the vicinity of Grimes Prairie and during 
 his lorg and useful life a large family of children 
 grew up about him. By frugal and judicious 
 management he acquired large bodies of valuable 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 •219 
 
 land. As a citizen lie was liberal and public- 
 spirited. Upon the building of the Gulf, Colorado, 
 and Santa Fe Railway through Grimes County (in 
 which he actively interested himself in a financial 
 way, giving the project his hearty support) a 
 station was built on lands he owned and named for 
 him. 
 
 The life of John Stoneham was characterized by 
 a rigid simplicity. The sincerity and honesty of 
 his deeds and words were transparent, and felt and 
 appreciated by all worthy people that knew him. 
 He was a devoted member of the Methodist church 
 and gave liberally to churches and schools. The 
 beautiful little church at Stonebara and the school 
 at that place stand as monuments to his zeal for 
 
 the cause of Him whose whole life was one of com- 
 plete, loving self-sacrifice for the benefit of others. 
 His unselfishness, integrity, good will for his 
 fellow-man, his charities, and especially his loving 
 self-sacrifice for his family, will ever cause his 
 memory to be honored and revered and, above all, 
 will it be sacredly enshrined in the hearts of his 
 widow and children. He died at Stoneham, Texas, 
 on August 3d, 1894, in his sixty-sixth year, and 
 friends from far and near came to pay their last 
 tribute of respect and love when he was laid to rest 
 in the old burial grounds on Grimes Prairie. He 
 left a widow and eight sons, who have inherited his 
 estate. His sons are among the most thriving and 
 respected citizens of Grimes County. 
 
 J. B. POLLEY, 
 
 FLORESVILLE. 
 
 J. B. Policy, of Floresville, Wilson County, 
 Texas, was born in Brazoria County, Texas, in 1840. 
 His father, J. H. Policy, and his mother, Mary 
 (Bailey) Polley, were natives respectively of New 
 York and North Carolina. J. H. Polley left New 
 York in 1818, made his way to St. Louis and there 
 joined Moses Austin and made a trip to Texas in 
 1819. Then, returning to St. Louis, he joined 
 Stephen F. Austin as one of the original three hun- 
 dred who came to Texas in 1821. Subsequently', 
 he married Miss Mary Bailey, whose father, J. 
 Britton Bailey, had settled on the Brazos river, op- 
 posite Columbia, in the year 1821. The couple 
 lived at the edge (d Bailey's Prairie until 1847 and 
 then moved to the Cibolo, about thirty miles east 
 of San Antonio — the husband dying in 1869 at the 
 age of seventy-three, the wife dying in 1888 at 
 the age of seventy-eight. Eleven children were 
 born to them, of whotn J. B. Polley was the sixth. 
 
 The subject of this sketch, J. B. Polley, gradu- 
 ated at the Florence Wesleyan University at Flor- 
 ence, Ala., in 1861, returning home just in time to 
 
 avoid the blockade of the Texas coast. Enlisting 
 in Company F., of the Fourth Texas, he served four 
 years in Hood's Brigade, participating in most of 
 the important battles in which that command was 
 engaged. Wounded in the head during the first 
 real battle, that of Gaines' Mill, he lost his right 
 foot in the last real battle in which his regiment 
 participated, on the Darbytown road near Rich- 
 mond, October 7, 1864. 
 
 Marrying Miss Matlie LeGette in 1866, Mr. 
 Polley read law and was admitted to the bar in 1868, 
 but did not begin its practice until 1876, when he 
 moved to Floresville, the county seat of Wilson 
 County. He was County Attorney in 1877 and 
 1878, served as a member of the Sixteenth Legis- 
 lature in 1879, and since has been engaged in the 
 practice of his profession. 
 
 His children are: Josephine Goldstein, the wife 
 of E. M. Goldstein, of San Antonio, Texas ; Hortense 
 Rudisill, the wife of L. O. Rudisill, of Fort Worlh, 
 Texas ; Miss Mattie Polley, .Joseph H. and Jesse 
 Polley, the latter born in 1881. 
 
220 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 THOMAS J. DEVINE, 
 
 SAN ANTONIO. 
 
 The lamented Judge Devine was born of Irish 
 parentage, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the 28th of 
 February, 1820. His early opportunities for an 
 education were liberal and in addition to his En- 
 glish studies he acquired considerable proficiency 
 in the Latin and French languages, but he was in 
 early life thrown upon his own resources, and when 
 but fifteen years of age emigrated to Florida and 
 was there employed as clerk and salesman in a 
 mercantile house at Tallahasse, but his aspiring 
 genius found little congeniality in the mental re- 
 straints^and fettering routine of a life of trade. 
 The cravings^of Lis mind and the soaring flights of 
 his youthful ambition impelled him to exertions to 
 reach a more compatible sphere, and, in 1838, he 
 began the study of law in the oflSce of Trexton 
 Davis, a prominent lawyer of Woodville, Miss. 
 In 1840 he went to Lexington, Ky., where he 
 continued his studies and attended lectures in 
 the law department of Transylvania University, 
 from which he graduated in 1843 and in the same 
 year obtained his license to practice from the 
 Supreme Court of Kentucky. 
 
 During that year he emigrated to Texas and 
 located at La Grange, in Fayette County, and he 
 soon thereafter removed to San Antonio, where he 
 established himself in the practice of his profession 
 and lived until his death in 1890. 
 
 Judge Devine acquired a high reputation as an 
 able and thorough lawyer. In 1844 he was elected 
 City Attorney of San Antonio and held the office 
 by successive re-elections until 1851, when he was 
 elected District Judge of Bexar County. He was 
 re-elected to the bench in 1856 and held the posi- 
 tion until the outbreak of the war between the 
 States. He was a leading member of the Texas 
 secession convention in 18G1, and was a member of 
 the committee of public safety, appointed to con- 
 fer wi'"i Gen. Twiggs, the commander of the 
 United ates troops in Texas, and demand the 
 surrender f al the government arms, ammuni- 
 tion and military stores and the immediate re- 
 moval of the Federal troops from the State. 
 This, in conjunction with two other gentlemen 
 of the committee, he accomplished with the 
 skill of a thorough diplomatist and received the 
 commendation and thanks of the convention. 
 Being an ardent devotee and supporter of the 
 Southern cause and a lawyer of eminent ability, he 
 
 was soon afterwards appointed Confederate States 
 Judge for the Western District of Texas. The 
 functions of this office, though necessarily limited 
 in extent and application during the time of war, he 
 performed with the utmost fidelity, and with a view 
 to the importance of putting the machinery of the 
 new court in proper motion. In 1863 his admirable 
 qualities of statesmanship and knowledge of inter- 
 national law were again called into requisition. At 
 the request of Gen. E. Kirby Smith, he proceeded 
 to the city of Mexico and succeeded in arranging 
 amicably the threatened troubles between the 
 Mexican and the Confederate States governments. 
 In 1864 there was great dissatisfaction in Texas 
 in consequence of the conscript law and the em- 
 bargo laid by the Confederate government upon 
 trade between Texas and Mexico, and serious 
 troubles were threatening to arise between the gov- 
 ernment of the State and the Confederacy, but the 
 patriotism, ability and the pacific qualities of Judge 
 Devine arrested all evil, and, having promptly 
 repaired to Gen. Smith's headquarters in Arkansas, 
 he arranged the whole matter satisfactorily to all 
 parties involved. 
 
 Thus, as a judge and peacemaker, this good man 
 united in his person and in his official character the 
 noblest qualities of a citizen and patriot and rend- 
 ered his country the most valuable and the happiest 
 of all services, the promotion of unity and concord 
 and the direction of its energies against the common 
 enemy. At the termination of the war he saw no 
 hope for his country through the clouds that settled 
 over it and he took up his abode in Mexico, but 
 Texas was his home. To her he owed all that he 
 was, or had been, and his heart was chained to her 
 destin}-. He returned to San Antonio within a few 
 months, but his known ability, prominence and in- 
 fluence as a Southerner, drew about him the shafts 
 of revenge and he was arrested by the Federal 
 authorities and incarcerated at Fort Jackson at the 
 mouth of the Mississippi and there confined during 
 a period of about four months, after which he 
 returned to San Antonio, quietly resumed the prac- 
 tice of his profession, placidly awaited the abate- 
 ment of the storm and watclied with anxious gaze 
 the restoration of the social and political wreck 
 which the war left in its pathway. 
 
 In 1873 Judge Devine was appointed by Governor 
 Coke an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of 
 
JUDGE T. J. DEVIXE. 
 
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 COL. W. B. AIKIN. 
 
 
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 OKAXOE C. CONNER. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 221 
 
 Texas. After a short but eminent career upon the 
 bench, he found that the duties of the bar which he 
 had so long cultivated and cherished were congenial 
 to his tastes as well as far more remunerative, and in 
 1875 he resigned and returned to his law practice at 
 San Antonio, which, from that time until his death, 
 he pursued with vigor and uninterrupted devotion. 
 Judge Devine did not incline to politics or public 
 life. Under protest from him, his friends in 1878 
 made him a pi'ominent candidate for Governor of 
 Texas and, aside from this, he never permitted his 
 name to be used in connection with any political 
 office. Judge Devine was regarded as one of the 
 ablest lawyers of the Texas bar. He was a man of 
 great intellectual vigor and superior mental en- 
 dowments and, while he possessed much of the 
 humorous vivacity and spontaneous repartee char- 
 acteristic of his parentage and the race from which 
 he sprung, candor and sincerity were the ruling 
 traits of his character. He was patient and thorough 
 in his investigations and an excellent legal coun- 
 
 sellor. His uniform courtesy and mild disposition 
 and his aptness on proper occasions to adorn with 
 good-natured jest the dull and monotonous features 
 of legal argument, rendered him an engaging ad- 
 vocate and gave him great power before a jury. 
 His oratory often rose to the highest standard of 
 eloquence. As a judge his decisions were charac- 
 terized by an independence of judgment and a 
 freedom from the restraints of doubtful precedent 
 that commended them to practitioners as the 
 emanations of profound learning, thorough research 
 and conscientious conviction. 
 
 He held the scales of justice in even balance and 
 no feature of wrong, however speciously attired, 
 could disturb their equipoise. His judgments 
 were fixed upon the firm basis of law and right. In 
 private life Judge Devine possessed the noblest 
 qualities. He was kind, charitable and public- 
 spirited, and always ready to respond to every 
 meritorious demand as a friend, a neighbor and a 
 citizen. 
 
 W. B. AlKIN, 
 
 PARIS. 
 
 Col. W. B. Aikin was born in Burke County, 
 North Carolina, January 23, 1805. His father, 
 John Aikin, a native of Ireland, came to America 
 at the age of twenty-three years, was a farmer by 
 occupation, and died in Mississippi in 1838. Col. 
 Aikin's mother, Mrs. Anne Aikin, was a daughter 
 of Samuel Aken, of Pennsylvania. She died Feb- 
 ruary 5th, 1867. Her father lived to the mature 
 age of one hundred and six years. 
 
 The subject of this memoir left his native State 
 in 1823 and went to Jefferson County, Ala., where 
 he resided until 1831. He moved to Noxubee 
 County, Miss., in that year, and in 1847 to Cass 
 County, Texas, where he resided until 18G0, and 
 then moved to Eed River County. In 1872 he 
 made his home in Paris, Lamar County, Texas, and, 
 until the time of his death, was prominently identi- 
 fied with the commercial and social interests of that 
 thriving little city. He was always largely engaged 
 in agricultural pursuits and left a landed estate of 
 about fifteen thousand acres of land situated in La- 
 mar and Red River counties. Prior to his death he 
 was vice-president of the Farmers and Merchants 
 Bank of Paris, a director of the First National Bank 
 
 of Jefferson, Texas, and president of the Lamar 
 Ware House Company, of Paris. He was a con- 
 sistent member of the M. E. Church, South, over 
 fifty years, and took a great interest in church work. 
 
 In March, 1827, he married Miss Araminta Flan- 
 agan, of North Carolina. Four children were born 
 of this union. Only two of these lived to maturity, 
 Mrs. O. C. Connor, now living in Paris, Texas, 
 and Mrs. W. B. Ward, who died in 1882, at Jeffer- 
 son, Texas. 
 
 In 1881 Col. Aikin founded what is now known 
 as Aikin Institute, an educational institution that 
 has since been given to the city. In 1892 he built 
 and gave to the city of Paris the Aikin Charity 
 Hospital at acostof $12,000. He was a liberal con- 
 tributor to churches and charitable purposes, and in 
 every way, to the full extent of his means and per- 
 sonal influence, sought to promote the best interests 
 of the community and country. He died at Paris, 
 Texas, June 2, 1893, and was buried in Evergreen 
 cemetery. One of the finest granite monuments 
 ever erected in Texas now marks his grave ; a 
 tribute to his memory prompted by the love of Mrs. 
 O. C. Connor. 
 
222 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 J. J. GROOS, 
 
 NEW BRAUNSFELS. 
 
 The late Capt. Johann Jacob Groos, a man of 
 fine intelligence and great strength of character, 
 was well known throughout the State of Texas as 
 one of her most respected and influential pioneers. 
 He was a native of Germany, born at Offenbach, 
 March 6, 1824 ; received good schooling and learned 
 civil engineering. He came to America with a 
 young wife and landed at Indianola as a member 
 of the German Emigration Company's party, who 
 were the pioneers of their day, and who did so 
 much to open and develop the portion of the State 
 of Texas in which they settled. He brought little 
 with him to this country besides a stout heart, 
 u strong constitution, a large stock of enterprise 
 and grit, and a willing and ready helpmeet. He 
 early took up surveying and had much to do with 
 the location and surveying of lands in Comal, 
 Bexar, Kendall and adjoining counties. He lived 
 many years at New Braunfels where he held the 
 office of county surveyor of Comal County. In 
 the meantime he also engaged in farming. During 
 the late war he served as Captain of Confederate 
 militia, and in that capacity aided in checking 
 Indian depredations on the frontier. From 1869 
 to 1872 he kept the Guadalupe Hotel at New 
 Braunfels and was a popular host. He was then 
 
 elected Commissioner of the General Land Office 
 of the State of Texas, in which position he served 
 the people until his death, which occurred at 
 Austin in 1878 in his fifty-fourth year. His wife 
 died two 3'ears earlier, in 1870, at fifty-two years 
 of age. Mr. and Mrs. Groos left seven children, 
 all born in Texas. Otto, forty-eight years of age, 
 the oldest living, is a banker, farmer and success- 
 ful business man at Kyle, Texas. Herman is a 
 farmer near Kj'le. Emma is the wife of Mr. 
 George Sehnabel, and resides with her husband at 
 Burnet. August, forty-two years of age, holds 
 a position in the office of the State Comptroller of 
 Public Accounts. William, forty years of age, is 
 a farmer and stock-raiser at Munroe, Oregon. 
 Martin E., thirly-flve j'ears of age, is chief clerk 
 in the General Land Office of the State of Texas. 
 Annie is the wife of Mr. Joseph Mayer, a well- 
 known broker at San Antonio. 
 
 During his entire career, Mr. Groos was noted 
 for his excellent abilities, strict integrity, loyalty 
 to his friends, and constancy, and was in every 
 way a most exemplary citizen. He transmitted 
 these excellent characteristics to his sons, all of 
 whom have assumed places of honor and trust 
 and have sustained the family name. 
 
 ORANGE C. CONNOR, 
 
 PARIS. 
 
 Capt. O. C. Connor was born at Somerville, Ten- 
 nessee, September Gth, 1829, attended the common 
 schools of the country until nineteen years of age, 
 and completed his education by a course at the 
 Somerville Baptist College. His parents were 
 Orange and Judith Connor, tlie former of whom 
 died in Morris County, Texas, in 1859, and the lat- 
 ter at the old family home in that county in 1879. 
 After the suppression of the Irish rebellion of 1792 
 by fire and sword the crown of England issued a 
 proclamation lo the effect that all persons who had 
 held commissions in the Irish patriot army should 
 be hanged without trial. The grandfathers of both 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. O. C. Connor had held such com- 
 missions, but succeeded in avoiding the vigilance 
 of the military commanders of the British army of 
 occupation and effected their escape to America, 
 and here their descendants have since resided and 
 many of them risen to positions of prominence in 
 the various walks of life. 
 
 In 1849, Mr. Orange Connor moved to Texas 
 with his family. He traveled overland by ox and 
 mule teams, bringing about twenty-five slaves with 
 him, and settled in Morris County, where he opened 
 a farm and in time became one of the wealthiest 
 farmers in the county. On the arrival of the family, 
 
J. J. GUO.SS. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 223 
 
 in Texas, the subject of this memoir secured a 
 clerkship in a store at Daingerfield and remained in 
 that place for nearly tliree years. In 1852 he mar- 
 ried Miss Mary A. Aikin, daughter of Col. W. B. 
 Aikin, then a resident of Cass County, Texas. 
 After marrj'ing he moved to and engaged in farm- 
 ing in Cass Count}', in which pursuit he continued 
 until the beginning of the war between the States in 
 18fil. He then enlisted in Company G., 19lh Texas 
 Infantry, and was elected First Lieutenant of the 
 companj'. He served with fidelity and courage 
 throughout the struggle, a struggle that has no 
 counterpart in the annals of human history. 
 Among other engagements he participated in those 
 at Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, Jenkins' Ferry, Perkins' 
 Landing, Millican's Bend and the smaller fights in 
 Louisiana incidental to the defeat of Banks' army 
 and its being driven back to the lower part of that 
 State. In 1864, he was assigned to the Quarter- 
 master's department, in which he remained until 
 the final surrender of the Confederate forces. 
 
 When he returned home after the war he owned 
 but little property, nevertheless he possessed 
 enough to establish himself, in a small way as a 
 merchant and farmer in Red River County, where 
 he remained until 1870. In January of that year 
 he moved to Paris, Texas, and followed merchan- 
 dising there until 1877, when his stock, upon which 
 he carried no insurance, was burned in the fire of 
 
 that year that almost destroyed the town. After 
 sustaining this serious loss he devoted his attention 
 for a time exclusively to the management of his 
 various farms, but later acquired a consiilerable 
 interest in the Farmers & Merchants Bank of Paris, 
 and was elected president of that institution for 
 two terms; but, owing to failing health, retired 
 from that position, and is now vice-president of tlie 
 bank. Capt. Connor is one of the largest land- 
 holders in his section of the State. He is a mem- 
 ber of the M. E. Church, South, of thirty-three 
 years standing. He has six children : W. A., now 
 a farmer in Red River County ; E. S., a prominent 
 lawyer at Paris; O. C, Jr., a cotton merchant and 
 farmer at Paris ; Pearl, wife of John T. Dckson, 
 a leading merchant of Paris ; Daisy, wife of P. J. 
 Pierce, a cotton merchant of Paris ; and Erminia, 
 wife of E. F. Bra}'-, a representative of the Brown 
 Shoe Company, of St. Louis, resident at Paris. 
 
 Siuce the war Capt. Connor has been uninter- 
 ruptedly engaged in farming and has had as much 
 as three thousand acres under cultivation at one 
 time. 
 
 He is in every respect a representative man and 
 citizen, has been an active promoter of every enter- 
 )3rise inaugurated for the benefit of his section, and 
 enjoys the respect and esteem of his fellow-citizens, 
 among whom he has spent the best years of an 
 active and useful life. 
 
 CELESTIN JAGOU, 
 
 BROWNSVILLE. 
 
 The subject of this brief memoir is one of the 
 well-known and successful pioneers of the lower Rio 
 Grande Valley and probably has done as much if 
 not more, than any living pioneer to develop its 
 resources. He is a native of France, born at Lass- 
 cube, in the department of Basses Pyrenees. His 
 father, John Jagou, was a respected citizen and 
 property owner of that department. Young Jagou 
 received a partial education in the school of the 
 Christian Brotherhood in his native town and at 
 aljout the age of twelve years, his services being 
 needed at home, left school. 
 
 Two years later he entered a liquor distilling 
 establishment and learned the business. He was 
 restless and ambitious to accomplish something in 
 the world and, upon hearing the glowing reports 
 
 current of the opportunities offered young men in 
 the United States, embarked from his native land in 
 1859, for New Orleans. There he remained until 
 1862, and then made his way to Bagdad, Mexico, 
 and very soon thereafter went to Matamoros, 
 Mexico. Matamoros was at that time the best 
 business point on the gulf coast, the depot for all 
 the cotton shipments of the Southern States, and a 
 city of about 100,000 people, which prosperous 
 state of affairs continued during the Civil War onl}'. 
 At Matamoros, young Jagou was engaged in the 
 cotton-pressing business. When the war was ended, 
 all lines of business at Matamoros declined and 
 the people disappeared like the melting of the 
 snow. 
 
 In 1863, Mr. Jagou opened a store in Browns- 
 
224 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 ville, Texas, where be sold fancy groceries and 
 liquors and did a profitable business. In 1865, 
 Brownsville was raided by Federal colored troops, 
 who entered liis premises and carried off liis mer- 
 chandise by wagon-loads. His loss was later par- 
 tially made good by the United States Government. 
 He also sustained heavy losses by the historic 
 tornado of 1867, which demolished nearly one-half 
 of the city of Brownsville, including Fort Brown. 
 With his accustomed energy and undaunted 
 determination, he continued in trade and, despite 
 all misadventures, finally succeeded in laying the 
 foundation for a competency. In 1868, Mr. Jagou 
 married Miss Adolpliine Mailhe, a lady of New 
 Orleans of French descent. 
 
 Four children were born to them, viz. : Christine 
 and Adolphe, who reside at home with their par- 
 ents ; Michael, who lives near San Jose, California, 
 
 and Albert, who had charge of Mr. Jagou's branch 
 store at Laredo, Texas. Mrs. Jagou died in 1880 
 and in 1881 Mr. Jagou married Miss Agathe 
 Bourdet, of France. 
 
 Mr. Jagou is an enterprising, pushing business 
 man of tireless industry. Besides his large whole- 
 sale and retail store in Brownsville, he has, as pre- 
 viously stated, a branch store in Laredo. In 1879, 
 he purchased the Esperanza ranch, on which he has 
 the finest improvements and has demonstrated more 
 than any other man what Texas soil and water, in 
 the section in which he resides, will produce in the 
 line of tropical and sub-tropical fruits. He had 
 over 50,000 banana plants under the highest state 
 of cultivation. He believes that with irrigation 
 nearl}' all the tropical fruits can be profitably grown 
 in the lower Rio Grande vallej'. Mr. Jagou's suc- 
 cess in life is due entirely to his personal efforts. 
 
 ALBERT MOVE, 
 
 SAN ANTONIO. 
 
 Came to the Republic of Texas in 1845. He was 
 born in Germany in the city of Kassel, September 
 19th, 1820. He was reared to farming, which as 
 an occupation he pursued up to the time of his em- 
 barkation for Texas as a member of the historic 
 colony of Germans who came to the New World 
 under the leadership of Prince Solms. Upon land- 
 ing at Galveston, he, with others of the colony, pro- 
 ceeded to Indianola, where they were, for want of 
 transportation facilities, detained for about six 
 months. He finally' made his way to San Antonio 
 during that year (1845), where he opened the first 
 saddler's shop established there. San Antonio 
 was then a town of about six hundred people. Not a 
 tradesman, he was, nevertheless, of a mechanical 
 turn of mind, handy witii tools, and engaged in this 
 business, because he was quick to perceive that 
 such an establishment was needed and would pay. 
 His shop was located on what is now Commerce 
 street. He finally disposed of the business to ad- 
 vantage, located in the suburbs near the city and 
 engaged in raising vegetables. For seven years 
 prior to 1861 he held the office of justice of the 
 peace. That year he entered the Confederate army 
 as Lieutenant of Company B. , Third Texas Infantry, 
 commanded by Capt. Kampman, and upon the pro- 
 motion of Capt. Kampman to a higher rank, suc- 
 ceeded him as Captain of the company. He re- 
 
 mained in the army two years. Returning home, he 
 engaged first in the lumber business ; later served 
 as su|)erintendent and architect forMaj. Kampman, 
 who did an extensive business as a contractor and 
 builder for many years ; filled this position for 
 three or four years ; in 1866 engaged in the fire 
 and life insurance business, which he followed until 
 1893 and then retired from active business pur- 
 suits. He married in Germany and was the father 
 of nine children, four of whom are living: Otto, 
 Wilhelmina, Emilie, and Edward. Otto, the oldest, 
 was born in Germany, March 5, 1843; Wilhelmina, 
 wife of Max Krakauer, was born in San Antonio, 
 September 8, 1847, and has three sons and two 
 daughters; Emilie, wife of Julius Piper, born No- 
 vember 14, 1852, has four sons and three daughters, 
 and Edward the youngest was born January 16, 
 1855, and has one son and one daughter. All the 
 children live in San Antonio. 
 
 Otto Moye, the eldest, reoe-'ved a good common 
 school education and for eighteen years was identi- 
 fied, as salesmen, with one of San Antonio's whole- 
 sale hardware houses. Edward married, October 
 31, 1882, Miss Lillie, daughter of Louis Zork, who 
 was the pioneer dry goods merchant of San Antonio. 
 Mr. Edward Moye is a member of the well-known 
 mercantile firm of Krakauer, Zork & Moye, of San 
 Antonio. 
 
Errg^iy WT.Batfter. BKtj-nWV 
 
 >^^-^L-£C3 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 225 
 
 HON. JOHN CALDWELL, 
 
 BASTROP. 
 
 The Anglo-American settlement of Texas, tbe 
 revolution tliat followed and the establishment of a 
 separate republic and its merger into the sisterhood 
 of States that compose the Union, offered unex- 
 ampled opportunities for the exercise of the purest 
 patriotism, the most intrepid bravery and the high- 
 est mental endowments in the line of statecraft. 
 Nor were the men wanting to fill the various roles 
 required to meet the necessities of those stormy and 
 trying days. 
 
 Few States, formed in either ancient or modern 
 times, can boast a galaxy of greater names, in the 
 same period of time, than those which adorn the 
 pages of the early history of Texas. 
 
 The subject of this memoir, Hon. John Caldwell, 
 moved among the leading spirits of his day. 
 
 He came to Texas from North Alabama in 1831, 
 as a member of a considerable company of people 
 who came at the same time from the same localitj'. 
 
 He brought with him a j'oung wife, whose maiden 
 name was Lucinda Haynie, and settled on the 
 Navidad, where he developed a farm and resided 
 until 1834 when he removed to Bastrop County, 
 ever after his home. He was born at Frankfort, 
 Ky., December 10, 1802. was the oldest of six 
 children and was sixteen years of age at the 
 time of the death of his father, Mr. Adam Caldwell, 
 which occurred at Nashville, Tenn., July 12, 
 1819. The support of the family and the education 
 of the younger children thereupon devolved upon 
 him, and he met the responsibilities of the situation 
 with that firmness and devotion to duty that were 
 among his distinguishing characteristics in maturer 
 years. 
 
 The family after Mr. Adam Caldwell's death 
 located and lived at Nashville, Tenn., for a number 
 of years. 
 
 Adam Caldwell was a professional man and his son 
 doubtless inherited from him a love for books and 
 study, for he applied himself with great diligence 
 to the study of law while supporting the family and 
 was admitted to the bar at Nashville, when twenty- 
 one years of age. Subsequently the family moved 
 from Tennessee to North Alabama and located at 
 Tuscumbia. There John Caldwell lived and prac- 
 ticed his profession with marked success until 
 1831, the year that he came to Texas. He brought 
 five slaves with him, one of whom, Melinda Pryor, 
 is now living in Austin, Texas, at an advanced age. 
 
 He at one time owned a large number of slaves. 
 These he treated with uniform kindness, never 
 selling one of them to any other master or inflicting 
 upon them undue discipline. Upon coming to 
 Texas he relinquished tbe practice of law and de- 
 voted himself thereafter to agricultural pursuits. 
 
 His home in Bastrop County was located on the 
 Colorado river, about twelve miles from the present 
 town of Bastrop (then known as Mina) where he 
 engaged extensively in farming, developed a hand- 
 some estate and reared his family'. 
 
 The Caldwell mansion was known throughout 
 Central and Western Texas as the " White House " 
 and the home of one of Texas' most intelligent, 
 courtly and chivalric gentlemen. Spacious in size 
 and with hospitable doors always open, it was a 
 popular stopping-place for men prominent in 
 military and civil affairs. Here Houston, Hen- 
 derson, Eusk, Williamson, Wharton, Archer, Bur- 
 net and their compeers delighted to tarry over 
 night when traveling through the country, and 
 discuss issues pending before the people and con- 
 sult the cool and reliable judgment of their 
 esteemed host and friend. 
 
 The present Caldwell family of four sons and 
 two daughters were all born here and as they ad- 
 vanced in years the " White House " was made the 
 scene of many delightful social events. 
 
 Col. Caldwell enjoyed the unbounded and uni- 
 form confidence of the people of his locality and, 
 as he became known, of the entire Republic and 
 State as well. He was an active and prominent 
 participant in the events that led up to the Texas 
 revolution, was one of the first to respond to the 
 call to arms that followed the affair at Gonzales, 
 and was one of the most ardent of those who 
 advocated the issuance of a declaration of inde- 
 pendence. From the beginning he deprecated the 
 policy of fighting for the restoration of the Mexican 
 constitution of 1824, which Santa Anna had 
 trampled in blood and dust and bayoneted to 
 death on the plains of Zacatecas. He clearly per- 
 ceived that the Anglo-Americans of Texas had 
 nothing to expect from the Mexican government or 
 people under any circumstances and that, even if 
 with the co-operation of the Liberal party in 
 Mexico Santa Anna could be overthrown, the 
 Federal constitution of 1824 restored and Texas 
 allowed a separate State government, the battle 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 for independence would untimately have to be 
 fought. As matters stood, he knew that the 
 Liberal party had been, or would be, crushed in 
 Mexico, that Texas could look for no aid from 
 that quarter, that volunteers from the United .States 
 would be slow to join the Texian standard, if the 
 fight was to be made merely for the rights of Texas 
 as a Mexican State, and that the part of wisdom 
 was to make a fight against Mexico like their heroic 
 forefathers made against Great Britain — for 
 absolute independence ; for liberty or for death. 
 Some great men were opposed to the step, but the 
 party to which he, Governor Smith, Wharton, 
 Archer and others belonged prevailed, the declara- 
 tion was issued, the battle of San Jacinto fought, 
 and the independence of Texas secured. 
 
 Wliile with the army on its retreat he was 
 detailed by Gen. Houston to ride throiigh the 
 country and give warning to the settlers of the 
 approach of the three Mexican columns that were 
 sweeping eastward under Santa Anna. Having 
 placed his family in safety at Mina (Bastrop), where 
 they remained until 1838, the Indians committing 
 so many depredations after the war as to render it 
 perilous to live outside the limits of the town, he 
 set about the performance of the duty assigned him 
 and, having accomplished it, hurried forward to 
 join tlie arm}' under Gen. Houston and reached it 
 the day after the battle of San Jacinto. It was 
 alwaj's a source of regret to him that he was pre- 
 vented by circumstances, over which he had no con- 
 trol, from taking part in that great and glorious 
 engagement. 
 
 In September, 1838, he was elected to represent 
 his district in the House of the Third Texas Con- 
 gress (the first under Lamar's administration) and 
 acquitted himself in a manner that fully sustained 
 the high reputation he enjoyed, and added fresh 
 laurels to those he had already won. 
 
 The Congress assembled at Houston on the loth 
 of November. 
 
 In the Senate were Harvey Kendrick, of Mata- 
 gorda; Edward Burleson, of Bastrop; William H. 
 Wharton, of Brazoria; and in the House sucii men 
 as John W. Bunton, Greenleaf Fisk (Col. Cald- 
 well's associate from Bastrop), Jose Antonio 
 Navarro, Cornelius Van Ness, John A. Wharton, 
 Wm. Menefee, Holland Coffee, Moseley Baker, 
 Isaac Parker, David S. Kaufman, John M. 
 Hansford and John J. Lynn. 
 
 It was a very important session. Laws were to 
 be enacted to provide for a change from the civil to 
 the common law (in compliance with an amend- 
 ment to the constitution previously adopted), a 
 stable currency was to be provided, steps were to 
 
 be taken to lay the foundation for a free school sys- 
 tem and to effectually check the hostile Indian 
 tribes in East Texas and elsewhere and suppress 
 Mexican brigandage on the southwestern border. 
 All this and more was accomplished by that body 
 or placed in process of accomplishment. A ranger 
 force for frontier protection was created, a law 
 passed for the permanent location of the seat of 
 government, steps were taken to provide a more 
 efficient navy, fifty leagues of land were set aside 
 for a university and lands to each county for free 
 school purposes; the land, judiciary and probate 
 laws were improved, land grants were extended to 
 encourage immigration and a score or more of other 
 much needed and salutary laws enacted. 
 
 The law providing for the permanent location of 
 the seat of government was passed in January, 
 1839. It was a question of deep interest and 
 excited more or less sectional feeling. The wliole 
 West and upper frontier wished it located as far in 
 the interior as practicable in order that it miglit 
 become the focus of frontier protection. Col. 
 John Caldwell, of Bastrop, William Menefee, of 
 Colorado, James Kerr, of Jackson, and Cornelius 
 Van Ness, of Bexar, were the especial champions 
 of the measure and Col. Caldwell is said to have 
 afterwards pointed out to the commissioners, 
 appointed under the law, the site on the Colorado 
 selected by them, for the beautiful capital city of 
 Austin. 
 
 The next session of the Congress convened at the 
 new capital in November, 1839. This he also at- 
 tended. He took an active part in all the important 
 debates and legislation of the session and in shap- 
 ing the general lines of State policy that were then 
 developed, many of which, notably those inaugurat- 
 ing the policy of free popular education and of 
 erecting and maintaining eleemosynary institutions, 
 have since been very closely followed. 
 
 Returning home, he was called upon more than 
 once to help chastise hostile Indians and responded 
 with that alacrity that was characteristic of the 
 pioneers of that day. The Indian outrages in 1837 
 and 1838 and in 1839 and 1840, incited by promises 
 of help from Mexico, were appalling. The frontier 
 was bleeding from savage fury, from San Antonio 
 to Red river. 
 
 On tlie 5th of August, 1840, a band of a thou- 
 sand, composed of Comanches and Kiowas, but in- 
 cluding also many lawless Mexicans and Indians 
 from some of the more civilized tribes, passed down 
 the country to Victoria. They committed many 
 murders along the way, massacred several persons 
 in sight of Victoria and, after making a feint on 
 that town, proceeded to the village of Linnvllle, on 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 227 
 
 Matagorda Baj', which tbey looted and then burned 
 to the ground, massacring those of the inhabitants 
 who failed to make good their escape in boats 
 moored along the shore. The raiders then took up 
 the line of march on tlieir return. The news 
 spread like wildfire and pursuing parlies were 
 organized, one of which was led by Col. Caldwell. 
 A short distance from Victoria, twenty-five volun- 
 teers came up with the Indians and had a skirmish ; 
 but, with this exception, they managed to make 
 their way unmolested to Plum creek, where, three 
 miles southwest of the present town of Lock- 
 hart, they were attacked on the 12th of August by a 
 force of about one hundred and eighty men, com- 
 manded by Gen. Felix Huston, Col. Ed. Burleson, 
 Capts. Ward, Bird and others, and defeated with 
 
 • considerable slaughter. This was one of the last 
 of a series of bloody conflicts in Southern Texas, 
 and was such a chastisement of the Comanches, that 
 they remained comparatively quiet for a number 
 of years thereafter. 
 
 After the capture of San Antonio by the Mexicans 
 under Gen. Adrian Woll, in 1842, Col. Caldwell 
 hastily organized a regiment, composed of the com- 
 panies of Capt. Childress, of Bastrop, and Capt. 
 Cooke, of Austin, and hurried to the appointed ren- 
 dezvous at the front where he joined the force 
 (about 2,000 men) commanded by Col. Ed. Burle- 
 son. In a few days Brig.-Gen. Somervell arrived 
 on the ground and assumed command. .Scouts 
 soon brought in information that the enemy, 
 after holding San Antonio a few days, had rapidly 
 retreated. Col. Caldwell remained with the troops 
 as long as they were kept in the field. Later, he 
 participated in the Somervell expedition, designed 
 for a retaliatory invasion of Mexico, and, after the 
 regular disbandment of Somervell's force on the 
 Rio Grande, returned home. 
 
 The extra session of the Ninth Congress that met 
 at Washington on the Brazos on the 16th of June, 
 18-15, gave its consent to the joint resolution of the 
 Congress of the United States, providing for the 
 annexation of Texas and to the convention of sixt}'- 
 one delegates called by President Anson Jones, to 
 meet at Austin, on the -tth of July and speak the 
 voice of Texas on the main issue. Col. Caldwell 
 was elected a delegate to this convention. It met 
 at Austin on the day appointed and adjourned on the 
 27th of August, after ratifying the terms of annex- 
 
 . ation and framing a constitution for the proposed 
 State, which was duly ratified by a vote of the peo- 
 ple. The constitution of 1845 was one of the best 
 that Texas has ever had. 
 
 Col. Caldwell's knowledge of the philosophy and 
 practice of law and the principles that underlie free 
 
 government and his natural breadth of mind and 
 philanthropic spirit, enabled him to render invalua- 
 ble service in this body, and to leave the impress 
 of his labors upon the organic law that it framed 
 and submitted to the people. 
 
 His next public service was as a member of the 
 Texas Senate in 1857-8. Here he was intimately 
 associated with George M. Paschal, Lewis T. Wig- 
 fall, Jesse Grimes, Bob Taylor, Henry McCulioch, 
 John M. Borroughs, M. D. K. Taylor, Lott, Stock- 
 dale, and a host of other men of great and brilliant 
 abilities then in the prime and hey-day of their 
 fame and Col. Caldwell easily moved to the front 
 among them as a man of unusual force of mind and 
 undoubted purity of purpose. He exercised an in- 
 fluence second to none in the committee rooms and 
 on the floor of the Senate and played a prominent 
 part in the important legislation enacted at that 
 session. 
 
 From this period the gathering clouds of sectional 
 hatred, that shortly after the foundation of the 
 government first began to rise above the horizon of 
 the American Union, rapidly overcast the entire 
 political sky and threatened a storm that would 
 destroy the grand fabric that the fathers of 177G 
 reared with the hope that it would endure to afford 
 an asylum for the oppressed, serve as a model for 
 pati'iots in other lands to aspire to, and bless man- 
 kind through all coming ages. The South was an 
 agricultural country. It considered that under the 
 tariff laws in force it was being bled to enrich New 
 England manufacturers. The Democratic party 
 brought about the Louisiana and Florida purchases, 
 forced the annexation of Texas and supported the 
 Mexican war and carried it to a successful issue. 
 One of the opponents of that war went so far as to 
 say he hoped the soldiers of Santa Anna would wel- 
 come our army " with bloody hands, and hosjjitable 
 graves." Thus the Democratic party had extended 
 the territory of the Union from ocean to ocean. 
 The South was solidly Democratic and contended 
 that its citizens should have the right to go into any 
 of the territories of the United States with their 
 slaves, which were recognized as property at the 
 formation of and bj- the compact of Union. Then 
 the fugutive slave laws were trampled under foot 
 and men who went in pursuit of their slaves mob- 
 bed. Conflicts in Kansas, the John Brown raid, 
 and other events, tended to intensify public excite- 
 ment on both sides of Mason and Dixon's line. 
 Threats of secession grew louder and deeper and, 
 when the news of the election of Mr. Lincoln 
 swept over the country, it was attempted and both 
 sides prepared for war — the North determined to 
 prevent the extension of slavery, preserve the 
 
228 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Union at all hazards and trample what it considered 
 the heresy of secession to death ; the South to retire 
 from what it no longer considered a fraternal Union 
 and seek that peace and securitj' under a separate 
 government denied it within its limits. 
 
 Col. Caldwell was present, as a spectator, at the 
 meeting of the Secession Convention at Austin and 
 used all of his great personal influence to prevent 
 the framing of the ordinance providing for the 
 withdrawal of Texas from the Union. He coincided 
 with his friends, Gen. Sam Houston and Hon. 
 James W. Throckmorton, on the want of necessity 
 for and unwisdom of such a step. He saw nothing 
 but disaster in store for the people, whether they 
 lost or won in the coming struggle. He thought 
 the South had suffered many wrongs, but his idea 
 was to redress them within the Union. A greater 
 than any human power, however, had decided the 
 settlement of the questions involved (which could 
 have been settled in no other way) by the fiery 
 ordeal of war. The ordinance was passed and 
 soon there rang out the call to arms. Deeply 
 wrieved at the woes which he saw that his beloved 
 country must suffer. Col. Caldwell, too feeble for 
 active service himself, sent four of his gallant sons 
 to the front to fight and, if need be, die, for the 
 Confederate States. 
 
 He also loaned the State or Texas a quarter of a 
 million of dollars in gold to carry on the govern- 
 ment, when the treasury was empty, and received 
 bonds therefor. These bonds, owing to the down- 
 fall of the Confederacy, became worthless and he 
 never received a cent in return. 
 
 It is unpleasant to dwell upon the war period 
 and the period of reconstruction that followed it. 
 Both passed. 
 
 During the latter period, in 1866, when it was 
 attempted to rehabilitate the State under the plan 
 proposed by President Johnson, a Democratic con- 
 vention assembled for the purpose of nominating 
 candidates for State offices and a caucus-com- 
 mittee, of which Hon. James W. Throckmorton 
 was a member, called upon Col. Caldwell and 
 formally requested him to accept the nomination 
 for Governor, stating that he was considered the 
 proper man to lead the way to the re-establishment 
 of honest government in the State. Thanking them 
 for the honor conferred, he declined to accede to 
 their request and urged the nomination of his friend 
 and associate in the Senate in 1857-8, Mr. Throck- 
 morton. In accordance with this advice, Throck- 
 morton was given the nomination and subsequently 
 elected, only to be removed in a short time as an 
 impediment to reconstruction, by Gen. Sheridan, 
 military commander of the district, acting under 
 
 authority of the illiberal reconstruction laws passed 
 by Congress in opposition to Johnson's policy. 
 
 Col. Caldwell retired to his home near Bastrop, 
 where he spent in quietude the four remaining 
 years of his life. There he peacefullj' breathed his 
 last on the 22d day of October, 1870, surrounded 
 by his sorrowing famih'. 
 
 Death never gathered to its cold embrace a more 
 devoted patriot or stilled the pulsations of a truer 
 or more manly heart. His memorj' deserves ever 
 to be revered by the people of Texas, whom he 
 served in so many and such various capacities, and 
 his name deserves a place on the pages of the 
 State's history beside those of her bravest, and 
 brightest and best, from the days that preceded 
 the revolution down to those that witnessed the 
 close of his useful and illustrious career. 
 
 His beloved wife survived him for many years, 
 dying December 30th, 1895, in the city of Austin, 
 where she removed in the spring of 1871 to live 
 with her children. She was born in Knoxville, 
 Tenn., December 8th, 1809. She was a noble 
 Christian lady, distinguished for every grace that 
 endears to us the names of wife and mother. She 
 was a daughter of Eev. John Haj-nie, one of the 
 most famous and best remembered of the pioneer 
 preachers of the M. E. Church, who made their 
 way into the wilderness of Texas and blazed the 
 way for other and later Christian workers. 
 
 Rev. John Hayuie was born in Botetourt 
 County, Va. , April 7, 1786, and married Elizabeth 
 Brooks, May 23d, 1805. While he was young his 
 family moved to East Tennessee, and located near 
 Knoxville. In his twentieth 3'ear he married 
 Elizabeth Brooks. In 1815 or 1816 he settled in 
 the then village of Knoxville, where he carried on 
 a successful mercantile business and labored for 
 the establishment of Methodism. He spent about 
 fifteen years at Knoxville and then removed to 
 North Alabama, where he labored in the ministry 
 until 1839, when he came to the Republic of Texas. 
 He was admitted to the West Texas conference in 
 1840 and assigned to Austin. This was his first 
 year in the itineracy, although he had received 
 license to preach as early as 1811. The Austin 
 circuit, to which he was appointed, included the 
 new capital city and the counties of Bastrop and 
 Travis. Shortly after his arrival at Austin he was 
 elected Chaplain of the Texas Congress, a position 
 that he several times subsequently held. In 1846, 
 Rev. Mr. Haynie was assigned to Corpus Christi 
 and started for his field of labor, leaving his family 
 at their home in Rutersville, Fayette County. At 
 Goliad he was informed that it would be unsafe 
 for him to proceed without a guard and Capt. 
 
iv'iir r Ljir-J i-vJ^iNiL 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 229 
 
 Price, commanding a company of rangers, fur- 
 nished him one. Corpus Christi was an army 
 station and crowded with a floating population. It 
 was ditHcult for liim to find board, lodging or a 
 place to preach. He finally found a place to get 
 his meals and, after considerable effort, he obtained 
 permission to sleep in a store house on bags of 
 shelled corn. Next he procured one of the theaters 
 to preach in on Sunday, but at night there were 
 theatrical performances held in the same room. 
 Owing to the breaking out of the Mexican war and 
 
 the removal of the army, the town was nearly de- 
 populated and Mr. Haynie returned to^his home. 
 He died at Rutersville, August 20, 1860. His 
 wife, Elizabeth B., died October/ 4, 1863, at John 
 Caldwell's, Bastrop County. 
 
 Mrs. Caldwell was mother of eight children, viz. : 
 Margaretta, deceased ; John Adam, deceased ; 
 Mary, now Mrs. John H. Pope ; Charles G. ; 
 Walter H. ; Lucinda P., widow of the late R. T. 
 Hill; Oliver B., and Orlando, all occupj'ing 
 honorable positions in life. 
 
 MIFFLIN KENEDY, 
 
 CORPUS CHRISTI. 
 
 Capt. Mifflin Kenedy was born in Downingtown, 
 Chester County, Pa., June 8, 1818. His parents 
 were John Kenedy and Sarah (Starr) Kenedy, 
 members of the Society of Friends. 
 
 The ancestors of Capt. Kenedy's father emi- 
 grated from Ireland to Maryland as members of 
 Lord Baltimore's colony. They were Catholics, 
 but in the course of the next century some of them 
 embraced Protestantism. Capt. Kenedy's ances- 
 try, on his mother's side, is traced back to a very 
 remote period and boasts a long line of distin- 
 guished men ; among the number, mitred prelates 
 and paladins of chivalry, and last, those quiet 
 heroes of peace, the Quakers, who dared and suf- 
 fered all things for conscience sake. 
 
 The branch from which he is descended appear 
 in France, as Huguenots, early in the fifteenth 
 century, and were compelled to worship in fear and 
 seclusion in the forests and in the fastnesses and 
 gorges of the Pyrenees. At some time between 
 the massacre upon Saint Bartholomew's Day, in 
 1572, and the promulgation of the Edict of Nantes 
 by Henry of Navarre, in 1598, they escaped to 
 England. After a residence of some time in Great 
 Britain, they became Friends or Quakers, but they 
 had not yet found an asylum, where they could 
 worship the true God after the manner dictated by 
 their own consciences. Here they were made the 
 victims of hostile legislation, derided by a fanatical 
 populace and imprisoned in filthy dungeons, until 
 they looked toward the shores of America for 
 relief. In 1683, Mrs. Kenedy's progenitors, 
 George and Alice Maris, with their six children, 
 sailed as members of William Penn's first colony. 
 
 They settled at Springfield, twenty miles from 
 Philadelphia, in what is now called Delaware 
 County, Pa., and there many of their descend- 
 ants yet reside. The old homestead, originally 
 purchased from William Penn by George Maris, 
 still remains in undivided succession in the Maria 
 family. 
 
 Capt. Kenedy's childhood was spent in the 
 quietude of a Quaker home. He attended the 
 common schools of the country, acquired the ele- 
 ments of an English education, and was then, for 
 three months, in 1833, a pupil at the boarding school 
 of Jonathan Gause, afamous Quaker educator of the 
 time. He taught school during the winter of 1833-4, 
 after leaving the institution of Jonathan Gause, and 
 in the spring of 183i (April 4) sailed on board the 
 ship Star, at Philadelphia, as a boy before the mast. 
 The vessel was bound for Calcutta and on the out- 
 ward voyage touched at the Madeira Islands, Island 
 of Ceylon, at Madras and other points of interest. 
 When homeward bound, the vessel encountered a 
 typhoon, or hurricane, in the Bay of Bengal, sprung 
 a leak, and, after safely weathering the storm, put 
 into the Isle of France, where she underwent neces- 
 sary repairs. While on the Isle of France, Kenedy 
 visited what are shown as the tombs of Paul and 
 Virginia, at a little hamlet called Pamplemouses, 
 high up on the side of the mountain, and also the 
 port-hole in the rock, where it was Paul's custom 
 to sit watching for the ship that would bring back 
 Virginia. This pathetic story is familiar to nearly 
 every one who is acquainted with French, English 
 or Spanish literature. 
 
 The Star soon resumed her voyage and, touching 
 
230 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 at St. Helena for water, arrived at her wharf in 
 Philadelphia duiing the month of January, 1836. 
 
 The voyage to Calcutta thoroughly cured him of 
 his penchant for the sea. He returned to his home 
 and for three months taught school at Coatsvilie, 
 Chester County, Pa. While thus engaged he 
 met an old friend of his family and a resident 
 of that place, who had been out West and 
 who told him that steamboating on the Ohio river 
 offered fine opportunities for young men to get on 
 in the world and promised to give him a letter of 
 recommendation to a friend residing in Pittsburg, 
 Pa., and largely interested in steamboats. Kenedy 
 determined to take the advice proffered him, 
 surrendered his school, procured the letter of 
 recommendation and made his way to Pittsburg. 
 
 Arriving at his destination in June, 1836, he 
 delivered the letter and met with a kind reception 
 and was told that an effort would be made to secure 
 for him the first vacancy that occurred. In the 
 meantime he realized that he must secure employ- 
 ment by which he could earn funds sufficient to 
 defray current expenses, and, accordingly, worked 
 in a brick-yard until October 1, 1836, when he was 
 notified that the position of clerk on a steamer had 
 Ijeen secured for him. 
 
 From that time until 1842 he ran on the Ohio and 
 Mississippi rivers as clerk — sometimes acting as 
 (aptain. 
 
 In 1842 he went to Alabama and during one 
 season on the Alabama river served as clerk of the 
 Champion, a boat running from Mobile to Mont- 
 gomery. The Champion then proceeded to Apala- 
 chicola, Florida, and ran on the Apalachie and 
 Chattahoochie rivers until 1846. He retained his 
 position as clerk during these years and, in the 
 absence of the captain, acted as commander. 
 While thus engaged in Florida, he met Capt. 
 Richard King, then a river pilot and in after years 
 his partner in steamboat operations on the Rio 
 Grand and ranching in Southwest Texas. 
 
 Every spring, from the year 1843 to 1846, the 
 Champion was sent along the Gulf coast to New 
 Orleans and from that point up the Mississippi 
 and Ohio rivers to Pittsburg, where she was owned, 
 to be repaired. In the early part of 1846, Capt. 
 Kenedy was placed in charge of the boat and 
 ordered to take her to Pittsburg, Pa., and reached 
 his destination in April following. 
 
 Upon his arrival at Pittsburg, lie met Maj. John 
 Saunders, an engineer in the United States Army 
 and a friend of his, who was sent there by Gen. 
 Zaehary Taylor to obtain boats for the use of the 
 army on the Rio Grande. He employed Capt. 
 Kenedy to assist him in this work. Maj. Saun- 
 
 ders purchased the Corvette, Colonel Cross, Major 
 Brown, Whiteville and other boats for the service. 
 Capt. Kenedy was made commander of the 
 Corvette, and directed to proceetl to New Orleans 
 and report to Col. T. F. Hunt, of the Quartermas- 
 ter's Department, U. S. A. Col. Hunt confirmed 
 the appointment of Capt. Kenedy and he thereupon 
 enlisted for the war, as master, and was ordered to 
 proceed with the Corvette to the mouth of the Rio 
 Grande and report to Capt. E. A. Ogden, Assistant 
 Quartermaster, U. S. A. One of the reasons for 
 selecting him for this work was his experience in 
 conducting light boats over the Gulf. 
 
 He reached the station at tlie mouth of the Rio 
 Grande June 17, 1846, and from that time until the 
 close of the Mexican war transported troops and 
 provisions to Matauioros, Rejnosa, Camargo and 
 other points on the river. 
 
 After the victory at Buena Vista and while mov- 
 ing on Vera Cruz, Gen. Winfield Scott stopped 
 at the mouth of the Rio Grande, desiring to go to 
 Camargo and consult with Gen. Worth. Capt. 
 Kenedy's vessel, the Corvette, was the best in the 
 service and he was selected to take Gen. Scott and 
 staff up the river. 
 
 Capt. Richard King joined Capt. Kened3' in May, 
 1847, and acted as pilot of the Corvette until the 
 close of the war, in 1848. They were thoroughly 
 experienced steamboatmen and rendered their 
 country good service. Capt. Kenedy during his 
 long experience as a steamboatman never met with 
 an accident while in charge of a boat. 
 
 At the end of the Mexican war, he and two 
 other gentlemen (Mr. Samuel A. Belden and Capt. 
 James Walworth) bought a large number of mules 
 and wagons and a stock of merchandise aud started 
 for the fair at San Juan, in the State of Jalisco. 
 They did not succeed in reaching the fair, and sold 
 their outfit at Zacatecas and returned to Matamoros, 
 where they divided the proceeds of the trip and 
 dissolved partnership. Capt. Kenedy immedi- 
 ately purchased another stock of goods and, with 
 his merchandise loaded on pack-mules, started for 
 the interior of Mexico. Upon arriving at Monterej', 
 he sold out and returned to Brownsville, reaching 
 the latter place in the spring of 1850. 
 
 Seeing the necessity for good boats on the Rio 
 Grande, he then formed a partnership with Capt. 
 Richard King, Capt. James O'Donnell and Mr. 
 Charles Stillman, under the firm name of M. Kenedy 
 & Company. The gentlemen associated themselves 
 together for the purpose of building boats and run- 
 ning them upon the Rio Grande and along the 
 Gulf coast to Brazos Santiago. Capt. Kenedy 
 proceeded at once to Pittsburg, Pa., and 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 231 
 
 built two boats, the Comanche and Grampus, 
 vessels of 200 and 500 tons burden. He bought 
 Capt. O'Donnell's interest in the business dur- 
 ing the following two years and in 1865 the new 
 firm of King, Kenedy & Company was formed, as 
 Charles Stillman bad retired from the firm. These 
 two firms, during their existence, built and pur- 
 chased twenty-sis boats for the trade. In 1874 
 the firm of King, Kenedy & Company dissolved and 
 divided assets. 
 
 Capt. Richard King established the Santa Ger- 
 trudes ranch in Nueces County, Texas, in 1852, 
 and Capt. Kenedj' bought a half interest in it 
 December 6, 1860. They dissolved partnership in 
 October, 1868, taking share and share alike of the 
 cattle, horses and sheep. Capt. King, by agree- 
 ment, retained Santa Gertrudes ranch. 
 
 After the war between the States large bodies of 
 thieves, marauders and outlaws remained on the 
 frontier and committed such depredations on stock 
 that Capt. Kenedj' and Capt. King saw that 
 the only way to effectually protect their cattle 
 interests was to fence and, in order that they might 
 adopt this system, severed their business relations 
 ill this connection. Capt. Kenedy purchased and 
 inclosed the Laurelas ranch, situated in Nueces 
 County and consisting of 132,000 acres. Capt. 
 King also immediately made preparations to fence 
 !ind soon closed his pastures. They were the 
 first cattle-raisers in the State to inclose large 
 bodies of land. Capt. Kenedy remained on the 
 Laurelas ranch until he sold it, in 1882, to Under- 
 wood, Clark & Company, of Kansas City, for $1, 100,- 
 000 cash. At the time of the sale it contained 
 •242,000 acres of land, all fenced; 50,000 head of 
 cattle and 5,000 head of horses, mares and mules. 
 
 Col. Uriah Lott projected the Corpus Christi, 
 San Diego and Rio Grande narrow gauge railroad 
 from Corpus Christi to Laredo, Texas (163 miles), 
 in 1876. Col. Lott called Capt. Kenedy and 
 Capt. King to his assistance and together they 
 built the road and sold it In 1881 to the Mexican 
 National Construction Company. 
 
 In 1884 a number of citizens of San Antonio 
 projected the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Rail- 
 way, from San Antonio to Aransas Pass on the 
 Gulf of Mexico, organized and made arrangements 
 with Col. Uriah Lott (whom they elected presi- 
 dent) to prosecute the work. Construction was 
 commenced early in 1885, but languished for want 
 of means after a few miles were built. Col. 
 Lott called upon his friend, Capt. Kenedy, at 
 Corpus Christi, in June, 1885, explained to him 
 the situation, succeeded in interesting him in the 
 enterprise and, as president of the company, con- 
 
 tracted with him to build the road. Capt. 
 Kenedy supplied the money and credit necessary 
 for' the construction of the line and built 700 
 miles of road which are now in operation. He also 
 supplied a majority of the motive power and rolling 
 stock for the road. 
 
 The San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway was 
 constructed in a remarkably short time and with very 
 little noise. It is the most remarkable road ever 
 built in Texas, one of the most thoroughly 
 equipped in the South, has opened up to settlement 
 and commerce a magnificent section and has in- 
 creased values in San Antonio and the country 
 tributary to the road fully $100,000,000. 
 
 After the sale of the Laurelas ranch Capt. 
 Kenedy, in 1882, established the Kenedy Pasture 
 Company, of which he was president and treasurer, 
 and his son, Mr. John G. Kenedy, secretary and 
 general manager. The company's land lies in 
 Cameron Count}' and is thirty miles in length by 
 twenty in breadth — truly a princely domain. 
 
 At Brownsville, Texas, April 16, 1852, Capt. 
 Kenedy married Mrs. Petra Vela de Vidal, of Mier, 
 Mexico. To them were born six children, of 
 whom only two are now living : John G. and Sarah 
 Josephine (wife of Dr. A. E. Spohn, of Corpus 
 Christi). 
 
 Capt. Mifflin Kenedy had also an adopted 
 daughter. Miss Carmen Morel! Kenedy, a native of 
 Monterey, Mexico. 
 
 Although Capt. Kenedy spent a large portion 
 of his life on the Rio Grande frontier, and passed 
 through the days when that section was infested 
 with lawless and desperate men, he never had a 
 serious difficulty. This was due partly to the fact 
 that his courage was well known and recognized ; 
 parti}' to the probity that marked all his business 
 dealings, and partly to his cool and even tempera- 
 ment. 
 
 Capt. Mifflin Kenedy and Capt. Richard 
 King made their way to the Rio Grande at a 
 time when Southwest Texas was infested with 
 Indians, Mexicans and men from the States who 
 were a law unto themselves, or rather, who were 
 without any law except that of force, and who sub- 
 sisted upon the fruits of marauding expeditions. 
 Neither life nor property were safe and the sturdy 
 immigrant, in search of a peaceful home, turned to 
 more inviting regions. 
 
 From the close of the Mexican war they devoted 
 their talents, means and much of their time to 
 bringing about that reformation which eventuated 
 in banishing from that part of Texas the despera- 
 does, thieves and predatory savages that inhabited 
 it. They shunned no danger in the defense of their 
 
232 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 neighbors' rights anil in upholding the cause of law 
 and order. Texas owes them no small debt of 
 gratitude. 
 
 Capt. Kenedy died March 14, 189.5, at his home 
 
 in Corpus Christi. His remains are interred at 
 Brownsville, beside those of his beloved wife. 
 
 His name is indissolubly connected with the his- 
 tory and development of Texas. 
 
 MRS. P. V. KENEDY, 
 
 CORPUS CHRISTI. 
 
 Mrs. Petra V. Kenedy was born in Mier, Mex- 
 ico, June 29th, 1825. Her parents were Gregorio 
 and Josefa (Resendez) Vidal. Her first marriage 
 was to Louis Vidal in December, 1840, by whom 
 she had six children, Louisa, Rosa, Adrian, Guada- 
 lupe, Concepcion and Maria Vincenta. The Vidal 
 family was originally from Athens, Greece, and 
 removed first to Spain and thence to Mexico, where 
 a number of its scions figured conspicuously and 
 honorably in local history. Her uncle, Marin 
 Resendez, was Catholic Bishop of Zacatecas, Mex- 
 ico, and her father, Gregorio Vidal, was Provincial 
 Governor under the Spanish crown of the territory 
 lying between the Nueces and Rio Grande rivers 
 and had charge of all the Indian tribes in his 
 province. He was killed by mistake, by a band of 
 Indian warriors, under the chief Castro, in 1832, 
 or 1833, at the Alamo ranch, in Texas. He was 
 returning from one of his ranches (Beteno) and on 
 his way to Mier to attend to important business 
 matters, when he was killed. 
 
 Three of his daughters, who accompanied him, 
 were captured by the Indians. One was ransomed 
 in San Antonio, another escaped from them about 
 
 sixty miles from the Rio Grande and made her way 
 to friends, and the third, Paulita, was never heard 
 from, although an uncle searched for her among 
 the Indians for fifteen or twenty years. 
 
 The second marriage of our subject was at 
 Brownsville, Texas, to Capt. M. Kenedy, April 
 16th, 1852. Six children were born of this union : 
 Thomas, James, John G., Sarah J., William and 
 Phoebe Ann, of whom two only are now living: 
 John G. Kennedy and Mrs. Sarah J. Spohn. 
 
 Mrs. Petra V. Kennedy, died at Corpus Christi, 
 March IG, 1885. Her remains were taken to 
 Brownsville and laid in the family tomb. She was 
 considered one of the handsomest women of her 
 day. She was a woman of superior accomplish- 
 ments and great natural intelligence and was highly 
 respected for her womanly qualities. She possessed 
 one characteristic for which she will ever be 
 remembered in many a heart and home — her un- 
 bounded charity. A friend of the poor and humble, 
 none ever left her empty-handed, and she gave for 
 the pure and unalloyed happiness she found in 
 giving. She was a well-fitted help-meet to her 
 husband and was a devoted wife and loving mother. 
 
 JNO. G. KENEDY, 
 
 CORPUS CHRISTI. 
 
 Jno. G. Kenedy is a son of the late Capt. M. 
 Kenedy, who was one of the wealthiest cattle rais- 
 ers in Texas in his day ; the man to whose energj', 
 clear-sightedness, public spirit, and liberality. 
 Southwest Texas is indebted for the construction of 
 the San Antonio and Aransas Pass and other lines 
 of railway within its territory. The subject of this 
 
 memoir was born in Brownsville, Texas, April 26, 
 1856, attended a private school at Coatesville, 
 Penn., where he remained four years, returned to 
 Texas in 1867, and attended St. Joseph's College 
 at Brownsville for nearlj- a year and then entered 
 Spring Hill College, Mobile, Ala., where he was a 
 student during the succeeding four years. He 
 
IXDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 233 
 
 completed a commercial course in 1873, spent a 
 few months at Lis home in Corpus Christi, and then 
 went to New Orleans, where he accepted a position 
 with Perliins, Swenson & Co., banljevs and commis- 
 sion merchants. He remained with this firm for a 
 year and a half, and then, in 1877, returned home. 
 In April, 1877, he started on the cattle trail from 
 Laurelas, his father's rancli, to Fort Dodge, Kan., 
 
 owned GOO square miles of pasture lands, all under 
 fence and supplied with windmills, tanks, and every 
 modern convenience, and well stocked with cattle. 
 In 1884, he became general manager and took entire 
 charge of his father's ranch. This ranch has IGO 
 miles of fencing, a water front on BafHns Bay, and 
 Laguna Madre of sixty miles and fifty-one wind- 
 mills, and is stocked with about 50,000 head of im- 
 
 JNO. G. kenp:dy. 
 
 accompanying 18,000 head of cattle. He remained 
 two months at Fort Dodge, drove a herd of 2,000 
 cattle to Ogalala, Neb., returned to Corpus Christi, 
 worked for his father on the Laurelas ranch for 
 six months and then wfent into the sheep business 
 on his own account, in which he remained until 
 1882, when he sold out to Lott and Nelson. After 
 the sale of the Laurelas ranch, Mr. Kenedy became 
 secretary of the Kenedy Pasture Company, which 
 
 proved cattle, and 1,000 saddle horses, and employs 
 seventy-five or eighty cow boys, and other helpers. 
 Mr. Kenedy married Miss Maria Stella Turcotte, of 
 New Orleans, January 30th, 1884, and has two 
 children living: Jno. G. Kenedy, Jr., and Sarah 
 Josephine Kenedy. Mrs. Kenedy is a daughter of 
 the late Joseph Turcotte, a well-known merchant 
 and prominent citizen of New Orleans. Mr. Jno. 
 G. Kenedy has inherited the abilities of his father, 
 
■234 
 
 INDIAN WAES AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 who fully appreciated his capacity. He will add 
 largely to the princely estate which has come to him 
 liy inheritance, and, no doubt, be as great a factor 
 
 for good in Southwest Texas, in his day and gen- 
 eration, as his father was in his and add new luster 
 to the family name. 
 
 JOHN MARKWARD, 
 
 LAMPASAS. 
 
 The German element in Texas has been a very 
 important factor in the history of the State, and in 
 addition to the colonies which are mentioned at 
 some length in this work there are many individual 
 instances of intelligent enterprise and good citizen- 
 ship deserving of notice as illustrative of the 
 character of the men and women of that race who 
 have helped to settle the country, found its insti- 
 tutions, give direction to its energies and standing 
 to its society. One of this number is John Mark- 
 ward, for the past forty years a resident of 
 Lampasas, being one of the oldest citizens of that 
 place. 
 
 Mr. Markward is a native of Prussia, born in the 
 jirovince of Pomerauia on the Baltic Sea, in the 5'ear 
 1834. His boyhood and early youth were spent in 
 his native place, in the schools of which he received 
 what would, in this country, be the equivalent of a 
 good high school education. At about the age of 
 seventeen having heard a great deal of Texas 
 through the different colonization enterprises then 
 on foot in Germany, he determined to try his 
 fortunes in the New World. He sailed from 
 Bremen aboard the Diana, a vessel then exten- 
 sively engaged in the transportation of emigrants, 
 and landed at Indianola, this State, on the 2d of 
 November, 1852. He came in company with a 
 considerable number of his countrymen, perhaps 
 150 or 200, none of whom, however, he knew, and 
 not having come out as a member of any colony he 
 immediately' struck out for himself, going from 
 Indianola to Gonzales. At Gonzales he found em- 
 ployment in a few days and remained there some 
 months, going thence to De Witt County, where he 
 remained the better part of three years. This time 
 was spent in the employ of a Frenchman named 
 Guichard who was a merchant and trader residing 
 on Peach creek. Young Markward was variously 
 engaged while with Guichard peddling, clerking 
 and doing carpenter's work; but, in all, advancing 
 himself in a knowledge of the ways and means of 
 
 getting on in the world, and saving some means 
 from his earnings. 
 
 In the fall of 1856 he concluded to go to the 
 " up-countr3'," and in company with an acquaint- 
 ance, went to Coryell County, where he had in- 
 tended to locate, but on account of the drouth and 
 bad crops left at the end of the first year, and, in 
 the fall of 1857, settled in Lampasas, then a frontier 
 town in a newly organized county. His first 
 employment at Lampasas was in the capacity of 
 miller for George Scott, whose little grist-mill situ- 
 ated on the outskirts of the town was one of the 
 chief fndustries of the place and liberall}' patronized 
 throughout that section. Scott and his mill have 
 both long since passed away but are remembered 
 by many of the old citizens. Mr. Markward 
 worked for Scott until a short time before the open- 
 ing of the late Civil War, when on account of a 
 failure of health he was forced to seek other pur- 
 suits. Joining two of his acquaintances he bought 
 up several hundred pounds of bacon which he 
 hauled overland with wagon and ox-teams to Alex- 
 andria., La, where he sold it at a good profit 
 and, reinvesting the proceeds in tobacco, brought 
 that back to Texas and sold it at a still better 
 profit. Then the war came on, and in the spring 
 of 1862, he entered the Confederate Arm}-, enlist- 
 ing in Gurley's Regiment, Gano's Battalion, with 
 which he was in active service in Arkansas and 
 Indian Territory till the close of hostilities. Soon 
 after enlistment Mr. Markward was made the 
 apothecary of his regiment, his knowledge of bot- 
 any and drugs, acquired as part of his education in 
 his youth, together with his steady habits, qualify- 
 ing him in a special degree for the discharge of the 
 duties of this responsible position. He was more 
 than a mere "pill-mixer." In difficult cases he 
 acted as nurse and sometimes in the absence of the 
 physician of the regiment he prescribed In such 
 cases as he felt sure he could apply proper reme- 
 dies. An amusing incident is told of the way he 
 
r >i 
 
 'T3)\^^ RflAOSB&w^En:^ 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 235 
 
 cured three chronic cases of rheumatism which had 
 baffled the skill of the regimental physician for 
 nearly three years. There were three brothers 
 (their names will be omitted) who had been trying, 
 almost from the time of their enlistment in the 
 service, to get discharged on account of feigned 
 rheumatic troubles, one being afflicted with the 
 trouble between the shoulders, another with it in 
 the back, and third in the hips. The doctor had 
 treated them until he had become satisfied that 
 there was nothing the matter with them and 
 bad tried other means to arouse them to a 
 sense of decency, but had signally failed, and 
 finally in the presence of the captain of the com- 
 pany to which they belonged, said: " Mark ward, 
 I am done with those fellows. If you think you 
 can do anything with them, take charge of their 
 cases." Mr. Markward replied that he did not 
 know what he could do, but that he would try and 
 see. Calling the patients up he informed them 
 that the doctor had turned them over to him for 
 treatment, and that he proposed to resort to heroic 
 measures. He told them that cupping was the 
 thing for rheumatism, and that he was going to 
 begin to operate on them at once. So, making 
 each one bare his back, Mr. Markward got out all 
 the cups he had, heated them, and slapping on 
 four cups to the patient gave each a first-class 
 cupping. As a result all of them had sore backs 
 for several days, and the joke getting out in camp 
 and the patients, not knowing what next to expect 
 in case they continued their complaining, concluded 
 to "give under." They did so with as much 
 grace as the nature of the case admitted of, and 
 after that till the close of the war made very good 
 soldiers. Mr. Markward met one of them some 
 years afterwards, and the conversation turning on 
 the incident the latter confessed to the fraud which 
 he and his bi'others had been guilty of, and laughed 
 heartily over the very effectual way the " pill- 
 mixer " of the regiment had cured the three 
 chronic cases which had set at defiance the pro- 
 fessional efforts of the regiment's physician. 
 
 At tiie close of the war Mr. Markward embarked 
 in the mercantile business at Lampasas, the money 
 which he had made in his Alexandria venture, 
 about $G00, constituting the capital on which he 
 began. His beginning though unassuming, was 
 auspicious, and it was not many years until his 
 establishment came to be one of the first in the 
 town where he was located, and he took rank as one 
 of the solid men of the community. That he has 
 been successful much beyond the average man 
 is well known to those familiar with his career 
 and the manner of his building up equally well 
 known. It was by the observance of a few simple 
 
 rules : Employing strict integrity in all his deal- 
 ings, living within his means, never leaving to 
 others what he could do himself, treating all cour- 
 teously, and extending aid where he could without 
 injury to his business, avoiding debts of a spec- 
 ulative nature and shunning the ruinous pastimes 
 of youth and early manhood, which destroy first 
 one's business, and afterwards his character. 
 
 Mr. Markward did not marry till late in life. 
 His marriage took place at Lampasas, and was to 
 Miss Adelphia Florence White, a daughter of Maj. 
 Martin White, an old and respected citizen of Lam- 
 pasas. Mrs. Markward died, May 22, 1894, leav- 
 ing three children, two daughters and a son, two 
 children having preceded her to the grave. 
 
 Of Mr. Markward's public career there is but 
 little to be said. He has been solicited to run for 
 office many times but has persistently refused to do 
 so, and the only public position which he has ever 
 occupied was that of postmaster at Lampasas, which 
 he held for eight years, immediately after the war. 
 But whatever has been suggested as being of public 
 necessity' or public benefit has alwaj'S found in him 
 a willing and able supporter, and this is especially 
 true of all those aids to order, law, morality, edu- 
 cation and good society. Mr. Markward's connec- 
 tion with one enterprise is especially worthy of 
 note, that being the railway that now traverses the 
 county in which he lives. When the Gulf, Colorado 
 and Santa Fe Eailway was projected through that 
 section of the State it fell to his lot to secure the 
 right of way for the road through Lampasas County. 
 He spent the better part of two years in the under- 
 taking, meeting with many obstacles, but was finally 
 successful, securing the right of way for a dis- 
 tance of seventy-five miles at the nominal cost of 
 $2,100.00. 
 
 Mr. Markward is a man of considerable individu- 
 ality of character. He is thoroughly self-reliant. 
 He is not a member of any order and, though he 
 votes and acts with the Democratic party, he is not 
 in any sense a partisan. He was reared in the 
 faith of the Lutheran Church, but is a contributor 
 to all denominations, being bound by none. He 
 believes in every one enjoying the fullest measure 
 of individual liberty consistent with the rights of 
 others. 
 
 In disposition he is genial and pleasant, full of 
 life and possessing a keen perception of the humor- 
 ous side of things. 
 
 In December, 1894, Mr. Markward retired from 
 active business pursuits, since which time he has 
 devoted his attention to the training of his children, 
 all of whom are still small, and to the supervision 
 of his estate, one of the largest in the county where 
 he resides. 
 
236 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 JOHN RICHARDSON HARRIS. 
 
 HARRISBURG. 
 
 John Richardson Harris was born October 22d, 
 1790, at Cayuga P'erry, now East Cayuga, N. Y., 
 and May 7th, 1813, married Miss Jane Birdsall, 
 daughter of Mr. Lewis and Mrs. Patience (Lee) Bird- 
 sail, of Waterloo, Seneca Falls, N. Y. , and for several 
 years thereafter resided at East Cayuga. During 
 the war of 1812-14 he volunteered and commanded 
 a company in the line ; and with his father, Col. 
 John Harris, is honorably mentioned by Gen. Win- 
 field Scott in his memoirs of the campaign. He 
 emigrated to Missouri, and in 1819 was living at St. 
 Genevieve, where he was joined by his wife and two 
 children, and where his third child, Mary Jane, was 
 born August 17th, 1819. Here becoming acquainted 
 with Moses Austin, who was contemplating the col- 
 onization of Texas, then a possession of Spain, he 
 determined to embark in the enterprise. In July, 
 1820, providing his family with a fine team suitable 
 for making the long overland trip back to Cayuga, 
 he accompanied them on horseback as far as Vin- 
 cennes. Having taken a contract to build a State 
 house at Vandalia, he returned to complete this en- 
 gagement, and then, visiting Texas, selected a loca- 
 tion for a home in the colony. In 1824 he received 
 a grant of land from the Mexican government of 
 4425 acres, which he located at the junction of Buf- 
 falo and Bray's bayous, about twenty miles from 
 Galveston Bay ; in 1826 laid out a town at this 
 point called Harrisburg ; soon after brought out 
 machinery for a steam saw-mill and purchased a 
 schooner called the " Rights of Man," which, 
 under the command of his brother David, plied 
 between this place and New Orleans, supplying the 
 colonists with provisions and other necessary arti- 
 cles, which were kept for sale at his store at Harris- . 
 burg. Holding the post of Alcalde, or local judge, 
 from the Mexican government, it was said he was 
 accustomed to hear causes seated under the spread- 
 ing branches of a large magnolia tree, situated on 
 a picturesque point of land separating the two bay- 
 ous. The country was too unsettled to admit of 
 his family moving to Texas at first, but in 1829 
 every thing promised well for their early removal 
 to their new home. There were no saw-mills in 
 the colony until his was erected. The machinery 
 was on the ground ready to be put in place 
 in August, 1829, when he found it necessary to 
 make a trip to New Orleans. There he was taken 
 sick with yellow fever and died August 21st, 
 
 1829. His widow, Mrs. Jane (Birdsall) Harris was 
 descended from a family of Birdsalls who emi- 
 grated from England in 1657-60, and settled 
 on Long Island, N. Y. Her grandfather, Ben- 
 jamin Birdsall, was a Colonel in the Revolu- 
 tionary army, living at that time in Duchess 
 County, N. Y. He and Gen. Washington were 
 warm friends and the General usually stopped at 
 his house when in the neighborhood. Lewis, son 
 of Benjamin Birdsall, married Patience Lee and 
 emigrated to western New York, settled first at 
 Penn Yan and afterwards near Waterloo on a farm, 
 and in 1829 or 1830 emigrated to Texas, where he 
 lived on Buffalo bayou until the time of his death, 
 which occurred in March, 1843. Mrs. Jane (Bird- 
 sall) Harris, daughter of Mr. Lewis Birdsall, was 
 a woman of rare courage and determination. These 
 qualities she displayed in traversing the wild, un- 
 settled regions intervening between her home near 
 Waterloo, N. Y., and St. Genevieve, Mo., at a 
 time when there were few white settlers, and in her 
 experience in the early days of the colonization of 
 Texas, which alone would suffice to fill a book of 
 interesting matter. In 1833, she, with her son, De 
 Witt Clinton Harris, removed to Harrisburg, 
 Texas, and participated not only in the hardships 
 of colonial life in the wild country, but also shared 
 dangers of the struggle for independence from 
 Mexico in 1835-36. From March 19th to April 
 16th, 1836, the home of Mrs. Harris was the head- 
 quarters of the provisional government of Texas. 
 When she heard of the near approach of the invad- 
 ing Mexican arm}', she and her household went 
 on board a schooner, which conveyed President 
 Burnett, Vice-President Zavala and others to New 
 Washington, and herself and other refugees to 
 Anahuac. The next day she was conveyed to 
 Galveston Island and with many others was en- 
 camped there when the news of the glorious battle 
 of San Jacinto, fought April 21st, 1836, reached 
 them. About the first of May she and her two 
 sons, Lewis B. and De Witt Clinton Harris (who 
 had arrived at Galveston, April 21st, for the pur- 
 pose of joining the Texas army), returned to Har- 
 risburg to find that every house had been burned 
 to the ground by the Mexicans under Santa Anna. 
 Her house was rebuilt of logs, hewn by the 
 Mexican prisoners and with various additions and 
 improvements stood until October 11th, 1888, when 
 
ANDREW BKIfSCOE. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 237 
 
 it was destroyed by fire. Upon the organization of 
 counties in the Republic of Texas, the territory em- 
 bracing a large tract of land was named Harris in 
 honor of John Richardson Harris. Mrs. Jane 
 Harris, his widow, could never be prevailed upon to 
 leave her homestead and lived there until her 
 death, which occurred August 15th, 1869. She 
 left four children, Dc Wilt Clinton Harris, who 
 
 married Miss Saville Fenwick, Lewis Birdsall 
 Harris, who married first, Miss Jane E. Wilcox, 
 and, after her death, Mrs. Amanda C. Dell; 
 Miss Mary Jane Harris, who married Judge 
 Andrew Briscoe, and John Birdsall Harris, who 
 married Miss Virginia Goodrich. The only one 
 of her children surviving her is her daughter, Mrs. 
 Briscoe. 
 
 ANDREW BRISCOE, 
 
 HOUSTON. 
 
 Judge Andrew Briscoe was the son of Mr. Par- 
 menas and Mrs. Mary (Montgomery) Briscoe. He 
 was descended from a cavalier family of England. 
 Four brothers of this family emigrated to Virginia 
 about the year 1655, in Cromwell's time. His 
 grandfather, William Briscoe, married Miss Eliza- 
 beth Wallace in Virginia and, in 1785, emigrated to 
 Kentucky. Soon after becoming of age, Mr. Par- 
 menas Briscoe emigrated to the Mississippi Terri- 
 tory where, on December 18th, 1809, he married 
 Miss Mary Montgomery, daughter of Mr. Samuel 
 and Mrs. Margaret (Crockett) Montgomery. He 
 was commander of a company in the Creek War, 
 and also in the war of 1812-14. He was for 
 several years General of militia of Mississippi and 
 served as a member of the Territorial Legislature 
 and the State Senate. While a member of the 
 latter body he introduced a bill which urged an 
 investigation of the status of the numerous banks 
 which were doing business without a substantial 
 capital. It resulted in breaking them up. Bris- 
 coe's bill was famous in Mississippi, as the measure 
 aroused very bitter feelings. In 1843, he was re- 
 elected to the State Senate by a larger majority 
 than ever and was urged to allow his name to go 
 before the people as a candidate for Congress. 
 This he refused to do, but continued a recog- 
 nized leader of Democracy up to March, 1851, 
 when he went to California. He died on 
 his return trip in 1851 aboard ship near 
 Acapulco, Mexico, and was buried at sea. His 
 son. Judge Andrew Briscoe, subject of this 
 memoir, was born November 25th, 1810, in Adams 
 County, Mississippi ; emigrated to Texas in 1834, 
 carrying with him a large stock of goods, and 
 established himself at Anahuac, the chief port of 
 entry on Galveston Bay. His resistance to the 
 
 arbitrary collection of customs dues June, 1835, 
 sought to be collected by Capt. Tenorio, the Mexi- 
 can commander of the garrison, upon goods merely 
 to be transported from one town in the colony to 
 another, led to the first active measures of resist- 
 ance taken by the patriot Texians in 1835. Led by 
 Wm. B. Travis, a band of Texians collected at 
 Harrisburg and vicinity, loaded a six-pound can- 
 non on board the sloop " Ohio," attacked the Mexi- 
 can garrison at Anahuac, disarmed the Mexicans 
 and released Andrew Briscoe from the loathsome 
 prison in which he had been confined for several 
 days. In October, 1835, he was elected Captain of 
 the Liberty Volunteers, who participated with him 
 in the battle of Concepcion, October 28th, 1835. 
 He was one of the volunteers who stormed and 
 took San Antonio, December 6th, 1835, and was 
 later elected a member of the convention to assem- 
 ble at Washington, Texas, March 1st, 1836, and 
 but for this circumstance would have been one of 
 the victims of the Alamo. He left the army at 
 San Antonio in the latter part of February, but a 
 day or two before the town was invested by Mexi- 
 cans. Arriving at Washington he affixed his name 
 to the Declaration of Independence, which made 
 Texas a free and independent republic. He raised 
 a company of regulars for the army, which, as 
 Company A., he commanded in the battle of San 
 Jacinto, April 21st, 1836. Soon after this event, 
 which assured the tranquillity of the Republic, he 
 was appointed Chief Justice of Harris County. 
 August 17th, 1837, he married Miss Mary Jane 
 Harris, daughter of Mr. John R. and Mrs. Jane 
 (Birdsall) Harris. In 1839 he obtained a charter 
 for the Harrisburg and Brazos R. R., the first ob- 
 tained in Texas. A few miles of gradingjwas done 
 but the enterprise was abandoned. The route 
 
238 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 which it was designed to follow forms a part of the 
 present system of the Southern Pacific Railway. 
 He owned the first two-story dwelling erected in 
 Houston, where he lived for a year or two after his 
 marriage. Removing to Harrisbiirg in 1840, he 
 built there a two-story brick dwelling and engaged 
 in the cattle business until 1849, wlien he removed 
 to New Orleans and opened a house of banking 
 and exchange. In the same year he was taken 
 sick, and died October 4, 1849. His body was 
 taken to Mississippi and buried in the family bury- 
 
 ing-ground on his father's plantation in Claiborne 
 coant^'. His v^idovv, Mrs Mary Jane Briscoe, lives 
 at Houston, Harris Count}', Texas. Their descend- 
 ants are Parmenas Briscoe, who lives with liis 
 mother, Andrew Birdsall Briscoe, who married 
 Miss Annie F. Payne, daughter of Mr. Jonathan 
 and Mrs. Mary (Vance) Payne, and lives at San 
 Antonio ; Miss Jessie Wade Briscoe, who married 
 Mr. Milton Grosvenor Howe and lives in Houston, 
 and Miss Adele Lubbock Briscoe, who married 
 Maj. M. Looscan and lives in Houston. 
 
 MRS. MARY JANE BRISCOE, 
 
 HOUSTON. 
 
 Miss Marj' Jane Harris was the daughter of Mr. 
 John R. and Mrs. Jane (Birdsall) Harris and was 
 born at St. Genevieve, Mo., August 17, 1819, 
 where her parents were temporarily residing. Re- 
 turning to New York when an infant she passed 
 her girlhood at the homestead of her grandfather, 
 situated half way between Waterloo and Seneca 
 Falls. When her mother and brother came to 
 Texas in 1833, she remained at school until after 
 the battle of San Jacinto, when, in company with 
 her grandfather, Mr. Lewis Birdsall, her cousin, 
 George Babcock, and her younger brother, John 
 Birdsall Harris, she started to Texas. They spent 
 several weeks in travel, going first by canal to Cin- 
 cinnati, thence on board a small steamboat to 
 Portsmouth and down the Ohio and Mississippi in 
 boats of various sizes until they reached New 
 Orleans. Here they were joined by other mem- 
 bers of the family also en route to Texas. The 
 other relatives who joined them were Dr. Maurice 
 Birdsall, her uncle, and Dr. Abram Van Tuyl, the 
 husband of her aunt, Eliza Birdsall. They took 
 passage on the schooner ^^ Julius Ca'sar" and had 
 for fellow passengers several men who had taken 
 a prominent part in the recent stirring events in 
 Texas. They arrived at the mouth of the Brazos 
 river at the town of Quintana in the latter part 
 of September. There were but two or three 
 houses at this place, the largest being a two-story 
 boarding-house built of rough lumber. Here they 
 spent only a few days, and taking passage on the 
 steamboat •' Yellowstone," proceeded to Brazoria, 
 where they stopped at the boarding-house kept by 
 Mrs. Jane Long, the widow of Dr. James Long, 
 
 who about fifteen years before had met a tragic 
 fate in the city of Mexico. Only a few miles dis- 
 tant, at Columbia, the first Congress of the Repub- 
 lic of Texas was in session, it having assembled 
 October 3d, 1836. Mrs. Long's house was fre- 
 quently visited by the different otHcers and repre- 
 sentatives of the government. Here Miss Mary 
 Jane Harris first met the President of the Republic, 
 Gen. Sara Houston, beside many others whose part 
 in the late successful conflict had made them heroes 
 of all time. At a short distance, at the plantation 
 of Dr. Phelps, Santa Anna was a prisoner. He 
 was released soon afterwards. Thus did she almost 
 immediately upon her arrival in Texas, make the 
 acquaintance of prominent actors in the late revo- 
 lution. Although a mail service had been estab- 
 lished by the government, it was very imperfect and 
 news traveled slowly. About two weeks were spent 
 at Brazoria before De Witt Clinton Harris, her 
 brother, arrived from Harrisburg, bringing a saddle 
 horse for her. Ox-teams were procured for con- 
 veying the baggage, groceries, etc., which they 
 had brought with them from New York. At length 
 the whole party set out on horseback and, as there 
 had been very heavy rains, the prairies most of the 
 distance of fifty miles were entirely covered with 
 water. Arriving at Harrisburg, they found Mrs. 
 Harris living in the only house which had been 
 spared by the Mexicans when they burnt the place 
 a few months before. It stood in the edge of the 
 prairie and escaped because unseen by them and 
 was always known as the Prairie House. The 
 Mexican prisoners, of whom Mrs. Harris had a 
 number, were engaged in rebuilding her home on 
 
MRS. MARY J. BRISCOE. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 239 
 
 the site of the one destioyed. As there were no 
 saw-mills, it was constructed of hewn logs and 
 some of the same men who had kindled the fire 
 under the old house chopped logs to build the new 
 one. It was here, in the "Prairie House" that 
 Mary Jane first met Andrew Briscoe, who was a 
 warm friend of her mother and brothers, and 
 August 17, 1837, she became his wife, the marriage 
 ceremony being performed by Mr. Isaac Batterson, 
 in the new house, which by that time was partly 
 completed. In the meantime the city of Houston 
 had become the new seat of government and the 
 county seat of Harris County. As Mr. Briscoe's 
 appointment as Chief Justice of the county of Harris 
 necessitated his residence in Houston, he purchased 
 a two-story residence in process of building on 
 Main street, about one block from the capitol and 
 where is now situated the Prince building, on the 
 corner of Main and Prairie streets. Mrs. Briscoe's 
 life is so closely connected with that of her hus- 
 band, that it is unnecessary to repeat her different 
 places of residence. As opportunities to purchase 
 large tracts of land induced him to make long 
 journeys into the interior of the sparsely settled 
 country, she frequently accompanied him, although 
 traveling was attended with danger on account of 
 the inroads often made by hostile Indians. At 
 Anderson, Grimes County, they stopped over night 
 at the house of Mrs. Kennard, who showed in the 
 floor one loose board, kept purposely so, that in 
 case of an attack by Indians she could make her 
 escape under the house. After the death of her 
 husband in 1849 Mrs. Briscoe lived for two years 
 on the plantation of his father in Claiborne County, 
 Mississippi, remaining there during the absence of 
 the latter in California, and until after his death, 
 in 1851. 
 
 Returning to Texas in 1852, she lived for some 
 years at Anderson^ Grimes County, where the Rev. 
 Chas. Gillette had established an Episcopal school, 
 under the title of St. Paul's College, and where she 
 hoped to be able to give her sons a collegiate edu- 
 cation without being separated from them. After 
 a residence of six years there, the school having 
 proved unsuccessful, she moved to Galveston, 
 which offered the best educational advantages of 
 any city in the State. In 1859, at her mother's 
 solicitation, she returned to Harrisburg, where she 
 lived until 1873, when she moved to Houston. 
 Through careful economy she was able to raise and 
 educate her children on a limited income, keeping 
 for them the greater part of the large landed inter- 
 ests held by her husband at the time of his death. 
 An unusual affection characterizes this family 
 worthy of mention and of imitation. While Judge 
 
 Briscoe at his death in 1849 left considerable prop- 
 erty, consisting chiefly of laud in Texas, yet to this 
 day his children have never sought to obtain any 
 part of it although entitled to it under the community 
 laws of the State, but have left their mother the ex- 
 clusive control of it, thereby showing their deep filial 
 affection and sincere appreciation of her devotion to 
 them in childhood and in youth. She feels a reason- 
 able pride in her husband's connection with the war 
 of Texas Independence and a sincere affection for 
 those who shared with him the dangers of the 
 Revolution. For years she has been a member of 
 the Texas Veterans' Association and takes great 
 pleasure in their annual re-unions. At the earnest 
 solicitation of her friends she wrote an account of 
 one of these re-unions, which was published at the 
 time in several of the newspapers, and is given 
 below : — 
 
 THE TEXAS VETERANS THEIR LATE MEETING AT 
 
 TEMPLE. 
 
 " At the meeting of the Veteran Association in 
 1887, Temple was selected as the place for meet- 
 ing on April 20, 1888. It is beautifully situated in 
 a high rolling prairie country, on the Santa Fe 
 Railroad, 245 miles from Galveston. As it is only 
 seven years old, many fears were entertained that 
 the hearts of the citizens were too large for the 
 accommodating capacity of their young town ; but 
 all such fears were dispelled, and Temple proved 
 itself equal to the emergency. Everything was 
 managed with tact and skill, and the Veterans were 
 unanimous in their expressions of praise and grati- 
 tude. A committee met them at the railroad 
 depot, and conveyed them to their allotted destina- 
 tions, generally some private house. Mine was the 
 home of Mr. F. H. Ayers, which is beautifully 
 situated. In the view from his gallery the undu- 
 lations of the surrounding country looked, in the 
 distance, like miniature lakes. If all the Veterans 
 were as delightfully located as myself, they will 
 long rememlier with pleasure their meeting at 
 Temple. Mr. and Mrs. Ayers were the soul of 
 hospitality. Their house seemed made of rubber, 
 or like a street car — never so full but it could take 
 one more ; but there the similitude ends, for the 
 dear lady's only regret was that she had one cot 
 which had not been occupied, so there was no 
 standing up. 
 
 '■On the morning of the 20th, we all repaired to 
 the Opera House, which is large and well ventilated, 
 with very comfortable seats. In addition to the 
 usual decorations of flags and placards, suspended 
 in the center of the stage was ' Old Betsj^' an old 
 rifle which had been in most of the battles for 
 
240 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 independence, and is supposed to have killed more 
 Indians than any other gun, besides having supplied 
 the owner's family with food for many years. The 
 owner, Rufus C. Campbell, was not only distin- 
 guished for ' Old Betsy's' unerring aim, but also 
 as having forged the fetters which were put upon 
 Gen. Santa Anna, when it was thought he was 
 planning to escape. Mr. Campbell's widow (who 
 was a daughter of Uncle David Ayers) had the 
 pleasure of hearing Miss Lucy Diske, one of their 
 forty-five grandchildren, make a very beautiful and 
 appropriate address upon presenting the Veterans 
 with an elegant satin flag from the ladies of 
 Belton. 
 
 "The Rev. J. C. Woollam, our grand old Chap- 
 lain, his colossal frame and white head towering 
 above all others, in his opening prayer brought 
 tears to all eyes. I have met with the Veterans 
 several times, and the last meeting always seems 
 more heartfelt, more glorious, more like a meeting 
 of a holy brotherhood, than any former one. On 
 these occasions familiar faces call up soul-stirring 
 scenes in the past, and thrilling adventures flash 
 upon their memories. As they meet in these an- 
 nual re-unions and exchange heartfelt greetings, 
 they are filled with the desires and hopes of other 
 days — 'The days when life was new, and the 
 heart promised what the fancy drew'- — the 
 " times that tried men's souls' — when their lives, 
 their fortunes, and their sacred honor were pledged 
 for home and countr}', God and liberty ; that 
 period when the repeated assaults of Indians and 
 Mexicans had nerved their arms and fired their 
 hearts to strike for freedom from the tyrannical 
 0|)pression of Mexico. It comes to them with the 
 freshness of yesterday, when they left their homes 
 and loved ones, to face the foe, drive back the 
 invader, and save their all from destruction. 
 Sooner will their right hand forget its cunn- 
 ing and their tongues cleave to the roof of 
 their mouths, than they cease to remember 
 and talk of Gonzales, Goliad, Concepcion, the 
 storming of San Antonio, where the gallant Milam 
 fell, the massacre of Fannin, the fall of the Alamo, 
 the battle of San Jacinto, of Plum Creek, the Salado, 
 the Cherokee fight, and other bloody and desperate 
 engagements. The names of all of these, with the 
 date of each engagement, printed upon placards, 
 are always placed upon the walls of the assembly 
 room. As a placard catches the eye of the veterans 
 one will say to another : ' We were together in 
 that fight; don't you remember how you had to 
 hold the mule's nose to keep her from betraying 
 us to the Indians before we were ready for them ? ' 
 'I don't see your wife; the good woman can now 
 
 sleep in a white gown if she likes ' — alluding to 
 the custom of our frontier women sleeping in 
 colored gowns so as not to be so good a mark for 
 Indians in case of a night attack. To which the 
 answer will be : ' Oh, yes ; but it always costs some- 
 thing to come to these meetings, and when my wife 
 found I would have to pay full fare for her on the 
 cars, she said as I was so much better of my rheuma- 
 tism, I could make out without her; but she will 
 miss it mightily, as she liked to talk over her Indian 
 scares with those who knew her in the old times, 
 when we would be for weeks together with nothing 
 but venison to eat.' 
 
 " It was a touching sight when the genial presi- 
 dent of the Association (himself a hero of many 
 battles) would single out some noted Indian fighter, 
 and taking the old man upon the stage, tell the 
 audience of some of his heroic deeds. How every 
 eye would kindle with enthusiasm, and everj' voice 
 raise a cheer, and the poor old hero, bursting into 
 tears, would sink into his seat, with not a dry eye 
 around him. 
 
 "It is this which makes these meetings so dear to 
 these old ones. At home they are nothing but 
 poor decrepit old men and women, who are outliving 
 their allotted span of life — fossils that cumber 
 the ground. They know it ; they feel it ; but 
 when they meet at these reunions, all is changed ; 
 instead of being looked upon as unwelcome 
 intruders, they are treated with the greatest courtesy, 
 with veneration, as heroes, and every man, woman 
 and child seeks to do them honor. It is no wonder 
 that their tears lie near the surface, and are often 
 seen filling their eyes when some gallant j'outh or 
 beautiful maiden tells of their heroic deeds and the 
 manly fortitude displayed by them iu conquering 
 all the hardships, difficulties and dangers by which 
 they were surrounded. 
 
 " Nor should admiration and veneration be con- 
 fined to their heroic deeds upon the battlefield. 
 The women of this land should always hold them in 
 grateful remembrance ; for were they not the first 
 men on earth to throw around the wife and mother 
 the protection of the homestead law? Were they 
 not the first to protect woman in the ownership 
 of her separate property, and to give her an interest 
 in the community property .' They also surpassed 
 all other legislators, in making provision, for all 
 time to come, for the universal free education of 
 children. 
 
 " The memorial service is very solemn and affect- 
 ing, and the Rev. Mr. Stribling always very elo- 
 quent in his sermon. Thirty-nine is the number 
 on the death-roll for last year. Among them is 
 the late lamented Col. Charles DeMorse, who 
 
M. Loose AX 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 241 
 
 occupied an honored place and felt a sincere 
 interest in the welfare of the Association. 
 
 " ' We are going, one by one.' 
 
 " A little incident connected with last year was 
 brought to mind by hearing the name of a certain 
 veteran read from the death-roll. He had been 
 brought to Mrs. Winkler's home, in Corsicana, 
 very early in the morning, and at breakfast Mrs. 
 Winkler asked him to say grace. The old man 
 turned his face with his hand to his ear, say- 
 ing, ' Cream, but no sugar,' and Mrs. W. asked 
 her own blessing. It was told that the old man 
 said to one of his friends : ' What do you think ; 
 the good lady I am stopping with asked me to say 
 grace at table ; I am such an old reprobate, I 
 could think of nothing; so played deaf, and told 
 her, ' Cream, but no sugar in ray coffee.' 
 
 "I cannot close this meager sketch of the Vet- 
 erans' meeting without mention of Aunt Nancy, as 
 she is familiarlj' called. She is a very well preserved 
 old lady of eighty-one, but does not look it. She 
 is a regular attendant at the meetings, and says she 
 would sell her last hen rather than miss one : her 
 
 peculiar style of dress and unsophisticated manner 
 make her conspicuous. Being very anxious tiiat 
 the Veterans' Association should hold its next 
 meeting at her home, Jacksonville, the Presi- 
 dent invited her to come on the stage and ask 
 the Veterans herself. He escorted her to the front, 
 and Aunt Nancy said : ' My dear Veterans, the 
 people of my town want you to come there next 
 year. They will take good care of you. Some 
 say Jacksonville is too small, but we had the Meth- 
 odist conference there, and treated them well, and 
 if you will only come, I will take care of you my- 
 self! ' That of course brought down the house. 
 The dear old woman likes to meet those whofout^ht 
 side by side with her husband, who has been dead 
 many years, and no one but his old companions in 
 danger remember him. Some one joked her about 
 marrying. 'No,' says she, ' I have lived thirty 
 years Capt. Kirabro's widow, and expect to die 
 Capt. Kimbro's widow.' 
 
 " The people of Temple paid the Veterans the 
 great compliment of asking them to meet there again 
 next year, saying they could do better next year, as 
 they had now learned how. Many thanks to them." 
 
 A. M. DIGNOWITY, M. D., 
 
 SAN ANTONIO. 
 
 Antone Michael Dignowity was born in Kutten- 
 berg, Bohemia, January 16th, 1810, and came of 
 a family possessing some means and enjoying some 
 distinction for intellectual endowments. His edu- 
 cational opportunities were good and he availed 
 himself of them, taking a thorough collegiate course 
 in the Jesuit College of his native place. He came 
 to America at the age of twenty-two, sailing, as his 
 passport recites, from Hamburg, February 17th, 
 1832, resided for some time after his arrival in the 
 country in different parts of the South and acquired 
 considerable property at Natchez (where he lived 
 longer than elsewhere before coming to Texas), 
 notably a hotel which was destroyed by the great 
 tornado of 18 — . In 1835, while residing in Missis- 
 sippi he made a trip to Texas, extending as far as 
 San Antonio, but soon returned, read medicine at 
 Natchez, Miss., under Drs. Stone and Carrothers, 
 and attended lectures in Cincinnati, Ohio. He 
 adopted the eclectic system of medicine, then in its 
 infancy, and began its practice in Mississippi. He 
 
 shortly after gathered up the fragments of his hotel 
 fixtures and furniture (which had been scattered by 
 the torna<lo), and chartered the little steamer, 
 " Lady Morgan " and moved to Talequah, I. T., 
 the then recently established seat of government of 
 the Cherokee Nation. Here he practiced his pro- 
 fession for a year or more, during the time fre- 
 quently visiting Little Rock, Ark., where he met 
 and, on February 9th, 1843, married Miss Amanda 
 J. McCann, daughter of Francis M. McCann, who 
 had settled there two years before. Mr. McCann 
 died in 1850, and his wife in 1887, the latter at the 
 age of eighty-seven years. Both drew pensions 
 from the United States government up to the time 
 of their deaths. After his marriage Dr. Dignowity 
 moved to a small place called Illinois Falls in the 
 western part of Arkansas, near the Indian countr}', 
 and there continued the practice of his profession 
 until the early spring of 18J6, when he volunteered 
 under ex-Governor Yell of Arkansas for service in 
 the war between the United States and Mexico. 
 
242 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 With ten others he made his way across the country 
 to San Antonio, itM^eing their intention to join the 
 Texas rangers or some body of volunteers and pro- 
 ceed from that place to the armies of Scott or Taylor 
 be3'ond the Rio Grande. Within a few hours, how- 
 ever, after Dr. Dignowitj' arrived at San Antonio, 
 whileat the table taking his first meal in the place 
 lie was hastily summoned to attend a Mexican and 
 an Indian who had_been engaged in a street affray, 
 and his presence as a physician thus becoming 
 known and there being urgent need for his services 
 he was prevailed upon to remain and devote his 
 skill and energies, for a time, at least, to the 
 atHicted of that place. He soon had a good prac- 
 tice and finally made up his mind to make San An- 
 
 from the press, will show. As by a close vote the 
 State decided to secede, he, together with other 
 prominent men of his section, had to leave the coun- 
 try and early in 1861 went North, making his waj' 
 over land through Texas, the Indian Territory and 
 Arkansas on horseback and finally, after much suf- 
 fering, reached Washington City, where he secured 
 emplo^'raent under the government and remained 
 during the entire period of the war. 
 
 He was a great sufferer by the war, having most 
 of his property swept away and his health badlj' 
 impaired. Returning to Texas in 1869 he did not 
 resume the practice of his profession, but devoted 
 his energies to the task of gathering up the frag- 
 ments of his fortune. He followed this vigorously 
 
 A. M. DIGNOWITV. M. I). 
 
 Lonio his home. He accordingly sent for and was 
 joined by his family, which he had left at Little 
 Rock, and from that time on until the opening of 
 the war between the States, (1861) devoted his time 
 to the practice of medicine and to land speculation, 
 both of which yielded him good financial returns. 
 On the great issue which led to a rupture between 
 the Northern and Southern States, Dr. Dignowity 
 was in harmony with a majority of the prominent 
 and patriotic men of his section, who, like himself, 
 were bitterly opposed to secession. He was always 
 opposed to slavery, even before the agitation of 
 that question in this country, as the two last books 
 written by him, " Bohemia under Austrian despot- 
 ism " and " American despotism," soon to be issued 
 
 and with a fair degree of success until his death, 
 April 22d, 187.5. He left surviving him a widow, 
 five sons and one daughter, the sons being An- 
 tone Francis, Edward Lucien, Henry Louis, 
 Charles Leonard, and James Victor and the daugh- 
 ter, Iraogene Teresa Dignowity. One son, Albert 
 AVentzel, the second in age of his family, was killed 
 February 2.5th, 1872, at Piedras Negras, Mexico, 
 while a soldier in the army of the patriot Juarez, 
 and a daughter preceded the father to the grave, 
 d3Mng in childhood. 
 
 Dr. Dignowity's career was an exceptional one, 
 made so by an exceptional mental and moral organ- 
 ism. He was not only an accomplished physician 
 but a successful man of business. While a student 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 243 
 
 and close investigator, tlie cast of his mind was 
 practical. He endeavored durino; all his years to 
 live along the lines of fairness and moral rectitude, 
 seeking to do what was right because it was right 
 and not from motives of policy or gain. He was 
 greatly devoted to bis family and was an ardent 
 lover of his adopted country. He became a Repub- 
 
 lican on the organization of the Republican party, 
 and was ever afterwards an ardent advocate of the 
 principles of that party. He was reared a Catholic 
 and during his earlier years was an active communi- 
 cant of the Church, but his views on theological ques- 
 tions gradually underwent a change and he closed 
 his life with a strong leaning toward Spiritualism. 
 
 MRS. AMANDA J. DIGNOWITY, 
 
 SAN ANTONIO. 
 
 Mrs. Dignowity's maiden name was McCann. 
 Her father W8S Francis M. McCann, born in County 
 Tyrone, Ireland, and her mother before marriage 
 was Sarah Cramer, a native of Lancaster County, 
 Penn. Her father came to America at the age of 
 nine years with an uncle and settled in Baltimore, 
 Md., where he grew to maturity. At about the 
 age of twenty-one he enlisted in the United States 
 army under Capt. Hale Hamilton, fought through 
 the war of 1812, taking part in the battle of New 
 Orleans under Jackson, and was mustered out of 
 services at the close of hostilities, as lieutenant of 
 his company. In August, 1817, he married Miss 
 Cramer, of Pennsyivauia, a niece of Congressman 
 Cramer, of that State, and moved to the mountains 
 of Western Virginia. There, some three years later, 
 July 28, 1820, the subject of this notice was born. 
 From Virginia, Mr. McCann moved to Hagarstown, 
 Md., and, after some losses and many changes, he 
 started with his family to Louisville, Ky. By 
 accident he was compelled to stop at Cincinnati, 
 Ohio, where he remained several years. From that 
 city Amanda was sent to the convent school at 
 Loretta, where she remained for four years, obtain- 
 ing there the greater part of her education. Fall- 
 ing in with the tide of immigration to the South 
 and West, Mr. McCann drifted to Mississippi and 
 finally, in 1840, settled in Little Rock, Ark., where 
 his family was domiciled and his servants quartered 
 on a headright some miles outside of the town. 
 This headright he had received for his services in 
 the war of 1812. Two years later the family also 
 settled on the headright, which now became the 
 homestead, the affairs of which were ordered and 
 conducted after the manner customary on the old- 
 time Southern plantations. 
 
 Speaking of her early years, Mrs. Dignowity 
 says: "In my childhood and girlhood I traveled 
 
 much with my father, who was a merchant as well 
 as planter, and as there were then no railroads, all 
 travel being by carriages and wagons, I traversed 
 in this way much of the wilds of Virginia, Penn- 
 sylvania, Kentucky, Ohio, Mississippi and Arkansas 
 and saw and practiced many of the primitive ways 
 of living. Being the eldest of a large family of girls 
 and there being many servants to care for, at home 
 or on our various removals, I had to take charge 
 of our medicine chest, one of the necessary adjuncts 
 of ever}' large household in those daj's, and admin- 
 ister such physic as was prescribed. I took a fancy 
 for the study of medicine and though women were 
 not then allowed to practice I determined to learn 
 something about the subject. I began to read 
 under Dr. J. Coombes of Mississippi ; and after 
 my father removed to Little Rock, I continued my 
 studies under Drs. Tucker and Prayther. Meeting 
 Dr. Wm. Byrd Powell, then president of the Medi- 
 cal College of New Orleans and afterwards State 
 Geologist of Arkansas, I studied under him, he 
 teaching the reform system, the eclectic, then almost 
 in its infancy. On February 9th, 1843, I was mar- 
 ried to Dr. A. M. Dignowity, friend and partner of 
 Dr. Powell, and accompanying my husband to a 
 small place in the western part of Kansas, settled 
 there. Whatever ambition I may have had for an 
 independent career as a medical practitioner, if, 
 indeed, I ever had any, was now laid aside, though 
 I continued my studies and often in after years 
 joined my husband in his researches and lent him 
 what aid I could in his professional labors." 
 
 Dr. Dignowity having come to Texas in the early 
 spring of 1846 and determined to locate perma- 
 nently at San Antonio, he sent the following fall 
 for Mrs. Dignowity, who had remained with 
 her parents in Little Rock during the inter- 
 vening months. The account of her trip is 
 
244 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 best given in her own language. She said : " After 
 masses, offered by Arcbbisiiop Byrens, and the 
 prayers of the congregation for my safety in that 
 land of war and desperadoes, were said I left my 
 relatives and friends, some of whom I was never to 
 see again and others not for many years, and took 
 the steamer bound for New Orleans. At that place 
 1 waited thirty days for a vessel sailing for Texas, 
 took passage on the bark ' William ' in the latter 
 part of January and, after beating about and being 
 driven much out of our way at sea, suffering two 
 days for water, we finally put in at Matagorda, 
 where a supply of food and water was obtained. 
 The vessel then proceeded to Indianola. There 
 I was fortunate in meeting Mr. Van Ransalaer of 
 
 we got in. I procured a rocking chair and roll of 
 carpeting from my baggage and ensconced myself 
 in the back part of the wagon with my babies. 
 
 " The word to start was given, the Mexicans 
 springing out of the way and the mules, standing 
 first on their hind feet and then plunging forward 
 in response to a yell from the driver and Mexicans, 
 we started on our way. We faced the north wind 
 for miles, I, nearly frightened to death, could only 
 hold myself in readiness for anything that might 
 come. 
 
 " At last we arrived at Victoria. ' Limpy ' Brown, 
 well known in Texas history, kept the hotel there. 
 After dinner we had a relay of bronchos and started 
 on, facing toward evenina; a sleeting norther. We 
 
 MRS. AMANDA J. DIGNOWITV. 
 
 New York and Judge Stuart of Texas, both friends 
 of my husband. AVe chartered a lighter and the 
 two gentlemen, myself and babies and tlie captain 
 left for Port Lavaca, which I was told was distant 
 only a few hours sail, but we had gone scarcely a 
 mile when a norther sprang up and we were driven 
 out and battled the storm until the next evening 
 before we reached Lavaca. I remained over night 
 at the hotel. The next morning one of the gentle- 
 men asked me to step out and see the fine United 
 States mail coach waiting to take us over. Imagine 
 my astonishment to see a large wagon without 
 cover or seats, six Mexican broncho mules at- 
 tached, each mule held by a Mexican peon (the 
 latter as strange-looking to me as the mules) until 
 
 arrived late at Seguin half frozen, hungry and 
 tired out, my baby not a year old, with the croup, 
 our faces blistered with the sleet and cold. There 
 I met for the first time Capt. Jack Hays on his 
 way to Washington, D. C, and others who were 
 going to San Antonio, among them Mr. William 
 Vance, Capt. Shaw and Mr. A. A. Munsey, all of 
 whom I well knew at home. Our hostess was Mrs. 
 Calvert and with her still resided her beautiful 
 daughters, afterwards Mrs. Johnston, Mrs. Hays 
 and Mrs. John Twony. Her kindness to 
 me, a stranger, I will never forget. Next 
 morning with a relay of bronchos, we continued 
 our journey, our party having been increased by 
 the addition of Mr. Munsey and Capt. Shaw. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 245 
 
 The norther gone and the weather clear, we con- 
 tinued without further suffering or the occurrence 
 of any event to break the monotony of travel until 
 we reached the Salado crossing, eight miles east of 
 San Antonio. 
 
 " There we were startled by a fearful war-whoop, 
 and the men gathered their guns, pistols and 
 bowie knives and prepared for battle with a deter- 
 mination which frightened me so that I slid from 
 the chair to the bottom of the wagon and covering 
 my babies with the carpeting, waited. Soon a 
 voice called out: 'No fightie; muche amigo ; 
 plenty whisky ; plenty drunk ! ' What a relief ! 
 As we descended the hill we saw camped in the bed 
 of the creek over a hundred Indians. Thej' had 
 been to San Antonio for rations and all were beastly 
 drunk but three watchers. 
 
 " When we got to the top of the hill east of the 
 city, where my residence now stands, Mr. Van 
 Ransalaer remarked: 'Mrs. Dignowity, you must 
 not be surprised at the appearance of the town. 
 There has been a fearful norther and all of 
 the houses have been unroofed.' Which I verily 
 believed was so until I got fairly into the town and 
 more closely inspected the buildings. The hotel 
 at which we stopped, a typical Mexican jacal with 
 flat roof, dirt floor and grated windows, seemed to 
 be the chief place of rendezvous of the town ; but I 
 paid very little attention to its appearance or in- 
 mates. My husband, though absent at the time, 
 being on duty among the soldiers at Mission Con- 
 cepcion, had prepared a room for me and had a 
 nurse in waiting. I repaired at once to my apart- 
 ments which seemed a haven of rest, and awaited his 
 return. When we went out to dinner there were 
 about thirty persons at table and I was told that 
 seven languages were being spoken. There was 
 not one American lady in the number and I was 
 told, and later learned, very few in the city. I re- 
 member meeting at the hotel the beautiful Mrs. 
 Glanton, Prince Solms, Don Castro and a number 
 of United States oflScers, some of whom I had 
 known at home. The next day and many after I 
 rode with my husband to the camps and visited the 
 sick. 
 
 " In July our baggage, which had been delayed 
 for five months, arrived and we moved to our 
 home, my husband having purchased a place on 
 Acequia street. After that I saw much of the 
 city, met the few resident American ladies, became 
 acquainted with some of the Mexican ladies and 
 had a very pleasant time. All visiting then was 
 done after sundown. The Plaza from ten in the 
 morning till four in the evening was empty. All 
 doors were closed. Everyone took a siesta and 
 
 afterwards a cup of coffee and a bath, the latter 
 generally in the river. After 4 p. m. and after 
 nightfall until midnight the Plaza and streets were 
 gay with men and women in full dress and elegant 
 toilets, engaged in shopping, visiting and enjoying 
 the evening air. 
 
 " About one year after my arrival several ladies 
 formed a class and engaged Dr. Winchell, who had 
 been a tutor in Santa Anna's family, to teach us 
 Spanish. The authoress, Augusta Evans, then a 
 young girl, was one of the number. I visited some 
 of the Spanish ladies and joined them in visiting 
 the church during their festivals and fiestas, and 
 was much interested with raany|others in watching 
 their devotions and great display;[^to the honor of 
 the Senora Guadeloupe, their great patroness. 
 Later when German immigrants began pouring into 
 the city I found it necessary to study German, 
 our domestic help coming largely from among 
 them. 
 
 "Street fights between Indians and Mexicans 
 were of frequent occurrence and my husband was 
 many times called to attendHhe wounded of both 
 sides. Sick and disabled soldiers from the Rio 
 Grande were also frequently brought to our house 
 for treatment so that we were'f or years almost con- 
 stantly in the midst of affliction. But in spite of 
 this we had our pleasures and enjoyed life quite as 
 much as people of this day. What American homes 
 there were here were always open to friends and 
 we had many distinguished visitors to San Antonio 
 in those days. I recall the names of Generals 
 Kearney and Doubleday of the United States army, 
 ex-Governor Yell of Arkansas, President Sam 
 Houston, Archbishop Lamy, Bishop Odin and Rev. 
 Mark Anthony, as among my guests in those years, 
 and of course there were others whose names do 
 not now occur to me. The incidents of the Alamo 
 and the invasions under Vasques and WoU were 
 then fresh in the minds of the people and I heard 
 many interesting reminiscences of those stirring 
 times recited by those who took part in historic 
 events recounted. After the establishment of peace 
 sometimes in company with my husband and some- 
 times with lady friends I visited the old missions. 
 Concepcion Mission was used for a considerable 
 time as a stable by the soldiers who were quartered 
 there after the Mexican war. What a terrible 
 desecration it seemed to me! But this was not 
 more shocking than the vandalism since exhibited 
 by tourists in breaking and taking away the lovely 
 decorative work. The missions then were by no 
 means in so dilapidated a condition as at present. 
 Every sculptured flower, leaf, fruit and face was 
 in a perfect state of preservation. 
 
246 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 " The opening of the Civil War brought us a new 
 era of trial and suffering. My husband was a 
 Union man. He left the country on account of his 
 views on slavery and secession and remained in the 
 North until the restoration of peace. My two eldest 
 sons, aged sixteen and nineteen, were conscripted 
 into the Confederate Army but, subsequently, 
 while on a furlough, swam the Rio Grande, made 
 their escape and joined the Union forces at Brazos 
 de Santiago, and later went to Washington City, 
 where they secured positions in the Department of 
 the Interior and remained until 1868. Most of our 
 property was swept away during tiie four years 
 struggle, some of our losses being caused by 
 Indians who made frequent incursions into the 
 country and stole cattle, horses and sheep from 
 the ranches, sometimes murdering the ranch- 
 men." 
 
 " But," said Mrs. Dignowity in conclusion, "in 
 spite of these unpleasant recollections, San Antonio 
 is very dear to me and I am every inch a Texian. 
 During the past twenty years I have traveled ex- 
 tensively throughout the Union but I cannot say 
 that I have ever found any place I like better then 
 this and I have no higher wish than to here pass in 
 the quiet of my home, surrounded by my children 
 
 and grandchildren, the remainder of the 3'ears 
 allotted to me on earth." 
 
 Mrs. Dignowity has living five sons and one 
 daughter and ten grandchildren, all of whom reside 
 near her. Very naturally her chief thoughts now 
 center in these, and she in turn is the recipient of 
 their unbounded affection. Her time for the past 
 five years has been devoted to her estate, to her 
 children and to her taste for the arts in a small 
 way. She feels, as she says, that with all the trials 
 her bright days have been more than her dark ones 
 and that she has much to be thankful for. The 
 secret of her cheerful disposition and elasticity of 
 spirits, perhaps lies in the fact that she has passed 
 much of her time in intimate association with her 
 children and grandchildren, whose purposes, hopes 
 and ambitions, she has actively interested herself 
 in, and in the further fact that she has kept up her 
 reading habit formed in girlhood and her interest in 
 art work, thus drawing, as it were, daily inspiration 
 from the only real fountain of youth. She has re- 
 ceived from the judges of the International State Fair 
 and the State Art Association two gold medals for 
 art work and carving; one diploma, one honorable 
 mention and fifteen premiums from the different 
 departments. 
 
 MRS. SARAH ANN BRACHES, 
 
 GONZALES COUNTY. 
 
 Tears, idle tears, I know not wnat they mean, 
 Tears from the depth of some divine despair, 
 Rise in the heart and gather to the eyes, 
 In looking on the happy Autumn field?, 
 And thinliing of the days that are no more. 
 
 Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail. 
 That brings our friends up from the under-world, 
 Sad as the last which reddens over one 
 That sinks with all we love below the verge; 
 So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more. 
 
 Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns 
 
 The earliest pipe of half awakened birds. 
 
 To dying ears, when unto tlying eyes, 
 
 The casement slowly grows a glimmering square; 
 
 So sad, so strange, the days that are no more. 
 
 Dear as remembered kisses after death, 
 And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feign'd, 
 On lips that are for others ; deep as love, 
 Deep as first love, and mild with all regret; 
 O, death in life, the days that are no more. 
 
 Tennyson. 
 
 Mrs. Sarah Ann Braches, who died at her iiome 
 on Peach creek, near the town of Gonzales, Octo- 
 ber 17th, 1894, aged eighty-three years and seven 
 months, was one of the last survivors of the colo- 
 nists who came to Texas in 1831. 
 
 Although confined to her bed for a number of 
 years, she was ever cheerful, and would laugh or 
 cry with the changing theme as she recounted with 
 glowing imagery the story of the hardships and 
 perils through which she passed in her earlier years. 
 Her memory was remarkably retentive, and her 
 miud singularly clear, almost up to the moment of 
 her death. She was the representative of a race 
 that redeemed the wilderness and won freedom for 
 Texas. Upon the broad foundation it laid, has 
 been erected the noble superstructure of later times. 
 Truly a mother of Israel has passed away. May 
 the flower-gemmed sod rest lightl}' above her pulse- 
 less form, and her memory be preserved in grateful 
 
CHARLES BRACIIKS. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 247 
 
 hearts as well as upon the i)ages of the history of 
 the country she loved so well. 
 
 Her parents were John M. and Mary (Garuetl) 
 Ashby, natives of Kentucky. She was born in 
 Shelby County', Ky., March 12th, 1811, and was 
 the oldest of twelve children. She was united in 
 marriage to Judge Bartlett D. McClure in Ken- 
 tucky in 1828. Three children were born of this 
 union: Ales, in 1829, John, in 1833, and Joel, in 
 1839, all now deceased. 
 
 Joel was a soldier in Terry's Rangers during the 
 war between the States, and in the charge led by 
 Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston at Shiloh was shot in 
 the groin, a wound from the effects of which he died 
 October 23d, 1870, at the old family residence. 
 
 In 1831 the Ashby family and Judge and Mrs. 
 McClure emigrated to Texas. At New Orleans, 
 March 12th of that year, the party took passage on 
 a ship bound for Matagorda Bay and landed upon 
 Texas soil the first of May following. The vessel 
 was caught in a storm and the pilot losing his bear- 
 ings steered into the wrong pass, whereupon the ship 
 struck repeatedly upon a bar with such violence that 
 all aboard expected every moment to be engulftd 
 in the raging sea, but the ship was strong and kept 
 afloat until morning, when the passengers and crew 
 took to the small boats and effected a landing on 
 the bar. Here they pitched camp and waited four 
 days, when, the vessel still sticking fast, it was de- 
 cided to abandon her to her fate and Judge Mc- 
 Clure and a few companions, at the request of the 
 rest, made their wa3' to the mainland and went on 
 to Goliad to get permission for the party to land, 
 from the Mexican commander, who, according to 
 the process of the tedious laws in vogue, had to 
 send a courier to the seat of government before he 
 could issue them a permit to enter and remain in 
 the country. They were gone five days on this 
 mission. The whole party finally landed in boats 
 about fifteen miles below the present town of Rock- 
 port, but had to camp another week on the beach 
 for Mexican carts to be brought from Goliad. 
 They were delayed again at Goliad waiting for ox- 
 teams from Gonzales, as the Mexican carters would 
 go no farther than the Guadalupe river. The two 
 families separated and Mr. and Mrs. Ashb3' settled 
 in Lavaca County, on Lavaca river, five miles from 
 Halletsville, Mrs. Ashby dying in that county in 
 1835, and her husband in Matagorda County, 
 October 15th, 1839. 
 
 Judge and Mrs. McClure established themselves 
 on Peach creek near Gonzales, in De Witt's colony, 
 where the subject of this memoir lived almost 
 continuously during the after years of her life. 
 
 There were only twenty-five families in Gon- 
 
 zales when they first visited that place. At 
 this time (1831), the Comanches, Lipaus and Ton- 
 cahuas were friendly, but the Waco Indians were 
 hostile and giving the settlers much trouble. In 
 September, tiie people of Gonzales gave a dinner 
 to about one hundred Comanches. The meal was 
 partly prepared by the ladies of the place. Know- 
 ing the treacherous nature of tlie red-skins, a guard 
 of fifteen well armed men was quietly appointed. 
 These kept on the qici vive and neither ate nor 
 drank while the Indians regaled themselves. No 
 disturbance occurred and the Indians, having fin- 
 ished their repast, mounted their horses and 
 departed with mutual expressions of good will. 
 
 These friendly relations were terminated a year 
 later, however, as the result of the action of a 
 party of French traders from New Orleans, who 
 passed through the country. These traders gave 
 poisoned bread to the Comanches, and the latter 
 declared war against all whites. 
 
 For many years thereafter the country was sub- 
 ject to raids and depredations. In all those stir- 
 ring times the subject of this memoir displayed a 
 heroism as bright as that recorded upon the most 
 inspiring pages of history, and a tenderness enno- 
 bling to her sex. On more than one occasion her 
 intrepidity saved the homestead from destruction. 
 At others she helped to prepare rations for hastily 
 organized expeditions and spoke brave and cheer- 
 ing words to the country's defenders. The wounded 
 could always rely upon careful nursing at her hands 
 and the houseless and indigent upon receiving shel- 
 ter and succor. Ever womanly and true, her 
 virtues won for her the lasting love and veneration 
 of the people far and wide and she is now affection- 
 ately remembered by all old Texians. 
 
 In August, 1838, while riding across the prairies 
 with her husband, they came across twenty-seven 
 Comanche warriors. By a rapid movement the 
 Indians cut them off from the general ford on 
 Boggy Branch, and they deflected toward Big 
 Elms, another crossing place two miles distant. 
 In the mad race that followed she became 
 separated from her husband. A portion of 
 the band observing this fact, uttered a shout 
 of triumph and made a desperate effort to over- 
 take her. She realized that she must put the 
 creek between her and her pursuers and accordingly 
 turned shortly to the right and rode at break-neck 
 speed straight for the stream. As she reached it 
 she fastened the reins in her horse's mane, wrapped 
 her arms around his neck, buried her spurs in his 
 quivering flank and the animal, with a magnificent 
 exertion of strength, vaulted into the air and landed 
 with his fore feet on the other side, his hind feet 
 
248 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 and legs sinking deep into the mud and quicksand 
 that formed tlie margin of the branch. In an in- 
 stant she leaped over his head and seizing the bridle 
 encouraged him to make an effort to extricate him- 
 self, which, being a large and powerful animal, he 
 did. She then waved her sun-bonnet to her hus- 
 band who had effected a crossing further down at 
 the Big Elms and whom she descried at that mo- 
 ment galloping toward her. He joined her and 
 they rode home, leaving the batHed Comanches to 
 vent their rage as best they could. 
 
 Periods of quietude and occasional social gather- 
 ings gave variety of life and common perils nour- 
 ished generous sentiments of neighborly regard, 
 mutual kindness and comradeship. The hardships 
 and dangers of the times in themselves seemed to 
 have had a charm for the bold and hard}' spirits 
 who held unflinchingly their ground as an advance 
 skirmish line of civilization. Nor were the happen- 
 ing of events rich in humor wanting. These were 
 recounted over and over beside blazing winter 
 hearths to amuse the occasional guest. One of 
 these told to the writer by the subject of this 
 memoir was the following: — 
 
 Judge McClure, on starting for Bastrop in 1834, 
 left a carpenter whom he had employed to build an 
 addition to the house, behind him to protect the 
 family. The man was a typical down-east Yankee. 
 A morning or two later Mrs. McCiure's attention 
 being attracted by cattle running and bellowing; 
 she looked out of her window and saw Indians 
 skulking in the brush and two of the band chasing 
 the cattle. She at once commenced arming herself 
 and told her companion that he must get ready 
 for a fight. He turned deathlj' pale, began trem- 
 bling and declared that he had never shot a gun 
 and could not fight. ' ' Let's go back of the house," 
 he said, "and down into the bottom." To which 
 she replied, " No, sir, you can go into the bottom 
 if you want to; but I am going to fight." 
 
 The Indians killed a few calves but kept out of gun- 
 shot and passed on that night. The carpenter sat up 
 until daylight with a gun across his lap. He could 
 not shoot; but, it is to be presumed, found some 
 comfort in holding a gun, for all that. The fol- 
 lowing morning she told the man that if he would 
 go down to the lake back of the house and get a 
 bucket of water, she would prepare breakfast. He 
 replied that he was afraid to go. She stood this 
 condition of affairs as long as she could and then 
 strapping a brace of pistols around her waist, took 
 the bucket and started for the lake. The fellow at 
 this juncture declared if she was bound to go, he 
 would go with her, and followed on behind a few 
 steps holding the gun in his harwls. This so 
 
 angered her that she turned and told him that, if 
 he dared to follow her another foot she would shoot 
 him dead in his tracks. Alarmed in good earnest 
 he beat a hasty retreat to the house. Several days 
 later some men came by going to Gonzales, and the 
 carpenter went with them without finishing his job. 
 What hair-lifting tales he told when he got back to 
 his native heath and the prodigies of valor that he 
 performed may be conjectured. 
 
 She was living on Peach creek at her home, 
 when the Alamo fell. Prior to that event, when the 
 people were fleeing from Gonzales in dread of the 
 advance of Santa Anna on that place, twenty-seven 
 women, whose husbands were in the Alamo, stopped 
 at her house and were there when they received 
 news of the massacre. 
 
 Gen. Houston also stopped at her home on his 
 second day's retreat and sitting on his horse under 
 a big live oak tree (which she ever afterwards 
 called Sam Houston's tree) ordered a retreat, say- 
 ing that those who saw fit to remain behind must 
 suffer the consequences. A great many relic hun- 
 ters have secured souvenirs of moss from the tree. 
 The women and children were sent on ahead, and 
 when they had gone about four miles, heard the 
 explosion of the magazine at Gonzales, blown up 
 by Col. Patten, who later overtook them at the 
 Navidad. 
 
 Santa Anna and his army camped on Peach 
 creek for five weeks and made his headquarters in 
 her house during a part of the time. He then 
 moved on toward the east after the Goliad massacre. 
 The Mexicans drove off or killed all the stock on 
 her farm, filled the well up with bricks torn from the 
 kitchen floor and burned everything except the 
 dwelling house. 
 
 Having been ordered by Gen. Houston to go 
 after and bring up the '' Eedlanders," Judge Mc- 
 Clure left his wife at Grisby's (now Moore's) 
 Bluff on the Nueces, proceeded to execute the 
 order and was thereby prevented from being present 
 at and participating in the battle of San Jacinto. 
 He was a member of the convention of Texas, held 
 in 1833 ; organized the first county in DeWitt's 
 colony and was its first county judge ; and after 
 an active and useful life died and was buried in 
 Gonzales County in 1842. 
 
 Mrs. McClure married Mr. Charles Braches, of 
 Gonzales County, March 2d, 1843, a man noted 
 for abilities of a high order, and sterling character. 
 He was born at Gaulkhausen, Kreuznach, Rheim, 
 Prussia, February 25th, 1813; sailed from Europe 
 for America April 3d, 1834; arriving at Baltimore, 
 Md., left for St. Louis, Mo., two daj-s later and 
 from that place moved to Sharon, Miss., where he 
 
BARTLETT D. McCLURE. 
 
lyniAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 249 
 
 conducted a literary and music school until 1840 
 when he emigrated to the republic of Texas, and 
 settled in Gonzales County, where he engaged in 
 merchandising with Dr. Caleb S. Brown, who was 
 also from Mississippi. This copartnership con- 
 tinued for twelve or thirteen months. A man of 
 rare personal magnetism, fine address and brilliant 
 talents, Mr. Brachcs soon took rank as one of the 
 ablest and most influential citizens of the commu- 
 nity and in scarcely more than a year (1842), was 
 elected to represent the district in the Texas con- 
 gress. While going to and returning from the seat 
 of government he first met his future wife and 
 shortly after the close of the session they were united 
 in the bonds of wedlock. He was a participant in 
 the battles of the Hondo, Plum Creek and the 
 Medina, and numerous Indian expeditions in which 
 he behaved himself with conspicuous gallantry. 
 Both Mr. and Mrs. Braches were members of the 
 Cumberland Presbyterian Church for many years 
 and were liberal contributors to schools and 
 churches. During his lifetime Mr. Braches de- 
 voted many thousands of dollars to these purposes. 
 He died July 7th, 1889, at his home in Gonzales 
 County, admired and respected by a wide circle of 
 friends extending throughout Texas. 
 
 When Bowie started upon his San Saba expedi- 
 tion Mrs. Braches had beeves killed and dressed, 
 food cooked and a general supply of provisions 
 prepared for the use of his men on their march. 
 He wrote out and tendered her vouchers against the 
 Republic to cover the expense that she had incurred, 
 but these she refused to receive, saying that she 
 considered it a pleasure as well as a duty to aid in a 
 movement designed for the protection of the homes 
 of the settlers to the full extent of her power and 
 that she could not think of receiving pay for such a 
 service. Sentiments equally unselfish and praise- 
 worthy inspired all her actions. A distinguished 
 Texian says of Mr. and Mrs. Braches: " After Mrs. 
 Braches' parents died she became a mother to her 
 j'ounger brothers and sisters, viz., Mary, who mar- 
 ried John Smothers ; Isabella, who married in her 
 house in 1840, Gen. Henry E. McCulloch ; Fannie, 
 who married in her house Mr. Gelhorn ; Euphemia, 
 who married Wm. G. King, of Seguin; William, 
 who died young, and Travis H. Ashby, who 
 
 died after being a Captain in the Confederate 
 army. 
 
 " A braver or grander-hearted woman never trod 
 the soil of Texas, and all of the survivors of those 
 early days, from San Antonio to the Colorado and 
 from Texana and Victoria to the foot of the moun- 
 tains, will attest the truth of this statement. 
 Knowing her from boyhood and not having seen. her 
 for a little over twent}' years I willingly and con- 
 scientiously pay this tribute to her. Mr. Braches, 
 for forty-six years, proved himself to be worthy to 
 be the husband of such a woman. It is needless 
 for me to speak of his character to those among 
 whom he so long lived. That he was a polished 
 and refined gentleman, of kindly heart, all will ad- 
 mit. He was to have been my guest at the .State 
 Fair last fall, but sickness prevented his coming. 
 My little grandchildren, inspired by the eulogies 
 of their grandparents, were sorely disappointed at 
 his not coming. In conclusion, I can only say that 
 I believe Charles Braches to have been incapable of 
 a mean or dishonorable act. He was, in the high- 
 est sense, an honorable and benevolent man and 
 good citizen." 
 
 Mrs. Mary Jones, wife of Mr. H. K. Jones, of 
 Dilworth in Gonzales County, a station near the old 
 family homestead, is the only surviving child born 
 of this union. Mrs. Braches was the soul of pat- 
 riotism — a lady of rare refinement and intelligence, 
 and her deeds of kindness and charities were innu- 
 merable. Her grave will be watered by the tears 
 of the widow and orphan. Her life is a part of, 
 and interwoven with the most stirring period of 
 Texas history. To her belongs the glory of a Roman 
 matron and the halo of a tender Christian mother. 
 
 She was one of the best known, best beloved and 
 noblest of the noble Texian matrons who inspired 
 the men of earlier days to resistance to tyrann}' and 
 deeds of heroism and kept the fires of patriotism 
 brightly aglow upon the hearthstones of the coun- 
 trj'. At her home, to the time of her death, she 
 maintained that free and elegant hospitality that 
 made the South famous in olden time. Her name 
 deserves to be wreathed with imperishable immor- 
 telles and to be inscribed upon one of the brightest 
 pages of the State's history. Peace to her ashes 
 and lasting honor to her memory. 
 
250 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 ALEXANDER BEATON. 
 
 GEM HILL. 
 (Near Corsicana, Texas.) 
 
 Maj. Alexander Beaton was born at Inverness, 
 Inverness-shire, the most beautiful and romantic part 
 of the Highlands of Scotland, Februarv 10, 1820. 
 His parents, Donald and Margaret (Beaton) Beaton, 
 died when he was in his thirteenth year. He 
 received an academic education in bis native town, 
 and in his seventeenth year was sent to the city of 
 London, England, where he entered the office of 
 an accountant, where he remained for sis years. 
 Shortl}^ after his first arrival in London, be wit- 
 nessed the grandest sight and pageant of his life, 
 the coronation of Queen Victoria. He came to the 
 United States in 1843, in November of that year 
 landing at New Orleans where, until 1844, he filled 
 a position secured by him before he left London. 
 He left New Orleans at the beginning of the yellow 
 fever epidemic in 1844, the local physicians and 
 newspapers advising all unacclimated persons to 
 pursue that course. He went from New Orleans 
 to St. Louis and from the latter city to Bolivar, 
 Polk County, Mo., where he taught school and 
 read law until 1847 in the office of Col. Thomas 
 Ruffln, who was then known as one among the 
 leading members of the bar in Southwest Missouri. 
 In the summer of that year a call was made on the 
 State of Missouri to raise her Third Regiment of 
 Mounted Volunteers for service in Mexico, and 
 Maj. Beaton volunteered for service during the 
 war and became a member of Company K. of 
 said regiment. Col. Ralls, of Ralls County, Mo., 
 was afterwards elected Colonel of the regiment, 
 which, after being duly equipped and made ready 
 for service at Fort Leavenworth, now in the State 
 of Kansas, started on its march across the plains 
 in July, 1847, to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where 
 it took the place of Gen. Price's command, whose 
 term of service had expired. Maj. Beaton went to 
 Taos, New Mexico, with three companies of the 
 regiment and remained there, doing duty as acting 
 adjutant of the battalion, until the end of the war, 
 when he returned to Independence, Mo., with 
 the entire regimental command, where with his 
 fellow-soldiers he was, in the fall of 1848, 
 honorably discharged from the service. He now 
 draws a pension of $8.00 per month as a Mex- 
 ican war veteran from the United States govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Shortly after his discharge from the armj', he 
 
 and Col. Ruffin came to Texas, stopped at Houston 
 for a brief period and then took a look at the town 
 of Washington, on the Brazos, which was much 
 spoken of at the time and believed by many to be 
 destined for the dignity of a city of importance at 
 some time. They afterwards visited and resided, 
 for varying periods, at Brenham, Chappel Hill, and 
 Richmond, Col. Rufiin locating at the latter place. 
 Maj. Beaton during his sojourn at Chappel Hill 
 taught school for a few months. 
 
 He arrived at Corsicana on the 16th of March, 
 1850, then a small frontier village of about one 
 hundred inhabitants, and has since resided in and 
 near that place. In a short time after his arrival 
 he was employed in the county clerk's office and 
 was later appointed to fill the unexpired term of a 
 former incumbent of the office of county assessor 
 and collector of taxes and, while so engaged, in- 
 dustriously applied himself to the study of law. 
 He was admitted to the bar in 1851, license being 
 granted by Hon. O. M. Roberts, the presiding 
 judge, afterwards Chief Justice of the State Su- 
 preme Court, Governor of Texas and, later, senior 
 law professor in the Texas University. Maj. Bea- 
 ton afterwards, for a period of over thirty years, 
 engaged in the practice of the profession, before 
 and after the war for some years as a copartner 
 of the now distinguished statesman, Hon. R. Q. 
 Mills, and since that time, until about ten years 
 ago, when he retired from active pursuits to his 
 " Gem Hill " home, near the city of Corsicana. 
 
 He has borne a conspicuous and helpful part in 
 the upbuilding of Corsicana. The start in the 
 making of Corsicana as a city was his successful 
 effort in getting a depot of the Houston and Texas 
 Central Railway located at the town in 1871. In 
 the attainment of this object he was ably assisted 
 by IMr. James Kerr, Sr., and Col. William Croft. 
 In honor of his services and liberality, without any 
 desire or asking for it on his part, the people named 
 the principal street in the cit3', Beaton street, in his 
 honor. He has been a life-long Democrat and has 
 done good service for the party and for the cause 
 of honest and accountable government. His fore- 
 fathers for many generations were members of the 
 Presbyterian Church, with whose Calvinism and 
 authoritative teaching he could not agree. He 
 now worships with his wife in the Methodist Church, 
 
JAMES G. DUDLEY. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 251 
 
 whose tenets and beliefs are more in accord witli 
 bis own. 
 
 As previously stated, Maj. Beaton retired from 
 active business and professional pursuits more than 
 ten years ago and moved to his residence, " Gem 
 Hill," which overlooks the city of Corsicana and 
 is one of the most exquisitely beautiful and well 
 appointed country-seats in the South. 
 
 July 11, 1852, he mairied Elizabeth J. McKin- 
 ney, daughter of Rev. Hampton McKinney, a 
 famous pioneer and Methodist Episcopal preacher 
 of Navarro County, who moved to this State from 
 Illinois. Maj. and Mrs. Beaton have three chil- 
 dren, two sons and a daughter. Their eldest son, 
 Ealpb, is a member of the firm of Damon, Beaton 
 & Company, of Corsicana. Their only daughter, 
 Mary Kate, is the wife of Dr. S. W. Johnson, of 
 that city. Maj. Beaton was made a Master Mason 
 in 1850 by Gen. E. H. Tarrant, joining the first 
 lodge organized in Corsicana. Maj. Beaton has 
 won considerable distinction as an amateur geolo- 
 gist and investigator of the natural sciences, for 
 which he has always possessed a passionate fond- 
 ness and followed with a quiet and never flagging 
 zeal. He has contributed many valuable articles 
 (that have been widely copied) to magazines. 
 The following telegram of April 29, 1895, from 
 Austin, Texas, to the Dallas-Galveston News fitly 
 illustrates the interest he feels in the cause of 
 
 scientific progress: "It may not be generally 
 known that a few weeks since the University of 
 Texas came into the possession of the valuable and 
 unique cabinet of minerals collected by Hon. 
 Alexander Beaton, of Corsicana, on his home place, 
 known as ' Gem Hill ' situated about a mile south 
 of the town. 
 
 " Maj. Beaton has long been a student of 
 nature and, being impressed with the remarkable 
 beauty and purity of the drift-minerals found in 
 the fields near the house, he took the pains to have 
 many of the best, several hundreds, in fact, 
 dressed by the lapidaries of Colorado Springs, 
 Colo. The results are truly wonderful, bringing 
 out in a marked degree the hidden beauties which 
 less acute observers have for years passed by. 
 Many of these stones are suitable for various set- 
 tings and, doubtless, under the fostering care of a 
 competent expert, quite an industry could be built 
 up along this line in Texas. 
 
 "Mr. Beaton is strongly imbued with this idea. 
 The collection will soon be ready for display at the 
 University and visitors should bear it in mind in 
 making their rounds. Maj. Beaton deserves the 
 hearty thanks of all students of science for his 
 generosity in this matter. May others be moved to 
 follow his example. The University is the proper 
 custodian for all collections which will promote the 
 intellectual and scientific welfare of the State." 
 
 JAMES G. DUDLEY, 
 
 PARIS. 
 
 The subject of this sketch was born in Hannibal, 
 Marion County, Mo., on the 8lb day of April, 
 1848, of Virginia parentage, his father being from 
 Lynchburg and his mother, who is still living, from 
 Kanawah County, Va., and was the fourth child 
 of a family of six children. 
 
 His great-grandfathers on both sides were sol- 
 diers in the Revolutionary war for Independence 
 and bis grandfathers were soldiers in the war of 
 1812. His grandfather on his father's side lost 
 his life at Norfolk, Va., when the father of the 
 subject of this sketch was about three years old. 
 His father was a carpenter by trade, and, when 
 James G. Dudley was about four years of age, 
 moved to the citj' of St. Louis, where he engaged 
 in contracting and building. Young Dudley at- 
 
 tended the public schools of St. Louis, known as 
 the Mound street and Webster schools, and there 
 laid the foundation for the liberal education be 
 afterwards acquired by private study. A few 
 years before the commencement of the war between 
 the States, his father moved to Henry County, 
 Mo., where be engaged in farming, young James 
 G. and his only brother, W. W. Dudley, working on 
 the farm. In 1862, the second year of the war, 
 the subject of this sketch, although only fourteen 
 years of age, found it unsafe to stay at home on 
 account of his bold and openly pronounced views 
 in favor of the Southern Confederacy and made his 
 way to the command of the gallant Sidney Jackman 
 and proceeded south with him to Gen. Price's army, 
 in Northern Arkansas, and joined the celebrated 
 
252 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Sixteenth Missouri Infantry, tlien commanded by 
 Col. L. M. Lewis (wlio afterwards became a Gen- 
 eral) and participated in nearly all the great bat- 
 lies fought in the Trans-Mississippi department. 
 After the close of the war he returned to Missouri, 
 and engaged in farming and running an engine in a 
 (louring mill until he became able to undertake the 
 study of law and then entered the law office of 
 Judge F. E. Savage, of Kentucky, then residing at 
 Clinton, Mo. Having been admitted to the bar 
 in April, 1872, he came to Texas the following 
 November and settled at Paris, Texas, where he 
 has since resided and risen to distinction in his 
 profession. 
 
 At the Paris bar he found it necessary to meet 
 such eminent lawyers as J. W. Throckmorton, T. J. 
 Brown, M. L. Sims, R. R. Gaines, W. H. Johnson, 
 R. H. Taylor, W. B. Wright and S. B. Maxey, 
 men who not only enjoyed State-wide but national 
 reputations, and not only held his own but soon rose 
 to be a recognized equal of theirs. No lawyer in 
 Texas has had a more varied practice, or been 
 more successful. He has been of counsel in some 
 of the most celebrated civil and criminal cases 
 tried in the State during the last twenty years. He 
 and Chief Justice Gaines were copartners when the 
 latter was elected to the Supreme Bench. 
 
 In 1877 he married Miss Jennie E. Blair, who is 
 a descendant on her mother's side from the family 
 of which the heroic Travis was a scion. They 
 have five children living, three sons and two 
 daughters. 
 
 He was elected chairman of the Democratic Ex- 
 ecutive Committee of Texas at the Dallas conven- 
 tion in 1894. 
 
 The year in which this book is being prepared 
 for publication and will issue from the press (1896) 
 is one of political storm. A crisis is upon the 
 country that must be patriotically met and over- 
 come, if a long train of evils that threaten it are to 
 be avoided. For many years past, in fact since the 
 days of reconstruction, the Democratic party has 
 embraced within its ranks a heterogeneous mass 
 of individuals, many of whom were attracted to its 
 standard in the dark days that followed the war 
 between the States by reason of the fact that it 
 stood for honest, responsible government and had 
 undertaken the task of restoring the reins of gov- 
 ernment to the hands of the people, but are now, 
 
 when that object has been long since attained, no 
 longer Democrats in anything except the name. 
 (Juite a number of this class have drifted into the 
 Populist and into other parties. Another and 
 more dangerous element in the party has been one 
 whose motto has been "rule or ruin," led by dis- 
 gruntled individuals whose political ambitions have 
 been disappointed, and who, actuated by malice 
 and a spirit of revenge, because the rank and file of 
 the party would not submit to their dictation, first 
 became bolters and have since drifted into the condi- 
 tion of political brigands, and followers of McKinle}'. 
 In the early part of this year they and their leaders 
 loudly proclaimed that they were the only true 
 Democrats and that they intended to see that their 
 declarations and principles were engrafted in the 
 State platforms to be promulgated by the party in 
 the approaching campaign. The prospect at that 
 time was that they would remain within the organ- 
 ization, confuse and darken its counsels and lead to 
 its defeat in November ; but, the Democratic party, 
 it almost seems providentially, had for its chair- 
 man of the State Executive Committee, a man of 
 high ability, unflinching courage, inflexibility of 
 purpose and that capacity for generalship that in 
 all ages has characterized those commanders who 
 have led bodies of men in hours of supreme peril 
 (when disaster threatened from every quarter) to 
 victory. Owing to the prompt and decided action 
 taken by him and his fellow-members of the com- 
 mittee (named by some " the Dudley committee ") 
 the people were given a chance to express them- 
 selves through their ballots at a primary election, 
 and the result was true Democracj- triumphed. 
 
 Mr. Dudley delivered the oration for Texas on 
 Texas day at the Atlanta Exposition, which was 
 pronounced by the AUa.nti). Constitulion "a gem 
 of orator}'." At the Austin convention of this 
 year, 1896, the acts of Mr. Dudley as chairman of 
 the Democratic State Executive Committee were by 
 resolution endorsed, in the most flattering way. 
 No man in Texas has ever been more complimented 
 by a convention. The whole convention, including 
 a vast concourse of spectators, rose to their feet. 
 
 Mr. Dudley is now one of the most conspicuous 
 figures in public life in this State and has won the 
 admiration of all the leaders of the part}' through- 
 out the country. He has been chosen a member 
 of the National Democratic Executive Committee. 
 
GEO. HANCOCK. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OB' TEXAS. 
 
 253 
 
 GEORGE HANCOCK, 
 
 AUSTIN. 
 
 George Hancock, tlie subject of this sketch, was 
 truly one of the sturdy pioneers of Texas, having 
 immigrated to Texas in 1835. He is a lineal de- 
 scendant of the Virginia family of Hancock, which 
 is of English extraction, and had the same ancestry 
 as the Massachusetts family. Their family came 
 to this countrj^ from England at a very early 
 period. 
 
 In 1632, George Hancock settled in what is 
 now Campbell County, Va. At this time the 
 sagacious and humane Sir Francis Wyatt was 
 Governor of the colony, and assisted by a council 
 and representative assembly chosen by the people. 
 A written constitution had been granted, courts of 
 law established, and the germ of civil and religious 
 liberty firralj' planted ; for, although intolerance 
 and civil commotion at times disturbed the equan- 
 imity of the Virginia colonists, they had neverthe- 
 less conceived the true theory of government, and 
 were anxious to found it upon the basis of a true 
 colonization. The social status of the colony was 
 most excellent, and its chivalry was unquestionably 
 of the purest type. Political spirit of republican 
 freedom was ever present and, if at times there was 
 a Berkley to oppress with arbitrary and tyrannical 
 rule, there was always a Nathaniel Bacon to sustain 
 with all the powers of the sword, if need be, the 
 inalienable rights of man. 
 
 Under such favorable auspices as these, the Han- 
 cocks started, and their progeny have been true to 
 the faith of their fathers. 
 
 The subject of this biography was a native of 
 Tennessee, where he was born on the 11th of April, 
 1809. He was reared in Alabama, and is a son 
 of John Allen Hancock, who was a native of 
 Franklin County, Va., where he was a wealthy 
 planter, and emigrated to Alabama about the year 
 1819, and died there in January, 185G. 
 
 John Allen Hancock was not a public man, his 
 most distinguishing characteristic being a decided 
 aversion to holding public office, but the private 
 virtues and excellencies of life he possessed in a 
 remarkable degree. Man is not what he does, but 
 what he is, and judged by this standard John Allen 
 Hancock was a model. 
 
 Sarah Ryan, the mother of the subject of this 
 sketch, was a native of Bedford County, Va., 
 daughter of William Ryan, a planter, and for a 
 long time high sheriff of that county. His 
 
 ancestors came from North Ireland, and were 
 Presbyterians in religion. The precise dale of the 
 emigration to America is not known, but it was 
 some time during the days of colonization. After 
 emigrating to Texas in 1835, Mr. Hancock 
 actively participated in the war for Independence 
 against Mexico, and was especially noticeable in the 
 battle of San Jacinto, being one of the five men 
 who were with Deaf Smith in cutting Vince's 
 bridge, which resulted in the capture of Santa 
 Anna. He was also in the prominent campaigns 
 of the frontier, during the Woll and Mier cam- 
 paigns. Subsequently he passed a number of 
 years in locating and surveying lands, and in fight- 
 ing Mexicans and Indians, performing hard duties 
 in both civil and military service. In 1843 he 
 engaged in commerce, opening a mercantile house 
 at LaGrange, Fayette County ; subsequently in 
 Bastrop, and in 1845 in Austin, where he extended 
 his business untill it became one of the most exten- 
 sive in the interior of Texas. He was for several 
 years a member of the Texas Legislature. He as- 
 sisted in organizing the Texas Veterans' Association 
 in 1873, and was prominent in its councils, being 
 on its executive committee for a number of years, 
 and a Veteran of the first class in that association. 
 He was for many years preceding his death a 
 vestryman of St. David's Episcopal church in 
 Austin. He was married in 1855 to Louisa, 
 daughter of Col. Ira Randolph Lewis, a sketch 
 of whom appears elsewhere in this work. 
 
 Mr. Hancock was a man of great force of char- 
 acter, of unyielding and courageous honesty, and 
 was ready at all times to sacrifice his private inter- 
 ests to his principles. During the dissensions 
 between the States previous to 1860, he was a 
 strong opponent of secession, believing it to be 
 impossible of accomplisliment and disastrous to the 
 South and to the whole country. When the war 
 broke out he retained and continued to publicly 
 express his convictions, preferring to risk all rather 
 than yield what he thought right and patriotic. 
 But his hand and heart were always open to his 
 neighbors in distress and many a soldier, fighting 
 the battles of tlie Confederacy in the front, felt 
 easier from knowing that his family at home would 
 not suffer while George Hancock was there to lend 
 a helping hand. 
 
 George Hancock and his brother. Judge John 
 
254 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Hancock, recently deceased, were for many years Januarj', 1879, in the city of Austin, leaving sur- 
 potential forces in tbe business and political affairs viving Lis wife, Louisa, and one son, Lewis, the 
 of Texas. George Hancock died on tbe 6tli of present, Mayor of Austin. 
 
 WILLIAM LEWIS CABELL, 
 
 DALLAS. 
 
 Gen. W. L. Cabell was born in Danville, Va., 
 January 1, 1827, and was one of a family of seven 
 sons and four daughters. 
 
 His grandfather was Joseph Cabell, of Bucking- 
 ham County, who married a Miss Boiling, of the 
 same county. His father was Gen. Benjamin W. 
 S. Cabell, born in Buckingham, and his mother, 
 Sarah E. Doswell, a native of Nottoway County, 
 where his parents were married. Joseph Cabell, 
 his grandfather, moved to Kentucky while his 
 father, Benjamin W. S., was young. Gen. Ben- 
 jamin W. S. Cabell, however, remained in Virginia 
 all his life and died there April 13, 1862. His 
 widow died in 1874. Gen. W. L. Cabell grew up 
 on his father's farm and attended schools in the 
 vicinity until 184G, when he entered the United 
 States Military Academy at West Point, from 
 which he graduated in 1850 and was assigned to 
 the United States Army as Brevet Second Lieutenant 
 in the Seventh Infantry. In 1855, having attained 
 the rank of First Lieutenant, he was appointed regi- 
 mental Quartermaster and so remained until 1858, 
 when he was promoted to the rank of Captain in 
 tbe Quartermaster's department and was assigned 
 to duty on tbe staff of Gen. Persifer F. Smith, 
 then in command of tbe Utah expedition. Gen. 
 Smith died and was succeeded by Gen. Wm. S. 
 Harney, with whom Capt. Cabell continued until 
 the close of tbe expedition, when, in the same 
 year, he was ordered to Fort Kearney to rebuild 
 that fortification. In the spring of 1859 he was 
 ordered to Fort Arbuckle, in the Chickasaw Nation, 
 and in tbe fall of the same year, to build a new 
 post at Fort Cobb, about a hundred miles 
 west of Arbuckle ami high up on tbe Washita 
 river, in tbe Indian Territory, west of the ninety- 
 eighth meridian. This post, since tbe war, has 
 been superseded by Fort Sill. Capt. Cabell re- 
 mained on duty at Fort Cobb, frequently 
 engaged in scouting against tbe wild Indians, 
 until tbe spring of 1861, when it became apparent 
 that the war between tbe States was inevitable. 
 
 He then repaired to Fort Smith, tendered bis resig- 
 nation to tbe President of the United States, and 
 on the 12tb of April left for the seat of the Confeder- 
 ate Government, at Montgomery, Ala. He reached 
 Montgomery on the 19th of tbe month and imme- 
 diately offered bis services to President Davis. He 
 received at tbe same time tbe acceptance of bis 
 resignation, signed by President Lincoln, and was 
 commissioned as Major in the Confederate army. 
 
 He was married July 22, 1856, to Miss Harriett 
 A., daughter of Maj. Elias Kector. They have 
 reared a family of children who have been an honor 
 to their name. They are: Benjamin E., Kate Dos- 
 well, John Joseph, Lawrence Duval, Lewis Rector, 
 Pocahontas Rebecca, and William Lewis. Mrs. 
 Cabell died April 16, 1887. She was a woman of 
 rare virtues and greatly beloved by those who were 
 in a position to know ber many merits. 
 
 On being appointed Major, Cabell left for Rich- 
 mond, Va., under orders from President Davis, to 
 organize the quartermaster's, commissary, ord- 
 nance and medical departments of the army. He 
 remained there until the first of June, when he was 
 ordered to Manassas to report to Gen. Beaure- 
 gard as Chief Quartermaster of tbe Army of the 
 Potomac. After the battles of tbe 18th and 21st of 
 July, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston assumed command. 
 Maj. Cabell served on bis staff until tbe 15tb 
 of January, 1862, when he was ordered to report 
 to Gen. Albert Sydney Johnston in Kentucky (then 
 commanding tbe Army of the West) for service 
 under Gen. Earl Van Dorn in tbe Trans-Mississippi 
 department. He crossed the Mississippi into Ar- 
 kansas with Gen. Van Dorn, who established tem- 
 porary headquarters at Jacksonport, and soon 
 thereafter was promoted to tbe rank of Brigadier- 
 General and was assigned to tbe command of tbe 
 troops on White river, to hold in check tbe forces 
 of the Federal General Steele, then menacing that 
 section from Missouri, while Gen. Van Dorn pro- 
 ceeded to Northwest Arkansas and assumed com- 
 mand of the army then under tbe command of 
 
\y. L. CAHKLL. 
 
INDIAN M'ARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 255 
 
 Generals McCulloch ami Price. The battle of 
 Elk Horn was fouglit and lost on the Gth and 7th 
 of March, resulting in the transfer of that army 
 to the east side of the Mississippi river very 
 soon afterwards. 
 
 The following extract is from a sketch of Gen. 
 Cabell's services, written in 1878. The writer 
 says: — 
 
 " Gen. Cabell proved his ability as a commander, 
 in this emergency, and twice drove Steele's 
 army, which largely outnumbered his, back into 
 their camp in Missouri, and had control of that 
 section of the country until Van Dorn and Price 
 returned to White river previous to their leaving 
 for Corinth, Miss. The entire removal of this 
 large body of men, including McCuUoch's Ark- 
 ansas, Louisiana and Texas troops and his own 
 command, the furnishing of supplies for them and 
 the regulation of their transportation, devolved 
 upon Gen. Cabell, and how well the labor was per- 
 formed, within a single week, those in authority 
 can bear witness. It was accomplished without 
 the slightest delay or accident of any kind. 
 
 " After arriving in Memphis, Van Dorn's corps 
 was continued on to Corinth and Cabell assigned 
 to command the brigade, composed of the Tenth, 
 Eleventh and Fourteenth Texas Regiments, Crump's 
 Texas Battalion, McEea's Arkansas Regiment and 
 Lucas' Battery, which were in several engagements 
 around Corinth and at Farmington ; and on the 
 retreat to Tupelo, this and Moore's Brigade, 
 brought up the rear of Van Dorn's army. When 
 Gen. Bragg was ordered to Kentuck3', Gen. Cabell 
 was ordered to the command of an Arkansas 
 brigade, which he commanded at luka, Saltillo, at 
 Corinth on the 2d and 3d dajs of October, and at 
 Hatchie bridge on the 4th. Here he was badly 
 wounded and carried from the field. These, with 
 the wounds from the previous day, received while 
 leading the charge on the breastworks at Corinth, 
 disabled him from further handling his command, 
 or rather that portion of it left, and his troops 
 were united with the First Missouri Brigade, Gen. 
 Bowen. Upon his partial recovery. Gen. Cabell 
 was transferred to the Trans-Mississippi depart- 
 ment, to allow time for recuperation and the gen- 
 eral inspection of the Quartermaster's department 
 there." 
 
 Gen. Cabell's old .soldiers say that on the field 
 he was the soul of courage, a constant inspiration 
 to his troops, and that with him it was always 
 " Come on" and not " Go on " and that he was 
 the first to go into danger. 
 
 When sufficiently recovered from his wounds he 
 was placed in command of the forces in Northwest 
 
 Arkansas, with instructions to augment the number 
 as much as possible by recruits, in which he was 
 very successful, so much so that what became 
 known as Cabell's Cavalry Brigade was chiefly 
 organized in this way. It did gallant service on 
 numerous battle-fields in Arkansas and during the 
 last great raid into Missouri, on the final retreat of 
 which Gen. Cabell was captured on the 24th of 
 October, 1864, in Kansas. This period of serv- 
 ice covered the battles and skirmishes of Backbone 
 Mountain, Bentonvllle, Fayetteville, Poteau River, 
 Boonsboro, Elkins' Ferry, Wolf Creek, Antoinia, 
 Prairie de Ann, Moscow, Arkadelphia, Poison 
 Springs, Marks' Mill, Jenkins' Ferry, Glass Village, 
 Pine Bluff, Current River, Reeves' Station, Pilot 
 Knob, Franklin, Jefferson City, Gardner's Mills, 
 California, Boonville, La Mine, Lexington, Osage 
 River, Big Blue, Independence, Westport, Little 
 Santa Fe, Marie de Cygne, and Mine Creek, where 
 he was captured. 
 
 The Southern Illustrated Neivs, under date of 
 November 29, 18G2, stated that " Gen. Cabell was 
 the first official representative of the Confederate 
 government in Richmond and to his untiring 
 energy the Southern people are indebted, in a 
 great measure, for the prompt organization of 
 our army." 
 
 Referring to the first Manassas, the News said : 
 " Maj. Cabell behaved with great gallantry, and on 
 several occasions exposed himself to the enemy's 
 fire to such a degree that Gen. Beauregard ordered 
 him to desist, at the time saying: 'Maj. Cabell, 
 your life is too valuable to the Confederacy to be 
 thus endangered.' " 
 
 An army correspondent, as quoted in the same 
 paper, of November 29, 1862, in describing the 
 battle of Corinth, says: "On Saturday morning, 
 Cabell's Brigade, of Maury's Division, was 
 ordered to charge the formidable fort on College 
 Hill. They advanced unhesitatingly at charge- 
 bayonets to within thirty yards of the position be- 
 fore they were fired upon, when they were awfully 
 slaughtered. Still onward they went, after return- 
 ing the first fire, their commander at their head. 
 When they reached the works. Gen. Cabell boldly 
 mounted the enemy's parapet, closely followed by 
 his command. The first man he encountered was a 
 Federal Colonel, who gave the command to ' kill 
 that rebel officer.' Cabell replied with aright cut 
 with his sabre, placing the officer hors de combat." 
 
 They were compelled, however, to retire with 
 fearful loss. 
 
 Gen. Cabell was confined in the Federal prisons 
 on Johnson's Island and Fort Warren, Boston, until 
 the 28th of August, 1865. Being released on that 
 
256 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 day, he sought to find his wife and chilren at Aus- 
 tin, Texas, where they had refugeed with Mrs. 
 Cabell's father, and where he arrived without a 
 farthing, after a three days' fast, on the 12th of 
 September, to find that they had left and were 
 en route to their home in Fort Smith, Ark. He 
 overtook the loved ones in Bonham, Texas, and 
 soon after reached Fort Smith, where he resided 
 until December, 1872, when he came to Texas 
 to remain permanently, and settled at Dallas, of 
 which place he has since been a citizen. During 
 1866 Gen. Cabell tried cotton planting on the 
 Arkansas river and the commission business at Fort 
 Smith. The high price of provisions and labor, 
 combined with the cotton tax, prevented these 
 ventures from proving successful. In 1867 he 
 worked as a civil engineer, farmed on a small scale, 
 and studied law at leisure moments. In 1868 he 
 was admitted to practice in the United States Court 
 for the Western District of Arkansas. 
 
 He was an acknowledged leader of the Demo- 
 cratic party and fought the Arkansas Republicans 
 and carpet-baggers with all the skill, energy and 
 determination that he could command. In 1872 
 the Arkansas State Convention sent him as the 
 chairman of the delegation to cast the vote of that 
 State for Horace Greely for President, and during the 
 campaign he canvassed all of North and West Arkan- 
 sas. The result was a triumph for the Democracy. 
 
 He brought his family to Dallas in 1873. He 
 at once took a position as leader in all matters of 
 importance and was afterwards repeatedly elected 
 
 Ma3'or of the city. When he located at Dallas 
 he was agent for the Carolina Life Insurance 
 Company, of which Hon. Jefferson Davis was 
 president. He afterwards engaged in various 
 pursuits in which he was financially success- 
 ful but is now retired from active business. 
 As a Democrat his views have always had much 
 weight with the people of Texas and he has 
 had much to do with shaping the policies of the 
 party and in assisting in securing party victories, 
 and good government for the State. He is Lieu- 
 tenant-General of the United Confederate Veter- 
 ans' Association and devotes much time and thought 
 to the interests of that organization. He is a very 
 popular speaker and is in constant demand to ad- 
 dress his old comrades at their reunions and camp- 
 fires. He has written much upon the subject of 
 the late war and is regarded as an authority upon 
 all matters pertaining thereto. True to every 
 obligation as a citizen and soldier, both in time of 
 war and peace ; a patriot of great purity of act and 
 purpose, a man of the most sterling qualities, he is 
 a fine representative of the typical Southern gentle- 
 man. No man, certainly, is dearer to the people 
 of Texas and of the whole South. His name de- 
 serves a place upon the pages of her history among 
 the South's noblest and best. His life has been 
 in keeping with those of other members of the 
 Cabell family, all of whom have been true to their 
 country, their friends and themselves, and none of 
 whom have cast a stain upon the grand old family 
 name. 
 
 D. M. PRENDERGAST, 
 
 MEXIA. 
 
 Judge Prendergast is a descendant of Irish an- 
 cestors. His great-grandfather Prendergast came 
 from the old country to America in colonial times 
 and settled in North Carolina, where John Baker 
 Prendergast, the father of the Judge, was born. 
 John B. Prendergast went to Tennessee when 
 a j'oung man, and there married Miss Rhoda King, 
 of Sumner County, that State. She died in Mad- 
 ison County, West Tennessee, when the subject of 
 this sketch was a boy. Years afterward Mr. Pren- 
 dergast came to Texas and his death occurred in 
 Limestone County in 1846, about a month after his 
 arrival there. He was a plain substantial farmer, 
 
 a man of good judgmeut and of quiet, unassuming 
 ways. They had a family of four children that 
 reached maturity, the gentleman under consider- 
 ation being the only one of that number now 
 living. An older brother. Judge Luke Baker 
 Prendergast, an early settler of Limestone County, 
 died there some years ago. A younger brother 
 died in that county in 18 16, shortly after moving 
 to it, and an older one, Samuel, died in Tennessee 
 before the father's removal to Texas. 
 
 Judge D. M. Prendergast was born in Shelb^- 
 ville, Bedford County, Tennessee, December 26, 
 1816, and was reared in Madison County, that 
 
n. M. PKEXDERGAST. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 State, from his eighth year. He received his pre- 
 limiuary education in local select schools and took 
 a collegiate course at the East Tennessee Uni- 
 versity, at Kuoxville, graduating in the spring of 
 1841, with the degree of A. B. In January, 1842, 
 he came to Texas and began reading law at Old 
 Franklin, Robertson County, under the instructions 
 of James Raymond. He was admitted to the bar 
 at Boonesville, Brazos County, before Judge R. E. 
 B. Baylor, in 1845, having read law, taught school, 
 and hunted Indians during the preceding four 
 j'ears. He was elected Chief Justice of Brazos 
 County under the old regime and held the office for 
 one year. In the spring of 1846 he returned to 
 Tennessee and brought his father to Texas, settling, 
 in December of that year, at Springfield, then the 
 county seat of Limestone County, and then and 
 there entered upon the practice of his profession. 
 He was elected Chief Justice of Limestone County 
 in 1848 and filled the office one term. He con- 
 tinued in active practice until the opening of the 
 war. 
 
 In the fall of 1861 he raised a company in Lime- 
 stone County, was elected its Captain and, as a part 
 of the North Texas Infantrj% entered the Confed- 
 erate army, serving until the fall of 1862, when, on 
 account of an injury received, he was compelled 
 to resign and come home. He was honorably 
 discharged from the service on account of this 
 disability. 
 
 Resuming the practiceof his profession, hebecame 
 deeply engrossed in the same, also giving some atten- 
 tion to farming, until 1873, when he was appointed 
 by Governor Coke to fill a vacancy in the office of 
 District Judge of the Thirteenth Judicial District, 
 which vacancy was caused by the death of Judge 
 Banton. He completed this term, about three years, 
 at the end of which time the district was changed, 
 a new one being created out of the counties of 
 Navarro, Limestone and Freestone, of which he was 
 elected Judge and served as such four years. 
 
 At the close of this term of office Judge Pren- 
 dergast retired from public life and gave up the 
 practice of his profession, to which he had been such 
 an ornament. He then became interested in the 
 banking business with Jester Brothers, at Corsicana, 
 and in February, 1882, in company with L. P. and 
 J. L. Smith, J. W. Blake and W. B. Gibbs, he 
 bought out the banking interest of Oliver & Griggs 
 at Mexia and entered actively into the business. 
 
 becoming the senior member of the private 
 banking house of Prendergast, Smith & Com- 
 pany. He has since that time given almost his 
 exclusive attention to this business. He owns 
 considerable property in Mexia and some inGroes- 
 beck. He has taken an active interest in all local 
 enterprises in Mexia and is looked upon as one of 
 the public-spirited men of the place. 
 
 At an early day Judge Prendergast was some- 
 what active in politics in Limestone County, being a 
 prominent Democrat. He was a member of the 
 Secession Convention in 1861, and was in the Tenth 
 and Thirteentii Legislatures of Texas. He left the 
 Democratic party, however, in 1887, on account of 
 its position in reference to the whisky question, and 
 cast his fortunes in the political line with tiie Pro- 
 hibitionists. He is an ardent friend of temperance 
 and in 1892 was the nominee of the Prohibition 
 party for Governor of Texas. 
 
 Judge Prendergast was married May 16th, 1848, 
 to Miss Mary E. Collins, who was born in Lincoln 
 County, Tenn., in November, 1829, daughter 
 of George and Mary (Hudspeth) Collins, natives 
 of Virginia. Her mother, left a widow, came with 
 her family to Texas in November, 1841, and settled 
 on the Little Brazos river in Brazos County. She 
 had nine children, two sons and seven daughters. 
 Seven of the number reached maturity. In order 
 to educate her children she moved to Wheelock, 
 Robertson County, where she spent the residue of 
 her life. Mrs. Prendergast was the third daughter 
 of this family, and her sisters have all passed away. 
 Her brother, C. C, is a farmer in Harrison County, 
 and T. B., a farmer, lives in Bryan, Brazos County. 
 The Judge and his wife have had eight children, 
 five of whom survive, as follows: Ada R., widow 
 of Dr. J. H. McCain, of Mexia ; Fannie, wife of Dr. 
 R. C. Nettles, of Marlin, Texas; Albert C, a lead- 
 ing attorney of Waco; Mary, wife of S. H. Kelley, 
 of Mexia; and Annie, wife of J. R. Neece, of 
 Mexia. 
 
 Judge Prendergast was made a Mason at Spring- 
 field, forty-odd years ago, and has been a zealous 
 member of the order ever since. He is a prom- 
 inent member of the Cumberland Presbyterian 
 Church and was one of the founders of Trinity 
 University, at Tehuacana Hills, the educational in- 
 stitution of this Church in Texas, and has been a 
 member of the Board of Trustees ever since it 
 was founded. 
 
258 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEEES OF TEXAS. 
 
 GEORGE N. ALDREDGE, 
 
 DALLAS. 
 
 George N. Aklredge was born in Lee Countj-, 
 Ga., April 14, 184(5. His father was Dr. J. F. 
 Aldredge, who married Mary Ogiesby, daughter of 
 George S. Ogiesby. They lived for some years in 
 Russell County, Ala., and then moved to Pitts- 
 burg, Camp County, Texas, in 185G. In 1862, 
 when less than sixteen years of age, he entered 
 the Confederate army as a volunteer soldier in 
 Walker's division, Randall's brigade, Clark's regi- 
 ment. After serving two j'ears in Clark's regi- 
 ment he was transferred to Chisholm's regiment of 
 cavalry. Major's brigade, with which he remained 
 until the close of hostilities, participating in all the 
 engagements in which his command took part. At 
 the close of the war between the Slates he returned 
 home and entered McKinzie College, Red River 
 County, Texas, where he remained two years. He 
 then read law under Judge O. M. Roberts, at Gil- 
 mer, Upshur County, Texas, was admitted to the 
 bar and practiced one year with Col. John L. Camp 
 at Gilmer and then moved to Dallas ; remained one 
 year in Dallas ; moved to Waxahacbie, Ellis 
 County, where he stayed two years and then re- 
 turned to Dallas, where he has since remained. In 
 1875 he was elected County Attorney of Dallas 
 County and filled that office until 1878. He was 
 then elected District Judge and remained on the 
 bench ten years, during which time he signalized 
 himself as a fine lawyer and man of superior judicial 
 
 ability. After retiring from the bench he engaged 
 in the practice of law with Judge A. T. Watts and 
 J. J. Eckford, with whom he is now in copartner- 
 ship. In 18G9 he married Miss Betty W. Hearne, 
 daughter of Horatio R. Hearne, of Hearne, Texas. 
 Three children have been born of this union, George 
 E., H. R., and Sawnie R. Aklredge. 
 
 Judge Aklredge by reason of his legal ability and 
 his political speeches in behalf of good government 
 and sound money, is known in every nook and 
 corner of Texas. He is also known throughout 
 the Union through his great speech at Atlanta, 
 Ga., on October 16th, 1895, before the American 
 Bankers' Association, on the subject of Sound 
 Money. It was telegraphed to all the leading 
 journals, and elicited highest commendation from 
 almost every one. It was published in neat pam- 
 phlet form, for general distribution, by the Sound 
 Currency Committee of the New York Chamber 
 of Commerce. On January 30th, 1896, Senator 
 Caffery, of Louisiana, introduced it in the United 
 States Senate as part of his speech on the same 
 subject, and it is printed in full in the " Con- 
 gressional Record," of date January 31st, 
 1896. 
 
 Judge Aldredge's style is peculiarly cogent and 
 logical, his power of illustration unequaled, and 
 his wit keen and irresistible. As a debater he has 
 bad few equals and no superior in Texas. 
 
 HENRY MARTYN TRUEHEART, 
 
 GALVESTON. 
 
 Henry Martyn Trueheart, one of the leading 
 citizens and financiers of Galveston, was born in 
 Louisa County, Va., March 23, 1832, and came 
 to Texas with his father and family in 1845, 
 landing at Galveston on the 5th day of May of 
 that year. His father, John O. Trueheart (of 
 German lineage), was born in Hanover County, 
 Va. Mr. John O. Trueheart was a graduate of 
 Princeton College and a lawyer by profession. 
 His ancestors took part in the Revolution of 1776 
 
 in various capacities, serving in each instance with 
 distinction, some of them in the ranks of the Con- 
 tinental army as soldiers and officers. His first trip 
 to Texas was made in a wagon in 1838. He re- 
 mained in the Republic some time, during the 
 period assisting in the defense of the frontier 
 under the famous ranger. Col. John C. Hays. 
 He was united in marriage to Miss Ann Tomp- 
 kins Minor, a daughter of Col. Launceiot Minor, of 
 Louisa County, Va., whose sister was the mother 
 
<£«. Ti. III. 
 
 ^/s 
 
H. M. TRIKHART. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 259 
 
 of Commodore Jlatthew F. Maury. John B. 
 Minor (now deceased), lor fifty years professor 
 of law at the University of Virginia ; Lucian 
 Minor, late professor of law at William and Mary 
 College, Va., the late Dr. Chas. Minor, of Alber- 
 marle County, Va., and Dr. William Minor, of 
 Alabama, all eminent in their respective callings, 
 were brothers of Mrs. Ann Tompkins Trueheart. 
 She died at Galveston in 1886, and her husband, 
 Mr. John O. Trueheart, at Galveston in 1874. 
 
 Of their children, nine In number, six are now 
 living: Dr. Chas. W. Trueheart, Mrs. Fanny G. 
 Sproule, Mrs. John Adriance and Miss Mildred D. 
 Trueheart, of Galveston, the subject of this memoir, 
 and Mrs. Elvira S. Howard, of San Antonio, Texas. 
 Henry Martyn Trueheart had few school advan- 
 tages, but this deprivation was more than compen- 
 sated for by the careful training that he received 
 at the hands of one of the best of Christian mothers 
 and his daily association witli refined and cultured 
 people. Long before reaching bis majority he 
 was thrown upon his own resources and found it 
 necessary not only to earn a support for himself, 
 but to contribute to the maintenance of the family. 
 
 In 1857 he was appointed by the Commissioners' 
 Court of Galveston County Assessor and Collector 
 of taxes for the county, a position that he sub- 
 sequently filled for a period of about t.en years. 
 
 He took part in the battle of Galveston, January 
 1 , 1863, and, upon the recapture of the city by the 
 Confederates, was appointed Assistant Provost- 
 marshal, with the rank of Captain. 
 
 Several months later, feeling that every able- 
 bodied man ought to be at the front, whether ex- 
 empt from military duty or not, he proceeded to 
 Virginia, where he was attached to Stuart's cavalry 
 until wqunded in a skirmish near Orange Court 
 House, from whence he was carried to the University 
 of Virginia, where he was nursed at the home of 
 his uncle, John B. Minor. Upon recovery, a month 
 later, be joined regularly an independent company, 
 of about one hundred men, commanded by Capt. 
 J. Hanson McNeil, of Hardy County, W. Va., 
 with which he served until the surrender. In the 
 early part of 1865, as a member of this company, 
 he was a participant in one of the most remarkable 
 exploits that marked the course of the war. 
 
 McNeil marched his men on the occasion referred 
 to, eastward to Cumberland, Md. (a town of four 
 thousand inhabitants), situated ninety miles in ad- 
 vance of the main Confederate forces, and, 
 although it was garrisoned b}' several thousand 
 Federal troops and protected by three lines of 
 pickets, captured a picket, forced the countersign, 
 boldly entered the town under cover of night. 
 
 marched to the respective quarters (guarded by 
 sentinels) of Maj.-Gen. George Crook and Maj.- 
 Gen. Kelly, took those officers out of their beds, 
 retired as quietly as he came, marching his men 
 through nearly the entire Federal infantry camp, 
 and later delivered the Union Generals to the Con- 
 federate authorities at Richmond, this, too, without 
 being under the necessity of firing a gun. After the 
 close of the war Mr. Trueheart returned to Texas, 
 like Confederate soldiers generally, without a dol- 
 lar. He had to begin life anew. This he did, 
 nothing discouraged, and in the years that have 
 followed has amassed an independent fortune and 
 played an active part in the affairs of the city in 
 which he has so long resided. 
 
 In Hardy County, AV. Va., in 1866, he was 
 united in marriage to Miss Annie Vanmeter Cun- 
 ningham, the beautiful and accomplished daughter 
 of Mr. William Streit Cunningham, of that county. 
 They have five children: Sally, Henry M., Ann V., 
 Rebecca, and El-vira. 
 
 Mr. Trueheart is now serving his second term as 
 a trustee of the Galveston city public free schools 
 and has for a number of years been a member of 
 the board of directors of the Southern Cotton Press 
 Company, the Galveston & Western R. R. Co., the 
 Texas Trust & Guarantee Co., and the Galveston 
 Land and Improvement Co., and for several years 
 was a director and vice-president of the Galveston 
 Wharf Co. Besides being a director, he is also 
 treasurer of the Galveston Land & Improvement 
 Co. This company owns nearly seven hundred 
 acres in the western portion of the city of Galves- 
 ton. He has built up probably the largest land 
 agency business in Texas. He is a Democrat and, 
 while in no sense a politician, has always taken a 
 deep interest in public affairs, city, county. State 
 and national, using his influence for the attainment 
 of those beneficent ends, the hope of the ultimate 
 accomplishment of which through the medium of 
 popular government, led our forefathers to estab- 
 lish the institutions under which we live — institu- 
 tions to be preserved and further perfected by this 
 generation and then handed down, unimpaired, to 
 those that will succeed it. He has been faithful to 
 every duty as a citizen and no man occupies a 
 higher place in the affections of those who know 
 him. He is a Presbyterian, has been a member of 
 the Galveston church for a number of years, and 
 continues his active work in the Sunday-school, of 
 which he is at present, and has been for a number 
 of years, superintendent. 
 
 The great Southwest, owing to the equable and 
 salubrious climate that prevails throughout the 
 region, the fertility of its soil, and the extent and 
 
260 
 
 TXDIAX WANS AXD PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 variety of its nndevelopetl resources, is atlracliug 
 the eyes of capitalists and home-seekers, resident 
 not only in other parts of this country, but in all 
 lands and countries. Especially is this true of that 
 portion embraced within the territorial limits of 
 Texas. To these natural advantages in Texas, are 
 added the attraction of wise constitutional and 
 statutory provisions that guarantee immunities 
 and privileges, provision for the enjoyment of 
 which has been made by a broad and enlight- 
 ened statesmanship that had in view alone the 
 happiness and prosperity of all the people who 
 might thereafter make their homes in the State. 
 The ten or fifteen years that are at hand, will con- 
 stitute an era of wonderful settlement and develop- 
 ment of the State and also of tbe section of which 
 it is a part. All this vast region is naturally 
 tributarj' to Galveston, and that city with deep 
 
 water (now assured) will in these years become one 
 of the principal commercial depots of the woild. 
 
 From its harbor fleets will bear away tbe varied 
 productions and manufactures of its tributarv ter- 
 ritory and other ships from Mexico, Central and 
 South America, J^urope and Asia, will bring count- 
 less cargoes in return. It requires neither a 
 prophet nor a son of a prophet, to foretell so much ; 
 for the future depicted is not remote, but near at 
 hand — a logical sequence of natural conditions 
 and the inevitable increase of population and 
 wealth. 
 
 Mr. Trueheart in time past has been a tireless 
 and effective worker for Galveston, and during the 
 period of development upon the threshold of which 
 we are now pausing, his experience, insight and 
 wisdom will be of invaluable service to the city and 
 State. 
 
 JOHN STAFFORD, 
 
 COLUMBUS. 
 
 The late lamented John Stafford, for many years 
 a prominent citizen of Colorado County, Texas, 
 was of Welsh-English descent and born in Wayne 
 County, Ga., April 2d, 1849. 
 
 His parents were Robert and Martha A. Stafford. 
 His father was a prosperous stock raiser and farmer. 
 
 The subject of this brief memoir was left an 
 orphan when fourteen, his mother dying when be 
 was two years of age and his father in 1868. He 
 moved to Colorado County, Texas, in 1867, accom- 
 panied by two sisters and four brothers. Of an 
 ambitious and enterprising spirit and persistent 
 energy he, when sufficiently matured in years, en- 
 gaged in the cattle business with his brother, 
 Robert E. Stafford, at which they greatly prospered 
 and amassed handsome fortunes. 
 
 At various times, as organizer and promoter, he 
 was connected with important enterprises and few 
 men in his time did more for the development of 
 the commercial resources of Texas. Every move- 
 ment giving reasonable promise of inuring to the 
 public good received his active support both in the 
 exercise of his influence and the liberal expenditure 
 of his time and private means. 
 
 His success in life, achieved despite many obsta- 
 cles and from a small beginning, was due solely to 
 the employment of his natural capacity for business 
 
 and unswerving rectitude. Those associated with 
 him in financial transactions reposed in him the most 
 unbounded confidence and deferred in important 
 matters to his judgment, the soundness of which 
 they recognized from long experience. 
 
 Kind, genial, generous and brave, he was respected 
 and beloved by the people of the community in which 
 he spent the best years of his life. Strange, indeed, 
 that such a man should fall by violence — be cut 
 down without warning in the flower of his days and 
 usefulness. But such was his sad and tragic fate. 
 
 Jul}' 7th, 1890, about 7 o'clock iu the evening, 
 he and his brother, Robert E. Stafford, became in- 
 volved in a personal difficulty and, although unarmed 
 and unable to defend themselves, were shot and 
 killed upon the streets of Columbus. 
 
 In the death of Mr. John Stafford, Colorado 
 County was not only deprived of a good and 
 valuable citizen, but his family of an affectionate 
 husband and father, and many of a friend true and 
 tried. Of a loving and retiring disposition, to know 
 him was to like him. While he had encountered 
 many vicissitudes and had had to fight his way up 
 from poverty to independence there was nothing 
 cold, callous or selfish in his disposition. These 
 trials seemed to have broadened, deepened and 
 intensified his sympathj' for his kind. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 261 
 
 He lent an attentive ear to the recital of the woes 
 of the distressed, and was quick to offer succor. 
 No matter of wonder then that the news of his 
 death was received with a thrill of horror through- 
 out the State, and many devoted friends sent letters 
 of condolence and commiseration to his stricken 
 wife and children, affording all the solace that they 
 could in this hour of grief and agony. 
 
 His spirit winged its flight to that land where all 
 is peace and joy, and deeds of virtue find that 
 recognition and reward too often denied them in 
 this weary world. The sod of the valley grows 
 green above his grave. The mound is sacred. It 
 has been watered by the tears of his widow and 
 orphan children. It has been watered by the tears 
 of the poor and needy whom he so often gen- 
 erously befriended. He came in contact with 
 many men and moved amid many and changing 
 scenes alwa3's, under all circumstances and amid 
 all temptations and perils, as an upright and manly 
 man, and the influence of his character will long 
 be felt and bear worthy fruit. It can be truly said 
 that the world has been made none the worse but 
 far better by his having lived, and his memory is 
 affectionately enshrined in the hearts of thousands 
 where it will be kept ever fresh and green. 
 
 December 23, l.s74, Mr. Stafford was united 
 in marriage to Miss Grace A. Walker, the beautiful 
 daughter of Mr. Seaborn B. and Mrs. Susanna 
 Walker, who came from Georgia to Texas about 
 1S50 and located in Colorado County, where they 
 spent the remainder of their da3'S. Mr. Walker was 
 a gallant soldier in the Confederate army during the 
 war between the States. A large family of children, 
 eleven in number, survive Mr. and Mrs. Walker. 
 The union of Mr. and Mrs. Stafford was blessed 
 with three children, two of whom, .Joseph and 
 
 Carrie, are now living, the latter being the wife of 
 Mr. J. Alvey Harbert, an accomplished gentleman 
 and one of the leading stock raisers and farmers in 
 Southeast Texas. 
 
 Mrs. Stafford resides at her home, an elegant 
 mansion, four miles from Columbus. It occupies a 
 lovely site commanding an extended and pleas- 
 antly diversified view of woodland and prairie full 
 of the witchery of light and shadow, worthy of an 
 artist's brush. 
 
 The grounds surrounding this delightful and im- 
 posing house are tastefully laid off and ornamented 
 with trees, shrubbery, a profusion of flowers and 
 twining vines. It is a typical and ideal Southern 
 home. The evidences of a delicate and refined taste 
 are everywhere met with. Mrs. Stafford also pos- 
 sesses a well furnished library and there spends 
 many of her leisure hours. 
 
 She is a lady of fine literary discernment and 
 varied accomplishments. She is a member of the 
 Christian church, and in her daily life exemplifies 
 the teachings of the Master. Kindness and gentle- 
 ness and charity and truth, sanctify her saddened 
 home. She has bravely and with Christian forti- 
 tude borne her cross. Her benefactions are innum- 
 erable and many poor and unfortunate, whose tears 
 she has dried and whose necessities she has relieved, 
 have reason to call her blessed. 
 
 She is one of the noblest of our noble Texian 
 matrons who are the ornaments and pride and boast 
 of a civilization that if equaled is not surpassed by 
 that of any other State or land. She was born in 
 Colorado County, Texas, received an excellent edu- 
 cation, and in her childhood and girlhood days gave 
 evidence of those traits that won for her the affec- 
 tionate devotion of her late husband and endear her 
 to all who know her. 
 
 RICHARD MOORE WYNNE, 
 
 FORT WORTH, 
 
 Is universallj- recognized as one of the leading 
 men of the Lone Star State, having won a promi- 
 nence in the legal profession which can only result 
 from ability and the highest merit. As an 
 advocate he has no superiors and few equals in 
 his profession. From his boyhood he has been a 
 leader, whether among his schoolmates, his army 
 comrades, in business or in social life ; and his 
 
 commanding talents, and devotion to principles, 
 will win him still higher honors, for he is now in the 
 prime of life. 
 
 Col. Wj'nne is a native of Tennessee, He was 
 born in Haj'wood County, on the 2d day of June, 
 1844. His parents were W. B. and Sarah A. 
 (Moore) Wynne. Soon after his birth his family 
 moved to Rusk County, Texas, in which place his 
 
262 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 boyhood was spent on the farm of his father. In 
 the village of Bellevue, he began his education, 
 which, though limited, has been largely supple- 
 mented by extensive and liberal reading and ex- 
 perience in active life. 
 
 When the war between the States became inevi- 
 table, young Wynne, then just seventeen years of 
 age, filled with patriotic devotion for what he 
 believed to be right, went to the front in defense 
 of his country and section, and on many long and 
 weary marches and many bloody fields of battle, 
 proved himself the peer of the bravest of his chival- 
 rous comrades. For meritorious copduct on the 
 field of battle his comrades promoted him to a 
 Lieutenancy while he was yet a boy, and by 
 unanimous petition he was assigned to the com- 
 mand of Company B. in tlie Tenth Texas Regiment, 
 during the Georgia campaign. At the battle of 
 Murfreesboro he was severely wounded, becoming 
 disabled for some months from active service, 
 and again at the last battle of Nashville, when 
 Hood made his famous raid into Tennessee, he was 
 again severely wounded. The effect of this wound 
 was to permanently deprive him of the use of 
 his right arm and the partial use of his right leg. 
 At this battle he was left on the field wounded, and 
 fell into the hands of the Federals. He was confined 
 in Northern prisons, thus disabled and helpless, 
 until the close of the war, persistently refusing to 
 take the oath of allegiance to the Federal Govern- 
 ment as long as there was a Confederate flag float- 
 ing. On both sides of the line in that dark and 
 bloody conflict there were men who stood by their 
 colors amid shot and shell, where the hot breath of 
 war was spreading carnage and death, with a 
 heroism unsurpassed in any age or by any people. 
 Among the mostdevoted of these was young Wynne, 
 who never missed a scout, march, or battle until he 
 was struck down and permanently disabled. 
 
 In the winter of 1865 he returned to his desolated 
 home, impaired in health by reason of his exposure 
 and long confinement in Northern prisons, and 
 almost a physical wreck by reason of his wounds ; 
 but, he accepted this as the fate of war, and with 
 the same undaunted courage which he had for years 
 displayed as a soldier, he adjusted himself to the 
 new conditions, and at once seized the broken 
 threads of his young manhood. The South was in 
 a chaotic condition. Desolation brooded like the 
 pall of death over once proud and happy homes, 
 ravaged by war. 
 
 Young Wynne sat not down to mourn or lament. 
 With the energy and fortitude of a dauntless man- 
 hood he began the battle of life. He made the race 
 for sheriff of his county when just eligible for the 
 
 position, his opponents being the Major of his regi- 
 ment and a private soldier of his company. Win- 
 ning his election he served three years, or until he 
 was removed by the Reconstruction Act of Con- 
 gress. Still with the courage worthy of emulation, 
 he embarked in agricultural pursuits, although still 
 suffering from his wounds, his right arm being 
 withered and useless. Through the day he 
 labored on his farm and at night read law, 
 studying systematically and earnestly until he was 
 deeply grounded in the principles of law. He was 
 admitted to the bar in 1870, and at once entered into 
 an active practice in the town of Henderson, where 
 he was soon recognized as one of the most success- 
 ful law3'ers at the bar, at which some of the most 
 eminent men of this State practiced. His powers 
 of oratory, together with close and systematic in- 
 vestigation and strong common sense, have been 
 the leading factors in this man's marked success. 
 He challenges the respect of the court by his can- 
 dor and fairness, and sways juries by his fervid 
 eloquence and convincing logic. 
 
 Turning from the public career to the private life 
 of Col. Wynne, we note that on the 23d day of 
 January, 18G7, he was married to Miss Laura B. 
 Kelly, daughter of Hon. Wm. C. Kelly, one of the 
 most distinguished and influential men of his sec- 
 tion ; he was a member of the Secession Convention 
 of Texas and took a conspicuous part in that body. 
 Mrs. Wynne is a native Texian and a woman of 
 strong individuality and highly cultured, and of 
 marked intellectuality and refinement. With the 
 characteristic chivalry of the true Southern man. 
 Col. Wynne ever acknowledges his indebtedness to 
 his wife for much of his success. 
 
 His natural fitness for leadership and his famili- 
 arity with public affairs, challenged the attention 
 of the people among whom he lived, and in 1880, 
 unsought by him, he was elected to the Stale Senate 
 of Texas, where he quickly went to the front as a 
 legislator, and no man in that body had more in- 
 fiuence. His uniform courtesy and lilierality won 
 him friends fast, who have bided with him. He 
 was one of the five men who drafted and formulated 
 a bill creating the University of Texas, and so well 
 and wisely did they work that that bill has never 
 been amended except in some minor details. He 
 also became conspicuous in his efforts to regulate 
 railway corporations. He advocated the Three- 
 cents-a-mile Bill which became a law, and the pass- 
 age of a law creating a Railroad Commission, which 
 has in later years become so prominent in Texas 
 politics. In 1882 he made the race for Attorney 
 General and was defeated by only a small majority. 
 In his speech of withdrawal from the convention 
 
R. M. WYNNK 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 263 
 
 Col. Wynne was most happy and captured the 
 convention and, though defeated in fact, it was con- 
 ceded by all that he snatched victory out of defeat, 
 and from that day his leadership has been unques- 
 tioned. It was in 1886 that he was made perma- 
 nent president of the State Convention, and added to 
 his already growino; influence by his ability and 
 tact in controlling men under excitement incident 
 to a hot political contest. 
 
 He has for some years been often spol?en of in 
 connection with the office of Governor of this State ; 
 many of the best citizens and most influential men 
 of the State would give liim an enthusiastic support. 
 It is conceded by all that should he be elected to 
 that high position Texas would prosper and progress 
 under his broad and liberal administration, for no 
 man is more loyal to his Slate and people and takes 
 a deeper interest in their general welfare. 
 
 It was in 1883 that Fort Worth gained Col. Wynne 
 as one of its most valued cit'zens. He sought a 
 wider field of usefulness and found it in his present 
 home, where, at the bar he stands among the fore- 
 most, while from the public he is accorded a large 
 clientage. His life record is certainly one of in- 
 terest, demonstrating what can be accomplished by 
 resolution, perseverance and strict adherence to 
 sound business principles. Reared as a farmer, 
 trained on the field of battle, he entered upon a 
 struggle to overcome difficulties and obstacles 
 which would have overwhelmed many a less reso- 
 lute man. He then became a leader at the bar and 
 in the political world of Texas, but through all this 
 career his bearing has ever been such as to win and 
 retain the respect of the best citizens of his adopted 
 State. 
 
 J. D. GUINN, 
 
 NEW BRAUNFELS, 
 
 A successful lawj^er of New Braunfels, Texas, is 
 a native of Franklin County, Tenn., born in the 
 town of Winchester, January 23d, 1853. His 
 father, N. W. Guinn, was a farmer by occupation. 
 His mother's maiden name was Elizabeth H. Barnes. 
 Both parents were natives of Tennessee. They 
 came to Texas in 1857 and locate:! in Gonzales 
 County, where the subject of this sketch was reared 
 and educated under the tutorship of James A. Mc- 
 Neal. Of the ten children born to N. W. and Eliza- 
 beth Guinn, all but one survive. He, Harvey H. 
 Guinn, died at the age of twenty-two years, shortly 
 after qualifying for the practice of the profession 
 of medicine. N. W. Guinn was a man of broad 
 intelligence, believed much in education, and af- 
 forded his children the best schooling facilities at 
 his command. The subject of this sketch was lib- 
 erally educated and at the age of nineteen started 
 out to fight life's battle for himself and without a 
 cent of money at bis command. 
 
 He taught school for one and ahalf \'ears, and by 
 this means and also by money earned surveying 
 
 \lv*^) lO^A^-i-^M^ ^/-v-vw I, 
 
 lands, of which he acquired much knowledge, 
 he accumulated sufficient money to defray his ex- 
 penses while studying law. He read law for three 
 years in the office of Gov. John Ireland, of Seguin. 
 
 About the year 1878 he removed to New Braun- 
 fels and opened an office for the practice of his pro- 
 fession. Here he has since remained, built up a 
 lucrative practice and won the confidence and esteem 
 of the entire community. He is public-spirited and, 
 outside of the profession of law, is interested in 
 several local enterprises, among the number the 
 First National Bank of New Braunfels, one of the 
 solid financial institutions of Southwest Texas, of 
 which he is a director and vice-president. He is a 
 warm supporter of education and an active promoter 
 of all enterprises tending to build up his city and 
 county. Mr. Guinn married Miss Bettie Howard 
 Jefferson, a daughter of Gen. John R. Jefferson, 
 of Seguin, in the year 1882, and has four charming 
 daughters. 
 
 He is a representative of the best thought and 
 purpose of his section of the State. 
 
 
264 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEER,S OF TEXAS. 
 
 HORATIO R. HEARNE, 
 
 HEARNE, 
 
 Familiarly known as " Raish " Hearne, an old 
 settler and successful planter residing near the 
 town of Hearne, Robertson County, Texas, is a 
 native of Montgomery County, Ala., where he 
 was born in 1818, being a son of William and 
 Nancy Hearne, who moved from Georgia to Ala- 
 bama in 1814. The elder Mr. Hearne was a planter, 
 and spent the greater part of his life in Alabama, 
 moving thence in later life to Arkansas, where he 
 died, his wife, mother of the subject of this 
 sketch, dying in Louisiana. 
 
 Horatio R. Hearne was reared in Alabama, leav- 
 ing there in the fall of 1838, when he went to Caddo 
 Parish, Louisiana, before the line between Louisiana 
 and Texas was established. He settled near the 
 line, not knowing till after the boundarj' was fixed, 
 whether be was in Louisiana or Texas. When the 
 line was run it threw his place a mile and a half on 
 the Louisiana side. He resided there until Novem- 
 ber, 1851, when he came to Texas, and bought 
 land and settled in the Brazos bottom, in Robert- 
 son County, where he has since lived. He has 
 added other purchases and continued to improve 
 his holdings until at this writing he has one of the 
 largest plantations in Robertson County-, cultivat- 
 ing between 3,600 and 3,800 acres, principally 
 devoted to raising the fleecy staple. Between 
 seven hundred and eight hundred people live on 
 
 the plantation, and it is conducted much after the 
 manner of the good old anle-hellmn days.' He 
 employs no overseer, preferring to keep the active 
 management of this large property in his own 
 hands. Over twenty years ago Mr. Hearne sunk 
 the first artesian well ever bored in that section of 
 the State, since which time he has experimented 
 largely with these wells. Recently he has put in 
 an apparatus to utilize the gas coming from the 
 wells, and has so far succeeded that he now has 
 gas to light his house with, and for cooking and 
 heating purposes, and to run a four-horse power 
 engine in a blacksmithing and wood-working estab- 
 lishment on bis place, where he makes everything 
 in the way of machinery needed on the planta- 
 tion. 
 
 January 27th, 1842, Mr. Hearne married Miss 
 Prisciila Hearne (his cousin), then residing in 
 Caddo Parish, Louisiana. She helped him fight 
 his battles of life for fifty-odd years, dying Octo- 
 ber 21, 1893. They had two daughters, Mrs. 
 George N. Aldredge, of Dallas, and Mrs. Adams, 
 who now resides with Mr. Hearne. 
 
 Mr. Hearne is a fine type of the broad-minded, 
 cultured and progressive Southern gentleman, and 
 admired and loved not only by his numerous 
 dependents, but by a wide circle of friends through- 
 out the country. 
 
 JOSEPH A. TIVY, 
 
 KERRVILLE, 
 
 Was born February 25th, 1818, in Toronto, 
 Upper Canada, and spent his youth there and in 
 Niagara County, New York, where he attended 
 country scliools and for a few months an academy. 
 He came to Texas in 1837, landing at Houston 
 and passing on to Washington County and tlience 
 to that portion of Milam now embraced in Burleson 
 County, where he remained for several years. 
 This part of the Republic was then considered the 
 extreme western frontier of the settlements. In 
 the winter of 1837-38, at the opening of the gen- 
 
 eral land office, he took up the occupation of 
 surveyor, first as chain-carrier, and in a few years 
 as a regular surveyor. During those j'ears he 
 spent most of his time on the frontier, and gen- 
 erally with that famous frontiersman, Capt. Geo. 
 B. Evart, sometimes surveying and locating land 
 and at others fighting Indians, part of the time 
 under the government and i)art of the time on his 
 own responsibility, killing game and buying ammu- 
 nition, salt and coffee with the proceeds of the sale 
 of his pelts. 
 
J. A. TIVEY. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 ■2 05 
 
 In 1S44 be went to San Antonio and joined Col. 
 Jack Hays' Rangers, and remained witli that com- 
 pany about a year. In 1845 lie was appointed 
 deputy surveyor of Bexar District, and in that 
 year surveyed and made the locations in Gillespie 
 County. In 1846 he surveyed the lands on the 
 upper portion of the Guadalupe river. From 
 1846 to 1849 he was often interrupted in the work 
 of surveying by hostile Indians. During 1847 he 
 completed the surveys on. the San Saba. One day 
 during this time while in camp with about twenty 
 men, he was visited by Ketemsey, a celebrated 
 chief of the Comanches, and ordered not to mark 
 any more trees up there, the chief pointing at the 
 same time to a range of hills and saying: " That is 
 the white man's line." But these orders were not 
 obeyed, the whites being armed with rifles and 
 revolvers and the Indians having only bows and 
 arrows and spears. 
 
 In the spring of 1849, Capt. Tivy took the Cali- 
 fornia fever and, in company with several others, 
 set out in June for the Pacific Coast. They 
 reached San Gabriel Valley in Southern California, 
 in October following, after many trials and much 
 suffering and went into camp for the winter at 
 Mission San Gabriel. In the spring of 1850, the 
 party resumed its journey and finally reached the 
 mines by way of Tejon Pass. Here Capt. Tiv3' 
 went into the hotel business, renting the " United 
 States Hotel " at S200 per month. The building 
 was made of stakes and poles and roofed with can- 
 vas. There was only one long, narrow room which 
 was used as a dining room. On the sides and ends 
 of this the lodgers were bedded in bunks arranged 
 one above the other. The cooking was all done in 
 the open air, excepting the baking, at which two 
 men were kept busy almost day and night, so great 
 was the demand for pies, cakes and bread. The 
 rate charged for board and lodging was §3.00 per 
 day in gold dust, there being no coin. 
 
 After following this occupation for a few months 
 Mr. Tivy sold out and went to mining, which he 
 followed a little over two years. He then went 
 into the mercantile business, which he followed for 
 about a year. In July, 1853, Tulare Couiity was 
 organized and he was elected county survej'or. In 
 connection with his official duties he went to farm- 
 ing and employed successfully a band of Indians, 
 whom he trained to agricultural pursuits. These 
 he would have liked to retain, but Gen. Fremont, 
 having secured a contract from the general govern- 
 ment to feed all the Indians of that locality at so 
 much per head, they were taken away from him 
 and transported to a point near the base of sup- 
 plies. The same year he was appointed United 
 
 States Deputy Surveyor of California and elected to 
 the Legislature and served in the Legislature during 
 the winter of 1853-4. In the spring of 1855 he 
 was ordered by the surveyor-general to run a line 
 through the Sierra Nevada mountains, accomplished 
 the task and ran the first correct standard line run 
 through those mountains. The expedition was full 
 of perilous adventures and hair-breadth escapes 
 from Indians and grizzly bears. In 1857 he went 
 from California to New Mexico and in the fall of 
 1858 returned to Texas and settled in Karnes 
 County, where he engaged in raising horses and 
 mules. In 1862 he enlisted in the Confederate 
 army, becoming a Lieutenant in Capt. John H. 
 Dunkard's Company. In the fall of the same year 
 he was promoted to the position of First-Lieutenant, 
 and later put in command of the company and held 
 this position until the fall of 1864. In the mean- 
 time his health had become impaired and he was 
 finally forced to quit the service. 
 
 Being still in feeble health, on the recommenda- 
 tion of his physician he moved to Kerr County in 
 1872 and settled on a tract of land (on which Kerr- 
 ville now stands) which he had located while sur- 
 veying in that section in the " forties." In 1873 
 he was elected to the Legislature. From 1874 to 
 1888 he engaged in farming. On the establishment 
 of Kerrville in 1888 he was made the first mayor of 
 the place. As soon as the town was incorporated 
 he donated to it sixteen acres of land for a school 
 building and grounds and later donated other lots (in 
 all more than one hundred acres) for the erection of 
 buildings and for other improvements. He watched 
 the growth of the town from its inception and 
 always manifested a liberal spirit in promoting its 
 interests. 
 
 He married late in life, his wife being Mrs. Ella 
 Losee, widow of Dr. Henry Losee, a United States 
 army surgeon who died at Kerrville. She died 
 three or four years before Capt. Tivy. His death 
 occurred July 5th, 1892. 
 
 For some time he had been actively engaged in 
 overseeing the work of boring for artesian water 
 on his place. Owing to his advanced age and phy- 
 sical condition, this undue activity and exposure 
 brought on stomach complications which proved to 
 be the immediate cause of his demise. He was a 
 member of the Masonic fraternity. Religious ser- 
 vices were conducted at the church and services at 
 the grave by Kerrville Lodge No. 697, A. F. and 
 A. M., and Burleson Chapter Royal Arch Masons of 
 San Antonio. A large delegation from Rising Star 
 Lodge were also present from Center Point. The 
 funeral cortege consisted of more than one hundred 
 carriages and was the largest ever seen in the town. 
 
266 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 He was laid to rest on the summit of the mountain 
 beside his beloved wife. He was greatly beloved 
 by the entire community and the people omitted no 
 mark of respect to his memory that friendship for 
 him and admiration for his character could prompt. 
 He was associated as a brave companion with men 
 whose deeds have made Texas famous. He main- 
 tained throughout a life marked with many hard- 
 ships, vicissitudes and perils a character unsullied 
 
 by a single stain. He was modest, truthful, gener- 
 ous and kind and devoted to his God, his country, 
 his family and his friends. He accumulated a 
 handsome fortune. By his last will and testament 
 he constituted his sister. Miss Susan Tivy, his sole 
 legatee and she and Judge A. McFailand were 
 made executors without bond. Mr. Tivy was one 
 of the noblest representatives of the noblest race of 
 pioneers that the world has ever known. 
 
 GEO. W. O'BRIEN, 
 
 BEAUMONT. 
 
 Capt. George W. O'Brien, one of the most widely 
 known and highly esteemed citizens of Southern 
 Texas, was born about five miles below the present 
 town of Abbeville, Vermillion Parish, Louisiana, 
 May 28th, J833 ; and in his seventeenth year 
 (November, 1848) came to Texas and located at 
 Galveston, where he made his home, until his re- 
 moval in the latter part of 1852, to Beaumont, 
 where he has ever since resided. At Beaumont, 
 July 21st, 1854, he was united in marriage to Miss 
 Sarah E. Rowle}', member of another Louisiana 
 family that had settled in that part of Texas. Of 
 this union were born seven children, five of whom 
 are now living, viz. : Mrs. Minnie G. Stark (for- 
 merly Wilson) ; Mrs. Lillie E. Townsend, wife of 
 Mr. T. L. Townsend, and Mrs. Emma E. Smith, 
 formerly wife of A. S. John, Esq., deceased, but 
 now the wife of Mr. Harvey B. Smith, all now resi- 
 dents of Dallas, Texas; George C. O'Brien, Esq., 
 of Beaumont, recently district attorney of his district 
 and later a member of the House of Representatives 
 of the Texas Legislature, and Mrs. Kaleta B. James, 
 wife of Mr. William James, of Cleburne, Texas. 
 
 Capt. O'Brien won the military prelixto his name 
 by faithful and gallant service under the Confed- 
 erate flag, whose waning fortunes he followed until 
 it was furled forever. 
 
 From September 4th to December 10th, 1861, he 
 served as a privatein Companj' F. (Capt. K. Bryans), 
 Fifth Texas Regiment, and afterwards, until the end 
 of the war, as Captain of a company in what was 
 first Liken's Battalion, afterwards Speights' Battal- 
 ion, and later Speights' Texas Regiment — a mixed 
 regiment. While not a seeker after political dis- 
 tinction or preferment, he has been frequently 
 honored by his fellow-Democrats with important 
 
 offices; has served as a member of many district 
 and State conventions and has ever been a well- 
 known and trusted member of the organized Democ- 
 racy, to which he has preserved an unshaken 
 allegiance, and in whose interests he has helped 
 plan and fight many successful political bat- 
 tles. He was a member of the National Demo- 
 cratic Convention that met at Baltimore in 1872. 
 In the presidential campaign of that year he 
 favored the nomination of a sound conservative 
 Northern Democrat, foretelling that Mr. Greely 
 would not be accepted as a Democrat North or 
 South, and that his nomination would result in an 
 overwhelming defeat. Indeed, in this instance, as 
 in many others, his cool and dispassionate judg- 
 ment was demonstrated by pointing out the true 
 course to be pursued, and relieved him of personal 
 responsibility for party failures. For instance, 
 although always entertaining a great admiration for 
 Gen. Sam Houston, he did not permit that majestic 
 leader to draw him into the folly of connecting 
 himself with the secret oath-bound political organi- 
 zation that st3'led itself the American party, but 
 which is better known to history as the Know-Noth- 
 ing party, giving as one of his reasons for refusing 
 to follow Houston, his belief that the Know-Noth- 
 ing party in seeking to proscribe a denomination of 
 religion, was committed to a policy obnoxious to 
 the fundamental principles that form the foundation 
 of our government, and all constitutional freedom 
 as well. When this party was in its heyday, and 
 sweeping the country, he predicted its speedy dis- 
 integration, claiming that no organization seeking 
 to ostracise any class of citizens because of their 
 peculiar religious faith, could long find favor with 
 the American people. 
 
t% 
 
 
 L" • 
 
 
 1^^ 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 ii^ ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^li^K^^^^H« * " A 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 GEO. w. <)'brie:n. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 267 
 
 Again in the year 1860, after the election of 
 President Lincoln, and the adoption by South Car- 
 olina of her celebrated resolutions announcing the 
 fact that that State had seceded from the Ameri- 
 can Uuion, he furnished another evidence of the 
 soundness and reliability of his judgment. As a 
 member of a committee on resolutions at a seces- 
 sion meeting held at Beaumont he refused to sub- 
 scribe to and vote for the adoption of a copy of 
 the South Carolina resolutions, taking the position, 
 first, that Mr. Lincoln, being an honest states- 
 man, would under his oath of office maintain 
 and enforce all existing laws enacted in accord- 
 dance with constitutional provisions for the pro- 
 tection of the rights of the South, more efficiently 
 than his Democratic predecessors had succeeded 
 in doing, antagonized as they were by the people 
 of the North; and, second, that a resort to seces- 
 sion, as a cure of the ills that existed, was then 
 premature, inasmuch as the abolition forces had 
 secured possession alone of the executive depart- 
 ment of the national government, and control of 
 both branches of Congress, and the Supreme Court 
 of the United States remained in the hands of the 
 Democrats, rendering it impossible that existing 
 laws would be changed, the constitution amended, 
 or constitutional guarantees further invaded, dur- 
 ing the Lincoln administration, while it was alto- 
 gether probable that the fanatical disregard of the 
 organic laws and the rights of the people of the 
 Southern States thereunder, would be allayed and 
 finally subside, if cooling time were allowed, and 
 then the rights of the South would be accorded 
 for the future, or the slavery question would be 
 compromised, by the adoption of a just and peace- 
 able system of gradual emancipation. 
 
 His opposition proved of no avail. A large 
 majority of his fellow-citizens dissented from his 
 views. When threatened and condemned at this 
 meeting for the position he had taken, he, without 
 subscribing to the resolutions, gave the extreme 
 politicians present to unequivocally understand 
 that if they and others precipitated upon our State, 
 secession and consequent civil war, as he believed 
 prematurely, he would stand by his people and be 
 
 one of the first to shoulder a musket, and, from 
 the beginning to the end of the struggle, would 
 seek to do his full duty in the ranks of the sol- 
 diery of Texas, as there existed no difference of 
 opinion between him and other members of the 
 meeting as to the fact that the Southern States had 
 suffered outrages at the hands of the abolition 
 party that furnished ample justification for such a 
 course. He maintained, however, to the end of 
 the discussion, the unwisdom of secession at the 
 time. 
 
 Capt. O'Brien lost his first wife in 1873, and was 
 married again in 1874 to Miss Ellen P. Chenault, 
 then a resident of Orange, Texas. She is a sister 
 of Hon. Stephen Chenault, then a citizen of that 
 place, now of Goliad, and a daughter of Felix 
 Chenault, Esq., a resident and for nearly thirty 
 years county clerk of Gonzales County. She was 
 born in De Witt County, where her father and 
 mother (nee Miss Anna Trigg) formerly resided. By 
 this marriage two children have been born to them: 
 Chenault O'Brien and Robert O'Brien. 
 
 The population as shown by the census of 1850, 
 was about 212,000. There were no railway or 
 telegraph lines between the borders of the State, and 
 by far the greater part of her domain was a primeval 
 waste. While of a modest and retiring disposition, 
 in the period that has supervened, no man, accord- 
 ing to his opportunities and abilities, has been more 
 zealous, or labored more effectively, in the noble 
 work of developing the resources of the State, and 
 none feel a deeper pride in her present and future 
 greatness. 
 
 He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church South, and Masonic and Knights of Honor 
 fraternities. 
 
 He has aided every worthy enterprise established 
 in his section, and has championed every worthy 
 cause. 
 
 Of spotless fame, cultured and refined in manner, 
 kindly and generous, and a worthy tj'pe of the true 
 gentleman, he enjoys the unfeigned friendship and 
 esteem of not only his Immediate neighbors, but a 
 wide circle of personal and political friends, extend- 
 ing throughout the State. 
 
268 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 J. J. JARVIS, 
 
 FORT WORTH. 
 
 James Jones Jarvis was born in Suriy Countj', 
 N. C, April 30th, 1831, and received his educa- 
 tion in that State, Tennessee and Illinois, his 
 parents, Daniel and Lydia Jarvis, having moved to 
 Illinois when he was about twent}' years of age. 
 He read law with Hon. W. B. Somers, of Arbana, 
 111., wrote in the clerk's office at the same time to 
 acquaint himself with the machine work of practice ; 
 was granted license by the Supreme Court of Illinois, 
 in 1856 ; then started South and reached Shreveport, 
 La., and in the winter of that year determined to 
 go to Texas. He at first thought that he would buy a 
 horse to travel on ; but, only having $100, realized 
 that such a purchase would too greatly diminish his 
 scanty supply of cash, and started out afoot ; 
 walked from Shreveport to the east fork of the 
 Trinity river in Collin County, and then, doubling 
 back on his course, went to Quitman, in Wood 
 Count}', located there and began the practice of his 
 profession. When he reached the town he had sixty 
 dollars and, loaning fifty-flve dollars to a friend, 
 commenced his career with only five dollars in his 
 pocket. He soon won an enviable standing at the 
 bar, served for two years as county judge and two 
 years as district attorney of the Sixtli Judicial Dis- 
 trict ; returned to tiie practice of law and in 1872 
 went to Fort Worth, where he has since resided. 
 Having saved a few thousand dollars, he invested 
 all he had in real estate and is now one of the 
 largest tax-payers in Tarrant County. He owns 
 one of the finest business blocks in the city, §40,- 
 000 stock in the Fort Worth National Bank, of which 
 he is vice-president, five thousand acres of land 
 ten miles north of the city, other valuable country 
 property and one hundred acres adjoining the city, 
 on which he has an elegant residence. He has 
 quite a passion for stock-raising and is engaged 
 in raising fine cattle and horses on his ranch near 
 town. 
 
 In 1801 Mr. Jarvis entered the Confederate army 
 as a volunteer in Company A., Tenth Regiment of 
 Texas cavalry, Ector's brigade. Van Dorn's corps, 
 Beauregard's Army of Tennessee, and served as 
 Adjutant and Major of his regiment. After the 
 battle of Corinth the troops with which he was con- 
 nected were transferred to Gen. E. Kirby Smith, and 
 Mr. Jarvis served with that army and took part in 
 its battles through the whole of Gen. Smith's cam- 
 paign in Kentucky, participating in the battles 
 
 around Richmond, Ky., and other engagements. 
 On the evacuation of Kentucky and after joining 
 Gen. Bragg, he was also in the battles of Murfrees- 
 boro and Jackson, Miss. In the former battle 
 he was slightly wounded, but did not leave the 
 field. He came home just before the close of hos- 
 tilities on furlough, and was at home when the 
 Confederate armies surrendered. 
 
 Mr. .Jarvis was married in 1866 to Miss Ida Van 
 Zandl, daughter of Isaac Van Zandt, once Minister 
 from Texas to the United States and who was ap- 
 pointed by Gen. Sam Houston to negotiate the 
 treaty under whicli Texas became a member of the 
 American Union of States. They have three living 
 children : Van Zandt, Daniel Bell and Lennie 
 Flynn. 
 
 Mr. Jarvis has always been an active and earnest 
 Democrat, believing that upon the triumph and suc- 
 cessful application of the principles of that organi- 
 zation depends the perpetuity of free institutions in 
 this country. Although never in any sense an 
 office-seeker, he has not hesitated to serve his peo- 
 ple when it was thought that his experience 
 and abilities could be employed in the promo- 
 tion of the general good. He was nominated in 
 1886 by the Democracy of the twentieth sena- 
 torial districts composed of the counties of Tar- 
 rant, Parker, Wise and Jack, and was elected 
 by a majority of twelve hundred votes. In the 
 regular and extra sessions of the Twentieth Legisla- 
 ture and in the Twenty-first Legislature, he was 
 Chairman of the Committee on Finance (perhaps 
 the most important of all the standing comraitees), 
 second on Judiciary Committee No. 1 (the next 
 most important), and a member of the committees 
 on Internal Improvements, Education, Public 
 Debt, Frontier Protection, Retrenchment and 
 Reform and Engrossed Bills, committees that with 
 those already enumerated transact nine-tenths of 
 the business that comes before the Senate. He was 
 the author of a number of salutary laws during 
 these sessions, among others one enacted by the 
 Twentieth Legislature requiring assessors and 
 collectors to report monthly their collections under 
 oath and requiring them to send all money collected 
 directly to the treasurer of the State instead of to 
 the comptroller, as formerly. The effect of this 
 bill was the speedy collection of a surplus in a 
 previously depleted treasury. Although he had 
 
J. J. JARVIS. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 263 
 
 retired from the practice of bis profession s number 
 of years prior to his entrance into tlie Legislature, 
 his exceptional learnino; and abilities as a lawyer 
 were well known to and recognized by his colleagues 
 and this fact, combined with his reputation as a 
 financier, sound Democrat and man of sturdy and 
 unbending patriotic purpose, caused them to accord 
 him the position of a leader in their deliberations 
 and won for him their sincere esteem and friend- 
 ship. 
 
 Mr. Jarvis has been a liberal giver to public and 
 private charities and has been an active spirit in 
 
 the promotion of every worthy movement inaugu- 
 rated in Fort Worth during his long residence 
 there, designed for the upbuilding of the city. He 
 is, and has been for many years, a member of the 
 Christian Church and is now president of the Board 
 of Trustees of Add Ran (Christian) University 
 (located at Thorp Springs, in Hood County, Texas), 
 to which institution he has donated $10,000 during 
 the past five years. 
 
 Kind, genial, active in every good work, few 
 men in Forth Worth exercise so wide an influence 
 or are so generall}' liked. 
 
 THE REMARKABLE ESCAPE OF CICERO R. PERRY AND 
 KIT ACKLIN, IN 1844. 
 
 In the summer of 1844 Capt. John C. Hays, 
 of San Antonio, commanded a company of Texas 
 rangers, doing duty on both the Indian and 
 Mexican line of frontier north and west of that 
 town. That region, throughout the American 
 settlement of Texas, down to the close of the Civil 
 War in 1865, abounds in incidents of blood, daring 
 and personal heroism. At present it is proposed 
 to narrate the facts connected with one of them. 
 
 From his camp at San Antonio Hays dispatched 
 four men on a scout towards the Rio Grande, 
 whose mission was to ascertain if the Mexicans 
 were again menacing the country. The party con- 
 sisted of Christopher H. Acklin (commonly called 
 Kit Acklin), Cicero Rufus Perry (almost univer- 
 sally known as Rufe Perry), John Carlton and 
 James Dunn. After a week in the wilderness they 
 halted at noon about a hundred yards east of the 
 Nueces river, and about fifteen miles above the 
 "Gen. Woll " crossing of that stream. After 
 dinner Carlton and Dunn, without saddles, rode 
 to the river, stripped and were taking a bath, when 
 Perry and Acklin were suddenly and furiously 
 attacked by about thirty Indians, yelling as they 
 charged upon the surprised couple. But though 
 surprised, they were both men of iron nerve, expe- 
 rienced and at home in the perils of their occupa- 
 tion. Seizing their arms, they fought and slowly 
 retreated towards Carlton and Dunn at the river. 
 Perry was shot three times with arrows, one 
 entering his temple, one in the shoulder and one 
 passing through his body from the right to the left 
 side. From excruciating pain he fainted, and was 
 
 evidently considered dead by the Indians, but 
 quickly revived, and seeing the enemy busy in 
 plundering the camp, he arose and reached the 
 river bank, when one of the naked bathers, on 
 bareback, rode across to him and endeavored to 
 take him up behind ; but being too weak to mount, 
 Perry seized the horse by the tail, crossed the 
 river, and ascended the west bank, when he again 
 fainted. Believing him to be dead, his wounded 
 companion took charge of his gun and pistols. 
 While this was transpiring, Acklin, partly shielded 
 by a tree, was wounded in six or eight places, the 
 most serious being an arrow in his cheek, which he 
 was unable to extract. A moment, probably, 
 after Dunn and Carlton, both naked and bare- 
 back, left, consciousness again returned to Perry, 
 and he staggered into a dense thicket, from which, 
 at the same time, he saw Acklin pass, and sup- 
 posed he would seek the same refuge — but he 
 saw him no more. 
 
 It was 110 miles through the wilderness to San 
 Antonio, the nearest habitation. On the third day 
 Dunn and Carlton, their flesh almost roasted and 
 their skins peeling from their bodies, reached that 
 place, and reported Perry and Acklin as unquestion- 
 ably dead. Good nursing soon restored them to 
 soundness. 
 
 While in the thicket. Perry drew the arrows from 
 his temple and body, but could not withdraw the 
 one embedded in his shoulder. Finding his life 
 blood flowing, he staunched the wounds with 
 powdered leaves and dust. Crawling to the river, 
 driven by thirst, he filled his shoes with water, and 
 
270 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 again sought a hiding-place. At dawn next morn- 
 ing he again went to the river and lay by the water 
 all day, bathing his wounds with mud. When the 
 second night caue, though scarcely able to stand, 
 desperation impelled him onward, and he began his 
 long and apparently hopeless journe}', suffering 
 tortures from the arrow in his shoulder, weakened 
 by the loss of blood, and harrowed by the dread of 
 insanity from the sun beaming on his wounded 
 bead. Gentle whispers urged him onward — 
 whispers of mother, sister, friends — whispers of 
 trust in God. Often sinking prostrate under the 
 alluring shade of trees, he would sleep sometimes 
 for hours, at others only through fitful moments, 
 with the one dread of inflamed and disordered 
 brain, and therefore inevitaljle death, ever present. 
 Thus he toiled, suffered, agonized for six days, his 
 only nourishment being three prickly pears, till, on 
 the seventh day, a living skeleton, he staggered 
 into San Antonio, as one risen from the dead — to 
 be joyfully embraced by valiant comrades and 
 those blessed ladies, who at that day, won the love 
 and the homage of all true soldiers who from time 
 to time held quarters in and around San Antonio — 
 of whom Mrs. Elliott, Mrs. Jaques and Mrs. Mav- 
 erick were conspicuous examples. 
 
 Kit Acklin was yet considered among the dead. 
 But not so. 
 
 On the eighth day, in much the same condition 
 as Perry, Acklin gave renewed joy to all by appear- 
 ing among them. His trials had been similar to 
 those of his comrade. The arrow was still tenac- 
 iously fixed in his cheek. 
 
 Both received needful medical treatment and 
 gentle nursing. The arrow was extracted from 
 each, and in a few weeks each was restored to fair 
 health ; but Perry never entirely recovered from the 
 wound in his temple, bearing to this day the ex- 
 ternal evidence of its severity. 
 
 Of these four gallant men, John Carlton died 
 long since in San Antonio; James Dunn was killed 
 in 18G4, in a fight between Texas and Union 
 soldiers at Las Rucias, on the Lower Rio Grande; 
 Christopher H. Acklin was a Captain in Hays' 
 regiment in the Mexican war, afterwards went to 
 California, and died there ; Cicero R. Perry, who 
 was born August 23, 1822 (I think in Alabama), 
 came to Texas in 18.33, was in Col. Moore's Indian 
 fight and defeat, on the San Saba, February 12, 
 
 1839, in the skirmish of Casa Blanca, August 9, 
 
 1840, and in many contests with the Indians. 
 When Gen. Lee surrendered in 1865, Capt. Perry 
 commanded the advance guard of 183 men, under 
 my command, in an expedition against the Indians 
 into the Concho country. Then, as now, he lived 
 in Hays County, honored as a good citizen and 
 high-toned gentleman. It was a genuine pleasure 
 to again grasp his hand at the late semi-centennial 
 of San Jacinto as one of the Texas Veteran's re- 
 union in Dallas. Our friendship began in accident- 
 all3' meeting alone in an exposed wilderness west 
 of the Colorado, on a gloomy day in October, 1840. 
 We traveled alone all day and slept together that 
 stormy night. That friendship has been unbroken 
 and steadfast, changed only by increased endear- 
 ment with the flight of time. 
 
 JOSEPH LANDA, 
 
 NEW BRAUNFELS. 
 
 Joseph Landa, who for so long a period has 
 figured as the chief factor in the development of 
 the pretty city of New Braunfels, and who is widely 
 known and esteemed as one of Texas' most promi- 
 nent and worthy pioneers, was born in Prussia, 
 Germany. He came to San Antonio in 1846, as a 
 general merchant and real estate dealer, both in 
 San Antonio and New Braunfels. In 1859 he pur- 
 chased of Mr. Merriweather his entire water power 
 and milling interests at New Braunfels ; took posses- 
 sion of the same and commenced developments in 
 
 1860, since which time he has given to them his 
 best thought and energies. 
 
 The plants now being operated are a flour mill of 
 500 barrels capacitj', a large electric light plant and 
 an 80-ton cottonseed oil mill. 
 
 At the present time Mr. Landa is busy increasing 
 the capacity of his oil mill to 100 tons per day and 
 putting in a late improved water wheel of 260 horse- 
 power, to operate the oil mill. The company has 
 also contracted for the erection of a new electric 
 light station, and, in addition to the new wheel, will 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 271 
 
 put in another one to operate several new dynamos 
 for ligbt and the transmission of power, all of which 
 will materialize this (189G) spring. 
 
 The firm as it now stands, is doing the most ex- 
 tensive business of any institution in Western 
 Texas. It handled last year 3000 car loads of prod- 
 uct, which, with their enlarged facilities, will be 
 greatly increased this year. They are only await- 
 ing the advent of another railroad to build the 
 largest oil mill and flour mill in the State of 
 Texas. 
 
 The entire business is managed by his son, Mr. 
 Harry Landa, with an efficient force of about 
 seventy-five employees. 
 
 In 1851, Mr. Joseph Landa, subject of this notice, 
 was united in marriage to Miss Helen Friedlander, 
 daughter of Mr. Solomon Friedlander, of Albany, 
 N. Y. 
 
 Seven surviving children were born to this union, 
 three sons and four daughters. 
 
 Mr. Landa's home, facing the plaza in New 
 Braunfels, is one of the finest family mansions, in 
 point of architectural grace and completeness, in 
 interior arrangement, finish and furnishings, in 
 Southwestern Texas ; and here he and his wife 
 with their son live in quiet retirement, surrounded 
 by a wide circle of friends to make serene and 
 happy the remaining years of life. 
 
 E. L. R. WHEELOCK, 
 
 ROBERTSON COUNTY. 
 
 Col. E. L. R. Wheelock, one of the first settlers 
 of Robertson County, Texas, was a native of New 
 England, where he was reared and partly educated, 
 finishing his collegiate training at West Point, of 
 which he was a graduate. He served in the War of 
 1812 and in the Black Hawk War; settled when a 
 young man in Illinois, where he lived for a while ; 
 then went to Mexico and spent something over 
 three years trading in that country ; returned to 
 Illinois, where he resided until 1833, engaged 
 principally in the mercantile and milling business, 
 and then came to Texas, and settled in Robertson's 
 Colony, on the prairie, named for him Wheelock 
 Prairie, and laid out the town of Wheelock, which 
 was also named for him. He remained in Texas 
 until 1846, when he returned to Illinois to settle up 
 some business matters there, preparatory to trans- 
 ferring all his interests to Texas. He had consid- 
 erable landed possessions in Adams County and 
 Quincy, 111., his name being perpetuated in the 
 history of that city by Wheelock square and 
 Wheelock addition. While on this journey he was 
 taken sick and died at Edwardsville, 111. His 
 trunk, containing many of his valuable papers, was 
 never recovered by his family (who remained in 
 Texas) in consequencfr of which they lost some of 
 his propertj'. 
 
 During the troubles of 1835-6 he was in Texas 
 and was in what is known to history as the " Run- 
 away Scrape." After removing his family to a 
 place of safety, he started with his son, George R. 
 
 Wheelock, and his afterwards son-in-law, Samuel 
 A. Kimble, to join the army under Houston, but 
 reached it the day after the battle of San Jacinto. 
 
 His wife was Miss Mary P. Prickett before mar- 
 riage and was born in Lexington, Ky. Her 
 parents emigrated to Illinois at an early day and 
 there she met and was married to Mr. Wheelock. 
 She died in Robertson County, Texas, October 12, 
 1881, at the age of eighty-four years. To Mr. 
 Wheelock and his wife five children were born, the 
 youngest of whom, a son, Thomas Ford, died at the 
 age of five. The others grew to maturity. These 
 were: George Ripley, Annette Woodward, William 
 Hillman and David P. The three sons saw more or 
 less military service in Texas, George R. as a mem- 
 ber of the Minute Men and William H. and David P. 
 in the Mexican War, both the latter being present at 
 and taking part in the battles of Monterey and 
 Buena Vista. William H. and David P. also 
 served in the Confederate army during the war be- 
 tween the States. But two of the family are now 
 living: William H., who resides at Franklin, in 
 Robertson County, and the daughter, Annette 
 Woodward, now Mrs. S. B. Killough. 
 
 Mrs. Killough, at this writing, one of the oldest 
 settlers of Robertson County, was born in Bond 
 County, 111., in 1821. Accompanying her parents 
 to Texas in 1833 her entire life has since been 
 passed in this State — and that, too, within a mile 
 or so of where she now lives, near old Wheelock, in 
 Robertson County. She remembers many events 
 
272 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 connected with the early history of tlie locality 
 where she lives and is a very entertaining 
 talker. She has borne her full share of the burden 
 of settling the country and her life has not been 
 without its sorrows in addition to the hardships 
 incident to the settlement of the country. She has 
 been three times married and is now a widow. Her 
 first marriage was in November, 1836, and was to 
 Samuel A. Kimble. There being no one authorized 
 to solemnize the rites of matrimony in Robertson's 
 Colony the contracting parties had to go to Nachi- 
 toches, La., where they were regularly united 
 according to the laws of that State. Mr. Kimble 
 died three weeks later. In March, 1837, his widow 
 was united in marriage with Andrew Jackson 
 Powers, a noted pioneer who was killed Januar}' 9, 
 1839, in Morgan's defeat in what is now Falls 
 County. Of this marriage one child was born, 
 Thomas Washington Powers, who died when three 
 weeks old. The third marriage was in 1841, to 
 Samuel Blackburn Killough, who was born near 
 Murfreesboro, Tenn., September 10, 1813, and came 
 
 to Texas in 1839, settling at Old Franklin, Roberston 
 County, where he was engaged a short time in the 
 mercantile business. He then moved to Wheelock 
 Prairie and there spent the remainder of his life, 
 engaged in planting and stock-raising. He was 
 County Judge of Robertson County in the *50s 
 and was a member of the Constitutional Convention 
 of 1875 from Robertson, Brazos and Milam 
 counties. He died at his home near Wheelock, 
 June 21, 1876. To Judge Killough and wife were 
 born eleven children, six of whom reached matur- 
 ity: Nancy J., wife of George H. Dunn; Sallie 
 E., wife of William Henry; Annette, wife of Abe 
 McMordie ; Henry C. Charles Cavendish and Isaac 
 DeLafayette Killough. 
 
 Mrs. Killough at this writing lives with her son, 
 Isaac DeLafayette Killough, on the farm where 
 Judge Killough settled. She has all the neces- 
 saries and comforts of life. Her other children 
 live near enough for her to see them quite 
 often. She is indeed a kind, motherly, model 
 woman. 
 
 FREDERICK KALTEYER, 
 
 SAN ANTONIO, 
 
 Was born in Aademer, Grand Duchy of Nassau, 
 in 1817, where he was reared. In boyhood and 
 youth he attended the schools of his native place 
 and completed his education at Mayence and Geis- 
 sen, studying chemistry in the last named place 
 under Baron Von Liebig. He emigrated to New 
 Orleans in 1846 and the same year came to Texas, 
 stopping at Galveston, where he remained a short 
 time and put up and operated the first soda foun- 
 tain ever in the State. But the outlook was not 
 favorable for him there and he returned to New 
 Orleans, where he engaged in the drug business 
 until 1854, when, through the persuasions of 
 George Kendall, he sold out his interests and came 
 to Texas and purchased a ranch near Boerne, on 
 which he settled and undertook to raise stock. At 
 the end of three years he had lost everything he had 
 except his land, and that he traded to Dr. F. Herff 
 for a small drug store in San Antonio. Removing 
 to that place he engaged again at his old business 
 and followed this with a fair measure of success as 
 long as he lived. The establishment which he pur- 
 chased and built up is still running now under the 
 
 firm name of F. Kalteyer & Son, on the north side 
 of Military Plaza. 
 
 Mr. Kalteyer was a man of fine attainments as a 
 chemist and a thoroughly good citizen, interesting 
 himself in everything pertaining to the welfare of 
 the communities in which he lived. While residing 
 in New Orleans he was a member of a number of 
 German benevolent associations and exerted him- 
 self in every way to relieve the necessities of his 
 countrymen and to enable them to get fair starts 
 in the new world. While residing near Boerne in 
 this State he acted as physician to the scattered 
 settlers of that locality, served them as county 
 judge and in ditBcult matters acted for them as a 
 wise and faithful adviser. 
 
 After settling in San Antonio he gave his atten- 
 tion mainly to his business and, with the exception 
 of the position of alderman, never held any public 
 office. 
 
 In New Orleans he married Miss Henrietta Leon- 
 ardt, a native of Westphalia, Germany, of which 
 union there were born two sons and two daughters. 
 The daughters are Mrs. Adolph Herff ami Mrs. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 273 
 
 George Altgelt, of San Antonio. The sons are 
 among the leading business men of that city. The 
 elder, Mr. George H. Kalteyer, being the senior 
 member of the firm of F. Kalteyer & Son, druggists, 
 president of the San Antonio Drug Company, 
 which he organized, the principal stockholder in 
 the Alamo Cement Company, which lie also organ- 
 
 ized, a stockholder in the Lone Star Brewing Com- 
 pany and, in fact, is or has been connected in some 
 capacity with almost every public or private cor- 
 porate enterprise in the city, including the railways 
 for which he helped secure the right of waj', and 
 in other ways lent valuable aid when they were 
 building into the city. 
 
 GEORGE W. GLASSCOCK, SR. 
 
 AUSTIN. 
 
 G. W. Glasscock, Sr. , was born in Hardin 
 County, Ky., on the 11th day of April, 1810, and 
 in that State was reared and spent his boyhood 
 daj's. In 1830 be emigrated to St. Louis, Mo., 
 and two years afterwards moved to Springfield, 
 III., where he engaged in the mercantile business. 
 Soon the tocsin of war sounded. The Indian was 
 on the war path. The noted Chief Black Hawk 
 with his warriors had to be met. A call for vol- 
 unteers was made. Glasscock was among the first 
 who enlisted. He was elected First-Lieutenant in 
 Capt. J. M. Early's Company, and did his duty as 
 a faithful soldier during that short but trying and 
 wearisome campaign, in which his brother, Gregory 
 Glasscock, lost his life in the defense of his coun- 
 try. Next we find him flat-boating in partnership 
 with President Abraham Lincoln on the Sangamon 
 and Illinois rivers. When he quit this business 
 he returned to his uncle near St. Louis, Mo., where 
 he remained until tidings of deeds of daring going 
 on in the Southwest started him on a new field of 
 adventure. 
 
 He emigrated to Texas in 1834 and settled at 
 Zavalla, in the municipalit}' of Jasper, again fol- 
 lowing the occupation of merchant in partnership 
 with T. B. Ruling and Henry Millard. It was 
 here in 1837 that he married Miss Cynthia C. 
 Knight, the daughter of John Knight, of Davidson 
 County, Tenn., who departed this life in 1866 and 
 left him and seven children surviving her. 
 
 In the latter part of 1836 his firm engaged exten- 
 sively in the land locating business, and Glasscock 
 was the surveyor. It was in this capacity that 
 he first became acquainted with Western Texas, 
 locating most of the land certificates of the firm in 
 Travis, Williamson, Burnet, Hays, Lampasas, and 
 Milam counties. Once when locating land cer- 
 tificates in Williamson County, the locating party 
 
 divided to search for good locations on Berry's 
 creek, and his party escaped a band of Indian 
 warriors while the other party was massacred by 
 them. 
 
 When the fate of Texas was quivering in the 
 scales of destiny in 1835-6, the young surveyor 
 threw aside the compass and surveying-chain to 
 seize the musket and sabre and hurry to the front. 
 Of how he conducted himself the survivors of the 
 Grass Fight and those who participated in the 
 storming and capture of the Alamo with him in 
 December, 1835, can best tell, in both of which 
 engagements he did his full duty as a soldier and 
 patriot. He was First-Lieutenant in Capt. James 
 Chesshire's Company from Jasper, and was in ten 
 feet of Col. Milam who fell on the 10th of Decem- 
 ber, 1835, in the city of San Antonio, Texas, at 
 the storming and recapture of that city by the 
 Texians. He was in many engagements against 
 the Indians in the pioneer days of Texas. 
 
 Enchanted by the beautiful prairies and valleys of 
 the Colorado and San Gabriel rivers, he moved to 
 the town of Bastrop, in 1840, where he remained 
 until 1844, when he moved to a tract of land that he 
 purchased and improved, one and one-half miles 
 west of Webberville, in Travis County, Texas. In 
 1848 he move(. to Williamson County, near George- 
 town, and built the first flour-mill in Western 
 Texas. In the same year he donated to William- 
 son County one hundred and seventy-two acres of 
 land upon which the city of Georgetown is loca- 
 ted and which place was named in honor of him. 
 To the building up of Georgetown and Williamson 
 County he devoted much of his energy, time and 
 means. He moved to Austin, Travis County, in 
 1853, where he resided until his death, in 1868. 
 From 1850 to the time of his death he filled manj' 
 important positions. He represented Travis and 
 
274 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Williamson counties in tbe Tenth and P^Ieventli 
 Legislatures. He was public-spirited and generous, 
 taking great interest in all public enterprises. 
 
 In 1887, the Twentieth Legislature, in apprecia- 
 tion of the distinguished services rendered by him 
 to Texas, created and named Glasscock County in 
 his honor. The following language was used in the 
 act creating the county: " The county of Glass- 
 cock is named in honor of George W. Glasscock, 
 
 who participated in the struggle for Texas Inde- 
 pendence, and was at the storming and recapture 
 of the Alamo on the 10th of December, 1835, 
 and was in the Grass fight and other engage- 
 ments which resulted in the Independence of 
 Texas." 
 
 He was a Mason and Odd Fellow. His death 
 was a great loss, not only to his family, but to the 
 country. 
 
 GEORGE W. GLASSCOCK, JR., 
 
 GEORGETOWN. 
 
 Hon. George W. Glasscock, Jr., was born Janu- 
 ary 10, 1845, in Travis County, Texas, where he 
 was reared, and resided until 1879, when he moved 
 to Georgetown, in Williamson County, where he 
 has since resided. He served as county attorney of 
 Williamson County in 1879-80; was elected county 
 judge in 1880, and re-elected in 1882, and in 1884 
 was elected to the State Senate from the Twenty- 
 fourth District, composed of the counties of Travis, 
 Williamson and Burnet (" capitol district") and 
 was re-elected to the Senate in 1888. He is the 
 only man born in the district who has represented 
 it in the State Legislature. He served in the Senate 
 during the sessions of the Nineteenth, Twentieth, 
 Twentv-Qrst and Twenty-second Legislatures. In 
 the Nineteenth Legislature he was a member of the 
 Senate Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds. 
 At that time the construction of the new capitol 
 was in progress and it was perhaps the most im- 
 portant committee of the session. He was Chair- 
 man of the Senate Committee on Education during 
 the sessions of the Twentieth and Twenty-second 
 Legislatures. Considering the interests to be 
 guarded, this position was also one of great 
 responsibility. 
 
 At least $2,500,000 of school money was being 
 expended annually by the State of Texas. The 
 permanent fund amounted to $7,000,000 in securi- 
 ties ; about 25,000,000 acres of school lands that re- 
 mained unsold and about $10,000,000 in land notes. 
 
 No chairman of the Committee on Education 
 ever labored more zealously or effectively to guard 
 this rich heritage, designed by the wise statesman- 
 
 ship of former years to descend to and bless many 
 passing generations. His labors and accomplish- 
 ments in other directions were equally patriotic, 
 painstaking and productive of good and lasting 
 results. He made a record second to that of none of 
 his colleagues. He is a clear thinker and graceful 
 and powerful speaker and would make his influence 
 felt in any popular assemblage or legislative body. 
 In public life he has, in the support or opposition 
 that he has offered to pending measures, been guided 
 alone by a desire to secure the greatest good to the 
 greatest number, to protect the weak and restrain 
 and, if possible, prevent the injustice of tbe power- 
 ful and rapacious. He served in the Confederate 
 army during the war between the States as a mem- 
 ber of Duff's Thirty-third Texas Cavalry, Gano's 
 brigade. Walker's division, and made a gallant and 
 faithful soldier. He is a member of the Missionary 
 Baptist Church, Past Grand Master of the Inde- 
 pendent Order of Odd Fellows, and a Knight Tem- 
 plar and a member of the Ancient Arabic Order of 
 the Mystic Shrine in Masonry, being a member of 
 Colorado Commandery No. 4, at Austin, and of 
 Ben Hur Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Austin. 
 He was united in marriage to Miss J. H. Boatner, 
 a daughter of Mr. J. R. Boatner, at Tennessee 
 Colony, Anderson Count}', Texas, on the 19th day 
 of March, 1865. 
 
 As a private citizen he has managed his business 
 affairs so as to be in independent circumstances 
 and is public-spirited, often giving of his time and 
 means to enterprises inaugurated for the building 
 up of the countrj^ 
 
DR. M. A. TAYI.Oi; 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 M. A. TAYLOR, M. D., 
 
 AUSTIN. 
 
 Dr. M. A. Taylor was born at Columbus, Ohio, 
 November 12, 1830. His father was of Scotch, his 
 mother of English, descent. 
 
 His grandfather, Matthew Taylor, emigrated to 
 America before the Revolution (1760) and settled 
 with his large family near Richmond, Va., and 
 after the War for Independence purchased large 
 land claims from the Virginia soldiers. This land 
 had been set apart by act of Congress and certifi- 
 cates issued therefor. He purchased these certifi- 
 cates in quantities and located the land in Ohio, 
 between the Scioto river on the east and the Miami 
 on the southwest. He removed to this land and 
 settled on the spot where the flourishing city of 
 Chillicothe now stands. 
 
 Dr. Taylor's father, also named Matthew, was an 
 officer in the War of 1811-12 under command of 
 Gen. Wm. H. Harrison, and was promoted to the 
 rank of Colonel as a reward for conspicuous gal- 
 lantry. Col. Taylor was stationed for a time at 
 Franklin, on the south side of the Scioto river, the 
 county seat of Franklin County, Ohio, and during 
 the winter he and an uncle (John Taylor) and 
 Lyon Starling, laid off the site where now stands 
 the city of Columbus, on the east bank of the 
 Scioto, and here through their efforts and the active 
 interest and co-operation of State Senator John 
 McKnight (father-in-law of Col. Taylor) the State 
 capital was subsequently located. 
 
 Dr. Taylor, the subject of this memoir, was the 
 youngest of a family of five children, three sons 
 and two daughters. The sons were in the order of 
 their respective ages : John McKnight, Harvey 
 Milton and Matthew Addison ; the daughters, 
 Rebecca, who became the wife of Jesse Cherry, and 
 Elizabeth, who married William Watkins. 
 
 Col. Taylor upon retiring from military life en- 
 gaged in the peaceful pursuits of milling and 
 farming. He died December 28, 1832. His widow, 
 a lady of great force of character and deep piety, 
 survived bim something more than six years, dying 
 in March, 1839. 
 
 Dr. Taylor, thus left an orphan when nine years 
 of age, went to live with his oldest sister, Mrs. 
 Rebecca Cherry ; remained with her for two years 
 and then Matthew Taylor (a second cousin of his 
 father, and uncle by marriage to the lad) having 
 been appointed guardian, he thereafter lived with 
 him at his home near Columbus. He had been 
 
 placed at school during his stay with his sister and 
 his guardian also gave him the benefit of school 
 advantages, entering him as a pupil in the district 
 school, where he remained for two years and then 
 entered the high school conducted by the celebrated 
 instructor. Rev. Mr. Covert, and two years later 
 matriculated at the University of Oxford, Ohio, 
 where he finished his literary education. lu 1846, 
 at the age of sixteen, he entered the office of his 
 brother. Dr. Harvey Taylor, and commenced the 
 study of medicine and, later, his brother being 
 honored by a call to a position on the staff of Gen. 
 Winfleld Scott, studied under Dr. W. H. Howard, 
 professor of surgery at Starling Medical College. 
 To be a private pupil of Dr. Howard was a dis- 
 tinction which gave additional stimulus to the 
 student's ambition and he applied himself to the 
 acquisition of knowledge with such zeal and inter- 
 est that in a short time he was pronounced suffi- 
 ciently advanced to enter college, and accordingly, 
 matriculated at Starling Medical College, and, after 
 two courses of lectures, was graduated M. D. in 
 1849, at the age of nineteen years. He had shown 
 such proficiency in his studies, especially in 
 applied anatomy, that at the suggestion of his dis- 
 tinguished preceptor, he was retained some months 
 as prosector for the chair of surgery and to make 
 dissections for the demonstrator. He then chose 
 Logan, the county seat of Hocking County, Ohio, 
 as a suitable field, and locating there about fifty 
 miles from Columbus, opened an office and began 
 the practice of his profession. 
 
 December 25th, 1851, Dr. Taylor was united in 
 marriage to Miss Phoebe Lowe, daughter of Peter 
 B. Lowe, formerly a prosperous merchant at Bond 
 Brook, New Jersey. 
 
 The young doctor soon established a fine prac- 
 tice ; but, "alas, all things bright and fair must 
 fade," the worm was already at the heart of the 
 rose, the fell destroyer had marked his fair young 
 bride for an early grave, and, seeing the hectic 
 glow upon her cheek and noting the unmistakable in- 
 dications of pulmonary consumption, he determined 
 to make every effort in human power to save her. 
 He closed up his business, and having investigated 
 the claims of many so-called health resorts, deter- 
 mined to come South in the hope that the genial air 
 and the sunny skies of far-famed Texas would 
 restore her to health, and in 1852 reached Galves- 
 
276 
 
 IXDIAX M'ARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 ton, bul soon became convinced that the excessive 
 humidity of the atmospliere there was prejudicial, 
 removed to Austin. The outlook was anything 
 but encouraging. In fact, the surroundings were 
 such as to make a less courageous heart quail. A 
 young man, a total stranger, with nothing but his 
 profession to rely upon for support, in a remote 
 village of fifteen hundred inhabitants, with an 
 invalid wife, and no monej' ! He was, however, 
 undismayed, realized the necessity of providing 
 food and raiment, shelter, and even luxuries, for 
 his invalid wife and went to work at manual labor, 
 at anything honorable, no matter how humble or 
 how hard, that would supply their needs until the 
 dawn of brighter days. . In a year he was able to 
 open an olHce and resume the practice of medicine 
 and to purchase a small home, for cash. His wife 
 presented him with a winsome little daughter two 
 years after their arrival in the State. Her health 
 rapidly declined after that event, and in 1857, being 
 attacked with pneumonia, she perished with the 
 roses in the autumn of that year. 
 
 On the 27th of April, 1859, Dr. Taylor married 
 Miss M. H. Millican (his present wife) daughter 
 of Capt. O. H. Millican, a staunch Mississippi 
 planter who had adopted the Lone Star State for 
 his home. Two sons and four daughters were born 
 of this marriage, Edward H., born in 1860; Mary 
 O., born in 1862, now the wife of James Howell 
 Bunton, Esq., of Travis County, Texas; Addison, 
 who died at the age of eighteen months, born in 
 1864; Elizabeth, born in 1868, now the wife of 
 John W. Phillips, Esq., of Austin ; Laura, who 
 died in infancy, born in 1871 ; and Daisee Belle, 
 born in 1878. 
 
 The daughter by the first marriage, Harriett Ann, 
 married Wm. A. Dixon, Esq., of St. Louis, a 
 brother of Dr. Charles Dixon of that city. He was 
 killed accidentally, five years after their marriage, 
 and his widow now resides in Austin. 
 
 Dr. Taylor was largely instrumental in 1855 in 
 bringing about the first organization of medical 
 men ever effected in Texas. With a few leading 
 physicians, among whom the matter was often 
 freely discussed, he called a meeting of the practic- 
 ing physicians of the State to be held at Austin. 
 There were present a respectable number of repre- 
 sentative men, and an organization was effected. 
 Facilities for travel and intercommunication between 
 the different parts of the State were few and dif- 
 ficult at the time and the population much less 
 dense than at present. Hence, for lack of sup- 
 port, this laudable movement failed to accomplish 
 the purposes intended. There were but two meet- 
 ings of the organization held before its practical 
 
 dissolution. Notwithstanding this discouragement. 
 Dr. Taylor insisted on keeping up the Travis County 
 Medical Societ}', the local organization of physicians, 
 the first in the State. When the present Texas 
 Medical Association was organized at Houston in 
 June, 1869, he promptly joined it and has since 
 been one of its most active and valuable members, 
 making rich and varied contributions to its litera- 
 ture, working for the enactment of neetled legislation 
 by the State Legislature, laboring for the mainte- 
 nance of the dignity of the profession, and filling, at 
 various times, important offices in the association. 
 He served one term as first vice-president, and was 
 nominated for president in 1875, and came within 
 one vote of being elected, although he was not a 
 candidate and knew nothing of the intention of his 
 friends until afterwards informed of their action. 
 He represented Texas in the American Medical Con- 
 gress in 1876 and 1886 ; and was a delegate to the 
 Ninth International Medical Congress that met in 
 Washington City in June of the latter year. He 
 was one of the first movers in the direction of rail- 
 road building in Texas and largelj' influenced by 
 his means and advocacy the construction of the 
 first road to Austin, the central tap-road to Hem- 
 stead. He was also largely instrumental in the 
 building of the Austin & North Western Railroad, 
 and served for a time as its vice-president. He 
 was the first man in Austin to urge the construc- 
 tion of a dam across the Colorado. He has con- 
 tributed thousands and thousands of dollars to the 
 building of railroads, churches and school houses. 
 The causes of religion and education, the develop- 
 ment of the country, and the promotion of the 
 happiness and prosperity of the people have been 
 kept near to his heart, and no man in Texas has 
 worked more untiringly or zealously in these noble 
 fields of effort. 
 
 Shortly after the founding of the State Asylum 
 for Deaf Mutes at Austin, Dr. Taylor was ap- 
 pointed one of the trustees of that institution by 
 Governor Sam Houston. He was also made visit- 
 ing physician to the Blind Institute. Governor E. 
 J. Davis, after the war between the States, made 
 him one of the Board of Managers of the Insane 
 As3'lum and he was unanimously chosen president 
 of that board. He was also a member of the Board 
 of University Regents and filled this and other posi- 
 tions of trust until the time of Governor Coke's ad- 
 ministration. His services in these capacities were 
 invaluable. Under the law, as it existed when he 
 entered upon his duties as one of the University 
 regents, the University lands, of which the Univer- 
 sity fund of Texas mainly consists, were on the 
 market and being sold for SI. 50 per acre. No one 
 
s. w. slayi)p:n. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 •277 
 
 before him, it appears, had taken note of the fact 
 that with railroad extension and the consequent 
 development of the country, these interior lands had 
 greatly augmented in value. He discussed the sub- 
 ject with memljers of the legislature, and believing 
 that the State was being literally robbed through a 
 drowsy indifference on the part of those whose duty 
 it was to look after such matters, at once set to 
 work to put a stop to it. The outcome was a bill 
 drawn up by him and introduced in the legislature 
 by Jack Harris of Galveston, repealing the law. 
 The bill passed and no more lands were sacriflced. 
 Dr. Taylor was strongly opposed to secession. He 
 was family physician to, and a warm personal 
 friend of Gen. Sam Houston, and shared the opin- 
 ions of that hero and statesman on the subject. 
 When secession was attempted and war followed, 
 Dr. Taylor's sympathies, however, were fully with 
 the people of the South and he organized an asso- 
 ciation at Austin, to see to the maintenance of the 
 wives and children of Confederate soldiers, and 
 gave them, besides, his services as a physician 
 freely and without charge. Prior to the war he 
 had accumulated about $100,000. The close of the 
 struggle found him a comparatively poor man. His 
 courage and business acumen did not fail him at 
 this juncture, however. He had great faith in the 
 ultimate rehabilitation of the country and its rapid 
 development, and invested all the means that he 
 could command in Austin city property and realty 
 in other parts of Texas and did not relax his labors 
 as a general practitioner. As a result he is now 
 
 one of the wealthiest men in the State. In 1855, 
 he connected himself with the First Presbyterian 
 church at Austin and did much to keep that then 
 feeble organization in existence. The officers of 
 the church early manifested their appreciation of 
 his zeal and liberality and elected him president of 
 the board of trustees. In that capacity he has 
 done faithful service, giving of his means with 
 princely generosity and laboring by day and by 
 night, in season and out of season, in his Master's 
 cause. 
 
 As a professional man. Dr. Taj'lor deservedly 
 ranks very high. His opinion in diagnosis, as well 
 as his aid in prescribing, is valued highly by his 
 colleagues, and in many difficult cases he is called 
 in consultation. There are few families in Austin, 
 or indeed in Travis County, who have not, at'some 
 time or other, had the benefit of his wise counsel 
 and the benefit of his skill at the bedside of some 
 loved one. He is uniformly courteous in social 
 and professional life and in his family is a model 
 husband and father. He loves his home and his 
 children, and what leisure time he has, which is 
 little, he spends with his family. His palatial home, 
 situated in the center of the city, is an ideal man- 
 sion surrounded by all that is bright and attractive 
 or ministers to refined enjoyment. His life is one 
 long record of noble efforts. He is one of the men 
 who have not only achieved success, but deserved 
 it. He is admired and beloved by thousands of 
 people throughout Texas and is a citizen who is an 
 honor to the State. 
 
 S. W. SLAYDEN, 
 
 WACO. 
 
 For the subject of this memoir the author has 
 selected a man who is well known to all Texas, and 
 who has already made his impress, deep and clear, 
 upon the times in which he lives. We refer to Mr. 
 S. W. Slayden, of Waco, president of the State 
 Central Bank, and secretary of the Slayden-Kirksey 
 Woolen Mills of Waco, Texas ; vice-president of 
 the Dallas Cotton Mills of Dallas, Texas, and the 
 Manchester Cotton Mills, of Forth Worth, Texas. 
 He was born in Graves County, Ky., July 22, 1839. 
 
 His father, Mr. T. A. Slayden, was born in 
 Virginia in 1819, and moved to Kentucky in 1830, 
 
 and was a merchant and planter who controlled 
 large business interests. 
 
 Mr. T. A. Slayden married Miss Letitia Ellison 
 Beadles, also a native of Virginia, daughter of Mr. 
 William G. Beadles, at the time of her marriage a 
 wealthy planter in Kentucky. 
 
 Of this union six children were born, five of 
 whom are now living. Mr. T. A. Slayden died at 
 Mayfield, Ky., in 1869, and his wife in New 
 Orleans, La., in 1874. 
 
 The subject of this memoir, S. W. Slayden, was 
 the second of their children ; secured an academic 
 
278 
 
 INDIAN WAES AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 education ; studied law under the celebrated practi- 
 tioner, Edward Crossland ; and in 1858 was admit- 
 ted to the bar atMayfield, Ky., when nineteen years 
 of age. 
 
 He continued professional work until the begin- 
 ning of the war between the States, and then 
 enlisted in the Confederate army as a soldier in 
 Company C, First Rpgimentof Kentucky Infantry, 
 commanded by Col. Blanton Duncan, and was with 
 Stonewall Jackson and, later, with Longstreet in 
 Virginia, until the disbandment of his regiment, 
 when he returned to his home in Kentucky and 
 resumed the practice of law. 
 
 In 18G9 he went to New Orleans and formed a 
 law partnership with Mr. Kerr, the firm name be- 
 ing Slayden & Kerr, a relationship that continued 
 until 1874. 
 
 In the latter year Mr. Slayden acquired an in- 
 terest in coal mines near St. Joe, Mo., and removed 
 to that place to look after their development, and 
 entered into partnership with Mr. R. D. Blair. 
 Here also he became a large stockholder in a com- 
 pany organized for the purpose of handling coal. 
 
 From this time he entered upon a brilliant and 
 successful career as a financier, and his business 
 interests became so large and varied as to render 
 it inexpedient for him to further continue his pro- 
 fessional career, although his practice had become 
 large and he had won for himself a commanding 
 position as an able and skillful lawyer. 
 
 After a residence of four years at St. Joe, he 
 moved to St. Louis, Mo., and in 1882 from that 
 city to Waco, where he has since resided. 
 
 Here he engaged in various financial operations, 
 and in 1887 purchased a controlling interest in the 
 
 State Central Bank, of which, as previously stated, 
 he is the president. 
 
 He has been a colaborer with Mr. Wm. Cameron 
 in many important undertakings that have been 
 pushed by them to success. Besides Mr. Slayden's 
 connection with the industrial plants heretofore 
 enumerated, he has various other large investments 
 and business connections in Central Texas. 
 
 He was married June 19, 1872, to his first wife. 
 Miss Susan A. Bailey, daughter of Mr. David 
 Bailey, of Champaign, III. She died in Waco, 
 Texas, in 1886. Two children were born of 
 this union, of whom one is now living, Bailey 
 Slayden. 
 
 At Denver, Colo., November 12th, 1891, Mr. 
 Slayden was united in marriage to Mrs. Emma C. 
 Whitsitt, widow of Mr. R. E. Whitsitt, who was 
 a prominent resident of that city. Mr. Slayden 
 is a member of the Masonic fraternity. He has 
 been a leader in every worthy enterprise inaugu- 
 rated in Waco, and there is not a man in that city 
 who has contributed more largely to the upbuilding 
 of the city and the development of the resources of 
 the central portion of the State. 
 
 His service to Texas at large has been great and 
 invaluable, as he has done much to demonstrate 
 the feasibility of the firm establishment and suc- 
 cessful operation of manufactories within her 
 borders. While not a politician, in the sense that 
 conveys the idea of an office seeker, he has been 
 a tireless, able and effective worker in the cause 
 of good government, using all the force of his 
 influence in that direction. He is a leading spirit 
 in all that pertains to the material welfare of 
 Texas. 
 
 H. KEMPNER, 
 
 GALVESTON. 
 
 Harris Kerapner was born in the town of Kisnet- 
 ski, Poland, March 7th, 1837. His educational 
 advantages were limited, hardly, in fact, worth 
 mentioning. At the age of seventeen he came to 
 the United States, making his first stop in New 
 York City, where he found employment as a com- 
 mon laborer, at twenty-five cents a day. Later he 
 picked up some knowledge of the brick-mason's 
 trade and followed this for several mouths, until, 
 having saved enough from his earnings to buy a 
 
 small stock of merchandise and pay his passage 
 to Texas, he came to this State in 185C. He 
 established his headquarters at Cold S[)rings in 
 San Jacinto County and for about four years pre- 
 ceding the war followed peddling in that section of 
 the State. 
 
 With the opening of hostilities between the 
 North and the South in 18G1, Mr. Kempner entered 
 the Confederate army, enlisting in Capt. J. Em. 
 Hawkins' Company, from Ellis County, which 
 
g-byH.&CKcevoets.Nj 
 
 yi/yf 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 279 
 
 became part of Parsons' Brigade, and with which 
 he served from the date of his enlistment until the 
 close of the war. He took part in all the opera- 
 tions in which this celebrated command partici- 
 pated, including the series of engagements incident 
 to Bank's Red river campaign, in one of which his 
 horse was shot from under him and he was 
 severely wounded, necessitating his transfer to the 
 Quartermaster's department where, in recognition 
 of his gallantry and ability, he was made Quarter- 
 master-Sergeant. 
 
 After the war Mr. Kempner returned to Cold 
 Springs, opened a store and engaged in the general 
 mercantile business at that place until 1870, when 
 he moved to Galveston. There he formed a part- 
 nership with M. Marx under the firm name of Marx 
 & Kempner, and for eight years conducted one of 
 the largest wholesale grocery establishments in the 
 city of Galveston. Mr. Kempner began to interest 
 himself in local enterprises in Galveston immediately 
 upon settling there and for a period of more than 
 twenty years his name was connected in some 
 capacity with a number of the city's leading busi- 
 ness concerns. He was a charter member, director 
 and energetic promoter of the Gulf, Colorado & 
 Santa Fe Railroad Company, and did much toward 
 building and extending the road and effecting its 
 consolidation with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa 
 Fe. In 1885, after the failure of the Island City 
 Savings Bank, he was made its president on 
 its subsequent reorganization, placed it on a 
 safe basis and was its official head at varying 
 periods until failing health led to his retire- 
 
 ment. He was for many years president of 
 the Texas Land and Loan Company, resigning this 
 position also on account of his health. His other 
 investments were large and covered almost every 
 field of legitimate enterprise. Public enterprises, 
 whatever would elevate, adorn or improve the 
 society in which he moved or the country in which 
 he made his home, met his cordial approbation and 
 received his prompt advocacy and assistance. 
 
 Mr. Kempner was always known as simply a 
 plain man of business. He never sought office and 
 took but little interest in partisan politics. As the 
 directing spirit of the enterprises with which he was 
 connected he brought to the exercise of his duties 
 a ripe experience, wise foresight and calmness and 
 deliberation of judgment found only in few men. 
 He did his own thinking and acted promptly and 
 vigorously as occasion demanded. He was attrac- 
 tive in presence and hearty and winning in manner. 
 His uprightness and general worth were every- 
 where known and admitted, and his friends were 
 legion. 
 
 In 1872, Mr. Kempner married Miss Eliza Sein- 
 sheimer of Cincinnati, Ohio, and the issue of this 
 union was seven sons and four daughters. His 
 home life was charming and pleasant; under his 
 own roof and by his own fire-side he realized the 
 best phases and the truest enjoyments of this life. 
 
 On April 13th, 1894, after a brief illness of ten 
 days, Mr. Kempner died, passing away in the prime 
 of manhood, yet leaving a name full of honor and 
 a record of many years spent without shame or 
 blemish. 
 
 MARX MARX, 
 
 GALVESTON. 
 
 Marx Marx is a native of Prussia, born on the 
 Rhine, October 10th, 1837. His father, a Prussian 
 tradesman, a man of good character, was engaged 
 in mercantile pursuits for some years in his native 
 country when he emigrated to the United .States and 
 settled at New Orleans. From there he came to 
 Texas and is now a resident of Galveston, making 
 bis home with the subject of this sketch, and is in 
 his eighty-sixth year. The mother of Marx Marx 
 bore the maiden name of Gertrude Levi and was a 
 native of France. She died several years ago in 
 New Orleans. 
 
 The subject of this memoir was chiefly reared in 
 New Orleans, in the schools of which place he 
 received his education. He attended Franklin 
 High School in that city to the age of fourteen, 
 when he entered his father's grocery store as a 
 clerk. After a year of this employment, not liking 
 the confinement, he left New Orleans and went to 
 Central America to seek his fortunes. After 
 spending eight months there and meeting with but 
 little success he determined to go to California 
 where he landed in 1852, a perfect stranger with 
 only ten cents in his pocket. He soon found a 
 
280 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Lome with a widow, a former friend of tlie family 
 in New Orleans, and accepted the first position 
 that was offered him — that of cierlt in a butcher's 
 stall at a salary of $25.00 per month. 
 
 He saved his earnings and in less than a year 
 was enabled to go into business for himself on a 
 small scale. He remained in California until 1856, 
 when he returned to New Orleans, making the trip 
 from San Francisco to that city in thirty-one days, 
 the quickest on record at the time. After a short 
 visit to his old home he returned to California and 
 settled at Sacramento. Investing his means in a 
 small cigar jobbing trade, he followed this with 
 marked success for some months. He then induced 
 two friends to join him in the purchase of a stock 
 of goods and the three went to British Columbia, 
 then an attractive field for Western adventurers. 
 The country at that time was mostly in the posses- 
 sion of the Hudson Bay Company, whose agents 
 watched all American enterprises with jealous eyes, 
 and used every means except force to prevent 
 traders from settling in their locality. 
 
 Young Marx, however, established himself on 
 the extreme northern line of the United States, and 
 for the first time, planted the Stars and Stripes in 
 that vicinity. He soon acquired a large and lucra- 
 tive trade, bartering his goods for furs with Indian 
 trappers. After acquiring a considerable amount 
 of money at this, he determined to return to civil- 
 ization, and accordingly, with his two companions, 
 and four friendly Indians, attempted to cross the 
 Gulf of Georgia in a canoe in order to get into 
 what is now Whatcom, Washington, but was over- 
 taken by- a storm and at night was washed ashore 
 on one of the numerous islands in that bay. Here 
 they were surprised by hostile Indians from neigh- 
 boring islands, who were deadly foes to the Indians 
 of his party. Mr. Marx' presence of mind did 
 not desert him, but meeting them in a friendly 
 manner and addressing them in their own language 
 he told them that he was not a "King George 
 Man," the name given by the Indians to English- 
 men, but was a " Boston man," meaning a citizen 
 of the United States. The Chief warmly welcomed 
 him, consented to accept as presents several bolts 
 of red calico and some blankets and permitted the 
 party to proceed unmolested on their way. After 
 
 many other trying experiences he reached Saa 
 Francisco in 1861. 
 
 About this time news was received there of the 
 large silver finds in the territory of Nevada, and 
 Mr. Marx went there, where he engaged in trade 
 and added consideraljly to his possessions. In 1863 
 he went to Utah and established himself at Ameri- 
 can Fork, a small village thirty-five miles south of 
 Salt Lake, where he did a prosperous business for 
 two years. He then went to Virginia City, Mont., 
 at that time the capital of the territory, and estab- 
 lished a wholesale grocery house. Here he took 
 an active part in the affairs of the day and made 
 money rapidly. At the end of three years he left 
 Montana and returned to New Orleans, where, on 
 July 7th, 1868, he married Miss Julia Newman and 
 on the following day set out for Galveston, Texas. 
 On his arrival at that place he engaged in the mer- 
 cantile business and with only one brief interval 
 has been so engaged since. From 1868 to 1871 he 
 was associated with Sampson Heidenheimer in the 
 grocery business. From 1871 to 1886 he was 
 in partnership with Harris Kempner under the 
 firm name of Marx & Kempner, and during this 
 time built up a very large wholesale grocer}^ trade. 
 Since 1890 he has been senior member of the firm 
 of Marx & Blum, wholesale dealers in hats, caps, 
 boots and shoes, one of the largest mercantile 
 establishments in the South. 
 
 Mr. Marx has taken stock in many local enter- 
 prises, in some of which he has held and still holds 
 positions of trust, among the number: The Citi- 
 zens' Loan Company; The Texas Banking and Im- 
 provement Company ; The Galveston Loan and Im- 
 provement Companj', and the Gulf, Colorado & 
 Santa Fe Railway Company, besides various banks, 
 both in Galveston and in different parts of the State. 
 
 Mr. Marx has been successful in business, and 
 his success has come to him in response to the 
 exercise of industry, sagacity and sound business 
 judgment. He has never engaged in politics. He 
 is of the Jewish faith in religion, and is a member 
 of the Masonic fraternity. He and his wife have 
 had four children: Fannie, who died at the age of 
 eight, in March, 1878 ; Nettie, now Mrs. Nat M. 
 Jacobs; Gertrude, now Mrs. Samuel H. Frankel, 
 and Josetta, now Mrs. A. Blum. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 281 
 
 LEON BLUM, 
 
 GALVESTON. 
 
 The muse of history, lifting the veil which time 
 has drawn between us and that remote past which 
 fades toward and shades imperceptibly into the 
 night of a still deeper past, discloses a state of so- 
 ciety that, to the careless observer and superficial 
 thinker, has nothing in common with that of the age 
 in which we live, and yet the essential difference is 
 more apparent than actual. 
 
 From that dim long-ago to the pearl-white glim- 
 mer of the dawn of modern civilization on down to 
 tbistime, when the sun of human progress approaches 
 its meridian, the world has been but a vast arena 
 in which all have had to struggle, and in which the 
 strong have ever triumphed and the weak have ever 
 perished. At first, and for many weary centuries, 
 cunning and brute force determined results. Now 
 it is mind that sways the destinies of men and 
 nations. The weapons used are of later make. 
 Now that the moral sense has been more fullj' de- 
 veloped, the combats are not so revolting, but the 
 ability and skill required are greater and the battles 
 fought equally fierce and unrelenting. 
 
 The savage desired to maintain his occupancy of 
 a piece of soil that suited his purpose, to seize the 
 flocks of a neighbor or to reduce an adjoining tribe 
 to slavery — to make others toil for him — deal out 
 destruction at will and to himself enjoy ease, com- 
 fort and security. Such was his idea of power and 
 happiness. The modern ideal is to meet disap- 
 pointments and reverses with fortitude and cour- 
 age, conquer difficulties, accumulate wealth, be 
 widely useful and helpful, and maintain, from the 
 cradle to the grave, a probity of character that will 
 excite the respect of contemporaries and be a source 
 of just pride to descendants. It is a loftier ideal, 
 truly, and one more difficult to attain, but, many 
 noble-minded men and women have reached it. 
 The youth, when he girds him for the fight, and 
 steps out into the world's great arena, little dreams 
 of what awaits him in the fray. Confidently he 
 rushes into the mass to struggle with competitors. 
 How many are disappointed ! How many prove too 
 weak of purpose, of mind, of will! How many 
 listen to the siren songs of the demons of unrest, 
 dissipation, vice and idleness! Out of a hundred, 
 fifty will barely manage to live on to the 
 final summons by acting as the agents and in- 
 struments of others, thirty, their early hopes 
 blown aloft like feathers of fancy and whistled 
 
 down the chill blasts of Destiny's December, 
 will be moderately successful ; nineteen prove a 
 curse to society and only one gains the laurel- wreath 
 of victory. These are truths that hold good as to 
 all pursuits, professions and avocations. Not one 
 quality alone, but many are required for the at- 
 tainment of what is worthy to be dignified with the 
 name of success. In commercial pursuits, more, 
 perhaps, that in any other department of human 
 effort, are varied abilities essential. The dangers 
 that threaten wreck and disaster lie thick upon every 
 hand and the competition is nowhere more deter- 
 mined, or the clash of mind with mind keener or 
 more constant. 
 
 Natural aptitude, clearness of mental prevision, 
 soundness of judgment, capacity alike for planning 
 and executing and the power to control men and 
 make them faithful, willing and capable instruments 
 for the accomplishment of fixed purposes are some 
 of the prerequisites necessary for the attainment of 
 any considerable eminence as a merchant, financier 
 or in anj' of the higher commercial walks. 
 
 Few men are so widel}' known in Texas or have 
 done more for the development of the agricultural, 
 industrial and trade resources of the State than 
 Leon Blum, the subject of this brief memoir. He 
 is a member of the great importing and mercantile 
 house of Leon & H. Blum, of Galveston, whose 
 business, through its agents and correspondents, 
 ramifies Texas and the Southwestern States and 
 extends to many distant lands. 
 
 He was born in the year 1837, in Gunderschoffer, 
 Alsace, at one time a department of France, and 
 since the Franco-Prussian War a part of the German 
 Empire. His parents were Isaac and Julie Blum. 
 The law requiring all males, without distinction of 
 rank or social position, to learn some useful trade, 
 he was apprenticed to a tinsmith ; but, the pursuit 
 not being congenial, he ceased to follow it after 
 serving his time. Believing himself capable of suc- 
 ceeding in mercantile life, for which he had apti- 
 tude, he at once embarked in it. Believing that 
 wider and better fields were to be found in the 
 United States, he set sail for this country in the 
 spring of 1854, and, arriving in Texas, established 
 himself in the town of Richmond. The author of 
 "Triumphant Democracy " never uttered a greater 
 truth than when he said that the timid, unenter- 
 prising and indolent of foreign countries are con- 
 
282 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 tent to live at home, however harsh the social and 
 political institutions, or meager the opportunities of 
 acquiring financial independence, and tbat it is the 
 aspiring, active, energetic, able and liberty-loving 
 young men who go across seas, mountains and 
 deserts to improve their fortunes, and that America 
 owes as much to the latter class of her citi- 
 zenship as to any other for the wonderful 
 progress she has made over other nations. This 
 truth is amply demonstrated by the lives of such 
 men as Leon Blum. His ventures, being carefully 
 watched and managed, he largely increased his 
 capital at Richmond and, having now become 
 thoroughly acquainted with the people and require- 
 ments of trade in the new country, felt the need 
 of a basis to operate from that would enable him 
 to extend his transactions and, accordingly, moved 
 to Galveston in 1869. He became at once the 
 largest importer of dry goods in Texas, supplying 
 the merchants of this and adjoining States, receiv- 
 ing in return, immense shipments of cotton and 
 developing an export trade in that staple. He has 
 invested largely in lands in Texas, and engaged in 
 cultivating them with considerable profit. He has 
 been a liberal contributor to every worthy public, 
 and many private, enterprises, giving liberally of 
 his time and means. His faith in the future of 
 Galveston and Texas is strong and abiding and he 
 has shown it by his works, few men having made 
 larger investments in realty and in enterprises 
 of a permanent nature. His business has grown 
 from year to year until for many years past he 
 has ranked among the foremost and wealthiest 
 of the merchants and financiers of the South- 
 west. 
 
 The firm of Leon & H. Blum was formed in 1865, 
 by the admission of his cousin, Mr. H. Blum, a 
 gentleman of wide business experience and capac- 
 ity, to a copartnership. Mr. Leon Blum was 
 married to Miss Henrietta Levy, of Corpus Christi, 
 in 1862 and has two children: Cecile, now Mrs. 
 Aaron Blum, and Leonora, the wife of F. St. Goar, 
 Esq., of New York. The soldier is said to become 
 steeled to carnage, the surgeon indifferent to 
 human suffering and the man, who has by long 
 years of toil acquired wealth, indifferent to the mis- 
 
 fortunes, misery and destitution of his fellow-men, 
 yet there have been soldiers, great ones, too, who 
 have been just and merciful and slow in shedding 
 blood ; surgeons with hearts as gentle as a woman's, 
 and rich men, who have earned their riches, who 
 have performed noble acts of charity. Such men, 
 and such alone, are really deserving of respect and 
 among such the subject of this biographical notice 
 deserves a worthy place. He has never been un- 
 mindful of the merits of the deserving but unsuc- 
 cessful, nor deaf to the appeals of the unfortunate, 
 for he has been a liberal giver from his store to the 
 worthy and a generous friend to those in distress, 
 irrespective of their religion or nationality. His 
 private charities have been innumerable and are of 
 almost daily occurrence. To such benevolent 
 institutions as the Baylor Orphan Home it has been 
 a pleasure to him to make contributions and, being 
 an ardent advocate of popular education, he has 
 donated large sums for school purposes. While he 
 has spent money with a lavish hand in these direc- 
 tions, his good deeds have always been quietly 
 performed, and never preceded by a fanfare of 
 trumpets or prompted by a desire to excite com- 
 mendation. What he has done, has been done be- 
 cause he earnestly desired to lighten burdens 
 bowing fellow-beings in sorrow to the dust, and to 
 make the world brighter and better as far as in him 
 lay. In personal appearance he is of the Saxon 
 type. He is five feet eleven inches in height, with 
 fair complexion and bluish-gray eyes. His physique 
 is well proportioned and he is what one may call a 
 fine-looking man. He has been identified with 
 Texas for more than forty-one years. He landed 
 on our shores well-nigh penniless and friendless and 
 with scarcely any knowledge of the country. The 
 difficulties that confronted him would have proven 
 insurmountable to a man of ordinary mold. He 
 made opportunity his slave, not his master. He 
 made a high position in the business and social 
 community and the acquisition of wealth objective 
 points, but honor and truth his guides. He deter- 
 mined not to sustain defeat, but at the same time 
 not to accept success except upon the terms he 
 prescribed to Fortune, viz., that it should come to 
 him because he deserved it. 
 
ILEOM HELIUM. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 283 
 
 WILLIAM VON ROSENBERG, 
 
 AUSTIN. 
 
 From the days when the immortal Hermann in- 
 flicted upon the legions under Varrus one of the 
 first and most crushing defeats ever sustained bj' 
 the Roman arms, the great Germanic race has been 
 famous in history for its devotion to the principles 
 of liberty and self-government. Its blood and 
 strength of purpose have found expression in the 
 annals of the composite English-speaking people 
 who have encircled the globe with their conquests 
 and promises to direct the future course of human 
 progress. Its sons, from the first settlement of 
 America — upon the field of battle, in legislation 
 and in all the varied walks of private life — have 
 contributed their full share to the prosperity aud 
 glory of the country. They have come to the 
 United States from all ranks of life in the father- 
 land — not only the peasant, dissatisfied with his 
 lot; but, men of noble birth, who wished to cast 
 their fortunes with the people of this country and 
 exercise their energies in a wider and freer field 
 than the old world offered them. Of the latter 
 class is the subject of this sketch, Mr. William von 
 Rosenberg, for many years past a respected and 
 influential citizen of Austin, Texas. 
 
 The genealogy of the Rosenberg family dates 
 back to the twelfth century, when in the year A. D. 
 1150, Vitellus Ursini, of Rome, emigrated to the 
 German Empire, built the town of Rosenberg in 
 Bohemia, acquired the name of Ursini von Rosen- 
 berg, and became the founder of the family of that 
 name. In the early history of Austria for several 
 centuries members of the family occupied promi- 
 nent positions in church and political affairs. 
 Reiehsgraf (Count) Andreas Ursini von Rosenberg, 
 who lived in the year A. D. 1G85, maybe mentioned 
 as closing the fifth century of the family history. 
 The von Rosenbergs, members of the order of Ger- 
 man Knights, scattered over Germany and the Bal- 
 tic coast States. One of them, Wilhelm Dietrich 
 von Rosenberg, in the year A. D. 1620 became a 
 member of the Bench of Knights of Courland and 
 from him the subject of this sketch is lineally de- 
 scended, as siiown by the family genealogy pre- 
 served in the archives of the Bench. His father, 
 Carl von Rosenberg (at the age of sixteen) and his 
 father's elder brothers, Gustav and Otto, volun- 
 teered in the service of their country in 1813 in the 
 war against Napoleon I. 
 
 His father's youngest brother, Ernest, relin- 
 
 quished his commission as Lieutenant in the Prus- 
 sian army for political reasons, came to America 
 and in October, 1821, landed, together with about 
 fifty-three other adventurers, on the Texas coast. 
 The party, known as '• Long's Expedition," after 
 having taking possession of La Bahia (Goliad), were 
 taken prisoners by Mexican troops, but were re- 
 leased upon the promise that they would peacefully 
 settle in the country. 
 
 Ernest von Rosenberg, being a soldier, joined 
 the Mexican army and was promoted to the rank 
 of Colonel; but, espousing the cause of the ill-fated 
 Iturbite, was shot to death upon the downfall of 
 the latter. He was among the first Germans to 
 visit Texas. 
 
 About this time, October 14, 1821, William von 
 Rosenberg, the subject of this notice, was 
 born on his father's estate, known as Eckitten, 
 near the town of Memel, in East Prussia. After 
 completing the high school course at Memel, he 
 engaged as an apprentice to a government sur- 
 veyor. In 1838 he was the private secretary of 
 an administrative officer in landed affairs and, 
 when the latter was transferred to the province of 
 Saxony, went with him to his new appointment and 
 remained his private secretary until 1841 and then 
 entered the army to serve his term as a soldier, and 
 in 1844 was appointed a Lieutenant in the reserves. 
 In 1845 he entered the examination for government 
 surveyor and obtained the unusual qualification 
 " excellent." After filling a government appoint- 
 ment for some time, he, in 1846, entered the Uni- 
 versity of Architecture in Berlin, and two years 
 later qualified as royal architect. He was then 
 employed in supervising the erection of two govern- 
 ment school buildings in Berlin, upon the comple- 
 tion of which he found himself, in June, 1849, 
 proscribed as a Democrat and unable thereafter to 
 secure any further employment under the Prussian 
 government, which had assumed reactionary tend- 
 encies in the direction of despotism. Owing to his 
 outspoken Democracy he was advised by the 
 major commanding the reserve battalion in which 
 he served, that, if he would apply therefor, 
 he would receive an honorable discharge from 
 the army ; meaning, of course, that otherwise 
 he would be dismissed without such discharge. 
 
 At this time he was twenty-eight years old with 
 a prospect before him that whatever he might en- 
 
284 
 
 INDIAN WAIiS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 gage in he would be opposed by influences beyond 
 his power to control. With his career in the father- 
 land thus abruptly ended, he concluded to leave 
 the country. At that time a great deal had been 
 written and printed in Germany about Texas, in con- 
 sequence of the efforts of the German Emigration 
 Company, and he therefore selected Texas as his 
 future home. His parents and family- looked upon 
 him as a self-reliant man who had made his own 
 way in the world and, he being the oldest of seven 
 children, they did not attempt to persuade him to 
 remain in Germany, where they knew that he would 
 be the victim of persecution ; but, deeply attached 
 to one another, they concluded that the whole 
 family, consisting of thirteen persons, would emi- 
 grate together and seek happiness under freer in- 
 stitutions. Previous to their departure he married 
 Miss Auguste Anders, to whom he was betrothed. 
 After a sixty days' voyage in a sailing vessel they 
 landed at Galveston, Texas, on the 6th of Decem- 
 ber, 1849. They settled in Fayette County at and 
 in the vicinity of Nassau Farm. He there followed 
 farming for six years, learned the English language 
 and in 1855 became a citizen of the United States. 
 Being a skillful draughtsman, he was called upon 
 to draw a design for tlie courthouse of Fayette 
 County which was built at La Grange. This work 
 gave such general satisfaction that he was recom- 
 mended by American friends to the Commissioner 
 of the General Land-Offlee of Texas, the Hon. 
 Stephen Crosby, as a well-qualiBed draughtsman 
 and, in consequence thereof, moved to Austin in 
 April, 185G, and was appointed to the first vacancy 
 as such in October of the same year. The Land 
 Office was then in a small building in the Capitol 
 yard and the business of the office had not then 
 developed to the proportions which it has assumed 
 in later years. The personnel of the office 
 at that time consisted of the commissioner, chief 
 clerk, translator, chief draughtsman, six assistant 
 draughtsmen and twenty clerks. 
 
 In November, 1857, Stephen Crosby was suc- 
 ceeded by F. M. White, who held the office of 
 Commissioner for four years. Mr. Crosby was 
 then again elected to the office, took charge in 
 November, 1861, and appointed Mr. von Rosen- 
 berg whom he had selected therefor to the position 
 of chief draughtsman, which he held until the 
 fall of 1863, when he was requested to serve as 
 topographical engineer under Gen. J. Bankhead 
 Magruder, in the Confederate arm3'. 
 
 When the question of secession came to be de- 
 cided by the voters of Texas, Mr. von Rosenberg 
 cast his ballot for it, his reasons therefor being 
 that he had left Prussia on account of having been 
 
 proscribed for his political opinions, had selected 
 Texas for his future home with full knowledge of 
 the existence of the institution of slavery in the 
 State and had not come as a reformer, but to live 
 with its people, who received him as a stranger un- 
 conditionally. He felt it to be his duty, whether 
 right or wrong, to stand with the people of Texas 
 in upholding the cardinal principles of self-govern- 
 ment as laid down in the Declaration of Independ- 
 ence and Constitution of the United States. 
 
 When the clouds of sectional animosity and 
 misconstruction that had so long hovered like a 
 pall over the country burst in the tempest of war 
 and the brave and true, both North and South, were 
 hurrying to the front, Mr. von Rosenberg's father, 
 although too old for active service in the field, 
 dressed himself as a Prussian Uhlan and, riding 
 through the streets of Roundtop, the village where 
 he then resided, called upon the young men of the 
 place to enlist in the Confederate army and to 
 remember how their fathers had dared to do and 
 die in the old land in 1813, when their country was 
 threatened by invasion. Known to be an old hero 
 of the Napoleonic wars, his martial bearing and 
 stirring words fired the hearts of the patriotic young 
 men of the town and many of them afterwards tes- 
 tified their devotion to the cause of constitutional 
 freedom upon hard fought fields in the war between 
 the States. Some of them lived to, in later years, 
 receive honors at the hands of their fellow-citizens ; 
 others filled soldiers' graves. 
 
 Mr. William von Rosenberg's three younger 
 brothers, Eugene, Alexander and Walter, were 
 among the first to enlist in the Confederate army. 
 Eugene was a member of Waul's Legion and was at 
 the siege of Vicksburg. Alexander and Walter 
 were soldiers in Creuzbaur's company of artillery 
 and took part in the Louisiana campaign. Another 
 brother, John von Rosenberg, served in the Engi- 
 neer corps with him. After having served as topo- 
 graphical engineer, in the department of Texas, 
 during the war, Mr. von Rosenberg, at the close of 
 the struggle, was called back to the General Land 
 Office as chief draughtsman, but was swept aside 
 by the military' usurpers, who trampled civil govern- 
 ment under their feet in Texas at the time. At the 
 election in 1866, Stephen Crosby was recalled to 
 administer the affairs of the Land-Office and again 
 made Mr. von Rosenberg chief draughtsman, a 
 position that he filled until during the " reconstruc- 
 tion " period, when the officials selected by the 
 people were removed and aliens appointed in their 
 stead. 
 
 At this time Maj. C. R. Johns, formerly Comp- 
 troller of the State, had opened a land agency bus- 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 285 
 
 iness in Austin and induced Mr. von Rosenberg to 
 enter into partnersliip with him, under the firm 
 name of C. R. Johns & Company. The firm was 
 composed of C. R. Johns, J. C. Kirby, F. Everett 
 and W. von Rosenberg and did a large and profit- 
 able business for a number of years. They tlien 
 thought that by combining the business of banking 
 and exchange with their land agency they would 
 greatly increase their profits. In this they erred. 
 The land department of the business was under 
 Mr. von Rosenberg's exclusive management. The 
 banking department was not successful and in 
 November, 1876, the firm of C. R. Johns & Com- 
 pany made an assignment. 
 
 Being thus broken up and without financial 
 resources, Mr. von Rosenberg commenced the land 
 agency business on his own account in February, 
 1877, at Austin, in which business he is still engaged. 
 
 Politically he is a Democrat, but has ever 
 reserved to himself the right to act in accordance 
 with the dictates of his conscience. He has never 
 sought nor desired office. He was solicited to run 
 for the Legislature on the Horace Greely ticket; 
 but, being opposed to Mr. Greely's nomination, 
 declined to make the race. 
 
 He has cared little for society, preferring the 
 quiet enjoyments of home. His wife is devoted to 
 her husband and children and seeks happiness 
 within her family. She, however, has never forgot- 
 ten the prospective positions apparently in store for 
 them in the fatherland at the time of her betrothal 
 to him. 
 
 His family consists of eleven children, six sons 
 and five daughters, all of whom are married but the 
 youngest daughter. This generation, born and 
 bred in Texas, have cut loose from the advantages 
 of nobility and maintain as a self-evident truth 
 "that all men are created, and by right ought to 
 be, free and equal." As they have grown up they 
 have had instilled in their hearts by their parents 
 the undying lorinciples that underlie civil govern- 
 ment and are free from the prejudices of caste, as 
 it becomes citizens of this free country to be. The 
 children are: Charles, born July 13, 1850, in 
 
 Fayette County, farmer and slock raiser, lives near 
 Mancliaea, Texas, married Walleska Sutor ; 
 
 Arthur, born September 1, 1851, in Fayette 
 County, clerk in his father's office and notary 
 public, lives in South Austin, married Mary 
 Holland ; 
 
 Ernest, born November 25, 1852, in Fayette 
 County, compiling draughtsman in the General 
 Land-Office of Texas, lives in Austin, married 
 Hellena Lungkwitz ; 
 
 Paul, born August 10, 1854, in Fayette County, 
 farmer and stock raiser, lives near Manchaca, mar- 
 ried Cornelia McCuistion ; 
 
 Laura, born February 26, 1856, in Fayette 
 County ; married C. von Carlowitz, attorney at 
 law, resides in Fort Worth, Texas ; 
 
 Emma, born May 15, 1857, in Austin, Texas, 
 married August Giesen, druggist and business 
 manager in the hardware establishment of Hon. 
 Walter Tips, resides in Austin ; 
 
 William, born January 14, 1859, in Austin, 
 attorney at law, was justice of the peace for pre- 
 cinct No. 3, of Travis County, from 1882 to 1886, 
 and county judge from 1890 to 1894, lives in 
 Austin ; married Louise Rhode ; 
 
 Anna, born October 10, 1860, in Austin, mar- 
 I'ied Wm. C. Hornberger, farmer and stock raiser, 
 resides near Fiskville, Travis County ; 
 
 Lina, born October 27, 1864, in Austin, mar- 
 ried George G. Bissel, stenographer with D. W. 
 Doom, Esq., resides in Austin; 
 
 Frederick C, born November 3, 1866, in Austin, 
 attorney at law, resides in Austin, married Nina 
 E. Stephens ; 
 
 Mina Agnes, born January 17, 1869, in Austin, 
 unmarried, lives with her parents. 
 
 There are thirty-nine grandchildren living and 
 three deceased. 
 
 Mr. von Rosenberg has at all times manifested 
 a deep interest in the prosperity and general wel- 
 fare of the city of Austin and the State of Texas, 
 and has come up to the full stature of good citizen- 
 ship. Kind, genial and courtly, he Is loved by 
 many and respected by all. 
 
286 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 GEORGE S. WALTON, 
 
 ALLEYTON. 
 
 George S. Walton, postmaster at Alleyton, 
 Colorado County, Texas, was born in Jefferson 
 County, Ala., March 22, 1821, and emigrated 
 to Missouri with his parents, Jacob and Jane 
 Walton, in 1827. 
 
 His maternal grandfather, Thomas Goode, was ■ 
 a soldier in the Revolutionary War of 1776, and his 
 paternal grandfather was one of the signers of the 
 American Declaration of Independence. 
 
 Mr. Walton served with conspicuous gallantry in 
 the Mexican War as a soldier in Company N., 
 Second Missouri Cavalry, commanded by Col. 
 Price, and particularly distinguished himself at 
 Puebla, Colorado, on the 24th of January, 18-47. 
 On that occasion he mounted to the top of a seven- 
 story building, tore down the black flag (signify- 
 ing no quarter) which the Mexican commander had 
 hoisted above it, and planted the stars and stripes 
 in its place. This he did under a heavy fire of 
 
 musketry. Fourteen bullet-holes were shot through 
 his clothing, but fortune, which is said to favor the 
 brave, stood him in good stead, and he escaped 
 without a wound. His intrepid act was followed 
 almost immediately by the surrender of the enemy, 
 and a three-months' siege was brought to a glorious 
 close. 
 
 He was married, June 20, 1849, to Miss Abigail 
 Walton, and came to Texas with his wife, in 1858. 
 They have no children. 
 
 During the war between the States, Mr. Walton 
 was Second-Lieutenant in the Sixteenth Texas, and 
 fought for the success of the Confederacy until its 
 star paled in the gloom of defeat. 
 
 He has resided at Alleyton since 1860 (except 
 during the period covered by the war) ; is a popu- 
 lar and efficient public official, and has done much 
 to promote the development and prosperity of his 
 section. 
 
 JAMES H. ROBERTSON, 
 
 AUSTIN. 
 
 The subject of this sketch is neither a " pioneer " 
 nor an " Indian fighter," but is one of the younger 
 men now prominent in Texas, who came here early 
 in life without money or acquaintances, and who 
 have succeeded well professionally and from a bus- 
 iness point of view. He was born in Room County, 
 Tenn., May 2d, 1853. His parents were James R. 
 and Mary A. (Hunt) Robertson. His father, who 
 was a physician and local Methodist preacher, died 
 April loth, 1861, leaving the nurture and training 
 of six small children to the widowed mother. She 
 was a woman of remarkably strong character and 
 possessed in a high degree of common sense and 
 practical judgment. She devoted her life to the 
 welfare of her children and died surrounded and 
 mourned by them in Austin, November 16, 1894, 
 at the age of eighty years and sixteen days. 
 Whatever of success the subject of this sketch has 
 attained in life he attributes to the teaching and 
 care bestowed upon him by bis devoted mother. 
 
 James H. Robertson received a practical English 
 education, and at twenty years of age began the 
 study of law in the office of Col. P. B. Mayfield, 
 at Cleveland, Tenn. In June, 1874, he moved to 
 Austin, Texas, where he continued the study of 
 the law and was admitted to the bar in the summer 
 of the year following. In September, 1876, he 
 moved to Williamson County, where he resided for 
 eight years, during which time he enjoyed a large 
 and lucrative practice. In 1882 he was elected 
 to the Eighteenth Legislature, from Williamson 
 County, and served his constituency with credit to 
 himself and to their entire satisfaction in tiiat body, 
 but deserved further honors in this line. In 1884 
 he was nominated by the Democracy and elected to 
 the office of District Attorney of the 26th Judicial 
 District, embracing the counties of Travis and 
 Williamson, and was successively reelected to that 
 office in 1886, 1888 and 1890. 
 
 Upon his election to the office of District Attorney 
 
JAMKS IIKXRY MirCIIKLL. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 287 
 
 in November, 1884, he moved to Austin, where he 
 has since resided. During his six years service as 
 District Attorney he conducted many important 
 criminal prosecutions, and, of the many criminal 
 cases tried, although defended by a bar of ability 
 equal to any in the State, the records show that 
 more than seventy-five per cent of the trials re- 
 sulted in convictions and that crime diminished 
 more than fifty per cent in the district. 
 
 In addition to the criminal business of the office, 
 he, as a representative of the State, brought and 
 tried many important civil suits, most of which 
 were appealed to the Supreme Court, and all of 
 which, except one case, resulted in final judgments 
 in favor of the State for all that was claimed. 
 The Twenty-second Legislature at its regular ses- 
 sion in 1891, created the Fifty-third Judicial Dis- 
 trict, consisting of Travis County, which required 
 the appointment of a judge, and Governor James S. 
 Hogg tendered the District Judgeship of the dis- 
 trict to Mr. Eoberlson. He accepted the appoint- 
 ment and qualified May 27, 1891. He' was 
 subsequently nominated for the position by the 
 Democracy of the district in convention assembled 
 and elected in November, 1892, by a flattering 
 majority, a just and fitting recognition of his 
 eminent services on the bench. On March 
 16th, 1895, he resigned the judgeship to enter 
 
 into copartnership with P>x-Governor Hogg, 
 for the purpose of practicing law at Austin under 
 the firm name of Hogg & Robertson, since which 
 time he has devoted himself exclusively to the 
 large and paying practice which has come to them 
 as a result of a knowledge upon the part of the 
 public that they constitute one of the strongest law 
 firms in the country. Added to unusual legal learn- 
 ing and superior capacity of mind, Judge Robertson 
 is a powerful, persuasive and elegant speaker, and 
 can sway judge and jury as it is not given to every 
 man to do. 
 
 In social life he is urbane and approachable, a 
 good friend and a good citizen, and i< popular with 
 all classes of his fellow-citizens of Austin, among 
 whom he has passed many years of usefulness, and 
 to whose welfare and best interests he has at all times 
 shown himself to be devoted. In the prime of 
 intellectual and physical manhood, he has but 
 fairly started upon his life-work and there is scarcely 
 any distinction in his profession that he is not 
 capable of attaining. In addition to his success in 
 his profession he has been successful as a business 
 man and has accumulated a large property and 
 is now one of the largest property owners in the 
 city of Austin. No man in Texas enjoys more 
 fully the confidence of his neighbors than does 
 James H. Robertson. 
 
 JAMES HENRY MITCHELL, 
 
 BRYAN. 
 
 The true heroes of America are those who from 
 time to time have left the comforts of civilized life 
 and, penetrating deep into the wilderness, have there 
 planted the seeds of new States. Of this number 
 was James Henry Mitchell, who came to Texas in 
 the infancy of the Republic and here passed the 
 greater part of a long and exceptionally active life. 
 Mr. Mitchell was born in Connersville, Tenn., 
 October 22, 1817. His father was James Mitchell 
 and his mother bore the maiden name of Jane Mc- 
 Intyre Henry, both of whom were descendants of 
 early-settled American families of Scotch-Irish 
 origin. James Henry Mitchell was reared in his 
 native State and came thence in January, or Febru- 
 ary, 1837, to Texas, as a member of Capt. Griffin 
 Baines' company of volunteers which had been 
 raised in Tennessee for Texas frontier service. 
 
 Shortly after his arrival in this country, he re-en- 
 listed at old Tinnanville, Robertson County, in 
 Capt. Lee C. Smith's company, with which he 
 served for about a year. He then returned to 
 Tennessee but came again to Texas in the fall of 
 1838, when he again enlisted in the public service 
 as a member of a local company of " Minute Men," 
 with which he was identified more or less during the 
 following year. In the meantime opposition to the 
 independence of Texas on the part of Mexico hav- 
 ing in a measure subsided and the troublesome 
 Indians having been put under control, the more 
 enterprising spirits of whom the subject of this 
 sketch may justly be reckoned as one, began to 
 turn their attention to the pursuits of peace. He 
 bought an interest in a general store at Old 
 Wheelock where for a year or more he did a profit- 
 
288 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 able business trading witli the settlers and Indians. 
 The attachment for his native State seems to have 
 been strong for about this time he made another 
 visit back to his old home, but returned in a few 
 months, reaching the country just in time to become 
 a member of the famous Snively Expedition with 
 which he was connected from its inception to its 
 inglorious end. He was in one other expedition of 
 a simiiiar nature about the same time which was 
 equally as fruitless in results. 
 
 Late in 1842, or early in 1843, Mr. Mitchell settled 
 at Old Springfield in Limestone County, where he 
 engaged in farming and afterwards in the mercan- 
 tile and hotel business. It was while residing at 
 that place in 1853 (February 3d) that he married 
 Miss Mary Herndon, who thereafter till the end of 
 his3'ears on earth shared his jo3's and sorrows, and 
 who still survives him. Mrs. Mitchell was a daugh- 
 ter of Harry and Elizabeth Herndon and a native 
 of Kentuckj', having accompanied her parents to 
 Texas in early childhood. Mr. Mitchell resided 
 at Springfield for twenty-odd years, during which 
 time by thrift and industry he accumulated what for 
 the time was a very considerable amount of prop- 
 erty. The greater part of this, however, was lost 
 by the late war, and he left there for Bryan in 
 Brazos County in 1867 with but little more than 
 enough to establish himself in his new home and 
 meet his current expenses. During the war he ren- 
 dered to the Confederacy such service as was re- 
 quired at his hands (being past the age for military 
 duty) becoming agent for the government for the 
 collection and distribution of supplies, and assist- 
 ing, also, in the fortification of the Gulf coast 
 country against attack by the Federals. From 
 first to last he saw a great deal of service of a mili- 
 tary and quasi-military nature during his residence 
 in Texas, but he was very little in public life. To 
 his brother Harvey who at one time discharged the 
 duties of every oflice in Brazos Count}' and was 
 more or less connected with public affairs in that 
 county for a number of years, this sort of service 
 
 seems to have fallen, James H. directing his atten- 
 tion chiefly to private pursuits when not actually in 
 the field under arms. Mr. Mitchell was a man of 
 an active, restless disposition in his early years, 
 and the habit of busying himself with something 
 clung to him down to the close of his life. He was 
 always employed at something and believed thor- 
 oughly in the philosophy of doing well what he 
 undertook to do. His last years were passed mostly 
 in retirement. He died at Bryan, March 12, 188.5, 
 and his remains were buried at Old Boonville, in 
 Brazos County, where lie those of his father, mother 
 and other relatives. His widow, three sons and 
 four daughters, survive him. His sons, John Car- 
 son, James Henry, and Marsh, constituting the firm 
 of Mitchell Brothers, merchants at Wheelock, and 
 of the firm of Mitchell Bros. & Decherd, mer- 
 chants and bankers at Franklin, are among the 
 foremost business men of Robertson County, 
 and in every way worthy of the name they bear. 
 
 Two of the four daughters are married, the eldest, 
 Mrs. Samuel Downward, residing at Franklin, and 
 the second, Mrs. John T. Wyse, at Bryan, while the 
 single daughters, Jennie L. and Kate, with the eldest 
 son, who is also unmarried, make their home at 
 Franklin. 
 
 Mr. Mitchell was for many years in middle and 
 later life a member of the Independent Order of 
 Odd Fellows. He was reared in the Presbj'terian 
 faith, but never actively identified himself with any 
 church organization. He was a man, however, of 
 broad views and generous impulses and would go 
 as far as any one to help a struggling fellow-mortal 
 or to further the cause of morality and good govern- 
 ment. He was a well-nigh perfect type of that 
 class of early Texians who were so well equipped 
 by nature for the life they lived and the services 
 they performed, being of rugged constitution, 
 adequate courage, persevering energy, generous, 
 hospitable, kind and faithful, with clear and well 
 defined convictions, sound judgment and honorable 
 impulses. 
 
 CHARLES GROOS, 
 
 SAN ANTONIO, 
 
 A native of Germany, came to Texas in 1848, 
 landing at Galveston, November 21st of that year. 
 It was his intention to settle in Fisher and Miller's 
 Colony, but, on reaching Galveston, he learned 
 
 that the colony was not yet organized and aban- 
 doned that intention. He proceeded to Houston on 
 a Buffalo bayou steamer, accompanied by his four 
 sons and four daughters, who then constituted his 
 
R. KLEBERG. 
 
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 289 
 
 family, his wife having died in the old country. 
 His next move was to make a two weeks' prospect- 
 ing trip through Texas, rent a piece of land near 
 Round Top, in Fayette County, and return for his 
 family. He found his sons had not been idle dur- 
 ing his absence but on the contrary had gone to 
 work, having secured employment on the streets of 
 Houston, where they were at work with pick and 
 shovel at $1.00 per day, payable in city scrip. 
 Mr. Groos made his first crop in Fayette County in 
 1849. He bought a tract of land of two hundred 
 and ten acres Ij'ing in the corner of Fayette 
 County the following year and there established a 
 permanent abode, where he resided until 1865, 
 
 when he removed to San Antonio and a little later 
 to New Braunfels, at which latter place he died in 
 1882, at the advanced age of eighty-eight years. 
 At his death the four sons and four daughters, who 
 accompanied him to Texas, were all living and had 
 married. He had living at that time forty-five 
 grandchildren. Others have since been added to 
 the number and a score or more have attained their 
 majority. Some of them are heads of families and 
 all of them maintain a good standing as citizens in 
 the communities in which they live. The eldest of 
 the name now living is Mr. F. Groos, the banker 
 of San Antonio, who was also the eldest of the four 
 sons and four daughters who came over in 1848. 
 
 ROBERT JUSTUS KLEBERG, 
 
 YORKTOWN. 
 
 Robert Justus Kleberg (christened Johnun 
 Christian Justus Robert Kleberg), was born on the 
 10th day of September, A. D. 1803, in Herstelle, 
 Westphalia, in the former Kingdom of Prussia. 
 His parents were Lucas Kleberg, a prominent and 
 successful merchant, and Veronica Kleberg (nee 
 Meier) a lady of fine culture, sweet temper and 
 good sense. They moved from Herstelle to Beve- 
 rungen in Westphalia, where they were quite pros- 
 perous for a time. Besides Robert they had the 
 following children: Ernest, Louis, Joseph and 
 Banise. For a number of years Robert's parents, 
 living in affluent circumstances, were permitted to 
 give their children good educational advantages, 
 but unhappily misfortune and death deprived the 
 children at an early age of kind parental protec- 
 tion, and the subject of this sketch was thrown upon 
 his own resources, which consisted chiefly of a 
 healthy mind and body, a strong will and unsullied 
 name. At an early age he entered the Gymnasium 
 of Holzminden, where after a five years' course in 
 the classics he completed his studies with high 
 honors. Choosing the law as his profession he now 
 entered the University of Goettingen, and in two 
 years and a half received his diploma as doctor 
 juris. Soon after he was appointed as one of the 
 justices of the assizes of Nirhiem, where he re- 
 mained one year, after which he was promoted to 
 various judicial positions, in which he prepared 
 himself for the practice of his profession, and in 
 which he served with credit and distinction. 
 
 In 1834 when he was about ready to enter upon 
 a distinguished judicial career, he concluded to 
 emigrate to the United States. His reason for this 
 sudden and important change in his life can best be 
 found in his own language, which is taken from a 
 memorandum of his own writing: — 
 
 " I wished to live under a Republican form of 
 government, with unbounded personal, religious 
 and political liberty, free from the petty tyrannies, 
 the many disadvantages and evils of old countries. 
 Prussia, my former home, smarted at the time 
 under a military despotism. I was (and have 
 ever remained) an enthusiastic lover of republican 
 institutions, and I expected to find in Texas, above 
 all other countries, the blessed land of my most 
 fervent hopes." 
 
 Texas was yet partially unexplored, but the 
 reports that reached the old country were of the 
 most extravagant and romantic nature, and were 
 well calculated to enthuse the impulsive and 
 courageous spirit of the young referendary. The 
 ardor of his desires to emigrate was heightened 
 by a letter written by a Mr. Ernst, a German from 
 the Duchy of Oldenburg, who had emigrated to 
 Texas a few years previous, and who at that time 
 resided in what is now known as Industry, Austin 
 County, Texas. This letter recited the advantages 
 of Texas in the most glowing colors, comparing its 
 climate to the sunny skies of Italy ; it lauded the 
 fertility of the soil and spoke of the perennial flora 
 of the prairies of Texas, etc. About this time. 
 
290 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 September the 4th, 1834, the subject of this sketch 
 married Miss Rosalia von Roeder, daughter of 
 Lieut. Ludwig Anton Siegmund von Roeder, the 
 head of an old family of nobility who, too, were 
 anxious for the same reasons to emigrate to 
 Texas. The party bad first contemplated to emi- 
 grate to one of the Western States of the United 
 States, but it was now determined to go to Texas. 
 Again, the memorandum above referred to runs as 
 follows: — 
 
 " We changed our first intention to go to one of 
 the Western States, and chose Texas for our future 
 home. As soon as this was determined upon we 
 sent some of our party, to wit, three brothers of 
 my wife, unmarried, Louis, Albrecht and Joacliim, 
 and their sister Valesca, and a servant by the name 
 of Pollhart, ahead of us to Texas for the purpose 
 of selecting a point where we could all meet and 
 commence operations. They were well provided 
 with money, clothing, a light wagon and harness, 
 tools, and generally everything necessary to com- 
 mence a settlement. They aimed to go to Mr. 
 Ernst, the writer of the letter which induced us to go 
 to Texas. Six months after our party had left the 
 old country, and shortly after we had received the 
 news of their safe arrival, we followed on the 
 last day of September, A. D. 1834, in the ship 
 'Congress,' Capt. J. Adams." 
 
 The party consisted of Robert Kleberg and wife, 
 Lieut. L. A. S. v. Roeder and wife, his daughters, 
 Louise and Caroline, his sons, Rudolph, Otto and 
 William v. Roeder, Louis Kleberg, Mrs. Otto v. 
 Roeder, nee Pauline von Donop and Miss Antoinette 
 von Donop (afterwards wife of Rudolph von 
 Roeder). The other passengers were nearly all 
 Germans from Oldenburg, and one of them was 
 the brother-in-law of Mr. Ernst. They were all 
 bound for the same point in Texas, and after a 
 voyage of sixty days landed in New Orleans. 
 
 The narrative of said memorandum here pro- 
 ceeds : — 
 
 " Here we heard very bad accounts about Texas, 
 and we were advised not to go to Texas, which it 
 was said was infested with robbers, murderers and 
 wild Indians. But we were determined to risk it, 
 and could not disappoint our friends who had pre- 
 ceded us. As soon, therefore, as we succeeded in 
 chartering the schooner ' Sabin,' about two weeks 
 after we landed in New Orleans, we sailed for 
 Brazoria, Texas. After a voyage of eight daj's we 
 wrecked off of Galveston Island, December 22d, 
 1834. The ' Sabin ' was au American craft of about 
 150 tons. The captain and crew left the island, I 
 think, in the steamer, 'Ocean.' The wreck was 
 sold in Brazoria at public auction and bought by a 
 
 gentleman who had come in the ' Ocean,' for thirty- 
 odd dollars. Perhaps she was not regularly 
 employed in the trade between New Orleans and 
 Texas, and was only put in order to get her wrecked 
 in order to get the amount for which she was 
 insured. This was the opinion of the passengers 
 at the time. It is impossible for me to name with 
 certainty the exact point of the island at which we 
 stranded, but I think it was not far from the center 
 of the island, about ten miles above the present site 
 of the city ; it was on the beach side. The island 
 was a perfect wilderness and inhabited only by 
 deer, wolves and rattlesnakes. All the passengers 
 were safely brought to shore, and were provided 
 with provisions, partly from those on board ship 
 and partly by the game on the island. Most of the 
 men were delighted with the climate on the island, 
 and the sport they enjoyed by hunting or fishing. A 
 committee of five was appointed to ascertain whether 
 we were on an island or on main land. After 
 an investigation of two days the committee reported 
 that we were on an island. The passengers then 
 went regularly into camp, saving all the goods and 
 provisions from the wrecked vessel, which was only 
 about fifty yards from shore. From the sails, 
 masts and beams they constructed a large tent, 
 with separate compartments for women and chil- 
 dren. Thus the passengers were temporarily pro- 
 tected against the inclemency of the weather. Two 
 or three days after our vessel had sunk the steamer 
 ' Ocean ' hove in sight and, observing our signal of 
 distress, anchored opposite our camp and sent a 
 boat ashore with an ofHcer to find out the situation. 
 The captain would not take all the passengers, but 
 consented to take a few, charging them a doubloon 
 each. I, with Rudolph v. Roeder, took passage on 
 the steamer, which was bound for Brazoria. I went 
 as agent of the remaining passengers to charter a 
 boat to take them and their plunder to the main 
 land. Finding no boat at Brazoria, or Bell's Land- 
 ing, the only Texas ports at that time, I proceeded 
 on foot to San Felipe, where I was told I would find 
 a small steamer, the ' Cuyuga,' Capt. W. Harris. 
 I found the steamer, but did not succeed in charter- 
 ing her, the price asked ($1,000) being too high. 
 
 " In San Felipe I heard for the first time of the 
 whereabouts of m\' relatives, who had preceded us. 
 Here I also formed the acquaintance of Col. Frank 
 Johnson and Capt. Mosely Baker, under whose 
 command I afterwards participated in the battle 
 of San Jacinto. These gentlemen informed me 
 that two of my friends, Louis and Albert von 
 Roeder, had located about fourteen miles from 
 San Felipe on a league and labor of land, but that 
 Joachim and Valesca von Roeder had died. We 
 
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 MRS. KLEBERG. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 291 
 
 found them in a miserable but and in a pitiful con- 
 dition. They were emaciated by disease and want, 
 and without money. Tears of joy streamed from 
 their eyes when they beheld us. After a few days 
 rest I continued my errand to charter a boat. I 
 had a letter of introduction to Stephen F. Austin 
 and Sam Williams from a merchant in New 
 Orleans to whom our ship had been consigned, 
 which I presented to Mr. Austin's private secre- 
 tary, Mr. Austin and Mr. Williams being absent. 
 From him I received a letter of introduction to 
 Mr. Scott, the father-in-law of Mr. Williams. 
 From Mr. Scott I finally succeeded in chartering a 
 small vessel for $100.00 for three trips, and 
 immediately returned to Galveston, landing on the 
 bay side opposite the camp four weeks after I had 
 left it. I found the passengers of the old ' Sabin ' in 
 good health and spirits. They had spent their 
 time in hunting and Ashing. Those who could not 
 shoot were employed to drive the deer to the 
 hunters. There were deer by the thousands. I 
 left the next day with the first cargo of passen- 
 gers, including my wife, her parents and Caroline 
 von Eoeder. After a stormy trip we arrived on 
 the evening of the same day at Mr. Scott's place, 
 where we were hospitably treated. The next day 
 we reached Harrisburg, where I succeeded in 
 renting a comfortable house, intending to remain 
 there until all the passengers had arrived from the 
 island. The last passengers did not arrive until 
 the winter of 1835, though had I hired another small 
 sloop from Capt. Smith in Velasco, which also 
 made three trips. The winter of 1835 was unusu- 
 ally severe." 
 
 This, it seems, ended the eventful and lengthy 
 voyage from the old country to Texas, of which 
 only the main incidents are given, to show the difH- 
 cullies and many privations to which Texas emi- 
 grants in those early days were subjected. 
 
 Robert Kleberg, by reason of his superior edu- 
 cation, was the only one among those early German 
 colonists who could make himself understood to 
 the few American pioneers who inhabited the 
 interior, and acted as spokesman for the rest. 
 Indian tribes, both savage and civil, swarmed 
 through the country, and it was necessary for the 
 colonists to explore and settle the country in com- 
 munities for self-defense. This condition of things 
 is apparent from the narrative, which relates: — 
 
 "To the place which had been settled upon by 
 Louis and Albrecht v. Boeder we now repaired, 
 leaving the ladies and children in Harrisburg, under 
 the protection of one of the gentlemen. We had 
 formed a partnership with the view of assisting each 
 other to cultivate farms and build houses for each 
 
 head of a family in our party, and we were to work 
 in good earnest to break up land and fence it, and 
 to build houses, as it was our intention to move the 
 balance of our party from Harrisburg to our new 
 settlement as soon as we could erect houses, but 
 not being accustomed to manual labor, we proceeded 
 very slowly. There was an Indian tribe, the 
 Kikapoos, encamped on our land about a mile from 
 our camp, who furnished us with game of all kinds, 
 which the country afforded in abundance. The 
 squaws were very useful to us, as they would hunt 
 and bring in camp our oxen and horses when they 
 strayed off. We rewarded them with ammunition 
 and trinkets, which we had brought with us for that 
 purpose. 
 
 " We had supplied ourselves with everything nec- 
 essary to commence a settlement in a new countrv. 
 We had wagons, farming implements, all sorts of 
 tools, household and kitchen furniture, and cloth- 
 ing which we had brought with us from Germany. 
 Early in September, 1835, we had finished build- 
 ing two log houses, one of them had even a floor and 
 ceiling, as we had sawed by hand the planks from 
 post-oak trees. We had also inclosed and planted a 
 field of ten acres in corn and cotton, and we now 
 moved the members of our party who had remained 
 at Harrisburg to our settlement, with our wagons 
 and teams. Such of our goods, for which we had no 
 room, or no immediate use, we left at the house 
 which we had rented at Harrisburg. Among the 
 objects we left was a fine piano, belonging to my 
 wife, many valuable oil paintings and engravings, 
 music books, etc., all of which fell a prey to the 
 flames which consumed Harrisburg during the war, 
 which followed in the following spring." 
 
 Many were the privations and severe the task 
 which these early settlers had already undergone in 
 permanently settling in the adopted country, but 
 their trials had only begun; the furies of war 
 threatened to devastate the settlements of the col- 
 onies, and Santa Anna was marching his minions 
 into Texas to destroy the constitutional liberty of 
 her people, and Texas patriots, though few in num- 
 ber, bore up her flag to rescue it from thralldom. 
 Among them we find Robert Kleberg and his 
 brother-in-law and compatriots. Albert and Louis 
 von Roeder had participated in the sanguinary 
 storming of San Antonio and returned to their set- 
 tlement near San Felipe, when in the spring of 
 1836 occurred the massacre of Goliad and the fall 
 of the Alamo. Texas independence had been pro- 
 claimed, Santa Anna was preparing his march of 
 conquest to the Sabine, when the young Republic, 
 under her noble leader, Sam Houston, was makino- 
 her last patriotic appeal to her bravest sons, in whose 
 
292 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 hearts were now gathered all the hopes of Texas. It 
 was at this juncture that at a family meeting of the 
 Roeders and Klebergs, presided over by Ex-Lieut. 
 Von Boeder, that these distressed colonists held a 
 counsel of war to decide whether to fight for Texas 
 independence, or cross her borders into the older 
 States to seek shelter under the protecting legis of 
 the American eagle. The meeting was held under 
 the sturdy oaks that stood on the newly acquired 
 possessions. It was a supreme moment in the lives 
 of those who participated. In the language of the 
 historian: " The flight of the wise and worthy men 
 of the country from danger, tended to frighten the 
 old, young and helpless, furnished excuses to the 
 timid; and sanctioned the course of the cowardly. 
 The general dismay following the adjournment of 
 the convention, induced many brave men impelled 
 irresistibly by natural impulses to go to their aban- 
 doned fugitive wives and children, to tender them 
 protection." This little band, like their compa- 
 triots, found themselves in the midst of a terrible 
 panic and they were now called upon to decide be- 
 tween love of country and love of self and it may 
 well be presumed that the debates in this little con- 
 vention were of a stormy nature. The subject of 
 our sketch, though bound by the strongest ties of 
 love to an affectionate young wife and her infant 
 child, was the champion of Texas libertj', and it 
 was due to the eloquent and impassioned appeals 
 of himself and the venerable presiding officer that 
 it was decided that the party would remain and 
 share the fate of the heroic few who had rallied 
 under San Houston to fight for the independ- 
 ence of Texas against Mexican despotism. As 
 Albrecht v. Boeder and Louis v. Boeder had just 
 returned battle-worn from the bloody fields of San 
 Antonio de Bexar, they and others, except L. v. 
 Boeder, were detailed under the aged Ex-Lieut. 
 Boeder to remain with the fugitive families while 
 Eobert Kleberg, Louis v. Boeder and Otto v. 
 Boeder were chosen to bear the brunt of battle. 
 Now a parting, possibly for life, from all that was 
 dear on earth and a voluntary march in the 
 ranks of Capt. Mosley Baker's Company was the 
 next act in the drama of our warrior's life and, while 
 the curtain fell on the pathetic scene, a brave young 
 wife mounted a Texas pony with her tender babe 
 to go with the rest of the Texas families to perhaps 
 across the borders of Texas, driving before them 
 the cattle and horses of the colonists. The acts 
 and deeds of Bobert Kleberg from this time to the 
 disbanding of the Texas army of patriots are a 
 part and parcel of the history of Texas. Endowed 
 with a spirit of patriotism which bordered on 
 the sublime, possessed of a healthy and robust 
 
 physical constitution, a cultured, polished, cool 
 and discriminating mind, he despised fear and was 
 anxious to engage in the sanguinary and decisive 
 struggle for freedom which culminated so gloriously 
 for Texas and civilization on the historic field of 
 San Jacinto. After tills memorable battle, in which 
 he and Louis v. Boeder participated to the glory 
 of themselves and their posterity, he was with Gen. 
 Rusk and the Texas van guard following the van- 
 quished armies of Santa Anna to the Mexican bor- 
 der and, returning by Goliad, assisted in the sad 
 obsequies of the remains of Fannin and his brave 
 men. In the meantime his family had moved back 
 to Galveston Island, and we will again draw from 
 the memorandum for the better appreciation and 
 understanding of the conditions of the country that 
 prevailed at this time: " It had been the intention 
 of our party who went to Galveston Island in the 
 absence of those who were in the army, to abandon 
 the settlement commenced on the Brazos and 
 settle on the island on the two leagues which were 
 chosen there. This move had been undertaken in 
 my absence, partly from fear or danger from hos- 
 tile Indians, also a want of provisions, and partly 
 with an idea to permanently settle on the island. 
 For that purpose the party had built a boat of 
 about forty tons in order to move our cattle and 
 horses and other property from the mainland. 
 They were ignorant of the laws of Mexico, which 
 reserved the islands for the government." To 
 show the state of civilization on Galveston Island at 
 that time, in the summer of 183(3, the judge relates 
 the following incident which occurred while he was 
 in the army: 'One night during a time when all 
 were enwrapt in sound slumber, they were sud- 
 denly aroused by the frantic cries of one of the 
 ladies of the party, Mrs. L. Kleberg ; she was so 
 frightened that she could not speak, but only 
 screamed, pointing her finger to a huge, dark 
 object close to the head of the pallet upon which 
 lay my wife and Mrs. Otto v. Boeder and their 
 babes. To their great astonishment tiiey dis- 
 covered it to be an immense alligator, his jaws wide 
 open, making for the children to devour them. 
 Mr. V. Boeder, Sr., and Mr. Chas. Mason, who 
 had hastened to the spot, dispatched the monster 
 with fire and sword.' " 
 
 The narrative, speaking of their residence on the 
 island after Mr. Kleberg returned from the war, 
 proceeds: "We remained about three months on 
 the island after building our house. Most of us 
 were sick, especially the women and children — 
 long exposure, bad food and water were the prob- 
 able causes. Not long after we moved into the 
 house, Mrs. Pauline Boeder, wife of Otto v. 
 
KLEBKRG BROTHERS. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 293 
 
 Roeder, died there. We buried her under the 
 'Three Lone Trees.' We were all down with 
 chills and fever. Four Mexican prisoners waited 
 on us. Their principal occupation was to gather 
 oysters, pack wood from the beach of the gulf, 
 make fires, wash dishes and clothing, and pack 
 the deer which Mr. v. Roeder and myself killed, 
 which, together with the fish and oysters, was our 
 chief means of subsistence. We had neither bread 
 nor coffee, nor sugar, and the water, of course, 
 was brackish. Finally under these distressing cir- 
 cumstances we became despondent and disheart- 
 ened ; so, late in October, 1836, we again boarded 
 our boat, taking along every thing we had with us, 
 including our Mexican prisoners, who acted as oars- 
 men, and once more made for the main land, 
 landing at a place called Liverpool, a small village 
 at the head of Chocolate ba}'ou. The house on 
 Galveston Island was abandoned, there being no one 
 to whom we could sell ; there were no other families 
 at that time residing on the island. Only Morgan's 
 Fort was situated near the east end of Galveston 
 Island. There were about 400 Mexican prisoners 
 lield there. Capt. Turner, Col. Morgan, and Judge 
 Chas. Mason were there, but no families that I 
 recollect." 
 
 The colonists, including the subject of this sketch, 
 again located where they had made the first settle- 
 ment, at a point known as Cat Spring, now in 
 Austin County. This was in the month of Novem- 
 ber, 1836. Here Judge Kleberg and his family 
 resided until the fall of 1847, when they removed 
 to DeWitt County. At Cat Spring were bom the 
 following of his children: Clara Siegesmunde, 
 November 28, 1835 ; Johanna Caroline, November 
 29, 1838; Caroline Louise, January 15, 1840, and 
 Otto Joseph, October 27, 1841; Rudolph, June 
 26, 1847. In DeWitt County, Marcellus Eugene, 
 February 7, 1849 ; Robt. Justus, December 5, 
 1853, and Louise Rosalie, September 2, 1855. 
 
 While living in Austin County, Judge Kleberg did 
 much to develop the new country, which was then 
 but sparsely settled, and was still inhabited by 
 Indians. He frequently spoke of one occurrence 
 during his residence at Cat Spring, where a numer- 
 ous tribe of Comanches passed by his house to the 
 city of Houston to interview the President of the 
 Republic of Texas on the question of making peace. 
 He speaks of the appearance of these savages upon 
 their return from Houston as most ludicrous. 
 Many of them had adorned themselves with stove 
 pipe hats, red ribbons and all kinds of fancy dress 
 articles, all of which was in strange contrast with 
 their usual wearing apparel. They stopped at the 
 Judge's house on their way from Houston, and 
 
 requested his wife to mend their flag, which she 
 readily consented to do. Being well acquainted 
 with the prominent citizens such as Sam Houston, 
 Burnet, J. S. Hill, J. P. Borden, Judge Waller, 
 and many other distinguished citizens of that day, 
 Mr. Kleberg's services in the War for Independence 
 and his ability were soon recognized by the young 
 Republic and as early as 1837 he was appointed by 
 President Sam Houston as Associate Commissioner 
 of the Board of Land Commissioners. In 1838, he 
 was appointed President of said commissioners by 
 J. P. Borden, Commissioner of the General Land 
 Office. In 1841, he was commissioned by Mira- 
 beau B. Lamar, President of the Republic, Justice 
 of the Peace, which was then an important office as 
 there were few lawyers, and few law books, and 
 important and perplexing suits to be decided in 
 these courts. In 1846 he was elected Chief Justice 
 in Austin County, and commissioned by Sam 
 Houston, Governor. In 1848 he was elected 
 County Commissioner of De Witt County, and 
 commissioned by Governor G. S. Wood. 
 
 In 1853 he was elected Chief Justice of De 
 Witt County, and commissioned by Governor Bell. 
 He was re-elected as Chief Justice of De Witt 
 County in 1854. When the war broke out he 
 became a strong Confederate and raised a com- 
 pany of militia, but was on account of his ad- 
 vanced age not received in active service, but 
 finally commissioned as collector of war taxes, 
 which position he occupied during the entire period 
 of the war, and administered with skill and fidelity. 
 After the war he accepted the situation and filled 
 several positions of trust and honor, such as mem- 
 ber of the county school board, etc. Upon his 
 arrival in DeWitt he found but few settlers, among- 
 them the following prominent citizens : John Pet- 
 tus, the Yorks and Bells, Judges Wofford and 
 Baker, Dr. Robert Peebles, Capt. Dick Chrisholm, 
 Judge Young and others. At that time there were 
 hardly any schools and churches in De Witt County 
 and Judge Kleberg, together with Messrs. Albrecht 
 V. Roeder, John Pettus, the Bells, and Yorks, 
 erected with their own hands a log cabin on the 
 Colita creek, near the old York and Bell farm, 
 which was probably the first school-house in the 
 county. 
 
 Hostile Indians still made their accustomed raids 
 on the settlements and as late as October, 1848, 
 the pioneers of De Witt County had a fight with the 
 savages, in which Judge Kleberg participated, and 
 of which he gives the following account: — 
 
 "One October morning Capt. York and Mr. 
 Albrecht v. Roeder and my brother, Ernst Kleberg, 
 summoned me to go with a party of volunteers to 
 
294 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 fight a tribe of hostile Indians, who were depredat- 
 ing in the neighborhood of Yorktown. We were 
 soon mounted and equipped and off for the place 
 of rendezvous. We reached the Cabesa that same 
 night, where our troops, consisting of some thirty 
 men, camped and elected Capt. York as commander, 
 and Messrs. William Taylor, Jno. Thomlinson and 
 Ruf us Taylor were detailed as spies and skirmishers. 
 Next morning the company, as organized, started 
 to meet the foe, whom we encountered about three 
 o'clock p. m. on the Escondido east of the San 
 Antonio river, about fifteen miles west of the 
 present town of Yorktown, just as our company 
 filed around a point of timber. The Indians, 
 about sixt}' to seventy strong, lay in ambush. 
 Our company was not marching in rank and 
 file, but in an irregular way, not expecting to meet 
 the enemy so soon. Capt. York and Mr. Bell were 
 in front, followed immediatel}' by John Pettus and 
 myself. The Indians raised the well-known and 
 hideous warwhoop and immediately opened on us 
 with a terrible fire of musketry. The majority of 
 our men took to flight and left not more than ten 
 or twelve of us, who made a stand, taking advan- 
 tage of a little groTe near by, where the Texians 
 returned a sharp fire upon the Indians, who still 
 remained in ambush, only exposing their heads 
 now and then as they fired, thus having a decided 
 advantage over the men who were only protected 
 by a few thin trees. It was here that Mr. Bell 
 and Capt. York were killed. The former, a son- 
 in-law of Capt. York, was shot at the first fire 
 and mortally wounded, but he was carried along to 
 the little mott, where Capt. York and myself 
 bent over him to dress his wounds, but he died in 
 our hands. At this juncture Mr. Jim York, son of 
 Capt. York, was shot in the head. Capt. York 
 called me to assist him in dressing his son's 
 wounds. I tore off a piece of his shirt and band- 
 aged his wounds as well as possible. Capt. York, 
 overcome by grief, ran continually from his son to 
 his son-in-law, and thus exposed himself to the fire 
 of the enemy, notwithstanding I kept warning him, 
 and was soon struck by the fatal ball which 
 instantly killed him. A counsel of war was now 
 held by the remaining troops, consisting of eight or 
 nine men all told, and we decided to proceed to a 
 little mound or elevation near by, where we might 
 flank the Indians in their ambush. In attempting 
 to gain this point the Indians kept up a continuous 
 fusillade, which we returned, and by the time we 
 reached the elevation and directed our fire from 
 behind a cluster of large live oaks on the exposed 
 flank of the savages, they soon retired from their 
 position and disappeared from the field. Thus 
 
 ended probably the last Indian fight in Southwest 
 Texas, and such were the stirring scenes of that 
 time." 
 
 Mr. Kleberg had the good fortune to outlive this 
 period of romance and adventure, and to see his 
 adopted State and country developed to grand pro- 
 portions in population and wealth under the magic 
 wand of civilization. 
 
 In politics Judge Kleberg was always a con- 
 sistent and intelligent Democrat ; a strong be- 
 liever in State rights and local self-government, 
 and an ardent admirer of the American system 
 of government, and in his severest trials as 
 an early settler, and in the gloomiest hour of 
 the Republic and State of his adoption he never 
 faltered in his faith in the free institutions of 
 this country, and spurned the idea of returning to 
 a monarchical form of government. In religion he 
 was free of all orthodoxy and most tolerant to all 
 denominations ; candid and firm in his individual 
 convictions, yet respectful and considerate of the 
 opinions of others. Pure and lofty in sentiment, 
 simple and frugal in habit, honest in motive, and 
 positive and decided in word and deed, his charac- 
 ter was without reproach, and indeed a model 
 among his fellow-men. 
 
 Mr. Kleberg was a man of deep and most varied 
 learning. Besides a knowledge of Greek and Latin 
 he controlled three modern languages and read 
 their literatures in the originals. Reading and 
 study were a part of his daily life, and he enjoyed 
 a critical and discriminating knowledge of ancient 
 and modern literature. In field and camp and the 
 solitudes of frontier life his well-trained mind ever 
 found delight and repose in the contemplation of 
 its ample stores of knowledge and the graces 
 of a refined civilization under which it was 
 developed were never effaced, or even blurred bj* 
 the roughness or crudities of border life. A 
 man of urbane manners and courtly' address, his 
 intercourse with men, whether high or low, edu- 
 cated or ignorant, was ever characterized by a 
 plain and noble dignity, free of assumption or 
 vanity. 
 
 The principles which found expression and ex- 
 emplification in his long and eventful life rested 
 upon a broad and comprehensive philosophy of 
 which absolute honesty of mind was a controlling 
 element, and when the shadows of death gathered 
 around him he met the supreme moment witli a 
 mind serene and in peaceful composure. He died 
 at Yorktown, De Witt County, October 23, 1888, 
 in his eighty-sixth year, surrounded by his family, 
 and was buried with Masonic honors. His wife, 
 Mrs. Rosa Kleberg, and the following children sur- 
 
M. KOPPERL. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXxiS. 
 
 295 
 
 vive him: Mrs. Clara Hillebrand, Mrs. Caroline His eldest son, Otto Kleberg, who served witli 
 Eckhardt, Miss Lulu Kleberg, Hon. Rudolph Kle- distinction in the Confederate army, preceded 
 berg, MarcellusE. Kleberg, and Robert J. Kleberg, him in death in 1880. 
 
 MORITZ KOPPERL, 
 
 GALVESTON. 
 
 The history of other countries as well as our own 
 bears ample evidence to the fact that great abilities 
 displayed in the higher walks of commerce have 
 been employed, on occasion, with equal effective- 
 ness in other directions. 
 
 The merchants of Venice, when the Venetian 
 Republic was mistress of the seas and controlled 
 the commerce of the civilized world, were not only 
 traders, but many of them also lawmakers, navi- 
 gators, cunning artists, leaders of armies, and com- 
 manders of navies. Instances are not wanting in 
 our own country and later time where successful 
 merchants have become projectors of large enter- 
 prises, have filled positions requiring a higher order 
 of executive ability, have accumulated wealth and 
 at the same time have assisted in making the laws 
 and carrying on the affairs of the State and nation. 
 Such men would distinguish themselves in any avo- 
 cation because of their strength and breadth of 
 mind, versatility of talents and those qualities that 
 enable them to surmount difficulties and command 
 success. The subject of this brief notice, while 
 strictly a business man, would have made himself 
 felt in almost any pursuit. 
 
 Moritz Kopperl was born October 7, 1826, in the 
 town of Trebitsch, Moravia, where he was reared 
 and received his early mental training. First a 
 student at the Capuchin Institute at Trebitsch he 
 completed his education by taking a classical course 
 at Nicholsburg, Moravia, and at Vienna, Austria. 
 In 1848 he came to America on the invitation of 
 his uncle, Maj. Charles Kopperl, of Carroll County, 
 Miss., whom he succeeded in business, and with 
 whom he resided for a number of years in Mis- 
 sissippi. 
 
 In 1857 Mr. Kopperl came to Texas in company 
 with A. Lipman, with whom he had been associated 
 in business in Mississippi and engaged at Galveston 
 in merchandising as a member of the firm of Lip- 
 man & Kopperl, a connection that existed until a 
 period during the war between the States. With 
 the closing of the port of Galveston by the Federal 
 
 blockade in 1861, all business at that place practi- 
 cally ceased and many of the city's most prosper- 
 ous and promising houses were ruined, the house 
 of Lipman & Kopperl being of the number. It is 
 to the credit of Mr. Kopperl, however, that although 
 all debts due by Southern merchants at the North 
 were supposed to have been settled by the war he 
 hunted up his creditors after the surrender and paid 
 them their claims in full. 
 
 In 1865 he resumed active business pursuits in 
 Galveston, engaging first in the cotton commission 
 business and later taking up the coffee trade, which 
 latter he developed into large proportions, making 
 the city of Galveston one of the largest importing 
 points for this article in the United States. In 1868 
 he was made president of the Texas National Bank 
 when that institution was in a failing condition, and 
 by his good management, aided by a few stock- 
 holders, placed the bank on a solid footing and 
 made of it one of the soundest and most prosperous 
 financial institutions in the city. In 1877 he was 
 made president of the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe 
 Railroad and served that corporation as its chief 
 executive through the most critical period of its 
 history. When he took hold of the road the line had 
 been built only a few miles out of Galveston, was 
 without means, credit or prospects, and was har- 
 assed by the tax-collector, who threatened to sell 
 it for past due taxes, yet by his untiring energy, 
 and at the sacrifice of his time and health, and at 
 the risk of his private means and reputation, he 
 contracted for the construction of the road and, in 
 order to save its charter, carried it through the 
 storm until a syndicate of prominent and public- 
 spirited citizens was formed, who, co-operating with 
 him, placed it on a safe basis. The work and re- 
 sponsibility which this task imposed can hardly be 
 estimated ; for, in addition to the labor and care 
 inseparably connected with such an undertaking, 
 the road had, as is well known, at that time to meet 
 the strongest possible opposition from lines of which 
 it would, if successfully carried through, become 
 
296 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 a close competitor. Mr. Kopperl felt this opposi- 
 tion at every step be took, and but for the persist- 
 ent efforts made by him reinforced by the weight 
 of his name and influence, the road would inevi- 
 tably have gone down in the great fight that was 
 at that time made upon it. 
 
 Besides the Texas National Bank and the Gulf, 
 Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad, Mr. Kopperl was 
 connected with a number of other corporations and 
 was an active worker in a score of private under- 
 takings, his interests and investments covering 
 every field of legitimate business enterprise. He 
 was for some time president of the Galveston 
 Insurance Company and a director in both the 
 Union Fire & Marine and the Merchants Insurance 
 Companies. 
 
 He was among the stanchest advocates of the 
 claims of Galveston as a shipping point and empha- 
 sized these claims on all proper occasions. He 
 had the statistics of shipping, and of the resources 
 and development of Texas at his fingers' ends, and 
 his aid was always sought in the furtherance of those 
 enterprises and schemes of improvement where 
 facts and figures formed the basis of operation. 
 Having had his attention somewhat directed through 
 his coffee business to the necessities and possibilities 
 of trade between the United States and the South 
 American countries, he made a study of the condi- 
 tions of that trade in all its bearings, and was one 
 of the first to set forth in logical form the princi- 
 ples since embraced in the doctrine of " Reci- 
 procity " and the benefits that would accrue 
 to this section of the Union from its practical 
 application by treaty regulations. 
 
 Although Mr. Kopperl was a business man in the 
 strictest sense of the word, he still found time to 
 interest himself to some extent in politics and filled 
 acceptably a number of positions of public trust. 
 He was a member of the City Council in 1871 and 
 1872, during which time he was chairman of the 
 Finance Committee and aided materially in devis- 
 ing means to meet the city's indebtedness and 
 maintain its credit. He was a delegate to the 
 National Convention at Baltimore in 1872, which 
 nominated Horace Greely for President, and served 
 also as a delegate to the Congressional Convention 
 
 at Corsicana which nominated Judge A. H. Willie 
 for Congress. He was elected to the State Legis- 
 lature in 1876 and served as a member of the Fif- 
 teenth Legislature, in which he was chairman of 
 the Committee on Finance and Revenue ; formulated 
 the measure which was enacted into a law whereby 
 the State school fund was reinvested in State 
 securities and made to yield a better revenue for 
 present school purposes ; and also the bill which in 
 the form of a law enabled the Governor to dispose 
 of $500,000 worth of State bonds to meet the 
 State's accrued indebtedness and to defray the 
 running expenses of the government. These 
 8500,000 worth of bonds were sold to the American 
 Exchange Bank of New York upon Mr. Kopperl's 
 personal recommendation and guarantee, without 
 his asking or receiving from the State any part of 
 the commission authorized by law for negotiating 
 the sale. 
 
 Thus as a business man, as an official and as a 
 citizen, Mr. Kopperl lived and labored for the city 
 and State of his adoption. That his labors were 
 well rewarded and are still bearing good fruit the 
 present prosperous condition of all those enter- 
 prises, institutions and interests with which ;he had 
 to do bears abundant witness. 
 
 In 1866 Mr. Kopperl married Miss Isabella 
 D3'er, of Galveston, a niece of the late Isadore 
 Dyer and of the late Mrs. Rosanna Osterman, both 
 early settlers of Galveston and remembered for 
 their many charities. The issue of this union was 
 two sons, Herman B. and Moritz O., who, with 
 their mother, survive the husband and father. 
 
 Mr. Kopperl's death occurred July 3, 1883, at 
 Bayreuth, Bavaria, whither he had gone in search 
 of health. But his remains rest in the city of 
 Galveston, where he spent his maturer years and 
 with whose history his own was so intimately con- 
 nected. On his monument is engraved this 
 sentence : — 
 
 " I pray thee, then, write me as one who loved his 
 fellow man " — 
 
 a most befitting epitaph for one whose generous 
 heart beat in unison with the best impulses of his 
 race. 
 
■o-byH.XC.l^oevo^- 
 
 C^^^-^^^-C^-^^^^^C^ 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 297 
 
 THOMAS GONZALES, 
 
 GALVESTON. 
 
 Early in the present century during the political 
 disturbances in Mexico which finally culminated in 
 the independence of that country, there came over 
 from Spain with the historic Barados expedition 
 two surgeons, Juan Samaniego and Victor Gonzales, 
 who, after the failure of the expedition, settled in 
 that country. Both were natives of Valladolid, the 
 capitol city of Castile, and were descended from 
 old Castilian families. Juan Samaniego was Sur- 
 geon-General of the Spanish army, a talented and 
 capable man, as was also his junior associates who 
 was himself a son of a celebrated military surgeon, 
 Don Antonio Gonzales. 
 
 Victor Gonzales married the widowed daughter 
 of Juan Samaniego, Senora Rita Samaniego de 
 Reyes, in the City of Mexico, about 1825. He was 
 stationed for a time at Tampico, Mexico, in the 
 performance of his official duties and there lived 
 until his untimel}' death by shipwreck of the 
 schooner " Felecia " while he was on his way across 
 the Gulf to Havana, his final destination being his 
 native place, Valladolid. The vessel on which he 
 sailed was never heard from after leaving port. 
 
 The issue of the marriage of Victor and Rita 
 Samaniego Gonzales was two sons, Francisco 
 Gonzales and Thomas Gonzales. The younger of 
 these, the subject of this biographical notice, was 
 born at Tampico, Mexico, November 10th, 1829. 
 His mother's death occurred in 1860 at Havana, 
 Cuba. Soon after the death of his father he was 
 taken into the family of his half-sister, Mrs. Elena 
 Blossman, then residing in New Orleans, by whom 
 he was reared and educated. His brother-in-law, 
 R. D. Blossman, who was a large cotton dealer in 
 New Orleans and had some interests also at Alton, 
 111., between which places he made his home. 
 
 In the schools of the latter place young Gonzales 
 received his early mental training, finishing with a 
 three years' course in the select school at Valladolid, 
 Spain, the old family seat. He took up the cotton 
 business at New Orleans about 1845 under his 
 brother-in-law in whose interest he came into Texas 
 in 1846 ; arriving in this State, he spent two years 
 at Lavaca, and then revisited New Orleans, where, 
 August 28th, 1850, he married Miss Edith Boyer, 
 who accompanied him back to Texas, their future 
 home. They located at Point Isabel, then the seat 
 of considerable commercial activity, being a United 
 States port of entry, where he went into the re- 
 
 ceiving and forwarding business, and was so 
 engaged for two or three years. In 1853 he 
 moved to Galveston, where he at once became 
 connected with the cotton interest in the city, with 
 which he has had to do in some capacity for the 
 past forty-odd years. He was vice-president of 
 the Galveston Cotton Exchange for two terms, and 
 is the oldest cotton dealer in the city. Scarcely 
 a movement has been set on foot affecting the 
 great staple on which the commerce of this port so 
 much depends that his name has not been in some 
 way associated with it. He has also been an 
 active worker in a number of important private 
 enterprises of benefit to the city. He was one of 
 the organizers of the Taylor Compress Company of 
 Galveston, established in 1875, and has since its 
 organization been secretary and treasurer of the 
 company. 
 
 During the late war Mr. Gonzales organized the 
 Gonzales Light Battery, composed of 150 men, 
 which was mustered into the Confederate army 
 and did good service both in the defense of 
 Galveston and in the support of Gen. Dick Taylor 
 in Western Louisiana. This battery, which was 
 made up of picked men and thoroughly equipped, 
 was the pride of Gen. Magruder, commander of 
 the department of Texas, and being stationed 
 along the water front was one of the chief sources 
 of his reliance in the great naval battle fought at 
 Galveston, January 1st, 1863. 
 
 The following is a copy of the official report 
 made by Capt. Gonzales of the part taken by his 
 battery in the engagement : — 
 
 Galveston, January 6th, 1863. 
 
 CoL. X. B. Debrat, Commanding. 
 Colonel : 
 
 I have the honor to report the part taken by my 
 battery of light artillery, in the engagement, on this 
 island, on the morning of the first inst. I re- 
 ceived orders to proceed with my battery and to es- 
 tablish it in three sections on the strand, as fol- 
 lows: One section, the left, at the foot of the brick 
 wharf near the Hendley building ; the center sec- 
 tion at the foot of Kuhans wharf near Parry's 
 foundry ; and the right at the foot of Hutching's 
 wharf near what is known as " The Iron Battery." 
 Maj. George R. Wilson commanded the left; 
 Lieut. R. J. Hughes was in command of the center 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 and the right was under my own command. The 
 Are was opened at about half-past three in the 
 morning from my left section, the Major-General 
 commanding in person, firing the first gun. This 
 being the signal to commence firing, the battery 
 opened and the firing was continued until about 
 daylight when orders were received to cease firing 
 and to withdraw the pieces, the battery having 
 fired 317 rounds. 
 
 I have to report the following casualties : — 
 
 In Maj. Wilson's section : Private Louis Gebour, 
 leg broken at the knee, amputated and since 
 died. 
 
 In my section : Private J. R. Smith, wounded in 
 the hip ; Private T. Frederick, head and shoulders — 
 severe but probably not mortal ; Private P. Lynch- 
 comb, head, slight. 
 
 No other casualties occurred. The officers and 
 men behaved well and though under fire for the first 
 time, and very much exposed, handled their guns 
 with coolness and did their work bravely. 
 
 I have the honor, Colonel, to be, very respect- 
 fully, your obedient servant, 
 
 Tho.mas Gonzales, 
 Capt. Light Artillery, C. S. A. 
 
 Mr. Gonzales' career has been principally of a 
 business nature. He served as a commissioner of 
 Cameron County for one term during his residence 
 at Point Isabel and since coming to Galveston has 
 been frequently importuned to become a candidate 
 for various local offices, but has uniformly declined 
 to yield to such solicitudes and has taken onlj' a 
 passing interest in political matters. He is a con- 
 servative Democrat, believing in the fundamental 
 principles of the Democratic party and, within the 
 bounds of reason and common sense, in party or- 
 ganization ; but opposes bossism and blind parti- 
 sanship and all else inconsistent with individual 
 liberty and the purity of the ballot-box. 
 
 As stated, Mr. Gonzales' marriage took place in 
 New Orleans just previous to his permanent re- 
 moval to Texas in 1850. His wife was born in 
 Philadelphia, December 20th, 1833, and was a 
 daughter of Pierre Boyer. She was connected by 
 blood and marriage with some of the oldest and 
 best families of the United States ; among them 
 were the Verplanks and Rumseys of Fishkill, 
 N. y. , the Weathereds of Baltimore, the Sykes 
 of St. Louis and the Caverlys of Delaware. 
 Her brother, Dr. P. C. Boyer, was a physician of 
 prominence in New Orleans during and since the 
 war. Mrs. Gonzales was mainly reared in New 
 Orleans, in the schools of which city she received 
 her education. She was an accomplished young 
 lad}' who, though accustomed to all the comforts 
 and luxuries of wealth, cheerfully came to this new 
 country to help her husband make a home and win 
 a fortune. To Mr. and Mrs. Gonzales six children 
 were born, four sons and two daughters ; one of 
 the children, a son, died in infancy ; another, a 
 daughter, at the age of seven fell a victim to the 
 yellow fever epidemic of 1867, and a son, Thomas 
 E., died February 19lh, 1892, when thirty-three 
 years of age. Their surviving daughter, Daisy, 
 was married to Francis Coolidge Stanwood, a cotton 
 dealer, and resides in Boston, Mass., while the two 
 remaining sons, Boyer and Julian Caverly, are 
 business men at Galveston, the former a member 
 of the firm of Thomas Gonzales & Sons, cotton 
 dealers, and the latter pa3'master and accountant for 
 the Tajdor Compress Company. 
 
 On Januarj' 3d, 1895, after a brief illness, Mrs. 
 Gonzales, died at her home at Galveston, sincerely 
 mourned bj' her family and a large circle of friends, 
 to whom she had endeared herself b}' her kindness, 
 charity, fortitude and other womanly virtues. 
 
 The religious connection of Mr. Gonzales' 
 family is with the Episcopal Church, upon the ser- 
 vices of which all are regular attendants. 
 
 BENNETT BLAKE, 
 
 NACOGDOCHES. 
 
 Judge Bennett Blake, of Nacogdoches, was born 
 at Sutton, Vt., November 11, 1809. His parents, 
 Mr. Samuel Dow Blake and Mrs. Abigail (Lee) 
 Blake, natives of New Hampshire, emigrated to 
 Vermont in 1792 and established themselves in 
 
 Sutton, Caledonia County, where they resided until 
 their respective deaths. They left eight children. 
 The subject of this memoir attended local schools 
 for three months in the year during a number of 
 years and acquired a fair common-school education 
 
JUDGE BKNNETT BLAKE. 
 
 JIKS. BLAKE. 
 
INDIAN WARS ^iND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 299 
 
 and, when twenty-flve years of age, went to Bos- 
 ton, Mass., where he remained until March 16, 
 1835, and then, determining to try his fortune in 
 Texas, took passage on a sailing vessel bound for 
 New Orleans. Very rough weather was encountered 
 on the voyage and it took the ship forty-two days 
 to reach its destination. From New Orleans he 
 proceeded up Red river to Natchitoches, La., and 
 from thence overland to Nacogdoches, at which 
 place he arrived May 3, 1835, with $20.00 in his 
 pockets, and shortly thereafter employed a guide, 
 and with three companions, started out afoot to 
 look at the country. The guide proved to be in- 
 competent and got the party lost in the woods. 
 After wandering about for over four daj"S without 
 food they succeeded in making their way back to 
 Nacogdoches. Here Judge Blake obtained employ- 
 ment as a clerk in the land-offlce, under George W. 
 Smith, who was commissioned to put old settlers in 
 possession of lands north of the San Antonio road. 
 In September of that year (1835) two surveyors, 
 whose compasses were at Natchitoches, La., one 
 hundred and ten miles distant, offered $150.00 
 to anyone who would bring the instruments to 
 Nacogdoches within four days. Judge Blake 
 undertook the journey, accomplished it in three 
 davs and a half and was paid the sum promised. 
 
 Of a bold and resolute spirit he was among the 
 foremost in every expedition designed for the pro- 
 tection of the country. 
 
 Davy Crockett, when on his way to take part in 
 the Texas revolution, slopped in Nacogdoches for 
 several days. During the time he took his famous 
 oath in the old stone fort to support the cause of 
 the Texlans, not for the restoration of their rights 
 under the constitution of 1824, as was then being 
 sought, but until their absolute independence should 
 be achieved. While in the town he delivered a 
 speech to which Mr. Blake had the pleasure of 
 listening. He reports "Old Davy" as having 
 closed his speech as follows : " We'll go to the City 
 of Mexico and shake Santa Anna as a coon dog 
 would a possum." 
 
 The fall of the Alamo, the massacre at Goliad, 
 and the butchery of Johnson's and Grant's men 
 on and beyond the Nueces and the continued 
 retreat of Houston before the Mexican army, 
 sweeping victoriously eastward in three divisions, 
 cast a gloom over the country and the arrival of 
 the merciless invaders in the eastern part of the 
 province was daily expected. The roads about and 
 beyond Nacogdoches were lined with women and 
 children fleeing to Louisiana for safety. None 
 were afterwards seen in any part of that country 
 until the God of Battles smiled upon the Texian 
 
 arms at San Jacinto. The Indians taking advan- 
 tage of the unsettled condition of the country were 
 committing numerous murders and depredations. 
 Mr. Blake and two companions at this time were 
 appointed to protect the retreat of the fugitives and 
 watch the Indians, whom it was feared would rise 
 and attempt an indiscriminate massacre. He and 
 his comrades discharged the trust with vigilance and 
 courage. Judge Blake served under Gen. Rusk, in 
 1839, in his expedition against the noted Cherokee 
 Chief Bowles who had organized a formidable In- 
 dian insurrection. On one occasion during the cam- 
 paign Gen. Rusk offered a furlough of ten days to 
 any of his soldiers who would carry a dispatch from 
 where he was stationed, north of the Sabine, to 
 Nacogdoches, seventy-five miles distant, and de- 
 liver it upon the day of starting. The purport of 
 the message was a warning to volunteers not to 
 leave Nacogdoches for his camp except in parties 
 fifteen or twenty strong, as there were many In- 
 dians upon the road. It was a perilous mission 
 to undertake, but Judge Blake volunteered to per- 
 form the service. He was mounted on a fine 
 horse and made the trip in the time appointed. 
 He saw but one Indian on the road and gave 
 him a lively chase, but says that he felt no 
 exaggerated longing to overtake him and was 
 rather gratified that the distance widened rather 
 than diminished between them, and the Indian 
 finally lost to view. On arriving at Nacogdoches 
 he found Mrs. James S. Mayfleld standing 
 guard, with a belt of six-shooters around her waist 
 and a shot-gun on her shoulder. The young men 
 had all taken the field against the Indians and left 
 the old men and women to protect the settlement. 
 Many of the women of those days were good shots 
 and of undoubted courage. At his request Judge 
 Blake was permitted to relieve her and stood guard 
 for the rest of the night, but says that he was very 
 tired and is inclined to the belief that he put in the 
 greater part of the time that intervened to day- 
 dawn sitting on the ground with his back against a 
 tree. Mr. Blake remained in Nacogdoches about 
 four days, and finding it very lonesome, returned to 
 his companions. Shortly thereafter he partici- 
 pated in the two days' battle that resulted in a 
 signal victory for the whites and so completely 
 crushed the spirit of the Indians that no general 
 uprising ever after occurred. On the second day 
 when the Cherokees and their allies had retreated, 
 Bowles, while heroically trying to rally them, re- 
 ceived two or three gun-shot wounds and fell from 
 his horse. A moment later the Texians, firing right 
 and left as they rode, charged directly over his 
 body. Bob Smith and Judge Blake were side by 
 
300 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 side and Smith, seeing around the fallen chief's 
 waist a red belt holding a sword that Gen. Houston 
 had given him (Bowles) in former days, stooped 
 over to jerk it off. As they tugged at the belt 
 Bowles rose and Smith shot him through the head 
 and the noted Indian warrior tumbled forward upon 
 his face and expired without a groan. In the two 
 days' fight one hundred and eight Indians were 
 reported killed. Two of the whites were killed and 
 twentj'-eight wounded. 
 
 In February, 1841, the Indians made a raid 
 through the Nacogdoches country and murdered a 
 man named Jordan. A party of settlers, fifty-two 
 in number, Judge Blake among them, hastily 
 assembled and started in pursuit. They had a 
 severe experience, having to walk a greater part of 
 the time, as the roads were so boggy they could 
 not use their horses. They were three days with- 
 out food and at the end of that time had only suc- 
 ceeded in traversing a distance of seventy-five miles. 
 The expedition proved fruitless. This was the last 
 expedition against the Indians in which Judge 
 Blake participated. The only change in use in the 
 country from 1835 to 1838 was made by cutting a 
 Mexican dollar into quarters. These circulated as 
 twenty-five cent pieces. Judge Blake says that it is 
 just to state that the Mexicans never to his knowl- 
 edge cut a dollar into more than four pieces, 
 while Americans in many instances would make 
 five and put them into circulation as twenty- 
 five cent pieces. He recounts an amusing in- 
 cident that marked his acquaintanceship with Gen. 
 Houston. 
 
 In 1835 the cholera epidemic that then prevailed 
 made its way to Nacogdoches and several citizens 
 fell victims to the scourge. Everybody, who could, 
 left town and Judge Blake with eight companions, 
 among the number Gen. Houston, went to Niel 
 Martin's, eight miles from town, where they secured 
 board and lodging and comfortably established 
 themselves. The entire party slept in the same 
 loom. The first night, and a number of nights 
 tiiereafter, Gen. Houston sat up and read until 
 midnight and then went to bed and called his negro 
 Esau, to pick ticks off him. These performances, 
 however agreeable to the General and improving to 
 Esau, were not at all edifying to the General's 
 room-mates and they decided to try the effects of 
 a practical joke. Accordingly they gathered all 
 the ticks they could find and put them in a box and 
 while Houston was eating his supper scattered them 
 in his bed. The General had not long retired 
 before he called loudly for Esau, who literally had 
 his hands full until some time near daylight. 
 Houston never disturbed the rest of his companions 
 
 again and the stay at Martin's proved delightful to 
 all concerned. 
 
 Judge Blake was honored by his fellow-citizens 
 with office almost continuously from 1837 to 1876, 
 serving as justice of the peace, member of the Con- 
 federate Legislature in 18G3-4, county judge, and 
 member of the constitutional convention of 1875. 
 Confederate money was worth very little when he 
 was in Austin as a member of the Legislature and he 
 paid $100.00 per day for board and lodging for the 
 sixty-five days of the session. During his terms of 
 service as justice of the peace and county judge, 
 he tried seven thousand civil suits and five hundred 
 criminal cases. A great many appeals were taken 
 from his decisions but not one was ever reversed. 
 Judge Blake for many years has refused to be a 
 candidate for any office. 
 
 He has been married three times: first in New 
 Hampshire in 1833, to Miss Mary Lewis, who died 
 a short time after their union ; next, in Montgom- 
 ery County, Texas, in 1849, to widow Harrison, who 
 died in 1852, and in 1853 in Nacogdoches to Miss 
 Ella Harris, who died in 1886. Three children 
 were born of the latter union ; Bennett Blake, a 
 prominent farmer in Nacogdoches County ; Myrtle, 
 wife of Judge James I. Perkins of Rusk, and Addie 
 Louisa, widow of Mr. W. E. Bowler of Nacog- 
 doches. Miss Ella Harris, who became the wife of 
 Mr. Blake and mother of his children, a noble 
 Christian lady, was born in Georgia in 1832. Her 
 father was Dr. Eldridge G. Harris, and mother 
 Mrs. Mary (Hamilton) Harris. She was brought 
 to Nacogdoches, Texas, in 1836, by her mother, 
 who was joined at that place by Dr. Harris, who 
 had preceded them. Dr. Harris was a surgeon in 
 the Texas revolutionary army and a pioneer greatly 
 beloved by his fellow-soldiers and neighbors. He 
 died in 1838 and his wife in 1872, at the home of 
 Judge Blake in Nacogdoches. 
 
 Judge Blake has seventeen living grandchildren. 
 He is a member of the Democratic party and Royal 
 Arch degree of the Masonic fraternity. 
 
 Judge Blake has been successful in a financial 
 way, having accumulated a considerable fortune. 
 He has passed through many stirring and thrilling 
 scenes, scenes that can have no counterpart in the 
 after history of the country, and always bore him- 
 self as an upright, manly man. Privation and 
 misfortune only nerved him to stronger exertions 
 and danger but caused his blood to run swifter and 
 his nerves to steady themselves as he encountered 
 and overcame it — not his the spirit to become 
 dejected, nor the heart to quail. His virtues, 
 abilities and services to the country entitle him to the 
 place accorded him upon the pages of its history. 
 
J. R. FENX. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 301 
 
 JOHN RUTHERFORD FENN, 
 
 HOUSTON. 
 
 J. R. Fenn, one of the leading citizens of Hous- 
 ton, a Texas veteran and a patriot whose fidelity to 
 the principles of liberty has often been evinced 
 upon Texas soil during the past half century, is a 
 native of Mississippi, born in Lawrence Couuty, 
 that State, October 11th, 1824. He is of Scotch- 
 Irish descent, a strain so eloquently eulogized by S. 
 S. ( " Sunset " ) Cox, in his " Three Decades of 
 Federal Legislation," as having furnished to this 
 country some of its most successful generals, 
 purest statesmen, eminent lawyers and useful and 
 distinguished citizens. 
 
 His parents, Eli Fenn and Sarah Catherine 
 (Fitzgerald) Fenn came to Texas in 1833 with their 
 children, and in June of that j^ear opened a farm 
 on the Brazos river, three miles below the site of 
 the present town of Richmond. Mr. Eli Fenn 
 served in the Creek War, participating, among other 
 engagements, in the battle of the Horse Shoe, and 
 in the war of 1835-6 fought in the Texian army 
 as a member of Capt. Wiley Martin's Company. 
 He died at his home in Fort Bend County, Texas, 
 in 1840. His wife was a daughter of David Fitz- 
 gerald, a Georgia planter who came to Texas in 
 1822, settled in Fort Bend County, and shortly prior 
 to his death in 1832, took part in the battle of Ana- 
 huac, a brilliant affair that was a fit precursor of 
 the more decisive struggle against Mexican tj'ranny 
 that was to follow a few years later. She died in 
 1860, and sleeps beside the beloved husband with 
 whom she braved the terrors of the wilderness. 
 Two children were born of the union, John R. (the 
 subject of this memoir) and Jesse T. Fenn, the 
 latter of whom died in Fort Bend County in 1873. 
 Mr. J. R. Fenn was not quite twelve years of age 
 when the battle of San Jacinto was fought, but pre- 
 serves a vivid recollection of the stirring scenes of 
 those times. His mother and others who had pre- 
 pared to cross the river and retreat before the 
 advancing Mexican army mistook a body of troops 
 under Col. Almonte for a part of Gen. Houston's 
 army, narrowly escaped into the woods from the 
 house in which they were and came near being 
 captured. His father, a member of Martin's spy 
 company which was near, and seeing the approach 
 of a portion of Santa Anna's army, and knowing 
 the danger his wife and other ladies were in, swam 
 a swollen creek with his gun on his back and arrived 
 on the scene at the moment his wife and others 
 
 were fleeing across the field, raising his gun to his 
 shoulder shot a Mexican dead. This attracted the 
 attention of the pursuers to him and enabled his 
 family and others to make good their escape. J. 
 R. Fenn, subject of this memoir, and a negro boy 
 who had gone out in the morning to drive horses, 
 returned to the deserted house about eight o'clock 
 in the morning and rode into the Mexican lines and 
 were made prisoners. Late in the afternoon young 
 Fenn made a break for liberty and, although he was 
 shot at by a score or more of Mexicans and the 
 leaves cut from the trees by their musket balls fell 
 thick about him, he kept going and was soon safe in 
 the depths of the forest. He passed his home and 
 went ten or fifteen miles further where he found 
 several white families. An hour later the}' were 
 joined by Joe Kuykendall. The party traveled all 
 night, at daylight arrived at Harrisburg, and during 
 the day reached Lynchburg. Here young Fenn 
 found his mother and some of the other ladies who 
 had fled with her. They had walked for miles 
 through mud and water, a keen norther blowing, 
 some of them (men, women and children) without 
 shoes and half clad. The entire company continued 
 east, crossed the San Jacinto river and hurried 
 forward as rapidly as their exhausted condition 
 would permit. Coming to one of the ba3-ous that 
 empty into the bay, and having no rafts to effect a 
 crossing, they attempted and at last succeeded in 
 wading across on the bar at the mouth of the stream. 
 Although a big wave would come rolling in ever and 
 anon and knock them over they would scramble to 
 their feet and start again. 
 
 Despite such difBeulties the party finally reached 
 the Neches river in safety. Here Mr. Eli Fenn 
 joined the party. Gen. Gaines commanding United 
 Slates troops near San Augustine had given the 
 Indians a scare and thej' had all left that part of 
 the country, and Capt. Martin, whose duty it was 
 to keep between the Indians on the north and the 
 white families that were fleeing from the Mexican 
 invader, seeing no further need of his men in that 
 section, gave them permission to go in search of 
 their families. Mr. Fenn took his wife and son to 
 Louisiana and returned to the armj-, where he 
 served until October, 1836. He then procured a 
 discharge and went after his family, which he 
 brought back to the old homestead on the Brazos. 
 
 The subject of this notice acquired a fair com- 
 
302 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 mon school education in such schools as the country 
 afforded, to which varied experience and extensive 
 reading and observation have since largelj- added. 
 
 He marched to San Antonio in the spring of 
 1842, and again in the autumn of that year with 
 Gen. Somervell as sergeant in Capt. William Ryan's 
 company, to oppose Gen. Adrian Woll, who 
 attempted another Mexican invasion. Mr. Feun 
 served throughout the campaign. 
 
 In 1846, when war was declared between Mexico 
 and the United States he went with Gen. Albert 
 Sydney Johnston to the seat of war and served with 
 Capt. Jack Hays' company. 
 
 During the war between the States, he enlisted 
 under the flag of the Confederate States and did 
 good service as Second Lieutenant in Strobcl's 
 Company. 
 
 Mr. Fcnn was united in marriage to Miss 
 Rebecca Matilda Williams, of Fort Bend County, 
 Texas, April 13th, 1853, and has four children: 
 Francis Marion Oatis, who married Miss Lottie 
 Benson, of Charlottesville, Va. ; May, wife of Mr. 
 Jas. McKeever, Jr., of Houston; Ann Belle, and 
 Jos. Johnston Fenn, the latter of whom married 
 Miss Mollie Walker, of Houston. 
 
 Mrs. Fenn was born in Woodville, Miss., in 
 1835. Her parents were Mr. Daniel Williams and 
 Mrs. Ann Fitz Randolph (Ayers) Williams. She 
 is a great granddaughter of Gen. Nathaniel Ran- 
 dolph, a Lieutenant and Aide de Camp on the staff of 
 Gen. Lafayette during tlie war of the Revolution, 
 and also a great granddaughter of Ezekiel Ayers, 
 who also served with distinction in the Continental 
 army. Her grandfather, Isaac Williams, was one 
 of the pioneers of the Province of Mississippi, of 
 which he served for some time as Colonial Governor. 
 An uncle, Governor Henry Johnson, was Governor 
 of Louisiana and a member of the United States 
 Senate, retiring from that body in 1860 when 
 eighty years .of age. Her parents came to Texas 
 in 1845, and settled on Oyster creek, in Fort Bend 
 County, bringing with them four children: Joseph 
 Smith, who died in the Federal prison at Fort 
 Butler, in Illinois, during the war between the 
 States; Johnson Coddington, who also died in that 
 
 prison ; Edwin J., now living on O^'ster creek ; and 
 Annie Williams, who died in Houston, February 
 17th, 1893. Johnson Coddington Williams, who 
 was a member of Terry's Rangers when first 
 enlisted, but at the time of his death at Fort Butler 
 was a member of W. H. Wilke's Regiment, 
 Carter's Brigade. 
 
 Mrs. Fenn's first year in Texas was spent in the 
 old homestead of Moses Shipman, one of the 
 original "Austin 300." The logs and boards of 
 the house were all made by hand and joined to- 
 gether with wooden pins, there being no iron bolts 
 or nails in the country. Here she and the family 
 were obliged to drink water from creeks and ponds 
 and suffered all the inconveniences and hardships 
 incident to life in a new and entirely undeveloped 
 country. 
 
 Mrs. Fenn is a member of the Presbyterian 
 Church, president of San Jacinto Chapter, Daugh- 
 ters of the Republic of Texas, and since 1877 has 
 been a member of the Texas Veterans' Association. 
 She is a lady of rare culture and intellectual 
 attainments. 
 
 Mr. Fenn has been a member of the Texas 
 Veterans' Association since 1876. He is a member 
 of the Democratic party, with the highest sense of 
 every duty, and well merits the confidence and 
 esteem in which he is held by those who know him 
 best within the social and business world. He has 
 met with a reasonable measure of success in a 
 financial way, having $100,000 judiciously in- 
 vested. He has lived in Houston since 1872. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Fenn have a delightful home in that city. 
 Here they are quietly and happily passing their 
 declining years. They have witnessed villages, 
 towns and cities rise where the red Indian pitched 
 his wigwam ; there are now waving fields of golden 
 grain on sun-kissed prairies over which once 
 wandered the buffalo and coyote ; they have be- 
 held the coming of the railroad and the telegraph, 
 and not only the dawning but wondrous growth 
 and expansion of a refined and elegant civilization 
 for which they helped clear the way. They and 
 others like them are entitled to lasting gratitude 
 and remembrance. 
 
MRS. FENN AND DAUGHTERS. 
 
JAMES R. MASTKKSOX. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 303 
 
 JAMES ROANE MASTERSON, 
 
 HOUSTON. 
 
 James Roane Masterson, though reared in Texas, 
 is not a native of the State. He was born in 
 Lebanon, Wilson County, Tenn., April 15, 1838. 
 
 Hig paternal grandmother was a Miss Washington, 
 niece of President George Washington. His father, 
 a lawyer of Brazoria County, Texas, was a native 
 of Tennessee, but removed with his family to Texas 
 in 1839, and was elected County Clerk of Brazoria 
 County. His mother, Christiana J. Roaue, born 
 in Nashville, Tenn., .January 10, 1818, is the 
 daughter of James Roane, son of Governor Archi- 
 bald Roane, of Tennessee, in whose honor a county 
 of that State is named ; a grandniece of Governor 
 Spencer Roane, of Virginia, who was at one time 
 United States senator from that State, and of David 
 Roane, who was appointed by President Jefferson, 
 United States District Judge for the State of Ken- 
 tucky, and a cousin of Governor John Roane, of 
 Arkansas. The maternal grandmother of James 
 R. Masterson was a Miss Irby, of Virginia, a rela- 
 tive of President John Tyler. One of her sisters 
 is the mother of John Morgan, United States Senator 
 from Alabama. Two of her nieces married Thomas 
 Chilton of the Supreme Court of Alabama, one of 
 whom was mother of Mrs. Abercrombie, of Hunts- 
 ville. Another of her sisters, Mrs. Mary Hooker, 
 of New Orleans, formerly Mrs. Noble, was the 
 mother of John I. Noble, of New Orleans. 
 
 His paternal uncle, William Masterson, married 
 the eldest daughter of the celebrated Felix Grundy, 
 of Tennessee. His bi'others, William, Washington 
 (now dead), Archibald, and Branch T. Masterson, 
 were all in the Confederate army and were gallant 
 soldiers, William and Washington serving as 
 officers. Harris was a small boy when the war 
 began. 
 
 James R. Masterson's opportunities for obtaining 
 a thorough education were very limited. AVhen he 
 was a youth there were no good schools in Texas, 
 and what education he received is due to his 
 mother. His early predilections were for the law, 
 and he began the study of that science at the age 
 of seventeen. In 1856 he entered the law office of 
 Gen. John A. Wharton and Clinton Terry, at 
 Brazoria. He had for four years lieen an assistant 
 to his father in the County Clerk's office, and there 
 gained much information in regard to forms and 
 practice, knowledge that greatly facilitated his 
 advancement. He was admitted to the bar in 
 
 1858, having been declared of age for that purpose 
 by the Legislature of Texas. As soon as admitted 
 to the practice, he located in Houston and there 
 applied himself to his profession with great dili- 
 gence and assiduity. He was studious, careful and 
 attentive to business. The industry and caution 
 he displayed in the preparation of his cases gave 
 him a standing at the bar at once, and secured for 
 him a large and lucrative practice. By the unani- 
 mous request of the Houston bar, he was, in 1870, 
 appointed by Governor E. J. Davis, Judge of the 
 Nineteenth Judicial District of Texas, composed of 
 Harris and Montgomery counties. He entered 
 upon the duties of that office with the same energy 
 and industry that he had exhibited as a practi- 
 tioner. His predecessors in office, prior to the 
 war between the States, were men of acknowledged 
 abihty and were eminently qualified for the station ; 
 and from the time of his appointment, he exhibited 
 a laudable ambition to worthily emulate their vir- 
 tues. His executive ability in the disposition of 
 judicial business is rarely equaled, and in applying 
 the law to the facts of the case, few men are more 
 careful and accurate, and none more conscientious. 
 Judge Masterson served under the appointment 
 of the Governor until the adoption of the present 
 constitution, in 1876. By that instrument his office 
 was made elective by the people, and he was the 
 first judge of his district elected under it. He was 
 nominated by the Democrats and chosen Judge of 
 the Twenty-first (old Nineteenth) District, 
 
 His personal character and official course have 
 been so eminently satisfactory to the people that 
 no man in the district could have been elected in 
 his stead. He has but a very brief military record. 
 He enlisted in the army to go to Virginia with 
 Hood's scouts, but was transferred to Elmore's Reg- 
 iment, Twenty-first Texas, commanded by Lieut.- 
 Col. L. A. Abercrombie, and served one year, and 
 was honorablj' discharged. Politically, Judge 
 Masterson has always been a Democrat, and in the 
 days of secession was a follower of Sam Houston 
 and favored co-operation rather than secession. 
 He did not endorse the constitutionality or the 
 expediency of secession, but advocated the co-oper- 
 ation of Texas with the northern tier of Southern 
 States. He belongs to the State's Rights school of 
 politics, but does not believe that secession is a 
 constitutional remedy. 
 
304 
 
 INDIAN WAR^ AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Judge Masterson is a Knight Templar and Past 
 Master of Holland Lodge No. 1, Ancient Order of 
 Free and Accepted Masons (Houston), of which 
 Presidents Sam Houston and Anson Jones had been 
 masters. He has been Captain-General and Gene- 
 ralissimo of Ruthven Commandery No. 2, -chair- 
 man of the committee of Foreign Correspondence 
 of the Grand Commandery, and is a member of the 
 committee of Grievances and Appeals of the Grand 
 Lodge of Texas and of the Knights of Honor 
 and German Turn Verein. He was baptized and 
 reared in the Episcopal Church, of which Mrs. Mas- 
 terson was also a member. Judge Masterson was 
 married in Galveston, Texas, January 17, 1865, to 
 Miss Sallie Wood, a native of Galveston, daughter 
 of E. S. Wood, the noted hardware merchant of that 
 city. She graduated at Miss Cobb's Seminary in 
 her native city. Mrs. Masterson died in 1890. 
 Four children were born of this union, all at Galves- 
 ton : James Roane, Annie Wood, Lawrence Wash- 
 ington (died in 1891), and Mary Heard Master- 
 sou. 
 
 The life of the gentleman whose biography is 
 here briefly sketched demonstrates the value of 
 perseverance and determination to succeed in the 
 face of what seem to be insurmountable obstacles. 
 Deprived of school in early life, learning from 
 books only what a mother could teach amid a mul- 
 tiplicity of household cares incident to the rearing 
 of a large family, and starting without any capital, 
 but having ambition and energy, he has not only 
 earned a high position professionally, and an honor- 
 able name among men, but also a considerable for- 
 tune. He is now reckoned among the wealthy 
 men of Houston. In 1879 when the Court of Com- 
 missioners of Appeals was established, twenty-six 
 out of the thirty State Senators, the Lieutenant- 
 Governor and a large number of Representatives 
 sio-ned a recommendation, or request, to the Gov- 
 ernor to appoint him one of the judges of that court. 
 This paper was sent to Judge Masterson with the 
 
 expectation and desire that he would present it to 
 the Governor, who would hardly have hesitated to 
 comply with the wish of the petitioners and place 
 him on the bench. The recommendation was never 
 delivered to the Governor, however, as Judge Mas- 
 terson did not want the place, although, in point of 
 dignity, it is equivalent to a seat on the supreme 
 bench. As a further evidence of the high esteem 
 in which he is held by his fellow-countrymen of all 
 parties, it may be stated that at the Democratic 
 district convention held at Houston, July 30, 1880, 
 he was unanimously renominated for Judge of the 
 Twenty-first District, and the Independent conven- 
 tion indorsed him with equal unanimity, and he 
 was re-elected, beating his Republican opponent 
 over three thousand votes, out of a total of seven 
 thousand, and leading the Democratic State ticket 
 twentj'-five hundred votes. On the bench he knows 
 neither Democrat nor Republican. His undoubted 
 integrity of character, his knowledge of law, his 
 quick perceptions, his decided convictions, the 
 urbanity of his manners and the care with which he 
 studiously avoids wounding the feelings of others, 
 are traits that account for his great popularity. He 
 is a shrewd business man, commanding the respect 
 and receiving the confidence of the community in 
 his financial transactions. 
 
 His life will bear microscopic inspection, whether 
 as an officer or a citizen. He is a close observer of 
 men and things and a hard student in his profes- 
 sion, a man worthy of the trust reposed in him in 
 all his relations of citizens, Christian, lawyer and 
 judge. 
 
 He is a man of spare build, being only five feet 
 seven inches in height, and weighing onl}' one hun- 
 dred and forty-six pounds. His complexion is 
 fair, his eyes greyish-blue, and forehead high and 
 intellectual. He is quick spoken, and his manner 
 is frank and affable. 
 
 In January, 1893, Judge Masterson resumed the 
 general practice of his profession. 
 
 SAMUEL E. HOLLAND, 
 
 BURNET. 
 
 Samuel Eli Holland was born in Merriweather in 1841. In April, 1847, he went to Austin and 
 
 County, Ga., December 6lh, 1826, and came entered the United States army as a soldier in 
 
 to Texas in 1846, having been preceded by his Samuel Highsmilh's Company, Sixth Texas Cavalry 
 
 parents, John R. and Elizabeth Holland, who came (Jack Hay's Regiment), and with that command 
 
mDIAN WARS .kVZ) PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 305 
 
 joined the army of Gen. Taylor, then in Mexico. He 
 was engaged with Hays' Regiment in guerrilla war- 
 fare until discharged in May, 1848, when he 
 returned to Texas. 
 
 During September of that year he settled in Bur- 
 net County, then unorganized, where he purchased 
 land on Hamilton creek, three miles below the 
 present town of Burnet, twenty-five miles from his 
 nearest neighbor, and there commenced farming. 
 He invested eight or nine hundred dollars, the 
 amount he had saved out of his pay for services 
 in the army. Capt. Holland has been married 
 three times. He first married Mary Scott in 1852, 
 by whom one son, George, who now lives in Mason 
 County, was born to him. She died in March, 
 1855. December 6, 1855, he married Miss Clara 
 Thomas. Nine children were born of this union, 
 four sons and five daughters, viz. : David B., John 
 H., Sam W., Porter D., Mary R., who married 
 George Lester, of Llano County; Martha M., who 
 married Henry Hester ; Louisa, Catherine and 
 Elizabeth. Mrs. Holland died January 8, 1887. 
 September 22, 1887, Mr. Holland married Mrs. 
 Susan A. McCarty, by whom he has had three 
 children, Charles Hamilton, Thomas A., and Will- 
 iam A. 
 
 Capt. Holland has been a successful business 
 man. He was a member of the Texas Mining and 
 Improvement Company, which built the North- 
 western Railroad from Burnet to Marble Falls. He 
 is largely engaged in farming and stock-raising and 
 
 owns fine lands on Hamilton creek, in Burnet 
 County. He is a Royal Arch Mason and a leading 
 man in the Grange. He has always espoused the 
 cause of law and order, given a ready and active 
 support to the constituted authorities and been 
 looked to and relied upon in time of public danger. 
 Burnet was, for a long time after he settled there, 
 a border county and subjected to Indian raids. He 
 responded to every call of his neighbors to repel 
 the Indians and protect the settlers and their prop- 
 erty and was engaged in numerous Indian fights. 
 At one time there was a band of counterfeiters on 
 the Colorado river. Some of them were arrested 
 and brought to trial, but none but negro evidence 
 could be obtained, and they were acquitted. But 
 they were notified by Capt. Holland and others to 
 leave the county, which they promptly did. 
 
 After the war a number of parties commenced 
 rounding up the yearlings, branding them, and 
 driving off the beef cattle. A number of these 
 men were indicted, but Judge Turner refused to 
 hold court unless he was protected. Capt. Holland, 
 at the request of a number of respectable citizens, 
 organized a small police force and Judge Turner, 
 knowing of what kind of stuff the men were made, 
 said to him: "Holland, I look to you to protect 
 this court, else I can't hold it;" and be did protect 
 the court, notwithstanding the threats and show of 
 armed resistance that were made. 
 
 Capt. Holland, although past middle age, is yet 
 vigorous and active. 
 
 PHILIP SANGER, 
 
 DALLAS. 
 
 We have selected for the subject of this 
 memoir the head of the Dallas branch of 
 a great mercantile establishment that, start- 
 ing from a very small beginning a number of 
 years since, has grown to be the pride of the 
 State of Texas. We refer to Mr. Philip Sanger 
 and to Sanger Bros., who own mammoth emporiums 
 at Waco and Dallas. This house is considered 
 the largest wholesale and retail establishment in the 
 Southern States. Its working capital is several 
 million dollars. It has three hundred and fifty 
 employees at Dallas, and one hundred and fiftj' at 
 Waco. It is conspicuous, not alone for its wealth 
 and the magnitude of its yearly transactions, but 
 
 for the high personal character and the important 
 services, both in time of peace and war, rendered 
 to the country by the gentlemen who compose the 
 firm. Men who follow any occupation or pursue 
 any profession are apt to consider theirs as superior 
 to all others. The soldier prides himself upon 
 being a member of the profession of arms. He 
 looks about him and says: " That man is actuated 
 by the greed of gain ; that man humbles himself to 
 secure votes to put himself into some petty civil 
 office ; that man is spending his days in represent- 
 ing in court clients who have defrauded their neigh- 
 bors or committed crimes for which they ought to be 
 placed in the penitentiary or hanged, while we 
 
306 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 soldiers are relieved from all necessity for taking 
 stock in the sordid affairs of life and, like gentle- 
 men, stand ready, with clean hands and brave 
 hearts and willing swords, to respond to the call of 
 danger and defend our country if need be with our 
 lives. Our profession elevates and ennobles and this 
 can scarcely be said of any other." 
 
 The phj'sician says : " Tiie soldier is only needed 
 in time of war, and is an expense instead of an 
 advantage in time of peace, and his presence is 
 justified solely by the fact that it is necessary for 
 the rest of the community to support liim in order 
 to avoid the danger of foreign aggression. The 
 profession of medicine is the greatest of all profes- 
 sions. Men may get along without any thing else, 
 but they are obliged to have doctors." So with 
 the lawyer, so with the merchant and so with 
 the members of nearly every other avocation ; 
 but, the truth of the matter is, that each 
 and all are needed to develop and sus- 
 tain our complex and many-sided civilization. 
 It is difficult to institute comparisons and deter- 
 mine the relative value of any calling or pur- 
 suit. There is nothing more certain, however, 
 than that the commercial importance of a country 
 depends upon the ability and enterprise displayed 
 by its merchants and that no nation can amount to 
 much or take high rank without possessing such 
 merchants. Ancient Tyre and Sidon owed their 
 opulence and power to them and not to their fleets 
 and armies. The same may be said of Carthage, 
 of Venice, and of modern England, and, in a large 
 measure, of our own country. It requires more 
 capacity and more labor to successfully man.age a 
 large establishment like that of Sanger Bros., at 
 Dallas, than to be Governor of Texas. The com- 
 mercial world is a free Republic in which no man 
 can expect special favors and in which every man 
 must rise or fall according to his merits. He who 
 enters it is compelled to meet the most skillful 
 opponents, and contend against men of wonderful 
 nerve, energy and brain. He must be constantly 
 upon the ijuivive. He must possess not only exec- 
 utive ability of a high order, but capacity for the 
 minutest details and the hardest work. The subject 
 of liiis notice stands pre-eminent in Texas as a 
 financier and merchant. He was born in Bavaria, 
 Germany, September 11, 1841. His parents were 
 Elias and Babetta Sanger, who came to America 
 and settled in Cincinnati, Ohio, from which place 
 they moved to New York City, where tiiey spent 
 their remaining years. His father died in 1877, 
 his mother in 1886. Both are buried in New York. 
 They had ten children, seven sons and tliree 
 daughters, of whom Isaac, senior partner of the 
 
 firm of Sanger Bros., resides in New York; Leh- 
 man resides in Waco, engaged in the real estate 
 business ; Philip and Alexander are heads of the 
 Dallas branch of Sanger Bros, business ; Samuel is 
 a member of the firm of Sanger Bros, and lives at 
 Waco ; Sophia, resides at Waco, her husband, 
 L. Emanuel, in the employ of Sanger Bros. ; 
 Eda, wife of Jacob Newburger, resides in New 
 York (Mr. Newburger is one of the Eastern buy- 
 ers for the firm of Sanger Bros.) ; Bertha, widow 
 of Joseph Lehman, resides in New York ; and Jacob 
 and David died of yellow fever at Bryan, Texas, 
 in 1867, aged, respectively, twenty and seventeen 
 years. After his arrival from Germany Mr. Philip 
 Sanger remained in New York City for eighteen 
 months, during which time he clerked for board and 
 washing and $2.50 per month. He left New York 
 in 1858 and went to Savannah, Ga., where he 
 obtained employment in a clothing store where he 
 received $10.00 per month for his services. At the 
 end of a year he was sent to the interior, where 
 he clerked for his employer and made collections 
 until the beginning of the war between the 
 States, Mr. Heller having gone North and left him 
 to settle up that part of the business. Mr. San- 
 ger's sympathies were with the Southern States 
 and he responded to the call to arms bj' entering 
 the Confederate army as a soldier in Company 
 G., Thirty-second Georgia, commanded by Col. 
 George P. Harrison, Jr. A few years since the 
 writer met a friend of Mr. Sanger's at Weather- 
 ford, Texas, who said: "I served in the army 
 with Philip Sanger and I never knew a braver or 
 better soldier." Besides other engagements, Mr. 
 Sanger participated in that incident to the bom- 
 bardment of Morris' Island, S. C, and the 
 battles of Ocean Pond, Fla., and Bentonville, 
 N. C, his term of service extended over three 
 years and eight months. He was slightly wounded 
 at Ocean Pond. Coming out of the war utterly 
 penniless and the South being prostrated by the re- 
 sults of the conflict, he went to Cincinnati, where he 
 clerked in a notion store for eight months. He 
 then joined his brothers, Isaac and Lehman, who 
 had established themselves in business at Millican, 
 Texas, where they remained until 1867, then 
 moved to Bryan, then the terminus of the Texas 
 Central Railway. In 186'J the firm followed the 
 terminus to Calvert and did business there a year, 
 after which they moved to Kosse ; stayed there six 
 months ; moved to Grosbeck in tlie spring of 1871 ; 
 in the fall of that year changed their base of 
 operations to Corsicana, and in 1872 established 
 themselves in Dallas, doing the leading business in 
 all of the towns mentioned and at Dallas la^'ing broad 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 307 
 
 and deep the foundation for the immense business 
 which they liave since built up. Mr. Sanger was 
 married August 26, 1860, to Miss Cornelia Mandel- 
 baum, of New Haven, Connecticut. They have 
 three children, one son and two daughters, all of 
 whom are now living. Mr. Sanger has lost five 
 children. He is a member of the I. O. B. B. 
 He is modest and unpretentious in manner and 
 an indefatigable worker. At the same time he 
 is genial in manner, a most polished and elegant 
 gentleman, and knows how to entertain royallj' 
 at his palatial home. He has assisted with his 
 personal influence in securing for Dallas many 
 of the leading enterprises that now add to the 
 
 prosperity of the place and has given largely in 
 the way of donations to railroads. He has been an 
 active promoter of every worthy public and private 
 movement for which his aid has been solicited. 
 His charities have been many and unostentatious. 
 He is recognized far and wide as a man of com- 
 manding talents in the field which he has selected 
 for his life work. He has done as much, perhaps, 
 of a practical nature, as any other man in the 
 State to build up the material prosperity of Texas 
 and deserves a place in this work beside those men 
 who have proved themselves to be potent factors 
 in our civilization. 
 
 SAMUEL SANGER, 
 
 WACO. 
 
 Samuel Sanger, a leading merchant of Waco and 
 one of the best known and most thoroughly repre- 
 sentative business men and financiers in Texas, was 
 born in Bavaria, South Germany, September 11th, 
 1843, and educated in Wurzburg, Bavaria, and 
 Berlin, Prussia, where he studied for and was ad- 
 mitted to the Jewish ministry. He came to the 
 United States in 1866 and from 1867 to March, 
 1873, was the rabbi in charge of the synagogue at 
 Philadelphia, Pa. In 1873, he came to Waco, 
 Texas, and there engaged in business as a member 
 of the famous mercantile house of Sanger Bros, of 
 Dallas, who, in that year, established a branch 
 house at Waco. Since that time he has had entire 
 charge of the Waco store and has built up an im- 
 mense trade for it. 
 
 He was united in marriage at Cincinnati, Ohio, 
 in 1867, to Miss Hannah Heller, daughter of K. L. 
 Heller, of that city. Thej' have four sons and one 
 
 daughter, viz., Charles L., a cotton broker at 
 Waco; Ike S., connected with the New York office 
 of Sanger Bros. ; A. S., employed in the wholesale 
 notion department of the firm's establishment at 
 Waco ; Alex, now attending school in New York ; 
 and Miss Carrie Sanger, who is living at home with 
 her parents. Sanger Bros, is the largest dry goods 
 house south of St. Louis and operates on a capital 
 of millions of dollars. Mr. Sam. Sanger is a mem- 
 ber of the Knights of Honor, is a member of K. S. 
 B. and is also a member and Past-President of I. 
 O. B. B. A business man of pre-eminent energy, 
 enterprise and ability, he is a ripe scholar and 
 polished gentleman as well, and is universally 
 esteemed in commercial and social circles. He 
 is a man thoroughly representative of the best 
 thought and purpose of the sphere of action in 
 which he has for so many years been a notable and 
 commanding figure. 
 
308 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 WILLIAM KINCHIN DAVIS, 
 
 RICHMOND. 
 
 It is difficult for men and women of this later 
 generation, familiar with life upon peaceful farms 
 and in towns and cities, to form a mental picture 
 of the ph3'sical aspect of Texas sixty years ago, or 
 to conceive of the hardships, privations and dangers, 
 incident to colonial life at that remote period. 
 Here and there, only, the smoke from a settler's 
 cabin chimney curled upward on lonely [irairie or 
 in primeval river bottom and forest. 
 
 Weak and timid souls kept aloof from such a 
 land. Brave, adventurous, hardy spirits poured 
 
 after tlie disbanding of Somervell's army on the 
 Rio Grande, marched into Mexico with other 
 Texian troops and in December, 1842, participated 
 in the remarkable and brilliant battle of Mier, in 
 which he was severely wounded and which resulted 
 in the surrender of the Texians under stipulations 
 that were afterwards violated with customary Mexi- 
 can perfid^^ The men were marched afoot, guarded 
 by Mexican cavalry, toward the city of Mexico. 
 He was one of those who made their escape at the 
 hacienda of Salado and were recaptured, after suf- 
 
 WM. K. DAVIS. 
 
 into its confines — a race to which a San Jacinto 
 was possible and that laid the foundation for the 
 Institutions we enjoy. We have selected one of 
 these men, the late William Kinchen Davis, for the 
 subject of this memoir. 
 
 He was born in the State of Alabama on the 11th 
 day of November, 1822 ; came to Texas during the 
 month of February, 1830 ; when fourteen years of 
 age (in 1836), helped build a fort at the mouth of 
 the Brazos river and in 1839 served in a campaign 
 against the Indians around the head of the Brazos. 
 
 Capt. Davis took part in the Somervell expedi- 
 tion in 1842, as a member of Boski's command and 
 
 fering untold horrors from thirst, hunger and 
 exposure while wandering about lost in the moun- 
 tains. After their recapture, Santa Anna sent an 
 order for every tenth man to be shot, the victims to 
 be selected by lot. As many beans as there were 
 prisoners were placed in ajar — black beans to a 
 number corresponding to the number of men that 
 were to be killed and white beans for the rest. 
 The jar was well shaken and the gaunt, and miser- 
 able, yet still dauntless veterans were ordered to 
 advance one by one and take a bean from the jar. 
 As soon as this grim lottery of death was at an 
 end, the unlucky holders of black beans were foully 
 
MRS. WM. K. DAVIS. 
 
WM. RYON. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 309 
 
 murdered in cold blood and the line of march 
 resumed. Capt. Davis drew a white bean and in 
 due time staggered into the city of Mexico with his 
 surviving companions, where they were put to hard 
 labor. They were afterwards imprisoned at Perote, 
 where they received similar treatment. Septem- 
 ber 16th, 1844, they were released by Santa Anna 
 and each man given one dollar with which to make 
 the journey of fifteen hundred miles back to the 
 settlements in Texas. 
 
 Capt. Davis returned to Eichmond, Fort Bend 
 County, where he ever after made his home. He 
 was married to Miss Jane Pickens in 1845. She 
 was a daughter of John H. and Eleanor (Cooper) 
 Pickens and came to Texas with her parents at 
 three years of age. 
 
 Her father had made all preparations for her to 
 marry another gentleman, but she eloped with Capt. 
 Davis. They left her home on horseback and pro- 
 ceeded to a neighbor's house, where they were 
 married. They had five children: Fannie (died 
 when three years of age), J. H. P. (living in Rich- 
 mond), Eleanora (wife of B. A. Hinson, in busi- 
 ness at Richmond), William Kinchen, Jr. (killed 
 
 by cars at Richmond, August 14, 1888), and 
 Archietto (widow of W. L. Jones, of Richmond). 
 Mrs. Hinson has two cliildren, Mrs. Jones seven 
 children, and William Kinchen Davis left surviving 
 him a widow and four boys, who now reside in 
 Houston. 
 
 Mrs. Davis died in 1860, and is buried on the 
 old homestead in Fort Bend County. Capt. Davis 
 commanded a companj' for about six months during 
 the war between the States but was not in action. 
 He married again, March 5th, 1865, his second 
 wife being Mrs. Jane Green, of Richmond. They 
 had no children. She died in March, 1895, and is 
 buried in the cemetery at Eichmond. Capt. Davis 
 died August Sd, 1891, and is interred beside her. 
 He was for many years prior to his death a member 
 of the M. E. Church South and I. O. O. F. fra- 
 ternity. While his educational advantages in 
 early life (reared as he was in a pioneer settlement) 
 were meager, yet he became a very successful busi- 
 ness man and one of the leading men of his county. 
 
 As peaceful and law-abiding in civil life as he 
 was gallant in time of public danger and war, he 
 came up to the full stature of good citizenship. 
 
 WILLIAM RYON, 
 
 RICHIVIOND. 
 
 The late Wm. Ryon, of Richmond, Fort Bend 
 County, one of the most gallant of the heroes known 
 to Texas history, was born in Winchester, Ky., 
 resided for several years in Alabama ; came to 
 Texas in 1837, landing at the mouth of the Brazos, 
 where he clerked, kept hotel and followed various 
 occupations for a time ; in 1839 was a member of 
 the surveying party that laid off the town of Austin, 
 the newly selected site for the seat of government 
 of the Republic, and later went to Fort Bend County, 
 where he organized a company in 1842 and joined the 
 army of Gen. Somervell for the invasion of Mexico. 
 He was one of the three hundred men who did not 
 return home after the formal disbanding of Somer- 
 vell's army. They completed a regimental organ- 
 ization December lOth, 1842, composed of com- 
 panies commanded by Captains Ewin Cameron, 
 Wm. Ryon, Wm. M. Eastland, J. G. W. Pierson, 
 Claudius Buster, John R. Baker and C. K. Reese, 
 and selecting Wm. S. Fisher for Colonel and Thomas 
 A. Murray for Adjutant, marched across into 
 
 Mexico, where they captured the town of Mier, for 
 more than eighteen hours held at bay over two thou- 
 sand Mexican soldiers under Ampudia (killing over 
 seven hundred of the enemy), and finally surren- 
 dered under promises that they would be treated as 
 prisoners of war and kept on the frontier until 
 exchanged. The pledges of Ampudia, reduced to 
 writing after the surrender, were redeemed by tying 
 the men in pairs and marching them on foot to 
 Matamoros where they arrived on the 9th day of 
 January, 1843, and were marched in triumph 
 through the streets, with bells ringing, music play- 
 ing and banners flying. Some of the citizens, how- 
 ever, moved to pity, afterwards contributed clothing 
 and money to supply' their most pressing needs. The 
 main body of the prisoners left Matamoros on the 
 14th, marched eighteen or twenty miles a day, 
 were corralled at night like cattle and reached 
 Monterey on the 28th of January. Here they 
 were made more comfortable and rested until the 
 2(1 of February. Arriving at Saltillo they were 
 
310 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 joined by five of the prisoners taken from San 
 Antonio by Gen. Woll in tlie previous September. 
 They left for San Luis Potosi under command of 
 Col. Barragan and reached the hacienda of Salado, 
 on the way, February 10, 1813. At a precon- 
 certed signal on the morning of the 1 1th the prison- 
 ers, led by Capts. Ewiu Cameron and William 
 Ryon, rushed upon their guard, then eating break- 
 fast, disarmed them and made their way into the 
 court-yard, where they overcame one hundred and 
 fifty infantry. Here they armed themselves and 
 made a dash for the gate, overcame the guard 
 stationed there and scattered the cavalry' on the 
 outside, capturing their horses. They had four 
 
 any of the stragglers found water. They hurried 
 wilh mad joy to the spot, to find themselves in the 
 midst of a body of Mexican cavalry, under com- 
 mand of Gen. Mexia. Nearly all, through exhaus- 
 tion, had thrown away their arms, and none were 
 in condition to offer resistance. They accordingly 
 surrendered. During the day other stragglers 
 came to the camp or were found and brought in by 
 the soldiers. On the 19th, Capt. Cameron came in 
 with quite a number and surrendered. The men were 
 marched back to the hacienda of Salado, where 
 they learned that Santa Anna had ordered all of 
 thorn to be shot, but, yielding to remonstrances from 
 Gen. Mexia and some of his officers, had commuted 
 
 MRS. WM. RYON. 
 
 men killed, three of whom were to have been their 
 guides through the mountains on their homeward 
 march. They secured one hundred and seventy 
 stand of arms and one hundred horses. At 10 
 o'clock a. m. they left. They traveled sixty-four 
 miles the first twenty-four hours on the Saltillo road. 
 They next abandoned the road and sought escape 
 through the mountains. On the night of the 13lh, 
 in the darkness they became separated ; and, dur- 
 ing the five succeeding days, suffering from hunger, 
 thirst and the cold air from the mountains, tbey 
 wandered about searching for water. Several be- 
 came demented and a number became separated 
 from their companions and were never heard of 
 more. About noon on the 18th, those in the main 
 body discovered a smoke, the signal to be given if 
 
 the order and ordered that one in ten be put to 
 death. Gen. Mexia, who upon capturing the pris- 
 oners haditeated them with great humanity, now 
 tendered his resignation, refusing to officiate at so 
 "cruel and unmartial " a ceremony. Seventeen 
 Texians, selected from among their companions by 
 drawing black beans, were marched out and shot, 
 Col. Juan de Dios Ortiz executing the order. The 
 prisoners, tied in pairs, were then marched to the 
 city of Mexico, which they reached on the 2oth of 
 April. They remained in the city until March 12th, 
 1844, when they were taken to Perote, where was 
 situated the strongly built and fortified castle of 
 San Carlos. In September following, the prisoners 
 were released bj^ Santa Anna and permitted to return 
 home. Capt. Ryon received three severe wounds 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 311 
 
 in the battle of Mier and suffered more than his full 
 share of the miseries that afflicted the Texian sol- 
 diers after their surrender, seeking to ameliorate 
 the condition of his companions as far as lay in his 
 power. Returning to Fort Bend County he, in 
 April, 1845, married Miss Mary M. Jones, of Rich- 
 mond, and engaged in farming, stock raising and 
 merchandising, which he followed for about four 
 years. The family lived in Houston for about three 
 years, but returned to Richmond. Capt. Ryon was 
 a member of the Episcopal Church and Masonic 
 fraternity. He died October 31, 1875, at the home 
 of Capt. W. K. Davis at Richmond, universally 
 
 admired and respected. Mrs. Ryon's parents were 
 Henry and Nancy .Jones of Richmond, Texas. She 
 was born at that place December 28, 1820, and 
 reared in Fort Bend County. She bore Capt. Ryon 
 nine children, only three of whom lived to be grown, 
 viz. : James E., who married Miss Josie Dagnal, of 
 Richmond, and died in 1895 at fort^'-four years of 
 age; Susan E., who married J. H. P. Davis, of 
 Richmond, and died Oct. 30, 1884, leaving two 
 children, Mildred, who married, first, James Wheat, 
 of Richmond, who was killed at his home, and next, 
 F. I. Booth, and now lives at Richmond with her 
 husband. 
 
 HENRY JONES, 
 
 RICHMOND. 
 
 This widely-known Texian, a pioneer, and mem- 
 ber of Stephen F. Austin's first colony (known to 
 Texas as " the original 300") was born in Rich- 
 mond, Va., March 15th, 1789. His parents were 
 natives of Virginia. Mr. Jones married Miss 
 Nancy Stiles in Missouri, January, 1821, and came 
 to Texas the following year, traveling overland 
 from Missouri to Red river, and from Red river to 
 Washington County, where he joined Austin's 
 colony at San Felipe. He lived one year at Inde- 
 pendence, where his first child, Wm. S., was born, 
 the first male child born in the colony. Wm. S. 
 Jones grew to manhood, married, reared a family 
 of children, several of whom are now living, and 
 was a 'successful farmer and stock raiser in Fort 
 Bend County to the time of his death, which 
 occurred in 1875. His wife died in 1878. 
 
 Eleven other children were born to Mr. and Mrs. 
 Henry Jones, viz. : James, who died at Richmond, 
 Texas, in 1857; Mary M. (widow of Wm. M. 
 Ryon), who resides at Richmond ; John H, who died 
 at twenty-two years of age; Hettie E., who died 
 
 in 1870; Virginia C, who died about the year of 
 1859; Elizabeth R., who died in 1890; Susan A., 
 who married R. W. Nealy, of Franklin, Ky., where 
 she now resides ; Wylie P. , who now resides at 
 Richmond and is the justice of the peace for that 
 precinct ; Emily, who died in childhood ; Laura H., 
 wife of Lafayette Hubbard, of Montgomery, Ala., 
 and Thomas W., who died at Richmond, August 
 28, 1895, aged forty-Bve years. Mr. Jones settled 
 in Fort Bend County, in 1823 ; brought the first 
 cattle into that section, cut the first road from East 
 to West Columbia and erected the second gin and 
 horse mill in Fort Bend County. 
 
 Mr. Jones was with the Texian army during the 
 revolutionary campaign until near its close, when 
 he and others were detailed to look after the fam- 
 ilies that were fleeing before the advancing Mexi- 
 cans and so missed the battle of San Jacinto, much 
 to his regret. 
 
 Mrs. Jones died August 5th, 1851, and Mr. Jones 
 June 8th, 1861, at his farm, eight miles from Rich- 
 mond, where they were buried side by side. 
 
312 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 JOHN H. P. DAVIS, 
 
 RICHMOND. 
 
 J. H. P. Davis, head of the banking firm of J. H. 
 P. Davis & Co., of Richmond, Texas, and one of 
 the wealthiest and most influential stock raisers 
 and planters of Southeastern Texas, was born 
 Febniar}' 11th, 1851, in Fort Bend County, where 
 he grew to manhood and has since resided. His 
 parents were Capt. Wm. K. and Mrs. Jane (Pick- 
 ens) Davis. Mr. Davis married Miss Susan E. 
 Ryon, daughter of Capt. Wm. Ryon, February 10, 
 1875. She died Oct. 30, 1884, leaving two chil- 
 dren, Mamie E. and Thomas W. She is buried in 
 the family cemetery upon the old homestead eight 
 
 miles from Richmond. Mr. Davis married his 
 present wife, jieeMiss Belle Ryon, of Franklin, Ky., 
 November 27th, 1888. Her parents were James 
 and Elizabeth (Miller) Ryon ; her father was a 
 prominent farmer of his section of the "Blue 
 Grass" State.- Mr. Davis' ranch, in Fort Bend 
 County, is one of the most valuable in the State, 
 comprising about 50,000 acres, 1,000 of which are 
 under cultivation. He has aided every worthy 
 public enterprise and is a man thoroughly in 
 touch with the best thought and purpose of the 
 people. 
 
 JULIUS RUNGE, 
 
 GALVESTON. 
 
 The subject of this memoir was born at New 
 Braunfels, Comal County, Texas, February 1, 1851. 
 His father, George Ruuge, and mother, whose 
 maiden name was Dorothea Spieckle, were natives 
 of Germany. They came to Texas in 1850 and 
 settled at New Braunfels. At that time — from 
 1845 to 1855 — there was a large German immi- 
 gi'ation into Southwest Texas. 
 
 Julius was sent to school at Cassel, Germany, but 
 did not attend the university located at that place. 
 Completing his studies at Cassel he attended a 
 commercial school in Saxony until 1867, when he 
 came to Galveston, where he has ever since resided 
 and has, since 1874, been a member of the well- 
 known firm of Kaufman & Runge. He was ap- 
 pointed consul at Galveston for the German Empire 
 in 1875, and has since held that position at that 
 post. 
 
 Mr. Runge served three years as a member of 
 the Board of Aldermen of the city of Galveston, 
 between the years of 1877 and 1880 (one term of 
 one year and one of two years) and, while acting 
 in the capacity of Chairman of the Finance Commit- 
 tee (in view of the fiscal condition of the city then 
 the most impoitant position under the city govern- 
 ment, for it was a time when a majority of Southern 
 cities were contemplating the repudiation of their 
 
 obligations) was chiefly instrumental in bringing 
 the municipality into a sound financial condition, 
 by reducing the rate of interest on her bonded 
 indebtedness from ten and twelve to eight and five 
 per cent, the latter being the rate now paid, with 
 bonds nearly at par. To complete the good work 
 thus initiated Mr. Runge afterward accepted the 
 office of City Treasurer, which he filled from 1883 
 to 1891 and now holds. His investments in inter- 
 ests outside the firm of Kaufman & Runge are 
 varied and widespread. Thus he is president of 
 the First National Bank, an office that he has held 
 since 1879, and of the Texas Land & Loan Co. ; 
 vice-president of the Southern Cotton Press & 
 Manufacturing Co. ; a director in the Texas Cotton 
 Press Co. ; a director in the Galveston City Railway 
 Co., which built the Beach Hotel; acting president 
 of the Galveston Cotton Exchange during the past 
 five years ; a director in the Island City Savings 
 Bank, which he helped to reinstate upon a strong 
 financial basis in 1885 ; one of the organizers of 
 and now one of the directors in the Galveston Cot- 
 ton & Woolen Mills Co. ; a director of the Galves- 
 ton & Western Railway, and a director in the Texas 
 Guarantee and Trust Co. He was one of the 
 stockholders and directors of the Santa Fe when 
 that road was reorganized in 1878 or 1879 ; was 
 
IXDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 313 
 
 one of the charter members of the Garten Verein 
 in 1876, and haa been a member of the Galveston 
 Deep Water Committee ever since its organization, 
 and in 1882 and 1884 went to Washington City and 
 labored zealously and effectively in the interests of 
 securing deep water at Galveston. 
 
 He has been connected with almost every large 
 corporation chartered or enterprise inaugurated in 
 Galveston during the past twenty years, and thus 
 he is by property as well as social ties identified 
 ■with the best interests of the city, for whose wel- 
 fare he has worked so unceasingly. 
 
 On starting out upon his business career Mr. 
 Runge inherited some money from his father and 
 was materially aided by his uncle, Mr. Henry 
 Runge, of Indianola and Galveston, who advanced 
 
 him the necessary capital to secure his admission 
 to the present firm of Kaufman & Runge. He 
 early displayed remarkable business talents and has 
 since made a brilliant record as a merchant, finan- 
 cier and public official. 
 
 In 1876 he was united in marriage to his cousin. 
 Miss Johanna Runge, daughter of Mr. Henry 
 Runge, who was a member of the firm before the 
 subject of this memoir was admitted to the partner- 
 ship. Mr. Julius Runge has seven children — three 
 girls and four hoys. He is a member of the Ger- 
 man Lutheran Church and baptized and confirmed 
 in that faith, but is a member of no secret order. 
 In the prime of a vigorous, physical and mental 
 manhood, he is a notable figure in the commercial 
 world of Texas. 
 
 ELDRED J. SIMKINS, 
 
 CORSICANA. 
 
 Hon. E. J. Simkins, a distinguished ex-judge of 
 the Court of Appeals of the State of Texas, and for 
 two sessions a member of the State Senate, was 
 born and reared in Edgefield District, South Caro- 
 lina; acquired his preliminary literary education at 
 Beaufort, in that State, and completed it at South 
 Carolina College, graduating with the class of 1859. 
 The Twent3^-first and Twenty-second Sessions of the 
 Texas State Senate presented a brilliant galaxy of 
 talent in which his star shone as one of the first 
 magnitude. He took an active and prominent part 
 in the legislation enacted by those bodies and few 
 of his colleagues were more magnetic or able in 
 debate. He left his impress upon some of the most 
 salutary laws that were placed upon the statute 
 books. 
 
 Under an act of Congress, passed in 1862, all the 
 property of his family at Beaufort and in the ad- 
 joining islands was confiscated on account of their 
 loyalty to the State, made sacred to them by the 
 nativity and graves of the family for generations. 
 
 He volunteered in the Confederate service in 1861, 
 and served in the Hampton Legion until 1862, when 
 he was appointed to the first regular artillery 
 regiment and served during the war at Fort Sump- 
 ter and the posts around Charleston, S. C. 
 In 1867 he moved to Florida and commenced 
 the practice of law at Monticello witli his brother, 
 under the firm name of Simkins & Simkins. In 
 
 1868 he was elected Chairman of the Democratic 
 Executive Committee of Jefferson Couuty and re- 
 tained that position until he came to Texas in 1871, 
 and settled at Corsicana. He was editor of the 
 Monticello Advertiser, a Democratic paper, in 1869 
 and 1870, and, on his removal to Texas, edited 
 the Navarro Banner, until his election as District 
 Attorney. Being joined, in Texas, by his brother, 
 he engaged in the practice of his profession under 
 the firm name of Simkins & Simkins ; at once took 
 high rank at the bar, and in 1872 was elected Dis- 
 trict Attorney of the Thirty-fifth Judicial District. 
 He was also elected to the Chairmanship of the 
 Democratic Executive Committee of Navarro 
 County, which he held until 1877. He was a com- 
 petitor for the Democratic nomination for Attorney- 
 General against Hon. John D. Templeton, in 1879. 
 In 1882, he was appointed one of the regents of 
 the University of Texas and was twice re-appointed 
 and confirmed. In 1884, he was a member of the 
 National Democratic Convention, representing in 
 that body the Ninth Congressional District of 
 Texas. In 1886 he was elected, by a majority of 
 2,800 votes, to the Twentieth and Twenty-first 
 Legislatures, from the Fifteenth Senatorial District, 
 composed of the counties of Navarro, Limestone 
 and Freestone. 
 
 Coming to the Senate at a time when popular 
 prejudice was most rife against the University of 
 
314 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Texas, he was its recognized champion. By con- 
 stant effort and labor, and by conciliatory methods, 
 he disarmed hostilitj', changed prejudice into friend- 
 liness, and finally succeeded iu winning, eveu from 
 its enemies, a recognition of the right of the Uni- 
 versity to public support. 
 
 In 1890 he was re-elected, by a large majority, to 
 the State Senate from his district, after one of the 
 most prolonged and bitter contests ever recorded in 
 the political annals of Texas. The Senatorial Con- 
 vention (almost equally divided) cast mbre than 
 1800 ballots without making a nomiuatiou and 
 finally adjourned sine die, each side placing its 
 candidate before the people. He did yeoman ser- 
 vice on the stump for the triumph of the Democ- 
 racy in the exciting contest that followed before 
 the people, and the signal victory that was achieved 
 at the polls in November was mainly due to his 
 effort and the efforts of the friends who espoused 
 his cause. 
 
 In the Twenty-second Legislature he was Chair- 
 man of the Senate Committee on Constitutional 
 Amendments, and was the author of the constitu- 
 tional amendment to the judiciary article which 
 was adopted iu August, 1891, which totallj' changed 
 the appellate system of the State, separating the 
 criminal from the civil jurisdiction and preparing the 
 way for its separation in the district and county. 
 
 On the assembling of the Legislature in extra 
 session in February, 1892, he was made ciiairman 
 of the committee to frame the laws putting the new 
 system into operation, and the entire work of pre- 
 paring the necessary bills was relegated to him, 
 
 and, after three weeks hard labor, his work was 
 presented and accepted by the committee and the 
 Legislature almost without a change, and is the 
 law to-day. 
 
 Immediately upon the adjournment of the Leg- 
 islature Judge White, the presiding judge of the 
 Court of Appeals, having resigned, Senator Sim- 
 kins was appointed in his place and went on the 
 bench at Austin, in May, 1892. In November, 
 1892, he was elected to fill the vacancy, and re- 
 mained on the bench until January 1, 1895, when 
 he was succeeded by the Hon. J, N. Henderson. 
 From his first opinion to the close of his term his 
 great effort was to strike down "judge-made" 
 technicalities and bring the administration of 
 criminal law to the test of reason and common 
 sense. This aroused a powerful opposition among 
 the criminal lawyers and led to his defeat in 1894 
 before the State convention. 
 
 On leaving the bench he returned to his home in 
 Corsicana. 
 
 He married Miss Eliza Trescot, of Beaufort, 
 S. C, and has a family of five living children. 
 He is a member of the Episcopal Church and 
 the Masonic Grand Lodge. The law firm of 
 Simkins & Simkins having been dissolved in 1885, 
 by the removal of his brother to Dallas, he formed 
 a copartnership with Hon. R. S. Neblett, under 
 the firm name of Simkins & Neblett, a connection 
 that continued until March, 1892. Judge Simkins 
 is now engaged in practice at Corsicana with Mr. 
 Richard Mays under the firm name of Simkins & 
 Mays. 
 
 WILEY JONES, 
 
 WACO. 
 
 The subject of this memoir was born in Blount 
 County, Ala., and came to Texas with his parents, 
 Acquilla and Dillie Jones. They came to this 
 State in the spring of 1848 and settled near Came- 
 ron, in Milam County. They were married in 
 1827 in Alabama and had six children, three boys 
 and three girls, all of whom were born in that State, 
 except one daughter, Mrs. Jack Johnson of Waco, 
 Texas. They moved to McLennan County, Texas, 
 in 1854, and engaged in farming and stockraising. 
 The father died in 1880 and the mother in 1890 on 
 their farm, twelve miles from Waco, and are buried 
 there. 
 
 Wiley Jones was born July 17th, 1829. He re- 
 ceived a good common school education and had 
 the usual experiences common to boys and young 
 men during the time he grew to manhood in this 
 State. Having a taste for adventure, he, in April, 
 1848, enlisted in Capt. John Conner's Ranger 
 company, attached to Bell's regiment, and until 
 December of that year was quartered with it at a 
 point near the head of Richland creek, half way 
 between the present cities of Waco and Fort Worth. 
 That portion of the country was then covered with 
 buffaloes and infested with hostile Indians. In 
 December the company marched to Austin and was 
 
t 
 
 .'^.'*>\ 
 
 
 jf^^m. 
 
 ^ 
 
 SIIAPLEY P. KOSS. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 315 
 
 there mustered out of service. During the time 
 that Mr. Jones was a member of it he distinguished 
 himself for gallantry and met with many thrilling 
 adventures. 
 
 He was married in 1849 in Cameron, Texas, to 
 Miss Margaret Ellison, daughter of J. W. Ellison, 
 of Brazos County. Mr. Jones lived in Milam 
 County until 1850 and then moved to McLennan 
 County, where he bought improved lands and en- 
 gaged in stockraising and farming. Six children 
 have been born to them, three boys and three 
 girls, viz. : Travis and William, who live in Waco ; 
 
 Bettie, now the wife of J. E. Egan, of Waco ; Dee, 
 now wife of W. H. Gibson, of Waco ; Joney, ex- 
 City Secretary, who resides at Waco, and Rosa, who 
 is living at home. Mr. Jones, by thrift, energy 
 and business ability, has accumulated a compe- 
 tency and by the exercise of many excellent quali- 
 ties as citizen, neighbor and friend, has widely 
 endeared himself to the people, among whom he 
 has spent the best years of an active and useful 
 life, and is now, at an advanced age, enjoying a 
 well-earned rest among his numerous family and 
 friends. 
 
 SHAPLEY P. ROSS, 
 
 WACO. 
 
 Perhaps no early settler did more to free Texas 
 from the depredations of hostile Indians, rendered 
 more valuable services to the commonwealth over 
 a longer period of time, or is more general!}- or 
 affectionately remembered, than the illustrious sub- 
 ject of this memoir, Capt. Shapley P. Ross, for 
 many years prior to his death a resident of the city 
 of Waco, in McLennan County. His life-history is 
 a part, and a large part, of the history of Texas. 
 
 He was born in Jefferson County, Ky., six 
 miles from Louisville, January 18, 1811. His 
 parents were Shapley and Mary (Prince) Ross, 
 natives of Virginia. His paternal grandparents 
 were Lawrence and Susan (Oldham) Ross, the 
 former born in Scotland and a scion of the historic 
 Ross family of that country. Lawrence Ross came 
 to America with his father when a bo}'^ and, while 
 attending school in Virginia, was shot through the 
 shoulder and taken prisoner by the Indians. He 
 remained with the Indians until he was twenty- 
 three years of age and was then given up by them 
 upon the signing of the first treaty of Limestone. 
 He and his wife both lived to an advanced age, his 
 death occurring in Jefferson County, Ky., in 1817, 
 at the age of ninety-eight, and his wife two years 
 later. 
 
 Shapley Ross (father of the subject of this 
 notice) was a Kentucky planter and large slave- 
 holder. He moved to Lincoln County, Missouri, 
 in 1817, and died in 1823, at the age of sixty-five 
 years. His wife was descended from- a distin- 
 guished Virginia family and was a lady of many 
 estimable qualities. She was a member of the 
 
 Primitive Baptist Church. Her death occurred in 
 Iowa at the home of her son, Capt. Shapley P. 
 Ross, in 1837. She left surviving her six sons and 
 three daughters, viz. : William, Lawrence, Mervin, 
 Pressly, Nevill, Shapley P., Susan, Caroline, and 
 Elizabeth. 
 
 After Shapley Ross' death the estate was divided 
 among the heirs, all grown and married except 
 Shapley P., who was then eleven or twelve years 
 of age. He lived with his mother upon the 
 homestead for a time, but she subsequently broke 
 up housekeeping and he went to live with his 
 brother Mervin, who was his guardian. At the 
 age of sixteen he visited the Galena lead mines. 
 He was alwaj's a lover of fine horses and while in 
 his teens was engaged in trading in cattle and 
 horses. He followed this and various other pur- 
 suits until, when twenty-nine years of age, he met, 
 wooed and, November 4, 1830, married, Miss 
 Katherine H. Fulkerson, a native of Bucking- 
 ham Countj', Va., born September 23, 1814, 
 daughter of Capt. Isaac Fulkerson, a wealthy 
 planter of German descent, who moved from Vir- 
 ginia to Missouri in 1814, where he died in May, 
 1837. Capt. Fulkerson was at one time a Senator 
 in the Missouri Legislature. Mrs. Ross is one of 
 the most widely known and estimable ladies in 
 Texas. Possessed of the courage requisite to fac- 
 ing the dangers of frontier life she at the same 
 time is gifted with those sweet, womanly qualities 
 that adorn the nome and grace the higher walks of 
 social life. 
 
 After his marriage Capt. Ross lived in Iowa and 
 
316 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Missouri, engaged in farming, hotel-keeping, trad- 
 ing witii Indians, etc., until 1839. In 1834 he and 
 some chosen friends, with their families, settled on 
 the Indian reservation on the Des Moines river, in 
 Iowa. The reservation was occupied by the Fox 
 and Sioux Indians, then under the leadership of 
 the noted chief. Black Hawk. They immediately 
 constructed houses, began farming and the com- 
 munity became known as the " Ross Settlement." 
 It was here that Col. Peter Ross and ex-Governor 
 L. S. Ross were born. In 1838, Capt. Ross rented 
 out his farm, placed his other interests in the hands 
 of his agent and went to Missouri. In 1839, hav- 
 ing been advised by his physicians to seek a warmer 
 climate, he came to Texas, where he ever after made 
 his home. 
 
 Upon his arrival here he took the oatli of alleg- 
 iance to the Republic of Texas, which was admin- 
 istered by Neil McLennan, and thus became entitled 
 to a head-right of 640 acres of land. He settled 
 at Old Nashville on the Brazos in Milam County 
 and planted a small crop of corn and killed buffaloes 
 to supply his family with food. Leaving his wife 
 and children at Nashville, he went out with his 
 nephew, Shapley Woolfolk, to look at the country, 
 now embraced within the limits of Bell and McLen- 
 nan Counties, and, being pleased with it, went back 
 to Nashville and traded his wagon and horses for 
 640 acres on the Leon river and 600 acres in 
 Burleson County. While at Nashville, the inhab- 
 itants being collected there for protection against 
 Indians, Capt. Ross proposed to Capt. Monroe and 
 others to move with him to Little river and form 
 a settlement, each pledging himself not to leave 
 unless all left, until a treaty was made with the 
 Indians. Seven or eight of these men, with their 
 families, moved to and settled on Capt. Monroe's 
 league of land in Milam County, thirty-five miles 
 above Nashville, the nearest white settlement. 
 This little, but determined colony, had frequent 
 fights with Indians. A detailed account of Capt. 
 Ross' experiences in those pioneer days would read 
 like a thrilling romance, and would fill the pages of 
 a large volume. Only a brief sketch, however, can 
 be presented here. On one occasion the Indians 
 raided the settlement by night and stole all the 
 horses. Fortunately for the pioneers, a man came 
 into the settlement early next day with a number of 
 mules. Capt. Ross and others at once mounted 
 and hastened after the red-skins, who were over- 
 taken on Buggy creek, where a bloody and desper- 
 ate fight ensued. Capt. Ross singled out one big 
 Indian, and his nephew, R. S. Woolfolk, another, 
 and a hand-to-hand fight with knives followed. 
 Both Indians were killed and their companions were 
 
 also dispatched. All the i)roperty stolen was 
 recovered. 
 
 In 1842 Capt. Ross was a member of Capt. Jack 
 Hays' compan}' of rangers. In 1845 he sold his 
 land, on which the town of Cameron now stands, 
 for a two-horse wagon and a yoke of oxen. He 
 then moved to Austin, the State capital, in order to 
 afford his children better educational advantages. 
 The following year he raised a company of volun- 
 teers for the protection of the frontier, was elected 
 Captain and in that capacity rendered efllcient and 
 invaluable service to the State. With the Indian 
 agent, he visited all the hostile tribes on the fron- 
 tier in 1848 and assisted in effecting treaties of peace 
 with them, in consequence of the adoption of which 
 there was peace between them and the whites for 
 nearly two years. 
 
 In March, 1849, Capt. Ross moved to Waco, 
 being induced to locate there by the company that 
 owned the league of land on which Waco is now 
 situated. They offered to give him four lots and 
 the ferry privilege and to sell him eighty acres of 
 land at $1.00 per acre, all of which he accepted. 
 The town was laid out soon after. He selected his 
 lots and built a cabin on them. He also bought 200 
 acres at $2.50 an acre, in addition to the eighty 
 already mentioned. On the former he spent the 
 evening of his life, his home being a two-story frame 
 building, located in a natural grove, filled with 
 mocking birds, in the extreme south part of Waco. 
 
 In 1855 Capt. Ross was appointed Indian agent 
 and given charge of the various tribes then on 
 reservations in different parts of the State, which 
 position he held until 1858. By his diplomacy he 
 gained the good-will of all the friendly tribes and 
 they followed his instructions in every way. In 1857 
 the Comanches, who were always hostile, raided 
 the settlement and took away a large number of 
 horses and other valuable property. Capt. Ross 
 at once organized a force of one hundred of the 
 best warriors from the friendly tribes, dressed him- 
 self in the garb of an Indian Chief and took the 
 lead in pursuit of the foe. He was joined by Capt. 
 Ford, of the United States Army, and soon came 
 upon the Comanches' camp, which was deserted. A 
 short distance away, however, they discovered the 
 Indian thieves secreted in a ravine in full force and 
 ready to give battle. Then followed one of the 
 most desperate Indian fights which ever occurred 
 upon the soil of Texas. Seventy-five Indians were 
 killed and the property recaptured. During this 
 struggle Capt. Ross was singled out by the chief of 
 the Comanches, a powerful warrior, who charged 
 down upon him at the full speed of his horse. The 
 Indians covered with their arrows the chief, who, 
 
EX-GOV. L. S. ROSiS. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 317 
 
 it was afterwards discovered, wore a coat of mail. 
 Capt. Ross dismounted and, with his trusty rifle, 
 calmly waited the oncoming of the Comanche 
 until his antagonist was within proper distance and 
 then fired, killing him instantly and driving parts 
 of the coat of mail into his body. This armor was 
 taken from the dead chief and deposited in the 
 museum in the State capitol. 
 
 On the death of Robert S. Neighbors, Superin- 
 tendent of Indian Affairs for Texas, Capt. Ross 
 was ordered to San Antonio to settle up the affairs 
 of the Indian Superintendency, this work requiring 
 his presence in San Antonio during the entire winter 
 of 1859-60. 
 
 In politics he was ever a staunch Democrat. He 
 opposed Texas joining the Confederacy but favored 
 secession as a separate State under the " Lone 
 Star." He was not engaged in the military service 
 of the Confederacy. He joined the Masons in 1851 
 at Waco and remained a member of that fraternity 
 as long as he lived. He departed this life Septem- 
 ber 17, 1889. 
 
 He was a man of wide self-culture, a delightful 
 conversationalist and a writer of excellent ability, 
 from whom contributions, relating to old times, and 
 often to issues pending before the people, were 
 eagerly sought by the press of the State. 
 
 Nine children were born to Capt. and Mrs. Ross, 
 viz.: Mary Rebecca, Margaret Virginia, Peter F., 
 Lawrence Sullivan, Ann, Mervin, Robert S., Kate 
 and William H. Mervin died at the age of six 
 years. The others grew up, received excellent 
 educational advantages, married, have families and 
 are now occupying useful and honored positions in 
 life. 
 
 LAWRENCE SULLIVAN ROSS. 
 
 Hon. Lawrence Sullivan Ross, ex-Governor of 
 Texas and now President of the State Agricultural 
 and Mechanical College, at Bryan, a man who 
 retired from political office, enjoying the unlimited 
 confidence, respect and affectionate regard of all 
 the people of Texas, irrespective of party affilia- 
 tions, although he was a pronounced and vigorous 
 champion of Democracy, and who in the position 
 he has now filled for several years as the head of 
 one of the State's most important educational in- 
 stitutions, has still further endeared himself to the 
 people and given the strongest possible proof of 
 the scope and versatility of his talents, was born at 
 Benton's Post, Iowa, in 1838. In 1856 he attended 
 Baylor University at Waco and the same year was 
 sent to the Wesleyan University at Florence. Ala. 
 Returning home in 1858 to spend the summer 
 vacation he assembled a company of one hundred 
 
 and twenty-five Indian warriors and hurried to the 
 support of Maj. Earl Van Dorn, who was leading 
 the Second United States Cavalry against the Co- 
 manches ; joined forces with that officer and in 
 October of that year played a conspicuous part in 
 the battle of Wichita and, by an act of daring 
 bravery, rescued a little white girl eight years of 
 age, who had been with the Indians perhaps from 
 infancy. He named her Lizzie Ross. In after 
 years she married a wealthy Californian and died 
 at her home in Los Angeles in 1886. 
 
 The Indians were completely routed in the battle, 
 but both Van Dorn and Ross were badly wounded. 
 When sufficiently recovered the subject of this 
 sketch resumed his studies at Florence, graduated 
 in 1859, hastened back to Texas and in 1860, at 
 the head of Pease river, as Captain of a company 
 of sixty rangers, employed to guard the Western 
 frontier, administered a blow that forever crushed 
 the warlike Comanches. In the battle he killed 
 Peta Nocona, the last of the great Comanche chief- 
 tains, captured all the effects of the savages and 
 restored to civilization Cynthia Ann Parker, who 
 had been captured by the Comanches at Parker's 
 Fort in 1836. Very few of the Indians escaped the 
 fury of the rangers. As a recognition of his serv- 
 ices. Governor Sam Houston appointed Ross an 
 aide-de-camp with the rank of Colonel. Through 
 the efforts of Capt. L. S. Ross and his men more 
 than 800 horses stolen by the Indians were recov- 
 ered and returned to their owners. He gave law 
 and safety to the frontier after all others had failed 
 and when the State had expended more than $350,- 
 000 with little effect the year previous to his ap- 
 pointment. Gen. Houston wrote to him in 1860: 
 " Continue to repel, pursue and punish the Indians 
 as you are now doing and the people of Texas will 
 not fail to reward you. — Sam Houston." 
 
 The old General's words were prophetic. Ross 
 lived to perform many other valuable services in 
 civil life and in a wider field of military operations, 
 and the people of Texas have since showered 
 honors upon him as they have upon few men who 
 have figured in the history of the State. February, 
 1861, he tendered his resignation to Gen. Houston ; 
 served for a brief period under Governor Clark on 
 the Indian Embassy and then entered the Confed- 
 erate army as a private in Company G. , commanded 
 by his brother, Capt. (afterwards the distinguished 
 Col.) P. F. Ross; rose rapidly from the ranks and, 
 September 3d, 1861, was elected Major of his 
 regiment, the Sixth Texas Cavalry. 
 
 In May, 1862, he was elected Colonel and was 
 immediately assigned by Maj. -Gen. L. Jones to 
 command of the brigade, but modestly declined 
 
318 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 the houoi-, and Gen. Phifer was subsequently 
 selected. 
 
 Gen. Van Dorn, with about 15,000 men, made a 
 forced march on Corinth, Miss., but not receiving 
 expected re-enforcements, was repulsed after a 
 sharp engagement by Gen. Rosecrans, who, 
 with 30,000 men, was strongly entrenched at that 
 place. The enemy followed up the disorderly 
 retreat of the Confederate troops toward the bridge 
 on Hatchie river the following day. Here Ross, 
 in command of Phifer's brigade, was stationed to 
 guard the Confederate wagon-trains and rear and, 
 with his 1,000 men, held over 10,000 Union soldiers 
 at bay for over an hour and a half — long enough 
 to enable Van Dorn to reform his troops and 
 retreat safely and in good order. Gen. Maury was 
 requested by the War Department at Richmond to 
 give the name of the officer who had especially dis- 
 tinguished himself in this action and at once 
 reported that of Col. Ross. Without the knowl- 
 edge or consent of Ross, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston 
 wrote to the Secretary of War, October 3d, 1863, 
 and had him appointed Brigader-General, a posi- 
 tion filled by him until the close of hostilities. 
 Ross served in the Trans-Mississippi department, 
 and also " across the river," under Gen. Joseph E. 
 Johnston and Gen. Hood, fighting through the 
 famous Georgia campaign. He was elected Sheriff 
 of McLennan County in 1875 ; served the same 
 year as a member of the Constitutional Conven- 
 tion; was a member of the State Senate from 1881 
 to 1883 ; was nominated by the Democratic party 
 and elected Governor in 1886 ; was re-elected Gov- 
 ernor in 1888 practically without opposition, and 
 on retiring from office early in 1891, was made 
 President of the State Agricultural and Mechanical 
 Co'lege at Bryan, the position he now fills. 
 
 The following, taken from a Texas paper and pub- 
 lished during Ross' second campaign before the 
 people for re-election to the office of Governor of 
 Texas, fitly illustrates his character and shows by 
 what means he won the respect and devotion of the 
 men who served under him during the war: " An 
 affecting scene occurred at Morgan the other day, 
 when a prominent attorney of one of our frontier 
 counties sought an introduction to Ross and, with 
 the tears quietly stealing down his cheeks, said : 
 'I have just received a letter from a favorite 
 brother, now in Mississippi, who was an old soldier 
 under you and who was desperately wounded on 
 the retreat from Nashville and left on the road- 
 side to die. He says, sir, that when you came by 
 him in charge of the rear guard, and the Yankees 
 were pouring shot and shell into your brave little 
 band that stood between Hood's disorganized col- 
 
 umns and the pursuing enemy, he hailed 3'ou and 
 bade you a lasting good-bye, whereupon you rode 
 to where he la3' and, dismounting, examined his 
 wounds and asked if he could find strength enough 
 to ride behind on your horse. But he told you he 
 was probably mortally wounded and that you could 
 do nothing to aid him. This brother says, sir, 
 that you then turned your pocket out and found 
 $6, all you had, and gave it to him, and then 
 mounted and rode rapidly away under fire of the 
 enemy, then not more than 200 yards from you. 
 He now writes me to repay you in some measure, 
 in his name, for your devotion to a private 
 soldier.' " 
 
 MRS. KATE (ROSS) PADGITT. 
 
 Mrs. Kate (Ross) Padgitt, wife of Mr. Tom 
 Padgitt (a wholesale merchant and for many 
 years a leading citizen of Waco and Central Texas) 
 was born at Waco, January 6tb, 1852, and was 
 married to Mr. Padgitt, January 3d, 1878. She 
 was the first white child born in the then Indian 
 village. At the time there were not more than 
 four or five white families in the settlement. Miss 
 Ross when quite young entered Baylor University, 
 under the presidency of Dr. Rufus C. Burleson, and 
 in due course of time graduated from that institu- 
 tion with high honors. The first steamboat that 
 ever plied the Brazos river was named the Katie 
 Ross in her honor. The boat was afterwards taken to 
 Galveston and ran between that city and Houston. 
 
 Of congenial tastes, Mr. and Mrs. Padgitt's 
 beautiful home in Waco is the seat of that de- 
 lightful and refined hospitality that from time im- 
 mi^morial has been the boast and glory of the South. 
 Mrs. Padgitt is one of the brightest ornaments of 
 our Texas womanhood. As I write I have before 
 me a letter from Herbert Howe Bancroft to a cor- 
 respondent in this State in which he in grateful 
 terms expresses his appreciation of the very 
 valuable assistance that she rendered him in the 
 collection and preparation of material for his Texas 
 History. I, too, am indebted to her for many of 
 the facts used in the compilation of the memoir of 
 the life of her father, the lamented Capt. Shapley 
 P. Ross. While she takes great interest in liter- 
 ary and artistic'matters and social functions, she 
 is at the same time thoroughly domestic and de- 
 voted to her husband, children, and household 
 duties. Mr. and Mrs. Padgitt have five living 
 children, viz. : Buena Vista, now wife of Mr. Fos- 
 ter Fort, of Waco; Catherine, Clinton, Lotta, and 
 Ross. One child, Sallie, died at the age of thirteen, 
 and anolher,Thomas, died at the age of twelve years. 
 
._^M^}-'^1< ^^. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 319 
 
 JAMES GARRITY, 
 
 CORSICANA. 
 
 Capt. James Garritj-, president of the First 
 National Bank of Corsicana, and one of the most 
 liigl]ly honored citizens of that thriving httle city 
 and section of the State, is a native of Ireland, 
 born in Dublin, April 3d, 1842. 
 
 His earlier years were passed in Covington, Ky., 
 and New Orleans, and in the schools of the latter 
 city he received such educational advantages as 
 could be had up to the age of thirteen from which 
 time circumstances compelled his leaving school in 
 order to earn a living. At the first call for volun- 
 teers he entered the Confederate army, enlisting 
 May 4th, 1861, in a local company of cadets, which 
 soon after became part of the Fifth Louisiana 
 Eegiment which operated with the Army of Northern 
 Virginia. He entered the company as a private, 
 and through meritorious and gallant service rose 
 to the captaincy, and served with it in that capacity 
 in the various engagements fought by the Army of 
 Northern Virginia from the beginning until the end 
 of the war between the States. He was three times 
 wounded — at Sharpsburg, Malvern Hill and 
 Fishersville — but his injuries were not such as to 
 keep him out of active service for any considerable 
 length of time. 
 
 At the close of the war he returned to New Orleans 
 and for a year was employed as a clerk b}' Sibley, 
 Guion & Co., cotton brokers and part owners and 
 operators of the since well-known Guion Line of 
 Ocean Steamers. 
 
 In the fall of 18G6 he came to Texas and for five 
 years was engaged in the mercantile and banking 
 business, first as a clerk and later as partner in 
 interest, at points along the line of the Houston & 
 Texas Central Railroad, then being built tlirough 
 the counties of Brazos, Robertson and Limestone. 
 Through good fortune, he says, but it would prob- 
 ably be more correct to say, through industr}', good 
 management and sagacity, he met with success 
 ■while so employed, accumulating between $10,000 
 and $12,000, which formed the nucleus of the 
 handsome fortune which he has since amassed. 
 In 1871, having sold his interest in the banking 
 
 business of Adams, Leonard & Company, at Cal- 
 vert, he formed a copartnership with Mr. Joseph 
 Huey and started the pioneer banking institution of 
 Navarro County, this being the private banking 
 house of Garrity, Huey & Company, which began 
 business in Corsicana, in September of that year. 
 Capt. Garrity has since given his attention chiefly 
 to the banking business. In 1886 the firm of 
 Garrity & Huey (the "Company" having been 
 dropped from the style of the firm after the first 
 year) was succeeded by the First National Bank, 
 of which Capt. Garrity became president and Mr. 
 Huey vice-president, the bank nationalizing with a 
 capital of $100,000. This was increased a j'ear 
 later to $125,000, which remains the amount of its 
 capital stock. Capt. Garrity is still the chief execu- 
 tive officer. In addition to his banking business he 
 has various outside interests, owning a large amount 
 of valuable real estate in the city of Corsicana, and 
 being connected, as promoter and stockholder, 
 with some of the city's leading industries and en- 
 terprises, among the number, the Corsicana Com- 
 press Company, the Texas Mill and Elevator 
 Company, The Corsicana Manufacturing Company, 
 The Merchants Opera House Company, and the 
 Corsicana Cotton Oil Company. He is a member 
 of the Masonic, I. 0. O. F., Knights of Pythias and 
 Elks fraternities, in all of which he takes much 
 interest, particularly in Masonry, in which he has 
 become Knight Templar and taken the thirty -second 
 degree and is Past Grand Commander of the Grand 
 Commandery of the State. 
 
 June 15th, 1870, while still residing at Calvert, 
 he married Miss Emma Moore, then a resident of 
 that place, but a native of Alabama and a niece of 
 ex-Governor Moore of that State. Mrs. Garrity 
 departed this life on February 17th, 1893, lamented 
 by every one who knew her, and is still mourned 
 for by a husband to whom she was all the world. 
 Few men in Texas are better known as financiers 
 than Capt. Garrity and no man, certainly, has done 
 more for the upbuilding of the best interests of 
 the section of the State in which he lives. 
 
320 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 ANDREW JACKSON HARRIS, 
 
 BELTON. 
 
 Judge A. J. Harris, a distinguished member of 
 the Texas bar and for many 3'ears a prominent 
 figure in political and professional life in this State, 
 was born in Talbot County, Ga., January 27, 1839, 
 and grew to manhood on his father's farm. His 
 parents were Thomas and Lydia Jones Harris, 
 members of Georgia families for many generations 
 distinguished in the history of the country. His 
 paternal great-grandfather, Richard Harris, served 
 as a soldier in the Revolutionary War of 1776 that 
 resulted in the American colonies throwing off the 
 yoke of British tyranny, and the establishment of 
 the United States of America, a monument to the 
 patriotism, valor and wisdom of the people of that 
 day which has no parallel in all the annals of 
 the human race. His maternal grandfather. Judge 
 James L. Burke, took part in the battle of the 
 Horse Shoe and fought through the War of 1812. 
 
 His father, Thomas Harris, was born near 
 Milledgeville in Georgia, September 15th, 1812, 
 was a farmer by occupation and died August 26, 
 1894, aged 82 years, in Comanche County, Texas, 
 where he then resided. 
 
 His mother, Mrs. Lydia Harris, was born in 
 Jasper County, Ga., January 28, 1816. Her 
 father moved to Talbot County, Ga., when she was 
 a girl, and there she grew to womanhood, married 
 in 1835 and remained until 1845, when she moved 
 to Scott County, Miss., with her husband, where 
 she died in May, 1861, leaving nine children. 
 Judge A. J. Harris was six years of age when his 
 parents removed to Mississippi. He resided there 
 until after the close of the war. He graduated 
 from the University of Mississippi in 1861, with high 
 honors, and on returning home raised a company 
 for service in the Confederate army and was elected 
 Captain. It .was mustered into service as Company 
 I, Twenty-seventh Mississippi Regimentof Infantry, 
 and did duty at Pensacola and Mobile, and in Ten- 
 essee and Kentucky. He participated with his com- 
 mand in several skirmishes and minor engagements 
 and took part in the great battle of Murfreesboro, 
 in all of ^which he bore himself with the coolness 
 and gallantry that became an officer of one of the 
 ffrandest armies that ever marched forth to battle 
 for the rights and liberties of a people. On account 
 of physical disabilities he resigned his commission 
 in 1863; but subsequently, upon restoration to 
 health, rejoined the army, attaching himself as an 
 
 independent volunteer to the Fourth Mississippi 
 Cavalry and remained with it through the fall 
 and winter of 1863-64. From the spring of 1864 
 until August of that year, he was not connected 
 with the army, but, in August, Gen. Clark, then Gov- 
 ernor of Mississippi, issued a proclamation calling 
 on all who could bear arms even for thirty days to 
 go to Nortli Mississippi and join the army under 
 Gen. Forrest, to meet the invading Northern army 
 of Gen. A. J. Smith. Responding to this call. Judge 
 Harris joined Duff's Regiment and served about 
 three months. He joined the regiment the next 
 day after he reached Forrest and marched with it 
 to Hurricane creek, north of Oxford, and remained 
 there night and day for several days under a constant 
 downpour of rain. The Confederate troops were 
 then driven back south of Oxford and went into 
 camp on Yocony creek. The next day the Feder- 
 als burned Oxford and retreated with the Southern 
 army hanging upon their flank. The Confederates 
 overtook their rear guard at Abbeville and had a 
 slight brush with them which ended the campaign. 
 
 Judge Harris came to Waco, Texas, January 1st, 
 1865, and taught one month in the Waco Univer- 
 sity. He then went to Salado and taught in the 
 college at that place from February, 1865, until 
 July, 1867, after which he removed to Belton and 
 entered upon the practice of law, but was persuaded 
 by the people to open a school, which he taught 
 for two years. In 1869 he returned to the practice 
 of law ; but, in 1870, a vacancy occurring in the 
 faculty of the school at Salado, the people of that 
 place called upon him to fill it, promising to secure 
 another teacher to take his place, which they failed 
 to do, and he remained there one year, much against 
 his will. This service marked the close of his 
 career as a school-teacher. Returning to Belton, 
 he entered vigorously upon the practice of his 
 profession, in which he has since continued. 
 
 He was elected County Superintendent of public 
 free schools in 1873, and filled the otHce until the 
 adoption of the constitution of 1875, which dis- 
 pensed with county superintendents. He was 
 elected without opposition and without being a can- 
 didate. In 1880 he was elected to the State Senate 
 and was elected for a second term in 1882, serving 
 with marked distinction in the sessions of the Seven- 
 teenth and Eighteenth Legislatures. In 1877 he 
 formed a copartnership with X. B. Saund. rs, under 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 321 
 
 the fifin name of Harris & Saunders. Judge 
 Saunders succeeded Judge Alexander in the firm, 
 Judge Alexander having been appointed to the Dis- 
 trict Judgeship to succeed Judge Saunders, who was 
 the incumbent. This firm has occupied a lead- 
 ing position at the bar of Central Texas for many 
 years. 
 
 Judge Harris was married Jul}' 31st, 1866, to Miss 
 Ohvia P. Sugg, daughter of William and Mary 
 Sugg, of Calhoun County, Miss. They have six 
 children living: Mary, wife of S. S. Walker, a 
 merchant of Belton ; Martha Elizabeth, wife of 
 Pike L. Phelps, a gentleman engaged in the insur- 
 ance business, at Belton ; Olivia Frances, wife of 
 John P. Hammersmith, a Belton merchant; Lucy 
 Bell and Annie Jackson, who live at home and are 
 now students at Baylor College, and Andrew Jack- 
 son Harris, Jr. One son, Thomas, died July 9th, 
 1886, of membranous croup, aged two years and 
 six months. 
 
 Judge Harris has been a member of the Baptist 
 
 Church since 1876 and is one of the trustees of 
 Baylor Female College, at Belton. 
 
 He has never sought office and has never been a 
 voluntary candidate ; nevertheless, at the State 
 Democratic Convention, held in 1886, bis name was 
 submitted by his friends for nomination for one of 
 the judgeships of the Supreme Court of Texas, and 
 they claim that he received a majority of the votes 
 cast by the members of the convention, but on 
 account of some irregulariiies in counting them, 
 another ballot was taken and Judge R. R. Gaines 
 elected as the party's nominee. 
 
 Judge Harris occupies a position at the bar of 
 Texas, which he has so long graced with his learn- 
 ing and talents, that should be a matter of pride to 
 him and is certainly a source of gratification to his 
 thousands of admirers and many friends who ap- 
 preciate the dignity and purity of his character, 
 the value of the public services he has rendered 
 and the luster that he has added to the profession 
 which he has so long adorned. 
 
 T. W. HOUSE, 
 
 HOUSTON. 
 
 T. W. House, veteran, merchant and banker of 
 Houston, was one of the notable pioneers of early 
 civilization and commerce in Texas. Born in 
 Somersetshire, England, in the year 1813, he died 
 at San Antonio, Texas, January 17th, 1880. His 
 forefathers were from Holland, from whence they 
 emigrated to England in the early dawn of the 
 eighteenth century, and settled in Somersetshire. 
 Up to the time that the subject of this memoir was 
 nineteen years of age, he worked on his father's 
 farm, but his father was poor, and, being the 
 youngest of four children, the future was not 
 bright, so he decided to come to America. He was 
 seconded in this resolution by a friend who was 
 captain of a merchant vessel plying between Bristol 
 and New York and with whom he set sail for 
 America in the year 1832. He remained in New 
 York for several years, and afterwards went to New 
 Orleans, where he lived for a short time before com- 
 ing to Texas. It was while living at New Orleans 
 that his attention was first called to Texas and her 
 wonderful resources, and early in the year 1836 he 
 landed in Galveston, and at once went to Houston, 
 which was' then being laid out. It was at this 
 
 place that be was destined to achieve the full meas- 
 ure of his ambition. Soon after his arrival at 
 Houston he volunteered his services in behalf of 
 his adopted country aud served as a soldier under 
 Gen. Burleson in the last days of the war of 
 1835-6, against Mexico. In 1838 he returned to 
 Houston and there, with the few hundred dollars 
 at his command, erected a tent, purchased a supply 
 of goods and began his wonderful career as a mer- 
 chant. His fortunes grew with the growth of the 
 town, to whose upbuilding he contributed perhaps 
 more than any other man, until he achieved the 
 rank of a merchant prince. 
 
 In 1840, he married Mary Elizabeth, only daugh- 
 ter of Charles Shearn, afterwards Chief Justice of 
 Harris County. At the beginning of the war be- 
 tween the States in 1861, he had reached such a 
 position in the financial world that his advice and 
 services were sought by those in command of the 
 Confederate forces in Texas, and he co-operated 
 effectively with them in the work of obtaining 
 clothes and arms from abroad. He owned jointty 
 with the Confederate Government, the Harriet 
 Lane, the celebrated Federal steamer which was 
 
322 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 captured by the Confederates upon the retaking 
 of Galveston by Magruder the night of December 
 31, 1862, and the day following. Besides his 
 interest in the Harriet Lane he also owned a fleet 
 of vessels which he used as blockade-runners in 
 conveying cotton out from Galveston and bringing 
 return cargoes of clothing and arms. With vast 
 resources at command, with a credit at home and 
 abroad excelled by none, with an unimpeachable 
 integrity, T. W. House did more perhaps during 
 the war between the States, than any other man in 
 Texas to maintain her credit abroad and supply the 
 wants of his fellow-citizens. His services in the 
 directions indicated were invaluable. When the 
 war was over he became actively engaged inducing 
 capital to invest in Texas and was a promoter of 
 several of the longest railroads in the State. 
 Among others he induced Commodore Morgan to 
 make large investments in Texas, and subsequently 
 to purchase $500,000 of the State's bonds. It was 
 this purchase that marked the beginning of the 
 credit which has given Texas bonds rank in the 
 stock market second to no similar class of securities 
 in the world. Charitable, without ostentation, 
 magnetic in manner, democratic in his tastes and 
 associations, he died beloved by many and honored 
 by all who knew him. 
 
 Leaving his native isle a penniless young man he 
 made his way into a new country, devastated by a 
 war marked by the most sanguinary atrocities and 
 the greater extent of whose territory was an unre- 
 deemed wilderness. Animated by the spirit of 
 ancient Cresy and Agincourt, like a true Briton, he 
 was as ready to use a musket as to settle down to 
 the more peaceful business of laying for himself 
 the foundation of financial independence. A wise 
 |)hilosopher has said and said truly that the young 
 men who left their homes in foreign lands from 
 1800 to 1860 to come to America and push into its 
 wildernesses constituted a bold and enterprising 
 class and as a rule were possessed of more than 
 usual natural abilities. They were not content 
 with the hard conditions to which fate had ap- 
 
 parently consigned them. The plodder, the timor- 
 ous and the laggard might stay discontentedly 
 amid such scenes, but, as for these choice spirits, in 
 very childhood their eyes looked wistfully out to 
 sea and thoughts arose in their minds of lands 
 beyond the far-away horizon-bar, and these thoughts 
 gave birth to resolves, carried in due time into exe- 
 cution, to try their fortunes under other skies where 
 courage, self-reliance and ability insured honor- 
 able and useful careers. Such men as these came 
 to America by hundreds, and many of them to 
 Texas, among the number the subject of this 
 memoir, T. W. House. In their veins flowed rich 
 and ruddy the blood of the old Norman conquerors. 
 Where armed foes were to be met, they overcame' 
 them. Where the wilderness was to be subdued, 
 they subdued it. Where cities were to be built, 
 they built them. Where the genius of commerce 
 was to be evoked they evoked it with the magic of 
 their indomitable wills. They were state and 
 nation builders who occupy a unique position upon 
 the pages of the history of the countrj', whose 
 services to posterity have been incalculable, whose 
 rugged virtues are worthy of all admiration, and 
 remembrance of whom should be preserved to 
 remotest time. Should the nation ever be in dan- 
 ger of sinking into effeminacy, those to whom is 
 committed its rejuvenation can turn to these men 
 as models to be imitated, and rebuild and restore 
 the vigor of the State. 
 
 Long before his death the name of T. W. House 
 bad become a household word in Texas. He was 
 one of the foremost citizens of the commonwealth — 
 one of the most useful men of his day and genera- 
 tion. In his career he demonstrated the truth of 
 the aphorism of the author of Lacon that " while 
 fortune may be blind, she is by no means invisible, 
 and he who will seek her determinedly will l)e sure 
 to find her. ' ' 
 
 He has passed from shadow-laud to shadow-land — 
 from birth to death. 
 
 He played his part nobly and well. Ma}' others 
 seek to emulate his example. 
 
J. C. HIGGINS. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 323 
 
 JACOB C. HIGGINS, 
 
 BASTROP. 
 
 Jacob C. Higgins was born in Caledonia County, 
 Vt., November 2, 1815. His parents were Samuel 
 and Betsey (Chamberlain) Higgins. His father 
 came from Ireland and his mother from England. 
 They first met aboard a ship bound for America, 
 married and located in Caledonia County, Vt., 
 where his father died, when the subject of this 
 memoir was four years of age, Mrs. Higgins follow- 
 ing him two j'ears later. About a year after the 
 death of his mother Jacob C. Higgins fell into the 
 hands of an old sea-captain, Capt. Armington, who 
 was a TTniversalist and objected to his going to Sun- 
 day school. Consequently it became a regular 
 practice with the lad to play on that day with a 
 crowd of companions. On one of these occasions 
 while engaged in some sport, he was accosted by 
 Mr. Erastus Fairbanks, superintendent of the local 
 Presbyterian Sunday school, who asked him his 
 name, the names of his parents and his place of 
 residence. In the conversation that followed, the 
 mutual discovery was made that Mr. Fairbanks' 
 wife was a first cousin of the boy's mother, and 
 a few days thereafter he was transferred to the 
 home of Mr. and Mrs. Fairbanks, where he was 
 treated in everj' respect as one of their sons, grew 
 to manhood and was given every opportunity to 
 perfect himself in the trade of a machinist and mill- 
 wright. He was quick to learn and soon became 
 proficient, and in 1836 was sent by the firm to 
 superintend the building of a saw-mill upon the 
 banks of one of the rivers of Alabama. This he 
 completed, and then engaged in steamboat 
 engineering, which he pursued for three years. 
 
 In 1840 be determined to try his fortune in 
 Texas, and landed in Galveston, March 16th of that 
 year, with $2,500 in good Alabama and Louisiana 
 money, the proceeds of a year's labor. With this 
 he purchased a stock of merchandise from C. C. 
 Ennis, of Galveston, and went to Austin, where he 
 sold the goods for Texas money, which he discov- 
 ered, when too late, was of little or no value. He 
 had also bought a number of bonds. Regarding 
 these as worthless he laid them aside. They became 
 valuable later on, however, as Texas by the treaty 
 of annexation, sold the Santa Fe territory to 
 the United States for $10,000,000 and with a 
 part of the money so procured, called in and paid 
 off all outstanding bonds issued by the late Re- 
 public at their face value with all accumulated in- 
 
 terest thereon. Mr. Higgins, by this means, came 
 into possession of a considerable sum of money, his 
 profits on his bond purchases amounting to about 
 three hundred per cent. In June, 1840, soon after 
 his arrival in Austin, he was present at the organ- 
 ization of the first Methodist church established in 
 that town, and in fact in that section. Dr. Haney 
 held religious services in the old capitol on the 
 occasion referred to. When he called for all Meth- 
 odists present to come up and shake hands with 
 him, one man and one woman responded ; and with 
 these he organized the church. During the re- 
 mainder of that year Mr. Higgins was variously 
 engaged, part of the time working with a corps of 
 surveyors, and part of the time participating in 
 expeditions against the Indians. 
 
 In June, 1841, he moved to Bastrop, and was 
 there employed to run a mill situated on Copperas 
 creek, two miles distant from town. In 1842 he 
 purchased the mill and ten acres of ground from 
 his employers on credit, and for years thereafter 
 husbanded his resources and invested all the money 
 that he could command in negroes and lands, 
 purchasing ten thousand acres of land in the sur- 
 rounding country and thereby laying the founda- 
 tion of future wealth. 
 
 He is an indefatigable worker and a clear-headed 
 financier, and hence prospered in all his business 
 undertakings. From the time that he landed in 
 Galveston to the annexation of Texas to the United 
 States, he endured many hardships and privations, 
 but thereafter when he had realized upon his bonds 
 and secured sufficient capital to operate upon, 
 lived more easily. He resided alone at the mill, 
 did his own cooking and housekeeping, and often, 
 for ten days at a time, did not see a human being 
 during the year 1842. In the early days of his 
 residence at Bastrop the Indians came into the 
 town and stole stock and committed numerous 
 depredations. About 1843, Bishop Morris, of 
 Baltimore, visited the place to see his son, and 
 while there preached in an old storehouse. During 
 the services a band of Indians, who were out on a 
 raid, broke up the meeting and the congregation was 
 obliged to fly for safety to a fort that had been 
 provided for such emergencies. During Mr. Hig- 
 gins' residence on Copperas creek he was also 
 frequently troubled by Indians. From 1871 to 
 1885 he added merchandising to his other busi- 
 
324 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 ness. During these years he also established a 
 private bank. He continued banking until 1892, 
 when he retired from active pursuits. 
 
 He was first married in Bastrop County, in 1843, 
 to Miss Sarah Gamble, daughter of Col. William I. 
 Gamble, who came to Texas from Alabama with 
 his family in 1839. By this marriage he had two 
 children: William, now a prosperous farmer in 
 Bastrop County, and Erastus Fairbanks Higgins, 
 who died leaving one child, Claud C, who now re- 
 sides with his grandfather. Mrs. Higgins died in 
 1849. Mr. Higgins was married at Seguin, in 1852, 
 to Miss Mary Keener, daughter of a prominent col- 
 lege professor of Alabama, and first cousin of 
 United States District Judge John B. Rector of 
 Texas. Five children were born of this union, 
 three of whom grew to maturity : Samuel, who is a 
 well-to-do farmer in Bastrop County ; Blanche, 
 wife of Brook Duval, of Bastrop County, and 
 Horace, who died June 4, 1880. Horace graduated 
 at the University of the South at Sewanee, Tenn., 
 and later in the Law Department in the University 
 of Virginia. After returning home he formed a 
 co-partnership with Hon. Joseph D. Sayers, but he 
 died three mouths later, and thus came to a close 
 what promised to be a brilliant career at the bar. 
 
 Mrs. Mary (Keener) Higgins died in Bastrop 
 County, in 1861. 
 
 In 1807, Mr. Higgins married his present wife, 
 Mrs. Carolina Yellowley, a widow with two daugh- 
 ters. The elder, Bella, married Dr. G. M. Patten, 
 of Waco, in 1883, and died in 1888. The younger, 
 Charlton, became Mrs. Brieger, and now resides in 
 Bowie, Texas. Mr. and Mrs. Higgins have two 
 daughters: Lielah, wife of D. Pope Holland, of 
 Atlanta, Ga., and Fairbanks who is now at Bishop 
 Garrett's College, at Dallas. 
 
 Upon returning to Texas in 1857, from a visit to 
 the home of Mrs. Fairbanks, in Vermont, Mr. Hig- 
 
 gins found that he had been elected to the House of 
 Representatives of the Texas Legislature. He 
 served one term as a member of that body. He 
 could have been re-elected but would not consent 
 to become a candidate for that or any other political 
 ofHce. During the war between the States he 
 served in the Confederate States militia for twenty- 
 two months. He is a member of the Masonic 
 fraternity and has taken all the chapter degrees of 
 that order. In religion he is an Episcopalian, and 
 is senior warden of the Episcopal church at Bastrop. 
 In politics he is a Democrat. Although he lost 
 greatly by the result of the war between the States, 
 owning eighty valuable slaves who were set free at 
 its close, he has practically in all instances been 
 successful in his investments, and is now one of the 
 wealthiest men in his section and the largest tax- 
 payer in Bastrop County. 
 
 Up to his eleventh year, when Providence discov- 
 ered him to his noble benefactors, Mr. and Mrs. 
 Fairbanks, the prospect that apparently laid before 
 him was cheerless. Whatever boyish hopes that 
 were to arise in his breast it seemed were doomed 
 to wither one by one, through long years of toil and 
 saddening disappointments, and in the end be 
 drifted to their graves adown the blasts of Destiny's 
 chill December. There was work for him to do in 
 life, however, and it was to come to him and be done 
 by him if he proved worthy. He did prove worthy 
 of the labor assigned him when the opportunity 
 came, and he embraced it. 
 
 He was grateful, he was honest, he was ambitious, 
 he was industrious, he was enterprising, he was 
 daring, resolute and patient, and as a result, his 
 life has been an honored, useful and successful 
 one. Had he failed in any of these ))articulars 
 this would not have been. Such a life contains a 
 moral that the young will do well to ponder and 
 profit by. 
 
 CORNELIUS ENNIS AND WIFE, 
 
 HOUSTON. 
 
 From the days when the commerce of Pho?nicia 
 extended itself to the verge of the then known world 
 merchants have been the pioneers who have carried 
 forward the illumining torch of civilization. With- 
 out their energy and determination to attain success 
 amid difficulties apparently insurmountable, there 
 
 would be but little progress in wresting from nature 
 the waste places of the eartli for the benefit of man- 
 kind. In the days when railroads were thought to 
 be impracticable and the telegraph a superstition, 
 a brave and hardy set of men were traveling over 
 Texas from end to end, on horseback, or in wagons. 
 
CORNELIUS ENNIS. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 325 
 
 the compass being their only guide, or, if haply pre- 
 ceded by some comrade, they followed his footsteps 
 by means of the notches he had cut in trees. The 
 roads were almost impassable in rainy weather — 
 and, as there were no bridges, many an anxious 
 hour was spent at the fords. In traveling, pistols, 
 bowie knives and a gun across the knees, were 
 necessary to afford protection against man and 
 beast. Their avocation was, indeed, a perilous one, 
 but when have the sons of commerce been deterred 
 by peril .' They have braved alike the terrors of the 
 Barcan desert and the icy North, nor have they 
 feared to go among any savage people or travel any 
 foot of earth. Prominent among the pioneer mer- 
 chants of Texas was the subject of this memoir, 
 Cornelius Ennis, born In 3813 in Essex County 
 (now Passaic County), New Jersej'. Mr. Ennis' 
 great-grandfather was Mr. William Ennis, who 
 came from the north of Ireland in the latter part of 
 tlie seventeenth century, and settled in Bergen 
 County, New Jersey, with his wife ()iee Miss Han- 
 nah Brower). Mr. Ennis' mother was a Doremus, 
 of Knickerbocker stock, from one of the original 
 Holland families that settled in this country. 
 
 After receiving as liberal an education as that 
 State then afforded, he went to New York in 1834, 
 and obtained a position in a drug store, and three 
 years later began a trip down the Ohio and Mis- 
 sissippi rivers in search of a desirable location. 
 Traveling on the Mississippi he met a great num- 
 ber of people from Texas, going to Canada to 
 join the patriots around Toronto. All were en- 
 thusiastic concerning the agricultural and business 
 opportunities afforded by Texas. These recitals 
 together with stories of the gallantry and courage 
 of the victors in the War for Independence, fired 
 the imagination of the young merchant — and he 
 determined to make his home in the Republic. He 
 returned to New York in May, continued in busi- 
 ness there until January, 1839, and then purchased 
 a stock of drugs and medicines and embarked on 
 the schooner " Lion " (Capt. Fish commanding) 
 for Galveston. 
 
 He found Galveston very sparsely settled, with- 
 out a hotel or wharf, and proceeded to Houston, 
 then two years old and the capital of the Republic. 
 Here he immediately established himself in busi- 
 ness, purchasing a lot on Main street, where he 
 built a storehouse. In November of the same 
 year he formed a partnership with Mr. George W. 
 Kimball, and extended his business to general 
 merchandise. This connection continued until 
 1842, when Mr. George W.Kimball and family took 
 passage to New York on the brig " Cuba " (Capt. 
 Latham), and were lost at sea in a gale off the 
 
 Florida coast. Mr. Kimball had with him cotton 
 and funds to be invested in the business at Hous- 
 ton ; but this loss served only to further develop 
 the energy and courage of the surviving partner, 
 and the business continued to prosper. 
 
 The first cotton received at Houston was in Jan- 
 uary, 1840, and came from Fort Bend County. 
 Previous to this the merchants of Columbus and 
 Brazoria controlled the crop. Cotton was hauled 
 to market in wagons which were very much delayed 
 by rains, there being no bridges across streams and 
 the roads in a miserable condition. That received 
 at Houston was ferried across the bayou at the 
 foot of Main street, and later at the foot of Com- 
 merce and Milam streets where the iron bridge now 
 stands. The firm of P^nnis & Kimball made the 
 first shipment of cotton from the port of Galves- 
 ton to that of Boston in 1841, on the schooner 
 " Brazos " (Capt. Hardy, commander) a new 
 departure in business noted with much interest and 
 promising many benefits. 
 
 Mr. Ennis was long and prominently connected 
 with the building of railroads in the State. He 
 was one of the incorporators and directors of the 
 Houston and Texas Central, and also of the Great 
 Northern, until that road was merged into the 
 International. The city of Ennis, in Ellis County, 
 was located and named for him while he was in 
 control of the railroad which passed through it. 
 While he was mayor of Houston the city built the 
 Houston Tap Railroad, connecting with the Harris- 
 burg & San Antonio Railroad, to the construction 
 of which he gave his personal attention, Mr. Stump 
 being the civil engineer. He was for some time 
 general superintendent and comptroller of the 
 Houston & Texas Central and, later, its financial 
 agent, with offices in New York, where he resided 
 for several years, negotiating bonds and purchasing 
 supplies and material for the road. In 185G and 
 1857 he was mayor of Houston, and gave his ser- 
 vices to the city without remuneration, and con- 
 tributed very materially to its advancement, and 
 also to the general welfare of its people by ferreting 
 out a band of outlaws who for many years had 
 caused the traders much anxiety and loss, wa^day- 
 ing their negro drivers and appropriating their 
 goods. A young German was murdered and his 
 money stolen. The crime was supposed to have 
 been committed by Kuykendall (the leader of this 
 gang) and his negro, Napoleon. Mr. Ennis con- 
 tributed more than any one else in time and money 
 to the pursuit of these and other desperadoes — 
 and succeeded in having five of them arrested, tried 
 and sentenced to the penitentiary. They escaped 
 in 1861 and joined the Confederate army. During 
 
326 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 the reign of terror inaugurated by these ruffians 
 one of the gang met Mr. Ennis in the street and 
 introduced himself, thereby giving Mr. Ennis a 
 decided thrill. 
 
 During the war between the States, Mr. Ennis 
 remained in Texas, importing supplies and export- 
 ing cotton. In 1864, he went to Havana by way 
 of Matamoros and there met Capt. Jack Moore, a 
 bar pilot of Galveston , whom he sent to New York to 
 purchase an iron-clad steamer, the " Jecmnette," at 
 an expenditure of $40,000 in gold. He brought 
 her out to Havana, where he loaded her with muni- 
 tions of war, consisting of twelve hundred English 
 Enfield rifles, ten tons of gunpowder, three million 
 percussion caps, a large lot of shoes and blankets 
 and other army supplies for the Confederate army, 
 all of which he turned over to the Confederate 
 authorities. 
 
 Mr. Ennis was married in 1841, to Miss Jean- 
 nette Ingals Kimball, a sister of his partner. Miss 
 Kimball had come to this country with her brother 
 from Vermont, in October, 1839. She came of 
 English stock, long settled in New England, and is 
 related to the Emersons and Ripleys of literary 
 fame. She was always deeply interested In the 
 development of her adopted State, and contributed 
 much to the comfort and happiness of those asso- 
 ciated with her in this pioneer work by her gentle 
 
 and efficient ministrations in times of sickness and 
 epidemics which too frequently attend the opening 
 up of a new country. Her devotion was especially 
 marked during the fearful epidemics of yellow 
 fever. She was noted for her cheerful, generous 
 and unfailing hospitality and, also, for her efficient 
 co-operation with her husband in the establishment 
 of churches and schools. Mr. and Mrs. Ennis have 
 four children living, three daughters and one son. 
 The eldest daughter married Col. A. H. Belo, 
 president of the Galveston and Dallas News. The 
 next is Mrs. Frank Cargill, of Houston, Texas, and 
 of the youngest daughter is Mrs. C. Lombardi, also 
 Houston, Texas. The son, Richard, lives in Mexico. 
 Mr. Ennis is a man of magnificent physique, 
 being over six feet in height and now, although 
 advanced in years, of erect and commanding pres- 
 ence. His wife is a perfect type of lovely woman- 
 hood. Although Mr. Ennis has passed his long life 
 in active business pursuits, in which fortunes have 
 been at intervals made and lost, his name has 
 always been unsullied and he has been honored for 
 fair dealing and blameless rectitude in all his bus- 
 iness dealings. And now, with the partner of his 
 youth and old age still by his side, they are spend- 
 ing the evening of life serenely and happily at their 
 home in Houston, surrounded by children, grand- 
 children and friends. 
 
 HENRY ELMENDORF, 
 
 SAN ANTONIO. 
 
 Heni-y Elmendorf , a prosperous merchant of San 
 Antonio and mayor of that historic and progressive 
 city, is a native Texian, born in the town of New 
 Braunfels, April 7, 1849. 
 
 His parents, Charles A. and Amelia Elmendorf, 
 were born in Prussia. His father emigrated to 
 America in 1844, and his mother in 1848, and set- 
 tled in New Braunfels. In the " Old Country " Mr. 
 Charles A. Elmendorf was engaged in mercantile 
 pursuits. He changed to farming upon his arrival 
 in Texas which he followed until about the year 
 1852, when he moved to San Antonio. Six or seven 
 years later he embarked in merchandising again 
 upon his own account as a member of the house of 
 Theisen and Deutz, dealers in hardware, and con- 
 tinued in that pursuit until the beginning of the war 
 between the States, meeting with a liberal degree of 
 
 success in his ventures as a result of his talent as a 
 financier and fine business capacity. He died in 
 the Alamo City in 1878. His wife still survives 
 him and is residing there. Henry Elmendorf, the 
 subject of this biographical notice, attended local 
 schools until he was fifteen years of age ; then went 
 to German}', where he completed his education ; 
 returned home in the fall of 1866, and entered his 
 father's store as a clerk. After clerking for three 
 years his father admitted him to a partnership in 
 the firm of Elmendorf & Co. 
 
 In 1873 he was united in marriage to Miss Emilie 
 Baetz, of San Antonio. Five children have been 
 born to them. Mr. Elmendorf was elected to the 
 City Council as Alderman for two years, extending 
 from the year 1893 to 1895, and served in that 
 body until September, 1894, when he was elected 
 

 
 
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 MRS. CORNELIUS ENNIS. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 327 
 
 Mayor by the Council to fill a vacancy caused by 
 tbe death of Mr. George Paschal. February 11, 
 1895, he was elected by the people to fill that ofHce 
 by a majority of one thousand votes over Bryan 
 Callaghan, whom it had been thought it was well-nigh 
 an impossibility to defeat at the polls. Mr. Elmen- 
 dorf has been a liberal contributor to and promoter 
 of every meritorious public movement, and many 
 important private enterprises. Brilliant, polished. 
 
 popular, patriotic, of high abilities and wide busi- 
 ness experience, San Antonio, one of tbe largest, 
 most cosmopolitan and fastest growing of Texas 
 cities, lias a chief executive of which she and the 
 State at large are justly proud. 
 
 With such a man at the head of public affairs, 
 the city's upward and onward march is sure to 
 receive an added impetus and the cause of law and 
 order be jealously and effectively defended. 
 
 FRANCIS CHARLES HUME, 
 
 GALVESTON. 
 
 The following is extracted from a biographical 
 sketch penned by the late Col. Thomas M. Jack, of 
 the Galveston bar, a near friend and professional 
 brother of its subject, and published in the En- 
 cyclopedia of the New West: — 
 
 F. Charles Hume was born in Walker County, 
 Texas, February 17, 1843, the son of John Hume, 
 a native of Culpepper County, Va., a planter, who 
 emigrated to Texas 1839, and resided in Walker 
 County until his death in 1864. 
 
 Mr. Hume received a liberal education. At the 
 age of eighteen he left his native State, immediately 
 after the first battle of Manassas, in a company of 
 volunteers known as Company D., Fifth Texas 
 Kegiment, organized in Virginia, and placed under 
 command of Col. J. J. Archer, of Maryland. This 
 regiment, together with the First and Fourth Texas, 
 at one time the Eighteenth Georgia, and subse- 
 quently the Third Arkansas, constituted the famous 
 command known in history as "Hood's Texas 
 Brigade," of which Gen. Louis T. Wigfall was the 
 first, and Gen. John B. Hood the second commander. 
 Its first winter was spent in the snows about Dum- 
 fries, on the Potomac. He participated in John- 
 ston's celebrated retreat from the Peninsular, and 
 entered his first battle at Eltham's Landing (West 
 Point), near the York river. He was in the battle 
 of Seven Pines, and shortly afterwards near the 
 same ground, was wounded in the right leg while 
 participating in an assault on the enemy's works 
 led by Capt. D. N. Barziza in command of one 
 hundred and fifty men chosen for the purpose from 
 the three Texas regiments. Confined in the hos- 
 pital at Richmond by his wound until after Mc- 
 Clellan had been defeated and driven to Harrison's 
 Landing, he did not rejoin his regiment until the 
 
 beginning of the lighter engagements that culmi- 
 nated in the second battle of Manassas. Seven 
 flag-bearers of the Fifth Regiment were wounded in 
 the battle, Mr. Hume being the sixth, receiving a 
 bullet in the left thigh. He was mentioned in 
 complimentarj' terms in the official report of the 
 battle made by the Colonel of the regiment, J. B. 
 Robertson, afterwards commander of the brigade. 
 
 After the healing of his wound, Mr. Hume re- 
 joined the army at Culpepper Courthouse, and 
 participated in the battle of Fredericksburg, late 
 in 1862. Shortly after this he was promoted from 
 the ranks to a First Lieutenancy in the Confederate 
 States army, and assigned to duty on the Peninsula 
 as Adjutant of the Thirty-second Battalion of 
 Virginia Cavalry. In this capacity he served until 
 the battalion, with another, was merged into a regi- 
 ment, when he was assigned to command a picket 
 detail of scouts on the lower Peninsula. With this 
 command Lieut. Hume operated for several months 
 near Williamsburg, experiencing all the perils of 
 that peculiar service and becoming familiar with its 
 ceaseless ambuscades and surprises. 
 
 Gen. M. W. Gary, of South Carolina, in 1864, 
 assumed command of the cavalry in the Penin- 
 sula, and attached Lieut. Hume to his staff. 
 Shortly after this a battle was fought at Riddle's 
 Shop, on the Charles City Road, in which Gen. 
 Gary engaged troops under Gen. Hancock, the 
 latter having been sent to threaten Richmond to 
 cover Grant's crossing to the south side of the 
 James. In this action Lieut. Hume had the 
 honor of being assigned on the field to the com- 
 mand of the Seventh South Carolina Regiment of 
 Cavalry. The last considerable battle in which he 
 took part was the engagement of Tilghman's Farm, 
 
328 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 on James river, the Confederate commander being 
 Gen. Gary. Here he received his third and last 
 wound, having been shot through the body. The 
 Richmond papers published his name in the dead 
 list of that action. When sufficiently recovered to 
 travel he went to Texas on a furlough, reaching there 
 in October, 1864. Recovering his health he was 
 requested by Gen. J. G. Walker to inspect troops 
 and departments about Tyler, which he did. Soon 
 afterwards he accepted an invitation from Gen. A. 
 P. Bagbey to serve on his staff in Louisiana, and 
 remained with that officer as Assistant Adj atant- 
 General with the rank of Major. 
 
 When the great Civil War ended, Maj. Hume 
 began to prepare in earnest for the important battle 
 of civil life. He completed his preparations for 
 the bar, and was admitted to practice by the Dis- 
 trict Court of Walker County, at Huntsville, in 
 1865, and followed his calling there for about one 
 year. From Huntsville he went to Galveston, and 
 rapidly took rank as an able lawyer. His patient 
 industry, fidelity, and attainments soon gave him 
 prominence at a bar that has no superior in the 
 State of Texas. He was admitted to practice in 
 the Supreme Court in 1866, and in 1877 was enrolled 
 as an attorney of the Supreme Court of the United 
 States at Washington. 
 
 Then only twenty-three, in 1866, he was elected 
 
 to represent Walker County in the Eleventh Texas 
 Legislature, and served one term. He was City 
 Attorney for Galveston for the municipal year of 
 1877. 
 
 Maj. Hume was educated at Austin College, 
 Texas, and subsequently spent a year at the Uni- 
 versity of Virginia. He has always been a Demo- 
 crat in his political views, but has not aspired to 
 position in the world of politics, his ambition being 
 wholly professional. To his business he has devoted 
 himself patiently and faithfully. He has no rule 
 but to do his duty with unfaltering fidelity. Court- 
 eous, affable and honorable, he is held in the 
 highest esteem by his professional brethren, who 
 are best able to judge his merits. Whatever he 
 does he delights in doing well ; prepares his cases 
 with great care and study, and is never taken by 
 surprise. He looks at both sides with a true judi- 
 cial judgment, and hence is very successful in the 
 prosecution of his profession. He never descends 
 to the arts of the pettifogger or charlatan, but 
 aspires to the highest professional standard. 
 
 He would anywhere he recognized as a man of 
 talent. As a speaker he is argumentative and 
 logical, sometimes rhetorical and eloquent. His 
 great reliance is on the merits of his case, and he 
 appeals rather to the judgment of men than to 
 their sympathies and passions. 
 
 H. K. JONES, 
 
 DILWORTH, GONZALES COUNTY. 
 
 Mr. H. K. Jones, one of tlie wealthiest and most 
 influential citizens of Gonzales County, Texas, was 
 born in Decatur, Lawrence County, Alabama, in 
 1840 ; came to Texas in 1855 with his parents, Mr. 
 Tignal Jones and Mrs. Susan Jones (wee Miss 
 Susan King) who located at San Antonio ; was sent 
 to the University at Oxford, Mississippi, and was a 
 student in that institution of learning when war was 
 declared between the States ; returned to his home 
 at San Antonio at the beginningof hostilities and 
 enlisted as a private in Company K., Twenty-fourth 
 Texas dismounted cavalry, commanded by Col. F. 
 C. Wilkes ; was afterward elected Lieutenant of his 
 company ; in December, 1862, was captured, with 
 the entire brigade, at Arkansas Post, upon the fall 
 of that fort, and taken first to Camp Chase, near 
 Columbus, Ohio, and four months later to Fort 
 
 Delaware near Philadelphia, where he remained 
 until exchanged in April, 1863 ; then made his way 
 to the army at Tullahoma, Tenn., where his old 
 regiments were reorganized, with Dishler as com- 
 mander of brigade and Pat Cleburne as commander 
 of division : was appointed Adjutant, and a month 
 later Quartermaster of his regiment ; although, as 
 Quartermaster not expected to take part in engage- 
 ments, volunteered in several battles, and was 
 severely wounded at New Hope Church ; May 27th, 
 1864, was again captured, and in October following 
 exchanged ; remained in the Confederate hospital 
 at Fort Valley, Ga., for a month, and then joinqd 
 Gen. Hood's army at Decatur, and served under 
 that commander in the famous Tennessee campaign, 
 participating as a volunteer, among others, in the 
 battles of Spring Hill, Franklin and Nashville. On 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 329 
 
 Hood's retreat Mr. Jones marched bare-footed out 
 of Tennessee. His feet were so badly wounded by 
 the rough stones of the turnpike along which the 
 soldiers trudged that he was compelled to go to the 
 hospital, where he remained for two weeks, after 
 which he returned to the army on its way to North 
 Corolina, and was made Adjutant-general of Gran- 
 bury's old brigade, commanded at the time by Col. 
 Cole, of Memphis, Tenn. His command was 
 ordered into the battle of Bentonville, N. C, but 
 the Federals broke line and retreated, leaving their 
 dead and wounded on the field, as this part of the 
 Confederate force came in sight, and the brigade 
 was consequently not engaged. Shortly after the 
 surrender of Johnston's army near Jonesboro, 
 Granbury's Texas brigade, which enlisted 6,000 
 strong at the beginning of the war, surrendered 
 one hundred and thirty-seven guns to Gen. Sher- 
 man. Thousands had gone in those days after 
 days of battle, shock and dreadful carnage, to sol- 
 diers' graves. They rest now in peace in Fame's 
 great Valhalla. Their memories are enshrined in 
 loving comrades' hearts. For them 
 
 " The muffled drum's sad roll has beat 
 The soldier's last tattoo, 
 No more on life's parade shall meet 
 That brave but fallen few. 
 On Fame's eternal camping ground 
 Their silent tents are spread. 
 And Glory guards with solemn round 
 The bivouac of the dead. 
 
 The Macedonian Phalanx under Alexander, the 
 Tenth Legion under Cajsar and the Old Guard under 
 the first Napoleon did not display a fortitude and 
 valor superior to that of this heroic brigade. 
 
 Its history was singularly brilliant. After Gran- 
 bury and Cleburne fell to rise no more upon the 
 bard contested and blood stained field of Franklin it 
 maintained the reputation that it had earned under 
 those leaders undimmed until the Confederate 
 colors were furled under the shade of the tall pines 
 of North Carolina, never again to be shaken out to 
 the breeze and lead brave hearts on to victory or 
 death. When the last sad act in the drama of war 
 had been played the battle-scarred survivors of the 
 brigade separated sadly for their homes, many of 
 them to meet no more. As a soldier Mr. Jones 
 sought, like he has in all the other walks of life, to 
 do his full duty, and as a consequence was respected 
 and beloved by his comrades in arms. 
 
 He says the negro question was undoubtedly the 
 main issue in the war, that he always regarded 
 slavery as a moral wrong and that the Southern 
 people are well rid of the institution, but that it is 
 
 deeply to be deplored that it could not have been 
 abolished without resort to war. 
 
 " I have seen more dead men " said he, " on one 
 battle field than all the negroes in the country were 
 worth." 
 
 How short-sighted is human wisdom. The phi- 
 losopher Locke and other philanthropic men of his 
 time conceived the idea of sending agents to Africa 
 to negotiate vvith various tribes and buy a number 
 of prisoners captured in the fierce tribal wars of 
 extermination then prevailing and carry them to the 
 plantations in North America. The humane design 
 of these great men was in the first instance to save 
 the lives of the unhappy wretches, in the next to 
 transport them to new scenes, where they could 
 learn the peaceful art of agriculture and become 
 civilized, and finally after these ends had been 
 accomplished to send them back to Africa to civilize 
 and Christianize that continent. What appears at 
 the time to be the height of human wisdom is in 
 reality the height of human folly, and what appears 
 to be wholly right not infrequently has at its heart 
 the seeds of radical wrong. What a dismal end 
 awaited the schemes of those philosophers ! The 
 slave trade, with its unspeakable atrocities, soon 
 grew to frightful proportions under the impetus 
 of New England cupidity. Its foul anuals are 
 familiar to the students of history. 
 
 Under the Constitution it was abolished shortly 
 after the formation of the American Union. The 
 Constitution recognized, however, the slaves 
 already in the country as property, and provided 
 for the recovery of fugitives fleeing from one State 
 to another. The anti-slavery party precipitated 
 the war. Through its influence every acquisition 
 of territory was opposed, citizens of the Southern 
 States murdered when they attempted to remove 
 with their property to territories purchased by the 
 common blood and treasure of the country, the 
 express provision of the Constitution providing for 
 the surrender of fugitive slaves to their masters 
 upon demand, nullified by express statutory enact- 
 ments in many Northern States, or trampled under 
 foot by armed mobs, and all manner of bitterness 
 stirred up until the hearty hate of one section for 
 the other culminated in one attempting to peace- 
 fully sever its connection from the other and live 
 apart, and a war that has no parallel in ancient or 
 modern times. It was a direful day when the first 
 slave was brought ashore aipon American soil. 
 The evils that have followed have been innumerable. 
 How different would have been the history of the 
 country if such an event had never taken place ! 
 
 The fearful storm of war that swept over this 
 devoted land from 1861 to 1865 shook the very 
 
330 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 foundations of popular government, and they have 
 never since become firmly settled. The Consti- 
 tution was warped and twisted until it bears little 
 semblance to what it was, and construclions have 
 been made and precedents laid that are full of 
 danger — not immediate, but real for all that, as 
 under these constructions and precedents a bitter 
 partisan executive and Congress could do anything 
 necessary to accomplish their ends, however nefar- 
 ious. 
 
 There are graves from the Potomac to the Rio 
 Grande, and from the Atlantic to the Paciflc oceans 
 filled with the country's brightest and bravest and 
 best. Mr. Jones truly says all the negroes owned 
 by the Southern people were not worth such a fear- 
 ful price. In justice to that people, however, it is 
 necessary to repeat the statement (and it can be 
 made truly) that they are not to be held responsible 
 for the war. It was thrust upon them. Such will 
 be the verdict of impartial history in after times. 
 
 Mr. Jones returned to Texas by way of New 
 Orleans, on the first steamer run after the war. 
 E. J. Davis, afterwards Republican Governor of 
 Texas, was a passenger on the boat. Mr. Jones 
 landed at Galveston in May, 1865, and found that 
 
 nearly all of his father's possessions had been 
 swept away by the war. He repaired to Victoria, 
 clerked for a short time in a mercantile establish- 
 ment at that place, and then engaged in merchan- 
 dizing at Gonzales, in copartnership with his 
 father, but the venture proving unsuccessful, soon 
 embarked in other pursuits. 
 
 October 29th, 1867, he was united in marriage 
 to Miss Mary F. Braches, daughter of Charles and 
 Sarah A. Braches, of Peach Creek, Gonzales 
 County, a lady of much refinement and worth, and 
 settled in the eastern part of the county, near 
 Peach Creek, at what is now Dilworth Station. 
 
 Mrs. Jones is one of the most accomplished and 
 queenly of our noble Texas ladies, and her palatial 
 home is the seat of that elegance, refinement and 
 hospitality that distinguished the South under the 
 old regime. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Jones have one child, Anna, wife 
 of Mr. James B. Kennard, of Gonzales, Texas. 
 
 Mr. Jones is a business man of rare discern- 
 ment and ability, and has met with a large measure 
 of success in his financial operations. He is a 
 member of the Democratic party and of the Royal 
 Arch degree in Masonry. 
 
 WILLIAM CLEMENS, 
 
 NEW BRAUNFELS. 
 
 Hon. William Clemens, son of Wilhelm and 
 Wilhemine Clemens, of German ancestry, was born 
 in Germany on the 8th day of October, 1843. His 
 father followed the honorable occupation of car- 
 penter in Germany. His parents emigrated to 
 Texas in 1849, bringing him with them, and settled 
 in New Braunfels, Comal County. At the age of 
 twelve years he suffered an irreparable loss in the 
 death of his mother, whom he dearly loved. He 
 passed through youth and into manhood without 
 her gentle care, but her sainted memory and the 
 lessons learned at her knee remained with and 
 cheered him in moments of sadness and trial and 
 urged him on to be a winner in the battle of life. 
 He was apprenticed to Hon. John A. Staehely, 
 who now lives at Darmstadt, Germany. Mr. 
 Staehely was then doing the largest and most lucra- 
 tive business at New Braunfels and to his strictly 
 honest and methodical business ways and fatherly 
 advice, Mr. Clemens ascribes a great deal of his 
 
 success in life, and has alwa3'S entertained for him 
 sentiments of respect and warmest friendship. Mr. 
 Clemens entered the Confederate army at eighteen 
 years of age, enlisting in 1862, and participated in 
 the sharp engagement at Jenkins Ferry in Arkansas. 
 He was Orderly Sergeant of Capt. Bose's company 
 of volunteers, of which office he is exceedingly 
 proud. He was afterwards elected Lieutenant. 
 After the war he engaged in merchandising, in 
 which he was quite successful, and then went into 
 the banking business. After having served four 
 years as Alderman of the city of New Braunfels and 
 eight j'ears as trustee and treasurer of the New 
 Braunfels Academj', he was elected to the House of 
 Representatives of the Texas Legislature, in 1879, 
 from the Eighty-ninth District, composed of Bexar 
 and Comal counties, and also served in the house 
 of the Twenty-first Legislature, representing Comal, 
 Bianco and Gillespie counties, each time being 
 elected without opposition at the polls. In 1890 he 
 
JOHN MAXWELL JONES. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 331 
 
 was elected to the State Senate, from the Twenty- 
 fifth District, composed of Caldwell, Hays, Guada- 
 lupe, Comal, Blanco, Llano and Kendall counties. 
 In 1879 he was the author of the bill to improve the 
 public free school system then in vogue in towns 
 and cities and, also, of an amendment to the 
 penal code punishing severely misapplication of 
 public money (both of which became laws) and 
 assisted very materially in the passage of the bill 
 to regulate continuances in criminal cases and place 
 discretion in the hands of the trial judge. In the 
 Twenty-first Legislature he was one of the sub-com- 
 mittee that perfected the House Railroad Bill that 
 was passed by that body but killed in the Senate, 
 and offered a bill regulating teachers' certificates 
 according to the law of the State of New York. 
 He was one of the pioneers in the advocacy of the 
 railroad commission idea, which has since been car- 
 ried into effect. He favors a commission, hoping 
 that it will lead to the State owning and operating 
 its own railroads. A proposition looking to that 
 end was defeated in the Committee on Platform at 
 the Democratic State Convention held in 1890 by a 
 vote of eighteen to twelve only. In the Senate, 
 during the session the Twenty-second Legislature, 
 he introduced a bill providing for the Australian 
 ballot system, making it operative over the entire 
 State and a bill prohibiting the acceptance of free rail- 
 road passes by legislative, judicial and executive 
 officers, both of which were passed by the Senate, 
 and, further introduced a bill designed for the 
 suppression of homicide by striking the degree of 
 manslaughter from the penal-code. He was Chair- 
 man of the Committee on Finance and Chairman of 
 the Committee on Contingent Expenses, and was 
 considered one of the ablest members of the 
 
 Senate. Mr. Clemens withdrew from active politi- 
 cal life several years ago, but his well-known phi- 
 lanthropic views led Gov. C. A. Culberson to offer 
 him an appointment as one of the Board of Com- 
 missioners of the Texas State Penitentiaries, which 
 he accepted. Mr. Clemens was shortly thereafter 
 elected to and now holds the position of Chairman 
 of that body. He has been foremost in every 
 good work. Four years ago a hospital society was 
 organized at New Braunfels and later, as a result 
 of its efforts, a fine hospital building erected in 
 that city. Mr. Clemens was elected President of 
 the association and has continuously served as such 
 from its inception. Charity patients are admitted 
 to the walls of the institution and given that care 
 and medical attention in keeping with an 
 enlightened Christian civilization. The society's 
 work also includes other charitable and benevo- 
 lent purposes. Mr. Clemens' mind is broad 
 enough and heart warm enough for him to dis- 
 regard all distinctions of creed, race and social 
 condition when a case of suffering presents 
 itself. For him to know that it exists is suflicient 
 and he seeks to relieve it. He is a genuine lover of 
 his kind, a public-spirited citizen, a kind father, a 
 sincere friend and a true patriot. He has always 
 aided every public enterprise in his section and is 
 one of the men who built the famous dam across 
 the Comal river at New Braunfels. The dam fur- 
 nishes a fine water-power and it will be, in the near 
 future, the means through which many a good and 
 honest laborer will be enabled to earn a livelihood. 
 Mr. Clemens was married at New Braunfels in 
 1873, to Miss K. von Koll, daughter of Mr. John 
 von Koll, the Auditor and confidential agent of the 
 German Emigration Society, in 1845. 
 
 JOHN MAXWELL JONES, 
 
 GALVESTON. 
 
 In December, 1836, the Congress of Texas, at 
 its first session at Columbia, in consideration of 
 $50,000, granted to Michael B. Menard a league 
 of land on the eastern end of Galveston Island, 
 then unoccupied by a single human habitation. 
 Upon this tract of land, the following year. Col. 
 Menard laid out the city of Galveston. In April, 
 1838, the first lots were sold and in August, 1839, 
 the place was incorporated. Beginning with 1837, 
 for several succeeding years Galveston became the 
 
 objective point of most of the settlers coming to 
 the country, and there also many of the enter- 
 prising spirits who sought homes and fortune in 
 the new Republic cast their lots. One of the 
 men who thus early became identified with the 
 Island City upon the history of which he left in full 
 measure the imprint of his talents and character 
 was John Maxwell Jones, a brief memoir of whom 
 here follows. 
 
 Mr. Jones came of good antecedents. On his 
 
332 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 falhei's side his ancestry is traced to Ireland, pos- 
 sibly more remote!}' to Wales. His mother's peo- 
 ple were Scotch. Theophilus Jones, his paternal 
 grandfather, was born in Dublin, Ireland, some- 
 where near the middle of the last century ; emi- 
 grated thence with his wife and an infant son 
 to America in 1774, stopping for a time at 
 Charleston, S. C. There his wife died, after 
 which event he went to Wilmington, Del., where, 
 on May 4th, 1775, he married Miss Mary Eccles, 
 daughter of John and Mary J^ccles, and settled 
 himself at his trade as a cabinetmaker. He 
 was a skillful workman and in time became a man 
 of some means ; afterwards abandoned cabinet- 
 making and engaged in trade with the West Indies 
 which he followed with profit until bis death on the 
 island of St. Kitts, West Indies, about the begin- 
 ning of the present century. In addition to the 
 son by the flrst marriage referred to, he left sur- 
 viving him three sons and two daughters by his 
 second marriage, namely, Mary McCorkle, John, 
 Theophilus, Isabella Anderson, and George. The 
 youngest of these, George Jones, was the father 
 of John M., of this article. George Jones was 
 born in Wilmington, Del., March 1, 1784. He 
 married Jane Ochiltree, of Wilmington, Jan- 
 uary 28, 1811, and had issue two sons and 
 three daughters: Mary Jane, John Maxwell, Eliza- 
 beth Ann, George Crowe and Isabella. Mr. Jones' 
 wife died in 1821, and he later married Anna M. 
 Alexander McMullen, daughter of Dr. Archibald 
 Alexander and widow of A. McMullen, by whom he 
 had a daughter and sou, Henrietta Ord and Archi- 
 bald Alexander, the latter dying in infancy. The 
 senior Mr. Jones, father of John M., was a man of 
 superior abilitj' as a financier and occupied a prom- 
 inent place in Wilmington for many years. He 
 was taught the trade of watchmaking by bis father, 
 but later gave this up for the profession of dentistry 
 and, after having accumulated some means, de- 
 voted much of his attention to general business 
 pursuits and the purchase and sale of Wilmington 
 property and the building of workingmen's homes. 
 For twenty-five 3'ears he was president of the 
 Delaware Fire Insurance Company, was one of the 
 originators of the Wilmington Savings Fund and 
 remained one of its directors as long as he lived, 
 was a director of the Bank of Wilmington and 
 Brandywine, since nationalized and still in exist- 
 ence, one of the founders of Friendship Fire Engine 
 Company, the oldest organization of the kind in 
 Wilmington, and was a member of Hanover Street 
 Presbyterian church, in which for fifty years he was 
 an elder. His death occurred at Wilmington, August 
 15, 18fi7. 
 
 George Jones was a man of rare intelligence and 
 thrift and a man of advanced ideas on education. 
 He gave his children the very best of educations, 
 his younger son George graduating from Princeton 
 College in 1838. On his mother's side John M. 
 Jones was directly descended from revolutionary 
 sires, his great-grandfather, John Waugh, having 
 been with Gen. Washington at Valley Forge during 
 the terrible winter of 177G. 
 
 From such ancestry the subject of this memoir 
 sprung and, surrounded by scenes of commercial 
 thrift and in an air strongly impregnated with 
 morality and religious feeling, his boyhood and 
 early youth were passed. He was born at Wilming- 
 ton, Del., October 8, 1814, and educated in the 
 schools of that place and at Bloomfleld, N. J., lay- 
 ing aside his books at about the age of eighteen to 
 take up the trade of a jeweler, which he mastered 
 under his father. His father offered to send him to 
 Princeton along with his brother George but he de- 
 clined, having already a good education and being 
 desirous of striking out for himself into active busi- 
 ness life. In the fall of 1836, having been taken 
 with a severe attack of inflammatory rheumatism in 
 Philadelphia, where he had been clerking for a 
 year in the jewelry house of Edward P. Lescure, and 
 as his ph3'sician recommended him to take a sea 
 voyage, he determined to sail on a vessel then 
 bound for New Orleans. Through the efforts of his 
 father, his employer, and others, he look with him 
 some twenty letters of introduction to prominent 
 merchants in New Orleans, Natchez and Vicksburg. 
 These letters spoke of him in tiie highest terms. 
 His employer, Edward P. Lescure, wrote as 
 follows : — • 
 
 "Philadelphia, Nov. 1st, 1836. 
 
 "The bearer, Mr. John M. Jones, has been in 
 my employ for the last twelve months and I take 
 pleasure in bearing testimony to his integrity, 
 sobriety, energy, good disposition and gentlemanly 
 deportment." 
 
 On crutches he boarded his vessel, taking with him 
 his father's gift of his own warm cloak and a hun- 
 dred dollars in monej-, and in due course of time 
 reached his destination, much improved in health. 
 Having brought with him a letter of introduction to 
 Hyde & Goodrich, then and for many years after- 
 wards the leading jewelers of tbat section, he 
 sought them out on his arrival. Mr. William Good- 
 rich interested himself in the young man and soon 
 found for hira an opening in Woodville, Miss., in an 
 excellent jewelry house. 
 
 Mr. Jones went there about Februaiy, 1837, 
 remaining with his employer until July, 1838, at 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 333 
 
 wliich time he became imbued with Texas fevei' 
 through letters written him by his friend, James 
 Benson, who had been for several years located at 
 Washington, Texas. Mr. Jones had now become 
 very much attached to the South, its climate and its 
 people. He wished to engage in business for himself, 
 hence he returned to New Orleans and sought the 
 friendly counsel of his friend, Wm. Goodrich. Mr. 
 Goodrich advised him to first try Shreveport, La., 
 before going to Texas. About November, 1838, 
 he pacljed up his possessions, taking along in his 
 trunk a nice assortment of watches and jewelry 
 purchased from his savings. On the boat he fell 
 in with a young jeweler and watchmaker, George 
 Ball, from New York, bound for the same town. 
 Mr. Ball located at Shreveport, but Mr. Jones, 
 after looking the place over to his satisfaction, 
 turned his steps toward Texas, reaching Galveston 
 about January 1st, 1839. He settled there, and 
 at once opened a shop. He put up one of the first 
 buildings in the town, erected in a string of wooden 
 structures on vehat is now the Strand, then called 
 by him Commercial Row, his building, a two-story 
 frame, being the best in the row. It cost him 
 $1,000 "in United States money" which he paid 
 down on its completion, the lot on which it stood 
 being leased for a term of five years at $400 a year 
 " in Texas money." In the primitive condition of 
 things at that date the houses were not numbered, 
 but Mr. Jones through sport selected the day of the 
 month on which he was born as his number and the 
 street in the meantime having been named put on 
 his sign, "No. 8 Strand." So his place of busi- 
 ness was for a long time afterwards known, and a 
 clock which he for years used as a regulator, still 
 in the possession of his son, bears this designation. 
 His central location made space in his building 
 desirable and he had no difficulty in renting half of 
 his house at $50.00 a month, still having all the 
 room he needed. He was the first regular watch- 
 maker on Galveston Island, and, as more than half 
 the immigration to Texas in those days went 
 through Galveston, he repaired the time-pieces 
 and furnished the time for most of the population 
 of the Republic. "Jones' time" was considered 
 the correct time and everybody went by it. He 
 also did a good business repairing nautical instru- 
 ments, getting all the work of this kind that there 
 was to do. He was an industrious workman and 
 shrewd tradesman, and his activity and upright 
 business methods brought him substantial returns. 
 That he had the instinct of the latter-day merchant 
 is evidenced by the liberality with which he patron- 
 ized the newspapers and sought in every legitimate 
 way to place his goods and wares before the public. 
 
 In an old issue of the Cifilian and Gazette of date 
 1845, the writer counted five separate advertisements 
 of his, one of which was accompanied by a cut of his 
 building, said to be the first cut ever inserted in a 
 Texas newspaper. He turned to good account his 
 acquaintance and previous connection with Hyde & 
 Goodrich, of New Orleans, receiving from them such 
 goods as he needed and for which he seems to have 
 found a ready sale. One of the advertisements 
 referred to above sets forth that he had just received 
 a large assortment of " Fashionable and fancy 
 jewelry, school books, stationery, blank books, 
 annuals, albums, gift books, writing, letter and 
 note paper, vi&iting and conversation cards, cutlery, 
 combs, suspenders, gloves, stocks, straps etc., etc." 
 
 One of the first things he did was to form a tem- 
 perance society and to push the subject of good 
 schools in his little communit}-. Although a mem- 
 ber of the Presbyterian Church, he allied himself 
 with the Episcopalians for many years, as this sect 
 was the most active in church work and the pastor, 
 the Rev. Mr. Eaton, was his intimate friend. 
 
 Mr. Jones took an active interest in the town ; 
 became a member of its first fire company. Hook 
 and Ladder Company, No. 1; was commissioned by 
 President Houston Captain of militia for "Beat 
 No. 2, Fourth Regiment, Second Brigade, Militia 
 of the Republic of Texas," and, in 1850, was the 
 commissioner from Texas appointed by Governor 
 Bell to the London Industrial Exhibition, for which 
 he collected exhibits and, in company with Dr. 
 Ashbel Smith, set forth as best he could with the 
 limited means at his command the resources of this 
 imperial commonwealth. 
 
 After his return from Europe in 1851, Mr. Jones 
 associated with himself Messrs. John B. Root and 
 B. R. Davis, forming a partnership under the firm 
 name of Jones, Root & Davis, and embarked in the 
 furniture, jewelry and book business on a somewhat 
 extensive scale. This business prospered until the 
 Civil War when, with the closing of the port of Gal- 
 veston, it was discontinued. Mr. Jones was past 
 the age for military duty when the war opened but 
 entered the Confederate service in the commissary 
 department, and spent the most of his time during 
 the ensuing four years in the interior of the State 
 procuring and forwarding supplies to the soldiers 
 at the front. While he deplored the dismember- 
 ment of the Union, still he thought that the rights 
 of the South had been invaded and that the only 
 course left for her to' pursue was the one she 
 adopted. 
 
 On May 25, 1852, at Galveston, Mr. Jones mar- 
 ried Miss Henrietta Offenbach, who was then 
 visiting her sister, Mrs. Sam Maas, of that place. 
 
334 
 
 INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Thej' were married by Ihe Rev. Mr. Eaton. Ex- 
 Governor Frank Lubbock was one of the grooms. 
 Mrs. Jones was a native of Cologne, Germany, 
 and a sister of the great Parisian composer, 
 Jacques Offenbach. Previous to taking this step 
 Mr. Jones bad purchased property on Broadway, 
 between Seventeenth and P^ighteenth streets (an 
 entire block), where, having erected what for the 
 time was an excellent dwelling, he established him- 
 self and lived for some years in bachelor quarters, 
 dispensing a generous hospitality to his numerous 
 friends. Three daughters, Anna M., Rosanna 
 Osterman, and Henrietta Ord, and one son, William 
 Goodrich, named for his old friend, the jeweler of 
 New Orleans, were the issue of this union. In the 
 earlier days Mr. Jones underwent many of the 
 privations to which the inhabitants of Galveston 
 Island were subjected, and during the Civil War 
 he and his family suffered in common with others 
 all the hardships which were visited upon the people 
 of that city. He passed through eight yellow fever 
 epidemics, he and his entire family at one time or 
 another having the disease, one daughter, Rosa, 
 dying of it. 
 
 After the war Mr. Jones took his family to 
 Europe, in consequence of his wife's broken health, 
 and remained there nearly a year, returning in the 
 latter part of 1866, when he took up his resi- 
 dence in New York. There he organized the New 
 York and Texas Land Company, with which he 
 was subsequently connected, and as long as he 
 lived devoted his attention chiefly to land matters. 
 During his residence in Texas he had, as his means 
 accumulated, made considerable investments in 
 Texas real estate both in the city of Gavleston and 
 in unimproved lands in different counties, and 
 these holdings advancing in price with the set- 
 tlement of the country, formed the foundation 
 of a comfortable fortune, the oversight of which 
 together with his other duties occupied his 
 time during the last twenty years of his life. 
 He built a home in Brooklyn, N. Y., and a 
 summer residence at Saratoga Springs in that 
 
 State, and between these two places spent his time, 
 making an occasional trip to Texas, and once — 
 from 1872 to 1<875 — an extended trip to Europe. 
 Though much absent in later life from the State he 
 never forgot the scenes of his early struggles nor 
 the friends of his young manhood. He was devoted 
 to Texas and her people with that ardent attach- 
 ment which characterizes the feelings of all those 
 who have shared in the glories and sorrows of its 
 early days. He was the kind of material of which 
 new States are made. His honest, industrious, 
 upright ways won him friends and helped early in 
 his career to make him one of the foremost men in 
 the community where he settled. His achieve- 
 ments, considering his chances, were great ; but 
 back of these was something greater, a character, 
 into the formation of which had entered the in- 
 herited wisdom and virtue of an excellent ancestry, 
 reinforced bj' patient discipline on his own part and 
 a fervent trust in God. 
 
 He spent much of his leisure time in after years 
 in study and philanthropy, and was a man of much 
 knowledge and general culture, and of a strong 
 religious character. After hisremoval to Brooklyn, 
 N. Y., he was for many years a communicant of 
 the Rev. Theo. L. Culyer's Lafaj-ette Avenue Pres- 
 byterian church. 
 
 Like his father, he neither smoked nor chewed 
 tobacco, nor drunk spirituous liquors, deeming a 
 man would remain healthier and happier without 
 these habits. He was an enthusiastic agriculturist 
 and lover of nature, and took great interest in tree 
 planting and the beautifying of cities. After a life 
 of much activitj' and crowned with more than 
 ordinary success he died, passing away at his sum- 
 mer home at Saratoga Springs, N. Y., on the 21st 
 day of April, 1891, in the seventy-seventh year of 
 his age. His widow survived him a little less than 
 four years, dying January 8th, 1895, at Aiken, 
 S. C, whither she had gone for the winter. Their 
 two surviving daughters reside in New Y'ork, their 
 son at Temple, Texas. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 335 
 
 J. H. BURNETT, 
 
 GALVESTON. 
 
 Col. J. H. Burnett, of Galveston, was born in 
 Greeneville, Greene County, Tenn., .July 8, 1830. 
 
 His parents were Sylas E. and Maliuda (Howell) 
 Burnett, Virginians by birth, connected by ties of 
 consanguinity and affinity with some of the proudest 
 names that adorn the pages of the country's his- 
 tory. They moved at an early day from Virginia 
 to Tennessee, and from that State to Georgia, 
 where they spent their remaining years. 
 
 The subject of this memoir was reared in Greene- 
 ville, Tenn., and Somerville, Ga., where he ac- 
 quired an excellent education. 
 
 Fired with the martial spirit, love of country, 
 and desire for adventure common to the cbivalric 
 youth of that day, he enlisted, at the age of six- 
 teen, as a private soldier in Col. Calhoun's Regi- 
 ment, for service in the war between the United 
 States and Mexico. This regiment formed a part 
 of Gen. Winfleld Scott's army, took part in the 
 memorable march of two hundred and seventy- 
 nine miles from Vera Cruz to the city of Mexico, 
 and participated in the various battles that were 
 fought en route and in front of the city, including 
 the storming of the castle of Chepultepec. In all 
 these engagements the subject of this memoir con- 
 ducted himself with conspicuous gallantry, and 
 before the close of the campaign was rewarded with 
 a Lieutenant's commission. Returning to his home 
 in Georgia, he was honored by the Governor with a 
 Colonelcy in the State troops. 
 
 On his way to Mexico he traversed a considerable 
 part of the State of Texas and was so favorably 
 impressed with its climate, soil, people and future 
 prospects, that he determined to make his home in 
 the country. He served as sheriff of Chattooga 
 County, Ga., for a period of two or more years, 
 and then resigned the office to leave Somerville, 
 Ga., for Texas in 1854. He located at Crockett, 
 in Houston County, this State, and there engaged 
 in farming and merchandising, and soon acquired 
 a prominent position in the community, owing to 
 his public spirit, social qualities and superior talents. 
 Three j-ears later he was elected to the Legislature 
 as a member of the House of Representatives. That 
 body then contained a number of men who would 
 have graced the Congress of the United States in its 
 palmiest days and who afterwards acquired national 
 reputations. The policies of the State were in a 
 formative condition and many issues of vital im- 
 
 portance presented themselves for discussion and 
 settlement. Col. Burnett was (as he still is) a 
 clear, forcible and elegant speaker and, from the 
 beginning, took rank among the foremost of his 
 colleagues. He was placed by the Speaker on a 
 majority of the important committees, where his in- 
 defatigable industry, sound judgment and fidelity 
 to duty enabled him to render valuable service to 
 the State. He was re-elected to the House for a 
 second term and before its close added new laurels 
 to those he had ahead}' won. He was then nomi- 
 nated by the Democracy of his district and elected 
 to the State Senate in 1860. Early in the following 
 year, however, the long-gathering hurricane of Civil 
 War burst upon the country and the Southland 
 called her sons to arms. Col. Burnett was among 
 the first to respond ; promptly resigned his seat in 
 the Senate, and in a short time mustered a regiment 
 of sixteen companies (the Thirteenth Texas Cavalry) 
 of which he was elected Colonel. It was his desire 
 to cross the Mississippi and serve under Gen. 
 Joseph E. Johnston, but there was some delay in 
 securing transportation and not desiring to remain 
 inactive he hurried with his command to the front, 
 joining Gen. Ben McCulloch, then conducting a 
 desperate and unequal contest in Arkansas. While 
 the numbers engaged in that State were not 
 so large as in some of the battles fought by 
 the armies of Northern Virginia and Tennessee, 
 several of the conflicts in Arkansas were un- 
 paralled in the history of the war for their stub- 
 bornness, the valor displayed by the men and 
 the proportion of the killed and wounded to the 
 number of the troops brought into action. It was 
 hard fighting all the way through and the Thirteenth 
 did its full share of it. Col. Burnett's regiment 
 also took part in the campaign against Gen. Banks, 
 in Louisiana, one of the most brilliant and success- 
 ful inaugurated and carried out by the Confederate 
 arms, covering itself with glorj' at Mansfield, Pleas- 
 ant Hill and elsewhere. Banks' powerful army was 
 completely routed, Texas saved from invasion and 
 Louisiana bloodily avenged for the depredations of 
 an enemy more savage and merciless than the 
 pagan Huns who devastated Central and Western 
 Europe when the power of imperial Rome, like the 
 tower of Ushur, was darkly nodding to its fall. 
 
 After the war Col. Burnett returned to Crockett 
 where he resumed business pursuits and began by 
 
336 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 wood managament to largely repair the financial 
 losses he had sustained. Desiring a more extensive 
 field in which to operate, he moved to Galveston in 
 1866, and engaged in the commission business with 
 W. B. Wall, under the firm name of Burnett & 
 M'all, and subsequently under the firm name of J. 
 H Burnett & Co., a connection that continued until 
 1878. Here he was the builder and owner of the 
 Tremont Hotel, completed in 1877 and then one of 
 the handsomest hotels in the South. His invest- 
 ments in real estate were begun as early as 1870 
 and now include a large amount of valuable prop- 
 erty in the cities of Galveston and Houston and 
 elsewhere in the Texas coast country. He is 
 perhaps the heaviest tax-payer in Southern Texas. 
 Already identified with the soil and deeply inter- 
 ested in the future prosperity of the State, he 
 entered fully into the spirit of the year of 187.5, 
 which found expression in railway construction. 
 He built sixty-five miles of the Gulf, Colorado & 
 Santa B'e ; Texas & St. Louis ; Houston, East & 
 West Texas and Sabine & East Texas railways under 
 contract ; owned a considerable amount of stock 
 in the companies, helped negotiate the sale of their 
 bonds, and in every practical and legitimate way 
 exerted himself to put them upon a sound and 
 prosperous financial basis. He was also one of the 
 original projectors of the International Railroad 
 Company, helped to secure its charter and, finally, 
 assisted in effecting its consolidation with the 
 Houston & Great Northern and the formation of 
 the present International & Great Northern Railway 
 Company. Among other important work done by 
 him under contract in the city of Galveston was 
 §350,000 worth of work upon the streets and 
 sidewalks of the city and the building of the Ship- 
 pers and Gulf City Compresses, Galveston & 
 Western Railway and Gulf City Street Railway. 
 For a considerable time he owned a majority of the 
 stock in the two latter companies. He has, in fact, 
 been identified with and an active promoter of nearly 
 every important enterprise inaugurated in Galveston 
 during his residence in that city. He has ever 
 enjoyed a profound and unfaltering faith in the 
 future of the city and has been at all times an indefa- 
 tigable worker for the extension of its commer- 
 cial interests. Since the war he has neither sought 
 
 nor desired public office, his private business pur- 
 suits absorbing all of his time and attention. He 
 has never ceased, however, to feel an interest in 
 the cause of good government and to do all that lay 
 in his power to secure its blessings for himself and 
 his fellow-citizens. He is a member of the Demo- 
 cratic party and few men have a more intimate 
 knowledge of its history', principles and traditions 
 or have been so faithful in their support of its 
 nominees. 
 
 In 1851 Col. Burnett was united in marriage to 
 Miss Catherine Beavers, of Somerville, Ga., a 
 daughter of Gen. John F. Beavers, who figured 
 with distinction in the Indian wars of the early part 
 of this century. They reared three children to be 
 grown. Of these Walter E. died at twenty-five, at 
 Calhoun, Ga., in 1870, and was interred at Atlanta ; 
 Oscar H. (a Brazos valle3' planter), died in Hous- 
 ton, Texas, November 9, 1895, aged forty-one 
 years ; and Mrs. Ellen B. Ross, resides in Galveston. 
 Mrs. Burnett died in 1886. Col. Burnett is still in 
 the full vigor of physical health and mental strength 
 and continues actively engaged in business pur- 
 suits. He has shown himself to be a financier of 
 uncommon ability. His social qualities are most 
 agreeable, leading to pleasant and lasting friend- 
 ships. His path of life has stretched across one of 
 the most remarkable periods of American, or for 
 that matter, human history — a period that has 
 witnessed the extension of the territory of the 
 United States to the Pacific Ocean, the admission 
 of Texas to the Union, a Civil War that has no par- 
 allel in ancient or modern times, the building of 
 towns and cities in what, less than a generation 
 ago, it was thought would forever remain an 
 unbroken wilderness, the construction of hundreds 
 of thousands of miles of lines of telegraph and rail- 
 way, and many strange and undreamed of inven- 
 tions that have greatly altered and added to the 
 comfort of daily life. He has not passed through 
 these shifting and stirring scenes as a curious or 
 idle onlooker, but as a member of the pioneer- 
 corps, moving at the front and blazing the way for 
 others to follow. His life has formed a thread in 
 the warp and woof of the history of the times 
 through which he has lived, and may be studied 
 with profit by men of a younger generation. 
 
WM. McFADDIN. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 337 
 
 WILLIAM McFADDlN, 
 
 BEAUMONT. 
 
 Every country lias had its golden or heroic 
 age, the memory of which has been transmitted to 
 after times surrounded with a halo of romantic and 
 chivalric interest. That of Texas may be said to 
 embrace the period of the revolutionary struggle 
 that witnessed the triumph of a few fearless free- 
 men over a powerful foe, and the birth of a blood- 
 bought Republic that, after a career of singular 
 brilliancy, merged itself into the great sisterhood 
 of States comprising the American Union. Not so 
 long as the human heart shall beat responsive to 
 the recital of deeds of patriotic self-sacrifice will 
 the immolation at the Alamo be forgotten, and not 
 until the very names of the Anglo-Saxon and 
 Celtic races shall have faded from the pages of 
 history and men ceased to prize the blessings of 
 constitutional freedom will the memory of San 
 Jacinto fail to stir the pulses of youth and age 
 alike, inspire reverence and affection for the men 
 who wrote with their swords upon the scroll of 
 Time the undying story of our State, and keep 
 warm and true the love of country in the hearts of 
 the people. 
 
 Houston, Rusk, Austin, Travis, Fannin, Burle- 
 son, the Bowies, Crockett, Bonham, Johnson, 
 Milam, Sherman, Lamar, Williamson, Jack, their 
 compeers and the men who followed them to 
 victory or death, are the Immortals of Texas. 
 
 A few of the veterans who followed Johnson and 
 Milam into San Antonio, and who charged under 
 Houston at San Jacinto yet survive, a majoritj' of 
 them old and feeble men who have lived to see the 
 country change from a wilderness to a populous 
 and powerful commonwealth, and to witness the 
 full fruits of the labors of their earlier years. But 
 one of them, at least, is still blessed with strength 
 and health. We refer to William McFaddin, of 
 Beaumont, Texas. He was born at Lake Charles, 
 La., June 8, 1819, and came to Texas with his 
 parents, James and Elizabeth McFaddin, in 1823. 
 The family settled in Liberty County, where they 
 remained until June, 183.3, when they moved into 
 what is now Jefferson County and opened a farm, 
 one mile distant from the present town of Beau- 
 mont, upon which the subject of this memoir now 
 resides. 
 
 Mr. William McFaddin joined the Texian army 
 in 1835, not long after the firing of the first gun of 
 the revolution, and served under Capt. Andrew 
 
 Briscoe in the memorable storming of San Antonio 
 by the columns under Milam and Johnson — one 
 of the most remarkable military feats recorded in 
 the annals of war. He saw Milam a few minutes 
 after that gallant leader was killed and before the 
 body was picked up from the spot where it had 
 fallen. Mr. McFaddin remained in San Antonio 
 until just before the siege of the Alamo. He joined 
 the army under Houston at Columbus, participated 
 in the battle of San Jacinto, was present when 
 Santa Anna was brought in and turned over to 
 Gen. Houston, and, after the battle, was a soldier 
 in the force under Gen. Rusk that followed the 
 retreating army of Filisola as far as Goliad and 
 there buried the charred remains of the men who 
 fell in the Fannin massacre. Mr. McFaddin was 
 honorably discharged from the service June 8th, 
 183G, and walked bare-footed from Goliad to his 
 home near Beaumont. He received a bounty of 
 320 and a donation of 640 acres of land for his 
 services in the revolutionary war (as did other 
 soldiers of San Jacinto) and resumed the business 
 of stock raising in which he had been previously 
 engaged. ■ 
 
 He was united in marriage in 1837 to Miss 
 Rachel Williams, daughter of Hezekiah Williams, 
 of Louisiana, and then received from the Republic 
 of Texas a family head-right of a league and labor 
 of land which he located in Williamson County and 
 upon which now stands the thriving little town of 
 Circleville. Mr. and Mrs. McFaddin have six 
 living children, viz. : James A., who is a prominent 
 stockman of Victoria ; Sarah, now wife of Michael 
 Alexander, of Beaumont; W. P. H., a stock raiser 
 living at Beaumont ; Di, wife of W. C. Averill, of 
 Beaumont; David H., a stock raiser who lives at 
 Victoria, and C. W., who lives in Beaumont. 
 
 Mrs. McFaddin's parents, Hezekiah and Nancy 
 (Reames) Williams, of St. Helena Parish, La., 
 came to Texas in 1833 and located in Jeffer- 
 son County, where Mr. Williams engaged in farm- 
 ing. The Williams family was one of the first three 
 families that settled in the county. A son, Heze- 
 kiah Williams, Jr., took part in the battle of San 
 Jacinto. Mr. and Mrs. Williams have nine chil- 
 dren, all of whom are dead except three: Mrs. 
 William McFaddin, Marion and Annie, now the 
 wife of Nulbar Cropper, of Milam County. Marion, 
 who lives near Buffalo Gap in Taylor County, was 
 
IXDIAX WAliS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 a soldier in the Confederate arm}- and served as 
 such throughout the war between the States. 
 
 Mr. Hezekiah Williams died in Williamson County 
 and is buried there. His wife died in Beaumont, 
 Texas, and is buried in the family cemetery in 
 Jefferson County, near that place. 
 
 Mr. McFaddin's last military service was in the 
 Confederate army. He was detailed to secure 
 beeves for the army, and eonsequentlj^ did not 
 leave Texas during the war. 
 
 When his father came to Liberty County, there 
 were only three people living in Jefferson County. 
 As a consequence, the subject of this notice had no 
 educational advantages and grew to manhood with- 
 
 out an opportunity of attending school. Notwith- 
 standing this drawback, he has been remarkably 
 successful in his business operations, is now one of 
 the wealthiest landowners and stock raisers in the 
 Slate, and in conversation gives no evidence of the 
 want of book-learning. He was his parents' only 
 child when they came to Texas. His father died at 
 Natchitoches, La., in 1845, and his mother near 
 Beaumont in 1848, leaving four children, all of 
 whom, with theexception of Mr. McFaddin, are dead. 
 It is to be hoped that this worthy old hero of 
 San Antonio and San Jacinto, beloved and honored 
 by all who know him, will be spared to his friends, 
 famil3' and Texas for man^' years to come. 
 
 THE ECKHARDT FAMILY, 
 
 YORKTOWN. 
 
 Among the early pioneers of Western Texas, the 
 Eckhardt family should receive prominent mention, 
 as they have been greatly instrumental in develop- 
 ing that section and are still among its leading and 
 most useful citizens. As early as 1843 we find 
 Charles Eckhardt in business in Indianola, Texas. 
 Afterwards he and Capt. John York were the 
 founders of the town of Yorktown, in De Witt 
 County, the town receiving its name from the latter 
 gentleman. In May, 1848, Charles Eckhardt con- 
 tracted with Peter Metz and John Frank to build 
 the first house in Yorktown. This was a log house, 
 twelve by twenty feet, with back room and chim- 
 ney, and was afterwards occupied by his brother, 
 Caisar Eckhardt and his family, for whom it was 
 built. Before this date, in Februarj-, 1848, how- 
 ever, Charles Elekhardt had contracted with John 
 A. King, also one of the early settlers of Western 
 Texas, to survey and open a public road from the 
 town of Victoria to the prospective town of York- 
 town and thence to the town of New Braunfels. 
 This contract is still in existence and stipulates 
 that Charles Eckhardt and his associates in the 
 scheme were to pay one hundred and fifty dollars 
 to John A. King for the survey of this road which 
 was to shorten the distance between Victoria and 
 New Braunfels twenty miles and to run on the 
 western side of the Guadalupe river. This road 
 was for a number of years the main thoroughfare 
 between these points and is still the principal road 
 between Victoria and Yorktown. Charles Eckhardt 
 
 was one of the business pioneers of Western 
 Texas. He was engaged in various mercantile 
 enterprises and was a gentleman of culture, speak- 
 ing several modern languages. He was a Mexican 
 War veteran. In 1852 he went to Central America 
 and died on his return trip and was buried in New 
 Orleans. 
 
 In December, 1849, his brother, C;esar Eckhardt, 
 settled in Yorktown with his famil}'. The}- brought 
 with them a number of people from Germany and 
 in a few years man}^ of the sturdy German families 
 who have since settled in Yorktown and vicinity 
 followed and soon changed a Western wilderness 
 into one of the most prosperous settlements of this 
 great State. Caesar Eckhardt was born August 5th, 
 1806, in Laasphe, Germany. He received a liberal 
 education, was a Lieutenant of artillery in the 
 Prussian army for three years, and afterwards 
 entered the civil service of the government and 
 occupied a position as magistrate when he emigrated 
 to Texas. He married Miss Louise Fisher, in 
 1833, in Laasphe, Germany, and the family con- 
 sisted of themselves and their children : Robert, 
 William, Louise, Emilie, Johanna, Marie, and 
 Herman, when they emigrated to Texas. Their 
 youngest child, Mathilde, was born in Texas. Im- 
 mediately upon their arrival in Texas they engaged 
 in agricultural and mercantile pursuits and in 1850 
 laid the foundation for the prosperity of the widely 
 known firm of C. Eckhardt & Sons. For many 
 years, both before and during the late war between 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEFAIS OF TEXAS. 
 
 339 
 
 the Stales and up to the time of his death, he was 
 most active in building up that section and faithfully 
 performing his duties as a citizen. On coming to the 
 countr}- he at once natuvalized and became a thor- 
 ough-going American. He occupied at various 
 times positions of trust in his county. During the 
 war he alligned himself with the lost cause and, al- 
 though too old to join the regular army, organized 
 a companj' of minute men, of which he was Captain. 
 His two oldest sons, however, of whom we 
 shall speak later, both joined the Confederate army 
 and served throughout the entire war. After the 
 ■war he continued his business. He died on the 28th 
 
 death and was active in the discharge of her duties 
 as such until a year or two ago she became feeble, 
 when she removed to her oldest daughter, Mrs. 
 Louise von Boeder, where she died Sundaj-, April 
 7th, 1895, surrounded and beloved bj' her children 
 and grandchildren. She was interred in the York- 
 town cemetery with impressive ceremonies ; the 
 two Yorktown bands playing dirges and sacred airs 
 during the funeral f\nd the Rev. K. Poca delivering 
 a most eloquent and touching funeral oration while 
 the whole town turned out to pay her their last 
 tribute of love and respect. Mrs. Eckhardt was a 
 remarkable woman in many respects. The mother 
 
 ROBERT ECKHARDT. 
 
 of Februar3',1868, at his home in I'orktown, highl3' 
 respected by his fellow-men. He was a man of 
 sterling integrity and character; intelligent, social 
 (yet frugal and industrious), devoted to his family 
 and his adopted country. He loved Texas and its 
 people and appreciated republican institutions and 
 the great principles of American Democracy, inspir- 
 ing his children and his neighbors by his upright 
 living and good example. 
 
 After his death his widow, Mrs. Louise Eckhardt, 
 continued the mercantile business in partnership 
 with her sons, Robert and William, under the old 
 firm name of C. Eckhardt & Sons. We here repro- 
 duce a portion of her obituary, which appeared in 
 the Cuero Bulletin, shortly after her death: " Slie 
 remained a member of the firm u|» to the time of her 
 
 of eight children whom she reared to be among the 
 most useful and respected of our citizens, she j'et 
 found time to become the founder and projector of 
 one of the most extensive and reliable business 
 concerns in the county. The many obstacles which 
 she encountered would have baffled'many of the 
 pioneers of Texas, yet with an indomitable energy, 
 a restless industry, strong common sense and 
 unswerving integrity she overcame them all and 
 lived to see her efforts crowned with success. She 
 was unselfish to a fault and most charitable and 
 helpful to her neighbors. She loved the truth and 
 abhorred and shunned everything which savored of 
 sham and hypocrisy. A pure and noble woman 
 has passed to her rest and reward. She died in 
 her eighty-fourth year, but her son Robert had 
 
340 
 
 INDIAN )VARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 preceded her in death and this leaves her son 
 William, the only surviving member of the old firm, 
 who continues the large business of C. Eciihardt & 
 Sons at the old stand." 
 
 Robert C. Eckhardt was the oldest child of Ciesar 
 and Louise Eckhardt and was born March 17th, 
 1836, in Laasphe, Germany, emigrating to Texas 
 with bis parents when he was thirteen years of age. 
 He assisted them in building up tlieir home and 
 business and occupied his spare time in improving 
 his mind by private study and useful reading, thus 
 growing up to the splendid manhood of the hardy 
 frontiersman. 
 
 At the age of twenty-four he married Miss Caro- 
 line Kleberg, daughter of Judge Roliert Kleberg. 
 He joined Wood's regiment of Texas cavahy and 
 served with distinction in the campaign against Gen. 
 Banks in Louisiana, coming out of the war at its 
 break-up as Second Lieutenant of his company. 
 After the war he engaged in mercantile pursuits, 
 first in Columbus, Texas, and afterwards as a mem- 
 ber of the firm of C. Eckhardt & Sons, after his 
 father's death. 
 
 His standing in the business community and as a 
 citizen was among the best. He was the first mayor 
 of Yorktown and took a leading part in every prom- 
 inent enterprise in the town and count}'. He was 
 a member of Cameron Lodge No. 76 A. F. and' A. 
 M. and other fraternal societies, as well as trustee 
 of schools, etc. In his intercourse with his fellow- 
 men he was affable, generous, courteous and most 
 agreeable and enjoyed a large circle of friends ; 
 devoted to his family and country, he stood forth 
 an exemplar as husband, father and citizen. He 
 died at his home on Monday, February 28th, 1887, 
 and was buried with Masonic honors by his local 
 lodge, leaving his widow, eleven children and a 
 legion of friends and acquaintances to mourn his 
 loss. 
 
 William Eckhardt, son of Cresar and Louise Eck- 
 hardt, was born January 24tb, 1838, in Laasphe, 
 Germany, and emigrated to Texas, in 184'J, with 
 his parents. He is a self-made man in the full sense 
 of the term. His early training in tlie schools of 
 Germany was followed in his new home in York- 
 town, Texas, by a course of private study which 
 consisted chiefly in the reading of useful books, 
 periodicals and papers. He developed at an early 
 age a talent for mechanics and applied it in many 
 useful ways on his father's farm and at the store, 
 by stocking plows, making all kinds of furniture, 
 building houses and constructing many other use- 
 ful contrivances. He was a constant student of all 
 practical problems which occur and often baffle the 
 frontiersman in providing the necessary machinery 
 
 for his ranch and farm and by a course of self-train- 
 ing he managed to solve most, if not all, of them. 
 For many years, he has been a subscriber and close 
 reader of the Scientifia American and to-day his 
 judgment on all kinds of machinery is not only 
 excellent, but is frequently consulted by his neigh- 
 bors. This practical knowledge of mechanics and 
 physics led him some years ago to bore for artesian 
 water, which he obtained without much trouble 
 along the banks of the creeks in his section and 
 which, in many places, now furnish an aliundance 
 of fresh water to the people. His practical judg- 
 ment about all classes of machinery has served to 
 revolutionize the class of agricultural implements 
 in use in his neighborhood and beyond it, and he 
 always carries a large stock of these goods in his 
 mercantile business, keeping up with the latest 
 inventions and improvements in all kinds of 
 machinery. At the breaking out of the late war 
 he joined the first company of volunteers raised in 
 DeWitt County for the Confederate service, a 
 company commanded by Capt. W. R. Friend, of 
 Clinton. This company was called the DeWitt 
 Rifles, and contained the flower of the young men 
 of the county. In January, 1862, however, young 
 Eckhardt joined the Twenty-fourth Texas Cavalry 
 and left Texas for Arkansas, where his company 
 was dismounted at El Dorado, and placed in com- 
 mand of Capt. Cupples, brother of the late Dr. 
 Cupples, of San Antonio, Texas. 
 
 Mr. Eckhardt was in the fight at Arkansas Post. 
 During the battle he narrowly escaped death, 
 seven of his companions having been killed imme- 
 diately around him. He was captured on the sur- 
 render of the Post and held a prisoner at Camp 
 Butler, near Springfield, III., where he remained 
 three months. Here a great many men were lost 
 from sickness and exposure, more dying from 
 disease than in battle. Finally he was exchanged 
 at City Point, Va., in May, 1863, and about two 
 weeks later his troop was armed to support bat- 
 teries around Richmond, during the battle of 
 Chancellorsville. He there witnessed the bringing 
 in of Gen. Stonewall Jackson's body from the 
 battlefield. 
 
 From there Mr. Eckhardt was placed in Gen. 
 Cleburne's Division, and the first skirmish he was 
 engaged in was at Bellbuckle, Tenn. The next 
 skirmish he was in was at Elk River, and the next 
 on Cumberland Mountain. Then followed the 
 battle of Chickamauga, in which he participated. 
 Here he again narrowly escaped being killed, a 
 grape shot striking him and wounding him severely 
 and taking off the sole and the heel of his shoe. 
 His right-hand man, Tom Moore, was killed 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 instantly, and liia front rank man severely 
 wounded. Out of fort3^-five men of his company 
 reporting for duty, twenty-seven were killed or 
 wounded. It was here the company lost its cap- 
 tain, Dashler, who perished on the field. After the 
 battle of Chickamauga, the Texas troops, including 
 the company to which Mr. Eekhardt belonged, 
 were consolidated in Granbury's brigade, with 
 which it participated in the battle on Missionary 
 Ridge. Then followed the battle of Ringold. The 
 next engagement was at Duck Gap, Ga. The next 
 at Resaca. During the battle last named, the 
 J'ederal troops were charging a brigade of Confed- 
 
 Eckhardt was taken sick with fever and was placed 
 in the hospital, in Alabama, for three months, when 
 he obtained a special pass from Dr. Bryan to travel 
 with the army, thinking it would improve his health, 
 which it did in a measure, but, on account of poor 
 health, he was finally retired from the service at 
 Cedar Town, Ga., as an invalid and it was three or 
 four 3'ears after the war before he regained his 
 health. Mr. Eekhardt retains a souvenir of the war in 
 the shape of a pocketbook made from the drum head 
 which was used on the drum in Granbury's brigade. 
 This drum had been heard by every man in the 
 brigade and had gone through many battles. He 
 
 MRS. CAROLINE ECKHARDT. 
 
 erates next to Granbury's. Mr. Eekhardt and 
 Lieut. Marsh, of Austin, Texas, were anxious to 
 witness this charge and placed themselves on an 
 elevation to see it. No sooner had they done so, 
 than a shot struck Lieut. Marsh and Mr. Eekhardt 
 caught him as he fell and carried him about fifty yards 
 to a spot where he was protected from the fire of the 
 enemy. He, however, died from the effects of the 
 wound. Mr. Eckhardt's brigade was next engaged 
 in a skirmish at Calhoun, then at Cashville, and 
 then in the battle at New Hope Church. In looking 
 over the latter battle-field the next morning the oflS- 
 cers declared that they had never seen so many men 
 killed in so small a space, Granbury's brigade, 
 already much reduced in numbers, lost one hundred 
 and fifty killed in this fight. After this battle Mr. 
 
 made the pocket-book while in camp at Dalton and 
 greatly prizes it. Well he may, for it now reminds 
 the veteran Confederate soldier of the many fierce 
 reveilles, the drum once pealed forth when it called 
 and rallied the brave Texians to battle and led them 
 in the charge. Mr. Eekhardt has another memento, 
 a picture of Gen. Pat. Cleburne, around which 
 clusters many sacred memories of the long ago. 
 The following extract is from a Texas paper : — 
 
 "Mr. Albert W. McKinney received to-day a 
 gift that he sets much store by. It is a picture of 
 Maj.-Gen. Pat. Cleburne, killed charging the Fed- 
 eral works in the fearful fight at Franklin, Tenn. 
 Mr. McKinney belonged to Company B., Twenty- 
 fourth Texas, Granbury's brigade, and was near 
 Gen. Granbury when he and Gen. Cleburne wer 
 
342 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 killed, almost within a moment of each oilier. Tlie 
 picture is a gift of Mr. Wm. Eclchanlt, wlio was of 
 Company K., in the same regiment witli Mr. Mc- 
 Kinney and who now resides at Yorktowa in this 
 State. It is a life-like likeness and Mr. McKiuney 
 esteems it beyond money or price. Mr. Wm. 
 Eckhardt possesses Gen. Cleburne's photograph 
 from which he had made several large photos and 
 portraits, one he sent to Camp Magruder and 
 received the following graceful acknowledg- 
 ment: — 
 
 " Galveston, Texas, May 18, 1895. 
 
 " Mr. Wm. Eckhardt, 
 
 " Yorktown, Texas. 
 " Dear Sir and Comrade : Camp Magruder, 
 United Confederate Veterans, has directed me to 
 acknowledge the receipt of the handsome portrait 
 of Gen. Pat Cleburne, which you sent us and to 
 convey our hearty thanks to you for same. Y'ou 
 can understand better than I can express the feel- 
 ings with which we look on the likeness of this hero 
 of many battles, who with A. P. Hill, W. J. Hardee 
 and others of the same class, did sturdy military 
 work in all its forms, with comparatively no reward 
 but a sense of duty well done. Such men were 
 subordinates throughout the war, yet they earned 
 for their superiors the fame which the latter enjoy. 
 They were typical representatives of the real South- 
 ern soldier who fought not for money or for other 
 wealth, nor for fame, but for principles, and whose 
 self-denial and self-sacrifice knew no limits in sup- 
 port of those principles. In the case of Gen. 
 Cleburne, patriotism received at Franklin the high- 
 
 est offering that man can give and the wail of grief 
 that then arose from lovers of brave manhood all 
 over the South has not yet died out. You could 
 not have done us a greater favor or honor than you 
 have conferred in providing us with this lasting and 
 vivid reminder of Southern courage and every good 
 soldierly quality as personified in Gen. Pat. Cle- 
 burne ; God bless him. 
 
 " Sincerely yours, 
 
 "P. H. Pott, 
 
 "Lieut. Com. 
 " Camp Magruder.' " 
 
 Mr. Wm. Eckhardt has also his honorable dis- 
 charge from the Confederate military service, 
 dated October 20th, 1864, thus making up a war 
 record of which any man may feel proud and which 
 his posterity will no doubt appreciate as a price- 
 less heritage, and as a monument to valor and 
 patriotism more enduring than marble and which 
 neither death nor time can efface. After returning 
 from the war Mr. Wm. Eckhardt did the buying 
 for his father's business which soon became one of 
 the largest in that section of the country. After 
 his father's death in 1868, his mother formed a 
 partnership with her two oldest sons, Robert and 
 William, as before stated, under the firm name of 
 C. Eckhardt & Sons. Mr. William Eckhardt is now 
 the only surviving partner and carries on a larger 
 business than ever under the old firm name at the 
 old stand. He has been very successful in all his 
 business undertakings. 
 
 In 1865 he married Miss Mary Gohmert who has 
 borne him eight children, five of whom are now living. 
 
 X. B. SAUNDERS, 
 
 BELTON. 
 
 Hon. X. B. Saunders, for many -years past a 
 leading attorney of Central Texas, was born in 
 Columbia, Maury County, Tenn., in 1831. He is 
 the second son and the fourth born in a family of 
 five children, consisting of three sons and two daugh- 
 ters. His parents were Joel B. Saunders and 
 Mariam Lewis (Kennedy) Saunders, natives of 
 Kentucky and Virginia, respectively. John Saun- 
 ders, his grandfather, married Miss Sarah Grant, 
 daughter of Gen. William and Mrs. Elizabeth 
 (Boone) Grant, the latter being the youngest sister 
 
 of the famous pioneer, Daniel Boone. His grand- 
 parents went to Kentucky with Boone. Many of 
 their descendants are now scattered over Indiana, 
 Illinois, Missouri and Iowa, and many of them have 
 attained prominence and occupied important official 
 positions. The Saunders family are of English 
 and Scotch descent. His maternal grandfather, 
 Robert Campbell Kennedy, was born in Augusta 
 County, Va., and was a son of William and Martha 
 (Campbell) Kennedy, natives of Scotland. 
 
 William Kennedy took part in the Revolutionary 
 
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 343 
 
 War, participating in the battle of King's Mountain, 
 where several members of the family were killed. 
 He was there under command of Gen. William 
 Campbell. 
 
 Martha Campbell was a Scoth lassie from the 
 house of Argyle and was born at Eilerslie, the 
 country seat of Sir William Wallace. Her mother's 
 maiden name was McGregor. Judge Saunders' 
 maternal grandmother was, before her marriage, 
 Miss Esther Edmiston, her parents being Col. 
 William Edmiston, a revolutionary officer, and 
 Henrietta (Montgomery) Edmiston. The Ken- 
 nedys were Virginia planters. His grandfather, 
 John Saunders, was a planter and stock raiser in 
 Kentucky and died there at his homestead on the 
 Licking river. 
 
 Joel Boone Saunders, father of the subject of 
 this memoir, received his education at the University 
 of Maryland, in Baltimore, after which he practiced 
 medicine at Millersburg, Bourbon Count}-, Ky., 
 and at Fayetteville, Columbia, and Memphis, 
 Tenn., and still later at Natchez, Miss. After a 
 short residence at the last named place, his death 
 occurred there in October, 1833, at the age of 
 thirty-seven years. He was greatly devoted to his 
 profession and in fact sacrificed his life to it. His 
 widow survived him several years, her death oecur- 
 ing March 29, 184C. He was a member of the 
 Methodist church and she of the Presbyterian. 
 
 Their oldest son. Napoleon B., a promising young 
 lawyer, died in 1858, at Memphis. Joel Boone, 
 the youngest child, studied law and medicine and 
 life apparently presented a bright prospect for him, 
 when war broke out between the States. He en- 
 tered the Confederate army in Texas in 1861, in 
 response to his country's call, and served until he 
 fell severely wounded on the battle-field of Gettys- 
 burg, from whence he was taken to Alabama, where 
 he died and was buried before the close of the year 
 18G3. Sarah Grant, the oldest, child became the 
 wife of Robert Weir and is now a resident of Ger- 
 mantown, Tenn. The other daughter, Eliza Mar- 
 garet, married Calvin L. Story, of Lockhart, Texas. 
 Xenophon Boone Saunders was educated in Jackson 
 College, Columbia, Tenn., and at Hanover College, 
 Ind., graduating at the latter institution with the 
 class of 1849. He read law at Indianapolis, Ind., 
 under Smith and Yandes; finished at Nashville, 
 Tenn., under the Hon. John Trimble; was ad- 
 mitted to the bar at Memphis, Tenn., in 1854, and 
 in 1855 came to Belton, Texas, and began the 
 
 practice of his profession. He very soon estab" 
 lished a large and lucrative practice and became a 
 prominent figure in public affairs. In I860 he was 
 elected Mayor of the town. He was opposed to 
 secession and made a canvass of the district of the 
 State in which he lived in opposition to the measure. 
 When, however, it was adopted and Texas withdrew 
 from the Union, he determined to follow her for- 
 tunes and entered the Confederate army as Captain 
 of Company A., Sixteenth Regiment of Texas 
 Infantrj', and was afterwards |)romoted to Major 
 of the regiment. He participated in the battles of 
 Perkin's Landing, Millican's Bend, Mansfield, 
 Pleasant Hill and Jenkins' Ferry, during a large 
 portion of the time commanding the regiment. He 
 was paroled at Millican's in June, 1865. 
 
 After the war he returned to Belton and resumed 
 practice. In 1866 he was a delegate to the State 
 Constitutional Convention and represented Bell and 
 Lampasas counties in that body. In 1875 he was 
 elected Judge of the Fourteenth Judicial District, 
 composed of the counties of Bell, McLennan and 
 Falls, which position he resigned in 1877. After 
 retiring from the bench he formed a copartnership 
 with A. J. Harris. The firm has since been coun- 
 sel, on one side or the other, in nearly every case 
 of importance tried in that section of the State. 
 Mr. Saunders is also engaged in farming operations 
 and owns considerable city property. He assisted 
 in organizing the Belton Compress Company, of 
 which he was vice-president, and has been an 
 active promoter of all meritorious enterprises, hav- 
 ing as their object the development and upbuilding 
 of the portion of the State in which he lives. 
 
 He was married December 17, 1857, to Miss 
 Annie E. Surghnor, daughter of John Surghnor, of 
 Leesburg, Loudoun County, Va. To them have 
 been born six children, all of whom are living, viz. : 
 William Kennedy, now City Attorney at Belton ; 
 Walter Cupples, engaged in newspaper work ; 
 Kathleen Shelly, wife of John T. Smither, a promi- 
 nent business man of Temple, Texas ; X. B. 
 Saunders, Jr.; Wilson M. Saunders; and Imogene 
 Mariam. Some of the family are members of the 
 Methodist and others of the Presbyterian church, 
 .Judge Saunders has for many years been a 32° 
 member of the Masonic fraternit}' and is Past Emi- 
 nent Commander of Belton Commandery, No. 23, 
 K. T., of which he was one of the organizers. He 
 has also been Deputy Grand Chancellor of Belton 
 Lodge No. 51, K. of P. 
 
344 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 ELBERT L. GREGG, 
 
 RUSK. 
 
 Elbert L. Gregg, one of the best known Iaw3'ers 
 and financiers in Texas, was bora in Greene County, 
 Tenn., February 20, 1840. 
 
 His parents were Marshall W. and Alpha Gregg, 
 of that county, where they lived and died. Eight 
 children were born to them, seven of whom are now 
 living. The subject of this notice attended local 
 schools and completed his education at excellent 
 colleges in his native State. 
 
 During the war between the States he entered 
 the Confederate army as a private soldier in Capt. 
 T. S. Rumbough's company and was afterwards ap- 
 pointed Adjutant of the Sixty-fifth North Carolina 
 Regiment of Cavalry with which he served in West 
 Virginia, East Tennessee, and Kentucky', part of 
 the time discharging the duties of Provost Mar- 
 shal. 
 
 At the close of hostilities he returned home, like 
 many others, to find himself completely impover- 
 ished, and determined to go to a new field and take 
 up the tangled threads of life anew. He accord- 
 ingly came to Texas and in 1867, formed a co- 
 partnership with Mr. R. H. Guinn, at Rusk, Texas, 
 under the firm name of Guinn & Gregg, and 
 entered actively upon the practice of his profession. 
 Possessed of talents, eminently fitting him for suc- 
 cess at the bar, he rose rapidly and soon enjoyed a 
 lucrative practice and an enviable reputation as a 
 learned lawyer, and skillful practitioner. The con- 
 nection with Mr. Guinn continued for about nine- 
 
 teen years. After Mr. Guinn's death, Mr. Gregg 
 formed a copar.tnership with Ex-State Senator 
 Robert H. Morris, which continued until Mr. 
 Morris became an invaliil and retired from 
 practice. 
 
 In July, 1890, Mr. Gregg organized the First 
 National Bank at Rusk, and has since been its 
 president and principally devoted his attention to 
 financial matters, although continuing to act as 
 counsel in important law cases. 
 
 He was one of the commissioners wliom Governor 
 Coke appointed to locate the branch of the State 
 penitentiary now established at Rusk and has per- 
 formed many other services that have resulted in 
 advantage to the town and section in which he 
 lives. 
 
 He has been twice married. His first marriage 
 was in 1876 to Mrs. Kate Bonuer, who died in 1880, 
 and bore him two children, one of whom, Elbert 
 M., is now living; and his second, in 1882, to his 
 present wife, nee Miss Bettie Dickenson, of Chero- 
 kee County, a great-granddaughter of one of the 
 signers of the Declaration of Independence. Five 
 children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Gregg, 
 viz. : Nellie, Florence, Josephine, Luray Will, and 
 Eldridge R., all of whom are living except Luray 
 Will, who died in 1892, of bronchitis. 
 
 Mr. Gregg owns a large amount of real estate 
 and is one of the influential and representative men 
 of the section of the State in which he resides. 
 
 WILLIAM PINKNEY McLEAN, 
 
 FORT WORTH. 
 
 Hon. W. P. McLean, ex-member of Congress, 
 ex-District Judge, ex-member of the State Railroad 
 Commission and for many years past a distinguished 
 lawyer in this State, was born in Hinds County, 
 Miss., August 9, 1836. His parents were Allen F. 
 and Ann Rose McLean. His father died in 1838 and 
 his mother came to Texas in 1839 and settled in that 
 part of Bowie County now embraced within the 
 limits of the county of Maiion. 
 
 The subject of this notice attended schools in 
 Cass County and Marshall, Texas, and completed 
 his education at the University of North Carolina, 
 at Chappel Hill, where he was graduated in the class 
 of 1857. After graduating he studied law and was 
 admitted to the bar. 
 
 Judge McLean served as a member of the Texas 
 Legislature, in 1861 and 1869; was a member of 
 the Forty-third Congress, a member of the Con- 
 
L. W. GOODRICH. 
 
TXDIAX WAlis AXD PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 345 
 
 stitutional Convention of 1875 and Judge of the 
 Fifth Judicial District from 1884 to 1888 and in 1891 
 was appointed by Governor James S. Hogg a mem- 
 ber of the State Railroad Commission, a position 
 which he held until October, 1894, when he tendered 
 his resignation in order to resume the practice of 
 his profession at Fort Worth, where he now resides 
 and is a member of the law firm of Humphreys & 
 McLean. 
 
 At the beginning of the war between the States 
 he resigned bis seal in the Texas Legislature and en- 
 listed in the Confederate army as a private in Com- 
 pany D., Nineteenth Texas Infantry, and, owing to 
 gallant and efficient service, was soon made Adjutant 
 of the regiment and later Adjutant-General of the 
 Third Brigade, Walker's Division, with the rank of 
 
 Major of Cavalry. Judge McLean is a Royal Arch 
 Mason and a member of the Knights of Honor. He 
 was united in marriage to Miss Margaret Batte. 
 Thej' have eight children: Annie, Ida, Thomas 
 Rusk, Jefferson Davis, William Pinkney, Maggie, 
 John Howell, and Bessie. 
 
 Judge McLean has been an active Democratic 
 worker and has often canvassed for the principles 
 and nominees of his part}^ He made an enviable 
 record as asoldier, member of the Legislature, mem- 
 ber of Congress, member of the Constitutional 
 Convention, District Judge and member of the 
 State Railroad Commission, and is a man of uncom- 
 mon ability and learning. As a lawyer he has few 
 equals at the bar and few men have a wider circle 
 of friends. 
 
 L. W. GOODRICH, 
 
 WACO. 
 
 Honorable L. W. Goodrich was born M&y 31, 
 1836, in Loraine County, Ohio. His parents emi- 
 grated from Massachusetts to Ohio in 1833, and in 
 1845 moved back to the former State, and Pittsfield, 
 Mass., became the permanent home of the family. 
 The subject of our sketch attended school in 
 Pittsfield at various times until 1854, at which time 
 he entered Norwich University, Vt, where he 
 pursued the studies included in the scientific course 
 of that institution until 1855, when he returned to 
 his home at Pittsfield. The following May he went 
 to Chicago and from there to Wisconsin, where he 
 was employed as civil engineer and surveyor. He 
 later followed the same occupation in Illinois. 
 
 In the fall of 1859 he came overland, on horse- 
 back, through Missouri and Arkansas to Texas. 
 Locating in Brown County, on the very outskirts 
 of civilization, he began teaching school, and in 
 1860 was elected District Surveyor of that district. 
 At the commencement of the war between the 
 States he joined what was afterwards known as 
 McCulloch's regiment and was with the force that 
 took possession of the military posts on the Texas 
 frontier in February, 1861. Shortly afterwards the 
 command was organized into a regiment under a 
 commission issued by the Confederate government 
 to Ben McCulloch. Henry McCulloch became 
 Colonel of the regiment and T.C. Frost, Lieutenant- 
 Colonel. The command of the regiment sub- 
 
 sequently devolved on the latter, and by him the 
 subject of this notice was appointed Adjutant. In 
 1863, Judge Goodrich became Captain of Company 
 G., Thirtieth Texas Cavalry, and in that capacity 
 served in Texas, Arkansas and the Indian Terri- 
 tory, until the close of hostilities. Although 
 wounded, he passed through the fiery ordeal 
 without sustaining permanent injury. 
 
 Immediately after the close of the war he 
 engaged in school teaching at Robinson, McLen- 
 nan County, and also took up the study of law, 
 which he prosecuted with diligence. He was 
 admitted to practice by the District Court at Waco 
 In May, 1866, and since that time has followed his 
 profession in McLennan and Falls counties. In 
 June, 1890, he was appointed Judge of the Nine- 
 teenth District and in November of the same year 
 was elected to that position, and has since contin- 
 uously held that office. He was admitted to prac- 
 tice in the Supreme Court of Texas in 1871, and in 
 the Supreme Court of the United States in 1875, 
 and has appeared in both courts in some of the 
 most important civil suits, involving titles to land, 
 that have arisen in the section of the State in which 
 he resides. 
 
 He was married in February, 1869, to Miss Alice 
 Battle, daughter of Judge N. W. Battle, and has 
 eight children: Frank Battle, now in the employ- 
 ment of the Texas Central Railway Co., as civil 
 
346 
 
 I^'^DIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 engineer; Abigail, Nick Wbitnej', Maria, Mary, 
 Alice, Levi, and Tiioruas E. 
 
 The family name of Goodricli, formerly Goodric 
 or Godrie, is Saxon, and some members of the 
 family, particularly S. G. Goodrich, known to the 
 children of the last generation as Peter Parley and 
 to all lovers of good literature as the author of the 
 inimitable "Recollections of A Life Time," have 
 inerested themselves in tracing the history of the 
 family. Briefly stated it is as follows: Three 
 brothers of the name left England in Cromwell's 
 time and came to the American colonies, where they 
 
 settled, one in New England, one in Virginia, and 
 one in South Carolina. Their decendants are 
 numerous and widely scattered. Like many of the 
 families that found homes in New England at that 
 period, the Goodrich family were not Puritans and 
 unlike many families that came to this country then, 
 they did not return to England after the restoration 
 inlGSS. 
 
 On the bench Judge Goodrich is very careful 
 and painstaking in the trial of causes, and is 
 an able lawyer; his rulings are very seldom re- 
 versed. 
 
 JOHN H. TRAYLOR, 
 
 DALLAS. 
 
 John Henry Traylor was born at Traylorsville, 
 Henry County, Va., March 27, 1839. His ancestors 
 were of French Huguenot extraction, and the first 
 of the name in the Colony of Virginia of which the 
 records make mention, was William Traylor, who 
 was called a " planter" and was licensed towed in 
 Henrico County, December, 1695. Peter Jones, 
 from whom Petersburg, Va., derived its name, was 
 surety on his marriage bond. He had a grant of 
 about 3,000 acres of land from the Crown, situated 
 just opposite to the present site of the city of Peters- 
 burg, on the north side of the Appomatox river, in 
 that part of Henrico, which is now Chestertield 
 County. His grandson, Humphrey Traylor, was 
 the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, 
 and was an active participant in the Revolutionary 
 War, and died in Diniwiddie County, Va., in 1802. 
 
 The grandfather of John H. Traylor was Rev. 
 John C. Traylor, who was born in Henrico County, 
 Va., in 1788. He was licensed an elder in the M. 
 E. Church liy Bishop McKendre, at Lynchburg, 
 Va., in 1815; he led an exemplary and useful life, 
 dying in Troup County, Ga., in 1856. 
 
 The father of John H. Traylor was Robert B. 
 Traylor, who was a Southern planter, and took an 
 active interest in all public and political questions. 
 was a member of the Georgia Legislature at seventj'- 
 five years of age, and died in Troup County, Ga. 
 in 1893. 
 
 Jno. H. Traylor was reared and educated in 
 Troup County, Ga., where the family is prominent 
 as in Virginia. He enlisted in Company B., Fourth 
 Georgia Regiment, in 18G1, and served during the 
 
 entire war in the army of Northern Virginia, and 
 was in all the prominent battles in Virginia, Mary- 
 land and Pennsylvania. He was wounded at the 
 battles of Warrenton, Spottsylvania Court House 
 and Chancellorsville. He was wounded in the lat- 
 ter battle, and his onlj' brother killed, on Saturday 
 evening. May 2, 1863, near the same time and place 
 where Stonewall Jackson received his death-wound. 
 He was with Jackson during the entire day, in the 
 capacity of sharpshooter and scout, and was in a 
 few yards of him when he was shot. Later on he 
 was appointed Quartermaster of the ordnance of 
 of Gen. Early's corps. He came to Texas in 1867, 
 and located at Jefferson, where he followed mer- 
 chandising. He was married to Miss Pauline 
 Lockett in 1969, and removed to Granbury, in Hood 
 County, in 1871, where he engaged in selling and 
 locating lands till 1875. He surveyed many thou- 
 sand acres in Hood, Parker, Palo Pinto and more 
 western counties, often coming in dangerous prox- 
 imity to the Comanche and Kiowa Indians, who 
 visited these frontier counties monthly in quest of 
 horses, which were disposed of at Fort Sill, and 
 more northern frontier posts. These savages 
 usually made their raids in the light of the moon, 
 and their monthly visits were not considered doubt- 
 ful ; hence, the surveyors took the precaution to 
 have early supper and remove a mile or so from 
 their camp-fire, and lariat their horses, and sleep 
 in some retired spot, every one being at all times 
 armed. Mr. Traylor was elected Sheriff and Tax 
 Collectorof Hood County, February, 1876, under the 
 new Constitution and re-elected in November, 1878. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 347 
 
 Id November, 1881, he was elected to the Seven- 
 teenth Legislature, from the counties of Hood, Som- 
 ervell and Bosque. Although a new member he 
 was an active and efficient legislator and is said to 
 have introduced and passed more bills than any 
 other member, save one. 
 
 He was the author of the bill " providing for 
 designating and setting apart three hundred leagues 
 of land out of the unappropriated public domain for 
 the benefit of the unorganized counties of the State, 
 and to provide for the survey and location of the ' 
 same" (see H. J., p. 128 q.); also bills regu- 
 lating sheriffs' fees, tax sales, etc. 
 
 At the extra session of 1882, he was the chairman 
 of the sub-committee of senatorial and represent- 
 ative districts in the re-apportionment of the State, 
 and did much arduous labor in this work. He also 
 introduced and passed bills to amend the law 
 reducing the maximum rate of passenger-fare from 
 five to three cents per mile (see H. J., p. 5, 
 1882), and the " act to repeal all laws granting land 
 or land-certificates to any person, firm or corpora- 
 tion or company for the construction of railroads, 
 canals and ditches." (See H. J., p. 22, Act 1882.) 
 
 In November, 1883, he was elected by a large 
 majority to the Senate from the Thirtieth Senatorial 
 District, composed of the counties of Hood, Somer- 
 vell, Bosque, Erath and Palo Pinto. 
 
 He was well posted in land matters and the Senate 
 journals will show that his knowledge was very 
 thorough in shaping land legislation, which, with 
 its various features of sale, lease and other dispo- 
 sition, was the great and perplexing question of 
 the day. The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Legisla- 
 tures permanently adjusted these, and all collateral 
 questions. 
 
 There being no provision for paying officers' fees 
 in felony cases unless conviction was had, Mr. 
 Tray lor contended that the result was a lax enforce- 
 ment of the criminal laws, and, hence, introduced 
 and passed a bill providing for the payment of fees 
 to county and district officers in felony cases (see 
 S. J., p. 16, 1883); also a bill providing for the 
 payment of attached witnesses in felony cases (see 
 S. J., 1883, p. 46). 
 
 He was very active and efficient in questions per- 
 taining to school and public lands, public roads, 
 penitentiaries, officials' fees, the new capitol, the 
 State finances, and all matters relating to the ad- 
 ministration of the State government. He opposed 
 with great earnestness and success the flfteen-3'ear 
 lease of the penitentiary convicts entered into by 
 the administration. 
 
 Just before the extra session met in 1884 to 
 prevent, or rather, quell, the war between the pas- 
 
 ture men and the fence-cutters, he published an 
 interview outlining the conditions of adjustment, 
 which was copied by the papers throughout the 
 State, and practically enacted into law during the 
 extra session. This was probably the most difficult 
 question that ever confronted the Legislature, as it 
 involved unlawful fencing and its penalties, herd- 
 ing, line-riding, the lease and sale of the school 
 and public lands, public roads, free grass, fence- 
 cutting and the penalties, and the grazing of sheep, 
 cattle and horses on the State's lands, or the lands 
 of another person. After a long and bitter contest 
 in both houses and between the two houses, the 
 whole question was settled on February 5th, 1884, 
 by the second Free Conference Committee, com- 
 posed of Jno. H. Traylor and John Young Goocb, 
 on the part of the Senate, and A. T. McKinne}^ and 
 A. M. Taylor on the part of the House (see S. J., 
 p. 118). 
 
 He was Chairman of the Finance Committee of 
 the Senate in the Nineteenth Legislature, and left his 
 impress on most of the important legislation during 
 that time, especially those measures pertaining to 
 the appropriations for the State government. He 
 was author of the act " to provide for the issuance 
 and sale of the bonds of the State to supply the 
 deficiencies in the revenue" (see S. J. 1885, p. 
 42); also an act "to provide for the correction 
 and revision of the abstract of located, patented 
 and titled lands, (see S. J. 1885, p. 97), and sev- 
 eral other less important measures. He served two 
 years in the House and four in the Senate, where 
 he made a State-wide reputation as a wise, prudent 
 and far-seeing legislator. His recognized ability se- 
 cured him important positions on the various Legis- 
 lative Committees, and since retiring from public 
 life, his name has often received favorable mention 
 for various State offices, including chief executive. 
 
 Mr. Traylor has much of the character of the 
 Virginian of fifty years ago in his composition. 
 He has a profound sense of the importance of some 
 counteracting agency to the inordinate desire for 
 accumulating and laying up treasure ; this danger- 
 ous tendency of the age he believes if allowed to 
 prevail, will make our people degenerate, will sever 
 the moral ties which unite us to our forefathers, 
 and take away all zest from the contemplation of 
 the great performances achieved by them. He is a 
 member of the Virginia Historical Society, has 
 traveled much in the United States and Europe and 
 is very fond of the antiquated and historical. He 
 is now a successful business man of Dallas, well 
 and widely known for his good practical sense and 
 his association with commercial and benevolent 
 movements. 
 
348 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 R. B. PARROTT, 
 
 WACO. 
 
 R. B. Panott was boin in Amherst Courity, Va., 
 in October, 1848. His fatber, William J. Parrott, 
 died in 1893. His mother, nee Miss .Jane C. 
 Blanljs, was a niece of the founder of the Smith- 
 sonian Institute. ' 
 
 Mr. Parrott entered the Universitj' of Virginia 
 before he was fourteen years of age, and was the 
 youngest student who ever matriculated at that 
 great college, before or since. When the war 
 came on he ran away from college, having been 
 there only six months, joined the Southern troops 
 under Col. Mosby and served through the war as a 
 non-commissioned offleer. December 24, 1864, he 
 was captured and taken to Boston Harbor, where 
 he was kept in confinement with Hon. Alex. H. 
 Stephens. He was released June 16, 1865. 
 
 After the war he returned to Virginia and 
 engaged with a large commission house in Rich- 
 mond, in which he was "on 'change." He was 
 the youngest man on 'change in the city and car- 
 ried off first premium on best sales every year that 
 he was there. In 1872, he came to Texas and set- 
 tled in Waco and at once identified himself with 
 the interests of that city and of the State. He 
 embarked in the insurance business, which he has 
 successfully continued. He is now the general 
 manager for Texas, Arkansas and the Pacific Slope 
 of the Provident Savings Life Insurance Company 
 of New York. While in California he projected 
 the novel and effective scheme for advertising 
 Texas land by moving-cars. He was largely instru- 
 mental in causing the organization of the Texas 
 and Real-Estate Association, he having first sug- 
 gested and urged the organization before the Waco 
 Board of Trade, of which he is president. He is 
 also president of the Provident Investment Company 
 which owns a valuable suburban addition to the 
 city. He has been honored by the bishop of the 
 diocese by appointment as one of the trustees of 
 the University of the South, at Sewanee, Tenn. 
 During the World's Fair he filled the position of 
 chairman of the Texas W^orld's Fair Committee. 
 It was through his influence that the Provident 
 Savings Life Insurance Co. erected in Waco one of 
 the most complete and magnificent office buildings 
 in the South. He has always taken an active 
 interest in the cause of popular education. He 
 was chairman of the School Committee of the city 
 of Waco for a number of years and has done much 
 
 to bring the schools up to their present state of 
 efficiency. The nearest approach to a political 
 office he ever consented to accept was a position on 
 Governor Hubbard's staff, with the rank of Col- 
 onel. 
 
 Owing to his efforts and those of S. W. Slayden 
 and otiiers, a splendid natatorium was built in 
 Waco, one of the first, if not the first, constructed 
 in Texas. It is located on Fourth street, near the 
 Pacific Hotel, and cost $75,000. 
 
 Col. Parrott was united in marriage, June 12, 
 1873, to Miss Alice Farmer Downs, the accomplished 
 daughter of W. W. Downs. They reside at the 
 old homestead of Maj. Downs, a beautiful and 
 historic home on South Third street. Their union 
 has been blessed with six children: Charles B., 
 Rosa, Alice, Robert B., Jr., Willie, and Lillian. 
 Rosa died at the age of three years. 
 
 Col. Parrott is a member of the Masonic, Elks 
 and Knights of Pythias fraternities. 
 
 During the Hogg-Clark campaign he championed 
 the cause of George Clark and was indefatigable in 
 his efforts to secure his nomination and then to 
 elect him. He was called unanimously to the 
 leadership of the Prohibition forces and the 
 work accomplished by him shows how well he 
 discharged the duties of the trust confided to 
 him. 
 
 Few men have contributed more to the pros- 
 perity of Texas, and especially of Waco, than Col. 
 Parrott. His great efforts have been to introduce 
 into the State a cheaper system of life insurance 
 than that of the old Imes, which drained the State 
 of money. After years of struggle against bitter 
 opposition and obstacles that would have crushed a 
 less resolute man, he has been eminently successful 
 and has saved millions of dollars to the people and 
 has greatly aided in advancing the material pros- 
 perity and development of the State. 
 
 A pleasing phase of Col. Parrott's work in Texas, 
 is its pure disinterestedness. He has no political 
 aspirations and there is no official position which 
 he could be induced to accept. He is a man of 
 fine physique, dignified in his bearing and pleasing 
 in address. He is broad and cosmopolitan in his 
 views and strong in his advocacy of what he be- 
 lieves to be right. He stands high in the estima- 
 tion of the people of the State and of the city 
 in which he dwells. 
 
■4^' 
 
 >#^ 
 
 R. B. PARROTT. 
 
WALTER GRESH.VM. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 349 
 
 WALTER GRESHAM, 
 
 GALVESTON. 
 
 Walter Gresbam, ex- member of the Texas Leg- 
 islature, ex-meraber of Congress arnl a widely known 
 lawyer and financier, was born in King and Queen 
 County, Va. Although very young at the com- 
 mencement of the war, he enlisted as a soldier in 
 Lee's Rangers, commanded by Gen. W. H. F. Lee, 
 son of Gen. Robert E. Lee, and afterwards served 
 in Company H., Twenlj'- fourth Virginia Cavalry, 
 and other regiments. He fought under Gen. Jeb 
 Stewart ; was with Stonewall Jackson in 1862 ; took 
 part in most of the battles fought by the armj^ of 
 Northern Virginia, and, at last, stood with the 
 devoted band that surrendered with Lee at Appo- 
 matox. The Secretary of War of the Confederate 
 States gave him permission to complete bis educa- 
 tion at the University of Virginia. In Ihe summer 
 of 1863 he graduated from the law department of 
 that institution, and the following summer rejoined 
 his command in the field. His grandfather, Thomas 
 Gresham, was a noted lawyer of Essex County', Va. 
 His father, Edward Gresbam, studied law and pro- 
 cured license ; but, possessing a large estate that 
 required much of bis attention, and not being 
 dependent upon bis labors at the bar, never regu- 
 larly practiced his profession. As a result of the 
 war, Edward Gresham's fortune was swept away. 
 Nothing disheartened by the changed prospect that 
 lay before him, Walter Gresbam determined to 
 move to Texas. He landed at Galveston on the 
 last day of the year 1866 with only $.5.00 in bis 
 pockets ; rented an office and began the practice of 
 law. His early days were a bard struggle ; but, 
 talent is never without appreciation in an intelli- 
 gent community, when conjoined with other ele- 
 ments of character essential to success, and his rise 
 at the bar was rapid. He was elected to the 
 responsible position of District Attorney for 
 Galveston and Brazoria counties in 1872, served 
 three years, and left the office with an excellent 
 record. Early in his professional career Mr. 
 Gresbam was admitted to partnership with Col. 
 Walter L. Mann and maintained this relation until 
 Col. Mann's death in 1875. He then practiced 
 alone until 1878, when he formed a copartnership 
 with S. W. Jones, Esq., the firm now being 
 Gresham & Jones. Up to 1877 Mr. Gresham en- 
 joyed, perhaps, a better paying practice than any 
 other lawyer in Texas. At that time his financial 
 interests became so large and began to demand so 
 
 much of his time that be, in a measure, abandoned 
 court room practice and has since, while continuing 
 the pursuit of his profession, mainly devoted his 
 attention to other business. 
 
 From the organization of the Gulf, Colorado and 
 Santa Fe Railroad to the date of its sale to the 
 Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, be was a stock- 
 holder and director in and attorney for the road and 
 served for a time as its Second Vice-President. In 
 the infancy of the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe he 
 was the main man in the field, selecting routes, se- 
 curing right of way, locating towns and mapping 
 out and superintending other important business. 
 When this railway was sold it had over 1,000 miles 
 of track, was well equipped and was one of the 
 best pieces of railway property in the country'. 
 Mr. Gresham is now one of the promoters of a 
 number of new railway enterprises of great magni- 
 tude and that will, if successfully inaugurated, 
 greatly enhance the prosperity of Texas. 
 
 He represented Galveston at the Deep Water 
 Convention held at Fort Worth in 1888 ; was a del- 
 egate to the Denver, Colo., Convention, held 
 later in the same year, and was, also, a delegate to 
 the Deep Water Convention held at Topeka, Kan., 
 in 1889. He was made Chairman of the S[iecial 
 Committee, appointed by the Topeka Convention 
 to go to Washington and work to secure favorable 
 action on the part of the National Congress, looking 
 to the speedy creation of a deep-water harbor at 
 the most available point on the Texas coast. He 
 was indefatigable in bis efforts and succeeded in 
 having an amendment added to the River and Har- 
 bor Bill that was passed by the Fifty-first Congress, 
 authorizing the Secretary of War to enter into con- 
 tracts for the completion of the work (estimated to 
 cost $6,200,000) necessary to give Galveston one 
 of the finest harbors on the American sea-board. 
 He has been an active participant in every move- 
 ment looking to the up-building of the interests of 
 that city and that i)romised to speed Texas on to 
 the achievement of the proud destiny that awaits 
 her — to the time when she will stand foremost in 
 the sisterhood of States. 
 
 He represented Galveston in the Twentieth and 
 Twenty-first Legislatures and the Sixtj'-fourth Dis- 
 trict (Galveston and Brazoria counties), in the 
 Twenty-second Legislature and in those bodies was 
 Chairman of the Committee on Finance and a mem- 
 
350 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 ber of Judiciary Committee No. 1, and llie Com- 
 mittee on Internal Improvements, committees that 
 dispatched at least four-fifths of the business trans- 
 acted by the House of Eepresentatives. His 
 appointment to the chairmanship of the House 
 Finance Committee in the Twentieth Legislature 
 (being then a new member) was a recognition of 
 his abilities as high as it was unexpected and well 
 merited. He performed the important duties of 
 that position so acceptably that he was retained as 
 Chairman during his two subsequent terms as a 
 member of the House. The medical branch of the 
 State University had been located at Galveston by 
 popular vote, but no appropriation had been made 
 to give practical effect to tlie will of all the people 
 as expressed at the polls. 
 
 In the Twentieth Legislature Mr. Gresham intro- 
 duced and, after a desperate parliamentary fight, 
 secured the passage of an act malving the necessary 
 appropriations. He took an active part in the 
 deliberations of the three legislatures of which he 
 was a member and was recognized as a man of 
 great and varied abilities. Two of the most im- 
 portant provisions contained in the Railroad Com- 
 mission Bill enacted by tlie Twenty-second Legisla- 
 tures were drafted by him and introduced as amend- 
 
 ments. One provides for fixed rates, with a view 
 to preventing useless cutting, and the other permits 
 more to be charged for a short than a long haul, 
 when necessary to prevent manifest injustice. 
 
 The splendid record that he made in the Legisla- 
 ture led to his nomination and election to Congress 
 by the Democracy of the Tenth District, composed 
 of nine counties, in 1892. In that position he 
 added newer and brighter laurels to those that he 
 had alread3' won. He at once took a position in 
 the National House of Representatives, seldom 
 accorded to any new member. 
 
 October 28, 18G8, he was united in marriage, at 
 Galveston, to Miss Josephine C. Mann, daughter 
 of Col. William Maun, one of the early settlers of 
 Corpus Christi. Mr. and Mrs. Gresham have seven 
 children: Essie, wife of W. B. Lockhart, County 
 Judge of Galveston County ; Walter, Jr. ; Jose- 
 phine, T. Dew, Frank, Buelah, and Philip. Mr. 
 Gresham. although engaged in the conduct of im- 
 portant affairs, finds time to enjoy the pleasures of 
 social life. Surrounded by a happy family, he has 
 made his elegant home in the Oleander City famous 
 not only for its great architectural beauty, but the 
 refined and generous hospitality dispensed within 
 its walls. 
 
 MARCUS D. HERRING, 
 
 WACO. 
 
 Marcus D. Herring, one of the foremost and best 
 known of the lawyers who grace the Texas bar, 
 was born in Holmes County, Miss., October 11, 
 1828, and was reared on a farm. He attended the 
 Judson Institute at Middleton, Miss., and from 
 that institution went to Centenary College, Jack- 
 son, La., in 1845, entering the junior class in 
 languages and the sophomore class in mathematics. 
 After returning home he taught school, studied 
 law, was admitted to the bar and located at Shreve- 
 port. La. AVhen he reached that place he had but 
 five dollars. Nevertheless, he was by no means 
 discouraged, and set resolutely to work to force his 
 way to the front. 
 
 His first success was in the delivery of a speech 
 at a Democratic rally that took his auditors by 
 storm, i-esulted in bringing him several clients and 
 |)aved the way for a lucrative practice. In a short 
 time he purchased a half interest in the Caddo 
 
 Gazette, the leading paper of the place, and con- 
 ducted it one year under the firm name of Herring 
 & Reeves. 
 
 In 1850 Mr. Herring moved to Siielbyville, 
 Texas, where he practiced law until 1853, going 
 ■ from there to Austin, where he was elected First 
 Assistant Secretary of the Senate, serving in that 
 capacity during one session of the Legislature. In 
 the spring of 1854 he located in AVaco. There he 
 was at first in partnership with J. W. Nowlin (who 
 was killed at Ft. Donelson) and later was a mem- 
 ber of the firm of Herring & Farmer ; Herring & 
 Anderson ; Coke, Herring & Anderson ; Herring, 
 Anderson & Kelley, and at this writing is asso- 
 ciated with Mr. Kelley, under the firm name of 
 Herring & Kelley. 
 
 Mr. Herring is a prominent member of the 
 I. O. O. F., having identified himself with that 
 fraternity at San Augustine, Texas, in July, 1851. 
 
.vZ^z^ 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 351 
 
 He took all the degrees, b^' dispensation, on that 
 occasion, and tbe following week organized a sub- 
 ordinate lodge at Shelbyville and was elected First 
 Noble Grand. He has gone through the chairs of 
 the Grand Lodge of Texas, served as Grand Master 
 in 1874, and in 1875 was elected representative to 
 the Sovereign Grand Lodge, remaining a member 
 for ten consecutive years, the most of that time 
 being Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He 
 would have been continued a member from Texas 
 in that Grand Body by acclamation, as he had been 
 , returned after his first election in 1875, but posi- 
 tively declined, giving as his reason that he intended 
 to devote all the time he could spare from his pro- 
 fessional engagements, to the establishment of a 
 Widows' and Orphans' Home. The Texcis Odd 
 Fellow, of July, 1895, speaking of him in this 
 connection, says: " In 1885 he voluntarily retired, 
 but was again elected at Waco in 1894, and is 
 now one of our Grand Kepresentatives. 
 
 " In the sovereign body, and in the Grand Lodge 
 at home, his fertile brain has impressed itself upon 
 our legislation, many of our wisest and most whole- 
 some laws emanating from his pen. The crowning 
 glory with him, however, is in the fact that he was 
 the prime mover in the matter of establishing a 
 Widows' and Orphans' Home in Texas. He was 
 the author of the first resolution introduced on the 
 subject, was chairman of the special committee 
 which drafted the plan, wrote the report, and car- 
 ried it through the Grand Lodge amid the greatest 
 enthusiasm. At critical moments, in the history of 
 that institution, he has been found at his post, 
 never faltering, never wavering, but ready at all 
 times to break a lance with any one who attacked the 
 object of his love. He even went at his own expense 
 to the meeting of the Sovereign Grand Lodge at St. 
 Louis, to press and work for legislation which would 
 enable the Grand Lodge to provide for ample 
 revenue with which to support the Home. His mis- 
 sion was partially successful, but he continued his 
 efforts until, at the last meeting of the sovereign 
 body, in Chattanooga, the principle was clearly laid 
 down that grand jurisdictions have the right to 
 
 assess their subordinates for support of widows' 
 and orphans' homes. For this end he had labored 
 for years, and the result was most gratifying. It 
 is now believed that the important question of 
 maintaining the Home has been solved, and that 
 every doubt In regard to its triumphant success has 
 been dispelled. Others have nobly assisted in this 
 grand work, but Bro. Herring will be accorded the 
 chief credit by all." 
 
 Mr. Herring was married in Waco, Texas, Octo- 
 ber 7, 1856, to Miss Alice G. Douglass, of Sumner 
 County, Tenn. Four children were born of this 
 union: Wm. Douglass, Joseph W., (died in infancy) ; 
 Lauia Belle, now the wife of W. H. Bagby, and 
 Marcus D., Jr. 
 
 Soon after the beginning of the war between the 
 States, Mr. Herring enlisted as a private soldier in 
 one of the first volunteer companies organized in 
 Texas for Confederate service, and was soon after 
 promoted to the rank of Captain. He served three 
 years and nine months in the field, in the Trans- 
 Mississippi department. He acted as Major and 
 Lieutenant-Colonel of his regiment the latter two 
 years of the war, and a part of that time was in com- 
 mand. The contest for his rank, on appeal from 
 Gen. E. Kirby Smith, was pending at Eichmond, 
 Va. , when the war ended. 
 
 At the close of the war he returned to Waco and 
 again resumed the practice of his profession, which 
 he has continued since with eminent success, his 
 practice extending to all parts of the State. He 
 has especially distinguished himself in land litigation 
 and as a criminal lawyer. 
 
 Mr. Herring possesses great energy, perseverance 
 and will-power, and it might be said that when he 
 has an important case he never sleeps. As an 
 advocate he is able, earnest and convincing. His 
 language is easy, chaste and winning. 
 
 In private life he is kind-hearted and benevolent. 
 He is one of the brightest ornaments tnat adorn his 
 profession in this State, and there are few cases of 
 any importance tried in his section in which he is 
 not retained as leading counsel. 
 
352 
 
 lyDIAX WARS AXD PIOXEEBS OF TEXAS. 
 
 DANIEL LANDES, 
 
 GALVESTON. 
 
 Daniel Landes was boru in Botetourt Count}', 
 Va., July 4th, 1804, and was reared in Muhlen- 
 berg County, Ky., whither his parents moved and 
 settled early in the present century. He subse- 
 quently settled in Trigg County in that State, 
 where he married Adeline H. Thompson and en- 
 gaged in the mercantile business at the little town 
 of Cadiz. Later he turned his attention to farm- 
 ing, became sheriff of Trigg County, represented 
 that county in the Legislature and finally, in 1851, 
 to better his condition, sold out and came to 
 Texas. He was accompanied to this Slate by one 
 of his old neighbors, named Batteau, both settling 
 in Washington County. The caravan in which 
 thev came was made up of their families and slaves 
 and wagons loaded with a considerable part of 
 their household effects. 
 
 The route followed was the usual line of travel, 
 extending through Western Kentucky, Southeast 
 Missouii, and Central and Western Arkansas ; strik- 
 ing Texas not far from the present city of Texar- 
 kana. The time occupied in making the journey 
 was forty-eight days. Mr. Landes settled on a 
 farm between Chappell Hill and Brenham, where he 
 soon took a prominent place in the community and 
 engaged successfully in agricultural pursuits. 
 Having been active in public matters in Kentucky, 
 he at once interested himself in such matters in 
 his new home. He signed the first call ever made 
 for a meeting of the people to take action in the 
 matter of building a railroad in Texas, this move- 
 ment orignating in Washington County and finally 
 leading to the building of the Houston and Texas 
 Central Railroad. He was identilied with the move- 
 ment in its earlier stages, advocated and worked for 
 the success of the enterprise and was chairman of 
 the general convention which met at Houston and 
 took the first decisive steps toward the construction 
 of the road. In this connection it may be remarked 
 that the Houston and Texas Central Railroad was 
 originally chartered by act of the Legislature at its 
 second session after annexation, March 11th, 1848, 
 under the name of the Galveston and Red River 
 Railroad ; but it was not until 1853 that the build- 
 ing of the road actually began. The intention, at 
 first, was to begin at Galveston and build north- 
 ward to the settlements on Red river; but a 
 number of enterprising gentlemen, of whom Mr. 
 Landes was one, conceived the idea of deflecting 
 
 the road from its northward course and construct- 
 ing it westward through the then rich and populous 
 county of Washington, hence the railroad move- 
 ment just referred to and the convention at Hous- 
 ton over which he was called to preside. As the 
 presiding officer of that convention Col. Landes 
 gave the casting vote, whereby the town of Houston 
 was made the initial point, instead of Galveston, 
 his reason for this action being that since Houston 
 was at the head of tidewater on Buffalo bayou, it 
 could be easily reached with vessels of light draft, 
 and the proprietors of the road would thus be 
 saved the cost of constructing and operating fifty 
 miles of road — a considerable item in the then 
 primitive condition of railway development in 
 Texas. The building of the road was begun at 
 Houston in 1853, the name being changed from 
 the Galveston and Red River Railroad to the 
 Houston & Texas Central by act of the Legislature 
 September 1st, 1856. 
 
 At the opening of the late war Mr. Landes mani- 
 fested great interest in the secession movement and 
 advocated and believed thoroughly in it; but, being 
 past the age for military duty, was never under 
 arms. As was the case with many of his neigh- 
 bors, he lost nearly all of his possessions by the 
 war, including his slaves, after which he practically 
 retired from all active pursuits, and spent the 
 remainder of his life among his children. He con- 
 tinued, however, to take an active interest in politics 
 and attended almost every Democratic Convention 
 which met in Austin County for the next twenty- 
 five years, he having moved across the line from 
 Washington to Austin County in 1858. He was 
 also a delegate to many Congressional and State 
 Conventions, and was once a delegate to a National 
 Convention, that of the Southern wiug of the 
 Democratic party which met at Charleston, S. 
 C, in 1860, and adjourned to Baltimore, Md., 
 where Breckenridge and Lane were nominated as 
 secession candidates for the presidency and vice- 
 presidency. The last State Convention which Mr. 
 Landes attended was that of 1886, which met at 
 Galveston. He was present in the interest of his 
 old friend. Col. D. C. Giddings, of Brenham, who 
 was defeiited for the nomination for Governor by 
 Gen. L. S. Ross. 
 
 Mr. Landes was a life-long Democrat, and never 
 belonged to any organization, secular or religious, 
 
cJ{<Uyur^ oV). '^o^^^t.M^ 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 353 
 
 other than that party. His religion was that of 
 the nineteenth century: an abiding faith in the 
 principles of morality. He was a man of good 
 general information. He had enjoyed very limited 
 educational advantages in his younger days, but 
 possessed a well developed faculty of observation 
 and a retentive memory, and was a good talker, and 
 thus made an agreeable companion, and a ready 
 and forcible speaker on public occasion. He 
 always delighted to associate with his kind, and this 
 disposition led to his ever keeping himself in touch 
 with the progress of things around him and to his 
 preserving an even temper to a serene old age. He 
 
 died June 16tb, 189.3, and was buried at Bell- 
 ville, in Austin County, where he bad previously 
 purchased ground and made suitable preparation 
 for his last-resting place. His widow still sur- 
 vives him, being now in her eighty-second year. 
 She makes her home with her son, Henry A. 
 Landes, at Galveston. Mr. Landes had three sons 
 and one daughter; Charles: who, went from Ken- 
 tucky to Louisiana and died there at about the age 
 of twenty-five ; S. Kate, now Mrs. J. E. Wallis, of 
 Galveston; James E., residing now in Austin 
 County, this State; and Henry A., of Galves- 
 ton. 
 
 H. A. LANDES, 
 
 GALVESTON. 
 
 Henry A. Landes, a representative business man 
 of Galveston, son of Daniel Landes, an old Texian 
 whose biography appears elsewhere in this work, 
 was born in Trigg County, Ky., on the 3d day of 
 June, 1844. He was reared mainly in Washington 
 County, Texas, where his parents settled in 1851, 
 receiving his education at Soule University, at 
 Chappel Hill, in that county. At the age of seven- 
 teen he entered the Confederate army, enlisting in 
 a Company commanded by Capt. John C. Wallis, 
 EUmore's Regiment, Twentieth Texas Infantry, with 
 which he served on Galveston Island and in that 
 vicinity during the entire period of the war. He 
 participated in the battle of Galveston ; but, with 
 the exception of this engagement, saw very little 
 active service. He was Orderly Sergeant of his 
 company' at the time of the surrender. After the 
 war Mr. Landes went to Austin County, but in the 
 fall of 1865 was induced by his old friend and com- 
 rade Capt. John C. Wallis, to join him and his 
 brother, Joseph E. Wallis, and engage in the mer- 
 cantile business at Galveston. The house of Wal- 
 lis, Landes & Co., was established that year, and 
 from the start took rank among the foremost mer- 
 cantile concerns in the city. On May 9th, 1872, 
 Mr. John C. Wallis died, after which his interest 
 was withdrawn, but the business was continued 
 under the original name. The members of the 
 firm now are Joseph E. Wallis, Henry A. Landes 
 and Charles L. Wallis. The house is financially 
 one of the strongest business firms in Texas and 
 has for the past thirty years been identified with 
 
 the commercial growth of Galveston. It is known 
 to be a most liberal supporter of all public enter- 
 prises and its members give their personal aid to 
 every movement which in their judgment will tend 
 to stimulate industry or to promote the public good. 
 As a member of the firm and as an individual Mr. 
 Landes has been among the foremost in rendering 
 such aid. He was one of the organizers of the 
 Island City Real Estate and Homestead Associa- 
 tion which was set on foot in 1867 and was one of 
 the first associations of the kind in the State, being 
 succeeded by the present Island City Savings Bank. 
 He was one of the originators of the Gulf Loan and 
 Homestead Company of which he was a director 
 and vice-president, an association which had a 
 prosperous career of twenty years ; and he is now 
 a director in the People's Loan and Homestead 
 Company, and in the Galveston Improvement and 
 Loan Company, and is vice-president of the Gal- 
 veston National Bank. He has been a member of 
 the Board of Education of the Galveston public 
 schools for the past eight yeai-s, but has never 
 filled any political office, having confined himself 
 strictly to business pursuits. 
 
 In 1872, Mr. Landes married Miss Mary Eliza- 
 beth Lockhart, a native of Washington County, 
 Texas, and a daughter of Dr. John W. Lockhart, 
 an old settler of Washington County, now resident 
 in Galveston. The issue of this union has been a 
 daughter, Elmina, now Mrs. E. A. Hawkins, and 
 two sons, Daniel and Browning. 
 
354 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 SAMUEL L. ALLEN, 
 
 HOUSTON. 
 
 Samuel Louis, second son of Roland and Sarah 
 (Chapman) Allen was born in 1808, in the village 
 of Canasareaugh, Madison County, N. Y. He has 
 done much for Texas and the city in which he lives 
 and no man in Houston is more highly respected 
 and honored by his fellow-citizens. He has labored 
 through many years, during the progress of which he 
 has overcome many vicissitudes and has made of his 
 life a successful one in the broadest and truest sense 
 of the word. It is to be supposed that in such along 
 career he met with trials and reverses and had his 
 periods of despondency and doubt. " Who," as a 
 wise philosopher has said, "that has lived long 
 enough in the world to know ' that man is born to 
 trouble as the sparks to fly upward,' but has felt a 
 sinking of spirit and prostration of energy, bodily 
 and mentally, before he has become acclimated, as 
 it were, to new and trying circumstances in which 
 God in His providence has placed him from time to 
 time?— When the strong can no longer boast of 
 their strength, nor the wise of their wisdom." 
 
 Such periods as these, however, were few and 
 far between with him and were scarcely more than 
 of momentary duration. Of a strong and clear in- 
 tellectuality and an enterprising, courageous and in- 
 domitable spirit, he rose to the necessities of each 
 emergency and by sheer force of resolution trampled 
 difBculties under foot and carried his plans into 
 final and successful execution. 
 
 An incident that occurred when he was three 
 years of age would seem to have indicated that he 
 was born to accomplish a mission of usefulness in 
 the world. The circumstances that attended it are 
 yet indelibly impressed upon the tablets of his mem- 
 ory. An older boy, an apprentice to a tanner and 
 currier of the village, took him to a pasture in the 
 environments of the place and told him to remain 
 near the fence while he (the apprentice) went in 
 search of some horses his master had ordered him to 
 drive in and promised that when these were procured 
 they would have anice ride back to town. Thereupon 
 the thoughtless apprentice left the little fellow and 
 walloped off. An apple tree loaded with fruit was 
 near at hand. It forked close to the ground and 
 Sam had little trouble in climbing high enough 
 among the limbs to reach an apple. The field 
 belonged to John Denny, an educated Indian, 
 partly of white descent, a lawyer by profession, 
 and an excelleot citizen. His residence was sit- 
 
 uated on a hillside and commanded a view of the 
 pasture. His wife was a woman of ungovernable 
 temper and the vindictive and cruel nature of an 
 untamed savage, espied the child in the apple tree 
 and ran to the pasture, jerked him to the ground, 
 and with a blow knocked his teeth out, and then, 
 insane with fury, gathered stones with which she 
 continued to beat him until life had apparently left 
 his body. Then, fearing the consequences that 
 would accrue to her from the inhuman deed, she 
 laid the body in a fence-corner, hoping that some- 
 one would discover it. She then made her way 
 back to her dwelling unobserved. These events 
 occurred in the forenoon. She returned to the 
 field at sundown, and further investigation con- 
 vinced her that the child was really dead, she 
 hastened to the village and reported that she had 
 found a dead child in her field and that the indica- 
 tions were that it had been kicked and trampled to 
 death by horses. No one suspected her guilt, and 
 the body was brought to the home of the parents, 
 where it was found that the spark of life yet 
 lingered in the mangled form. Medical skill and 
 careful nursing finally' restored consciousness, and 
 then the litlle fellow told, with circumstantial 
 detail, all that had transpired. His parents and 
 the ))eople of the village were horror-stricken at 
 the recital, deeply incensed and determined to have 
 fitting punishment inflicted upon the woman. 
 John Denny had been assiduous in his attentions 
 from the day the child had been brought home. 
 He was no less shocked by the disclosure than his 
 neighbors and told them that the woman was in 
 their hands to whip, torture, hang, or do with as 
 they pleased, and continued to devote himself to 
 the child, nursing him, amusing him and bringing 
 him every little gift in his povrer. His great kind- 
 ness to the boy and regard for the occurrence, 
 finally mollified the parents and community, and 
 out of regard for him nothing was done to the 
 woman. 
 
 Samuel was finally restored to health and at 
 twelve 3'ears of age was a fine, robust, manly bo3'. 
 At this age he was sent to school for three months 
 but was then taken home and put to work by his 
 parents, who were in straitened circumstances, 
 had a large family to rear and educate and had 
 come to the conclusion that they could keep only 
 one of their children, the oldest, A. C. Allen, at 
 

 o^e:?^,t^z^-^>^ ^ 'i.-^^^^ 
 
 i^ 
 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 .355 
 
 school at the time. TLis finally mortified Samuel 
 and, after brooding over the matter, he told his par- 
 ents that he was determined to go out into the world 
 and try to make his own way in it, and asked his 
 mother to give him money to start with. In reply 
 he was told by her to go to his father. This he 
 did and his father said to him: "My son, go out 
 among my customers and collect the money you 
 need." This did not suit the young man, as he 
 knew from experience that the chances for raising 
 funds in the way proposed were very slim and that 
 the only probable result of following his father's 
 advice would be to delay his departure. Resolving 
 therefore to set off at once, he returned to his 
 mother and asked her for his clothes. These she 
 brought to him tied in a small bundle, and handed 
 them to him together with several loaves of bread, 
 saying: "Here, Sam, these will last you some 
 time." He remained firm, however, refused the 
 bread and taking a change of clothing, bade the 
 family good-bye and walked out of the house and 
 down the road. After proceeding some distance, 
 he came to a halt not knowing which way to bend 
 his steps, as he had no idea what to do or where to 
 go. After reflecting for a few minutes, he picked 
 up a stick and tossed it into the air, resolved to 
 journey in whatever direction it might point 
 on falling to the ground. It pointed toward 
 Syracuse and he made his way to that place. 
 Upon his arrival there he went to the canal and 
 took passage on a boat bound for Lockport. He 
 had no mone}- with which to pay his passage, but 
 had a vague idea that he could be of some assist- 
 ance in running the boat, and settle the score in 
 that way before reaching his destination. With 
 this hope he staid near the steersman and asked to 
 be allowed to steer the vessel, a request that was 
 granted by the man, who proved to be a good- 
 natured fellow and seemed to take pleasure in 
 showing him, and at the end of the first day he 
 could manage the boat as welj. as his instructor. At 
 Rochester the steersman stopped off and the 
 youngster applied for and was given the place at a 
 salary of 814 per month. He filled the position 
 for six months, during which time he practiced the 
 most rigid economy and then, longing to see the 
 dear ones at home, he dressed himself in a hand- 
 some new suit and returned to the old homestead 
 with his pockets well filled with silver dollars. 
 His parents had not heard from him since the day 
 of his departure, and upon again beholding him 
 folded him to their bosoms and wept for joy. 
 Shortly thereafter the family moved to Chittenango, 
 New York, where his father established a trip- 
 hammer business in which he employed a large 
 
 number of workmen. Samuel followed these men 
 in their labors and soon learned to make all man- 
 ner of edged tools, blacksmith's vises and screw- 
 plates. At the age of twenty he went to 
 Baldwinsville, N. Y., where he borrowed money, 
 erected two handsome granite-trimmed, three-story 
 brick business houses, purchased a large stock of 
 goods and engaged in merchandising with William 
 R. Baker as his clerk. He carried on the business 
 for two years and then sold the goods and turned 
 over the buildings to pay the money used in their 
 construction. His brothers had been back from 
 Texas several times and had given such glowing 
 accounts of the country that he decided to trv his 
 future there. In due time he accordingly started 
 for Texas in company with Mrs. Charlotte M. Allen, 
 wife of his brother Augustus C. Allen (who was then 
 living at San Augustine, Texas), and Mr. Kelly, a 
 friend of the family, and traveled by boat down the 
 Ohio and Mississippi rivers and up Red river to 
 Natchitoches and from that point to San Augus- 
 tine on horses purchased by him. The party 
 reached Natchitoches on the fourth of July and 
 were regaled by a sumptuous dinner prepared in 
 honor of the occasion by the patriotic proprietor of 
 the hotel at which they stopped. The vegetables 
 served were large and fresh and the fruits and 
 melons so delicious and so far superior to any 
 grown in their home in New York, that they thought : 
 " Verily, we have reached a paradise in this Southern 
 clime." The desserts and wines were also excellent. 
 Many patriotic toasts were proposed, responded to 
 and drunk in flowing bumpers of champagne by the 
 guests seated around the festal board. The stay 
 of the party in Natchitoches was much enjoyed and 
 long pleasantly remembered. The first day's ride 
 from Natchitoches brought the travelers to Gaines' 
 ferry on the Sabine river and the next to San 
 Augustine. The two brothers soon moved- to 
 Natchitoches, where the subject of this memoir re- 
 mained until September and then returned to New 
 York to wind up certain business matters prepara- 
 tory to establishing himself in Texas. He also de- 
 sired to settle a little affair of the heart which was 
 causing him some anxiety at the time. Business 
 matters disposed of, he called upon his sweetheart 
 and had an interview that resulted in terminating 
 their courtship. 
 
 She accepted him and promised to become his 
 wife upon the condition that he would forego his 
 intention of locating in Texas and agree to live in 
 New York. This he would not do. He thought, 
 as a majority of men would have thought, that if 
 she loved him truly she would go wherever it was 
 to his interest to go, even if that were to the ends 
 
356 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 of the earth. They differed upon this point, parted 
 and never met again. He found Houston on his 
 return to Texas the most promising and growing 
 city in the infant Republic, although Galveston, 
 where his brother, Augusta C. Allen, had established 
 a business house, was even then (in 1838) a con- 
 siderable town and good business point. After 
 visiting Houston he went down on Galveston Bay 
 to where his father and mother had established 
 themselves, and engaged in stock raising. When 
 Gen. Woll entered Texas with a strong Mexican 
 force the subject of this memoir mounted many 
 Texian volunteers who were hurrying toward San 
 Antonio to resist the invaders, freely giving to 
 them all his broken horses. In attempting to 
 break a very fine horse for himself upon which to 
 ride to the front, he was thrown and sustained such 
 serious injuries that he was incapacitated for many 
 months from pursuing any active employment. In 
 1839 the first yellow fever epidemic that visited the 
 Republic made its way to Houston and among those 
 who died were eighteen out of a party of twenty 
 men from Connecticut who had put up a fine saw- 
 mill at that place. The survivors were anxious to 
 sell in order to secure funds with which to leave 
 the country and Mr. Allen bought the plant. He 
 gave employment at high wages to all persons who 
 sought work. This was a blessing to many, as 
 there were a large number of idle men in the 
 country, mostly soldiers who had served in the 
 Texian army. The mill was also a great advantage 
 to the community and settlers far and near, as it en- 
 abled them to procure lumber for building purposes. 
 Being the only one of six brothers who is now 
 .living he is often spoken of as the founder of the 
 city of Houston. In truth, his brothers Augustus 
 C. and John K. Allen, who were partners in busi- 
 ness, were the founders of that promising metrop- 
 olis. He, however, was an important factor in 
 the upbuilding of the place, doing as much, or 
 more, perhaps, than any other cf its earlier inhabi- 
 tants to advance its prosperity. While the two 
 brothers named donated the ground upon which 
 to build the first Presbyterian church he gave 
 every foot of the lumber used in its construc- 
 tion. It was quite as large an edifice as 
 the handsome brick structure that now occupies 
 its former site. He opened the first for- 
 warding and commission house established in 
 Houston and associated T. M. Bagby with him in 
 the business. They did an immense business, ex- 
 tending to every part of Texas. In 1845 Mr. 
 Allen went to Corpus Christi as sutler in Col. 
 Twiggs' regiment. Maj. Carr, who had retired 
 from the army, was his partner. They made a 
 
 great deal of money, the sutler's stores that they 
 handled being in great demand, as they purchased 
 and kept in stock everything wanted by the officers 
 and men. This promising venture, however, was 
 brought to an end by a fatal epidemic that made its 
 appearance in camp, to which many succumbed. 
 Mr. Allen was stricken down and his life despaired 
 of. He made money fast, it is true, and if he sur- 
 vived and remained with the army had every reason 
 to expect further gains ; but, tossing on a sick bed, 
 his whole thoughts centered upon getting back to 
 Houston where he could die among friends. He 
 managed to make his way back to that city, where he 
 lingered long at death's door but finally recovered. 
 Upon his restoration to health, he found that all of 
 his earnings as sutler had been consumed in meet- 
 ing necessary expenses. As soon as he had suf- 
 ficiently recuperated, he purchased a stock of goods 
 and loaded them on wagons, which he started for 
 the town of New Braunfels. Following on behind 
 in a few days, he made inquiries along the road but 
 could hear nothing of the wagons. Nor, upon 
 arriving at his destination, could he hear anything. 
 Perplexed and annoyed, he went to La Grange and 
 there found them intact, all loaded as when they 
 started. The teamsters had stopped en route to 
 itiork out their crops. When the goods reached New 
 Braunfels he met with little difficulty in selling 
 them, but was compelled to receive in return money 
 issued by the company that had established the 
 colony. It was the only medium of exchange in 
 use, was of various denominations and known in 
 the vernacular of the countrj' as " shin-plasters." 
 Whenever he secured as much as $50 of this cur- 
 rency, he would take it to the proper officers 
 of the company, and be given a check on a New 
 Orleans bank in exchange for it. He finally 
 closed out the remainder of his merchandise for a 
 large lot of gentle, well-broken oxen, which he 
 sold, receiving in return " shin-plasters " and later 
 checks on New Orleans. These checks were not 
 paid on presentation at the New Orleans bank, and 
 went to protest. He thereupon entered suit in the 
 courts at San Antonio and secured judgment 
 against the company. Not knowing what course to 
 pursue to realize anything from the judgments, he 
 consulted Col. Fisher of the Fisher and Miller col- 
 ony, who told him to take stock in the New Braun- 
 fels company in satisfaction of the judgment, as the 
 stock was already paying an annual dividend of 
 five per cent and would become more valuable with 
 the further settlement of the country. He followed 
 this well-meant advice and has the stock yet. It is 
 not worth the paper it is written upon, although 
 that is now yellowed by age. 
 

 
 ^ifl^ 
 
 A. C. ALLEN, JR. 
 
A. C. ALLEN. 
 
'V 
 
 CHAKLOITE M. ALLEN. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 357 
 
 Samuel L. Allen wa8 married late in life, being 
 considerably above fifty years of age. He 
 was united in marriage to Miss Margaret E. 
 Caffrey, of Yazoo County, Miss., daughter of 
 Margaret P. and her husband, Thomas T. Caf- 
 frey. 
 
 Mr. Allen resided in Houston until his death, 
 
 which occurred in his eight3'-seventh year. He left 
 an only child, a son, named Augustus C. Allen in 
 honor of Mr. Allen's deceased brother, one of the 
 founders of the city of Houston. His son is a 
 practicing attorney of learning and ability, and 
 occupies an enviable position at the bar in that city 
 and his section of the State. 
 
 AUGUSTUS C. ALLEN, 
 
 HOUSTON. 
 
 Benjamin Chapman settled at Saratoga, N. Y., 
 when the Revolutionary War ended. He was com- 
 missioned Captain of a company Ijy Governor Clin- 
 ton of New York, and fought for the independence 
 of the American colonies from the inception of the 
 struggle in 1776 to its close in 1783. He and his 
 devoted wife, who during the absence of her hus- 
 band in the army performed several deeds of 
 heroism (as did many of the women of that trying 
 period) went industriously to work to repair their 
 broken fortunes, neither daunted or depressed, 
 although they were comparatively homeless, their 
 commodious residence, situated on a high and con- 
 spicuous point, having been burned by a detach- 
 ment of British troops as a signal to other forces 
 with which tliey were co-operating. Despite the 
 privations and dangers they had encountered and 
 the financial losses that they sustained, Mr. Chap- 
 man and his wife were happy at the return of white- 
 winged peace to the long distracted land — happy 
 in each other's love, happy because of the freedom 
 gained by their country and the fact that they had 
 helped to gain it, and happy in their children, sev- 
 eral of whom were sons (all of whom were after- 
 wards successful in life) and two daughters, the 
 youngest of whom, Sarah, was wooed and won by 
 Roland Allen. 
 
 He and his fair young bride made their first home 
 in the village of Canasareaugh, N. Y., and where he 
 bought an Indian clearing consisting of a consider- 
 able tract of ground on which was situated a sub- 
 stantial five or six-room log-house surrounded by 
 several acres in cultivation. Here, in 180G, their 
 first child, Augustus C. Allen, was born. He was 
 so delicate that they had faint hope of raising him 
 to manhood. The atmosphere in his room was kept 
 at an even temperature night and day and every 
 means tliat parental affection could suggest was 
 
 employed to tide him over the critical point 
 of infancy. As other and sturdier boys grew 
 up about them they were assigned such labors 
 and duties as came within their strength, 
 but the first born was kept at school until 
 he graduated at the Polytechnic in the village of 
 Chittenango, N. Y., at that time the famous school 
 of the section. The adjacent villages of Canasa- 
 reaugh and Chittenango, botli bearing Indian names, 
 were about fifteen miles distant from the important 
 town of Syracuse in the same State. After gradu- 
 ating, Augustus C. Allen became a professor of 
 mathematics in the Polytechnic School at Chitten- 
 ango; but finally decided to seek a wider field and 
 accepted a position in the city of New York as 
 bookkeeper for H. & H. Canfield, soon thereafter 
 with his brother, J. K. Allen, purchased an interest 
 in the business, which was thenceforward conducted 
 under the firm name of H. & H. Canfield & Co., 
 and feeling that he could make suitable provision 
 for a wife, went to Baldwinsville, N. Y., to claim, 
 and was there wedded to his promised bride, the 
 accomplished Miss Charlotte M. Baldwin, daughter 
 of J. C. Baldwin, founder of the town, one of the 
 most beautiful and brilliant women in the State. 
 Dr. Baldwin was a well-known physician and finan- 
 cier (owning lumber and flour mills and other im- 
 portant business interests). Quick to plan and 
 quick to execute, after deciding to build the town 
 that bears his name, he erected in one day twenty 
 houses (stores, workshops and houses for his lab- 
 orers) upon the site selected. The town is situated 
 thirteen miles from Syracuse. The first mayor of 
 the latter municipality was a son of Dr. Baldwin. 
 The Doctor lived to see Baldwinsville become quite 
 a flourishing place. After his marriage, Augustus 
 C. Allen and his brother continued their commer- 
 cial connection in New York City for about two 
 
358 
 
 INDIAN WAES AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 years and then withdrew from the firm, having de- 
 cided upon new ventures tliat the\' had planned to 
 undertalie in Texas. They went first to San Angus- 
 tine and then to Nacogdoches and em|)loyed then- 
 capital in the purchase of land certificates at $100 
 per league. Older settlers laughed at them and 
 said, with many a wiseacre wink, that thej' were 
 green from the States. When the elder brother, 
 however, went to Natchez, Miss., and sold one of 
 the leagues for $5,000, the " o'er wise " failed to 
 see anything to laugh at and themselves commenced 
 the purchase of certificates. The Allep brothers 
 came to Texas in 1832. They remained several 
 years in Nacogdoches, studying the country and its 
 people, needs and possibilities. 
 
 In 1830 John K. Allen, who was then at Colum- 
 bia serving as a member in the Texian Congress, 
 received a letter from his brother recommending 
 the establishment of a town on the John-Austin 
 half-league, recently purchased from Mrs. Parrolt, 
 sister of Stejihen F. Austin, by the brothers. Occu- 
 pied with his legislative duties be did not give 
 proper weight to the arguments advanced in favor 
 of the enterprise and in reply expressed himself as 
 opposed to the undertaking. He, however, as soon 
 as his ofHcial duties permitted, joined his brother 
 and went out to view the site selected, a point 
 where White Oak bayou debouches into Buffalo 
 bayou and to which tide-water extends. He was 
 delighted with the location and upon learning that 
 his brother had, in a small boat, taken soundings 
 down stream and had discovered that there was 
 sufficient depth of water to float vessels of heav3' 
 draft, withdrew the objections that he had advanced 
 and entered heartily into the work of building the 
 proposed town, the present city of Houston. This 
 agreement having been reached, Augustus C. Allen 
 mapped out on the crown of his stove-pipe hat 
 (and later upon paper) streets, squares, etc., and 
 then with a knife that he wore in his girdle, blazed 
 out the pathway of Main street, where to-day stir- 
 ring throngs of men and women, citizens and 
 visitors, are hurrying to and fro to obey the calls 
 of business or pleasure. 
 
 The two brothers named the town in honor of 
 their personal friend. Gen. Sam Houston, the liero 
 of San Jacinto. They donated a block for a citj^ 
 market, a block upon which to erect a court-house, 
 half a block for the First Presbyterian church, half 
 a block for a First Methodist church and also 
 grounds for Episcopal and Baptist churches. 
 Academy square for educational purposes ; grounds 
 for a jail and for cemeteries and lots and blocks to 
 a number of private individuals, thereb}' securing 
 the co-operation of prominent and influential people. 
 
 They also gave valuable property to Robert Wilson 
 as a recognition of the services rendered by him in 
 negotiating for them the purchase of the site from 
 Mrs. Parrott. A part of this property, a block of 
 ground in the fifth ward, is still owned by his son, 
 J. T. D. Wilson. To further push the enterprise 
 they made a liberal use of printer's ink. 
 
 As soon as the town was well started and gave 
 promise of future growth, John K. Allen addressed 
 a letter to Congress in which he set forth the advanta- 
 ges of the young town as a place at which to estab- 
 lish the seat of government and promised that, if it 
 was made the capital, he would erect at his own 
 expense suitable buildings for a State house, depart- 
 ments offices, the preservation of archives, etc. ; 
 and hotels and lodging houses for the accommoda- 
 tion of members of Congress, all of which he would 
 rent upon reasonable terms and for any desired 
 length of time. It is a matter of familiar history 
 that these overtures were successful and that Hous- 
 ton became the capital of the Republic and so re- 
 mained until the rapid settlement of the country 
 necessitated a more central location and Austin was 
 selected. 
 
 In the early days of Houston, when accommoda- 
 tions were difficult to procure, the Allen brothers 
 provided in their comfortable home, without 
 money and without price, for all who sought their 
 hospitality. Provisions of all kinds then sold at 
 fabulous prices in Texas owing to the distance of 
 the country from sources of supply and want of 
 transportation facilities ; yet with lavish hospitality 
 they entertained friends and strangers. W. R. 
 Baker, who kept their books, said that sometimes 
 their expenses averaged $30,000 a year and that 
 Mrs. A. C. Allen did the honors of the house with 
 queenly grace and courtesy. Their dinings and 
 other social gatlierings were graced by many dis- 
 tinguished and heroic Texians as well as eminent 
 strangers from abroad. Many elegant and beauti- 
 ful ladies also lent the charm of their presence. 
 The Allensenjoyed in the highest degree the exercise 
 of these social offices, which helped to render liv- 
 ing in Texas, their chosen home, pleasant to others. 
 
 The first day of August, 1838, the energetic busi- 
 ness man and legislator, John K. Allen, came to an 
 untimely end, being cut off in the midst of his use- 
 fulness at the early age of twenty-eight years. He 
 died suddenly of congestion. He was deeply 
 lamented by all his brothers. As he had never 
 married, his property vested in his parents, Mr. 
 Roland and Mrs. Sarah (Chapman) Allen. He 
 had been so active as a coadjutor, so strong to lean 
 upon and such a constant companion for so many 
 years that the loss fell more heavily upon the elder 
 
JOHN K. ALLEN. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 359 
 
 brother, Augustus C. Allen, than upon the others, 
 although they too were deeply affected. 
 
 Always delicate, Augustus C. Allen's constitu- 
 tion now became undermined and he determined to 
 seek surcease of sorrow and restoration to health 
 amid new and strange scenes in a foreign land. 
 Accordingly, leaving his family well provided for, 
 he journeyed into Mexico, where his active mind 
 found exercise in business ventures no less success- 
 ful than those in which he had previously engaged. 
 Before following him to Mexico, we will refer, in 
 passing, to the invasion of Texas by Gen. Woll, who 
 entered the Republic with the avowed intention of 
 reducing it to subjection. The whole country was 
 alarmed and patriots hastily armed and hurried to 
 the front. Augustus C. Allen and three brothers 
 being among the first to volunteer. At the begin- 
 ning of the campaign he attached himself to Capt. 
 Nicholas Dawson's company. Shortly thereafter, 
 however, he and a man named Lindsey became 
 dissatisfied with what they considered the injudi- 
 cious course that Dawson appeared resolved to 
 follow, and told him that he should seek to effect 
 a juncture with other Texian troops before meeting 
 and attacking the force under Woll, provided as it 
 was with artillery. Upon Dawson flatly refusing 
 to be guided by this advice, they left the company, 
 and by doing so they saved their lives. They at 
 once joined other commands, under Caldwell or 
 Hays, and did their full share of fighting, and did 
 not return to Houston until Woll recrossed the Rio 
 Grande into Mexico never to return. On leaving 
 Texas, Augustus C. Allen went first to British Hon- 
 duras, where he remained six months, and then 
 loaded his goods on a vessel and shipped them to 
 the Isthmus of Tehauntepec, where for a season he 
 
 stayed his wandering steps. In four months' time 
 he had acquired a sufficient knowledge of Spanish 
 to transact all his business and keep his books in 
 that language ; established a mercantile house and 
 employed wood choppers to cut mahogany in the 
 forests. In addition he shipped goods to all parts 
 of the isthmus on pack-mules and on the backs of 
 natives, paying his native employees in goods which 
 they were eager to procure. Doing a very heavy 
 business, he took an Englishman, Mr. Welsh, in as a 
 partner. They entered extensively into the mahog- 
 any trade, bought vessels and shipped many car- 
 goes of the valuable wood to Europe. Mr. Allen 
 was United States Consul for the isthmus during 
 his stay. He and the Mexican President, Juarez, 
 were personal friends, and he could at all times 
 secure influence and concessions from that ruler. 
 Finally his health again failed and, realizing his 
 condition, he recognized that the inevitable was 
 near at hand. He closed out his business affairs 
 and went to Washington, D. C, to surrender the 
 consulship he was no longer physically able to fill. 
 This was in 1864. When he arrived in Washington 
 the weather was severely cold. The sudden change 
 from an extreme southern climate to one so much 
 further north affected his lungs (always weak) and 
 he was stricken down with pneumonia and died 
 after a few days of intense suffering. Kind friends 
 from New York City were with him during his last 
 illness until he breathed his last. " Life's fitful 
 fever" over, at last the suffering body found 
 repose. He lies entombed in Greenwood cemetery 
 on Long Island in the loved soil of his native 
 State. The sighing winds from the sea sweep 
 over and birds sing in the branches of the trees 
 that grow about his grave. 
 
 ROBERT m. HENDERSON, 
 
 SULPHUR SPRINGS. 
 
 Hon. Robert M. Henderson, of Sulphur Springs, 
 one of the best known public men in the State and 
 a man who has always commanded a large political 
 and personal following, was born in Huntington, 
 Tenn., February 18, 1842, and educated in the 
 common schools of Tennessee and Texas. 
 
 His parents were Dr. A. A. and Mrs. Agnes P. 
 (Murray) Henderson, both Tennesseeans by birth, 
 who came to Texas in 1856 and settled at Paris. 
 
 Mrs. Henderson died September 20, 1866, in Lamar 
 County, and is buried there. Her husband died in 
 November, 1873, at Sulphur Springs, in Hopkins 
 County, Texas. 
 
 The subject of this memoir entered the Confed- 
 erate army in 1861, before reaching his niajoritj', 
 as a private soldier in Company A., Ninth Texas 
 Infantry, and served throughout the war, during 
 which period he rose to the position of Captain, and 
 
360 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Adjutant of Col. (afterwards United State Sena- 
 tor) S. B. Maxej^'s Regiment, his promotion being 
 due to gallant and meritorious service. He served 
 tlirough the Mississippi campaign and the hundred 
 days fighting of the Georgia campaign, when John- 
 ston and Hood were falling sullenly back toward the 
 sea, contesting at every step the Irresistible advance 
 of Sherman's army. Among other battles, he partic- 
 ipated in those at Shiloh, Chickamaugua, Nashville, 
 and Altoona Mountain. He was wounded severely at 
 Shiloh, left on the field, captured, and, as soon as he 
 was sufficiently recovered, sent to Johnson's Island, 
 where he remained three months, until exchanged, 
 after which he immediately rejoined his command. 
 He was also severely wounded at Cartersville, Ga., 
 but escaped capture. After the sun of the Confed- 
 eracy had set to rise no more, he returned to his 
 home in Texas and engaged in farming for two or 
 three years, and then commenced the study of law 
 under his old regimental commander, Gen. Maxey, 
 at Paris, and in 1870 secured admission to the bar 
 and entered upon the practice of his profession at 
 Sulphur Springs, to which place he removed. After 
 six years, during which time he met with a liberal 
 measure of success, he retired from the bar to 
 engage in the private banking business at Sulphur 
 Springs, in which he continued until 1885, when 
 he was appointed by President Cleveland Col- 
 lector of Internal Revenue for the Fourth Dis- 
 trict of Texas, which position he held until 
 October, 1889, when the Republicans again assumed 
 control of the Government and the Republican 
 President appointed his successor on purely' parti- 
 
 san grounds. Since that time. Col. Henderson has 
 been engaged in the real estate and insurance 
 business. Col. Henderson has been an active 
 worker in the organization of the U. C. V. of the 
 State. In 1894 his friends placed his name before 
 the people as a candidate for the Democratic nom- 
 ination for State Comptroller of Public Accounts 
 and he went into the convention with a following 
 that seemed to insure his nomination on the first or 
 second ballot. They claim that his failing to 
 secure the nomination was due to political chican- 
 ery and to no want of strength upon his and no 
 want of loyalty upon their part. He served two 
 terms as a member of the State Democratic Ex- 
 ecutive Committee and was for ten 3'ears Chairman 
 of the Democratic Executive Committee of the 
 Fourth Congressional District. He has always been 
 a constant and earnest Democrat and has been 
 looked to as a leader in his section in every con- 
 test that has occurred for many years past both 
 there and in the State at large. He is a " Sound 
 Money " Democrat, and this year (1896) a member 
 of the State ' ' Sound Money' ' Executive Committee. 
 
 December 9th, 1873, he was married to Miss 
 Virginia C, daughter of Dr. H. H. Beck, of Sul- 
 phur Springs. They have five children, viz: Mur- 
 ray Maxey, aged twenty-one years ; Mary Agnes, 
 aged eighteen years ; Robert Beck, aged fifteen 
 years ; Thomas Louis, aged twelve years, and 
 Ralph Maurice, aged ten jears. 
 
 Col. Henderson is a member of the Masonic 
 fraternity and has been a Knight Templar since 
 1870. 
 
 REV. H. C. HOWARD, 
 
 COLUMBUS. 
 
 Rev. Horatio C. Howard, the learned and much 
 beloved Episcopal minister at Columbus, was born 
 at Bristol, England, October 22, 1S23. In 1827, 
 his parents, John and Matilda I. Howard, moved to 
 America with their family and established them- 
 selves in Pliiladelphia, Pa. 
 
 The subject of this notice has resided in Colum- 
 bus since 1879, and has been thrice married: to 
 Miss Jane F. Cox, in 1844 ; to Miss Margaret O. 
 Allen (daughter of the late Rev. Thomas G. Allen, 
 of Philadelphia), in 1858, and to Miss Sue S. Staf- 
 
 ford (daughter of Robert and Martha Stafford, of 
 Waynesville, Ga.), January 19, 1881, and has 
 three children, born of his first and second mar- 
 riages: Alfred R., treasurer and secretary of the 
 International and Great Northern Railroad ; T. G. 
 Allen, and Margaret M. Howard. Mr. Howard 
 has been for many years a member of the Masonic 
 fraternity, in which he has attained the 32°. He is 
 an earnest and devout Christian pastor, and i 
 beloved by his flock and a wide circle of friends 
 throughout Texas. 
 
fUtJJU l^lo-m 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 361 
 
 WALLER S. BAKER, 
 
 WACO. 
 
 Hon. Waller S. Baker was born March 30, 1855, 
 in Lexington, Fayette County, Ky., a son of John 
 H. and Amanda (Saunders) Baker, came to Texas 
 with his parents in 1859, and was reared at the 
 family homestead on Tonk creek, McLennan 
 County. He was educated at Baylor University, in 
 the city of Waco, from which Le graduated in June, 
 1875. After leaving the University he immediately 
 began the study of law in the office of the late 
 Thomas Harrison and, April 10, 1876, was admitted 
 to the bar, since which time he has been actively 
 engaged in the practice of his profession and has 
 made his way to a distinguished position at the 
 bar. From the beginning of his career he has 
 taken a deep interest in public affairs and for 
 many years past has been one of the most trusted 
 and capable leaders that the Democratic party can 
 boast in this State, but at no time has either sought 
 or desired public office. He has been sent as a 
 delegate to nearly every State Convention since 
 attaining his majority. He was elected Chairman of 
 the Democratic Executive Committee of his county 
 in 1884, and was unanimously, and without solici- 
 tation on his part, nominated to the State Senate 
 in 1887 and overwhelmingly elected at the polls. 
 In 1892, at the Lampasas State Convention, he 
 received the Democratic nomination for elector from 
 
 the Seventh Congressional District and January .3, 
 1893, cast his vote for Cleveland for President and 
 Stephenson for Vice-President. At the State Con- 
 vention, which met in the city of Houston, August 
 16, 1892, to nominate State officers, he was unani- 
 mously and without opposition elected Chairman of 
 the State Democratic Executive Committee. This 
 was at a time when all eyes were turned in search 
 of a man whose generalship could lead the Demo- 
 cratic hosts to victory against the combined efforts 
 of the Populists, Republicans and disgruntled wing 
 of the Democratic party. He was selected for the 
 trust. How well he met the great responsibility that 
 he was called upon to shoulder is attested by the 
 overwhelming victory won in favor of Hon. James 
 S. Hogg for Governor. Mr. Baker was married to 
 Miss Mary M. Mills, January 14, 1886, in Waco, 
 Texas. She is the daughter of Mrs. Mattie Bonner 
 Mills and Samuel D. Mills (deceased) of Galveston. 
 Mr. Baker is one of the most notable figures in 
 public life in Texas to-day. An excellent lawyer, 
 genial and affable in social life, he enjoys the confi- 
 dence and friendship of his fellow-members of the 
 bar and all who know him personally. A true and 
 tried popular leader, his name is one that needs but 
 to be mentioned to send a thrill through a Demo- 
 cratic assembly. 
 
 W. T. ARMISTEAD, 
 
 JEFFERSON. 
 
 Hon. W. T. Armistead, for many years past a 
 leading lawyer of East Texas and for several terms 
 a distinguished member of the Texas Legislature, is 
 a native of Georgia and was born in that State on 
 the 25th of October, 1848. He graduated from 
 the University of Georgia in 1871. In 1864 he 
 enlisted in the Confederate army as a private, 
 participated in engagements around Atlanta, was 
 wounded at the battle of Jonesboro, Ga. , and was 
 made a prisoner at Gerard Aba during the closing 
 scenes of the war. He had, however, been pro- 
 moted and commissioned Captain before he was 
 captured. 
 
 Mr. Armistead came to Texas immediately after 
 his graduation and located at Douglassville, in Cass 
 County, Texas, where he taught school. He moved 
 to Jefferson, Texas, in 1872, and commenced the 
 practice of law in 1873, which he continued for 
 many years as a copartner of Honorable D. B. Cul- 
 berson, under the firm name of Culberson & Arm- 
 istead. He has since practiced alone. 
 
 He has been elected a delegate to every Demo- 
 cratic State Convention since 1874. 
 
 He was elected to the House of Representatives 
 of the Eighteenth Legislature and was re-elected to 
 the Nineteenth by an increased majority. He was 
 
362 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 elected Senator to the Twentieth and Twenty-first 
 legislatures from the Fourth Senatorial District over 
 Hon. D. S. Hearne, by nearly 5,000 majority. He 
 was elected to the House of Representatives of the 
 Twenty-third Legislature from Marion County and 
 wielded an influence second to that of no other 
 member of that body. He is a Knight Templar 
 Mason, a member of the Baptist church, the Legion 
 of Honor and the Ancient Order of United Work- 
 
 men. As a lawyer he has met with uncommon suc- 
 cess and has won for himself a place in the front 
 rank of his profession. To a broad knowledge of 
 the principles and practice of law, he adds the power 
 and grace of a finished logical and magnetic orator. 
 He has done yeoman service for the Democratic 
 party and should he consent to remain in public life 
 the people will doubtless confer further honors 
 upon him. 
 
 GEORGE HOBBS, 
 
 ALICE. 
 
 George Hobbs was born in Derbyshire, England, 
 January 21, 1841, and came to Texas with his par- 
 ents (James and Sarah Hobbs) and brothers and 
 sisters in November, 1852, as a passenger on the 
 sailing vessel, "Osborne," the voyage from England 
 to New Orleans requiring seven weeks and from 
 New Orleans to Corpus Christi one week. The 
 family were a part of the immigrants introduced 
 into Nueces County by Capt. H. L. Kinney, and 
 had contracted for one hundred acres of land near 
 Corpus Christi, then a village containing only sis 
 houses. Hostile Lipan Indians infested that section 
 of the State, rendering life and property insecure 
 outside of the settlements. The bead of the 
 family found the condition of the country so dif- 
 ferent from what it had been represented to him 
 that he concluded not to open a farm or stock 
 ranch, rested a month in Corpus Christi, and then, 
 with his family, moved to the town of Nueces, 
 where eight or ten families soon followed. Here he 
 resided until the time of his death, which occurred 
 in August, 1868. His wife died of yellow fever in 
 Corpus Christi in 1854. They left seven children : 
 Rebecca, who married a Mr. Mitchel in England, 
 and did not come to America with her parents ; 
 William ; Sarah, now Mrs. Reuben Holbein ; 
 James, George, Priscilla, now Mrs. Thomas 
 Beynon, and Miriam, the wife of George Littig, 
 who died soon after their mai-riage. All of the 
 boys joined the Confederate arm}' during the war 
 between the States and made enviable records as 
 soldiers. George volunteered as a private in Capt. 
 Matt Nolan's company, Pyron's regiment, Sibley's 
 brigade. The companies of Capts. Nolan and 
 Tobin (detailed for duty on the Rio Grande), were 
 sent from Laredo to Brownsville and took charge 
 
 of the United States posts and arsenals, when the 
 United States forces evacuated that territory 
 at the beginning of the war. Later Mr. Hobbs 
 participated in the famous battle of Galveston, 
 which resulted in the recapture of that city by the 
 Confederates, and not long thereafter was a mem- 
 ber of the " Belle Crew " of volunteers that boarded 
 and captured at Sabine Pass the " Morning Light," 
 a Federal war vessel carrying six guns. After 
 taking the vessel and finding that she was of too 
 heavy draft to be brought across the bar into the 
 harbor, she was left in the charge of a single 
 private, Eugene Aikin, of Nolan's company. Next 
 day the United States mailship hove in sight, and, 
 drawing alongside to discharge and receive mail as 
 as usual, requested that an officer be sent aboard. 
 Aikin replied in a ferocious and stentorian voice 
 that the "Morning Light" had been captured by 
 the Confederates, ordered imaginary marines to 
 quarters and imaginary cannoneers to clear the 
 guns. The captain of the mail steamer lost no time 
 in putting out to sea under a full head of steam and 
 left Aikin master of the situation. The day fol- 
 lowing this humorous incident, worthj- to bring a 
 smile to the physiognomy of grim-visaged war, 
 the " Morning Light," was burned to prevent her 
 from being retaken b}' the Federals. Nolan's com- 
 pany, of which Mr. Hobbs was a member, was next 
 ordered to Lake Charles, La., where it was sent to 
 watch and report upon the movements of Gen. 
 Banks and did courier, scouting and picket duty for 
 eight months. It was then ordered back to Texas 
 for coastguard duty at Cedar Lake and afterwards 
 at Padre Island, which he performed until the end 
 of the war. The close of hostilities found Mr. Hobbs, 
 to use the expressive vernacular of the times, " flat 
 
GEN. boonp:. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 363 
 
 broke." December 31, 18G7, he was united in 
 marriage to Miss Margaret Beynon, and shortly 
 thereafter made his home in Corpus Christi, where 
 he followed various occupations until he started in 
 business as a merchant in 1872. In 1875 he moved 
 to Collins, situated on the hne of the Mexican Na- 
 tional Railroad, where he continued merchandising 
 during the following twelve years and was for 
 eleven years Postmaster. He then moved to 
 Alice, where he has since resided, and is now a 
 dealer in general merchandise, carries one of the 
 largest stocks of goods west of San Antonio and 
 conducts a large and paying business. He built 
 the first house in Alice, erected in May, 1888, one 
 month before the railroad reached the place. He 
 was one of the men who christened the village 
 Alice, a name selected in honor of the wife of Mr. 
 R. J. Kleberg, youngest daughter of the late Capt. 
 Richard King, of Nueces County, and has done 
 much for the upbuilding of the place, which is now 
 a thriving town of twelve hundred souls. Mr. 
 Hobbs has four children — Philip, Felix, Ruf us 
 and Nettie. He is a member of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church, South, and Democratic party, 
 but has never taken an active interest in polities. 
 In 1872 he joined Lodge, No. 189, A. F. and A. M., 
 at Corpus Christi ; and is a faithful member of the 
 Masonic fraternitv. At the time his parents made 
 their home in Southwest Texas, that part of the 
 State was almost as far removed from the beaten 
 tracks of civilization as Central Africa is to-day, 
 but notwithstandinsf that fact a few brave and 
 
 hardy pioneers settled within the limits, determined 
 to establish homes, conquer the wilderness and act 
 as the vanguard of the tide of population that was 
 to come pouring in in later years. In 1852 the 
 year the Hobbs family located in Nueces Count}', 
 Capt. Van Buren, of the United States army, was 
 ambushed and mortally wounded by an arrow 
 shot from the bow of a Lipan Indian. He was 
 nursed by the subject of this memoir, then a 
 boy of eleven years of age, until death relieved 
 him of his sufferings about a week later. The 
 hostility of the Indians was unrelenting, but 
 they were soon taught to fear the vengeance, if 
 they did not respect the rights, of the settlers. 
 Mr. Hobbs' childhood, youth and early manhood 
 were passed amid trials and scenes of danger 
 that developed the full strength of his character 
 and gave him that firmness and self-reliance that 
 has since enabled him to win his way to success in 
 the face of difficulties that few men would have 
 found it possible to overcome. His educational 
 opportunities were restricted but he took full ad- 
 vantage of such as were within his reach. What 
 he learned from text-books has since been sup- 
 planted by the wider knowledge obtained in the 
 school of experience, extensive reading and asso- 
 ciation, and he may be justly described as a strong, 
 well-poised man. He has led a quiet, peaceful 
 life, and made it a rule to attend strictly to his 
 own affairs. No man in Nueces County is more 
 highly respected or generally liked by all who 
 know him. 
 
 H. H. BOONE, 
 
 NAVASOTA. 
 
 To the iniquitous religious persecutions which pre- 
 vailed throughout Europe during the greater part 
 of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, America 
 owes a large proportion of its population. From 
 this source came not only the "Pilgrim Fathers," 
 but the Catholics under Lord Baltimore, the Hugue- 
 nots and the Scotch and Scotch-Irish Presbyterians. 
 The influence of the last named of these has per- 
 haps been more far-reaching than that of any of the 
 others, because the Scotch showed a greater dispo- 
 sition to migrate, were a hardier and more inde- 
 pendent people, were better fighters, and were thus 
 better equipped to withstand the hardships and 
 
 vicissitudes of a new country and to solve the 
 pressing problems of civilization. So it happens 
 that the terms, "of Scotch" and " Scotcn-Irish 
 origin " are of so frequent occurrence in the 
 biographical literature of this country. 
 
 The subject of this brief notice is of Scotch 
 ancestry, "old blue-stocking Presbyterians " says 
 family -tradition. Two of his paternal ancestors, 
 great-grandfathers, Boone and Greene, were officers 
 in the Revolution. His father was Joseph Greene 
 Boone and his mother bore the maiden name of 
 Harriet N. Latham — the former a native of North 
 Carolina, belonging to the historic Boone family of 
 
364 
 
 INDIAN ]YARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 that State, and the latter a native of New York. 
 Joseph Greene Boone and wife migrated from 
 North Carolina in 1827 and settled in Tipton 
 County, West Tennessee, when that was a compara- 
 tively new country. " Mountain Academy neigh- 
 borhood," where they settled, was made up mostly 
 of Presbyterians who had been attracted to that 
 vicinity hy Church ties and were kept there 
 through the influence of the academy, which had 
 been founded by a pioneer Presbyterian minister, 
 the Eev. James Holmes, a graduate of Princeton 
 College. In that neighborhood H. H. Boone was 
 born, February 24, 1834. In 1842 his parents 
 moved to DeSoto County, Miss., where, nine years 
 later, his mother died, and whence in 1852 his 
 father, accompanied by his two sons, the subject 
 of this sketch and an elder brother, came to Texas, 
 settling in the "old Rock Island neighborhood," 
 in what was then Austin, now Waller County. 
 The boyhood and youth of H. H. Boone were thus 
 passed in the three States, Tennessee, Mississippi 
 and, Texas. His education, begun under the Rev. 
 Mr. Holmes at Mountain Academy, in Tipton 
 County, Tenn., was continued under the tuitor- 
 ship of Professor John A. Rousseau (brother of 
 the Federal general of that name) in Mississippi, 
 and, after coming to Texas, at Austin College, 
 Huntsville, under the direction of the Rev. Daniel 
 Baker, the distinguished Texas pioneer, Presby- 
 terian minister and teacher. While in Austin Col- 
 lege he took up the study of law, first under Judge 
 W. A. Lee, and afterwards under Col. Henderson 
 Yoakum, the historian, and Judge Royal T. 
 Wheeler, of the Supreme Court of Texas. The 
 illness of his father caused him to quit college four 
 months before graduation, but not until he had 
 obtained his license to practice law. For four 
 years after returning home he gave his attention to 
 the management of his father's plantation, until 
 1869, when he began the practice of his profession 
 at Hempstead. 
 
 When the late war came on between the North 
 and South young Boone, like hundreds of others, 
 was filled with the war-spirit and at once offered 
 his services to the Confederacy, enlisting, in Feb- 
 ruary, 1861, as a private in Col. John S. (" Old 
 Rip") Ford's regiment, with which he proceeded to 
 the Rio Grande frontier and participated in the 
 cajiture of the Union posts in that vicinity. Not 
 wishing to do garrison duty he returned hoine after 
 the capture of the posts and again enlisted in a 
 six months' company under Capt. McDade, with 
 which he was assigned to duty at Dickinson's 
 Bayou and in the vicinity of Galveston. A short 
 time before the expiration of his term of enlist- 
 
 ment in this command he was detailed as recruiting 
 officer to assist Maj. Edwin Waller in raising a 
 cavalry battalion. Five companies were recruited 
 from the lower Brazos country which, after rendez- 
 vousing at Hempstead, left that place July 4, 1862, 
 under orders to go to Louisiana. At Vermillion, 
 La., a sixth company under Capt. Joseph E. 
 Terrell, from Fort Worth, was added and Waller 
 then becoming Lieutenant-Colonel, Boone was made 
 Major. The command was attached to Sibley's 
 (afterwards Green's) brigade and was in active 
 service from that time on along the Louisiana, 
 Texas and Arkansas border. Maj. Boone was in 
 all its operations up to September 29, 1863, when 
 he was wounded in the affair at Fordoche, La., 
 losing his right arm and the first two fingers 
 and thumb of his left hand. By these wounds he 
 was disabled for further field service. Marrying 
 Miss Sue H. Gordon, of Washington, St. Lan- 
 dry's Parish, La., he returned to Texas and 
 reported to Gen. Magruder, then commanding the 
 department of Texas, for such duty as he was able 
 to perform. He was assigned to post duty at dif- 
 ferent points, and remained in the service till the 
 surrender. 
 
 After the war Maj. Boone removed from Hemp- 
 stead to Anderson, in Grimes County, where he re- 
 sumed the practice of the law in partnership with 
 Hon. I. G. Searcy, and continued in the active prac- 
 tice of his profession until 1876, when, having been 
 made the nominee of the Democratic party for 
 Attorney-General of the State, he accepted the 
 nomination, was elected and served one term. On 
 the expiration of his term of office he moved to 
 Navasota, where he again took up his professional 
 duties, which he has since followed to the exclusion 
 of everything else, although a number of times im- 
 portuned bj' his friends to again enter the political 
 arena. 
 
 As a lawyer Maj. Boone has achieved consider- 
 able reputation, and justly so, for he possesses all 
 of the attributes of a successful practitioner, a clear 
 legal mind, sensitive conscience and diligent habits. 
 He h.-xs been in the practice now for thirty-odd 
 years and still he pursues the arduous duties of his 
 profession with all the enthusiasm of youth. In ac- 
 cepting cases he is careful, exacting sincerity from 
 his clients, and in the preparation of causes for 
 trial he is diligent and faithful, fair in his state- 
 ments before the jur3', courteous to adverse counsel 
 and circumspect to the court, a logical thinker, able 
 and earnest speaker. Measured by pecuniary gain 
 he may be said to have met with success, for by 
 means of his profession he has accumulated some 
 property after having reared and made ample edu- 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 365 
 
 cational provision for a large family of children. 
 He is spoken of by those who linow him best in 
 terms of sincere respect, being regarded as a good 
 citizen, beloved neighbor, earnest, liberal, progres- 
 sive and charitable without stint. Naturally he has 
 a warm place in his heart for his old comrades and 
 he in turn has been the recipient of many marks of 
 esteem at their hands. He was chiefly instrumental 
 in organizing the first camp of Confederate veterans 
 at Navasota, the camp being being named for him but 
 afterwards changed at his suggestion to " Camp W. 
 G. Post" in honor of the memory of one of its de- 
 ceased members. At the general reunion of the 
 Confederate Veterans of the United States, of Hous- 
 ton, in May, 1895, he was elected Commander of 
 the Division of Texas, which position he is now 
 filling. 
 
 In politics Maj. Boone is a Democrat — " Jeffer- 
 sonian Democrat" — but not of the variety of 
 which the public has heard so much in recent years. 
 His confession of faith excludes all of the sump- 
 tuary and paternal schemes of legislation which have 
 
 recently been paraded under the banner of " Jeffer- 
 sonian Democracy." He believes in local self- 
 government and in the fullest measure of personal 
 freedom consistent with the public good. The ele- 
 vation of the citizen — opportunity for the highest 
 possible development of the individual — should, in 
 his judgment, be the true end of popular govern- 
 ment, and this is to be attained not by ever-recur- 
 ring appeals to the law-making bodies of the land 
 nor by the practice of any form of political fetish- 
 ism, but by the unwearing exertion of the individual 
 himself under a government that guarantees to him 
 but one equality, namely, equality before the law. 
 He has always held himself in readiness to work for 
 his party and has done it good service in times past. 
 Such service, it may be added, has sprung from his 
 interest in the men and measures of his choice and 
 not from any expectation of reward. The exacting 
 duties of a laborious profession and the claims of 
 family to which he is devoted with rare fidelity long 
 since shut out any hope he may have entertained of 
 a public career. 
 
 F. R. GRAVES, 
 
 KARNES CITY. 
 
 Russell Graves, a prominent planter of Lowndes 
 County, Ala., came to Texas in 1838 with his 
 family and located near where the town of Hunts- 
 ville now stands, in what was then Montgomery 
 (now Walker) County, and three years later re- 
 turned to Shelby County, where he was (as a 
 regulator) an active participant in the war waged 
 for many years between the regulators and the 
 moderators. Here Frank R. Graves, the subject 
 of this notice, was born on his father's farm in 
 1852. He was principally educated in the common 
 schools of Ellis County, his parents moving to that 
 county and settling near Red Oak in 1857. His 
 mother, Mrs. Esther G. Graves, died in 1865 and 
 in the following year the remaining members of the 
 family moved to Montgomery County, Ala., and 
 lived there until 1875, when they came back to 
 Ellis County, Texas. 
 
 Frank R. Graves was united in marriage to Miss 
 Amanda Ryburn, at Waxahachie, in 1878, and soon 
 after went to Alvarado, Johnson County, where he 
 engaged in the hardware business. They have 
 three children: Davy, Esther and Frank. 
 
 In the fall of 1882 Mr. Graves failed in 
 the hardware business, came to .4.ustin with his 
 family in 1883 and in September of that year 
 entered the law department of the State University. 
 When he reached Austin, he had only sixty-Bve 
 dollars in money, a wife and three children. He 
 sold books in the afternoons and during vacations 
 to earn enough to meet expenses and succeeded in 
 supporting himself and family. He attended the 
 University eighteen months and was admitted to 
 the bar at the December Term of the District Court 
 in 1884. While a member of the senior law class 
 he was elected County Attorney of Karnes County, 
 in January, 1885, by the Commissioners' Court of 
 that county, having been, without his knowledge, 
 recommended by friends who had learned his worth. 
 He held the position for four years and made a 
 reputation that afterward brought him a large and 
 lucrative practice. He has for many yea' s been 
 upon one side or the other of nearly every impor- 
 tant case tried in his section of the State. 
 
 Mr. Graves was elected to the Twenty-second 
 Legislature in 1890 from the Eighty-second Repre- 
 
366 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 sentative District, composed of Karnes, Atascosa 
 and Wilson counties ; served upon a number of 
 important committees, soon took ranii in the House 
 as a man of very superior capacity and made a 
 record that fully justified the flattering expectations 
 of his friends. He was re-elected to the same 
 position in 1892 and served in the Twenty-fourth 
 Legislature. 
 
 He was a member of the Democratic Executive 
 Committee for 1892 to 1894. 
 
 He was one of the founders of the Kansas Re- 
 porter, the first newspaper published in Karnes 
 City. 
 
 He is and has been since 1890 the senior member 
 of the law firm of Graves & Wilson at Helena and 
 Karnes City. 
 
 His son Davy was a popular Page in the Twenty- 
 third Legislature. 
 
 This biography contains the brief outlines of a 
 life that should cheer every young man who is 
 struggling against adversity and to whom the way 
 that leads to success and a competency seems 
 blocked by insurmountable obstacles. While 
 fortune is capricious in her gifts, she owes a debt 
 to such men as Frank R. Graves which she will 
 never fail in due time to pay. 
 
 JOSEPH E. WALLIS, 
 
 GALVESTON. 
 
 Joseph Edmund Wallis, a member of the well- 
 known firm of Wallis, Landes & Co., was born 
 in Morgan County,' Ala., in 1835. His parents 
 were Maj. Joseph and Elizabeth Crockett Wallis, 
 both connected with some of the most distinguished 
 families that the South can boast. His father was 
 a lineal descendant of the famous Sir William Wal- 
 lace, whose name is indissolubly connected with 
 the most glorious epoch of Scottish history. 
 Owing to a family disagreement, an American 
 ancestor changed his name to Wallis, and it has so 
 remained in the branch of the family to which the 
 suliject of this memoir belongs. Maj. Joseph 
 Wallis was for many years a wealthy planter in 
 Alabama and Mississippi, owning lauds in both 
 States, and for a long time planting in partnership 
 with Governor Chapman, of Alabama. In the 
 winter of 1848 he determined to move to Texas. 
 His eldest son, John C, brought the slaves over- 
 land, whilst he moved the family by water, only 
 leaving behind his eldest daughter, Emily, who had 
 married Joseph Toland, a wealthy planter of 
 Lowndes County, Miss. He located at Chappell 
 Hill, Washington County, Texas, and continued 
 planting. In October, 1849, his second daughter, 
 Elmina Carolina, was married to Dr. .John W. 
 Lockhart, of Washington County. 
 
 When Maj. Wallis removed to Texas his second 
 son, Joseph Edmund, was thirteen years of age, 
 and had gone to school but a limited time. In the 
 fall of 1849 (in Texas), he spent one session at 
 Professor Ulysses Chapman's school. At the age 
 
 of fifteen he spent one year (1850) in merchan- 
 dising at Chappell Hill, then, selling out, he passed 
 the two sessions of 1851 and the spring session of 
 1852 at the Chappell Hill Male College, then in 
 its prime, thus acquiring a fair education. In the 
 summer of 1852 he again resumed merchandising 
 at Chappell Hill, and continued about four j'ears, 
 being the Postmaster during the time. His father 
 now wishing to retire from active business, divided 
 his property among his children. This caused 
 Joseph Edmund to close out his mercantile business 
 and turn his attention to planting. When the war 
 began he had accumulated considerable property, 
 and was turning out his hundred bales of cotton 
 annually. On February 12th, 1860, he married 
 Miss S. Kate Landes, daughter of Col. D. Landes, 
 of Austin County, Texas, formerly of Kentucky. 
 
 His father was particularly noted for his great 
 industry, energy, perseverance and public spirit, 
 and was always a leader in public enterprises 
 wherever he lived ; notabl}' in this connection, he 
 was the first one in Texas to advocate and start 
 with Col. D. Landes and Isaac Applewhite, of Wash- 
 ington County, the construction of the now great 
 Houston & Texas Central Railway, but was soon 
 joined by such spirits as Paul Bremond, Harve3' 
 Allen and others of Houston, and later with other 
 associates, put under construction the Washington 
 R-.uiroad from Hempstead to Brenham, now the 
 western branch of the Houston & Texas Central 
 Railroad. During his residence in the State he was 
 engaged in many other enterprises, was a leading 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 367 
 
 citizen in ever3' respect, and at one time a prominent 
 candidate for the Legislature, being defeated by 
 Judge James E. Sheppard by a small majority. 
 During tbe secession agitation he indorsed the 
 opinion of his friend Gen. Sam Houston that 
 these questions should be settled in the halls of 
 Congress and at the ballot-box, not on the battle 
 field, but the conflict once inaugurated, he was 
 a zealous supporter of the Southern cause, and 
 cherished a great desire to live and see the result 
 of the war, but during 1864 his health was 
 greatly impaired, and after several months of 
 suffering he died March 15th, 1865, in the 64th 
 j'ear of his age. Early in the war his two sons 
 obeyed their country's call and entered the Con- 
 federate service, John C. as Captain of Company 
 B., Twentieth Texas Infantrj', commanded by Col. 
 H. M. Elmore, and Joseph E. as a private in the 
 same company. The regiment did duty on the 
 coast of Texas and was engaged in the celebrated 
 battle of Galveston — a sharp and hotly contested 
 affair and one long to be remembered by both sides. 
 They both continued in the service until the sur- 
 render. 
 
 Immediately thereafter the brothers John C. and 
 Joseph E. Wallis, and Henry A. Landes (a 
 brother-in-law of Joseph E. Wallis) determined 
 to close out their planting interests in Washington 
 and Austin counties and form a copartnership 
 under the style and firm name of Wallis, Landes 
 & Company, as wholesale grocers at Galveston. 
 The firm entered vigorously into business and con- 
 tinued prosperousl}' without any change in its 
 naembership until May 9lh, 1872, when John C. 
 departed this life in the full vigor of manhood. 
 The firm of Wallis, Landes & Company, after the 
 death of John C, continued under the same firm 
 name and style by the two surviving partners, the 
 interest of the deceased partner having been with- 
 drawn at the time of his demise, and continues 
 the same to this date, only increasing the member- 
 ship of the firm by the admission of Charles L. 
 Wallis, eldest son of Joseph E. Wallis, in 1882. 
 At the close of the war the subject of our sketch 
 moved his family to Galveston. He has now four 
 living children, viz., Charles L. Wallis, Dan E. 
 Wallis, Pearl Wallis Knox, and Lockhart H. Wallis. 
 
 Mr. Wallis, both in civil and military life, has 
 discharged every duty devolving upon him as a 
 citizen in a manner to entitle him to and secure for 
 him the confidence and esteem of all with whom he 
 has been brought in contact. In commercial pur- 
 suits he has been called to fill many places of trust 
 and honor on boards of directors in the various cor- 
 
 porations, banks, etc., of the city. A number of 
 these he now fills. He took an active part in the 
 building of the Gulf, Colorado «fc Santa Fe Rail- 
 road, giving to it freely both of his time and money. 
 He followed it closely in all of its vicissitudes and 
 was a director of the company from the beginnin<^ 
 until 1886. He was one of the syndicate of sixteen 
 who rapidly constructed the road after its purchase 
 from the old company in the spring of 1879. He 
 was one of the most active and effective of the 
 workers whose efforts have secured adequate appro- 
 priations from the Federal government for the deep 
 water improvements at Galveston. He is an officer 
 or director of the following corporations, to wit: 
 One of the five directors of the City Company, the 
 oldest and wealthiest in the city ; vice-president of 
 the Texas Guarantee & Trust Co. ; director of the 
 Galveston & Houston Investment Co. ; vice-presi- 
 dent of the Galveston & Western Railroad Co. ; 
 director of the Gulf City Cotton Press Co. ; a mem- 
 ber of the Cotton Exchange : stockholder in nearly 
 all the corporations of the city and many of the 
 National Banks of this State, and also some cor- 
 porations of the North, and generally a strong 
 promoter of the new railroad enterprises. 
 
 During all his residence in Galveston he has been 
 closely identified with all its commercial enterprises, 
 upon which he believes depends the city's success 
 in the future. He takes but little interest in politi- 
 cal affairs. Since the war he has voted the Demo- 
 cratic ticket, but previous to that time he was a 
 Whig, but not old enough to cast a vote against his 
 relative, James K. Polk, when he was elected Presi- 
 dent of the United Stales. His hand and purse 
 are always open to worthy charities, and he gives 
 cheerfully and liberally of his means to all public 
 enterprises. Naturally modest and retiring in his 
 disposition, when not occupied in business he pre- 
 fers to enjoy the privacy of his comfortable and 
 beautiful home and the society of his iuterestino- 
 family. He has never held a membership in any 
 church, but with his wife is an attendant upon the 
 Presbyterian and contributes to its support. Their 
 parents on both sides were Presbyterians in belief 
 and this is consequently the church of their choice. 
 Like his early ancestor, the famous Scottish " Wal- 
 lace of Elerslie," the first of the name of whom 
 history gives an account, who lived nearly a thou- 
 sand years ago, he is tall and of slight stature, his 
 eyes are dark grey and his hair. With a strong 
 constitution, a firm will, temperate habits, good 
 health and a cheerful temperament, he bids fair to 
 be spared for many years of business usefulness 
 and service to the city where his lot is cast. 
 
368 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 CHARLES L. COYNER, 
 
 SAN DIEGO. 
 
 Charles Luther Coyner, one of the most brilliant 
 and successful law^'ers in West Texas, and a man 
 who has acquired some distinction as a newspaper, 
 literary and political writer of merit, was born in 
 Augusta County, Va., February 8th, 1853, in the 
 old stone house built by his grandfather in 1740. 
 His parents were Addison H. and Elizabeth Coyner. 
 His mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Brown. 
 Mr. Coyner is descended from Archibald, Duke of 
 Argyle, and Governor Roane, who served at dif- 
 ferent times as Governor of North Carolina and 
 Tennessee. The family has been traced back as 
 far as 1620, members of it distinguishing themselves 
 in the Thirty Years War. Three representatives 
 (from Virginia) were officers in the Revolutionary 
 War that severed the American Colonies from Great 
 Britain, and three in the War of 1812, and in the 
 war between the States, one company, alone, from 
 Augusta County, contained twelve Coyners, all 
 good soldiers. The Coyner family is the most 
 numerous in the valley of Virginia and especially 
 in Augusta County, where over seven hundred 
 members reside and one hundred and forty register 
 as Democratic voters, — there is not a Readjuster 
 among them. 
 
 Mr. Coyner has a brother who was Captain of 
 Company D., Seventh Virginia Cavalry, Army of 
 Northern Virginia, and who was killed in battle 
 September 13, 1863. 
 
 The subject of this notice received his education 
 in local district schools and at Forest Academy. 
 He came to Texas in the autumn of 1877, located at 
 Kaufman, read law under Hon. A. A. Burton, min- 
 ister at one time from the United States to Chili. 
 He was admitted to practice in the district and 
 inferior courts of the State of Kaufman, Texas, in 
 1877, and in the Supreme Court at Tyler soon 
 thereafter. 
 
 Mr. Coyner now resides at San Diego and was 
 County Attorney of Duval County from 1886 to 
 1895, when he resigned to accept the office of 
 County Judge of that County. He went back to 
 Augusta County, Virginia, on a visit, and, January 
 3, 1884, married Margaret, youngest daughter of 
 Dr. Wm. R. Blair, of that county. Mrs. Coyner is 
 descended from the family of Blairs, one of whom 
 
 founded William and Mary College, Virginia. One 
 of the family of Blairs was Governor of Virginia in 
 1768, and another was appointed, by Washington, 
 Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the 
 United States. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Coyner have no children. Mr. 
 Coyner was secretary of the Democratic Executive 
 Committee of Duval County for eight years and 
 held the chairmanship of that body from 1892 to 
 1894. He has been a delegate to every Democratic 
 State Convention held since he made his home in 
 Texas and has been one of the most active and 
 effective workers who have secured party success 
 in his section of the State. He has often been 
 urged to accept the nomination for and election to 
 the Legislature, but has in each instance declined, 
 preferring to devote himself to his large and lucra- 
 tive law practice and having no desire to accept any 
 reward, in the way of political preferment, for the 
 yeoman service which he has willingly and patrioti- 
 cally rendered in the interest of good government. 
 He was appointed County Judge of Duval County, 
 without any effort upon his part, having made no 
 application for the position. He was appointed 
 County Judge of Duval County April 17th, 1895, 
 and now holds that office. He received the unani- 
 mous vote of the Commissioners' Court, the ap- 
 pointing power, and resigned the office of County 
 Attorney. His term expires in the fall of 1896. 
 
 One of the highest compliments ever paid Judge 
 Coyner was the indorsements he received from 
 Governor Jas. S. Hogg, Hon. Horace Chilton, 
 ex-Governor Hubbard and others, for appointment 
 by President Cleveland to the office of Third Audi- 
 tor of the United States Treasury, an office that he 
 would have filled with credit to himself and to the 
 State of Texas. He has made a fortune at the bar 
 and stands deservedly high in his profession. He 
 is a member of the Presbyterian Church, Masonic 
 Fraternity and Independent Order of Odd- Fellows. 
 While owner of the Athens Journal and part owner 
 of the Henderson County Narrow Gauge, both 
 published at Athens, he acquired a State-wide 
 reputation as a polished, trenchant and able writer, 
 to which he has since added by contributions to 
 some of the leading magazines of the countr}'. 
 
-^ 
 
 \ 
 
 Richard Kini 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEEliS OF TEXAS. 
 
 369 
 
 RICHARD KING, 
 
 NUECES COUNTY. 
 
 Richard King was born in Orange County, N. Y., 
 July 10, 1825, and at eight years of age was ap- 
 prenticed to a jeweler ; but, being put to menial 
 work and unjustly treated, slipped aboard the ship 
 Desdemo7iia, bound for Mobile, Ala., and con- 
 cealed himself in the hold. When the vessel was 
 four days out, he was discovered and carried 
 before the captain, who, although a stern and 
 weather-beaten old salt, treated him kindly, and 
 gave him a fatherly lecture, characterized by much 
 sound and wholesome advice which the boy after- 
 wards profited by. 
 
 At Mobile he was employed as cabin boy by the 
 celebrated steamboatman, Capt. Hugh Monroe, 
 and later worked in the same capacity under Capt. 
 Joe Holland on the Alabama river. Capt. Hol- 
 land took quite a fancy to him and sent him to 
 school for eight months in Connecticut. Return- 
 ing to Mobile, he continued with Capt. Holland 
 until the commencement of the Seminole War, 
 and then enlisted in the service of the United 
 States, and participated in many of the stirring 
 events of that campaign. He was on the Ococho- 
 hee when Col. Worth, afterwards a distinguished 
 officer in the Mexican War, enticed aboard and 
 captured Hospotochke and his entire band of 
 warriors, an event that had much to do with bring- 
 ing hostilities to a speedy and successful close. 
 After the Seminole War, he steamboated on the 
 Chatahoochie river until 1847, and then went to 
 the Rio Grande, where he acted as pilot of the 
 steamer " Corvette," of the Quartermaster's De- 
 partment of the United States army, until the close 
 of the Mexican War. 
 
 The vessel was commanded by Capt. M. Kenedy, 
 whom he had previously met, and who remained 
 through all subsequent vicissitudes and changes 
 his life-long friend. Peace having been declared 
 between the United States and Mexico, and the 
 armies disbanded, Capt. King bought the " Col. 
 Cross," and followed the river until 1850, when he 
 formed a copartnership with Capt. M. Kenedy, 
 Capt. James O'Donnell, and Charles Stilliman, 
 under the firm name of M. Kenedy & Co. 
 
 Between that period and the close of the war 
 between the States, they built, or purchased, 
 twenty steamers, which they operated to great 
 profit in the carrying trade on the Rio Grande. 
 Capt. O'Donnell retiring from the partnership, the 
 
 new firm of King, Kenedy & Co., was formed, and 
 continued the business until 1874. 
 
 In the meantime (1852), Capt. King traversed 
 the coast country lying between the Rio Grande 
 and the Nueces river and shortly thereafter estab- 
 lished the since famous Santa Gertrude's ranch, to 
 which he soon moved his family. 
 
 In 1860 Capt. Kenedy acquired an interest in the 
 property which was augmented by the establish- 
 ment of other ranches in the course of time. They 
 did business together until January 1, 1868, when 
 they divided equally their possessions and dissolved 
 the copartnership, as they had growing families 
 and wished to avoid complications that might occur 
 if either of them should die. 
 
 The King ranches, Santa Gertrude's and San 
 Juan Carricitos, comprise about 700,000 acres, 
 stocked with over 100,000 head of cattle, four 
 thousand brood mares and 15,000 saddle horses, 
 and is supplied with all the accessories known to 
 modern ranching. 
 
 A few years since as many as 35,000 calves were 
 branded annuall3'. 
 
 During the years 1876-80 Capt. King, together 
 with Capt. Kenedy and Col. Uriah Lott, built the 
 Corpus Christi, San Diego & Rio Grande (narrow 
 gauge) Railroad, from Corpus Christi to Laredo. 
 This was the first railroad built in that part of the 
 State. This road was sold by them to the Mexican 
 National R. R. Co., who began building their rail- 
 way system (now extending to the city of Mexico) 
 by purchasing this line, which is at present their 
 terminal in Texas. 
 
 Capt. King was taken ill in the early part of 
 1885 and was told that he had cancer of the 
 stomach. Eminent physicians were called from 
 New Orleans and confirmed the statement and told 
 him that he could live but a short time. He 
 received the announcement with an equanimity 
 characteristic of his well-poised and heroic spirit, 
 and, settling his earthly affairs in order, quietly 
 waited for the inevitable, which came April 14th of 
 that year, while he was stopping at the Menger 
 Hotel, in San Antonio. His wife and all of his 
 children were present at his bedside except Mrs. 
 Atwood, who was with her husband in New Mexico 
 and, owing to sickness, could not come. He was 
 laid to rest the following day in the cemetery at 
 San Antonio. Capt. King left all of his property 
 
370 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 to bis wife and made lier sole executrix witliout 
 bond. 
 
 Robert J. Kleberg, a lawyer, a trusted confidant 
 and friend of Capt. King, and thoroughly familiar 
 with tlie status of the property, was requested by 
 Mrs. King to come to Santa Gertrude's Ranch 
 for consultation, did so, and, at her urgent solici- 
 tation, became manager of the ranches, although 
 by so doing he found it necessary to abaudon the 
 active practice of his profession. January 18th 
 of the following year he was united in marriage to 
 Miss Alice King, to whom he was engaged during 
 the lifetime of her father. 
 
 At the time of Capt. King's death his estate was 
 about $500,000 in debt. This debt was incurred 
 in the purchase of lands and making improve- 
 ments. There was something to show for every 
 dollar, yet it had to be met. Mr. Kleberg corre- 
 sponded with the creditors and they readily agreed 
 to let Mrs. King individually assume the debt and 
 took her notes for the amounts respectively due 
 them. All that remained to be done was to pro- 
 bate the will and file an inventory in the County 
 Court and this Mr. Kelberg did. The estate was 
 not in court over three hours. Mrs. King has since 
 paid the notes, has added more than 100,000 acres 
 
 to her ranches, does not owe a dollar and sells 
 from 20,000 to 25,000 beef cattle annually. 
 
 When Capt. King established himself in the 
 Nueces country it was practically as far removed 
 from civilization and the operation of civil law, as 
 Central Africa is to-day. A few Mexican settlers 
 were scattered here and there, fifty or sixty miles 
 apart, but were little more to be trusted than the 
 bands of predatory Indians who prowled over the 
 prairies. Desperadoes from Mexico and the States, 
 at a later date, also, from time to time, attempted 
 to effect a lodgment in the country and overawe 
 and despoil the people. Sagacious and possessed 
 of both moral and physical courage (all of which 
 was needed in these trying times), firm, bold and 
 prompt, both in planning and acting, Capt. King 
 proved himself equal to these and all other emer- 
 gencies and did not hesitate to hold these characters 
 in check with an iron hand. 
 
 He maintained his rights, the riglits of those about 
 him, and an approach to social order. 
 
 Starting in life a penniless boy, his indomitable 
 will, strength of mind and capacity for conducting 
 large affairs enabled him long before his death to 
 accumulate an immense fortune, and rank as one 
 of the largest cattle-owners in the world. 
 
 THOMAS J. JENNINGS, 
 
 FORT WORTH. 
 
 The late lamented Gen. Thomas J. Jennings, at 
 one time Attorney-General of Texas, and during 
 his lifetime considered one of the ablest lawyers in 
 Texas, was born in Shenandoah County, Va., 
 on the 20th of October, 1801. His parents were 
 Col. "William and Mariam Howard (Smith) Jen- 
 nings. Col. William Jennings was for a number of 
 years sheriff and a leading citizen of Shenandoah 
 County. When the subject of this memoir was 
 about ten years of age his father moved to Indiana 
 where he had purchased five thousand acres of land 
 on the Ohio river near Vevay, remained there a 
 short time and then moved to Louisville, Ky., 
 where he purchased a large portion of the land now 
 embraced within the corporate limits of that citj'. 
 This land he sold for a sum which, at this day, when 
 its value had been so greatl}' enhanced, appears 
 insignificant. 
 
 After a short residence at Louisville, Col. William 
 
 Jennings moved to Christian County, Ky., where 
 Gen. Thomas J. Jennings clerked in a country 
 store, attending school part of the time, until 
 about seventeen years, old when he secured a school 
 and taught for two or three years until he accumu- 
 lated sufficient means to attend Transylvania Col- 
 lege, at Lexington, Kj'., where he graduated ia 
 1824, with the highest honors, having been selected 
 by his classmates to deliver the valedictory. Jeffer- 
 son Davis, Gustavus A. Henry, of Tennessee, and a 
 number of other men, who afterwards distinguished 
 themselves in law, medicine, politics, and theology, 
 were his friends and fellow-students. The love he 
 acquired for the classics at Transylvania College 
 clung to him through life. There was, perhaps, no 
 more accurate or critical Latin and Greek scholar 
 in the South. He was also familiar with the French 
 and Spanish languages, speaking them both. 
 After graduating he taught school at Paris. Tenn., 
 
INDIAN WAHiS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 371 
 
 studied law, secured admission to tlie bar and, in 
 copartnership with his brother, Judge Dudley S. 
 Jennings, practiced at Paris about two years. The 
 partnership was then dissolved and he went to 
 Huntington, Tenn., where he formed a connection 
 with Berry Gillespie. In 1836 he went to Yazoo 
 City, Miss., and there enjoyed a large and lucra- 
 tive practice until the spring of 1840, at which 
 time he moved to San Augustine, Texas, and later, 
 in the fall of that year, to Nacogdoches. 
 
 In January, 1844, he married at the latter place, 
 Mrs. Sarah G. Mason, the only daughter of Maj. 
 Hj'de, a prominent citizen in Nacogdoches and 
 formerly a leading merchant of Jackson, Tenn. 
 
 While residing in Nacogdoches he was in part- 
 nership, successively, with J. M. Ardrey and Judge 
 W. R. Ochiltree. 
 
 In 1852 he was elected Attorney-General of Texas 
 and, on the expiration of his term in 1852, was re- 
 elected and held the position until 185C, when he 
 declined a further re-election to the office, his large 
 private interests and law practice requiring his un- 
 divided attention. On retiring from the attorney- 
 generalship he moved to his plantation near Alto, 
 in Cheroliee Count3^ 
 
 In 1857 he was elected to the Legislature from 
 that county and in 1861 to the Convention that 
 passed the ordinance of secession. In the fall of 
 1861 he suffered a stroke of paralysis which con- 
 lined him to his bed for eighteen months and from 
 the effects of which he never afterward recovered. 
 In the fall of 1864 he moved to Tyler, where he 
 formed a law partnership with Col. B. T. Selman. 
 In 1868, having retired from this copartnership, he 
 and his son, Hon. Tom E. Jennings, formed a co- 
 partnership which continued for a number of years. 
 Gen. Jennings remained in the practice of his 
 profession until 1875, when, owing to his advanced 
 years and failing health, he retired from active pur- 
 suits, after being in harness as a practitioner at 
 the bar for half a century. At different times 
 he was a copartner of George F. Moore, late 
 Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court ; Stock- 
 
 ton T. Donley and Ruben H. Reeves, late Associate 
 Justices of that tribunal. In 1877 he moved to 
 Fort Worth, Texas, where he died, after a long and 
 painful illness, September 23, 1881. He was a 
 member of the Masonic and I. O. O. F. fraternities. 
 He had three sons: Tom R., Monroe D., and Hyde 
 Jennings. Monroe died in 1868 at Alto, Cherokee 
 Count}', when nineteen years of age. Hyde is one 
 of the leading citizens of Fort Worth and, as a 
 lawyer, seems to have inherited the solid abilities 
 possessed by his distinguished father. As a prac- 
 titioner, he has for a number of years deservedly 
 ranked among the foremost in the State. Tom R. 
 is a lawyer at Nacogdoches and represented Naeoo-- 
 doches County in the Twenty-fourth Legislature. 
 
 Gen. Jennings' widow survived him a number 
 of years, dying April 6th, 1873, in Fort Worth, at 
 the home of her son, Mr. Hj'de Jennings, of which 
 she had lieen an honored and beloved inmate since 
 her husband's death. She was one of the sweetest 
 and most lovable ladies that the old regime could 
 boast. 
 
 Gen. Jennings possessed in a marked degree 
 those qualities of mind and heart that challenge 
 confidence and esteem. One trait of his character, 
 one worthy of all admiration, was the disinclination 
 that he manifested to think or speak evil of otliers. 
 Of this, the writer of this memoir had an example 
 in 1857. Gen. Jennings was then a member of 
 the Legislature and, upon being drawn out as to 
 his opinion of the leading men of the State, took 
 them up seriatim, dwelling upon the excellent 
 mental, moral and social qualities of each. Senti- 
 ments of jealous rivalry never disturbed the calm 
 equipoise of his mind. Socially he was amiable and 
 generous to a fault. He mastered every question 
 he endeavored to discuss. His speeches were clear, 
 forcible and logical and, when he concluded, court 
 and jur}' were impressed with the conviction that he 
 had exhausted the subject, as viewed from his stand- 
 point. He was one of the brighest and ablest of 
 the able men of his day in Texas and one of the 
 purest and best as well. 
 
372 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 JUSTUS WESLEY FERRIS, 
 
 WAXAHACHIE. 
 
 Judge J. \V. Ferris was born March 2Gtb, 1823, 
 in Hudson, now a large citj on the Hudson river, 
 in the Slate of New York. His father was Rev. 
 Pliil. Ferris, an effective and zealous minister of 
 the Methodist Episcopal Church. Young Ferris' 
 early education was acquired in Cazenovia Serai- 
 nary, a noted institution of learning in Central New 
 York. At the age of eighteen he moved to Shelby 
 County, Ky. , and soon entered the law ofHee of 
 Hon. Martin D. McHenry, where he pursued the 
 study of law. He graduated in 1845, at the age of 
 twenty-two, with honor, in the law department of 
 Transylvania University, at Lexington, Ky. In 
 the same year he was licensed to practice law in all 
 the courts of the State. In 1846 he moved to 
 Louisiana, where he studied the civil law under the 
 tuition of Judge Brent, an able and distinguished 
 lawyer, at Alexandria. His patron having died, he 
 yielded to the solicitations of his old Kentucky 
 friend. Rev. F. H. Blades, and emigrated to Texas 
 in the fall of 1847, locating at Jefferson, then a 
 promising young city, situated at the head of nav- 
 igation on Cypress bayou, in Cass (now Marion) 
 County, where he began his professional career. 
 The bar at Jefferson was at that time one of the 
 ablest and most brilliant in the Southwest. Here 
 were congregated at the courts such legal lights as 
 Gen. J. Pinckney Henderson, Col. Lewis T. Wigfall, 
 T. J. and J. II. Rogers, Richard Scurry, Col. W. 
 P. Hill and others, and here he underwent the 
 training and discipline that in after years enabled 
 him to successfully compete with the more skillful 
 of the legal fraternity. After a partnership of two 
 and a half years with M. D. Rogers he boldly struck 
 out into the practice upon his own account and 
 rapidly rose to prominence, his law briefs appearing 
 in the Supreme Court Reports as far back as the 
 Fourth Texas. For one year, during the presi- 
 dential campaign of 1852, he edited the Jefferson 
 Herald, doing good service for the Democratic 
 party. This work was done chiefly at night, with- 
 out detriment to his professional labors. He was 
 elected to the Legislature in 1852, as representative 
 and floater from the counties of Titus and Cass, 
 and acquitted himself with credit and distinction, 
 exhibiting ability in debate, and pushing the meas- 
 ures he advocated with energy and success. The 
 authorship of the common-school system, then 
 adopted for Texas, is, in a large measure, justly 
 
 attributable to him, he having prepared and intro- 
 duced the bill and followed it up to its final pas- 
 sage. Initiatory steps, which met with his cordial 
 approbation and support, were also taken in offer- 
 ing large land donations to induce the early con- 
 struction of railroads. Before the expiration of 
 his term of office, it became necessary for him, on 
 account of ill health, to change his residence, and 
 get away from the malaria of swamps and bayous. 
 Therefore, in the fall of 1854, he moved with his 
 familj' west of the Trinity river to AVaxahachie, 
 then a small village, surrounded by rich undulating 
 prairies, and beautifully situated bj' the crystal 
 waters of Waxahachie creek. Recovering his health 
 in a few months, his field of practice soon included 
 seven counties. He was reasonably successful 
 both in criminal and civil cases, taking position in 
 the front rank of bis profession. Among the 
 more important criminal cases in which he took 
 a prominent part for the defense may be men- 
 tioned those of the State v. Calvin Guest, in Ellis 
 County; A. .J. Brinson, in Terrant County; and 
 A. W. Denton, in Parker County, each of whom 
 was indicted for murder, and acquitted after a 
 closely contested and exciting trial. His bright- 
 est laurels, however, were won in the civil prac- 
 tice, more especially in suits involving titles to 
 land. In 1858 he and Col. E. P. Nicholson, of 
 Dallas, formed a copartnership which continued 
 for over two years. They did a large law practice 
 and, in connection with it, engaged in the business 
 of buying and selling exchange, establishing two 
 offices, one at Dallas and the other at Waxahachie, 
 for that purpose. These exchange offices were a 
 necessity at that time to emigrants, traders and 
 merchants, and marked the beginning of banking in 
 North Texas. In 1800 he was one of the nominees 
 of the Ellis County Convention, assembled for the 
 election of delegates to the convention called to 
 meet at Austin for the purpose of considering the 
 question of the secession of Texas from the Union, 
 but serious domestic considerations compelled him 
 to decline the nomination. In the following year 
 he was elected by a vote of the people to the office 
 of Judge of the Sixteenth Judicial District, which 
 position he continued to fill until the close of the 
 war, believing that by so doing he could the better 
 serve his country, his constitution being too feeble 
 to endure the exposure of camp life. The frontier 
 
JUDGE FKKRIS. 
 
INDIxiN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 373 
 
 having receded, his became the border judicial dis- 
 trict. Bands of outlawed desperadoes, here and 
 there, roamed over the country, intimidating the 
 people, overawing the authorities and defying the 
 officials. Judge Ferris' moral and physical courage 
 were often put to the test in the discharge of his 
 official duties, but he rose equal to every occasion. 
 Ho upheld the supremacy of law and order with un- 
 yielding firmness. At one time threats were openly 
 made against his life should he make an attempt to 
 hold court, and organize the grand jur}' in Parker 
 County. He, nevertheless, proceeded to the county 
 seat under a guard sent to him, opened court on 
 the day appointed, impaneled the grand jurj', and 
 fearlessly instructed them as to the duties they were 
 called upon to perform. The lawless characters 
 were indicted and tried in due course of law and 
 the spirit of insubordination fully and effectually 
 crushed. After the war Judge Ferris returned to 
 the more lucrative and, to him, more agreeable 
 business of an attorney, associatiug W. H. Get- 
 zendaner with him in the practice. In 1868 the 
 banking house of Ferris & Getzendaner was es- 
 tablished, doing a successful and profitable busi- 
 ness. These gentlemen continued to practice law 
 and carry on a banking business until 187G, when 
 Judge Ferris withdrew from the bank in favor of 
 his son, Royal A. Ferris, and formed a law part- 
 nership with Anson Rainey, under the firm name of 
 Ferris & Rainey. When the celebrated ease of 
 the International Railroad Co. v. A. Bledsoe, 
 Comptroller, growing out of a peremptory manda- 
 mus suit to compel that officer to countersign cer- 
 tain subsidy bonds, came before the Supreme 
 Court, Judge Moore, having been of counsel for 
 one of the parties litigant, was disqualified and the 
 court, being equally divided, was unable to come to 
 a decision, whereupon Judge Ferris was commis- 
 sioned by Governor Coke to sit as special judge in 
 the case. After a rehearing he delivered the opin- 
 ion of the court against the railroad company, 
 holding that the comptroller could not be compelled 
 by mandamus to execute the bonds. When a sub- 
 sequent case came up for hearing before the same 
 court, with Justice Moore upon the bench, it was 
 sought to reverse the ruling made as aforesaid, but 
 such reversal was not permitted long to stand. The 
 law as defined by Judge Ferris was restored as 
 authority by the Supreme Court of Texas, as sub- 
 sequently organized, and it maintains its place to 
 this day in the reports as a correct interpretation 
 of the law. To give even a syllabus of the im- 
 portant cases in which Judge Ferris has appeared 
 as counsel, would swell this sketch beyond prudent 
 limits. It is, perhaps, sufficient to say, that, as a 
 
 lawyer and presiding, as well as special, judge, 
 he has gained an honored and permanent position 
 in the profession to which he has so assiduously 
 devoted the best years of his life. 
 
 He was elected in 1875 a delegate to the con- 
 vention called to frame a new constitution for the 
 State of Texas, and was an active and influential 
 member of that body, doing faithful work on 
 several important committees. He was Chairman 
 of the Committee on Railroads, and the article on 
 that subject prepared and reported by him, was 
 adopted without opposition. While it gave every 
 encouragement to railroad building, it also con- 
 tained wise provisions designed to keep railway 
 companies well within the control of legislative 
 authority. 
 
 He was one of the five commissioners appointed 
 by Governor Coke, in 1875, to digest, amend, and 
 revise the statutory laws of the State. It was the 
 first revision attempted after the annexation of 
 Texas to the United States. The laws constituted 
 a confused mass, being very imperfect and, in 
 numerous instances, conflicting. The work, al- 
 though intricate and difficult, was accomplished 
 in a satisfactory manner, and with credit to the 
 commission. The high appreciation placed upon 
 the labors of the commission is evidenced by the 
 fact that the commission more recently appointed 
 to redigest the laws was enjoined by law not to 
 change, or alter any word or sentence, or even the 
 punctuation, used in the former revision. The 
 workmanship of Judge Ferris is more particularly 
 exhibited in the articles on "Public Lands," 
 "Statute of Frauds," "Trespass to Try Title," 
 "Forcible Entry and Detainer," "Registration," 
 and cognate titles. 
 
 He was one of the delegates from Texas to the 
 National Democratic Convention, held in Chicago 
 in 1884, and was an active supporter of Grover 
 Cleveland for the presidential nomination. The 
 triumphant success of the party afterwards under 
 the leadership of Mr. Cleveland, attested the wisdom 
 of his selection by the convention as the party's 
 standard-bearer. 
 
 About this time Judge Ferris gave up all aspira- 
 tions for office. He has since seemed to shun the 
 public service, preferring the peaceful walks of a 
 quiet domestic life. He also soon began to retire 
 from the practice of law. The banking house of 
 Ferris & Getzendaner was converted into the 
 Citizens National Bank of Wasabachie, of which 
 Judge Ferris is a large stockholder. He has been 
 one of the board of directors ever since, was presi- 
 dent of the bank for two years, and is uow its vice- 
 president. 
 
374 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Influenced by au early attachmeut, he returned 
 to Kentucky in 1850, and married Miss Mattie J. 
 Crow, a daugljter of Mr. A. D. Crow, of Floyds- 
 burg, in that State, — a most beautiful lady and 
 distinguished for many lovable qualities. She 
 voluntarily left the "old Kentucky home" with 
 her Jiusband to brave the hardships of a frontier 
 life in Texas, and has ever been a faithful helpmate 
 as well as a loving and devoted wife. They have 
 two sous: Royal A. Ferris, born August 8th, 1851, 
 in .Jefferson, Texas, who was educated at the Ken- 
 tucky Military Institute, near Frankfort, Kj-., and 
 is now a successful capitalist and banker in Dallas, 
 Texas, and Thomas A. Ferris, born February 10, 
 1861, in Waxahachie, Texas, who was also educa- 
 ted at the Kentucky Military Institute, and is now 
 cashier and one of the board of directors of the 
 Citizens National Bank, of Waxahachie. 
 
 Judge Ferris has been a consistent member of 
 the Methodist Episcopal Church South for manj- 
 years. Though not a demonstrative chuich worker 
 he has ever exerted a strong, steady influence in 
 favor of Christianity. His daily walk and con- 
 versation have been exemplary and have indicated 
 at all times \> ith certainty his position on all moral 
 and religious subjects. He and Mrs. Ferris by 
 industry and economy have acquired a handsome 
 estate and are heavy taxpayers, owning a goodly 
 share of city and country realty. They have a 
 beautiful home, in the suburbs of Waxahachie, 
 supplied with a large library and every comfort — 
 a home blessed with pure domestic happi- 
 ness. Honored and beloved by all who know- 
 them, they are in their old age deservedly enjoy- 
 ing the fruits of a consisteut and well-ordered 
 life. 
 
 R. S. WILLIS, 
 
 GALVESTON. 
 
 Richard Short Willis was born October 17, 1821, 
 in Caroline County, Md. , where his father, Short 
 A. Willis, settled early in the present century. 
 The latter was a native of Scotland and was brought 
 by his parents to this country previous to the 
 Revolution, in which several members of the family 
 took part on the side of the Colonies, two uncles 
 of the subject of this sketch yielding up their lives 
 at the battle of Brandywine for the cause of free- 
 dom and against the tyranny of the British Crown. 
 
 Four of the five sons of Short A. Willis, namely, 
 Peter J., William H., Richard S., and Thomas A., 
 came to Texas in youth or early manhood and have 
 spent their subsequent lives. The first to come 
 was Peter J., who made his advent into the new 
 Republic soon after the battle of San Jacinto, in 
 18.36. After a brief tour of inspection he became 
 satisfied with the country and returned to Maryland 
 for his brothers, William H. and Richard S , who, 
 accompanying him, came back and settled on Buf- 
 falo bayou near Houston. Peter J. had then just 
 attained his twenty-first year, William H. was 
 eighteen, and Richard S. sixteen. In the limited 
 industries of the new country the lives of the 
 Willis brothers was by no means an easy one, but 
 they bravely performed all the labors that fell to 
 their lot, emerging from the trials to which they 
 
 were subjected stronger in purpose and better pre- 
 pared for the responsibilities of the future. By 
 their industry and good management they saved 
 sufficient means to purchase the property then 
 known as the " Ringohl Farm " on the road from 
 Navasota to Washington, and there, as the reward 
 of their good husbandry, they laid the foundation 
 of the splendid fortune which later came into their 
 hands. It was while living on this place that the 
 death of William H. occurred. Early in the 
 forties Peter J. Willis bought a stock of goorls and 
 began the mercantile business at Washington, 
 Richard S. remaining on the farm. Later Richard 
 S. left the farm and joined his brother and they 
 opened an establishment at Montgomery. This 
 proving successful they started a branch store at 
 Anderson, in Grimes County, in partnership with 
 E. W. Cawthon, under the firm name of Caw- 
 thon, Willis & Bro. With increased success 
 they were enabled to still further extend their 
 field of operations, and just previous to the 
 opening of the late war they formed a partnership 
 with S. K. Mcllheny, under the name of Mcllheny, 
 Willis & Bro., and opened a house at Houston. 
 This firm grew to be one of the most commanding 
 in the State, and, notwithstanding the general 
 business paral3'sis which followed the war, it con- 
 

 X 
 
 R_SWi 
 
 LLIS. 
 
r 
 
 MrsPkSWillis^ 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 375 
 
 tinued active operations throughout the entire 
 period of hostilities, met all its obligations and 
 emerged from the almost chaotic condition of affairs 
 sound and solvent. Upon the close of the great 
 struggle Mr. Mcllheny went to Laredo, Mexico, 
 and died there while a member of the firm, after 
 which the Willis brothers purchased his interest 
 and continued the business under the firm name 
 of P. J. Willis & Bro. The Montgomery store 
 was sold out at the close of the war, at which 
 time the Houston enterprise began to assume 
 much larger proportions. Seeing what they be- 
 lieved to be an excellent opening at Galveston they 
 started a store at that place. This branch of their 
 business soon came to engross most of their time 
 and capital and in 1868 they decided to consolidate 
 their interests and accordingly removed to Gal- 
 veston. From that date their operations were 
 confined to their Galveston business, and not only 
 this business but many other enterprises of a 
 public and private nature in that city were made to 
 feel the strong propulsion of their sturdj' common 
 sense and sterling business ability. 
 
 To Mr. Richard S. Willis fell the inside care and 
 management of the large and ever-increasing busi- 
 ness of the firm, and to his labors in this connec- 
 tion he bent every energy, with the result of 
 becoming a thorough master of his situation. 
 Indeed later on when upon the death of his 
 brother, Peter J. Willis, in 1873, the entire care 
 and management of the business devolved on him, 
 he could not be persuaded that the increased 
 responsibilities resulting therefrom were too labor- 
 ious and exacting upon him, until ill-health com- 
 pelled him to discontinue the devotion of his 
 personal supervision, judgment and valuable ex- 
 perience entirely to the affairs and details of the 
 business. He was an indefatigable worker all his 
 life and not until physical infii-mities obtained the 
 mastery over his iron will was he able to pull 
 against the current of his earlier days. He served 
 in various positions of trust and his name was 
 connected from first to last with many corporate 
 enterprises in the city. He was president of the 
 Galveston National Bank, having brought the 
 affairs of its predecessor, the Texas Banking and 
 Insurance Company, to a successful termination. 
 He was one of tiie promoters of the Gulf, Colorado 
 and Santa Fe Railwa}', and for some years a mem- 
 ber of its directory. He was chairman of the 
 Deepwater Committee, a prominent member of the 
 Cotton Exchange and of the Chamber of Com- 
 merce; president of the Texas Guarantee & Trust 
 Company, and a member of the directory of the 
 Southern Cotton Press and Manufacturing Com- 
 pany. Mr. Willis was devoted to business and no 
 
 man ever left his affairs in better shape or knew 
 more about the details of every enterprise with 
 which he was connected. He was of rather 
 reserved disposition and of marked individuality, 
 possessing strong prejudices either for or against 
 men and measures ; but, withal, generous and 
 confiding where such feelings were required. 
 
 On June 3d, 1847, at Montgomery, Texas, Mr. 
 Willis married Miss Narcissa Worsham, a native 
 of Merengo County, Ala., born August 29, 1828, 
 and a daughter of Jeremiah and Catherine Wor- 
 sham, who emigrated to Texas in 1835, and settled 
 in what is now Montgomery County, three miles 
 from the present town of Montgomery. Jeremiah 
 Worsham was a well-to-do planter and a highly 
 respected citizen. One of his sons, Isvod Wor- 
 sham, represented Montgomery County in the State 
 Legislature and was a man of stirring business 
 ability. Mrs. Willis has a sister, Mrs. C. H. 
 Brooks, wife of Rev. C. H. Brooks, residing at 
 Chappel Hill, in Washington County, the remainder 
 of the family to which she belonged having passed 
 away. Mr. Willis died July 26, 1892. 
 
 Besides his surviving widow he left two sons and 
 two daughters: Short A. Willis, of Galveston; 
 Mrs. Kate Grigsby, of Louisville and Bardstown, 
 Ky. ; Mrs. F. A. Walthew, and Richard M. Willis, 
 Galveston; a daughter, Laura (Mrs. James G. 
 Moody), and a son, Lee W. Willis, preceding the 
 father to the grave, the former dying in 1886, the 
 latter in 1888. 
 
 The widow of this pioneer merchant is herself 
 one of the oldest Texians now residing in the city 
 of Galveston, having lived on Texas soil continu- 
 ously for sixty years. Coming to the country 
 while it was yet Mexican territory, she has lived 
 to see many changes and has witnessed both the 
 peaceful and violent revolutions which have gone 
 on around her, having lived under five different 
 governments — that of Mexico, Texas, the United 
 States, the Confederate States, and again that of 
 the United States. She has witnessed the gradual 
 expulsion of the red man and the steady advance- 
 ment of the white race. She saw the country 
 change from a dependency to an independent 
 republic and was not an uninterested spectator 
 when the new but vigorous republic asked for ad- 
 mission to the American Union. She witnessed the 
 movement that made Texas free, and the peaceable 
 settlement by which it became one of the sister- 
 hood of States. 
 
 Mrs. Willis has led an eminently domestic life, 
 but since the death of her husband has given more 
 or less of her attention to business, with the result 
 of keeping his business in the same admirable con- 
 dition in which he left it. 
 
376 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 JUDGE WILLIAM PITT BALLINGER, 
 
 GALVESTON. 
 
 The distinguished subject of this sketch was born 
 in Barboursville, Knox Count}', Kj'., September 25, 
 1825, and died at his home in Galveston, Texas, 
 January 20, 1888. 
 
 His grandfather, Col. Richard Ballinger, was a 
 native of Virginia, and an Aide-de-Camp of Gen. St. 
 Clair at the time of that officer's defeat by the 
 Indians. He settled early in Kentucky; was the 
 first clerk of Knox County ; was, later, a member 
 of the State Senate ; lived to a great age, and sus- 
 tained throughout the highest personal character. 
 
 His father, James Franklin Ballinger, was a native 
 of Barboursville, Ky., and, for the greater part of 
 his life, clerk of the courts of Knox County. A 
 soldier of the War of 1812, at the age of seventeen 
 years he was taken prisoner upon Dudley's defeat, 
 and forced to " run the gauntlet " for his life. He 
 was a presidential elector on the Whig ticket in 1837. 
 He removed to Texas in 18G8, and died at Houston 
 in 1875, in the eighty-second year of his age. 
 
 W. P. Ballinger's early education was derived 
 from the schools of his native town ; a two years' 
 course in St. Mar3''s College, near Lebanon, Ky., 
 and a faithful training in his father's office in the 
 practical details of court business. His health re- 
 quiring a milder climate, in 184.3 he availed of the 
 invitation of his uncle, Judge James Love, of Gal- 
 veston, Texas, and moved thither, beginning the 
 study of the law in that gentleman's office. Join- 
 ing, as a private soldier, a volunteer company for 
 the Mexican War, he was soon elected First Lieu- 
 tenant of the company. Afterwards appointed 
 Adjutant of Col. Albert Sidney Johnston's Texas 
 Regiment, he participated with it in the storming of 
 Monterey, and in other service. Returning to Gal- 
 veston in the fall of 1846, he was admitted to the 
 bar in the spring of 1847 and began the practice of 
 law. His prompt admission to partnership in the 
 firm of Jones & Butler, then enjoying the lar- 
 gest practice in the city, engaged him at once 
 in the most important cases in the courts. 
 
 In 1850, upon the recommendation of the judges 
 of the Supreme Court, and others, he was ap- 
 pointed United States District Attorney for the 
 District of Texas, and discharged the duties of that 
 office with characteristic efficiency. In the same 
 year he was married to Miss Hallie P. Jack, 
 daughter of William H. Jack, lawyer, statesman 
 and soldier of Texas long before " its birth as a 
 
 nation." In 1854 he entered into that long endur- 
 ing and mutually fortunate copartnership with his 
 brother-in-law, Col. Thos. M. Jack, which made 
 the firm name of Ballinger & Jack so broad in its 
 fame, and so conspicuous in the annals of the bar. 
 The memories of lawyers and of judges, the reports 
 of the appellate courts, the records of the trial 
 courts, the traditions of the people — all testify to 
 the impress made upon their times of this emi- 
 nent association of learning and eloquence. After 
 many years these gentlemen admitted to partner- 
 ship Hon. Marcus F. Mott, and the firm style 
 became Ballinger, Jack & Mott. Col. Jack dj'ing, 
 the survivors associated with themselves Mr. J. W. 
 Terry, under the style of Ballinger, Mott & Terry. 
 Later, upon the assumption by Mr. Terry of the 
 attorne3'ship of the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe 
 Railroad Company, the new firm of Ballinger, Mott 
 & Ballinger was formed, composed of Judge Bal- 
 linger, Mr. Mott and Mr. Thomas Jack Ballinger, 
 only son of the senior, and was dissolved only by 
 the latter' s death. 
 
 The subject of our sketch was tendered a justice- 
 ship of the State Supreme Court, by Governor E. 
 J. Davis, in 1871, but declined it; and again, in 
 1874, was appointed to the bench of that court by 
 Governor Coke; but, constrained by the demands 
 of his private engagements, he resigned the office 
 upon the very day of his confirmation. In 1877, 
 he was recommended by the Governor and all the 
 judges of the higher courts, and by the Texas 
 delegation in Congress, for appointment by the 
 President to the vacancy on the bench of the 
 Supreme Court of the United States, caused by 
 the resignation of Judge Davis ; but sectional 
 spirit was too powerful at Washington to admit of 
 his nomination to that high post. In 1879, Gov- 
 ernor Roberts tendered him the office of Com- 
 missioner of Appeals, but he could not be induced 
 to accept it. 
 
 With the hope of rendering service to the State, 
 he was prevailed upon to serve as a member of the 
 Convention which framed the State constitution of 
 1876, and found his fitting sphere of labor as a 
 member of the Judiciary Committee of that body- 
 His views on many important questions were not in 
 accord with those entertained b}' a majority of the 
 Convention. He was opposed to an elective judi- 
 ciarj', as baneful and corrupting to the administra- 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 377 
 
 tion of law ; to short terms and inadequate salaries, 
 believing that the tenure and compensation of 
 judges should be such as to place them above the 
 methods of the hustings and secure them against 
 the cruelties of povertj% and to invite the best 
 equipped and most efficient lawj-ers to the service 
 of the State. Failing to affect the Convention with 
 these convictions, he opposed the constitution 
 adopted by that body and voted against it at the 
 polls. 
 
 A Whig so long as the Whig i)arty maintained dis- 
 tinctive organization, Judge Ballinger alwa3-s ad- 
 hered to its main political tenets. Ojjposed to 
 secession, yet, when it had been accomplished, his 
 heart turned with devotion to his own people and 
 with them he resisted to the last the war made upon 
 the South by the Federal government. One of a 
 committee sent to Richmond by the people of Gal- 
 veston to obtain the armament necessary to the 
 defense of their city, he was, while on this mission, 
 appointed Confederate States Receiver, and served 
 as such until the war ended. With Col. Ashbel 
 Smith, be was, after the surrender of Gen. Lee's 
 army, sent by Governor Murrah to New Orleans to 
 negotiate for surrender by the State and to prevent, 
 if possible, its occupation by the Federal army. 
 Returning to Galveston, he resumed the practice of 
 law, devoting himself to it faithfully until his death. 
 Although out of politics in the sense of seeking its 
 emoluments, he maintained a hearty interest in all 
 public questions, and valued, as one of the dearest 
 attaching to citizenship, his right of free suffrage. 
 While independent in bis consideration and judg- 
 ment of political measures, he voted with the 
 Democratic party. 
 
 Perhaps no lawyer of Texas ever gave greater 
 labor and more distinctive devotion to the science 
 and practice of the law than he ; or more proudly 
 realized the power, usefelness, ends and majesty 
 of that science ; or gathered more abundantly 
 of its rewards and honors, or deserved them 
 more. 
 
 Sagacious as an adviser ; laborious and exhaus- 
 tive in preparation, taking nothing for granted and 
 yielding not to the unproved dicta of names howso- 
 ever imposing ; spirited and uncompromising in ad- 
 vocacy; learned in the reason and in the philosophy 
 of the law, as few men are, he brought to the ser- 
 vice of his clients and to the aid of the courts a 
 professional equipment furnished with every weapon 
 of forensic conflict. 
 
 To his fellows of the bar he habitually manifested 
 that warmth of personal interest and concern so 
 engaging and grateful between associates in the 
 same profession, and they respected him as a lawyer 
 not more than they admired him as a companion and 
 prized him as a friend. 
 
 Fitted by fortune, inclination and personal ac- 
 complishments for the gracious arts of hospitality, 
 nothing pleased him more than the presence of 
 friends at his lovely and typical Southern home ; 
 and it may be doubted whether any member of the 
 bar of Texas ever imposed upon others so many 
 and so delightful social obligations. 
 
 A gentleman whose reading and reflections were 
 unconflned by the limitations of his favorite science, 
 but who touched life and thought at all points, the 
 charm of his fireside talks made his guests forgetful 
 that the law was still the exacting mistress of his 
 life's toil and ambition. 
 
 E. H. TERRELL, 
 
 SAN ANTONIO. 
 
 Edwin Holland Terrell, of San Antonio, latelj' 
 United States Minister to Belgium, comes from a 
 well-known Virginia family, and was born at Brook- 
 ville, Ind., November 21st, 1848. He is the son of 
 Rev. Williamson Terrell, D. D., one of the most 
 popular and widely-known ministers in the Metho- 
 dist Church in Indiana years ago. 
 
 Mr. Terrell's great-grandfather, Henry Terrell, 
 removed from Virginia to Kentucky in 1787, and 
 was prominently identified with the early political 
 
 history of that State. Mr. Terrell's grandmother 
 was a sister of Chilton Allan, one of Kentucky's 
 famous lawyers, who represented the Ashland Dis- 
 trict in Congress for manj' years after Henry Clay 
 had been promoted to the Senate. 
 
 The grandfather of Edwin H. Terrell, Capt. 
 John Terrell, was a gallant and conspicuous officer 
 in the campaigns against the Indians shortly after 
 the Revolution, and was present at Harmar's and 
 St. Clair's defeats, and also took part in Wayne's 
 
378 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 victory over the Miamis at the Maumee Rapids, 
 August 20, 1794. 
 
 Edwin H. Terrell graduated in 1871 atDe Pauw 
 University, Indiana, having won the first or valedic- 
 tory honors of a class of thirty-three members. He 
 afterwards pursued his legal studies at Harvard 
 University, where he received his degree of L.L.B. 
 in 1873. He subsequently spent a year in travel 
 
 prominently identified with the growth and pros- 
 perity of San Antonio, having been actively con- 
 nected with many of the public and most progressive 
 movements of that enterprising Southern city. 
 
 Since his removal to the South Mr. Terrell has 
 always taken a prominent part in the councils of 
 the Republican party in this State. He was a dele- 
 gate to the Republican National Conventions at 
 
 and study in Europe, attending for a time the lec- 
 tures at the Ecole de Droit «t the Sorbonne at 
 Paris. 
 
 Mr. Terrell returned to the United States in 1874, 
 and entered upon the practice of the law at Indian- 
 apolis, being a member of the firm of Barbour, 
 .Jacobs and Terrell for some years. 
 
 In 1877 Mr. Terrell removed to San Antonio, 
 Texas, which is still his home. He has been 
 
 Chicago in 1880 and 1888, and in the latter was one 
 of the honorary secretaries and was selected as one 
 of the members of the Committee of Notification. 
 
 In 1889, when President Harrison nominated 
 Mr. Terrell as the U. S. Minister to Belgium, the 
 San Antonio Daily Express (Dem.) said editori- 
 ally:— 
 
 " In appointing Mr. Terrell to the Belgian min- 
 istry, President Harrison secured the services of a 
 
INDJAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 379 
 
 gentleman, and a sober, reliable, competent, pains- 
 taking business man — one who has been a North- 
 erner, and was never a carpet-bagger ; who has 
 been a Eepublican, and was never a 'radical;' 
 who has lived in the South, and was never spit 
 upon because of his nativity ; who has exercised 
 his political rights, and was never bulldozed or 
 shot-gunned ; who is able to give a good account of 
 himself and the people among whom be has resided. 
 His selection reflects credit upon him, and upon 
 the administration which knew enough to choose 
 him." 
 
 After Minister Terrell's arrival at Brussels in 
 May, 1889, he had much important diplomatic work 
 submitted to his attention, and during his four 
 years' diplomatic experience took part in several 
 noted conferences. 
 
 In 1891 he obtained the removal by the Belgian 
 government of the onerous and discriminating quar- 
 antine regulations which had been applied to live 
 stock shipped from the United States to Belgium 
 and which had practically destroyed that industry 
 in the latter country. 
 
 Mr. Terrell was Plenipotentiary on the part of 
 the United States to the International Conference 
 on the Slave Trade, which was in session at Brus- 
 sels from November, 1889, to July, 1890, and which 
 drew up the " Slave Trade Treaty," or what is 
 diplomatically known as the" General Act of Brus- 
 sels.'.' In January, 1892, Secretary Blaine sum- 
 moned Mr. Terrell to Washington to assist him in 
 connection with the matter of the ratification of 
 this treaty, then pending in the Senate and sub- 
 sequently ratified. 
 
 In July, 1890, Mr. Terrell was special Plenipo- 
 tentiary for the United States in the International 
 Conference which met at Brussels and drafted the 
 treaty for the publication of the customs-tariffs 
 of most of the countries of the world, which treaty 
 was afterwards ratified by our Government. 
 
 In November and December, 1890, Mr. Terrell 
 represented the United States on what is known as 
 the Commission Technique, an outgrowth of the 
 Anti-Slavery Conference, which elaborated a tariff 
 system for the Conventional Basin of the Congo, as 
 defined in the Treaty of Berlin of 1885. 
 
 In this special commission the United States had 
 important commercial interests at stake, and during 
 its sessions, Mr. Terrell obtained a formal declara- 
 
 tion, agreed to by all the interested powers having 
 possessions in the Congo basin and by all the ratif}'- 
 ing powers of the Berlin treaty, guaranteeing to 
 the United States and its citizens all the commer- 
 cial rights, privileges and immunities in the entire 
 conventional basin of the Congo, possessed by the 
 signatory powers of the Treaty of Berlin. 
 
 In 1891 Mr. Terrell negotiated with King Leo- 
 pold a treaty of " amity, commerce and naviga- 
 tion" between the United States and the Congo 
 State, which was subsequently ratified by the 
 President and Senate. 
 
 In 1892 Mr. Terrell was appointed one of the 
 delegates on the part of the United States to the 
 International Monetary Conference at Brussels, and 
 on its assembling he was selected as its vice-presi- 
 dent. He delivered, on the part of the members 
 of the Conference, the reply in French to the 
 address of welcome pronounced by Prime Minister 
 Beernaert of Belgium. 
 
 Ex-Miuister Terrell is a gentleman of scholarly 
 tastes and accomplishments and possesses a thor- 
 ough and speaking knowledge of the French lan- 
 guage. In his new and elegant residence lately 
 constructed near the military headquarters at San 
 Antonio he has one of the largest and most care- 
 fully selected libraries in the State of Texas. 
 
 In 1892 De Pauw University conferred upon Mr. 
 Terrell the honorary degree of LL.D. 
 
 October 1, 1893, after his return to the United 
 States and to private life, Mr. Terrell received by 
 royal decree of King Leopold II. of Belgium, the 
 decoration of "Grand OflScer of the Order of 
 Leopold," an honor rarely conferred and one 
 which indicated the highest personal esteem of the 
 King and the successful character of Mr. Terrell's 
 mission. 
 
 In 1874 Mr. Terrell married Miss Mary Maverick, 
 daughter of the late Samuel A. Maverick, one of 
 the founders of the Republic of Texas and promi- 
 nent in the history of San Antonio and Western 
 Texas. Mrs. Terrell died in 1890 at the U. S. 
 Legation at Brussells, learing a family of six 
 children. 
 
 In 1895 Mr. Terrell was married to Miss Lois 
 Lasater, daughter of the late Albert Lasater and 
 niece of Col. E. H. Cunningham, the well-known 
 sugar planter of Southeastern Texas. 
 
380 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 CHARLES LEWIS, 
 
 HEARNE, ROBERTSON COUNTY. 
 
 Although a uumber of settlers had taken up 
 tbeir abode within the present limits of Eobertson 
 Countj' previous to the Revolution of 1835-6 and 
 others continued to do so during the succeeding 
 years of the Republic, it was not until a much 
 later date that the Brazos portion of the county 
 began to fill with that thrifty class of planters 
 whose intelligent and well directed labors did so 
 much towards developing the wonderfully rich soil 
 of that section and in giving to the county the 
 excellent reputation for agriculture which it has 
 since enjoyed. 
 
 The year 1852 is marked in the history of the 
 State as the one during which occurred the great- 
 est immigration, previous to the late war. Rob- 
 ertson County received its proportion of that 
 immigration, and from that 3'ear dates the advent 
 in the county of many who were afterwards dis- 
 tinguished for their thrift, wealth and good 
 citizenship. Of this number was the late Charles 
 Lewis, of Hearne. 
 
 Mr. Lewis was born in Farmington, Conn., 
 April 14, 1822. His father was Calvin Lewis, and 
 his mother bore the maiden name of Martha Root, 
 both of whom were natives of Connecticut and de- 
 scendants of early-settled New England families, 
 the mother being a sister of the mother of the 
 distinguished Federal soldier and Congressman, 
 Gen. Joseph E. Hawley. Mr. Lewis was reared 
 in his native place in the schools of which he 
 received an excellent education. At the age of 
 twenty-four he left Connecticut oa account of ill- 
 health and went to Louisiana, taking up his resi- 
 dence in Bozier Parish. There he met, and in 
 March, 1846, married Miss Adeline Hearne, a 
 daughter of William and Nancy Hearne and sister 
 of Ebenezer and Horatio R. Hearne, in company 
 with the latter two of whom he came to Texas in 
 1852 and settled at Wheelock in Robertson County. 
 Mr. Lewis had been engaged in planting in Louisiana 
 and immediately on settling in Robertson County, 
 opened a plantation on the Brazos. He gave his 
 attention exclusively to this interest until after the 
 war, up to which time he resided at Wheelock. 
 After the war he lived a year on his plantation, 
 then at Houston for six years, and in 1872, on the 
 laying out of Hearne, moved to that place which he 
 subsequently made his home till his death. He 
 
 was one of the first to locate at Hearne and erected 
 there the first business building and the first dwell- 
 ing. He was one of the earliest and always one of 
 the most steadfast supporters of the town and all its 
 interests. His own interests and pursuits were of 
 a somewhat diversified nature, though chiefly agri- 
 cultural. In the course of years he developed a 
 large plantation in the Brazos bottoms and acquired 
 a considerable amount of property. He stood 
 among the first in a communitj' noted for then of 
 sound intelligence and more than average wealth. 
 Born and reared in a Northern climate, the vigor 
 of his intellect lost nothing by transplanting while 
 he added to it habits of unweary exertion and sound 
 practical business methods. His reputation was 
 that of a safe, steady-going, straight forward man 
 of business and his judgment always commanded 
 respect. He represented Robertson County two 
 terms in the State Legislature and proved an able, 
 efficient and acceptable representative. He had but 
 little inclination, however, for public affairs and 
 gave way in such matters to those more eager for 
 popular applause and political preferment. A 
 Democrat in politics, he always gave a cordial sup- 
 port to the men and measures of his party. He 
 was a strong sympathizer with the South during the 
 war and though not in the militarj' service, he lent 
 the cause very substantial aid of a kind it stood 
 most in need of. 
 
 Mr. Lewis was made a mason in early manhood 
 and took great interest in the order. He was a 
 charter member of the lodge at Hearne, which he 
 subsequently served as master. He united with 
 the Presbyterian Church at the age of sixteen and 
 was a member of the same ever after, and to the 
 support of this Church as well as to all worthy 
 purposes he was a valued contributor. 
 
 Mr. Lewis died October 22, 1882. He left sur- 
 viving him a widow, one son and two daughters. 
 His son, the late Henry L. Lewis of Hearne, was a 
 large planter of Robertson County, represented 
 that county in the State Legislature and was a 
 man of acknowledged ability and influence in the 
 State. 
 
 Mr. Lewis's eldest daughter, Mrs. Fannie M. 
 Glass, wife of F. A. Glass, died in 1889, leaving 
 four children three of whom are now living. The 
 youngest daughter, Mrs. Willie E. Moreland, wife 
 
^ 
 
 '^W^ 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 381 
 
 of Dr. A. C. Moreland, resides at Atlanta, Georgia. 
 The widow with the orphaned children of her de- 
 deceased son and daughter, nine in number, still 
 
 makes her home in Hearne, where she is reckoned 
 among the oldest of that place and a representative 
 of the family for which the place was named. 
 
 W. L. MOODY, 
 
 GALVESTON. 
 
 William Lewis Moody was born in Esses County, 
 Va. , May 19, 1828, and reared in Chesterfield 
 County, that State, bis parents, Jameson and Mary 
 Susan (Lankford) Mood}', having moved to that 
 county in 1830. His father was a gallant soldier 
 in the war of 1812, and his grandfathers, Lewis 
 Moody, of Essex County, Va., and William Lank- 
 ford, of Chesterfield County, Va., fought for free- 
 dom in the Continental lines during the Revolution- 
 ary War of 1776. 
 
 His parents raised ten children to 3'ears of 
 maturity: Emily A., James H., David J., Leroy 
 F., William L., Sarah E., Joseph L., Jameson C, 
 Mary A., and G. Marcellus Mood}-. Of these only 
 Leroy F. Moody, Mrs. Sarah E. Simmons, and the 
 subject of this memoir are now living. 
 
 In 1852 Mr. W. L. Moody came to Texas and 
 located at Fairfield. Such of his brothers and 
 sisters as were then living and a dear old aunt 
 followed, and all settled in Freestone County. 
 
 Mr. Moody practiced law at Fairfield for about 
 two years, but his health becoming precarious he 
 determined to engage in some less sedentary pur- 
 suit, and accordingly, with his brothers, David J. 
 and Leroy F. Moody, established a mercantile 
 business at that place, under the firm name of 
 W. L. Moody & Bros., thus taking the initial step 
 in a brilliant, successful and widely useful career. 
 In January, 1800, he was united in marriage to 
 Miss Pherabe F^lizabeth Bradley, of Freestone 
 County, the beautiful and accomplished daughter 
 of Mr. F. M. and Mrs. (Goldsby) Bradley, 
 formerly of Summerfield, Alabama, where Mrs. 
 Moody was born, reared and educated. Col. and 
 Mrs. Moody have three children : W. L. Moody, 
 Jr., Frank Bradley Moody and Mary Emily 
 Moody, all married and living in Galveston. W. 
 L. Moody, Jr., married Miss Libby Shearn, of 
 IJouston ; F. B. Moody, Miss Battie Thompson, 
 of Galveston ; and Miss Mary E. Moody, Mr. 
 Sealy Hutchings, of Galveston. Early in 1861, 
 Col. Moody joined an infantry company raised in 
 
 Freestone County and was elected captain. The 
 command proceeded to the rendezvous at Hopkins- 
 ville, Kj'., and was mustered into the Confederate 
 States service as a part of the Seventh Texas Infantry 
 which was organized upon that occasion with John 
 Gregg as Colonel. Col. Moody was captured at 
 Fort Donelson, Tenn., upon the fall of that post in 
 February, 1862, and imprisoned first at Camp 
 Douglass, III., and then at Camp Chase, Ohio, and 
 Johnson's Island on Lake Erie. In September 
 following he was exchanged and soon after made 
 Lieutenant Colonel by promotion, was stationed for 
 a time at Port Hudson, La., saw much hard service 
 in Mississippi and Louisiana participating in many 
 fights and fierce engagements with the enemy ; 
 after the fall of Vicksburg was severely wounded at 
 the siege of Jacksonville, Miss., and after many 
 months of critical illness, was pronounced per- 
 manently disabled and retired from field service 
 with the rank of Colonel, being promoted for gal- 
 lantry. As soon as health permitted he reported 
 for duty and was appointed to post duty and placed 
 in command at Austin, Texas, where he remained 
 until the general surrender. The war ended, he 
 closed out the mercantile business at Fairfield, and 
 in 1866 moved to Galveston where he and his 
 brother engaged in the commission business under 
 the firm name of W. L. & L. F. Moody. 
 
 Next season Mr. F. M. Bradley of Freestone 
 County was admitted as a partner and the style of 
 the firm changed to Moody, Bradley & Co. 
 
 In 1871, L. F. Moody and F. M. Bradley retired 
 and E. S. Jemisonof Galveston was admitted under 
 the firm name of Moody & Jemison, and a branch 
 house established in New York city in 1874, with 
 Col. Jemison in charge. Leroy F. Moody, so long 
 associated in business with his brother at Fairfield, 
 at Galveston and in New York, sharing with him 
 the joj's of boyhood days and in manhood the 
 struggle for life and fortune, resides at present at 
 Buffalo Gap, Texas, where Mrs. Sarah E. Simmons, 
 Mr. Moody's sister, also resides. The partnership 
 
382 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 of Moody and Jemison was dissolved as to the New 
 York bouse in 1877, Col. Jemison remaining in New 
 York and conducting that business with other as- 
 sociates under the name of E. S. Jemison & Co. 
 In 1881 he also retired from the Galveston house, 
 and W. L. Mood^', Jr., and F. B. Moody (sons of 
 Col. W. L. Moody) were admitted as partners 
 under the firm name of W. L. Moody & Co. This 
 firm at present is doing a general banking and cot- 
 ton factorage business. Col. Mood was elected to 
 the Legislature in 1874, but before the end of the 
 session he was appointed by the governor financial 
 agent, to effect a sale of State bonds issued for the 
 purpose of restoring public credit and placing the 
 fiscal affairs of the State in a sound and healthy con- 
 dition. Called to perform this important service for 
 the State — a service requiring for its successful dis- 
 charge great influence and great capacity, as these 
 were the first Texas State bonds offered f orsale in the 
 money market after the war, he resigned his seat and 
 went to New Y'ork and effected a negotiation under 
 which $2,000,000 of Texas bonds were sold. In 
 1882 he was made chairman of the deep water 
 committee at Galveston and spent the greater part 
 of the winter of 1882-83 in Washington City in the 
 interest of what was known as the P^ads bill, a 
 measure providing for the improvement of Galves- 
 ton harbor. While the bill failed to become a 
 law, its discussion became general, and wide-spread 
 interest followed. It was the opening, as it were, 
 of an educational campaign which has since so far 
 progressed that all who have looked into the subject 
 are now agreed a deep-water harbor on the Texas 
 coast is an imperative necessity and would prove of 
 
 incalculable benefit to the peo[)le of the Southwes- 
 tern States, and of the feasibility of securing such 
 a harbor at Galveston. This pioneer work of Col. 
 Moody and those associated with him eventuated a 
 few years ago in the appropriation of over §6,000,- 
 000 by Congress, which is now being expended at 
 Galveston. The work has progressed to a point 
 where it is certain that when it is completed the 
 result will more than realize the brightest dreams 
 of its projectors and Texas have one of the finest 
 harbors in the world. Col. Moody was also one of 
 the early promoters of the Gulf, Colorado and 
 Santa Fe Railwaj^ an enterprise that has been vastlj' 
 instrumental in developing the resources and in- 
 creasing the population and taxable values of the 
 State. He was one of the directors of this road 
 until it was sold and became apart of the Atchison, 
 Topeka and Santa Fe system. He was president 
 of the Galveston Cotton Exchange for twelve years. 
 He has been, and is now, connected with many im- 
 portant local enterprises. He is senior member of 
 .the firm of W. L. Moody & Co. who besides doing 
 a large and successful banking business has been 
 one of the largest receivers of consignment cotton 
 in the South. 
 
 The firm in handling cotton does its own banking. 
 It owns one of the finest bank buildings in the city, 
 and the Moody Cotton Compress & Warehouse 
 covering four full city blocks near the wharves, 
 perhaps the most complete plants of the character 
 in the United States. W. L. Moody & Co. are 
 commission merchants and not buyers, as ail of the 
 cotton received by them is handled and sold by 
 them on commission. 
 
 JUDGE A. H. WILLIE, 
 
 GALVESTON. 
 
 Asa Hosie Willie was born in Washington, Wilkes 
 County, Georgia, October 11, 1829. His father 
 was James Willie, a native of Vermont, and his 
 mother bore the maiden name of C. E. Hoxie, and 
 'was a daughter of Asa Hoxie, a Massachusetts 
 Quaker who moved to Savannah, Georgia, earlj' in 
 the present century. 
 
 Left fatherless at the age of four, the early- 
 training of Asa H. Willie devolved entirely upon 
 his mother, who, however, by her ample mental 
 endowments re-inforced by untiring zeal and self- 
 
 sacrificing exertion met the requirements of the 
 situation and gave her and her son the benefit of 
 the best schools then in reach. At the age of six- 
 teen, in February, 1846, he came to Texas and 
 located at Independence in Washington County 
 where he made his home for a year in the family of 
 his maternal uncle. Dr. Asa Hoxie. In 1848 he 
 began the study of Jaw under his brother James 
 Willie at Brenham, and in 1849 was admitted to the 
 bar, before he had attained the age of twenty-one, 
 by a special act of the Legislature. He took up the 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 383 
 
 practice at Breuham in partnership with his brother 
 and pursued it there till 1857, when he moved to 
 Austin to assist his brother in the discharge of his 
 duties as Attorney-General of the State and Com- 
 missioner for codifying the laws of Texas. He 
 remained at Austin about a year when in 1858 he 
 moved to Marshall and entered into a partnership 
 with his brother-in-law, Col. Alexander Pope, with 
 whom he was associated in the practice, except the 
 period covered by the late war, until 186G. At 
 that time he moved to Galveston which has since 
 been his home. 
 
 In 1852 Mr. Willie was appointed District Attor- 
 ney for the Third Judicial District of Texas which 
 then comprised the counties of Washington, Bur. 
 leson, Milam, Bell, McLennan, Falls, Limestone, 
 Freestone, Robertson and Brazos, and held the 
 office for six months under this appointment when 
 he was elected to the same and held it for a term of 
 two years. In 1861, on the opening of the Civil 
 War, he offered himself for service in the Confed- 
 erate army and was placed on the staff of Gen. 
 John Gregg with whom he served till that gallant 
 officer's death, when, after a brief interval, he was 
 stationed at San Antonio, and there had charge of 
 the exportation of cotton during the last eleven 
 months of the war. In 1866 he was elected Asso- 
 ciate Justice of the Supreme Court of the State for 
 a term of nine years, but at the end of fifteen 
 months was removed along with his associates, 
 George F. Moore, Richard Coke, George W. Smith 
 and S. P. Donley, by Gen. Griffin, the military 
 commander of Texas. In 1872 he was elected from 
 the State at large to the Fortj'-third Congress and 
 served his full term but declined a re-election 
 because he wished to devote himself to the law. 
 Resuming practice he was actively and exclusively 
 engaged in it till 1882, when having been made the 
 nominee of the Democratic party for Cliief Justice 
 of the Supreme Court of Texas, he was elected to 
 that office and held the same until his resignation 
 March 3, 1888. Since that time he has not held 
 any public positions but has given his time and 
 attention wholly to the practice of his profession 
 being now senior member of the well-known law 
 firm of Willie, Campbell & Ballinger of Galveston. 
 
 Thus for a period of f orty-tive years Judge Willie 
 has had to do in varying capacities and more or 
 less actively with the legislative and judicial history 
 of Texas upon which he has left the imprint of his 
 
 talents and character in a marked degree. He has 
 always enjoyed a wide personal popularity both 
 among the people and with the members of the bar 
 as has been evidenced by the votes received by him 
 and the expressions of esteem and good-will ten- 
 dered through resolutions and the newspapers when 
 his name has been suggested for positions of pub- 
 lic trust. The vote cast for him for Chief Justice in 
 1882 gave him the largest majority which up to 
 that time had ever been received by any candidate 
 in Texas, his vote being 190,000 out of 200,000 
 cast for that office. It was a source of much sur- 
 prise and regret to the people throughout tlie State 
 when Judge Willie resigned his place as Chief Jus- 
 tice but it was a step which was forced on him by 
 the inadequacy of the salary as stated by him in 
 his letter to the then Governor accompanj'ing his 
 resignation. 
 
 Judge Willie has at all times since taking up his 
 residence at Galveston manifested an abiding faith 
 in the future of that citj' and has lent his aid on 
 all proper occasions to everything tending to pro- 
 mote its growth and welfare. In March, 1874, while 
 in Congress he delivered in the House of Repre- 
 sentatives one of the ablest pleas and most con- 
 vincing arguments in behalf of appropriations for 
 the improvement of the harbor, made during that 
 session of Congress on commercial matters. 
 
 It is however as a lawyer and a member of the 
 State judiciary that Judge Willie is best known and 
 as such that he has achieved the most solid results. 
 His chosen profession has been the ambition of his 
 life and he still pursues its arduous duties with the 
 enthusiasm of youth. 
 
 In politics Judge Willie has always been a 
 Democrat. He voted for secession but when the 
 war was over he accepted the results in good faith, 
 and has since given his support to all those meas- 
 ures of a practical nature looking to the rehabili- 
 tation of Texas and placing it where it is destined 
 soon to be : first in the grand sisterhood of States. 
 
 At Marshall, Texas, on October 20, 1859, Judge 
 Willie married Miss Bettie Johnson, a native of 
 Bolivar, Tenn., and a daughter of Lyttleton and 
 Mary C. Johnson, the former of whom died when 
 his daughter, Bettie, was an infant, the mother 
 being subsequently married to William C. Harper 
 of Brandon, Miss. Judge Willie and wife have 
 had ten children born to them, five of whom are 
 living. 
 
384 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 THE STANDEFERS, 
 
 OF BASTROP. 
 
 More than a century ago, three brothers of the 
 name of Standefer, came from England, and set- 
 tled in this country, one in Virginia, one in South 
 Carolina, and one on the Western frontier. From 
 this last Anderson Standefer was descended, being 
 probably a son. About the beginning of the 
 present century he married and moved to that part 
 of Illinois known as the " American Bottoms," 
 where he lived till his death some eight or ten 
 years later. He left surviving him a widow, three 
 sons, James Williamson, William Bailey and Jacob 
 Littleton, and a daughter, Sarah. Shortly after 
 her husband's death, the widow Standefer moved 
 from Illinois to Alabama, and settled in Franklin 
 County. From there the family came to Texas 
 ten years later in 1827, and for a time (about 
 a year) lived near the line of what is now Brazoria 
 and Ft. Bend Counties, then designated by the 
 general name of Austin's Colony. In 1828 they 
 moved up on the Colorado, and the widow having 
 married Lemau Barker, they all settled in what 
 was then called Barker's Bend of the Colorado, 
 about five miles from the present town of Bastrop. 
 That was then on the extreme frontier of Texas, 
 and the three sons of tliis pioneer family, James 
 Williamson Standefer, William Bailey Standefer, 
 and Jacob Littleton Standefer, becoming identified 
 with the history of the country, bore an honorable 
 part in the same during the struggles which fol- 
 lowed. All three of them were in Houston's arm}', 
 and took part in the battle of San Jacinto, besides 
 serving in numerous Indian campaigns, under 
 those distinguished leaders, John H. Moore, 
 Matthew Caldwell, Ed. Burleson, and the McCul- 
 loch brothers, Ben and Henry. They never held 
 any public positions of note, though the eldest, 
 James W., was a commissioner in connection with 
 the capital location proceedings at Austin, when 
 that place was first made the temporary seat of 
 government. But in the military defense of the 
 country they were active and in some degree con- 
 spicuous. James W. Standefer married just previ- 
 ous to the family's coming to Texas ; the other 
 two, William B. and Jacob L,., and the daughter, 
 Sarah, married after settling in Bastrop County. 
 William B. Standefer died in Bastrop County some 
 twelve or fourteen years since, an honored and 
 respected citizen, and Jacob L. still lives there, 
 being a resident of Elgin, where he is held in 
 
 equally high regard. James W. Standefer after 
 the death of his wife, Sarah Kive Standefer in 1879, 
 went to Lampasas, where he made his home till 
 his death February 19, 1892, being then in the 
 eighty-fourth year of his age. He was one of 
 those brave, generous, patriotic men to whom 
 Texas is so greatly indebted for what it now is as 
 a State and who profited so little by his long resid- 
 dence and arduous services. He has been for 
 more than forty years previous to his death a mem- 
 ber of the Christian Church and for about fifty 
 years a member of the Masonic fraternity. 
 
 The sons and daughters of James W. and Sarah 
 Standefer who became grown, thirteen in number, 
 were: Elizabeth, now widow of David Scott; Mary 
 widow of Jonathan Scott, both residing in Bastrop 
 County ; William Johnson Standefer of Lampasas ; 
 Thomas Standefer of Burnet County ; Sarah widow 
 of N. B. Scott, residing on the line of Lee and 
 Bastrop Counties ; James Standefer who died some 
 years since in Bastrop County ; Jane the widow of 
 W. C. Lawhon, of Bastrop County ; Richard N. 
 Standefer, who died in 1889 in Bastrop County ; 
 Elvina, Mrs. Kemp of San Antonio ; Arminta 
 widow of Richard Favors of San Saba County ; 
 Arinda widow of Thomas Wolf, of Burnet County 
 and Ellen the wife of George Wilson, of William- 
 son County. 
 
 The data is not at hand to give in this connection 
 the names of the descendants of William B., Jacob 
 L. and Sarah (Mrs. J. L. Litton) Standefer but 
 the following facts concerning James W. Standefer's 
 descendants may be added. His three sons 
 William J., Thomas and Richard N., were soldiers 
 in the Confederate army during the late war, the 
 eldest as a member of McMillen's Company, 
 Nelson's Regiment, with which he served a year 
 when he raised a company of his own for frontier 
 service, and the other two as members of Capt. 
 Highsmith's Company, Parson's Regiment. Thomas 
 Standefer was wounded at Cotton Plant, Arkansas, 
 and Richard V., at Yellow Bayou. All were good 
 soldiers and all are or were good citizens. 
 
 Richard Vaughn Standefer, born in Bastrop 
 County, Texas, December 30, 1838, was reared in 
 his native county and there spent his entire life 
 except the time he was in the Confederate arm}'. 
 September 11, 18(j6, he married Miss Tex Gatlin, 
 of Bastrop County, and shortly afterwards taking up 
 
^^^^ '-^ 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 385 
 
 mercantile pursuits (being incapacitated for active 
 outdoor worii by wounds received during the war) 
 was engaged in merchandising in Bastrop County 
 till his death May 23, 1889. He met with good 
 success and left his family well provided for. A 
 widow and six children survived him, though a son 
 and daughter have since followed him to the grave. 
 His children are Nannie Olive now Mrs. M. L. 
 Hines ; Woody Allison who died in 1892 at the age 
 of fifteen; Lula Love who died in 1895 at about 
 
 the same age ; Charles Herbert, Dick Hunter and 
 Grace Vaughn. 
 
 Mrs. Tex Standefer widow of Richard V. Stande- 
 fer also comes of old settled families, her father 
 Thomas Gatlin, having come to this country in 
 1840 and her mother, Nancy R. Christian, in 1832. 
 She being a daughter of Thomas Christian who 
 was killed by the Indians at the time Wilbarger was 
 scalped. (See account of this elsewhere in this 
 volume.) 
 
 DEWITT CLINTON GIDDINGS, 
 
 BRENHAM. 
 
 This well-known ex-iuember of Congress, lawyer 
 and banker, was born on the 18th of July, 1827, in 
 Susquehanna County, Penn. His father, James 
 Giddings, a native of Connecticut, was in early life 
 a ship captain, and in later years a farmer in Sus- 
 quehanna County, where he died in 1863. 
 
 The earliest account in this country of the family 
 (which is of Scotch extraction) is of George Gid- 
 dings and bis wife, who emigrated to America in 
 1635. Memiiers of the family joined the patriot 
 army at the beginning of the Revolution and re- 
 mained in the ranks until victory perched upon the 
 Continental colors and the independence of the 
 colonies was won. 
 
 Col. Giddings' mother, Lucy (Demming) Gid- 
 dings was a native of Connecticut. The Demmings 
 are of French descent. Representatives of the 
 family were early emigrants to America. In the 
 Revolutionary War they associated themselves with 
 their fellow-colonists and fought for intlependence. 
 
 Mrs. Giddings was a woman of rare force of 
 character. She reared a large family, and her sons 
 proudly boast that to the lessons of self-denial, 
 industry and love of freedom taught them by her 
 is due whatever of success has attended them. 
 Col. Giddings was the youngest son. As his broth- 
 ers finished school and attained maturitj', one by 
 one they left the old home and the dull routine of 
 farm life. Wishing to keep his youngest boy with 
 him, his father refused to educate him as he had 
 the others; but Col. Giddings determined to se- 
 cure a liberal education, and this he obtained in 
 the best schools of New York, earning the money 
 to defray his expenses by teaching country schools. 
 At the age of twenty he was for a short time 
 
 a civil engineer on a railroad, but in 1850 com- 
 menced reading law at Honesdale, Penn., under 
 the direction of Earl Wheeler, a distinguished lawyer 
 of that State, and in 1852 came to Texas, whither 
 he had been preceded by five brothers. The eldest, 
 Giles A., a civil engineer, came to Texas in 1833, 
 and in 1836, on his return from a campaign against 
 the Indians, in which he had been engaged for 
 several months, learned that Houston's army was 
 retreating, and, with his companions, hastened to 
 join it. Three days before the battle of San Jacinto 
 he wrote his .parents a letter, full of the purest 
 patriotism, telling them that if he fell, they would 
 have the joy of knowing that their son died " fight- 
 ing against oppression and for the rights of man," 
 a letter that was almost prophetic, for he received 
 wounds during the battle from which he died the 
 second day of Maj' following. The subject of this 
 memoir, Col. D. C. Giddings, on settling in Texas, 
 associated himself in partnership with his brother, 
 J. D. Giddings, for the practice of law at Brenham. 
 In 1860 he married Miss Malinda C. Lusk, a 
 daughter of Samuel Lusk, an early pioneer, who 
 was an active participant in the Texas revolution, a 
 member of the Convention which framed the Con- 
 stitution of the Republic of Texas, and for many 
 years Count}' Clerk of Washington County. They 
 had five children, only three of whom survived in- 
 fancy, viz. : Dewitt Clinton, Mary Belle (who mar- 
 ried E. H. Cooke and whose death occurred in 1895) 
 and Lillian Giddings. Col. Giddings opposed the 
 idea of secession, believing that Southern rights 
 could best be secured within the Union ; but, when 
 the State seceded, he went with her heart and soul. 
 He entered the Confederate army in 18C1 as a 
 
386 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 private in the Twenty-first Texas Cavalry and was 
 elected Captain and sboitly after Lieutenant-Colo- 
 nel, though, owing to tlie absence of his superior 
 officer, he was virtually Colonel, commanding the 
 regiment in all its engagements. He served in the 
 Trans-Mississippi department. Wliile scouting near 
 Helena, Ark., he was taken prisoner after a fight, 
 in which he with sixty men had killed, wounded or 
 captured ninetj^-eigbt of tbe enemy, and was sent 
 to St. Louis. After being retained six weeks he 
 was exchanged and rejoined his command and was 
 with Marmaduke in his raid into Missouri and par- 
 ticipated in most of the fights in liie Louisiana cam- 
 paign. As a soldier and officer he was much 
 esteemed by his men and by his superior officers. 
 The following official order of Gen. Wharton attests 
 his courage : — 
 
 "Headquarters Wharton's Cavalry Corps. ) 
 " In the Field, May 24, 1864. S 
 " General Order No. 8. 
 
 " The Major Gen'l Com'd'g, takes pleasure in 
 calling the attention of the troops under his com- 
 mand, to the gallant conduct of Lt. Col. D. C. 
 Giddings and four companies of the Twenty-first 
 Texas Cavalry, under his command on the 21st April, 
 1864, two miles this side of Cloutierville, La. 
 
 " On this occasion Lt. Col. Giddings, with these 
 four companies, made a most gallant charge 
 against the enemy, greatly superior to him in 
 number and strongly posted behind fences an<l 
 houses, driving them from their positions and 
 holding it until re-enforcements was sent him. 
 Not only on this, but several other occasions has 
 the chivalry and daring of Lt. Col. Giddings been 
 personally marked with pleasure by the Maj. Gen'l 
 Com'd'g. 
 
 " By order of 
 " (Signed) Maj. Gen'l Jno. A.Wharton. 
 " B. H. Davis, 
 
 " A. A. A. Gen'l. 
 " Official." 
 " CowLES A. A. A. G." 
 
 After the waning star of the Confederacy had 
 sunk to its nadir in the night of defeat that closed 
 the long struggle between the States, he returned to 
 Brcnham, resumed the practice of law and devoted 
 his energies to the upbuilding of his shattered for- 
 tunes. In 18G6 lie was elected and served as a mem- 
 ber of the State Constitutional Convention. In 1870, 
 when the Democratic Convention met in Houston 
 to select a candidate for Congress, it was regarded 
 as a foregone conclusion that the nominee was 
 doomed to defeat. One by one prominent men de- 
 
 clined the doubtful honor, until at last Col. Gid- 
 dings' love of country was appealed to, and he 
 cousenteil to make the race. At first he had no 
 hope of winning ; but, when he took the stump and 
 saw the enthusiasm of the people, his courage rose 
 and he bent all his energies towards success. 
 
 He canvassed the district, then comprising about 
 one fourth of the State, in a buggy; and a great 
 part of the time his friends were under grave appre- 
 hensions of his assassination at tiie hands of the 
 Davis police. Over a large part of the district he 
 was preceded by a negro company of these police 
 who daily threatened to arrest him and i)ut him in 
 irons. He went on, however, with unfaltering 
 courage. He delivered sixty speeches in forty 
 days, and arraigned in scathing terms the Davis 
 regime, and tlie people responded to his call and 
 elected him by a good majorit}' over his carpet-bag 
 opponent. Gen. Wm. T. Clark. Notwithstanding 
 the prefi-rence expressed by the people at the polls, 
 Governor E.J. Davis gave the certificate of election 
 to Gen. Clark. 
 
 Col. Giddings contested for the seat before the 
 National House of Representatives and presented so 
 strong a case that he was seated by a unanimous vote, 
 a remarkable incident in view of the temper of that 
 body. It was the first of the few instances in which a 
 carpet-bagger was ousted from a seat in Congress. 
 'This determined fight broke the backbone of Re- 
 publican rule in Texas, and the carpet-bagger went 
 down, to rise no more. Col. Giddings was re- 
 elected in 1873, over bis Republican opponent, 
 A. J. Evans, and again in 187(5, over Col. G. W. 
 Jones, who made the race as an independent 
 Democrat. In Congress Col. Giddings proved 
 himself an able advocate of the rights of the 
 States, a determined champion of the cause of 
 honest government, and (true to his patriotic 
 Revolutionary lineage) a vigilant and fearless 
 tribune of the people. He was inflexible in his 
 adherence to the principles enunciated by the 
 Democratic part}', not merely from a spirit of 
 partisan loyalty, but because he recognized that 
 its representatives were seeking to prevent the 
 depredations of a passion-swayed and unreasoning 
 majoritj', who seemed bent upon trampling the 
 constitution of the fathers in the dust, reducing 
 the Southern States to the condition of conquered 
 provinces, plundering the treasury, heaping up an 
 enormous debt for posterity to pay, enthroning 
 venality in high places, and changing the very 
 spirit and genius of our constitution. No crisis so 
 appalling had before arisen in this country since 
 the year 1800, when Mr. Jefferson and his com- 
 peers saved the constitution, as they expressed it, 
 
INDIAN WARS xiND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 387 
 
 "at the last gasp." It was a time when timid 
 men remained silent and inactive, waiting fearfully 
 for the end ; when men who were esteemed Viold 
 spolfe in bated whispers. Yet in those dark and 
 stormy days the South and Southern rights were 
 not without defenders at the seat of govern- 
 ment, at the point from which all danger was 
 to be apprehended. They raised their voices in 
 the halls of Congress and offered a brilliant 
 opposition which has few parallels in parlia- 
 mentary history and, in the face of which the 
 party in power did not dare to advance to the 
 carrying out of its nefarious purposes. The tem- 
 pest broke its force against the breasts of this de- 
 voted band, who threw themselves between its fury 
 and a defeated, plundered, disfranchised and 
 defenseless people. Never were a people and a 
 people's interests more faithfully represented. Col. 
 Giddings moved conspicuous in all these engage- 
 ments. He made a record that entitles him to the 
 gratitude of every Texian, every Southern man, every 
 lover of constitutional freedom, and that entitles his 
 name to a place in the long roll of honor which it is 
 the purpose of this volume to record upon the pages 
 of the State's history. As a lawyer he ranks de- 
 servedly high in his profession. It was in this 
 capacity that he i-endered the State signal service. 
 During the war Texas had sent $300,000.00 of 
 United States bonds to Europe to be sold and the 
 
 proceeds applied to the buying of arms and sup- 
 plies. Part of them had been sold and proceeds 
 partly used when the fall of the Confederacy came. 
 The bonds and money not used were deposited with 
 bankers. Payment of interest being refused by 
 the United States on the bonds that had been sold, 
 the holder of the bonds attached the unsold bonds 
 and enjoined the bankers against paying the money 
 on deposit to the State of Texas. 
 
 Several lawyers had been engaged to recover this 
 property, but their efforts were fruitless. Governor 
 Coke during his first term as Governor, appointed 
 J. D. and D. C. Giddings as agents in the matter 
 for the State. They took the case, and after much 
 work and a trip to Europe, Col. Giddings brought 
 back and turned over to the State the sum of $339,- 
 000. As a banker and business man he has evinced 
 sagacit}', liberality and public spirit, conducting his 
 financial ventures to a successful issue and aiding, 
 with expenditure of time, influence and money, all 
 worthy enterprises inaugurated for the benefit of 
 the community and section in which he lived. Col. 
 Giddings is still mentally and physieall)' vigorous. 
 Eipe in experience, full of years and honors, he 
 is pursuing the quiet tenor of his useful life 
 surrounded by loving friends and enjoying the 
 respect and confidence of a people whom he has 
 served faithfully and well in time of peace and 
 war. 
 
 GEORGE W. BURKITT, 
 
 PALESTINE. 
 
 Parton, who was America's most celebrated bio- 
 graphical writer, once said, " Give me the facts con- 
 cerning the lives of the active and useful men of a 
 commonwealth and I will produce from them its 
 entire history," thus emphasizing the fact that the 
 busy, active men, are the history-makers. To this 
 number belongs the subject of this notice. 
 
 He was born in County Derry, Ireland, Novem- 
 ber 12, 1847 ; came to America early during the 
 war between the States ; worked on a farm at 
 Morris, HI., and then sought and found employ- 
 ment with a contracting firm who were engaged in 
 grading on the road-bed of the Union Pacific Rail- 
 way ; drove a team for them for about two months, 
 when he was put in charge, as foreman, of a gang 
 of men and continued in that capacity for about 
 
 five months ; then resigned that position, purchased 
 a team and worked on the grade east and west of 
 Salt Lake, in the Green river valley, thereby in- 
 creasing his income to five dollars per day; re- 
 mained on the work until the grade was completed 
 in 1869 ; then sold his team and went to Junction 
 City, Kan., and engaged in subcontracting on the 
 Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railwaj' grade, which 
 he continued until 1872; then came to Texas and 
 continued in the same line of business at Longview 
 on the Texas & Pacific Railway and later graded 
 portions of the Galveston, Harrisburg and San 
 Antonio Short Line, now a portion of the Southern 
 Pacific system ; next was a subcontractor on the 
 International & Great Northern Railway and not 
 long thereafter took a general contract of construe- 
 
, INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 tion for the same company on their line from Rock- 
 dale to Austin ; then built, complete for rolling 
 stock, the Triaity «& Sabine Railway from Trinity 
 to Colmesneil, a distance of sixty-six miles ; next 
 job was the construction of the line from Gaines- 
 ville to Henrietta, a distance of seventy-two miles ; 
 also built the Santa Fe line from Montgomery to 
 Conroe, fourteen miles, and later the Taylor, 
 Bastrop & Houston, from Bastrop to Boggy-Tank, 
 fifty-four miles, and in 1893 he continued the road 
 from Boggy-Tank to Houston, both sections com- 
 prising one hundred and fifteen miles, and from 
 Smithville to Lockhart on the Missouri, Kansas & 
 Texas the same year, and also built extensions from 
 Wichita Falls to Henrietta, sixteen miles, and the 
 Velasco Terminal, twenty-two miles; associated at 
 various times with Mr. D. Murphy, when the busi- 
 ness operated under the firm name of Burkitt, 
 Murphy and Burns, when the business was run 
 under the firm name of Burkitt & Murphy, after- 
 wards Burkitt, Burns & Co. 
 
 This is a history of railroad building that is as 
 yet unapproached by any man in the State of 
 Texas, the total mileage figuring up to many miles 
 of completed road. 
 
 Mr. Burkitt is a promoter of and president of 
 the Palestine & Dallas Railroad, which is soon to be 
 built between the two cities. As opportunity 
 
 afforded, he acquired large tracts of land and his 
 holdings now amount to about 3.5,000 acres and 
 has sold about $250,000 worth of land, principally 
 to Germans on eight and ten days' time, who are 
 paying promptly according to contract. These 
 lands are both improved and unimproved and lie in 
 seventeen counties in the State. 
 
 Mr. Burkitt has by contract supplied railroad 
 ties in large quantities to various roads for some 
 ten years past, the timber being cut, in many 
 instances, from his own land. 
 
 He is closely identified with the banking interests 
 of Texas. In 1887 he was active in the organiza- 
 tion of the First National Bank of Palestine and is 
 now one of its directors and its vice-president. 
 This was the first national banking house in the 
 city. He is a director of the Taylor National Bank, 
 of Taylor, Texas, organized in 1868. He owns 
 stock in the First National Bank of Stephenville, 
 organized in 1889, and is likewise a stockholder in 
 the First National Bank of Orange, established in 
 the same year. He is president of the Taylor 
 Water Works and Ice Company and a stockholder 
 in the Palestine Cotton Seed Oil Co., of Palestine. 
 
 Mr. Burkitt married at Houston, in 1880, Miss 
 Mary Hartlej', a daughter of William Hartley, a 
 business man and mill owner of that city. They 
 have one son, George, and a daughter, Bessie. 
 
 WILLIAM VON ROSENBERG, 
 
 HALLETTSVILLE. 
 
 Wra. Von Rosenberg, a leading citizen and finan- 
 cier of Southwest Texas, was born in Washington 
 County, Texas, August 9, 1863, and moved with 
 his parents to Round Top, in Fayette County, in 
 1867 ; acquired the rudiments of a good English 
 education in the public schools of that place, and 
 in 1876 entered the college at New Braunfels, 
 Texas, where, during the following two years, he 
 completed his education. In 1878 he accepted 
 employment at Bellville, Austin County, Texas, 
 where he learned the mercantile business in the 
 large retail establishment of C. F. Hellmuth. He 
 remained with this firm for ten years, working him- 
 self up from the lowest to the highest position in 
 the house in three years. In June, 1888, he em- 
 barked in the general mercantile business on his 
 own account, at Halleltsville, Texas, taking his 
 younger brother. Otto Von Rosenberg, into part- 
 
 nership with him, and establishing the firm of Rosen- 
 berg Bros. By fair, liberal and honest business 
 methods this firm has become one of the largest 
 and is known as one of the most reliable and suc- 
 cessful business houses in Southwest Texas. It 
 does an annual retail business of from $75,000.00 
 to $100,000.00 and handles everything in the way 
 of general merchandise, agricultural implements, 
 etc., needed to supply the trade of that section. 
 The Messrs. Von Rosenberg are also large cotton 
 buyers, the principal product raised in that part of 
 Texas. They handle annually from 7,000 to 10,000 
 bales, buying principally for correspondents in 
 Eastern States, but also largely for export to 
 Liverpool and other European points. They have 
 acquired large landed interests in Lavaca, Jackson 
 and Wharton counties. 
 
 In 1891, finding their business constantly increas- 
 
Francis 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 389 
 
 ing, they erected commodious brick buildings in 
 Hallettsville, and added to their business a banlving 
 department, which from its inception has met with 
 a liberal patronage from the business community. 
 
 Mr. Wm. Von Rosenberg was married at Belle- 
 ville, Texas, May 9, 1889, to Miss Metta Bross- 
 mann, daughter of Mr. C. H. Brossmann, County 
 Treasurer of Austin County. 
 
 FRANCISCO DE PAUL GONZALES, 
 
 GALVESTON. 
 
 The subject of this sketch, Francisco De Paul 
 Gonzales, was born at Guanajuata, Mexico, on the 
 9th day of April, 1826. His grandfather and 
 father were both officers in the Spanish army, 
 having gone to Mexico, from Spain, with the Span- 
 ish troops, at the time of the expedition of Barra- 
 das, and subsequently settled here. 
 
 Mr. Gonzales, with his younger brother Thomas, 
 received his elementary English instruction in the 
 State of Illinois, but while still quite young, he was 
 sent to Spain, to complete his education in the 
 Monastic College of his ancestral home, at Valla- 
 dolid. Here he was received with the demonstra- 
 tive hospitality, the pomp and ceremony usually 
 accorded to the sons of the old Spanish Grandees. 
 
 Returning from Spain, Mr. Gonzales made his 
 home in New Orleans, where his mother was already 
 living. His rare grace and charm of manner, his 
 fine conversational powers, and the dignity of his 
 distinguished presence, soon won for him the esteem 
 and admiration of the fastidious citizens of that 
 metropolis of the South. 
 
 After a period, fired by the spirit of adventure 
 and enterprise which at that time stirred the hearts 
 of so many young men, Mr. Gonzales resolved to 
 seek his fortune in the new State of Texas. Ac- 
 cordingly he located at Brownsville, and for many 
 years carried on an extensive and lucrative trade 
 with the interior of Mexico. 
 
 It was during this time of commercial prosperity 
 and happiness, that he married the acknowledged 
 
 belle and beauty of the Lone Star State, Miss 
 Martha Anne Rhea, the granddaughter of Governor 
 Sevier, and the daughter of the late Judge Rhea, 
 who, at that time, was Collector of Customs at 
 Point Isabel. In 1856, Mr. Gonzales, with his 
 family, moved to Galveston, and for years was a 
 prominent cotton factor. After the death of his 
 wife, in 1874, he retired from active business and 
 devoted his time exclusively to his children and his 
 consular office — as during the entire time of his 
 residence in Galveston, he was Consul for Mexico. 
 
 He had five children, two sons — Francis Edward, 
 who died August 9, 1885, and Joseph Maurice, 
 who died March 28, 1893 — and three daughters, 
 Marie Therese, Helen, and Martha, still living. 
 Helen, married to Theodore Demetrius Murcou- 
 lides, has two children, Theodore Demetrius, Jr., 
 and Marie Stella Murcoulides. Mr. Murcoulides, 
 who was born and educated in classic Athens, but 
 now a citizen of Smyrna, a city in Asiatic Turkey, 
 is in Galveston, managing the business of the 
 world-renowned Ralls House. 
 
 Mr. Gonzales was by faith and practice a Romian 
 Catholic. With an inflexible belief in the dogmas 
 of his Church in the broadest sense he obeyed its 
 commandments. 
 
 With strict principles and exclusive tastes, he 
 devoted himself to his children and his friends with 
 an ardor second only to that which he bore to the 
 divine symbol of his faith. Francisco de Paul 
 Gonzales died January 16, 1890. 
 
390 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 JOHN C. WARD, 
 
 BEAUMONT, 
 
 Piesident of the Beaumont Ice and Electric Light 
 Company, was born at Titus County, Texas, in 
 1851. His parents were Andrew J. and Nancy 
 Ward. He was educated at Beaumont where his 
 parents moved when he was a boy. He resided at 
 Corpus Christi and San Antonio for four years an<1 
 then returned to Beaumont. His first business ex- 
 perience was acquired when sixteen years of age as 
 shipping clerii in a saw mill. He remained in the 
 lumber liusiness for about twentj' years, beginning 
 work at fifteen dollars per month and at the close of 
 the time specified owned a business which he sold 
 for S56,000. After the sale of his mill interests he 
 embarked in the business in which he is now 
 engaged. His financial success is attributed to 
 perseverance, patience and judicious speculation. 
 He is a member of the Masonic fraternity. 
 
 He has been twice married, first to Miss Pickie 
 Kyle, of Jasper, Jasper County, Texas, in 1877, 
 and second in 1885 to Miss Belle Carroll, of Beau- 
 mont. Four children were born of each union, 
 viz. Westley Kyle Ward, aged seventeen ; James 
 Dalton Ward, ageil fifteen ; John Keith Ward, aged 
 thirteen years; Andrew Jackson Ward, living at 
 Jasper County, Texas, with his aunt, aged eleven ; 
 Mena Belle Ward, aged eight; Henry Levy 
 Ward, aged seven ; Carrol Ward, aged four, and 
 Seawillow Ward, aged two years. All of the chil- 
 dren, except Andrew J., are living at home. 
 
 Mr. Ward has had strong competition to contend 
 against. His success has been due to tireless 
 energy and superior capacity. He has moved 
 steadily to and now occupies a leading position at 
 the front among the brainy financiers of Texas. 
 
 JEFFERSON JOHNSON, 
 
 AUSTIN. 
 
 There is no man better known or better liked in 
 Travis County than Mr. Jeff. Johnson, the subject 
 of this notice. He is identified with the agricul- 
 tural interests of the county, owning a well im- 
 proved farm of 456 acres at Dell Valle}', but 
 resides in the city of Austin, where he has been 
 for many years engaged in business. He has for 
 some years past represented the Union Central 
 Life Insurance Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, one 
 of the leading institutions of the kind in the 
 country. 
 
 Mr. Johnson was born January 8th, 1845,- in 
 Clermont County, Ohio, and completed his educa- 
 tion at the Ohio Wesleyan University. His parents 
 were Benjamin and Asenath (Tribble) Johnson, 
 the former a native of New Jersey, and the latter 
 a native of the .State of Ohio. 
 
 Mr. Johnson came to Texas in 1879 and settled 
 in Travis County, where he engaged in farming, 
 and has since resided. Februar}' 5th, 1879, he was 
 united in marriage to Miss Haltie Houston, daugh- 
 ter of David Houston, of Cincinnati, OLiio, and 
 
 now (1896) has five children, viz., Benjamin, 
 Augusta, Adele, Helen, and Cornelia. 
 
 He is a member of the order of Knights Templar 
 in the Masonic fraternity, and is also a member 
 of the Tenth Street Methodist Episcopal Church, 
 South, in the city of his residence. 
 
 He was appointed one of the trustees of the 
 State Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb at Austin, 
 by Governor L. S. Ross, still retains that position, 
 and has served through the administrations of 
 Governors Ross, Hogg and Culberson, the greater 
 part of the time as the President of the Board of 
 Trustees, and at present occupies that resi)onsible 
 position. 
 
 He is a memlier of the Free School Board of 
 Travis County, and is Chairman of the Democratic 
 Executive Committee of tiie count}'. 
 
 In 189-1 he was, prior to the assembling of the 
 Democratic State Convention, chairman of Hon. 
 John H. Reagan's campaign committee. 
 
 He is a Democrat, true and tried, a man of 
 exceptionally fine judgment, has the rare faculty of 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 391 
 
 always espousing the right side of an issue, is a 
 thorough master of the tactics of political warfare, 
 has done yeoman service for the cause of Democ- 
 racy in every campaign that has been fought 
 before the people since coming to Texas, has in 
 every respect come up to the full measure of 
 enlightened, progressive and patriotic citizenship ; 
 
 is kind, affable, and foremost in every good work 
 that has in view the betterment of social conditions 
 and the prosperity of his adopted city and State, 
 and, consequently, is esteemed and respected by 
 all, and has many sincere and devoted friends, not 
 only in Austin and Texas, but wherever he is 
 known. 
 
 J. C. HODGES, 
 
 PARIS. 
 
 Hon. Jacob Calvin Hodges was born near 
 Boone, N. C, on the 25tli day of December, 
 1849, and grew to manhood on the farm. In 
 consequence of the war between the States, in 
 which his father and elder brother participated, his 
 opportunities for obtaining an education were 
 meager. 
 
 In 1870 he obtained license to practice law and 
 soon after came to Texas, stopping a short time at 
 Jefferson, from whence he went to Pittsburg, Texas, 
 where he engaged in the practice of his profes- 
 sion. 
 
 In the spring of 1875 he went to Paris, Texas, 
 where he has since resided and been actively en- 
 gaged in the practice of law and has won a distin- 
 
 guished position at the bar. Learned in the law, 
 and a powerful and persuasive speaker, he has been 
 unusually successful as an advocate. 
 
 In politics he has always been a Democrat and 
 has been outspoken upon every political question. 
 State and national, that has come before the people, 
 and has taken an active and aggressive part in every 
 campaign waged by his party since he came to the 
 State. He was elected County Attorney of Lamar 
 County in 1878 and re-elected in 1880 and was an 
 elector at large on the Cleveland ticket in 1892. 
 
 He is justly regarded as a tower of Democratic 
 strength in North Texas and few men in the State 
 have labored more zealously and effectively in the 
 cause of good government. ^ -_ 
 
 ^i^v"^..-.^;^/^^^- "'^^- '^XuSTlN. '^rtU.^^^ ^^..^'..:^ dd^u^ 
 
 
 This veteran Texian was born in Fayette County, 
 Penn., in 1798, was reared in his native State to 
 about the agej of ten, when he went to Arkansas, 
 where he met! and, at about the age of twenty- 
 two married Miss Mary Crownover, daughter of 
 John Crownover, in company with whom and a 
 brother, Andrew Rabb, he came to Texas in 1822, 
 as a member of Austin's colony, but later moved on 
 to the Colorado, into what is now Fayette County, 
 taking up his abode on the prairie, which bears his 
 name, and there built on the banks of the Colorado 
 one of the Qrst grist mills ever erected in Texas, 
 
 known as " Rabb's Mill." He received from the 
 government a grant of a league of laud as a bonus 
 for this enterprise and by means of it became, in a 
 very substantial manner, one of the first benefactors 
 of the settlers of that section. He subsequently 
 built and owned a number of mills in that locality, 
 the last of which was a saw and grist mill combined, 
 the product of which went all over Central and 
 Southwest Texas. He was a resident, at different 
 times, of Fayette, Fort Bend and Hill counties and 
 finally, in 1860, moved to Travis Countj', settling 
 at Barton Springs, near the city of Austin, where 
 
.•592 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 he died June 5th tlie following year. Mr. Rabb 
 volunteered in the patriot army in 1836 and was at 
 the battle of San Jacinto. He was also in the 
 frontier service and helped as often as occasion de- 
 manded to repel the attacks of Indians, and pur- 
 sued them and recaptured booty they had taken 
 during their raids. He was very little, if any, in 
 public life, though a public-spirited, patriotic citi- 
 zen. He was liberal, active and earnest, a man of a 
 strong mechanical turn of mind, and always mani- 
 fested interest in industrial pursuits of some sort. 
 He was a zealous member of the Methodist Church 
 and a liberal contributor to his church. He gave 
 the lumber to build the first Methodist church ever 
 erected in San Antonio, the lumber being hauled 
 from his mill in Faj'ette Count}' to San Antonio by 
 Mexicans on os-carts. 
 
 Mr. Rabb's widow survived him a little over 
 twenty years, dying in 1882, in the seventy-seventh 
 year of her age. She was justly entitled to be 
 called one of the mothers of Texas, having come 
 to the country when it was a Mexican province, and 
 lived through all the changing vicissitudes of its 
 fortunes for sixty years. She was living in the 
 country when Texas threw off the 3'oke of Mexican 
 despotism and established an independent republic ; 
 she was here when the j'oung but vigorous Republic 
 asked for admission into the American Union ; she 
 
 saw Texas withdraw from the Union and again enter 
 the sisterhood of States, thus living under five gov- 
 ernments. She was well known to, and knew many 
 old Texians, and possessed a large fund of reminis- 
 cences concerning Texas people. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Rabb were the parents of nine 
 children, one of whom died in infancy, one at about 
 the age of nine, the other seven living to maturity. 
 
 Thej' had three sons in the Confederate army, 
 viz. : Zebulon M. P., John W., and Virgil S. Of 
 the seven children referred to, but three are now 
 living, viz. : Virgil S., Mrs. Bettie Croft, and Gail 
 T. Rabb. 
 
 GailT. Rabb, the youngest of this pioneer familj', 
 was born at Rutersville, Fayette County, Texas, in 
 1847, and was reared there until he was thirteen, at 
 which time, in 1860, his parents moved to Travis 
 County, where he has since resided. He has been 
 engaged in farming, stock-raising and milling, hav- 
 ing erected tvvo grist mills. He is an eqterprising, 
 well-to-do and highly respected citizen. 
 
 Mr. Gill L. Rabb married Miss Isabella Tharp, 
 of Robertson County, Texas, a daughter of Eli W. 
 and Susanna Tharp, and a native of Ohio. She 
 was reared, however, in Texas, her parents coming 
 to this State when she was about five years old. 
 The issue of this marriage has been four children: 
 Derance, Walter Tharp, Mamie, and Tom Miller. 
 
 STERLING C. ROBERTSON, 
 
 EMPRESARIO OF ROBERTSON'S COLONY. 
 
 Sterling C. Robertson was born in Nashville, 
 Tenn., about the year 1785. He served as Major 
 of Tennessee troops in the War of 1812 and 1814 
 and was honorably discharged. He received a 
 liberal education and was reared in the occupation 
 of planting. He engaged in agriculture in Giles 
 County, Tenn., but in a few years moved to Nash- 
 ville. Enterprising and adventurous, and being 
 possessed of large means, in the year 1823 he 
 formed a company in Nashville to explore the wild 
 province of Texas. He penetrated as far as Brazos 
 and formed a permanent camp at the mouth of 
 Little river. All the partj' returned to Tennessee, 
 however, except Col. Robertson. He visited 
 the settlements that had been made and, while 
 there, conceived the idea of planting a colony in 
 Texas. Filled with enthusiasm over this plan, he 
 
 went to his home in Tennessee; there he purchased 
 a contract that had been made by the Mexican 
 government with Robert Leftwich for the settle- 
 ment of 800 families. The colonial grant embraced 
 a tract of land, and by the terms of the contract 
 Col. Robertson was given six years in which to 
 introduce the 800 families ; he was to receive forty 
 leagues and forty labors of land for his services. 
 In 1829, at his oven expense, he introduced 100 
 families, who were driven out by the military in 
 consequence of false representations made to the 
 government in regard to Col. Robertson and his 
 colonists. The matter was finally adjusted and in 
 the spring of 1834 the colony was restored, and in 
 the summer of the same year he laid out the town 
 of Sarahville D'Viesca. A laud office was opened 
 about October 1, of the same year, and the settle- 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 393 
 
 ments were rapidly- made, lii the summer of 1835 
 he visited Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana and 
 Kentucky, mailing linown the inducements to emi- 
 gration. He had been authorized b}' the Mexican 
 government to offer to settlers who were heads of 
 families one league and one labor of land, one- 
 fourth of a league to single men, and to foreigners 
 marrying native Americans, one league and a quar- 
 ter of land. 
 
 border he was subject to all the trials and hardships 
 inseparable from contact with the wild and savage 
 Indians. Enterprising and patriotic, he had manj- 
 opportunities for an exhibition of those traits. 
 
 From the campaigns of 1812 and 1814, down to 
 1842, the year of his death, he was an active partici- 
 pant in every struggle of his countrymen. Before 
 the revolution of 1835-6 he introduced more than 
 600 families into the colonies, fully one-half of the 
 
 STERLING C. EOBKEISON. 
 
 Col. Robertson was a delegate to the General 
 Convention of 1836, was one of the signers of the 
 Declaration of Independence, and of the Consti- 
 tution of the Republic of Texas. He commanded 
 a military company in the spring of 1836 and re- 
 ceived therefor a donation of 640 acres of land, 
 having participated in the battle of San Jacinto.- 
 He was a member of the First Senate of the Con- 
 gress of the Republic of Texas. 
 
 He died in Robertson County, Texas, March 4, 
 1842, in the fifty-seventh year of his age. No man 
 ever led a more eventful or trying life. On the 
 
 whole number having come at his expense. It 
 would require a volume to recount in detail all his 
 experiences, the adventures, trials and escapes 
 through which he passed from the time of his com- 
 ing to the frontier until his decease. 
 
 He was a gentleman of rare culture and was es- 
 teemed, not only for the nobility of his nature, but 
 for his commanding intellectuality and unselfish 
 devotion to his country and the cause of constitu- 
 tional freedom. He was a leader among that band 
 of heroes and statesmen who laid the foundation 
 for the Texas of to-day. 
 
394 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 GEORGE BERNHARD ZIMPELMAN, 
 
 AUSTIN, 
 
 The pioneers of Texas whose coming antedates 
 the year 1846, are, as years pass, rapidly joining 
 the "great majorilj'," and those who remain are 
 representatives of an historic past, whose experi- 
 ences, with the passage of time, become more and 
 more interesting. 
 
 George B. Zimpelman left his native home in 
 Germany in 1845, and came to America to seek 
 his fortune. He was born in the then Kingdom of 
 Bavaria, July 24th, 1832. His father, John J. 
 Zimpelman, was a life-long and influential citizen, 
 and by occupation a prosperous farmer. He was 
 also born in Bavaria, was there reared, and married 
 a daughter of Valentine Ilochdoerffer, who was 
 likewise a well-to-do farmer in Bavaria. 
 
 Much had been published and circulated in Ger- 
 many and other foreign countries about this time 
 concerning the new Republic of Texas, and young 
 Zimpelman, having caught the spirit of the hour, 
 decided to make his way hither. He decided on 
 New Orleans as his first American point of des- 
 tination, landing there in January, 1845. He re- 
 mained there about one year, and served as a 
 salesman in a dry goods house, and in December 
 of the same year proceeded to Texas and to 
 Austin, the recently established seat of govern- 
 ment. Austin was then on the extreme Western 
 frontier. Settlers had, however, taken up farms 
 along the Colorado and in the vicinity of the 
 capital citj-. Building operations were quite livelj-, 
 and, in lieu of something better, young Zimpelman 
 adapted himself to the situation, and took up car- 
 pentering as an apprentice, and in due time be- 
 came a master carpenter. He continued in this 
 business until 1854. He then became interested in 
 and followed gunsmithing for two years. In 1856 
 he located on a stock farm near Austin and pur- 
 sued stockraising and agriculture until the breaking 
 out of the great Civil War. Upon the first call to 
 arms in 18G1 he promptly volunteered to defend 
 the cause of his adopted country, and became a 
 member of Terry's Texas Rangers, the Eighth 
 Texas Cavalry, as a private, and followed his 
 regiment through all of the vicissitudes of that 
 sanguinary conflict, sharing in all of its victories 
 and defeats, and declining all offers of advance- 
 ments from the ranks, preferring to stand in line 
 of battle with his comrades. The heroic services 
 of Terry's Texas Rangers as an organization is 
 
 already a matter of historic record, and needs not 
 to be here recounted. Mr. Zimpelman, with his 
 regiment, participated in many of the hardest 
 fought battles of the conflict, and in the battles 
 of Murfreesboro, Shelbyville, Corinth, Shilo, and 
 Chickamauga, was six limes wounded, and was 
 three times wounded in the siege of Atlanta. 
 
 After the war he returned to his farm near Aus- 
 tin and resumed the peaceful avocation of stock 
 raising. In 1866 he was elected Sheriff of Travis 
 County, but the Radical reconstruction policy of 
 the United States Government prtcluded his serving 
 as such. This state of affairs soon, however, came 
 to an end and, he was again elected to the office in 
 1869 and re-elected in 1873, serving until 1876. 
 Upon retirement from office he engaged in banking 
 in the city of Austin as a member of the banking 
 firm of Foster, Ludlow & Co., and continued in this 
 connection until 1877 when the partnership was 
 dissolved. 
 
 No citizen of Austin has been more active in the 
 upbuilding of the city and loyal to her business 
 interests. Mr. Zimpelman promptly identified him- 
 self with and labored for its development. He 
 took active part in the establishment of the ice 
 factory, street car lines, bridge across the Colorado 
 river and was the first man to bring to public notice 
 the possibility of a dam across the Colorado river 
 for water power. He spent a considerable amount 
 of money in making surveys and demonstrated its 
 practicabiliiy. Mr. Zimpelman nest spent about 
 three years in mining in Chihuahua, Mexico, and at 
 the same time executed a contract with the Alexlcan 
 Government for the surveying of public lands. He 
 returned to Austin in 1888 and the following year 
 he engaged in mining projects in Lower California. 
 
 In 1893 he was appointed Postmaster of the 
 city of Austin under Postmaster-General Bissell 
 and has ably performed the duties of the office, 
 which he still holds. There are few men in Austin 
 (if indeed there are any) who have been more 
 active in business and more faithful in fulfilling the 
 duties of office (which Mr. Zimpelman holds to be 
 a sacred trust) than the subject of this brief sketch. 
 Mr. Zimpelman was married in Travis County to 
 Miss Sarah C, daughter of Thos. Matthews, a 
 farmer and a pioneer of 1850. Mrs. Zimpelman 
 died in 1886, leaving three sons and two daughters, 
 Mary Louise, who became the wife of Hon. Chas 
 
INDI^LN WARS AS^D PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 395 
 
 H. Howard, both now deceased; Tbos. M., of 
 Austin; Joseph L. , George W., of Utah, and a 
 Miss Waldin, now assistant money order clerk in 
 the Austin post office. 
 
 Mr. Zimpelman is a member of long and high 
 standing in the order of Free and Accepted Masons, 
 and enjoys the full confidence and esteem of a wide 
 circle of loyal friends. 
 
 THOMAS MOORE, M. D., 
 
 WACO. 
 
 Dr. Thomas Moore was born in Mercer County, 
 Ky., August 6lh, 1815. His parents were John 
 and Phoebe (Westerfleld) Moore. 
 
 John Moore, also a native of Kentucky, was born 
 in 1789 and was the son of Thomas Moore (born in 
 1755), who was the son of Simon Moore, who, when 
 a young man, emigrated to Kentucky with Daniel 
 Boone's colony ; his ancestor was Thomas Moore, 
 who emigrated to America from England. 
 
 Dr. Moore was the eldest of the children born to 
 John and Phoebe (Westerfleld) Moore, and the 
 only one now living of a large familj*. His father 
 served in the volunteer force in the Northwest under 
 Gen. William Henry Harrison in the War of 1812. 
 He was a farmer and school teacher by occupation, 
 and died in Lawrence Count}', Ala., in 1863. His 
 widow survived him until 1875, when she departed 
 this life at Waco, Texas. They were active mem- 
 bers of the Church of Christ. In 1836 young 
 Moore began the study of medicine in Glasgow, 
 Ky. , in the office of Dr. W. D, Jourdan. In the fall 
 of 1837 he commenced the practice of his profes- 
 sion in Allen County ; later practiced in Warren 
 and Simpson Counties, Ky., until 1845; and then 
 moved to Limestone County, Ala., where he 
 remained until 1853, in which year he moved to Bur- 
 net County, Texas, where he continued actively 
 engaged in practice. As a physician he was skill- 
 full and his professional labors became so extensive 
 and arduous as to result in such serious impairment 
 of his health that he abandoned the practice of 
 medicine. He then began the study of law, was 
 admitted to the bar and was soon earnestly and 
 successfully engaged in the pursuit of his new 
 
 profession, practicing in the various courts of 
 Texas. 
 
 He has never been a politician in the strict sense 
 of the term. He has never sought office, and has 
 never accepted office, save when called upon to do 
 so by the voice of the people. He was a member 
 of the Secession Convention of Texas. In that 
 body he served as a member of the Committee on 
 Federal Relations and aided the chairman of that 
 committee in preparing the address to people of 
 Texas advocating secession. During the war he 
 was appointed, by Judge T. J. Devine, one of the 
 Confederate States receivers for the court at Austin, 
 which position he held until the close of the war. 
 In 1866, while A. J. Hamilton was Provisional 
 Governor, Dr. Moore was, with his son, John 
 Moore, and some others, arrested by the military 
 authorities on the charge that they were opponents 
 of and inimical to the policy of reconstruction that 
 was being pursued. He was taken to Austin and 
 held in prison there seventy-eight days, when he, his 
 son and their companions, were released, after being 
 brought before a magistrate and giving bond. In 
 1867 Dr. Moore moved to Waco, where he has 
 since resided and devoted himself to the practice of 
 law. He was united in marriage in Glasgow, Ky., 
 March 9, 1837, to Miss Eliza J. Dodd. Theyliave 
 had eight children, five sons and three daughters, 
 born to them, viz. : John, Thomas P., Luke, James 
 I., Bart, Emily A., now Mrs. Frazier, of Bosque 
 County ; Ida, now Mrs. Hays, and Jennie, now 
 Mrs. Muenenhall. 
 
 March 9, 1887, they celebrated their golden wed- 
 ding, which was made a great event in Waco. 
 
396 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 M. L. OPPENHEIMER, 
 
 EAGLE PASS. 
 
 The history- of Ibe later material growth of Eagle 
 Pass is as phenomenal as its Indian and pioneer 
 history is thrilling and instructive. 
 
 The bustling, ambitious and tireless men of 
 business soon followed in the wake of the pioneers 
 and pushed the work of permanent development in 
 agriculture and commerce to its present stage of 
 growth and advancement and for this reason the 
 brief facts touching the leading men and financiers 
 of this latter historical epoch should find a becom- 
 ing place in this history. 
 
 Mr. Oppenheimer belongs to and is identified 
 with the history of Eagle Pass and his rise in the 
 business and financial world is a fair illustration of 
 what push, perseverance and well-directed industry 
 will accomplish in a new and growing country. 
 
 Mr. Oppenheimer is a native of Bavaria and was 
 born November 16th, 1852. He left his native 
 home and came to America alone, and went direct 
 to San Antonio about the year 1867, when a youth 
 of about fifteen years. He secured a clerkship in 
 the store of a relative, B. Oppenheimer (now de- 
 ceased), then a leading merchant of that city, and 
 later represented the house as travelling salesman 
 in the Rio Grande valley. He thereafter worked 
 for the mercantile house of Goldfrank, Frank & 
 Company, of San Antonio, as accountant, for about 
 six years. For the following three years he repre- 
 sented his former employer, B. Oppenheimer, on 
 the Rio Grande and for one year the firm of Leon 
 
 & H. Blum, of Galveston, in the same region. Mr. 
 Oppenheimer, having ever an eye to the best chance, 
 became impressed with the advantages afforded by 
 the existing business situation and future prospects 
 of Eagle Pass, resigned his position, purchased a 
 stock of general merchandise and in 1881 embarked 
 in business at that place. The venture proved a 
 financial success and he made money. He con- 
 tinued in trade until 1892 and then purchased an 
 interest in the banking business of S. P. Simpson 
 «& Company, the oldest banking house west of San 
 Antonio, and in 1895 became sole owner of the 
 institution. He transacts a large volume of busi- 
 ness annually on a safe and conservative business 
 basis and his bank is one of the strong financial 
 institutions of Southwest Texas. Mr. Oppen- 
 heimer's rise in the world, from an humble begin- 
 ning as a poor boy from a foreign land, has been 
 steady and honorable. He is a good man for his 
 city, takes a just pride in its institutions, and aids 
 liberally with his influence and ample means all 
 movements tending to its advancement and well- 
 being. He is president of the Texas-Mexican 
 Electric Light & Power Company and connected 
 witli other leading enterprises. Mr. Oppenheimer 
 married an estimable San Antonio lady in 1883 and 
 they have three children : Leonidas, Alexander and 
 Ella. They have a spacious and attractive home 
 and are esteemed for their excellent social accom- 
 plishments. 
 
 WILLIAM P. HARDEMAN, 
 
 SUPERINTENDENT CONFEDERATE HOME. 
 
 Gen. AVilliam P. Hai-deman is one of the very 
 few men now living who has served Texas in every 
 military struggle from her first permanent colonial 
 settlement. Though now eighty years of age, he 
 retains his mental faculties unimpaired and to a 
 singular degree his physical activit}'. 
 
 He was born in Williamson County, Tenn., the 
 4th day of November, 181G. His family has been 
 distinguished in tlie early history of the Southern 
 
 States. His grandfather, Thomas Hardeman, was 
 a member of the first Constitutional Convention of 
 Tennessee. His father, Thomas J. Hardeman, 
 served several terms with marked distinction as a 
 member of the Congress of the Republic of Texas. 
 He was the author of the rescjlution of the Texas 
 Congress which gave the name of Austin to the 
 capital of the State. The mother of Gen. Harde- 
 man was the daughter of Ezekiel Polk, of Irish 
 
INDIAN WAHS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 397 
 
 descent, who was a signer of the Mecklenberg 
 Declaration of Independence in Nortli Carolina. 
 The Hardemans were of Welsh origin. The blood 
 of Wales and Ireland thus mingling in the veins of 
 William P. Hardeman, it is not strange that an 
 ardent love for independence and a hatred of 
 oppression, in every form, should have marked his 
 career. 
 
 His father reached Texas with his family in 183.5, 
 just at the time when the colonists were preparing 
 for unequal war with Mexico. Burleson Milam, 
 Frank Johnson, and others, had determined to 
 capture the garrison at San Antonio. Their fol- 
 lowers were the frontier hnnters and almost their 
 
 sponded with alacrity by volunteering, and started 
 for San Antonio with twenty-one men. His 
 father demnnded that bis name should be entered 
 in the muster roll as a volunteer and it was so 
 written. Houston, who had heard from the servant 
 of Travis of the massacre at the Alamo, fell back 
 from Gonzales. Hardeman, with the little band of 
 twenty-one men, was not so fortunate, for, know- 
 ing neither the fate of Travis nor the retreat of 
 Houston, they rode in upon the Mexican pickets 
 and narrowly escaped capture. The horses were 
 exhausted by forced marches to reach the Alamo 
 and Capt. Dimmit, who was in command, ordered 
 them to abandon their horses, which they did, and 
 
 
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 B^ 
 
 C' 
 
 M 
 
 ■ ■ ■ \ 
 
 
 4 
 
 WM 
 
 m 
 
 (;KX. W.M. p. IIAKDKM.AN. 
 
 only weapons were the hunter's rifle. Artillery 
 was especially needed, and W. P. Hardeman, then 
 but nineteen years old, accompanied his uncle, 
 Bailey Hardeman, and a few neighbors to Dimmit's 
 landing, below the mouth of the Lavaca river, and 
 procured an eighteen pound cannon, which had 
 been brought on a schooner from Matagorda Pass. 
 On the march the force was increased to seventy- 
 five men, among whom were twenty men known as 
 the Mobile Grays. Marching rapidly with this 
 piece of artillery to San Antonio, the news of the 
 approaching reinforcement reached Gen. Cos in 
 advance and precipitated his surrender, which 
 occurred before the artillery arrived. 
 
 In the spring of 1836, when Travis, hemmed in 
 with his men, appealed from the Alamo for help, 
 young Hardeman, then not twenty years old, re- 
 
 retreated on foot down the Guadalupe, marching 
 four days without food. On their return, Bailev 
 Hardeman, who was a member of President Burnet's 
 cabinet, ordered W. P. Hardeman back from 
 Harrisburg to Matagorda County, with a commis- 
 sion for John Bowman to raise a company, and to 
 remain in the county. On his arrival he found but 
 four men in that county, among whom was one who 
 had just escaped the Fannin massacre. The trip 
 was one of exposure and hardship ; no shelter, no 
 food, except such as he carried in his saddlebags. 
 Swimming the San Bernard river and sleeping, wet 
 and uncovered on the prairie at night, he at last 
 reached Harrisburg, but sick, exhausted and unable 
 to accompany his brother, Munroe Hardeman, with 
 the army. In 1837 he ranged the frontier with 
 Deaf Smith four months. On the 22d of February, 
 
398 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 1839, he was with Col. John H. Moore in the fight 
 with the Cotnanche Indians at Wallace's Greek, 
 seven miles above San Saba. In April, 1839, he 
 was in the Cordova fight, under Burleson, four 
 miles east of Seguin. He served as a member of 
 the celebrated mounted company commanded bj' 
 Ben McCulloch, during the Mexican War of 1846. 
 He has been married tliree times and farmed on the 
 San Marcos river until sent by his county to the 
 State Secession Convention of 1861. In politics 
 Gen. Hardeman is a Democrat of the strict con- 
 struction school and, believing that secession alone 
 could preserve the institutions of the South from 
 Federal aggression, he voted for secession and on 
 many a bloody field he sought to establish it with 
 arms. He joined the command destined for Arizona 
 and New Mexico with a full company of young 
 men, the very flower of the Guadalupe valley, and 
 became senior Captain in the regiment commanded 
 by Col. Riley, in which the lamented William R. 
 Scurry was Lieutenant-Colonel, and Henry Raguet 
 was Major. At the battle of Val Verde, he was 
 promoted for distinguished gallantry on the field 
 and became the Major of the regiment. The 
 charge on McRae's battery, made by the Con- 
 federates at Val Verde, is one of the most re- 
 markable in the annals of war. In this battle 
 Hardeman was wounded. During that expedition 
 Hardeman was sent to Albuquerque with Capts. 
 Walker and Copewood, to hold the plain with 
 150 men. In that town all the ammunition, re- 
 serve supplies, and medicines for the army, were 
 stored. Fifteen hundred Federal soldiers attacked 
 the position. Hardeman was advised of their ap- 
 proach and could have retreated, but his retreat 
 meant the surrender of the army, for behind it was 
 a desert, destitute of supplies. For five days and 
 nights, his men never leaving their guns, he sus- 
 tained the attack and held the position until rein- 
 forcements arrived from Santa Fe. This defense 
 saved the army. A council of war was held the 
 night before the army began to retreat from Albu- 
 querque. The situation was fully discussed, but 
 no oflScer proposed any definite action, until Maj. 
 Jackson called on Hardeman, who was present, to 
 express his views on the situation. Gen. Sibley 
 then invited Hardeman to speak. He remarked 
 that it was manifest that the enemy could reinforce 
 quicker than the Confederates, and the sooner the 
 army got away the better. He was the only man 
 who had the moral courage to advise a retreat, 
 which all knew was inevitable, and his advice was 
 promptly adopted by Gen. Sibley. 
 
 When the retreat began. Gen. Green's regiment 
 was attacked at Peralto. It was saved by the 
 
 timely return of Hardeman, who was then in com- 
 mand of his regiment and who had started to cap- 
 ture Fort Craig, then garrisoned by Federal troops 
 under Kit Carson. His men waded the river, which 
 was full of floating ice, during the night. The line 
 of retreat was across the mountains to a point on 
 the river below Fort Craig. To Hardeman is due 
 the credit of saving the artillery on that retreat. 
 On the arrival of the army at El Paso he was 
 ordered by Col. Riley to go to the interior of 
 Texas and recruit. Here was exemplified Harde- 
 man's unselfish devotion to duty. His first im- 
 pulse was that of joy at the prospect of soon seeing 
 again his wife and children, but he knew that his 
 long experience as a frontiersman lietter qualified 
 him to take the regiment safely across the plains, 
 than any other one in the command, and he asked 
 Gen. Sibley to countermand the order. He was in 
 the battle of Galveston, with the land forces, on 
 January 1, 1863, when the Federal boats were 
 either captured or driven from the harbor and a 
 Massachusetts regiment captured. 
 
 After the battle of Galveston, Gen. Magruder 
 requested Hardeman, then Lieutenant-Colonel of 
 the Fourth Regiment, to resign, and accept com- 
 mand of Peter Hardeman's regiment, for the pur- 
 pose of organizing a new force to return to 
 Arizona. Afterward, when Col. Riley fell at 
 Iberia, Louisiana, Gen. E. Kirby Smith ordered 
 Hardeman Ijack to command his own regiment, 
 with which he remained until the close of the war. 
 After his return to his old regiment he participated 
 in the disastrous night attack on Fort Butler. Lieut. 
 Wilkins was present when Gen. Geeen requested 
 Hardeman's opinion about making the attack. 
 Hardeman said that many good men would fall 
 and nothing could be gained, for the river was full 
 of gunboats and, if the night attack should be 
 successful, the enemy would recapture the fort next 
 day. He added: "If the attack is made I will 
 lead my regiment in the fight." Green's orders to 
 attack were imperative and the result was more 
 disastrous to the command than any other battle of 
 the war In this attack Hardeman was again 
 wounded. With 250 men he met the advance of 
 the army, under Gen. Banks, near Pleasant Hill. 
 With his small force he stubbornly resisted the 
 march of the Federal arm}^ retreating and fighting 
 at every step, until night. At night the enemy 
 camped on the south side of a creek near the old 
 mill and Hardeman, with his little force, rested for 
 a time in the woods on the other side. In the 
 night, at ten o'clock, he put his men in motion and 
 fiercely charged the whole Federal army. The 
 strength of the attacking force was not known and 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 399 
 
 the enemy moved back two miles and camped. 
 This enabled the Confederate troops to fall back 
 next morning and take position at Mansfield, where 
 the decisive battle of the campaign was fought. In 
 that battle Gen. Hardman commanded Green's 
 brigade and to the fact that under his leadership it 
 struck the Federal line in flank and rear, at the 
 moment that the infantry of Jlouton's Division had 
 been brought up standing in front of the 13th Corps 
 of the Union army, unable to advance further in 
 the face of a deadly fire delivered from behind a 
 breastwork of rails, was chiefly due the victory 
 that the Confederates won in that engagement. To 
 this fact Lieut. Dudley Avery, of Gen. Mouton's 
 staff, bore eloquent testimony in a letter written to 
 Gen. H. H. Boone a few years ago, in which he de- 
 scribed the magnificent charge made by Mouton's 
 infantry and spoke of the part Gen. Hardeman 
 played upon that bloody and hard fought field. 
 
 In that desperate battle nearly every company 
 officer of Hardeman's regiment was killed or 
 wounded. The following da}' he participated in 
 the battle of Pleasant Hill. Banks was now in 
 full retreat, but with an army far stronger than his 
 pursuers. The eventful campaign which resulted 
 in driving him back to Lower Louisiana, lasted forty- 
 three days, thirty-nine of which were days of fight- 
 ing, with Hardeman nearly always at the front. 
 The retreat terminated in the battle of Yellow 
 Bayou, in which Hardeman commanded the division. 
 Among the many compliments received by Harde- 
 man's regiment from superior officers, should be 
 mentioned that of Gen. Dick Taylor, who wrote 
 that their charge at Franklin saved the array. 
 Here Col. Riley was killed and Hardeman then be- 
 came the Colonel of the regiment and was subse- 
 quently commissioned Brigadier-General by the 
 War Department. 
 
 When peace was restored Gen. Hardeman went 
 to Mexico, where he was employed to survey lands 
 in Durango and Metlakauka. He returned home 
 in 1866 and engaged in cattle speculation to restore 
 his fortunes, but this resulted unfortunately. He 
 entered the army in 1861 wealthy ; at the close of 
 the war he found himself poor. 
 
 When Coke was inaugurated as Governor in 1874, 
 armed resistance was threatened by ex-Governor E. 
 J. Davis, who refused to recognize the election. 
 Gen. H. E. McCulloch, who had been placed in 
 command of the capitol grounds and buildings, 
 
 became sick, and Guy M. Bryan, Speaker of the 
 House, appointed Gen. Hardeman, Col. Ford and 
 Col. William N. Hardeman as assistant Sergeant- 
 at-Arms, to protect the Legislature and public 
 buildings, and to keep the peace. In open session 
 of the House he said to them : "You love Texas ; 
 you have seen much service in her behalf during 
 three wars ; you are experienced and accustomed 
 to command men. A great crisis is upon Texas; 
 she never needed your services more than now." 
 The crisis was manifest. Davis was relying upon 
 Grant, wlio was then President, to sustain him in 
 his usurpation, but in this he was deceived. The 
 capitol grounds swarmed with armed negroes, who 
 were influenced by corrupt whites, greedy to retain 
 power. For eight days and nights the Hardemans 
 and Ford were at their posts, and the Speaker of 
 the House, writing of their services, said: "They 
 showed tact, fidelity and efficiency. Twice they 
 prevented bloodshed." When the crisis had passed, 
 in open session of the House, he addressed them as 
 follows : " Faithful servants of Texas, I have asked 
 you to come here, that in the presence of the House 
 of Eepresentatives of the people of Texas, in their 
 name, as the Speaker, and in the name of every 
 man, woman and child of Texas, to thank you for 
 the invaluable services you have rendered them. 
 But for you, Texas might have been drenched in 
 in blood and remanded back to military rule, which, 
 in my humble judgment, you largely contributed 
 to avert by your consummate tact, true courage 
 and patriotism. You are discharged." 
 
 By Governor Coke he was appointed Public 
 Weigher at Galveston ; by Governor Roberts, In- 
 spector of Railroads; by Governor Ross, Superin- 
 tendent of Public Buildings and Grounds, and by 
 Governor Culberson, Superintendent of the Con- 
 federate Home, at Austin, which position he now 
 holds. 
 
 His early life was spent in camp and field with 
 the pioneer hunters and rangers of the Republic 
 and, yet, it would be difficult to find in any social 
 circle a man more gentle in his bearing and refined 
 in his manners. He acts now with another genera- 
 tion which knows nothing of the hardships and 
 perils which created Texas and, yet, the death of 
 no living man would be more sincerely deplored, 
 not only by her old soldiers, but by the citizenship 
 of Tex'as at large, than would that of. Gen. William 
 P. Hardeman. 
 
400 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 ANDREW H. EVANS, M. D., 
 
 EAGLE PASS. 
 
 Andrew H. Evans, a well-known cilizen and suc- 
 cessful physician of Eagle Pass, is a native of Ken- 
 tucky and was born at High Grove, in Nelson 
 County, March 12, 1856. His father, Walter M. 
 Evans, was a successful farmer and a native of the 
 same State, and married Miss Sarah E. Oliphant, a 
 member of an old Kentucky family and a descend- 
 ant of the Oliphants of Virginia. 
 
 Dr. Evans spent his boyhood and youth on the 
 farm and received an academic education at Bards- 
 town, Ky. His tastes did not incline him to agri- 
 cultural pursuits and he entered upon the study of 
 medicine, and took a course of study at the Medi- 
 cal University at Louisville, Ky. , graduating there- 
 from in the class of 1880, and returned to his native 
 town of High Grove, where he commenced the 
 practice of his profession. He, in 1883, attended 
 lectures at Bellevue Hospital Medical College, 
 New York, and in 1884 received his diplomas from 
 the institution, and almost immediately thereafter 
 located at Eagle Pass, Texas, where an uncle, A. 
 M. Oliphant, an able lawyer, of ten years' residence 
 in that city, then resided. 
 
 Dr. Evans' profession abilities, great energy and 
 excellent social qualities soon drew about him a circle 
 of warm personal friends and brought to him a large 
 medical practice, 'and since his coming, little of im- 
 portance in the line of material growth and social 
 advancement has transpired that Dr. Evans has not 
 promoted and fostered with his moral support and 
 ample means. He has served his people for eight 
 consecutive years as a member of the Board of 
 
 Trustees of the city free schools, where his influence 
 has had a salutary effect in elevating the grade and 
 standard of scholarship and the general develop- 
 ment of the local free school system. 
 
 Dr. Evans has for ten years past held the office 
 of city or county physician at Eagle Pass, and now 
 holds the respectable position of State quarantine 
 officer. He is one of the directors of the First 
 National Bank of Eagle Pass, is a director of the 
 Eagle Pass Board of Trade, and a director and 
 vice-president of the Mesquite Club, a close organi- 
 zation of the business men of the city, with luxuri- 
 ously equipped club-rooms. The club was organ- 
 ized for the promotion of business fellowship and 
 rational enjoyment. He is also one of the vestry- 
 men of the local Episcopal church. 
 
 Dr. Evans has been twice married, first at Higli 
 Grove, Ky. , in 1884, to Miss Hattie Harris, who 
 died in 1887; and second, in 1891, to Miss Lulu 
 Burke, a daughter of T. S. Burke, M. D., of Cor- 
 pus Christi, Texas, a lady of fine domestic tastes 
 and social culture. Dr. and Mrs. Evans have one 
 child, a daughter. Lulu. Dr. and Mrs. Evans are 
 communicants of the Church of the Redeemer (Epis- 
 copalian) and valued and influential members of the 
 society circle of the city. Dr. Evans stands high 
 in his profession and is esteemed as one of the 
 most energetic, enterprising and useful citizens of 
 his city. He possesses great energy and is a tire- 
 less worker. Withal, Dr. Evans is a practical busi- 
 ness man and successful financier and is regarded 
 as one of the substantial citizens of Eagle Pass. 
 
 L. E. GRIFFITH, M. D., 
 
 TERRELL. 
 
 Dr. L. E. Griffith, Sr., was born at Clarksburg, 
 Montgomery County, Md., January 9th, 1813. His 
 parents were Rev. Alfred Griffith, a native of Mont- 
 gomery County, Md., and Miss Catherine Griffith, itee 
 Miss Catlierine SchoU, a native of Maryland. The 
 subject of this notice left his home in the spring of 
 183G and came to Texas and located at San Augus- 
 
 tine, nine days after the battle of San Jacinto, and 
 there practiced his profession until 1842, in which 
 year he removed to Paris, in Lamar County, Texas. 
 He remained there but a short time, as the country 
 was so sparsely settled that there was not much 
 business for physicians. Paris at that time con 
 tained but two log houses. In the larger one of 
 
IXDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 401 
 
 these were kept the county records, together with 
 groceries, general merchandise and whisky, which 
 was a leading article of traffic and untaxed. It 
 was a rare thing to see a drunken man, notwith- 
 standing nearly every body drank liquor, it being 
 considered a great medicine and preventive of 
 chills. In the other building was a blacksmith 
 shop. The same year he went to Clarksville, Red 
 River County. In the winter of 1846 the Doctor 
 removed to Sabine County, near Milam, the then 
 county seat, where he practiced medicine for about 
 twelve years, removing to Nacogdoches in Januarj', 
 1857, where he remained about twenty-seven years, 
 engaged in the practice of his profession and 
 merchandising. In the spring of 1883 he removed 
 to Terrell, Kaufman County, Texas, where he has 
 since resided. 
 
 He was an active practitioner for upwards of 
 fifty years and was familiarlj' acquainted with nearly 
 all of the noted men of Texas of early days. Gen. 
 Sam Houston was his first patient in Texas, the 
 Doctor attending him after his return from New 
 Orleans, where the General had gone to receive 
 
 medical and surgical attention after having been 
 wounded in the battle of San Jacinto. For a time 
 during 1846, while the Mexican War was in pro- 
 gress, Dr. Griffith was in charge of a field hospital 
 at San Antonio. 
 
 Eight children have been born to him, four of 
 whom, three boys and one daughter, are living. 
 His wife dying some years since, his maiden 
 daughter has charge of the household and is caring 
 for him in his declining years. One of his sons, L. 
 E. Griffith, Jr., is in the drug business at Terrell ; 
 another son, Dr. W. C. Griffith, is a practicing 
 physician at Terrell, Texas, and the third son, T. B. 
 Griffith, is engaged in the Land, Loan and Insur- 
 ance business at Terrell, Texas. 
 
 Although Dr. Griffith is quite a small, spare 
 man, his general health is much above the average, 
 and he bids fair to reach the one hundred years 
 mark. 
 
 Rather retiring in disposition, he is very jovial 
 and talkative when once interested and can relate 
 anecdotes and reminiscences of early days in Texas 
 which are very interesting. 
 
 D. H. TRENT, 
 
 GOLDTHWAITE. 
 
 Daniel Henry Trent was born near the town of 
 Faj-etteville, "Washington County, Ark., in 1842. 
 His father was John Trent, and his mother bore 
 the maiden name of Jane Conner, natives, prob- 
 ably, of Tennessee or Kentucky, but early settlers 
 in Arkansas. The father was a type of that class 
 of men common on the Western frontier fifty years 
 ago, whose memory has survived to this generation 
 only in the fireside stories of a few of their number 
 of exceptional prominence like Boone, Crockett, 
 and Carson. Such men cared but little for wealth 
 and less for the applause of the world. Their 
 home was in the forest ; their pursuits those of the 
 chase, which yielded them both the necessities and 
 the luxuries of life. John Trent moved with his 
 family to Texas in 1850, and was a resident, suc- 
 cessively, of Bastrop, Williamson, Burnet, and 
 Llano Counties. 
 
 Growing up on the frontier, where the training 
 of the young was restricted to a desultorj' sort of 
 drilling in domestic duties, far from any schools 
 worthy of the name, the early years of Daniel H. 
 
 Trent were passed in a manner exceedingly unfav- 
 orable to future success. His entire schooling did 
 not amount to two months, and he had no oppor- 
 tunities to neutralize these disadvantages in any 
 industrial or commercial pursuits. Still, fortune 
 favored him with a liberal endowment of energy, 
 application and force of character, which qualities 
 bore good fruits in after years. When about 
 fifteen he began to " work out" at twenty-five 
 cents a day, and soon coming to have a little 
 money he was fired with an ambition to accumulate 
 a fortune and become independent. He was, even 
 at that earlj^ age, the chief dependence of his 
 father's family, to discharge his duly to whom he 
 obtained permission to hire himself out on con- 
 dition that he turn over the bulk of his wages to 
 the family, being allowed to retain the balance for 
 his own use. He hired to one Eldredge, then 
 engaged in freighting between Port Lavaca and the 
 town of Burnet, for fifteen dollars a mouth, ton of 
 which was to be paid to his father. He worked 
 for Eldredge for six montlis, earning S90, lhirt3- of 
 
402 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 which fell to his share, $60 going to his father. 
 This $30 he invested in a sow and pigs, and adding 
 to the number others which he purchased with his 
 meager earnings, he fattened the lot and drove 
 them through to Washington County, where he 
 sold them for something over a hundred dollars. 
 About this time occurred one of the early Indian 
 raids into Llano County, and a demand being 
 created for firearms, young Trent went to Austin 
 and invested the proceeds from the sale of his hogs 
 in six shooters, which he readily sold at a good 
 profit among the settlers of Burnet and Llano 
 Counties. He then invested what money he had 
 in two cows, which had running with them their 
 
 could find hearing his brand and purchasing others, 
 got together a herd of about 1,500 head. These 
 he moved to Coleman County, then on the extreme 
 western limits of the settled portion of the State. 
 Later, establishing himself on the Clear Forlv of 
 the Brazos, in Fisher and Jones County, he de- 
 veloped a large ranch, staying by his interest 
 through all its ups and downs until 1882, when the 
 cattle boom being at its higliest, he sold his ranch 
 and brand to .Steptoe and Stephens, of Abilene, for 
 $100,000, the property a short time afterward 
 passing into the hands of S. P. Moore, of Chicago, 
 at an advance of $10,000. Mr. Trent was wise 
 enough to see that the cattle business had reached 
 
 D. H. IKEXT. 
 
 calves, and a heifer, and with these began his 
 career as a " cowman." The war coming on 
 a short time afterward the cattle business, in com- 
 mon with all other kinds, was practically broken 
 up, and Mr. Trent followed it in only a desultory 
 sort of way, his time being chiefly occupied in 
 helping to defend the frontier against the Indians, 
 who began to be especially troublesome with the 
 opening of hostilities between the North and 
 South. The years from 18C1 to 1865 are memor- 
 able in the history of the State, for the trials and 
 hardships which they brought to the people of the 
 frontier, in all of which Mr. Trent shared, bearing 
 his part of the common burden, and promptly 
 responding when duty called him to the field jf 
 action. 
 
 After the war he gathered up what cattle he 
 
 liigh- water maik in 1882, and disposed of tlie bulk 
 of his holdings before the fall in prices. He con- 
 tinued in the business, however, establishing another 
 ranch in the same locality which he still owns, and 
 acquiring title to other brands. Later he has 
 engaged some also in tlie horse business. 
 
 Seeking new fields for investment he, in 1886, 
 bought $48,000 of the $75,000 stock of the First 
 National Bank of Brownwood and increasing the 
 capital to $100,000 was made president of that 
 institution, which position he has since held. Two 
 years later he established a private bank at Gold- 
 thwaite on a capital of $25,000 and conducted this 
 as a private concern till January, 1892, when the 
 stock was increased to $50,000 and the bank 
 nationalized, becoming the First National Bank of 
 Goldthwaite, of which he was made president, and 
 
SAMUEL H. SMITH. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 403 
 
 holds that position now. For the past eight or ten 
 years, although retaining some ranching interest, 
 Mr. Trent has devoted his attention mainly to 
 banking. His home is at Goldthwaite, where he 
 settled in 1887, shortly after the town was laid out, 
 and he spends his time between that place and 
 Brownwood. 
 
 Such is a brief outline of what has been an ex- 
 ceptionally active and, in some respects, eventful 
 career. Mr. Trent has not been a public man in 
 any sense of the word, but tlie value of his ser- 
 vices to the State is not to be measured by the 
 standard applied to public men. He has rather 
 occupied the position of scout to the advancing 
 army of civilization. The contests in which he 
 has been concerned have been the hand-to-hand 
 sort where the issue has turned on the personal 
 merit of the contestant. Beginning his life as a 
 cowboy on the range, when his only companion was 
 his pony, his best defense against hostile Indians 
 a pair of six shooters, his bed at night the earth, 
 and his covering the sky, with a chorus of coyotes 
 to lull him to slumber, he has followed the cattle 
 business through all its evolutions, experi- 
 encing its hardships and its pleasures, its 
 alternating hopes and disappointments ; and now 
 after a third of a century so spent he is one of the 
 few " cowmen " of Texas who have practically 
 retired from that business with a fortune. The 
 success of such a career argues the possession of a 
 combination of qualities that is as rare as those 
 which illumine the supposedly higher walks of life 
 with their achievements and fill the pages of his- 
 tory with more or less renown. Yet Mr. Trent is 
 far from making any boast of his success. It is 
 
 doubtful, in fact, if he fully realizes the significance 
 of what he has done. He has been so absorbed in 
 the labors which he has assumed that he has never 
 stopped to consider the magnitude of the obstacles 
 be has encountered or to weigh the effort required 
 to overcome them. 
 
 As a citizen he has actively interested himself in 
 the preservation of law and order and has thrown 
 the weight of a strong personal example in favor 
 of whatever is calculated to stimulate industry 
 or improve the country in which he makes his 
 home. He feels an especially friendly interest in 
 education, for knowing from experience the disad- 
 vantages under which one labors who has not had 
 the benefits of schooling, it is his wish that the 
 rising generation may not be so hampered in the 
 race of life. He is a member of the Masonic 
 order. Lodge No. 694, of Goldthwaite, in which his 
 social instincts find proper expression. Steady, 
 temperate and economical in habits, his private life 
 meets the demands of good citizenship. He is 
 quiet and retiring in disposition, but thinks and 
 acts for himself. 
 
 Mr. Trent has been three times married and is 
 the father of seven living children. His three 
 eldest, issue of his first marriage, are grown, these 
 being Mrs. Emily Lindsey, wife of F. H. Lindsey, 
 of Abilene, Texas ; Mrs. Mary Ellen Thompson, 
 wife of William H. Thompson, assistant cashier of 
 the First National Bank of Brownwood, and 
 William H. Trent, cashier of the First National 
 Bank of Goldthwaite. His four remaining chil- 
 dren are small, these being Ida Belle, issue of his 
 second marriage, Alma, Letrice and Daniel Albert, 
 the last three being offspring of his last marriage. 
 
 SAMUEL H. SMITH, 
 
 ROCKPORT. 
 
 Maj. Samuel H. Smith was a substantial citizen 
 of Rockport, a large property holder, and identi- 
 fied with the development of the material resources 
 of the Gulf region of Southwest Texas. 
 
 He was born near the town of Montgomer}', in 
 Montgomery County, Texas, May 25, 1839, and 
 was the oldest of four children born to John and 
 Catherine (Gillette) Smith, the former of whom 
 was a native of Virginia and the latter of Missouri. 
 Mr. John Smith was one of Stephen F. Austin's 
 
 first colony of 300, and located his headright on 
 the Nueces river near Rockport. He was a relative 
 of Governor Henry Smith, Provisional Governor 
 of Texas during ttie Texas Revolution of 1835-6. 
 He served as a soldier through the Texas Revolu- 
 tion, took part in the battle of San .Jacinto and 
 was a participantin the expeditions against Mexico. 
 After living for a time in Montgomery County, he 
 removed to Grimes County, where he died in 1848. 
 He was an especial friend and supporter of Gen. 
 
404 
 
 INDIAN WAIiS AND PWNEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Sam Houston. He was the first sheriff of and 
 built the first cotton gin in Montgomery County. 
 
 Samuel H. Smith grew up in Montgomery, 
 Grimes and Guadalupe counties and in 1857 moved 
 to Bee County and engaged in stock raising. In 
 1861 he espoused the Confederate cause and joined 
 Downley's company, First Texas Cavalry. He 
 was made Lieutenant of the company, then Assist- 
 ant Quartermaster, later Captain and finally Major. 
 He also served through several campaigns as Com- 
 missary of Buschell's brigade. At the close of 
 the war he returned to Bee County, where he en- 
 gaged in raising, buying and shipping cattle. He 
 was one of the chief promoters of the enterprise 
 that resulted in the establishment of a meat-packing 
 house near Eockport, which for a time did a large 
 business. In 1867 he located in Aransas County, 
 in order to secure beef cattle for this packing 
 house. His operations in stock were on an exten- 
 sive and successful scale and he built up a consid- 
 erable fortune in ranch lands, cattle and real estate 
 in and about Eockport, of which thriving little 
 city he was thereafter (until the time of his death, 
 which occurred at Eockport, April 25th, 1895), an 
 esteemed and influential citizen. 
 
 He took, also, a prominent part in securing 
 harbor improvements at Aransas Pass and was an 
 officer of the first company organized for that pur- 
 pose. 
 
 September 15th, 1874, he married Miss Clara 
 Hj'nes, daughter of Judge John Hyncs, a pioneer 
 who came to Texas with his father from Ohio, in 
 1836 and located on Hynes Bay, in Eefugio County, 
 where he was one of the first white settlers. He 
 served as County Judge of Eefugio County and 
 was for many years an honored and exemplary 
 citizen of that count}', dying there at his home on 
 Hynes' Bay, in 1887, at sixty-three years of age. 
 
 Mrs. Smith was born in Corpus Christi, Texas, 
 December 29, 1854. 
 
 She has seven children: Tiny, John H. and 
 James H. (twins), William H., and Samuel H. 
 (twins), Grace and Hynes. 
 
 Maj. Smith was for two terms Mayor of the 
 city of Eockport and was vice-president of the 
 Aransas Pass First National Bank. 
 
 The family are all members of the Catholic 
 Church. Maj. Smith embraced that faith before 
 his death. 
 
 ROBERT M. WILLIAMSON, 
 
 ("THREE-LEGGED WILLIE.") 
 
 Was born in Georgia ; in early life was alllicted 
 with white swelling, which stiffened one of his 
 knees ; moved to Texas and located at San Felipe 
 in 1827 and engaged in the practice of law ; was 
 Alcalde in 1834 ; was Captain of a company that 
 served against the Indians in 1835, and was a mem- 
 ber of a Committee of Safety at Bastrop, where he 
 then lived ; served in the General Consultation of 
 that year: was District Judge in 1836 ; was elected 
 to the Texas Congress in 1840 and until annexation 
 was re-elected to that body from Washington 
 County ; and for several years represented that 
 county in the Slate Senate after annexation. In 
 1857 he had a severe attack of sickness, which 
 seriously affected his intellect. " The death of his 
 wife," says Thrall, " a daughter of Col. Edwards, 
 of Wharton County, occurred shortly afterwards.' 
 From these combined shocks his mind never entirely 
 recovered, until the time of his death, which tran- 
 
 spired peacefully and calmly on the 22d of Decem- 
 ber, 1859, in Wharton County." 
 
 Alluding to the one fault, or failing, that he pos- 
 sessed, one of the "fears of the brave and follies 
 of the wise, " which was to be ascribed to the temper 
 of the times in which a large portion of his life was 
 spent, the wild and disorderly state of societ}' then 
 existing, a biographer in recording his demise closes 
 the notice with the following sentence: — 
 
 "May I supplicate for Eobert M. Williamson 
 (who, if he was a great sinner, was also a great 
 sufferer) the kind charity of all Christians, and 
 close this article with the following lines, from the 
 Light-House, which no voice sang so sweetly as his 
 own: — 
 
 '"In life's closing hour, when the trembling soul flies 
 And death stills the heart's last emotion, 
 Oh! theu may the seraph ot mercy arise, 
 Lilie a star on eternity's ocean.' " 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 405 
 
 The following are extraeis from a speech deliv- 
 •ered by Hon. George Clark, of Waco, before the 
 Texas Senate, the night of March 21, 1891, pre- 
 senting a portrait of Judge Williamson, which has 
 since adorned the walls of the Senate chamber. 
 Lieutenant Governor Pendleton's speech in reply 
 was equally felicitous :^ — 
 
 " Mu. President AND Senators: This picture is 
 a true and life-like portrait of one of the old 
 fathers of Texas, a meml)er of Austin's colony. 
 
 together ill Texas from the four corners of the earth 
 an array of giants to do His work, for indeed may 
 it be truly said 'there were giants in those days.' 
 Few in numbers, but with a resolution of purpose 
 tliat recognized no such word as fail, they came upon 
 this fair land as tiie vanguard of a mighty civiliza- 
 tion. * * * 
 
 " Soldiers never make States. This is the work 
 of a different order of men. * * * j have some- 
 times thought that we have done an unintentional 
 injustice to the fathers of Texas. We often think 
 
 THREE-LEGGED WILLIE. 
 
 the friend of Houston, the compatriot of Jack and 
 of Archer and Wharton, the trusted counselor of 
 Milam, the intimate associate of Travis and of 
 Johnson; the Mirabeau of our revolution, a man 
 whom it were base flattery to call ' the noblest 
 Roman of them all,' for Rome, even in the palmiest 
 daj's of her grandeur, never had such a man. This 
 is a true picture of Three-Legged Willie, painted as 
 be would have had himself painted in life — just as 
 he was. 
 
 "As we gaze upon that face and recall again tlie 
 earlier days of our most romantic history, it would 
 seem that Providence in the exercise of His benefi- 
 cence to man had purposely raised up and gathered 
 
 of their prowess as soldiers, and never weary in 
 recounting to our children their deeds of heroism. 
 But we are prone to forget that this was the smallest 
 part of their contribution to civilization and to 
 humanitj'. San Jacinto might have been won by 
 barbarians, for even barbarians love liberty, but 
 Texas could only have been made by patriots and 
 statesmen. The men who fought there knew that 
 victory meant only the beginning of their task, and 
 the echoes of the ' twin sisters ' had scarce died 
 away before they set themselves to the grand work 
 of laying the foundations and erecting the frame- 
 work of a great State. 
 
 "Hitherto the boast of the English-speaking 
 
406 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 people that every man's house was bis castle, into 
 which even the king could not enter except upon 
 invitation, had been only partially true. The king, 
 perhaps, could not cross the sacred threshold, but 
 his sheriff could and, after entrance, seize upon the 
 household goods and household gods of the unfor- 
 tunates and drive their loved ones out into the cold 
 world without shelter, food or raiment. How queer 
 it is that this barbarism was first arrested by the 
 old fathers of Texas, who sat and deliberated in 
 a log hut for a capitol. It seems strange now, as 
 we look backward, that no other civilized people 
 detected a wrong in the merciless seizure of the 
 home by the officer of the law, and that it remained 
 for the pioneers of Texas to establish and promul- 
 gate a great principle in the economy of government 
 which has been since adopted and followed by 
 every American State and Territory. The world 
 owes to Texas the conception of this grand idea, 
 that the homes of a free people are above the law 
 and beyond the law, and that ro matter how 
 urgent the demand, no matter the misfortunes that 
 may betide, or the consequences that may follow, 
 the abiding place of the family shall be sacred. 
 In the storms that are sure to come this will be the 
 sheet-anchor for our safety, for the preservation of 
 the home begets patriotism and conservatism ; and 
 capital can never lay its hand upon these people 
 and make them aught but freemen. * * * 
 
 " And blessed be the men who conceived and 
 carried out the grand idea of the homestead, of 
 whom Three-Legged Willie was the chief. 
 
 " Another thought that seemed to pervade the 
 minds of our early fathers in the construction of 
 our government was, to banish the ' quirks and 
 quibbles of the law,' so that our courts should be 
 able to dispense speedy and substantial justice to 
 the citizen without embarrassment, delay or chi- 
 canery. • * » The code practiced in most of 
 the States to-day is the fruit of Texas' example 
 and inspiration. * * * 
 
 "Another prominent idea in the minds of our 
 fathers was the necessity of a general diffusion of 
 education among the people of the State. * * * 
 Indeed, so liberal has been their provision, a lapse 
 of fifty years finds us quarreling among ourselves 
 as to how we shall spend it. * * * 
 
 "But why go further in enumerating the many 
 other ideas prominent in our early days? Not 
 only this, but many nights could be spent in re- 
 counting to each other the manifold features which 
 characterized the formative period of our history. 
 
 " I have only referred to one or two of the more 
 prominent, in order to demonstrate, especially to 
 our young people, the magnificent thought and 
 
 statesmanship of those men who redeemed and 
 made Texas, and with and among whom Robert 
 M. Williamson lived and labored, prmws inter 
 ixires. 
 
 "In addressing myself to the man as be was, 
 I am admonished by my own instinct that my 
 powers are wholly inadequate to the task. To 
 properly delineate him, lawyer, judge, statesman, 
 soldier and patriot, he who essays the task should 
 have known him in life, have seen him upon the 
 field, been with him in the council and at the bar, 
 and mingled with him in the daily walks and con- 
 versations which go to make up human life. His- 
 tory at best deals only in fragments, and tradition 
 often loses its thread in the memories of men. 
 
 " Only a few, very few, comrades of Judge Wil- 
 liamson are spared to us, and to these we are indebted 
 for the glimpse obtained of his achievements and 
 character. Of Scotch descent, he came of good old 
 Revolutionary and fighting stock, his grandfather 
 having been a Colonel in Washington's army, and 
 his father a soldier in the War of 1812. Endowed 
 by nature with a broad intellect, with splendid 
 powers of analysis and oratory, and an energy of 
 purpose and an inflexibility of will rarely equaled, 
 he naturally turned to the bar as a proper field for 
 his labors, and at once sprang into prominence as a 
 law3'er in his native State and Georgia and in the 
 adjoining .State, Alabama, to which he moved. The 
 years 1828-9 found him a citizen of Texas and 
 here his fame as an orator and statesman was won. 
 
 "The troubles and oppressions of the colony 
 appealed most strongly to his manhood and his 
 patriotism, and his clarion voice was soon raised for 
 liberty and independence. The nature of the man 
 admitted neither of truckling nor compromise. He 
 was an absolute separalionist from the beginning, a 
 bold champion of the rights of the people of Texas, 
 not only to self-government but unqualified inde- 
 pendence. With a patriotism and an eloquence at 
 least equal to Patrick Henr3', conjoined with a rug- 
 gedness of expression that Henry never possessed 
 and which often swept his audience like a cyclone, 
 he went before the people of the several colonies 
 and preached the gospel of a pure and unadulterated 
 liberty. The fires of patriotism he kindled were 
 soon burning with bright fervor, a mere handful of 
 patriots resolved to be free, and then followed in 
 quick succession, the affairs of Turtle Bayou, 
 Anapuca, Velasco, which quickened the revolution 
 into life, and then the storming of Bexar, the heroic 
 holocaust of the Alamo, the butchery of Goliad, the 
 splendid and decisive victory at San Jacinto, and 
 then free Texas. The best historian of Texas so 
 far pays this just tribute to the man of whom I 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 407 
 
 speak that after thorough and minute investiga- 
 tion of the records and history of Texas be was con- 
 strained to say that Robert M. Williamson had done 
 as much, if not more, than any other man in pre- 
 cipitating and sustaining the revolution of 1835-36. 
 This is the verdict of contemporary history, and 
 will be the verdict of posterity for all time. With 
 a price upon his head that betokened no quarter if 
 captured, singled out with W. B. Travis from all 
 his compatriots as an object of special vengeance 
 by the usurper and invader, be faced the storm, 
 defied the tj'rant, redoubled his almost superhuman 
 efforts to free bis country, knowing that bis good 
 life would be the penalty for a failure, and won by 
 the blessing of God. 
 
 " Soon after the inauguration of the new govern- 
 ment be was appointed a judge of one of the dis- 
 tricts, which made him ex-officio a member of the 
 Supreme Court. After that be was Senator in 
 Congress or Representative in the Lower House of 
 the Republic or State until the close of his public 
 career, about 1850 or 1851. A few of bis old fel- 
 low-senators and members, still left to us, love to 
 dwell upon the man and never tire in recounting 
 his splendid bursts of eloquence, his withering 
 sarcasm and ridicule, bis keen sense of humor that 
 often destroyed an adversary with a single shaft, 
 bis absolute freedom from fear, and bis unwavering 
 honesty. Many of the great measures of legisla- 
 tion in use and effect to-day bear the imprint of 
 his genius, and the jurisprudence of the Senate is 
 indebted to him for some of its most salutary fea- 
 tures. He passed away from us in the year 1859, 
 at bis home in the county of AVharton, a county 
 rich in reminiscence and in the deeds of the many 
 eminent sons she has given to the State. 
 
 " In looking over the career of Judge Williamson, 
 if I were called upon to select the most prominent 
 of bis many prominent characteristics, I should 
 say that bis greatest virtues were sterling honesty, 
 inflexible patriotism and an utter abnegation of 
 self. He was too big a man to think of himself, 
 too honest to build himself up at the expense of 
 others, and too patriotic to tolerate with any 
 degree of patience any measure that could by 
 remote probability turn to injure the State or de- 
 stroy the rights of the people. 
 
 " He belonged to his friends and not they to him. 
 His warm and generous nature forbade him to 
 refuse a favor, and bis knightly courage never per- 
 mitted him to turn bis back upon a foe. In all the 
 corruption naturallj' incident to the revolution and 
 the acquisition of a princely landed domain by the 
 Republic, he walked upright before God and man, 
 and came out without the smell of fire even upon 
 
 bis garments. Nay, better even than this. He 
 was ever the implacable foe of the land thief and 
 the defender of the people's heritage. His eagle 
 eye always saw through the flimsy veil of the 
 jobber and detected at a glance the sinister pur- 
 pose attempted to be concealed under the disguise 
 of the public good ; and every act and vote and 
 thought of the man during his long and eventful 
 career in our legislative balls, attest his nobleness 
 of soul and his incorruptibility of purpose. He 
 was always, and upon all occasions, the people's 
 steadfast friend, and never spoke to them with a 
 forked tongue. Too honest to tolerate deception 
 he despised with loathing unutterable the slimy 
 arts of the demagogue, and crushed with his de- 
 nunciation the tricks of the politician. Men 
 always knew how and where be stood and bis 
 simple word constituted bis bond. And yet he 
 carried in his breast a heart full of loving kind- 
 ness for ail, and a charity bounded only by the 
 limit of his resources. Take him all in all we 
 scarce shall look upon bis like again. Faults he 
 had, like other men, but these faults sprang from 
 the youthful buoyancy of a heart that refused to 
 grow old with age. He loved ' the boys ' and he 
 remained one of them until he died. 
 
 " He may not have suited these times, but the 
 man and the hour met in the rugged days of our 
 earlier history, and the man was always equal to 
 the hour. 
 
 " In debate upon the hustings he was matchless. 
 In forensic tilts with bis professional brethren at 
 the bar he may have been equaled by some but he 
 was excelled by none. In the councils of the State 
 he was a patient investigator in committee, but a 
 very thunderbolt on the floor. Upon the bench be 
 was the urbane judge and finished gentleman, tol- 
 erant of argument, painstaking in conclusion and 
 inflexible in judgment. Tradition informs us that 
 on one occasion he was specially commissioned by 
 the President of the Republic to go to a distant 
 county and there hold a term of court. The 
 county was torn and rent into factions, and instead 
 of raising crops the people had been devoting them- 
 selves chiefly in the task of cutting each other's 
 throats. As a consequence no courts bad been 
 held for years in the county, and none was wanted, 
 for the obvious reason that it would prove exces- 
 sively inconvenient to most of the citizens to be ' 
 forced to plead to indictments for murder. Just 
 before court convened a large mass meeting of 
 citizens was held, which adopted a resolution that 
 no court should be held. When Judge Williamson 
 took his seat upon the bench a lawyer arose and 
 after a few prefatory remarks read the resolution 
 
408 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEEUS OF TEXAS. 
 
 and sat down. The court room was crowded with 
 armed and angry men determined to carry their 
 point. The judge blandly asked the lawyer if he 
 could cite any law for such a proceeding, as it 
 appeared novel to him. The lawyer arose, and 
 pulling out a bowie-knife laid it on the table and 
 said: 'This is the statute which governs in such 
 cases.' Quick as thought and with an eye flashing 
 fire the Judge drew a long pistol, drew it down on 
 the lawyer, and in tones that meant more than was 
 said, replied: 'And this is the constitution which 
 overrides the statute. Open court, Mr. Sheriff, 
 and call the list of grand jurors for the term.' The 
 court was held and without any conflict between the 
 ' statute' and the ' constitution.' 
 
 " An old friend of Judge Williamson who himself 
 has borne a most distinguished part in the affairs of 
 the vState, writes of him now as follows : ' Upon 
 the organization of the government of the Republic 
 Judge Williamson was selected to fill the important 
 position of Judge of the Third Judicial District. 
 He then removed his residence to Washington 
 County, where he continued to make his home till 
 about two years previous to his death. To evolve 
 law and order out of the wild and discordant ele- 
 ments of a revolutionary and frontier people is no 
 slight undertaking. The restraints of family and 
 the check which society imposes in older and better 
 regulated communities were powerless here. The 
 wild and daring spirits attracted hither by the love 
 of excitement and adventure, too frequently after 
 the war was over, degenerated into lawless reckless- 
 ness. To restrain and subdue this spirit no more 
 judicious appointment could have been made. To 
 great force of character and undaunted personal 
 courage Judge Williamson united great suavity of 
 manner and calmness of judgment. These qualities 
 inspired the admiration and commanded the love 
 and respect of the bold borderers. Did time and 
 space permit I might enrich this sketch with many 
 an amusing anecdote of that period. After suc- 
 cessfully establishing regular judicial proceedings 
 and inaugurating the new order of things conse- 
 quent upon the achievement of an independence 
 Judge Williamson withdrew from the bench. From 
 this time until about the year 1840, he assumed the 
 practice of law. 
 
 " ' He was induced then to become a candidate to 
 represent Washington County in the Congress of 
 the Republic; was easil}' elected, and from that 
 time until 1850, with but a single exception, he 
 represented that district in one or the other branch 
 of the Legislature. In the stormy times which fol- 
 lowed the dissolution of one form of government 
 and preceded the institution of another, Judge 
 
 Williamson wielded a controlling influence. While 
 it is not claimed for him that he originated many 
 great measures, yet as a conservative power his 
 influence was widely felt and acknowledged. He 
 stood erect as a faithful and incorruptible sentinel 
 over the rights and interests of the State. 
 
 " ' Having no selfish ambition to gratify-, careless 
 of money to a fault, he was inaccessible to the 
 threats or flatteries of the cormorants whose object 
 it was to prey upon the public treasury or the pub- 
 lic domain. Individuals who had bills of doubtful 
 merit before Congress or the Legislature feared the 
 sleepless eye and withering invective of Williamson 
 more than the opposition of all others. The good 
 that he thus achieved for the country is incalcul- 
 able. 
 
 " 'When mad extravagance ruled the hour and 
 the country seemed on the verge of destruction, 
 his voice was heard loudest in stern rebuke of such 
 evil practices. In the darkest hours of the Repub- 
 lic, in 1842, when peace and credit and even hope 
 itself had almost fled from our midst, again his 
 clarion notes were heard cheery and blythe and 
 hopeful to the end. He deserved the guerdon of 
 merit which the Roman Senate awarded Varro when 
 the Carthagenians were assaulting the very gates of 
 Rome. ' For,' says the historian, ' while the weak 
 fled in dismay and the bold trembled, he alone did 
 not despair of the Republic' 
 
 " When the great question of annexation came 
 to be considered in 1845, Judge Williamson was its 
 unflinching advocate. He was a member then of the 
 Congress of the Republic of Texas, which accepted 
 the overture of the United States and ratified Presi- 
 dent Jones' call for a Convention and the appor- 
 tionment of representation (a most difficult and 
 delicate point). The stirring events of the past 
 ten or fifteen years had not been favorable to study. 
 The exciting political question of the day opened a 
 wider field to the ardent temperament of William- 
 son, and after once engaging therein he never again 
 regularly resumed the practice of his profession. 
 His last appearance before the public was as a can- 
 didate for Congress, when he was defeated by a 
 few votes by the Hon. Volney E. Howard. The 
 result was attributed by Judge Williamson's friends 
 to the late period at which he was announced and 
 to his want of acquaintance on the Rio Grande, 
 where a large vote was polled. From that time he 
 led a quiet and retired life upon a small farm near 
 Independence, in Washington County, devoting 
 himself exclusively to the education of his children. 
 Although his opportunities for acquiring wealth and 
 independence were unequaled by those of any other 
 man, j'et he was of such generous and improvident 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 409 
 
 nature that be was often embarrassed in his pecu- 
 niary affairs. Like Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Monroe 
 and many other great men, he not unfiequently felt 
 the iron pressure of ' Res Aucjusta domi.' It may 
 be stated as creditable to his integrity that in the 
 midst of corruption and speculation, he lived and 
 died in poverty. 
 
 " ' He was in many respects a remarkable man. He 
 possessed a wonderful hold upon the affections of 
 the masses, over whose passions and sympathies his 
 control was unbounded. The reckless daring of 
 his own character contributed largely to this influ- 
 ence. This, aided by a generous, unselfish spirit 
 and captivating manners, made him wherever known 
 the idol of the people. Inacessible to threats or 
 bribes, he was an upright and honest judge, who 
 who unflinchingly administered tiie law. In Con- 
 gress and the Legislature he had no selfish purpose 
 to subserve ; he was therefore the able and watch- 
 ful guardian of the people's rights. His intercourse 
 with liis brethren of the bar was marked by great 
 courtesj'. Toward the younger members he ever 
 extended a helping hand and breathed a kind word 
 of encouragement. The writer is but one of hun- 
 dreds who remember gratefully the kindness ex- 
 tended to them in days past by Judge Williamson. 
 The eloquence of Judge Williamson more nearly 
 resembled that of John Randolph than of any other 
 historical character. 
 
 " ' When fully aroused there was a iire and vigor 
 in his speech that surpassed description. True, 
 there was quaintness and eccentricity, but it was 
 all stamped with the originality and power of 
 genius. 
 
 " ' He was not only a wit of the first class, but a 
 
 humorist also; and, like all great humorists, he 
 bore a burden of melancholy which was only 
 heightened by these sudden sallies, as the storm 
 clouds are illumined by the sheet lightning. 
 
 '• ' In an appeal to the people and as an advocate 
 before tlie jury he was unsurpassed.' 
 
 " And now, gentlemen of the Senate, with a loving 
 heart, and with filial pride most commendable, his 
 son, born amid the stirring scenes which demon- 
 strated his father's greatness, presents this picture 
 to the State to adorn the walls of this chamber. 
 As a work of art it speaks for itself and reflects 
 luster upon the artist, but as a picture of a grand 
 patriot it is meet and proper that every child of 
 Texas who may hereafter study our history should 
 look upon that face and draw therefrom inspiration 
 of that patriotism which loved Texas more than all 
 things else, and never faltered in the defense of 
 her rights or the protection of her honor. 
 
 " Men may come and men may go but in all the 
 tide of time and amid the splendor of a mature 
 development Texas will never have a more devoted 
 son nor one who served her more unselfishly than 
 Robert M. Williamson. 
 
 " In the approaching struggle of the people for 
 supremacy over the grasp and greed of capital, 
 would to God that another 'Three-legged Willie' 
 could appear upon the scene as a great tribune of 
 the people. 
 
 " God will take care of the liberties of this people, 
 and circumstances will evolve the valiant defender 
 of the true faith, endowed from on high with a 
 courage and sagacity equal to the occasion and an 
 honesty of purpose to which the howling demagogue 
 of to-day is an entire stranger." 
 
 JOHN N. METCALF, 
 
 MERIDIAN, 
 
 John N. Metcalf, sheriff of Bosque County, 
 Texas, was born in Scott County, Miss., in 1855. 
 He was the second in a family of six children born 
 to A. W. H. and Ann (Liverman) Metcalf. His 
 parents were natives of Alabama. 
 
 His paternal grandfather, A. H. Metcalf, moved 
 from North Carolina to Tennessee, from Tennessee 
 to Alabama and thence to Mississippi ; was a pioneer 
 in those States and being a very firm, public-spirited 
 and popular man was elected to and served with 
 
 distinction in their respective legislatures ; fought 
 as an officer under Gen. Jackson at the battle of 
 New Orleans in 1815, and died in Mississippi about 
 the j-ear 1854, after a long and useful career. 
 A. W. H. Metcalf was a farmer and also figured 
 in public life in Mississippi, serving as County 
 Clerk and County Judge and filling other offices. 
 Died on his farm in Mississippi in 1863. 
 
 The subject of this biographical notice was reared 
 in Mississippi ; moved to Texas in 1876 and located 
 
410 
 
 INDIAN WAIiS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 on a farm on the Brazos river in Bosque County, 
 and soon, in connection witli tliis pursuit, engaged 
 in stock raising; in 1887 was appointed Sheriff 
 and served four years; in 1892 was elected to the 
 office and re-elected in 1894. 
 
 He was married in 1888 to Miss Lelia Bifle, a 
 native of Bosque County, and daughter of John 
 Bifle, an early settler, who was also Sheriff of the 
 county for a number of years. Two children have 
 been born to them : Addie, and an infant daughter. 
 
 Mr. Metcalf is a Eoyal Arch Mason, a member of 
 
 the Blue Lodge and Chapter at Meridian and of the 
 Commandery at Cleburne. He is also a member 
 of the Slieriffs' Association of Texas. Since 1885 
 be has made his home at Meridian. He is still 
 identified with the farming interests of his section, 
 owning a fine prairie farm near Meridian, consist- 
 ing of two hundred acres under cvltivation and 
 several hundred in pasture. He has made and is 
 maliing a most valuable and acceptable public 
 official and is considered one of the most vigilant 
 and efficient sheriffs in Texas. 
 
 THOMAS CARSON, 
 
 BROWNSVILLE- 
 
 Hon. Thomas Carson, of Brownsville, Texas, 
 was born in County Down, Ireland, March 12th, 
 1838 ; received a liberal education in the Church 
 of England and parish schools ; when seventeen 
 years of age came to America; had various ex- 
 periences, and, after engaging in the cotton bus- 
 iness at Mobile, Ala., for some time, became 
 business manager for Charles Slillman, and moved 
 to Brownsville, Texas, in 1871, where he could 
 give his personal attention to the diverse and 
 extensive interests of that pioneer investor in land 
 within and adjacent to the limits of that city. 
 Since the death of Mr. Stillman he has managed 
 the affairs of the estate. 
 
 He has pointed the way for many extensive 
 enterprises, which would have placed Brownsville 
 in a much more exalted position than she occupies 
 to-day had he been properly supported and sec- 
 onded by the community at large ; but, the spirit 
 of conservatism, and the hesitancy to disturb the 
 primitive business methods of this completelj' iso- 
 lated city, have acted as constant stumbling blocks 
 in his way, and prevented progress, to a great 
 degree. Nevertheless, he knows that the value of 
 his plans remains undiminished, and quietlj' bides 
 the time when his work will be appreciated at its 
 true worth. 
 
 In connection with the Stillman estate, he has 
 had 1,200 acres in the citj' of Brownsville plotted 
 into lots, and placed in marketable shape, bj' the 
 New York and Brownsville Improvement Com- 
 
 pany. He is agent for a tract of land on which 
 is situated La Sal del Eey (the King's Salt), one 
 of the most wonderful salt lakes in the world ; has 
 interests in immense fisheries on the coast of Mex- 
 ico, near Tampico, and is a joint owner of Mexican 
 silver and lead mines. 
 
 In an official capacity, the Hon. Thomas Carson 
 has been closely connected with the city and county 
 governments for a long term of years. He has 
 been successively installed as Mayor at every elec- 
 tion since 1879. In the fall election of 1892 he 
 was elected Judge of the County Court of Cameron 
 County, which of necessity vacated his office of 
 Maj'or; but he continued to act in the latter 
 capacity until his successor was legally elected. 
 His services as a County Commissioner were grace- 
 fully acknowledged by the citizens of the county by 
 placing him on the bench in 1892, where he has 
 presided with dignity, and exerted a powerful in- 
 fluence for good. 
 
 Mr. Carson has been a principal promoter of 
 ever3' public movement inaugurated in recent years 
 for the upbuilding of the town and section in which 
 he resides, and has thoroughly identified himself 
 with their best interests socially, financially and 
 politically, and no citizen of Brownsville is more 
 generally and highlj' esteemed. 
 
 He was married in Mobile, Ala., January 20th, 
 1870, to Miss Lydia C. Truwit. They have one 
 of the most elegant and best appointed homes in 
 Brownsville. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 411 
 
 GEORGE S. BONNER, 
 
 COOKE COUNTY. 
 
 George S. Bonner, until the time of his death a 
 leading citizen of Cooke County, this State, came 
 to Texas from Tennessee in 1840 and settled first 
 in Lamar County, where he remained until 1861. 
 In the latter year he moved to Cooke County and 
 established himself as a farmer and stock-raiser on 
 Elm creek, six miles distant from the town of 
 Gainesville. His wife still survives and resides 
 with her son, Mr. George M. Bonner, in Cooke 
 County. Six children were born to Mr. and Mrs. 
 George S. Bonner, viz. : Martha, now Mrs. John 
 Gillam, of Runnels County ; Sallie, now Mrs. E. 
 C. Peery, of Gainesville ; Tennie, now Mrs. Judge 
 Lindsay, of Gainesville ; Duckie, now Mrs. T. P. 
 Aiheart, of Colorado; George M., of Cooke 
 County ; and Kate, who married Mr. G. W. Lindsay, 
 but is now deceased. 
 
 December 21st, 1863, hostile Indians from the 
 Territory made a foray into Cooke County for pur- 
 poses of murder and robbery. Two of these 
 Indians rode up to the Bonner home in sight of the 
 house and drove off with them two horses belonging 
 to Mr. George S. Bonner. 
 
 He at once armed himself, mounted and started 
 
 pursuit. He followed them for several miles 
 
 when he came upon about three hundred mounted 
 
 Indians. They started after him, but he succeeded, 
 
 by hard riding, in effecting his escape. 
 
 Mrs. Bonner, with her little son, had walked about 
 a mile from the house, and she had climbed a tree 
 to see if she could see her husband, and he, seeing 
 her as he approached, called to her to go back. 
 The Indians, hearing him calling, thought he was 
 calling to men behind the hill and slackened their 
 speed, which enabled him and his wife and child to 
 get back to their home. One of his daughters, a 
 widow, Mrs. Martha Milliken, now Mrs. John 
 Gillam, of Runnels County, prepared for their 
 coming. When they first leftshe gotonan oldfamily 
 horse and started to town for help, but the horse 
 
 scented the Indians and refused to go farther, aud 
 she returned to the house, and there gathered up 
 all the axes, hatchets and pitchforks about the place 
 to arm the household. Mr. Bonner stood in front 
 of the house with his gun and frightened the 
 Indians away by shouting to imaginary supporters, 
 " Come on boys, we can kill them all." The 
 Shannons, a family living out on tlie prairie, heard 
 the Indians coming, and started for Mr. Bonner's 
 house. They were overtaken by the Indians and 
 Mr. Shannon and a little nephew were shot four 
 times each with arrows, but all managed to make 
 their way in and the wounded afterwards recovered. 
 Some men who were hunting saw the savages com- 
 ing and rushed to town to notify the people that 
 the whole country was alive with Indians, and at 
 about the time that Mr. Bonner took his stand in 
 the yard, twenty-eight men from town came up. 
 The Indians had crossed the creek and formed in 
 line opposite. The twenty-eight men thought the 
 Indians too many for them, did not charge them, 
 and in retreating hadjone of their number killed. 
 He was carried toJMr. Bonner's house and taken to 
 town the following day. Mrs. Milliken was ready 
 to fight and wanted all others to do so. After kill- 
 ing the man referred to, the Indians left and Mr. 
 Bonner's daughters were safely convej'ed to town 
 that night. He, with the remainder of his family, 
 followed the next day. They did not move back 
 to their country place for several years thereafter. 
 They returned to their home eventually, however, 
 and were there at the time of the formidable Indian 
 raid of 1868. Mr. Bonner died in April, 1864, 
 following the last mentioned raid, and is buried in 
 Gainesville. This pioneer family encountered its 
 full share of the dangers and hardships incident to 
 the settlement of the country, and its members have 
 always been among the most useful and highly 
 respected citizens of the communities in which they 
 have made their homes. 
 
412 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 DAVID HIRSCH, 
 
 CORPUS CHRISTI, 
 
 Was boru April 24, 1834. His parents were 
 Judab and Henrietta Hirsch, of Darmstadt, Ger- 
 many, botli of whom died before he came to America. 
 He was educated at Darmstadt and left home in 
 1852, and went to Havre, France, where he secured 
 a position as clerk in an emigrant furnishing store, 
 where he remained until 1853, and then took pas- 
 sage to New Orleans, from which city he, with three 
 hundred other passengers, started to St. Louis, 
 Mo., aboard the Mississippi steamer Uncle Sam. 
 Cholera broke out on the boat and fifty-three pas- 
 sengers died before reaching Memphis, where Mr. 
 Hirsch left the vessel and took another for St. 
 Louis. There he secured a place with Greeley & 
 Gail, grocers. The house still exists under another 
 name. He remained with this house until Octo- 
 ber, 1854, when he moved to Texas. Landing at 
 Indianola, he proceeded from that port to Gonzales 
 where he began peddling afoot. In a short time 
 he was able to get a horse, with which he continued 
 the business until the fall of 1858, and then moved 
 to Belton, in Bell County and opened a general 
 store, which he continued to conduct until late in 
 1863, when he moved to Matamoros, Mexico, where 
 he remained until the close of the war and made 
 money. In 1865 he moved to New Orleans and en- 
 
 gaged in business there. In 1899 he returned to 
 Texas, making his home at Corpus Christi, where 
 he built up one of the largest mercantile establish- 
 ments in the State. 
 
 He was united in marriage to Miss Jeannette 
 Weil, of Lockhart, Texas, May 14, 1860, who died 
 at Corpus Christi, May 11th, 1873, leaving two 
 children, Hattie, now the wife of Silus Gunot, of 
 San Francisco, and Joseph, also living in San Fran- 
 cisco, where he is manager for M. A. Gunot & Co. 
 
 July 9, 1878, Mr. Hirsch married Miss Olivia 
 Benedict, of New Orleans. Two sons have been 
 born to him by this, his second marriage, Alcan, 
 born in 1885, and Mark, born in 1887. Mr. Hirsch 
 retired from the dry goods business in 1878 and 
 bought wool and loaned money until 1890, when 
 he organized the Corpus Christi National Bank, of 
 which he has since served as president and owns a 
 majority of the capital stock. When he landed at 
 Indianola in 1854 he borrowed six dollars to pay 
 his way from that place to Gonzales. 
 
 He is now considered one of the wealthiest men 
 in Corpus Christi. The measure of success that he 
 has achieved has been due to the possession of 
 business talents of an unusuallj' high order, personal 
 integrity, industry and economy. 
 
 SIMON H. LUMPKIN, 
 
 MERIDIAN. 
 
 Simon H. Lumpkin, one of the leading citizens 
 of Bosque County and a prominent lawyer of Cen- 
 tral Texas, was born in June, 1850, in Faiifleld 
 District, S. C. He was the ninth in a family of 
 twelve children born to Abram F. and Patience 
 Partridge (Pickett) Lumpkin, natives of South 
 Carolina and descendants of old colonial families. 
 
 On the paternal side two brothers, William and 
 Joseph, were soldiers in England and came to 
 America in 1765 with Gen. Braddock, marched 
 with his army over the Allegheny Mountains and 
 fell with him into the disastrous ambuscade on the 
 Monongahela river, where Joseph was killed and 
 
 William badly wounded. On account of his wound 
 William Lumpkin was discharged from the army 
 and settled on the James river, where he married 
 and became a planter and the father of a family 
 of four sons: Joseph, Thomas, Robert and Squir- 
 relskin, who became the progenitors of all the 
 Lumpkins now in the United States. Joseph and 
 Squirrelskin moved to Georgia, where they married 
 and reared families whose descendants have lield 
 the highest otflces in the gifo of the people of that 
 State — one becoming governor and another chief 
 justice of the Supreme Court, both well remem- 
 bered throughout the land. Robert remained in 
 
"!j^ ' -«* - 
 
 Vr<^?^!^^^^^ 
 
 0^^<^ ^^ii^^l^'^X^ 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 413 
 
 Virginia and of his family little is known to the 
 writer. Thomas moved to South Carolina, where be 
 married Miriam Ferguson, a daughter of the noted 
 Tory Ferguson, who was captured at the battle of 
 the Cowpens by Gen. Marion. This couple were 
 the grandparents of the subject of this memoir 
 and of Dr. J. J. Lumpkin, of Meridian, Texas. 
 To Tliomas and Miriam Lumpkin two sons were 
 born, Bradshaw and Abram Ferguson Lumpkin, 
 the latter the father of Simon H. and Dr. J. J. 
 Lumpkin. 
 
 Bradshaw Lumpkin is still living in South 
 Carolina and is now nearly one hundred years 
 old. He participated in many battles with the 
 Indians in Florida, took part in the Texas revolu- 
 tion and war between the United States and 
 Mexico. His brother, Abram F. (a farmer), when 
 the war between the States began, entered the Con- 
 federate army and served until its close. Six of 
 his sons (three of whom yielded up their lives 
 on the battle-field) also entered the army. Those 
 who fell in the defense of the South were: 
 William, killed February 4, 1865, while on 
 detailed scouting duty near Richmond, Va. ; Philip 
 P., killed in the battle of Cold Harbor, May 31, 
 1864, and Abram Joseph, killed in the battle of 
 Seven Pines, May 31, 1862. The other sous are 
 still living. Mr. Abram F. Lumpkin died Feb- 
 ruary 25, 1875, and his wife January 13, 1892. 
 Simon H. Lumpkin, the subject of this notice, 
 completed his literary education at Wafford Col- 
 lege, S. C, and Transjdvania University, Lexing- 
 ton, Ky. ; taught language in a private school at 
 Lexington for a time ; taught school for about 
 a year at Centerville, Ga. ; in October, 1873, 
 moved to Texas, and became principal of the La 
 Grange College ; remained at the head of that 
 institution for about a year, and in November, 
 
 1874, was admitted to the bar, having assiduously 
 studied law at leisure moments during the pre- 
 ceding four years. Soon thereafter he moved to 
 Bosque County and entered upon the practice of 
 his profession. He was very successful from the 
 start. At first he took criminal as well as civil 
 cases, but for years past he has confined himself 
 strictly to civil business. He practices in all the 
 State courts and in the United States Supreme 
 Court, and is considered one of the ablest lawyers 
 at the bar of Central Texas. He has been active 
 in politics as a Democratic leader, has attended 
 the various conventions, served as a member of 
 State and county executive committees, and has 
 done yeoman service upon every occasion when 
 a battle was on for party supremacy. He was 
 married April 4, 1876, to Miss Laura Alexander, 
 the third white child born in Waco, and daughter 
 of Capt. T. C. Alexander. vShe is also a grand- 
 niece of the noted Rev. Bob Alexander, the pioneer 
 Methodist preacher of Texas. She graduated at 
 the University of Waco in 1872. Of this union 
 three children have been born: Jimmie (a daugh- 
 ter), Abram and Ora. The family are all members 
 of the M. E. Church South. Mr. Lumpkin is a 
 member of the Masonic and I. O. O. F. frater- 
 nities. He has an elegant residence in Meridian, 
 and the grounds are tastefully adorned, and he 
 has a fish lake on the place. He also owns among 
 other realty nine farms in the county, aggregating 
 three thousand acres, which he is constantly im- 
 proving. In 1887 he bought out the lumber yard 
 in Meridian, and in 1891 also bought the lumber 
 interests at Walnut Springs, and is doing a thriv- 
 ing business at both places. His success in life 
 has been due to the possession not only of natural 
 abilities of a high order, but constant studj', firm- 
 ness of purpose and unbending integrit}'. 
 
 THE HARDINS, 
 
 OF LIBERTY. 
 
 The Hardin family are known to be descendants 
 of a widow lady who emigrated from France to 
 America, landing in Philadelphia with four sons, 
 John, Henry, Mark and Martin Hardin. Her hus- 
 band, in some of the internal commotions in France, 
 had to flee for his life. Whether he was pursued 
 and killed, or died by other casualty, is unknown. 
 He was never heard of bj' his wife after bidding her 
 
 adieu and riding away. From the best information 
 that can be obtained, she was one of the Hugue- 
 nots who came to America to escape persecution liy 
 Louis XIV., in the year 1685. William Hardin, the 
 grandfather of Frank Hardin, subject of this 
 memoir, is supposed to have been a grandson of 
 this widowed lad}-. 
 
 Frank Hardin was born on the 25tli day of 
 
414 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 January, 1803, in Franklin County, Ga., and was 
 the fourtli son of Swan and Jerusha (Blackburn) 
 Hardin. His father moved to Maury County, Tenu., 
 with his family, when Frank was three or four years 
 of age, and resided there until about 1825. In that 
 year Frank Hardin came to Texas, and about the 
 same time four brothers, Augustine B., William, 
 Benjamin W., and Milton A., and his father came 
 to the then Mexican province, and they all settled 
 in what is now Liberty County, on the east side of 
 the Trinity river. His first employment after be- 
 coming settled in his new home was to split rails, in 
 company with his brother A. B. Hardin, for an old 
 man living on the Trinity river, and the same year 
 they made a crop of corn without plow or hoe, cul- 
 tivating it with "hand-spikes." The first ofHcial 
 position that Frank Hardin is known to have held 
 was that of municipal surveyor, in the year 1834. 
 He was afterward appointed surveyor by Commis- 
 sioner Jorge Antonio^Nixon, under which appoint- 
 ment he located and surveyed in 1835 many of the 
 old leagues granted by the Mexican Government to 
 colonists introduced into Liberty and adjacent 
 counties, under Vehlin's empresario contract. On 
 the Gth of March, 1836, he enlisted in Capt. Wm. 
 M. Logan's company of volunteers, of which com- 
 pany he was elecied First Lieutenant. This com- 
 pany was raised from Liberty and vicinity, 
 and joined Gen. Sam. Houston's army at once, 
 and was a part of Sherman's regiment of 
 infantry, which performed such gallant service in 
 the battle of San Jacinto. After participating in 
 that memorable and glorious engagement, which 
 deserves a place among the important and decisive 
 battles of the world's history, he remained with the 
 army for three months— until his term of enlist- 
 ment expired. He then returned home and very 
 soon afterwards raised and organized a company, 
 of which he was made captain, and joined an ex- 
 pedition against the Indians, and went up the Brazos 
 river as far as the Waco village. He was several 
 months in this service. Under the act passed by 
 the Congress of the Republic providing for the 
 national defense, he was, on the 9th day of Janu- 
 ary, 1837, appointed by the President, a Captain, 
 for the purpose of organizing the militia of liberty. 
 December 19th of that year he was also appointed 
 by President Houston surveyor for the county of 
 Liberty. At an election held in the county Septem- 
 ber Gth, 1841, under an act of Congress, approved 
 January 24th, 1839, he was elected Colonel of the 
 second regiment, of the second brigade, of the 
 militia of the Republic of Texas, E. Morehouse, 
 Brigadier General, with headquarters at Houston, 
 which position he held for several years. In 1842 
 
 he was again elected surveyor of Liberty County 
 and in 1857 elected as representative from that 
 county and served as a member of the Seventh 
 Legislature of the State of Texas. He was not 
 fond of public life and never accepted official posi- 
 tion, after the independence of Texas was secured, 
 except at the urgent solicitation of the people. 
 He resided in the county for over fifty years, and 
 died at his residence in the town of Liberty on the 
 20th of April, 1878, and was buried on the anni- 
 versary of the battle of San Jacinto. 
 
 Benjamin Watson Hardin, the oldest of the five 
 brothers who came to Texas, was for many years 
 Sheriff of Liberty County, and died at his home- 
 stead near the town of Liberty, January 2d, 1850. 
 
 Augustine Blackburn Hardin, the next in age, 
 was a member of the General Council of Texas 
 held in 1835, and also of the Consultation at San 
 Felipe de Austin, the same year, representing the 
 municipality of Liberty, and showed himself in 
 those bodies to be a stanch patriot, a determined 
 advocate of resistance to Mexican tyranny, and a 
 firm supporter of the views of those who favored a 
 declaration of Texian independence. He died in 
 Liberty County, July 22, 1871. 
 
 William Hardin, the third brother, was one of 
 the ten original proprietors of what is now the 
 city of Galveston. Under the Mexican govern- 
 ment, previous to the revolution, he was Primary 
 Judge of the Jurisdiction of Liberty, Department 
 of Nacogdoches. He took an active and leading 
 part in the revolution which separated Texas from 
 Mexico, was a man widely influential, and was 
 highly respected by all who knew him. He died at 
 Galveston, in July, 1839. 
 
 Milton Ashley Hardin, the youngest of the five 
 brothers, was also in the service of Texas during 
 the revolution. He died at Cleburne, Texas, in 
 1894. 
 
 Hardin County, Texas, was named after the 
 " Hardins of Liberty," a deserved honor to a 
 family whose name is linked by so many sacred 
 memories, and by such valiant and self-sacrificing 
 service, to the history and imperishable glory of 
 the Republic and State of Texas. 
 
 Mrs. Cynthia A. Hardin, wife of Frank Hardin, 
 was born October 29, 1812, in St. Mary Parish, 
 La., and was the second daughter of Christie 
 O'Brien and Ann Dawson Berwick, his wife, who 
 resided many years and both died at Berwick's 
 Bay, in St. Mary Parish, La. She came to Texas, 
 a few years before her marriage, to reside in the 
 town of Liberty with her sister, Mrs. Catherine 
 Farley. She was married to Capt. Frank Hardin, 
 August 15th, 1839, at the residence of Mrs. Far- 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 415 
 
 ley. Capt. Hardin resided in the town of Liberty 
 with his family, until the latter part of the year 
 of 1843, when they removed to the countr}', about 
 nine miles northward from the town. They were 
 there engaged in farming and stock-raising, until 
 about the year 1857, when tliey removed again to 
 Liberty. Mrs. Hardin died November 1st, 1889, 
 at Dallas, Texas, while on a visit to her daughter, 
 Mrs. George W. Davis, and was removed to Liberty 
 for burial. 
 
 daughters, Camilla Gertrude, wife of Judge George 
 W. Davis, of Dallas; Cynthia A., wife of Capt. 
 John F. Skinner, of Lampasas, Texas ; and Helen 
 Berwick Hardin, the youngest child, who resides 
 with her brother, Wm. F. Hardin, at the old 
 family homestead in the town of Lilierty. 
 
 The independence of Texas having been secured, 
 and there being no fear of Indian depredations, 
 the neighboring tribes all being friendly, the life of 
 Mrs. Hardin after her marriage was a quiet one. 
 
 MRS. C. A. HAKDIN. 
 
 Their eldest child, a daughter, was named 
 Kaleta, for the old Indian, Chief of the Coshattee 
 tribe of friendly Indians — the old chief being 
 especially known and designated as the " Friend 
 of the White Man." This daughter died October 
 7th, 1884, at the family homestead, in the town of 
 Liberty. She was never married. The other chil- 
 dren were two sons, William Frank and Christie 
 O'Brien (the latter of whom died January 13th, 
 1867, of a gunshot wound received by accident 
 while hunting in the Trinity bottom), and three 
 
 and without incident of special note. It was spent 
 in the discharge of the daily routine of household 
 duties, visiting neighbors (of whom, when living in 
 the country, there were but three or four families) 
 and entertaining friends and strangers, as well, for 
 the door of the log-house in which they lived was 
 open without charge to every belated traveler who 
 passed that way. 
 
 William Frank Hardin, first son of Frank and 
 Cynthia A. Hardin, was born in the town of 
 Liberty, May 2, 1841, and resides with his young- 
 
416 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 est sister at tlie old homestead in the same town. 
 He was four years in the Confederate service dur- 
 ing the war between the States. He first enlisted 
 in Col. E. B. Nichol's regiment for six months 
 service in Galveston. At the expiration of this 
 term he joined the Second Battalion of Waul's 
 Texas Legion, enlisting for the war, which com- 
 mand was a part of Gen. Sterliog Price's division 
 in the Mississippi campaign, which ended with the 
 siege and fall of Vicksburg. After the surrender 
 and parole of Gen. Pemberton's army, he returned 
 
 home, where he remained until exchanged, when 
 he again joined his command. The two battalions 
 were afterward consolidated into a regiment, desig- 
 nated as "Timmon's Regiment," Col. B. Timmons 
 being in command after the promotion of Gen. . 
 Waul. He remained with the army until the final 
 surrender, and then returned to his old home, 
 where he has since been engaged mainly in the 
 mercantile business and stock-raising. He was 
 once elected County Judge of Liberty County, and 
 has since refused to accept official position. 
 
 H. SCHUMACHER, 
 
 NAVASOTA. 
 
 This gentleman, one of the leading citizens of 
 Navasota, president of the First National Bank of 
 that place, proprietor of the Navasota Cotton-Seed 
 Oil Mill, and a resident of Grimes County for forty 
 years, is a native of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Ger- 
 many, where he was' born in 1832. At the age of 
 fifteen he came to Texas, his father having died and 
 his mother having come out the year previous to 
 find a home for herself and four children. Mr. 
 Schumacher reached Galveston, November 25, 
 1847, where his mother had established herself, and 
 there he at once went industriously to work to earn 
 his own support. He learned the carpenter's trade 
 and followed it as a journeyman until 1853. He 
 joined the Howard Association and devoted his 
 attention to nursing the sick during the visitations 
 of the yellow fever in 1853 and 1854. In 1855 he 
 moved to Anderson, Grimes Count}', being led to 
 this step by the condition of his wife's health, she 
 having been a sufferer from the fever and finally 
 dying at Anderson from the effects of the disease 
 several months after their removal at that place. 
 
 At Anderson Mr. Schumacher established a sash, 
 door and blind factory on a small scale, which he 
 conducted with fair success until the War put an 
 end to all operations of this sort. He entered the 
 Confederate army in 1861 as a member of the 
 Eighth Texas Infantry, Walker's Division, with 
 which he went to the front early in 1862. Before his 
 command was called on to do much active service 
 he was taken sick and was transferred to the 
 ordnance department at Anderson, where the most 
 of his services in behalf of the Confederacy were 
 rendered in the line of his trade as a wood-work- 
 
 man. In December, 1865, he moved to Navasota, 
 which at that time was practically the terminus of 
 the Houston & Texas Central Railroad, and at once 
 began to make preparations to start a sash, door 
 and blind factory. He camped under a post- 
 oak tree, and got out the necessarj' timbers 
 and erected his dwelling and shop. The rapid 
 development of the up-country then tributary to 
 this point afforded him a good market for his 
 product. He added a grist mill, then a gin and 
 planing mill to his plant and ran them all success- 
 fully until 1873. At that time he turned his atten- 
 tion to the cotton-seed oil business, erecting a mill 
 for the mannfacture of the various products of the 
 cotton seed, his mill being the second erected in the 
 State. It soon engaged his attention to the exclu- 
 sion of all his other manufacturing interests, and 
 he disposed of them. Mr. Schumacher's life has 
 been given to business pursuits and he has achieved 
 notable success. At present his time is devoted to 
 his mill business and to his duties in connection 
 with the First National Bank, of which he has for 
 two years past been president. He was one of the 
 organizers of that institution and its vice-president 
 until elected president. He manifests a- proper 
 interest in everything pertaining to the welfare of 
 the community, and is a man in whose judgment 
 the people in the country where he resides have 
 great confidence and for 'whose character they have 
 great respect. 
 
 Mr. Schumacher has been three times married 
 and has raised to maturity a family of ten chil- 
 dren. His first marriage occurred in Galveston in 
 1854 and was to Miss Louisa Koch, a native of 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 417 
 
 Germany, whose parents settled in Galveston about 
 the time Mr. Schumacher settled there. This lady 
 died at Anderson, Grimes County, in 1856. He 
 subsequently married Miss Berryman, a daughter 
 of William Berryman, who settled in Grimes County 
 in 1834: and a grand-daughter of Francis Holland, 
 who was the first settler in the country, taking up 
 
 his residence here in 1824. This lady lived but a 
 few years after marriage. 
 
 For his third wife Mr. Schumacher married Miss 
 Emma Horlock, a native of Pennsylvania, of Ger- 
 man descent. 
 
 Mr. Schumacher is a prominent member of the 
 Presbyterian Church. 
 
 H. B. EASTERWOOD, 
 
 HEARNE. 
 
 Young blood counts for a great deal in the 
 affairs of this world, and nowhere for more than 
 in a new and rapidly developing State like Texas. 
 There is healthy stimulus to activity in a growing 
 community, and fortunate, indeed, is the young 
 man, who, brought up in such a community, has, 
 coupled with the advantage of years, the mental 
 grasp and force of character to enable him to 
 understand and make the best possible use of his 
 surroundings. Youth, energy, brains and ambi- 
 tion are qualities that win, and the degree of suc- 
 cess attained is, as a rule, directly proportioned to 
 the degree in which these qualities are possessed. 
 
 Henry Bascom Easterwood, son of William C. 
 and Martha G. Easterwood, was born in Lowndes 
 County, Miss., in 1856. Two years later his 
 parents came to Texas and, after a brief residence 
 in Bell County, settled on a farm near Port Sul- 
 livan, in Milan County, where the subject of this 
 notice was chiefly reared. His educational advan- 
 tages were restricted to local schools. At about 
 the age of eighteen he began clerking for his elder 
 brother, William E. Easterwood, in a store at 
 Port Sullivan, and later opened two stores for his 
 brother at different points in Milan County. He 
 continued clerking until 1880, when in March of 
 that year he went toHearne, where, on a borrowed 
 capital of $2,200, he engaged in a grocery business 
 on his own account. He soon secured a good 
 trade, and with the growing prosperity of that 
 place has, from time to time, extended his line of 
 operation until at this writing he conducts the 
 largest general mercantile establishment inHearne, 
 and one of the largest on the Houston & Texas 
 Central Railway between Dallas and Houston. His 
 two-story, double-front, brick business block, 
 situated on one of the principal thoroughfares of 
 the town gives ample evidence of the amount of 
 
 business done both by the quantity of goods on 
 display and in the activity about the premises. 
 
 While giving his attention mainly to his mercan- 
 tile business Mr. Easterwood has found time to 
 interest himself in other enterprises, and has ac- 
 quired considerable outside interests. He owns 
 and conducts three good-sized farms in the vicinity 
 of Hearne ; has purchased and improved a number 
 of lots in that place, owns and runs a gin there ; is 
 vice-president of the Hearne Building & Loan Asso- 
 ciation, helped to organize a local compress com- 
 pany, and was its president until its removal to 
 another point ; is president of the Brazos Valley 
 Lumber Company ; subscribed stock to and is sec- 
 retary and treasurer of the Hearne & Brazos Valley 
 Railway ; helped to organize and is a member of 
 the Board of Directors of the Hearne National 
 Bank, and, in fact, has had some sort of interest 
 in every public enterprise that has been started in 
 the community where he lives during his fifteen 
 years residence there. He is open-handed and 
 liberal-minded, assisting with his means and per- 
 sonal effort whatever is calculated to stimulate 
 industry, or in any way add to the prosperity of 
 the community. He has never been in public life 
 and wisely keeps aloof from the entanglements of 
 politics. He has served as a member of the Board 
 of Aldermen of his town, and stands ready at all 
 times to honor sight drafts on his time and services 
 in behalf of good government, the building up of 
 local schools, and the promotion of all those things 
 that tend to elevate, adorn or improve the society 
 in which he moves. 
 
 Reminded of the fact that he had met with more 
 than ordinary success, and asked to what he attrib- 
 uted it, Mr. Easterwood said he supposed to his 
 strict attention to business. He has made it a rule 
 to give his business close and undivided attention ; 
 
418 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 never to postpone till to-morrow what can lie done 
 to-tlay ; to attend lo business first, plea&ure after- 
 wards ; to emploj' strict integrity and an unfailing 
 comi)liance with every obligation, verbal or writ- 
 ten, and, as near as possible, to do unto others as 
 he would have them do unto him. Whether his 
 income has been great or small he has always lived 
 within it; has avoided litigation; and in the dis- 
 charge of every duty has won the confidence and 
 respect of all with whom he has had business inter- 
 course. The cast of his mind is practical, and he 
 is well-built and strong, having a physical con- 
 stitution that insures prolonged vitality, and that 
 patient perseverance which moves steadily forward 
 in the path marked out ; is earnest and active, 
 never hesitating to do his share of the work about 
 him. 
 
 Mr. Easterwood has been as fortunate in his 
 domestic relations as he has been prosperous in 
 business, and, indeed, it is no doubt true that the 
 one is largely attributable to the other. In 1879 
 he married Miss Lillie Goldman, a daughter of 
 S. L. Gohlman, an old and respected citizen of 
 Houston, Mrs. Easterwood being a native of that 
 place, in the society of which she was, previous to 
 her marriage, a leader. The issue of this union 
 has been four sons and two daughters. 
 
 His home circle is charming and pleasant, and 
 it is under his own roof and around his own fire- 
 side that he realizes the best phases and the truest 
 enjoyments of life, as does every man who is 
 blessed with a good wife, an interesting family 
 of children, and the means to properly care for 
 them. 
 
 C. H. NIMITZ, SR., 
 
 FREDERICKSBURG. 
 
 Hon. Charles H. Nimitz, Sr., was born in Bremen, 
 Germany, November 9tb, 1826, and was educated 
 in the schools of that city. He was named for his 
 father. His mother's maiden name was Miss 
 Meta Merriotte. His parents came to the United 
 States in 1843 and located in Charleston, S. C. 
 The following year he left the Fatherland, tarried 
 for a time in Charleston with his father and mother, 
 and then pushed westward, arriving at Fredericks- 
 burg, Texas, May 8, 1846, where he has since re- 
 sided and by thrift and industry accumulated a 
 corafortaV)le fortune. 
 
 April 8, 1848, he married Miss Sophia Miller. 
 They have eight living children, viz.: Ernest A., 
 now a resident of S:in Angelo, Tom (ireeu County ; 
 Bertha, now Mrs. Nanwald, of Burnet ; Chailes H., 
 Jr., who lives at Kerrville ; Sophie, wife of Otto 
 Wahrmound, of San Antonio ; Augusta, who mar- 
 ried a Mr. Schwerin and is now a widow residing 
 at Kerrville; Lina, wife of E. O. Meusbach, of 
 Waring; William, who resides at Kerrville; and 
 Meta, who is married to Henry Wahrmound, of 
 Fredericksburg. 
 
 Chester B. Nimitz, who was in business with his 
 
 father, died in 1885, when twentj'-seven years of 
 age. He was a bright and promising 3'oung man. 
 His death was a sad bereavement to his parents 
 and devoted wife. A son was born to his widow 
 six months after his death. Mr. and Mrs. Nimitz 
 lost several other children, but they died when 
 quite young. 
 
 In 1861 Mr. Nimitz raised the Gillespie Rifles, 
 but two months later was appointed by the Con- 
 federate States Government, enrolling olHcer for the 
 frontier district, and served in that capacity until 
 the close of the war. Mr. Nimitz is a devout mem- 
 ber of the Catholic Church. He is a Democrat, 
 true and tried, and has for years been a delegate to 
 nearly all conventions, and an active worker for the 
 success of the party. He has been a school trustee, 
 school examiner and member of the board to examine 
 teachers in the county, and in 1880 was elected to 
 the Twenty-second Legislature, from the Eighty - 
 ninth Representative District, composed of Gilles- 
 pie, Blanco and Comal counties. 
 
 He was a member of nearly all the important 
 House committees and made a record of which he 
 and his constituents have reason to be proud. 
 
INDIAN WAIi.s AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 419 
 
 NEWTON WEBSTER FINLEY, 
 
 DALLAS. 
 
 Hon. N. W. Fink'}', one of the most widelv in- 
 fluential men in public life in Texas, and a lawyer 
 whose abilities have won for him the distinguished 
 position of Judge of the Court of Civil Appeals, was 
 born in Lauderdale County, Miss, (near the famous 
 Lauderdale Springs). July 31, 1854, in which 
 year his parents, Rev. Robert S. and Mary H. 
 Finley, moved to Texas. They first settled on a 
 farm near Kickapoo, in Anderson County, and 
 
 Soon after securing license, Judge Finley formed a 
 connection with H. G. Robertson, Esq., and en- 
 gaged in practice in Smith County. Afterwards, 
 Hon. Horace Chilton, now a United States Senator 
 from Texas, became a member of the firm, which, 
 under the style of Chilton, Robertson & Finle}', 
 continued the practice at Tyler until 188.5, when 
 the firm dissolved. Judge Finley afterwards 
 formed a copartnership with Messrs. Marsh & But- 
 
 N. W. FINLEY. 
 
 afterwards lived at various points in Texas. They 
 now reside at Tyler. Rev. Robert S. Finley 
 was licensed as a minister of the Methodist Episco- 
 pal Church South, when twenty years of age and* 
 now although eight}' years of age still preaches 
 occasionally. He is well known to all old Texians 
 and no minister of the gospel in this State is so 
 widely and generally beloved. 
 
 N. W. Finley was educated in the common 
 schools of this State, and began reading law while 
 still a pupil at school. He received law lectures 
 from Gen. Thomas J. Jennings, then living at 
 Tyler, and was admitted to the bar in June, 1876, 
 by Judge William H. Bonner, at Quitman, Texas. 
 
 ler, a connection that lasted until Judge Finley was 
 appointed to the bench of the Court of Civil Ap- 
 peals at Dallas, Texas, by Governor James S. Hogg 
 in 1893. Judge Finley did not seek the appointment. 
 He was elected to the position in 1894, and is now 
 filling it with eminent satisfaction to the profession 
 and the people at large. 
 
 He was elected chairman of the State Democratic 
 Executive Committee in 1888 and was re-elected in 
 1890. During his term of service in this highly 
 important position, two of the most famous politi- 
 cal campaigns ever fought in Texas took place and 
 he managed the Democratic forces with a consum- 
 mate skill that resulted in an overwhelming victory, 
 
420 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 made his name a household word and won for him 
 the lasting gratitude of the rank and- file of the 
 party. In 1884 he was nominated and elected 
 Presidential Elector from his district. 
 
 He was married in June, 1877, to Miss Alma 
 Louise Woldert, of Tyler. Two children were 
 born of this union : Alma Ophelia, and Mary 
 Louise. 
 
 Mrs. Finjey died in February, 1883. 
 
 January 28th, 1886, Judge Finley was united in 
 marriage to his present wife, nee Miss Minnie Lee 
 Sims, of Fort Worth, Texas. Three children have 
 been born to them. Nora Warena, Horace Web- 
 
 ster and Nannie Lee. Horace W. died January 2, 
 1893, aged about four years. 
 
 Judge Finlej' is an active member of the Metho- 
 dist Episcopal Church South, and holds the oftice 
 of steward in the Church, and takes great interest 
 in Sunday school work. He is a member of the 
 Masonic, I. O. O. F., and K. of P. fraternities, 
 holding the degree of Knight Templar in Masonry. 
 
 There are few lawyers in Texas capable of so 
 truly adorning a position upon the civil court of 
 last resort. He possesses a fine judicial mind and 
 that learning and experience which render his ser- 
 vices in the position he holds invaluable. 
 
 H. K WHITE, 
 
 BRYAN. 
 
 After the revolution of 1835-6 the tide of im- 
 migration, which it was supposed would pour into 
 Texas upon the establishment of a republican 
 form of government to be administered by Amer- 
 icans, was slow in arriving, and even that which 
 came made but little perceptible change in the 
 condition of things, on account of the immense area 
 of territory over which it was diffused. For a 
 number of years the lower Brazos countr3', and 
 particularly Washington Count}^ which was then 
 considered the Goshen of Texas, received most of 
 the intending settlers. Some, however, who placed 
 the health of their families and security from attacks 
 by the Indians beyond all other considerations, 
 took up their residence further to the east, helping 
 to swell the population of the ancient counties of 
 Liberty, Harris and Montgomery, and the newer 
 counties which were carved out of these. One of 
 this number was James White, who settled within 
 the present limits of Grimes County in 1841. He 
 was from Sumter County, Ala., and brought to 
 Texas a numerous and respectable household of 
 children, upon whom devolved the labors incident to 
 the new settlement of a new country which he, on 
 account of advancing age, was soon forced to 
 abandon. Three of these children, sons, now 
 themselves well ou in years, are living, viz. : David 
 and Joseph, in Grimes Count}-, and Henry K., in 
 Bryan, Brazos County. 
 
 Henry K. White was born in Wilcox County, 
 Ala., January 19, 1828. He was just thirteen when 
 his parents came to Texas. His youth was spent 
 
 in Grimes County at the old homestead, five miles 
 west of Anderson, the county seat. He remained 
 with his parents until after he attained his majority 
 and then left home and went to Louisiana, where he 
 spent four years engaged in various pursuits, 
 chiefly agricultural. He then returned to Texas 
 and, taking up his residence again in Grimes 
 County, there, in 1853, married Miss Amanda B. 
 Noble, a daughter of Judge G. B. Noble, an old 
 Texian, who for many years was a resident 
 of Houston. From 1858 to 1862, Mr. White 
 was treasurer of Grimes County, during which 
 time and previous thereto he was engaged in 
 farming, on a small scale, in that county. He 
 was exempt from military service during the late 
 war on account of physical disabilities. 
 
 He lost his wife in 18G3 and in 1869 married Miss 
 Hattie E. Davis, of Waco, a native of South Caro- 
 lina and daughter of Dr. Jas. B. Davis. 
 
 In 1873 Mr. White moved to Ellis County ; but, 
 two years later, receiving from Governor Coke the 
 appointment of superintendent of the penitentiary 
 at Huntsviile, he changed his residence to that 
 place and lived there for three years. He then 
 settled in Burleson County, where he purchased 
 land and engaged in farming. While residing there 
 he represented Burleson County in the Eighteenth 
 Legislature. Moving to Bryan, Brazos Count}', he 
 was elected, as soon as his residence therein made 
 him eligible, to a seat in the Twenty-third Legisla- 
 ture, during both of which terms of service he met 
 the expectations of his constituents and added to 
 
H. K. WHITE. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 421 
 
 Ills reputation as a man of sound sense and business 
 capacity. 
 
 Mr. Wliite has always been identified with farm- 
 ing interests and, in fact, has made agriculture his 
 chief study and pursuit in life. What he has, he 
 has made from this source, and what he is, he at- 
 tributes to the training obtained while so engaged. 
 He owns a large body of land in Burleson County, 
 over 2,000 acres of which are in cultivation, and 
 has some property, also, in Brazos County. He is 
 an enterprising, public-spirited citizen and, while 
 giving his attention diligently to his own affairs, 
 still finds time to interest himself in everything of 
 a general nature going on around him, especially if 
 it is calculated to stimulate industry, add to public 
 convenience or reflect credit upon the community 
 in which he lives. As president of the Burleson & 
 Brazos Valley Railroad he is at this writing exerting 
 
 himself to arouse an interest in a much-needed 
 enterprise, this being the construction of a railroad 
 from Pitt's Ferry on the Brazos river to Clay's 
 Station on the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway, 
 which will open, in a way never attempted hereto- 
 fore, a large and rich section of the Brazos country. 
 In politics Mr. White is a Democrat. He has 
 voted the straight Democratic ticket since he was 
 twenty-one years old, and has attended as delegate 
 every Democratic State Convention, with one ex- 
 ception, that has been held in tiie past fifteen years. 
 He is a firm friend of education and favors a 
 system of schools liberally supported out of the 
 public funds. He was a member of the Committee 
 on Education while in the Legislature and did good 
 service for the cause of education. 
 
 Mr. White has no children. A daughter, the issue 
 of his first marriage, died at the age of seventeen. 
 
 JUDGE JAMES JACKSON, 
 
 DOUBLE BAYOU. 
 
 The subject of this sketch is a very old Texian, 
 having lived on Texas soil continuously since 
 1823. His father was Humphrey Jackson, a native 
 of Ireland, born near the city of Belfast, who 
 came to America early in the present century, 
 quitting his native country on account of his par- 
 ticipation in some revolutionary troubles. He 
 was accompanied bj' his two brothers, Alexander 
 and Henry, and all three settled in Louisiana. 
 There Humphrey married Sarah Merriman, a 
 native of Louisiana, of English and Scotch ex- 
 traction. Accompanied by his wife and four chil- 
 dren he emigrated to Texas in September, 1823, 
 and settled in what is now Harris County about a 
 half mile west of the present town of Crosby, 
 where he died in 1833, being killed by a falling 
 tree while engaged in clearing land — aged forty- 
 three. 
 
 He was a plain civilian, acted for a time as Alcalde 
 after settling in Texas, and opposed the revolution- 
 ary troubles which culminated in the affair at 
 Anahuac. His wife died the year following the 
 family's removal to Texas, that is, in 1824. 
 
 The four children of Humphrey and Sarah Mer- 
 riman Jackson were: (1) Letitia, who was married 
 first to Meredith Duncan and after his death to 
 Andrew H. Long, and died in Chambers County 
 
 in 1881; (2) Hugh Jackson, who died in Liberty 
 County in 1854, having served for a number of 
 years as surveyor of that county; (3) John Jack- 
 son, who died in Chambers County in 1877 — a 
 successful farmer and stock-raiser; (4) James 
 Jackson, the subject of this sketch. 
 
 James Jackson was born on Vermillion bayou in 
 Vermillion Parish, La., February 15th, 1822. He 
 was an infant when his parents moved to Texas. 
 His childhood and youth were passed in the wilder- 
 ness of old Harrisburg Municipalty and Liberty 
 County, his advantages in consequence being much 
 restricted. He was too young to take part in any 
 of the stirring scenes preceding and incident to the 
 revolution of 1835-6, but retains a distinct impres- 
 sion of those scenes, and remembers seeing the 
 smoke and hearing the guns on the battle-field of 
 San Jacinto. 
 
 December 23d, 1847, he married Sarah White, 
 daughter of James T. White, Sr., who moved to 
 Texas in 1826 and settled on Turtle bayou, where 
 he subsequently lived and died. Mrs. Jackson was 
 born in Old Liberty, now Chambers Countj', July 
 13th, 1832. Her familj' was one of the first settled 
 families in that locality. Her parents died there of 
 cholera in 1852, the father on March 4th, and the 
 mother on March 10th. The old White homestead 
 
422 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 was about six miles from the old Mexican military 
 post of Anahuac and Mr. White gave succor and 
 assistance to the settlers in their struggles against 
 Mexican authoritj'. Mrs Jackson was one of a 
 family of four sons and three daughters who lived 
 to be grown: (1) Elizabeth, (2) John. (3) Par- 
 melia, (-i) Robert, (o) Joseph, (6) James, and (7) 
 Sarah. But three of these are now living, Robert, 
 James and Sarah (Mrs Jackson). 
 
 In 1844, Judge Jackson took up his residence in 
 Chambers, then Liberty County, where he now lives, 
 moving to his present place in 1855, and has thus 
 been a resident of that locality for the past fifty-one 
 years. He and his wife have had eleven children, 
 nine of whom are living: (1) Sarah E., (2) Hum- 
 
 phrey T., (3) Mary P., (4) Alice L., (5) Robert 
 T., (6) James Edward, (7) Humphrey H., (8) 
 John C, (9) Raphael S., (10) Guy C, and (11) 
 Eula J. 
 
 In 18G1 Judge Jackson was elected Judge of 
 Probate in Chambers County and held this ofBce 
 during the war. He has never held any other pub- 
 lie position, but has devoted his time and attention 
 to his personal affairs. 
 
 He is a large stock-raiser and owns several thou- 
 sand acres of land in Chambers County. 
 
 He favored annexation in 1846 and opposed 
 secession in 1861, and was always a great admirer 
 of Gen. Houston. 
 
 ED. CHRISTIAN, 
 
 AUSTIN. 
 
 Mr. Christian came to Texas in 1851. He was 
 a native of Virginia, and was born at Apomattox 
 Court House, January 10th, 1833. His father, 
 Judge Samuel Christian, was a lawyer of that 
 town, a substantial man who stood high in his 
 profession and iu the esteem of the public. He 
 moved with his family to Mobile, Ala., about the 
 year 1844. There the family of children grew up 
 and the parents died when our subject was yet 
 a youth. He immediately set about life's work, 
 and by perseverance and industry gained an edu- 
 cation, and, being of a mechanical turn of mind, 
 learned the carpenter's trade at about fifteen j'ears 
 of age. From Mobile he went to Montgomery, 
 and there met Simon Loomis, who, while several 
 years his senior, was yet a young man and also 
 a carpenter. Between the two there proved to be 
 a social affinity, and they came together to Texas, 
 stopped about one year at Bastrop, and worked at 
 their trade, and the following year, 1852, came to 
 Austin. They formed a copartnership as carpen- 
 ters, pooled their earnings, and accumulated a 
 little money, and entered the lumber business under 
 the firm name of Loomis & Christian, which bus- 
 iness relation was harmonious and successful in 
 the broadest sense of the term, and covered a 
 period of about thirty years. Upon the breaking 
 out of the great war between the States, Mr. Chris- 
 
 tian promptly volunteered in defense of the Con- 
 federate cause and served during the prolonged 
 and bitter conflict as a private soldier in the ranks 
 of Company G. (Capt. Fred. Moore), Sixteenth 
 Texas Infantry. After the break-up he returned 
 to Austin, broken in pocket, but not in spirits, 
 gathered up the fragments of a disorganized bus- 
 iness, and the firm started in anew, as it were. In 
 1867 they erected a planing mill and extended 
 their lumber yards, and from that time the business 
 prospered, and it soon became one of the most ex- 
 tensive in its line in the State, and one of the most 
 useful. 
 
 In 1873 Mr. Christian married Miss Matilda 
 Horst, a daughter of the lamented pioneer, Louis 
 Horst, for many years a resident and leading citi- 
 zen of Austin. Mrs. Christian, the third daughter 
 of the family, was born and reared in Austin. 
 Mr. Christian was a worthy member of Milam 
 Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He 
 was a man of domestic tastes, and delighted in the 
 society of his wife and children. He was there- 
 fore a valuable citizen, and had a wide circle of 
 friends. He died at his home in Austin, April 
 14th, 1888, leaving a splendid estate and an hon- 
 orable name as an inheritance to his family. Mrs. 
 Christian and three children. Miss Nannie, Miss 
 Margaret, and Ed Loomis Christian, survive. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 423 
 
 A. H. BARNES, 
 
 LAMPASAS. 
 
 Alexander Hamilton Barnes was born in Xenia, 
 Ohio, February 14, 1816. His father was John 
 Barnes, a native of Virginia, and his mother bore 
 the maiden name of Eachel Black and was a native 
 of Kentucky. Both patents were reared in Ken- 
 tucky, married there and moved thence early in 
 the present century to Ohio. The boyhood and 
 youth of Alexander H., were passed partly in Ohio 
 and partly in Kentuck}', his education being mostly 
 obtained in private schools in the latter State. 
 
 In 1836 young Barnes, still under age, came to 
 
 opening of the Civil War. In 1861, he entered the 
 Confederate army, enlisting in Company C, Thirty- 
 third Texas Cavalry, with which be served till the 
 close of hostilities. He again returned to Austin 
 after the war and resided there till 1871, at which 
 date he settled at Lampasas, where, having pur- 
 chased a considerable tract of land adjacent to the 
 original town-site, he devoted the remainder of his 
 life to real estate matters. He had large property 
 interests in Lampasas and in other sections of the 
 State, and was one of the first men in Texas, after 
 
 A. 11. BARNEx 
 
 Texas with a view of locating in the country, but 
 for some reason did not remain. He returned to 
 Ohio, and later going to New Orleans, there spent 
 the latter part of the succeeding ten years. He 
 came again to Texas in 1846 and located at Austin, 
 which had but a few years previous to that become 
 the seat of government and was the center of con- 
 siderable activity. In April, 1847, he enlisted at 
 Austin in Capt. Samuel Highsmilh's Company for 
 service in the war with Mexico, and his command he- 
 coming part of Col. Jack Hay's Regiment (Sixth 
 Texas Cavalry), he was with that distinguished 
 frontier soldier during the remainder of the war. He 
 then returned to Austin and again taking up his resi- 
 dence there, he made that place his home till the 
 
 the War, to direct attention to real estate values. 
 He was in a sense the father of Lampasas, having 
 built for that place more houses than any other iialf 
 dozen men in it. The idea of building and develop- 
 ing was firmly embedded in his mind, and as he 
 sold off his property, he put the proceeds in im- 
 provements, thereby adding thousands of dollars to 
 the taxable wealth of the eommunit}' and affording 
 homes to hundreds of families. He never held his 
 property waiting for it to be enhanced in value by 
 the efforts of others, nor put prices on it that placed 
 it beyond the reach of buyers. On the contrary, he 
 took the initiative in inaugurating improvements 
 and was always ready to dispose of any of liis hold- 
 ings at a reasonable figure. It is often mentio \ 
 
424 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 greatly to liis credit, that though he sold hundreds 
 of lots and built scores of houses, on many of 
 which he of necessity retained liens, he was never 
 known to foreclose against any one who manifested 
 the slightest disposition to pay. He was liberal in 
 his contributions to public enterprises and extended 
 a helping hand to whatever was calculated to bene- 
 fit the community in which he lived. He was never 
 in politics to speak of and held no official positions 
 of any consequence. His social instincts sought 
 expression through the medium of two or three 
 orders, notably the Masonic and Odd Fellows, while 
 his sj'mpathies took practical form in many ways 
 suggested by the necessities of his struggling fel- 
 low-creatures. He had a brusque, off-hand way 
 about him that might be taken by those not familiar 
 with him as indicative of a reserved, austere nature, 
 
 but he was at heart kind, obliging to his friends and 
 indulgent as a husband and father. He was noted 
 for great energy, constantly busying himself with 
 his personal affairs down to his last days on earth. 
 
 Mr. Barnes married late in life, his marriage tak- 
 ing place at Lampasas, August 3, 1871, and was to 
 Miss Ellen Hopson, a native of San Mareas, this 
 State, and a resident of Lampasas since early child- 
 hood. The issue of this union was a son, William 
 Alexander, and a daughter, Ella, both of whom 
 reside with their widowed mother at Lampasas. 
 
 Mr. Barnes' death occurred at Lampases, March 
 15, 1894, and his remains were laid to rest, with 
 proper tokens of respect, at that place. As an old 
 Texian he had served his adopted State honorably in 
 two wars, besides taking part in a number of Indian 
 campaigns and the ill-fated Chihuahua expedition. 
 
 EDWARD H. R. GREEN, 
 
 TERRELL. 
 
 The little town of Terrell, Texas, is now the 
 home of Edward H. R. Green, one of the most suc- 
 cessful business men in the United States, and one 
 of the many-times millionaires who stand monu- 
 mental of the prosperitj' of our countrj'. 
 
 Mr. Green is the only son of Mrs. Hetty H. E. 
 Green, who has for years been acknowledged as one 
 of the ablest financiers who have battled with the 
 brightest minds of two hemispheres upon Wall 
 street. 
 
 Her son has received a practical education, and, 
 untainted by the pride of wealth, has entered the 
 ranks of the toilers. Mr. Edward Green is now 
 the youngest railroad president in the world. He 
 was born at the Langham Hotel, London, England, 
 on the twenty-second day of August, 1868. He 
 attended the public schools of New York City, the 
 High School at Bellows Falls, Vt., and later grad- 
 uated from Fordham College. 
 
 After graduating he studied law, making a 
 speciality of branches relating to real estate and 
 railroads. He then accepted a position as clerk in 
 the office of the Connecticut River Railroad, and 
 when only twenty-one years of age was elected a 
 director of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad. Mr. 
 Green came to Texas in 18it3, and purchased a 
 branch of the Houston & Texas Central, one of the 
 largest systems of railroads in Texas, and formerly 
 
 controlled by his mother. During the same year he 
 took the Texas Midland Railroad out of the hands 
 of receivers, and was subsequently elected its presi- 
 dent and general manager. Through his untiring 
 efforts and thorough knowledge of railroading the 
 road has made wonderful progress, being at present 
 entirely out of debt and paying a good dividend. 
 Mr. Green is not in the least afraid of work ; he 
 dons his blue overalls and jumper and mingles with 
 his numerous employees. He is kind to them, and 
 they in turn idolize him. 
 
 Mr. Green frequently takes a trip on an engine, 
 and can manage it as perfectly as any skillful 
 engineer. He is so enthusiastic over the progress 
 of his road that he visits the towns on the line and 
 personally interviews the merchants in reference to 
 freights, etc. 
 
 Mr. Green is interested in many railroads through- 
 out the United States, and owns blocks of houses in 
 the best business streets in Chicago. 
 
 He owns the controlling interest in the Texas 
 Midland Railroad. 
 
 Mr. Green is socially a man of the hail-fellow- 
 well-met class, and is immensely popular. He is a 
 member of many clubs, among which are the Union 
 Club of New York City, the Union League and Chi- 
 cago Athletic Club of Chicago, and the Dallas Club 
 of Dallas, Texas. He is exceedingly fond of athletic 
 
E. II. R. grkp:n. 
 
DU. J. J. LUMPKIN. 
 
INDUiN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 425 
 
 sports, and is himself a very fine specimen of atliletic 
 training. 
 
 Ttiese last named qualities be perhaps inherits 
 from his father, who is devoted to New York club 
 life, and spends most of his time in a quiet way at 
 the various clubs of which he is a member. 
 
 His sterling business qualities come direct from 
 his mother, who has by her own efforts become the 
 
 richest woman in America. Mr. Green, besides 
 the large fortune he now possesses, will inherit 
 something like sixty million dollars from his 
 mother. 
 
 His is a sterling, pushing, virile personality that 
 is certain to make its influence felt in the develop- 
 ment of the varied resources of Texas and the great 
 Southwest. 
 
 EDGAR P. GRAY, 
 
 BEAUMONT. 
 
 County Judge of Jefferson County, Texas. 
 Born in Canton, Madison County, Miss., Septem- 
 ber 7, 1848. Parents, Judge E. A. M. and Miria 
 Gray. 
 
 Came to Texas in February, 1852, with his par- 
 ents, who located at Beaume, where he grew to man- 
 hood and acquired a fair English education in local 
 schools. He was elected County Assessor of Jef- 
 ferson County in 1880 and served the people in 
 that capacity until 1892, when he was elected County 
 Judge, the office that he now fills. Noticeable 
 features of his administration have been the im- 
 provement of public roads, the building of bridges, 
 and the clean and able administration of the affairs 
 of the county. 
 
 His discharge of his official duties has met with 
 hearty indorsement of his fellow-citizens. He 
 ranks as one of the ablest county judges in the 
 State. 
 
 Married Miss Eliza Jirou, of Beaumont, Texas, 
 February 2d, 1870, and has seven children: Dixon 
 M., aged twenty-five; Nettie (deputy county clerk 
 of Jefferson County), aged twenty-three; Earl, 
 aged twenty-one ; Myrtle, aged eighteen ; Dora, 
 aged fourteen ; Fleta, aged twelve ; and Judith, 
 aged eight years, all living at home with their 
 parents. 
 
 Judge Gra3'is one of the leading and most widely 
 influential men in the section of the State in which 
 he lives. 
 
 JAMES J. LUMPKIN, M. D., 
 
 MERIDIAN. 
 
 Dr. James J. Lumpkin, the leading and oldest 
 practicing physician in Meridian, Bosque County, 
 Texas, was born in Fairfield District, S. C, in 1852 ; 
 after the war he was a student at the VVafford Col- 
 lege, South Carolina, and Transylvania University, 
 Lexington, Ky., completing his literary education at 
 the latter institution ; graduated from the Charleston 
 (S. C.) Medical College in 187G ; had charge of the 
 Charleston hospital for two years and then came to 
 Texas and located at Meridian, where he has since 
 resided and has for a long time enjoyed a large and 
 lucrative practice. For a number of years he in- 
 
 vested largely in cattle and sheep-raising. By suc- 
 cessful business management he has acquired val- 
 uable property interests in town and countrj', the 
 latter consisting of many thousand acres of fine 
 farm and ranch lands. In 1894 he erected the 
 handsome stone Lumpkin block at Meridian, the 
 most imposing structure of the kind in the city, and 
 has alwaj's been an active and liberal promoter of 
 ever}' enterprise and movement designed to accel- 
 erate the upbuilding of the place and surrounding 
 country. January 8, 1878, he was united in mar- 
 riage to Miss Ida E. Fuller, daughter of Moses W. 
 
426 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Fuller, of Vermont, who settled at Meridian at an 
 early day and was for many years a leading mer- 
 chant there and at other Texas towns. She was 
 educated at Lockport, N. Y. She is a member of 
 the Episcopal Church and a most elegant and ac- 
 complished lady. Dr. Lumpkin is a member of the 
 Blue Lodge, Chapter and Knights Templar degrees 
 
 in the Masonic fraternity, has held the highest 
 offices in his lodge and chapter and is now, and has 
 been for many years, master of his lodge. He is 
 also a member of the I. O. O. F. fraternity. He 
 is strictly a self-made man, courteous, gentlemanly, 
 enterprising and progressive, he has been a power 
 for good in his section of the State. 
 
 L. DE BONA, 
 
 EAGLE PASS. 
 
 The State of Texas has two distinct historical 
 epochs. The pioneers of the first period subdued 
 the Indians and blazed the way for civilization, and 
 in a measure opened up the country, and later 
 on came foreigners from other lauds who took up 
 the line of advancement and gave the wheels of 
 progress another vigorous turn. These latter were 
 the pioneers of the second or modern epoch, and the 
 class to which Mr. De Bona, the subject of our 
 sketch, belongs. The story of his coming and the 
 success that has followed his labors in Texas teaches 
 a lesson of thrift and enterprise that the present 
 generation of young men may read with profit. 
 Mr. De Bona was born in the south of Italy, July 
 6th, 1847. His father, Vincenzo De Bona, was a 
 stock raiser and a thrifty man. When a mere boy 
 our subject had a desire to accomplish something 
 for himself in the world and, accordingly, left home 
 and went to Paris, France, where he learned the 
 shoemaker's trade. This was when he was about 
 fourteen years of age. He remained in Paris about 
 five years, working in a shoe factory wliere there 
 were about 3,000 operatives. He sailed from Paris 
 to New York City, reaching his destination late in the 
 year 1870. He remained in New York and worked 
 at his trade until 1872 and then went to Cleveland, 
 Ohio, where he stopped about eighteen months. 
 He next went to Detroit, Michigan, and late in 
 1876 came to Texas and visited Galveston, San 
 Antonio and other points. In 1877 he went to St. 
 Louis, Mo., and from that place to Des Moines, 
 Iowa, and remained in Iowa about seven months 
 and then returned to Texas, his health completely 
 restored. He went to San Antonio and decided on 
 a change of occupation, if possible. He had a small 
 amount of money, about S160, with which he pur- 
 chased a small fruit stand at the northeast corner 
 of Main Plaza. It was an humble beginning. 
 
 but by close attention and obliging manners his 
 little stock soon found willing purchasers at reason- 
 able profit and the business increased and thrived. 
 Mr. De Bona visited Eagle Pass, which was at that 
 time attracting considerable attention as a rising 
 town. This was in 1881. The iron horse had 
 not as j'et arrived, but track for his coming 
 was being laid. Mr. DeBona opened a small 
 store at the then center of trade, put it in the 
 hands of an acquaintance and returned to his 
 business in San Antonio. Upon his next visit 
 to his store in Eagle Pass his newly acquired 
 partner was gone. He then decided to locate in 
 Eagle Pass and acted almost immediatelj' upon his 
 decision. As compared with his now elegant es- 
 tablishment, his first store was a very modest affair, 
 but the same principles of fair dealing and dili- 
 gence were adhered to and he, accordingly, suc- 
 ceeded and gradually extended his business, adding 
 new lines of merchandise as his capital permitted 
 and the growing wants of the public demanded. 
 As Eagle Pass grew so did the fortunes of De Bona 
 and he was found never sleeping. He lias ever 
 evinced a becoming spirit of enterprise and faith in 
 the stability of his adopted town. He invested his 
 money from time to time in Eagle Pass realty and 
 its enterprises. In 1890 he built the most spacious, 
 substantial and attractive business block in the 
 cit}'. He is one of the organizers and a director 
 of the First National Bank of Eagle Pass. He was 
 one of the promoters of the public water works 
 system and to-day is its sole owner. Besides his 
 mammoth grocery and provision store, he owns one 
 of the best and most prosperous dry and fancy 
 goods stores in the city. 
 
 Mr. De Bona is essentially a business man, and his 
 success in life is entirely due to his own personal 
 energy, abilities and shrewd financiering. He is a 
 
0=0 ©E [B®fyA. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 427 
 
 self-made man, having never asked or received aid 
 from any one. His system of doing business is 
 quite up to modern ideas. 
 
 He was one of the organizers of the Maverick 
 County Bank, the first banking house established in 
 Eagle Pass, and upon its reorganization as the First 
 National Bank, of Eagle Pass, he became one of 
 its directors and for a time served as its vice- 
 president. He took an active part in the organiza- 
 tion of the Texas & Mexico Electric Light Co., 
 and served as its president for two years. He was 
 foremost in the movement to put the Eagle Pass 
 Telephone Exchange upon its feet, and there has not 
 been a public enterprise of any kind proposed that 
 
 Mr. De Bona has not encouraged with his influence 
 and means. He, in fact, might be truthfully called 
 the "Merchant Prince" of Eagle Pass. His in- 
 vestments in Eagle Pass are all of the beneficial 
 kind. He owns the imposing Post-ofHce block, 
 besides several other substantial buildings. Eagle 
 Pass owes her best buildings, her finest stores, her 
 modern enterprises to the efforts, the thrift and the 
 sagacity of Mr. L. De Bona, her popular citizen 
 and in many things her benefactor. At the urgent 
 solicitation of many of the leading citizens of 
 Eagle Pass, we present herewith a lifelike protrait 
 of L. DeBona, as u truly representative man of the 
 town and section of the State in which he resides. 
 
 J. K. HELTON, 
 
 MERIDIAN. 
 
 Judge J. K. Helton, a sterling old-time citizen of 
 Bosque County and the Nestor of the Bosque 
 County bar, was born in White County, Tenu., 
 August 12, 1817. His parents, Edward and Eliza- 
 beth (Knowles) Helton, were natives of Virginia. 
 His father, although only a boy, served for two 
 years in the Revolutionary War of 1776, under Gen. 
 Anthony Wayne ; moved to Tennessee with the 
 early pioneers and there resided until the time of 
 his death in 1846, his wife having preceded him to 
 the grave thirteen years before. Judge Helton, the 
 subject of this notice, moved from Tennessee to 
 Mississippi in 1835; in 1839 married Miss Luciuda 
 Mabray, a native of Tennessee, and in 1842 came to 
 Texas, settling in Harrison County, where he re- 
 mained three years and then moved to Rusk County 
 where he engaged in farming until 1853. In the 
 latter year he moved to McLennan County. In 
 1854 Bosque County was organized from part of 
 McLennan County, and his property falling within 
 the limits of the new county, he was elected Justice 
 of the Peace of Precinct No. 1 ; held that office until 
 1861 and vvas made Chief Justice of the count}'; 
 
 served in that capacity for five years and in 1866 
 was removed from office by Federal authorities ; 
 under the constitution of that year was elected to 
 the newly created office of County Judge ; filled 
 that position for one year and was again ousted by 
 military force ; in 1867 was admitted to the bar and • 
 at once began practice ; in 1873 was elected to the 
 lower house of the State Legislature, and at the 
 same election w.as also elected County Judge (again 
 at that time called Presiding, or Chief, Justice) and 
 held both offices until 1876. The constitution 
 adopted by the people that year, changed the title 
 from Presiding Justice to County Justice, and he 
 was again elected to the office and served two terms, 
 and in 1880 voluntarily retired from official life. 
 
 He moved to Meridian in 1874 and is engaged in 
 the active practice of his profession here. His wife 
 died January 2, 1880, leaving eight children, six of 
 whom are now living. He is an earnest member of 
 the Masonic fraternity and has belonged to and 
 served as master of a number of lodges. 
 
 He has been a life-long Democrat and is an active 
 and effective party worker. 
 
428 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 C. W. TIDWELL. 
 
 MERIDIAN. 
 
 Charles W. Tidwell, County Clerk of Bosque 
 County, was born in Limestone County in 1863. 
 
 His parents, John W. and Frances R. (McGee) 
 Tidwell moved from Mississippi to Texas in 1853 or 
 1854, settling first in Cherokee and then in Lime- 
 stone County, where they resided until 1875, when 
 the family moved to Bosque and bought a farm in 
 the northern part of the county. 
 
 Mr. John W. Tidwell died in 1878. His widow 
 is still living. 
 
 Charles W. Tidwell completed his education by 
 a commercial course at Br3'ant & Stratton's Busi- 
 ness College, at St. Louis, Mo. ; on leaving school. 
 
 in 1885, he accepted a position as salesman in a 
 store at Iredell, Texas, which he continued to fill 
 until elected County Clerk of Bosque County, in 
 1892. He was renominated in 1894 and easily re- 
 elected at the polls, owing to the excellent record he 
 had made as a county official. He was united in 
 marriagein 1886 to Miss Rebecca Mingus, daughter 
 of Mr. J. Mingus, an extensive merchant at Iredell. 
 They have four children : Roberta, Jerry, Ruby and 
 Winnie. 
 
 Mr. Tidwell is a member of the M. E. Church 
 South, Masonic fraternity, and Democratic 
 party. 
 
 JAMES M. ROBERTSON, 
 
 MERIDIAN. 
 
 James M. Robertson, a prominent attorney of 
 Bosque County, Texas, was born in Hunt County, 
 Texas, October 25, 1854, the oldest child born to 
 Eldridge B. and Malinda G. (Dragoo) Robertson. 
 His parents were respectively natives of Tennessee 
 and Missouri. His paternal grandfather moved 
 from North Carolina to Tennessee at an early day, 
 and was one of the first settlers of Nashville. The 
 family is of Scotch-Irish descent and emigrated to 
 America in Colonial times. 
 
 Mr. Robertson's father came to Texas in 1845 
 and settled at Independence, in Washington 
 County; hewed timber for the first cotton gin 
 erected in that section, and shortly thereafter en- 
 gaged in land surveying, which he followed until 
 1850, when he moved to Hunt County, where he 
 located a headright and began farming, and two 
 years later (June 1, 1852) married Miss Malinda 
 G. Dragoo. He moved from Hunt to Bosque 
 County May 3, 1856, and established himself on 
 Hog creek, where he improved a farm and resided 
 until his death, August 3, 1876. Mrs. Robertson 
 is still living, a loved and honored inmate of ihe 
 home of her son, James M. Robertson, at Meridian. 
 
 The subject of this memoir was reared and edu- 
 cated in Bosque County ; was elected County Sur- 
 
 veyor in 1878, and served one term of two years; 
 thereafter engaged in the real estate business at 
 Meridian until 1889, and then, having read law at 
 leisure moments, was admitted to the bar, and 
 formed a copartnership with Mr. J. Jenkins. Mr. 
 Jenkins died the following December, since which 
 time Mr. Robertson has practiced alone. He has 
 acquired large landed interests in Bosque County, 
 and now enjoys a large and lucrative civil and land 
 practice in the various courts of the State. He 
 has for years been an active Democratic worker, 
 and has been a prominent delegate to county, dis- 
 trict and State conventions. He is a Royal Arch 
 Mason (now treasurer of the Masonic Chapter at 
 Meridian), an Odd Fellow, and a member of the 
 M. E. Church, South. October 2, 1879, he was 
 united in marriage to Miss Lula Standifer, a 
 native of Alabama, and a daughter of Mr. John H. 
 Standifer, of Meridian, Texas. 
 
 Six children have blessed this union : Mary Ida, 
 John E., James Monroe, Jr., Felix Hilton, Marvin 
 H., and Joseph Kay Robertson. 
 
 Mr. Robertson has already achieved distinction 
 in his profession, and is destined to win fresh 
 laurels in the future. He is ibe attorney for the 
 largest corporations in his county 
 
V. H. SlLLliMAN. 
 
INDIAN WAES AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 429 
 
 CHARLES HERBERT SILLIMAN, 
 
 FORT WORTH. 
 
 One of Fort Worth's most prominent and influ- 
 ential citizens is Mr. C. H. Silliman, president of 
 the Chamber of Commerce, and manager of the 
 Land Mortgage Baniv of Texas (limited). He 
 is a native of Monroe County, N. Y., born on 
 the banks of Lake Ontario, on the 30th day of 
 .January, 1852. His father, La Fayette Silliman, a 
 native of the State of Connecticut, followed farm- 
 ing until 1862, and then engaged in the manufac- 
 ture of agricultural implements, as a member of the 
 firm of Silliman, Bowman & Company, at Brock- 
 port, N. Y. Subsequently he sold his interest 
 in the manufacturing business to the Johnston 
 Harvester Company, and is now a resident of 
 Albion, Mich. He married Miss Caroline, daugh- 
 ter of Samuel Porter, a well-known manufac- 
 turer of Holly, N. Y., who, at his death, in 
 1880, at the age of ninety years, was one of the 
 oldest Free Masons in the United States. 
 
 Tiie father of our subject is a relative of the 
 noted Professor Silliman of Yale College, and both 
 the Silliman and Porter ancestors were Revolution- 
 ary patriots, and among the original settlers of 
 Connecticut. 
 
 Mr. Silliman spent much of his time while a boy, 
 in his father's factory, receiving considerable prac- 
 tical instruction in mechanics as applied to motive 
 power. He attended the Brockport Academy dur- 
 ing the school year; always spending his summer 
 vacations in the country, on one of his fatjier's 
 farms, where the free, open air and exercise would 
 remove any tendency of the physical system to 
 an unhealthy development, and where his mental 
 faculties could recover their normal vigor after a 
 year of hard study. The Brockport' Academy, in 
 18C7, was converted into a State Normal School, 
 and young Silliman was a member of its second 
 graduating class, delivering the first graduating 
 oration in July, 1869, his subject being: "Men 
 the AVorld Demands." He then went to Albion, 
 Mich., where his parents had removed, and there 
 engaged in teaching in the intermediate department 
 of the public schools. In 1871 he went to New 
 Orleans, where he was appointed first assistant in 
 the Fisk Grammar School, and afterward, in a 
 competitive examination, was awarded the pro- 
 fessorship of natural sciences in the Boys' High 
 School of that city. After filling the duties of that 
 position successfully until 1874, he resigned and 
 
 went to Santa Barbara, Cal., a desire to see the 
 Pacific Coast country prompting the change. Here 
 he was for a year engaged as professor of mathemat- 
 ics in Santa Barbara College. The following year 
 he went to Oakland to fill a chair in the California 
 Military Academy, then under the direction of the 
 Reverend David McClure, the founder and proprie- 
 tor. In 1877 he was elected assistant in the Boys' 
 High School of San Francisco, a position he held 
 for four years. During this time Mr. Silliman took 
 a complete course in Hastings College of the law, 
 and in 1881 was graduated from that department of 
 the University of California with the degree of 
 LL.B., being a member of the first graduating law 
 class of that institution of learning. 
 
 Resigning his position in the high school, he im- 
 mediately entered a wider field of usefulness at San 
 Diego, Cal., by engaging in the practice of the law, 
 but find ing that merchandising in that part of the State 
 would afford greater opportunities for acquiring a 
 competency, he temporarily abandoned the law and 
 became managing partner of the firm of Francisco, 
 Silliman & Company, which was succeeded later by 
 that of Gruendike & Company. Mr. Silliman 
 remained in business at San Diego until 1884, and 
 then came to Texas to look after several tracts of 
 land he had previously acquired in his trading enter- 
 prises. While investigating the inexhaustible re- 
 sources of this State, he concluded that it would 
 be a good field for a land business, and he accord- 
 ingly opened an office in the Masonic Temple in 
 Austin, Texas, being associated with John Mc- 
 Dougall, an old Louisiana friend, who had a branch 
 office at New Orleans. In 1885, Mr. Silliman went 
 to England and succeeded in organizing the com- 
 pany of which he is now the manager. Through his 
 exertions, aided by his wife's relatives, sufficient 
 capital was raised and the company was organized 
 with Mr. Alderman, Benjamin S. Brigg, J. P., of 
 Keighley, England, as chairman. The other direct- 
 ors were the Hon. Harold Finch-Hatton, David 
 MacPherson, Esq., Swire Smith, J. P., Joseph C. 
 Wakefield, Esq., and William Woodall, M. P. 
 Messrs. Smith, Payne & Smiths are the London 
 bankers, and Alfred T. Jay is the London manager. 
 The company organized with a capital of £500,000 
 of which only £11,000 was paid up when they 
 began operations. The development of the busi- 
 ness was rapid. Ample funds were offered as fast 
 
430 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 as they could be profitably employed, and in four 
 years' time the nominal capital was doubled. The 
 company has confined itself exclusively to advance- 
 ments on first mortgages of freehold real estates, 
 not exceeding fifty per cent of their market value, 
 and has been eminently and uniformly successful, 
 paying satisfactory dividends to its stockholders, 
 besides accumulating a reserve fund of £60,000. 
 
 From the inception of the company until the 
 present time Mr. Silliman has had the management 
 of its affairs in Texas, and its uniform success, and 
 the fact that it went through the panic of 1893 
 without the slightest inconvenience, reflects great 
 credit upon his executive ability as a financier. In 
 1889 Mr. Silliman removed his offices from Austin to 
 Fort Worth, and since his residence there has been 
 closely identified with the advancement of the 
 " Queen City," and to his public spirit and liberal- 
 ity is due to a great extent the reputation Fort 
 Worth enjoys as a commercial and financial center. 
 
 In his capacity as president of tlie Chamber of 
 Commerce he has labored heroically and unceas- 
 ingly to secure for the city factories, railroads and 
 other industrial enterprises to employ labor, and 
 has proven himself a tower of strength in encourag- 
 ing and aiding in the development of the city, her 
 industries and institutions. 
 
 His interests are manj', and he is an extremely 
 busy man. Three times he has visited Europe on 
 business in connection with his company. He is a 
 shareholder in several of tlie national banks, of the 
 Fort Worth Stock Yards Company, and is largely 
 interested in Texas real estate. His worth as a 
 progressive and enterprising citizen is fully ap- 
 preciated by his fellow-citizens, and few stand 
 
 higher than he in the esteem and admiration of all. 
 He is a member of the various orders of Free 
 Masonry, being a Past Master of Austin Lodge No. 
 12, and a past officer in the commandery, and the 
 Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, having re- 
 ceived the thirty-second degree. He takes great 
 interest in church work, being a deacon of the First 
 Baptist Church. 
 
 Mr. Silliman was married on the loth da\' of July, 
 187G, in the Church of the Annunciation at New 
 Orleans, La., to the daughter of Benjamin Jack- 
 son, of Louisville, Ky. Mrs. Silliman's mother's 
 maiden name was Swire, her people coming from 
 Keighley, Yorkshire, England. 
 
 Mrs. Silliman's home is known as the Somerville 
 Place. It is situated on the bluff overlooking the 
 Trinity river in the western part of Fort Worth, 
 where he has recently erected one of the handsom- 
 est residences in the city. The residence is modeled 
 after the colonial style of architecture, and is built 
 of granitic pressed-brick, with stone trimmings, and 
 is three stories in height. On the first floor are 
 the parlors, library and dining-room ; on the second 
 the sleeping apartments and billiard room ; while the 
 third floor is almost entirely taken up by the art 
 studio of Mrs. Silliman, who enjoys quite a local 
 reputation as an amateur artist. The entire house 
 is lighted by electricity and is heated by the most 
 approved appliances. Artesian water is supplied 
 by a deep well located on the premises. The house 
 is furnished in exquisite taste, and all in all is one 
 of the most elegant and hospitable homes in Fort 
 Worth, as will l)e attested by many at home 
 and abroad who have been entertained within its 
 walls. 
 
 ROBERT A. LOTT, 
 
 WASHINGTON, 
 
 Came to Tt'xus in 1836, and crossed the Bnizos 
 liver into the town of Old Washington, in Wash- 
 ington County, December 25, of that year. He 
 came hiiher from Mississippi but was a native of 
 Florida, where he was born near the city of Talla- 
 hasse, October 10, 1797. Two brothers, John and 
 Jesse Lott, preceded him to Texas. John lost his 
 life (killed by Indians) near Killum Springs, in 
 Grimes County, about thej'ear 1838. Jesse located 
 at San Antonio, where he died late in the GO's. 
 
 Robert A. Lott located in Washington County, 
 about four miles southwest of Washington, and in 
 1854 returned to the old town of Washington, where 
 he kept a hotel and did a general merchandising 
 business until the breaking out of the late Civil War, 
 when he closed out his business. He took part in 
 the Somervell expedition and was one of tlie Tex- 
 ains captured at Mier. He drew a white bean at 
 tlie hacienda of Salado and thereby escaped death 
 at that place. Those who drew black beans were 
 
INDIAX WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 431 
 
 shot, pursuant to orders received from Santa Anna. 
 He died January 3, 1861, at sixty-three years of 
 age. He doubtless grew up in Florida in the stock- 
 raising business, as he brought a band of flne horses 
 with him to Texas. He married Susan C. Belin, 
 January 17, 1828, who survived until February 28, 
 1895. She was eighty-four years of age at the time 
 of her death. She was born May 29, 1812, and was 
 the mother of eleven children, five of whom, at this 
 writing (1895), are living, viz. : William R., Jesse 
 B., James F., Laura L. (who is now Mrs. John C. 
 McKinney), and Phrandius K. 
 
 Jesse B. Lott, son of Robert A. Lett, is a well- 
 
 known merchant of Navasota. He was born in 
 Washington County, near the old town of Washing- 
 ton, on his father's farm, April 1, 1842, and there 
 grew to manhood. He learned merchandising in 
 his father's store at Old Washington and there fol- 
 lowed same until 1889, when he engaged in busi- 
 ness for himself in Navasota, where he now resides 
 and owns a large mercantile establishment. He 
 married in Washington County, Miss Augusta L., 
 daughter of Col. Henry A. Lockett, a Texas 
 pioneer of 1856. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Lott have three children : Jessie, 
 Alice and Edward T. 
 
 ROBERT ALEXANDER HORLOCK, 
 
 NAVASOTA. 
 
 The subject of this sketch is one of Navasota's 
 most enterprising citizens. He is a native of 
 Alabama, born January 5th, 1849, in the city of 
 Mobile, in that State. His father was of English 
 and his mother of German birth. His father, John 
 Horlock, was a ship-chandler by occupation ; estab- 
 lished himself in Mobile in 1840 and came from 
 that city to Texas in 1860 and located at Galveston, 
 where he engaged in ship-chandelery at the corner 
 of Twentieth and Market streets. His store was 
 one of the very few that kept open for business 
 during the prolonged period covered by the war 
 between the States, sustaining serious losses. He, 
 in 1865, returned to England and opened a store in 
 the city of Liverpool, taking his family with him. 
 He, however, came again to Galveston and soon 
 after his return there died in 1868. His wife sur- 
 vived him until 1892. She died in Navasota. She 
 reared seven children, three of whom are now 
 living, viz.: Robert A., Mrs. T. C. Ogilvy and 
 William, all of whom are living at Navasota. Mr. 
 Robert A. Horlock was about twelve years of age 
 when his parents moved from Mobile to Galveston 
 The war broke out about this time, schools were 
 closed and business disorganized. Young Hor- 
 lock, although a mere lad, absorbed the spiiit of 
 the times, boarded a blockade runner in Galveston 
 harbor, presented himself to the commander for 
 duty and was enlisted as Captain's bo}-. He re- 
 mained in service in this capacity until the fall of 
 
 Richmond and Lee's surrender and experienced all 
 the excitements and adventure incident to this most 
 hazardous feature of warfare. 
 
 The old blockade runner, the steamer Denbiegh, 
 happened to be lying in Galveston harbor when the 
 closing event of the war took place. News of Lee's 
 surrender reached Galveston several days before the 
 arrival of Federal authorities at that port, but was 
 immediately abandoned and her hull and boilers 
 have since lain off Bolliver point, a land-mark often 
 visited by local fishermen, who make large catches 
 from its ruins. 
 
 Mr. Horlock went to England with his parents 
 and returned to Galveston with them, where he was 
 employed as buyer for a firm of hide and wool, deal- 
 ers until 1870. He then spent one year in the hard- 
 ware business on the Strand, and late in 1871, 
 moved to Navasota, in Grimes County, ^since which 
 time he has been a conspicuous figure in the busi- 
 ness development of that place. He is at the head 
 of the firm of Horlock & Hawley (cotton ginners 
 and manufacturers of ice), and is, also, senior 
 member of the firm of Horlock & Schumacher, 
 jewelers. 
 
 He is manager of the Schmacher^Oil Company 
 and has extensive landed iuterests in the Brazos 
 Valley in Grimes Countj'. 
 
 Mr. Horlock has been twice married, in 1872 to 
 Miss Ella Lyon, of Evansville, Ind., who died in 
 1876, leaving one son, Robert, and a daughter, 
 
432 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Emma, and in 1877 to Miss Agnes White, of New 
 Orleans, who has born him seven children, viz. : 
 Agnes, EfBe, Ida, Arthur, Gladys, Naniscah and 
 Henry. 
 
 Mr. Horlock is a meml^er of the K. of P. Uni- 
 formed Knights and Knights of Honor fraternities 
 and is an officer veith the rank of Colonel on the 
 staff of Gen. Hopkins, in the U. R. K. of P. 
 
 GEORGE H. DUNN, 
 
 WHEELOCK. 
 
 His father, Capt. James Dunn, and mother, 
 whose maiden name was Miss Isabella Caufleld 
 (natives of Ireland), sailed from Belfast to America 
 early in the present century ; after a brief residence 
 in South Carolina, settled in 1815 in Alabama, 
 where they lived until 183-2, when they started for 
 Texas, reaching the Irish settlement in Robertson's 
 Colony known as "Stagger Point" in .January, 
 1833, and shortly afterwards moved to Wheelock's 
 prairie, where the following year Capt. Dunn loca- 
 ted a headright, the first of the kind made in 
 that section. Here he built a log-house which 
 became the nucleus of a frontier settlement. In 
 1837 his house was fortified and armed, and be- 
 came a place of considerable importance, the land- 
 oflSce, Courtof the Alcalde, etc., being located there. 
 During his twenty years residence in Texas, he was 
 engaged mainly in locating lands and became the 
 owner of large bodies of " wild land " and great 
 numbers of cattle. He died in August, 1852. 
 His wife survived him eleven years, dying in 
 August, 1863. They had four children who 
 reached maturity. Mary (twice married, first to 
 Felix Robertson, and after his death, to David 
 Love), James (who served in early days against 
 the Indians and died in Navarro County, in 18G5), 
 George H. (subject of this sketch), and Catherine 
 A. (who married Joseph Cavitt and is now 
 deceased). George H. Dunn was born in Green 
 County, Ala., September 30, 1824; and was 
 mainly reared in Robertson County, Texas; was 
 brought up in the saddle and at an early date was 
 one of the best known stock-raisers in Eastern or 
 Central Texas; inherited large landed and cattle 
 interests from his parents and tiirough his untiring- 
 energy and thorough knowledge of the business soon 
 forged to the front as the leading cattleman iu his 
 
 section ; was commissioned by the Confederate 
 Government, with the rank of Captain, to purchase 
 cattle and forward them to the soldiers at the front, 
 and during the war between the States disbursed 
 thousands and thousands of dollars in this service ; 
 during his active business career, which continued 
 until a number of years ago, when he sold his cattle 
 and invested all of his means in land and good 
 securities, his cattle roamed over a dozen counties 
 and he effected many large sales, ranging from 
 $20,000.00 in one instance to $90,000 in another. 
 It would have been impossible for him to have 
 handled this volume of business alone, as he had 
 no educational advantages. He found a valuable 
 assistant in his wife, Mrs. Nancy J. Dunn, who took 
 charge of the clerical end of his business affairs. 
 She was a daughter of Judge Samuel B. Killough 
 (mention of whom will be found elsewhere in this 
 volume) and was born in Robertson County, Texas. 
 She was united in marriage to Capt. George H. 
 Dunn, February 24th, 1861. Thirteen children 
 were born of this union: Mary Ann, James Black- 
 burn, Isabella (who married M. C. Armstrong and 
 died December 9th, 1892) ; Josephine (wife of T. 
 A. Sims of Robertson County) ; Willie, wife of Rev. 
 John H. Jackson) ; Sallie E. (wife of Marsh 
 Mitchell of Wheelock) ; George R., John C, Annette 
 Woodward (wife of Wm. G. Curry of Wheelock) ; 
 Samuel R. Nancy J., and twins Ida and Ada. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Dunn have twenty grandchildren 
 living. 
 
 Both Capt. and Mrs. Dunn are members of the 
 Methodist Church. 
 
 Capt. Dunn was a member of the Masonic fra- 
 ternity for many years, joining the order in Wheel- 
 ock, where he held a membership as long as the 
 local lodge remained in existence. 
 
J. q. YARBOROU: 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 433 
 
 B. H. AHRENBECK, 
 
 NAVASOTA. 
 
 Mr. Ahrenbeck was born and reared in Hanover, 
 Germany, whence he emigrated to America in 1855, 
 landing at Galveston in November of that year. 
 He settled on Spring Branch in Harris County, 
 where he resided two years, and then moved to 
 Hempstead. In 1867 he moved from Hempstead 
 to Navasota, his present place of residence. Mr. 
 Ahrenbeck learned the milling business in Ger- 
 many ; but, on coming to this country, for lack of 
 employment at his trade, worked as a wagon- 
 maker. He built a flour-mill at Navasota in 1877 ; 
 but, after a short and unprofitable run, shut it 
 down, and resumed work as a wagon-maker. In 
 1891 he again went into the milling business, which 
 
 he has since followed. Mr. Ahrenbeck was accom- 
 panied to this country by his brother Charles, and 
 they were always associated together in business 
 until the latter's death September 23, 1885. Both 
 were competent mechanics, and struggled hard 
 during their early years in Texas to secure a foot- 
 hold. Their efforts were finally rewarded with 
 success. They built up a good trade and secured 
 a first-class standing in the community where they 
 lived. Mr. Ahrenbeck is one of the leading citi- 
 zens of Navasota, a man of means and is highly 
 respected. 
 
 He married Mrs. Weston, of Grimes County, in 
 1869, but has no children. 
 
 JAMES QUINCY YARBOROUGH, 
 
 GRIMES COUNTY. 
 
 Col. James Quincy Yarborough, son of Alfred 
 and Mary Yarborough, was bora in Coosa County, 
 Ala., September 8, 1827, and was reared in Marengo 
 and Sumter counties in that State, growing up on 
 his father's farm, where his boyhood and youth were 
 divided between the duties and sports of the farm 
 and his attendance at the local schools. His op- 
 portunities for obtaining an education were good 
 and he availed himself of them. At about the age 
 of twenty-one he married and began life as a 
 planter upon his own account. He engaged in 
 [ilanting in his native State until the death of his 
 wife in 1852, when, unsettled by that event and 
 filled with a desire to try his fortunes in the new 
 West, he went to California in 1849 where, however, 
 he remained only a short time, returning thence to 
 Alabama. In 1859 he came to Texas, settling at 
 Apolonia, in Grimes County, where he was residing 
 at the opening of the late war. He entered the 
 Confederate army as a member of Company H., 
 Carter's Regiment, with which he served in Texas, 
 Arkansas and Louisiana until the close of the strug- 
 gle. His services were rendered in the capacity of 
 a private, but the title of "Colonel," which he 
 subsequently bore, was not a purely honorary dis- 
 
 tinction, as he was Colonel of the State Militia in 
 Alabama previous to his removal to Texas, and took 
 an active part in military matters in that State. 
 
 After the war, in 1869, Col. Yarborough became 
 associated with Lewis J. Wilson and W. R. Howell, 
 under the firm name of Wilson, Yarborough &Co., 
 and embarked in the mercantile business at Ander- 
 son, Apolonia, and Navasota, in Grimes County, 
 and at Madisonville, in Madison County. This 
 partnership lasted until 1875, when Col. Yarborough 
 disposed of his interest, and subsequently engaged 
 in business on his own account in Navasota. Later 
 he moved his business to the present station of 
 Yarborough, on the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe 
 Railway, ten miles from Navasota, and there 
 followed merchandising and farming until his 
 death. He met with more than ordinary suc- 
 cess both as a merchant and planter and left a 
 handsome estate. He was entirely devoted to 
 business, never holding any public positions and 
 taking only such interest in politics as good citizen- 
 ship required. When occasion demanded, how- 
 ever, he never hesitated to go to the front in every 
 movement and he always displayed in public mat- 
 ters much of the same spirit, energy, and enterprise 
 
434 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 which brought such pronounced success in his own 
 undertakings. He was especially active in securing 
 the extension of the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe 
 Railway through Grimes County and gave to the 
 company the grounds on which the station of Yar- 
 borough is situated to which he added a bonus of 
 $2,000 in cash to aid in the construction of the 
 road. 'Whatever tended in any way to stimulate 
 industry, to increase the value of property or build 
 up the community, found in him an intelligent and 
 cordial supporter. In politics he was a staunch 
 Democrat, adhering strictly to the principles and 
 traditions of the party. He never asked office for 
 himself but always stood ready to assist with his 
 means and personal efforts those who were honored 
 as standard bearers of the party, and in his quiet 
 but vigorous way did good service for the men 
 and measures of his choice. Col. Yarborough 
 was a man of strong likes and dislikes. There was 
 not the slightest trace of the compromise element 
 in his nature. He always took sides and sought in 
 every legitimate way to carry his point. If he pro- 
 fessed friendship for one he was ready to testify to 
 that friendship in a substantial way, and if any one 
 incurred his displeasure he did not hesitate to let 
 the fact be known. He was of a retiring disposi- 
 tion but did his own thinking, acting vigorously and 
 promptly as occasion demanded. He was of genial 
 nature, affable to his friends and easily approached 
 
 by strangers. Persistent in wiiat he believed to be 
 right or expedient, he never abandoned his matured 
 opinions at the suggestion, or as the result of the 
 opposition of any one. He joined the Masons in 
 Alabama previous to his removal to Texas, and was 
 a liberal contributor to every worthy purpose. 
 
 Col. Yarborough was three times married and left 
 surviving him ten children. His first marriage 
 occurred in Alabama and was to Miss Mary A. 
 Parham, a native of that State and a daughter of 
 Mathew Parham, a respectable and well-to-do 
 planter. The issue of this union was one son, the 
 present Mathew Parham Yarborough, of Navasota. 
 His second marriage occurred in Texas and was to 
 Miss Alice Scott, a daughter of Judge James Scott, 
 of Grimes County. Three children were horn of 
 this union, viz., Mant, now Mrs. Tom Owen, Alfred, 
 and Jas. L. Yarborough. His last marriage took 
 place in Florida and was to Miss Fannie A. Milton, 
 a native of Marianna, that State, and a daughter 
 of Governor John A. Milton, who served in the 
 Florida Indian wars and was Governor of the State 
 during the war between the States. The six chil- 
 dren of this union are: Earle H., J. Milton, Martha 
 E., Virgil H., Guy and Hunter. 
 
 Col. Yarborough's death occurred December 23,^ 
 1890, and called forth many expressions of sorrow 
 from the people of Grimes County, to whom he was- 
 well known and by whom he was greatly respected. 
 
 LEWIS J. WILSON, 
 
 NAVASOTA. 
 
 Was born in Harwinton, Litchfield County, 
 Conn., December 12th, 1832. While an infant his 
 parents moved to Marion, Ala., where they resided 
 until he was fourteen years old, when he was sent 
 North to complete his education, where he remained 
 until he was nineteen years of age. 
 
 Mr. Wilson came of an old Connecticut family, 
 one that has long been prominent in the history of 
 that State. His father, Samuel Wilson, a merchant 
 of large means, moved from Connecticut to 
 Marion, Ala., in the early 30' s and there engaged 
 in the mercantile business until 1851, when he 
 came to Texas and established a business at Ander- 
 son, in Grimes County, in copartnership with 
 Chester M. Case, under the firm name of Case & 
 Wilson. The son, Lewis J., came out to Texas in 
 
 1852, took the position of bookkeeper and general 
 manager for the firm and, later, acquired a pro- 
 prietary interest in the business. Mr. Lewis J. 
 Wilson served as a member of Capt. J. R. Alston's 
 Company, Twenty-first (Carter's) Regiment of 
 Texas Cavalry for two j'ears during the war between 
 the States, and was then honorably discharged from 
 active service in the field on accouut of physical 
 disabilities. Returning to Anderson, he was soon 
 after made chief clerk in the ordnance department 
 at that place, remaining until the war was over. 
 Immediately after the war he began merchandising 
 in his own name. In 1866 he associated himself 
 with Col. J. Q. Yarborough and, in 1869, Mr. W. 
 R. Howell was admitted to a partnership in the firm. 
 Mr. Wilson and his partner, Mr. Yarborough, soon 
 
INDJAN WANS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 435 
 
 after moved to Navasota and opened up a general 
 mercantile business, leaving Mr. Howell in charge 
 of the business at Anderson. In 1875 Mr. Yar- 
 borough withdrew from the firm and the business 
 was continued by Wilson & Howell for six years. 
 Mr. Howell afterwards retired and Mr. Wilson con- 
 tinued the business up to his death. In May, 1890, 
 Mr. Wilson in connection with his son-in-law, Mr. 
 Gibbs, established the Merchants' and Farmers' 
 Bank at Kosse, in Limestone County, a private 
 concern which has done and still continues to do a 
 good business. 
 
 In the year 1858 he was married to Miss Lucy 
 Perkins, of Harwinton, Conn., who still survives 
 him. The result of this union was two children, 
 Laura and Sam. Miss Laura married Mr. Blake 
 Gibbs, and is now a widow, Mr. Gibbs having died 
 February 1st, 1891. Sam, who was married to 
 Miss May Matthews, of Navasota, Texas, died 
 July 10th, 1893. 
 
 Mr. Wilson died at his residence in Navasota, dur- 
 ing the morning of March 8th, 1895, after an ill- 
 ness of only twenty-four hours. For several months 
 
 Mr. Wilson had been in bad health, although able 
 to make almost daily visits to his business office. 
 In the morning previous to his decease he was 
 stricken with apoplexy. He remained in an un- 
 conscious state from that time until 4 o'clock a. m., 
 March 8th, when he quietly passed from earth, 
 through the valley of the shadow of death, into 
 the bright beyond. A friend writing of him 
 says : — 
 
 "Mr. Wilson was distinguished for his close 
 application to business and strict integrity. Those 
 who knew him best and were most closely associa- 
 ted with him in business, knew him as an honest 
 man, and unassuming, modest gentleman. Less 
 than a year previous to his death he embraced the 
 religion of Clirist and united with the Presbyterian 
 Church of Navasota. The sincerilj' of that profes- 
 sion is best attested by those who saw his daily life 
 and heard his conversation. His regular attend- 
 ance on all the services of the sa'nctuary was to his 
 pastor and all true Christians a fitting evidence of 
 his interest in divine things, all of whom will sadly 
 miss his familiar face." 
 
 NORVAL C. WILSON, 
 
 COLORADO COUNTY. 
 
 Norval C. Wilson was born in Lewisburg, 
 Greenbrier County, Va, October 2, 1837; moved 
 to Texas with his parents, Hugh and Adeline 
 P. Wilson, in 1846, and settled in Colorado 
 County; entered the Virginia Military Institute, at 
 Lexington, Va., in 1854, and graduated from that 
 institution in 1858 ; served in the Confederate army 
 as Lieutenant in Brown's Regiment of Texas Cavalry 
 during the war between the States, and returned to 
 Texas after the surrender ; engaged in farming at 
 the old farm-place in Colorado County and now 
 owns a fine farm consisting of three hundred and 
 fiftv acres of bottom land and one hundred acres of 
 
 upland. Mr. Wilson's father died in June, 1857, 
 and his mother in June, 1885. September 25, 
 1865, Mr. Wilson was united in marriage to Miss 
 Mollie E. Sanford, daughter of Maj. John A. San- 
 ford, of Tyler, Texas. Three children have been 
 born to them : Delia, wife of B. F. Moore, of 
 Glidden, Texas ; Bessie, wife of W. J. Wright, of 
 Colorado County, Texas, and Hugh, who lives at 
 home with his parents. Mr. Wilson is an enter- 
 prising and public-spirited citizen of Colorado 
 County and few men in that section have so large a 
 number of warm friends and admirers. 
 
436 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 JOHN WAHRENBERGER, 
 
 AUSTIN. 
 
 If the early settlement of Texas, the final accom- 
 plishment of her independence, and the founding of 
 a splendid commonwealth is due to only one par- 
 ticular cause, it is certainly due to the resolute and 
 determined character of her pioneers. The real 
 pioneers of Texas were not as a rule adventur- 
 ers, but men and women born and raised amid 
 civilizing influences in law-abiding communities of 
 this and foreign lands, and it was the future 
 possibilities of the Lone Star Republic, the promise 
 of rewards for honest and well-directed labor, that 
 enticed them hither. They came to acquire homes, 
 rear their families and reap for themselves the 
 blessings of free government. The permanent set- 
 tlement of many of the fairest portions of Texas 
 was accomplished by the organized influx of people 
 from the German Empire and kindred peoples. A 
 majority of tliem were practically without means. 
 Their only capital consisted, in the main, of stout 
 hearts, strong constitutions and a spirit of adapt- 
 ability which collectively proved the very best 
 capital they could possibly have brought with them 
 to a frontier country. After Texas had acquired 
 her independence and assumed the dignity of a 
 Republic, she attracted widesi)read attention and 
 heavy accessions to her population. Antedating 
 that period, settlements had been made chiefly in the 
 Gulf-Coast country and along the Lower Brazos 
 river ; but, after the location of the permanent seat of 
 government at Austin, the tide of settlement drifted 
 in that direction, and among those who became 
 identified with the young and growing city was the 
 subject of this sketch. John Wahrenberger was of 
 Swiss parentage. He was born in Switzerland, the 
 most romantic and picturesque of all countries, in 
 the month of April, 1812. 
 
 Possessed of a restless and ambitious nature, he 
 left his native home when a youth and went to 
 Italy. There he learned the baker's trade. The 
 condition of affairs in that then distracted country 
 did not suit his ambitious purposes, and he, ac- 
 cordingly, in 1836, emigrated to America, landing 
 at New Orleans, where he found employment with 
 a French wine importing house. He remained in 
 New Orleans about five years, and in 1841 came 
 to Austin. This was during the exciting early 
 days of the Republic, and the lively interest with 
 wliich he entered into local affairs made for him 
 many friends, and he soon became po|)ular with 
 
 the people, and familiarly known to them as 
 "Dutch John." Upon his arrival in Austin he 
 engaged on a modest scale in the confectionery, 
 bakery and grocery business. In 18.50 he erected 
 a two-story building on the southeast corner of 
 Congress avenue and Seventh street, and two years 
 later occupied it. This was at that time one of 
 the most pretentious buildings in the town. He 
 prospered financially from the time he first opened 
 his establishment. 
 
 May 10th, 1848, he was united in marriage by 
 Chief Justice Curamings to Miss Caroline, a daugh- 
 ter of Charles Klein, a Texas pioneer of Swiss 
 nativity, and a citizen of high respectability, who 
 still survives, a venerable resident of Austin. 
 
 Mr. Klein reached Texas on Christmas day, 
 1846, with his family. Placing his two daughters 
 in an English school in Galveston, he, with his 
 wife and son, Arnold, proceeded by ox-teams to 
 Austin. He has been an active and reasonably 
 successful business man. His first wife, the 
 mother of his children, was Barbara Schubiyer, 
 a daughter of a Swiss farmer. Of her children, 
 besides Mrs. Wahrenberger and Arnold, there still 
 survives Albertine, widow of the late Jacob 
 Steussy. Mr. Wahrenberger's early residence in 
 Austin was fi aught with many of the exciting 
 experiences so common to those unsettled time?. 
 The country was as yet full of hostile Indians, 
 who took every opportunity to raid the town or 
 lurk in waiting by the roadside to waylay unsus- 
 pecting travelers. On one occasion, when on the 
 way to his home, he narrowly escaped death from 
 an Indian's arrow. A sack of meal which he car- 
 ried on his shoulder received the deadly missile and 
 saved his life. A second shot crippled his arm, 
 however, for life. 
 
 Mr. Wahrenberger was in the " Archive War." 
 While on a business trip down the country about 
 sixty miles he overheard a discussion about the 
 contemplated removal of the archives. He had no 
 horse or conveyance and therefore walked back to 
 Austin to give the alarm. When he reached town 
 the deed had been accomplished and he, with others, 
 pursued the party intrusted b}' Gen. Houston 
 with the task of removal and compelled it to return 
 the archives to their old place in the public build- 
 ings at the capital. 
 
 He was a busy, industrious, frugal man, pos- 
 
MRS. WAHRENBERGER. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 437 
 
 sessed a warm heart and benevolent nature, and 
 many are the quiet and becoming charities that, in 
 his modest way, he dispensed. 
 
 He died March 9, 1864, on his farm, whitlier he 
 had retired with the hope of renewing his impaired 
 health. 
 
 Mrs. AVahrenberger took up the reins of business 
 and has distinguished herself in Austin for her 
 executive abihty. She has done more in the way 
 of substantially building up the business streets of 
 Austin than any other woman, besides improving 
 some nice pieces of residence property. After the 
 death of her husband, she, with her family, so- 
 journed in Europe about four years for the pur- 
 pose, chiefly, of finishing the education of her chil- 
 dren. Her son, now a prosperous architect at San 
 Antonio, was graduated from a polytechnic insti- 
 tute at Carls Rhue, Baden, Germany, and the 
 daughters attended a private seminary at Zurich. 
 
 To Mr. and Mrs. Wahrenberger were born five 
 children: Elizabeth, deceased; James, before men- 
 tioned ; Bertha, deceased ; Josephine, wife of 
 William CuUen ; and Mary, widow of the late 
 Ernest Leuferman. 
 
 Mrs. Wahrenberger has, to a very great extent, 
 carved out her own fortunes. She is possessed of 
 keen business discrimination and abilities and, 
 withal, finds time for much charitable and benevo- 
 lent work. She was one of the first promoters and 
 organizers of the German Relief Society and has 
 for many years served as its president and execu- 
 tive head. The benefactions of this organization 
 are legion and have had a wonderfully uplifting 
 influence in Austin among the poor. 
 
 Mrs. Wahrenberger is esteemed throughout the 
 community for her many excellent qualities. 
 
 She is rightfully regarded as one of the mothers 
 of Austin. 
 
 FELIX G. ROBERTS, 
 
 NAVASOTA, 
 
 Is a son of Elisha and Patsy (Gill) Roberts, the 
 former of whom was born on the Holston river in 
 East Tennessee in 1775 and the latter in Bedford 
 County, Va., some time near 1780. Both went to 
 Kentucky after attaining their majority and there 
 met and in 1800 were married. In 1801 Elisha 
 Roberts visited Texas, then a dependency of the 
 Spanish Crown, making his way as far as the Trinity 
 river. Returning to Kentucky he settled in Barren 
 County, where he lived until 1811, when he moved 
 to Washington Parish, La. There he resided until 
 1822, when becoming again smitten with the "Texas 
 fever," he came out and took a second look at the 
 country and this time decided to settle in it. He 
 prospected in the vicinity of Ayish bayou, in the 
 eastern part of the State, and, having purchased 
 what was known as an improvement from William 
 Elam, about four miles from San Augustine, moved 
 and settled there in 1823. As time passed he bought 
 other "improvements" as they were offered for 
 sale, and finally, when the lands came into market 
 under the Mexican colonization laws, located a 
 headright and established a considerable plantation, 
 for that day, four hundred acres being put under 
 cultivation. His house, fronting on the public 
 highway coming into Texas, was frequented by 
 
 many overland travelers, and was known far and 
 wide. He died there October 4, 1844, and his 
 widow in December, 1845. He never performed 
 any military service in Texas, but was a soldier in 
 the War of 1812-14, between the United States and 
 Great Britain ; held some minor civil offices while 
 residing in Louisiana and served for a number of 
 years as Alcalde under the Mexican government 
 after coming to Texas. 
 
 Nine children, six daughters and three sons, were 
 born to him and his beloved wife, viz. : Annie, who 
 married Bryan Daugherty and settled on Mill 
 creek, in Austin County, this State, where she 
 died and her descendants now live ; Elizabeth, who 
 married William D. Smith, settled in Sabine County 
 and died in the town of San Augustine ; Easter J., 
 who married Philip A. Sublett, and lived in San 
 Augustine until the time of her death ; Matilda 
 F., who was three times married, her second bus- 
 band, Sam. T. Allen, was murdered by Indians in 
 the famous " Surveyors' Fight," in Navarro 
 County); William G. , who died at Miami Univer- 
 sity, Oxford, Ohio, when a young man ; Noel G., 
 who settled six miles from San Augustine, where he 
 died; Mahala L., who married a Mr. Sharp and, 
 after his death, a Mr. Hall, and died in Houston 
 
438 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 County ; Felix G., the subject of this memoir, and 
 Margaret S., who married Alexander S. McDoland, 
 of Huntsville, and died in Houston of cholera. 
 
 Felix Grundy Roberts, the youngest but one and 
 now the only survivor of the above family, was 
 born in Washington Parish, La., August 23, 1818. 
 He was just five 3'ears old when his parents 
 moved to Texas ; remembers riding behind an elder 
 sister on horseback when the family crossed the 
 Sabine, and many other incidents of the journey. 
 He was chiefly reared at San Augustine. Attended 
 school in Kentucky and completed his education at 
 the Universit}', at Lexington, in that State, where 
 he took a full law course, graduating in the class of 
 1842, of which the late Judge Thomas J. Devine 
 was also a member. 
 
 While at Lexington, Mr. Roberts met and 
 married Miss Elizabeth K. Layton, a native of 
 Kentucky, the marriage occurring August 2, 
 1842. Returning to Texas he abandoned the idea 
 of practicing law and devoted his attention to his 
 plantation, near San Augustine, until 1859, when he 
 moved to Washington County, where he had pur- 
 chased a farm, and there lived engaged in agricul- 
 tural pursuits, until his recent removal to Navasota, 
 in Grimes County, where he now resides. 
 
 August 5, 1894, Mr. Roberts lost his wife, after 
 
 a happy married life of fifly-two years. They 
 raised to maturity four sons: John Harrison, 
 Patrick Henry, Charles Morgan, and Jefferson 
 Davis, all of whom are married and either planters 
 or stockmen. Mr. Roberts has resided in Texas 
 for seventy-two years and has never seriously 
 thought of leaving the State but once, that being in 
 1849, when he went to California. After a resi- 
 dence of more than a 3'ear there, during which he 
 endured many hardships, he returned to Texas, 
 fully satisfied to make his home here for the rest of 
 his days. He was personally acquainted with Ellis 
 P. Bean (who stopped at his father's house near 
 San Augustine), Gen. Piedras, Col. Almonte. Gen. 
 Sam. Houston, Thomas J. Rusk, J. Pinkney Hen- 
 derson, David S. Kauffman, William B. Ochiltree, 
 and many other men who figure prominently on 
 the pages of Texas history. 
 
 Mr. Roberts has passed through many changing 
 scenes and trying vicissitudes, through all of which 
 he moved as a brave and true-hearted gentleman 
 and from which he emerged with untarnished honor. 
 
 He lived to see Texas transformed from a well- 
 nigh uninhabited wilderness to a well-settled and 
 prosperous State of the Union and now, in his old 
 age, enjoys the confidence and esteem of all who 
 knew him. 
 
 JOSEPH BROOKS, 
 
 NAVASOTA. 
 
 The subject of this sketch was a native of En- 
 gland, born in Greenwich, April 11, 1830. In 1852 
 he married Miss Mary Ann Farrar, of Greenwich, 
 and the following year came to Texas, settling in 
 the town of Old Washington. He resided there 
 until 1866, when he moved to Navasota, which place 
 he made his home until his death. During his forty- 
 odd years residence in Texas, Mr. Brooks was 
 actively engaged at his trade, embarking at Nava- 
 sota extensively in the coftin-manufacturing and 
 undertaking business. 
 
 The present lumber establishment of Jesse 
 
 Youeus & Company, at Navasota, one of the lar- 
 gest in the State, was founded by him. He was a 
 man of industrious habits, a skillfull workman, 
 possessed good business ability, and, as a result of 
 these qualities, accumulated a very handsome estate. 
 With the exception of the office of Alderman of 
 Navasota, he never filled any public position, but, 
 nevertheless, was a public-spirited citizen and dis- 
 charged his duties as such in every capacity. 
 
 He died December 1st, 1889. His widow and 
 one daughter, Mrs. Benjamin F. Salycr, survive 
 him and reside at Navasota. 
 
.^^ 
 
INDIAN WARS AND FIONEEIiS OF TEXAS. 
 
 439 
 
 THOMAS J. MORRIS, 
 
 Rev. Thomas J. Morris, the well-known farmer 
 and minister of the gospel of Colorado County, was 
 born in the State of Florida, December 30, 1843 : 
 completed his education at the University of the 
 South ; served as a soldier in the Confederate army 
 in Company B., Eighth Florida Regiment, during 
 the war between the States, participating in the 
 battles of the Wilderness and Gettysburg (in both 
 of which he was severely wounded), and in 18fi7 
 moved to Texas, and settled in Colorado County in 
 
 1874, where he has since resided. After coming to 
 Texas, he married Miss Mary B. Hunt, adopted 
 daughter of Capt. William Hunt. This union has 
 been blessed with six children: William Hunt, 
 Howard C, Mabel, Mary E., Thomas J., Jr.. and 
 Francis Wilmans Morris. 
 
 Rev. Mr. Morris is one of the most progressive 
 and truly representative men of his county and 
 deservedly ranks high as a citizen and Christian 
 gentleman. 
 
 F. W. BROSIG, 
 
 NAVASOTA. 
 
 Ferdinand Wallace Brosig was born in Niesse, 
 Germany, October 31, 1842, and when seven years 
 of age came to America with his parents, Joseph 
 and Augusta Brosig, and other members of the 
 family, who landed at Galveston, 1849, and pro- 
 ceeded to Houston, where they made their home and 
 where the subject of this brief memoir passed his 
 boyhood and youth and learned the tinner's trade. 
 His father and mother died when he was a child. 
 When in his nineteenth year he enlisted in the Con- 
 federate army as a volunteer and was mustered into 
 service at San Antonio as a soldier in H. B. 
 Andrews' Regiment, and some time later was put in 
 charge of the mechanical department of the Trans- 
 Mississippi Department of the Confederate .States 
 Army and stationed at Anderson, in Grimes County, 
 where he remained until the close of hostilities and 
 for a year thereafter, and then removed to Navasota, 
 where he passed the remaining years of his life. 
 
 July 2, 1867, he was united in marriage to Miss 
 Josephine Shafer, daughter of J. P. Shafer, a mer- 
 chant of Navasota. Her parents were natives of 
 Germany. They were pioneer settlers in the city 
 of Houston, where they located in 1848 and she was 
 horn in 1849. Mr. Brosig clerked and worked at 
 his trade until 1871, and then purchased his father- 
 in-law's establishment and embarked in the hard- 
 ware and agricultural implement business. During 
 the time intervening between 1871 and 1886 he sus- 
 tained three serious business losses by fire, and 
 once the loss of his residence. Being a man of 
 
 great will-power and indomitable perseverance he 
 surmounted all such reverses and built anew upon 
 the ashes of his former fortunes. In 1886 he 
 erected the "Brosig Block" (a two-story brick 
 building, 58 by 145 feet, in the heart of the business 
 center of Navasota), which he fitted up for the hard- 
 ware and crockery business and where he did 
 thereafter an extensive and successful business. It 
 was mainly through the efforts of Mr. Brosig that 
 the First National Bank of Navasota was organized 
 in 1890. He was elected president of the bank 
 upon its establishment and continued to serve as 
 such until the time of his death, which occurred at 
 11:30 p. m., the night of July 31, 1893, at his 
 home in Navasota, Texas. Aside from his mercan- 
 tile business, he owned valuable real estate interests 
 in and about Navasota. 
 
 Mr. Brosig's death was caused by a paralytic 
 stroke. His funeral was one of the most largely 
 attended ever witnessed in Navasota, of which place 
 he had been a citizen for twenty-nine years. The 
 religious services took place at St. Paul's Episcopal 
 Church, Rev. Dr. Dunn officiating. He was buried 
 in the Oakland Cemetery with Masonic honors. 
 Mr. Brosig had one brother, Hugo Brosig, now a 
 merchant at El Paso, who located at, lived in and 
 was for many years a prominent citizen of Galves- 
 ton, where he was for several years Justice of the 
 Peace of the city. Joseph, another brother, settled 
 in Mexico, where he distinguished bipself as a 
 General in the Mexican army. 
 
440 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Mr. Brosig left surviving him a widow and five 
 cliildren, four daugliters and one son, Annie, Elea- 
 nor, Joseph Wallace, Mattie, Nettie. The son has 
 charge of the hardware business and other property 
 interests left by his father, which he manages for 
 the benefit of the estate. 
 
 Mr. Brosig was a man of sterling traits of char- 
 acter. Possessed of keen business foresight and 
 strictest integrity, his judgment was consulted upon 
 quite all matters of local concern. His influence 
 was always exercised on the side of good morals. 
 
 for the maintenance and enforcement of the laws of 
 the land and for the promotion of all movements 
 looking to the welfare and advancement of his 
 home, cilj' and countj-. He possessed the un- 
 bounded confidence of a wide business acquaintance 
 and a large circle of friends throughout Central 
 Texas. He left an honored name and fine estate 
 as legacies to his family. 
 
 His memory will be long kept fresh and green by 
 the many who knew and loved him for his genuine 
 manly worth. 
 
 J. E. DYER, 
 
 RICHMOND. 
 
 The late J. E Dyer, for so many years a promi- 
 nent figure in the section of the State in which he 
 lived, was born at Stafford's Point, in Fort Bend 
 County, Texas, July 11, 1832, and was reared and 
 educated in the town of Richmond, in that county, 
 to which place his parents moved when he was seven 
 j'ears of age. 
 
 His father. Judge C. C. Dyer, came to Texas, in 
 1822, from Dyersburg, Tenn., and settled in what 
 is now Harris County, where he resided for a num- 
 ber of years. He then moved to Fort Bend County, 
 where he passed the remaining years of his life. 
 In journeying to Texas, Judge Dyer traveled in 
 company with Mr. "William Stafford and family, 
 consisting of A. Stafford and Misses Sarah and 
 Mary Stafford. Acquaintance with Miss Stafford 
 ripened into love and they were married at Natchi- 
 toches, La., upon the arrival of the party at that 
 place. Her grandfather built and owned a place 
 in Tennessee called Stafford's Mills, which still 
 bears that name. Judge Dyer served as a member 
 of the First Commissioners' Court of Harris County 
 and later was elected County Judge of the county 
 and filled that office for a period of ten years. 
 Judge Dyer was in the famous battle of the " Horse- 
 Shoe," when quite a boy. He followed the occu- 
 pation of a trader for many years after coming to 
 Texas, bringing goods from Nachitoches, La., to 
 the then sparsely settled Mexican province and was 
 absent from Texas on one of these trips when the 
 battle of San Jacinto was fought. He and liis wife 
 died in Fort Bend County and are buried in the 
 family cem'etery at Eichmond. Mr. J. E. Dyer, 
 the subject of this memoir, was educated in private 
 
 schools at Richmond and upon reaching manhood 
 engaged in stock-raising and merchandising and in 
 the banking business at that place. He was a suc- 
 cessful business man and left at the time of his 
 death a considerable estate to his widow and 
 children. 
 
 He served as County Treasurer of Fort Bend 
 County, from 1852 to 1859, a period of seven years, 
 and at various times filled many positions of honor 
 and trust. An uncompromising Democrat, he did 
 much to promote the cause of good government in 
 his section of the State. Every worthy enterprise 
 found in him a liberal supporter. Enlightened, 
 liberal and public-spirited, he was a power for good 
 in his day and generation. The needy and friend- 
 less were often relieved by his bounty, and there 
 are very many who have reason to revere his mem- 
 ory. He served during the war between the States 
 as a soldier in Brown's Battalion, Waul's Legion, 
 and was stationed for a time at Matagorda, but saw 
 no field service, as the command, detailed, as it 
 was, for coast defense duty, was never in an 
 engagement. 
 
 He was a member of the " Temple of Honor," 
 an old organization in Texas, but was connected 
 with no other secret or fraternal societ}'. He was 
 united in marriage to Miss Isabella M. T. Heard, 
 at Woodville, Texas, Januarj' 4, 1859. Eight chil- 
 ren were born of this union, viz. : J. T. and H. 
 L. Dyer, who own the largest mercantile establish- 
 ment at Richmond ; Ray and Milton Dyer, who 
 are attending the Texas Military Academy at San 
 Antonio ; C. C. and Reginald Dyer, who stay at 
 home on the ranch four miles from Richmond ; 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 441 
 
 Maud, wife of Mr. H. M. White, of Houston, and 
 Julia, wife of Mr. A. B. Heard, of Riclimond, and 
 J. E. Dyer, Jr. Mr. Dyer died at Bourne, October 
 31, 1894, wbitber he had gone in the hope of res- 
 toration to health, and is buried in the family 
 cemetery at Eiehmond. His death was a sad 
 bereavement to his family, to which he was 
 thoroughly devoted. His loss was also deeply 
 mourned by a wide circle of friends extending 
 throughout Texas. 
 
 Mrs. Dyer's parents, Mr. George L. and Mrs. 
 K. (Wright) Heard, were Georgians by birth and 
 came to Texas at an early day. Her mother's 
 father was Dr. Isaac Wright, of Tennessee. 
 
 Mrs. Dyer had four brothers who served in the 
 Confederate army during the late war. Of these 
 
 G. W. Heard died ten days after the batile of Cor- 
 inth, from wounds received at Oxford, Miss. ; W. 
 F. Heard, for years a banker at Cleburne, Texas, 
 died at that place a few years since; J. F. Heard 
 
 lives at Woodville, Texas, and Heard died 
 
 soon after the war. Mrs. Dyer's mother and father 
 died at Woodville, and are buried there. The Dyer 
 and Heard families have been prominent in social, 
 business and political life in Texas, since settling in 
 this State, and representatives have distinguished 
 themselves in various professions, civil and mili- 
 tary, in other parts of the Union. J. A. Dyer, Jr., 
 died Julj' 25, 1895, aged twenty-one years. He 
 was educated at the University of Georgetown. He 
 was a young man of great promise and his death 
 was a sore affliction to his family and many friends. 
 
 WILLIAM M. KNIGHT, 
 
 MERIDIAN. 
 
 William M. Knight was born in New Hampshire 
 in 1855. His parents, Prof. Ephraim and Mrs. 
 Augusta B. (Crain) Knight, were natives of that 
 State, and scions of an old Colonial family of Scotch- 
 Irish descent. Prof. Ephraim Knight was one of 
 the founders of the New London Literary and 
 Scientific Academy (now Colby Academy), and 
 occupied the chair of mathematics in that institution 
 until 1876, when he retired after many years of 
 service. He died in 1878. His widow is still 
 living in New Hampshire. 
 
 William M. Knight graduated from Colby 
 Academy in 1873, and Brown Universily in 1877, 
 winning the degree of A. B. at the University ; 
 went to Charleston, W. Va. , in 1878 and entered 
 the law office of Smith & Knight (the latter gentle- 
 man an uncle), and was admitted to the bar in 
 
 1880, and shortly thereafter came to Texas and 
 located at Meridian, where he has since resided. 
 He has served three times as County Attorney of 
 Bosque County, twice by appointment and one full 
 term, from 1884 to 1886, by election. 
 
 December 3d, 1890, he was united in marriage to 
 Miss Mattie E. Farmer, a native of Virginia, but 
 then recently from Missouri. Mr. Knight is a 
 member of the Masonic fraternity ; a member of 
 the Blue Lodge and Chapter at Meridian and of 
 Cleburne Knight Templar Commandery No. 10, 
 and has served as master of the lodge and high 
 priest of the chapter at Meridian. He is an active 
 Democratic worker and has been a delegate to 
 various party conventions. 
 
 As a lawyer he ranks among the most skillful 
 practitioners of the Central Texas bar. 
 
442 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 JAMES R. MOSS, 
 
 LLANO. 
 
 James R. Moss, elciest son of Malhew W. and centh 3'ear, lie entered the Confederate army as 
 
 Mary Moss, was born iu Fayette County, Texas, a member of Company E., Seventeenth Texas 
 
 January 24, 1843, and was reared in Williamson Infantry, McCuUoeli's Brigade, with which he began 
 
 County, where his parents settled four years later. active service in Arkansas, and later took part in 
 
 JAMES K. MOSS AND WIFE. 
 
 His educational advantages were limited, the 
 neighborhood schools taught from three to four 
 months in the year, being the sole reliance of the 
 youth of his day for that mental training and 
 equipment now considered so essential to success in 
 life. 
 
 At the opening of the late war, then in his eight- 
 
 that series of brilliant military movements along 
 Red river incident to the Federal General Banks' 
 campaign iu Arkansas and Louisiana. He was in- 
 jured by a fall the day before the battle of Mans- 
 field, which necessitated his transfer from the 
 infantry to the cavalry, in which branch he served 
 during the remainder of the war. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 443 
 
 After the surrender Mr. Moss engaged in the live 
 stock business in Llano County, which he has since 
 followed, having thus been identified with the cattle 
 industry nearly all his life and is familiar with all 
 its details and experiences. He is one of the oldest 
 stockmen of Llano County and has been one of the 
 most successful. He owns a ranch of about 9,000 
 acres located in the southern part of Llano County, 
 which he has stocked with a high grade of cattle. 
 
 Mentioning Mr. Moss' esperienceson the frontier 
 brings to mind the fact that he took part in one of 
 the last Indian fights in Llano County, the " Pack 
 Saddle Fight." The incidents of that affair as 
 related to the writer by Mr. Moss were as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 On the 4th of August, 1873, a party of redskins 
 supposed to be Comanches, made a raid into Llano 
 County, and stole a lot of horses, with which they 
 were making their escape out of the country, when 
 a company of eight, Dever Harrington, Robert 
 Brown, Eli Lloyd, Arch Martin, Pink Ayers, and 
 the Moss brothers, James R., William, and Stephen 
 D., was hurriedly organized and started in pursuit. 
 After following the trail perhaps a distance of forty 
 miles, the rangers discovered the Indians about 
 noon on the following day in camp on the top of 
 Pack Saddle Mountain. Concealing their move- 
 ments the pursuers carefully reconsidered the sit- 
 uation and discovered that the redskins had made 
 only a temporary halt to rest and refresh them- 
 selves. They had passed over an open space about 
 forty yards in width covered with grass and had 
 pitched their camp on the edge of the bluff beyond, 
 leaving their stock in the glade to graze. The 
 bluff where they halted was skirted below with a 
 sparse growth of stunted trees, which, with some 
 scrubby bushes growing adjacent, afforded them a 
 good camping ground. Some of the Indians had 
 lain down in the bushes to rest, while others 
 were roasting meat over a stick fire and eat- 
 ing. It was agreed among the rangers that 
 they would charge across the glade on horseback 
 and put themselves between the Indians and their 
 horses, then dismount and open fire. The charge 
 
 was made and all dismounted before firing, except 
 William Moss, who fired two shots from his horse. 
 Though surprised, the Indians gathered their guns 
 and returned the fire, forming, as they did so, in a 
 kind of battle line, in which manner they made two 
 separate charges, evidently intending, if possible, 
 to reach their horses. But they were repulsed each 
 time, and a third line was broken up before they 
 got well out of the timber, under cover of which it 
 was formed. One buck, bolder than the rest, ad- 
 vanced alone to some distance to the right of the 
 others, and without firing his gun, which, however, 
 he held grasped in an upright position, seemed de- 
 termined to make his way to the horses. He came 
 to within a few feet of the rangers, some of them 
 firing at him, when suddenly he turned and, retreat- 
 ing to the edge of the timber, fell forward stone 
 dead, but, as was afterwards found, still tightly 
 grasping his gun. About this time three or four of 
 the Indians started up a chant and began to file off 
 under the bluff, the others followed suit, and al- 
 most in a twinkling, nothing more was seen of them. 
 On inspecting the battle-ground the rangers found 
 three bodies. Four of their own number were more 
 or less hurt, William Moss being shot in the right 
 arm and shoulder, the ball ranging through the 
 breast and coming out on the left'side ; Arch Mar- 
 tin shot in the left groin ; Eli Lloyd three slight 
 wounds in the arms, and Pink Ayers, two balls in the 
 hips. It was estimated that there were twenty 
 Indians, seventeen bucks, two squaws and a boy. 
 All of the stock which these Indians had, twenty 
 head, together with some of their fire-arms, saddles 
 and accoutrements, fell into the hands of the ran- 
 gers. None of the wounds sustained by the pursu- 
 ers proved serious, except those ofjWilliam Moss; 
 he has always suffered more or less with his. 
 
 Though he has had considerable military expe- 
 rience, Mr. Moss has never been before the public in 
 any official capacity. His private affairs have en- 
 grossed his attention to the exclusion of everything 
 else. He married Miss Delia Johnson, of Llano 
 County, in 1877, and has by this union a family of 
 eleven children. 
 
444 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 C. T. MOSS, 
 
 LLANO COUNTY. 
 
 Cbarles Tate Moss, son of Matthew and Mary 
 Moss, was born in Travis County, Texas, Decem- 
 ber 28, 1845. He was reared in Williamson and 
 Llano counties, his parents residing successively in 
 these two counties during his boyhood and youth. 
 In 1863, then in his eighteenth year, he entered the 
 frontier service as a member of Capt. Bowling's 
 Company from Llano County, and served with this 
 and Capt. Irvin's Company from Blanco County till 
 the close of the war. Engaged in stock-raising on 
 the cessation of hostilities, and has followed it with 
 a marked degree of success since. The firm of C. 
 T. & A. F. Moss, of which he is the senior member, 
 
 is one of the largest and best known in West Cen- 
 tral Texas, owning more than 30,000 acres of 
 grazing land Ij'ing in Llano and Gillespie counties, 
 on which is kept from 2,000 to 3,000 herd of cattle 
 the year round. 
 
 In 1882, Mr. Moss married Miss Sallie Ryfield, 
 daughter of Holmes and Lucinda Ryfield, and a 
 native of Goliad County, Texas, her parents being 
 early settlers of Texas, her father a veteran of the 
 Revolution of 1835-6. Mr. and Mrs. Moss have 
 three sons and one daughter: Holmes, Carlos, 
 Maud, and Cash. 
 
 SAM. S. SMITH, 
 
 SAN ANTONIO, 
 
 Was born at Boston, Mass., September 17th, 1810, 
 and died at San Antonio August 17th, 1882, in the 
 seventy-second year of his age. He came to Texas 
 in the memorable year 1836, just after the battle of 
 San Jacinto, and took part in several subsequent 
 campaigns, serving with gallantry and distinction. 
 He made his home in the city of Houston in 1837, 
 and in 1843 went to San Antonio, where he iden- 
 tified himself with the growth and progress of 
 Southwestern Texas, occupied several positions of 
 honor and trust and resided until the time of his 
 death. He served for twenty-three months as 
 Mayor of San Antonio in 1840-41 and later as 
 Alderman and City Treasurer. He was also a mem- 
 ber of the Secession Convention of Texas in 1861. 
 He was elected to the ofHce of County Clerk of 
 Bexar County, August, 1850, and served the people 
 in that capacity continuously up to the reconstruc- 
 tion era. In 1873 he was elected District and County 
 Clerk and held that position until the two offices 
 were separated, after which he held that of County 
 Clerk of Bexar County until the time of his decease. 
 The long years he held so many positions of 
 trust and emoluments at the hands of a most 
 friendly and appreciative constituency fully attests 
 the universal esteem in which he was held. Char- 
 
 itable and kind in all his dealings with his fellow- 
 men, it has never been intimated that he willfully 
 erred either in word or deed. He, together with 
 his wife who survived him, was a member of the 
 Texas Veterans' Association, which historic organi- 
 zation passed a feeling tribute of respect to his 
 memory as, "An esteemed friend and comrade, 
 whose loss was deeply mourned." 
 
 The Express and other city papers contained 
 fitting obituary editorials. The members of the 
 Bexar County bar, through a committee appointed 
 for that purpose, passed and caused to be spread 
 upon the records of the court a tribute to his mem- 
 ory in which due appreciation of his exemplary life 
 and valuable services to his people were acknowl- 
 edged. The report declares, "that in the death of 
 Mr. Smith Bexar County lost an honored and trust- 
 worthy officer ; a polite, worthy and trusted citizen, 
 and a kind, true and generous friend to the poor 
 and needy, whose place in social and official life can 
 scarcely be filled from among the living." It 
 was signed by Wesley Ogden, Thos. J. Devine, 
 N. O. Green, T. S. Harrison, T. G. Smith and 
 John E. Ochse. 
 
 Samuel S. Smith married Miss Sarah Brackett at 
 San Antonio, January 18th, 1854. Mrs. Smith has 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 445 
 
 four cbiklren: Oscar; TLadileus W., county clerk 
 of Bexar County; Georgia C, now Mrs. Joseph 
 Olivarri ; and Minnie, now Mrs. Edwin Flory. 
 Thaddeus M. Wood, grandfather of Mrs. Sarah B. 
 Smith, was born at Lenox, Mass., in 1772; became 
 at first a practicing lawyer at Onondago in 1794 
 and was distinguished for his legal ability. He 
 was also widely known as a military man. He died 
 January 10th, 1836. 
 
 Her father, Oscar B. Brackett, a merchant, 
 native of the Empire State, came directly from 
 Syracuse, N. Y., to San Antonio, in 1844. He 
 
 brought with him his wife (»iee Miss Emily Wood) 
 and four children, of whom Mrs. Smith was the 
 third born. Two sisters of Mrs. Smith are living: 
 Emily, widow of Chas. F. King, and Ella N., widow 
 of Simeon W. Cooley, of San Antonio. Mrs. 
 Smith's mother was a daughter of Gen. Wood, who 
 served with distinction during the War of 1812. 
 
 Mr. Oscar Brackett had a store on Main Plaza 
 at San Antonio. He died in 1857 and his wife in 
 1893. Both were highly respected and greatly 
 beloved and rest side by side in the cemetery at 
 the beautiful Alamo City. 
 
 CONSTANTIN HAERTER, 
 
 COMFORT, 
 
 A venerable old settler of Kendall County, Texas, 
 came to this country from his native home, 
 in 1850. He was born near Gotha, in Saxon-Co- 
 burg-Gotha, in 1819. Mr. Haerter came directly 
 to Fredericksburg, and lived there about five years, 
 since which time he has lived on and developed a 
 fine farm of one hundred and sixty-five acres, at 
 
 Comfort. He has never married. He is quiet and 
 unobtrusive in manner, and interests himself little 
 in matters outside of his own domains. He is the 
 president of the German Evangelical Church of 
 Comfort, established in the year 1891. It may be 
 truly said of him that he is a good citizen and 
 successful farmer. 
 
 L. W. CARR, 
 
 HEARNE, 
 
 Was born in Lenore County, N. C, February 7, 
 1824. His father was Matthew H. Carr, a native 
 of Virginia, and paternal grandfather, Lawrence 
 Carr, a Virginian, who served on a patriot pri- 
 vateer during the Revolutionary War of 1776. 
 Lawrence Carr emigrated to North Carolina soon 
 after the close of the colonial struggle for inde- 
 pendence, and there his son, the father of the 
 subject of this sketch, was mainly reared ; married 
 Sallie Murphy, a native of that State, and, estab- 
 lishing himself as a planter, spent the greater part 
 of the remaining years of his life, dying at the 
 advanced age of eighty-seven years. Mrs. Mat- 
 thew Carr survived some years, dying at about 
 the same age. They had seven children who 
 reached maturity, of whom Lewis Whitfield, of 
 
 this article, was second in age. Their eldest son, 
 Joshua Carr, died in Florida when a young man. 
 The others were Patsie, who was twice married, 
 and still lives in North Carolina; James, who died 
 in North Carolina; Susan, who was married to a 
 Mr. Cos, and is deceased ; Alexander, who died in 
 North Carolina; Titus, who came to Texas and 
 died in Hill County ; and Matthew, who lives in 
 North Carolina. Three of these, James, Alexan- 
 der, and Titus, were in the Confederate service in 
 the late war. Lewis Whitfield Carr was reared in 
 North Carolina, and went to North Mississippi 
 when a young man (in 1847), when that section 
 was a comparatively unsettled portion of the State. 
 Married Mrs. Sidney A. Westbrook at West Point, 
 Miss., 1854; engaged in planting there until 1858; 
 
446 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 in January of that year came to Texas ; stopped 
 for a time in Washington County, and in Decem- 
 ber, 1858, bought and settled on a tract of land in 
 the Brazos bottom, in Robertson County, about 
 eight miles south of the present town of Hearne. 
 Here he opened a plantation and engaged in farm- 
 ing, which he has since followed. Where he settled 
 there were about sixty acres in cultivation. He 
 immediately put in more, and has developed one 
 of the best plantations in the bottom. He now 
 owns two plantations, aggregating about 2, 700 
 acres, most of which are in cultivation. He has 
 seen the country grow from almost a wilderness to 
 its present condition, and has been a leading factor 
 in its development. When he settled in the bot- 
 tom, his trading; place was Houston, one hundred 
 and twenty-five miles distant, and his post-office. 
 
 Wheelock, seventeen miles distant. He helped to 
 build the Hearne & Brazos Valley Railwaj*, of 
 which he is vice-president, and to organize the 
 First National Bank of Hearne, of which he is 
 vice-president. He was made a Free Mason at 
 West Point, Miss., in 1849 ; has since been a mem- 
 ber of the order, and is the present Master of 
 Golden Circle Lodge No. 361, at Hearne. 
 
 His wife died in 1883. One daughter (widow 
 of B. W. Beckham), now residing at Hearne, was 
 born of this union. Mrs. Beckham has three chil- 
 dren, daughters: Misses Lee and Floy, and Beverl}' 
 Beckham. He has never been in public office, but 
 has served the public in other ways. For twenty 
 years he has been a member of the grand jury. 
 He is now the administrator of three large estates. 
 No man stands higher in Robertson County. 
 
 DR. ASA HOXEY, 
 
 INDEPENDENCE, 
 
 Was born in Savannah, Ga., February 22d, 1800, 
 and received a good literary education in the select 
 schools in the town of Washington, Wilkes Couutj', 
 in that State, whither his parents moved during his 
 youth. He graduated with honor at the University 
 of Georgia, in 1820. His medical education was 
 secured in the University of New York, from which 
 he graduated with distinction in 1822. He began 
 practice at Montgomery, Ala., aoout the year 1823 
 and resided there until 1833, when he moved to 
 Texas, bringing with him about thirty negroes and 
 $40,000 in money and located in "Cole's Settle- 
 ment," afterwards Independence, Washington 
 County, where he opened two large prairie plant- 
 ations and, later, two in the Brazos Bottom. The 
 latter he abandoned, however, on account of over- 
 flows, and confined his farming operations to his up- 
 land property-. He also engaged in merchandising 
 at the town of Old Washington for a time with 
 Messrs. Bailej' and Gay, under the firm name of 
 Bailey, Gay & Hoxey, but lost instead of made 
 money by the venture, from which he accordingly 
 withdrew. He was a prominent figure and active 
 participant in the political movements that led up 
 to the Texas revolution and in the revolution itself, 
 being a delegate to the convention that issued the 
 declaration of Texas Independence, to which his 
 name is affixed with that of the other patriots who 
 
 composed that historic body. He was for a while 
 medical censor of the Republic of Texas during the 
 presidency of Gen. Sara Houston. He did not 
 practice medicine after coming to Texas, but never- 
 theless, at all times manifested a lively interest in 
 matters pertaining to the profession. He was a 
 staunch supporter in the cause of education and 
 contributed liberally to the support of Baylor Uni- 
 versity, during its early years at Independence, and 
 to other institutions of learning. 
 
 He owned one of the finest private libraries in 
 Texas and his home was a favorite resort of the 
 great men of the times. He was an omnivorous, 
 but discriminating reader, had an unusually reten- 
 tive memory and was a brilliant and delightful con- 
 versationalist. Of dignified and courtly presence, 
 possessed of an intellect of uncommon strength and 
 clearness, his society' was sought by the able men 
 and true patriots that were his compeers, associates 
 and friends. Before leaving Alabama for Texas in 
 1833, he was married to Mrs. Elizabeth Bennett, a 
 New York lady, who accompanied him to his new 
 home, which she graced with her beauty, refinement 
 and noble matronly qualities for many j'ears, dying 
 November 10, 18G5. Two children were born of 
 this union, Thomas Robert Hoxey, who died of 
 yellow fever at Galveston, September 16th, 1864, 
 while a soldier in the Confederate army, and Mrs. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 447 
 
 Sarah Ann Williams, now residing at Independence, 
 Washington County, Texas. Dr. Hoxe}' died May 
 20, 1863. 
 
 He was a member of the Masonic fraternity, join- 
 ing the first lodge organized at Independence, one 
 of the first established in Texas. As a Democrat he 
 belonged to the South Carolina school, and was a 
 warm and steadfast supporter of the political views 
 
 of John C. Calhoun. Dr. Hoxey belonged to a 
 race who studied deep tlie principles of civil gov- 
 ernment and to whom personal honor, human 
 liberty and free institutions were dearer than life 
 itself. 
 
 He rests in peace with the spirits of Texas' great 
 departed and his name deserves a place beside theirs 
 in the annals of his country. 
 
 FRANKLIN W. SHAEFFER, 
 
 CORPUS CHRISTI. 
 
 Born in the State of Ohio, August 4, 182.T. Mar- 
 ried to Kowena Davidson, of Galveston, Texas, 
 August 7th, 1877. Died at San Diego, Duval 
 County, Texas, October 2oth, 1886. 
 
 The progressive, energetic and successful citi- 
 zen, whose name appears at the head of this brief 
 biography, was a type of the enterprising American, 
 who V)y industry, integrity and intelligence, achieves 
 success in life, and enjoys every hour of the j-ears 
 allotted to him by his Creator. 
 
 Franklin Wingot Shaeffer came from that sturdy 
 stock that originally settled and peopled the State 
 of Pennsylvania. His father was Frederick W. 
 Shaeffer ; born in that State on the eighteenth day 
 of October, 1792. A trade was an honor as well 
 as promise of thrift in the period in which he grew 
 up ; and after a faithful apprenticeship, be became 
 master of his trade at nineteen ; married early 
 Mary Boose, a worthy and industrious helpmeet ; 
 and, lured by the promises of an extended sphere 
 for his business, went West, and settled permanently 
 in the town of Lancaster, Ohio, where to him were 
 born several children, and amongst others he, of 
 whom we write, Franklin W. Shaeffer. 
 
 The good and Christian mother lived long enough 
 to implant in the growth-structure of her children, 
 by teaching an example, a reverence for all sacred 
 things, high moral principles, and staunch integrity. 
 Slie died in the year 1844, when Franklin was about 
 nineteen years old. The father survived her for 
 many years afterwards, dying at the ripe age of over 
 eighty-sis years, in the year 1879, honored and 
 loved by all who knew him or were his neighbors. 
 
 The subject of this notice was what may be 
 termed a self-educated man. True, he acquired a 
 common school education, a knowledge of the rudi- 
 ments as the period of his youth afforded. 
 
 The same breadth of desire to carve for himself, 
 as possessed by his father, was the inheritance of 
 Franklin W. Shaeffer. The discovery of gold in 
 California turned thither those in whom was fos- 
 tered a spirit of restlessness, and at the age of 
 twenty-four he was one of the " Argonauts," one 
 of the "Forty-niners," whom the pen and genius 
 of Joaquin Miller, and the original humor of Bret 
 Harte, have made historically famous. 
 
 Franklin made successfully the long, weary and 
 hazardous journey across the plains an<l over the 
 Eockies to the " El Dorado." Here he met with 
 all the kaleidoscopic changes that the drift of days 
 in that country afforded, learning day by day those 
 lessons of endurance and self-reliance so valuable 
 to him in after years. What little he accumulated, 
 he preferred to invest in something that had less of 
 the feverishness of gold-seeking, and for the few 
 years of his stay in the far West, he was alternately 
 engaged in mercantile pursuits, and in the manage- 
 ment and ownership of a transportation line, en- 
 gaged in the conveyance of mining machinery and 
 supplies from the immediate Pacific Coast, to the 
 mining camps in the interior. 
 
 Gradually, the aggregate of corporate wealth en- 
 croached upon his business, and having a favorable 
 opportunity to dispose of all his interests, he did so 
 and came East, and for many years, in New York, 
 carried on a mercantile business. In 1857 there 
 was a tide of emigration to another land of golden 
 promise, the domain of Texas ; and the subject of 
 our memoir was amongst those who in good earnest 
 adopted the Lone Star State as home. 
 
 He located in a beautiful region, near Boerne. 
 He purchased lands and sheep, and entered into 
 the rearing and breeding of the latter, and the 
 growth of wool, and, with George Wilkins Kendall, 
 
U8 
 
 IXDIAX WARS AXD PIOXEEBs OF TEXAS. 
 
 was one of the pioneers of Uie sheep industry of 
 Western Texas. Finding llie winters of tliat region 
 north of San Antonio less favorable to the increase 
 of his flocks than he had anticipated, and not free 
 from some of the contagious diseases that are seri- 
 ous to sheep, he made a personal visit to the section 
 of Texas further south, and with excellent judgment 
 settled upon the Agua Dulce (sweet water) valley, 
 as the field of his future operations ; and here he 
 settled permanently, beginning with his own pre- 
 emption, and gradually, by labor, economy and 
 thrift acquired by purchase the magnificent pasture 
 of seventy thousand acres, under one inclosure, 
 and now valued at half a million of dollars, that 
 bears his name. 
 
 Franklin Shacffer was in all he essayed to do an 
 exemplifier of the principle, that whatever is worth 
 doing at all is worth doing well. He supplied the 
 natural deficit of the region an abundance of water 
 by an extensive and judiciously distributed system 
 of wells and windmills, the latter of the largest and 
 most approved pattern. These were supplemented 
 with tanks, some of which are veritable lakes. He 
 was oue of the first to fence, thus reducing his losses 
 from straj'ing flocks to the minimum, as well as 
 economize in employing a less number of shepherds. 
 
 From the close of the war up to 1880 he was 
 eminently successful, and not only amassed wealth, 
 but had the proud satisfaction of knowing that the 
 finest flocks of the West, and the best and highest 
 priced wool, were the products of his sheep ranch. 
 He led in the industry; and the millions invested 
 by others marked them as but followers, encour- 
 aged and stimulated by his remarkable success and 
 prosperity. 
 
 With keen foresight as to the depreciation of 
 values in sheep, and a desire for a relief from the 
 attention to details in their management, requiring 
 constant personal labor, he gradually changed his 
 business from that of sheep-raising to the rearing 
 and breeding of cattle and fine horses. In this line 
 he was as markedly successful as in the sheep in- 
 dustry ; and in this pursuit he was engaged at the 
 time of his death. His death was the proximate 
 result of an accident, in which he was thrown from 
 his family carriage and one of his limbs broken, 
 and at which same time his wife was injured, but 
 subsequently recovered. 
 
 Franklin Shaeffer was a man of striking phy- 
 sique, and commanded attention wherever he went. 
 He was never ostentatious, and his manners were 
 winning, and there was a hearty, genial frankness 
 in them that brought him pleasant companionships, 
 and sincere and enduring friendships. He was 
 broad of heart and generous — often impulsively 
 
 so — and his charities were abundant, and well 
 bestowed. 
 
 As a citizen of this Commonwealth, he was an 
 exemplar. He was a model in the strictness of his 
 integrity and carefulness in business matters. He 
 .was to the fore in support of the principles of law 
 and order, even in turbulent times. 
 
 In politics he was never a partisan, but a free- 
 thinker, and fearless in the open expressions of his 
 opinions, matured from a careful study of the prin- 
 ciples of our government, of political economy, and 
 the blended relations of capital and labor. 
 
 On national issues, he leaned to Republicanism, 
 but being an earnest believer in an intelligent suf- 
 frage, he voted as his reason dictated. 
 
 He is a subject of note in this volume because he 
 was of prominence in the region of Southwest Texas, 
 and established one of its leading industries. He 
 had the love and confidence of all those amongst 
 whom he lived, and had he been spared, and be- 
 come an octogenarian as did his father before him, 
 he would have been a patriarch, and lived to see 
 the land of promise he had loved and adopted, 
 fulfill all his predictions of its golden future. 
 
 His union with Miss Rowena Davidson was a 
 very happy one. She was the daughter of Capt. 
 John Davidson, a worthy pilot of the port of Gal- 
 veston, who lost his life in an heroic endeavor to 
 save the crew of a vessel, wrecked near that 
 place. 
 
 She is an accomplished and cultured lady; and 
 since the death of her husband has managed the 
 large estate, left entirely to her disposal, with pru- 
 dence and business skill. She has devoted herself 
 to the education of her children, four of whom 
 survived their father. For several years she was 
 virtually compelled to live upon the ranch and 
 supervise its management ; but latterly she has been 
 enabled to place the same under lease, and with her 
 children and mother, has removed to San Antonio, 
 and purchased a residence there, pretty and com- 
 fortable in all its appointments, and in proximity 
 to the educational institute, where her daughters 
 can obtain its benefits. 
 
 Franklin Shaeffer came to Texas a compara- 
 tively poor man. When he settled in the Agua 
 Dulce Valley, the great Southwest was a primeval 
 wilderness, subject to the incursions of hostile and 
 predatory Indians, and filled with a lawless element. 
 He established himself in that section, and did 
 much to redeem it and encourage peaceful pursuits 
 and industries, and render possible the civilization 
 of to-day that therein abounds. 
 
 He was successful in all that makes life desirable, 
 and has left behind liim a name that is a priceless 
 
':ynytrw^m/a/ CJ) % 
 
 ^£A- 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 449 
 
 legacy to his children, and will be to his children's 
 children. The beneficial effects of his life-worli 
 will long be felt in that part of the State, with 
 whose growth and history it is identified. It affords 
 the writer genuine pleasure to accord to him a 
 
 place in this volume, the object of which is to 
 preserve in imperishable form, to coming genera- 
 tions, a brief recollection of the men who, amid 
 trials, perils and adversities, have accomplished 
 much for Texas. 
 
 AUGUSTA PERRY DRISCOLL, 
 
 NAVASOTA. 
 
 Few men were better known in Grimes County 
 than the late Capt. A. P. Driscoll. He was a 
 native of Arkansas and was born in 1829. 
 
 It is not known just when he first came to Texas, 
 hut it is known that he located at Huntsville, in 
 Walker County, in the early 40's, and that he was 
 stage agent in early times along the route between 
 Shreveport, La., and El Paso, on the Mexican 
 border. He was one of the first station agents for 
 the Houston & Texas Central Railway Co. at 
 Cypress Station, in Harris County, and in 1867 
 was appointed station agent at Navasota, in Grimes 
 County, which position he filled for many years. 
 Upon the breaking out of the late war he organized 
 a company of soldiers and was elected their Cap- 
 tain. Owing to physical disabilities, however, 
 he resigned his commission and was made Commis- 
 sary at Cypress Station, where he remained until 
 
 the close of hostilities in that capacity, and after- 
 ward as railway station agent and telegraph opera- 
 tor until he removed to Navasota, where he con- 
 tinued in the service of the H. & T. C. R. R. Co. 
 until 1879, having served this company for twenty 
 years. He died in 1880. He was married in 
 Harris County, Texas, in 1860, to Miss Lydia 
 Morton, of Louisiana, who with five daughters and 
 one son survive him. The cliildren are: Bettie, 
 now Mrs. John Hamilton, of Navasota; Katie, now 
 Mrs. F. Chimene, of Houston ; Jennie, now Mrs. 
 Walker Humphries, of Pensacola, Florida ; Wave, 
 now Mrs. Max Otto, of Houston ; Eva, residing at 
 home with her mother and John W. Driscoll, of 
 
 . Capt. A. P. Driscoll served one term as 
 
 Mayor of Navasota and was honored and beloved 
 by all who knew him. He was the grandson of 
 Col. Martin Parmer. 
 
 JAMES M. WILLIAMS, 
 
 INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 Capt. James M. Williams was born in De Soto 
 Parish, Louisiana, March 28th, 1833. His father. 
 Rev. M. E. Williams, was a prominent Baptist 
 minister of Northern Louisiana. 
 
 The subject of this memoir completed his educa- 
 tion at McKinzie College, Clarksville, Texas, a 
 famous institution of learning presided over by Rev. 
 Dr. McKinzie, and was a fellow-student of Hon. J. 
 W. Herndon, of Tyler, for many years a member of 
 the United States Congress from Texas. At the be- 
 ginning of the war between the States, Capt. Williams 
 enlisted as a private in Drew's battalion, the first 
 
 command organized in his native State ; served for 
 a time in Florida, and then, under Gen. J. Bankhead 
 Magruder, in Virginia, where he was transferred 
 to the Second Louisiana, commanded by his cousin 
 Col. (afterwards Brigadier General) Jesse Williams, 
 participating in the great battles fought in front of 
 Richmond and many mmor engagements, in which 
 he bore himself with conspicuous gallantry. AVhen 
 Gen. Magruder was sent to assume command of 
 the military district of Texas, Capt. Williams ac- 
 companied him, and was assigned to the transport- 
 ation department and stationed at Houston. He 
 
450 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 was subsequently promoted to the offlue of post 
 quartermaster, with the rank of Captain, and 
 stationed at Tyler, where he continued in charge 
 until the close of the war. When the war closed 
 he was serving as quartermaster at Brenham, under 
 Gen. Robertson. 
 
 July 16, 1864, he was united in marriage to Miss 
 Sallie A. Hubert, daughter of Dr. Asa Hoxey, an 
 early and distinguished Texas pioneer. Very soon 
 after Dr. Hoxey's death it became necessary for 
 Capt. Williams to administer on the large estate 
 left by deceased, which he did with marked ability 
 and entire satisfaction to all parties at interest. 
 His own affairs were managed in an equally system- 
 atic and skillful manner and he left a fine property 
 to his beloved wife. 
 
 He was kind, benevolent and helpful to those in 
 
 distress, a steadfast champion of temperance and 
 a consistent member of the Baptist Church. He 
 died at Burnett's Well, near the town of Luling, 
 Texas, September 11, 1881, where he had gone in 
 hope of restoration of health. He manifested a 
 deep interest in county. Slate and national affairs, 
 and all that pertained to the welfare of the country. 
 He was a delegate to the national convention held 
 at St. Louis, in 1870, which nominated Samuel J. 
 Tilden for President. He was a member of the 
 Masonic and Patrons of the Husbandry fraternities 
 and an active worker in both organizations. He 
 left four children : James Hozey ; Emma, wife of 
 E. Hoffman, of Brenham ; Nettie, wife of C. L. 
 Anderson, of Ardmore, I. T., and Asa M. Hoxey, 
 who is living with his mother at their home at 
 Independence. 
 
 THOMAS D. WILSON, 
 
 BRAZOS COUNTY. 
 
 Born in North Carolina, and partly reared there ; 
 ran away from home when a boy and went to Ten- 
 nessee, where he lived a number of years ; returned 
 to North Carolina, married, and engaged in mining 
 for gold ; again went to Tennessee, where he en- 
 gaged in planting; then, after stopping a year or 
 two in Arkansas, came to Texas, locating in what 
 is now Harrison County, where he engaged in farm- 
 ing until the fall of 1851, when he removed to the 
 Brazos bottom, in Brazos County, then in the heart 
 of the wilderness, where he opened a plantation, 
 on which he employed his hundred or more negro 
 slaves profitably until the war between the States ; 
 during the war hauled cotton to Mexico and 
 brought back merchandise, greatly adding to his 
 wealth ; continued to make his home on his plant- 
 ation from 1865 to the time of his death in 1879, 
 at the age of seventy-eight years ; was four times 
 married, and raised eight children to maturity, 
 seven of whom, Laura, liuth, Alfred F., Pattie, 
 now Mrs. M. W. Sims, Mary, Alice, and Thomas 
 D., were born in Texas of his marriage to Miss 
 Rachel Flournoy, a daughter of Dr. Alfred Flour- 
 
 noy, who fought in the battle of New Orleans 
 under Gen. Andrew Jackson ; was a man of strik- 
 ing appearance, being six feet, two inches in 
 height, and weighing 225 pounds ; had light hair, 
 fair complexion, and clear blue eyes, the steady 
 gaze of which was equaled by that of few men ; 
 was a man of marked individuality of character, 
 reserved, strong willed, well informed, rather im- 
 perious, though courteous, in manner; courageous 
 to a fault; had devoted friends, and enemies too, 
 who both disliked and feared him ; in fact, was a 
 typical Southern planter of the old regime, widely 
 known and widely influential in his day. He was 
 a member of the Masonic fraternity from early 
 manhood. His son, Alfred F. .Wilson, was born 
 in Harrison County, Texas, December 16, 1847 ; 
 was taken to Brazos County with his parents in 
 1851 ; has always lived in this State, and for many 
 years has been engaged in planting and stock- 
 raising ; now resides in Robertson County, Texas ; 
 married Miss Fannie Gleaves, daughter of Frank 
 Gleaves, Hermitage, Tenn., and has three children: 
 May Herbert, Alice Ray, and Thomas D. Wilson. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 45 J 
 
 WM. C. ROBERTS, 
 
 ALVIN. 
 
 Wm. C. Roberts was born in Matagorda County 
 in 1862. He is a son of Columbus W. Roberts, 
 deceased (also a native of the same county), 
 whose father, Ransome Roberts, deceased, was a 
 pioneer of 1836. Ransome Roberts located in 
 Matagorda County on coming to Texas, located on 
 Caney Creek, where he established himself as a 
 farmer and stock-raiser and raised a family of ten 
 children, three of whom survive and live at differ- 
 ent points in Texas. He was a native of Georgia. 
 Columbus W. Roberts, father of the subject of this 
 notice, married Miss Mollie Harris, a daughter of 
 Parson Harris, a widely known clergyman of the 
 M. E. Church South, and like his father, located 
 on Caney Creek. Here he reared a family of six 
 
 children, of whom Wm. C. Roberts is the oldest. 
 These are well settled in life in various parts of the 
 State and are useful and honored citizens of the 
 communities in which they reside. Mr. Roberts is 
 a contractor in Alvin, where he also conducts a 
 livery business. He married Miss Sallie O'Connor 
 in Houston, February 1st, 1888, and has one child, 
 a daughter named Flora. Mrs. Roberts is a native 
 of Mobile, Ala., and was born December 4, 1867. 
 She is a most estimable and accomplished lady. 
 Mr. Roberts is a pushing, clear-beaded business 
 man, who has done much toward aiding in the up- 
 building of the thriving town of Alvin and the 
 development of the resources of the surrounding 
 country. 
 
 C. L. GOODMAN, 
 
 ORANGE. 
 
 Judge C. L. Goodman, of Orange, Texas, was 
 born January 12, 1854, in Choctaw County, Ala., 
 and educated in the common schools of Texas, and 
 at Eastman's Business College, Poughkeepsie, N. 
 Y., graduating from the latter institution in No- 
 vember, 1876. He then returned to Orange, 
 Texas. He came to Texas in March, 1861, with 
 his parents, who located in Jasper County, Texas ; 
 resided first at Sabine Pass and later at Orange 
 until 1876 and then went to New York to school. 
 He returned to Orange in 1877 and began work 
 with the Tribune, a weekly newspaper edited by 
 A. P. Harris, helping to get out the first issue of 
 the paper. 
 
 On his way home from New York, he stopped at 
 St. Louis and was engaged for a time with Dr. W. 
 G. Kingsbury in Texas immigration work. His 
 connection with the Orange Tribune continued 
 until 1878. In 1879 he became partner with Dr. 
 Shalars, in the drug business at Orange, which he 
 continued until 1883. In 1884 he was elected to 
 the office of county and district clerk of Orange 
 County and was re-elected for four successive terms. 
 In 18!>4 he refused to again become a candidate 
 
 for the office. In his first election he defeated a 
 man who had been clerk for eighteen years, by a 
 large majority. After retiring from public life 
 he engaged in the milling business, which he has 
 since built up to large proportions. His bids fair 
 to be one of the largest and leading mills in 
 Southern Texas. His success in life has been due 
 to good management, the exercise of sound dis- 
 cretion and the possession of natural business 
 abilities of a very, superior order. He owns con- 
 siderable realty in various parts of the State. He 
 is a member of the I. O. O. F. and Elks fraterni- 
 ties. June 22d, 1887, he was united in marriage 
 to Miss Beauregard Traylor, of Jackson County, 
 Texas. She was born in 1862, in Jasper County, 
 Texas, and is a daughter of J. C. Traylor, Esq., 
 a prosperous stock-raiser of Jackson County. 
 Four children (all boys) have been born to them, 
 viz.: Charles Riviere, aged eight; Josiah Traylor, 
 six ; John Willard, four, and Leland Keith, two 
 years old. 
 
 Mr. Goodman has a lovely home in Orange, 
 and is one of the most prominent and influential 
 citizens of that part of the State. 
 
452 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 D. THEO. AYERS, 
 
 GALVESTON. 
 
 The subject of this memoir was born in Ithica, 
 N. Y., July 21, 1828, and in April, 1834, left his 
 native Slate for Texas with bis parents, David and 
 Ann M. Ayers, and other members of the house- 
 hold. 
 
 The party took passage in the brig " Asia." 
 The vessel was wrecked on St. Joseph's Island, 
 opposite Corpus Christi, and residents of the 
 country, Mexicans from San Patricio, learning of 
 the disaster, made their way to the island and con- 
 veyed the Ayers and other families in small boats 
 up to the village of San Patricio. Mr. Davis Ayers 
 went ahead to the point of destination that be bad 
 decided upon near Long Point in Washington 
 County, secured transportation for his household 
 effects, returned to San Patricio and then, loading 
 bis earthly possessions (family and chattels) upon 
 wagons, set forth for the home be had selected, 
 •which in due time he reached in safety and without 
 adventure. He had previously come to Texas in 
 1832 and built what was known as "The Stone 
 House" at the point indicated. 
 
 The family consisted of the parents and six 
 children: The eldest, afterward Mrs. L. P. Moore, 
 who resided and died at Temple (her husband, a 
 partici|)ant in the battle of San Jacinto and in the 
 war between the United States and Mexico, survives 
 her and lives at Temple) ; Mrs. Rufus C. Camp- 
 bell, now living at Burton, Texas (her husband 
 was also a soldier at San Jacinto and handcuffed 
 Santa Anna after bis capture) ; Mrs. P^liza Alex- 
 ander, who died at Cliappell Hill in 1873 (her 
 busband was the late lamented Rev. Robert Alex- 
 ander, a noted Texian pioneer) ; Mrs Sarah Park, 
 now living at Galveston (her busband, now 
 deceased, was a well-known merchant of that city) ; 
 Capt. F. H. Ayers and D. Theo. Ayers. Capt. F. 
 H. Ayers participated in the ill-fated Somervell 
 expedition, with a few of his comrades gallantly 
 effected their escape from their inhuman captors at 
 Mier, Mexico, and returned to Texas. 
 
 During the war between the States (18C1-5) he 
 served a part of the time Quartermaster of Parson's 
 Regiment and in service in the open field signalized 
 himself for gallantry. He died at bis home in 
 Temple, Texas, January 10th, 1891, after a suc- 
 cessful career as a civilian. 
 
 Of the parents, Mrs. Ann M. Ayers died in 187G 
 and David Ayers in 1878, at the home of their son. 
 
 D. Theo. Ayers, in the city of Galveston. Mr. 
 David Ayers being advanced in years and quite 
 deaf could not enter active service during the war 
 between the States and for these reasons consented 
 to become one of those detailed by the Confederate 
 government to remain at home and care for the fam- 
 ilies of the soldiers doing duty in the field. He was 
 the founder of St. James M. E. Church at Galveston. 
 Both Mr. and Mrs. Ayers were devout Christians 
 and greatly beloved by a wide circle of friends. 
 
 The Ayers family resided and prospered at their 
 home at Long Point until the advance of Santa 
 Anna's victorious army (more merciless than that of 
 Atillaor Hyder Ali), sweeping eastward like a besom 
 of destruction, compelled them and other settlers 
 to abandon all they had and llee for life. They had 
 reached the Trinity river, on their way to Louisiana, 
 when they received news of the glorious and decisive 
 victory won by the Texian army at ever-memorable 
 San Jacinto. They thereupon returned to their 
 home and re-established themselves, to be no longer 
 agitated with fears of molestation by ruthless 
 Mexican invaders. 
 
 In 1836 Mr. David Ayers moved to the town of 
 Washington and thence in 1842 to Center Hill, 
 Austin County, where he was engaged in general 
 merchandise. During this time D. Theo. Ayers 
 was attending school at Rutersville, in Fayette 
 County, Texas. 
 
 In 1840 a band of Indians swept down upon and 
 burned the neighboring town of Linnville and mas- 
 sacred many of the inhabitants. A wave of indig- 
 nation swept through the settlement as news of this 
 act of fiendish atrocity traveled from house to bouse. 
 Volunteers were called for to take part in an expe- 
 dition against the savages and the subject of this 
 sketch and a number of other school boys, who 
 owned saddle horses, were among the Grst to re- 
 spond. The Indians were intercepted at High Hill, 
 in Gonzales County, and were severely punished in 
 the battle, known as the Plum Creek Fight, that 
 followed. 
 
 On another occasion hostile Indians, raiding 
 through the country, passed within four miles of 
 Rutersville, attacked a family, killing a young 
 man, Henry Farther, a member of the household. 
 All the school boys who had horses went out to 
 the residence and helped to bury the deceased, 
 and then followed fast upon the trail of Indians 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 453 
 
 for twenty- four hours under the leadership of Capt. 
 John H. Moore, when, not being supplied with 
 provisions, the pursuing party were compelled to 
 return to their homes. 
 
 From 1844 to 1847 young Avers was employed 
 as a clerk in the general merchandising establish- 
 ment of Moses Parli, at Independence, Texas, 
 where the Mexican War being in progress he en- 
 listed as a private soldier in Ben McCulloch's Com- 
 pany, Hay's Regiment, Taylor's Division, U. S. A., 
 and served in the army for six months ; returned 
 to Independence at the expiration of that lime and 
 clerked for Mr. Sparks for three or four months ; 
 went to Corpus Christi and dealt in live stock until 
 1849 ; moved to Goliad and engaged in stock-rais- 
 ing until 1854 ; then drove his stock out on the 
 Aransas and established a ranch, and sold out in 
 1855, and moved to Galveston. In 1855 he was 
 united in marriage to Miss Mary E. Hall, daughter 
 of Campbell Hall, a well-known pioneer then resid- 
 ing on the San Antonio river. Mr. Campbell Hall 
 came to Texas with Austin's colony about the 
 year 1828, and died at his home, ten miles below 
 Goliad, on the San Antonio river, in 1868. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Ayers have had eight children born to 
 them, three of whom, T. C, W. F., and Emily, are 
 now living, and have seven grandchildren. Mr. 
 Ayers embarked in the dry goods business at Gal- 
 veston during 1855, as a member of the firm of 
 Riddle & Ayers, a connection which continued for 
 twelve months, at the expiration of which time he 
 sold his interest to his partner and moved to La 
 Grange, where he formed a similar connection in 
 the same line with James A. Haynie, and eighteen 
 months later returned to Galveston and went into 
 the grocery business under the firm name of 
 Ayers & Perry, a partnership that continued until 
 1861, when Mr. Ayers sold out his interest and 
 moved to his father-in-law's place on the San 
 Antonio river, and farmed until the spring of 1864. 
 In the latter year he enlisted in the Confederate 
 army as a soldier, in Capt. A. C. Jones' Company, a 
 part of Col. John S. Ford's famous regiment, a 
 command that covered itself with glory on the Rio 
 Grande, during the fateful struggle made for the 
 Lost Cause. At the close of the campaign he par- 
 ticipated in the fight at Palmetto Ranch, the last of 
 the war, an engagement in which was fired the last 
 shot exchanged between the blue and the gray. 
 Throughout the campaign he won the confidence 
 and esteem of his comrades in arms, by his soldierly 
 qualities and intrepid gallantry. He returned to 
 
 Galveston during 1865 and went into the grocery 
 business, in whicli he was continuously engaged 
 until 1880, when he sold the business to Moore, 
 Stratton & Co., and engaged in the general com- 
 mission business in that city under the firm name 
 of G. B. Miller & Co. Mr. Miller sold his interest 
 to Mr. Ayers in 1891 and the business has since 
 been conducted by Ayers, Gardener & Co. 
 
 Mr. Ayers is a member of the Masonic fraternity 
 and Democratic party. 
 
 Having come to Texas when it was still a Mexi- 
 can province and since lived in the country under 
 all succeeding governments — Provisional, ad 
 interim. Republic of Texas, State of Texas, Con- 
 federate States, re-construction and State, he has 
 witnessed the many and strange vicissitudes to 
 which the Commonwealth has been exposed, and 
 through them all, seen the beloved lone star move 
 through light and shade from its nadir proudly up- 
 ward toward the zenith and the high destiny decreed 
 by Providence. Amid all these changing scenes 
 he has not been a passive and indifferent looker- 
 on,. but a patriotic actor, his heart beating strong 
 and warm with affection for the land and its people. 
 
 Every worthy movement designed to pro- 
 mote the happiness or prosperity of his fellow- 
 citizens, has met with his hearty indorsement and 
 support. Having from the beginning to rely 
 solely upon his own resources, he has made a 
 success of life in a financial way and while that 
 is an end commendable in itself and that must 
 necessarily be accomplished as an aid to wider and 
 more unselfish ends, he has done far more, he has 
 preserved under all temptations and trials an un- 
 sullied integrity, an unpolluted mind and an un- 
 hardened heart. Now with a mind well trained in 
 scholastic lore, stored with the spoils of time that 
 literature has hoarded for those who will think and 
 read, and enriched and disciplined by experience 
 (mother of Wisdom) ; at the head of a leading 
 mercantile establishment of the Oleander City, 
 with his beloved life-companion still by his side 
 and surrounded by children and grandchildren, 
 looking back over his eventful career there must be 
 little, if anything, for him to regret. He is still 
 vigorous and actively engaged in business pursuits 
 and many years of active usefulness apparently 
 await him. A stalwart survivor of the early Tex- 
 ians (a band that would have graced the halcyon 
 days of the Roman Republic) he is honored by all 
 who know him and loved by a wide circle of friends 
 extending throughout the State. 
 
454 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 LEVIN P. BAUGH, 
 
 BROWN COUNTY. 
 
 The subject of this sketch, while not a native 
 Texian, ma^' virtuallj' be considered as such, since he 
 has resided on Texas soil from early infancy and 
 developed in the conflicts of the Texas frontier the 
 qualities which characterize him as a man. Mr. 
 Baugh is descended from sturdy Scotch stock. 
 His first ancestors in this country settled in Vir- 
 ginia, whence some of them moved to Georgia, 
 probably about the beginning of the present cen- 
 tur}'. His father, David Baugh, was born in 
 Georgia, as was also his mother, whose maiden 
 name was Pensej' Collins. These two as members 
 of their parents' families were early immigrants to 
 Mississippi, met and were married in Tippoo 
 County, that State, in 1832, and moved from there 
 in 1844 to Texas. The senior Mr. Baugh first set- 
 tled in Kaufman County on coming to Texas, but 
 moved from there io the earlj' spring of 1858, and 
 settled in Brown County. At that time Brown 
 County was on the extreme western frontier of the 
 State, had only a little more than a year before 
 been created by act of the Legislature, and was as 
 yet unorganized. Mr. Baugh assisted in its organ- 
 ization in the summer of 1858, and became one of 
 its first commissioners. The population was very 
 sparse, being confined to a few settlements along 
 the streams, embracing those well-remembered 
 pioneers, W. W. Chandler, Ichabod Adams, T. D. 
 Harris, W. F. Brown, Archie Roberts, Moses 
 Anderson, William Connell Brooks, W. Lee, H. C. 
 Knight, Richard Germanj', the Hannas, and 
 possibly a few others whose names can not 
 now be recalled. Stock-raising was the only 
 industry, and it was the excellent range which 
 the country afforded at that time that induced 
 most of the settlers to take up their abode 
 in that section. The elder Mr. Baugh was engaged 
 in the stock business, and never found it necessary 
 afterwards to move, but made his home in Brown 
 County till his death, which occurred in 1867, in 
 the sixty-fifth year of his age. His widow survived 
 him a number of years, d3'ing there in 1895, aged 
 sixtj'-seven. 
 
 Levin P. Baugh, of this article, was born in 
 Tippoo County, Miss., October 28, 1842, was the 
 fifth in age of his parents' seven sons and seven 
 daughters, being the baby of the family at the 
 time of the removal to Texas. He was in his six- 
 teenth year when his father settled in Brown 
 
 County. He received practically no education, 
 and what he has accomplished is to be attributed 
 solely to native energy, force of character, per- 
 sistent industry and mother wit. Growing up on 
 the frontier he early became familiar with all its 
 ways, its perils a:nd pleasures forming his chief 
 pursuits. He has gone through all the border 
 warfare in Brown County from the first 
 "• brushes" with the Indians to the " fence-cutting 
 troubles" of later years, and it would probably 
 be no exaggeration to say that his experiences dur- 
 ing the thirty j'ears' conflict from 1858 to 1888, when 
 the county was finally rid of such troubles would 
 make a very respectable volume of itself, if given 
 in detail. An instance or two, onl}', will be men- 
 tioned. About a year after the Baughs had settled 
 in Brown County the Indians came into the com- 
 munity on one of their monthly raids. The family 
 was aroused one night by the barking of the dogs, 
 and Levin, knowing from the signs that Indians 
 were about, hastily took down his gun and disap- 
 peared through the back door in an opposite direc- 
 tion from where the redskins seemed to be. Circling 
 around he came upon the scene from the rear and 
 picking his way cautiously got within gunshot dis- 
 tance of the Indians without being discovered. 
 He singled out one whose general form he could see 
 fairly well by the starlight and drawing a bead on 
 him fired, at the same time yelling and dodging 
 through the brush on the lookout for others. 
 None, however, showed up close enough to be shot 
 at, though he could hear them scampering through 
 the thicket. He saw the Indian he fired on fall 
 and, returning to the place, found his body. Seiz- 
 ing the redskin by the leg he dragged him to the 
 house and threw the body over the yard fence 
 where he proceeded to examine it at his leisure, and 
 later removed the scalp. An examination next 
 morning showed that there were several Indians in 
 the part}', and j'oung Baugh could only account for 
 their flight b}' the supposition that they thought 
 themselves surrounded by several whites and ran 
 without waiting to find out how many whites there 
 were. 
 
 Again, in 1865, Mr. Baugh was cow hunting in 
 Comanche County, when word was received that 
 a family of movers had been murdered by the In- 
 dians in Hamilton County. A party of eleven, 
 himself one of them, was hastily formed to go in 
 
L. P. BAUGH. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 455 
 
 pursuit. The Indians were supposed to lie Coman- 
 cbes and were returnino; to their reservation on the 
 head-waters of the Brazos. Prominent geographi- 
 cal points by which they would direct their course 
 were watched and the intervening country surveyed 
 with field-glasses, from one elevation to another. 
 At last the rangers discovered the Indians some six 
 miles behind them. Taking the back track they 
 struck the trail about a mile in the rear, from which 
 point riding rapidly on they saw a short distance 
 ahead of them, emerging on to a prairie, two bucks 
 and a squaw, each well mounted. A considerable 
 ravine lay between the Indians and their pursuers 
 and not being able to pick their way in the charge, 
 all of the rangers' horses became for a minute or 
 two "ditched" except that of Mr. Baugh. He, 
 by accident, struck the ravine at a narrow place and 
 bis horse jumped it. This threw him in advance of 
 his companions and his horse going at full speed 
 soon brouglit him up with the Indians. He was 
 armed with an Eufleld rifle and a brace of pistols, 
 and having made the charge with liis gun drawn, 
 he fired as soon as he was within range, on the 
 old buck who was riding with the squaw and fanning 
 her with a fan made of cotton-wood leaves. The 
 ball struck the Indian at the base of the brain and 
 went entirely through his head. He fell instantly 
 from his horse and expired. Dismounting, Mr. 
 Baugh drew one of his pistols and opened fire on 
 the other buck. His first shot struck the Indian in 
 the shoulder, the second missed and the third took 
 effect in his hip. The Indian held on to his horse 
 which, taking fright, ran forward and carried his 
 rider out of range of pistol shot. Remounting, 
 Mr. Baugh unwound his lariat and took after the 
 squaw, intending to rope her, but at this juncture 
 the main body of the Indians, some twenty-five or 
 thirty, who were traveling in advance, having heard 
 the firing, turned about and appeared on the scene. 
 Aliout the same time also the rangers came up, and for 
 a few seconds the indications pointed to what prom- 
 ised to be a lively fight ; but one of the white men 
 appearing on an eminence at some distance yelling, 
 gesticulating and waving his hat, led the Indians to 
 believe that there was a large body in pursuit, and 
 without waiting to assure themselves of the num- 
 ber by whom they were attacked they took to 
 their heels and were soon out of sight. Mr. 
 Baugh took possession of the accoutrements of 
 the Indian he had killed, which consisted of a 
 bow, a well tanned buck-skin arrow case, filled 
 with arrows, a raw-hide shield, a pair of silver 
 tweezers and a pocket-knife, which trophies he after- 
 wards gave away to a gentleman traveling through 
 the country, but would like very much now to have. 
 
 In 1SG8 Mr. Baugh married, and after that, 
 though a great deal on the range, he became more 
 cautious in his dealings with the Indians. After 
 the war, as is well known, the settlers along the 
 frontier were greatly annoyed by cattle and horse 
 thieves, and the people living in Brown County had 
 this very troublesome class to deal with for several 
 years. Mr. Baugh was a sufferer from their depre- 
 dations, and was frequently called on to run down 
 these lawless characters and recover property taken 
 by them. It is perhaps true, as claimed by old set- 
 tlers, that the law was not always the most effective 
 means to use in dealing with these characters ; at 
 any rate it was not in all cases called into requi- 
 sition, summary punishment being dealt out by the 
 citizens when there was a prospect of a defeat of 
 justice by the law's delay. Mr. Baugh, however, 
 always insisted on allowing the law to take its way 
 unless the personal securitj^ of a citizen was threat- 
 ened, but when this was the case he too became an 
 advocate of the use of those important adjuncts of 
 the courts, the rope and six-shooter. Being a large 
 landholder he was forced to take an especially 
 active part during the ''fence-cutting troubles." 
 His troubles with the fence-cutters began by their 
 posting the following notice in a conspicious place 
 on his ranch : " Mr. liaugh, take down this fence ; 
 if you don't we will cut it, and if we cut and a drop 
 of the cutter's blood is spilled, your life will pay 
 the penalty." He wrote underneath it: "You 
 cowardly cur! This is my fence and you let it 
 alone." To which he signed his name. This was 
 equivalent to a declaration of hostilities on both 
 sides, and tlie war began. The fence was cut and 
 put up several times in succession till at last Mr. 
 Baugh caught the parties in the act. Being boys 
 he told their parents and offered not to prosecute, 
 provided the depredations ceased ; but he met with 
 no encouragement along this line, and he then 
 turned to the law. He applied to the local author- 
 ities but got very little satisfaction, and at last 
 adopted measures of his own, still, however, within 
 the law. He hired a man, a stranger in the com- 
 munity, to go live among the fence-cutters, furnish- 
 ing him with money to buj' a small place and means 
 to live on, and instructed him to full3' post himself 
 on all the doings of the gang and to keep him 
 (Baugh) advised of these. It took time to accom- 
 plish tliis, but it was done. Then when a list of the 
 fence-cutlers had been obtained and a general raid 
 was being planned a company of rangers which had 
 been sent up from Austin by Gen. King, the Adju- 
 tant-General, with whom Mr. Baugh was in corre- 
 spondence, appeared on the scene and at an oppor- 
 tune time were turned loose on the fence-cutters, 
 
456 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 who were caugbt in the act of destroying long 
 strings of fences. A fierce fight followed and sev- 
 eral of the cutters were killed or wounded, the rest 
 leaving the countrj', which finally put an end to 
 their depredations. The county was thus rid of 
 one of the worst troubles with which it had ever 
 been afflicted and all good citizens were heartily 
 glad of it. Such were afterwards permitted to enjoy 
 the fruits of their industry unmolested, and there 
 was a marked increase in the industrial growth of 
 the county as well as a change for the better in the 
 moral tone of the community. 
 
 Mr. Baugh abandoned stock-raising, after the 
 old style, when the country began to settle up, 
 and turned his attention to farming. He began 
 investing in land just after the war, and owns at 
 this time a ranch of 10,000 acres, all lying in one 
 body, about five miles north of Brownwood, nearly 
 half it valley land lying about Pecan Valley, all 
 of it under fence, 4,000 acres being surrounded 
 by a five-foot rock fence, making it the finest farm 
 in Brown County, and one of the finest in the State. 
 All of it is utilized for farming and stock-raising, 
 and is conducted according to modern methods. 
 To the task of acquiring, protecting and improving 
 this place, Mr. Baugh has devoted the best years 
 of his life, and is still following up his early labors 
 
 with the most persistent and arduous efforts. In- 
 cidentally, and in a general way, he has interested 
 himself in public matters in the community where 
 he resides, but has filled no oflSces, nor had other 
 pursuits than those mentioned. He has contrib- 
 uted to the upbuilding of some local enterprises, 
 helped to foster a spirit of industry, encouraged 
 the school interest, and lent his influence to every 
 thing of that nature calculated to benefit the coun- 
 try in which he lives. 
 
 On September 23, 1868, Mr. Baugh married Miss 
 Frances E. Moseley, a daughter of Capt. Daniel 
 H. Moseley, of Brownwood, Mrs. Baugh being 
 a native of Cherokee County, Texas, where her 
 fatiier settled on first coming to the State at about 
 the age of eighteen. He was from C4eorgia, and 
 married in Cherokee County, Texas, residing there 
 some years. He was all over the frontier, traveling 
 as far as Arizona, but settled at Brownwood in 
 1862, and lived there the remainder of his life, his 
 death occurring in 1892. He filled the offices 
 of Sheriff and County Clerk of Brown County, 
 and both as an oflicial and citizen was well 
 liked. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Baugh have six children living: 
 Arizona Isabelle, John Morgan, Mary Blain, 
 Frances E., Levin P., Jr., and Urolla. 
 
 E. M. SCARBROUGH, 
 
 AUSTIN. 
 
 E. M. Scarbrough, though still in the vigor of 
 mature manhood, may truthfully be called a Texas 
 pioneer. He comes of a pioneer stock — people who 
 cut their way through the cane-brakes of the South- 
 east and fought the savages in the early part of this 
 century. His father, Lemuel Scarbrough, died on his 
 old plantation, near White Plains, Calhoun County 
 Ala., in 1850, leaving a widow with the care of 
 twelve children — seven sons and five daughters. 
 E. M. was then four years old, there being one 
 younger boy. The mother, like the brave, strong 
 woman that she was, took up the affairs of her hus- 
 band and began the personal management of her 
 plantation and slaves. Her fortitude and good 
 sense bore her bravely and business prospered. 
 She saw her older children settled in life and her 
 younger bidding fair to enter manhood and woman- 
 hood as become the children of such a parentage. 
 
 But ten years of peaceful success had scarce passed 
 over her head when the guns that startled Fort 
 Sumpter called upon this widow to sacrifice her 
 sons to her country. Five of them went into early 
 Confederate regiments, leaving E. M. to care for 
 the home and do local military duty as occasion not 
 infrequently required. Even this degree of quiet 
 was soon broken in upon by a demand for the active 
 military services of this sixth son of his mother, 
 and in June, 1864, he was mustered as a volunteer 
 into the depleted ranks of the Fifty-first Alabama 
 Cavalry. He followed the fortunes of his regiment 
 through the closing scenes of the bitterest civil war 
 the world has ever known, remaining at his post of 
 duty until the final surrender. It may be remarked 
 here that this trait of standing by his duty is char- 
 acteristic of his entire career. When he knew 
 positively that this was a " lost cause" he turned 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 457 
 
 his face toward the old home. He did not even 
 wait for the formalities usually connected with such 
 events, but simply said to his comrades: "Boys, 
 come, go home with me," and rode away, in com- 
 pany with the Regimental Commander, Quarter- 
 master, other officers and sixty companions. 
 
 Of course he found the old farm a wreck and the 
 slaves gone, but he went to work and for two years 
 labored unceasingly, obeying the will and direc- 
 tions of his mother until he was twenty-one years 
 old. But in 1867 he decided to "go West," and 
 his home was soon made in Texas. Why should he 
 be called a pioneer? Because he came to a country 
 devastated by war and her institutions in a worse 
 condition than if they had not existed. 
 
 Mr. Scarbrough's capital stock, on reaching this 
 State, consisted entirely of such assets as well- 
 planned determination, laudable ambition, well- 
 formed business habits and sterling integrity — 
 good bankable paper in those days. His first em- 
 ployment was as a salesman in the store of Hall & 
 Evans, at Bryant's Station, Milam County, and there 
 he remained until 1870, when the business of the 
 firm was transferred to Hearne, Mr. Searbrough 
 remaining with the concern. Not long after this 
 removal he entered into a contract to supply the 
 H. & T. C. R. R. and International & Great 
 Northern R. R., which were being constructed 
 northward, with cross-ties and telegraph poles. 
 The terms of this contract were complied with 
 during the years 1872-3 and Mr. Searbrough hav- 
 ing acquired the necessary means to enter into 
 business, in 1874 formed a copartnership at Rock- 
 dale with his former employers, and opened 
 business at Rockdale under the firm name of 
 Haskins & Co. This partnership continued until 
 the death of Gen. Hale in 1882. The affairs of 
 the old firm were then wound up and the firm of 
 Searbrough & Hicks was formed. In this concern 
 Mr. Searbrough was very active, as he was also in 
 the affairs of the town of Rockdale. He was a 
 moving spirit in the organization of what is now 
 the First National Bank of Rockdale and became 
 one of its directors. He was president of the 
 School Board and organized the free schools of 
 Rockdale. He entered readily and heartily into 
 
 every movement for the advancement of Rockdale's 
 interests. He was one of the earliest and most 
 active of the movers to secure the construction 
 of the Aransas Pass Railroad to Rockdale, and on 
 his own motion became one of four men to become 
 responsible for the required bonus of $10,000 while 
 the competing town of Taylor was circulating a 
 petition and speculating upon its influence. This 
 is a fair illustration of Mr. Scarbrough's business 
 methods. When he wants a thing he goes after it. 
 
 In 1889 Mr. Searbrough moved with his family 
 to Austin, where he lived in comparative quiet for 
 a time, but his active mind could not allow him 
 such peace, and in 1890 he opened the mammoth 
 establishment of Searbrough & Hicks, on Congress 
 avenue, which has in no way interfered with the 
 firm's business at Rockdale, His intention was 
 to have one of the largest, best stocked and 
 most completely appointed department stores in 
 the State, as it was the first in the city of 
 Austin. This store has a frontage of 110 feet 
 on Congress avenue, occupies two floors con- 
 nected by a passenger and freight elevator, and 
 demands the constant services of more than forty 
 people. It is not strange that such a man should 
 become identified with other interests ; so we find 
 him a director in the Austin National Bank, which 
 is one of the strongest institutions in the State. 
 
 Mr. Searbrough, November 7th, 1877, was mar- 
 ried to Miss Ada R. Ledbetter, a daughter of Isaac 
 and Julia Ledbetter, who removed to Milam County 
 in 1853, her mother having died in 1864, after 
 which her home was with her sister, Mrs. Lizzie 
 Wilson, who gave her every possible advantage. 
 On the 23d of May, 1892, the happiness of the home 
 was broken into by death, who claimed Mrs Sear- 
 brough, leaving the husband to care for his five 
 children to whom the tender strength of his nature 
 has gone out in watchful love. 
 
 Mr. Searbrough is a firm and unbending business 
 man, but is one of the most approachable of men, 
 which trait has gone far to make him popular as 
 well as respected. His word is his bond and through 
 all the ramifications of his business he will not tol- 
 erate the least misrepresentation or deception of any 
 kind. 
 
458 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 CHARLES V. VAUGHAN, 
 
 NAVASOTA, 
 
 Was born in Amelia County, Va., January 3, 1844. 
 His father was Henderson F. Vaughan and his 
 mother bore the maiden name of Mollie B. Walthall. 
 Mr. Vaughan was reared in Amelia and Prince 
 Edward counties, Va., and in the schools of the 
 latter received his education. In Januarj-, 1862, 
 he entered the Confederate army, enlisting in Com- 
 pany C, Eighteenth Virginia Infantry, Pickett's 
 Brigade, Longstreet's Corps. He took part in all 
 the stirring scenes about Richmond, and was in the 
 engagements at Williamsburg, Seven Pines, Gaines' 
 Mill, and at intermediate places, and was twice 
 wounded — by a shell explosion (taking effect in the 
 spine), at Seven Pines, by a gun-shot (shattering 
 his right arm) at Gaines' Mill, and surrendered at 
 Appomattox at the general armistice. 
 
 Returning home, Mr. Vaughan found everything 
 
 devastated and in ruins. He took up his residence 
 with his mother and step-father, his father having 
 died many years before and his mother having re- 
 married, and during the year of 1865 made a crop 
 with horses and on provisions furnished by the 
 general government. Concluding that there was 
 nothing in store for him in his native State, he left 
 it for Texas in December, 1866, and settled at Old 
 Washington, where until 1869 he alternately clerked 
 in a mercantile establishment and engaged in farm- 
 ing. He then moved to Navasota, where he contin- 
 ued in the mercantile business, first as clerk, and 
 later on his own account, until a comparatively 
 recent date. 
 
 In 1873 Mr. Vaughan married Miss Imogene C. 
 Cabler, a daughter of Edwin S. Cabler, an old 
 settler of Washington County. 
 
 THEODORE GERFERS, 
 
 KENDALIA. 
 
 One of the well-known pioneers of Comal County, 
 came to Texas from Dusseldorf on the Rhine, in 
 Prussia, where he was born February 1, 1809, 
 settled at New Braunfels, where he followed farm- 
 ing for about six years, and then moved to Bexar 
 County, where he established a farm on the Gibolo 
 and engaged in stock-raising until his death. He 
 brought his wife and five children with him to this 
 country, viz.: William, Agnes, Theo. W., Joseph, 
 and Frederick W. 
 
 Frederick, living four miles northwest of Ken- 
 dalia, born February 3, 1849, was an infant of five 
 weeks when his parents left Germany for America. 
 He grew up on his father's farm in Bexar 
 County and married in 1873 Miss Albertina Leisti- 
 kow. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Gerfers have two chil- 
 dren : Charles and Jennie. Mr. Gerfers has a 
 ranch of about 4,000 acres of farming and grazing 
 lands. 
 
BROOK SMITH. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 459 
 
 JACOB THEIS, 
 
 BOERNE, 
 
 Was born in Nassua, Germany, October 22, 1831, 
 and in 1854 came to New Braunfels, Texas, wliere 
 lie remained for two years and learned the black- 
 smith's trade. He worked in various towns in Texas 
 until 1868 and then opened a shop on his own 
 account at Boerne, and there followed bis trade 
 until about the year 1875, when he bought 117 
 acres of land near town and engaged in farming. 
 To this property he has since added until he now 
 
 owns 25,000 acres. He spent the years 1862-3 
 working in the Confederate States Arsenal at San 
 Antonio and later went to Mexico and returned to 
 Boerne in 1865. Mr. Theis married Miss Minnie 
 Kass, at Boerne, in 1862. They have nine children. 
 Mr. Theis was a member of Col. Sansom's Texas 
 Eangers in 1858-9 and was in several Indian fights 
 about the head-waters of the Guadalupe. His farm 
 and dairy are among the best in Kendall County. 
 
 JACOB SCHMIDT, 
 
 FREDERICKSBURG, 
 
 A retired farmer and business man and esteemed 
 citizen of Fredericksburg, was born in Prussia, 
 December 14, 1825, and came to Texas in 1857 
 from Bremen and Galveston, and then making his 
 way overland to San Antonio and Fredericksburg. 
 By his first marriage he had one daughter, Katie, 
 born January 29, 1855, who became Mrs. August 
 Gamman and died, leaving one son and four daugh- 
 ters. By a second marriage Mr. Schmidt has the 
 
 following children : Mary, born June 25, 1857, mar- 
 ried to Fritz Karrier, of Kerrville ; Louise, born 
 January 3, 1860, married to Max Schultz, of El 
 Paso ; Ferdinand, born July 28, 1864, now in South 
 America; Hannah, born October 21, 1867, married 
 to Charles Gibert ; William, born October 20, 
 1869; and Frederick, born April 28, 1871. Mr. 
 Schmidt has been an industrious and law-abiding 
 citizen and reasonably successful in life. 
 
 BROOKE SMITH, 
 
 BROWNWOOD. 
 
 The brief biography here submitted is not based 
 on a political or military record, it is simply that 
 of a plain man of business. Yet it will not be 
 without significance in this work, not only as help- 
 ing to show the character of men who, since the 
 Civil War, have been chiefly instrumental in build- 
 ing up the State's commercial and financial interests, 
 but as an illustration of what in varying degrees of 
 success can always be accomplished by persistent 
 industry coupled with integrity and sound practical 
 sense. 
 
 Brooke Smith, who established the first bank in 
 West Central Texas and who has been longer and 
 more prominently connected with the banking busi- 
 ness in that section of the Slate than an\' one else, 
 is not, as this fact might seem to indicate, an old 
 man, for he was born in March, 1853, and is there- 
 fore still on the sunny side of fifty by several years. 
 He is a native of Hanover County, Va., and comes 
 of Virginia stock throughout, his ancestors on both 
 sides having settled in the "Old Dominion" in 
 early colonial days. His parents were John Snelson 
 
460 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Smith (who is still living, being a resident of Auson, 
 Jones County, Texas), and Paulina T. (Doswell) 
 Smith, who died some years since (December 31, 
 1883), at Brownwood, in this State. 
 
 Very little of Brooke Smith's life was spent in his 
 native State, his parents moving from there when 
 he was about seven years old (18G0) to Indiana, 
 settling in Marion County, near Indianapolis, and 
 from there ten years later (1870) to Texas, settling 
 in McLennan County, close to Waco. He was 
 brought up as a farm boy in the localities men- 
 tioned and received his education in the public 
 school of the same, no opportunities for distinction 
 in the higher branches of learning being open to 
 him. 
 
 Mr. Smith's career has been strictly one of a 
 business nature and it began at the time at his loca- 
 tion in Brownwood, in 1876. Brownwood at that 
 time was a new place but had begun to attract the 
 attention of settlers and was one of the best towns 
 in Western Texas. It was the supply point for a 
 large area of country drawing trade for 150 miles 
 West, Northwest and Southwest and for about half 
 that distance in other directions. The cattle indus- 
 try was then j'ielding fair results and the business 
 being concentrated in the hands of a few large 
 dealers, made their patronage very profitable. The 
 firm of Smith & Steffens (Brooke Smith and Otto 
 W. Steffens), merchants, started in business at 
 Brownwood on the 4th of April, 1876. Their capi- 
 tal at that time consisted of about $4,000 invested of 
 course in their business. They soon began to 
 receive their share of the trade and before the 
 expiration of a year were doing the bulk of the 
 general mercantile business of the place. There 
 were no banks then in Brownwood and none nearer 
 than Ft. Worth, Waco and Austin, each distant 
 about 145 miles. In consequence there was very 
 little banking business done by the people of that 
 section, none in fact except what was done at the 
 places named. A local merchant might occasion- 
 ally cash a check or draft, but none of them 
 thought of taking deposits. Business ran along 
 this way for about two years after Smith & 
 Steffens located in Brownwood when, having 
 a number of cash balances standing on their 
 books to the credit of their customers who had 
 deposited checks, drafts and in some instances 
 cash, they thought it advisable as a security 
 against loss as well as to facilitate the conduct of 
 their business to establish a banking department. 
 The suggestion was made by Mr. Smith, who agreed 
 to take charge of that feature of the business, and 
 readily concurred in by Mr. Steffens, who was to 
 continue to give his attention to the mercantile 
 
 branch. An 8,500 pound safe was ordered from 
 the Diebold Safe & Lock Company, of Canton, 
 Ohio, which was shipped to Eound Rock in Will- 
 iamson County, whence it was hauled with ox- 
 teams to Brownwood. The arrival of that safe in 
 Brownwood marked an era in the history of the 
 town. For days before it had been the chief topic 
 of conversation, and when it finally reached the 
 outskirts of the place it was met by about one-half 
 the population, who greeted it with a welcome that 
 made the traditional "welkin" ring. A proces- 
 sion in which the irrepressible small boy and the 
 ubiquitous village wit took a conspicuous part, 
 escorted the ponderous mass of iron and steel with 
 its dusty and leg-weary attendants into town, and 
 subsequently amidst much speculation and amateur 
 " bossing," saw it securely placed in the rear of 
 Smith-Steffens store. The safe was a good one, 
 being of fire and burglar proof construction, and 
 up to date in other respects. The other fixtures, 
 however, were not so pretentious, though answer- 
 ing in all essentials their purpose. These consisted 
 of a counter ten feet long and three feet four inches 
 high, made of lumber, along the top of which ran 
 a light wire netting, extending upright three 
 feet six inches, which, with a small door of the 
 same material opening against the wall, served 
 as a guard against intruders. Over the cashier's 
 window appeared the sign in cheap metal let- 
 ters: "Pecan Valley Bank." The cost of the 
 entire outfit exclusive of the safe not exceed- 
 ing fifty dollars. The bank was opened with- 
 out any preliminaries, Mr. Smith simply taking 
 his position at his desk and announcing ready for 
 business. This came at once and in very gratify- 
 ing quantities. Before the expiration of the first 
 year the deposits had reached §90,000, and increas- 
 ing from year to year ran as high as $250,000. 
 Discounting, buying and selling of exchange, col- 
 lections, etc., kept pace with the increase of depos- 
 its, and the Pecan Valley Bank rapidly developed 
 into one of the recognized financial institutions of 
 the country. In 1881 Messrs. Smith and Steffens 
 started a store and small banking business at 
 Buffalo Gap in Taylor County, but shortly after- 
 wards moved their establishment to Abilene, where, 
 the goods being disposed of, the}' with others organ- 
 ized the First National Bank of that place, since 
 continued under the management of Mr. Steffens. 
 The Pecan Valley Bank of Brownwood ran along 
 under the management of Mr. Smith until 1883, 
 when he, representing Smith & Steffens, associated 
 with himself J. L. Vaughn, J. C. Weakley and D. 
 H. Trent, and organized the First National Bank of 
 Brownwood on a capital of $75,000, increased a 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 461 
 
 year later to $100,000. This bank succeeded the 
 Pecan Valley Bank and, being placed in charge of 
 Mr. Smith as cashier, accumulated under his man- 
 agement during the next ten years a surplus of 
 §20,000, and paid its stockholders in cash dividends 
 $211,000. In 1894 Mr. Smith, having withdrawn 
 from this bank, associated with himself J. C. 
 Weakley, John G. Lee and his old partner, Mr. 
 Steffens, and started the private banking house of 
 Brooke Smith & Co., at Brownwood, of which he is 
 now the manager. There are at this writing four 
 banks in Brownwood, all prestimably secure and 
 doing a satisfactory business. The following figures 
 taken from their last published reports, February 
 28, 1896, are inserted in this place, not for the 
 purpose of drawing any invidious comparisons, but 
 simply to show, in the most direct and practical 
 waj', the standing, relative and absolute, of the bank 
 under consideration: — 
 
 Brooke Smith & Co. : Loans, discounts and secur- 
 ities, $162,225.75 ; capital, 8200,000, since increased 
 to $250,000: deposits, $137,118..38. 
 
 The Brownwood National Bank: Loans and dis- 
 counts, $75,408.89; capital, $60,000; deposits, 
 $93,678.87. 
 
 The First National Bank: Loans and dis- 
 counts, $111,925.41; capital, $100,000; deposits, 
 $69,976.93. 
 
 The Merchants' National Bank: Loans and dis- 
 counts, $73,420.91; capital, $50,000; deposits, 
 $55,181.24. 
 
 Twenty years measures the time to date that Mr. 
 Smith has been connected with the banking busi- 
 ness of Brownwood and Western Texas. This is an 
 important period in the formative era of a new 
 country and perhaps in no respect has it been more 
 important in that section than in the banking busi- 
 ness. The entire business has grown up in this 
 time, and in its growth not only has this single in- 
 terest been developed, but a direction has been in- 
 cidentally imparted to latent energies and a cast and 
 coloring given to events that will survive through 
 this and perhaps many succeeding generations. 
 
 The three banks mentioned, the Pecan Valley, the 
 First National of Brownwood, and that of Brooke 
 Smith & Co., represent more largely the labors of 
 Mr. Smith than of any other man ; and as to what 
 these labors involve no adequate idea can be given 
 in a brief sketch like this ; for it is to be remembered 
 that the business was begun and for years carried 
 on under circumstances very different from those 
 now existing. Until 1887 Brownwood had no rail- 
 way connection with the outside world, nor any 
 telegraph or express facilities, all communication 
 being by stage-coach and slow-going ox-trains. 
 
 This rendered the task of ordering money and trans- 
 ferring balances especially difficult, and in the latter 
 case often hazardous. All sorts of uses had to 
 be resorted to to elude road agents and to in- 
 sure protection against possible dishonesty on the 
 part of carriers. Specie was usually shipped 
 as nails, axes, or other heavy merchandise, 
 and currency in the same manner, a few bars of 
 soap, or a bolt of cheap cloth being removed from a 
 box to make room for $10,000 or $20,000 in bills. 
 Once Mr. Smith was going to Ft. Worth, and wished 
 to take a considerable sum of money with him. He 
 constructed a small box with a false bottom ; put 
 the money in the bottom, filled the top space with 
 dirt in which he placed a geranium and thus carried 
 his valuable package on his lap, or in the seat by 
 his side. Sometimes in removing silver in large 
 amounts the weight of the metal made secrecy im- 
 possible, in which case more heroic methods 'had to 
 be adopted. He once hauled $16,000 dollars in 
 silver,weighing approximately one thousand pounds, 
 in a hack from Cisco, the then terminus of the rail- 
 way, to Brownwood, the guards being himself and 
 one other. It may be added, however, that the 
 weight of the money in cases like the last was no 
 small protection of itself. 
 
 In addition to having helped establish the banks 
 named, Mr. Smith has been a leading spirit in every 
 enterprise of consequence that has been set on foot 
 in Brownwood or Brown County since he settled 
 there. In 1885 he subscribed $10,000 to the Brown 
 County Milling Company, assisted in organizing the 
 company, and has since been connected with it as 
 director, secretary and treasurer. He helped to 
 organize the Brownwood Cotton Compress Com- 
 pany, with which he is still connected, and he was 
 a charter member of the Ft. Worth & Rio Grande 
 Railroad Company, of which he is now a director, 
 and for which, as well as for the Gulf, Colorado 
 and Santa Fe, at an earlier day he obtained, un- 
 aided and alone, the rights of way through Brown 
 County, donating his services and securing the 
 grants at a nominal cost to the companies. A few 
 years ago Mr. Smith owned 32,000 acres of land in 
 the vicinity of Brownwood. Seeing the necessity 
 for a larger farming population in that section he 
 cut these lands into tracts of 160 acres each, which 
 he began to sell to settlers and has, up to this time, 
 disposed of about 20,000 acres. His terms — one- 
 tenth down, and balance in ten equal annual in- 
 stallments with eight per cent interest on deferred 
 payments — are such that any one can comply with 
 them and thereby secure a home, and it is gratifying 
 to know that many are doing so. Such settlers add 
 materially to the taxable wealth of the State and 
 
462 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 their presence in the communities where they 
 locate is in every way beneficial. 
 
 Mr. Smith has manifested an especially friendly 
 interest in popular education and in good local 
 government ; and while he has differed widely at 
 times from some of his fellow-citizens as to how 
 these ends were best to be attained, occasionally 
 finding himself with the minority advocating un- 
 popular measures, his zeal has not on that account 
 known any abatement nor has the rectitude of his 
 motives ever been called in question. He has taken 
 scarcely any interest in partisan politics and has 
 held no offices except those of school trustee. 
 Alderman and Mayor of Brownwood. He prefers 
 to be known for the good he can do rather than for 
 accumulated public honors, and for this reason as 
 well as for the real pleasure it gives him to be help- 
 ful to others he has made it a point through life to 
 assist in a financial wa}- and with advice young men 
 of his acquaintance, among whom he has thus 
 created enduring friendships. He belongs to the 
 Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias, and is a mem- 
 ber of the Episcopal Church. St. John's Episcopal 
 Church at Brownwood, one of the handsomest and 
 
 costliest edifices in that diocese, was erected mainly 
 through his efforts and contributions. Benevolent 
 under the exercise of reason and sound judgment, 
 charitable without compromising his principles, 
 firm without obstinacy, and religious without big- 
 otry, he is a representative of that type of man- 
 hood most potential for good in this world and of 
 which, sad to say, it has all too much need. 
 
 On March 2, 18S0, in Bourbon County, Ky., 
 Mr. Smith married Miss Juliet L. Sparks, daughter 
 of Lloyd W. and Elizabeth (Richardson) Sparks, 
 and the issue of this union has been three daughters 
 and a son, three of whom, Lola Doswell, Norma 
 Brooke and Brooke, Jr., are living, the eldest of 
 the number, a daughter, being deceased. Mr. 
 Smith has three brothers living : R. C. M. Smith, 
 of McCordsville, Ind., the only one of his father's 
 family who never came to Texas, Temple D. Smith, 
 engaged in the banking business at Fredericksburg, 
 Texas, and Frank M. Smith, a banker at Anson, 
 Jones County, this State, and three sisters, all 
 residents of Brownwood: Fannie Gwathmey, now 
 Mrs. A. P. Jones, Nannie Lee Smith, and Alice 
 Lewis, widow of J. J. Ramey. 
 
 ANSON RAINEY, 
 
 WAXAHACHIE. 
 
 Judge Anson Rainey was born in El Dorado, 
 Union County, Ark., March 1st, 1848. His father 
 was Christopher Columbus Rainey, a native of 
 Alabama, who died at El Dorado, Ark., in 1854, 
 when twenty-nine years of age. The Judge's 
 grandfather, Matthew F. Rainey, was, for many 
 vears, a citizen of Green County, Ala., in which 
 county he held for years the office of Sheriff. He 
 also represented it in the lower House of the State 
 Legislature. He subsequently moved to Arkansas, 
 and at the time of his death was a State Senator. 
 The Judge's mother, nee Nancy Blake Baker, still 
 living, was a daughter of Zadok Baker, a primitive 
 Baptist preacher, who came from North Carolina 
 to Alabama, where he died at an advanced age. 
 The wife of Zadok Baker, nee Lucretia King, was 
 a cousin of Hon. William R. King, Vice-President 
 of the United States during Pierce's administration 
 and for twenty-five years United States Senator 
 from Alabama. 
 
 Judge Rainey is one of a family of four children 
 
 consisting of himself, a brother (Columbus) and 
 two sisters (Lee and Minnie B.). The brother 
 died in early manhood. In 1880 Miss Lee mar- 
 ried N. J. Nash, who died in October, 1881. She 
 now lives in Waxahachie, Texas. Miss Minnie 
 married E. F. Yrager, who died in 1890. She died 
 in 1893. 
 
 After the death of the Judge's father in 1854, 
 his mother returned to Mt. Hebron, Green County, 
 Ala., where the subject of this sketch was reared 
 to farm life and received a common school educa- 
 tion. At the age of fifteen years he entered the 
 Confederate service, enlisting in August, 1863, in 
 Company A., Sixteenth Confederate Cavalry, and 
 served until the close of the war. His command 
 operated principally in Georgia, Alabama and Mis- 
 sissippi. He was in every battle in which his 
 regiment participated until April 2d, 18G5, when 
 Fort Blakely, opposite Mobile, Ala., was invested 
 by the Federals and he was wounded and perma- 
 nently disabled. When his command surrendered 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 463 
 
 in May of that year, he was at home on furlough 
 and remained there until January, 1867, when he 
 came to Texas, making his first stop at Crockett, 
 where he lived for two years, clerking for his 
 uncle. Dr. Frank Eainey, who was engaged in the 
 drug business. 
 
 In January, 1869, he went to Bryan, Texas, at 
 which place, and at Hearne, Texas, he clerked for 
 Tabor & Luce, until September of that year, when 
 he went to Delhi, La., at which place he engaged 
 in the mercantile business until the spring of 1871, 
 when his mercantile career ended. From early 
 youth his ambition was to become a lawyer, so, 
 when his mercantile career ended, he prosecuted 
 his legal studies under Capt. H. P. Wells, of Delhi. 
 Julj' 6th, 1871, he obtained license from the 
 Supreme Court of Louisiana to practice law. He 
 immediately formed a partnership with Capt. Wells, 
 under the firm name of Wells & Rainey, and located 
 at Delta, Madison Parish, La., where he practiced 
 his profession until January, 1873, when he returned 
 to Texas and located at Waxahachie, Ellis County, 
 February 12 of that year. That place has been 
 his home ever since. He practiced in partnership 
 with his brother-in-law, N. J. Nash, at Waxahachie, 
 until in April, 1874, when he formed a partnership 
 with Judge J. Ferris, the firm name being Ferris & 
 Eainey. In 1880 he was elected to the State Senate, 
 the district being composed of Dallas and Ellis 
 counties, and served for one term, not appearing 
 
 for re-election at the end of that time. The firm of 
 Ferris & Rainey continued until November, 1883, 
 when it dissolved and Mr. Rainey associated with 
 him Mr. G. C. Grose, the firm being Rainey & 
 Grose, a connection that continued until July 6th, 
 1885, when Mr. Rainey was appointed, hy Governor 
 Ireland, Judge of the Fourth Judicial District, 
 composed of the counties of Ellis, Kaufman and 
 Rockwall. He was twice elected to this position 
 without opposition and was holding it when ap- 
 pointed by Governor Hogg, in 1893, Associate Jus- 
 tice of the Court of Civil Appeals for the Fifth 
 Supreme Judicial District of Texas, which position 
 he is now holding. 
 
 He is a member of the Christian Church and of 
 the Masonic fraternity, of which order in Texas he 
 was Grand Master in 1888. His political affiliation 
 has been with the Democratic party from his major- 
 ity to the present time. 
 
 He was married in Houston County, Texas, Feb- 
 ruary 17, 1874, to Miss Fannie Irene Merriwether, 
 who was born in Harrison County, this State, Sep- 
 tember 8th, 1848; a daughter of Dr. F. L. Merri- 
 wether, a native of Alabama. Her mother, nee 
 Edith Dunlap, was also a native of Alabama, a 
 daughter of Samuel Dunlap, a planter of that State. 
 
 Judge Rainey has two children, Frank M. and 
 Edna. The family are temporarily residing in Dal- 
 las, where the Judge's duties require his constant 
 attention. 
 
 O. H. P. TOWNSEN, 
 
 LAMPASAS. 
 
 Oliver Hazard Perry Townsen, or, as he was more 
 familiarly known, " Uncle Perry Townsen," was an 
 old settler of Lampasas County and, according to 
 general report, was for many years one of that 
 county's best citizens. He was born in Carroll 
 County, Tenn., in 1826. His father was John 
 Townsen of Virginia, and his mother, before mar- 
 riage, Tamar Holt, of Kentucky. He was 
 descended from English ancestry on his father's 
 side. His mother was of German descent. His 
 patronymic was originally Townsend. The final d 
 in the name was dropped l)y the American repre- 
 sentatives of the family to distinguish them from 
 their relatives in the old country who were especially 
 active against the colonists in their struggles for 
 
 freedom. John Townsen and Tamar Holt were 
 married in Kentucky and moved thence some years 
 later to Tennessee, settling in Carroll County. 
 There most of their children, five in number, were 
 born, these being John Garrett, James Madison, 
 Stephen Copelaud, Elizabeth, and Oliver Hazard 
 Perry. The mother died in Tennessee. When he 
 was advanced in years the father returned to Ken- 
 tucky, where be died. The subject was the young- 
 est of the family and was not grown at the time of 
 his parents' death. He left his native county when 
 about seventeen years of age and went to Missis- 
 sippi, where he worked as a farm hand and later 
 learned the milling business, on Cold Water Creek, 
 in De Soto County. While there he formed the 
 
464 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 acquaintance of Dr. J. C. Nowlen, with whom he 
 entered into a partnership arrangement to engage 
 in the milling business, and in company with that 
 gentleman went to Missouri in the spring of 1853 
 in search of a location. Not finding a place to suit 
 them they left Missouri a year later and came to 
 Texas and stopped at Gonzales. There Mr. Nowlen 
 located, but Mr. Townsen left that place in the 
 spring of 18.55 and went to Lampasas County and 
 settled. He bought land about twenty miles north 
 of the present town of Lampasas and erected a 
 grist-mill, on the Lampasas river. A two years' 
 drought followed and he sold his mill machinery in 
 1857 to parties living in San Saba County, and 
 turned his attention to stock-raising. In the mean- 
 time his nephew, Lafa3'ette Jasper Townsen, 
 had come to Texas and was residing in Smith 
 County. Mr. Townsen paid him a visit and induced 
 him to join in an enterprise to establish a ranch 
 in Lampasas County. The two put their funds 
 together aud purchased some stock, with which they 
 began in a small way near where the senior Mr. 
 Townsen had first located. The country was very 
 sparsely settled at that time, and that portion of it 
 was subject to Indian depredations' which, with the 
 hardships and privations otherwise connected with 
 the settlement of a new country, made the first few 
 years of their life in Texas anything but pleasant. 
 Still they bore it with fortitude, and applied them- 
 selves industriously to the task which they had set 
 before themselves. The war interfered very seri- 
 0USI3' with their operations, but after the return of 
 peace, they gathered up the remnant of their cattle 
 and in 1866 moved to the vicinity of Fort Chadron, 
 where they hoped to enjoy for a number of years 
 an open range, and freedom from those annoyances 
 with which ranchmen have to contend in a rapidly 
 settling country. But in this they were disap- 
 pointed, for they had been there but a short while 
 when the Indians and United States soldiers began 
 making trouble, and after keeping up the unequal 
 struggle for some time, the Messrs. Townsen were 
 forced to abandon it, and returned to Lampasas 
 County. In 1868 they bought 640 acres of laud on 
 the Lampasas river, where they had formerly lived 
 and, locating on that, began farming and stock- 
 raising on a limited scale. They had all their 
 property in joint ownership, but about this date 
 the farming aud stock business was turned over to 
 Mr. J. L. Townsen, while Mr. Perry Townsen 
 again took up the milling business. He erected a 
 saw and grist mill on the Lampasas river in 1871, 
 and soon developed a large milling interest. The 
 saw mill part of it was never pushed to any great 
 extent, but the other was, and for a number of 
 years he manufactured a high grade of flour and 
 
 other mill products, for which he found a ready 
 sale throughout the surrounding country. He gave 
 his attention actively to this business until his 
 death, which occurred January 30, 1891, being 
 caused by an accident in the mill. He left a con- 
 siderable estate (consisting mostly of lands), and 
 a reputation of which any man might be proud. 
 His thorough-going business methods united with 
 sound habits, strict integrity and a reasonable 
 amount of public spirit won him the esteem and 
 friendship of all those with whom he came in con- 
 tact, and made him for more than thirty 3'ears one 
 of the leading citizens in the county where he lived. 
 He never held any public offices, but took more or 
 less interest in public matters and was very well 
 informed on public questions. In an earlier day 
 he was a Whig in politics, but after the war he 
 joined the Democratic party and always afterward 
 voted with that party. He was a high Mason and 
 made Masonry his religion. 
 
 Mr. Townsen was never married, though a man 
 of domestic habits and fond of children. He made 
 his home with his nephew, L. J. Townsen, whose 
 family looked upon him as a second father, and are 
 greatly devoted to his memory. 
 
 Lafayette Jasper Townsen, mentioned in the fore- 
 going memoir and whose life was so intimately con- 
 nected with that of his uncle, was also born in 
 Carroll County, Tenn., in 1833. His father was 
 John Garrett Townsen, eldest son of John and 
 Tamar Townsen, and his mother bore the maiden 
 name of Mary A. Mitchell. He was reared in 
 Tennessee, and came to Texas in 1856. Joining 
 his uncle the following year he went to Lampasas 
 County, which has practically been his home since 
 and with tlie history of which he has been connected 
 as an active, earnest, law-abiding citizen. As the 
 outcome of his early struggles along with his uncle 
 and good management in later j'ears he has accu- 
 mulated an estate ample for his wants, and he is 
 spending his time now in the supervision of his prop- 
 erty and the rearing of his children. He married 
 Miss Mary A. Stanley, of Lampasas County, in 
 January, 1865, whose father, John Stanley, moved 
 from Mississippi to Texas, and settled in Lampasas 
 County in 1854, the issue of which union has been 
 seven sons and three daughters, all are living. 
 
 Both the gentlemen mentioned in this article had 
 many encounters with the Indians at an early day 
 in Lampasas Count}', and suffered the loss of a great 
 deal of property from Indian depredations, but their 
 experience in this respect was of that character 
 which fell to the lot of all the first settlers, a full 
 account of which will be found in the historical por- 
 tion of this work, illustrated at intervals with inci- 
 dents of blood, daring and personal heroism. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 465 
 
 WILLIAM HAUSSER, 
 
 EAGLE PASS, 
 
 Was born in Wurtembuig, Germany, Maj' 24tb, 
 1847 ; the son of a vinej'ardist and ganleuer. He 
 learned the carpenter's trade in his native country; 
 came to America in 1867, and worked at his trade 
 in Louisville, Ky., until 1873, when lie came to 
 Texas and continued his occupation at Fort Clarlc, 
 Texas, for two years, after which he went to Eagle 
 Pass and worked at his trade and as contractor until 
 1887. He bought, then, the lumber yards and 
 
 business of Martin & Schriever, at the latter place, 
 and has since continued the business with marked 
 success, shipping large quantities of building ma- 
 terial to IVIexico. He is one of the solid men of 
 his town and greatly esteemed. 
 
 He married, in 1881, Miss Amelia Mayer, of 
 Eagle Pass. Six children, William, Albert, Amelia, 
 Frederick, Emma, and Charles, have been born of 
 this union. 
 
 LOUIS STEIN, 
 
 BULVERDE, 
 
 Is well known in Comal County, Texas, as a pio- 
 neer settler. He was born in Germany, April 2, 
 1833, where he learned the cooper's trade under his 
 father, and followed the same until 1869, when he 
 took passage for New York City, where he remained 
 for some time, after which he made a tour through 
 many of the Eastern and Middle States, and then, 
 in 1871, came to Texas. He settled first in Blanco 
 
 County, where be built a number of dwellings under 
 contract for various persons, and then, in 1889, 
 located on 200 acres of land near Bulverde, where 
 he now lives. He was united in marriage to Miss 
 Mary Otto, in 1873, and has seven children, viz. : 
 Louise, Dora, August, William, Ida, Clara, and 
 Bertha. Mr. Stein is advanced in years, but hale and 
 hearty, still possessing much of the vigor of youth. 
 
 CARL ROMPEL, 
 
 BULVERDE, 
 
 Was born in Prussia, Januar}' 24, 1836. His 
 father, Dr. Benjamin Rompel, came to America in 
 1846, and located at New Braunfels, where he 
 practiced medicine until 1852, and then secured 
 800 acres of land in Comal County, on the Bexar 
 County line, and established a farm, on which he 
 afterwards resided. Dr. Rompel brought seven 
 children with him to this country, viz. : Wilhemine, 
 Carl, Victor, Edward, Frank, Charlotte, andAlvin. 
 Alvin, Frank and Victor are deceased. Alvin died 
 at New Orleans in 18G3, while a soldier in the 
 
 Union army. Carl and Edward served for three 
 years in the First Texas Cavalry during the war 
 between the States. After the war, Carl Rompel, 
 subject of this notice, returned home, engaged in 
 farming, and in 1873 married Miss Pauline Wiel- 
 bacher, daughter of the late Christian Wielbacher, 
 of New Braunfels. Mr. and Mrs. Rompel have 
 six children: August, Lena, Freda, Julia, Emil, 
 and an infant. Mr. Rompel has a fine home, and 
 is a successful farmer. 
 
466 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 JOSEPH C. WEAKLEY, 
 
 BROWNWOOD. 
 
 The subject of this sketch comes of pioneer an- 
 cestry. His father was John Wealdey, and his 
 mother bore the maiden name of Mary Williamson, 
 both of whom were natives of Kentucky, where 
 their parents, George and Mary Weakley, and 
 John and Ellen Williamson, were settlers in the 
 days of Daniel Boone. Botli families were from 
 Virginia, and had been identified with the history 
 of that State from early Colonial days. John and 
 Ellen Williamson died in Kentucky, as did also 
 Mary Weakley, but George Weakley left there at 
 an advanced age and went to Indiana, and later to 
 Illinois, settling on the present site of Monmouth, 
 in the latter State, where he spent the closing years 
 of his life ; a type of his kind, full of the spirit of 
 the pioneer, impatient of the restraints of civiliza- 
 tion, and caring but little for wealth or the applause 
 of the world. His son, John, father of Joseph C, 
 was of much the same character. He moved from 
 Kentucky in the latter part of the 30's, and set- 
 tled in Tippecanoe County, Ind., near the fa- 
 mous battle field of Tippecanoe, where he died in 
 1841. Near that historic spot, Joseph C. of this 
 sketch, was born in 1839. He was the youngest of 
 a large family of children, the care and mainte- 
 nance of whom bore heavily on the widowed mother 
 in a new and unsettled country, the better to dis- 
 charge which duties she left Tippecanoe County 
 in 1846, and settled in Indianapolis, then a 
 town of some 2,000 inhabitants. In that town 
 the boyhood and youth of Joseph C. were 
 passed and in the public schools of the same he 
 received what education fell to his lot. He was 
 early apprenticed to the tra-le of a tinner, which he 
 mastered aud followed in Indianapolis till the open- 
 ing of the Civil War. In 1861 he enlisted in the Union 
 army as a volunteer in the Thirty-ninth Indiana 
 Infantry, Col. John F. Harrison, with which he 
 served in the Army of the Cumberland for three 
 years. On the expiration of the term of his enlist- 
 ment he returned to Indianapolis and again taking 
 up his trade followed it there till the close of the 
 war. In 1866 he went West and for four years 
 worked at his trade as a journeyman in different 
 parts of the country, finally in 1871 coming to 
 Texas. After a residence of some eight months in 
 Galveston, three years in Waco, and a year in 
 Comanche, he settled April lo, 1876, at Brownwood, 
 which has since been his home. From the date of 
 
 his first settling at Brownwood, Mr. Weakley has 
 been actively identified with the history of the place, 
 and to-day perhaps has as large and diversified in- 
 terests in the town as any man living there. He 
 began business there on a capital of $1,000, opening 
 a small tin shop on the east side of the square. 
 His tinshop has expanded into a lai'ge hardware 
 establishment, where all kinds of metal manufac- 
 turing is done and all sorts of hardware, mill 
 machinery, implements and vehicles are sold. 
 The house is one of the largest in Western Texas, 
 doing an annual business of about $50,000. Mr. 
 Weakley has given this business almost his exclu- 
 sive attention, and it represents in the main the best 
 efforts of the last twenty years of his life. He has 
 considerable real estate investments in and around 
 Brownwood, and some interests represented by 
 local enterprises. In 1883 he assisted in organiz- 
 ing the First National Bank of Brownwood, of 
 which he then became vice-president and a 
 director and has been such since. In 1891 he 
 assisted in organizing the Brownwood National 
 Bank, of which he was made president, and holds 
 that position now. In 1894 he assisted in organ- 
 izing the banking business of Brooke Smith & Co., 
 of Brownwood, and is a member of the board of 
 directors of the same at this writing. In 1885 he 
 subscribed stock to the Brown County Milling 
 Compan}-, which was organized that year and of 
 which he became president, and has held that posi- 
 tion since. Aud he is a stockholder and director 
 in the Brownwood Cotton Compress Company. 
 His subscription to the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe 
 Railway was $1,000 and to the Fort Worth 
 & Rio Grande, $2,200 ; and he has contributed 
 to the two principal educational institutions 
 of Brownwood, Daniel Baker (Presbyterian) 
 College, and Howard Payne (Baptist) Col- 
 lege, over $3,000, all of which subscriptions and 
 contributions being matters of common knowl- 
 edge and falling within the scope of this article 
 are thus stated, but are to be taken as showing only 
 in part what Mr. Weakley has done for the com- 
 munity in which he resides. His sympathies and 
 personal efforts have gone forth on all proper occa- 
 sions and his private charities have been bestowed 
 with a liberal hand. Constantly absorbed with his 
 business interests, he has held aloof from politics, 
 taking only such part in public matters as has been 
 
I). CALL. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 467 
 
 demanded of him as a citizen. He has served as a 
 member of the school board, and as Mayor of 
 Brownwood, but has allowed his name to be 
 used no further. He is a member of the Masonic 
 fraternity, Brownwood Lodge No. 41 and Brown- 
 wood Commandery No. 22 Knights Templar, and 
 of the Knights of Pythias. 
 
 In 1872, while residing at Galveston, Mr. Weak- 
 
 ley married Miss Helen C. Colmer, then of that 
 place but a native of Cape Girardeau, Mo. This 
 lady died, leaving three children, Mary, now Mrs. 
 Lee Watson, of Brownwood, Alice, and Frank. 
 
 Mr. Weakle3''s second marriage was to Miss 
 Helen Young, and the issue of this union has 
 been four children, Vivian, Itylene, Harry, and 
 Eugene. 
 
 DENNIS CALL, 
 
 ORANGE. 
 
 Mr. Webster in his memorable speech, delivered 
 in 1825 upon the occasion of the laying of the 
 corner-stone of the Bunker Hill monument, called 
 attention to the wonderful strides that the country 
 had made in material development during the half 
 century that had elapsed since that day in 1775, 
 when a few patriots under the leadership of the 
 lamented and immortal Warren consecrated their 
 devotion to the cause of liberty upon the first real 
 battle-field of the Revolution. In his still more 
 notable oration delivered in 1842, upon the com- 
 pletion and unveiling of the monument — an oration 
 that has never been surpassed for strength, breadth 
 of sweep, stately eloquence or prophetic prescience 
 in ancient or modern times — he again called atten- 
 tion to the progress the country has made and in 
 commenting upon that progress made a forecast for 
 the future which must have been listened to by his 
 more than fifty thousand auditors, with sentiments 
 of admiration for the glowing colors and the grand 
 outlines of the picture drawn by the pencil of his 
 matchless fancy and of doubt as to whether it would 
 ever be realized in those days that were to come 
 After them — when their hearts should be stilled in 
 death, when their moldering forms should rest 
 beneath tbe "mossy marbles" of many church- 
 yards and when other generations should move 
 about in the marts of trade, the halls of legislation, 
 in the forum and through all the varied avenues of 
 social life, and when other hands should guide and 
 control the destinies of a Republic whose mighty 
 life should have grown richer and fuller and 
 stronger with the flight of years. Yet the picture 
 that Webster drew has fallen far short of what 
 has already come to pass. 
 
 The United States extend from ocean to ocean, 
 from the British possessions on the north to the 
 
 Gulf of Mexico. Thousands of cities dot the hills 
 and valleys and plaiis of this vast territorial ex- 
 panse. Thousands upon thousands of new indus- 
 tries have sprung into existence to furnish employ- 
 ment to a largely increased population. The 
 progress of the development of internal resources ; 
 the advances made in inventions, in the arts and 
 sciences and in the means and processes of popu- 
 lar education since 1842 have had no parallel in 
 preceding ages. In the past century has been 
 crowded more startling changes, more real and 
 permanent advancement along all lines than in all 
 the ones of prior times combined since the day- 
 dawn of the race. It has been an advancement 
 that has gathered dynamic force from year to 
 year, each result proving but a means for the ac- 
 complishment of still more wonderful and trans- 
 forming results. The past quarter of a century 
 has been a period of intense activity. The con- 
 ditions have been such as to offer unexampled 
 opportunities to men of superior abilities and 
 to stimulate and develop those abilities to the 
 full limits of their possibilities. They have been 
 such that timidity, incapacity, or even medi- 
 ocrity has had little to expect. This has been 
 especially true in the commercial world. A race 
 of financiers has been evolved, remarkable for their 
 sagacity', cool and daring judgment and the success 
 that they have achieved ; many of them building up 
 princely fortunes from the smallest of beginnings. 
 We do not refer to reckless speculators, but to 
 sound business men who have made their fortunes 
 by sound business methods and have benefited 
 and helped to build up ever}' material interest of 
 the communities and States in which they live. 
 
 Among the best known members of the latter 
 class, can be truthfully numbered the subject of this 
 
468 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 memoir, Mr. Dennis Call, Jr., now, and for many 
 years, a leading citizen of the thriving town of 
 Orange. 
 
 He is secretaiy and treasurer of the Orange 
 Terminal Railroad ; vice-president of the Gulf & 
 North Western Railroad, and president and treas- 
 urer of the Cow Creek Tram Company. He en- 
 tered the tram business in Salem, Newton County, 
 Texas, in 1890, and was then elected president and 
 treasurer, positions which he has since held. At 
 that time he owned one-third, and now owns one- 
 half, of the net capital ($178,350) of the company. 
 It owns over twenty miles of railroad, laid with 
 steel rails, fifty-four cars, three locomotives (the 
 road extending through Newton and Jasper Coun- 
 ties) and about 20,000 acres of long leaf yellow 
 pine timber, and at this time is furnishing three of 
 the saw-mills at Orange with their logs. The com- 
 pany is now (1895) building a double saw-mill on 
 their road, with a daily capacity of at least 125,- 
 000 feet, and hope to increase it to 150,000 feet. 
 The cost of the erection of this mill will be about 
 $50,000.00. 
 
 Mr. Call was born in Orange, Texas, September 
 20, 1855, attended local schools and, in 1874, en- 
 tered Eastman's Business College, Poughkeepsie, 
 N. Y., from which he graduated in 1875. He then 
 returned home and entered upon his business 
 career as junior member of the firm of D. Call & 
 Son, his father (D. Call, Sr.), being the senior 
 member. In 1880 George Call was admitted as a 
 partner in the firm of D. Call & Son, and the firm 
 name changed to D. Call & Sons. After the death 
 of D. Call, Sr., the business was continued under 
 the same firm name under the management of the 
 surviving sons. The firm engaged in the regular 
 banking business in 1880, which continued without 
 change until the death of D. Call, Sr., October 17, 
 1883, after which the subject of this memoir 
 assumed control. The firm, besides the banking 
 business, was also engaged in milling and steam- 
 boating and owned a line of schooners that ran 
 between Texas and Mexican ports. Mr. Call is a 
 member of the Orange Fire Department; Orange 
 board of trade ; Knights of Pythias, Legion 
 of Honor, Woodmen of the World, Elks, T. 
 P. A., Hoo-Hoo and Masonic fraternities, 
 of the latter for the past eighteen years, joining 
 Madison Lodge No. 126 at Orange, in 1877. He 
 has been a member of Orange Chapter No. 78, A. 
 F. & A. M., for fifteen years and was High Priest 
 for two years. He is also a member of Ruthven 
 Commandery No. 2, Knights Templar, of Houston. 
 He has been a staff officer of the Texas Volunteer 
 Guard for ten years and in 1889 distinguished 
 
 himself as a volunteer soldier by contesting for 
 and winning a gold me<lal, offered by the Belknap 
 Rifles, of San Antonio, to the best Adjutant. Mr. 
 Call's success in life has been due to honesty, 
 industry, close application to business and an ad- 
 herence to the principles instilled into his mind and 
 heart at his mother's knees. 
 
 He has long been a prominent man in his town and 
 section of the State, has aided with princely lib- 
 erality every worthy enterprise, has helped the 
 poor and needy and been a friend to the friendless, 
 is beloved and honored by all who know him and 
 is in every respect a model citizen and representa- 
 tive Texian. His parents were D. Call, Sr., and 
 Mrs. Marian (Jordan) Call. 
 
 D. Call, Sr., was born in Ireland in 1825 and 
 was a merchant and banker — the first merchant of 
 any note in the city of Orange, commencing busi- 
 ness in 1845. He was a heavy loser by the war 
 between the States, but after the close of hostili- 
 ties resumed business, soon receiving merchandise 
 from New Orleans by the schooner load. During 
 the war period he came very near losing his life in 
 the Caribbean Sea, off the coast of Yucatan. The 
 vessel in which he was a passenger was caught in a 
 terrible storm, during the progress of which he was 
 washed overboard. Although incumbered with a 
 heavy overcoat and a large money belt filled with 
 gold coin, he succeeded in maintaining himself 
 afloat for three-quarters of an hour, until rescued by 
 the ship's boats. A man less vigorous, less coura- 
 geousorcool would have inevitably perished. He was 
 a man of singular firmness of character and bravery 
 of spirit. These traits were dignified and adorned 
 by a sweetness of temper, kindliness and true 
 Christian charity that endeared him to all with whom 
 he came in contact. He was a member of Madison 
 Lodge No. 12G and Oiaoge Chapter No. 78, A. F. 
 & A. M., and was one of the original signers of the 
 charter for the chapter. 
 
 He was married in 1852 to Miss Marian Jordan, 
 born in Alabama in 1836 and a daughter of Josiah 
 Jordan, who came to Texas in 1843, and was for 
 many years a prominent citizen of Orange. Seven 
 children were born to them, three of whom are still 
 living, viz: D. Call, Jr., a merchant at Orange; 
 George ; and Lema Call, now the wife of J. A. 
 Robinson, of Orange. 
 
 One daughter, P^lizu, died at Boerne, Texas, 
 March 17, 1895. She was born February 3, 1868, 
 and graduated from Ward's Seminary, at Nashville, 
 Tenn. , in 1885. Soon after returning home from 
 the institution of learning she went to the Boston 
 (Mass.) Conservatory of Music, where she com- 
 pleted her musical education. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 459 
 
 While at Boston she contracted a severe cold 
 which led to her death. She married Charles Hag- 
 gerty, of Michigan. One daughter, Hildegard, was 
 born of this union. Mrs. Haggerty went to Boerne 
 in the hope of recovering her health. Her remains 
 were brought to Orange for interment. She was a 
 devout member of the Christian Church and a 
 most lovable and estimable lady. 
 
 Mrs. Call is still living and, although sixty years 
 of age, does not appear to be over fortj'-five or 
 fifty. Her hair is yet unsilvered by the snows of 
 age and she is as cheerful, vivacious and enter- 
 taining as any of the younger ladies at social 
 gatherings. 
 
 Mr. D. Call, Jr., was united in marriage Febru- 
 ary 28, 1878, to Miss Ella C. Holland, of Brenham, 
 Texas, daughter of Dr. J. A. Holland, a physician 
 of Independence, and alumnus of the University of 
 Virginia. She is a niece of Dr. R. T. Flewellen, of 
 Houston, a gentleman prominent in the political 
 affairs of the State, having represented the district 
 several times in the Legislature. 
 
 Mrs. Call completed her education at Baylor 
 College and, after graduation, was elected to a posi- 
 tion as teacher in the faculty and taught in the col- 
 lege for a number of years. She is an accomplished 
 musician, a charming conversationalist and a great 
 lover of the young people who spend many delight- 
 ful evenings at her palatial and hospitable home. 
 She and Mr. Call are favorite chaperons on sum- 
 mer outings and other similar occasions. A gra- 
 cious and queenly lady, she is beloved by young 
 and old, rich and poor, for herself and for her 
 deeds of sweet charity. In the language of the 
 dear old Southern song, " None knew her, but to 
 love her." 
 
 Mr. Call has accumulated a fortune variously 
 estimated at from $150,000 to $200,000. 
 
 At the head of a number of important enter- 
 prises, in the full meridian of life and with many 
 years, in the course of nature, yet before him, 
 newer and brighter laurels await him in the field of 
 finance, and he will yet more deeply mark his 
 impress upon the times in which he lives. 
 
 GEORGE CALL, 
 
 ORANGE. 
 
 George Call was born in Orange, Texas; June 
 16th, 1859; was a pupil at local schools during 
 boyhood and completed his education by attending 
 Baylor University, Independence, Texas ; Roanoke 
 College, Salem, Va. ; the State Agricultural and 
 Mechanical College, at Bryan, Texas, and Soule 
 Business College, New Orleans, La. 
 
 Returning home he was, in 1880, admitted to a 
 partnership in the firm of D. Call & Son. The firm 
 name was thereupon changed to D. Call & Sons, 
 and so continued until after the death of his father, 
 D. Call, Sr., which occurred October 17, 1883. 
 (A short outline of the life of Mr. D. Call, Sr., and 
 of the familj''s history, occurs in the memoir of 
 D. Call, Jr., that appears elsewhere in this volume.) 
 The business was discontinued in 1891 in order 
 that the assets of the estate might be divided 
 between the legal heirs. 
 
 Since that time Mr. George Call has been in 
 
 business upon his own account and is now one of 
 the most extensive wholesale dealers in grain and 
 feed-stuffs in the city of Orange. 
 
 He was married May 22, 1889, to Miss Eugenia 
 Sells, of Orange, Texas. 
 
 Mrs. Call is a most charming lady, possessed of 
 all the qualities that adorn matronhood, and make 
 home the most delightful and sacred spot of earth. 
 She has proven to be a wise counselor to Mr. Call 
 in his extensive business, and therein lies partially 
 the secret of the unusual success that has attended 
 his financial ventures. 
 
 Mr. Call was a charter member of the Board o 
 Trade, organized in Orange in 1890, was for three 
 years its secretary, and has at all times and in everj- 
 possible way labored for the upbuilding of his city 
 and section of the State. 
 
 Genial, kindly, hospitable and of high integrity, 
 he has a wide circle of friends throughout the State. 
 
470 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 PAUL HANISCH, 
 
 FREDERICKSBURG, 
 
 Was born June 4, 1831, on the Isle of Rugen, one 
 of the most picturesque and beautiful spots on the 
 coast of Germany. After securing a good literary 
 education, he applied himself for ten years to the 
 study of pharmacy and kindred branches of science, 
 thus thoroughly equipping himself for the business 
 of an apothecary, which he has principally fol- 
 lowed. His father, Rev. Peter Hanisch, was an 
 able and zealous clergyman of the German Lutheran 
 Church. 
 
 The subject of this notice, Mr. Paul Hanisch, 
 came to America in 1856 and landed at Indianola, 
 
 Texas, on the 6th day of June of that year. He 
 proceeded in ox-teams from Indianola to New 
 Braunfels, San Antonio and Comfort. He remained 
 at the latter place until 1872 and then formed a co- 
 partnership with his pioneer friend, Emil Serger, 
 and opened a drug store in Fredericksburg, where 
 he has since continued in business and has accumu- 
 lated a competency. 
 
 December 18, 1878, he was united in marriage to 
 Miss Helen Siedschlag, at Galveston, Texas. 
 
 They have three children, two daughters and one 
 son, viz: Helen, Elizabeth, and Frank. 
 
 C. H. SUELTENFUSS, 
 
 SCHILLER. 
 
 C. H. Sueltenfuss, Postmaster at Schiller, Kendall 
 County, Texas, was born in the Rhine district of 
 Prussia, April 15, 1844. 
 
 His father, John A. Sueltenfuss, came to the 
 United States in 1848 ; engaged in farming at 
 Scheniannsville, near New Braunfels, Texas, for 
 one year and then located near San Antonio, where 
 he died in 1869, at sixty-two years of age, leaving 
 eight children. 
 
 C. H. Sueltenfuss, the eldest of the six children 
 of this family now living, reached Texas from Ger- 
 many on the first day of January, 1860 ; worked 
 for his father until 1863 ; went to Mexico ; clerked 
 in a store for a while, and then enlisted at Browns- 
 ville in Company C, First Regiment of Texas Rang- 
 
 ers, commanded by Col. Jack Hays, with which he 
 served for two j'ears, when he was honorably dis- 
 charged at San Antonio at the close of the war. 
 
 In 1867, he located on his present home farm 
 consisting of 3,000 acres of good farming and 
 grazing land at Schiller, in Kendall County, and the 
 following year married Miss Anna Voelcker, 
 daughter of Eugene Voelcker, an early pioneer of 
 Comal County, now residing at New Braunfels. 
 They have nine children living: Paul, Charles, 
 Clara, Bruno, Emil, Mary, Louise, Alfred, and 
 Franz. 
 
 Mr. Sueltenfuss is a member of the Republican 
 party. He was appointed Postmaster at Schiller 
 in 1883. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 ill 
 
 JULIUS VOELCKER, 
 
 NEW BRAUNFELS, 
 
 Was a native of Germany and was born near Ibe 
 shores of the Baltic Sea, Maich 2d, 1821. He 
 studied at Fotsdaui and Berlin, perfected himself 
 as an apothecary and was employed as such in 
 various establishments in the latter city ; came to 
 Texas as a colonist in 1846, received his apportion- 
 ment of land at New Braunfels ; became a promi- 
 nent member of that thrifty community, engaged 
 first in farming and then, in 18G8, in the drug 
 business in the town of New Braunfels, in which he 
 continued until his death. Here in this beautiful 
 town he married Miss Louise Korbach, daughter of 
 David Korbach, deceased. Six children were born 
 to them, four of whom are living: Frank, the old- 
 est, now the San Antonio agent for the Southern 
 Pacific Ry. Co. ; Eudolph, a druggist at Temple, 
 Texas; Bruno E., a leading druggist at New 
 Braunfels, and Emil, a furniture dealer at New 
 
 Braunfels. A daughter, Emme, died in 1874; 
 another child, Otto, died in 1866. 
 
 Julius Voelcker was an esteemed citizen and an 
 active and enterprising businessman. He held the 
 office of Justice of the Peace at various times, and, 
 at the time of his death, which occurred in 1878, was 
 Mayor of the city of New Braunfels. Bruno E. 
 Voelcker was born in New Braunfels, June 4, 1857, 
 schooled in his home town, he studied chemistry 
 under his father and became an apothecary. He 
 later went to New Orleans, where he clerked in 
 various establishments, until the death of his father. 
 He then returned home and assumed charge of the 
 business he new owns and conducts. He owns the 
 handsome business block he occupies, besides other 
 valuable property. He married Miss Mary Brecher, 
 a daughter of Jacob Brecher, deceased, of New 
 Braunfels. They have three children liviug : 
 Emma, Edwin, and Julius. 
 
 EMIL SERGER, 
 
 COMFORT, 
 
 Well-known throughout the western part of Central 
 Texas as a pioneer farmer, came to America January 
 4th, 1856, landed in New York, and proceeded 
 from that city by water direct to Galveston, and 
 from Galveston, via Indianola, New Braunfels, and 
 San Antonio, to Comfort, where he now resides. 
 Mr. Serger is a native of Prussia, where he was 
 born March 27, 1831. Early in life he was ap- 
 prenticed to learn the trade of millwright. He 
 also studied architecture, in which he became pro- 
 ficient, but left his native country before securing 
 a diploma as an architect. In Texas he followed 
 the millwright's trade, and engaged more or less 
 in farming. Upon reaching Comfort, he located on 
 a spot where his typical old-time, yet comfortable, 
 home now stands, and where he has since con- 
 tinuously lived. When he first visited it, it was 
 covered with the teioes of Comanche Indians, but 
 they soon quietly moved on to give way to the 
 aggressive pioneer settlement. Mr. Serger here 
 
 developed a fertile tract of farming land, ranged 
 cattle in the open valleys and on the hills, and did 
 his full share as a member of the company, organ- 
 ized for the protection of the settlement from 
 Indian depredations. For a time during the Civil 
 War he was a frontier ranger, under Capt. Wein- 
 denfeld and Col. McAdoo, in the Confederate ser- 
 vice. He has never deeply interested himself in 
 politics, but has served as County Commissioner of 
 his county, and has exerted himself in every prac- 
 ticable way to promote the upbuilding of his sec- 
 tion of the State. In 1868 he returned to the 
 Fatherland and married Miss Marie Settel, a young 
 lady of domestic tastes and womanly qualities. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Serger have four children, three 
 sons and one daughter, viz. : Powell, Emil, Frank, 
 and Eliza. All have been given advantages of 
 excellent schooling. 
 
 Mr. Serger's landed interests comprise about 
 680 acres in Kendall and Kerr Counties. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 GABRIEL REMLER, 
 
 SMITHSON'S VALLEY, 
 
 A venerable pioneer, came to Texas in 1841 
 when about twent}--two years of age with Prince 
 Solms. He was born in the south of Germany, 
 October 20, 1822. He lived at New Braunfels 
 until 1852 and then located on his present place on 
 
 Valley, where he has developed a farm of one thou- 
 sand acres — one of the finest in Comal County. 
 He has a most hospitable and frugal wife, who has 
 borne him seven children, now all married, viz. : 
 SoiJhia, Pauline, AUena, Minnie, Peter J., Frederick 
 
 Ihe Guadalupe river in the vicinity on Smithson's and William. They have fifteen grandchildren. 
 
 AUGUST G. STARTZ, 
 
 SMITHSON'S VALLEY, 
 
 Born in Comal County, December 25, 1856, is a 
 son of the venerable pioneer, Henry Startz. His 
 father came to Texas in 1844 with the Prince Solms 
 Colony. The subject of this notice grew up at 
 the old homestead in Smithson's Valley in Comal 
 County and gained a thorough knowledge of the 
 stock-raising business, in which he is now exten- 
 sively engaged. He also owns a well stocked store 
 
 and cotton gin in Smithson's Valle3' and about 4,000 
 acres of grazing land in Comal County. 
 
 He married, December 25, 1879, Miss Emma, 
 daughter of Fritz Bartels. They have six children : 
 Teela, Olga, Walter, Ella, Charles, and Henry. 
 
 Mr. Startz has served eight years as Deputy 
 Sheriff of Comal County, and is now a member of 
 the County Commissioners' Court. 
 
 HERMAN E. FISCHER, 
 
 NEW BRAUNFELS. 
 
 Hon. Herman E. Fischer, an active and influential 
 business man of New Braunfels, is a pioneer of 
 Texas of 1852, coming to the State December 6th 
 of that j'ear. Upon landing at Galveston he pro- 
 ceeded directly to San Antonio and from that place 
 to New Braunfels, reaching the latter city about 
 December 20th. He is a native of Germany, born 
 in the village of Heersum, Province of Hanover, 
 February Sth, 1835. He was trained in boyhood 
 and youth for mercantile pursuits, but came to 
 Texas for the purpose of f aiming, which he en- 
 gaged in soon after his arrival and continued to fol- 
 low until 1859. He then accepted a position as a 
 clerk in a store in New Braunfels and remained au 
 employee in the establishment until the close of the 
 
 late war. In 1865 he received the appointment of 
 District Clerk and held the position until 1866. He 
 then engaged in merchandising on his own account 
 until 1870. In February' of that j'ear he entered 
 the County Clerk's office asDeputj' Clerk of Comal 
 County and held the position until 1874. He was 
 then elected District and County Clerk and served 
 in that capacity ten years. In 1884 he was chosen 
 County Judge and served the people in a most ac 
 ceptable manner for two terms. He then, until 
 1889, engaged in the real estate business in New 
 Braunfels, when he established the present Comal 
 Lumber Company which he still owns and conducts. 
 During the discbarge of his duties as County -Judge 
 of Comal Countj', the Guadalupe bridge, one of the 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 473 
 
 finest highway bridges iu Southwestern Texas, was 
 built. The sale of the county's public school lands 
 was also inaugurated at the price of $5.00 per acre, 
 which sales have accumulated a school fund of about 
 $80,000.00 to date (1895). Judge Fischer has at 
 various times served on the Board of City Aldermen 
 and as School Trustee of the city. He married, 
 in 1865, Miss Mary Conring, a daughter of Dr. H. 
 Conring. They have eight children, seven of whom 
 
 are living. The names of these children are: Alex, 
 Carl (deceased), Hilmar, Hermina, P^mil, Freda and 
 Erick. 
 
 Judge Fischer is highly esteemed for his broad 
 citizenship and his many excellent traits of char- 
 acter. He has ever been an effective worker 
 for the advancement of his city, county and State, 
 and has taken an active part in all movements in 
 that direction. 
 
 AUGUST KEONNECKE, 
 
 FREDERICKSBURG, 
 
 One of the first settlers of Gillespie County, was 
 born in Prussia, March 23, 1832, and came to 
 Texas in 1881. Landing at Indianola in December 
 of that year, be proceeded thence to San Antonio, 
 and from that place to Gillespie County, where he 
 pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres of land on 
 Cane creek, twelve miles northeast of Fredericks- 
 burg, in what is now the Keonnecke settlement. 
 
 To this he afterwards added until he owned a 
 arm of two thousand acres, which he has appor- 
 tioned to his children. He married, in 1855, Miss 
 Charlotte Beams, daughter of Christian Beams, a 
 pioneer of 1853, who lived, during the later years 
 of his life, at Palo Alto. Mr. and Mrs. Keonnecke 
 have five children: Gaustav, Hermann, William, 
 Annie, and Otto. Annie married C. F. Lucken- 
 bach, of Fredericksburg ; Gustav married Miss 
 Albertine Kramer ; Hermann married Miss Emma 
 Hebenicht ; and William married Miss Bertha 
 Hebenicht. 
 
 Mr. Keonnecke has served as Justice of the Peace 
 and County Commissioner of his county, and has 
 been an active and effective worker for the upbuild- 
 ing of his section of the State. His father, Fred- 
 erick Keonnecke (a weaver and owner of woolen 
 mills in Germany), and an uncle, Charles Keon- 
 necke, came to Texas in 1848, and were followed 
 in 1853 by William Keonnecke, another uncle of 
 the subject of this notice. 
 
 Frederick died of yellow fever at Indianola, 
 while there to meet his brother William, whose 
 arrival he expected in the country. Charles has 
 retired from active pursuits and lives in Fredericks- 
 burg. 
 
 William located in the Keonnecke settlement on 
 Cane creek, where he established a farm adjoining 
 that of his nephew, August Keonnecke, and resided 
 until the time of his death, which occurred June 9, 
 1894, in the seventy-third year of his age. 
 
 SIMON WIESS, 
 
 BEAUMONT. 
 
 The poetic fancj' of the Greeks was not slow to 
 note the great dissimilarities that mark the desti- 
 nies of men ushered into being amid the same 
 environments — destinies, the general outlines and 
 ultimate ends of which seem to be beyond their 
 control — and they wove into the song and drama 
 
 and theology of those ancient days the idea of three 
 silent sisters, the Fates, sitting in the dark weaving 
 constantly at their looms the destinies of gods and 
 men. It was a beautiful conceit. The mind's-eye, 
 which needs no lamp to aid its vision, can almost 
 see the shutters flying back and forth, back and 
 
474 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEEBS OF TEXAS. 
 
 forth, workingthreads, dark and bright,into the warp 
 and woof, controlled by an impulse flowing from 
 the unknowable center of the unknown. The same 
 idea has, in later times, found expression in the 
 deeply pious predestinarianism of Calvinism, the 
 coldly callous indifference of fatalism, such popu- 
 lar expressions as " JMan proposes and God dis- 
 poses," and the lines "There is a destiny that 
 shapes our ends, rough hew them as we may," and 
 in a thousand other mental conceptions and forms 
 of speech. To what extent each life is pre-ordered 
 and the limits within which free-agency operates, 
 we know not. We know, however, that the serf of 
 Russia, until a few generations back, was born into 
 conditions that he could never hope to alter, and 
 that fixed, from its beginning, the general course 
 and tenor of his life ; that every man, however 
 brilliant his inherited talents, however great the 
 wealth that descends to him, however exalted the 
 station into which he is introduced by the fact of 
 birth, however free he may imagine himself to be 
 to do as he pleases, is yet surrounded by limita. 
 tions that (although as invisible as the air 
 or thought itself) are, yet, as strong as forged 
 and tempered steel and that he can by no possibil- 
 ity break through. The efforts of the bird that 
 beats its feeble wings against the bars of its cage 
 are not more futile. Two boys are playing upon 
 the village green. One will till the soil where his 
 eyes first beheld the light and, passing quietly 
 through the scenes of youth and manhood, descend 
 through an uneventful old age to his place in the 
 village church-yard where his dust and bones will 
 mingle with those of his fore-fathers of many 
 generations. The other will pass through many 
 strange scenes and thrilling experiences, perhaps, 
 by flood and field, and find his home and final life- 
 work and final resting-place, in a land of which he 
 has, as yet, not so much as heard the name. 
 
 Mrs. Hemans, in her poem "The Graves of a 
 Household," thus beautifully expresses the 
 thought: — 
 
 They grew in beauty side by side, 
 
 They fllled one home with glee, 
 Their graves are severed far and wide, 
 
 By mouut, and stream and sea. 
 
 The same fond mother bent at night 
 
 O'er each fair sleeping brow, 
 She had each folded flower in sight — 
 
 Where are those dreamers now! 
 
 One, midst the forest of the West, 
 
 By a dark stream is laid, 
 The Indian knows his place of rest, 
 
 Far in the cedar-shade. 
 
 The sea, the blue lone sea hath one, 
 
 He lies where pearls lie deep; 
 He was the loved of all, yet none 
 
 O'er his low bed may weep. 
 
 One sleeps where Southern vines are drest 
 
 Above the noble slain; 
 He wrapt his colours round his breast 
 
 On a blood-red field of Spain. 
 
 .\nd one, o'er her the myrtle showers 
 
 Its leaves by soft winds fanned ; 
 She faded 'midst Italian flowers, 
 
 The last of that bright band. 
 
 And parted thus, they rest who played 
 
 Beneath the same green tree; 
 Whose voices mingled as they prayed 
 
 Around one parent knee. 
 
 The truth is that no man can tell what the future 
 has in store for him — what pleasures, what heart- 
 aches, what successes, what reverses, what triumphs, 
 what disasters, or how he shall fare him battling 
 amid the thousand and one cross-currents of cir- 
 cumstance. But of one thing there is a certainty 
 and that is, that the man who makes the voyage of 
 a long life, meets and overcomes its difficulties, 
 keeps heart, mind and hands undeflledand achieves 
 honorable success, has earned a patent of nobility 
 that belongs to him of divine right and that entitles 
 him to the confidence and esteem of his fellow-men 
 while living and his memory to preservation from 
 oblivion to which the undiscriminating hand of time 
 seeks to consign all transitory things. 
 
 In the early days of the present century there 
 lived in the little town of Lublin, Poland, a sturdy 
 lad, who, after years spent in travel upon three 
 continents, was to make his home in Texas, and 
 here exercise a wide and beneficent influence and 
 leave his impress upon the communities in which he 
 lived. We refer to the late lamented Simon Wiess, 
 Sr., of Wiess' Bluff, Jasper County, Texas. 
 
 Mr. Wiess was born at Lublin, Poland, January 
 1, 1800, and remained there until sixteen years of 
 age when he started out in the world to try his 
 fortunes. The limits of this notice will not permit 
 a detailed account of his various adventures or 
 commercial experiences, but' the following facts, 
 taken from his" Masonic chart, will give some idea 
 of the extent of his travels and the high character 
 he acquired in early life and ever afterwards main- 
 tained. He was a Roj^al Arch Mason at Constanti- 
 nople, April 2, 1825, and went to Asia Minor the 
 same year, where he held a prominent position 
 in the Masonic circles. He visited INIt. Leb- 
 anon Lodge, Boston, Mass., February 22, 1826, 
 which is the first we hear of him in the United 
 
SIMON WIESS. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 475 
 
 States. August 17tli, 1828, he was in San Domingo 
 and tbere participated with the Masonic fraternity. 
 He also visited Albion Lodge No. 333, at Baibadocs, 
 West Indies, and received the degree of Past 
 Master. On the ninth of May, 1829, he visited 
 
 Amity Lodge No. 277, at , on llie registry of 
 
 the Right Worshipful G. L., of Ireland. May 11th, 
 
 1829, he visited Integrity Lodge, No. 259, at , 
 
 and there received Mark Master degree; .June 2, 
 1829, visited Union Lodge No. 462, at Georgetown, 
 Demerara, and we find that in 1840, he visited Gal- 
 veston and participated with Harmony Lodge, No. 
 6. In 1847, he met with DeWitt Clinton Lodge 
 No. 129, in Jasper County, Texas. Two years 
 later, April 17th, 1849, he met with the Woodville, 
 Texas, Lodge. There are few countries in Europe 
 that he did not visit. He lived at various times in 
 Turkey, Asia Minor, the West Indies, Central and 
 South America, and Mexico. He also traveled exten- 
 sively through the United States and lived for a time 
 in Louisiana before making his home in Texas. He 
 could read, write and speak fluently seven languages. 
 In his young days before coming to America he 
 owned several sailing vessels and engaged in the 
 trade being carried on between New England and 
 the West Indies. In 1836 he was Deputy Collector 
 of Customs for the Republic of Texas at Camp 
 Sabine (now Sabine town) near the border-line be- 
 tween Texas and Louisiana. It was the military 
 post of the United States at that time. Gen. Gaines 
 was stationed there in command of four thousand 
 troops and, during the war for Texas Independence, 
 it was believed that he and Gen. Sam Houston 
 entered into an agreement under which the latter 
 was to retreat in a northeasterly direction before 
 the Mexican army, until it followed him across the 
 disputed boundary line between Texas and the 
 United States and then Gaines was to turn out with 
 his regulars, attack Santa Anna and follow him, if 
 necessary, to the Rio Grande and into Mexico. If 
 any such agreement was entered into, subsequent 
 events rendered the carrying out of its terms un- 
 necessary. The three divisions of the Mexican 
 army became separated and, marching through a 
 country incapable of supporting such a large 
 number of men, were worn down by days of 
 marching over roads that were almost impassable, 
 and thoroughly dispirited before the final blow of 
 the revolution was struck. Houston took advan- 
 tage of this combination of circumstances, joined 
 battle with Santa Anna at San Jacinto and, with 
 the unaided strength of the Texian arms, won one 
 of the most glorious and decisive victories recorded 
 in the annals of war — an achievement that justly 
 immortalized his name. Mr. Wiess was acquainted 
 
 with Gen. Houston and the other heroes, orators 
 and statesmen of the Repulilic, wlien in tlic prime 
 and zenitii of their fame. 
 
 In January, 1836, he was united in marriage to 
 Miss Margaret Sturrock, at Natchitoches, La. 
 She was a daughter of Wm. and Ann Sturrock, 
 nee Miss Ann Swan, whose mother's maiden name 
 was Miss Agnes Kerr, all of Scottish lineage. The 
 Sturrock family came to America about 1830 and 
 settled on the Hudson, remained there about two 
 years and then went to New Orleans, from which 
 place they moved to Natchitoches, La. In 1836 
 Mr. and Mrs. Wiess moved to Nacogdoches where 
 he engaged in merchandising, a part of the time 
 occupying the historic stone fort situated in that 
 place. In 1838 he left Nacogdoches with his 
 family and household effects aboard a keel-boat 
 loaded with the first cotton ever transported down 
 that stream to Sabine Pass, and disembarked at 
 Beaumont where, and at Grigsby's Bluff, he mer- 
 chandised until 1840, and then moved to Wiess' 
 Bluff, in Jasper County, where he remained until 
 his death, which occurred August 13, 1868. While 
 living at Wiess' Bluff he was also engaged in mer- 
 chandising, did a large receiving and forwarding 
 business, handling most of the cotton raised in the 
 section, and was interested in steamboating on the 
 Neches river. He left six children: Pauline, wlio 
 married Abel Coffin (deceased), she is still liv- 
 ing at their old home in Jasper County ; Napo- 
 leon, deceased and buried at Wiess' Bluff ; Mark, 
 William and Valentine, prominent mill-men largely 
 interested in the Reliance Lumber Company, of 
 Beaumont; and Massena, the youngest, who lives 
 at Round Rock in Williamson CountJ^ 
 
 In all his dealings with his fellow-men, whether 
 as a traveler or trader in the Orient, an owner of 
 vessels plying the pirate-infested waters of the 
 Spanish Main — on the steppes of Russia, in the 
 Indies, in Central and South America, in his 
 counting-room, in Southern Texas — everywhere 
 and always, he manifested a just, generous and 
 manly spirit. 
 
 A favorite quotation of his was the following lines 
 of Philip Massinger : — 
 
 " Briefly thus, then 
 Since I must speak for all ; your tyranny 
 Drew us from our obedience. Happy those times 
 When lords were styled fathers of families, 
 And not imperious masters! when they numbered 
 Their servants almost equal with their sons, 
 Or one degree beneath them! when their labors 
 Were cherished and rewarded, and a period 
 Set to their sufferings; when they did not press 
 Their duties or their wills beyond their power 
 Aud strength of their performance, all things ordered 
 
476 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 With such decorum as wise law-raaliers, 
 From each well governed private house derived 
 The perfect model of a commonwealth. 
 Humanity then lodged in the hearts of men, 
 And thankful masters carefully provided 
 For creatures wanting reason. The noble horse, 
 That, in his fiery youth, from his wide nostrils 
 Neighed courage to his rider, and brake through 
 Groves of opposed pikes, bearing his lord 
 Safe to triumphant victory; old or wounded. 
 Was set at liberty, and freed from service. 
 The Athenian mules, that from the quarry drew 
 Marble, hewed for the temples of the gods, 
 The great work ended, were dismissed, and fed 
 At the public cost; nay, faithful dogs have found 
 Their sepulchers; but man to man more cruel, 
 Appoints no end to the sufferiugs of his slave." 
 
 His was the true patriot's heart. He had a deep 
 and intense love for the United States and free 
 institutions. He hated tyranny, oppression and 
 injustice in any form. He liberally rewarded those 
 who served him. He was generous and true to his 
 friends. His charity knew no fainting. He pos- 
 sessed none of that greedy and glutiuous spirit that 
 enables its possessor to fare sumptuously and with 
 added zest unaffected by the starvation and the wails 
 of the distressed which are bourne to him upon every 
 breeze. He subordinated his desire for financial 
 independence to the dictates of honor. He was 
 true to every obligation as employer, citizen, hus- 
 band, father and friend, and left behind him an un- 
 tarnished name of which his descendants may feel 
 justly proud. He died full of years, loved liy many, 
 respected by all. He sleeps with his fathers, a 
 sleep that is the reward of a well-spent life. Peace 
 to his ashes, and honor to the memory of his use- 
 fulness, kindliness and worth. 
 
 Mrs. Wiess, for so many years his beloved 
 counsellor, companion and helpmate, who cheered 
 and sustained him in man}' an hour of trial and 
 difficulty, a truly noble woman, died at Wiess' 
 Bluff, May 17, 1881. The following obituary, 
 written by E. L. Armstrong, of Irene, Hill County, 
 Texas, is a fitting testimonial to her many excel- 
 lencies of character. 
 
 " Wiess — Died at Wiess' Bluff, Jasper County, 
 Texas, May 17th, 1881, Mrs. Margaret Wiess. 
 She was born in Scotland, near Dundee, June 12, 
 1814. Was married to Simon Wiess at Nachi- 
 toches. La., January Gth, 183G, with whom she 
 lived happily until his death, which occurred in 
 August, 1868. 
 
 " She came to Texas during the struggle for in- 
 dependence, and was intimately acquainted with 
 
 Gen. Sam Houston, Rusk and other noted men of 
 the day. 
 
 " Fort3'-one years ago, she, with her husband, 
 settled at Wiess' Bluff, where she lived until re- 
 moved by ' relentless death.' 
 
 "She was the mother of six children, five of 
 whom still live ; the eldest died some years ago. 
 
 " She was a woman of extraordinary endow- 
 ments, possessing all the rare excellencies that 
 combine to make the true wife, the devoted mother 
 and a successful keeper of home and the affairs of 
 home. 
 
 " She was fully equal to the emergencies of life. 
 
 " As a mother she was the embodiment of kind- 
 ness, guiding her children by the law of love ; their 
 success in life is attributable to the care and culture 
 imparted at home. 
 
 " As a wife it was her chief joy to make her 
 husband happy — to this end she lent her energies 
 without stint, and her success was wonderful. 
 
 " As a friend she was true, devoted and obliging. 
 
 " She was truly benevolent to the poor and 
 needy — never turning them awa}' empty-handed. 
 
 " Hor great heart was touched when suffering 
 befell her kind, often giving to those that were 
 better able to help themselves. 
 
 " She was reared a Presbyterian, but never united 
 with the Church, not being situated so that she 
 could do so. 
 
 " She was a woman of prayer and loved her Bible. 
 
 "I met her twenty-eight years ago and our ac- 
 quaintance matured into mutual and abiding friend- 
 ship ; having spent manj^ days and hours under her 
 hospitable roof. 
 
 " Last December I saw her for the last time on 
 earth — worn and emaciated by age and disease. 
 
 " .She feared not the approach of death. 
 
 " At her request I read for and prayed with her, 
 and conversed with her in regard to the approach- 
 ing end ; she had no fears, but trusted in the atoning 
 blood. 
 
 " We are informed by her sons that her end was 
 peace. 
 
 " We are to hear no more the hearty welcome to 
 her home, nor note the many acts of kindness per- 
 formed to make the weary itinerant comfortable 
 and happy. But we will remember her through all 
 the da3's of our pilgrimage. 
 
 " We extend to her children our heartfelt sym- 
 pathy and invoke the blessings of heaven upon each 
 one of them. 
 
 " May they also be ready." 
 
MRS. SIMON WIESS. 
 
TXBIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 EMIL KARGER, 
 
 COMFORT, 
 
 Was born January 1, 1851, in the kingdom of 
 Prussia, Germany, and came to this country with 
 his parents, who settled at Comfort and pursued 
 farming, to which calling he was reared. His 
 father, John Karger, is mentioned elsewhere in this 
 book, in the notice of Charles Karger. Mr. Karger 
 was married May 14th, 1876, to Miss Sarah Wille, 
 a daughter of Herman Wille, of Comfort, at which 
 place she was born January 16, 1859. Mr. Wille 
 died in 1877 at forty-one years of age. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Karger have seven children, viz. : 
 
 Hermann, Louise, Lena, Edward, Gustav, Mary 
 and Amelia. 
 
 Mr. Karger is a thorough business man, a suc- 
 cessful farmer, and is esteemed throughout his com- 
 munity for his excellent traits of character. He is 
 trustee of his school district, one of the three sur- 
 viving charter members of the Comfort Liedertafel, 
 the vocal musical organization of that town, and has 
 been for many years its leader. 
 
 He owns a well improved farm of 260 acres at 
 Comfort. 
 
 FRANZ SCHAEFER, 
 
 ANHALT, 
 
 A wealthy farmer and esteemed citizen of Comal 
 County, came to Texas with his parents in 1845, 
 when about eight years of age. His mother died 
 the year of their arrival in New Braunfels. His 
 father, Franz Schaefer, Sr., was a cooper by trade, 
 but followed various occupations in New Braunfels, 
 Fredericksburg, Llano, and San Antonio, doing 
 contract work for the government at the latter 
 place. Mr. Franz Schaefer, Sr., never married 
 again after his wife's death, remaining true to her 
 memory until the time of his death, which occurred 
 in November, 1868, in San Antonio. He bought 
 160 acres of land near Anhalt before the war 
 
 between the States, and from time to time added 
 thereto until he now owned about 3,000 acres. 
 Franz Schaefer was the only child born to his 
 parents. He learned stone-cutting at Cincinnati, 
 Ohio, and worked at his trade in Texas until the 
 war broke out, and then enlisted in the Confed- 
 erate army, in which he served in Capt. Kemp- 
 mann's Company until the close of hostilities. 
 Since the war he has been engaged in farming on 
 the family estate at Anhalt. Mr. Schaefer mar- 
 ried in May, 1867, Miss Matilda Kaubert, daughter 
 of Lawrence Kaubert, of San Antonio. His farm is 
 highly improved, and consists of about 2,100 acres. 
 
 WILLIAM J. MOORE, 
 
 MYERS, 
 
 A large planter of Burleson County, Texas, was 
 born in Perry County, Ala., in August, 1845. 
 Son of Alfred and Martha (Hanna) Moore who 
 were natives of Spartanburg District, S. C, 
 and early immigrants to Alabama, where they 
 
 lived many years, the father dying there in 1854, 
 and the mother in 1863. One uncle of the subject 
 of this sketch, Thomas Moore, commanded a regi- 
 ment of troops at Charleston, S. C, in the 
 War of 1812 and another, A. B. Moore, was twice 
 
478 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Governor of Alabama. His people, however, 
 were but little in public life, being mostly plant- 
 ers. 
 
 William J. was reared in Perr^' County, Ala. ; 
 there he enlisted in the Confederate army at the 
 age of sixteen, at the opening of the late war, join- 
 ing a company of cadets which became a part of the 
 Seventh Alabama Cavalry, with which he served 
 throughout the period of hostilities. During six- 
 teen or eighteen months of his service he was under 
 the celebrated cavalrj^ commander. Gen. Forrest, and 
 took part in most of the operations in which Forrest 
 was concerned, in Western Kentucky, Middle Ten- 
 nessee, 'Northern Alabama and Mississippi. He took 
 part in the battles at Columbia, Spring Hill, Frank- 
 lin, Nashville, Paris Lauding, Johnstown, Pittsburg 
 Landing and many minor engagements. Served as 
 a private and was never captured or wounded. 
 Laid down his arms at Gainesville, Ala., at the close 
 of hostilities. 
 
 In March, 1866, Mr. Moore came to Texas and 
 
 settled in Brazos County, where he leased the Allen 
 farm, which he cultivated for two years. The un- 
 settled condition of affairs led him to sell 
 out at the end of that time and return 
 to Alabama, where he remained for four 
 years, when he came again to Texas, settling 
 this time in Burleson County. For twelve or four- 
 teen years he was engaged, alternately, in farming 
 and merchandising, when, in 1885, he purchased a 
 large body of Brazos bottom-land and embarked 
 exlensivel}' in cotton planting, which he has followed 
 steadily and successfully since. He ovpns 2,100 
 acres, 1,.500 acres of which are in cultivation. He 
 raises from 600 to 700 bales of cotton annually, 
 besides considerable corn and other farm products ; 
 is one of the largest planters in Burleson County 
 and has made every dollar he has within the past 
 fifteen years. 
 
 Has never married and has but few relatives, his 
 only sister, Airs. James Garrit^', of Corsicana, hav- 
 ing died in February, 1893, childless. 
 
 ROSWELL SKINNER, 
 
 LAMPASSA COUNTY. 
 
 The action of the Texas Veterans' Association 
 making priority of residence and the performance 
 of some sort of civil or military service conditions 
 of membership in their order, has given rise to an 
 opinion, more or less general, that only those who 
 meet these conditions are entitled to be called 
 pioneers and to share in the honors generally ac- 
 corded those so designated. But this is erroneous. 
 The conditions imposed by the association are per- 
 fectly proper so far as the objects of the association 
 are concerned, but, viewing the matter in a broader 
 light, there is a historical propriety in making the 
 term "Pioneers" sufficiently comprehensive to 
 include those who arrived in the country during the 
 eight or ten years following annexation, many of 
 whom performed no public service of a civil or 
 military character, but were, nevertheless, impor- 
 tant factors in the settlement and development of 
 the communities where they located. The fact is 
 there were hundreds of men living in the older 
 States who took great interest in the struggle of the 
 colonists, lending material aid in numberless in- 
 stances, who intended all along to finally make their 
 homes in Texas, but who, for various reasons, did 
 
 not take up their abode here until the struggles 
 with Mexico, and, in a measure, those with the In- 
 dians, were substantially over. These were the 
 real builders of the commonwealth ; men of indus- 
 trious habits, possessing a thorough knowledge of 
 the arts of civilization, believers in the suiiremaey 
 of the law, and the maintenance of order and good 
 government ; lovers of their homes and advocates 
 of all the influences tending to elevate, improve and 
 adorn society. 
 
 Of this number is the subject of this sketch. 
 Roswell Skinner was born in Nelson County, Va., 
 February 1st, 1807. His father was Bird Skinner, 
 and his mother bore the maiden name of Nancy 
 Austin, both of whom were Virginians by birth. 
 The father died in his native State, after which the 
 widovped mother moved with her family to Ken- 
 tucky about 1814 or 181.5, and settled in what 
 was then Washington, now Marion Count}'. In 
 that county the boyhood and youth of the 
 subject of this article was passed. He grew 
 up on the farm, where he had but meager 
 educational advantages (none to speak of) but 
 received good moral training, and reached man- 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEEliS OF TEXAS. 
 
 479 
 
 Loot! well prepared for the discharge of its 
 duties. Soou after attaining his majority, he 
 married a neighbor girl, Theodosia Dever, who 
 had been born in Virginia and taken to Ken- 
 tucljy by her parents, John and Winnie Dever, 
 while she was still young. Settling on a small farm 
 in Marion Countj', Mr. Skinner devoted the next 
 twent}' years of his life to making a home for himself 
 and those dependent upon him, and succeeded in 
 paying for and putting under cultivation a farm of 
 over 200 acres, but the steadj' advance of land 
 values in that State made the task of providing for 
 his children, seven in number, as he wished them 
 provided for, a very difficult one, and as the easiest 
 solution of the problem, he decided to move to 
 Texas, where land was cheaper, and conditions, in 
 general, more favorable. With his family, consist- 
 ing of liis wife and five children, two daughters 
 having married, one of whom was deceased and the 
 other gone to make her home in Indiana, he left 
 Louisville the 2.Tth of November, 1849, taking the 
 river route to New Orleans. From New Orleans he 
 went by sail vessel to Galveston, crossed the bay at 
 that point and reached the town of Liberty, his des- 
 tination, the 15lh fif December following. He had 
 friends residing at Liberty and partly through their 
 influence, and partly because he liked that section, 
 he settled there, buying a tract of land and open- 
 ing a farm four miles from the county seat. Mr. 
 Skinner was a resident of Liberty County for forty- 
 six years, only recently leaving there to make his 
 home in Lampasas County. During his long resi- 
 dence in old Liberty, he was honorably' connected 
 with the count3''s history as an industrious, law- 
 abiding citizen, but was verj' little in public life. 
 He always felt that the deficiency of his education 
 disqualified him for holding public office and there- 
 fore persistently refused to allow his name to be 
 used in that connection, but was once induced to 
 accept the office of Treasurer of Liberty County, 
 which he held for two 3'ears, resigning it at the end 
 of that time. His chief pursuits were those of 
 agriculture in which he met with a fair degree of 
 success. He was exempt, bj' reason of age, from 
 military duty during the late war, but furnished 
 three sons to the Confederate service and gave the 
 cause his active sympath}- and support at home. 
 Mr. Skinner was a Whig in former years, having 
 cast his first vote for President for William 
 Henry Harrison in the famous " log cabin and hard 
 cider" campaign of L840. He has been a member 
 of the Methodist Church for over sixty years and 
 has actively interested himself in all kinds of Church 
 work. His habits have been unexceptionable and 
 he is, perhaps, to day one of the best preserved men 
 
 of his age in the State. He will be ninety his ntxt 
 birthday, yet his mind is clear and not only is his 
 memory good, but his reasoning is sound, and his 
 conversation, in general, spirited and entertaining, 
 full of interesting reminiscences and apposite allu- 
 sions, and, until he was injured by a fall from his 
 horse some ten or twelve years ago, he could get 
 around as well as men of half his age. Asked to 
 what he attributed his longevity and well-preserved 
 condition, he said, first to the sound constitution 
 which he inherited, and second to correct habits of 
 life. He never indulged in tlie ruinous pastimes of 
 youth and therefore reached and has enjoyed man- 
 hood in health. 
 
 He was never intoxicated but once, that being 
 when he was a boy, and, though he used tobacco 
 for nearly thirty years, he quit it when he found it 
 was injuring his health. In all the relations of life 
 he has endeavored to live along the lines of fair- 
 ness, sobriety and moral rectitude, seeking to do 
 what was right from a sense of justice and taking 
 every act and every motive before the tribunal of 
 conscience. He has not been one to cavil or com- 
 plain, but has accepted the good things of life with 
 gratitude and has borne its ills with resignation. 
 Petty bickerings and small quarrels he has known 
 nothing of, having always been self-respecting and 
 respected by others. The domestic virtues pre- 
 ponderate in him and his home circle before it was 
 broken up by death, and the marriage of his 
 children was charming and pleasant. 
 
 Mr. Skinner lost his wife in March, 1861, her 
 death occurring at the old homestead in Liberty 
 County. Of his three sons and four daughter, but 
 three are living, though all became grown and were 
 married. The eldest, a daughter, Eliza Jane, was 
 married to Buford Brown and died many years ago 
 in Indiana. The eldest son, James D. Skinner, is 
 a prominent citizen of Galveston. The next, a 
 daughter, Cynthia Ann, was married to Anthony 
 Drane and died in Marion County, Ky., a short time 
 after her marriage. William P. Skinner, the 
 second son, died at Libertj', Texas, in 1864, from 
 disease contracted in the Confederate army. Julia 
 Ann was married to Aguilla J. Beard and died at 
 Liberty, Texas, in 1895. John F. Skinner, the 
 youngest son, is a citizen of Lampasas, and Sarah 
 A., the youngest daughter, is the wife of Wilson R. 
 Swinney and resides in Lampasas County. Mr. 
 Skinner has a large number of grandchildren and 
 great-grandchildren, his youngest son being nearly 
 sixty years old. It is estimated that his descend- 
 ants number between eighty and one hundred. All, 
 so far as they have assumed the duties of life, are 
 filling respectable places in society'. 
 
480 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 John F. Skinner, youngest son of Roswell and 
 Theodosia Skinner, was born in Marion County, Ky. , 
 February 16th, 1839 ; enlisted for six months in 
 Capt. James Wrigley's Company, Confederate 
 Slates service, in 1861 ; served the term of his en- 
 listment on Galveston Island, and then entered 
 Waul's Legion for three years or during the war; 
 served in that command until the fall of Vieksburg, 
 when he was paroled, returned to Texas, and 
 served again on Galveston Island and coast country 
 until the close of hostilities. After the war he en- 
 gaged in the mercantile business at Liberty, Texas, 
 
 which he followed at that place until 1883, when h^ 
 moved to Lampasas, where he had previously be- 
 come interested in the stock business, and which 
 has since been his home. He is president of the 
 First National Bank of Lampasas and has ranching 
 interests in Lampasas County. November 7ih, 
 1871, at Liberty, Texas, Mr. Skinner married Miss 
 Nannie Hardin, a native of that place and a daugh- 
 ter of Frank Hardin. The issue of this union has 
 been five children: Helen, now Mrs. J. F. White, 
 .John F., Jr., Christie O'Brien, Wickliffe and 
 Ruth. 
 
 B. E. HURLBUT, 
 
 BROWNWOOD. 
 
 B. E. Hurlbut, son of Eli D. and Emma E. 
 Hurlbut, was born in Courtland County, N. Y. , 
 August 22, 1858, and was reared at Windsor, 
 Henry County, Miss., where his parents settled in 
 1864. He began his mercantile career in the hard- 
 ware house of Huey & Philip, of Dallas, Texas, 
 entering the employ of the firm at the age of 
 eighteen. Though the youngest employee of the 
 firm he soon developed a capacity for business and 
 earnest work that brought him continued and rapid 
 promotion, and won for him the position of con- 
 fidential clerk and buyer before he was twenty-one 
 years old. His health becoming impaired from 
 overwork, he resigned his position with Huey & 
 High to accept one with F. W. Cairuthers of Cor- 
 sicana, at the same time receiving a substantial 
 increase in salary. In 1884 he formed a partner- 
 ship with Frank J. Semple under the Arm name of 
 Hubert & Semple, and opened a hardware business 
 at Lampasas. The firm carried on a large and 
 profitable trade at that place as long as it continued 
 the western terminus of the Gulf, Colorado & 
 Santa Fe Railway. In 1888, after the road 
 extended West, the business was moved to Brown- 
 wood where it has since continued, the partnership 
 terminating in 1894, at which time the present name, 
 the Hurlbut Hardware Company, was adopted. 
 Mr. Semple was never actively connected with the 
 management of the business, but received good 
 returns — four dollars for one — on the amount he 
 bad invested in it. Mr. Hurlbut has, since the 
 reorganization, owned ninety per cent of the busi- 
 ness, and has at all times had full control of it. 
 
 This, as indicated by the name, was originally con- 
 fined to hardware but has grown to embrace 
 all kinds of merchandise except groceries, and 
 has two factories, one for making saddles and 
 harness, and the other for tin and sheet melal 
 goods. The Hurlbut Hardware Company occu- 
 pies commodious quarters in the center of busi- 
 ness at Brownwood, owning a two-story stone 
 block fronting a hundred feet on one of the main 
 thoroughfares and extending a hundred and twenty 
 feet to the rear, being divided into compartments, 
 each of which is especially fitted up for_ some 
 branch of business. A stock ranging from $85,- 
 000 to $90,000 is carried and an annual business of 
 $225,000 is done. The employees number from 
 twenty to twent3'-seven, three traveling salesmen 
 being included in the list, and a territory embrac- 
 ing twenty-six counties is drawn on for trade. Mr. 
 Hurlbut gives this business his strict personal at- 
 tention, and while a liberal supporter of all public 
 enterprises and interested in everything affecting 
 the public good, he has never taken part in politics 
 nor suffered himself to be drawn into any schemes 
 of a speculative nature. He was the first president 
 of the Brownwood Board of Trade and has served 
 as trustee of the city schools. His establishment 
 has of itself helped to strengthen the commercial 
 credit of Brownwood in a marked degree besides 
 adding greatly to the taxable wealth of Brown 
 Counlj'. 
 
 Mr. Hurlbut has attained noteworthy success and 
 the secret of it lies near the surface. It is to be 
 found in his natural aptitude for business, in the 
 
J. S. CROSS. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 481 
 
 excellent business training wLiicb he enjoyed and 
 tlie adlierence to practical methods in the conduct 
 of his business. His treatment of his employees as 
 friends and associates is especially worthy of men- 
 tion, since in this way he has helped to lay the 
 foundation of independent careers, and by selling 
 to them at different times a small interest in his 
 business has enlisted their best efforts in building 
 it up. He worked for others nearly eight years 
 himself during which time in recognition of his 
 services he received each year an increase in wages 
 without asking it, of which fact he is prouder than 
 
 anything he has accomplished since he has been 
 engaged in business for himself. 
 
 On September 23, 1884, Mr. Hurlbut married 
 Miss Licia H. Brown, daughter of James S. and 
 Martha Brown, and a native of Owen County, Ky., 
 Mr. and Mrs. Hurlbut having first met at Lampasas 
 where she was visiting friends and relatives. The 
 issue of this union has been three sons and two 
 daughters. Mr. Hurlbut's parents reside in Brown- 
 wood and he has a sister, Mrs. W. W. Glover, 
 living in Sedalia, Mo., who, with those just men- 
 tioned, constitute all of his immediate relatives. 
 
 WILLIAM G. HUNT, 
 
 COLUMBUS. 
 
 Capt. William G-. Hunt was born in Lunengburg 
 County, Va. , September 5th, 1813, and came to 
 Texas in 1831. In those early pioneer days Indians 
 were often troublesome and he had numerous and 
 exciting brushes with the savages. Capt. Hunt 
 fought through the War of Texas Independence 
 from its inception to its close. He was a member 
 of the Spartan band that fired the first shots of the 
 revolution at Gonzales, the Texian Lexington, and 
 was one of the brave men who stepped forward at 
 San Antonio, when the immortal Ben Milam strode 
 to the center of the camp, waved his hat, gave a 
 
 ringing huzza and shouted : "Who will follow old 
 Ben Milam into San Antonio? " and took part in the 
 assault and capture of that place. 
 
 Capt. Hunt served in Company C, Thirteenth 
 Texas Infantry, during the war between the States, 
 and rose to the rank of Captain in the Confederate 
 service. He is a prosperous farmer and now in his 
 old age is enjoying that ease which is the reward 
 of a well-spent life, in his comfoitable home in the 
 town of Columbus. Such old heroes are the glory 
 and boast of Texas. 
 
 JOHN S. CROSS, 
 
 BROWNSVILLE. 
 
 There are few persons now living whose names 
 are more familiar and who have been more closely 
 identified with the history and development of 
 Southwest Texas than the subject of this memoir, 
 and nearly half a century has passed since he 
 linked his name with the history and destinies of 
 the Lone Star Slate. Mr. Cross was born in South 
 Carolina, August 16th, 1816. 
 
 His father, John Cross, was also a native of the 
 '• Old Palmetto State " and was there reared. He 
 was by occupation a successful planter and was an 
 
 astute man of business. He married Miss Mar- 
 garet Joiner and they reared a family of seven 
 children. John S. Cross, the subject of this sketch, 
 was the third born of this family. He received 
 such education as the meager facilities of his State 
 and county afforded in those early days, grew up 
 on his father's plantation and finally went to Mis- 
 sissippi, where he took a position as overseer on a 
 large cotton plantation. 
 
 He remained in Mississippi until the year 1848. 
 and then came to Texas by way of New Orleaii<!, 
 
482 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 landing at Galveston, which was then an unpreten- 
 tious little seaport town. He remained at Gal- 
 veston but a short time and, being restless and 
 anxious to accomplish something, started north on 
 a prospecting tour, and soon located about twenty 
 miles north of Galveston, in Brazoria County, 
 where he remained for about two years and then 
 sold his interests and, in about 1850, moved to 
 Brownsville. 
 
 The thrilling experiences of this old-time veteran, 
 with the redman and the marauding Mexican who 
 at once, and for years preyed upon and " ran off " 
 his stock, besides committing numerous other 
 depredations, would make most interesting reading. 
 It is safe to say that Mr. Cross has seen and ex- 
 perienced as much of the stern reality of border 
 life, as any other living Texian. He continued his 
 stock operations on the lower Rio Grande until 
 about the year 1859, when the unsettled condition 
 of affairs along the Mexican border, and finally the 
 breaking out of the great war between the States, 
 rendered the business so hazardous that he with- 
 drew from it and located with his family at 
 Matamoros, Mexico, and engaged in merchandising 
 on a modest scale. This was in the year 1862. 
 While the war was in progress in the United States, 
 Matamoros was lively and business was good. Mr. 
 Cross therefore made money rapidly, and by his 
 straightforward business methods extended his 
 trade until his establishment became one of the 
 
 leading mercantile houses in the city. In 1880 Mr. 
 Cross admitted to partnership his eldest son, 
 Middleton H. Cross, forming the well-known firm 
 of J. S. & M. H. Cross, doubtless the strongest 
 in Eastern Mexico and Southwest Texas. Besides 
 their large wholesale and retail stores in Mata- 
 moros, the firm own and operate a bakery that 
 gives employment to a large number of people. In 
 1880 the firm opened a branch wholesale store in 
 Brownsville, Texas, where they carry a large and 
 complete line of dry goods, notions, etc. The 
 trade of these establishments extends far into the 
 interior of Southwest Texas and Mexico, and is an 
 important factor in the business history of that 
 section of country. Besides these important enter- 
 prises, the firm owns large tracts of fine agricultural 
 and pasture lands, all under fence, and have fine 
 and most substantial improvements thereon. 
 
 Mr. Cross, our subject, now well advanced in 
 years, while well preserved and in the enjoyment 
 of good health, is gradually relinquishing the cares 
 of business, and devotes his time chieflj' to his ranch 
 interests near Brownsfield, while the entire manage- 
 ment of their stores and bakery is intrusted to the 
 care of the junior member of the firm, Middleton 
 H. Cross, Esq. They each own and live in the 
 most complete, attractive and spacious homes in 
 the city of Matamoros. Mr. Cross is a typical old- 
 time Texian, of plain, unassuming and easy man- 
 ners and genuine Southern hospitality. 
 
 HENRY M. FIELD, 
 
 BROWNSVILLE. 
 
 The subject of this brief memoir is a well-known 
 citizen of Brownsville, Texas, a native of Southwick, 
 Mass., and was born September 1, 1842. The Fields 
 of New England and New York, of which family he 
 is a member, have descended from a long line of 
 ancient and honored ancestry dating in England as 
 far back as 1316 to Lord Robertus Field of Hard- 
 wick, and John Field, a lord of the township of 
 Chelsham, Surrey. 
 
 Burke's History of the Commoners of England 
 (183.3) gives evidence of the antiquity and promi- 
 nence of the family. It is said of Dr. Richard 
 Field that his family was of an ancient origin, early 
 (■migrated to Massachusetts Colony and soon lo.cated 
 at Hartford, Conn. Our subject descends from 
 
 this gentleman, who was born in England in 1561 
 and served as Chaplain to Queen Elizabeth. From 
 that date down the march of time the name has 
 been a prominent one upon the pages of English 
 and American history and is to-daj' familiar to the 
 student of the religious, legal, scientific and finan- 
 cial history of our country. The family has been 
 established in America for a period covering more 
 than two hundred years. The American founder 
 of the family was Zechariah Field, who settled in 
 Massachusetts not more than a dozen years after 
 the pilgrims landed at Plymouth and was, himself, 
 a Puritan. Later, his brother Robert came to the 
 country. Cyrus W. Field, of New York, the pro- 
 jector of the great Atlantic cable, is an uncle of our 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 483 
 
 subject, Mr. Henry M. Field. His father, Mathew 
 D. Field, an older brother of Cyrus W. Field, was a 
 paper manufacturer for many years at Lee, Mass. ; 
 in 1843 removed to St. Louis, Mo., and for eleven 
 years resided in the West, where he did heavy con- 
 tract work upon railroads and constructed several 
 large suspension bridges, one of which, 1,956 feet 
 long, spans the Cumberland river at Nashville, Tenn. 
 He served in tiie Massachusetts Senate from Ham- 
 dem for several terms and was prominent in public 
 affairs wherever he resided. 
 
 Stephen J. Field, Justice of the United States 
 Supreme Court, is an uncle. The family throughout 
 is noted in legal circles and as financiers and mem- 
 bers of the Christian clergy. 
 
 Henry M. Field came to Brownsville with the 
 Federal troops in 1865, and upon being mustered 
 out of service, took up his residence in that 
 city. 
 
 He received his education in Massachusetts, his 
 native State, and, in 1862, entered a volunteer 
 regiment, which served in the Army of Virginia, 
 Army of West Virginia and Army of the James. 
 He then served as a commissioned officer in a regi- 
 ment of United States colored troops, which was 
 sent to Brownsville, after Appomattox, and was a 
 First Lieutenant and A. A. Engineer when mustered 
 out in 1866. 
 
 He occupied the office of Deputy Collector of 
 Customs and for several years was County Surveyor 
 for Cameron County, in both of which positions he 
 made excellent records. In 1879 he entered busi- 
 ness in Brownsville, and since that time has not 
 held any public office. 
 
 In 1871 he was the engineer that built the Kio 
 Grande Railroad from Brownsville to Point Isabel. 
 
 He deals in lumber and hardware, and is a large 
 buyer of hides, wool, cotton, bones, horns and 
 
 pelts of all descriptions, from the rancheros of the 
 vicinity, shipping the articles to Eastern markets. 
 His establishment occupies nearly a block on 
 Eleventh street, between Jackson and Van Buren. 
 A disastrous fire occurred in 1890, destroying nearly 
 all of the buildings and their valuable contents. 
 The account books were burned, in spite of every 
 effort to save them, and Mr. Field was therefore 
 unable to fix his exact loss, and had infinite diffi- 
 culty in adjusting the multitude of outstanding ac- 
 counts. He rebuilt immediately on the same site, 
 taking the precaution to include a fire-proof vault in 
 his office arrangements. 
 
 Among other branches of business, Mr. Field was 
 associated at the time of the fire, with a skillful 
 taxidermist and enthusiastic naturalist, who had 
 collected over eight hundred species of birds, and a 
 large number of mammals and rodents pertaining to 
 the Brownsville section. This valuable collection 
 was fortunately unharmed. 
 
 About one mile from the city there is a large tract 
 of land owned bj' Mr. Field. A portion of the 2,685 
 acres has been laid out in lots and streets, and is 
 known as Field's Addition. Trees have been planted 
 on each side of the streets, and when Brownsville 
 rises from her long sleep and begins to stretch her- 
 self, there will be some splendid building lots all 
 ready, where handsome dwellings may be erected 
 on green lawns surrounded by beautiful shade trees. 
 The balance of the tract is partly under cultivation, 
 and partly pasture lands. A system of irrigation is 
 provided, which furnishes water for some of the 
 land, by means of a dam across the resaca (old 
 river bed) running through the place. Mr. Field 
 has taken the proper course to secure large crops 
 with certainty, for all the soil requires to make it 
 yield abundantly is a supply of water at the proper 
 time. 
 
 WILLIAM G. HUGHES, 
 
 HASTINGS, 
 
 Was born in London, England, May 29, 1859 ; 
 educated at Marlborough College; came to Amer- 
 ica in 1878 and lived in Boston, Mass. (where his 
 father still resides), until the following year when, 
 owing to failing health, he came South in search of 
 a more genial climate. Visiting the picturesque 
 and salubrious mountain district of Kendall County, 
 
 he was so charmed with the country that he bought 
 and improved what is now known as the Hughes 
 Ranch. It is located in a romantic dell, three and 
 a half miles from Boerne. Among other springs 
 on the property are mineral springs that have be- 
 come famous for their medicinal virtues and are 
 annually attracting large numbers of health seek- 
 
484 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 ers. Mr. Hughes has fine herds of Jersey cattle, 
 half-bred Shetland ponies and Angora goats, and 
 conducts a dairy, whose output of from three to 
 four hundred pounds of butter per month is eagerly 
 sought and sells at the highest market prices. Mr. 
 Hughes was united in marriage to Miss Lucy 
 
 Stephenson at San Antonio, Texas, June 28, 1888. 
 She is a daughter of Mr. John Stephenson, an 
 English gentleman, who has been engaged in farm- 
 ing in Kendall County since 1872. Mr. and Jlrs. 
 Hughes are delightful entertainers, genial and cul- 
 tured, and have a wide circle of friends. 
 
 PEYTON W. NOWLIN, 
 
 AUSTIN. 
 
 One of the best known and most highly esteemed 
 of the Texas pioneers, is the lamented Peyton Wade 
 Nowlin, whose name was a synonym of honor 
 among the statesmen and heroes of former times, 
 who laid broad and deep the foundations for our 
 present prosperity, enlightenment and progressive 
 civilization. 
 
 He was born in Logan County, Ky., October 
 12th, 1802; lived there until sixteen years of age 
 and then moved with his parents to Missouri, where 
 he completed his education at Franklin College. 
 Reaching man's estate, he became a large shipper 
 of tobacco and successfully engaged in merchan- 
 dising and farming. October 28th, 1827, he was 
 united in marriage to Miss Martha M. Pulliam. 
 Mr. Nowlin came to Texas in 1847, and returned 
 to Missouri for his family, just prior to the per- 
 manent location of the State capitol at Austin, in 
 1848. He erected the first house built in the town 
 after Austin was decided upon as the seat of the 
 Government, and in this house his eldest daughter 
 (Mrs. Lucy A. Daney) now resides. 
 
 Mr. Nowlin was elected in 1850 a delegate to 
 the first railroad convention held in the State ; was 
 an earnest advocate of the construction of a rail- 
 way to the Pacific Ocean and, possessed of unusual 
 
 breadth and strength of mind, liberal and public- 
 spirited in his views, he was an active promoter of 
 every enterprise that promised benefit to the Stale 
 of his adoption. He was a member of the Chris- 
 tian Church and stood high in the Masonic frater- 
 nitj', by which order he was interred with befitting 
 honors after his death, which occurred at the old 
 family homestead at Austin, August 31, 1884. 
 He was a kind husband and father, generous neigh- 
 bor and friend, a patriot and citizen above re- 
 proach ; a man who is affectionately remembered 
 by the few old Texians who knew and still survive 
 him. His wife died at Austin, March 2, 1877, and 
 is interred beside him in the city cemetery. She 
 was a woman of literary tastes, shared her hus- 
 band's patriotism, and kept her nimble fingers ever 
 busy to cover the weary Confederate soldiers' feet ; 
 even a sick Federal was the recipient of her kind- 
 ness. Eight children were born to them, two sons 
 and six daughters. Five daughters survive, viz. : 
 Lucy A., who married Col. J. W. Dancy; Susan 
 B., who married Hon. C. H. Randolph; Annie E., 
 who married Col. E. M. Lesueur; MoUie, who 
 married Capt. J. H. Diiikins ; and Addle, who mar- 
 ried David N. Robinson ; Mattie and Peyton died 
 unmarried. 
 
 COL. J. W. DANCY, 
 
 LA GRANGE, TEXAS. 
 
 Cul. J. W. Danc3', the lineal descendant of 
 Francis de Dance (a Castillian nobleman, who fled 
 with the Huguenots from persecution in France to 
 the freedom of America), was born in Virginia, 
 Greenville County, Septembers, 1810. His father. 
 
 William Dancy, who married Percilla Turner, of 
 Virginia, moved to Decatur, Ala., when their son, 
 John Winfleld, was quite small. 
 
 Col. Dancy received an excellent education, 
 studied law, science, language, and everything in 
 
C'OI . J. W. DANCY. 
 
MRS. LUCY DANCY. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 485 
 
 his reach, graduating at the University of Ten- 
 nessee at Nashville. He received his license to 
 practice law from Judge Catron, of Tennessee, 
 afterwards Chief Justice of the United States Su- 
 preme Court. He married Miss Evalina Rhodes, 
 July, 1835, who lived only one year. Left a wid- 
 ower so early in life, he was attracted by the 
 sorrows of Texas to embrace her dangers, landing 
 at Velasco, December 28, 1836. The rough sea 
 vo}'age "made him sick unto despair," says the 
 Hon. F. R. Lubbock (ex-Governor and State 
 Treasurer of Texas), who came to this State in 
 company with Col. Dancy. Determined^to iden- 
 tify his every interest with Texas, he took, within 
 sixteen days, papers of citizenship (January 13, 
 1837), under District Judge R. M. Williamson, 
 also Associate Justice of tlie Supreme Court of 
 the Republic of Texas. He followed the practice 
 of his profession with distinction and marked 
 financial success at La Grange for many years, 
 taking a helpful interest in 3'ounger members of 
 the bar, and moved to the front, a recognized 
 leader. He was elected to the Congress of the 
 Republic of Texas in 1841 and 1842, there main- 
 taining the reputation he had previously earned, 
 as a man of great purity of character and purpose. 
 Col. Dancy participated in many exciting skir- 
 mishes with Indians, and received a severe wound 
 in the shoulder while pursuing the red-skinned 
 marauders out on the Medina. He served under 
 Capt. Jack Ha3's in 1842, in repelling Vasquez's 
 Mexican invasion. 
 
 With a prodigality of love for the beauty and 
 utility of nature, he immediately purchased a large 
 tract of land, establishing a plantation and stock 
 ranch thereon, near La Grange, his residence 
 overlooking the lovely fern-decorated banks of the 
 Colorado river. To this garden of Eden he brought 
 his queenly wife, Lucy Mowlin, of Austin, to 
 whom he was married, October 25, 1849. At this 
 place he planted the first hydraulicram in Texas, 
 just beneath his magnificent spring, which abun- 
 dantly irrigated the finest berries, fruits and 
 flowers ever grown in the State. He was one of 
 a company to establish the first newspaper in 
 Fayette County (1850, The Texas Monument'), 
 which he gratuitously edited, for the purpose of 
 raising funds to erect a monument over the re- 
 mains of the Mier prisoners and Dawson's men, 
 brought from Mexico and deposited in a vault on 
 Monument Bluff, just across the river from La 
 Grange. 
 
 Col. Dancy was one of the trustees who founded 
 a Military College at Rutersville, the first estab- 
 lished in Texas. The Galveston News in 1851, 
 
 speaking of Col. Dancy, says: "He is the noblest 
 work of God — a man incapable of a dishonorable 
 act, and a detester of meanness, a high-toned gen- 
 tleman, scholar, and critic ; he has not a superior 
 in the State in a knowledge of parliamentary rules, 
 and makes a good presiding officer. His virtues, 
 public and private, are of the highest order." 
 
 Austin and San Antonio papers of 1853 said of 
 him: "Senator Dancy is madly in favor of the 
 Pacific Railway. It must pass through Texas 
 with a Mississippi terminus at New Orleans. He 
 would strain every nerve to secure its passage — 
 is body and soul an internal improvement man. 
 With strength of statistics, power of argument and 
 beaut3' of imagery, he portrayed the vast, almost 
 incomprehensible advantage of railroads to Texas. 
 He said ' Railroads are the only key to unlock her 
 casket 'of costly gems.' " His ideas of the tele- 
 graph and railroad were then laughed at and 
 derided, especially when he said ' ' We will be enabled 
 to get a dispatch from China the evening before it 
 was sent." They, however, were planted in good 
 soil, took root and later placed high on the list of 
 practical utility, fiuallj' being realized by his 
 children. 
 
 Col. Dancy, the "Father of Railroads in 
 Texas," lived only long enough to see two I'oads 
 commenced. He was the director of the first one 
 (which reached only to Alleyton), when he died, 
 February 13th, 1866, at La Grange, Texas. His 
 heart's desire is at last perfected, that road now 
 runs from New Orleans to San Francisco. 
 
 Though possessed of every Christian virtue, and 
 giving liberally to all denominations, he belonged 
 to none ; but praised God for a beautiful earth as 
 his birthright, and a glorious heaven his eternal 
 inheritance. Having lost a son and daughter quite 
 young, he left a widow with four girls to raise to 
 maturit}', all ardent members of the Episcopal 
 Church, viz. : Evalina, who graduated at Carnatz 
 Institute, New Orleans, and married J. P. Ledbet- 
 ter, now an attorney of Coleman, Texas, possess- 
 ing the utmost confidence of his clients from all 
 parts of the United States ; Olivia, who completed 
 her education at Columbia, Tenn., and married J. 
 C. Brown, a very prominent and successful lawyer 
 of La Grange, Texas ; Ella, a girl of rare literary 
 ability and superior personal attractions, who mar- 
 ried quite young to Mr. Hall, and now lives in San 
 Antonio ; and Lucie Winnie, who was summoned by 
 the Death Angel when just blooming into woman- 
 hood, and a beloved student, at Columbia, Institute, 
 Tenn. 
 
 Mrs. Lucy Nowlin Dancy was born in Saline 
 County, Mo., September 16, 1828, and married 
 
486 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEEBS OF TEXAS. 
 
 in Austin, Texas, October 25, 1849, remaining all 
 her Liusband's lifetime at Daney Plantation, just 
 opposite La Grange. Rt. Rev. Alexander Gregg, 
 Episcopal Bishop of Texas, appointed her president 
 of the first " Parochial Society " of La Grange. 
 She was elected several times president of the " La 
 Grange Cemetery Association" (the first one 
 formed in the State), was one of the organizers of 
 the Travis Chapter, Daughters of the Republic of 
 Texas, and has ever since been on the Committee of 
 Credentials. Mrs. Dancy is possessed of fine ex- 
 ecutive ability, is widely cultured and accom- 
 plished and is deservedly one of the most popular 
 of our noble matrons. 
 
 Peyton D. Nowlin, a lawyer by profession and a 
 brother of Mrs. Dancy, entered the Confederate 
 
 army soon after the commencement of the war be- 
 tween the States ; was captured at the fall of Ar- 
 kansas Post and was afterwards exchanged, after 
 which he served under Gen. Joseph E. John- 
 ston and Hood through the famous Tennessee and 
 Georgia campaign, taking part in the battles of 
 Chickamauga and Lookout Mountain and other im- 
 portant engagements, bearing himself with that 
 gallantry that characterizes the conduct onl}' of the 
 bravest of the brave. He also saw hard service in 
 Virginia, and was severely wounded in the hip in 
 front of Richmond. At the close of the war he 
 came home and, having recovered from his wound, 
 went to Mexico with his sister, Mrs. Randolph, 
 and, returning, took, and died, of yellow fever at 
 the City of Tuxpan, May 26, 1866. 
 
 CHAS. OHLRICH, 
 
 SMITHSON'S VALLEY, 
 
 Was born November 24, 1834, in the town of 
 Greifswald, North Germany ; came to Texas in 
 1854 with sixty other emigrants from the same 
 locality, rented a piece of land on Spring Branch 
 in Comal County ; and married and purchased 
 land on the Guadalupe river, in that county, where 
 he lived six years. He started in 1863 and 
 taught until 1865 the first school in that locality 
 and then sold out and commenced life at his present 
 home in Smithsou's Valley. 
 
 He started and taught the first school in the 
 valley in 1865, he building a log school-house on 
 land situated near his present residence and 
 owned by him. This modest structure now serves 
 as a corn-crib. 
 
 Mr. Ohlrich taught a private school until the 
 public school system was inaugurated and then 
 continued to train the young idea, under the new 
 system, for several years. He was made Post- 
 master at Smithson's Valley, in April, 1866, and 
 has held the position since that time, a period of 
 
 twenty-nine years. In 1870 he was elected Justice 
 of the Peace and County Commissioner and still 
 holds the former office. Held the latter office for 
 about ten years. He engaged for a time in mer- 
 chandising but sold out his stock and devoted his 
 attention to agriculture, at which he met with 
 gratifying success, owing to his thrift, energy and 
 skill. Some years since he sold the greater part of 
 his farming interests to his son, retaining a com- 
 fortable home. 
 
 Mr. Ohlrich married in 1859 Miss Louise, 
 daughter of Joachim Pantermuehl, a pioneer of 
 Comal County, further mention of whom is made 
 in this volume. 
 
 Mr. Ohlrich has two living children: Ernest, 
 born August 26th, 1864, and Clara, born March 
 16th, 1871. Ernest married Miss Martha, daughter 
 of Henry Startz, and has two children : a daughter, 
 Ada, and a son. Otto. 
 
 Clara is Mrs. Max Richter, of Kendall County 
 and has two sons, Arno and Harry. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 487 
 
 FELIX VANDERSTUCKEN, 
 
 FREDERICKSBURG, 
 
 Is one of Fredericksburg's most enterprising and 
 substantial business men. He came to Texas in 
 1857 and located on a ranch in Mason County and 
 engaged in stock-raising for about seven years. In 
 1864 he closed out his stock interests and removed 
 to Fredericksburg and purchased the Fredericks- 
 burg Flour Mills. He operated these mills until 
 about 1889, when he renovated the entire outfiti 
 transforming it into a complete roller mill of 
 seventy-five barrels capacity, the product of which 
 is the highest grade in quality and finds a ready 
 domestic market. Mr. Vanderstucken has been 
 twice married and has seven children. He has 
 taken an active part in local affairs, both business 
 and educational ; has served several years as 
 County Commissioner of Gillespie County ; was one 
 of the organizers and is now one of the Directors 
 of the Gillespie County Fair Association, and has 
 served a number of terms as Trustee of the Fred- 
 ericksburg Public Schools. A brother of Mr. 
 Vanderstucken, Frank Vanderstucken, was one of 
 the original Texas pioneers, coming to the country, 
 in company with De Castro, when a boy of only 
 fifteen years of age. He met Castro in Antwerp, 
 where his father, Frank Vanderstucken, Sr., then 
 lived, and where Frank Vanderstucken, Jr., was 
 born. 
 
 De Castro saw in the lad the elements of a 
 
 successful pioneer, the making of a man of great 
 enterprise, energy and daring, and, therefore, in- 
 sisted on bringing him to Texas where those manly 
 qualities could not fail to find full scope for devel- 
 opment. On reaching Texas, the spirit of improve- 
 ment and progress took full possession of the young 
 pioneer and he promptly engaged in various enter- 
 prises, such as the building of forts, etc., under 
 government contracts. At the opening of the war 
 between the States he, with Henry Runge, held 
 government freight contracts for the State of Texas. 
 He served four years in the First Texas Cavalry, 
 Confederate army, and distinguished himself as 
 the " Dutch Captain," being in command of a com 
 pany. He served with great bravery, taking part 
 in the memorable battles of Mansfield and Pleasant 
 Hill, Louisiana, and other engagements. After 
 the war he returned to Antwerp, his native city in 
 Belgium, and engaged in the milling business and 
 there attained a position of business, political and 
 local prominence and amassed a large fortune. He 
 married in Texas, Miss Sophia Scheonerwoif, of 
 Fredericksburg, and they have four children, all 
 born in Fredericksburg. One son, Frank, Jr., a 
 musical composer of world-wide celebrity, was re- 
 cently at the head of the Orion Club, of New York 
 City, but is now at the head of the profession in 
 Cincinnati, Ohio. 
 
 ANTONE KOCH, 
 
 BOERNE, 
 
 Was born in Baden, Germany, in 1835 ; worked in 
 a cloth-weaving mill in Germany when a boy ; came 
 to America ; found employment in New York City 
 and later in Philadelphia, and in 1856 enlisted in 
 the regular army of the United States, with which 
 he served as a private soldier for five years, securing 
 an honorable discharge — in 1860. He then came 
 to Texas, "striking" San Antonio, where he 
 remained several months. He finally engaged in 
 
 farming sixteen miles east of San Antonio. He 
 spent the years 1861-5 in the service of the Southern 
 Confederacy and during that period aided in the 
 building of various fortifications in Texas. 
 
 He married Miss Gaild Schubert in San Antonio 
 in 1860. They have one son, Julius Koch. Mr. 
 Koch located in Boerne in 1862, where he has been 
 engaged in farming and gardening and has accumu- 
 lated a competency. 
 
488 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS 
 
 ANDRAES WOLLSCHLAEGER, 
 
 BOERNE, 
 
 Was borD in Prussia, August 25, 1818, wLiere be 
 learned tlie shoemaker's trade, which he followed 
 until he left Germany for America, 18G8. Landing 
 at Galveston in 1868, he took passage in another 
 ship for Indianola and from the latter place pro- 
 ceeded to San Antonio, where he resided for a short 
 time and then moved to Sisterdale, where he pur- 
 chased and improved a farm and engaged in raising 
 horses and cattle. After a residence of sis 3'ears 
 at Sisterdale he sold out his property there and in 
 
 1874 located on the present family estate, near 
 Boerne. 
 
 He brought his wife and four children with 
 him to this countr}'. He died July 28, 1894, at 
 seventy-flve years of age. His widow survives at 
 seventy years of age. The living children are 
 Andraes, Christian, Sophia, now Mrs. A. Behr, of 
 Sisterdale, and Gustav. 
 
 The farm consists of 420 acres of splendid farm- 
 ing and grazing lands. 
 
 HENRY BOERNER, 
 
 COMFORT, 
 
 Was born in Hanover, Germany, November 21, 
 1826, and came to Texas in 1850. Other members 
 of the family followed. The subject of this notice 
 first located at Horton Town, near New Braunfels, 
 where he remained for six years engaged in farming. 
 He later moved to his present home near Comfort. 
 His father, Henry Boerner, Sr., came from Germany 
 to Texas in 1854, and lived at New Braunfels, 
 where he died in 1886, at ninety-three j-ears of age. 
 Henry Boerner, Jr., subject of this notice, had one 
 brother in Texas, who was killed by the Indians in 
 
 the historic Nueces Massacre. His name appears 
 on the monument erected to the memory of the 
 victims at Comfort, where their remains were in- 
 terred. Mr. Boerner has one brother in Germany 
 and two married sisters in Texas. He was married 
 July 11, 1852, to Miss Caroline Schultz. They have 
 six children : Johanna, now Mrs. Joseph Keiner of 
 Comfort; Frederick, Minnie, Lena, Augusta and 
 Dora. He served in the Home Guards during the 
 late war. Mr. Boerner is one of Comfort's most 
 highly esteemed citizens and prosperous farmers. 
 
 HERMAN KNIBBE, 
 
 SPANISH BRANCH, 
 
 A naUve of Comal Count}', Texas, born July 6th, 
 1850, is second son of Dietrich Knibbe, one of 
 Comal County's earliest and most prominent pio- 
 neers, and was reared on the old Kuibbe estate in 
 that county. He is a successful farmer and stock- 
 raiser. December 7, 1874, he was united in mar- 
 
 riage to Miss Ottilie, a daughter of Philip Wagner. 
 She was a native of Texas and died in 1889, leaving 
 three children: Alice, Meta, and Alvin. A number 
 of years later Mr. Knibbe married Mrs. Minnie 
 Schultz, widow of the late Chas. Schultz, and by 
 this union has two children : Hilda and Dietrich. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 489 
 
 ERNST CORETH, 
 
 NEW BRAUNFELS. 
 
 Ernst Coretb, one of tbe early pioneers Comal 
 Countjs Texas, was born in Vienna, Austria, 
 December 2d, 1803. Was educated in that city. 
 Enlisted in tbe Austrian armj' in 1820 and served as 
 an officer until 1830, when he retired and settled 
 on the estate, in Tyrol, inherited from his father, 
 who fell an officer in the Austrian army, in the 
 battle at Austerlitz, on the 2d of December, 1805. 
 In 1834 he married Miss Agnes Erier and in 184G 
 he came with his family to Comal County and im- 
 proved the estate near New Braunfels, now owned 
 by his son, Rudolph. Tbe family then consisted 
 of six children and four were born afterward. 
 Three of tbe children are dead and seven survive 
 at this writing: — 
 
 Charles, born January 16th, 1837. married Miss 
 Hedwig Kapp and died in 1865, a soldier in tbe 
 Confederate army. His two sons died in early 
 childhood and his widow survives. 
 
 John, born February 22d, 1845. died a soldier 
 in the Confederate army in 1863; Amalia, born 
 June 22, 1840, married Dr. Goldman, in 1872, 
 and died in 1873 without issue. Ernst Coretb, 
 
 diei July lOtb, 1881, and bis wife died April 11, 
 1888. 
 Tbe living children are: — 
 
 1. Agnes, bora September 18th, 1835, now wife 
 of John O. Meusebacb, of Loyd Valley, Texas. 
 
 2. Eudolph, born May 7tli, 1838, is not married. 
 
 3. Franz, born October 29ih, 1846, at Houston, 
 Texas, married Miss Minna Zesch. His children 
 are: Agnes, born January 26th, 1884; Lina, born 
 May 29th, 1885 ; and Rudolph George Rochette, 
 born January 3d, 1892. 
 
 4. Mary, born November 25tb, 1848, is not 
 married. 
 
 5. Anna, born February 27th, 1852. now wife 
 of Hans Marshall, of Mason County. 
 
 6. Joseph, bora December 5tb, 1854, married 
 Miss Mathilde Rudorf . His children are : Eliza- 
 beth, born September 26th, 1882 ; Ottilie, born, 
 March loth, 1887 ; Veronica, born January 29th, 
 1889; and Arthur Leopold, born October 13th, 
 1891. 
 
 7. Ottillie, born Anril 16th, 1858, now wife of 
 Herman Altgelt, of Comal County. 
 
 RUDOLPH CARSTANJEN, 
 
 BOERNE, 
 
 A well-known and wealthy citizen of Boerne, 
 Kendal Count3', Texas, and a pioneer settler in tbe 
 .State, came to Texas in 1850 and in November, 1855, 
 camped with seven other young men on the present 
 site of Boerne, up to that time unoccupied by a 
 human habitation. The surrounding country was 
 infested with Indians. The names of the party of 
 
 campers were -as follows: Mr. Zoeller, of 
 
 Boerne, Dr. Cramer and Christian Flack, of Comfort, 
 
 Mr. Fredericks, J. Kiichler, Schulz, Adam 
 
 Vogt(the financial head of the expedition), and the 
 subject of this notice. The party of explorers built 
 a log-cabin on tbe spot and from this beginning the 
 town has grown to its present proportions. Tbe 
 edifice now (1895) serves as the kitchen of the 
 residence of Countj' Surveyor Croskey. These 
 
 seven men were bound together as a commune, 
 intending to locate and perpetuate a colony along 
 communistic lines. It is no surprise, however, to 
 state that, as such, it was a failure. Part of tbe 
 640 acres acquired by them has, in the course of 
 various subsequent transfers of ownership, become 
 tbe property of Mr. Croskej\ Mr. Carstanjen 
 had no money invested or material interest in this 
 project. He was merely a traveler, who had joined 
 the idealists in search of health and pleasure. 
 It becoming evident to the little band of adventur- 
 ers that the scheme was impracticable, they dis- 
 banded and Mr. Carstanjen went to Sisterdale. 
 There be bought 320 acres of land upon which he 
 settled down to the quiet and independent life of 
 a farmer. In 1869 he married Miss Ottillie Von 
 
490 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Werder, a granddaughter of Gen. Werder, a dis- 
 tinguished officer of the Prussian army, in the wars 
 with France, notably tliat of 1870. Mr. Carstau- 
 jen remained on and improved this land at Sis- 
 terdale until 1872, when he abandoned agricultural 
 pursuits and removed to Boerne, where he now lives 
 in ease. He possesses means (mostly invested 
 in Germany) that 3'ield him an ample revenue and 
 enable him to lead a life free from business 
 cares. He has experienced hardships of pioneer 
 life in Texas and appreciates the privileges he enjoys. 
 He has spent liberally of his fortune in travel in 
 the United States and Europe for the edification 
 and culture of his children. During his pioneer 
 experience he had $1,000 worth of horses and 
 other stock stolen by the Indians. He " roughed 
 it" two years, ivithout once sleeping in a house. 
 Mr. Carstanjen was born August 29, 1827, in Duis- 
 
 burg, on the Rhine, in Prussia. His fatlier, Charles 
 Carstanjen, was a successful merchant and amassed 
 a fortune. The subject of this notice, Rudolph Car- 
 stanjen, was given a thorough German College edu- 
 cation and at twenty-one years of age went to Buenos 
 Ayres, South America. He traveled in various 
 portions of that interesting country and then out of 
 love for adventure came to Texas, where his de- 
 sires were fully gratified. Mrs. Carstanjen was born 
 in New Braunfels, Texas. Her father, Hans von 
 Werder, was a First Lieutenant in the Prussian 
 army. He came to New Braunfels in 1846, a com- 
 panion of Prince Solms, the distinguished German 
 colonist. He lived and died at Sisterdale, depart- 
 ing tins life October 5, 1891. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Carstanjen have five interesting 
 children: Ida, Rudolph, Hedwig, Charles, and 
 Alvin. 
 
 FRITZ ADLER, 
 
 BOERNE, 
 
 An enterprising and prosperous German citizen 
 of Boerne, Kendall County, Texas, left Heider- 
 stoph, Germany, for America, in 1874 ; landed at 
 Baltimore, Md., traveled through the States, in 
 July of that year came to Texas, and the following 
 year located at Boerne with his wife and three 
 
 children and engaged in farming. He was born 
 June 27th, 1841. Mrs. Adler's maiden name was 
 Miss Julia Naikel. They have four children: 
 Anna, Fritz, Emma, Powell, and Ernst Henrick. 
 Mr. Adler's farm consists of 80 acres in a high state 
 of cultivation and is well improved. 
 
 FREDERICK LEASCH, 
 
 BULVERDE, 
 
 An energetic and thrifty farmer of Comal County, 
 Texas, came to America in 1860. He was born in 
 the little town of East-Sea, (Germany, May 29, 1835. 
 His father, who also bore the name of Frederick, 
 came to this country in 1867, and died in 1889. He 
 had one other son, John, who, however, never came 
 to America, and two daughters, Mary, who is now 
 Mrs. William Edgar, of Comal County, and Lena, 
 
 widow of the late Hermann , of that county. 
 
 The subject of this memoir married Miss Rica 
 
 Kobbelmaker in 1860. Her father, John Kobbel- 
 maker, a carpenter by trade, and in later life a 
 farmer, came to Texas with Prince Solms in 1845 
 and died here in 1870. Her mother is still living, 
 as an honored and beloved member of the Leasch 
 household. Mr. and Mrs. Leasch have eleven 
 children: Louise, Henry, Frederick, Charles, Emil, 
 Sophia, Augusta, Mennie, Idelhite, Frederica, and 
 Robert, and nine grandchildren. Mr. Leasch has a 
 well improved farm of 400 acres. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 491 
 
 HENRY RICHTER, 
 
 SCHILLER, 
 
 Was born near Bremen, Germany, July 28, 182G ; 
 came to America in 1852, as a passenger on the sail- 
 ing vessel, " Texas," on her trial trip, and after a 
 voyage of fourteen weeks, landed at Indianola, 
 from which place be went to New Brauufels and 
 from there to Jones Mills, at the junction of Curry's 
 creek and the Guadalupe river, in Kendall County, 
 where he worked at the mill for two years for Judge 
 
 Jones. He then pre-empted land and Oegan farming, 
 in which be has since been engaged. He now owns a 
 well improved farm of seven hundred and twenty 
 acres. 
 
 He was united in marriage to Miss Mary Stende- 
 back in 1856. They have eight children, viz. : 
 Paul, Emil, Norma, Mary, Otto, Minnie, Henry, 
 and Elvira. 
 
 CHARLES VOCES, JR., 
 
 BULVERDE, 
 
 Is a son of the venerable and esteemed Harry 
 Voges. 
 
 Charles Voges was born in 1848. In January, 
 1874, he was united in marriage to Miss Amelia 
 Georg, daughter of Charles Georg. They have 
 seven children : Clara, now Mrs. Henry Ross ; 
 
 Matilda, Huldah, Oscar, Emil, Freda, and Meda. 
 Mr. Voges owns a considerable body of land, part 
 of which is under cultivation ; and is regarded as a 
 prosperous business man and substantial citizen of 
 Comal County. 
 
 ERNEST CRUENE, SR., 
 
 GOODWIN, 
 
 An old and respected settler of New Braunfels, 
 came to America in 1845 and to New Braunfels in 
 1846. He was born in Hanover, Germany, July 6, 
 1819. He has two sons and one daughter. The 
 
 New Braunfels. The sons are well known and 
 prosperous business men of that place. Mr. and 
 Mrs. Gruene are members of the German Lutheran 
 Church of New Braunfels. They were members of 
 
 daughter, Johanna, is the wife of Mr. John Zipp, of the first band of the Prince Solms colony. 
 
492 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS 
 
 GOTTLIEB ELBEL, 
 
 SPRING BRANCH, 
 
 A Texian pioneer of 1849; came from Saxonj', 
 where he was born March 2, 1827. His wife, vee 
 Miss Christina Zeh, who was then a single woman, 
 and to whom he was married in the fall of 1849, 
 came to Texas with him. They landed at Gal- 
 veston and proceeded thence to New Braunfels by 
 way of Port Lavaca. He remained at New Braun- 
 fels for a brief time and in 1852 located on his 
 present farm near Spring Branch, where he owns 
 about 1,900 acres of good farming and grazing 
 lands. His wife was born in Saxony. She died 
 
 March, 1862, and left eight children: Wilhelmiiia, 
 Augusta, Herman, Emma, Bertha, Ernst and Miry. 
 Mr. Elbel married again in 1867, his second wife 
 being Mrs. Wehe, widow of Charles Wehe, of 
 Comal County. She has two children by her first 
 marriage : Caroline Wehe, who married and lives in 
 New Braunfels, and Louise Wehe, who married 
 Charles Bierle and lives in New Braunfels. She 
 has borne Mr. Elbel three children : Albert, Frank- 
 lyn and Alma. 
 
 CHARLES LEISTIKOW, 
 
 KENDALIA, 
 
 One of the most prosperous and esteemed German 
 farmers of Comal County, came to America in 
 1851 from Labenz, German}'. 
 
 He was born August 6, 1824. He married in 
 1848 Miss Johanna Troga. She was born in the 
 town of Kissburg, Germany. They came over in 
 the ship Francisn, sailing from Bremen to Galves- 
 ton. They came from the latter port to Indianola 
 
 and from thence to New Braunfels, where they 
 lived for a period of about ten years. Mr. Leisti- 
 kow worked out by the day three years and farmed 
 on rented land for about seven years, after which 
 he moved to the Piper settlement and there lived 
 until 1877, when he established himself on his pres- 
 ent place, which consists of 3,000 acres of farming 
 and grazing lands. 
 
 CHARLES KNIBBE, 
 
 SPRING BRANCH, 
 
 Fourth son of the late Deterich Knibbe, was born 
 June 16, 1860, at the old homestead in Comal 
 County, where he now resides. He was married 
 April 17, 1881, to Miss Pauline, daughter of Phillip 
 Wegner. Mrs. Knibbe was born at Anhalt, Comal 
 County, August 26, 1859. They have four chil- 
 
 dren: Ella, Hermann, Henry, and Arno. Mr. 
 Knibbe owns several hundred acres of good farm- 
 ing, and pasture lands and a cotton gin, located 
 near his home, and he is recognized as a substantial 
 business man. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 S. W. SHOLARS, M. D., 
 
 ORANGE, 
 
 Physician. Born October 15, 1847, at Talladega, 
 Ala. 
 
 Father, Dr. R. P. Sholars, born in 1812, in the 
 State of Georgia — one of the prominent physicians 
 of that grand old commonwealth. Died in Jasper 
 Count}', Texas, in 1864. 
 
 Mother, Miss S. E. Wallace, born in Virginia, 
 August 24, 1820. 
 
 Dr. Sholars received his literary education in 
 the common schools of Texas and his medical edu- 
 cation at the University of Louisiana (now Tulane 
 University), attending that institution three years 
 in succession and graduating therefrom March 12, 
 1872. In 1886 he returned to the college for 
 review. 
 
 His parents moved from Alabama to North 
 Louisiana ; remained there about ten years and 
 then came to Texas and settled in Jasper County, 
 in November, 1858. The remained there until 
 1878, and then moved to Orange. 
 
 The subject of this notice began practicing medi- 
 cine in the winter of 1872 at his old home in Jasper 
 County and remained there the six succeeding 
 years. He moved to Orange April 16, 1878, where 
 he has since practiced his profession and for a num- 
 ber of years been engaged in the drug business. 
 
 He has met with excellent financial success. 
 
 He enlisted in the Confederate army in 1864, as 
 a private in Company I., Lane's (Texas) Regiment 
 of Cavalry, with which he served until the close of 
 the war. He then returned to his home in Jasper 
 County, Texas. 
 
 He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, in 
 which he has attained the Royal Arch degree, and 
 is also a member of the K. of P., and Elks frater- 
 nities. 
 
 April 18, 1874, he was united in marriage, at 
 Jasper, Texas, to Miss S. P). Miller, of Randolph 
 County, Ga. She died April 16, 1880, at Orange. 
 
 His second marriage was to Miss Odessa 
 Brockett, formerly of Alabama, June 22, 1887. 
 Four children were born to him by his first wife, 
 one of whom is dead, and two by his second wife, 
 one of whom is deceased. 
 
 Of these children, Arthur R. Sholars attended 
 Baylor University at Waco three years, goinc as 
 far as he could in civil engineering and acquiring 
 some knowledge of military tactics. 
 
 S. Wallace Sholars attended Baylor University 
 for three years and is now a student at the Univer- 
 sity of Texas, law department. 
 
 O. Louis Sholars is attending the public schools 
 of Orange, Texas ; and Theta Sholars is now five 
 years of age. 
 
 Dr. Sholars has been president of the Board of 
 Medical Examiners of the first district for the past 
 15 years, and is serving his second term as presi- 
 dent of the Southeast Texas Medical Society, head- 
 quarters at Beaumont. He was one of the first 
 aldermen of Orange, elected upon the incorporation 
 of the town under the general laws of the State. 
 
 He has been a member of the city school board 
 for the past eleven years and Captain of the Orange 
 Rifles for five years. He has held a commission as 
 Surgeon, with rank ol Captain, in the First Regiment 
 T. V. G., and was promoted to the ofHce of Medi- 
 cal Director of the First Brigade, with the rank of 
 Lieutenant-colonel. 
 
 He has been a member of the State Medical Asso- 
 ciation for a number of years. 
 
 Dr. Sholars is widely known and is respected by 
 all who know him as a leading and influential citizen. 
 
 WILLIAM VOGT, 
 
 BOERNE, 
 
 Was born in the kingdom of Prussia, Germany. From Indianola he proceeded to Seguin, in 
 
 April 15, 1826, and was reared to the occupation of Guadalupe County, where he remained for four 
 
 a farmer. He came to America in 1852, landing at years, engaged in farming and stock-raising. Ho, 
 
 Indianola, Texas, in December of that year. however, lost all he had by Indian depredations 
 
494 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 and the vicissitudes of tlie war between the States. 
 He pioneered in Guadalupe County with ex-Gov- 
 ernor John Ireland, and at times shared the same bed 
 with him. Mr. Vogt aided in building the first 
 school-house erected in Seguin. He finally located 
 at Boerne, in Kendall CouTity, where he has since 
 resided. He at first purchased four acres of land 
 on which his home now stands. To this he has 
 since added ninety-six acres, and now owns a well- 
 improved farm of one hundred acres. 
 
 In 1866-68 he served the people of Kendall 
 County as Assessor of Taxes and made an active, 
 eflBcient and acceptable official. 
 
 Mr. Vogt was united in marriage to Miss Anna 
 Nesser in 1850. They have seven children : Joseph, 
 deceased ; Caroline, now Mrs. Ernst Pfiffer ; August, 
 deceased ; Emma, now Mrs. Adam Phillip ; Pauline, 
 now Mrs. Charles Bergmann ; Wilhelmina, now 
 Mrs. Charles Reinhardt ; and Bertha. 
 
 Two brothers of Mr. Vogt, Ferdinand and 
 August, also came to Texas. The latter died 
 at Spring creek, in Kendall County. Ferdi- 
 nand located in Cuero, where he engaged in 
 merchandising and resided until the time of his 
 death. 
 
 EWIN LACY, 
 
 BURNET COUNTY. 
 
 Ewin Lacy was born in Christian County, Kv., 
 October, 1832, and is a son of George W. 
 and Sarah (flyers) Lacy, both of whom were also 
 natives of Kentucky. Mr. Lacy comes of Revolu- 
 tionary stock on both sides, both grandfathers, 
 Moses Lacy and John Myers, having served in the 
 Continental army. They subsequently settled in 
 Kentucky, where they helped to beat back the In- 
 dians, fell the forests and lay the foundation of that 
 great commonwealth. 
 
 George W. Lacy and Sarah Myers were married 
 in Kentucky and moved thence to Missouri in 1842 
 and settled in Cedar County, where Mr. Lacy died 
 the same year and his wife ten years later. They 
 were the parents of eight sons and five daughters, 
 all of whom lived to maturity. One of the sons, 
 Zephaniah, died in Missouri, the others, seven in 
 number, came to Texas: George W., Ewin and 
 Jacob in 1858 ; John H. and Frank M. in 18G0, and 
 Matthew and Milton in 1872. Most of these settled 
 in Burnet County, where they were for many years 
 residents, and where some of them, among the num- 
 ber the subject of this sketch, still reside. George 
 W. and Ewin stopped, on coming to the country, 
 at Rockvale on the Colorado, not far from the pres- 
 ent town of Marble Falls, and there put up a two- 
 story stone dwelling for Josiah Fowler, the first 
 building of that kind erected in that part of the 
 State. Jacob stopped at Smithwick Mills, further 
 down the river, and opened a blacksmith shop. 
 After the war the several brothers ensjaged in farm- 
 
 ing and stoi-k-raising, at which they met with 
 success. 
 
 Ewin Lacy was a young man, unmarried, when 
 he came to the State. He worked at his trade 
 as a stone-mason until the opening of the war 
 between the States and then entered the Confed- 
 erate army as a member of Company B., Carter's 
 Twenty-first Texas Cavalry, Parson's Brigade, with 
 which he remained until the close of hostilities. 
 He saw service under each of those distinguished 
 commanders, Marmaduke, Tom Green, Wharton and 
 Dick Taylor, and took part in most of the operations 
 in Southwest Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana. 
 He received a gun-shot wound and a saber wound 
 in the left wrist, a gun-shot wound in the left leg 
 and a saber cut on the head, but was never for any 
 considerable length of time out of the service and 
 was but once captured (at Lick Creek, Ark.), and 
 was then held only for a short time, his exchange 
 being effected within a few weeks. He returned to 
 Burnet Countj' after the war and settled on a tract 
 of land near Marble Falls, which he first rented and 
 subsequently purchased and where he has since 
 lived engaged in farming and stock-raising, at both 
 of which occupations he has met with a full mea- 
 sure of success. He married Miss Kate Crownover^ 
 of Burnet County in October, 1868. She is a native 
 of Fayette County, Texas, and a daughter of Arter 
 Crownover, who came to Texas previous to the 
 revolution of 1835-6 and was for many years a 
 resident first of Fayette and later of Burnet County 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 495 
 
 where he died a few 3'ears since. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Lacy have had nine children born to them, seven 
 of whom are living : Oleva, Arter, MeUssa, Mar- 
 shal Ney, John, Christian, and Ewin. 
 
 Mr. Lacy is a Democrat in politics and a mem- 
 ber of the Methodist Church. He has lived in 
 Burnet County since early Indian times and has 
 
 served as a ranger at irregular intervals as often as 
 the public safety demanded. On these expeditions 
 he has, on various occasions, ranged Northwest 
 Texas as far as the Concho, and tracked the " red 
 skins" to their haunts and helped to recapture 
 stolen property, but could never get close enough to 
 tliem to have an actual tight. 
 
 ERNEST DOSCH, 
 
 SAN ANTONIO. 
 
 Ernest Dosch, a well-known pioneer citizen of 
 San Antonio, one of the German colonists who 
 came to Texas in 1848, in his younger days saw 
 active service as a soldier and daring Indian 
 fighter. He is a native of Hessen, Darmstadt, 
 Germany, and was born May 3d, 1822; studied 
 forestry; received a good education at the Uni- 
 versity of Giesen, from which he graduated in 
 1844, and, being of an enterprising and adven- 
 turous spirit, was attracted to the Texas Republic, 
 in 1848, as above stated, and located near New 
 Braunfels, where he engaged in farming. His 
 father was an eminent jurist in Germany, serving 
 acceptably a wealthy and influential constituenc}^ 
 
 In 1857, Mr. Ernest Dosch, the subject of this 
 notice, moved to San Antonio, where he has since 
 resided, with the exception of the years 1865-6, 
 which he spent in Germany. He is a plain, unas- 
 suming, kind-hearted and genial man, and has 
 hosts of friends in the Alamo city, and throughout 
 Southwest Texas. He has labored upon all occa- 
 sions actively and efBoiently, for the development 
 and general welfare of the section of the State in 
 which he has so long been a resident and a leading 
 citizen. He has repeatedly declined public office, 
 and although once elected Alderman from one of 
 the influential wards of San Antonio, declined to 
 serve. 
 
 A. L. STEEL, 
 
 HOUSTON. 
 
 Col. A. L. Steel was born in Oldham County, 
 Ky., October llth, 1830. His father, William M. 
 Steel, was for years a prominent merchant of 
 Louisville, Ky. The maiden name of his mother 
 was Miss Lusatia Loughery. His paternal grand- 
 father, Judge Andrew Steel, a native of Virginia, 
 served throughout the Revolutionary War and emi- 
 grated to Oldham County, Ky., in 1785. His 
 maternal grandfather, Alexander Loughery, an 
 eminent surgeon in the Continental army, settled 
 and lived in Woodford County, Ky. 
 
 Col. Steel, when about nine years old, lost 
 his father, but remained at home until fifteen 
 years of age, when he joined a surveying 
 
 corps of the Louisville and Jeffersonville Ry., 
 as rodman. In the following years he per- 
 fected himself in tlie knowledge of civil engi- 
 neering. In 1850 he came to Texas, dealt in lands 
 for a time, then accepted a position as Assistant 
 Civil Engineer under the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos & 
 Colorado Ry. Co., Mr. J. A. Williams holding the 
 position as chief engineer. The road was com- 
 pleted to Richmond in 1855 ; in the winter of 
 1855-6 was projected in the direction of Austin, 
 and was built to Allerton in 1860. Mr. Williams 
 in the meantime had been made the superintendent 
 of the completed portion of the road to Richmond, 
 and Col. Steel, chief engineer, west of the Brazos 
 
496 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 river. Col. Steel located the road to Allerton, 
 and surveyed the line from that point to San 
 Antonio. He continued to fill the position until the 
 beginning of the war between the States, when 
 railroad building ceased. 
 
 He joined the Eighth Texas Cavalry (Terry's 
 Texas Rangers) as a private ; became Quarter- 
 master of his regiment, and November 18th, 18G2, 
 was promoted to the rank of Major of Engineers. 
 
 He remained in the service until the war closed, 
 participating in many hot engagements, and was 
 five times wounded. After the close of hostilities 
 he returned to Texas and located at Houston, 
 where he has since resided ; engaged first in the 
 real estate and later in the insurance business. He 
 is a member of the Masonic, I. O. O. F. and K. of 
 P. fraternities, and is one of the best known and 
 most highly respected citizens of Houston. 
 
 CHARLES GRIESENBECK, 
 
 SAN ANTONIO. 
 
 Charles Griesenbeck, well known in San Antonio 
 and Southwestern Texas because of his long connec- 
 tion with the banking and business interests of the 
 Alamo city, was born in Prussia, February 9th, 
 1829 ; attended local schools and took a collegiate 
 course in his native town ; afterwards accepted a 
 position as bookkeeper and librarian in a large 
 publishing house, with which he remained until 
 twenty years of age, and then, in 1849, came to 
 Texas, of which he had read so much that his am- 
 bition had become fired to succeed in a new and 
 prosperous country. He landed first at Galveston, 
 proceeded from that place to New Braunfels, where 
 he stayed a short time, and then went to Gillespie 
 County, where he pursued farming for six months. 
 After leaving Blanco County he went to New Braun- 
 fels and Seguin, where he filled positions as clerk 
 and salesman in various stores. From 1856 to 18G1 
 
 he sold dry goods in San Antonio and then went to 
 Mexico, where he remained until 1865. In the lat- 
 ter year he returned to San Antonio, where for 
 twenty-one years thereafter he kept books for and 
 acted as cashier of the bank of John Twohig. Dur- 
 ing the past five years he has been engaged in the 
 cotton buying and commission business at San 
 Antonio. 
 
 He married twice, having three sous — Louis, 
 Arthur and Charles F., by his first marriage; and 
 then married Miss Wilhelmine Boekel, of New 
 York, by whom he has five children — Hugo, Ber- 
 tha, Baldwin, Emily and Eugene. Mr. Griesen- 
 beck is a pronounced type of a thorough-going Ger- 
 man scion of a race that has done so much for the 
 development of Southwestern and Central Texas, 
 and a representative citizen of his section as 
 well. 
 
 ERNST BLUMBERG, 
 
 NEW BRAUNFELS. 
 
 Ernst Blumberg, a well-known pioneer of New 
 Braunfels, Texas, came to America direct to 
 Fredericskburg, by way of Galveston, with his 
 parents in 1845. He soon, in 1846, settled on a 
 farm near New Braunfels with his father, Carl 
 Blumberg. Carl Blumberg was born near tlie town 
 of Kulm, in Prussia. He was an educated man, a 
 professional tutor, but as a colonist came to the 
 
 then new country to engage in agriculture, hoping to 
 better his fortunes. He located five miles below 
 New Braunfels, on the Guadalupe river. He brought 
 with him to this country a wife and eight children : 
 Ernst, whose name heads this sketch ; Frederick, a 
 citizen of Seguin, Texas ; Julius, who resided at 
 San Francisco, Cal., until his death in 1893; 
 Betsy, who married in Texas and died some years 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 497 
 
 since; Henrietta (now Mrs. Rev. Gust of Ellcy) 
 and Hulcia (now Mrs. Michael Koepsel of Guaila- 
 lupe Valley). Carl Blumberg lived on the farm 
 until his death, which occurred in 1856 of yellow 
 fever. 
 
 Ernst Blumberg pursued farming in its vari- 
 ous branches until recently, when he practically 
 retired from active business pursuits. He con- 
 tinues, however, to nominally act as the local agent 
 of the Lone Star Brewing Company. He married, 
 in 1859, Miss Margaret Zipp. She is a native of 
 
 Prussia and a daughter of John Zipp, who was a 
 New Braunfels pioneer in 1846. The family name 
 is a familiar one in the community. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Blumberg have ten living children: Ernst, Jr., 
 Martha, Henry, August, Matilda, William, Lydia, 
 Ferdinand, Olga, and Pauline. 
 
 Emma, a daughter, died some years ago. Mr. 
 Blumberg made his home permanently in New 
 Braunfels in 1891. He is a progressive and popu- 
 lar citizen and one who has done much for his 
 section and Southwest Texas. 
 
 FAYETTE SMITH, 
 
 NAVASOTA. 
 
 The subject of this sketch was born in Alabama, 
 January 22, 1832. His father was James W. 
 Smith, and his mother bore the maiden name of 
 Angeline D. Stamps. She was a daughter of 
 Elijah Stamps, of Talledega, Ala. His par- 
 ents were married in Alabama, and moved 
 thence to Texas in February, 1837, his father stop- 
 ping for a while at San Felipe and the family 
 joining him in 1837 at Old Washington, on the 
 Brazos. In 1838, when the seat of government 
 was changed from Washington to Austin, they 
 changed their abode to the latter place, and were 
 residing there in 1841 when the tragic death of the 
 father occurred, and the strange and thrilling 
 episode in the life of the son, the subject of this 
 sketch, took place. The main incidents connected 
 with the killing of his father and capture of himself, 
 as told by Mr. Smith to the writer, are as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 " It occurred on January 22, 1841, the day I was 
 nine years old. My father was riding out on horse- 
 back close to Austin (only a little way from the 
 houses), and I accompanied him, riding behind. 
 We were suddenly surprised by five Comanche 
 Indians, who, coming out of the bushes, opened 
 fire with bows and arrows and a gun or two. 
 Almost the first missile, an arrow, struck my father's 
 left arm, breaking it, and glanced, striking me on 
 the forehead. The horse wheeled around and gave 
 a bound or two and became unmanageable. As he 
 dashed under a tree both my father and myself 
 were swept off by a limb, and my father was imme- 
 diately dispatched by the Indians and I was taken 
 captive. The Indians started at once in a north- 
 
 westerly direction, and joined a band of twenty 
 Indians the first night, with whom we journeyed 
 several days longer (probably a month), when we 
 fell in with the main body of the tribe. Our course 
 was still to the northwest, and after two or three 
 months of weary travel we came upon some 
 Mexican traders who, as I afterward learned, were 
 from Taos, New Mexico, and who could speak a 
 little English. The Indians sold me to these 
 Mexicans, and we started for Taos. I asked the 
 trader the question how far it was to where they 
 lived. They replied : ' About a hundred years' 
 travel.' I then asked them if they did not mean 
 one hundred days, and they said yes. At Taos I 
 was turned over to a man named John Rowland, an 
 American, who had married a Mexican woman and 
 settled at Taos, where he was engaged in trading 
 with the Mexicans and Indians. I gave Rowland 
 my mother's name and place of residence, and the 
 name and residence of my grandfather. Stamps, 
 but I do not think that he wrote to them, as there 
 were no mails between Taos and the States. 
 
 " I remained with him and made myself as useful 
 as possible awaiting developments. While there 
 the Santa Fe Expedition arrived, and I remember 
 seeing some of the members and of hearing about 
 Texas, but did not get any tidings from any of my 
 people. My uncle, William Smith, who was living 
 at Austin at the time of my father's murder and 
 my capture, soon after joined a party of Tonkaway 
 Indians and went direct to Santa Fe to effect my 
 release, supposing that I would be taken there by 
 the Indians or Mexicans for a ransom. He reached 
 that place, however, before I did, and wept on 
 
498 
 
 INDIAN WxiRS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 from there to St. Louis, where he hoped to get 
 track of me. My mother, as 1 afterward learned, 
 left Austin sliortly after my father's death, and 
 returned to Washington. A place was secured for 
 me by Rowland in the first overland train that 
 started from Santa Fe to Missouri, and I accom- 
 panied it to Independence, its destination. My 
 uncle having gone to St. Louis, I missed him again, 
 but was put in care of Lewis Jones, at Independ- 
 ence, who wrote to my mother at Austin and to my 
 grandfather. Stamps, at Talledega, Ala., and from 
 the latter received a reply that he would be on in 
 a few days for me. As soon as my grandfather 
 heard of me, he wrote to my motiier to come on to 
 Alabama. He arrived, as promised, and I was 
 taken by him to his home in Talledega, whicli we 
 reached a few days before the arrival of my 
 mother. I returned to Texas with my mother and, 
 she having settled at Old Washington, there my 
 youthful lines were again cast under the single 
 star of the Republic of Texas. I had no more 
 experience with the Indians, and I do not want 
 any more, yet I hold no ill-will toward them, as 
 I think that they have been badly treated and 
 robbed of a country, the best for their purpose 
 in the world. They killed both my father and 
 
 my grandfather. Smith, near the same place and 
 date." 
 
 Young Smith became a clerk in the store of 
 Shackelford, Gould & Company, at Washington, 
 at about the age of seventeen years, and was in 
 their employ for several years, spending the spring 
 and summer behind the counter, and the fall and 
 winter traveling through the Central and Western 
 parts of the State, collecting for and looking after 
 the interests of their business. 
 
 In 1855 he married Miss Elizabeth A. Gresham, 
 a daughter of George M. Gresham, of Washington 
 County, and began business for himself as a mer- 
 chant and planter. He resided in Washington 
 County until 1888, when he moved to Navasota, 
 Grimes County, where he now lives. During the 
 Mexican War he was a boy helping the sutler in 
 Twiggs' regiment, and during the late war was a 
 volunteer in the Confederate arm}', De Bray's 
 regiment, serving in Texas and Louisiana, up to 
 the battle of Mansfield, where he was wounded and 
 disabled from further service. He has never held 
 an official position and does not care to. He has 
 raised a family of two sons and three daughters, 
 all of whom remain with him, namely: Carrie, 
 Edith, Rowland, Angelina D., and Roger. 
 
 HENRY VOCES, JR., 
 
 BULVERDE, 
 
 A successful farmer, was born December 26, 
 1840, in Germany, and grew to manhood in Comal 
 County, where he has since resided. He is a son 
 of Henry Voges, Sr., the well-known Comal County 
 pioneer settler. Married June 26, 1868, Miss 
 Charlotte Langbein, a daughter of Andraes Lang- 
 
 bein, of Sisterdale, Kendall County. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Voges have eleven children: Ida (now Mrs. 
 August Wehe), Hermann (a prosperous business 
 man at Bulverde), Emilie (now Mrs. Louis Bart- 
 tels), Richard, Edmund, Adolph, August, Walter, 
 Bertha, Emma, and Arthur. 
 
 ROBERT A. ALLEN, 
 
 HEARNE, 
 
 A prominent merchant of Hearne, Robertson was a child and there he was mainly reared. Dur- 
 
 County, was born in Cabarras County, N. C, ing the war between the States he served first in a 
 
 in 1840. His parents, Alexander and Serena six months company, organized in Searcy, Ark., 
 
 (Townsend) Allen, moved to Tennessee when he in the spring of 1861, and afterwards, in the 
 
 ■I// 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 499 
 
 EigLth Arkansas, Array of Tennessee, participating 
 in the battles of Corinth, Chici<amauga and Perry- 
 ville, and the one hundred days fighting of the 
 Georgia campaign from Ualton to Atlanta, and then 
 followed Hood on his return into Tennessee, taking 
 l>art in the battles at Franklin and Nashville. 
 Later he was with Johnston in the last fight at 
 Bentonville, N. C, and surrendered at Greens- 
 boro, in that State. He served a great part 
 of the time as a private, but held the rank of First 
 Sergeant at the time of the surrender. Although he 
 served continuously throughout the war he was 
 never captured or wounded. Mr. Allen's parents 
 having come to Texas during the war, he came out 
 immediately after the surrender and settled with 
 them at Lancaster, in Dallas County. He made a 
 crop there in 1866 and in the fall of that year went 
 to Millican, then the terminus of the Houston & 
 Texas Central Railway, and secured a clerkship ; 
 remained there a year or so and then went on with 
 the terminus to Bryan, at which place he formed a 
 copartnership with W. R. King, under the firm 
 name of Allen & King, and was engaged in business 
 until 1873, when he moved to Hearne, where he has 
 since been engaged in merchandizing and is now 
 
 the head of the firm of R. A. Allen & Son, dealers 
 in hardware, furniture and saddlery, and has one 
 of the largest establishments along the line 
 of the H. & T. C. R. R. between Dallas 
 and Houston. He has, as a matter of course, 
 interested himself in some outside enterprises, 
 taking stock in the Hearne & Brazos Valley Rail- 
 road. He is public-spirited, broad-minded and 
 generous with his means. He began without a cent, 
 a friend paying his way to the State and what he has 
 represents the results of his own labor. In 1889, 
 Mr. Allen married Miss Alice Cyrus, of Bryan, 
 Texas, a native of the State and a daughter of J. 
 T. Cyrus, an old Texian. A son, Robert Cyrus 
 Allen, who is the junior member of the firm of R. 
 A. Allen & Son, was born of this union. Mr. 
 Allen had two brothers who came to Texas about 
 the time he did, namely, William C. Allen, now of 
 Thurber, this State, and Samuel Allen, who lives at 
 Dallas. Two other brothers, James and Marshall, 
 went to California at an early day and still reside 
 there. His father, Alexander Allen, died at Hearne 
 in 1890, at the advanced age of eighty-two. His 
 mother died at Austin in 1885 at the age of seventy- 
 five. 
 
 ROBERT SPENCE, 
 
 HEMPSTEAD, 
 
 A well-known and successful business man, of 
 Waller County, is an Englishman by birth ; came to 
 America in 1836, landing at New York City and 
 shortly thereafter located near Hamilton, Canada, 
 where he resided for two years. He heard much of 
 New Orleans, La., and the year 1838 found him in 
 that city, where he remained thirteen years as a 
 bookkeeper in a mercantile house. Ill-health ren- 
 dered a change of climate and business habits de- 
 sirable and he accordingly moved to Illinois and 
 lived for a time in that State, ten miles east of St. 
 Louis, Mo., at the town of Collinsville. From that 
 time until 1854, he pursued farming near Collins- 
 ville and in Louisiana, spending several months of 
 each year in the city of New Orleans. In 1865 he 
 came to Texas and located in Houston, where he 
 clerked and kept books in a store for two years. 
 
 Here he met and married Mrs. Isaac Major, a lady 
 of English birth, who came to America when a child, 
 in 1850. Mr. and Mrs. Spence moved to Hempstead 
 in 1867, where he engaged in merchandising, at which 
 he has since prospered. He is now and has been 
 for many years one of the most substantial citizens 
 of that thrifty inland city. By a former marriage 
 Mr. Spence had one daughter, a devout Roman 
 Catholic, who became a sister of Charity and died 
 at Mobile, Ala. Mr. and Mrs. Spence have adopted 
 and reared two grandchildren, C. M. and W. S. 
 Close. Mr. Spence was born in Yorkshire, England, 
 October 9th, 1812. He was one of ten children. 
 One brother, William, came to Texas in 1840, lived 
 for several years at Hempstead but finally returned 
 to the mother country. Mr. Spence some years 
 since retired from business. 
 
500 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 R. M. BOZMAN, 
 
 HEMPSTEAD, 
 
 Was born in Hempstead, Texas, August 10, 18G9. 
 His father, Richard Morton Bozman, was born 
 in the town of Golconda, Polk County, III., and 
 was a son of Wesley Winfield Bozman and Cor- 
 nelia (Pryor) Bozman. Cornelia Pryor was a 
 daughter of Gen. Pryor, a frontiersman in Illinois 
 and Iowa in the early days of the settlement of the 
 Mississippi valley, whose name has been perpetu- 
 ated in Pryor's Island, a prominent landmark in 
 the Mississippi river. 
 
 Richard Morton Bozman served withdistinguished 
 gallantry in the Federal army during the war 
 between the States as Adjutant of Company F, 
 Twenty-ninth Illinois Infantry, and after the close of 
 that struggle came to Texas in 1865 and settled at 
 Hempstead, in Waller County, wherefor many years 
 he was a prominent farmer, merchant and citizen. 
 
 He married Miss Margaret Elizabeth Peebles, a 
 
 daughter of the lamented Dr. Richard Rogers 
 Peebles, one of the most widely known and beloved 
 of the early pioneers of Texas and a veteran of the 
 revolutionary war of 1835-6. Dr. Peebles first 
 settled at the town of Old Washington, in Washing- 
 ton County. His death occurred at the residence 
 of Mrs. Richard Morton Bozman (mother of the 
 subject of this sketch), at Gaylord. Mr. Richard 
 Morton Bozman died November 19th, 1876, and his 
 wife. May lOtb, 1893, at their home, Gaylord, one 
 mile south of Hempstead, leaving one child, the 
 subject of this notice, Mr. R. M. Bozman, who 
 succeeded to his father's estate and is now a 
 leading citizen and one of the most considerate 
 farmers and merchants of Waller County. Mr. 
 R. M. Bozman married Miss Nina K., daughter 
 of E. O. Jones, of Hempstead. They have one 
 child, a daughter, Margaret Elizabeth Bozman. 
 
 MRS. MARY ELIZABETH DAWSON, 
 
 ALLEYTON. 
 
 Mrs. Dawson was born December 18, 1843, and 
 is a native Texian. Her parents were Abraham 
 and Nancy Alley. Her father was a brother of 
 Ross Alley, famous in Texas history. Abraham 
 Alley was married to Miss Nancy Miller, April 26, 
 1835, and in 1836, when Santa Anna's legions 
 were sweeping eastward across the country, moved 
 his family to the Trinity, where thej' were encamped 
 when the engagement that won Texian independence 
 was fought. Mr. Alley and Daniell Miller, a brother 
 of Mrs. Alley, left the family on the Trinity, 
 hurried to the front and took part in the battle of 
 San Jacinto. After the battle Mr. Alley moved to 
 Colorado County and settled on the east side of the 
 
 river. He died in 1862, respected and esteemed 
 by all who knew him. His wife, a noble Christian 
 lady, died in 1893. Mrs. Dawson married Mr. T. 
 C. Wright, in June, 1863. He died in June, 1874. 
 In the year 1883 she was united in mariiage to Mr. 
 G. C. Dawson, who died in 1889. Mrs. Dawson has 
 been blessed with two children: Lula Wright (now 
 the wife of Dr. G. L, Davidson, of Wharton, 
 Texas) and William J. Wright, who is now married 
 and is living with his mother on the old home 
 place. 
 
 Mrs. Dawson has a fine farm and a beauti- 
 ful cottage home. Here she spends her days in 
 the loved society of her children and friends. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEEBS OF TEXAS 
 
 501 
 
 CHARLES P. SALTER, 
 
 CALVERT, 
 
 Was born in Washington Count}', Ga., March 
 9lh, 1830. Son of Zadoc and Nancy (Gainer) 
 Salter, both of whom were also natives of Georgia. 
 Parents died when Charles P. was about fifteen. 
 He went some three years later to Pike County. 
 Ala., where he subsequently married a daugh- 
 ter of James Talbot, in compan}- with whom, in 1852 
 he came to Texas, stopping in Washington County. 
 He moved from that county in the fall of 1853 to 
 Robertson County, where he purchased and settled 
 on a tract of land about five miles from the 
 present town of Calvert, in the Brazos bottom, 
 and opened a farm. He was one of the first set- 
 tlers in that locality and resided there for thirty 
 years. Selling this place, he purchased another 
 and has for the past forty-odd years been identi- 
 fied with the agricultural interests of Robertson 
 County, and is now one of the wealthiest 
 planters of that county. Planting has been 
 his chief and almost exclusive pursuit, 
 though at intervals he has had some 
 mercantile interests and as contractor built 
 
 the Houston & Central Railroad from Bryan to 
 Calvert in 1868. He has also interested himself in 
 local enterprises, subscribing for stock in banks, 
 railroads and manufacturing industries, and has, 
 whenever and wherever occasion offered, stood 
 ready to help out with his means and personal efforts 
 every worthy measure. He was elected to the State 
 Legislature in 1873, from Robertson, Freestone 
 and Leon counties and served for a time as Alder- 
 man of the town of Calvert. Was made a Mason 
 at Old Sterling in Robertson County in the early 
 50's and is still a member of the order. Is also a 
 member of the Knights of Honor. Is a Democrat 
 in State and national politics and independent in 
 local matters. For his second wife Mr. Salter mar- 
 ried Miss Bertha Lovett, a native of Alabama and 
 a daughter of Thomas Lovett, who moved to Texas 
 in 1863. The issue of this union has been one 
 daughter, Charlie, now living. He is an active, 
 energetic, prosperous and popular gentleman of 
 Irish extraction and is possessed of a large vein of 
 Irish wit and good humor. 
 
 DR. JOHN A. McALPHINE, 
 
 WHITE HALL, 
 
 Was born in Ansen County, N. C, in 1842, 
 but was chiefly reared in Alabama, to which State 
 his parents moved when he was a child. His edu- 
 cation, begun at Glenville Military Institute, 
 Alabama, was interrupted by the war of 1861-5. He 
 entered the Confederate army in 1863 as a member 
 of the North Carolina Artiller}', Webb's Battalion, 
 with which he served around Richmond and Peters- 
 burg from the date of his enlistment until the surren- 
 der as Quartermaster of the battalion. After the war 
 he went to Bozier Parish, La., whither his father 
 had in the meantime moved and where he had 
 died. There young MeAlpine tried farming one 
 year, but, being unable to control negro labor gave 
 it up and began reading medicine with a view to 
 qualifying himself for practice. He entered on the 
 pursuit of his profession in Louisiana but shortly 
 
 after came to Texas and settled in Grimes Count}'. 
 There he took up the practice and has followed it 
 constantly and successfully since. The Doctor has 
 also acquired large landed interests in Grimes Coun- 
 ty and is a successful and extensive planter. He is 
 regarded as one of the men of solid means of his 
 county. He represented Grimes County in the 
 Eighteenth Legislature, being nominated and elected 
 on the Democrat ticket at a time when the election 
 of a Democrat was somewhat doubtful on account 
 of the large negro vote in the county. This was 
 due to his popularity with all classes and con- 
 ditions of people in the district. He made a very 
 acceptable representative, but, much to the regret 
 of his constituents, declined a second nomina- 
 tion. 
 
 He has always manifested a proper interest in 
 
502 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 public affairs and has given his part}' the benefit 
 of his services when needed. 
 
 In 1873 Dr. McAlpine married Miss Willie Cam- 
 eron of Grimes County, a native of Louisiana and 
 daughter of John D. Cameron, who moved to that 
 
 count}' just after the war. Nine children have 
 been born of this union, to all of whom he has, or 
 is giving the best educational advantages that money 
 can secure. He is a firm believer in and friend of 
 education and religion. 
 
 ANDREW ElKEL, 
 
 NEW BRAUNFELS, 
 
 Came to America in 1843 from Coblentz, Ger- 
 many. He spent his first year in this country at 
 New Orleans, and then (1844) joined the German 
 colony at New Braunfels, Texas. He was a wagon- 
 maker and wheelwright by trade and an enterpris- 
 ing and eminently successful business man. He 
 did a large business in his line at New Braunfels, 
 employing from time to time thirty to forty work- 
 men, and turning out a large number of durable 
 wagons, some of which may still be seen in service 
 on mountain farms in Central Texas. He contiuued 
 in this business until about 1875 and then retired, 
 and, to occupy his time agreeably, developed a 
 fruit farm near New Braunfels. April 20, 1847, 
 he was united in marriage to Miss Barbara Klein, a 
 daughter of the late Stephen Klein, who came to 
 Texas in 1845 and was a man of influence in his 
 
 day and generation, and whose children became 
 connected l)y marriage with several of the promi- 
 nent pioneer families of Central Texas. Mr. Eikel 
 died April 8, 1889. Mrs. Eikel survives him and 
 lives in retirement in New Braunfels.- She had 
 seven children, five sons and two daughters, viz. : 
 Joseph and Walter, who are grocers in San Antonio ; 
 Albert and Frederick, who are hardware merchants 
 in Taylor ; Robert, who is a salesman in the large 
 wholesale and retail hardware establishment of 
 Walter Tipps, at Austin ; Bertha, wife of William 
 Smith, who conducts a blacksmithing and repair 
 shop at the old stand of Andrew Eikel ; and Anto- 
 nio, wife of Joseph Whittaker, of Seguin. One 
 daughter, Annie, died single at Austin in 1882. 
 
 The family is one of high moral, social and busi- 
 ness standing. 
 
 Y. GAINES LIPSCOMB, 
 
 HEMPSTEAD. 
 
 The late lamented Hon. Y. Gaines Lipscomb was 
 a native of Mobile, Ala., and was born in the year 
 1824. His father, A. S. Lipscomb, was an eminent 
 lawyer, at one time Chief Justice of Alabama. His 
 mother, whose maiden name was Miss Elizabeth 
 Gaines, was a daughter of Col. Young Gaines. 
 Chief Justice Lipscomb resigned his seat on the 
 Supreme Bench and came to Texas in 1842. Y. G. 
 Lipscomb, the subject of this sketch, was eighteen 
 years of age when he came to Texas. He received 
 his schooling chiefly at Bascomb College, in South- 
 ern Ohio. He started for Texas with others to join 
 the Somervell expedition, but was taken sick and 
 
 delayed on tiie way and reached Texas too late to 
 join the forces on the Eio Grande. This he deeply 
 regretted at the time, but it was really a stroke of 
 good fortune, as lie would probably have taken part 
 in the fight at Mier and been captured there with 
 the other Texians, who were afterwards doomed to 
 years of imprisonment. On reaching the new Re- 
 public he joined the Texas Rangers under Col. Ed. 
 Burleson, and participated in a number of Indian 
 fights. He also served in the Mexican War and 
 was present and took part in the battle of Monterey. 
 Y. Gaines Lipscomb married in 1861 at Cbappel 
 Hill, Texas, Mary, widow of Thos. Bates, a daugh- 
 
JoKL P. SMITH. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 503 
 
 ter of Maj. James Hartwell Cocke. The marriage 
 ceremony was performed at her father's house. 
 Mrs. Lipscomb survives, and is now (1895) resid- 
 ing at Hempstead. She was born December 23, 
 1840, at Old Point Comfort, Va. Maj. James H. 
 Cocke was a Federal military officer stationed at 
 Old Point Comfort. Later he lived at Mobile, Ala., 
 as a civilian, and there speculated and accumulated 
 considerable property. He returned to Old Point 
 Comfort in 1839, where he resided until 1840, when 
 be brought his familj^ to Galveston, where he 
 served the government as Collector of Customs. 
 His next official position was that of United States 
 Marshal, with headquarters at Houston. He later 
 sold goods at Gay Hill and- Independence, Wash- 
 ington County. Maj. Cocke lived a short time at 
 Chappel Hill, and then in 18 — located in the Brazos 
 Valley, near Hempstead, where he died. 
 
 Judge A. S. Lipscomb, as will be seen in his biog- 
 raphy in Bench and Bar, was one of the Chief 
 
 Justices of the Supreme Court of Texas with Hemp- 
 hill and Wheeler, and well known as such. 
 
 Judge A. G. Lipscomb, present Judge of Waller 
 Count}', living at Hempstead, is a son of the sub- 
 ject of this sketch. Other sons, J. C. Lipscomb 
 and Frank, also with the widowed mother, reside 
 there. 
 
 Judge A. G. Lipscomb was born in Waller 
 County; there received his early schooling ; later 
 attended Baylor University, graduating therefrom 
 in 1878. He studied law under Judge T. S. Reese, 
 present Judge of the Twenty-third Judicial District 
 of Texas, and was admitted to the bar and com- 
 menced practice at Hempstead in 1880. He was 
 elected and filled with honor for ten years the office 
 of Prosecuting Attorney of Waller County, and is 
 now (1895) serving his third term as County Judge. 
 
 He was married in 1884 at Hempstead to Miss 
 Katie Bedell, and they have two daughters, Abbie 
 G. and Christiana. 
 
 JOEL P. SMITH, 
 
 IWARBLE FALLS. 
 
 Joel P. Smith, an old settler and one of the lead- 
 ing cattle men of Blanco County, was born at 
 Nacogdoches, Texas, April 2, 1833. His parents 
 were Francis and Nancy Ann (Slaughter) Smith. 
 Francis Smith was a native of South Carolina and 
 his wife of North Carolina. Their parents were 
 early settlers of Mississippi. They moved from that 
 State to Texas in 1827, settling in Nacogdoches. 
 At that time they had a family of five children, and 
 seven more were born to them. Of these six are 
 now living: Mrs. Miranda Westfall ; Zachariah, of 
 Tom Green County; Mrs. Sarah Smith, of Mason 
 Count}'; Ruben B., of Blanco County; Mrs. 
 Amanda Reams, of Llano County, and Joel P., the 
 subject of this memoir. Mr. Francis Smith moved 
 in 1841 from Nacogdoches to Fayette County, 
 thence in 1847 to Burleson County and in 1856 to 
 Blanco Count}', where he died August 9th, 1867, at 
 the age of seventy years. His widow survived him 
 ten years, dying in Blanco County in 1877 at the 
 age of seventy-five. He was a farmer, a man of 
 moderate means and upright life. 
 
 Joel P. Smith was principally reared in Fayette and 
 Burleson counties, this State. His early life differed 
 but little from that of other youths of his time. He 
 
 was enabled to secure but a limited education, and at 
 the age of nineteen was thrown upon his own 
 resources. He has been a " cowman," all his life, 
 having grown up with the industry in the section 
 of the State in which he resides. His start was 
 made with a bunch of cattle consisting of ten cows 
 and their calves, which were turned loose upon the 
 open range. He has steadily prospered from the 
 beginning and now owns a ranch in the Northwest 
 corner of Blanco County, consisting of 13,000 
 acres, adjacent to which he has leased 5,000 acres, 
 all well equipped and stocked with about 2,000 
 head of cattle. Having given his attention very 
 closely to his own affairs, he has had very little 
 time to devote to public matters. Being on the 
 frontier, he was in the ranging service during the 
 late war and before that time and later, as long as 
 the country was subject to Indian raids, held him- 
 self in readiness to assist in the common defense. 
 In 1870 Mr. Smith married Miss Annie E. John- 
 son, then of Blanco County, Texas, but a 
 native of Columbia County, N. C, a daughter of 
 Duncan Johnson. Eight children were born to 
 them : Frances, who married Dr. Reed Yett and is 
 now deceased ; May, who died at about the age of 
 
504 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 fifteen; Oscar H., died at eighteen; Ollie, wife of 
 James C. Bacchus; and Maud, Sidney, Carl and 
 Joyce, the last four being still at home. Mrs. 
 Smith died in 1890. Two years later, in Septem- 
 ber, 1892, Mr. Smith married Miss Cynthia Hardin, 
 daughter of W. G. Hardin, of Blanco County. 
 
 One son has been born of this union, Damon Philip, 
 born June 21st, 1894. Mr. Smith is one of the 
 most highly respected and influential citizens of the 
 section of the State in which he resides and has 
 been an active promoter of every enterprise 
 inaugurated for its development. 
 
 JAMES O. LUBY, 
 
 SAN DIEGO. 
 
 Judge James O. Luby was born in London, En- 
 gland, June 14, 1846. His father, Daniel Luby, of 
 Cork, Ireland, died when he was an infant. In 
 1854 Mrs. Luby ( nee Miss Kate Smith) came to 
 New York Citj', where the subject of this sketch 
 received his education in the public schools. 
 
 In 1858 Mrs. Luby was united in marriage to 
 Mr. A. R. Feuille, and in 1860 went with him to Ha- 
 vana, Cuba. Judge Luby visited his mother at Ha- 
 vana in the early part of 1861, and in March of that 
 year took passage for New Orleans, where he entered 
 the Confederate army as a soldier in Company B., 
 First Louisiana Infantry (Gladden's regiment) ; was 
 stationed at Warrington Navy Yard in 1861 and the 
 early part of 1862 participating in the attack on 
 Wilson's Camp at Santa Rosa Island, on the 8th of 
 October, 1861, and the bombardment at Fort Pick- 
 ens, November 22, and the engagement with the 
 Richmond and Niagara, Battery Lincoln and Fort 
 Pickens, January 1, 1862; was stationed with his 
 regiment at Corinth, Miss., and belonged to the first 
 brigade, Wither's division of Bragg's corps at the 
 battle of Shiloh. 
 
 After the battle of Shiloh, having served out his 
 term of enlistment, he was discharged, went to New 
 Orleans and joined the Pickwick Rifles, Fourteenth 
 Louisiana Infantry; was at New Orleans during 
 the exciting period of the passing of Forts Jackson 
 and St. Philip by the Federal fleets ; was paroled 
 
 by Gen. B. F. Butler, and in September, 1862, went 
 to Brownsville, Texas, where he accepted a posi- 
 tion in the County Clerk's office. At the close of 
 hostilities Judge Luby served under Col. John S. 
 Ford and took part in the fight at Palmetto Ranch. 
 
 In 1866 he moved to San Diego, Duval County, 
 and clerked for N. G. Collins until 1869, when he 
 moved to Corpus Christi, and in 1870 merchandized 
 near Fort Ewell, in LaSalle Count}'. From 1871 
 to 1876 he was Justice of the Peace and a mer- 
 chant at San Diego, where he has since resided. 
 He was the first postmaster appointed at San Diego, 
 and served as such continuously from 1867 to 1884 ; 
 was elected County Judge of Duval County in 1876 
 and filled that office until 1882 ; was Collector of 
 Customs for the district of Brazos Santiago in 
 1884-5, and County Judge of Duvall County from 
 1886 to 1890. 
 
 Judge Luby was admitted to the bar in 1879, and 
 enjoys an extensive practice, devoting himself 
 mainly to laud law. He was married to Miss Mary 
 Hoffman in 1871. They have five children. Judge 
 Luby is a member of the Masonic fraternity — a 
 Select Master. He has taken an active part in 
 every movement having for its object the develop- 
 ment of Southwest Texas. Politically he is a mem- 
 ber of the Republican parly. He is one of the 
 leading men of his section — a representative citi- 
 zen of Southwest Texas. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 505 
 
 C. W. BOERNER. 
 
 COMFORT. 
 
 A typical German pioneer of llie Guadalupe 
 Valley, came to Texas in 1851. He was born in 
 Hanover, Germany, September 3, 1829. He first 
 landed on Texas soil at Galveston and proceeded 
 thence to the port of ludianola and overland to 
 New Braunfels, where he remained for about six 
 months, after which he went into the upper Guada- 
 lupe Valley and engaged in the manufacture of 
 cypress shingles, an important industry in those 
 days, affording, as it did, employment to many of 
 the pioneer families during the time they were pre- 
 paring their lands for the first planting. Mr. 
 Boerner asserts that, but for the cypress of the 
 Guadalupe Valley, it would not have been possible 
 for a large majority of the first settlers of that 
 portion of Texas to have maintained themselves 
 until they could obtain a foothold in the country. 
 The beautiful banks of the Guadalupe river were 
 dotted every three or four miles with shingle camps, 
 the products of which were shipped to Fredericks- 
 burg, San Antonio, New Braunfels and other points, 
 and exchanged for supplies. Mr. Boerner made 
 shingles about two years. He then engaged in 
 freighting with ox-teams, hauling timber and sup- 
 plies to Forts Mason, Concho and Clarke. He 
 also, from time to time, made trips to Indianola 
 and Port Lavaca on the coast. By industry and 
 economy he was ennbled to gradually work into 
 
 farming and stock raising eight miles northwest of 
 Comfort, where he hasaljout nine hundred acres of 
 good farming and grazing lands. 
 
 Mr. Boerner's father, Christoph Boerner, came 
 from Hanover, Germany, in 1855, bringing one son 
 and three daughters, viz. : Louis ; Lina, who 
 became Mrs. William Huermann ; Dorethea, now 
 Mrs. Charles Dinger, of Bourne ; and Minnie, who 
 married Fritz Saur. Christoph Boerner was a 
 shoemaker and followed his trade for many years 
 at Comfort. He died at San Antonio. His wife 
 died on the voyage to this country and was buried 
 at sea. 
 
 C. W. Boerner learned his father's trade at home 
 in Germany, but did not follow it as a calling in 
 this country until the breaking out of the Civil 
 War, and then only to support the needs of his 
 friends and neighbors on his farm. Shoemakers 
 being exempt from military duty, he escaped the 
 necessity of fighting for a cause with which he was 
 not thoroughly in sympathy. He married, in 1859, 
 Miss Minnie Shellhase. Her father was Gottlieb 
 Shellhase. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Boerner have five children : 
 Bertha, now Mrs. Julius Karger ; Helen, now Mrs. 
 E. Fiasch ; Louise, now Mrs. Henry Spenrad ; 
 Lina, now Mrs. Ernest Karger, and William, who 
 is single and lives in the city of Austin. 
 
 D. C. REED. 
 
 RUNNELS COUNTY. 
 
 David Clark Reed, an early settler of Burnet 
 County and father of Mr. T. S. Reed of that 
 county, was born in the "lead mine district " of 
 Missouri, October 25, 1814. His parents were 
 Thomas and Rebecca Reed, who moved from Ten- 
 nessee to Missouri early in the present century, 
 whence, after a residence of some years, they moved 
 to Arkansas and settled in Hempstead County. 
 There David C. was principally reared and in 1847, 
 married Miss Elizabeth Howard Russell. After his 
 marriage Mr. Reed settled on a farm in Hempstead 
 County and resided there until March, 1854, when 
 he came to Texas. For a short time after coming 
 
 to this State he remained at Austin, and then settled 
 permanently in the eastern part of Burnet County, 
 where he made his home for about thirty years and 
 with the history of which locality he was identified 
 more or less prominently during that time. Mr. 
 Reed was one of the first settlers of Burnet County 
 and experienced many of the hardships incident to 
 the settling of a new country. With his family, 
 consisting of his wife and two sons, Albert S. and 
 Thomas S., the latter mere children, and his slaves, 
 he pitched his tent in the woods, some thirty-odd 
 miles from Austin, the nearest supplj' point, and 
 opened a primitive " patch " in the wilderness. 
 
506 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 first constructiag a corral for his cattle, in order to 
 keep them out of reach of the Indians, and after- 
 wards erecting a log cabin to liouse his family. He 
 arrived early enough to get in a crop, planting in 
 the woods without a fence. The Indians were a 
 source of annoyance from the start. They made 
 frequent raids into the country and committed many 
 depredations, the Comanclies being especially 
 troublesome. Nearly everj' member of the com- 
 munity lost stock, and many their lives. One 
 family in the neighborhood, that of Wafford John- 
 son, was almost wiped out, only one, a little girl, 
 being spared. 
 
 With the gradual improvement of the country 
 Mr. Eeed's fortunes improved until the opening of 
 the late war, when, as was the case with many 
 others, he lost a great deal, but these losses he 
 afterwards repaired in a considerable measure and 
 alwaj's lived in the enjo3'meut of plenty and gave 
 his family every advantage in the way of schools, 
 churches, good society, etc., within his reach. Mr. 
 Eeed and his wife were among the first members of 
 the Methodist Church organized where they settled 
 (Hopewell Settlement) and was also a member of 
 the first Masonic Lodge in that communitj', Mt. 
 Horeb Lodge, Williamson County. He was a 
 zealous member of that order during the greater 
 part of his life, becoming a Roj'al Arch Mason. 
 He was also an Odd Fellow, joining the lodge at 
 Georgetown. He was County Commissioner of 
 Burnet County eight years and Postmaster at 
 Hopewell about the same length of time. He had 
 good educational advantagres, beins: a graduate of 
 
 Kenyon College, Ohio, and was among the fore- 
 most in his community in all educational matters. 
 His sons, four in number, and a nephew and 
 niece, who were also members of his household, 
 were sent to the best schools in the State, and three 
 of them afterwards became teachers. 
 
 Mr. Reed was past the age for military service 
 during the late war and was also incapacitated by 
 physical infirmities, having had the misfortune to 
 lose an eye in early life, but he was a strong sym- 
 pathizer with the Confederacy and assisted in 
 caring for the families of soldiers at the front. 
 
 Mr. Reed died in Runnels County, Texas, 
 February 4, 1886, whither he had moved a few 
 years previous. Surviving he left a widow, who is 
 still living, and four sons: Albert S. Reed, now a 
 banker at Ft. Worth ; Thomas S. Reed, a merchant 
 and banker at Bertram and Marble Falls; Theodore 
 Reed, a merchant of Haskell ; and James W. Reed, 
 a bookkeeper at Marble Falls. His nephew by 
 marriage, David Morgan, whom he raised as a 
 member of his family, resides in Ft. Worth, and his 
 niece, Nannie K. Reed, was married to Lon B. 
 Parks and is now deceased. 
 
 Mrs. Reed, the widow, was born in Tennessee. 
 Her parents were James and Elizabeth (Howard) 
 Russell, who died when Mrs. Reed was a child. 
 She was reared by her sister, Mrs. Morgan, in 
 Virginia, whose family she accompanied to Arkan- 
 sas, where she met and married Mr. Reed. 
 
 All of Mr. Reed's sons are doing well, showing 
 that the care which was bestowed upon them is hear- 
 ing good fruit. 
 
 CHARLES AMSLER. 
 
 HEMPSTEAD. 
 
 Born at Cat Springs in xVustin County, July 12, 
 1836. Son of Charles Conrad Amsler and Marj- 
 Lowenberger Amsler, who were natives of Switzer- 
 land and came to Texas in 1834. Subject of this 
 memoir was reared in Austin County. On Jul}' 11, 
 1861, married Miss Julia Meyer, duughter of J. 
 D. Meyer, an early settler of Fayette County. 
 Mrs. Amsler, was born in Houston, l"'ebruary 
 20th, 1844. Soon after his marriage Mr. Amsler 
 moved to Montgomery County, where he engaged 
 in the sawmill business until 1885, when he settled 
 in Hempstead, where he subsequently lived. At 
 
 Hempstead he built a cotton-seed oil mill which he 
 operated successfully until his death and which 
 still continues to do a large business. By industry 
 and good management he accumulated a consider- 
 able estate and left his family well provided for. 
 Surviving him he left a widow, two sons, John 
 C. and Louis D., and three daughters, Mrs. Tiieo- 
 dore Ahrenback, Mrs. Penn B. Thornton, and 
 Miss Julia S. Amsler, all residents of Hemp- 
 stead, except Mrs. Ahrenback, who lives at 
 Hearne. 
 
 Mrs. Amsler's father, J. D. Meyer, was a native 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 507 
 
 of Strasburgb, horn December 15tb, 1800. He 
 came to America in 1826 and, after two years' resi- 
 dence in New York, four in Mexico and twelve in 
 
 California, came to Houston, Texas, in 1843, from 
 which place he moved to Fayette Countj', where he 
 subsequently resided. 
 
 LOUIS T. FULLER, 
 
 CALVERT. 
 
 During and immediately following the days of re- 
 construction, Texas, with manyothersof the lateCon- 
 federate States, may, in a business sense at least, be 
 said to have passed through her second pioneer period. 
 The flower of her mature manhood had been laid 
 on her country's altar, her government had been 
 disorganized, her finances exhausted, her once splen- 
 did system of local development disrupted. All was 
 chaos, and seldom, if ever, did arising generation of 
 young men face a darker outlook, a more forbid- 
 ding prospect for future achievement, than did the 
 young men of the South, in those days. L. T. 
 Fuller, the subject of this brief sketch, was at this 
 time nearing manhood and coming on to the stage 
 of active life and responsibility. He was born May 
 3d, 1852, in the city of New Orleans. On the break- 
 ing out of the war between the States young Fuller, 
 then nine years of age, came with his widowed 
 mother and her father, Louis C. Trezevant, to Texas 
 from Memphis, Tenn. His father, James T. Fuller, 
 was by occupation a planter and engaged also in 
 various other lines of business. He was a military 
 man, a graduate of West Point Military Academy 
 and, upon the opening of hostilities, in 1861 
 promptly espoused the cause of the Confederacy, 
 but died before the close of the struggle between 
 the States. Mr. Fuller's mother, though advanced 
 in years, is living in the enjoyment of good health, 
 a beloved inmate of the home of her son. 
 
 Upon coming to Texas the family located at Cold 
 Springs, in Polk County, the grandfather engaging 
 in agriculture and young Fuller for a brief time 
 attending school, after which he sought and obtained 
 employment of the late venerable Samuel L. Allen, 
 of Houston, and William Pool, a Texas pioneer and 
 one of the first settlers of Galveston. He drove 
 cattle for the then widely known cattle firm of 
 Allen, Pool & Co., along the coast from theTrinit}' 
 River to Matagorda. This be continued for a pe- 
 riod of about eighteen months. Seeing in this 
 character of labor slim profits for financial advance- 
 ment he sought other employment and soon obtained 
 
 a situation with the firm of Bird & Harrell, of Bryan. 
 There in 1868 he learned the tinner's trade. He 
 next accepted a position as salesman in the hard- 
 ware store of Day & Burt, doing business at Bryan 
 and Cilvert, and later at Marlin, Falls County. 
 He continued with Messrs. Day & Burt until 1873, 
 and the following year, 1874, formed a partnership 
 with Mr. James Connaughten, and engaged in the 
 tinner's and hardware business in Calvert. The 
 connection continued under the firm name of Fuller 
 & Connaughten for about ten years (until 1884), 
 when Mr. Fuller purchased his partner's interest, 
 since which time be has developed the business into 
 one of the most extensive and successful of its 
 kind in Central Texas. 
 
 Viewing the fact that the material development 
 of the various resources of the State of Texas dates 
 from about the time that Mr. Fuller and others of 
 his day came on to the scene of action, he must be 
 classed among the successful pioneer business men 
 of this section of the State, having ever been one 
 of the chief promoters of its business interests. 
 He has done much for the upbuilding of Calvert, 
 which has become the center of a wide extent of 
 rapidly developing countr}'. Anticipating the needs 
 of a growing inland city, Mr. Fuller has at various 
 times set about in a business-like and methodical 
 way to supply them. He was one of the chief pro- 
 moters of the iron foundry established at Calvert 
 in 1879, put on foot as a stock company, but since 
 become his sole property, and now known as The 
 Fuller Engineering Company. 
 
 In 1880 he was active with bis time, influence 
 and money in establishing the first cotton oil mill 
 at Calvert which was sold to the National Cotton 
 Oil Mills. 
 
 In 1887 Mr. Fuller inaugurated the movement 
 which has given his city its present efficient water 
 works system, of which be is the principal owner. 
 He was the moving spirit, and is half-owner in the 
 Calvert City Ice Factory, which has been in suc- 
 cessful operation since 1889. In 1S92 be estab- 
 
.i08 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 lished the electric light system in use in Calvert. 
 All of these enterprises have come to Calvert 
 almost in the nature of benefactions, as without 
 them, both singly and collectively, Calvert could 
 not have attained her present standing and repu- 
 tation as a prosperous, thrifty, pushing business 
 town. 
 
 Mr. Fuller married, January 24th, 1874, Miss 
 Mary J. Rice, daughter of Dr. U. A. Rice, for- 
 merly of Macon, Ga., and since 1884 a resident of 
 Marlin, Falls Countj', Texas. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Fuller have seven children : James 
 T., Louis H., Marion D., Margaret A., Mary F., 
 Lucy T., and Mabel. 
 
 GEORGE L. PERRY, 
 
 COLORADO COUNTY. 
 
 George L. Perry was born in Franklin County, 
 N. C, February 22, 1825 ; moved to Tennessee with 
 his parents, John E. and Nancy Perry, in 1832, and 
 came to Texas in 1841 and settled in Colorado 
 County, where he has since resided. November 16, 
 1855, he was united in marriage to Mrs. Mary Ann 
 Sapp. Four children have been born of this union : 
 
 Erastus, who died April 19, 1858; LuluV., now 
 Mrs. Charles Taylor, of Columbus; John and Geor- 
 gie, now Mrs. J. W. Witington, of Yoakum. Mr. 
 Perry is a member of the Masonic fraternity. 
 
 He is one of Colorado County's weulthj' farmers 
 and .sterling citizens and a power for good in his 
 section. 
 
 GEORGE K. PROCTOR, M. D. 
 
 CALVERT, 
 
 Was born September 8, 1851, near Centerville, in 
 Leon County, Texas, on his father's farm, and there 
 received the rudiments of a good education. He 
 studied medicine in New Orleans and St. Louis; 
 graduated at the St. Louis Medical College in 1875, 
 and located at Calvert in the same year and com- 
 menced the practice of his profession, but retired 
 from active practice, however, in 1877, and entered 
 the mercantile business, and in 1883 became junior 
 member of the well-known firm of Parish & Proc- 
 tor, in which he has since continued. 
 
 He was also from 1876 to 1881 a member of the 
 drug firm of McLendon & Proctor. Dr. Proctor 
 married, February21, 1884, Miss Lou Ella Gardner, 
 daughter of Judge Alfred S. Gardner, a venerable 
 pioneer of Leon Countj', of whom further mention 
 is made elsewhere in this work. 
 
 Dr. and Mrs. Proctor have five children : George 
 
 A., Rector G., Jewell K., Frank Cleveland, and an 
 infant not named. 
 
 Dr. Proctor's father was born in North Carolina; 
 was early left an orphan and thrown upon his own 
 resources ; grew up in an humble way on a farm. 
 While a boy moved to Alabama, where he married 
 and engaged in farming; emigrated to Texas in 
 1841) and purchased and settled on a farm in Leon 
 County with his familj', consisting of a wife and 
 eight children, the subject of this sketch being the 
 youngest that lived to maturity ; was successful in 
 his agricultural pursuits and at his death in 1880 
 left a comfortable estate and an honorable record. 
 
 Dr. Proctor's mother died in 1877, full of years 
 and good works. 
 
 Dr. Proctor is a man of quiet and unassuming 
 manners, of sound learning and abilities and is 
 greatly esteemed. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 509 
 
 THOMAS J. MORRIS, 
 
 COLUMBUS. 
 
 Rev. Thomas J. Morris, the well-known farmer 
 and minister of the gospel, of Colorado County, 
 was born in the State of Florida, December 30, 
 1843 ; completed his education at the University of 
 the South ; served as a soldier in the Confederate 
 army in Company B., Eigiith Florida Regiment, 
 during the war between the States, participating in 
 the battles of the Wilderness and Gettysburg, etc. 
 (in both of which he was severely wounded). In 
 1867 he moved to Texas, and settled in Colorado 
 
 County in 1874, where he has since resided. After 
 coming to Texas he married Miss Mary B. Hunt, 
 adopted daughter of Capt. William G. Hunt. This 
 union has been blessed with six children : William 
 Hunt, Howard C, Mabel, Mary E., Thomas .J., 
 and Francis Wilmans Morris. 
 
 Rev. Mr. Morris is one of the most progressive 
 and truly representative men of his county, and 
 deservedly ranks high as a citizen and Christian 
 gentleman. 
 
 RICHARD KOTT, 
 
 COMFORT, 
 
 Was born February 12, 1846, in Saxe-Gotha, Ger- 
 many. His father, Ernest Kott, one of the earl}' 
 German settlers of Texas, came to America in 
 1854, landing at Galveston in that year, from which 
 place he proceeded almost immediately to Freder- 
 icksburg, via Indianola, New Braunfels and San* 
 Antonio. He was a bookbinder by trade and, 
 although the active years of his life were spent in 
 farming, did during the last ten years of his life 
 more or less work at his trade on his farm in 
 Gillespie County. He was born in Saxe-Gotha, 
 Germany, in 1816; followed his trade there, and 
 there married Miss Louise Deetzel. They brought 
 four children with them to this country, viz. : Her- 
 mann, who was a soldier in the Confederate army 
 and lost his life at the battle of Mansfield, Louisi- 
 ana, in 1863 ; Lena, Richard, and Julius. Erna, 
 Edward and Clara (the latter now deceased) were 
 born to them in this country. 
 
 Richard, the subject of this notice, was but 
 eight years of age when his parents reached Texas, 
 
 and had but meager schooling, and with his father 
 waged the battle for bread on the family farm in 
 what was then a frontier country, and on the ojDen 
 cattle range. He soon acquired a taste for and a 
 broad experience in the saddle, and recalls many 
 interesting experiences on the range and in pursuit 
 of Indians. 
 
 Mr. Kott has been an active and successful busi- 
 ness man, turning his attention, at various 
 times, to freighting, merchandising, speculat- 
 ing, etc. Some time since he built, and is 
 now running, the Kott Hotel, at Comfort He 
 married, in 18G9, Mrs. Johanna Heim, widow of 
 Antone Heim. Her maiden name was Miss Allar- 
 kamp. She had two daughters, Matilda and 
 Antone Heim, by her first marriage. She has 
 borne Mr. Kott three sons: Hermann. P^rnest, and 
 Hugo. Mr. Kott is an enterprising, progressive 
 and intelligent citizen. He has given his children 
 excellent schooling privileges, and they are all well 
 settled in life. 
 
oia 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 WILLIAM ELLIOTT, 
 
 SAN ANTONIO. 
 
 William Elliott, a [jioneer of Texas in 1839, and 
 well known in bis day as an energetic and success- 
 ful business man of San Antonio, was a native of 
 Ireland, born in the j'ear 1799. His father was a 
 merchant in a small town and apprenticed him to a 
 seven years' service with a mercantile house in Dub- 
 hn. Here he received thorough disciplining in 
 and a thorough knowledge of business methods. 
 At twenty-one years of age (in 1820) he came to 
 America and engaged in merchandising and mining 
 in Blexico. It is known that he was embarked in 
 business at Matamoros, Mexico, in 1836, and in 
 1839 came to Texas and located at San Antonio, 
 where he formed a copartnership with Edward 
 Dwyer and opened a mercantile establishment in a 
 storehouse situated on the site of the present How- 
 ard Block on Soledad street. This connection con- 
 tinued but a short time. Mr. Elliott remained suc- 
 cessfully engaged in trade until the time of his 
 
 death, which occurred in New Orleans while on a 
 trip, May 12lh, 1847. He was a thrifty merchant, 
 and had business relations with both the Castro 
 and New Brauufels colonies. 
 
 He married Miss Eleanor CornoUy in New Or- 
 leans in 183.5. She also was of Irish birth, and 
 at two years of age came to this country with her 
 parents. Her father was a well-known wholesale 
 merchant at New Orleans. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Elliott had three children : Will- 
 iam II. Elliott (deceased in 1889), who served as a 
 Captain in the Confederate armj', and left a widow 
 and three children surviving him; John B. , also a 
 soldier in the Confederate army, who died at 
 Brownsville, Texas, in 1864; and Mrs. Mary p]ll- 
 iott Howard, a most refined and cultured lady, who 
 resides at San Antonio. 
 
 Mrs. Elliott died at San Antonio, August 27th, 
 1885. 
 
 JAMES COLE, 
 
 BURNET. 
 
 James Cole, of Burnet, was born in Maury 
 County, Tenn., in 1828, and accompanied his 
 parents to Texas in 1845. His father was William 
 Cole, and his mother before marriage was a Miss 
 Joplin, the father being a native of Virginia and the 
 mother a native of Tennessee. William Cole was 
 in the War of 1812 ; settled in Tennessee in 1818 ; 
 moved thence to Mississippi and thence to Texas, 
 settling in Eayette County, where he died in 1850, 
 at the age of 65 years. His wife, mother of the 
 subject of this notice, had previously died in Mis- 
 sissippi. The father was accompanied to Texas by 
 his two sons, William and James, the former re- 
 turning to Mississippi soon after coming to this 
 State, and dying there. 
 
 James Cole was in his seventeenth year when he 
 came to Texas. His youth was spent in Fayelte 
 County. In 1861 he enlisted in the Confederate 
 army as a soldier in the Sixteenth Texas Infantry 
 (Flornoy's Regiment), McCulloch's Brigade, and 
 
 served during the war in Arkansas and Louisiana, 
 taking part in most of the military operations in 
 that section, notably those incident to Banks' Red 
 river campaign. His regiment was a part of 
 Walker's Division, which did such gallant service 
 at Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, Yellow Bayou and other 
 engagements. From 1865 to 1883 Mr. Cole farmed 
 in Fayette County. Then, on the recommendation 
 of his physician, he moved to Bryan County for his 
 health, making his home at the town of Burnet, 
 where he has since resided. 
 
 He married Miss Mariame, a daughter of David 
 Shelby, who came to Texas as one of Stephen F. 
 Austin's first three hundred colonists, and settled 
 at Richmond, in Fort Bend County. He was in the 
 frontier service for many years — in the army during 
 the early days of the revolution (1835-6), and was, 
 as long as he lived, a respected citizen of the 
 county, dying in Austin County in 1872, after 
 having passed the three-score years and ten allotted 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 511 
 
 Lela Hill, and Thula, un- 
 
 to man. Mrs. Cole was boin in Austin Countj". 
 Her brotlier, James Shelby, was in the frontier ser- 
 vice of Texas and was murdered by Indians while 
 on the frontier some time during the •' forties." 
 Mr. and Mrs. Cole have three daughters: Mrs. 
 
 Cora Hamill, Mrs. 
 married. 
 
 By industry and good management Mr. Cole has 
 accumulated a competency and is spending his 
 declining years in ease. 
 
 ISAAC VAN ZANDT, 
 
 MARSHALL. 
 
 The subject of this memoir was born in Frank- 
 lin County, Tenn., July 10, 1813. His parents 
 were Jacob and Mary Van Zandt. His father was 
 a native of North Carolina, the youngest son of 
 Jacob Van Zandt, who, about the beginning of this 
 century, moved out of the Moravian settlement in 
 that State, and established himself as an agricul- 
 turist in Franklin County, Tenn. His mother's 
 father, Samuel Isaacs, about the same time 
 migrated from South Carolina, and settled in Lin- 
 coln County, Tenn., an adjoining county to that 
 of Franklin. On both sides he came of revolution- 
 ary patriot ancestry. His grandfather Van Zandt 
 participated in several of the batles that won our 
 independence of the British Crown, and his grand- 
 father Isaacs, all through the war, was a zealous 
 and active follower of the fortunes of Marion in all 
 of his dashing and hazardous raids against the 
 English foemen, and their home allies, the traitor- 
 ous tories. 
 
 All through his boyhood and youth Isaac Van 
 Zandt was a victim of ill-health, and for this rea- 
 son his attendance at school was desultory, and not 
 as fruitful of educational benefit to him as it would 
 otherwise have been. But his enforced absence 
 from the school room gave him an opportunity to 
 indulge at his home his relish of good books. He 
 read with an ardent yearning to acquire a knowl- 
 edge of the subjects treated of in the volumes he 
 perused, and thus, perhaps, he fully compensated 
 himself for all the loss he sustained by being com- 
 pelled to forego scholastic instruction. With Eng- 
 lish literature and general history he became quite 
 conversant. 
 
 At the age of twenty he married Miss Fannie 
 Lipscomb, a relative of the late Chief Justice 
 Lipscomb, of Texas, and commenced merchandising 
 at Salem, in his native county, having his father 
 for a partner. This business, however, continued 
 onl^ for a few months ; for, his father dying in 
 
 1834, the concern had to be wound up so as to 
 facilitate a speedy distribution of the paternal • 
 estate among the heirs. As soon as this had been 
 effected, Isaac Van Zandt promptly sold for cash 
 his portion of the estate, consisting mainly of 
 land and negroes, and in 1835 went North and 
 invested the proceeds of his patrimony in a stock 
 of goods. This stock he shipped to Coffeeville, 
 Miss., and there resumed the mercantile bus- 
 iness, expecting to be a life-long merchant and 
 nothing else. This was the flush time in Missis- 
 sippi. Bank paper was abundant; everything 
 vendible was bought and sold at high valuations ; 
 the credit system was in vogue and everybody went 
 deeply into debt. At length the bubble burst and 
 the culmination came in the shape of broken banks, 
 bankrupt tradesmen and a financially ruined people. 
 Having invested all he was worth in the Missis- 
 sippi mercantile adventure, when the crash came, 
 in 1837, Van Zandt found himself well-nigh penni- 
 less. He struggled for a time against the tide of 
 ill fortune, made every possible effort to collect the 
 debts due him, and pay off those he owed, but his 
 debtors, in most cases, neither by persuasion nor 
 court process could be induced to meet his de- 
 mands against them, and this failure to meet their 
 obligations to him made him impotent to meet his 
 creditors. Even bedding woven by the wife was 
 sold to meet the debts of the husband. As long as 
 he had anything that could be turned to the credit 
 side of his indebtedness, it took that direction and 
 he had the proud consciousness of knowing that he 
 had held back nothing to which, either by the law 
 of the land or that of moral obligation, his cred- 
 itors had a rightful claim. While residing at 
 Coffeeville, his talent for public speaking was first 
 developed. He became a member of a debating 
 club, consisting of the young lawyers and others of 
 the little town, and to his own surprise, as well as 
 that of others, he soon displayed a rare readiness 
 
012 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 of speech and unusual acuteness of argument in the 
 tliscussions that occuned. This almost purely 
 accidental discovery of a latent, and hitherto 
 unused talent, determined his future career in life, 
 for, shorn of all his property, he had no resource 
 but his native gift of intellect. He determined to 
 turn his attention to legal studies, took up the ele- 
 mentary books on English law, and by assiduous ap- 
 plication to a perusal of them, in somewhat less than 
 a year, so far mastered their contents as to obtain, 
 on due examination, admission to the bar. In this 
 manner his reverse of fortune proved to have been 
 a blessing in disguise, his commercial disaster 
 leading him to a pursuit for which his natural 
 abilities eminently fitted him. By this change of 
 vocation he speedily won hack more than he had 
 "lost pecuniarily as a merchant, and at the same 
 time achieved an honorable distinction among his 
 fellow-men, far surpassing that which ordinarily 
 comes to the most successful follower of mere 
 trade. This success came to him in Texas, whither 
 he migrated, carrying with him his family, in 1838. 
 His first home in the young Republic was in Panola 
 County, at that time but lately organized and very 
 sparsely settled. An humble, lonely log cabin 
 there sheltered him and his loved ones for some 
 months. He did not locate himself in that county 
 with the intention of abiding there permanently, 
 but for economic reasons, 'and that, before offering 
 himself as a general practitioner of the law, he 
 might have a quiet retreat, where he might, by 
 private study, make himself familiar with the stat- 
 utes of the Republic, and the modes of procedure 
 in its courts. During their residence in that 
 county, the hardships and privations of frontier 
 Hfe in their sternest forms were the daily experi- 
 ence of himself and his family ; but his wife, who, 
 as well as he, had been nursed in the lap of plenty, 
 met the severe allotment with fortitude, and so 
 cheerfully bore herself through the ordeal of want 
 and discomfort, that no sense of discouragement 
 ever oppressed him. She was, verily, a helpmeet 
 to him in those days of adversity, and to her 
 unmurmuring accommodation of herself to her 
 changed circumstances, and the words of cheer and 
 hope that came to him from her lips, he was greatly 
 indebted for the after success that crowned his 
 struggle with adverse fortune. Had a querulous, 
 discontented spirit influenced his life beneath that 
 lowly roof in Panola County, the energies of her 
 husband might have lieen sapped, and the outcome 
 of his career might have been very different from 
 what it was — an outcome that she now looks 
 back upon with just pride and pleasure. She 
 richly merits the quietude and affluence she now 
 
 enjoys in the evening of her days, underneath the 
 shade of the tree she helped her husband to plant, 
 during the dark time of their earlier Texian life. 
 
 In 1839 Isaac Van Zandt moved to Marshall and 
 engaged in the active practice of the law. Success 
 attended him from the start, and he rose rapidly 
 to the front among his legal competitors. Soon the 
 minds of the people around him turned upon him 
 as a suitable man to represent them in the Congress 
 of the Republic. To the sessions of 1840-41, with 
 great unanimit3' they sent him as their delegate to 
 the lower house of that legislative body, and the 
 zeal he manifested in this new sphere of action, 
 not only in behalf of the interests of his immediate 
 constituents, but of those of the people at large, 
 endeared him to the whole country, and the ability 
 he displayed in the committee rooms and on the 
 floor of the House, commanded the respect and ad- 
 miration of his co-legislators. He speedily became 
 a marked man both at the bar and in the halls of 
 legislation. 
 
 His next official position was that of Charge 
 d' Affairs to the United States, which was conferred 
 upon him by President Houston, in 1842. During 
 the two years that he resided at Washington City, 
 as the diplomatic agent of the Republic, he labored 
 assiduously with the government to which he was 
 accredited, to bring about the annexation of Texas 
 to the United States, and when this measure had 
 become a certainty in the near future, he resigned 
 the office and returned home. 
 
 In 1845 he was a delegate to the convention that 
 completed the work of annexation, and framed the 
 first constitution of the "Lone Star" State. In 
 that body there were many brilliant intellects, and 
 in the galaxy his was an orb of no mean magni- 
 tude. Some of the members were far older than he, 
 and among them, no doubt, could have been found 
 a profounder jurist than he as yet had bad time to 
 become ; but on questions of State policy, and of 
 what was needful as component elements of the 
 organic law they were framing, he displayed a 
 wisdom that left its impress upon the instrument 
 that came from their bands, and won for him the 
 prestige of unusual statemanship. 
 
 In 1847 he was before the people of Texas as a 
 candidate for the office of Governor, and while 
 making an active, and what promised to be a suc- 
 cessful canvass of the State, he was stricken down 
 bv yellow fever, at Houston, and died there on 
 the eleventh day of October. In fact, during the 
 canvass his election was recognized as a certaint}'. 
 His remains were transferred to Marshall, and by 
 loving hands laid in the city cemetery, where to his 
 memory they have reared a monument that will tell 
 
MRS. ISAAC VAN ZANDT. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 513 
 
 to the stranger where sleeps a man whom all Texians 
 of his day delighted to honor. 
 
 In person he was above the average stature, erect 
 and well proportioned. His head was covered with 
 abundant locl<s, that were as black as the raven's 
 plumage. His face was comely and attractive in a 
 marked degree ; his dark gray eyes sparkled with 
 intelligence, and liis look habitually wore the im- 
 press of frankness and benignity. His carriage 
 was eas3', graceful and dignified, and his manners 
 were urbane and courteous. In a word, none 
 could come near him and not feel that thej' were in 
 the presence of a true gentleman. 
 
 This sketch would be incomplete with no mention 
 of the fact that Isaac Van Zandt was a Christian. 
 From his early youth he had been a member of the 
 Baptist Church, and his exemplary walk in life 
 indicated that revealed truth bad been heartily ac- 
 cepted by him, and been allowed to mould his 
 heart and character. The serene composure of his 
 dying hours, and the devout expressions of Chris- 
 tian hope and resignation that characterized them, 
 grandli" witnessed that : — 
 
 " The chamber where the good man meets his late, 
 Is privileged beyond the common walks 
 Of virtuous life — quite on the verge of Heaven." 
 
 MRS. F. C. VAN ZANDT, 
 
 FORT WORTH. 
 
 Mrs. F. C. Van Zandt was born in Louisa 
 County, Va., March 4th, 1816. Her parents, 
 William and Ann (Cooke) Lipscomb, were both 
 Virginians. In the fall of 1826 she, with the other 
 members of her father's family, moved to Franklin 
 County, Tenn. Her life here for the nest 
 seven or eight years passed quietly and pleas- 
 antly. The State then afforded few opportunities 
 for the acquisition of that education acquired 
 through schools ; but, despite this disadvantage 
 the years of her girlhood, passed in the society of 
 a sainted mother, were by no means devoid of 
 broadening, educating influences. Even then she 
 began to evince that sweetness of disposition 
 and remarkable strength and force of character 
 that have all through life distinguished her ; that 
 rare blending of the clear foresight and cool judg- 
 ment of a man with the quick intuition and warm, 
 tender sympathy of a woman. 
 
 In December, 18.33, she married Isaac Van Zandt, 
 afterwards such a prominent figure in Texas 
 history, and then barely upon the threshold of 
 manhood. Those older Texians now living who re- 
 member him, remember him as a man of noble and 
 commanding presence. E)ven as a youth his fine, 
 intellectual countenence, indicative of. sensibilitj% 
 thought and purpose ; the grace and dignity of bis 
 carriage and his polished and genial manners, gave 
 to him an air of distinction and inspired respect 
 and confidence. 
 
 Upon his death Mrs. Van Zandt was left with five 
 children, the oldest of them twelve years of age. 
 
 She had loved her husband with a strength and 
 depth of devotion that would have been impossible 
 in a woman of a less noble spirit; but, now alone, 
 she calmly took up the work that the two h.ad begun 
 and set herself first of all to the task of raising and 
 educating her children. The friend to whom she 
 looked for advice and help during the early years 
 of her widowhood was Mr., afterwards Colonel, J. 
 M. Clough, who had been her husband's partner, 
 and who later married her oldest daughter, Louisa. 
 Col. Clough relieved her as far as possible of all 
 business troubles and aided her no little in the 
 direction of her children. Mrs. Van Zandt had 
 joined the Primitive Baptist Church soon after her 
 marriage, but later became much interested in the 
 meetings of Alexander Campbell, and, convinced 
 that his views in regard to the Bible and the Church 
 were correct, in 1852, at the first opportunity 
 offered her, united with the Christian Church. 
 Four years later she took her younger children to 
 Tennessee to put them under the teaching of Mr. 
 Tolbert Fanning, at Franklin College. Her princi- 
 pal object in selecting this instructor and institu- 
 tion was to have them properly taught the Word of 
 God, for, above all things else, she desired them to 
 be Christian men and women. They returned to 
 Marshall when this school work was finished, and 
 there her children were married. To-day all of 
 them live in Fort Worth: Mrs. Clough, whose 
 husband, gallant Lieut.-Col. J. N. Clough, of the 
 Seventh Texas, was killed at Fort Donelson ; Maj. 
 K. M. Van Zandt, Dr. I. L. Van Zandt, Mrs. E. J. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Beall (with whom ber mother makes her home), 
 and Mrs. J. J. Javvis. 
 
 Mrs. Van Zandt is a woman remarkabl3- 
 young for her years, which now number nearly 
 four score. She lives surrounded by her chil- 
 dren and her children's children, and finds re- 
 newed in them her own youth. An earnest, de- 
 voted Christian, one may see her in her accustomed 
 seat in church on almost every Sunday of the year. 
 Her faith is one of works, too, as well as prayer, 
 and all love her for the kind word and helping hand 
 so often given in time of trouble. Her only wish 
 
 has been realized — all of lier children having grown 
 up to be active Christian men and women, honored 
 for their integrity and their adherence to what thej' 
 believe to be right, Their mother, with her un- 
 swerving faith in the Bible as an all-sufficient guide, 
 with her untiring earnestness in every good work, 
 and with her unfailing cheerfulness in every time of 
 trouble, is to them and their children a continual 
 inspiration to lead useful and worthy lives. Truly 
 that saying of her Master, than which there can be 
 no higher praise, maybe spoken of her also: "She 
 hath done what she could." 
 
 ALBERT E. DEVINE, 
 
 SAN ANTONIO. 
 
 Albert E. Devine, youngest son of the late Judge 
 Thomas -J. Devine, was born March 28th, 1862, in 
 San Antonio, Texas, where he received his early 
 schooling. He took a literary course of study at 
 Rock Hill College, Maryland, and after making a 
 tour in South America and Africa attended Cum- 
 berland University, Tennessee, in 1883, from the 
 law department of which he graduated the year fol- 
 lowing. He then visited the Pacific Coast cities, 
 returned to San Antonio and engaged in stock rais- 
 ing in which he has excelled as a breeder of fine 
 registered and standard bred horses. At San 
 Antonio in 1882 was organized the banking firm of 
 
 Smith & Devine, of which he became a member. 
 He married, in 1890, Miss Bessie Weil, of San 
 Antonio, a daughter of Henry Weil, a well-known 
 stock-raiser of Southwestern Texas, long identified 
 with the best interests of that section. 
 
 One child has been born of this union. Mr. 
 Devine has never engaged in politics but under Gov- 
 ernor Culbertson served as a member of the Board 
 of Directors of the West Texas Insane Asylum. 
 
 He is a wide-awake, progressive and able man, 
 thoroughly in sympathy with all movements that 
 promise the promotion of the welfare of his people 
 and State. 
 
 JAMES H. ASTIN, 
 
 HEARNE. 
 
 James H. Astin was born in Marion County, 
 Ala., in November, 1833; came to Texas in 1854; 
 shortly thereafter went to California, where he fol- 
 lowed the life of a miner until 1859; returned to 
 Texas ; entered the Confederate army at the open- 
 ing of Ihe war between tlie States as a soldier in 
 Company I., Fourth Texas Cavalrj', Hood's Brigade, 
 with which he served until severely wounded at the 
 battle of Chickamauga ; returned to Texas and settled 
 
 in Navarro County ; in 1864 married Miss Celia 
 AUsbrook in that county, and a year later moved to 
 Bryan ; followed various occupations for two or 
 three years and then rented a piece of land and 
 moved into the Brazos bottom ; his- sole earthly 
 possessions at that time were a wagon and a team 
 and ten dollars in money and a family consisting of 
 a wife and baby ; rented for ten years and then in 
 1877 made his first purchase ; has bought land from 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 bib 
 
 time to time since and now owns 7,000 acres, G,000 
 of which are under cultivation ; raises about 5,000 
 bales of cotton annually ;ind is considered one 
 of the wealthiest planters in his section of the 
 State. 
 
 His wife died in December, 1874. She left him 
 four sons, James Robert, now an attorney at law at 
 Dallas ; William E., a planter in Robertson County ; 
 John E., on the farm with his father, and Joseph 
 P., bookkeeper in the Hearne National Bank. 
 
 In 1878 Mr. Astin married Miss Ona Ward, at 
 Bryan, Texas. The issue of this union has been 
 three children : Irwin, Daisy, and Roger Q. He is 
 a man of unbounded energy and exceptionally fine 
 judgment and is thorough-going in his business 
 
 methods. He has grown wealthy, as he expresses 
 it, "by hard knocks." 
 
 He is a representative of the Southern gentleman 
 and dispenses that hospitality which has rendered 
 his section famous from time immemorial. 
 
 While feeling a deep interest in the cause of 
 popular government and all that affects the destiny 
 of mankind, he has never sought nor desired, nor 
 would he accept, office. He is content to follow 
 out the lines of life that he has laid down for him- 
 self. He was one of the original projectors of the 
 Hearne & Brazos Valley Railroad, and is now a 
 stockholder in the company. Charitable, generous, 
 and public-spirited, he has been a potent factor for 
 good in his section of the State. 
 
 EMIL VOELCKER, 
 
 NEW BRAUNFELS, 
 
 A son of the late lamented pioneer, Julius Voelcker, 
 was born on his father's farm near New Braunfels, 
 July 24th, 1859 ; enjoyed the advantages of a good 
 business training ; pursued farming until 1890, and 
 then established himself in the furniture business 
 in New Braunfels, in which he has since continued. 
 
 He was elected to the City Council in 1893, and 
 re-elected in 1895. 
 
 He married, in 1872, Miss Caroline Zuehl, daugh- 
 ter of William Zuehl, a farmer of Guadalupe 
 Count}'. 
 
 They have two children: Louise and Herbert. 
 
 DR. CHARLES T. SIMPSON, 
 
 TEMPLE, 
 
 Was born in Macon County, Ala., October 15, 
 1853. His parents were E. G. and A. W. Simp- 
 son, of Macon County, Ala. His father died at 
 the old home about eight years ago, and his 
 mother two years since (1893) at Temple, Texas. 
 They had four children, none of whom arrived at 
 maturity except Dr. Chas. T. Simpson, the subject 
 of this notice. Dr. Simpson completed his literary 
 education at the University of Georgia ; graduated 
 in medicine at the Alabama College, at Mobile, 
 Ala., in 1876; moved to Texas the following year 
 (1877), and settled in Bell County, near the pres- 
 ent site of Temple, where he has since made his 
 
 home, except during a period of three years, in 
 which he lived in San Antonio, where he moved on 
 account of ill-health in his family. He practiced 
 his profession while there, meeting with much suc- 
 cess. 
 
 After the inauguration of Hon. C. A. Cul- 
 berson as Governor of Texas, Dr. Simpson was 
 tendered and accepted the position of Superin- 
 tendent of the State Lunatic Asylum at Austin, an 
 office which he is filling in a manner worthj' of his 
 high reputation as a physician. Dr. Simpson mar- 
 ried Miss Ida B. Williams, daughter of Dr. Duke 
 Williams, at Temple, Texas, in 1883. They have 
 
516 
 
 ryniAx wars and pioneers of texas. 
 
 three children: Edna, Kennedy, and Kate. 
 Learned in his profession, ripe in experience, firm 
 yet kind, and possessed of rare executive ability; 
 
 the Governor could have selected no better man 
 for Superintendent of the Lunatic Asylum, located 
 at the capital city. 
 
 HENRY D. GRUENE, 
 
 GOODWIN. 
 
 Born July 2.5th, 1850, in Comal County, Texas, 
 son of Ernest Gruene, a venerable Texian pioneer 
 still residentnear New Braunfels ; grew up to stock- 
 raising and trading, which he engaged in for several 
 years after reaching maturity, shipping large num- 
 bers of cattle to Kansas City and other Northern 
 markets. 
 
 In 1872 he married Miss Bertha, daughter of 
 
 F. Simon (deceased) a well-known pioneer who 
 came to New Braunfels in 1846. He has four 
 children, two sons and two daughters, viz. : Paula, 
 Otmar, Ella, and Max. Since going out of the 
 stock business he has resided near Goodwin, Comal 
 County. Has engaged at various times in milling, 
 merchandising and other enterprises and now owns 
 valuable property interests. 
 
 ALVIN MORGAN, 
 
 Alvin Morgan, an estimable citizen of South- 
 eastern Texas, was born in Vermillion Parish, 
 La, July 15th, 1842; moved to Texas in 1855, 
 followed various occupations, and in 1879 was 
 employed by the railroad company to run the 
 pump at the water tank situated at the point on 
 the line where the thriving town of Alvin now 
 stands. 
 
 Impressed with the natural beauty and the rich- 
 ness of the soil of the surrounding country he, in 
 1882, purchased 1,280 acres of land from the State 
 and twelve acres from a non-resident owner. Upon 
 this tract the first part of the town of Alvin, named 
 
 in his honor, was built. Mr. Morgan was the first 
 Justice of the Peace for the place, and was for two 
 years engaged in merchandising. He married at 
 Victoria, Texas, Miss Sarah E. Hayes, daughter of 
 Rudolph Hayes, a stock-raiser of Brazoria County. 
 She died in 1861, leaving two children, Olivia and 
 Alvin Morgan, Jr. His second marriage was to 
 Miss Ecephaney Hoffpauer. They have one child, 
 a daughter, Mary Alice, now Mrs. T. M. Savell, of 
 Alvin. 
 
 Alvin has become famous as the center and ship- 
 ping point for the finest fruit-grovving region of 
 Texas. 
 
WESLKY OODEN. 
 
INDJAX WAIiS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 617 
 
 WESLEY OGDEN, 
 
 SAN ANTONIO. 
 
 The late Judge Wesley Ogdeu, deceased June 
 16th, 1896, was for many years a prominent figure 
 in Texas as pioneer, lawyer and judge. He was 
 born in Monroe County, N. Y., the year 1817, 
 and was the fifth child of Benjamin and Lucy 
 (Johnson) Ogden, both of Pennsylvania. His 
 paternal grandfather was William Ogden, also a 
 Pennsylvanian by birth, whose father was one of 
 two brothers who came from England and settled 
 in that State. The other br6tlier located in New 
 York State, where he became the founder also of a 
 large and influential family. William Ogden was a 
 soldier of the Revolutionary War, who finally located 
 a large tract of land in Pennsylvania at tbe head- 
 waters of the Ohio river. Judge Ogden's maternal 
 ancestors were of German descent. His maternal 
 grandfather, Moses Johnson, was born in Pennsyl- 
 vania. 
 
 Benjamin Ogden was married in Pennsylvania 
 and soon after settled in Monroe Conntj', N. Y., 
 then a new and almost uninhabited section of 
 the country. There he pioneered as a famer. He 
 served as an officer under Gen. Winfield Scott in 
 tbe War of 1812 and participated in the battle of 
 Lundy's Lane and other historic engagements. He 
 died in the year 1833. His wife, Mrs. Lucy Ogden, 
 died while her son, Wesley, was yet an infant. 
 
 Born on what was then the Western frontier, of 
 thrifty, yet humble parents, reared in a wild 
 country as one of the common people, he proved, 
 however, to be of no common mould. He was 
 accorded and took full advantage of such schools 
 as the country then afforded, after which he 
 attended the local district school, then took an 
 academic course of study, and later rounded off 
 his studies with a brief course at Brockport College, 
 N. Y. 
 
 He began life for himself as a school teacher in 
 Summit County, Ohio. Later he studied law at 
 Akron, Ohio, and was admitted to the bar of that 
 State in the year 1845. He soon thereafter returned 
 to New York and taught school in the city of 
 Rochester from 1845 to 1849. 
 
 Owing to poor health, he then, upon the advice 
 of a physician, sought a milder climate, and in so 
 
 doing landed at Port Lavaca, Texas, late in 1849. 
 The change proved most beneficial and he there 
 soon entered upon the practice of law. In 1866 he 
 was appointed United States District Attorney for 
 the Tenth Judicial District of Texas. He filled 
 that position for about one year and was then made 
 Judge of the Distiict, the duties of which office he 
 most ably and acceptably discharged until the fall 
 of 1870.'^ 
 
 The following January he was appointed an Asso- 
 ciate Judge of the Supreme Court of Texas by Gov- 
 ernor E. J. Davis. He sat on the Supreme Bench 
 four years, the last year as Presiding Justice. 
 
 He then retired from the bench and in 1874 loca- 
 ted at Sin Antonio and there successfully practiced 
 law until the year 1888 when he retired to the 
 shades of a quiet, peaceful and attractive home in 
 that city. Judge Ogden was twice married, first in 
 1845 to Miss Jane Church, of Albion, N. Y., a 
 sister of Hon. Sanford E. Church, for many years 
 the Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals of New 
 York. She died in Texas in the year 1853, leaving 
 three children, viz. : Helen, who is the wife df Hon. 
 Sam. M. Johnson, of San Antonio ; Henry, who died 
 in 1865, and Hon. Charles W. Ogden, an able mem- 
 ber of the Bexar County bar, resident at San 
 Antonio. 
 
 His second wife was Miss Elizabeth Chester, of 
 New York, whom he married in 1858. Of this 
 union five children were born, viz. : Lillian, who is 
 the wife of Mr. Edward F. Glaze, of San Antonio ; 
 Miss Mary S., who is living at home; Alma, who 
 is the wife of Lieut. Wm. Brooke, United States 
 army, a son of Gen. Brooke; Wm. B., in the 
 Government employ in the Alaska Sealing Service, 
 and Miss Ida, living at home. Judge Ogden was 
 a life-long and consistent Republican. His father 
 a member of tbe old Whig party, he imbibed its 
 doctrines and faithfully adhered to the main 
 features of its political faith to the last. He 
 began the practice of law with ample qualifications 
 and steadily advanced to the attainment of high 
 professional eminence. He was a lawyer of splen- 
 did abilities and a judge of clear and profound 
 discrimination. 
 
518 
 
 INDIAN WARiS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 CHARLES W. OGDEN, 
 
 SAN ANTONIO. 
 
 A leading member of the Bexar County bar, was 
 born in Calhoun County, Texas, April Gth, 1852, 
 and is a son of the late Judge Wesley Ogden, a 
 biography of whom appears elsewhere in this work. 
 Mr. Ogden completed his literary education at 
 the Texas Military Institute at Austin, afterwards 
 read law in his father's office, and was admitted to 
 practice in 18 . lie located in San Antonio in 
 18 , and is one of the foremost lawyers of South- 
 west Texas. He is a Republican in politics and 
 one of the leaders of his party in the State. 
 
 Mr. Ogden was united in marriage to Miss Cora 
 Savage, a lady of domestic and social culture, who 
 presides over one of the finest homes in San 
 Antonio. They have two children, Ira Charles and 
 Herbert Savage. 
 
 No citizen of San Antonio is more highly re- 
 spected than Charles W. Ogden and his influence 
 in matters of public concern is always exerted in 
 the interests of good government and modern 
 advancement. 
 
 L. H., D. H., AND W. A. ROWAN, 
 
 BRAZORIA COUNTY. 
 
 Pleasant Bayou Rancho is situated in Brazoria 
 County, twenty-flve miles southwest from the city 
 of Galveston, and fronts upon the bay. It is 
 bounded upon one side by Hall's bayou and on the 
 opposite side by Chocolate baj'ou, navigable for 
 twenty miles. Ten and one half miles of the best 
 wire fence, running from Chocolate to Hall's 
 bayou, completes the inclosure, which embraces 
 31,540 acres of land, 3,000 of which are heavily 
 timbered. A number of never-failing streams 
 water the place, among the number Pleasant 
 bayou, from which it derives its name. 
 
 The line of the Mexican Central R. R. passes 
 directly through the estate, and a depot is situated 
 six miles distant from the dwelling house, which is 
 a typical and beautiful old-time Southern home. 
 The barns, sheds, corrals, cross-fencing and all 
 other appurtenances are fully up to the best 
 employed by the most scientific and progressive 
 stock-raisers in other sections of the country. The 
 land consists of a variety of soils, from sandy loam 
 to dark, rich, chocolate-colored alluvial soil, 
 adapted to the growth of sea-island cotton, corn, 
 oats and all kinds of grasses, grains, vegetables, 
 berries and fruits known to a semi-tropical clime. 
 Oranges, lemons and bananas could be grown. 
 Each month of the year could be made to yield its 
 delicious fruits. 
 
 The rancho is centrally situated in the famous 
 sugar-raising district of Texas, than which there is 
 none better in the Southern States. The topog- 
 raphy of the country is practically level, the ground 
 rising from the sea toward the interior with 
 a gentle slope. The drainage is superb, the 
 mean temperature about 68° and, in conse- 
 quence of these facts and there being no local 
 causes for disease, the rancho is considered one of 
 the most salubrious spots in the State. The nights 
 are alwaj's cool, and a grateful and refreshing 
 breeze throughout the warmest summer days blows 
 continuously from the Gulf of Mexico. Shell fish 
 and game are abundant. Boats land within a short 
 distance of the mansion house, and from the 
 balcony of its second story can be viewed wide ex- 
 panses of Galveston Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico 
 beyond, with ships passing and repassing, with 
 their snowy sails spread to favoring gales like the 
 wings of swift-flying and graceful birds. 
 
 The house is surrounded by a magnificent grove 
 of fig trees that bear two crops a year. There are 
 about three thousand head of cattle on the place. 
 The rancho was established by Stephen F. Austin, 
 the father of Texas, and was purchased by the 
 present owners, Messrs. L. H., D. N. and W. A. 
 Rowan, from his heirs. He had all the country, 
 from Red river to the Gulf and from the Sabine to 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 51!) 
 
 the Rio Grande, to select from. He chose this fer- 
 tile and ideally romantic and beautiful spot in 
 preference to others, which he considered less at- 
 tractive. 
 
 The early Texians confined themselves mainly to 
 raising stock and such crops as were absolutelj' es- 
 sential for the subsistence of man and beast. They 
 little dreamed of the possibilities of the soil of the 
 section in which Pleasant Rancho is situated. It and 
 all the country contiguous to the town of Alvin has 
 developed within the past five years into a horticul- 
 tural region more wonderfully prolific than any in 
 California. Thousands of dollars have been in- 
 vested, fortunes have been and are being 
 made in this line of industry, and it is probable 
 that the days of Pleasant Rancho as a stock farm 
 are numbered, as orchards, strawberry fields and 
 the establishments of florists who raise rare flowers 
 for Northern markets are encroaching upon it 
 from all sides except that laved by the languorous 
 waters of the Gulf. L. H., D. N. and W. A. 
 Rowan are sons of Mr. James and Mrs. Jane Rowan 
 (of Irish parentage and natives of Lisbon, St. Law- 
 rence County, New York), and were born respect- 
 ively in Newburg, Lenox and Adlington counties, 
 Canada. Mr. James Rowan was a member of the 
 Lisbon Rifles, and as such participated in the battle 
 of Ogdensburg during the War of 1812. He was for 
 a time the owner of a saw mill and flouring mill 
 plant and engaged in general merchandising in 
 Canada, and thereafter moved to New York, where 
 he engaged in the manufacture of lumber at Wood- 
 hull, Oneida County, and conducted a wholesale 
 and retail lumber business in the city of Brooklyn. 
 
 His wife's father was Maj. Armstrong, a gallant 
 soldier of the War of 1812, who, like himself, faced 
 the British and burnt gunpowder at the battle of 
 Ogdensburg. In 1876 D. N. Rowan, a lawyer in 
 the city of New York, where he still resides, visited 
 Texas and, seeing Pleasant Bayou Rancho, was 
 much pleased with its situation and various advan- 
 tages, and bought an interest in the property from 
 the heirs of Austin for himself and brothers L. H. 
 and W. A. Rowan, and later purchased the re- 
 mainder of the tract. 
 
 L. H. Rowan, also an able lawyer, came to Texas 
 in 1877, and so well pleased has he been with his 
 new home that, save for occasional trips to the 
 North, he has since remained here and practiced 
 his profession. His wife was a Miss Gray, of 
 Lisbon, N. Y. They have one child, a daugh- 
 ter, Mrs. G. B. Philhower, now living at Nutley, 
 N. J. 
 
 W. A. Rowan moved to Texas with his family in 
 1878 and has since made this State his home. He 
 has been twice married, first to Miss Golden, of 
 Virginia, by whom he had one child, a daughter, 
 who died in Alvin, Texas, in 1894 ; and second to 
 his present wife, Miss Ford, a native of Texas and 
 a daughter of Judge Spencer Ford, of Bryan. She 
 has borne him four children : Spencer Ford, Charles 
 Louis, Robert Livingston, and Archibald Hamilton 
 Rowan. 
 
 The Messrs. Rowan are wide-awake, progressive 
 men who are thoroughly in sympathy with all 
 movements designed for the upbuilding of the 
 country, and few gentlemen land-holders in South- 
 eastern Texas have a wider circle of friends. 
 
 ANDREW FISCHER, 
 
 COMFORT, 
 
 A well-known and esteemed citizen of Comfort, is a 
 son of Andrew Fischer, deceased, a native of Prus- 
 sia, who came to Texas in 1868, bringing with him 
 his wife and five children, viz. : Caroline, Fritz, 
 Dora, Amelia and Augusta. His other children, 
 William, Elizabeth, and Andrew, came in 1871. 
 William and Andrew (the latter the subject of this 
 sketch) were soldiers in the Prussian army, and 
 therefore could not come with the family in 1868. 
 The journey was made by sea from Bremen to Gal- 
 veston and Indianola and overland to Sisterdale, 
 
 Texas. One year later the family moved to the 
 present Fischer home near Comfort. Andrew 
 Fischer, Sr., died in 1874, at about fifty-six, and 
 his wife in 1883, at sixty-three years of age. Caro- 
 line Fischer married Joseph Guissler. She is now 
 a widow and lives at Waring. Dora is Mrs. Charles 
 Ochse, of San Antonio ; Amelia is Mrs. Charles 
 Roggenbucke, of Comfort, and Elizabeth is Mrs. 
 Gottleib Fellbaum, of Comfort. Andrew Fischer, 
 Jr., was born June 27, 1848. He married, March 
 8, 1875, Miss Willhemina Boerner, daughter of 
 
520 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Hemy Boerner. She was born in Texas, February 
 25, 1857. They have tliree sons and one daughter, 
 viz. : William. Iiorn December 6, 1875 ; Henry, born 
 
 September 29, 1876 ; Lena, born March 3, 1880, 
 and Alexander, born December 4, 1882. Mr. 
 Fischer has a good farm of 145 acres. 
 
 WILLIAM DIETERT, 
 
 BOERNE. 
 
 The late William Dietert, of Boerne, was borue 
 June 21, 1830, in the province of Bradenburg, 
 Germany; landed at Galveston in 1855, with his 
 brother, Christian, and at once proceeded from that 
 place to Comfort, in Kendall County, where the3' 
 found work as wheelwrights. Two 3'ears later Mr. 
 Dietert went to Boerne, where he established a saw- 
 mill and grist-mill, run at first by water power, which 
 he developed by the construction of dams across the 
 stream and later by steam. The mill burned some 
 years since. In his milling enterprise he was joined 
 by a j-Qunger brother, Henry, still a resident of 
 Boerne. The later years of Mr. Dietert's life were 
 devoted to agriculture. His father was Frederick 
 Dietert, a wheelwright, who came to this country 
 from the Province of Bradenburg in 1856, bringing 
 
 with him four sous: Christian, now a resident of 
 Kerrville, in Kerr County; William, the subject of 
 this notice ; Fritz, a citizen of Comfort, Henry, 
 a citizen of Boerne ; and a daughter, Lena, now 
 Mrs. Joe Wiedenhammer, of San Antonio, all born in 
 Germany. 
 
 William Dietert married, in 1860, Miss Rose Berg- 
 man, a daughter of Joseph Bergman, a deceased 
 pioneer of Kendall County, mentioned elsewhere in 
 this p-ork. Mr. Dietert died in March, 1894, leav- 
 ing a wide circle of friends, a bereaved widow and 
 nine children to mourn his departure. His children 
 are: Theodore, Aunite, Ida, Edward, Ernest, Olga, 
 Minnie, Alma, and Rosa, all born in Kendall 
 County, this State. Ida is the wife of Joe Dinger, 
 a merchant of Boerne. 
 
 FREDERICK HOLEKAMP, 
 
 COMFORT, 
 
 Came to Texas in 1845 as a passenger aboard the 
 ^^ Johanu Dethard" on her first voyage to this 
 countr3', with one of the first party of German colo- 
 nists who settled in Texas. The ship was laden with 
 two-hundred and twent3"-eight passengers, gathered 
 from the kingdom of Hanover, and other portions of 
 Germany, by the German Emigration Company, 
 which was then under the direction of Prince Solms, 
 who accompanied the voj'agers to their new homes. 
 P'rederick Holekamp was born in Hanover, January 
 22, 1812. After completing his education at the Uni- 
 versity he engaged in the manufacture of brick, and 
 farming, in his native land. His father, Daniell 
 Holekamp, a builder and contractor, never came to 
 America. Frederick Holekamp, subject of this 
 notice, married, March 17, 1844, Miss Betty Wilheli- 
 
 mena Abbethern, a daughter of Henr}^ Cliristian 
 Abbetliern, who was a member of the household of 
 King Ernest August, then King of Hanover, holding 
 the position of Ministerial Accountant, which he 
 filled until the time of his death. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Holekamp set sail for America in the full glow of 
 youth and hope to make for themselves a home in 
 the new world. They landed at Galveston, Novem- 
 ber 24, 1844, and proceeded overland to New 
 Braunfels, where Mr. Holekamp was among the 
 first to have a head-right allotted to him by the 
 colony. Here he remained for about two years and 
 then went to Fredericksburg, where he also lived for 
 two j'ears. He later lived for three years at Sister- 
 dale and still later for a time near San Antonio on 
 a farm. In 1854 he located with his family at 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 521 
 
 Comfort, which has since been his home. During 
 the late Civil War Mr. Holekamp served the Con- 
 federacy as a member of Capt. Karapman's Com- 
 pany and died in September, 1862, of wounds 
 received in the service. His remains were interred 
 near the camp ground where he expired. The 
 exact spot is now unknown. He left a widow and 
 seven children: George, Justice, Daniell, Dora, 
 Ernest, Johanna, and Bettie. George now lives at 
 Comfort and is one of Kendall County's most pros- 
 perous and influential farmers. He was born at 
 New Braunfels, Comal County, August 7, 1846; 
 married Miss Fannie, daughter of Oscar Von Rog- 
 genbuske in Kerr County, in 1871, and has eight 
 children : Ida, Dora, Fritz, Moritz, Elsie, Oscar, 
 Kurt, and Richard. Mr. Von Roggenbuske was an 
 early Texas pioneer and died in 1887. 
 
 Julius, the second oldest of the family, was horn 
 at Sisterdale, June 10, 1849. He married Miss 
 Susan Fricke at Roundtop, Fayetteville, in 1876, and 
 has eight children: Paul, Bodo, Norman, Louis, 
 Ella, Alma, Erna, and an infant. He is a farmer 
 and lives at Comfort. 
 
 Daniell, a well-known and influential business 
 man at Comfort, was born at San Antonio, April 
 13, 1851. He married Miss Frames, a daughter 
 of Theodore Wiedenfeld, of Comfort, in 1884. 
 They have five children : Otto, Edgar, Clara, 
 Agnes, and Daniell, Jr. 
 
 Dora was born August 9, 1854, in New Braun- 
 fels. She married Paul Karger, a farmer living 
 near Comfort, and they have five children : Otto, 
 Elizabeth, Alfred, Bettie, and George. 
 
 Johanna, born at Comfort, August 21, 1856, is 
 now the widow of the late F. G. Harner, and lives 
 at Comfort. She has three children: Alex, Minnie, 
 and Chester. 
 
 Ernest is a merchant of Johnson City, Texas. 
 He was born at Comfort, March 2, 1859, and mar- 
 ried Miss Dora Muegge at San Antonio, in 1835. 
 They have four sons: Julius, Edwin, Walter, and 
 Conrad. 
 
 Bettie was born at Comfort, February 14, 1862, 
 and is now the widow of the late Henry Schmelter. 
 She lives at Comfort and has two children : Matilda 
 and Mjrtha. 
 
 To Mrs. Frederick Holekamp belongs the dis- 
 tinction of having made the first American flag that 
 floated to the breezes at the old colonial town 
 of New Braunfels. It was made from the cloth of 
 various old garments of suitable colors, gathered 
 from settlers. It bore the lone star in the blue 
 field and wa? about two yards long and of propor- 
 tionate width. Its unfurling on the public square 
 gave offense to Prince Solms, the then governor 
 and dictator of the colony, indicating as it did the 
 appreciation of the fact by the immigrants that they 
 had found a home in a free and independent coun- 
 try. 
 
 Mrs. Holekamp still survives, a quiet old lady 
 whose life has been devoted to the welfare of her 
 children and grandchildren and crowned with their 
 love and veneration. 
 
 Her home is in the peaceful and romantic little 
 town of Comfort, where she has passed so many 
 years of a busy life. 
 
 WILLIAM WEIDNER, 
 
 BULVERDE, 
 
 I 'me of the substantial farmers of the moun- 
 tain ^..strict of Comal County. His father, Frede- 
 rick Weidner, came to Texas in 1854 from Saxony, 
 Germany, where he was born, reared and learned 
 the trade of a weaver of linen fabrics. After 
 coming to Texas he engaged in farming on' rented 
 land near New Braunfels until 1858 and then pur- 
 chased 160 acres of land, a portion of the present 
 home of his son, Charles Weidner. Here the 
 family grew up. William Weidner, the subject of 
 this notice, had already attained manhood when his 
 parents came to Texas. 
 
 The names of the chihlren of Frederick Weidner 
 (all born in Germany except Joseph, who was born 
 in New Braunfels), are as follows: William, 
 Christine Liberecht, Adolf, Charles, Emilie, 
 Auguste, and Joseph. Auguste died at twelve 
 years of age in 1855. 
 
 Frederick Weidner was twice married. William, 
 Christine Liberecht and Adolf are children by his 
 first wife, whose maiden name was Christine Waner. 
 She died in Germany in 1848. His second marriage 
 was to Miss Frederica Lombatch. 
 
 William Weidner was born in Saxony, April 20, 
 
522 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 1835, and was over eighteen years of age when he 
 came to Texas with his father in 1854. After com- 
 ing to Texas he worked as a laborer on farms for a 
 time and later went to San Antonio, where he worked 
 for Herrmann Kampmann. He served as a soldier 
 in Capt. Kampmann's Company from the fall of 
 1861 to 1865 during the war between the States, 
 spending one year in La Grange in a hat factory 
 established by the Confederate States government. 
 After the war he located in New Braunfels and 
 manufactured hats for a year, and later formed a 
 partnership with three others, for the manufacture 
 of sash, doors and blinds, a connection which lasted 
 for three 3'ears. 
 
 Mr. Weidner located on his present farm in 1871. 
 
 It now consists of 400 acres of good farming and 
 grazing lands. He had a fine home and an inter- 
 esting family. He has been for years trustee of 
 the public free schools and has served as County 
 Commissioner of Comal County. 
 
 Mr. Weidner has been twice married. His first 
 wife was Miss Cora Reader, to whom he was mar- 
 ried in January, 1868. She died in November of 
 that year leaving him one child, Hermann Weidner, 
 as a pledge of her affection. He married his 
 second wife, Mrs. Marie Kram, widow of Henry 
 Kram, and a daughter of Andrees Langbeen, of 
 Sisterdale, in Kendal County, 1871. By this union 
 five children have been born : Clara, Natalie, Alvine, 
 Gustav, and Bertha. Three children are deceased. 
 
 JEROME C. KEARBY, 
 
 DALLAS. 
 
 Jerome C. Kearby, nominee of the People's party 
 for the office of Governor of Texas, was born in 
 Arkadelphia, Ark., on May2Ist, 1848. His father, 
 Dr. E. P. Kearby, who now resides in Rains County, 
 moved to Texas in 1856, stopping first in Hunt 
 County and in 1857 located in Denton Count}', 
 where the subject of this brief sketch was reared. 
 His early boyhood was spent on a horse ranch. 
 
 At the age of thirteen j'ears he entered the Con- 
 federate army, as a private in Capt. Otis G. 
 Welch's company. Cooper's regiment, which was 
 composed of two white and eight Indian companies. 
 He remained in this service one year. In 1862 his 
 company attached itself to the Twenty-ninth Texas 
 Cavalry, commanded by Charles De Morse as 
 Colonel, with Welsh as Lieutenant-Colonel, and the 
 late Judge Joe Carrol as Major. With this regi- 
 ment he served until the close of the war, in Com- 
 pany E., commanded by Capt. Matt Daughtery. 
 
 After the war he began the study of law at Mc- 
 Kinney, under Judge R. L. Waddill, and continued 
 under him until his death, which occurred in 1867. 
 He then continued his studies under Col. Otis G. 
 Welsh at Denton. 
 
 In 1869 he obtained license to practice law and 
 began the study of his profession in Van Zandt 
 County in that year. In June, 1875, he located 
 in Dallas, where he has since resided and prac- 
 ticed his profession. 
 
 As this book is being put to press, the campaign 
 of 1896 is at its hottest, and Mr. Kearby is en- 
 gaged in a canvass of the State, in which he is 
 bearing himself with his usual ability. Whatever 
 the outcome, he will have the satisfaction of know- 
 ing that he has discharged his every duty to the 
 party that honored him with the nomination as its 
 chief standard-bearer in Texas. 
 
JEKOME C. KEARBY. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 523 
 
 W. C. BURRIER, 
 
 FREDERICKSBURG. 
 
 Capt. W. C. Burner was horn in Fredericl^ 
 County, Md., January 1st, 1821, fought under Gen. 
 Zachary Taylor in the war between the United 
 States and Mexico and was severely wounded in the 
 hard-fought battle of BuenaVista, and in 1848 after 
 the close of the war, located near Red Rocli, in 
 Bastrop County, Texas, where he followed farming 
 for many j'ears. 
 
 He married Miss Mary Bell, daughter of Jesse 
 Bell (one of the first settlers of Bastrop County), 
 at Cedar creek, in 1847. 
 
 Four children were born of this union, viz. : 
 Richard M., a leading merchant and dealer in live- 
 stock at Fredericksburg, and John, James and 
 William, well-to-do farmers in Gillespie County. 
 
 Capt. Burrier joined Parson's Fourth Texas Cav- 
 alry at the beginning of the war between the States 
 and, after the expiration of the term for which he 
 first enlisted, re-enlisted in Grady's Company, with 
 which he served along the Gulf Coast until the close 
 of hostilities. He has been a resident of Fredericks- 
 burg, Gillespie County, for about thirteen 3'ears, 
 and no citizen of that part of the State is better 
 known or more highly respected. Richard M. Bur- 
 rier, eldest son of Capt. W. C. Burrier, was born 
 in Bastrop County, Texas, June 13th, 1849. He 
 was married to Miss Sarah Stevens in Caldwell 
 County, this State. They have eight children, 
 viz.: William R., Mary, John, Edward F., Elma, 
 Myrtle, Katy, and James. 
 
 HENRY BAUER, 
 
 SEGUIN, 
 
 Is a native of Wiesbaden, the capital city of the 
 formerly dukedom of Nassau, Germany. He came 
 to America in 1849 ; stopped for a short time at 
 New Braunfels and finally located about six miles 
 west of Seguin on the Guadalupe river, where he 
 erected a log house with the aid of his friend 
 August Dietz, who had come over from Germany 
 with him, and engaged in farming. Full of the 
 vigor of youth and possessed of a courageous spirit 
 they began their settlement by fencing and plowing 
 thirty acres of land surroumling their simple dwell- 
 
 ing. Mr. Bauer afterwards moved and improved 
 two other places, which he afterwards sold. Mr. 
 Dietz having sold the old place, Mr. Bauer repur- 
 chased it in 1876 and from that time lias continu- 
 ously resided thereon, bringing it up to a perfect 
 state of improvement. Hardy for one of his age, 
 and healthy, he enjoys the pleasures of a quiet old 
 life, in the society of the family of bis nephew, the 
 son of his beloved sister, who after a few years 
 sojourning with him, found her last resting-place 
 in the new land of their aioption. 
 
 FRITZ VOCES, 
 
 BULVERDE, 
 
 Son of Henry Voges, Sr., was born April 17, 
 1843, in Germany ; and is a thrifty and well-to-do 
 farmer of Voges' Valley, Comal County. He mar- 
 ried, July 31, 1869, Miss Sophia, a daughter of 
 Charles Koch, Esq., of Anhalt, and has three 
 children living, viz. : Otto, Louise, and Frederick. 
 
 Louise is now Mrs. Alfred Toepperwein, of Bexar 
 County. Otto married Augusta, a daughter of 
 Mr. L. Weidner, of Bulverde. 
 
 Mr. Voges lias one of the finest vineyards in 
 Comal County and his elegant home at Voges 
 Valley is the seat of old-time hospitality. 
 
524 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 AUGUST FALTIN, 
 
 COMFORT, 
 
 A representative citizen and business man of 
 Kendall County', for many years past a resident 
 and stock-raiser at Comfort, was born in Prussia, 
 July 19, 1830. His father, Fredericl< Faltin, was a 
 merchant at Dantzig, Germanj'. August Fallin 
 was reared and disciplined in that calling, and 
 embarked in business for himself at Leipsic. He 
 was married in Geimany, in 185(5, to Miss Clara 
 Below, a daughter of Edward Below, an officer of 
 rank in the Prussian army, detailed at that time as 
 director of a government gun factory. Mrs. Faltin 
 was born in Leipsic, January 30, 1835. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. F'altin touched American soil at 
 New Orleans, from which city they came to Gal- 
 veston, New Braunfels, and thence on to Comfort, 
 where he engaged in merchandising and stock- 
 raising for a period of about thirty-five years and 
 then, in 1889, retired from active business pursuits, 
 in which he has been succeeded by his sons, 
 Richard and August, under the firm name of 
 Faltin Bros. & Co. 
 
 Mr. and Blrs. Faltin have six children living, viz. : 
 
 Helen, who was born January 17, 1857, and mar- 
 ried Dan Holeckamp, and died in 1880, at twenty- 
 three years of age, leaving two sons and one 
 daughter; Elise, who was born July 1st, 1859, is 
 now Mrs. Ernst Flach ; Jennie, who was born April 
 27, 1861, and is now Mrs. Otto Flach; Richard, 
 who was born June 23, 1863, and married Miss 
 Alvina Steves, of Comfort, Texas ; August, who 
 was bnrn September 2d, 1870, and married Miss 
 Erna Flato, of Flatonia, Texas ; and Mimi Emilia, 
 who was born March 7th, 1866. 
 
 Mr. Faltin has been one of the most successful 
 and ent?rprising business men in his part of the 
 State. For ten years (from 1870 to 1880) he was 
 a partner wiih Charles Schreiner in the mercantile 
 business at Kerrville and from 1880 to 1890 at the 
 head of the merchandising firm of Faltin & 
 Schreiner, of Junction City. He has also filled 
 large contracts for government supplies. 
 
 The Faltin mansion at Comfort is one of the 
 most luxurious and complete family residences in 
 that section of the country. 
 
 CHARLES FORDTRAN, 
 
 INDUSTRY. 
 
 Charles Fordlran was born in Westphalia, May 
 7, 1801. His father was John H. Fordtran, who 
 was a native of Schleitz, a province of Saxony. 
 The stock came originally from France, being 
 Huguenots who refugeed to Germany after the 
 revocation of the Edict of Nantz, in 1685. They 
 were a wealthy and intelligent class of people, 
 being manufacturers of soap, wax candles, and 
 perfumeries, etc., and carried the knowledge of 
 the production of these articles into Germany, 
 where it was kept in the family for generations. 
 The father of the subject of this sketch was en- 
 gaged in this business, and wished his son Charles 
 to follow it, but it was not to his liking, and as 
 soon as he was old enough he gave it up. Charles 
 got but little education, Europe during his early 
 youth being in the throes of the wars brought on 
 
 by Napoleon, in which eveiy available man, whether 
 a member of a learned profession or not, was 
 forced into military service, teachers among the 
 rest. He was reared in Minden, and received ex- 
 cellent home training, and the benefit of good books 
 to read, which compensated in some measure for 
 lack of scholastic training. 
 
 He sailed from Hamburg for New York in 1830, 
 which place he reached in due course of time. At 
 New York he met a number of h's countrymen, 
 and received valuable suggestions from them con- 
 cerning the new country. Among these was John 
 Jacob Astor, then engaged in laying the founda- 
 tion for that fortune which has since made his 
 name known everj'where. 
 
 Mr. Fordtran relates that he took a walk with 
 Mr. Astor one afternoon to what was then the out- 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 425 
 
 skirts of the city, and in a conversation concerning 
 the city's growth, Mr. Astor said, that the metrop- 
 olis would soon cover the vast scope of country 
 then embraced in farms, and that there was the 
 place for young men to invest their earnings. 
 While in New York, and still undecided as to 
 where he would settle, Mr. Fordtran met the 
 former gardener of the Duke of Oldenburg, of his 
 native country, who, through some unfavorable 
 
 literature to change their destination to Texas, 
 and, accordingly, reached Austin's settlements on 
 the Brazos early in January, 1831. 
 
 There Mr. Fordtran met Padre Muldoon, Samuel 
 M. Williams and other men of local note, by whom 
 he was welcomed and soon made to feel at home. 
 Col. Williams gave him his first employment, name- 
 ly, making the boundary of the two leagues of land 
 which he (Williams) had secured as a grant from 
 
 CHARLES FORDTRAN. 
 
 turn of fortune, had been reduced to poverty, and 
 was anxious to go West and begin life anew. Mr. 
 Fordtran volunteered to help the gardener and his 
 good wife out, and as their guide and counselor 
 took passage on a ship bound for one of the South- 
 ern ports, whence the party designed going to the 
 then newly created State of Missouri. Aboard the 
 ship they fell in vrith an enterprising Yankee who 
 had some interests in Texas and who was distrib- 
 uting literature, telling of the wonders of the coun- 
 try. They were induced by Mr. Yankee and his 
 
 Stephen F. Austin. Mr. Fordtran was given one 
 of these leagues for surveying and locating the 
 other. 
 
 After being in the countrj- something over a year 
 he was stricken down with fever and becoming dis- 
 couraged determined to return North. He had im- 
 proved his land in the meantime and collected about 
 him some stock and implements of husbandry. He 
 offered all his possessions for $1,000, but could not 
 find a purchaser, and finally left what he had in the 
 hands of friends and started away in search of 
 
526 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 health. He accepted au invitation from Capt. 
 Henry Austin and made a stay of about three weelis 
 at his house at Billiver Point, after which he went 
 to Mississippi in company with Nathaniel Townsend 
 to visit a brother of the latter, Judge Townsend, a 
 wealth}' and hospitable gentleman of that State. 
 His stay in Mississippi resulted in making him a 
 number of warm, personal friends and in a complete 
 restoration of his health, and he returned toTexaswith 
 the determination of making it bis home in the future. 
 He made a contract with Col. Samuel M. Williams to 
 bring in for Austin's colony 800 families, for which 
 he was to have liberal donations of land. He went 
 to New Orleans where large numbers of his country- 
 men and others were rendezvousing preparatory to 
 ffoiug to South America, where extensive coloniza- 
 tion schemes were then on foot, and there under- 
 took to secure settlers to carry out his contract with 
 Williams. But interested parties soon started the re- 
 port that the Texians were only beguiling the ignorant 
 foreigners to the Mexican provinces to sell them into 
 slavery and so strongly were the intending settlers 
 persuaded of this that they could not be induced 
 to come to the country. Mr. Fordtran threw up 
 his contract in disgust, and returning to Texas 
 settled on a tract of land in what is now Austin, 
 County, where he began making permanent improve- 
 ments with the intention of thereafter making it his 
 home. 
 
 Shortly afterwards he became acquainted with 
 Miss Amelia Brookfleld, whom he married in 1834, 
 and with whom he took up his abode on bis home- 
 stead. She was born in Detroit, Mich., and was 
 a daughter of William and Lalliet Brookfleld, 
 who emigrated from New York to Texas in 1831 
 and soon after coming to this State located in 
 what is now Fayette County. As a civil engineer 
 and Indian Bghter William Brookfleld had consider- 
 able to do with the early history of Austin's colony 
 and of Texas, and is remembered for his patriotic 
 services by the few of his old associates still living. 
 He was a man of wide learning, an orator of ability 
 and an author of some note, having published just 
 before his death in 1847, a book in the defense of 
 the Jews. He raised a family of four sons and two 
 daughters. His oldest son, Charles, served on the 
 side of the colonists in the revolution of 1835-6. 
 Charles, Frank and Walter were volunteers in the 
 Texas contingent of the United States army in the 
 war of 1846-8, with Mexico. Walter died in Mexico. 
 Charles is supposed to have been murdered by his 
 Jlexican servant. Frank has also passed away^ 
 and now dwells above. Edward, the youngest of 
 the four brothers, was frequently in the ranging ser- 
 vice helping to keep back the marauding bands of 
 
 Mexicans and Indians until their flnal dispersion 
 and removal from the country. He also lies at 
 rest. The daughters of William Brookfleld were 
 Mrs. Emma Evans, wife of Vincent Evans, and 
 Mrs. Amelia Fordtran, wife of Charles Fordtran. 
 Mr. Fordtran's home at the time of his marriage 
 was on the outskirts of civilization and he saw and 
 experienced all there was of frontier life. His nar- 
 ratives touching the ways of getting on in those 
 days, the long distances they went for supplies, the 
 dangers encountered, etc., are most interesting. 
 
 He was one of those who always held himself in 
 readiness to go to the relief of any section of the 
 country that was attacked or threatened by the 
 Indians, and for years after coming to the coun- 
 try he was in every campaign organized to repel 
 the redskins from Austin's colony, and was a 
 member of a number of rescuing parties. In the 
 vicinity of his own home he assisted in saving Mrs. 
 Williams and Mrs. Peltis from capture and helped 
 several times to drive off the Toncahuas, who car- 
 ried on an extensive scheme of stealing under the 
 direction of one Ross, a disreputable character. 
 On the occasion of the invasion of the country 
 under Santa Anna in 1835-36, Mr. Fordtran joined 
 Capt. Bird's company of the Spy Rangers and 
 assisted in protecting the outlying settlements from 
 attack by Indians and in facilitating the escape of 
 those families who were in the path of the invaders. 
 The service so rendered was the only public service 
 ever performed by him. He has never cared for 
 office and when urged in an earlier day to become 
 a candidate persistently refused to do so. He was 
 opposed to annexation and secession, but had four 
 sons in the Confederate army during the late war. 
 He brought up a family of nine children, viz. : 
 William, who died in Fayette County; Portia, wife 
 of Dr. G. C. McGregor, of Waco; Eugene H., 
 Frank, who died in the Confederate army during 
 the war; Charles, Jr., of Waco; Louisa, wife of 
 M. A. Healy, of Brenham ; Ann, who was married 
 to J. L. Hill, of Galveston, both of whom are 
 deceased ; Josephine, wife of G. H. Mensing, of 
 Galveston ; and Sarah, wife of James B. Baker, of 
 Waco, and has more than sixty grandchildren. His 
 beloved wife died in November, 1888. During 
 slavery days Mr. Fordtran's was one of the best 
 known countr}' places around, well furnished, open 
 to all, and abounding in all good things — good 
 society, good music, good cheer, etc., etc. 
 
 Asked to what he attributed his great age and 
 remarkable vitality (for he still goes about every 
 day, the same as for the past seventy-five 3'ears), 
 he said, to a naturally strong constitution and to 
 correct modes of living. He has always led an 
 
JXDIAX WARS AXD PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 527 
 
 active outdoor life and has been strictly temperate 
 in his habits. He is fond of good books, the 
 society of 3'OUDg people and good music and has 
 grown old gracefully. 
 
 He is a remarkable man — a veteran and citizen 
 whose life has been full of usefulness to those about 
 him and of honor to his country', to whose pros- 
 perity and glory he has so materially contributed. 
 
 CAPTAIN C. B. HOBRON, 
 
 BOERNE, 
 
 AVas born in New London, Conn., January 23, 
 1830. Descended from an old Connecticut sea- 
 faring family. Capt. Hobron's early life was spent 
 at New London. He followed the sea from sixteen 
 years of age until about the year 1866, first in the 
 whale fishing service and later in the merchant 
 marine between New Orleans and New York. When 
 twenty-three years of age he became first officer of 
 the '■'■Samuel Russel," and later first officer of 
 " The David Broicn," both clipper-built ships, ply- 
 ing between New York City and Chinese ports in 
 the tea trade. About 1860 he bought an interest 
 in the ship " /ndiawa " and engaged in the New 
 Orleans cotton trade. The Civil War broke out 
 and practically destroyed the trade. When war 
 was declared his ship was anchored at New Orleans, 
 but he cleared for New York City with clearance 
 papers issued by the Confederate government and 
 made New York City in the marvelously quick time 
 of thirteen days. 
 
 Februarj' 3d, 1862, he married, in Philadelphia, 
 
 Pa., Miss Elizabeth Loosley, daughter of William 
 Loosley, an Englishman, who died when she was 
 very young. After his marriage Capt. Hebron and 
 wife made a voyage around the world, occupying 
 about three years, during which he visited the ports 
 of Australia, New Zealand, Peru, South America 
 and other countries, returning to New York via 
 Panama. The time intervening between his return 
 and the year 1877 he spent at various points in the 
 New England and other States, and then came to 
 Texas for the benefit of his health and that of Mrs. 
 Hobron, and purchased his present home, three 
 miles southeast of Boerne. He has made a specialty 
 of fine Merino sheep and Jersey cattle. Capt. and 
 Mrs. Hobron have one son, Charles L., born August 
 5, 1867, in Philadelphia, Pa. ; one daughter. Mat- 
 tie, was born in Melbourne, Australia, and died at 
 home near Boerne, 1880, at fifteen years of age. 
 She was a young lady of charming manners and 
 promising future. Capt. and Mrs. Hobron enjoy 
 the esteem of a wide circle of friends. 
 
 JOHN KLECK, 
 
 FREDERICKSBURG, 
 
 ■Came to Texas in 1845 from Prussia, landing in 
 this country at Galveston. He located and lived 
 at Victoria for one year and in 1846 moved to 
 Fredericksburg. There he erected the first black- 
 smith shop in the town and followed his trade for 
 about fifteen years, after which he engaged in farm- 
 ing. 
 
 He married Miss Victoria Failer, who bore 
 him twelve children, of whom three sons and six 
 
 daughters are living. Mr. Kleckdied July 4, 1887. 
 John W. Kleck, a well-known citizen of Fredericks- 
 burg, the sixth child of John and Victoria Kleck, 
 was born November 29, 1856, in Fredericksburg, 
 and grew to manhood on his father's farm and 
 stock ranch on Grape creek, in Kendall County, 
 where his father lived for twenty-five years. John 
 W. Kleck has later been engaged in farming, stock- 
 raising and speculating in real estate, and in 1883 
 
528 
 
 IXDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 laid Kleck's Addition to the town of San Angelo, in 
 Tom Green County. He married Miss Louise Fel- 
 ler, daughter of William Feller. She is a native of 
 Gillespie County. They have two children. John 
 
 W. Kleck later sold his San Angelo property and 
 removed to Fredericksburg, where he now lives, 
 and owns one of the best business houses on Main 
 street. 
 
 JOHN SCHNABEL, 
 
 BRAUNFELS, 
 
 A well-known early settler at New Braunfels, was 
 born in Prussia in the year 1831 ; came to America 
 in 1851, and located at New Braunfels. He spent 
 about two years in various employments and then 
 purchased land and engaged in farming, which he 
 continued until 1893. He married in 1857 Miss 
 Elizabeth Troeste. She died October 18, 1886, 
 leaving a family of eleven children, viz. : Dora, 
 Henry, Anton, Phillip, .John, Augusta, Annie, 
 Lina, Ida, Albert, and Ella, eight of whom are mar- 
 ried. 
 
 Dora married William Voigt and lives in 
 Gonzales Count}- with her husband. Their children 
 are Olga, Wanda, Oscar and Hertba. 
 
 Henry married Miss Augusta Ebert. They live 
 in Gonzales County, where they own a large ranch. 
 Their children are: Hilda, Laura, Alice, and 
 Herbert. 
 
 Anton married Miss Annie Reinhard, and is a 
 merchant at Belmont. His wife died August 11. 
 
 1895, leaving three children: Malinda, Eugene, 
 and an infant not named. 
 
 Phillip married Miss Lena Schultz. He is a mer- 
 chant at Belmont. They have one son, William. 
 
 ■John married Miss Lizzie Hegemann and lives at 
 the old family home at First Santa Clara, Guada- 
 lupe County. They have one daughter, Josephine. 
 
 Augusta married William Hoeke, a farmer, resid- 
 ing near New Braunfels. They have three children : 
 Erna, Roma, and Martin. 
 
 Annie married Adolf Reinarz. She died June 3, 
 1895, leaving two children, Gilbert and Gerome. 
 
 Lena married Adolf Forshagen, a merchant of 
 Belmont. 
 
 The Schnabel home at First Santa Clara consists 
 of five hundred acres. Besides this homestead 
 Mr. Schnabel owns valuable property in New 
 Braunfels and a comfortable home, to which he 
 retired in 1893, with his three youngest children, 
 and lives at ease. 
 
 WILLIAM EDWARD MAYNARD, 
 
 BASTROP. 
 
 W. E. Maynard, member of the well-known firm 
 of Fowler & Maynard, at Bastrop, was born at 
 Lockhart, Texas, January 13, 1858. His parents 
 were C. B. Maynard (a prominent merchant) and 
 Mrs. Maggie M. Maynard — both deceased. 
 
 He attended the Waco University two years, and 
 completed his education by a two years' course at 
 Emory and Henry College, Washington County, 
 Virginia, after which he entered the office of Hon. 
 Joseph D. Sayers, under whom he read law for two 
 
 years. At the expiration of this time he read law 
 under Hon. J. P. Fowler for one year ; was 
 admitted to the bar in 1878, and thereupon formed 
 a copartnership with Mr. Fowler, which has since 
 continued. Mr. Maynard is devoted to his profes- 
 sion, possesses a clear, searching and analytical 
 mind, and is an eloquent and persuasive speaker. 
 He has acquired a standing at the bar second to 
 that of no other advocate in his section of the state. 
 In January, 1880, he was united in marriage to 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 529 
 
 Miss MoUie A. Clements, of Virginia, and lias five 
 children : Maud May, Powell Clements, Virgie 
 Deel, Nettie Gertrude, and William Edward. 
 
 He was appointed City Attorney of Bastrop in 
 January, 1879, and in November, 1880, was elected 
 County Attorney of Bastrop County. He was 
 re-elected County Attornej' for five successive 
 terms and, finally, declined to again become a can- 
 didate for the olBce. In November, 1890, the Dis- 
 trict Attorney died, and the bar of the Twenty- 
 second District at once petitioned Governor Ross 
 to appoint Mr. Maynard to fill the vacancy. The 
 petition met with a favorable reception, and he was 
 tendered and accepted the appointment, and has 
 
 since discharged the duties of the office, winning 
 golden encomiums from the press, his fellow-mem- 
 bers of the bar and from tlie people at large, by 
 whom he is held in high esteem as a man of high 
 integrity, and a capable, faithful and fearless 
 public official. Mr. Maynard has twice been 
 elected to the office of District Attorney of the 
 Twenty-first District, which is composed of the 
 counties of Bastrop, Washington, Lee and Burle- 
 son, and at present holds that position. 
 
 He is a Democrat of the strictest sect, a member 
 of the Methodist Church, and has represented his 
 home lodge of Odd Fellows in tbe Grand Lodge for 
 a number of years. 
 
 DAVID McFADDEN, 
 
 CRAWFORD. 
 
 David McFadden, of Crawford, McLennan 
 County, was born in Randolph County, Mo., Octo- 
 ber 14th, 1831 ; a son of Wyatt McFadden, a native 
 of Kentuckj-, who came to Missouri at an earlj' day 
 settling in Randolph County, where he was a prom- 
 inent farmer and married Miss Rebecca Hammitt, a 
 daughter of Elijah Hammitt, also of Kentucky, and 
 a pioneer settler of Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Wyatt 
 McFadden reared a famil}' of four children, namely : 
 Jonathan who came to Texas in 1849 and served as 
 a State ranger and also in the Confederate army 
 during the late war and is now living in Bosque 
 County ; Catherine, deceased, . who married I. 
 Richardson, of McLennan County ; Sally, who died 
 in 18fi4 ; and David, our subject. The father came 
 to Texas in 1856, settling in McLennan County, 
 where he died in 1876. 
 
 The subject of this notice remained in his native 
 county until 1846, when he enlisted for the Mexi- 
 can War under Gen. Price. He served through that 
 struggle and was mustered out at Independence, 
 Mo., in 1848, after which he returned home. He 
 participated in the battle of Santa Cruz, took part 
 in all skirmishes of his command and was never 
 wounded. 
 
 With the earnings received from this service he 
 came to Texas in 1848, settling first at Austin, and 
 then at San Antonio. In 1850 and a part of 1851 
 he was a State ranger and during the latter year he 
 bought 320 acres of his present farm. He then 
 
 commenced the improvement of his land, built a 
 log cabin, and added to his original purcLase until 
 he now owns 695 acres situated on Hog creek, 
 in the western part of McLennan County. This 
 log cabin was on the extreme frontier, there not 
 being a white settler west of him. He had consid- 
 erable trouble with raiding parties of Indians. 
 
 In 1862 Mr. McFadden enlisted in the Confeder- 
 ate army, served in Arkansas for a time, was dis- 
 charged and then came home and joined McCord's 
 frontier regiment. He participated in the Dove 
 creek figlit with the Kickapoo Indians, was in many 
 skirmishes with the Indians and was at Camp Col- 
 orado at the time of the surrender. After he 
 returned home he resumed his farming operations, 
 erecting a large two-story frame dwelling, and 
 adding many other conveniences to his place until 
 he now has a home to be proud of. He has 135 
 acres of his farm in cultivation. The pasture part 
 he has always kept well stocked with horses and 
 cattle. When Mr. McFadden came to this State 
 his worldly possessions consisted of a horse, saddle 
 and bridle, and about 1200.00 in money, and he can 
 truly be called a self-made man. He served seven 
 years as a soldier and defender of his country and 
 since his residence in McLennan County has taken 
 an active part in the development of that section of 
 the State. 
 
 Mr. McFadden was united in marriage, July 8lh, 
 1852, to Miss Salena Harris, who was born In 
 
530 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEEllS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Randolph County, Mo., August 24, 1835, a daugh- 
 ter of David Harris, who came to Travis County, 
 this State, in 1847, and died there in 1849. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. McFadden have had five children, 
 viz. : Bell, born September 2, 1853, first married 
 AVm. Isb, and after his deatii Dr. Boyett, now of 
 Waco ; Dink, born September 22, 1855, married to T. 
 Woodmansee, — both are now deceased — of which 
 union one child, Zo, now survives and resides with 
 her aunt at Waco ; Aribell, born in 1857, died in 
 1863; Emma, born March 18, 1860, married G. W. 
 
 Jones, a farmer of Bosque County ; and Ruva, born 
 December 8, 1868, married Dr. Thompson, of 
 Mineral Wells, Palo Pinto County. Mr. McFadden 
 lost his first wife, October 8, 1893, and he was 
 married again October 25th, 1894, to Mrs. 
 M. E. Mevone3', of Crawford, McLennan County, 
 where they now reside. Mr. McFadden and liis wife 
 are both members of the Missionary Baptist Church. 
 His first wife was also a member of that church. 
 
 He is a staunch Democrat in his political views. 
 He hates blue coats and brass buttons. 
 
 E. S. PETERS, 
 
 CALVERT, 
 
 Was born in Detroit, Mich., May 2, 1852. His 
 ancestors came to America as colonists in 1636, 
 and settled in Connecticut, where his father, 
 Samuel E. Peters, was born at the town of Litch- 
 field in 1818. Mr. Samuel E. Peters was an 
 active, progressive man, a pioneer real estate 
 dealer at Detroit, Mich., and accumulated a large 
 property. 
 
 The subject of this notice, E. S. Peters, was 
 educated in the public schools of Detroit; studied 
 law in the office of Ward & Palmer for some time, 
 when, his health failing, he, in 1872, moved to 
 Texas and lived for a time with relatives at Cor- 
 sicana. 
 
 He was united in marriage in 1879 loMissMollie 
 Hannah, daughter of James S. Hannah, a pioneer 
 from Alabama, who settled in Robertson County in 
 1851. Mr. Peters embarked in the hardware bus- 
 iness at Corsicana in 1879, in partnership with 
 
 S. J. T. Johnson, a connection that continued 
 until 1882, after which Mr. Peters conducted the 
 business alone until 1885, when he sold it, and 
 engaged in ranching near Calvert, in which he has 
 since been eminently successful. His land-hold- 
 ings are among the largest in the Brazos Valley, 
 and embrace extensive tracts devoted chieily to 
 the cultivation of cotton. He also owns valuable 
 interests in Corsicana, Texas, and his native city, 
 Detroit, Mich. 
 
 He is Texas President of the American Cotton 
 Growers Association, and National E^xecutive Com- 
 mittee of the Populist party, owner of the Weekly 
 Citizen Democrat, a well established and influential 
 newspaper published at Calvert, and has been, and 
 still is, active in all that pertains to the advance- 
 ment of his adopted city, countj- and State. 
 
 He has two children, a son and daughter, Eber 
 and Beulah Peters. 
 
 JAMES BIDDLE LANGHAM, 
 
 BEAUMONT, 
 
 Was born October 9, 1820, four miles from the 
 town of Summerville, in Fayette County, Tenn. 
 His parents were Thomas and Wilmuth (Lee) 
 Langham. His mother died in Jefferson County, 
 Texas, in November, 1855, and is buried near 
 
 Beaumont. His father died in Jefferson County In 
 1868. His parents came to Texas from Tennessee 
 in 1836, located at San Augustine, lived there 
 two years, then moved to Nachitoches, La ; lived 
 there four years (the mother and four sons); 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 531 
 
 removed to Tennessee, where Ibey remained a year 
 and then again came to Texas. The subject of this 
 notice, Mr. James B. Langliam, then a youth six- 
 teen years of age, left tiie family, at San Augustine 
 and went to Montgomery County, wiiere he worked 
 on a farm for eighteen months, receiving $20.00 
 per month for his services and taking horses for his 
 pa}'. He drove these horses to Beaumont and left 
 them, with the exception of one that he retained as 
 a saddle animal, with an uncle living at Grigsby's 
 Bluff. 
 
 He married Miss Sarah Jane Nettles, daughter of 
 James Nettles, of Jefferson Countj', Texas, May 
 
 T. D. Brooks, proceeded with it to a spot situated 
 near where the city of Dallas is now situated and 
 there erected a fort. He was with the company 
 something over tliree months. 
 
 At the breaking out of the war between the 
 States, being physically unable for active service in 
 the Confederate army, he promptly joined the 
 militia for home protection and was stationed at 
 Sabine Pass immediately after the capture of the 
 " Morning Light." 
 
 After his marriage Mr. Langham farmed two 
 years, then moved to Village Creek with his family 
 and remained there a year, then moved to Leon 
 
 JAJiES BIDDLE LANGHAM. 
 
 15, 1845, and settled about two miles from Beau- 
 mont on a tract of one hundred acres of land, 
 inherited by them from his wife's father, and 
 opened up a farm on it. They have had nine chil- 
 dren, seven of whom are living, viz. : Thomas, now 
 Sheriff of Jefferson County, an office that he has 
 held for nineteen years; AVilliam, City Marshal of 
 Beaumont; Lizzie, wife of Frank Wilson, of Har- 
 risburg, Texas ; Biddle, a farmer of Orange County, 
 Texas; Victoria, wife of Charles Wakefield, of 
 Beaumont; Annie, who died August 20, 1882, at 
 the age of twenty-two years ; Nora, wife of Alex. 
 Broussard, of Beaumont; Cora, wife of Richard 
 Garrett, of Beaumont, and one child who died in 
 infancy. 
 
 At an early day Mr. Langham joined, at Nacog- 
 doches, a ranger company, commanded by Capt. 
 
 County, and stayed there a year, then moved to New- 
 ton County, where he rented land and farmed one 
 3-ear and then moved back to the house in which he 
 was married in Jefferson County, where all of his 
 children were born except two. Here he again 
 went to farming, at the time owning two negroes. 
 At the beginning of the late war he owned fourteen 
 slaves, and had acquired three leagues of valuable 
 land. In April, 1891, Mr. Langham was hurt by a 
 horse, which caught him by the coat collar and 
 jerked him backward, breaking his hip. When he 
 came to Beaumont he endured all of the hardships 
 incident to a pioneer life in Texas. He has pro- 
 vided a home for all of his children. He is one of 
 the well-to-do men of the town. His wife died 
 February 12, 1875, and is buried in the family 
 cemetery at the old homestead. 
 
532 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 WILLIAM W. ALLEY, 
 
 COLORADO COUNTY. 
 
 William W. Alle3', a prosperous farmer of Colo- 
 rado County, Texas, was born in that countj', Janu- 
 ary 3, 1849. His parents were Abraham and Nancy 
 Alley. His father and mother's brother, Daniel 
 Millar, were San Jacinto heroes. The Alleys have 
 been conspicuous in Texas history for patriotism 
 and valor. Many of them in the early days fought 
 for the defense of the frontier homes. -John Alley, 
 an uncle of the subject of this notice, returning from 
 
 a scout after hostile Indians, attempted to cross the 
 Brazos river, then swollen by recent rains, and was 
 drowned, and another uncle, Tom Alley, was killed 
 by Indians. 
 
 Mr. William W. Alley is a useful and influential 
 citizen and a wide-awake, progressive and broadly 
 cultured farmer, one of the leading representative 
 men of Colorado County. 
 
 JOHN R. ALLEY, 
 
 NIGH. 
 
 John R. Alley, the popular and efficient postmas- 
 ter at Nigh, Colorado County, Texas, was born June 
 15, 1846, in that county. He is a son of Abraham 
 and Nancy Alley, a biographical notice of whom 
 appears elsewhere in this volume. Mr. Alley mar- 
 ried first in 1867 and again in 1878. He had two 
 children by his first wife, Lena and Mack, and five 
 by his second wife : Florence, Daniel, Peter, Ray, 
 
 and Shelly. He was a gallant Confederate soldier 
 during the war, serving in what was known as Henry 
 Johnson's Company, a part of Bates' regiment. 
 Besides being postmaster, Mr. Alley is also a ginner 
 and miller. 
 
 He owns a nice home in Nigh, takes an interest in 
 all public improvements, and is one of the solid men 
 of that county. 
 
 JOHN HARDAMAN OWEN, 
 
 NAVASOTA. 
 
 The subject of this sketch was born in Oglethorpe 
 County, Ga., October 10, 1823, was reared on a 
 farm in his native count}', and after growing up 
 became a clerk in a mercantile establishment. He 
 married Miss Elizabeth Grier Fleming, a daughter 
 of Robert Fleming, at Newman, Ga., in 1845, and 
 engaged in business in that place. In 1851 he 
 came to Texas and settled near Piedmont Springs, 
 in Grimes County. Later he moved to Anderson, 
 and resided there until 1874, when he moved to 
 Navasota. He was engaged in various pursuits 
 and made considerable money, being energetic and 
 
 progressive and a man of good business ability and 
 sterling integrit}'. He was never in public life, and 
 during the late war served onl}' on detail duty, his 
 career being thus purely of a private nature, though 
 he was public-spirited. Mr. Owen's death occurred 
 in 1886 and he left surviving a widow and a 
 number of sons and daughters, most of whom 
 reside in Texas. 
 
 He was esteemed by all for his sterling traits of 
 character ; beloved by many who found bim a 
 friend in time of need, and had the confidence of 
 the people wherever he lived. 
 
I^WIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 533 
 
 JOHN B. BARNHILL, 
 
 FAYETTE COUNTY. 
 
 John B. Barnhill was born in Gieenville District, 
 S. C, December 12tb, 1824; educated in Ten- 
 nessee and came to Texas in 1877 and settled 
 near Plum, Fayette Count}', where he engaged in 
 farming, and two years later married Miss Florence 
 Bledsoe. 
 
 During the war between the States he enlisted 
 in Company I., Twenty-seventh Tennessee, 
 
 and afterwards served with Forest's cavalry and 
 participated in the battle of Pittsburg Landing, 
 Brice's Cross-roads, Fort Pillow and other engage- 
 ments, rising to the rank of First Lieutenant and 
 conducting himself witli commendable gallantry. 
 He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, a sturdy 
 Democrat and a leading and influential citizen in 
 his section. 
 
 FREDERICK HAMPE, 
 
 NEW BRAUNFELS, 
 
 Was born in Hanover, January 5, 1840, and emi- 
 grated from his native land to New Braunfels, 
 Texas, with his parents (Mr. and Mrs. Ernest 
 Hampe) and his brother, August (now deceased), 
 in 185.5. Frederick and his brother August enlisted 
 in Company F., Thirty -second Texas Cavalry, Capt. 
 Edgar Schramme, and fought for the Confederate 
 cause until the surrender in 1865. Frederick 
 Hampe enlisted as a private and served as such 
 until the end of the war. He was offered a com- 
 mission at various times and declined the honor, 
 but was finally induced to act as first sergeant of 
 his company. Even this position was not desired. 
 His services to the Confederacy were cheerfully 
 and faithfully rendered until he received an honor- 
 able discharge at New Biaunfels, May 24, 1865, 
 when the battle-scarred veterans of the South were 
 at last compelled to stack their arms. October 9, 
 following, he formally tui'ned over his rifle to Capt. 
 William Davis, of the Eighteenth New York Cavalry, 
 acting United States paroling officer, and received 
 his full reinstatement as a citizen of the United 
 States. After the war he worked as a salesman in 
 various establishments in New Braunfels, until 1869, 
 when he embarked in a modest way in business for 
 himself. He was appointed Clerk of tlie District 
 Court for Comal County, August 4, 1869, by Will- 
 iam R. Bainridge, Secretary of Civil Affairs, to 
 succeed Theodore Goldbeck, resigned. In 1873 
 be was duly elected Chief Justice (or, as now 
 styled, County Judge) of Comal County as a 
 
 Democrat at a time when the county polled a 
 Republican majority. He received his certificate 
 of election from the Republican incumbent, Fred 
 Goldbeck, but possession of the office was peremp- 
 torily denied him. During the period of recon- 
 struction the Republicans held the reins of State, 
 and in many instances, of county and municipal, 
 government; but, when reconstruction was finally 
 accomplished and the country polled its full voting 
 strength, the Democratic party in Texas resumed 
 control. Thus Richard Coke, Democrat, was 
 elected Governor of Texas to succeed E. J. Davis, 
 Republican, after a bitter fight, in 1873. The 
 majority was overwhelming, but Davis declined 
 to surrender the oflSce, because of the alleged 
 unconstitutionality of the new election laws, which 
 position, upon appeal, the State Supreme Court 
 upheld. It was upon this decision that Mr. 
 Hampe was denied the exercise of the duties of his 
 office. Prompt and vigorous legal measures were 
 taken, however, to enforce the expressed will of the 
 people of Comal County, and Mr. Hampe was duly 
 installed as Judge a short time before Governor 
 Coke took his seat as Governor of Texas. Judge 
 Hampe was elected for four years, but by the terms 
 of the subsequently adopted constitution of 1875, 
 his term as Judge was shortened to two years. He 
 retired from office at the end of that time. In 
 1875 he was elected County Assessor and served 
 until 1884. He has held a commission as Notary 
 Public under every Governor since 1874. He was 
 
534 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 a member of the New Braunfels City Council soon 
 after the reconstruction era, when the duties of the 
 position were arduous, the city being heavily in 
 debt and its affairs generally unsettled. He has at 
 all limes been a consistent and active Democrat and 
 has for several years held the chairmanship of the 
 County Executive Committee of his county. 
 
 Mr. Hampe married, in 1865, Miss Jacobine 
 Wolfshole, a daughter of August Wolfshole, who 
 came from Nassau, Germany, to Texas, in 1845, 
 and of whom further mention will be made else- 
 where in this volume. Mr. and Mrs. Hampe have 
 seven children: Johanna, wife of Charles Floege, 
 a merchant of New Braunfels ; Augusta ; Kate, wife 
 of Gustav Tolle ; Lena, wife of C. F. Hoffman, 
 jeweler, of New Braunfels ; Fritz, Alfred, and 
 Alfrida. The two latter are twins. The unmarried 
 
 children live under the old parental vine and fig 
 tree. 
 
 Judge Hampe is esteemed for his good citi- 
 zenship, for his enterprise and thrift as a busi- 
 ness man, and for his genial and courtly manners. 
 August Hampe, a brother of the subject of this 
 notice, served as a private in the same company as 
 his brother, Frederick, and after the war returned 
 home and married. He died in 1882 at thirty-eight 
 years of age. During his later years he held the 
 office of City Marshal of New Braunfels. He left 
 a widow, two daughters and four sons, all now 
 residing in Comal County. His widow remarried 
 in 1888. Mr. Hampe has served as a member of 
 the State Democratic Executive Committee, and 
 Chairman of the Democratic Executive Committee 
 of his Senatorial District. 
 
 JOHN WEINHEIMER, 
 
 FREDERICKSBURG. 
 
 Jacob Weinheimer, father of the subject of this 
 notice, was born in the town of Meunster, Prussia, 
 in 1797, and emigrated to America in 1845. 
 Landing with his wife and six children at Gal- 
 veston in October of that year, he proceeded to 
 Indianola, where he remained for about fifteen 
 months, and then, in 1847, moved to Fredericks- 
 burg, where he and his two sons each received 
 their allotment of two town lots and ten acres of 
 land adjoining the town. Jacob Weinheimer died 
 at Fredericksburg in 1887, aged eighty-nine years, 
 and his wife at the same place during the same 
 year, aged eiglity-five years. The six children, all 
 of whom are living, are : George, who lives on a 
 farm five miles from Fredericksburg ; Antone, who 
 
 is a farmer near Fredericksburg ; Elizabeth, who is 
 the wife of John Deilz, and resides near Fredericks- 
 burg; Sophia, wife of B. Meckel, a citizen of 
 Fredericksburg; Anna, wife of John Pelsch, a 
 farmer on Grape Creek, and John Weinheimer, of 
 Fredericksburg. 
 
 John Weinheimer was born in Meunster, Prussia, 
 March 23, 1833. He was united in marriage to 
 Miss Anna Merz, daughter of Mr. John Merz, of 
 Fredericksburg. They have ten children, viz. : 
 John, Jacob, Anna, Otto, Mary, Henry, Ida, 
 Louise, Adolph, and Louis. 
 
 Mr. Weinheimer has pursued in a quiet and suc- 
 cessful way the occupation of a farmer and stock- 
 miser. He is esteeemcd wherever known. 
 
 FRITZ KOCH, 
 
 BULVERDE. 
 
 Fritz Koch is a son of Charles Koch, of Anhalt, 
 one of the leading pioneers of Comul Couniy, a 
 sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this book. 
 
 Fritz Koch was born March 21, 1851, in Comal 
 County, Texas. He married Bliss Wilhelmina 
 
 Voges, a daughter of Henry Voges, July 18, 1873. 
 They have five chileren : Emma, Bertha, Frederick, 
 Bruno, and Annie. Mr. Koch owns an excellent 
 farm of three hundred and sixty acres and is one 
 of tlie most enterprising farmers of Comal County. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 535 
 
 HENRY S. WILLIAMS, 
 
 COLUMBUS. 
 
 Heory S. Williatcs was born in Obion County, 
 Tenn., March 10th, 1854; came to Johnson County, 
 Texas, November 1, 1876, and in 1883 moved to 
 Columbus, in Colorado County, where he has since 
 resided. May 18th, 1884, he was married to Miss 
 Mattie Ramsey, of Columbus, and has six children: 
 Roy, Henry S., Sr. , R. Q. Mills, Mattie, John and 
 Joe. He served an unexpired term as City Marshal 
 of Columbus and is now a member of the Board of 
 Aldermen. 
 
 He owns a large grocery, grain and feed business 
 
 in the town, and a fine farm in the country which he 
 has let to renters. When Mr. Williams first went 
 to Columbus he was an entire stranger to the peo- 
 ple and without money, or even cheering prospects. 
 He set to work with a will, however, and conducted 
 himself in a manner that won for him the friendship 
 of the best people in the community. He was soon 
 on the high road to prosperity. He is one of those 
 bright, stirring, able self-made men who have won 
 their way to the front in Texas. Mr. Williams is a 
 member of the Masonic fraternity. 
 
 AUGUST KNIBBE, 
 
 KENDALIA, 
 
 Was born in New Braunfels in 1848. He is a son 
 of Detrieh Knibbe, an early Texas pioneer and the 
 first settler at Spring Branch, in Comal County. In 
 1862 the subject of this notice, then fourteen years 
 of age, left the family at Spring Branch and went 
 to Curry's Creek, where he ran a flouring mill 
 until July, 1869, when it was washed away by a 
 flood. 
 
 He was united in marriage, March 2.5th, 1869, to 
 Miss Mary Gourley. They have thirteen children : 
 Donie (a daughter). Mar}', Emma, Augusta, 
 William, Ida, Lafayette, Exer, Ora, Rosa, Felix, 
 Rolla, and Theodosia. Mr. Knibbe ran a shingle 
 manufactory from 1869 to 1886, and then embarked 
 in merchandising at Kendalia, in which he is still 
 engaged. 
 
 OTTO VOGEL, 
 
 SIVIITHSON'S VALLEY. 
 
 Otto Vogel, a successful business man, of Smith- 
 son's Valley, Comal County, has been a resident 
 of Texas since 1885. He was born in Rhineland, 
 Germany, February 17, 1863, and came to this 
 State with his brother, Fritz, now an engineer in 
 Mexico. He worked for about two years by the 
 month on a farm and commenced the well-boring 
 
 business, which he has since followed. He mar- 
 ried, in 1888, Miss Laura Boltom, of Smithson's 
 Valley. They have three children : Bruno, Fred- 
 erick, and Otelia. Mr. Vogel is one of the most 
 enterprising men in Comal County, and by indus- 
 try and sagacity has become in a brief time inde- 
 pendent in money and property. 
 
536 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 CHARLES KARGER, 
 
 COMFORT, 
 
 A well-known and prosperous farmer of Comfort, 
 Kendall County, Texas, was born in the town of 
 Falkenberg, Province of Schlussing, in Nortli Ger- 
 many, March 24th, 1845, and came to Texas with 
 his father and mother (Mr. and Mrs. Karger) and 
 other members of the family, in 1860. They first 
 touched Texas soil at Galveston, disembarked at 
 Indianola a few days later and journeyed overland 
 in ox teams from that place to San Antonio. They 
 went almost immediately from San Antonio to Sis- 
 terdale, where they lived for about a year, and then 
 moved to Comfort. John Karger was a tanner and 
 did a prosperous business at his trade at Comfort 
 durins; the war between the States. He died in 
 
 1864, at forty-eight years of age, leaving a widow, 
 who survives at seventy-three years of age, and 
 eigiit children : Marie, Cbarles, Frederica (widow 
 of Fritz Dietert), Paul, Eraii, Fritz, August and 
 Ernst, all living. 
 
 Charles Karger married Miss Alvina Weber, a 
 daughter of Henry Weber, of Comfort. They have 
 three daughters and two sons, viz. : Ida, Bertha, 
 Helen, Louis, and Adolf. 
 
 Mr. Karger has a good farm of seven hundred 
 and seventy-five acres. 
 
 He has served several years as Deputy Sheriff of 
 his county and Deputy Postmaster at Comfort, and 
 has held several mail contracts. 
 
 AUGUST PIEPER, 
 
 BULVERDE, 
 
 Is one of the original settlers of Comal County. 
 He was born in Hanover, Germany, June 13, 1824 ; 
 came to America with the Prince Solms colony in 
 1835 and located at New Braunfels, where be worked 
 at his trade (that of carpenter and joiner), for two 
 and a half years, and later followed the business 
 of contractor and builder for nine years. In 1850 
 he married Mrs. Johanna Kwamm, a daughter of 
 Conrad Kwamm, and in 1852 they became the first 
 
 white settlers of what has since been known as the 
 Pieper Settlement, a settlement situated in one of 
 the finest mountain districts of Comal County. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Pieper have seven children: Caroline, now 
 Mrs. Peter Lex ; Emma, now Mrs. Otto Wehe ; 
 Sophia, now Mrs. Gustav Eeker ; William, married 
 to Miss Minnie Reinhardt; Frederick, married to 
 Miss Augusta Arns, and Herman, married to Miss 
 Helen Ecker. 
 
 CHRISTOPHER SCHMIDT, 
 
 KENDALIA, 
 
 Came to Texas in 1850 and located at New Braun- 
 fels, where he worked for James Furguson until 
 1855, when he took up land on the Little Blanco 
 river, where he was the first settler, and lived there 
 until 1878, when he moved to Kendalia. There he 
 
 purchased and developed a fine farm of about 
 800 acres, a portion of which his son Adolf now 
 owns. 
 
 Mr. Schmidt was born September 21, 1828, in 
 Saxony. He came to America by way of Bremen, 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 537 
 
 landed at Galveston and i)roceeded thence to 
 Indianola and New Braunfels. He was united in 
 marriage to Miss Mary Schalfer of Boerne, in 1859. 
 She was born in Germany in 1835. They have ten 
 children : Winnie, now Mrs. John Kuepper, of 
 Kendalia ; Herman, a citizen of Kendalia; Henry, 
 
 who lives at the head of the Little Blanco, four 
 miles from Kendalia; Christian, Jr., living at 
 Kendalia; Martin, Mary, Theresa, Emma and 
 William, who are single and live at Kendalia, and 
 Adolf, who is married and lives near the old home. 
 Five chi dren are deceased. 
 
 ROMANUS TALBOT, 
 
 CALVERT, 
 
 Familiarly known as Roe Talbot, a well-to-do 
 planter of Robertson County, was born in Pike 
 County, Ala., in 1833. He accompanied his 
 parents, James and Hannah Talbot, to Texas, in 
 1852, and the following year settled on the farm 
 where he has continuously lived for the past forty- 
 two yf^ars. In 1858 he married Miss Nannie Wood, 
 daughter of Aaron Wood, who emigrated to Texas 
 from Aberdeen, Miss., where Mrs. Talbot was 
 born, and settled in Robertson County in 1851. In 
 January, 1862, Mr. Talbot entered the Confederate 
 army, enlisting in Capt. Johnson's Spy Companj', 
 which was organized for service in Gen. Ben Mc- 
 Culloch's command and which for two years was 
 engaged in scouting and outpost duty in Arkansas. 
 At the time of the investment of Arkansas Post by 
 the Federals, Mr. Talbot was sent with fifteen others 
 to occupy outlying points and report the movements 
 of the enemy. He continued at this work, return- 
 ing messengers until only himself and one comrade 
 were left, when the final fall of the post occurred, 
 news of which reaching him, he made good his 
 escape and returned to Texas. Here he raised a 
 company of which he was elected First Lieutenant 
 and again entered the service, accompanying his 
 
 command to the forces then massing along the 
 Louisiana and Arkansas line to resist the invasion 
 of the Federal army under General Banks. He 
 took part in the series of engagements incident 
 to Banks' Red River campaign, commanding his 
 company most of the time, and surrendered at the 
 general armistice in May, 1865, having been in 
 active service foi three years without being cap- 
 tured or wounded. 
 
 After the war Mr. Talbot took up farming and, 
 though pursuing it under many disadvantages, 
 made good progress from year to year, and is to- 
 day one of the wealthy planters of Robertson 
 County, having in cultivation over 800 acres in the 
 Brazos Valley. 
 
 He represented Rjberston County in the Twen- 
 ty-third Legislature, discharging acceptably the 
 duties imposed on him, and refused the position 
 a second time. He and bis good wife have 
 raised four sons, all of whom were given educa- 
 tional advantages, and three of whom, Frank L, 
 Aaron and James R. , are now living and occupy 
 positions of usefulness. Their second son, Joseph 
 W., was accidentally killed on the railroad in June, 
 1894. 
 
 HENRY VOCES, SR., 
 
 BULVERDE, 
 
 One of the most prominent pioneers of the Comal 
 County mountain district and the worthy founder 
 of one of the most highly esteemed families in Cen- 
 tral Texas, was born in the town of Pina, near the 
 
 city of Brunswick, Germany, May 27, 1811. He 
 came from Bremen, Germany, to Galveston, in 18-15, 
 bringing with him two sons and one daughter. 
 The latter is deceased. The two sons are Frederick 
 
538 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 and Henry, residents of Voges' Valley. From Gal- 
 veston they proceeded to Seguin, and later to New 
 Braunfels and in 18(50 located in what is now known 
 as Voges' Valley, in Comal County, where he 
 reared his family and is now spending his declining 
 years in peace and quietude. From 1846 to 1852 
 
 located in the mountains of Bexar County, where he 
 livwl until 18G0 and then removed to liis present 
 home. He has been twice married. By his last 
 marriage he has two sons and two daughters, all 
 single. He helped build the Catholic Church 
 at New Braunfels and has been active in good 
 
 he did whatever his hands found to do. He soon works. 
 
 JAMES TALBOT, 
 
 ROBERTSON COUNTY. 
 
 James Talbot, deceased, for many years a resi- 
 dent of Robertson County, Texas, was born in 
 Morgan County, Ga., in 1805, and was a 
 descendant of that old Georgia family of Talbots 
 for whom Talbot County in that State was named. 
 His father was William Talbot, a well-to-do planter, 
 and was, it is believed, a native of Virginia, emi- 
 grating to Middle Georgia about the close of the 
 last century. 
 
 James Talbot was reared in his native State and 
 at about the age of twentj'-one went to Alabama 
 and settled in Pike County. There he resided a 
 number of years and was twice married, moving 
 thence to Texas. He came to this State first in 
 1849, remaining only a short time. He moved out 
 and settled in 1852, stopping for a while in Wash- 
 ington County, and settling permanently in the 
 summer of 1853 in Robertson County, where he 
 had in the meantime purchased land. Though a 
 number of settlements had been made along the 
 Brazos where he bought, still but little improving 
 had been done, and he was one of the first to open 
 a plantation in that vicinity. The old Talbot home- 
 stead is about five miles from the present town of 
 Calvert, and there Mr. Talbot spent all his subse- 
 quent j'ears in Texas. He was a plain farmer ; 
 but, with a fair degree of success as such, fulfilled 
 all the obligations of a good citizen, and left this 
 world somewhat the better for having lived in it. 
 He was for many years a member of the Missionary 
 Baptist Church, and a Mason, joining one of the 
 first Masonic Lodges organized in tlie county, that 
 at old Sterling. 
 
 Mr. Talbot was three times married, and the 
 
 father of four cliildren. He first married Miss 
 Eliza Moore, of Pike County, Alabama, and after 
 her death, Jiliss Hannah Herring of the same 
 county. The issue of the former marriage was a 
 daugliter, Eliza, and of the latter, a son, Romanus, 
 and a daughter, Ann. Eliza was twice married, 
 first to Dr. Jones, of Alabama, and after his 
 death to Dr. Ware, of Texas, and died in 
 Robertson County, this State. Romanus Talbot 
 lives on the old Talbot homestead in Robert- 
 son County. Ann was married to Charles 
 P. Salter, and is now deceased. Mrs. Hannah 
 Herring Talliot died January 1, 1855, and somej-ears 
 afterwards Mr. Tall)0t married his third and last 
 wife. Miss JNIary Rucker. A daughter was born of 
 this union, Fannie P., now Mrs. John La Prelle, 
 of Austin. Mr. Talbot had four brothers, 
 Matthew, William, Greene and Hale, two of whom, 
 Matthew and Greene, were in Texas in an early 
 day, but never lived here. He also had two sisters, 
 Mrs. Nnnnelly, who lived and died in Georgia, and 
 Mrs. John ILxrvey, who accompanied her husband 
 to Texas in 1835 and settled on what was then the 
 very outskirts of civilization, being a point near the 
 present Talbot homestead in Robertson County 
 where the same year the father, mother and a son 
 were murdered by the Indians, and a sixyear-old 
 daughter was taken into captivity and held for a 
 number of years. The history of this captive child, 
 Ann Harvey, afterwards Mrs. S. Biiggs, who lived 
 for many years in Robertson County, forms one of 
 those thrilling episodes in which the early history 
 of Texas abounds. 
 
 James Talt)ot died in 1862. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 539 
 
 HENRY PANTERMUEHL, 
 
 SMITHSON'S VALLEY, 
 
 Was born in f,he province of Pomraeria, vicinity of 
 Koitenhagen, March 19, 1842. Hisfatlier, Joacliim 
 Pantermuehl, a farmer by occupation, emigrated to 
 America in 1854, witli bis seven sous (suliject of 
 tbis notice) and two daughters. Of these daughters 
 Mary was at that time married to John Schultz, now 
 a prosperous farmer, who accompanied her to the 
 New World and now lives on the Guadalupe river, in 
 Comal County. Louise, the other daughter, is Mrs. 
 Chas. Ohlrich, of Smithson's Valley, in the same 
 county. A third daughter came to America a few 
 years later with her husband, Fritz Wunderlich, and 
 located at New Braunfels, where she died May 17th, 
 1878, leaving a son, Julius Wunderlich, now a 
 
 farmer living on the Guadalupe river in Comal 
 County, and a daughter, Augusta, who is the wife 
 of Benjamin R. Smithson, of Smithson's Valley. 
 The subject of tbis brief notice, Henry Pantermuehl, 
 was twelve years of age when he arrived in tbis 
 country. He lived on a farm during his earlier 
 years, acquiring a thorough knowledge of the busi- 
 ness and is now a prosperous farmer. He married, 
 May 20th, 1874, and has three living children: 
 Herman, born June 12, 1876; Emilie, born July 
 16th, 1878, and Richard, born November 9th, 1879. 
 Mrs. Pantermuehl's maiden name Miss Pauline 
 Startz. She is the daughter of Henry Startz, and 
 was born January 9th 1856. 
 
 CHAS. GROSSGEBAUER, 
 
 GOODWIN, COMAL COUNTY, 
 
 Resident near New Braunfels, farmer by occupa- 
 tion, came to Texas from the province and town of 
 Brunswick, Germany, in 1857. Was born in Zil- 
 feldt, Brunswick, November 7th, 1847. He was 
 accompanied to this country by his mother, then a 
 widow, who later married Henrj' Kellermann, 
 
 under whom tbis subject learned his trade. Em- 
 barked in business for himself in 1875 and has 
 since been quite successful. Married in 1874 Miss 
 Caroline Warnecke, and has three sons and three 
 daughters: Charles, Louise, Albert, Anna, Emma, 
 and Jerry. 
 
 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN SMITHSON, 
 
 SMITHSON'S VALLEY, 
 
 Is a Texas pioneer and was the first settler in 
 Smithson's Vallej'. He was born in Jtfferson 
 County, Ala., March 19, 1825. His father, William 
 Smithson, a native of Virginia, and soldier in the 
 War of 1812-14, came to Texas in 1837 from Ala- 
 bama with his wife and nine children and died in 
 1844. Of this old family three members only, the 
 subject of this sketch, Jane and Richard C, are 
 now (1895) living. B. F. Smithson removed to 
 
 Comal County in 1851 and located on his present 
 homestead, where he has since continuously resided. 
 In 1842 he was a member of Capt. Belting's 
 Company of Texas rangers, participated in the 
 battle of Salado and later took i)art in many other 
 skirmishes with the Mexicans and Indians. During 
 tlie Mexican War he was a memt er of Bell's Regi- 
 ment and was stationed on the Texas frontier. He 
 was the first postmaster of Smithson's Valley and 
 
540 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 assisted in buildiiio; the first school house in that 
 section of the country. He married, January 9, 
 1856, Miss Augusta Vogel, a daughter of Louis 
 Vogei, an early Texas pioneer. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Smithson have four children, all born inSmithson's 
 
 Valley, viz.: Louise (wife of Mr. Henry Wezen, 
 of Smithson Valley), Sarah (wife of Theo. Bose, of 
 the same locality), Richard B. (who married Miss 
 Augusta Wonderlich), and Emma (Mrs. Adolf 
 Hoffeing, residing near Burnet, in Kendall County). 
 
 ARMISTEAD E. WATSON, 
 
 MARLIN. 
 
 Armistead E. Watson was born January 28, 
 1834, in Prince Edward County, Va., the seventh 
 of ten children, whose parents were Joseph A. and 
 Jane (Bruce) Watson. Joseph A. Watson, also 
 born in Prince Edward County, was a son of Col. 
 Jesse Watson, who served with the rank of Captain 
 in the War of the Revolution and was subsequently 
 appointed Colonel of State troops. He was a son 
 of John Watson, who was a native of Virginia and 
 of Scotch ancestry, and was among the early 
 settlers in the colonies. 
 
 The worthy mother of Mr. Watson was the 
 daughter of Alex. Bruce, and was born in Lunen- 
 burg County, Va., as was her father, Alexander. 
 His ancestors were from Scotland. 
 
 Armistead E. Watson was reared on a plantation 
 and secured his education in the principal schools 
 of that day, which were of superior order. In 1856 
 he decided to leave the Old Commonwealth. His 
 course lay through Montgomery and Mobile, Ala., 
 b3' rail, and thence by steamer to Galveston, Texas, 
 via New Orleans. From Galveston he went to 
 Washington County, where he purchased a tract of 
 land, on which he settled. His slaves came by land 
 and were about three months on the road. There, 
 amidst new scenes, he commenced the building up 
 of a new home for himself and to do his part in 
 developing the grand resources of his adopted 
 Slate ; but he was not long to remain in those pur- 
 suits. The ominous war-cloud, long hovering over 
 the land, soon broke in savage fury. Responding 
 to a sense of duty, he promptly enlisted in Companj^ 
 G., Fourth Texas Infantry, commanded by Colonel, 
 afterward General, Hood, took part in man3' of the 
 great battles of the war, and bore himself as became 
 a gallant soldier fighting in defense of his home and 
 country. Among the battles in which he partici- 
 pated may be mentioned Gaines' Mill, the Seven 
 Days' battle around Richmond, and Malvern Hill. 
 
 At the end of two years, spent in almost continu- 
 ous fighting, he was released from service on 
 account of failing health, and returned home to 
 Texas and again resumed his agricultural pursuits, 
 which he followed until January, 1868, when he 
 moved to Galveston and engaged in business as a 
 cotton buj-er. In 1870 he made another change, 
 going to Falls County, where he engaged in plant- 
 ing. Subsequently he became engaged in raising 
 and dealing in stock, acquiring, from time to time, 
 land interests. In the spring of 1892, he assisted 
 in the organization and became president of the 
 First National Bank of Marlin. 
 
 Mr. Watson possesses admirable business quali- 
 ties and has been eminently successful in all his 
 operations, at the same time doing much towards 
 the development and growth of the country. 
 
 He was married May 25, 1869, to Amanda, 
 daughter of the late Churchill Jones. To this 
 union three children were born : Irene, Clara, and 
 Armistead. Armistead, a bright and promising 
 youth of eighteen years and the idol of his father, 
 was untimely taken from this world by a stroke of 
 lightning whilst pursuing his studies at Roanoke 
 College, Va., June 27, 1892. This was a sad blow 
 to his devoted father, inflicting a wound from which 
 he will never recover. 
 
 His wife died June 8th, 1874, at the age of thirty 
 years. She was a member of the Baptist Church. 
 He was subsequently married, February ]8Lh, 1878, 
 to Xeminia C. Powers, daughter of Joseph and 
 Susan (Turner) Powers, who were among the old 
 and prominent families of Alabama. To them has 
 been born one child, Ximinia. Mrs. Watson is a 
 member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
 
 In 1884 Mr. Watson was elected by the Demo- 
 cratic party to the Nineteenth Legislature, and 
 filkd that responsible position with credit to him- 
 self and satisfaction to his constituency. 
 
A. E. WAl'SOA. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 541 
 
 RICHARD KIMBALL, 
 
 MERIDIAN, 
 
 Richard Kimhall, a leading lawyer aud one of 
 the most extensive planters in Bosque Count}', 
 Texas, was born in New York City in 18i5, the 
 eldest of five children born to Richard B. and 
 Julia C. (Tomiinson) Kimball. The Kiraballs 
 were a very old English family, tracing their 
 genealogy back to remote limes. The progenitor 
 of the American branch, Richard Kimball (a name 
 that has passed down from generation to generation 
 in the familj'), crossed the ocean and settled in 
 Massachusetts in 1635. The Tomlinsons were also 
 an ancient English family, representatives of which 
 came to America in colonial days. Both families 
 contributed gallant soldiers to the patriot armies of 
 the American Revolution and distinguislied mem- 
 bers to the learned professions in America in the 
 earlier and later history of the country. The 
 father of the subject of this memoir graduated with 
 honors at Dartmouth College, studied law and 
 began practice at Waterford, N. Y. ; shortly there- 
 after moved to New York City, where he soon rose 
 to eminence and became attorney for various rail- 
 road corporations and financially interested in 
 railroad building ; in 1846 bought various tracts of 
 land in Texas, aggregating more than 100,000 
 acres, and about 1859 founded the town of Kim- 
 ball on the Brazos river, in Bosque County. It 
 was on the cattle trail and soon became a flourish- 
 ing place. Its prosperity' continued until railroads 
 were built throughout the country and then, being 
 
 left inland, its fortunes declined. It is still a post- 
 offlee. He was the leading spirit in the Galveston, 
 Houston & Henderson Railway Co., organized 
 about the year 1853. The road was completed 
 from Galveston to Houston and he served as its 
 president until the war between the States. After 
 the war he disposed of his enterprises in Texas and 
 thereafter devoted his time to a large corporation 
 (principally railroad) practice in America and 
 Europe. He was a polished and educated gentle- 
 man of refined literary tastes and was the author 
 of several books. He died in 1892 in New York. 
 His wife had died in 1879. 
 
 The subject of this notice graduated at Dart- 
 mouth College in 1855 ; studied law at Poughkeep- 
 sie, N. Y., and was admitted to the bar in 1867, 
 and the following year came to Texas and located 
 on a fine estate on the Brazos river, some 3,000 
 acres, which he proceeded to improve. In 1888 he 
 moved to Meridian and engaged actively in the 
 general practice of his profession and is now con- 
 sidered one of the best lawyers in that section of 
 the State. 
 
 He has ever been an active working Democrat, is 
 chairman of the County Democratic Executive 
 Committee and has for years been a delegate to 
 the various party conventions. 
 
 In 1881 he married Miss Nannie A. Ogden, of 
 Missouri. They have five children : Richard Hunt- 
 ington, Ma}', Julia, Harold Ogden, and Margaret C. 
 
 JOHN M. ZIPP, 
 
 NEW BRAUNFELS, 
 
 Oldest son of a Texas pioneer of 1847, the late 
 John Jacob Zipp, was born in Germany and was 
 about seventeen years of age when he came to 
 Texas with his father and family. 
 
 He married in June, 1864, Miss Helen Hoffman, 
 
 daughter of a worthy Comal County pioneer. She 
 was born in 1839. 
 
 They have a family of six children. Mr. Zipp is 
 a prosperous farmer, a man of great thrift and in- 
 dustry, and a fair type of Comal County pioneer. 
 
542 
 
 INDIAN WAES AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS 
 
 THOMAS HARVEY PUCKETT, 
 
 KENEDY. 
 
 T. H. Puckett was born March 2, 1825, near 
 Terre Haute, Ind., where his parents, Isam and 
 Edith (Garrett) Puclvett, natives of North Car- 
 olina, bad settled at an early day. His mother 
 died twenty-four liours after his birth, and his 
 father April 7, 1835. In 1836, he, together with a 
 brother, Micajah, and a sister, Hannah Puckett, 
 were brought to Texas by a paternal uncle, Thomas 
 Puckett, who moved to the infant Republic with his 
 family in that year, and oi)ened a small farm about 
 twelve miles distant from the present city of Austin, 
 which was founded and established as the seat of 
 government under the laws of the Republic of 
 Texas. Three years later, William Hornsby and 
 William Gilleland were the nearest neighbors of the 
 Pucketts. Gilleland was killed by the Indians 
 about the year 1841. 
 
 Travis County in 1836 was situated at the ex- 
 treme western limit of the settlements in the very 
 heart of the wilderness, and was subject to well- 
 nigh incessant Indian raids. Upon many occa- 
 sions the hardy pioneer family found it necessary 
 to fi»ht the savages in defense of home and life, 
 and met with the usual number of perilous adven- 
 tures. 
 
 Mr. Thomas Puckett drove a herd of cattle to 
 Coles Countj', 111., in 1858, and, owing to the 
 hardships and exposure incident to the trip, died 
 soon after reaching there, at the home of a married 
 daughter, who ministered to his last wants. He 
 left eight children, four boys and four girls. 
 
 The subject of this notice, T. H. Puckett, who 
 had then about reached manhood, went to Indiana 
 on a vis:it at the commencement of the war between 
 the United States and Mexico, and there met and 
 enlisted under Capt. Black, who was raising a com- 
 pany for service in the United States army. Three 
 older brothers, William, Richard, and James P. 
 (who were afterwards killed at the battle of Buena 
 Vista), also went out with this company. T. H. 
 Puckett passed through the war without serious 
 
 mishap, and received his discharge at New Orleans 
 in 1847, and returned to his home in Travis County, 
 where he reraaineil until 1849, when he accepted em- 
 ploj'ment with a Mr. Ewing and drove a herd of cattle 
 overland with him to California, having numerou 
 sharp encounters with Indians along the route. 
 After remaining in California for more than a year, 
 Mr. Puckett and about twenty other j'oung men 
 associated themselves together and went to Chili, 
 for the purpose of buying land and engaging in 
 raising wheat, flour then commanding about one 
 dollar a pound on the Pacific slope. After spend- 
 ing a few months in Chili, however, they abandoned 
 this purpose, made their way to the Amazon river, 
 and later after visiting a number of English and 
 French ports, landed at New York, from which city 
 Mr. Puckett proceeded to Texas by way of New 
 Orleans and settled on the San Antonio river, in 
 what was then (1852) a part of Goliad, but since 
 1853 a part of Karnes County. Here, near the 
 present town of Kenedy, he has since resided. He 
 has been twice married, first in Karnes County, 
 January 15, 1857, to Miss Elmira Archer, who bore 
 him eleven children (six b03's and five girls) all of 
 whom are living and nine of whom are married, and 
 second, Decemlier 20, 1892, to Mrs. Hannah Cook. 
 There were no children by the second marriage. 
 Mrs. Elmira Puckett died August 27, 1886, and 
 Mrs. Hannah Puckett, September 3, 1894. Mr. 
 Puckett served in Company H., Twent3--fourth 
 Texas Regiment, during the war between the States, 
 until captured at Arkansas Post, where he made 
 his escape by swimming the Arkansas river, after 
 which he returned home and entered the frontier 
 service, in which he remained until the close of 
 hostilities. 
 
 His sister, Hannah Puckett, who married William 
 Rush, died wiihout issue. His brother, Micajah, 
 was lost sight of in 1845 or 1846, and is supposed 
 to have fallen in the Mexican War, as did three 
 other brothers of the family. 
 
INDIAN WARS ^IND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 543 
 
 JOSEPH E. HERNDON, 
 
 CALVERT, 
 
 Was born in Spottslyvania, Va., May 5, ISIG. At 
 the age of eighteen, he went to Georgetown, K}-., 
 where, December 17, 1840, he married Miss Mary 
 A. Briscoe, a native of Scott County (of which 
 Georgetown is tlie county seat), and lived there 
 until 1857, when he came to Texas and settled in 
 Eobertson County. He lived there until his death, 
 June 27, 1881. He opened and successfully oper- 
 ated a large Brazos-bottom plantation, and was a 
 citizen above reproach and much admired for his 
 
 many virtues. His wife died November 19, 1877. 
 They had five children, only two of whom, however, 
 lived to maturity. A son, Jacob W. Herndon, who 
 entered the Confederate army at the opening of the 
 late war, enlisted in Company C. (Capl. Town- 
 send), Hood's Brigade, and was killed at the battle 
 of Gettysburg, July 3, 1863. A daughter, Lucy 
 G., married Robert A. Brown, and is now a widow 
 residing in Calvert, Texas. 
 
 ROBERT A. BROWN, 
 
 CALVERT. 
 
 The late Robert A. Brown, of Calvert, was an 
 esteemed Texas pioneer of 1851, and few men in 
 this State, in his day, led a more active life and 
 accomplished more as a business man. Coming to 
 Texas at seventeen years of age, full of the vigor of 
 youth and just merging into manhood, the Lone 
 Star State had use for man}' young men of his stamp 
 in the development of its natural resources. 
 
 Mr. Brown was a native of Virginia, and was 
 bora at Culpepper County, near Brandj-wine Sta- 
 tion, February 22, 1833. Upon coming to Texas 
 he located at Galveston, where he found employment 
 as a salesman in the mercantile establishment of 
 Gen. Ebenezer Nichols. 
 
 At the commencement of the war between the 
 States he returned to his native State and county 
 and there volunteered in the defense of the cause of 
 the Confederate States as a member of the famous 
 Black-Horse Cavalry of Virginia, and as a soldier 
 served with distinguished bravery in the various 
 thrilling engagements incident to the defense of the 
 Confederate capital until his capture with many of 
 his comrades in the Valley of the Potomac in 1864. 
 He was confined as a prisoner of war, first at Fort 
 Delaware and afterwards at Washington, D. C, 
 until the conflict ended, when he was released and 
 returned to Galveston. 
 
 At Galveston, in compan}' with an uncle, John 
 Shackelford, he engaged in business as a cotton 
 
 factor and commission merchant under the firm 
 name of Shackelford & Brown, doing a successful 
 business. 
 
 Mr. Shackelford died in 1886 and Mr. Brown 
 continued the business with Mr. George Walshe 
 under the firm name of R. A. Brown & Co., 
 with marked success until 1886 when he moved to 
 Robertson County, located at Calvert, invested 
 large amounts of money in Brazos Valley farming 
 lands and Calvert city realty and became one of the 
 most enterprising and progressive citizens of that 
 town. He, also, devoted a large share of his time 
 to farming. 
 
 Robert A. Brown was pre-eminently a business 
 man, in the strictest sense and use of the term. In 
 early life he received a good business education and 
 was an expert accountant. He early learned the 
 lesson of self-reliance, was fertile in resources and 
 was never lacking in the promptitude and energy 
 necessary to a successful business career. 
 
 Mr. Brown was known through his extensive 
 business relations in Galveston and later at Calvert, 
 as a social, genial gentleman and drew about him a 
 host of warm personal friends. He was a man of 
 the strictest integrity, possessed a high sense of 
 honor and enjoyed the confidence of the entire 
 business public. 
 
 Mr. Brown married in 1867 Miss Lucy, daughter 
 of the late Col. Joseph E. Herndon, a Texas 
 
544 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 pioneer of whom biographical mention is made 
 elsewhere in this volume. Mrs. Brown and eight 
 children survive him. 
 
 Eobert Herndon, the oldest son, engaged in the 
 stock business at Waco. The other children are : 
 P'rederick Watts, actively engaged in farming near 
 Calvert; Lucy Summerville, Herndon, Maud, 
 Nettie, and John Brown, all of whom reside at the 
 family home at Calvert. 
 
 Mr. Brown in his domestic relations and home- 
 life was a model husband, a kind and indulgent 
 
 father, anil delighted in contributing to the hajjpi- 
 ness and welfare of his family and friends. 
 
 He died at Bremond while on a visit to his 
 almost life-long and trusted friend, John C. Roberts. 
 
 His funeral obsequies were attended by a large 
 concourse of sorrowing friends. The banks and 
 business houses closed on the day of his burial as a 
 testimonial of the respect and esteem in which he 
 was universally held. 
 
 He left a large and valuable estate and an honor- 
 able name as a heritage to his familv. 
 
 HENRY BENDER, 
 
 SPRING BRANCH, 
 
 Owner of Spring Branch Ranch, one of the most 
 pictures: que and valuable farm properties in Texas, 
 was born near the city of Worms, in Hesse-Darm- 
 stadt, Germany, February 15, 1842,. and came to 
 America when about nineteen years of age, landing 
 at New York in May, 1861. From that city he 
 went West, where he enlisted in the Union army in 
 1864, at Wabash, Ind., joining Company G., One 
 Hundred and Thirt}'-eighth Indiana Volunteer In- 
 fantry, which was immediately ordered to the 
 front ; joined Sherman and participated in the fa- 
 mous " march to the sea." After the close of the 
 war Mr. Bender returned to Wabash and resumed 
 his former position as clerk in a store. His health 
 failing, he came to Texas on a visit to his brother, 
 Charles Bender, now of Houston, but then residing 
 at New Braunfels, remained with him for a time 
 and then, later on, settled on his present place on 
 the Guadalupe river and engaged in farming. He 
 now owns 2,200 acres of the choicest farming and 
 grazing lands in the State. On the property is 
 located the famous head of Spring Branch, a spring 
 under the bluff in front of his residence, that gushes 
 
 forth several hundred thousand gallons of pure 
 cold water every hour. With its lovely valleys, 
 hills and lofty mountain peaks in the background, 
 sparkling springs and trout brooks, wonderful 
 growth of cypress and other shade trees, abundance 
 of timber and fertile soil. Spring Branch Ranch is, 
 without question, as valuable and attractive a piece 
 of property as can be found in Texas. Mr. Ben- 
 der has his entire estate under fence, several miles 
 of which is of solid stone; 115 acres are under 
 cultivation. Mr. Bender's father, Peter J. Ben- 
 der, was a farmer and wine grower in Germany, 
 sold his wine product to the royal family and no- 
 bility of the empire, enjoyed a handsome income, 
 and gave his ten sons and two daughters excellent 
 educational advantages. Mr. Bender married 
 Miss Harriet Sayers, daughter of Jacob Sayers, at 
 Wabash, Ind., August 10, 1865. Her father was 
 formerly a planter, merchant and mill-owner in 
 Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Bender have four sons 
 and four daughers : Louis H. (deceased), Freder- 
 ick H., Mary Alice, Rose K., Henry P., John F., 
 Lillie N., and Wm. M. Bender. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 545 
 
 ALFRED S. GARDNER, 
 
 CALVERT. 
 
 Judge Alfred S. Gardner, the venerable subject 
 of this sketch, is a Texas pioneer of 1844, a Mexi- 
 can War veteran of 1846, and one of the oldest liv- 
 ing citizens of Robertson County. He is a native 
 of Hart County, Ky., born near Munfordsville, in 
 the year 1822, where he grew up and lived until 
 twenty-two years of age. Anticipating the war that 
 two years later broke out between the United States 
 and Mexico, he came to Texas as above stated and 
 almost immediately identified himself with military 
 movements that were being put on foot. He found 
 his way by degrees to Wbeelock, now in Robertson 
 County, then in Old Leon County. Here he fell 
 in with Capts. Eli Chandler and Jack Hays and 
 engaged with them in skirmishing with the Indians 
 that were then more or less troublesome along the 
 Brazos River Valley. 
 
 Later, in 1846, he volunteered for the Mexican 
 War under Capt. James Gillespie, and served under 
 him a period of about seven months, or until the 
 war ended. He then returned to Leon County. 
 
 Judge Gardner in his youthful days worked in a 
 blacksmith shop and learned the trade in Texas, 
 
 which he followed with prolit at the town of Leona. 
 He was later elected County Judge of Leon County 
 and held the ofBce for six years. 
 
 Judge Gardner has been twice married. His first 
 wife was Martha Braden, by whom he had one 
 daughter, Martha Jane, now the wife of James 
 Nash, who resides in Louisiana. 
 
 His second marriage was to Miss Martha Jane 
 Moore. -A daughter by this union, Louella, is the 
 wife of George K. Proctor of Calvert. The other 
 two children are Samuel and Alfred, farmers in 
 Leon County. 
 
 Judge Gardner's father, Edmund Gardner, a 
 native of Spottsylvania County, Va., and a soldier 
 under Gen. Jackson, in 1815, was born in 1786. 
 He came to Kentucky in 1807, lived in Hardin 
 County, pursued farming, and there died in 1885, 
 at ninety-nine years and three months of ace. 
 
 Judge Gardner's mother, Martha Shelton, was a 
 daughter of Capt. Tom Shelton, of Spottsylvania 
 County, Va., and a Captain in the Continental army. 
 Judge Gardner now (1896) is spending his declin- 
 ing years at Calvert. 
 
 EMIL WARMUND, 
 
 FREDERICKSBURG, 
 
 Emil Warmund, Sr. , is a worthy representative 
 of one of the oldest and most prominent pioneer 
 families of Gillespie County, Texas. His parents 
 were Christian and Augusta Warmund, from 
 Nassau, Germany. They had four sons: Louis, 
 William, Emil, and Charles. The family came to 
 Texas in 1846, landing at Galveston in January 
 after a voyage of one hundred and twenty days on 
 a sailing vessel. From Galveston they went to 
 Indianola where they spent two weeks, and then 
 proceeded to Fredericksburg in wagons drawn by 
 ox-teams, the trip requiring four weeks. Emil 
 remained in New Braunfels with his brother William 
 (a clerk for the German Emigration Company) for 
 eighteen months, at the expiration of which time 
 they joined the family at Fredericksburg. There the 
 
 parents died, the mother in 1848 at forty-two years 
 of age and the father in 1872 at seventy-three years 
 of age. Louis died in 1884 and William in 1891. 
 Emil, the subject of this notice, located on Live 
 Oak creek, where be raised stock, farmed and made 
 money. Later he lived on Bear creek, nine miles 
 distant from Fredericksburg. In the fall of 186.5 
 he located in Fredericksburg and engaged in mer- 
 chandising, at which he has been quite successful. 
 He is now one of the wealthiest citizens of liis 
 county. He was a member of the local militia 
 during the war and did all he could to promote the 
 Southern cause. 
 
 He was married in Fredericksburg in 1847 to 
 Miss Augusta Sander. They have seven chil- 
 dren: Adolph, now deceased, who left i 
 
546 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 widow and two sons ; Emil, August, Louise, now 
 Mrs. William Basse ; Emma, now Mrs. Alba 
 Patton ; Matilda, now Mrs. Henry Meckle ; and 
 Lena, now Mrs. Alfred Basse. They have twenty- 
 five living; ojrandchildren. 
 
 local development and the history of that portion 
 of Texas in which its members have lived. 
 
 William Warmund, deceased, was a man of most 
 excellent character. He served several terms as 
 County Judge of Gillespie County and left a large 
 
 The Warmund family has left its impress upon estate to his family and an honorable name. 
 
 JOSEPH BATES, 
 
 BRAZORIA. 
 
 Few men in Texas were l)ettcr known or more 
 universally admired in their day and generation 
 than the subject of this memoir. Gen. Joseph Bates, 
 of Brazoria. 
 
 A writer in " Reminiscences of Public Men in 
 Alabama," an historical volume published in that 
 State, says of him: " Indeed, nature seemed to 
 have marked him for command. He was tall, 
 athletic, and of exact symmetry in his person, with 
 a head and face which a sculptor would delight to 
 copy as a master-piece. His mental powers were 
 not inferior to his physical. Though not a lawyer 
 by profession, he bad all the readiness in thought 
 and language of a practiced speaker. He possessed 
 greater qualities still. When difficulties multiplied, 
 he rose with the occasion, and was always adequate 
 to the emergency, never at a loss, never taken by 
 surprise ; and his bearing always reminded me, in 
 conception, of a grand field-marshal of Napoleon 
 at the head of a column, advancing, while a hun- 
 dred pieces of artillery played upon him, until he 
 pierced the enemy's center, and decided the for- 
 tunes of the day. Never did I gaze upon a more 
 lofty man in his physical developments, coupled 
 with what I knew to be his intellectual qualities." 
 
 The following article, under date of February 27, 
 1888, appeared in the Galveston News of March 1, 
 of that year, announcing the close of his illustrious 
 career in death : — 
 
 '' On the morning of the eighteenth instant, at 
 about 4 o'clock, Gen. Joseph Bates breathed his 
 last, at his residence in this county. For the past 
 few months the General had been growing feebler, 
 and to the anxious kinsmen and friends it was 
 plain to see that his life's course was nearing its 
 close. 
 
 "Gen. Bates was born at Mobile, Ala., Jan- 
 uary 19, 1805, and had reached the eighty-third 
 year of his age. The General was not of a com- 
 
 municative turn of mind, especiall3' touching his 
 personal history, and were it not that his name 
 figures conspicuously in the record of the legisla- 
 tive and political events of early times in Alabama, 
 the writer would not have much to say respecting 
 his early life. However, in 1829, we learn that he 
 was a member of the Lower House of the General 
 Assembly of that State. In 1835 he was taking an 
 active part in what is known as the Seminole Indian 
 War in Florida. In 1837, then being Major-general 
 of the Sixth Division of the State militia, he was 
 returned to the House of Representatives from 
 Mobile County and again, in 1840, we find him at 
 his old post of duty in the legislative halls of his 
 native State. During this long tenure of office he 
 is shown to have been ever vigilant in protecting 
 the rights of his constituency. And particularly 
 on the occasion of the passage in 1837 of what was 
 known as the State Cotton Agency Bill, he is repre- 
 sented as having done yeoman service in opposing 
 the bill. As the leader of the minority he made a 
 written protest against its passage, which, the 
 chronicler of those events tells us, ' is to be found 
 spread upon the journal of the House at page 202, 
 a monument of the faithfulness of a representative 
 in vindication of his constituents in the city of 
 Mobile.' 
 
 "He was a warm personal friend and political 
 supporter of Hon. Henry Clay, and in 1844, when 
 that gentleman visited the city of Mobile, Gen. 
 Bates was his constant companion during his stay, 
 and one who saw them together and knew them 
 both remarked that ' a view of two such men side 
 by side, so peculiarly striking and so gifted, each 
 in his sphere, may never again be the privilege of 
 any spectator.' 
 
 " He came to Texas about 1845 and stopped in 
 Galveston, of which city he was Mayor for two 
 terms. While there he also held the position of 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 547 
 
 United States Marshal for the F^astem District of 
 Texas under President Fillmore's administration. 
 About 1854 he removed to and located in the west- 
 ern portion of the county, near the coast, where 
 we find him at the beginning of the late war, 
 engaged in the quiet occupation of farming and 
 stock-raising. But when the tocsin of war rang 
 its peal of alarm, and the war clouds gathered 
 dun and dim, he forsook these quiet pursuits, and 
 at his country's call, -like the patriot that he was, 
 armed himself for the fray. 
 
 •'He entered the service of the Confederacy as 
 a Colonel of the regiment he had succeeded in 
 raising and, under Gen. Macgruder, was assigned 
 to duty on the coast defenses of Texas. He estab- 
 lished his headquarters at Velasco, and was ever 
 vigilant and watchful of his charge. In recognition 
 of his services he was promoted from one degree 
 to another until his stately form was at last adorned 
 with the uniform of a General. And here, at this 
 post of duty, it was that those traits of character, 
 which marked him as one born to lead and com- 
 mand, shone forth with all their brilliancy. The 
 order was given to evacuate the coast defenses, 
 and, with that peculiar keenness of forethought, 
 which was his alone, he saw that disaster to the 
 country could but result from such a step, and, in 
 opposition to all who favored the move, he refused 
 to retreat, held his position, and thus, by the in- 
 terpid and determined efforts of this one brave 
 
 man, this, the fairest portion of our fair State, was 
 saved from the ruin and desolation tliat waits 
 attendance on an invading army, and this, alone, 
 is sufficient to make his name loved and memory 
 dear to those who now enjoy the fruits of his 
 knightly conduct. After the war had closed and 
 the Confederacy had furled its flag and yielded it 
 to the victors, he in the turbulent time of recon- 
 struction bore himself with such moderation, dis- 
 cretion, and firmness, that his example and zealous 
 efforts went far towards bringing about a pacific 
 adjustment of our local affairs. The General had 
 three sons and two daughters living, and a host of 
 friends to mourn his loss. His love of home and 
 friends, his high sense of justice, unbending in- 
 tegrity and constancy of purpose, are all traits of 
 character which united in him, and gently blended 
 in such degree as to make him loved at home and 
 admired and respected abroad. With all the noble 
 traits of character possessed by this good old man, 
 it is needless to add that round the family fireside 
 the rosy light of love and peace at all times shed 
 its genial glow. 
 " Like us all : — 
 
 " ' He had some faults, 
 
 But these, in some way, 
 
 Have escaped my mind; 
 
 I only remember 
 
 The warm, feeling heart 
 
 That made him a friend 
 
 To all mankind." " 
 
 LEOPOLD MILLER, 
 
 ORANGE. 
 
 Men of foreign birth have done much to develop 
 the resources of Texas, and form one of the most 
 progressive elements of its population. The man 
 who is slothful or timid or who bends himself easily 
 to existing conditions, never tries his fortune in a 
 strange and distant land. A majority of those who 
 have come to us from across the seas, represent the 
 best blood and intelligence of the countries of their 
 birth. They have the ambition and just pride to 
 wish for and labor with energy to accumulate a 
 competency, the power of mind to plan and execute, 
 the firmness and courage to dare and do upon life's 
 great field of action, and the love of liberty to 
 appreciate and help maintain the blessings to be 
 enjoyed under free institutions. The life of no 
 
 man whose name the writer can recall, more forcibly 
 illustrates the truth of these statements than that of 
 the subject of this memoir, Leopold Miller, the 
 well-known mill owner and merchant of Orange, 
 Texas. 
 
 Mr. Miller was born in Hamburg, Germany, 
 October 27, 1853. His father, A. Miller, for 
 many years a cigar manufacturer and enterprising 
 business man of Hamburg, was born at Weisen- 
 burg, Germany, in 1802, and died at Hamburg in 
 1886. 
 
 His mother, who bore the maiden name of Hen- 
 rietta Markus, was born at Hamburg in 1820. She 
 is still living in Hamburg and, although she has 
 passed the allotted span of three score years and 
 
548 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 ten, is in good health. Always of a cheerful and 
 happy mood, she is like a ray of sunshine in the 
 home and, beloved by children and grandchildren 
 and all who know her, the evening of her days is 
 bright and sunny. Of the eight children, four 
 sons and four daughters, born to her, all are now 
 living. 
 
 Mr. Leopold Miller left his native city for 
 America in 1869, when sixteen years of age, and 
 after an uneventful voyage reached his destination 
 at New Orleans. After working for four years in 
 a mercantile establishment in that city, he moved 
 to Mississippi, where he clerked in a store for 
 about eight years. He returned to New Orleans, 
 remained there for a period of eight months and 
 then, August 1, 1881, started for Texas, which has 
 since been his home and where he has acquired an 
 independent fortune. Upon his arrival in this 
 State he at once embarked in merchandising. In 
 1888 he became connected with the saw mill busi- 
 ness and now owns the largest shingle mill in the 
 South. His mercantile business has also grown 
 to large proportions. He is president of the 
 Orange Electric Light & Water Works Company, 
 was one of the organizers and is now one of the 
 directors of the First National Bank of Orange, 
 and is a member of the Board of Trade of Orange. 
 He has also served as a member of the Board of 
 Aldermen and School Board and has been an 
 active, untiring and progressive worker for the up- 
 building of the town and section of the State in which 
 he lives. He has given liberally of his time and 
 means to the promotion of every worthy enterprise, 
 is a member of the Legion of Honor, Knights of 
 Honor, Knights of Pythias, I. O. O. F.,and Masonic 
 fraternities, and has thoroughly identified himself 
 with the best interests (social, educational, moral 
 and commercial) of the State to whose develop- 
 ment he has so materially contributed. He is rated 
 as one of the wealthiest business men of Orange. 
 Starting in life a penniless young man, he has had 
 to make his own way in the world. 
 
 He was married in New Orleans, November 16, 
 1879, to Miss Camilla Kaiser, daughter of B. 
 Kaiser, a wholesale merchant of that city. She 
 was born in 1856, received an excellent education 
 and is a lady of rare accomplishments. An elegant 
 entertainer, her husband's home is famous for its 
 refined hospitality. Her father lost all of his 
 
 propert3' during the war between the States. Even 
 his watch, chain and Masonic charm were taken from 
 him during the occupancy of the city by the Fed- 
 eral troops under Gen. Ben. Butler. The Masonic 
 charm was afterwards returned to him. Mrs. 
 Miller is a sister of Maik Kaiser, the celebrated 
 violinist of New Orleans, who is conceded to be 
 the best in the South. When Mr. and Mrs. Miller 
 were married they had nothing, but shortly there- 
 after established a small business in Monticello, 
 Miss. After remaining there for sixteen months, 
 they returned to New Orleans, where he placed 
 all of his wares and merchandise aboard the 
 steamer " Katie Nye." The steamer, it afterwards 
 transpired, had been condemned by the board of 
 underwriters. Mr. Miller was not aware of this 
 fact, but, on the contrary, was under the impres- 
 sion that his commission merchant had taken out 
 insurance. Six hours after the vessel started she 
 was burned to the water's edge and his goods 
 destroyed. As they were uninsured his loss was 
 complete. 
 
 His faithful wife stood by him in this hour of 
 gloom and disaster without a complaint or murmur, 
 having confidence in his ability to surmount the 
 difficulties that confronted them. Mr. Miller attrib- 
 utes all of his after success to her, saying that she 
 has sustained him with her unfaltering faith and 
 encouraged and urged him forward at all difficult 
 points they have encountered along their path- 
 way. 
 
 Four children have been born to them, three of 
 whom, Joe, fourteen, Morris, twelve, and Etta, ten 
 years of age, are now (189.5) living at home and 
 are receiving that advice, attention and careful 
 rearing that give promise of useful lives when they 
 shall, in the years that are coming towards them, 
 leave the parental roof-tree to encounter the vicissi- 
 tudes, and strive for the honors of adult life. 
 
 Mr. Miller is still a young man. His powers 
 have been developed in the school of experience. 
 At the head of important enterprises, full of plans 
 for the future, with a large fortune at his command 
 and in the hey-day and prime of a vigorous man- 
 hood, it is to be expected that he has only fairly 
 entered upon his achievements as a financier and 
 that he will make his influence still more powerfully 
 felt in the upbuilding of the commercial and other 
 interests of his adopted State. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 549 
 
 JOSEPH F. SMITH, 
 
 Joseph F. Smith, the subject of this imperfect 
 sketch, was boru in Fulton County, Ky., in 1808. 
 He removed to Arlsansas at an earl3' day, where he 
 acquired considerable property in land and negroes. 
 He came to Texas in the early thirties, or perhaps 
 in the latter twenties, and entered into partnership 
 with his uncle, ex-Governor Henry Smith, in the 
 purchase of vast quantities of landscrip, which 
 Mr. Smith located, coming into what was then the 
 wild West for the purpose. The bulk of this land 
 was located in Refugio and San Patricio counties, 
 over land previously illegally located, as Mr. Smith 
 claimed, and time and the law bore him out as being 
 correct in his conclusions. This, necessarily, in- 
 volved him in almost endless litigation, and he 
 studied law and was admitted to the bar solely for 
 the purpose of attending to his own large and 
 important land suits, for it was very seldom that he 
 ever attended to suits for other parties, and only 
 then, it is believed, where he had been concerned 
 in the location of the land in controversy, although 
 he was considered one of the best, if not the best, 
 land lawyers in Texas. In other suits, either civil 
 or criminal, he never engaged. 
 
 When quite j'oung, he joined the ill-fated expedi- 
 tion from Texas, which fought the famous battle 
 of Mier, in which a little band of brave Texians 
 took the city, defended by a large body of Mexican 
 troops, killing several times their own number of 
 the enemy. But large reinforcements arriving, 
 they were offered terms by Gen. Ampudia, which 
 they were compelled to accept, and thus became the 
 famous Mier prisoners. The Mexicans after the 
 surrender, treated the prisoners with the usual 
 faith of the nation. In the fatal lottery that fol- 
 lowed the attempt to escape at the hacienda of 
 Salado Mr. Smith was so fortunate as to draw a 
 white bean, thereby winning one of the first prizes, 
 his life. 
 
 After regaining his liberty, he returned to Texas, 
 fixing his domicile at what was then known as Black 
 Point, on Aransas Bay, now St. Mary's. Mr. 
 Smith laid out and founded the town of St. Mary's 
 
 some years before the Civil War. Here he built a 
 fine and large stone house, from native quarries, 
 which he designed as a residence for his daughter, 
 who in the meantime had married, in Eastern 
 Texas, a Mr. Kennedj'. He was anxious to have 
 his daughter and her children near him, as he 
 grew older, he having been, through force of cir- 
 cumstances, separated from her nearly all of his 
 life ; but, before the house was finished and 
 preparations completed, his daughter failed so much 
 in health, that the project for her removal was 
 abandoned. In a few years his own health failed 
 so materially that he thought himself compelled to 
 give up his own home and seek an even milder cli- 
 mate than Texas, and this he found in Tuxpan, 
 Mexico, where he removed, and bought the rancho 
 " Lapatal," consisting of some thirty thousand 
 acres of land. Here death claimed him, and he 
 died in this alien land, far from the country he 
 loved and from all his kindred, in 1878, his beloved 
 daughter having preceded him to the land of the 
 departed by some years. He left a will bequeath- 
 ing all of his possessions to his two granddaughters, 
 the Misses Mary Elizabeth and Lucy .Jane Kenned}', 
 the former and elder having since married the Hon. 
 B. M. Sheldon, now mayor of Rockport, which 
 town, Mr. Smith, during the course of his useful 
 life, materially assisted in founding and also assisted 
 in carrying on to prosperitj'. The writer perhaps 
 knew Mr. Smith as well as any person now living, 
 but not sufficiently well to relate all the incidents 
 in his long and eventful life, which, if properly 
 collated and set down, would easily fill a large and 
 interesting book. Though very reticent — and 
 somewhat prone to speak over-little of incidents in 
 his own life, he was known as one of the early heroes 
 of Texas, an eminently just man, and one who 
 largely assisted in all the best enterprises that made 
 early Texas' history so glorious. 
 
 Never having seen his name in any hitherto 
 printed Texas history, it is a pleasure to the 
 author to accord him his rightful place in this 
 volume. 
 
550 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 B. M. SHELDON, 
 
 ROCKPORT, 
 
 Hon. B. M. Sheldon came to Texas in 1875 from 
 New Orleans, where he was born August 12, 18G2. 
 His father, Capt. Stephen Sheldon, a steamboat 
 owner who ran vessels on the Mississippi and Ohio 
 rivers for many years, was a native of Ehode 
 Island ; married Miss Georgiana Arnold, also a 
 native of that State, and died at New Orleans in 
 1869. Besides the subject of this memoir there 
 were two daughters and one son, viz. : Albert B., 
 Fannie, and Georgiana. A. B. died at Corpus 
 Christi in 1884 at twenty years of age. Fannie is 
 the wife of Benjamin Sprague, of Providence, R. I. 
 When twelve years old B. M. Sheldon came to 
 Texas with his mother, worked on a farm for a few 
 months and then apprenticed himself and learned 
 the painters and signwriters trade, which he fol- 
 lowed for about twelve years at Corpus Christi. 
 He then went to Rockport to pursue the same busi- 
 ness. He married, February 3d, 1890, Miss Lizzie 
 Kennedy, an accomplished daughter of Prof. John 
 
 T. Kennedy, Professor of Mathematics, at Mc- 
 Kenzie Institute, Clarksville, Texas, where Mrs. 
 Sheldon and her sister Janie were born. They 
 were reared and educated at Palestine, Texas. 
 Mrs. Sheldon is a lady of attainments and fine 
 domestic traits. Miss Janie Kennedy is a member 
 of the household and a lady of social and intel- 
 lectual culture. Mr. Sheldon engaged extensively 
 in contracting at Rockport for a time and has since 
 been engaged in the real estate business. He 
 served three years as Alderman of Rockport and is 
 now serving his second term as Mayor, and has 
 greatly assisted in bringing the city out of debt 
 and pushing its fortunes. Mr. and Mrs. Sheldon's 
 home is one of the handsomest and most luxuriously 
 appointed in the lovely seaside city. They have 
 two sons, Joseph Smith Sheldon and Arnold Ken- 
 nedy Sheldon, and a daughter, Constance Sheldon. 
 Maj. Sheldon is a wide-awake and progressive 
 public officer and citizen. 
 
 EDWARD Q. KREIGNER, 
 
 SPRING BRANCH, 
 
 One of the early settlers of Kendall County, was 
 born in Toeplitz, Germany, January 4, 1821 ; came 
 to Texas in 1846, and located at New Braunfels, 
 where he joined the United States army for the 
 Me-xican War, enlisting as a private in Col. Jack 
 Hays' regiment of Texas rangers. The rangers 
 were detailed by Gen. Zacbary Taylor for scouting 
 service, and were often twenty-five or thirtj* miles 
 in advance of the main army. The names of Jack 
 Hays and his famous command are surrounded 
 with a halo of heroic tradition. An account of 
 
 their exploits would read more like a romance than 
 sober history. Leader and men were the bravest 
 of the brave and no enemy was ever known to with- 
 stand their fierce and deadly charge. 
 
 After the war Mr. Kreigner settled at the junc- 
 tion of Curry's creek and the Guadalupe river, 
 where he established a farm (novv consisting of 600 
 acres) and has since resided. He married Miss 
 Wilhelmina Koether. Her parents came to Texas 
 in 1845. Mr. and Mrs. Kreigner have no chil- 
 dren. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 551 
 
 JOSEPH HEBERT, 
 
 BEAUMONT. 
 
 Was born in Lafaj'ette Parish, La., in 1818; came 
 to Texas at twent3-four years of age and settled in 
 Jefferson Count}' ; remained tiiere three years, 
 when he returned to Louisiana and married Miss 
 Meliiia Andrus, of St. Landry Parish and then re- 
 turned to Texas and engaged in the stock business 
 near Beaumont, in which he accumulated a fortune 
 in cattle and land. 
 
 Nine children were born of this union, eight of 
 whom lived to maturity, viz. : Mary Azema, who 
 married first in 1866, Eloi Broussard of Vermillion 
 Parish, La., and after his death, Lovan Hampshire 
 of Jefferson County, Texas; J. M., a stock-raiser 
 and farmer residing at Beaumont; B. C, a stock- 
 raiser and farmer of Jefferson County; L. J., a 
 stock-raiser and real estate dealer at Beaumont ; 
 W. A., a stock-raiser and farmer at Beaumont; 
 
 Clara Silliman, wife of Sidney Arceneaux, of 
 Arcadia, La. ; Louise Cedelize, now deceased, wife 
 of Raymond Richard, of Arcadia Parish, and Lizzie, 
 now deceased, wife of J. B. Richard of Arcadia 
 Parish, La. Coralie, the fourth child, died in 
 childhood. 
 
 At the beginning of the war between the States, 
 Mr. Hebert raised the first company that was 
 organized in Beaumont for active service in the 
 Confederate army, but the companj' was disbanded, 
 after which he served as Captain in a military com- 
 pany, detailed as home guards at Houston, Texas. 
 
 He died at his home, in February, 1865, and is 
 buried in the family burying-ground, near his old 
 home. 
 
 His wife died in January, 1869, and is buried 
 beside him. 
 
 JOSEPH MARTIN HEBERT, 
 
 BEAUMONT, 
 
 Was born July 2, 1847, in Jefferson County, Texas, 
 and educated in Beaumont and Liberty counties. 
 He was a soldier in Company C, Madison's regi- 
 ment. Lane's brigade, in the Confederate army, 
 with which he served until the close of hobtilities. 
 He then returned home and assumed charge of 
 his father's estate and soon thereafter engaged on 
 his own account in the stock business, which he 
 has followed ever since. He now owns a well- 
 stocked cattle ranch in Jefferson County, his 
 brother, L. J. Hebert, being associated with him. 
 
 He also engaged in the land business, with Judge 
 Chaison, of Beaumont. 
 
 Mr. Hebert married, in 1867, Miss Emilie Brous- 
 sard, daughter of Edward Broussard, of Vermillion 
 Parish, La. They have nine living children, viz. : 
 Cora, now wife of D. Bonnemaison, of Youngsvilie, 
 La. ; Jules, Felix, Numa, Seth, Louis, Clerfey, 
 Edward, and Eve, who live at the family home. 
 
 Joseph Hebert, Sr., was leader in all movements 
 inaugurated for the up-building of his section of 
 the country. 
 
552 
 
 INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 W. G. KINGSBURY, M. D., 
 
 BOERNE. 
 
 Tbe subject of this sketch was born in Booncillo, 
 Oneida County, N. Y., on tbe 6th of November, 
 1823, where his parents owned a small farm at 
 the time. His education was obtained in the dis- 
 trict school and at a Seminary at Cazanovia. He 
 then studied and perfected himself in the profes- 
 sion of dentistry under Dr. Lemon, the leading 
 dentist of the city of Baltimore. F'rom Baltimore 
 he returned to his old home in York State and 
 attended school for a season, practicing among the 
 students and in the neighborhood, and earning 
 nearly enough money to pay expenses. 
 
 Determining to go West, he reached Texas, in 
 the beginning of the first month of the year 1846. 
 He soon got out his kit of tools and went to work 
 at his profession and, being the only dentist in 
 the country, got plenty of work and made money. 
 Among his first acquaintances was tbe noted Texian 
 ranger, Capt. Sam. Walker, who persuaded him to 
 go to the Mexican War with bim. He did not enlist 
 as a regular soldier. Walker told him he could not 
 be a private soldier and be on equal terms with an 
 officer and eat at tbe same table, so he went as a 
 friend and companion, taking his tools as a means 
 of living, knowing that he could make more money 
 than any soldier's wages. He followed Walker 
 through tbe various vicissitudes of the Mexican War, 
 was with bim when he fell, as only fall the bravest 
 of tbe brave, was in every battle that was fought 
 when he was able to take part and left tbe country 
 with eighteen wounds, one being a bad saber stroke 
 upon his right cheek, which distinguishes him from 
 ail other men. 
 
 Returning from tbe Mexican War, Dr. Kingsburj' 
 practiced at many of tbe towns in Western Texas, 
 and finally settled in San Antonio, where he occupied 
 one office for twenty-five years, made money and 
 gained distinction in his profession. 
 
 In the fall of 1869 he was mainly instrumental in 
 getting up a fair, and was chosen president of the 
 association and then and consequently did much to 
 make known abroad the advantages Texas bad to 
 offer. 
 
 Dr. Kingsbury's writings attracted tbe attention 
 of the Governor of tbe State, and he was appointed 
 Commissioner of Immigration, and as long as the 
 bureau of immigration existed, be was stationed in 
 St. Louis and by tbe dissemination of bis writings, 
 thousands of people came to Texas as emigrants. 
 
 Later he represented various railroads as immi- 
 gration agent in Europe and maintained an office 
 at London, England, from 1875 to 1884, during 
 which time be delivered speeches and wrote articles, 
 pamphlets and books, which with other suitable 
 matter were published in the language of nearlj- 
 every civilized country and were circulated broad- 
 cast over Europe, and sent tens of thousands of 
 desirable immigrants into Texas. 
 
 It is safe to say that no man ever worked harder 
 or more intelligently for tbe good of Texas than 
 the subject of this notice. It is also safe to 
 say that no man ever retired from a large business 
 leaving his affairs in better shape. He has three 
 sons to carrj^ on tbe good work, a flourishing town 
 in Guadalupe County bears bis name, and he has 
 thousands of friends to perpetuate his name. 
 
 JOHN WARREN, SR., 
 
 HOCKLEY, 
 
 An old settler of Harris County, residing at Hock- 
 ley, was born in Cumberland County, England, in 
 1822, and is the son of James and Jane Warren, 
 both also natives of Cumberland, in which county 
 bis ancestors lived from time immemorial. Tbe 
 subject of this notice was reared in his native place 
 
 (brought up on a farm) and there resided until 
 1851 or 1852, when he sailed for Texas, tbe soil of 
 which he first touched at Galveston. He bad in- 
 tended to settle at Corpus Christi, but changed his 
 mind and took up bis residence in the northwest 
 corner of Harris County, not far from the Mont- 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 553 
 
 gomery County line, where lie kept the stage stand. 
 Later he purchased land and engaged in farming 
 and stock-raising, which have been his chief pur- 
 suits since. Business took hira back to England a 
 year or so after coming to this country and he 
 remained there until 1857, when he returned to 
 Texas. The Houston and Texas Central Railroad 
 having in the meantime been built as far as Hock- 
 ley (about three miles from the place of his first 
 settlement), he located at that place and has there 
 resided since. He has purchased land from time to 
 time until his holdings at this writing aggregate 
 about 6,500 acres, lying in Harris, Montgomery 
 and Waller counties (mostly in Harris) all of 
 which he has stocked with cattle and horses. In 
 point of wealth, as well as in point of time of 
 residence, he is the first citizen of the locality 
 where he lives. He has followed a quiet and unos- 
 tentatious life, never having desired, sought nor held 
 a public ofBce of any kind. Nevertheless he has at 
 all times manifested a commendable interest in all 
 that pertained to the public good and has aided 
 every worthy enterprise to the extent of his oppor- 
 tunities and means. He has never sold a foot of 
 land since he came to the State, which will show 
 how much confidence he has at all times had in the 
 future of Texas. He thinks that Texas is as good 
 
 a country as there is in the world and does not see 
 why any man cannot become independent here if 
 he tries. 
 
 Mr. Warren married Miss Jane Maffat, of Cock- 
 ermouth, Cumberland, England, December 18, 1846. 
 She was a native of that place, and, like himself, of 
 old English ancestry. Six children have been born 
 of this union, three of whom are still living, viz. : 
 Jane Eliza, now Mrs. George Ellis, of Houston; 
 Mary G., now Mrs. W. J. Peele, of Hockley, 
 Harris County ; and John, Jr., a ranchman in Harris 
 County. 
 
 Mr. Warren says he has never gone in debt for 
 anything in his life, never had a copartner, never 
 engaged in speculation in any form and never car- 
 ried a dollar's worth of insurance. He has paid 
 some security debts, however, sustained two losses 
 by fire and gone through with the usual number of 
 vicissitudes, privations and hardships that fall to the 
 lot of even the prudent. He has always met his 
 obligations of every kind promptly and honorably 
 and now, at the advanced age of seventy-three 
 years, enjoys an untarnished reputation, good 
 health and an abundance of good spirits. He has 
 great faith in his country and fellow-men and feels 
 that, all in all, time and fortune have dealt very 
 kindly with him. 
 
 GOTTLIEB OBST, 
 
 BULVERDE. 
 
 Gottlieb Obst was one of the pioneer settlers of 
 Bexar County, Texas. He was born in Germany, 
 January 25, 1817, and emigrated to America in 
 1847; and located in the vicinity of Bulverde, 
 where he developed a good farm and raised a 
 family. He married Miss Johanna Bunzel in 
 Bastrop, by whom he had five children, viz. : Her- 
 mann, born January 12, 1862 ; Gustav, born June 
 25, 1863; William, born October 23, 1864; Charles, 
 
 born September 26, 1866, and Emma, born Octo- 
 ber 5, 1869. Mrs. Johanna Obst was born Decem- 
 ber 15, 1827, and died February 2, 1882. 
 
 Mr. Obst died November 1st, 1888. He was an 
 honest and industrious man and highly esteemed. 
 
 William, Charlie and Emma, who are not married, 
 live on the old home place, emulating the example 
 and cherishing the memories of their departed 
 parents. 
 
554 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 SEBASTIAN BEIERLE, 
 
 WESSON, 
 
 A Texas pioneer, horn at Baden, Germany, Jan- 
 uary 20, 1827, came to Comal County, Texas, in 
 1854. Lived in town for eiglit months and tlien 
 located ou the Guadalupe river, where he purchased 
 land from the State, to which he has since added 
 until he now owns 1,542 acres. 
 
 ^Ir. Beierle brought his wife with him from Ger- 
 many. They have six children: Charles, Valen- 
 tine, Catherine, Christiana, Mary, and Emelie. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Beierle are venerable old people and 
 much esteemed for their many excellent traits of 
 character. 
 
 MAX WAHRMUND, 
 
 FREDERICKSBURG, 
 
 Well known throughout his native county of Gil- 
 lespie, and a leading citizen of Fredericksburg, at 
 which place he was born July 27, 1863 ; is a son of 
 the late Louis Walu'mund, who was born in West 
 Baden, Germany, Kingdom of Prussia, March 19, 
 1822. Of the coming of the family to this country 
 in 1846, something is said in the sketch of the life 
 of Emil Wahrmund, elsewhere in this work. Louis 
 Wahrmund followed freighting between Victoria 
 and Indianola, and interior points in Texas, up to 
 about 1860, after which he engaged for a time in 
 farming at Bear creek, and then moved to Fred- 
 ericksburg, where he engaged in business, which he 
 followed up to the time of his death in 1883. He 
 
 was united in marriage to Miss Susana Ressmann, 
 daughter of John Peter Ressmann. They have 
 eiglit children, viz. : Charles, Mina, now Mrs. 
 August Schmidt; Nellie, now Mrs. Charles 
 Jung; Ferdinand, Gustav, George, Edward, and 
 Max. 
 
 Max Wahrmund married Miss Sophia Weyrich, 
 daughter of Chas. Weyrich (a pioneer settler of 
 Fredericksburg), in 1884. They have four chil- 
 dren : Arno, Alma, Egon, and Kurt. 
 
 He was elected Treasurer of Gillespie County in 
 November, 1894, and is now (1895) the incumbent 
 of that office, which he is filling acceptably to the 
 people. 
 
 JOHN T. HART, 
 
 ORANGE. 
 
 Lawyer. Born June 18, 1854, at Mobile, Ala., 
 and raised on his father's plantation near Demo- 
 polis, Ala. His father, James M. Hart, a well- 
 known Southern planter, was born in South 
 Carolina, April 4, 1802, and died May 4, 1864. 
 
 His mother, Sara J. (Turner) Hart, was born 
 near Althens, Ala., November 16, 1815, and died 
 October 30, 1893. 
 
 John T. Hart acquired his primary education in 
 
 private schools in Alabama, and completed it at 
 Springfield Hill College, Miss., attending the latter 
 institution during three sessions and graduating 
 therefrom in 1869 with high honors at the age of 
 seventeen. Came to Texas in April, 1872, and 
 located at Orange, where he has since resided. 
 
 He worked in a saw-mill for three or four 
 months, and then accepted a position in the mer- 
 cantile establishment of Mr. Henry Thompson, a 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 565 
 
 connection that continued nearly four years, dur- 
 ing wliicli time he studied law at spare moments. 
 He then resigned his position and read law for 
 eighteen months in the office of Triplett & Talvey, 
 at Orange, and while absent on a visit to bis old 
 home in Alabama was elected County Attorney 
 of Orange County before he was admitted to the 
 bar. 
 
 He was, however, granted temporary license by 
 the District Judge and sworn into office. He re- 
 ceived his permanent license at the following term 
 of court (in 1878). He was re-elected two years 
 later, served about half of the term, and then 
 resigned the position to devote his entire attention 
 to his growing practice. 
 
 Mr. Hart has been successful in many important 
 cases, both civil and criminal, and in but few cases 
 have judgments secured by him been reversed on 
 points of law. He was a prime factor in the organ- 
 ization of the city's government, drawing up all of 
 the first code of ordinances. He has been a mem- 
 ber of the local board of trade ever since it was 
 
 organized. He was elected a member of the first 
 board of Aldermen, selected by the people after 
 the incorporation of the town, did good service as 
 president of the school board, and in 1893 was 
 appointed Postmaster at Orange by President 
 Cleveland, a position that he now holds. Starting 
 in Orange with a capital of nine dollars he has 
 accumulated a competency. He owns considerable 
 property in Texas, a large tract of land in Ala- 
 bama, and the old famil}' homestead in the latter 
 State. 
 
 He married, January 15, 1878, Miss Addie Good- 
 man, of Orange, daughter of Mr. C. G. Goodman, 
 of that city. Three children have been born to 
 them, two of whom are still living, viz.: Edna M. 
 Hart, aged sixteen years, now attending the North 
 Texas Female College, at Sherman, Texas, and 
 John W. Hart, living at home with his parents. 
 
 Mr. Hart is a member of the Knights of Honor 
 and Legion of Honor. 
 
 In politics he is a strong Democrat, and has 
 done good service for his party. 
 
 JAMES G. BROWNE, 
 
 BROWNSVILLE, 
 
 A well-known Texas pioneer, was born of Irish 
 parents in Manchester, England, January 1, 1820. 
 He was a carpenter by trade, a master of his call- 
 ing, and became a contractor for the government, 
 and, in the latter capacity, came to Texas and 
 erected barracks, soldiers' quarters, etc., at Point 
 Isabel, Texas, in 1848. Soon thereafter he engaged 
 in merchandising at Freeport, on the Rio Grande 
 river, which place was soon absorbed by the estab- 
 lishment and growth of Brownsville and finally 
 taken into that corporation. When Brownsville 
 commenced to grow in population and importance, 
 he moved there from Freeport and continued in 
 merchandising, meeting with gratifying success 
 until 18fi3, when he lost heavily by fire. He then 
 moved across the river to Matamoros, Mexico, and 
 engaged for a brief time in business there, after 
 which he removed to Camargo, Mexico, near the 
 Texas line, and opposite Rio Grande City. There 
 
 he remained in business until the close of the war 
 between the States. In 1865-6 he returned to 
 Brownsville to look after his extensive landed inter- 
 ests in Cameron County. He left his ranches well 
 stocked with cattle, sheep, horses, etc., all of 
 which were confiscated and utilized by the Confed- 
 erate government or stolen by marauding Indians 
 and Mexicans. 
 
 He set about the restoration of his estate to its 
 former condition, however, with his accustomed 
 energy, and made a large amount of money raising 
 stock. He married Miss Helen Kilvin in Mata- 
 moros, Mexico, daughter of one of the early settlers 
 of San Patricio County, Texas. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Browne had six children, four of whom survive: 
 Mary C, widow of the late Henry San Roman, of 
 Brownsville; James A., of Brownsville; William, 
 Assessor and Tax Collector of Cameron County, 
 and a prosperous farmer and stock-raiser of that 
 
556 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 county, and Albert A., Chief Clerk in the United 
 States Customs Office at Brownsville. 
 
 James G. Browne was an industrious, useful and 
 frugal citizen. He was a well-informed man and 
 popular with the masses. He held the office of 
 Sheriff of Cameron County and also that of Tax 
 
 Collector many years. He left to his children an 
 honorable name and a handsome estate. 
 
 He died at his home in Brownsville, surrounded 
 by the members of his family. 
 
 The memory of his worth is preserved by many 
 loving; friends. 
 
 FRANCIS M. HENRY, 
 
 TEXARKANA. 
 
 Hon. F. M. Henry, ex-member of the Stale 
 Senate, a lawyer of distinction, and a Democrat 
 who has served his party with fidelity since old 
 enough to vote, was born November 11, 1832, in 
 Rhea County, Tenn., and has lived in Texas since 
 the late war ; during the last twenty years at 
 Texarkana. 
 
 His parents were Henry and Mrs. Jane (Mont- 
 gomery) Henry. His father was born and reared 
 in Sevier County and hie mother in Rhea County, 
 Tenn. 
 
 The subject of this memoir received an excellent 
 education in Tennessee and Georgia. In 1860 he 
 was married to Miss Mary E. Taylor, born Feb- 
 ruary 18, 1838, in Clark County, Ark., and has five 
 children: Francis Beauregard, Stonewall Jackson, 
 Robert Lee, Johanna M., and Patrick Gustavus, all 
 of whom are living, except Francis B., who died in 
 infancy. Stonewall J. is practicing law at Texar- 
 kana and Robert L. at Waco. 
 
 Capt. Henry commanded Company D., Nine- 
 
 teenth Regiment of Arkansas Infantry, in the Con- 
 federate army, east of the Mississippi river, during 
 the early part of the war, and a company west of 
 the Mississippi river in 1863-4, and in that capacity 
 distinguished himself as a brave and capable officer 
 and won for himself the confidence and respect of 
 his men and superior officers. He has participated 
 prominently in i)ublic affairs in this State during his 
 residence here, but has never, of his own notion, 
 sought political preferment. In obedience to the 
 wishes of the Democracy of the district, he served 
 as Senator in the Texas Legislature in 1876-8, and 
 participated in the framing and enactment of much 
 of the important legislation accomplished during the 
 session. His soundness of judgment, his learning 
 as a lawyer, and his grace as a speaker, won for him 
 a prestige that caused him to rank among the fore- 
 most of his colleagues. He has been very success- 
 ful at the bar and has been engaged in the practice 
 of law and dealing in real estate for the last thirty 
 years. 
 
 W. W. DUNN, 
 
 FORT WORTH. 
 
 The subject of this sketch was born in Washing- 
 ton County, Va. , six miles west of King's Salt works, 
 near Dunn's Hill, May 6th, 1822. 
 
 His mother died February 4th, 1825, leaving five 
 children, three daughters and two sons. A year 
 later his father married a Miss Taylor, of Sullivan, 
 Tenn., a daughter of John Taylor. She bore 
 five children, three boys and two girls. In 1831, 
 
 the father sold his home with the intention of going 
 to Missouri, but through persuasion of his brother, 
 John Dunn, of Abingdon, located six miles west of 
 Abingdon, where he died, February 3d, 1836. 
 There being ten children to care for, in the winter 
 of 1837 the subject of this memoir, W. W. Dunn, 
 launched out for himself and hired to a hog-driver 
 at $10.00 per month, to aid in moving about five 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 hbl 
 
 hundred hogs to Lynchburg, Va., a distance of two 
 hundred miles. All things moving slowly on for 
 two months, they landed the hogs at Lynchburg, 
 where they were sold for $10.00 per hundred, and 
 young Dunn set out on foot to return home, making 
 the trip in tive and a half days. 
 
 Then he spent three months in Abingdon, going 
 to school, after which he returned home and worked 
 on the farm until about the first of August, 1838, 
 when, with his sister and her husband, Stephen 
 Bray, he made his way to Scott County, and there 
 found his brother Jacob, who had preceded them 
 about one year. In Scott County he entered into a 
 contract with Hiram Cowden, living on Sinken 
 
 widowed Mrs. Cowtlen until he was twenty-two, all 
 of whicii he did not fail to do. At the age of twenty- 
 two he left the widow and located in Castlewoods, 
 Russell County. There he boarded with one Nath- 
 aniel Dickinson and went to school, working evenings 
 and mornings for his board. Spring time came, 
 the school was out, and all the boys and gjrls had 
 to go to work — the girls to spinning and weaving 
 flax ; the boys to sowing, mowing and reaping, and 
 thus the summer was spent. By this method he 
 managed to earn sufficient to defray his modest 
 expenses during the succeeding winter. He left 
 Castlewoods and went to Lebanon, the county seat 
 of Russell County, and there engaged with Bone 
 
 W. \V. DUNN. 
 
 creek, the contract being to serve him until twenty- 
 one years old, for which young Dunn was to receive 
 necessary wearing apparel and have one year's 
 schooling, a horse, saddle and bridle, and last, but 
 not least, $50.00 in actual cash. This, the last 
 prize, caused him to bear his burdens cheerfully 
 and look forward with much pleasure, meditating 
 over what nice things he would get with the money. 
 All went smoothly ; but, alas, his good friend Cow- 
 den fell sick and died of consumption in the spring 
 of 1841, not, however, without providing for his 
 young employee by will, bequeathing to him all that 
 he had stipulated in the first part of the contract 
 and $100.00, the latter to be paid the grateful 
 devisee when twenty-one years of age, and one hun- 
 dred and fifty more, provided he remained with the 
 
 and George Gray, merchants of that place. He 
 was to cultivate a small farm and do such hauling 
 with a four-horse team as he could get about the 
 town. So he hauled wood, rock and charcoal and 
 broke lots and gardens for the good citizens of the 
 village during the summer. In the fall he gathered 
 his small effects together, procured a one-horse 
 peddling wagon, bought $84.00 worth of goods 
 and traveled across the mountains into Kentucky. 
 There he busied liimself among the early settlers 
 of Letcher County for about three months, coming 
 out fifty dollars ahead. During one of his jour- 
 neys the following humorous incident occurred on 
 Millstone creek. His was the first wagon, per- 
 haps, that ever passed that way, or at least the 
 first that many of the younger children had ever 
 
558 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 seen. The way was very rough ami in driving over 
 roots and gulleys the curtains of his wagon came 
 loose, and hung down and flapped much lilie the 
 wings of a bird. He spied three boys in the road 
 ahead of him. They were running and liallooing 
 for life. For about a mile they ran. Arriving at 
 home, Jthey reported the biggest thing they had 
 ever seen iu life, flying up the branch with a man 
 in its mouth and chasing a horse. He returned to 
 Scott County and followed peddling during the 
 winter. 
 
 In the spring one Wm. E. Sutton (who was 
 a leather peddler) and Mr. Dunn joined their 
 wagons together and opened a small country store 
 and conducted a successful business until the next 
 winter, when Mr. Dunu sold out to Mr. Sutton and 
 later volunteered as a soldier in the United States 
 army for service in the Mexican War, which broke 
 out in the spring of 184G. The company raised 
 was not received by the government and the men 
 were disbanded the first of January, 1847. A. 
 McCorkel, Marian Hoozer and Mr. Dunn left 
 Abingdon on the lOlh of January, by stage, for 
 Lynchburg, and proceeded thence by canal to 
 Richmond, Va. , where they enlisted as volun- 
 teers in Company H., commanded by Capt. 
 E. G. Alburtis. A few days later they em- 
 barked on a steamer for Old Point Comfort, and 
 remained there for about one month and a half. 
 On the 2"2d of February, they sailed on the barque 
 '■'Exact " and in due time landed at Point Isabel, six 
 miles below the mouth of the Rio Grande. On 
 March 9th they made their first march from that 
 point to the mouth of the river ; thence liy boat to 
 Camargo, Mexico, and thence on foot to Monterey. 
 There they rested for about two months, spending 
 about one half of the time at Walnut springs, six 
 miles from the city. From this point they returned 
 to the city of Monterey, where Mr. Dunn's friend, 
 McKorkel, died. From Monterey they marched 
 and, after much fatigue, reached Saltillo, on 
 June 13th. 
 
 In that city and at Buena Vista they sojcjurned 
 until the l.Sth of June, 1848, when they set out for 
 the United States, landing at Old Point Comfort 
 about the first of August. 
 
 At that place they were honorably discharged. 
 Soon after they were discharged they scattered, 
 many of them to meet no more. It was a sad sep- 
 aration, although each and all were eager to see 
 their old homes and friends. His route was by 
 Richmond and Lynchburg to Abingdon, which he 
 reached without adventure. After remaining three 
 days at home, he engaged in mercantile pursuits 
 
 again, moving to Tazwell, where he did a fairly 
 good business for ten years. 
 
 November 3, 1851, he married Miss Emily Gil- 
 lespie, a daughter of Col. Robert Gillespie, of Taz- 
 well County. She died December 13, 1853, leavino- 
 him one child, a little daughter, Emily Louisa Wid- 
 difield, as a pledge of their affection. The child 
 was eared for by her aunt, grew up to womanhood 
 and was the idol of her father's heart. She was 
 united in marriage to Mr. Wm. S. Hartman, an ex- 
 cellent gentleman, and is now the mother of seven 
 children, four girls and three boys, viz. : Annie, 
 Bettie, Eva, Mary, Willie, Sammie, and Clmton 
 Hartman. 
 
 In December, 180-2, Mr. Dunn was united in mar- 
 riage to the widow Senter, maiden name. Miss 
 Nannie Davis. She bore him two sons, Bascom 
 and William Dunn. She departed this life in the 
 summer of I8G6. Her son William died in 1868. 
 
 In August, 1867, he was married to Mrs. Lina 
 Grant, his present wife. She had two children at 
 the time of their marriage, Josie and Ada. Josie 
 first married Dr. John Dunn and, after his death, 
 E. B. Slrowd, of Hillsboro, Texas. 
 
 Ada married G. W. Hollingsworth, and lives iu 
 Fort Worth. Bascom is married and has one child, 
 Florence. His wife's name was Martin. In 
 1869 Mr. Dunn located in Fort Worth and has 
 since made that city his home. He purchased of 
 E. M. Daggett the block of land he now lives on 
 for $3 50.00. The block is 200 by 200 feet, and is 
 now worth about $200,000.00. Mr. Dunn owns 
 five-eighths of the block yet, on which stands the 
 Mansion Hotel, a building that contains one hun- 
 dred and fifty rooms, all told. 
 
 He has a fine system of water works which he 
 operates in connection with the hotel. His wellis 
 333 feet deep ; the water is pure and soft ; no 
 better bath water can be found, no better 
 drinking water in the world. The supply is 
 abundant. It is pumped into tanks, from which it 
 is conveyed to all parts of the house. The house 
 is three and four stories high, well ventilated, and 
 furnished with gas and electric lights. 
 
 Mr. Dunn has passed the seventy-fourth ruug in 
 the ladder of life. He is strong and active. Now 
 in old age he has but little to reproach himself for, 
 and hopes to be as active during the remainder of 
 life as he has been in the past. 
 
 His religious belief is based on Christ's promise: 
 " I came to the world to redeem all mankind." 
 
 Mr. Dunn has been active in every good work, 
 and has thousands of sincere admirers throughout 
 Texas. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 559 
 
 WILLIAM KELLY, 
 
 BROWNSVILLE. 
 
 Capt. William Kelly, born in Belfast, Ireland, 
 April 2, 1840, is one of the most prominent and 
 influential citizens of Brownsville, and is highly 
 esteemed for his scholarly attainments, business 
 integrity and social qualities. He came to America 
 from Ireland, his native country, in 18G1, when 
 twenty-one years of age, and at once enlisted in 
 the First New York Mounted Rifles, with which 
 regiment he served for three years and was then 
 mustered out as a First Lieutenant and brevet Cap- 
 tain. He was subsequently commissioned as first 
 Lieutenant, ICighth United States Colored Troops, 
 but was soon transferred to the Quartermaster's 
 Department and assigned to duty as a Brigade 
 Quartermaster. The close of the war found Mr. 
 Kelly in Texas, and he located in Brownsville in 
 1865. He began steamboating on the Rio Grande 
 in 1866, in the employ of King, Kenedy & Com- 
 pany, who then owned and navigated sixteen 
 good-sized steamboats, which carried an immense 
 amount of freight from Brazos, Santiago, to Browns- 
 ville and points on the upper river. At that time 
 there were frequently over fift}' vessels of all 
 kinds, from 3,000-ton steamers to 1,000-ton 
 schooners, anchored in the harbor of Brazos, Santi- 
 ago, and off the mouth of the Rio Grande, all of 
 them engaged in a paying business. 
 
 Mr. Kelly succeeded to the business of King, 
 Kenedy & Company, in 1874, since which time he 
 has run the steamboating business on a constantly 
 descending scale. From a fleet of twelve steam- 
 boats on the lower river and four on the upper, 
 run constantly to their utmost capacity, the busi- 
 ness is now reduced to one small boat, the 
 
 " Bessie," 110 tons, making two trips a month 
 (when there is water enough to float her), from 
 Brownsville to Rio Grande City. The changes in 
 the Rio Grande river are remarkable and almost 
 unaccountable ; but the certainty of other means 
 of transportation being provided for, the freight 
 which now passes over that route makes it imprac- 
 ticable to attempt any improvement of river navi- 
 gation, and Mr. Kelly is prepared to abandon his 
 last steamboat. 
 
 There are few enterprises for benefiting his sec- 
 tion in which he is not personally and financially 
 interested. 
 
 He is a director of the Rio Grande Railroad, 
 vice-president and director of the First National 
 Bank, and one of the foremost promoters of rail- 
 road construction to the frontiers of the United 
 States and Mexico with a view to connecting the 
 systems of those countries and opening the wav for 
 trade and manufactures. 
 
 Educational matters have always received his 
 careful attention. He has been chairman of the 
 School Board for the past twelve years, and the 
 value of his services is attested by the flourishing 
 condition of the public schools of the city and the 
 many improvements in accommodations and 
 methods within that period. 
 
 Mr. Kelly owns 6,000 acres of land below the 
 city and is interested in silver and lead mines in 
 Mexico. 
 
 He was married in 1870 at Brownsville, to Mrs. 
 Thornhan. They have five children, viz. : Louise 
 M. E. ; William, a graduate of West Point Mili- 
 tary Academy ; Mary G., Anna R. and John W. 
 
 A. W. TERRELL, 
 
 AUSTIN. 
 
 Leaving out of account all that part of the long 
 and uneventful period of Spanish and Mexican 
 domination that antedates the beginning of Anglo- 
 American colonization, the history of Texas covers 
 a period of time much shorter than that of any 
 
 other of the Southern States. Yet the State has a 
 history that in romance, depth of meaning and 
 value to the present and the future is second to 
 that of no other in the American Union. The 
 lessons taught by the immolation at the Alamo, the 
 
560 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 massacre at Goliad and the victory at San Jacinto 
 will never be forgotten. These lessons are the her- 
 itage not alone of the English-speaking peoples, but 
 of mankind. The action of the Spartans at Ther- 
 mopylie and the united Greeks at Marathon and 
 Platea for many centuries had only to be recounted 
 to incite men, ripe for liberty, to fly to arms in re- 
 sistance of tyranny. Texas has added other and 
 equally glorious examples of what men should do 
 and can do if inspired by the spirit of freedom. Of 
 these examples every Texian is justly proud. It is 
 also a source of pride that valor in the field was 
 followed by wisdom in the Senate, that among the 
 first work done by the founders of the Republic 
 and subsequent State, they laid the foundation for 
 a system of popular education and made provision 
 for the establishment and maintenance of the insti- 
 tutions for the deaf and dumb, bhnd and insane, 
 and mapped out lines of public policy that evinced 
 a statesmanship at once wise, noble and unselfish — 
 a statesmanship in advance of the times in which 
 they lived and that entitles them to the veneration 
 of posterity. But the people, above all else, are 
 proud of the succession of great men who have in 
 an unbroken line appeared in the walks of public life 
 and by their abilities and virtues shed luster upon 
 the proud and heroic name of Texas. The roll of 
 honor is too long for recital here. The name of 
 Houston, dauntless in war, peerless as an orator, 
 with port and carriage that would have befitted a 
 curule Senator in the golden days of the Roman 
 Republic ; the name of Rusk, the idol of the people 
 and the most distinguished figure in the Senate of 
 the United States, up to the time of his menancholy 
 death, are enshrined in the heart and memory of 
 every man in every land where votaries are to be 
 found at the shrine of freedom. There were others 
 equally able, no less worthy, and scarcely less dis- 
 tinguished for their services, who were contempor- 
 aries of these men ; nor, since the fathers have com- 
 pleted their pilgrimage of life, have they been 
 without successors, worthy- to receive upon their 
 shoulders the mantles which they let fall. It is a 
 lamentable fact, however, that of late years the 
 number has diminished and, instead of there being 
 many leaders of genuine statesmanship and patriotic 
 purpose whom the people can safely look to, to origi- 
 nate and push reforms and give sound counsel in 
 time of doubt or danger, there are all too few. 
 Among the brightest and best public men that 
 Texas can now boast is the subject of this brief 
 memoir, Hon. A. W. Terrell, the present Minister 
 Plenipotentiary from the United States to the Otto- 
 man Empire. In looking back over his career, 
 extending as it does over a period of more than 
 
 forty-years, one is struck by the extent, variety 
 and value of his public services ; not only that, but, 
 what is more worthy of admiration, by the utter 
 disregard of self that he has manifested upon many 
 an occasion, when he deemed it necessary to speak 
 and act in defense of the interests of the country, 
 by his singular lioldness and originality of thought 
 and the fearlessness he has displayed in the support 
 of convictions when those convictions were opposed 
 by a blind and senseless opposition due to the fact 
 that he was in advance of the immediate times 
 and blazing a way for the multitude to follow and the 
 multitude's ordinary leaders, with some of whom 
 patriotism is a trade, that they do not hesitate to 
 turn to profit. In point of sheer intellectual 
 strength he compares favorably with any of our 
 great men of former days, with any in the South 
 to-day, and is certainly without a superior in this 
 State. A learned lawyer, a sound and erudite 
 scholar and a magnetic, Ciceronian orator, he also 
 deserves the distinction of a statesman, using that 
 term in its proper signification. The deeper prob- 
 lems of life, as regards the race, the nation and 
 the individual, have been pondered over by him by 
 day and by the midnight lamp, and are ever upper- 
 most in his mind. It has never, at any time, 
 occurred to him to sacrifice principle for the sake 
 of personal aggrandizement. He has shown him- 
 self to be far above that vanity of little minds that 
 feeds upon applause. He has been actuated by 
 nobler motives, — the desire to do his duty fully, 
 the love of truth and justice, and a desire to con- 
 tribute his part toward the prosperity and glory of 
 the country and the welfare of his fellow citizens 
 and of the generations whose duty it will be to 
 perpetuate free institutions and the blessings that 
 are inseparable from the possession of liberty. He 
 was among the very first, if he was not the first, 
 to call attention to the necessity of abridging and 
 controlling corporate power, and the pack was in- 
 stantly in full cry at his heels, keeping always, how- 
 ever, at a safe distance, or receiving wounds that 
 no leech could cure. Now the country is thoroughly 
 aroused, and his views have been adopted not by a 
 few, but by the toiling millions of the country. But 
 for him Texas would have no commission to-day to 
 regulate railway freight charges. He started the 
 movement that has eventuated in such a commis- 
 sion and at last, as a member of the House of 
 Representatives, perfected the railroad commis- 
 sion bill that became a law. This is his- 
 tory familiar to every man conversant with the 
 facts, it detracts nothing from the merit due 
 to others, and it deserves a lasting place 
 upon the pages of the State's historj'. That Texas 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 561 
 
 lias a university, a system of efficient and richly 
 endowed public free scliools and eleemosynary in- 
 stitutions that are a credit to our enlightened civil- 
 ization is largely due to him. As a result of his 
 labors as a legislator, or his public spoken or 
 written utterances, many of the most salutary laws 
 u()on our statute books were enacted. Prior to 
 ISS.'J there were no part}' nominations in Texas. 
 In that year the American, or Know-nothing party, 
 a secret, oath-bound organization, out of touch 
 with the spirit of free institutions and based upon 
 passion and prejudice, placed a full State ticket in 
 the field. The Democracy, ever true to its tradi- 
 tions, only needed leadership to perfect organization 
 and offer battle, although the chances of its stem- 
 ing the tide successfully seemed poor indeed. At 
 this juncture. Judge Terrell and a few other leaders 
 held what was known as the " Bomb Shell " meet- 
 ing in the ciiy of Austin, that resulted in the call- 
 ing of a Democratic State Convention, that nomi- 
 nated candidates whOj as the standard-bearers of 
 the part}', canvassed the State and with the aid of 
 other Democratic speakers and workers. Judge 
 Terrell among the number, won a victory that gave 
 the coup de grace to the " Know-nothing " party in 
 Texas. He is entitled to the proud distinction, if 
 it is due to any living man, of being one of the 
 fathers of the Texas Democracy. He has been 
 true to the party's principles and colors and his 
 white plume has helped head the way for the Demo- 
 cratic hosts upon many hard-fought political fields 
 during many years. Party fealty has been some- 
 thing more with him than merely a blind worship 
 of an organization. He has considered party as 
 but a means to an end — good government — and 
 he has never hesitated to denounce wrong, labor 
 for the adoption of correct policies or to warn 
 against mistakes when they were about to be 
 committed. The people have grown more and 
 more to appreciate his true character, and when 
 President Cleveland conferred upon him the 
 honor of appointment as Minister to Turkey it 
 was a course of gratification to them that a Texian 
 should have been selected for that important mis- 
 sion at a time when affairs in the East rendered 
 it necessary that only a man of sound judgment, 
 skillful address and first-class abilities should be 
 sent to Constantinople. They knew that he would 
 Ijear himself creditably. He has more than met the 
 full measure of their expectations. His name has 
 become a household word, in every Christian home 
 throughout the world, and he has won for himself a 
 position that entitles him to honoral3le rank among 
 the trained diplomats of Europe, where diplomacy 
 has long been reduced to a fine art ; in fact, he has 
 
 accomplished more for the amelioration of the con- 
 dition of the Armenian Christians and for the pro- 
 tection of Christian missionaries in Armenia than 
 the representative of any other single power ; this, 
 too, without the aid of warships in the Dardanelles. 
 Of dignified and imposing presence, courtly in his 
 manners, just in the formation and frank in the 
 expression of his views, he soon came to enjoy not 
 only the respect but the friendship of the Sultan, 
 who is himself a learned and polished man of gen- 
 erous sentiments and who assured Judge Terrell 
 that he would take pleasure in granting any reason- 
 able request, a promise that was redeemed as far 
 as it lay in his power to do so. Judge Terrell upon 
 his recent return (in April, 1896), to his home in 
 Austin, Texas, on leave of absence, was received 
 by his fellow-citizens with every public and private 
 expression of respect and affectionate regard. 
 After a brief stay he will return to his post of duty 
 in Turkey. 
 
 He was born on the 3d day of November, 1828, ' 
 in Patrie County, Va., finished his education in the 
 University of Missouri and was licensed as a lawyer 
 before he was twenty-one years of age. He was 
 elected City Attorney of St. Joseph, Mo., in 1849, 
 and removed to Austin in 1852 in search of a more 
 genial climate for his wife, formerly Miss Ann E. 
 Bouldin, who died in 1860 ; entered into a law part- 
 nership with Hon. W. S. Oldham in 1852 ; engaged 
 actively in practice and as counsel took part in the 
 trial of many of the leading cases known to the 
 courts. 
 
 In 1857 was elected District Judge and re- 
 mained on the bench in the Austin District until 
 1863, when he resigned and organized a regiment 
 of cavalry for tlie Confederate service. He was in 
 command of his regiment until the close of the war, 
 leading it into action in the battles of Pleasant Hill, 
 Mansfield, and the various engagements fou-jht 
 during the retreat of Banks down Red river. A 
 few weeks before the surrender of the Trans-Mis- 
 sissippi Department, in recognition of his capacity 
 as a commander, he was commissioned by Gen. E. 
 Kirby Smith as a Brigadier-General. 
 
 After the war he settled temporarily in Houston 
 to practice his profession, but the uncertain condi- 
 tion of the courts induced him to retire from pro- 
 fessional work for a time and he engaged in planting 
 on the Brazos, near Calvert, until the death of his 
 second wife, formerly Miss Sallie D. Mitchell, in 
 1871. He then returned to Austin, resumed prac- 
 tice and three years later wtis appointed Reporter 
 for the Supreme Court, which position he retained 
 for thirteen years. During the period of his re- 
 portership he published more volumes than have 
 
562 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 ever been reported by any other Supreme Court 
 Reporter in the United States. 
 
 Id 1876 he was elected to the Senate without 
 opposition and was twice re-elected. During this 
 term of service be framed the present jury law 
 which was a great improvement upon that previously 
 in force and which no subsequent Legislature has 
 been able to improve. He was also champion of 
 the law that established the State University and 
 drew all the acts wliich gave it its permanent 
 endowment. He also framed the school law, while 
 chairman of the Committee on Education, that 
 established what was known as the "Community 
 System," which continued until the establishment 
 in recent years of the " District System." The 
 various measures for rebuilding and enlarging the 
 asylum for the insane, and the educational insti- 
 tutions for the deaf and dumb and for the blind, 
 were originated and pushed to enactment liy him. 
 All the laws under which the Texas State Capitol 
 were erected were framed by Judge Terrell, and so 
 careful was the system of checks and supervision 
 provided by law, that the splendid granite capitol 
 was finished complete under the original contracts, 
 without a deficiency. His influence was felt in 
 every direction and he left his impress upon very 
 nearly all of the important legislative work that 
 was accomplished. Judge Terrell was chairman 
 of the Judiciary Committee of the Senate for eight 
 years. After securing the |)assage of laws for the 
 construction of the State capitol, Judge Terrell was 
 again elected to the State Senate, with the avowed 
 object of securing the establishment of a State 
 University. Its establishment had been required 
 in the constitution of the Republic of Texas and 
 of the State for over forty years, but the jealousy 
 of the different sections of so vast a State had 
 prevented its location. An inspection of the jour- 
 nals of the Senate show that the bill which finally 
 established the State University, was introduced 
 by Senator Buchanan of Eastern Texas. It was 
 almost the copy of a bill introduced formerly in 
 the House, by Representative, afterwards Congress- 
 man, Hutchison, of Houston, and may be regarded 
 as the joint work of O. H. Cooper, afterwards 
 State Superintendent of Education, Mr. Hutchison 
 and Judge Terrell. The original bill, which be- 
 came law, was in Judge Terrell's handwriting. 
 Senator Buchanan, as Judge Terrell's friend, in- 
 troduced the bill. At the close of his last term in 
 the Senate, Judge Terrell declined re-election, at a 
 time when he could have been returned without 
 opposition. In 1888 he was made Democratic 
 Elector for the State at large and did yeoman ser- 
 vice in unifying the party, in disseminating a 
 
 knowledge of fundamental principles and in secur- 
 ing an overwhelraning majority for the party's 
 nominees. In 1891 he was elected a member of 
 the House of Representatives, from Travis County, 
 without fiffering himself as a candiilate, and after 
 his published declaration that he did not wish the 
 position and would not electioneer for it. The 
 majority accorded him was the largest ever re- 
 ceived by a candidate in Travis County. It was 
 at this session that he perfected the railroad com- 
 mission bill. He also aided in tlie passage of other 
 and mucii needed legislation. 
 
 In 1883 Judge Terrell was married to Mrs. Ann 
 H. Jones, formerly Miss Ann H. HoUiday. He has 
 three living children : Mrs. Lilla Rector, and two 
 sons. 
 
 Judge Terrell delivered a speech at the laying of 
 the corner-stone of the magnificient granite State 
 capitol, in 1885, and read a poem in Latin, that 
 was inscribed upon a bronze plate, which was de- 
 posited in the receptacle in the corner-stone. The 
 oration was a superb effort and' well suited to the 
 occasion and the poem is said by competent Latin 
 scholars to be worthy of perpetuation for after- 
 times in a language that has been handed down to 
 us by the immortal lyric strains of Ovid and Horace. 
 He has delivered by special request many ad- 
 dresses before colleges and literary and learned 
 societies, and delivered many speeches in the dis- 
 cussion of problems that confront the people or 
 that he knew would in the coming years demand 
 solution at their hands. There are many who re- 
 member his speech delivered many j'ears ago, in 
 the Opera House at Austin, and published under 
 the title of "The Cormorant and the Commune." 
 No man who has a copy of it would part with it for 
 love or money. This was only one among many 
 equally striking utterances, the echoes of which 
 still reverberate through the land, or have grown 
 and deepened into the thunderous diapason of 
 popular demands that cannot and will not be 
 silenced until justice is done. 
 
 In every campaign, State and national, until his 
 appointment as Minister to Turkej', his views were 
 eagerly sought, and he was looked to as a leader. 
 His fame is national and international. His wisdom 
 and patriotism are approved. He has helped to 
 make a large and important part of the histor}' of 
 Texas. The State is proud of it and the nation's 
 representative at the most important court in the 
 East, and, when his term of service has expired, 
 will right gladly welcome him home again. 
 
 It is to be regretted that he has retired from 
 politics, and manifests no disposition to again enter 
 the arena. 
 
RUFUS HARDY. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 563 
 
 RUFUS HARDY, 
 
 CORSICANA. 
 
 Judge Rufus Hardy was bora in Monroe County, 
 Miss., December 16, 1855. 
 
 His father, George Washington Hardy, was a 
 native of the same State and county, and was one 
 of a family of seven sons and seven daughters. 
 The family were, as their name implies, a hardy, 
 meritorious race. By their indomitable energy, 
 good judgment and sterling integrity, they all 
 became prosperous. Though none of them sought 
 any public position, they were all Democrats of 
 the old school, believing that every citizen should 
 stand on an equal footing before the law, asking 
 no favors, and demanding only an open field and 
 a fair chance in the race of life. Three of the 
 brothers came to Texas, and settled finally in 
 Brazos County, where the\' owned large estates in 
 land and negroes. These brothers were G. W., 
 A. W., and Henderson Hardy. G. W. Hardy was 
 the oldest and the wealthiest. He was a good 
 liver ; his home was the seat of hospitality before 
 the war, and in everything he was the typical 
 Southern gentleman and planter — proud, gener- 
 ous, patriotic, and devoted to his friends and 
 family. Being a cripple, besides being exempt on 
 account of his age, and the act exempting owners 
 of a certain number of slaves, he did not enter the 
 Confederate army, but his devotion to and zeal 
 for the cause of the South in her struggle for 
 a separate, independent government, was not sur- 
 passed by that of any soldier in the ranks, and all 
 during the war his cribs' were open and free to the 
 wife or widow of any soldier who was fighting, or 
 had died for his country. His confidence in the 
 ultimate triumph of the South was supreme, and 
 caused him to invest, even in the last years of the 
 war, all that he had in negro property, so that 
 when the end came he was left without a dollar 
 and without even a home. He lived twelve years 
 after the war, with health and spirit greatly broken, 
 and died in 1877, leaving only a small property, 
 accumulated after the war between the States. 
 
 Judge Hardy's mother, prior to her marriage, 
 was Miss Pauline J. Whittaker, born and reared in 
 Maury County, Tenn. She, too, was one of a 
 family of seven sons and seven daughters. The 
 Whittakers were a prominent family in Middle 
 Tennessee. The old family home, a brick two- 
 story building, where the mother of Judge Hardy 
 spent her girlhood days, is still standing, but it 
 
 has passed into strangers' hands. Mrs. Hardy 
 (nee Whittaker) is still living, and spends her 
 time with her four children. 
 
 Judge Hardy has one brother, D. W. Hardy, of 
 Navasota, who now owns, besides his home in that 
 place, valuable farms in the Brazos bottom, nearby. 
 
 Judge Hardy has two sisters, Mrs. T. J. Knox 
 and Mrs. S. Steele, who also live at Navasota. Mr. 
 Steele owns a very fine farm in the Brazos valley and 
 Mr. Knox a farm near Navasota. 
 
 The subject of this memoir received such educa- 
 tion as the private country schools in Texas afforded 
 in the old days, when the maxim " spare the rod and 
 spoil the child " was still held good. lu his seven- 
 teenth year, partly with money earned by himself 
 and partly with money furnished by his elder brother, 
 D. W. Hardy, and his father, he was enabled to enter 
 Summerville Institute, a long-established private 
 school in Noxubee County, Miss., where he spent 
 one j'ear, during the presidency of Thomas S. Gath- 
 right, afterwards the first president of the Texas 
 Agricultural and Mechanical College, at Bryan. 
 Later he spent two years at the University of 
 Georgia, at Athens, one year in the collegiate depart- 
 ment and one year in the law department. He 
 returned home in June, 1875, and began the prac- 
 tice of law at Navasota, in January, 1876, when 
 less than twenty-one years of age. He moved 
 thence to Corsicana in February, 1878, and has 
 since resided in that city. 
 
 In February, 1881, he married Miss Felicia E. 
 Peck, daughter of Capt. Wm. M. and Mrs. Nancy 
 Forbes Peck, of FairSeld, Texas. Capt. Peck was 
 a Tennesseean by birth and his family have been 
 represented on the bench of the Supreme Court of 
 that State. Mrs. Peck (?iee Forbes), came from a 
 fine old family of the good State of Alabama. 
 Capt. Peck bore the commission of Captain in the 
 Confederate army, having raised a company of 
 Freestone County boys in 1861 to fight for the 
 Southern cause. After the war he came home, 
 like thousands of others, to begin life, as it were, 
 anew. He was a man of exceptional energy 
 and capacity, of intellectual culture and natural 
 refinement, a polished gentleman of the old 
 school and successful in everything he undertook. 
 In November, 1880, Judge Hardy was elected 
 County Attorney of Navarro County, and was re- 
 elected in 1882. In 1884 the oflSce of District 
 
564 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Attorney for the Thirteenth Judicial District, com- 
 posetl of Limestone, Freestone and Navarro coun- 
 ties, was created and he was elected to the position. 
 Two years later he was re-elected to the olHce. In 
 1888 he was elected District Judge and was re- 
 elected in 1892 and is now occupying the bench. 
 His term will expire in November, 1896. This year 
 (1896) he has not offered himself as a candidate 
 for judicial honors or for any public position, and, 
 after a service of sixteen years in office, will retire 
 to private life and resume the practice of his pro- 
 fession. In all his official career, which has been 
 altogether connected with the administration of the 
 law, his endeavor has been to do justice without 
 fear or favor. As a successful prosecutor, his record 
 stands unsurpassed and as judge his re-election to 
 a second term without opposition, either inside or 
 outside of the Democratic parly, attests how well 
 he has discharged his duties. 
 
 Judge Hardy has never failed to take a decided 
 stand on all political issues and hence has a multi- 
 tude of strong friends. While uncompromising in 
 his political action, he has been uniformly courteous 
 and fair in his treatment of those who have been 
 opposed to him and as a consequence has enjoyed 
 their respect and confidence. 
 
 When the idea of a railroad commission, with 
 confiscating powers, grew into a fever, he opposed 
 it and, though on the bench, attended the Demo- 
 cratic primaries to vote against the adoption of the 
 extreme views advocated by Governor Hogg and 
 others ; but, after the State Democratic convention 
 had regularly nominated a State ticket, bowed to 
 the will of the party. 
 
 In 1894, when no Democrat in Texas seemed 
 willing to run for office and defend the national 
 Democratic administration, Judge Hardy, in April, 
 wrote a letter announcing himself as a candidate 
 for Congress from the Sixth Congressional District 
 and in a series of speeches, defended the financial 
 policy of Mr. Cleveland and Mr. Carlisle with 
 all the fervor of deep conviction and all the 
 ability he possessed. The discharge of his duties 
 as District Judge rendered it impossible for him 
 to make a complete canvass. In fact, he scarcely 
 made any canvass except in Ellis and Navarro coun- 
 ties, and these two counties, both holding Demo- 
 cratic primarj' elections, cast the majority of their 
 
 votes for sound money (Cleveland) candidates. 
 Judge Hardy does not assume all the credit for this 
 result, because in that somewhat memorable cam- 
 paign, while three candidates in the field advocated 
 free-silver, Mr. W. Poindexter, of Cleburne, who 
 was announced later, was an exponent of sound 
 money teachings and in Ellis, Johnson, Hill and 
 Bosque counties made a vigorous canvass. The 
 sound money fight for Congress was lost, mainly 
 for the reason that Dallas was given to a free sil- 
 verite because he was a home man, and without a 
 canvass or primary, but the counties of the district 
 brought up a handsome sound money majority in 
 the State Democratic Convention in August, 1894. 
 
 In May, 1895, Judge Hardy attended a conference 
 of sound money men, called to meet at W;ico to 
 face the gathering free silver movement. The meet- 
 ing was called by Judge Alexander, Judge George 
 Clark, Gen. Felix Robertson, Dr. Moore and other 
 Democrats of Waco. Judge Hardy was called on 
 to preside and a series of resolutions were adopted, 
 which constituted the opening note of the sound 
 money forces in the battle now on for an " honest 
 dollar." Since that meeting a pretty thorough 
 organization of the sound money Democrats of 
 Texas has been perfected with Judge Rufus Hardy 
 as chairman of their executive committee. A mem- 
 orable State meeting was held at Galveston in Feb- 
 ruary, and another at Dallas on San Jacinto day 
 (April 21), and, altogether the year 1896 bids fair 
 to be long remembered in Texas politics. 
 
 As a public speaker. Judge Hardy is clear, log- 
 ical and eloquent, thoroughly exhausts the subjects 
 that he discusses, and carries conviction to the 
 hearts and minds of his auditors, where that is pos- 
 sible. His career as a prosecuting attorney was 
 marked by exceptional success and his name became 
 a terror to evil-doers. During his long service upon 
 the district bench he has made a record of which he 
 and his constituents have good reason to be proud. 
 
 Faithful to his convictions upon the great finan- 
 cial question, as well as upon all others, both in 
 public and private life, he does not believe in com- 
 promise and will never give his consent to the sacri- 
 fice of principle to expediency. He has given his 
 support to every wortiiy enterprise inaugurated for 
 the development of the section in which he resides 
 and the State at large. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 565 
 
 ROBERT KIDD, 
 
 SEALY, 
 
 Occupation, farmer. Born in Amherst County, 
 Va., in 1776 ; received a good common school edu- 
 cation ; came to Texas in 1849 or 1850 ; located on 
 Sabine Lake, at Auroria, Jefferson County, Texas ; 
 remained there for two or three j'ears, theu moved 
 successively to Grisby's Bluff, Smith's Bluff, Beau- 
 mont, and San Felipe, residing at the latter place 
 from 1866 until 18 , when he moved to Sealy, 
 where he resided until his death in 1892. Owing to 
 his great generosity of spirit, his success, in a 
 financial waj', was limited, yet he maintained him- 
 self in independent circumstances, and had the 
 satisfaction of Ivuowing that he had done some 
 good and had lessened somewhat the load of human 
 misery. 
 
 In 1884, although one hundred and eight years 
 old, Mr. Kidd wallted one mile to the polling place 
 
 to cast his vote for Hon. Grover Cleveland, thus 
 contributing his ballot to the re-establishment of 
 clean, honest, responsible. Democratic government. 
 
 The measure of success that he achieved in life 
 was attributed to his industry, honesty and 
 integrity. 
 
 He married Miss Rebecca Hitchcoclc, of North 
 Carolina, in 18 . Seven children were born to 
 them, four of whom are living: F. M. Kidd, of 
 Sealy, Texas, fifty-one years of age, engaged in 
 farming and stock-raising ; G. W. Kidd, of Beau- 
 mont, Texas, forty-nine years of age. County Treas- 
 urer of Jefferson County ; Mrs. Anna Elizabeth 
 Caswell, of Beaumont (widow), a large stock- 
 holder in the Texas Tram & Lumber Co., of Beau- 
 mont, and Mrs. Mary E. Cook, wife of N. H. Cook, 
 Esq., of Sealy, a wealthy stock-raiser and farmer. 
 
 G. W. KIDD, 
 
 BEAUIVIONT, 
 
 Was born at Benton, Polk County, Tenn., Decem- 
 ber 7, 1846, and was brought to Texas in 1849 or 
 1850 by his parents, Robert and Rebecca Kidd, for 
 many years a resident at Sealy, this State. He 
 grew to manhood on his father's farm, where he 
 remained until 1868 and then accepted a position 
 as clerk and bookkeeper in a mercantile establish- 
 ment in Sealy, Texas, which he filled for fifteen 
 years, when he was elected County Treasurer of 
 Jefferson County-, to which office he has since been 
 continuously re-elected ; often defeating rival can- 
 
 didates at the polls. His discharge of the duties of 
 the office has given universal satisfaction. 
 
 Mr. Kidd's chief pleasure during his father's life 
 was to care for him and see that his every want 
 was supplied. He has been a dutiful son, a faith- 
 ful public official and has faithfully discharged the 
 duties of every trust confided to him. 
 
 He enlisted in the Confederate army In 1864 and 
 served until the close of the struggle. He is a 
 member of the Masonic, Knights of Honor, K. of P. 
 and P21ks fraternities. 
 
566 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 ERNST SCHERFF, 
 
 NEW BRAUNFELS. 
 
 Ernst Scherff, one of the leading citizens of New 
 Braunfels, was born in the town of Goettingen, 
 Hanover, Prussia, March 31st, 1826. His father, 
 Gottlieb Scherff, an expert mechanic and metal 
 worker and manufacturer of surgical instruments, 
 died in Germany, and his widow and her children, 
 William and Elise, came to America in 1859. 
 William entered the Confederate arm}' as a private 
 in a cavalry regiment, but it becomiug known that 
 he was a skillful worker in metals, was detailed for 
 service in the arsenal at San Antonio, where he 
 remained until the close of the war. After the 
 surrender he clerked in the store of his brother 
 Ernst for a time and finally engaged in merchan- 
 dising in San Antonio, where he died seventeen 
 years ago. Elise became Mrs. Schuenemann. Mr. 
 Schueuemann, now deceased, was a wheelwright, 
 and his widow and her daughter Sophie, who re- 
 sided with her brother at New Braunfels, died 
 some years after. The mother of the Sclierff chil- 
 dren died in New Braunfels, in June, 1887, at the 
 age of eighty-four 3'ears. 
 
 Ernst Scherff's business experience commenced 
 at the age of fourteen, as a clerk in a store in his 
 
 native land, and when twentj^-two years old he 
 enlisted as a private in the Frei Corps under com- 
 mand of GeQeral von der Tann in the German- 
 Danish War in Sehleswig-Holstein in the year 1848 
 to 1849. After the war he decided to go to Amer- 
 ica, and first landed in New York in the year 1849, 
 remained there two months and then proceeded to 
 Texas, thence to New Mexico and Arizona and in 
 the year 1855 he returned to Texas and located at 
 New Braunfels. He clerked there until 1861 and 
 then entered into business for himself. Being in 
 poor health he did not enter the Confederate army. 
 He conducted one of the two stores kept open in 
 New Braunfels during the war. He continued suc- 
 cessfulU' engaged in business until about 1887, and 
 then retired from active pursuits, and sold out his 
 business to his nephew, George Knoke and Mr. 
 George Eiband, both clerks of his business, who 
 continue the well-established and successful busi- 
 ness under the firm name of Knobe & Eiband. 
 In 1859 he married Miss Sophie Rick, a most esti- 
 mable and accomplished lady. During the war he 
 served eight years as Alderman of his town, but he 
 never sought or desired political honors. 
 
 G. W. DURANT, 
 
 ALVIN. 
 
 Maj. G. W. Durant, of Alvin, Texas, is a pioneer 
 of 1852, coming from Georgia. He is a native of 
 South Carolina, and was born at Georgetown, in that 
 State, October 25ih, 1834. His ancestors, both on 
 the paternal and maternal side, were soldiers in the 
 war for American Independence, serving under 
 Gens. Washington and Green throughout the 
 struggle. 
 
 His father, F. H. Durant, was a planter, who had 
 three sons and one daughter, all of whom, except 
 the subject of this sketch, are deceased. 
 
 His mother's maiden name was Miss Martha 
 Zewell. 
 
 Maj. Durant, at the age of twenty-one j'ears, in 
 
 1855, was elected Surveyor of Brazoria County, 
 Texas, and held that office for several terms. In 
 1861 he enlisted as a private in the Magnolia ran- 
 gers ; served in the Trans-Mississippi Department, 
 was soon elected Captain of the company and later 
 was promoted to the rank of Major. He was 
 slightly wounded at Vadalia, La., where two horses 
 were shot from under him the same day and a third 
 wounded. After the close of the war between the 
 States, he spent a short time in Leon County where, 
 June 1st, 1865, he married Miss Emma L. Durant, 
 daughter of the State Senator, Hon. John W. 
 Durant. Shortly thereafter Maj. Durant engaged 
 in merchandising at Brj-an and also in farming near 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 567 
 
 that place. In 1880 be purchased eighty-three 
 acres of land, upon which a portion of the prosper- 
 ous town of Alvin now stands. 
 
 He was mainly instrumental in securing the build- 
 ing of the Santa Fe from Houston to his town. 
 The Santa Fe Company had determined to build 
 from Hiichcock to Houston, butMaj. Durant, being 
 a practical engineer and having a thorough knowl- 
 edge of the topography of the country, made clear 
 to the railroad authorities that to build from the 
 town of Alvin instead would give a shorter line and 
 better grade and if they made the survey and if the 
 route was not adopted that he would pay for said 
 survey when it was made and the profiles, etc.) 
 submitted. The Alvin route was adopted. Little 
 
 of importance in the way of local development has 
 been accomplished which he has not actively 
 promoted. 
 
 Maj. and Mrs. Durant are members of the Chris- 
 tian Church, the first built in the city. The 
 Major donated the ground on which it now stands 
 and all but $150 of the money used in erecting the 
 edifice. 
 
 They have one daughter, Virginia, Mrs. J. S. 
 Bering, of Alvin, and three grandchildren: May, 
 Emma, and Martha Bering. 
 
 Maj. Durant is broad-minded, liberal in his views 
 and has shown himself ready at all times to forward 
 any cause that gave promise of promoting the wel- 
 fare of his town and people. 
 
 FRANK THOMAS, 
 
 BURNET. 
 
 Frank Thomas, son of John A. Thomas, was 
 born in Wayne County, Ky., in 1841. His father 
 died when Frank was small and the mother, accom- 
 panied by her five sons and one daughter, came to 
 Texas in 1855, settling in January of that year in 
 Burnet County, where she subsequently lived and 
 died, her death occurring in 1869 at the age of 
 fifty-seven years. The eldest son of the family, 
 James M., was in the Indian service when a young 
 man, quitting it to enter the Confederate army at 
 the opening of the late war, in which he died soon 
 afterwards while stationed as a member of Wilkes' 
 Battery at New Braunfels, in this State. The 
 second of the family was Frank, the subject of 
 this sketch; the third, Mary Jane, who was mar- 
 ried to Carter T. Dalton and died in Burnet County 
 in 1885; the fourth, William H., who died in 
 j'outb ; the fifth, John A., who died at Fort Yuma, 
 Arizona, while on his way to California in 1869, and 
 the youngest was Marshall, who died at about the 
 age of eighteen. 
 
 Frank Thomas was reared in Burnet County from 
 the age of fourteen. He entered the ranging ser- 
 vice in 1859, as a member of Capt. Dalrymple's 
 company and was in the service for nine months, 
 covering a large portion of Northwest Texas — from 
 Fort Worth to Wichita mountains. In February, 
 1862, he enlisted in the Confederate army as a 
 member of Capt. Wm. Rust's company. Company 
 B., Carter's Twenty-first Texas Cavalry, with which 
 
 he served in Louisiana, Arkansas and Missouri, 
 participating in fights at Fort Patterson, Mo., Cape 
 Girardeau, Mo., Crawley's Ridge, Ark., and the 
 operations around Helena, Ark. He was with this 
 historic command from February, 1862, to Decem- 
 ber, 1863, when he was honorably discharged on 
 account of sickness, and returned to Burnet 
 County, Texas, where he was elected Tax-assessor 
 in 1864 — an office he filled for two j'ears, without 
 compensation, as State warrants, by a subsequent 
 act of the general government, were rendered 
 worthless. From 1864 to 1882 he was engaged in 
 farming and stock-raising in Burnet County. In 
 June of the latter year he embarked in merchan- 
 dising in the town of Burnet, to which he has since 
 chiefly devoted his energies. He still retains, how- 
 ever, his farming and stock interests. He is a 
 liberal, public-spirited citizen and a successful man 
 of business, admired by a wide circle of friends. 
 He married, in Burnet Count}', in 1866, Miss 
 Elvira Rowntree, a native of Travis Countj', Texas, 
 and daughter of James L. Rowntree, who came to 
 this State at a comparatively early date and was for 
 many years a resident of Burnet County. Seven 
 children have been born of this union, six of whom 
 are living, namely: Marshall, Alice, Robert, Kate, 
 Frank, and Weesie. 
 
 Mr. Thomas is a member of the Independent 
 Order of Odd FpUows, belonging to Emanuel Samp- 
 son Lodge, No. 187, at Burnet. 
 
568 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 AUGUST TOLLE, 
 
 NEW BRAUNFELS. 
 
 This esteemed citizen and prosperous druggist 
 of New Braunfels is a native of German}-. His 
 father, Frederick Tolle, a tanner Ijy trade, came to 
 New Braunfels, Texas, in 1845, by way of Galves- 
 ton and Indianola, and located two miles west of 
 the present city, where he established a farm and 
 reared his family. Advanced in years, lie finally 
 retired to New Braunfels, where he died in May, 
 1881, at eighty-four years of age. The mother 
 survived until 1885, when she died also at the age 
 of eighty-four years. Frederick Tolle and his good 
 wife were consistent Christians, and members of 
 the Lutheran Church. 
 
 The subject of this skeicii, Mr. August Tolle, 
 was born August 10th, 1829. He secured a good 
 education in his native country. Upon coming to 
 Texas, being seventeen years of age, he associated 
 himself with Dr. Theodore Koester, a brother-in- 
 law, who was at that time a practicing physician, 
 
 and with him opened an apothecary shop in New 
 Braunfels, in 1858, under the firm name of Koester 
 & Tolle, a connection that continued until Dr. 
 Koester died in 1878, since which time Mr. Tolle 
 has owned and conducted the business alone. 
 Frederick Tolle had four sons and two daughters, 
 all of whom, save one, are still living: Christopher 
 and August, residents of New Braunfels ; Harry, a 
 tanner, at San Antonio ; Frederick (deceased in 
 1875); Augusta, now Mrs. Herman Sehimmelpfen- 
 ning, of San Antonio, and Mrs. Theodore Koester, 
 of Dallas. 
 
 He married, in 1861, Miss Caroline Messer, a 
 daughter of Michel Messer, an officer of the 
 German army, and has five children: Edith (now 
 Mrs. George Stark, of Bastrop) ; Amelia (now 
 Mrs. Otto SchoU, of New Braunfels) ; Theodore 
 (married to Miss Ella Henne, of New Braunfels) ; 
 Clara and Alfred. 
 
 SIMON FEST, SR., 
 
 SAN ANTONIO, 
 
 A native of Alsace, France, born October •26th, 
 1823, was a son of Antone Fest and the youngest 
 of eight cliildren. Three of his brothers served in 
 the French army : Antone, Louis and Lawrence, 
 the latter dying in the French service in Africa. 
 Simon was reared in his native place to the age 
 of twenty, left Alsace in October, 1846, and 
 went to Antwerp, from which port he sailed for 
 Galveston, Texas, in company with several col- 
 onists bound for different parts of the State. 
 From Galveston he went to Indianola and from 
 thence by ox-teams to Castroville, which he 
 reached after a three weeks' journey, landing there 
 in February, 1847. He remained in Castroville 
 until the August following when, on account of 
 scarcity of work there, he went to San Antonio. 
 There he worked two months for the government 
 and then went to work for John Fries, a contractor 
 and builder. After earning money enough to buy 
 a yoke of oxen and a wagon, he went to the head 
 
 of the San Antonio river and spent the year of 
 1851 farming. In 1852 he moved to Atascosa 
 County and engaged in stock-raising, remaining 
 there until the close of the war between the States, 
 after which he returned to San Antonio and on 
 December 25th, 1865, purchased and settled on a 
 tract of land on South Flores street, one and one- 
 fourth miles from Main Plaza, where he engaged 
 in gardening and the dairy business and where he 
 has since lived and followed these pursuits up to 
 1881. He has for a number of years lived at ease, 
 engaged in no active pursuit. His property has 
 become very valuable and he is now reckoned as one 
 of the large tax-payers of that portion of the city. 
 He married Mary Bil, a native of Alsace, France, 
 October 16th, 1823, just prior to sailing for Texas. 
 She was a daughter of Michael Bil, who accom- 
 panied his daughter and son-in-law to this State 
 and settled in Dennis colony. Of this union were 
 born seven children, six of whom reached years of 
 
IXDIAX WARS AND lUONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 569 
 
 maturity, viz. : Simoa Fest, Jr., who died in S.an 
 Antonio, in 1893 ; Caroline, who married Fred 
 Miller and died in Ellcbo, Nevada; Mary, who mar- 
 ried Henry Karm and resides in San Francisco, 
 California; Henry, now living in San Antonio, 
 Texas ; Edward, who died at the age of twenty- 
 three, and Louisa, who was married to Fred Kerbel 
 and died in ISSfi. 
 
 October Utb, 1886, Mr. Fest's wife died and in 
 1889 be married Mary Karm, then of San Antonio, 
 Texas, but a native of Alsace, France. After his 
 removal to Texas, Mr. Fest brought his mother and 
 two sisters from the old country, and his mother 
 died in San Antonio as did also his brother 
 Louis, who came over and settled in that city in 
 1852. 
 
 EDWARD EBELING, 
 
 ROUND MOUNTAIN, 
 
 An old settler of Blanco County, was born in 
 Hanover, Prussia, April 2, 1828, and was reared in 
 his native country and resided there till he was 
 thirtj' years old. Was brought up as an agricul- 
 turist and was superintendent of a large plantation 
 in the province of Hanover previous to his coming 
 to his country. He came to Texas in 1858 in com- 
 pany with Otto Markensen, one of his countrymen 
 who had been engaged for some years previous to 
 that lime in bringing out immigrants to this coun- 
 try. Made his first stop in Austin County, where he 
 secured employment as a farm hand at $7 per 
 month. Worked a year at this and then in 
 partnership with Markensen rented a farm for a 
 year. 
 
 In 1860 Mr. Ebeling settled in Blanco County 
 near the Burnet line, where he purchased a small 
 place and engaged in the sheep business. Was 
 successful at this and as his means continued to 
 accumulate he invested in more lands and sheep. 
 Prospered from year to year until he is now one of 
 
 the wealthiest, probabl}' the wealthiest man in 
 Blanco County. He owns a ranch of 14,000 acres, 
 well stocked with cattle (went out of the sheep 
 business before the "Dump") and has money 
 besides. Is a stockholder in the First National 
 Bank at Marble Falls and was chiefly instrumental 
 in setting that enterprise on foot. Has given his 
 time and attention wholly to his own affairs which, 
 with his industry and good business ability, accounts 
 for his success. Was in the irregular sort of 
 frontier service necessitated by the condition of 
 the country from 1860 to 1868, helping to run 
 down pillaging bands of Indians, but was never 
 under arms by regular enlistment nor has he ever 
 occupied any official position. 
 
 Has been twice married and has raised a family 
 of six sons and three daughters to each of whom he 
 has given proper educational advantages. These 
 are: Frank, Olto, Rudolph; Clara, now Mrs. Wade 
 Bader; Max; Hedwig, now Mrs. Herman Gisseke ; 
 Edmund, Louis, and Bartie. 
 
 JOSEPH HARLAN, 
 
 ROBERTSON COUNTY. 
 
 Joseph Harlan, deceased, one of the pioneer 
 settlers of Robertson County, was born in Laurens 
 District, S. C, in 1797, and was a son of Aaron 
 and Elizabeth Harlan, natives of North Carolina, 
 who settled in South Carolina a few years after the 
 American Revolution. Aaron Harlan took part in 
 
 the Colonial struggle for independence as a member 
 of Marion's command. Joseph Harlan, when about 
 sixteen years old, ran off and joined the army at 
 Charleston, S. C. for the War of 1812. 
 
 Joseph Harlan was reared in Lauren's District, 
 S. C, where he married Delilah Burke, June 14, 
 
570 
 
 INDIAN WAES AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 1825, also born in the district, and resided until bis 
 removal to Texas. He came to Texas first in the 
 early spring of 1836 on a tour of inspection, 
 accompanied by a negro man and woman, making 
 a journey overland with a team and wagon. Reach- 
 ing Nacogdoches, he found the country in a great 
 state of excitement, rumors flying in every direction 
 of the- approach of the Mexican army under Santa 
 Anna. He left his servants and team with a 
 younger brother, Isaiah (who had come to the 
 country a short time before, and was then stopping 
 at Nacogdoches) and enlisted in the patriot cause- 
 He reached Houston's army a few days after the 
 battle of San Jacinto, and remained at the front 
 until the following July, when, seeing but little 
 prospect of further trouble with the Mexicans and 
 being desirous of going back for bis family, he pro- 
 cured a substitute to take his place in the ranks 
 and returned to South Carolina. Settling up his 
 affairs there, he moved to Texas with his family and 
 possessions in the winter of the following year, 
 reaching Old Wheelock, in Robertson County, on 
 the lith of February, 1837. In November of the 
 same year he took a head-right between the Big 
 and Little Brazos rivers, about five miles south of 
 the present town of Calvert, and there settled. All 
 that section of the country was then very sparsely 
 inhabited, his nearest and only neighl>ors for miles 
 being John D. Smith, Thomas and Jesse Webb, and 
 an old bachelor named Harden. The same winter, 
 however, J. R. Robertson, brother of Maj. Sterling 
 C. Robertson, the founder of the colony, brought 
 
 out some negroes and a number of young white 
 men and made a settlement in the same locality, 
 and others arrived and settled to the south and 
 east shortly thereafter. A few settlers also ventured 
 north into what is now Falls County about this time, 
 but were subsequently driven back, and some of 
 them then killed by the Indians. Mr. Harlan 
 opened a farm where he settled, and divided his 
 time during the succeeding years, until his death, 
 between the labors of opening up a plantation in 
 the wilderness and keeping out marauding bands of 
 Indians who continued to harass the frontier until 
 after annexation. He died at his home in 1844, in 
 the prime of life, being in his forty-seventh year. 
 His wife, who accompanied him to Texas, survived 
 him many years, dying in 1884 in the eightieth year 
 of her life. He had been twice married and raised 
 a family of seven children: two, a son and daugh- 
 ter (William and Jane), by his first marriage, and 
 five, three sons and three daughters (Martha, Eli- 
 phalet, Alpheus, Isaiah, Mary and Sarah) by his 
 last. The eldest of these, William, died in 1843, 
 at about the time of attaining his majority. Jane 
 is the wife of L. A. Stroud and now resides in 
 Limestone County, where she and her husband were 
 among the first settlers. Eliphalet resides at Cal- 
 vert, in Robertson County, and Alpheus at Port 
 Sullivan, in Milam County. Isaiah was killed at 
 New Hope Church, Ga., during the late war, while 
 a member of Hood's Brigade, and Mary and Sarah 
 were married, the former to John Patrick and the 
 latter to W. T. Stephens, and are both now deceased. 
 
 E. HARLAN, 
 
 CALVERT, 
 
 An old and esteemed settler of Robertson County, 
 residing at Calvert, son of Joseph and Delilah Har- 
 lan (mention of whom will be found elsewhere in 
 this work), is a native of Laurens District, S. C 
 where he was born January 1, 1829. He was in 
 his ninth j-ear when his parents came to Texas in 
 1837 and settled in the Brazos bottom, five miles 
 from where he now lives. He has resided in this 
 immediate locality for the past fifty-eight years. 
 Mr. Harlan is probably the oldest settler living in 
 the western part of Robertson County, and with 
 two or three exceptions, the oldest in the county. 
 That the great length of his residence has not be- 
 
 come better known, is due to the fact that he has 
 always led a very quiet life and has concerned him- 
 self about very few things, except his own personal 
 affairs. He is a large planter, owning two large 
 plantations and having in cultivation between 1,500 
 and 1,600 acres, which, with his other interests, 
 occupy his time and attention to the exclusion of 
 other pursuits and those diversions (including poH- 
 tics) in which most men indulge themselves. He 
 has never held public office, except some local posi- 
 tions, such as every good citizen is expected to 
 take when called on to do so by his fellow-citizens. 
 During the late war he helped procure supplies 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 571 
 
 for the soldiers at the front, and in tliis way lent 
 the cause of the Confederacy substantial assistance. 
 Mr. Harlan, on the oOth of May, 1854, married 
 Miss Bettie Jeffries, a daughter of James and 
 Rebecca Jeffries, who emigrated from Kentucky to 
 Texas and settled at Cameron, Milam County, in 
 1852. Mrs. Harlan was born in Glasgow, Ky., and 
 was a young lady when her parents came to this 
 Slate. Her mother died at Cameron in 1863 and 
 her father at Port Sullivan, Milam County, in 1871. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Harlan have had born to them two 
 daughters: Ella, who was married to Dr. Henry 
 Trollinger and is now deceased, and Maud, married 
 to John A. Green, Jr., an attorney at law, residing 
 at San Antonio, Texas. The religious connection 
 of Mr. Harlan's family is with the Baptist Church. 
 His wife's people belonged to the Church of the 
 Disciples, in which she has for many years held a 
 membership. 
 
 ALBERT KEIDEL, 
 
 FREDERICKSBURG, 
 
 Is known throughout the section of Texas in which 
 he lives as an able and successful physician. His 
 father, William Keidel, M. D., came from Hilde- 
 sheim, Hanover, to New Braunfels, Texas, via Gal- 
 veston, in 1845, and soon after located in Freder- 
 icksburg, where he engaged in the practice of his 
 profession. He was born at Hildesheim ; educated 
 at Goetingen; married, in Fredericksburg, Mrs. 
 Albertine Kramer, a daughter of an early Texas 
 pioneer from Hanover ; and died of typhoid pneu- 
 monia in 1870, at Fredericksburg in this State. 
 Only one child (the subject of this notice) was born 
 
 of the marriage, the mother dying a few days after 
 giving birth to her child. Dr. Albert Keidel was 
 born in Fredericksburg, Texas, July 1, 1852; re- 
 ceived a good literary education in the Hildesheim 
 High Schools and perfected his medical studies at 
 the University at Goetingen in 1874-78. He was 
 married, in 1878, at Galveston, Texas, to Miss 
 Matilda Eisfeld, of Goetingen, Germany, and 
 immediately located in Fredericksburg, where they 
 have since lived and he has built up an extensive 
 and lucrative medical practice. They have four 
 children : Victor, Felix, Curt and Werner. 
 
 CHARLES SAXON, 
 
 ORANGE. 
 
 Farmer and stock-raiser. Born November 17, 
 1823, in Hinds County, Miss. His father, C. 
 H. Saxon, was one of Napoleon Bonaparte's 
 soldiers. His mother, Mary (Holmes) Saxon, was 
 born in South Carolina. Educated himself by 
 the old fire-place at the family home after 
 working on the farm during the day. Came 
 to Texas alone in December, 1842, and located in 
 Jasper County, where he remained until 1848, then 
 went to Brownsville on the Rio Grande ; lived there 
 two years and then settled at Orange, Texas, where 
 he has since resided. He was engaged for twenty 
 years in the lumber business in this State and then 
 
 embarked in farming and stock-raising, in which he 
 has been eminently successful, having acquired 
 large property interests. Enlisted in Company B., 
 Fourth Regiment, Confederate army, in 1861, and 
 served in Texas, New Mexico and Louisiana, par- 
 ticipating in many skirmishes and important battles, 
 among others in those of Mansfield and Pleasant 
 Hill and Yellow Bayou in Louisiana, which prac- 
 tically put an end to Banks' raid up Red river. 
 He is a charter member of Madison Lodge No. 
 126, and Orange Chapter, No. 78, A. F. and A. M., 
 and also a member of the Knights of Labor and 
 Farmer's Alliance Associations. 
 
572 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 He has been a Royal Arch Mason since 1858. 
 Married tliree times. First in 1854 to Miss Delano, 
 of Orange. Next to Miss Sue Swaingain, of 
 Orange, in 1861, and third to Miss Elizabeth 
 Cooper, of Orange, November 20, 1878. Has four 
 children born to him, three of whom are now living, 
 one son and two daughters, viz. : Mary E. Saxon, 
 now wife of Thomas Andrews, of Orange ; C. H. 
 
 Saxon, who is now living at the family home, and 
 is a farmer and stock-raiser, and Abi Saxon, now 
 wife of Joseph Cooper, a farmer and stouk-raiser of 
 Orange. 
 
 Mr. Saxon is as supple as many young men to- 
 day and, at his ripe old age, is in the enjoy- 
 ment of all his faculties. He is much esteemed in 
 the community in which he lives. 
 
 CHARLES SCHWOPE, 
 
 BOERNE. 
 
 One of Kendall County's prosperous farmers, was 
 born in Germany, June 27, 1851, and came to 
 Texas in 1857 with his parents (Mr. and Mrs. Chas. 
 Schwope) and Annie, Helen, Gottlieb, Julia, and 
 Louise, the other children constituting the family. 
 
 The father was born in Germany, April 9, 1816, 
 and died at Boerne, Texas, in 1889, at seventy- 
 three years of age. The mother was born in Ger- 
 many, November 19, 1824, and died at Boerne, in 
 1884, at sixty years of age. 
 
 The family first located at Comfort but later on a 
 farm near Boerne in the same county, where the sub- 
 ject of this notice grew to manhood. December 1, 
 1874, Mr. Chas. Schwope, Jr., married Miss Matilda, 
 daughter of Chas. Adams, who came from Germany 
 
 and located two miles from Boerne and engaged in 
 farming. He came to this country single ; married, 
 and in 1879 died, aged forty-seven years. Mrs. 
 Adams died in 1887 when forty-seven years of age. 
 They left six children, viz. : William, who lives near 
 Boerne; Matilda, who is the wife of the subject of 
 this sketch ; Louise, now Mrs. Charles Ranselben, 
 of Fredericksburg ; Anna, now Mrs. Helman 
 Ransloben, of Fredericksburg; Freda, now Mrs. 
 Christian Schader, of Boerne, and Hugo, a. citizen 
 of Boerne. 
 
 Mrs. Schwope was born April 18, 1859. Mr. and 
 Mrs. Schwope have eight children ; viz. : Adolf, 
 Ciiarles, Bertha, Julia, Freda, William, Hilmar and 
 Fritz. 
 
 J. D. SANER, 
 
 BOERNE. 
 
 Judge J. D. Saner was born in Davidson 
 County, N. C, March 28, 1822, moved to Tenne- 
 pec in 1832, with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Jacob 
 Saner, and came to Texas with them and their 
 other son, T. A. Saner, in 1849; located in Upsliur 
 County, and moved thence to San Marcos, Hays 
 County, and thence to Boerne in 1853, and 
 engaged in farming. Jacob Saner was a hatter, 
 and worked at his trade until he came to Texas. 
 His wife, whose maiden name vi^as Miss Mary 
 Dontbitt, was born near Salem, N. C. Jacob 
 Saner died in 1873, at eighty-four years of age, 
 
 and his wife in 1871, at eighty-two years of 
 age. 
 
 Judge J. D. Saner, subject of this notice, located 
 near Boerne, in Kendall County, upon emigrating 
 to Texas; rented land near that place and engaged 
 in farming, and, later, purchased an ox-team and 
 followed freighting between Boerne and San 
 Antonio. In 1856 he was elected Constable of the 
 Boerne precinct of Comal County; 1857 was 
 elected County and District Clerk of Bandera 
 County; filled the latter position from 1858 to 
 1865, and then returned to Boerne, where he was 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 573 
 
 elected County Judge of Kendall County for four 
 successive terms. He was followed by a succes- 
 sor for two terms, and then again elected to the 
 office in 1888, and filled it until 1890. In 1892 
 he was appointed Justice of the Peace, and served 
 in that capacit}* for two years. 
 
 In April, 1894, he was appointed Postmaster at 
 Boerne, and now (1895) holds that position. He 
 was married in 1849 to Miss Elizabeth Mauess. 
 She died in 1863, leaving four children: James M., 
 
 a Deputy Sheriff of Kendall County for ten years 
 past; Rosilla, now Mrs. Judge W. K. Jones, of 
 Del Rio; John J., a school teacher of Blanco, 
 Texas, and Thomas A., deceased. Judge Saner 
 married, in 1873, Mrs. Sarah Davis, widow of the 
 late James Davis. Her maiden name was Miss 
 Sarah Butler; she died in 1888. One child, Lizzie 
 M., was born of this union. Judge Saner owns 
 the old family homestead established by his parents 
 on their settlement in the town of Boerne, 1853. 
 
 M. S. MUNSON, 
 
 BRAZORIA COUNTY. 
 
 It is to be doubted whether there is another man 
 in the State who has lived in Texas anything like 
 so long as the subject of this memoir. Col. M. S. 
 Munson, of Brazoria County. He was born near 
 Liberty, Liberty County, in this State, at his par- 
 ents' home on the banks of the Trinity river, April 
 24th, 1825. His father, Henry W. Munson, a 
 Mississippian by birth and a planter by occupation, 
 died in 1833 and is buried at Peach Point, on Gulf 
 Prairie. His mother, whose maiden name was Ann 
 B. Pierce, was born in Georgia. After the death 
 of her husband she, in about the year 1835, mar- 
 ried, at Gulf Prairie, James P. Caldwell, of Ken- 
 tucky, and moved to near San Marcos, where she 
 died a number of j'ears thereafter. 
 
 M. S. Munson took a primary course at Hopkins- 
 ville, Ky., and then went to Rutersville, Fayette 
 County, Texas, where, as he says, he did little 
 except hunt Indians on the frontier for two or three 
 years. The capture of San Antonio by the Mexi- 
 can General, Adrian Woll, in 1842, was followed by 
 his defeat at the battle of Salado and retreat from 
 the country, and the subsequent organization of 
 what is known as the Somervell expedition, designed 
 for a descent into Mexico for the purpose of 
 making reprisals. In this expedition the sub- 
 ject of this notice participated. The command 
 marched into and took possession of Laredo 
 without the necessity of a gun being fired, camped 
 at a point three miles below town and then 
 moved six or seven miles and camped at a 
 water-hole. The remaining five hundred bore down 
 the country until they came to the mouth of the 
 Salado river, opposite and six miles from Guerrero. 
 This was on the 14th of December, 1842, a clear 
 
 but cold day. A crossing was speedily effected by 
 means of flat-boats found there. Gen. Canales, 
 with seven hundred rancheros, appeared on the 
 neighboring hills but manifested no disposition to 
 fight. The command camped that night in an 
 abandoned Carrizzo village. The Alcalde of Guer- 
 rero, accompanied by a Frenchman who spoke En- 
 glish, appeared in camp and tendered the surrender 
 of the town, but begged that the Texians would 
 camp outside its limits, where he would furnish 
 food, blankets, shoes and other things for which the 
 troops were suffering. To all this Gen. Somervell 
 agreed, and during the afternoon of the loth moved 
 up and camped on a hiil-side, near the town, per- 
 fectly commanded by surrounding hills. During 
 the day a scanty supply of flour, a few refuse old 
 blankets and a dozen or two pairs of shoes were 
 sent to camp. Late in the day they were counter- 
 marched and recrossed the river into Texas. The 
 17th and 18th were spent in this position, sufficient 
 cattle being found to furnish meat for all. On the 
 succeeding morning, December 19th, an order was 
 read directing all to prepare for a return home. 
 Three hundred men made their way down the river, 
 their horses being driven down overland ; subse- 
 quently penetrated into Mexico, engaged in the fight 
 atMier, surrendered at last as prisoners of war to the 
 treacherous Mexicans and were thrown into prisons. 
 Their subsequent fate is well known to all readers 
 of Texian history and need not be recounted here. 
 The other two hundred (among the number 
 the subject of this notice) marched toward San 
 Antonio with Somervell. Capt. Flaco, the gallant 
 Lipan chief, an old deaf-mute of his tribe, the other 
 Lipans, Rivas, a Mexican companion, and an Apache, 
 
674 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Luis, who had co-operated with the Texians, having 
 confiscated a herd of Mexican horses, had already 
 started in that direction. Somervell and his com- 
 panions had great difficulty in maliing their way 
 through the chaparral and consumed a number of 
 days in reaching the Nueces river. They found 
 that stream much swollen, but crossed it on the 
 morning of January 1st, 1843. Many of the horses 
 stuck in the liog and died from excessive cold dur- 
 ing the night. Some of the party who had gone on 
 ahead reached San Antonio and sent back beeves 
 and other supplies to their companions who were in 
 a well-nigh starving condition. The main body 
 then proceeded to San Antonio, from whence the 
 men dispersed for their respective homes. A 
 number of horses were left behind on the march 
 and some of the men made a contract with Capt. 
 Flaco for him to ga back over the road and gather 
 up these animals and keep them until they were 
 able to be driven into San Antonio, promising to 
 pay him liberally for his trouble. After Somer- 
 vell's command arrived at San Antonio and were 
 encamped in the vicinity, Flaco and the mute were 
 basely murdered by Rivas and the Mexican, who 
 drove the horses into Eastern Texas and Louisiana 
 and sold them. The act caused a thrill of horror 
 throughout the country, but the confusion of the 
 times prevented pursuit. Flaco and the Lipans 
 had always been friendly to the whites. They sup- 
 posed the murder to have been committed by some 
 of Somervell's men, retreated into Mexico, became 
 the implacable enemies of their former allies and 
 subsequently committed many kiUings and depre- 
 dations on the Western frontier. 
 
 After returning from the Somervell expedition, 
 Col. Munson went to La Grange College, North 
 Alabama, spent two years there, returned home on 
 a short visit and then entered the University at 
 Lexington, Ky., where he graduated with the first 
 honors of his class. After leaving Lexington he 
 
 studied law under Judge Bullard, president of the 
 law school at New Orleans. Returning to Texas 
 and securing admission to the bar he practiced his 
 profession for about thirty years in Brazoria and 
 adjoining counties under the firm name of Munson 
 & Lathrop and later of Munson & Garnett, ranking 
 as one of the most learned and successful practi- 
 tioners in that section of the State. He is now 
 retired from business, has a large plantation and 
 stock-ranch and is in verj' comfortable circum- 
 stances. During the war between the States (1861- 
 5), he served first in a command on Galveston 
 Island under Gen. De Bray and then in Gen. 
 Waul's command, as a member of which he served 
 during the siege of Vicksburg and participated in 
 various engagements up to the close of hostilities. 
 He was married on February fith, 1850, to Miss 
 Sarah K. Armour, of Tennessee, and has eight 
 children: Henry W. and Geo. C, who are farming 
 in Brazoria County; J. W., an attornej- at law at 
 Columbus, Texas; Walter B., practicing law at 
 Houston ; Hillan Armour, manager of his planta- 
 tion ; M. S., Jr., practicing law at Brazoria ; Emma, 
 wife of Rev. J. L. Murray, who resides near Angle- 
 ton, Brazoria County ; and Sarah, wife of Walter 
 Kennedy, of Brazoria County. Mrs. Munson died 
 at twelve o'clock the night of January 31, 1887. 
 She is buried in the family tomb at her home in 
 Brazoria County. Mr. Munson has always been a 
 staunch Democrat and served during three sessions 
 of the Legislature as representative from his dis- 
 trict with that ability, fidelity and patriotism that 
 has distinguished him through life. He has for many 
 years been a member of the M. E. Church South 
 and of the Masonic Fraternity. An enterprising 
 citizen and thoroughly identified with the soil, he 
 has contributed liberally in time, influence and 
 money to the upbuilding of his section of the 
 State. 
 
 No old Texian is better known. 
 
 SAMUEL FOSSETT, 
 
 MERIDIAN. 
 
 Samuel Fossett was born in the State of Maine 
 in 1831 ; came to Texas in 185G ; made his way to 
 Bosque County ; shortly thereafter joined the 
 ranger service ; followed that calling for several 
 years as a private, part of the lime under Col. 
 
 " Rip " Ford, and before he left the service com- 
 manded a company of his own ; leaving the rangers, 
 he engaged in the grocery business at Meridian 
 until 1862, when he entered the Confederate army 
 as a volunteer in Capt. Ryan's Company (Com- 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 575 
 
 pany E.), Fourtli Texas Infantry, Hood's Brigade, 
 and participated in nearl3' all of the important 
 battles fought by Lee's army after tliat date; was 
 severely wounded in the battle of tlieAVilderness ; was 
 in Lee's array at the surrender in 1865 ; went to 
 Richmond, and thence to Galveston and on to bis 
 home at Meridian, where be at once engaged in 
 general merchandising and stock-raising which he 
 followed successfuUj' during the following fifteen 
 years, and in 1870 was elected Sheriff and served 
 one term and made an able and acceptable public 
 officer. He is still engaged in the stock business, 
 principally raising horses. His ranch, consisting 
 of seventeen hundred acres of good land, part of 
 
 it under cultivation, is situated seven miles from 
 town. 
 
 He was united in marriage to Mrs. Eliza Fuller 
 in 1870. He is a member of the I. O. O. F. frat- 
 ernity and Democratic party. A gallant ranger, 
 brave soldier, capable county officer, for many 
 years a leading merchant of Meridian, and now 
 thoroughly identified with the best interests of 
 Bosque County, he is an honored and truly repre- 
 sentative citizen of his section. He has witnessed 
 many stirring scenes and encountered many vicissi- 
 tudes and doubtless now enjoys the retired and 
 peaceful life that his active labors in other j'ears 
 has made possible. 
 
 PUTNAM B. CURRY, 
 
 ORANGE. 
 
 Merchant and [engaged in the general insurance 
 business. Born September 16, 1835, at Owego, 
 Tioga County, N. Y. Father, Col. B. B. Curry, 
 born 1799 at Sugar Loaf, Orange County, N. Y. 
 Died in 1875, at Baileville, N. J. Mother, maiden 
 name, Arminda Totten, of Owego, N. Y., born 
 1801 ; died in 1842. Parents were married in 1820 
 and had ten children, six girls and four boys, six of 
 whom are still living. Putnam B. Curry was edu- 
 cated in the public schools of Owego, N. Y. ; came 
 to Texas in Januarj^ 1860, reaching Galveston 
 on the 3d of July of that year ; left Galveston in 
 1867, and went to Navarro Landing, Leon County, 
 where he engaged in the mercantile business and 
 remained until 1870, and then moved to Orange, 
 Orange County, Texas, and engaged in merchan- 
 dising, in which he has since continued and pros- 
 pered. From 1875 to 1890 he was proprietor of 
 the leading hotel in Orange. 
 
 Enlisted in Company B., First Texas Regiment 
 of Heavy Artillery of the Confederate Slates' army, 
 in 1861, under Col. J. J. Cook, and participated in 
 the battle of Galveston, January 1st, 1863. A 
 portion of this companj' were employed sharp- 
 shooters and the rest were in charge of the twenty- 
 two-inch rifled gun on the bow of the gun-boat, 
 " Bayou City." At the third shot the gun exploded, 
 killing Capt. A. R. Wier and three privates. Mr. 
 Curry was among the foremost in capturing the 
 Federal steamer, " Harriett Lane." 
 
 He was later transferred from Galveston to Sabine 
 
 Pass as purser of the gun-boat " Clijton" and after- 
 wards to the " Sachem " and to the " J. H. Bell." 
 He remained in the gun-boat service until the close 
 of the war, when he received his discharge from the 
 Confederate army. He claims to have received the 
 last official act of the Confederates in Houston just 
 before the " break-up." 
 
 He was sent to Matagorda with important mes- 
 sages, and on his return to Houston found the Con- 
 federacy broken up and the soldiers returning to 
 their homes. After considerable searching he found 
 Capt. J. J. Taylor, A. D. C, who then gave him 
 his discharge, signing Maj.-Gen. J. Bankhead Ma- 
 gruder's name, saying it was his last official act as 
 an officer of the Confederate government. 
 
 He is Past High Priest of Orange Chapter, No. 
 78, R. A. M., P. M. of Madison Lodge, No. 126, 
 A. F. & A. M., and commander of A. L. of H. 
 
 Married June 14th, 1868, to Miss Eliza A. Ochil- 
 tree, eldest daughter of Col. Hugh Ochiltree, who 
 came to Texas in 1842, and was a soldier in Col. 
 T. C. Wheeler's Company of Texas Volunteers in 
 the Mexican War. She was born in San Augustine, 
 Texas, December 10th, 1845. 
 
 They have four children, two girls and two boj's, 
 viz. : Maggie A. Curry, now wife of W. O. Brice, 
 of Orange ; Ollie J. Curry, now wife of J. B. Brooks, 
 of San Antonio ; Hugh B. Curr3', bookkeeper in 
 the First National Bank of Orange ; and P. B. 
 Curry, Jr., bookkeeper for the Orange Ice, Light 
 & Water Works Co., of Orange. 
 
576 
 
 INDIAJSr WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Mr. P. B. Curry, Sr., is at present (189G), vice- 
 presiilent, secretary and treasurer of the Ice, Light 
 & Water Works Co., of Orange. 
 
 Upon the organization of the Citizens' Committee 
 in 1887, he was elected president and served for 
 two years. In 1889 the Board of Trade of Orange 
 was organized with Mr. Curry as president. He 
 was re-elected five successive years, and was again 
 re-elected president, .January, 1896, of that body. 
 
 He was the owner and pul)lisher of the Orange 
 Leader tTom 1892 to 1895. 
 
 It seems impossible that any man could have been 
 of more worth to a city than has Mr. Curry to 
 Orange. He has labored unceasingly to promote 
 its growth and prosperity. 
 
 Although he is not a member of any church, Mr. 
 Curry contributes largely and freely to benevolent 
 causes. 
 
 JOHN C. CARPENTER, 
 
 SHERMAN, 
 
 Kev. John C. Carpenter, a well-known minister 
 of the Baptist Church, and Eight Eminent Sir 
 Knight, Grand Prelate of Texas, of the order of 
 Knights Templar, a man well known as a Christian 
 worker and in ^lasonry, was born in Canandagua, 
 N. Y., November 4, 1816. He left New York 
 State while yet a child and moved to Tennessee in 
 1836 and from that place went to Jackson, Miss., 
 where he was engaged for several years in general 
 merchandising and also served as secretary and 
 treasurer of the Board of Trustees of the State 
 Insane Asylum. It was here he fitted himself in 
 part for entering the ministry of the Baptist Church. 
 In 1859 he moved to New Orleans and was regu- 
 larly ordained. He immediately entered upon 
 what be intended should be his life work, but, in 
 1879, owing to a throat trouble, his speech failed 
 him and he embarked in the insurance business, in 
 which he is engaged at the present time. He 
 moved to Sherman in February, 1875, and has 
 since made that pleasant little city his home. For 
 the past twenty 3'ears, as was recently remarked by 
 one of the local pastors in a sermon delivered to a 
 large congregation, he has been loved and respected 
 by all members of the community, both high and 
 low, both rich and poor. No meritorious person 
 ever applied to him for relief and was turned awaj' 
 without being given assistance. His Masonic life 
 began with his initiation into Jackson Lodge in 
 1842. He received the Chapter degrees in Jackson 
 Chapter and took the Royal Arch degree at Jack- 
 son, Miss., in 1842. He received the orders of the 
 Temple in Jackson Commandery in 1843, at which 
 meeting Albert Pike, Sovereign Grand Inspector- 
 General of the Thirty-third Degree, Ancient and 
 Accepted ^Scottish Rite for the Southern Masonic 
 
 Jurisdiction of the United States, presided. At 
 New Orleans he was elected prelate of Indivisible 
 Friends' Commandery No. 1, located in that city, 
 and filled that office for a number of years. In 
 1865 he was elected Grand Prelate of the Grand Com- 
 mandery of Louisiana and continued as such until 
 he moved to Texas in 1875. He was also Grand 
 Chaplain of the Grand Chapter of Royal Arch 
 Masons and Grand Chaplain of the Grand Lodge of 
 Louisiana of Free and Accepted Masons, and is at 
 present Grand Representative of the Grand Com- 
 mandery of Louisiana. 
 
 In 1878 he was elected Grand Prelate of the 
 Grand Commandery of Texas, an office that he has 
 since filled. Indivisible Friends' Commandery, No. 
 13, was instituted under dispensation on the second 
 day of February, 1877. Sir Knight J. C. Carpenter 
 was the First Eminent Commander, and on the 
 fifteenth day of March, 1877, the Commandery was 
 duly organized under a charter from the Grand Com- 
 mandery of Texas and he was installed in that 
 position, a position to which he was elected for 
 three 3'ears in succession. His connection witli 
 this Commandery extended over a period of nine- 
 teen years. His Masonic life covers a period of 
 fifty-four years. He has probably delivered more 
 speeches and addresses on important Masonic oc- 
 casions than any other man in the fraternity in 
 Texas. 
 
 If it is true that every man is a missionary 
 to the future, the influence of his life will be pro- 
 ductive of great good long after this generation 
 has passed away, a generation with which he has 
 labored and that he has sought to benefit by every 
 means within his power and by the example of a 
 truly noble Christian life. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS 
 
 bll 
 
 GEORGE C. PENDLETON, 
 
 BELTON. 
 
 Hon. George Casity Pendleton, ex-member of 
 the Texas Legislature, ex-Lieutenant-Governor 
 and ex-member of Congress, was born April 23d, 
 1845, in Coffee County, Tenn. His mother was a 
 daughter of Gen. William Smartt, a soldier of the 
 War of 1812. The entire family came to Texas and 
 settled in Ellis County when George C. Pendleton 
 was twelve j'ears of age. The ambition of his early 
 life was to enter the legal profession. The war 
 between the States first interfered with this purpose. 
 He entered the Confederate army at seventeen and 
 served the Trans-Mississippi Department as a soldier 
 in the Nineteenth Texas Cavalry, commanded by 
 Col. D. W. Watson. At the close of the struggle 
 be returned home and entered college at Waxaha- 
 chie, intending to graduate, secure admission to 
 the bar and practice law; but this time, ill-health 
 compelled him to forego his purpose, and to seek 
 some employment that would furnish an abundance 
 of outdoor exercise, and he, therefore, for ten years 
 followed the migratory life of a commercial traveler 
 with beneficial results. In 1870, Mr. Pendleton 
 
 married Miss Helen Embree, daughter of Elisha 
 Embree, Esq.. of Bell County, Texas, and for a 
 number of years thereafter was engaged in country 
 merchandising, farming and stock-raising, in which 
 pursuits he accumulated a competency. His politi- 
 cal career began with his election to represent Bell 
 County in the Eighteenth Legislature. He was re- 
 elected to the Nineteenth and Twentieth Legisla- 
 tures and was chosen Speaker of the House in the 
 latter body without opposition. He was nominated 
 for Lieutenant-Governor by the Democratic Con- 
 vention at San Antonio in 1890, and elected in 
 November of that year. His previous experience 
 as a presiding officer enabled him to discharge his 
 duties as President of the Senate in a manner that 
 won the praise of that body. Later he was elected 
 to and served two terms in the House of Repre- 
 sentatives of the Congress of the United States. 
 In each instance he made a brilliant canvass 
 before the people and carried the district over 
 strong and determined anti-Democratic opposi- 
 tion. 
 
 EUGENE PILLOT, 
 
 HOUSTON, 
 
 Now, and for many years, a prominent citizen of 
 Harris County, Texas, was born in the Department 
 de la Haute, Saone, France, February 10th, 1820 ; 
 came to Texas with his parents, Claude Nicholas 
 and Jeanne (Loiseley) Pillot, in 1837, who located 
 a headright and engaged in farming on Willow 
 Creek, twenty-six miles north of Houston ; learned 
 his father's trade (carpentering and joining) which 
 he followed for a short time ; engaged successfully 
 in the timber business and later in farming, and for 
 twenty-five years was one of the leading planters of 
 Harris County ; again engaged in the timber busi- 
 ness, which he followed until 1867, at which time he 
 sold out his sawmill interests, and on January 1st, 
 1868, moved to Houston, where he already owned 
 considerable real estate to the improvement of which 
 and to other private interests he devoted his atten- 
 
 tion. He is at this writing one of Houston's 
 largest property owners, and has also large hold- 
 ings in the city of Galveston, owning the Tremont 
 Opera House and other equally valuable propertv. 
 His city holdings are what real estate men call 
 " inside property," and are very valuable. He h.TS 
 served as a member of the City Council, Board of 
 Public Works, and Treasurer of Harris County and 
 has filled many positions of honor and trust, and 
 has at all times been an active and intelligent 
 worker for the upbuilding of the city and section 
 of the State in which he lives. 
 
 On January 7th, 1845, Mr. Pillot married Miss 
 Zeolis Sellers, daughter of Achille Sellers, and a 
 native of Lafayette Parish, La. The}- are the 
 parents of twelve children, six sons and six daugh- 
 ters (all well established in life and prominent cit- 
 
578 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 izens of the communities in which they live) and 
 have twenty-two grandchildren, and four great- 
 grandchildren. 
 
 When Mr. Pillot came to Texas he was the only 
 one of the family who landed at Galveston. There 
 he met Col. Manard, founder of the city. There 
 was then only one house on the island. 
 
 Mr. Pillot volunteered for service in the expedi- 
 tion formed under Gen. Somervell to drive the 
 Mexican invader, Woll, from the country, hut the 
 expedition coming to an end before he could reach 
 the Texian forces he returned home. He was 
 intimately acquainted with and a warm personal 
 friend of Gen. Houston. He also knew and was 
 more or less intimately associated with the other 
 prominent men who figured in the early history of 
 Texas. 
 
 When eleven years old (1831) he was a drummer 
 in the National Guards of France under the 
 King Louis Fhillipe. His parents came to the 
 United Slates in 1832 ; lived in New York City and 
 State for five years, and came to Texas in 1837, 
 touched at Galveston, and twenty-four hours later 
 proceeded to Houston, where his father followed 
 the occupation of carpentering and joining, until he 
 moved to Willow creek and engaged in farming. 
 His father died in New Orleans in 1863, while re- 
 turning homeward from France, and his mother 
 three years later at the homestead in Harris County, 
 leaving five children, of whom only one, the subject 
 of this notice, is now living. The family only had 
 forty dollars when it arrived in Texas. Mr. Pillot 
 is essentially a self-made man. He is a leading 
 and representative citizen of Houston. 
 
 FREDERICK PERNER, 
 
 COMFORT, 
 
 Arrived at Galveston from Saxony, May 23, 1849, 
 where he was born July 19th, 1827; from Galves- 
 ton went to Indianola and purchased an ox-team, 
 with which, a month later, he reached New Braun- 
 fels ; from New Braunfels went to Sisterdale and 
 lived there until 18.58, when he located on his pres- 
 ent homestead, near Comfort, one of the best farms 
 in Kendall County, and in 18.54 married Mrs. Frid- 
 ena Miller, widow of Charles Miller, by whom he 
 had two children (daughters), Ernestine, who mar- 
 ried Frederick Meyer, and Minnie, who married 
 
 Edward Schmidt. To the latter were born Edward, 
 William and Bertha (now Mrs. John Marquardt), 
 Richard and Amelia (now Mrs. Fred Vollmessing, 
 of Kerrville). Mrs. Perner died August 15th, 
 1873. 
 
 For a second wife Mr. Perner married Mrs. 
 Dorothea Schultz, an estimable widow lady. She 
 died December 5, 1893, without issue. 
 
 Steps are being taken to secure to Mr. Perner a 
 large amount of money said to be due to him from 
 an estate in Germany, left by wealthy ancestors. 
 
 MILTON PARKER, 
 
 BRYAN. 
 
 Samuel Parker was a native of King and Queen's 
 County, Va., born in the year 1797. At about the 
 age of twenty-five, he married Mary Dunn, a native 
 of King and Queen's County, and settled in Lincoln 
 Count}', Tenn. Having been well educated and 
 lieing a skillful accountant, he engaged for a num- 
 ber of jears in teaching and in clerical pursuits, 
 
 until, seeing a considerable family of children 
 growing up around him, he thought it desirable to 
 move to a new countr}', and, accordingly, in 1852, 
 started to Texas. His wife died on the way, at 
 Arkadelphia, Ark., but he came on with his five sons 
 and one daughter and settled in Burleson Count}', 
 where he purchased land and entered on what, for 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 579 
 
 him, was the new life of a farmer. By industry 
 and good management in his early years, he had 
 saved some means which enabled him to comforta- 
 bly settle himself and children and make an auspi- 
 cious start in his new home. Being a man of quiet 
 habits, with no inclination for public affairs, he 
 was not extensively linown, but was highly esteemed 
 by those who enjoyed his acquaintance, and was 
 really a valued and important accession to the com- 
 munity where he settled. In the few years that he 
 was a citizen of this State, he laid the foundation 
 of a handsome fortune which, subsequently tlescend- 
 ing to his children, helped them far along in the race 
 of life. 
 
 Mr. Parker married a second time in 1856, his 
 wife being Mrs. Eliza Montgomery, of Brazos 
 County, widow of S. W. Montgomery and sister of 
 Col. Harvey Mitchell, one of the oldest settlers of 
 that county. He died the following year, leaving no 
 issue of this marriage. The six children of his 
 former marriage, John, Andrew, Samuel, Milton, 
 Benjamin and Fannie (afterwards Mrs. Elijah 
 James Chance), all of whom grew to maturity, 
 most of them marrying and having families. Only 
 one of them, Milton, is now living. 
 
 Milton, almost universally known as " Mit " 
 Parker, was born in Lincoln County, Tenn., Octo- 
 ber 28, 1840. He was in his twelfth year when he 
 came to Texas. His youth was spent in Burleson 
 County, where, in fact, nearly all his maturer years 
 have been passed. He entered the Confederate 
 army at the opening of the late war as a member of 
 the Second Texas Infantry, commanded by Col. 
 W. P. Rogers. With this command he took part 
 in all the operations of the army in Western Ten- 
 nessee and Northern Mississippi, including the en- 
 gagements at Shiloh, Farmiugton, luka, Corinth, 
 and the siege of Vicksburg. He was wounded at 
 
 Vicksburg and, on the surrender of that place, was 
 captured. Being subsequently paroled, he returned 
 to Texas, and from that time on until the close of 
 the war, engaged in trading operations between 
 points in the interior of Texas and Mexico. He, 
 with others of his regiment, did some valiant fight- 
 ing for the Southern cause and he suffered many 
 close escapes from the deadly fire of the enemy. 
 
 After the war Mr. Parker embarked in the com- 
 mission business at Galveston as a member of the 
 firm of Johnson, Parker & Co., and was so engaged 
 for three years. He then moved to Bryan, where 
 he formed a partnership with W. H. Flipper and, 
 under the firm name of Parker & Flipper, followed 
 the mercantile and banking business for ten years. 
 Disposing of these interests at the end of that time 
 he turned his attention to planting, which, asso- 
 ciated with some real estate operations, has since 
 occupied his time. Mr. Parker is regarded as one 
 of the heaviest property owners n Brazos or Bur- 
 leson counties. His holdings in the latter county 
 amount to about 6,500 acres, more than three- 
 fourths of which are under cultivation, producing 
 abundantly of cotton and corn, the staple products 
 of the Brazos valley. His investments in Bryan 
 are in local enterprises, being such as are designed 
 to stimulate industry and foster a spirit of progress. 
 
 In 1864, Mr. Parker married Miss Mary Jane 
 Johnson, of Burleson County, a native of Virginia, 
 then resident of Bloomington, Illinois, daughter of 
 Capt. George Johnson, who was born in Virginia and 
 was for many years a steamboat captain on the Mis- 
 sissippi river, coming to Texas in 1859, where he 
 subsequently lived and died. 
 
 The issue of this marriage has been seven chil- 
 dren: George S., John K., Mary W. (now Mrs. 
 Allen B. Carr, Jr.), Katie B., Winnie L., Fannie 
 and Milton B. 
 
 AUGUST RUST, 
 
 SIVIITHSON'S VALLEY, 
 
 Came to Texas in 1855 from Hanover, Germany, 
 with his father, mother and other members of the 
 household, who located near New Braunfels and 
 later moved into the vicinity of Smithson's Valley, 
 in 1864, and lives there now. The mother died in 
 1893, at seventy-five years of age. The father, 
 Frederick Rust, is living near Boerne, in Kendall 
 
 County, with his son, Louis. August, the subject 
 of this notice, was the oldest of a family of twelve 
 children. He was born August 19, 1840, in Han- 
 over, Germany, and reared to his father's calling, 
 that of a distiller of malt liquors, but abandoned 
 it to engage in farming in the New World in which 
 he has accumulated a handsome competency. He 
 
580 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 married, in 1869, Johanna Guer. Mr. and Mrs. iam, Emily, Frieda, Alfred, Henry and Herbert. 
 Rust have had thirteen children : Otto, Emil, Louis Mrs. Rust is a native of Comal County, Texas, 
 (deceased). Bertha, Louise, Alvina, Albert, Will- born at Four-Mile Creek, near New Braunfels. 
 
 REFUGIO SAN MIGUEL, 
 
 EAGLE PASS. 
 
 In Southwest Texas there were few men better 
 known in his time and none were more enterprising 
 and active than Refugio San Miguel. A man of 
 great energy and perseverence, he forged his way 
 from obscurity and poverty to a position of local 
 prominence and influence. He was a native of 
 Mexico and was born at Matamoros about the year 
 1828 and grew to manhood in Mexico. 
 
 His father, Pablo San Miguel, was a stockman 
 of that country and raised his sons to the business. 
 
 When our subject arrived at his majority he left 
 home and went to Santa Rosa, Mexico, to seek em- 
 ployment. The opportunities in Mexico for young 
 men to advance were not good and, being ambitious 
 to accomplish something in the world, young San 
 Miguel became restless and decided to try his 
 fortune in Texas and, accordingly, went to Eagle 
 Pass about the year 185L There he found em- 
 ployment, saved his earnings and was soon enabled 
 to commence business for himself. He engaged in 
 raising cattle and sheep on a small scale and, by 
 close attention, his stock prospered and increased. 
 He also engaged in freighting and this branch of 
 liusiness finally grew to large proportions, extend- 
 ing to towns far distant into the interior of Texas 
 and Mexico. 
 
 Mr. San Miguel's stock business prospered, and 
 in the spring of 1863 he located lands and opened 
 one of the largest stock ranches, at that time, in 
 his section of the State. This was situated about 
 fifteen miles above Eagle Pass on the Bruckett 
 road. Indians at that time were roaming at large 
 in that portion of Texas and were troublesome and 
 sometimes hostile; so much so, that it was difficult 
 to find men who cared to risk their lives in herding 
 stock. For their retreat and better security Mr. 
 San Miguel built a rock fort on the ranch, which 
 afforded them protection and answered the purpose, 
 also, of a ranch house. This structure still (1896) 
 stands. It not only served the purpose for which 
 it was built but was also utilized, or visited at 
 times, by the United States troops^ during the late 
 
 war between the States. When the war broke out 
 Mr. San Miguel allied himself with the cause of 
 the new Confederate States and served as an en- 
 listed soldier in his own locality. 
 
 In 1855 Mr. San Miguel married, at Eagle Pass, 
 Miss Rita Alderate, a daughter of Miguel Alderate, 
 an esteemed citizen of Eagle Pass. She was born 
 at Santa Rosa, in the State of Coahuila, Mexico, 
 January 8th, 1842, and still survives in the prime 
 of vigorous womanhood. She was a most faithful 
 and dutiful wife, and is the mother of six children, 
 all living at Eagle Pass. Mr. San Miguel was yet a 
 poor man when they were married, having only an 
 ox and a flint-lock musket. The latter he traded 
 for another ox, and bought a cart and ran in debt 
 for another ox. His success in life is in a great 
 measure due to the support, encouragement and 
 fortitude of his estimable wife. Mr. San Miguel 
 met a sad and untimely death at the hands of a 
 murderous Mexican employee who, for some imag- 
 inary wrong, laid in ambush and shot him dead, on 
 the Brackett road, about five miles north of Eagle 
 Pass, while on his way home from his ranch, Sep- 
 tember 8th, 1863. He owned at the time of his 
 death 3,000 head of cattle, about 600 being work- 
 oxen. He al>o owned 9,000 head of sheep, and 
 horses enough to handle the extensive business of 
 his ranch. Mrs. San Miguel was made administra- 
 trix of the estate, and the admirable manner in which 
 she managed its affairs shows her to be a woman of 
 great executive ability. Refugio San Miguel was 
 essentially a self-made man. He cared nothing for 
 public affairs and devoted all of his time and ener- 
 gies to his business. He was a kind and consider- 
 ate husband and father and was always loyal to his 
 friends. He was a'man of the strictest integrity 
 and had the full confidence and esteem of all who 
 knew him. The children of Mr. and Mrs. San 
 Miguel live at Eagle Pass and are, in order of their 
 respective births : Jesua, now Mrs. Francis Garza ; 
 Trinidad, who married Angeleta Diaz; Martha, now 
 Mrs. Miguel Falcon ; Refugio, now Mrs. Jesus 
 

INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 581 
 
 Gelan ; Nicholas, now Mrs. Trinidad Herrera ; and 
 Miguel, who married Miss Refugio Galan. Trini- 
 dad San Miguel is the oldest son and the leading 
 business man of Eagle Pass. He has inherited the 
 excellent business, moral and social traits of his 
 father. He was born August 5th, 1859, and was a 
 lad when his father died ; but, being matured in 
 mind for one of his years, he soon relieved his 
 mother of many of the cares and burdens of busi- 
 ness and also became practically the head of the 
 family. He received a good business education at 
 San Antonio and has put it to a most satisfactory 
 use. He took charge of the ranch and stock inter- 
 ests when a youth and conducted the business suc- 
 cessfully. He now, with a younger brother as 
 partner, owns a fine stock ranch near Eagle Pass 
 upon which they range 2,500 head of cattle, and 
 Mr. San Miguel himself has paying wine rooms, 
 of the best class and finest equipped, in Eagle Pass, 
 Texas, and Porflrio Diaz, Mexico. He has held the 
 
 office of State Stock Inspector at Eagle Pass for a 
 number of 3'ears. He was United Slates Inspector 
 of Customs at Eagle Pass during the presidential 
 term of Benjamin Harrison, and performed the 
 duties of the office with credit to himself and the 
 entire satisfaction of the government authorities. 
 Mr. San Miguel also served four years on the 
 Board of School Trustees of this city and declined 
 thereafter re-election. 
 
 He is a cool, conservative and valuable citizen and 
 successful business man. He is popular with the 
 public, and has the bearing and address of a courtly 
 and affable man of affairs. Refugio San Miguel 
 died without leaving a picture and the publishers are 
 therefore pleased to present an engraving of Trini- 
 dad San Miguel, as representing the family. He 
 is said to bear a strong resemblance to his father; 
 has inherited his talents and is one of the leading 
 citizens of the section of the State in which he 
 resides. 
 
 ROBERT DALZELL, 
 
 BROWNSVILLE. 
 
 The subject of this sketch was born in County 
 Down, Ireland, in 1830, of Huguenot stock, his 
 ancestors having fled from France during the per- 
 secutions of 1685 and settled, with many other emi- 
 gres, in the province of Ulster, between Newry and 
 Belfast, where they laid the foundations of the flax 
 and linen industry for which that section of the 
 country became so famous. 
 
 Varying fortunes attended the exiles in their new 
 home, and in the early part of this century they had 
 become so identified with the native race that little 
 except their names remained to show the country 
 of their origin, and La Belle France was more a 
 tradition than a remembrance. Yet the spirit of 
 liberty remained and the old yearning of the French 
 Covenantors for freedom of thought and speech and 
 conscience was strong in their Irish descendants. 
 In 1838 Stewart Dalzell with his family emigrated 
 from their home in the shadow of the Mourne 
 mountains to the United States, and settled near 
 Pittsburg, Pa. After receiving a common school 
 education there, Robert Dalzell, the fifth son, 
 pushed further west in search of fortune, and the 
 latter part of 1847 found him in St. Louis, Mo. 
 The Mexican War was then in progress and he, a 
 
 lad of seventeen, with many other adventurous 
 spirits, volunteered for service on the Rio Grande. 
 The war coming to a sudden termination, he entered 
 the transport service on the river, and continued 
 in government employment as pilot, mate and cap- 
 tain of steamboats until 1852, when he was offered 
 a position on the steamers of M. Kenedy and Richard 
 King, who afterwards became the " cattle kings " 
 of West Texas. In 1861, he veon and wedded the 
 accomplished stepdaughter of the senior partner, 
 Miss Louisa C. Vidal, and two sons and six charm- 
 ing daughters have blessed the happy union, of 
 whom five children survive. During the war 
 between the States Capt. Dalzell and the late 
 Joseph Cooper, as partners, operated and owned 
 steamboats and lighters on the Rio Grande, upon 
 their own account, with great success; and in 1866, 
 when the old firm of M. Kenedy & Co. was reorgan- 
 ized as King, Kenedy & Co., with a capital of 
 $250,000.00, Richard King owned one-quarter, M. 
 Kenedy one-quarter, and Dalzell and Cooper one- 
 quarter of the concern, the remaining fourth being 
 divided among the principal merchants of Browns- 
 ville, Texas, and Matamoros, Mexico. Capt. M. 
 Kenedy, who was general manager of the new con- 
 
582 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 cern, turned his attention to stock-raising early in 
 1867, and tlien relinquislied tbe management to his 
 son-in-law, Capt. Robert Dalzell, who continued to 
 conduct its vast interests until the dissolution of 
 the company in 1874. Shortly after, Capt. Dalzell 
 practically retired from active business and settled 
 down to enjoy the abundant fruits of an upright, 
 industrious and successful career. 
 
 Few men are better known on the lower Rio 
 
 Grande, none are more respected or beloved. 
 Open-handed, just and generous, no worthy object 
 ever appealed to his charity in vain; active in every 
 movement for the improvement of his section, 
 trusted, popular and influential, but seeking no 
 office of emolument, he pursues the even tenor of 
 his way, a model citizen, husband and father, and 
 recognized by all as the ideal type of the courteous 
 and perfect gentleman. 
 
 SAMUEL E. WATSON, 
 
 CLARKSVILLE. 
 
 Samuel E. Watson, of Clarksville, one of the 
 wealthiest and best known planters in Red River 
 County, Texas, was born on the 21st of June, 1847, 
 attended a private school at New Orleans, con- 
 ducted by C. M. Saunders, a graduate of Harvard 
 College ; took the Harvard course, and completed 
 his education by graduating from the High School 
 of Nashville, Tenn., and attendance at Sycamore 
 Intitute, while that institution was under the presi- 
 dency of Prof. Charles D. Lawrence. After 
 returning home from school be, in 1867, at the 
 request of his father, proceeded to Red River 
 County, Texas, where he assumed charge of his 
 father's plantation, one of the largest in the State. 
 He has lived upon this property, Pecan Point, 
 almost continuously since that time. 
 
 His parents were Matthew and Rebecca (Alli- 
 bone) Watson, the former a native of Rhode 
 Island and the latter of Chillicolhe, Ohio. His 
 mother's nephew, Samuel Austin Allibone, is the 
 well-known compiler and publisher of the "Dic- 
 tionary of Authors," a work upon which he and 
 his wife were engaged for twenty years. His father's 
 brother, Samuel Watson, was one of the trustees 
 of the Peabody fund in Tennessee, president of the 
 Old State Bank of Tennessee, and is now deceased. 
 Mrs. Rebecca Watson was a niece of Susan Alli- 
 bone, of Philadelphia, one of the distinguished 
 women of that city. A memoir of her life has 
 been published and widely circulated. 
 
 Mr. Alatthew Watson about the j^ear 1823 pur- 
 chased a stock of $20,000 worth of goods and 
 moved to Nashville and a few 3'ears afterwards, in 
 1825, married Miss Rebecca Allibone. Their mar- 
 ried life continued for fifty years, Mr. Watson 
 dying in 1884 and his wife in 1886. Both are buried 
 
 at Mt. Olivet, near Nashville. They left two 
 children: Mrs. Jennie H. LaPice, of St. James 
 Parish, La., and S. E. Watson, the subject of this 
 notice. Mr. Matthew Watson was engaged in the 
 dry goods business in Nashville, in which he con- 
 tinued for about ten years. He then helped 
 organize the Planters Bank of Nashville. Later he 
 drew $30,000 in a lottery, which fixed him for life. 
 
 Just before the Federal troops captured Nashville, 
 he moved with his family to Landerdale, in St. 
 James Parish, La., a fine plantation owned by him. 
 
 A paternal uncle of our subject served during 
 part of the war as a soldier in the Twenty-first 
 Texas Cavalry, commanded by the late lamented 
 veteran editor. Col. Charles DeMorse.of Clarksville, 
 and died at Clarksville from an illness brought on 
 by exposure in the army. 
 
 Samuel E. Watson was married to Miss Maggie 
 Latimer Bagby, daughter of Mr. George Bagby, of 
 Red River Countj'. They have five children : 
 Matthew, Jennie, Harrj', Samuel, and Maggie. 
 
 Mr. Bagby was a paymaster in the Confederate 
 army and in 1863 went through the Indian Terri- 
 tory to pay off the soldiers in Arkansas. Return- 
 ing he was ambushed and assassinated by Indians. 
 A party of Confederate soldiers, who greatly loved 
 him, quietl}' made their way into the Territory and 
 captured his murderers and took them to Clarks- 
 ville, where the citizens hanged them to a tree near 
 the town. 
 
 Mr. Watson lost his wife January 11, 1886. She 
 is buried in the cemetery at Clarksville. She was 
 a member of the Cumberland Presbj'terian Church 
 and a devout, loving and lovable Christian woman. 
 She was related to Governor Arthur P. Bagby, one 
 of the early governors of Georgia. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 583 
 
 July 29, 1895, Governor Culberson appointed 
 Mr. Watson one of the delegates selected by him 
 to represent the State of Texas at the Farmers' 
 National Congress, held at Atlanta, Ga., October 
 12-15 of that year. Mr. Watson was one of the 
 commissioners to the World's Fair appointed by 
 the County Judge of Red River County, and was 
 also a delegate to the meeting held at Fort Worth 
 for the purpose of organizing a committee to which 
 was intrusted the duty of seeing that Texas was 
 properly represented at the Fair. Mr. Watson and 
 Capt. A. P. Corley were in charge of the Red 
 River County exhibit at the Dallas State Fair. 
 
 The exhibit contained numerous interesting relics 
 
 of mound builders and specimens of curious woods 
 collected by Mr. Watson on his plantation ; also a 
 bale of cotton of his, which was awarded the State 
 premium. 
 
 He is a member of the P^piscopal Church and a 
 representative farmer and citizen. An uncle of his, 
 Thomas Washington, of Nashville, Tenn., and his 
 father were interested in the "Tennessee Colony" 
 which was established in Texas about the year 18 — 
 and which has since grown and prospered. Will- 
 iam T. Watsoii, a cousin of the subject of this 
 notice, is Surveyor- General of the State of Wash- 
 ington, having been appointed to that office by 
 President Cleveland. 
 
 J. JACOB WEBER, 
 
 FREDERICKSBURG, 
 
 A venerable and highly esteemed citizen of Gillespie 
 County, lives on the Kerville road, about seven 
 miles out from Fredericksburg. He came with his 
 father and two brothers to Texas in 1846, under 
 the auspices of the German Emigration Company. 
 He was born in the Rhine Province of Prussia, 
 October 16th, 1831. His brothers, Nicholas and 
 Henry P., now own farms in Gillespie County ad- 
 joining his. The father, who also bore the name 
 of Jacob, followed farming until the time of his 
 death, which occurred at New Braunfels in 1847. 
 After his death the family moved to Fredericksburg 
 
 and soon thereafter out on the Perdenales and com- 
 menced the development of their future home. 
 The mother died August 7th, 1878, aged seventy- 
 six years. 
 
 Mr. J. .Jacob Weber, subject of this notice, 
 married Miss Matilda Schlandt, in 1853. Her 
 father, a pioneer settler, came to Texas in 1845 
 fi'om Nassau, Germany, where she was born. Mr. 
 and Mis. Weber have nine children and thirty-seven 
 grandchildren living. 
 
 Mr. Weber is one of the most substantial and 
 prosperous citizens of Gillespie County. 
 
 W. R. MILLER, 
 
 JACKSONVILLE. 
 
 Capt. W. R. Miller, a well-known citizen and 
 financier of Jacksonvile, Texas, was born in Jeffer- 
 son County, Ala., November 27, 182.5, and re- 
 ceived a good academic education in that State and 
 completed his studies by a course at Cumberland 
 University, Lebanon, Tenn. 
 
 His parents were Samuel and Martha Seman Mil- 
 ler, both natives of Alabama, and connected with 
 some of the best families of that grand old com- 
 
 monwealth. His father was born in 1798, removed 
 to Texas, and died in Anderson County, this State, 
 in November, 1856. His mother was also born in 
 1798, and died at the family homestead in Ander- 
 son County in 1871. 
 
 Capt. W. R. Miller, the subject of this notice, is 
 a retired merchant. His first business experience 
 was at Three Creeks, Ark., where he established a 
 store and dealt in general merchandise for four 
 
584 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 years, after which (in 185:3) he came to Texas 
 and located near Kickapoo, in the northeastern 
 portion of Anderson County, where he engaged in 
 the same line of business until 1858, when he re- 
 tired from it until after the close of the war between 
 the States. In the early part of 1861 he enlisted 
 in the Confederate army as a soldier in Company 
 H., commanded by Capt. Rainey, and remained 
 with the company until the fall, when he was sent 
 home on account of sickness. He afterwards be- 
 came a Captain in the State troops and served in 
 that capacity and as an officer in the commissary 
 department of the army until the close of hostilities. 
 The war over, be resumed merchandising and 
 continued therein until 1887, when failing health 
 compelled him to retire and engage in less confining 
 pursuits. In 1886 the business men of Jackson- 
 ville, by unanimous consent, called upon Capt. Mil- 
 ler to establish and operate a banking house in the 
 town for them ; but, still being in feeble health, he 
 was compelled to decline the flattering invitation. 
 He, however, moved to Jacksonville in 1888 and 
 has since resided there. When he located at that 
 place he had $75,000 in cash, to which he has since 
 considerably added. His ample means are princi- 
 pally invested in county, State and United States 
 bonds. 
 
 He has been a member of the Masonic fraternity 
 for nearly fifty j'ears, and now holds the R. A. M. 
 degree. 
 
 He has been a member of the M. E. Church South 
 for forty years, and has been a liberal contributor 
 to the Church financially and an active worker 
 spiritually, a? well. 
 
 In February, 1854, he was married to Miss Susan 
 Moore, of Arkansas. She was born in Alabama in 
 1833 and is still living, the loved companion of her 
 husband's declining years. She is a member of the 
 M. E. Church South, an excellent and widely 
 accomplished Christian lady. 
 
 They have had one child, a daughter, Miss Alice 
 Jane Miller, born in Arkansas in 1854, and now 
 deceased. She married Mr. William P. Devereaux, 
 a druggist at Jacksonville, and died at that place in 
 1895. 
 
 Capt. Miller started in life without the aid of 
 money or powerful friends and, notwithstanding 
 the reverses that he sustained by the war, which 
 swept away nearly all the fruits of his labors, gar- 
 nered prior to that disastrous event, has met with 
 an almost unbroken series of successes as a finan- 
 cier and is now regarded as one of the wealthy men 
 of the county in which he lives. 
 
 HUMPHREY E. WOODHOUSE, 
 
 BROWNSVILLE. 
 
 Mr. Woodhouse was born in Wethersfield, Conn., 
 in 1822. His father, Humphrey Woodhouse, a 
 seafaring man, native of Wethersfield, was the 
 pilot of the first steamboat that navigated the 
 Connecticut river, and the grandson of Humphrey 
 Woodhouse, whose father was of the first English 
 settlers in Connecticut. The Woodhouse family 
 became numerous and influential throughout the 
 New England States as men of sterling integrity, 
 great force of character and enterprise. 
 
 Mr. Woodhouse received a good rudimentar}- 
 education in his native town, and early exhibited 
 an aptitude for a business rather than a professional 
 career. Upon his own responsibility, he at about 
 fourteen years of age went to New York City and 
 obtained a position in a large wholesale and retail 
 house in South street, that dealt extensively in 
 shipping supplies to foreign countries. He re- 
 
 mained with his employers continuously for about 
 six years and, during that period, was advanced to 
 a responsible position. In consequence of over- 
 work and failing health he went to Brazos Santiago, 
 Texas, in 1847, as supercargo of a merchant 
 vessel, laden with valuable merchandise, which he 
 was commissioned to dispose of in that vicinity. 
 He lightered his cargo at Pt. Isabel, and proceeded 
 with it to what is now the outskirts of Brownsville, 
 and there made satisfactory sales. August 24th, 
 1848, he located in Brownsville and built the first 
 frame building in the town for a store, and placed 
 therein a stock of merchandise for Charles Stillman 
 & Bro., and sold at wholesale the first goods to 
 leave the place for Mexico. In 1854 he entered 
 into partnership with Mr. Charles Stillman, and 
 the firm built up an extensive business in general 
 merchandise, which not only supplied a vast 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 585 
 
 amount of goods to local merchants, but extended 
 its trade far into the interior of Mexico. In 1859 
 Mr. Woodliouse withdrew from the firm of Chas. 
 Stillman & Co., and continued importing and ex- 
 porting in his name alone. He established a 
 line of packet ships between Brazos Santiago, 
 Texas, and New York City. These ships were 
 constructed in the ship yards^ of Fair Haven, 
 Conn., and in many instances designed and 
 built by a brother, James Woodhouse, who was 
 a master shipbuilder. In all there were from 
 time to time about fifty ships of various classes and 
 tonnage mostly designed and built by them espe- 
 ciallly for the New York City and Brazos trade. 
 The vessels were staunchly built, some of them 
 spread about 4,000 yards of canvas and were there- 
 fore of great speed. One of these ships, the ^^ Flora 
 Woodhouse," without ballast carried a cargo of un- 
 compressed cotton from Matamoros to Liverpool, 
 England, without disaster or difficulty as to sea- 
 worthiness. On arrival of the "Flora Woodhouse" at 
 the port of Liverpool, she was visited by many 
 interested business men of the city to see the 
 Yankee schooner from Texas, loaded as she was 
 with cotton in bales that had not been compressed 
 but were direct from the gin. The cargo was 
 bulky and its safe delivery on the Liverpool dock 
 was looked upon as a feat in marine transportation 
 and was viewed also in the light of an innovation. 
 This wasduring the progress of the great Civil War 
 and, owing to marine complications and restrictions, 
 Mr. Woodhouse, as a precaution against further 
 trouble, changed her name to Flora, simply, 
 registered her under the British flag and sent her on 
 her mission, which on the whole proved a success. 
 
 Mr. Woodhouse prospered in business and at this 
 time had extensive interests in New York, Mata- 
 moros and Brownsville, but, during the progress of 
 the war between the States, his operations were 
 chiefly confined to Matamoros. After the close of 
 the conflict he reopened his business at Browns- 
 ville, at the same time opening branch offices in 
 New Orleans and New York City, and extended his 
 shipping interests, but with the building of rail- 
 roads and the diversion thereby of trade into 
 interior towns of Texas and Mexico, with also the 
 change and obstruction of Brazos and Harbor Bar, 
 shipping suffered a decline and Mr. Woodhouse 
 sold his vessels, and gradually withdrew from the 
 transportation business. In 1865 he married Miss 
 Mary Belknap, a near relative of Secretary of War 
 Belknap, a member of President Garfield's and 
 later President Arthur's Cabinet. They have five 
 sons and two daughters, all of whom are finely 
 educated and amply qualified for the duties of life. 
 The Woodhouse family home is one of the most 
 spacious, elegant and attractive in the city of 
 Brownsville. 
 
 Mr. Woodhouse has doubtless transacted more 
 business, handled more money, and been as impor- 
 tant a factor in the history and development of the 
 border country of Texas as any other citizen of 
 Brownsville. 
 
 As years advance he is gradually withdrawing 
 from business pursuits. He is now principally 
 engaged in quietly looking after his property inter- 
 ests in Brownsville and Matamoros, and his ranch, 
 which is a fine piece of property lying in the interior 
 of Cameron County, and upon which he has fine 
 stock in cattle, horses and sheep. 
 
 B. F. PRITCHETT, 
 
 JACKSONVILLE. 
 
 B. F. Pritchett, one of the most influential farm- 
 ers and citizens of Cherokee County, Texas, of 
 which he has been a resident since 1870, was born 
 December 18, 1832, at Sontown, Newton County, 
 Ga. His parents were William E. and Mary E. 
 (Greer) Pritchett. His father was born in Butler 
 County, Ga., about the year 1804, and died in 1862 
 at Dadeville, Ala. His mother was a daughter of 
 Col. Benjamin Greer, of South Carolina. His 
 father was a well-to-do farmer, and both of his 
 
 parents connected with some of the best families in 
 the South. Mr. B. F. Pritchett was educated in 
 Atlanta, Ga., in the academic school located at that 
 place, aqd lived on his father's farm until the com- 
 mencement of the war between the States. At the 
 beginning of the struggle, he enlisted in the Con- 
 federate army as a soldier in Company H. (com- 
 manded by Capt. John Thompson), First Alabama 
 Battalion of Cavalry, commanded by Maj. T. C. 
 Bell. In 1862 the company was united with three 
 
586 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Mississippi companies to form the Eightli Missis- 
 sippi. After participating in a number of minor 
 engagements, some of whicli were fierce and san- 
 guinary enough in their way, he had the pleasure 
 of sharing the glory with which his command cov- 
 ered itself at Shiloh, one of the greatest pitched 
 battles of the war and one hallowed in the memories 
 of Southern men and women by the fact that the 
 heroic Albert Sydney Johnston there laid down his 
 noble life, a life which he had consecrated to the 
 cause of civil liberty and constitutional freedom 
 many years before upon the plains of Mexico and 
 Texas. After further service, Mr. Pritchett was 
 captured by the Federals at Murfreesboro and taken 
 to Louisville, Ky., and from thence to Camp Mor- 
 ton, Indianapolis, Ind., where he remained until 
 the close of the war. He was wounded at Mur- 
 freesboro in the head and knee, honorable wounds 
 that testify to the fact that he was a good and 
 faithful soldier. 
 
 Mr. Pritchett moved to Texas in the fall of 1809, 
 and located in Rusk County, where he remained 
 
 four years and then moved to Cherokee County, 
 where he has since resided. His well-improved 
 farm, consisting of 200 acres in cultivation and 300 
 well clothed with timber, is situated six and a half 
 miles distant from the pleasant town of Jacksonville. 
 Mr. Pritchett has been a very successful farmer; 
 has been enabled to care well for his family and 
 has given his children all social and educational 
 advantages and now, in his old age, possesses a 
 competency. 
 
 He was married in October, 1857, to Miss 
 Lurana Murphey, daughter of Wiley and Luzina 
 Murphey, of Alabama. She was born December 
 9tb, 1837, and is a most refined and accomplished 
 lady. 
 
 They have had ten children, five of whom 
 are now living: L. A. Pritchett, a farmer and 
 ginner, living four miles from Jacksonville ; M. E., 
 now wife of W. B. Clayborn, a farmer living seven 
 miles from Jacksonville ; Martha E., wife of E. M. 
 Eoundtree, a farmer living six miles from Jackson- 
 ville ; W. L. and Miss Eula Delle, living at home. 
 
 FELIX JOHNSON McCORD, 
 
 TYLER. 
 
 There are few better known, abler or more higlily 
 esteemed lawyers and occupants of the district 
 bench, than the subject of this notice. Judge F. J. 
 McCord. He was born in Tichimingo County, 
 Miss., and was educated in the Schools at Corinth. 
 His father, C. W. McCord and mother, Mrs. Hannah 
 McCord, were natives of and died in Mississippi. 
 
 Judge McCord came to Texas in 1809 and settled 
 in Upshur County, where he worked upon farms and 
 in saw-mills as a laborer until 1872 and then went to 
 Jefferson, where he entered the office of Hon. D. B. 
 Culberson and began the study of law. A year 
 later he was admitted to the bar after standing an 
 exceptionally creditable examination and moved to 
 Longview, where he engaged in the practice, and in 
 1877 formed a connection with Hon. John M. Dun- 
 can, now General Attorney of the I. & G. N. Rail- 
 way, under the firm name of McCord & Duncan, a 
 copartnership that continued until 1879, when 
 Governor O. M. Roberts appointed the subject of 
 this notice District Attorney of the Seventh Judicial 
 District, an office that he held until 1880, when 
 he was defeated by Hon. James S. Hogg, after- 
 
 wards Governor of Texas. Later, Judge McCord 
 was nominated and elected by the Democracy of 
 Smith and Gregg counties to the Seventeenth Legisla- 
 ture and, while a member of that body, introduced 
 and secured the enactment of a bill reducing rail- 
 way passenger fare from five to three cents per 
 mile and took an active part in all legislation of the 
 session. He declined renoraination and, August 
 17th, 1883, was appointed by Governor Ireland 
 Judge for the Seventh Judicial District, to succeed 
 Hon. J. C. Robertson, resigned. He has since 
 been re-elected at three successive popular elec- 
 tions and is now the incumbent of the office. 
 
 In 1894 he was a candidate for the Democratic 
 nomination for Congress and led all competitors 
 for six thousand ballots, one of the longest dead- 
 locks ever known to the political history of Texas, 
 and then withdrew his name from before the con- 
 vention. Had he remained in the race for the 
 nomination, no nomination could have possibly 
 been made as he was the strongest man before the 
 convention. He desired party success more than 
 personal aggrandizement and was determined that 
 
W™ ST®C^Eo 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 587 
 
 the convention should not adjourn before selecting 
 a standard bearer to lead the opposition to the 
 enemy. He moved to Tyler November 24, 1885. 
 
 In 1873 he was united in marriage to Miss Ga- 
 briella Fuller, daughter of Dr. J. A. Fuller, of 
 Paris, Texas. 
 
 WILLIAM STONE, 
 
 EAGLE PASS. 
 
 Judge Stone was one of the pioneers of Texas, a 
 veteran of the Mexican War, an influential and 
 wealthy citizen, and a man of great enterprise. He 
 was a native of the city of New Orleans. He spent 
 his youth in and about New Orleans, acquired a 
 liberal education and in 1847, when a young man, 
 came to Texas. He was'of an adventurous disposi- 
 tion, and upon learning of the war between the 
 United States and Mexico, joined Walker's expedi- 
 tion and started with it for Mexico. The horrible 
 fate of this expedition near Rio Grande City is 
 already recorded in the published works of Col. 
 John Henry Brown. Young Stone only escaped 
 being massacred with the other members by mak- 
 ing his escape through a hole in the stockade or 
 corral, where they were confined. He and one 
 other were the only two who escaped being shot to 
 death. After his escape he proceeded into the 
 interior of Mexico where, in a short time, he made 
 the favorable acquaintance of the now venerable 
 Gregory Devine of San Antonio. Mr. Devine was 
 a wealthy man and sent young Stone and Henry P. 
 Adams to San Antonio to clerk in his store. This 
 was about the year 1850 or 1852. Mr. Stone later 
 clerked for Maj. Colquehon, in San Antonio, and 
 finally at Fort Duncan, now Camp Eagle Pass. 
 Soon thereafter he secured a contract from the 
 United States government for the delivery of a 
 large quantity of hay and wool, and on this con- 
 tract first made his financial start and commenced 
 his first investments in lands, sheep and cattle. In 
 the meantime he made the acquaintance of Gover- 
 nor Madero, an ex-Mexican official, a man of 
 influence, and they engaged together in trade 
 between the United States and Mexico. They 
 bought goods in the United States and traded them 
 in Mexico for horses and mules and, returning with 
 the latter, sold them in this country. About this 
 time they opened a store in Eagle Pass and built up 
 an extensive business. At one time they brought 
 seven hundred head of horses and mules over from 
 Mexico and stnrted with them for St. Louis, Mo., 
 
 but the war between the States had just broken out 
 and they stopped at Austin, Texas, traded them for 
 cotton and freighted the cotton into Mexico. He 
 about this time, took up land near Eagle Pass and 
 engaged in sheep-raising on quite an extended scale. 
 They continued in the cotton business during the war 
 period, from 1861 to 18G5, and made money rapidly. 
 He also imported about seventy-five fine graded 
 Merino bucks from the East, and placed them with 
 his sheep on the range he had just previously 
 opened. These are said to be the first high-grade 
 sheep shipped into the State. He brought them to 
 Texas at great expense. During the war between 
 the States he held a commission from the Confed- 
 erate government as Provost Marshal. His sym- 
 pathies were strongly with the Southern cause, in so 
 far as the issues of secession and States' rights were 
 involved. He said little upon the absorbing ques- 
 tion of slavery, however. He never owned slaves, 
 but did not favor emancipation without compensat- 
 ing to their owners by the government. 
 
 In 1872 Mr. Stone was elected Justice of the 
 Peace and when the State constitution was changed, 
 providing for the election of and defining the juris- 
 diction and duties of county judge he was, in 1875, 
 elected to that responsible office in his county and 
 presided with dignity, impartiality and with entire 
 satisfaction to his people. Judge Stone was a use- 
 ful and valuable citizen and enjoyed the unbounded 
 confidence and esteem of all classes, whose trusted 
 friend and confidential adviser he was. It was not 
 an uncommon thing for him to be chosen by parties, 
 involved in disputes and disagreements, to settle 
 their differences as sole arbiter. In all such matters 
 he was a good and patient listener and invariably 
 adjusted them in some equitable way, to the satis- 
 faction of all concerned. Thus, he was a peace- 
 maker, and the Lord has said " blessed are the 
 peacemakers." 
 
 He was a man of fine social qualities and keen 
 sensibilities, open-hearted, generous and consider- 
 ate to the poor and unfortunate, and on all occa- 
 
588 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 sions liberal to a fault. In all his dealings and 
 intercourse witli his fellow- men he was never known 
 to take undue advantage or overreach. 
 
 Judge Stone was a good man for his State, his 
 county and his home city. He foresaw the future 
 development of Eagle Pass and prophesied the build- 
 ing of railroads and the effects that their coming 
 would have upon the growth of the country, this, 
 too, at a time when the people of his section regarded 
 such predictions as absurd. While he did not live 
 to see the iron-horse roll into Eagle Pass, and his 
 prophecy consummated in full, the railroad was in 
 course of construction at the time of his death and 
 reached the Rio Grande river soon thereafter. 
 Judge Stone possessed a discriminating business 
 mind and held pronounced views upon all questions 
 agitated in his day. He was not given to aggres- 
 sive argument, but was always ready to state his 
 position, give his reasons therefor, and there will- 
 ing to let argument end, according others the 
 privileges of mental freedom that he claimed for 
 himself. 
 
 Judge Stone married Senorita Josepha Martinez, 
 a daugliter of Don Severo Martinez, of Eagle Pass. 
 Siie was born in Rio Grande, Mexico. Judge Stone 
 
 loved his wife and his children, lavishly provided 
 them with all that heart could wish, and sent his 
 children away for the best of school advantages. 
 At the time of his death he was a very wealthy man, 
 owning upwards of 100,000 acres of land and 30,000 
 head of sheep, besides a large quantity of real and 
 personal property in Eagle Pass. 
 
 His acquaintance extended throughout Southwest 
 Texas and Eastern and Central Mexico, and his 
 death was widely mourned. 
 
 Judge and Mrs. Stone had four children. Of 
 these, James, born March 14th, 1865, married Miss 
 Susie, daughter of Judge James T. Burks, of Eagle 
 Pass, and has four children : Josephine, Elvira, 
 James, Jr., and Lucretia. 
 
 Griffith, born December 14th, 1872, married Miss 
 Martha, daughter of Tiieodor Gonzales, of Rio 
 Grande; William, born April loth, 1874, married 
 Miss Stella Burni, daughter of A. Burni, of San 
 Antonio; and Richard born April 24th, 1877, 
 remains single. 
 
 All of Judge Stone's large estate was left to his 
 wife and children, with the invaluable inheri- 
 tance to the latter of an honored and honorable 
 name. 
 
 JOHN SCHANDNA, 
 
 FREDERICKSBURG, 
 
 Is a well-known and prosperous merchant of the 
 historic town of Fredericksburg, Texas, where he 
 was born September 10, 1851. 
 
 His father, Peter Schandna, was born in Prussia, 
 Julj' 20, 1816, and at this writing is seventy-nine 
 years of age, but, notwithstanding the fact that he 
 is somewhat physically infirm, has a keen, un- 
 clouded intellect and takes great interest in all that 
 surrounds him. Peter Schandna and his young 
 wife and daughter, Margaret, now deceased, sailed 
 from Bremen for Texas in 1845, aboard the "iros/i- 
 ington " with tlie first party of immigrants sent out 
 by the German Emigration Company, at that time 
 under the direction of Prince Solms ; landed in 
 Galveston in the fall of 1845 ; proceeded thence in 
 another vessel to Indianola ; and from the latter 
 place overland in ox-wagons to New Braunfels and 
 his destination at Fredericksburg, reaching the 
 latter place in the early part of 1846. In Freder- 
 icksburg he found steady employment at his trade 
 
 that of a carpenter, which he continued to follow 
 during his active life. Eight children were borne 
 him at Fredericksburg by iiis first wife, only three 
 of whom (.John, the subject of this brief sketch), 
 Joseph and Henry, are now living. No children were 
 borne him by his second or third wife. 
 
 John Schandna learned the carpenter trade under 
 his father during his boyhood and the tinner trade 
 in 1883 and in the latter year embarked in the 
 hardware business upon his own account, suc- 
 ceeding his brother in that line. He now controls 
 a large hardware, tinware and sheet-iron jobbing 
 trade, in connection with his flourishing retail busi- 
 ness. In 1884 he married Miss Bertha Kline (a 
 daughter of Christian Kline) born in Gillespie 
 County, Texas, an estimable and lovable lady. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Schandna have six children born to 
 them: Olga, Alfred, and Amelia now living, and 
 Ida, an infant (not named) and Charles, now 
 deceased. 
 
PJWlLLIS 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 589 
 
 P. J. WILLIS, 
 
 GALVESTON. 
 
 Tbis old and respected citizen was born in Caro- 
 line County, Md., March 26th, 1815, where he 
 spent his boyhood days. His father was Short 
 A. Willis, a native of Edinburgh, Scotland, who 
 was brought to this country by his parents before 
 the struggle of the colonies for independence. 
 Several members of the family took part in the 
 revolution against the English Crown, two of his 
 brothers yielding up their lives on the battle-field 
 of Brandy wine. Short A. Willis settled on the 
 eastern shore of Chesapeake Bay, in Maryland, 
 and began the battle of life, stern and rugged as it 
 was in those early days, in what was almost a wil- 
 derness. There his five sons were born and were 
 chiefly reared, the eldest, Arthur J., passing his 
 entire life there, dying March 27th, 1889. The 
 four younger sons came to Texas, with the history 
 of which they became connected, and here spent 
 their subsequent lives. The first of the four who 
 came was Peter J., who made his advent into the 
 .State in January, 1836. He remained in the coun- 
 try until the following June, when he returned to 
 Maryland. In October, 1837, accompanied by his 
 two younger brothers, William H. and Richard S. , 
 he came back, and the three settling on Buffalo 
 Bayou, near the then newly laid out town of Hous- 
 ton, there bravely began the battle of life with no 
 capital but indomitable will and the buoyancy of 
 youth. The}- early displ.a3'ed those characteristics 
 which, in the harvest of years that followed, reaped 
 them such handsome returns. Their early labors 
 were of the character incident to aggressive pio- 
 neering in a new country, and by industry and 
 strict economy they saved, in a short time, suffi- 
 cient means to purchase a tract of land known 
 as the " Ringold Farm," lying on the road from 
 Navasota to Washington, and there they settled 
 themselves to agricultural pursuits. After a year 
 or two of hard labor at farming Peter .J. made his 
 first entry into the mercantile world, buying a 
 stock of goods and opening a store at Washington. 
 The other two brothers remained on the farm until 
 the death of Will'am H., when Richard S. joined 
 Peter J. in business, the brothers locating their 
 joint mercantile venture at Montgomery. The 
 enterprise was successful and a branch establish- 
 ment was afterwards started at Anderson in Grimes 
 County in partnership with E. W. Cawthon, a 
 brother-in-law, under the firm name of Cawthon, 
 
 Willis & Bro. Their business steadily prospered 
 and about 1853 the Willis Brothers formed a part- 
 nership with S. K. Mcllheny and opened a store in 
 Houston under the firm name of Mcllheny, Willis 
 & Bro. This soon grew to he one of the largest 
 houses in the State, and continued active and suc- 
 cessful operations throughout the entire period of 
 the war. 
 
 On the close of hostilities in 1865 Mr. Mcllheny 
 went to Laredo, Mexico, where he died, after which 
 the Willis brothers purchased his interest and, 
 changing the name of the firm to that of P. J. 
 Willis & Bro., concentrated all their interests at 
 Houston, and in 1868 at Galveston purchasing 
 property on the corner of Strand and Twenty- 
 fourth street, where they established quarters suf- 
 ficient for the business then in contemplation. To 
 Peter J. the outside management of their affairs 
 was mainly intrusted and by his untiring industry 
 and ceaseless viligance he made himself master of 
 their large and ever-growing interests. Broad in 
 his views and liberal in his methods, he was con- 
 stantly widening their sphere of activity and ex- 
 tending their patronage. Mr. Willis possessed 
 many of the elements of popularity and easily won 
 and readily retained the friendship of those with 
 whom be came in contact. He was genial by 
 nature, kind in disposition and easily ap- 
 proached. He cherished an especially warm feel- 
 ing for his associates of early days and was fond 
 of recounting with them his early experiences 
 in Texas. He was devoted to the State of his 
 adoption and to all of its interests and institutions 
 and lost no opportunity to show his attachment. 
 He was not a member of any church but was a 
 liberal contributor to all, owned pews in all the 
 churches in the city and, in fact, gave of his ample 
 means to all worthy purposes. He never held a 
 public office but lent his name and the aid of a 
 strong personal example to the side of the law, order 
 and good government, and occupied a number of 
 positions in connection with the business interests 
 of the several localities of the State in which he was 
 at one time and another a resident. 
 
 In December, 1844, at Montgomery, Texas, Mr. 
 Willis married Miss Caroline Womack, a native of 
 Alabama, born July 18lh, 1828 ; and a daughter of 
 .John Womack, at one time a wealthy planter of 
 Montgomery. The issue of this union was six chil- 
 
590 
 
 INDIAN WABti AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 dren: William H., who was born at Montgomery, 
 December 7th, 1845, and died at Galveston, May 
 16th, 1888 ; Peter J. Ella, wife of Joseph G. Gold- 
 thwaite ; Tabitba, who died in childhood ; Magnolia, 
 wife of George Sealy ; and Carolina, wife of W. F. 
 Ladd ; the four that are living being residents of 
 Galveston. 
 
 Mr. Willis died November 25th, 1873, at Kansas 
 City, Mo., his death occurring during his temporary 
 
 absence from home on business. His remains rest 
 in the family vault at Galveston. Mrs. Willis died 
 September 19th, 1883. She was a woman of most 
 exemplary character, and not a little of the success 
 which her husband achieved was attributable to the 
 inspiration that emanated from her noble life. Mr. 
 Willis' second wife was Miss Harriet E. Aiken, of 
 New York. She still survives — a resident of 
 Westchester County, that State. 
 
 CHARLES J. H. MEYER, 
 
 COLORADO COUNTY. 
 
 Charles J. H. Meyer is a native Texian, born in 
 Fayette County, November 5th, 1854. His parents, 
 John II. and Dora Meyer, emigrated from Germany 
 to the United States a number of years prior to his 
 birth. His father died March 20th, 1892. His 
 mother, aged sixty years, is still living. Mr. Meyer 
 received an excellent education, attending a Catho- 
 lic institution for two years, and completing his 
 studies by a two years' course at the Military 
 Academy at Austin. October 27th, 1874, he was 
 married to Miss Elizabeth Ehllinger, daughter of 
 
 Charles Ehllinger, for whom the thriving town of 
 Ellinger is named, and has five children: Elo, 
 Adita, Lizzie, Henry and Hattie. Mr. Meyer was 
 elected a County Commissioner of Colorado County 
 in 1890, and in 1892 was elected to the State Legis- 
 lature, in which he made an enviable record, both in 
 the committee rooms and on the floor of the House. 
 He owns a fine bottom farm in Colorado County, 
 which he has stocked with thoroughbred Jerseys 
 and other fine cattle. He is also engaged in mer- 
 chandising at the town of Ellinger. 
 
 ALEXANDER FITZGERALD, 
 
 COLORADO COUNTY. 
 
 Alexander Fitzgerald, a prosperous farmer of 
 Southwestern Texas, was born in Madison County, 
 Ala., May 22d, 1822, moved to La Grange, Texas, 
 with his parents in 1838, and in 1841 located in 
 Colorado County, where he has since resided. In 
 1850 he was married to Miss Flora A. Mums and 
 has four children: Anna E., wife of W. H. GrifBn, 
 of F>agle Lake, Texas; Carrie, Edward, and Dr. 
 Howard Fitzgerald, also of Eagle Lake. He served 
 in the Texas ranger force for a time ; September 
 
 19th, 1842, participated in the fight known to historj^ 
 as the "Dawson Massacre" and eight days later 
 helped to gather together and bury the bones of the 
 dead, and during the war between the United States 
 and Mexico was a soldier in McCulloch's command, 
 participating in a number of engagements. 
 
 His farm consists of somewhat more than one 
 thousand acres of good land. He is comfortably 
 fixed in his old age and surrounded by loving 
 children, grandchildren and friends. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 591 
 
 HENRY LUDWIG, 
 
 NEW BRAUNFELS, 
 
 Came to America with bis brother in January, 1855, 
 landing at the port of Galveston and proceeding 
 from thence almost immediately to Indlanola. His 
 father, Julius Ludwig, a farmer by profession, 
 brought five children with him to this countr}', of 
 whom the subject of this sketch is the oldest now 
 living. Fritz, the second born, died of fever about 
 two weeks after their arrival in Texas ; Minnie, 
 who married Henry Hartz, resides about two miles 
 from New Braunfels ; Christiana, who married Fer- 
 dinand Dirks, resides about two miles south of 
 New Braunfels ; and William is a citizen of New 
 Braunfels. The parents of Mr. Ludwig were 
 both born in Hanover, Germany. The father 
 was born July 23d, 1806, and died in New 
 
 Braunfels, June 20th, 1869. The mother was born 
 July 6th, 1815, and died February 17th, 1886. 
 Mr. Ludwig, the subject of this sketch, was born in 
 Hanover, Germany, November 27th, 1886, and has 
 devoted his energies chiefly to farming, the manu- 
 facture of lime, and contract work. His industry, 
 thrift and economy have secured for him a comfort- 
 able property and he is regarded as one of the 
 solid citizens of New Braunfels. 
 
 October 1st, 1865, he married Miss Matilda Con- 
 fad. She was born in Germany, January 6th, 
 1843. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Ludwig have one adopted daugh- 
 ter, Ida, born May 5th, 1876. She is married and 
 lives in New Braunfels. 
 
 FRANK B. ARMSTRONG, 
 
 BROWNSVILLE, 
 
 Was born in St. Johns, New Brunswick, May 10th, 
 1863. His father, Richard Sands Armstrong, was 
 for many years a prominent citizen of St. Johns, 
 and died there in the year 1868. The following is 
 from one of the leading newspapers of St. Johns: — 
 " R. Sands Armstrong, Esq., who has been for 
 many jears clerk in the Mayor's office, died last 
 evening after a short illness. Mr. Armstrong was a 
 barrister of many years standing and was for a long 
 time County Auditor. A man of unobtrusive dis- 
 position, a devoted florist, a reader of many books, 
 he interfered little with active affairs and was 
 liked by all who came in contact with him, officially 
 or personallj'. The flag on the city building is at 
 half-mast to-day out of respect to his memory. 
 Mr. Armstrong leaves a large family. He studied 
 law under the late Hon. E. L. Hazen and was 
 admitted to the bar on June 10th, 1847. Mr. 
 Armstrong retired from active practice several years 
 ago. While clerk in the Mayor's office he dis- 
 charged the duties of that position most efficiently 
 and acceptably. He once came forward into pub- 
 lic life, having been elected to fill the seat in the 
 House of Assembly for this city and county, which 
 
 the elevation of Hon. W. J. Richie to the bench of 
 the Supreme Court left vacant. His competitor 
 for the seat was J. W. Cudlip. Mr. Armstrong did 
 not, however, offer at the next general election and 
 never again appeared as a candidate for public 
 honors." 
 
 Upon the death of the father, the family removed 
 to Medford, Mass., where the children attended 
 school as circumstances permitted, and attained 
 high standing in their studies, and fitted themselves 
 for honorable positions in educational and business 
 circles. Mr. Armstrong, of whom we here write, 
 inherited the taste for the study of Natural History 
 that his father cherished, and studied taxidermy 
 two years at Boston, Mass., with the eminent Prof. 
 C. J. Maynard, and mastered all of the details of 
 that art. 
 
 A Brownsville paper says: — 
 
 The geographical position of this section, 
 bordering closely upon the torrid zone, makes it 
 the place of sojourn for feathered tribes from both 
 American continents, besides its being the perma- 
 nent home of a very large variety of birds. 
 
 Over eight hundred different specimens have 
 
592 
 
 INDIAN WAli,s AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 been collected in this vicinity by Mr. Frank B. 
 Armstrong, a well-known naturalist, who has con- 
 tributed thousands of valuable and interesting spec- 
 imens to the museums of this country and Europe, 
 and furnished many extremely rare products to 
 private collectors. 
 
 Mr. Armstrong has been in business here for 
 several years. He began the study of Natural 
 History at his home in Boston, where he made his 
 first essays in the interesting branches of that sub- 
 ject which have become his specialties, viz. : 
 Ornithology, mammology and oology. He left 
 Boston when a very young man, and after an 
 extensive tour through Mexico, during which he 
 made a complete collection of birds and animals of 
 that conntrj', he settled in Laredo, Texas, where 
 he began a systematic search for specimens in this 
 border section. In pursuance of the latter under- 
 taking he came to Brownsville in March, 1890, and 
 finding it an excellent point for securing the services 
 of hunters and trappers, as well as for his personal 
 excursions, he located his business here and married 
 the following year, 1891, April 2d. 
 
 His establishment at the corner of Washington 
 and Eleventh streets is crowded with specimens of 
 natural history, and is well worth the careful atten- 
 tion and examination which the courteous propri- 
 etor freely accords to all who visit it. 
 
 The price list of birds' skins bears the names of 
 275 different species, which he constantly carries 
 in stock and furnishes to naturalists, scientists and 
 dealers. 
 
 The proprietor is a skillful taxidermist himself 
 and employs four assistants, all of them constantly 
 employed in selecting and properly treating the 
 numerous subjects found in this vicinity. 
 
 The birds of this section are more numerous 
 than those in any other known to Mr. Armstrong. 
 It is owing to that fact that he has found such en- 
 couragement in his chosen field. 
 
 He married Miss Marie Isabel Schodts, a daugh- 
 ter of the lamented Michael Schodts, a portrait and 
 biography of whom appears in this volume. Mrs. 
 Armstrong is a lady of superior educational attain- 
 ments and rare social accomplishments. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong have two little daugh- 
 ters, Sylvia, age 4 years, 6 months, and Jennie, age 
 2 years and four months. One daughter, Susie, is 
 deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong have one of 
 the most spacious and luxurious homes in the city 
 of Brownsville and a summer seaside home at 
 Point Isabel. 
 
 Mr. Armstrong is thoroughly identified with the 
 interests of Brownsville and Southwest Texas, and 
 is highly esteemed by a wide circle of friends 
 throughout all parts of Texas. 
 
 CHARLES B. COMBE, M. D., 
 
 BROWNSVILLE, 
 
 Is a native of Kentucky, born near the citj- of 
 Owensboro, in Daviess County, October 1st, 1836. 
 His father, John Combe, was a planter by occupa- 
 tion, and successful business man ; his mother (?tee 
 Helen Berthoud) was of French descent, a native 
 of the Isle of St. Thomas, and a lady of domestic 
 culture and many feminine graces. Dr. Combe 
 received his early education at St. Joseph's Col- 
 lege, Bardstown, Ky., one of the leading educa- 
 tional institutions of that day. He there nearly 
 ended his classical course in the year 1854, when, 
 owing to the untimely death of his father, he re- 
 linquished his studies. Soon after he took up the 
 study of medicine under Dr. Louis Rogers, an 
 eminent physician of Louisville, Ky., with whom 
 he remained nearly three years, at the same time 
 attending lectures at the Louisville University. 
 
 Dr. Rogers then sent him to the Charity Hospital 
 at New Orleans, that lie might get the clinical ad- 
 vantages which that institution afforded. He then 
 went to the Jefferson College of Medicine at 
 Philadelphia, from which celebrated university he 
 was graduated in the year 1858. The following 
 year he came to Texas and engaged in the practice 
 of his profession at Brownsville, which has since 
 been his home, with exception of a few years resi- 
 dence in the border city of Matamoros, Mexico, 
 and the time he was absent from Texas, on several 
 prolonged visits to different parts of the United 
 States and Mexico. Dr. Combe has seen much of 
 pioneer life on the Mexican border, and experienced 
 many of its dangers and vicissitudes. He accom- 
 panied Col. John S. Ford on his advance against 
 Juan N. Cortina in 1859-RO. He also served as a 
 
DR. CHAS. B. COMBP:. 
 
iiAUVEY mitch?:ll. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 593 
 
 surgeon in the Confederate army during tlie war 
 between the States, when Gen. Magruder com- 
 manded in Texas. Among other signal services to 
 the Confederate cause he aided in passing large 
 (["uantitles of arms, ammunition and much needed 
 medical stores into the countrj'. 
 
 In the Diaz Revolution in 1876, he espoused that 
 cause, and was a staunch supporter and friend of 
 Gen. Diaz. He was commissioned a surgeon in 
 the Mexican army, and served as chief surgeon of 
 the Military Hospital at Matamoros from 1878 to 
 1882, under Gen. Servando Canales. During this 
 period he rendered important ([uarantine services 
 to both the United States and Mexico. He has 
 served Texas as a State health otHcer, and has also 
 been an officer of the National Board of Health. 
 His eminent and faithful public services ended in 
 1882, since which time he has quietly practiced his 
 profession, and devoted much of his time to the 
 care of his landed and stock interests. 
 
 Dr. Combe is president of the Medical Examin- 
 ing Board of his district, has been president of the 
 Brownsville and IMatamoros Medical Association, 
 once an important, useful and prosperous organiza- 
 tion, and has served his city as a member of its 
 board of Aldermen. 
 
 He married, May 15th, 18G5, Miss K. M. Impey, 
 
 a step-daughter of the Hon. Stephen Powers of 
 Brownsville. 
 
 She was a lady of broad intellectual culture and 
 social accomplishments. She was a daughter of 
 Frederick Impey, a merchant of New Orleans, 
 where she was born. Five sons have been born of 
 this union, viz.: Frederick J. Combe, M. D., 
 Charles B., Jr.; Frank B., Dr. Joseph K., and 
 Emile B. Combe. 
 
 The life of Dr. Corabe has lieen a busy and use- 
 ful one and connected with many incidents that 
 have largely made up the most thrilling part of the 
 history of the southwestern portion of the State. 
 He is quiet and unassuming in manner and is 
 esteemed as one of Brownsville's most worthy 
 citizens. During the yellow fever epidemic of 
 1882, Dr. Combe distinguished himself by the 
 promptitude with which hediagnosed the early cases, 
 and his heroic conduct generally throughout the 
 epidemie. He was in constant communication with 
 Surgeon-Gen. J. B. Hamilton, of the United States 
 Marine Hospital Service, Washington, D. C, who 
 complimented him for his services. Dr. Combe 
 enjoys not only the confidence and esteem of his 
 fellow-citizens of Brownsville and the members 
 of his profession, but has thousands of friends and 
 admirers throughout Texas and Mexico. 
 
 HARVEY MITCHELL, 
 
 BRYAN, 
 
 Was born April 9th, 1821 , near Cornersville, Mid- 
 dle Tennessee, and was brought up on a farm. His 
 education was limited to a common school course, 
 as his father was not able to send him off to college. 
 At the age of eighteen he joined a company of 
 young men and came to Texas overland with emi- 
 grant wagons, reaching old Tinninville, Robertson 
 County, in the fall of 1839, where he joined Cajjt. 
 YA\ Chandler's com|)anj' of " Jlinute Men " and 
 remained in the frontier military service under 
 Capts. Chandler and Wm. M. Love, until January 
 1st, 1842. 
 
 When not in the woods on duty during this 
 period, he was employed by the few families at 
 Tinninville, to teach school during 1840, and was 
 similarly employed by Maj. Eli Scales and neighbors 
 on Cedar creek (now Brazos County), during 1841. 
 
 Tinninville at that time was headquarters for 
 
 all military operations between the Trinity and 
 Brazos rivers, and, being on the extreme northern 
 boundary of the settlements, there was not a single 
 civilized human habitation north of it in Texas. It 
 was the place of rendezvous and starting-point for 
 all the company's expeditions. The service of the 
 company to which Mr. Mitchell belonged consisted 
 in periodical excursions from river to river in search 
 of Indian marauders and in the pursuit of them 
 when they succeeded in getting into the settlements 
 and stealing horses, which they frequently did, 
 sometimes killing and scalping a lone man and 
 carrying off his wife and children. 
 
 In this service the company had numerous skir- 
 mishes, but no pitched battle of note. 
 
 Brnzos County having been created and organized 
 by invitation iSIr. JNIitchell moved his residence to 
 old Boonville, January 1st, 1812, to rake charge of 
 
594 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 the County Clerk's office as deputy and act as 
 amanuensis, and do all the office work for all the 
 county officials. 
 
 This was a necessity at that time, as the perqui- 
 sites of all the offices were not sufficient to support 
 one man, and no one could be found willing to 
 leave their farms and move to town to fill an office, 
 and to save the county organization from disso- 
 lution this plan was adopted, and to augment his 
 earnings Mr. Mitchell hired out to the Carter 
 family to leach school at §20.00 per month and 
 board, attending to all official duties at leisure hours 
 (at night, evenings, mornings, etc.). 
 
 In 1845 he turned over the school to Miss Carter, 
 whom he bad educated, and he engaged in 
 merchandising and, there being no other stores in 
 the county, and having the confidence and patron- 
 age of the people, he was successful and prosperous. 
 
 Having fallen desperately in love with Miss A. 
 J. Fole}', who had finished her education in 1847, 
 under the tutelage of the Hon. John Sayles, at 
 Brenham, Texas, and finding that his affections 
 were reciprocated, they were married April 6th, 
 1848, and being Clerk of the County Court at that 
 time, he had to issue his own marriage license — a 
 rare occurence, it is to be presumed. 
 
 He continued selling goods, trading in land and 
 stock, and running all the county offices until 
 1853 — when others became eligible and willing to 
 take his place, and in 1855 he moved to "Red 
 Top " (now Beuchly) and engaged extensively in 
 the land business and merchandising. Being per- 
 sonally familiar with all the original surveys in 
 Brazos and with many in Robertson County, and 
 also with most of the non-resident owners, he suc- 
 ceeded in acquiring a large landed property ; but, 
 having been appointed Assessor of Confederate 
 State Taxes for Brazos County, for convenience 
 he moved back to Boonville in 1863, and after the 
 close of the war built a new and beautiful home a 
 mile out of town, where he lived until 1871), in which 
 year, having previously voluntarily surrendered all 
 the earnings of his forty years' life of toil to the 
 creditors of friends, so-called, in whom he had 
 misplaced confidence, not reserving even his beauti- 
 ful homestead, he bought a cheap shanty in Bryan 
 on credit, and, disposing of surplus furniture, 
 moved into it and hired out his baby boy, James E. 
 Mitchell, now of Fort Worth, Texas, to a jeweler 
 in Bryan at $10.00 per month, to aid in making a 
 new start. His other living children, Jefferson P. 
 Mitchell, Mrs. R. L. Weddington and Mrs. Wm. 
 H. Dean, now of Bryan, and Mrs. E. R. Nash, 
 now of Waco, were all grown and providing for 
 themselves, but were not able at that time 
 
 to aid him financially. In 1880 he bought a 
 small farm on the Navasota river and, with the 
 assistance of friends, mainly Guy M. Bryan, Jr., 
 purchased other adjoining lands, and improved 
 them and now has a farm of 1,000 acres, well ipi- 
 proved and stocked, under cultivation, but resides 
 at his home in the town of Bryan. But he is now 
 old and feeble and realizes that his life-work is 
 about finished. His time is mainly spent now in 
 reviewing the past, in which he finds some comfort. 
 His living children are all engaged in useful pur- 
 suits and are well thought of by the people who 
 know them and are kind to him, and he feels some 
 pride in the consciousness of having been efficient 
 in helping to convert what was an unbroken wil- 
 derness in 1841, with isolated settlements at long 
 distances apart and without any of the luxuries 
 and conveniences of enlightened civilization, into 
 one among the most prosperous and [lopulous 
 counties in Texas ; that his own beloved county 
 (Brazos) to-day abounds in churches and schools; 
 is the home of the A. and M. College of Texas, 
 has railroads, commodious and substantial build- 
 ings, good highways, a number of factories and 
 many palatial residences, and possesses a large and 
 prosperous population engaged in commercial and 
 agricultural pursuits. As a soldier, he did his full 
 share toward its protection while it needed protec- 
 tion as a border county. The duty was assigned 
 to him to build three of the courthouses the county 
 has had, the first in 1846 ("the Board Shanty 
 Court House"); the second in 1853, a more pre- 
 tentious structure, and the third, the " brick court- 
 house " in Bryan, in 1878. He served, either un- 
 der commission or an amanuensis, in all the county 
 offices for a term of years when no other plan could 
 preserve the county's autonomy. He never sought 
 an}' office, but was elected at different times to that 
 of Chief Justice, County Clerk and County Sur- 
 veyor as the occasion required for the public good, 
 and from 1842 until 1853 had the custody and con- 
 trol of all the archives of the county and, there 
 being no resident lawyer in the county, was the 
 man upon whom the people depended to write 
 deeds, bonds, contracts, petitions and reports for 
 administrators and guardians, and to officiate as 
 preacher at weddings, etc., all of which he did 
 gratuitously. He built the Methodist Church now 
 in Bryan, donating S500 of its cost and lending 
 $500 more to finish and seat it. He built Alexan- 
 der Chapel (the first church edifice ever built in the 
 county) for the Methodists and Union Chapel for 
 the Presbyterians, and donated liberally to all the 
 churches in Bryan when first built, and also to other 
 public buildings as well. But his crowning joy is 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 595 
 
 over his successful effort in securing the location 
 in his county of the Agricultural and Mechanical 
 College of Texas. It was the highest ambition of 
 his life. He was fully impressed with its impor- 
 tance as a source of revenue to his people, for all 
 time to come, as thousands of dollars would annu- 
 ally be brought into the country and disbursed 
 among the people for labor and supplies. 
 
 The commissioners authorized by law to select 
 and secure a suitable location for this institution, 
 had visited and examined many competing points 
 in the State, that offered by Brazos County among 
 the rest, and advertised for bids, in the way of bo- 
 nuses, to be opened and the location awarded on a 
 given day in Houston. The State Senator from 
 the district in which Brazos County is situated, 
 Hon. W. A. Saylor, Judge Spencer Ford and Mr. 
 Mitchell, were selected at a large mass meeting 
 held in Bryan to meet the commissioners on the 
 da}' fixed and, if possible, secure the award. Ac- 
 cordingly Senator Saylor and Mr. Mitchell went 
 down to Houston a few days in advance. Judge 
 Ford did not go and Mr. Saylor went on to Galves- 
 ton, leaving Mr. Mitchell alone to wrestle with 
 powerful competitors for the award — San Antonio, 
 Austin, Waco and other prominent and wealthy 
 points. 
 
 But he managed to learn what bonus his people 
 would have to raise to secure the prize, which was 
 so great that he feared it was beyond their reach. 
 He wired Mayor Downward for instructions, and 
 waited for a reply, but none came ; and, nerved 
 with the excitement of desperation, he resolved to 
 act on his own responsibility, and proceeded to 
 write out a bid offering the necessary bonus, which 
 was accepted on condition that he would have per- 
 fect titles to the land (2250 acres which he had pre- 
 viously shown them) presented within forty-eight 
 hours. 
 
 He was then en route for New York to spend the 
 summer, but boarded the first train back to Bryan, 
 reported what he bad done and, with the help of 
 other citizens, mainly that of Hon. John N. Hen- 
 derson, now Associate Justice of the Supreme 
 Court, and M. W. McCraw, now deceased, the 
 money was raised, the lands bought and deeds to 
 same secured and delivered to the commissioners 
 
 within the time specified, and he resumed his 
 journey to the northern cities, the proudest man in 
 America. 
 
 In this transaction he felt, and still feels, that, 
 while it brought a paramount blessing to his county, 
 he also rendered good service to the State. The 
 position selected for the site of the college being 
 central, healthy and attractive, and a great trunk 
 line (the H. & T. C.) railroad running through the 
 grounds, which, with its various branches and 
 multitudinous connections, affords convenient access 
 to all parts of the State, make it an eminently fittino- 
 location for this great institution. 
 
 These services have secured for him many flatter- 
 ing soubriquets, such as " Father of the County," 
 etc., etc. 
 
 But his reminiscences are not all of a happy 
 character. He has had many sad and sorrowful 
 experiences. He was at one time, most unexpect- 
 edly, reduced from comparative alBuence to a con- 
 dition bordering on destitution and dependence, 
 while powerless to prevent it. He was made to 
 witness the death of his aged father and mother 
 and the passing away of a beloved sister and two 
 brothers, who had left happy homes to follow and 
 be with him in Texas. He was called upon to con- 
 sign to their little graves four bright, loving and 
 promising children within one short week. He has 
 been separated by death from the large majority of 
 loved ones and intimate friends of the long, long 
 ago, and is to-day one of the only two living men 
 who were citizens of Brazos County when it was 
 organized in 1841. But the supreme, heartrending 
 grief of his life, was the surrender of his ever 
 faithful, loving, angelic wife, to the cold embrace 
 of death on the 3d day of June, 1885. 
 
 It brought a shivering, ponderous darkness to 
 his soul, from which he shall never be released in 
 this life, and now, as the thickening and lengthen- 
 ing shadows of life's evening gather around him, 
 his chief consolation is that, if it be true that there 
 is a blissful haven in the great beyond for the 
 souls of the pure and good of earth's children, she 
 is surely among the blest, and that ere long he will 
 be with her, and all the loved ones that have pre- 
 ceded him and are yet to follow. 
 
596 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 JOHN T. MILLER, 
 
 AUSTIN. 
 
 The subject of this memoir was in his flay one of 
 Austin's most active, useful ami esteemed citizens 
 and, as such, was known throughout Central Texas. 
 He was a native of Indiana and was born on the 
 Wabash near Logansport, in Cass County, April 
 4th, 1820. His father, John Miller, was a farmer 
 by occupation, late in life removed to and located 
 at Fayetteville, Washington County, Ark., and 
 there died in 1875 at ninety years of age. He was 
 an honest and pious man, raised a family of thirteen 
 children and left them the inheritance of an honor- 
 able name. 
 
 John T. Miller, of whom we write, grew up on the 
 farm and acquired a thorough knowledge of all the 
 details of intelligent agriculture, which for several 
 years he pursued. He located with his father near 
 Fayetteville, Ark., and there married Miss Francis 
 Cone, who bore him two children : Amanda, born 
 May 22, 1841, now wife of M. M. Long, a farmer 
 ■who lives near Austin, and Jefferson J. Miller, born 
 January 22d, 1843, who married Hattie Spencer; 
 both of these are dead and left no children. Mrs. 
 Miller died in 184.3. March 4th, 1845, he married 
 Miss Ehza Ann, eldest daughter of Rev. Wm. O. 
 Spencer, at Fayetteville, Ark., and they embarked 
 in life together by soon thereafter, in 1847, coming 
 to Texas. They located at Bastrop, where he en- 
 gaged in the livery business. They soon, however, 
 in consequence of Mr. Miller's ill-health, paid their 
 Arkansas home a protracted visit and returned to 
 Bastrop in 1849. They there remained and Mr. 
 Miller prospered in business until 1855, when he 
 transferred his business to and took up his resi- 
 dence in Austin, where he was soon recognized as a 
 safe and conservative, but enterprising business 
 man. He opened and conducted business for many 
 years at the Southwest corner of Congress avenue 
 and Bois d'Arc, or Seventh street. 
 
 He soon purchased this and adjoining property, 
 and, as the demands of business warranted, erected 
 a substantial business block on the site of his stables 
 and removed his business to the present location of 
 the extensive establishment of his son, Monroe 
 Miller, to whom he finally sold in 1874 and practi- 
 cally retired from aggressive business life, only, 
 from that time, looking after his property interests. 
 
 John T. Miller was a man of unpretentious wa3'S 
 and in his own (|uiet manner diligently planned 
 and labored to accomplish a desired end. He was 
 
 aggressive in monej'-making, but was not avari- 
 cious. He only sought in his business to supply a 
 public necessity and reap a legitimate profit thereby.- 
 He came to Austin when the growing seat of gov- 
 ernment had the greatest need for a man of his 
 stamp. He was a fair type of a successful early- 
 day business man. He came to Texas with ayoung 
 wife and four children, and absolutely without 
 means. His sterling traits of character, his natural 
 business tendencies and his inflexible honor, won 
 for him the admiration and confidence of all with 
 whom he was brouglit in contact, and were really, 
 with his great industry, the foundation upon which 
 his successful career in life was based. He saw in 
 Austin the nucleus of the beautiful city that during 
 his lifetime it became, and practically evinced his 
 faith in and materially contributed to her growth 
 by the investment of his surplus means in substan- 
 tial business blocks and other propert}-. 
 
 He possessed a warm and loyal heart, yet an in- 
 tensely practical mind, and dealt in a very practi- 
 cal way witli the problems of life as they presented 
 themselves to him from day to da}'. Mr. Miller, 
 aside from the untimely deatli of his first wife, was 
 very fortunate in his domestic relations, receiving 
 as he did the loving counsel, and sympathetic 
 encouragement of his wife, who was to him a true 
 helpmeet, ever at his side in times of adversitj', 
 such as always must mar, at intervals, the career 
 of even the most successful men. She was ever 
 ready to applaud and enjoy with him his achieve- 
 ments and successes. This union was blessed with 
 a family of seven children, a brief record of whom 
 is herewith given in the order of their birth: — 
 
 First. E^liza, born June 20th, 1847, married W. 
 H. Millican. She died October 8, 1882, leaving 
 three children, Minnie, Lilla and Willie. Minnie 
 is Mrs. J. D. Randolph, of Travis County. 
 
 Second. Monroe, born Jan. 1st, 1850, married for 
 his first wife. Miss Eliza Stringer, who died without 
 issue in 1882. His second marriage was to Miss 
 Mollie Randle, a daughter of the late Senator Ed. 
 Randle, and of the present Mrs. T. C. Westbrook, 
 of Hearne. They have three children : Monroe, Jr. , 
 Nelleen and Randle. He has by purchase suc- 
 ceeded to and extended the business established by 
 his father, maintaining in every way its honor and 
 usefulness, and holds a big position in the business- 
 world. 
 

 
 
 
 
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INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 597 
 
 Third. Miles, born August 2211, 1852, luariied 
 Miss Imogene Coulson. They iiave one son, Joha 
 T. He is a successful farmer in Travis County. 
 
 Fourth. Emma, born April 1st, 1860, married 
 Mr. George B. Westlake. She died September 22, 
 1890, leaving one orphan daughter, Lila May, 
 whose home is with her parental grandparents at 
 £1 Paso, Texas. 
 
 Fifth. Wallace K., born July 8th, 1862 ; unmar- 
 ried. He is a farmer. 
 
 Sixth. E;ila, born December 29th, 1865, married 
 Mr. John Whites, of Austin, an accountant in the 
 First National Bank. The}' have two children, 
 Bessie and Eleanor. 
 
 Seventh. Clara, born November 29, 18G9, mar- 
 ried Mr. Joseph Shumate, of Austin, a member of 
 the mercantile firm of Teagarden & Shumate. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Shumate have one son, Harold. 
 
 Mr. Miller was a model husband and father. He 
 ■was a member of fraternal societies, but was for 
 many years a consistent and devout member of the 
 Baptist Church. He left the impress upon society 
 of a busy, honorable career and a valuable estate 
 to his family. 
 
 He died at his home in Austin, February 18th, 
 1882. Mrs. Miller, still in the vigor of advanced 
 years, lives at the family home, corner of .Seventh 
 and Brazos streets, in the city of Austin. Her 
 children, all within easy calling distance, hold 
 honorable positions in the business and social 
 world. 
 
 Her father, the venerable Rev. W. O. Spencer, 
 lives at Liberty Hill, in Williamson County, Texas. 
 He is one of the pioneers of that county, having 
 
 come to Texas in 1847, from Fayetteville, Arn. 
 He was born in Illinois, about two miles from Vin- 
 cennes, Ind., September 10, 1809; a son of Wm. 
 Spencer. He inherited mechanical genius, and, 
 before reaching his majority, became a skillful car- 
 penter and, later, a blacksmith, which occupation 
 he followed for several years. Upon his arrival in 
 Texas, he first lived at Bastrop. He has followed 
 farming as his chief means of livelihood in Texas, 
 however. 
 
 He has been twice married: first, in July, 1829, 
 to Miss Amy Willcoxon, who died in 1852, leaving 
 four children, of whom Eliza Ann (Mrs. Miller) was 
 the eldest. Mrs. Spencer was born in Ash County, 
 N. C, in 1810. For a second wife, Mr. 
 Spencer married a widow Spencer, whose maiden 
 name was Margaret C. Smilie. She bore him three 
 children, having, also, four children bj' her former 
 marriage. Mr. Spencer has served in the itinerant 
 Baptist ministry nearly all of his mature life ; has 
 never engaged in politics to the extent of holding 
 office ; is a member of the order of Ancient, Free 
 and Accepted Masons, and is an Andrew Jackson 
 Democrat, firmly grounded in the f.aith. During 
 the years 1861 to 1865 Indians became troublesome 
 in Williamson and adjoining counties, and Mr. 
 Spencer served as Captain of a minute company and 
 ranged the country, hoMing the marauding Indians 
 in check during that period. Mr. Spencer lives at 
 his old home during his declining years, enjoying 
 the esteem and respectof a wide-extended acquaint- 
 ance, the affectionate regard of an appreciative 
 community, and the love of his children and of his 
 grandchildren, of whom there are fifteen. 
 
 JOHN A. MICHEL, 
 
 BROWNSVILLE, 
 
 Escaped from New Orleans, where he was a pris- 
 oner of war in May, 1863, and came to Brownsville, 
 having been promised a position on his staff by 
 Gen. Magruder, whom he had known in Virginia. 
 Is a son of Edward A. Michel, a native of Cliarles- 
 ton, S. C, who came to New Oileans in 1810 at 
 the age of ten years, and although but a boy, par- 
 ticipated in the battle of New Orleans, January 
 8th, 1815. 
 
 Edward A. Michel was of French descent, his 
 father, Lazarus Michel, having been a Lieutenant in 
 
 the French navy under Napoleon the First. Ed- 
 ward A. Michel married Miss Sulamite Benit, a 
 daughter of Capt. J. B. Benit, who commanded a 
 military company at the battle of New Orleans, 
 where he lost his life. 
 
 Hon. John A. Michel is the fourth-born of a fam- 
 ily of seven children. Upon coming to Texas he 
 identified himself with the material and political 
 interests of Cameron County and soon became an 
 influential and po|)ular citizen. In past years he 
 has held the office of Assessor of Cameron County 
 
598 
 
 INDIjiN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 two terms ; has served as City Tax Collector of 
 Brownsville one year ; served as Alderman of the 
 city of Brownsville several terms and served as act- 
 ing Mayor of Brownsville one year. He has been 
 an active worker in the development of the excel- 
 lent school system which Brownsville possesses. 
 He now holds the responsible position of Collector 
 of United States Customs at Brownsville, the du- 
 ties of which office he has shown himself well 
 qualified to discharge. 
 
 Mr. Michel married, in 18.57, Miss Louise Des- 
 forges, a native of New Orleans, a member of one 
 of the oldest families of the Crescent City. Her 
 grandfather, Adolphe Desforges, served as a soldier 
 at the battle of New Orleans, where he was severely 
 wounded. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Michel have four children — three 
 daughters and one son. 
 
 Mr. Michel is one of Brownsville's most highly 
 respected citizens. 
 
 B. H. NORSWORTHY, 
 
 ORANGE. 
 
 Occupation, farmer. Born November 26th, 1838, 
 in Alabama. Father, E. Norsworthy, of North 
 Carolina. Mother, Rebecca (Hargrave) Nors- 
 worthy, of Alabama. Educated at Tuscaloosa 
 College, Ala. 
 
 Came to Texas in April, 1860 ; located lirst at 
 Jasper, Jasper County ; left Jasper in January, 
 1868, and went to Morehouse Parish, La. ; 
 remained there until 1873 and then came to Orange, 
 where he has since resided. While at Jasper he was 
 engaged in merchandising, and while in Louisiana 
 in raising cotton principally. Upon locating in 
 Orange he embarked in merchandising, which he 
 continued to follow until 1892, when he engaged in 
 rice-farming, three miles from the city, which has 
 proven a very profitable business. At the beginning 
 of the war between the States, in 1861, he organized a 
 cavalry company in Jasper County known as the 
 Lone Star Rifles and reported to Gen. Ben McCul- 
 loch about the loth of August, 1861, in North 
 Arkansas and was thereupon attached to Whitfield's 
 Battalion. The company took part in the battle of 
 Elk Horn the following April and was then trans- 
 ferred to the branch of the army east of the Missis- 
 sippi river, with which it served during the remain- 
 der of the war, and participated in many hard 
 
 fought battles, among the number, those atCorinth, 
 luka, Thompson's Station, Franklin and the heavy 
 fighting around Atlanta, during the latter being 
 sixty-four days under fire and wounded four times. 
 Three of these wounds were received at Thompson's 
 Station. 
 
 He had thrilling experiences while on picket duty 
 just south of Atlanta on the Chattahoochie river, 
 riding very unexpectedly upon two companies of 
 Federals, who ordered him to halt. His horse was 
 shot from under him, his coat perforated with 
 seven bullet holes, but he succeeded in making good 
 his escape. He was promoted to Major later on, 
 near the close of the war, was promoted to Lieu- 
 tenant-Colonel of Whitfield's Legion. 
 
 Maj. Norsworthy has now in his possession the 
 battle-flag of Whitfield's Legion. Although tat- 
 tered and torn b}' shot and shell it is still the pride 
 of his heart. 
 
 He is a member of the Baptist Church and 
 Masonic fraternity, holding the Royal Arch degree 
 in the latter. Married, May 9th, 1866, to Miss 
 Mattie Wingate, in Newton County, Texas. He 
 was elected Mayor of Orange in 1880 and served 
 until 1884, his administration meeting with the 
 hearty approval of his fellow-citizens. 
 
IXDIAN WAim AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 599 
 
 WILLLIAM NEALE, 
 
 BROWNSVILLE. 
 
 The Hon. William Neale is now eighty-five years 
 of age, but with the exception of a partial loss of 
 vision, retains the powers of vigorous manhood. 
 
 He sits now in his arm-chair, surrounded with 
 every comfort, attended by relatives, gazing with 
 dim eyes at the well-filled book cases lining the 
 walls and containing those friends, the books, over 
 which he once burned the midnight oil ; but they 
 are silent now, forever, and he turns inward to his 
 wonderful memory for solace in his declining years. 
 Mr. Neale is the acknowledged oldest inhabitant of 
 Brownsville, and possesses the faculties of the 
 chronologist and narrator in an eminent degree, 
 coupled with a most engaging manner. 
 
 Mr. Neale is an Englishman, and calls himself a 
 cockney, from the fact of his having passed his 
 youth in London, where he was " raised " accord- 
 ing to Yankee parlance. He ran away from home 
 and went to sea when quite a lad, but he had already 
 acquired such stabilit}' of character that he at once 
 began the keeping of a diary, and continued the 
 habit throughout his rambles over the world. He 
 had in this manner amassed a fund of information 
 which would have been of infinite value to posterity, 
 had it not been destroyed by the insatiable Cortina, 
 when that much dreaded chieftain drove Mr. Neale 
 and his family from their home and burned it to the 
 ground. 
 
 Mr. Neale's career on this side of the Atlantic 
 began with his service on board the first frigate in 
 the Mexican navy of 182L The vessel was pur- 
 chased in England, the ammunitions of war and arm- 
 ament being placed on board secretly. The boxes 
 that apparently contained dry-goods were opened 
 after putting to sea, and found to contain cannon- 
 ades and other articles for fitting out a warlike 
 expedition. The ship was run into a convenient 
 but isolated harbor, where she was pierced for forty- 
 four guns, and in a short time set sail for Mexico. 
 The frigate captured Castle Ulloa, a Spanish for- 
 tress guarding the harbor of Vera Cruz and per- 
 formed good service in the cause of Mexican 
 independence. 
 
 After the country had passed from under its 300 
 years of Spanish rule Mr. Neale traveled extensively 
 through Mexico and met and formed the acquaint- 
 ance of many prominent men of the time, which 
 outlasted all the political convulsions through which 
 the country passed. 
 
 Upon completing his travels in Mexico be settled 
 in New Orleans, where he learned tiie trade of 
 house, sign and ornamental painter, pursued the 
 business there for several years and then in 1834, 
 went to Matamoros, Mexico, established only a few 
 years previous. 
 
 At that lime there was not a habitation of any 
 kind on the present site of Brownsville, and when 
 Gen. Taylor occupied the point in 18-i6, there were 
 not more than a dozen jacals (huts) scattered 
 about the vicinity among the fields of cotton and 
 corn. Wild horses and cattle roamed over the 
 whole country, and hostile Indians were numerous. 
 Mr. Neale met men who were conspicuous as leaders 
 in the Texas Revolution and being a British subject 
 was enabled to befriend some of them. Mr. Neale 
 lived at Matamoros for seven years. Barney 
 Blannerhassett — a young man of excellent family, 
 who had straj'ed into the Southwest in the train of 
 Aaron Burr, not getting fight enough in the com- 
 pany of that individual, had sought greater excite- 
 ment on the border, was indebted to Mr. Neale for 
 saving his life at a critical moment. Young Blan- 
 nerhassett had been seized by the Mexicans and 
 was pretty roughly handled, when Mr. Neale passed 
 the spot. Blannerhassett was tightlj' bound and 
 threatened with speedy death and begged Neale for 
 laudanum, in order that he might cheat his captors ; 
 but, instead of giving him the drug, Mr. Neale 
 interceded for him with the officials, and secured 
 his release. 
 
 A few years after the Texas Revolution, and 
 before the Mexican War, Mr. Neale established a 
 line of stages from Matamoros to Point Isabel, 
 starting from the present location of Brownsville. 
 Mr. Neale's stages were pressed into service by 
 Gen. Taylor as ambulances, were captured and it 
 was in his attempt to recover them that he first met 
 the General and had an interview with him. These 
 events occurred after the bombardment of Fort 
 Brown, which Mr. Neale witnessed from the top of 
 a windmill that stood between the two Mexican 
 forts built by Gen. Ampudia, for the defense of 
 Matamoros, on the right bank of the Rio Grande, 
 one at Santa Cruz Point, called Fort Conejo, and 
 the other at the upper extremity of the city, called 
 Fort Paredes. From his elevated position Mr. 
 Neale could plainly trace the shells as they sailed 
 through the air, and had a bird's eye view of the 
 
(lOO 
 
 LXIJIAX irj/.'.s AXD PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 battle waged between Fort Brown and tlie Mexican 
 forces, in the early days of May, L846. 
 
 After the Mexican War Mr. Ncale estal)lished 
 his stage line and did a good business for a number 
 of years. He bad been identified with the route for 
 twenty years, when he was forced to abandon it by 
 the unsettled state of the border. There was a 
 marked contrast between the early days of his stag- 
 ing and those near the close. He carried a great 
 deal of silver coin, having sometimes a hundred 
 thousand dollars on a single wagon. The money 
 was packed on open-work bags made of grass and 
 the metal glittered in the sunlight or reflected the 
 rays of the moon, as the case might be, but he was 
 never attacked for the treasure and did not lose a 
 single dollar by theft, although he would frequently 
 miss buckles and parts of harness. The bad state 
 of the roads sometimes compelled him to pile up 
 thousands of dollars on the wayside and leave it 
 until the next day, when he would find it as he left it. 
 
 Smuggling was carried on most openly in the 
 early forties. Vessels would arrive off the bar, 
 without any manifest or clearance papers whatever, 
 and from that vantage ground the owners of the 
 goods would bargain for the best figures. The 
 merchants soon got rich. Mr. Neale built a house 
 in Matamoros in which the nails cost him fifty cents 
 a pound. At the same time you could buy a good 
 
 mule for $10.00, a cow and calf for .$1.50, and mares 
 for $1.50 each. When the English offered a dollar 
 a piece for hides, it was considered such a good 
 price that guns were brought into service to slaugh- 
 ter the animals, and beef, or jerked meat, was such 
 a drug in the market, that, when a customer asked 
 for a picayune's worth, he was handed a knife and 
 told to help himself. Up to 1852 there had not been 
 a pound of butter made in the country, and many 
 of the inhabitants liad never seen any. In 1852 
 Mr. Neale took up a ranch at Santa Maria, twenty- 
 five miles up the river from Brownsville. During 
 Cortina's raid, Mr. Neale was forced to abandon a 
 large amount of live stock, a store filled with valu- 
 able goods, and a furnished house, fleeing with his 
 famil}' to save tlieir lives. A little later his son was 
 one of Cortina's victims in the Brownsville raid. 
 Mr. Neale then settled in Brownsville, and was there 
 at the outbreak of the war between the States. 
 
 In November, 1863, he went with his family to 
 Matamoros, after narrowly escaping the machina- 
 tions of Gen. Cabos ; remained there a short 
 time, sent his family back to Brownsville, and, later, 
 returned there himself. Since the summerof 1865, 
 Mr. Neale has lived in Brownsville, in peace and 
 quietude. He is now enjoying the confidence and 
 high esteem of four generations who surround him 
 with well merited honors. 
 
 FERDINAND HARZ, 
 
 BOERNE, 
 
 A well to-do farmer living at Boerne, Kendall 
 County, Texas, came to America in December, 
 1852, landing at Galveston, January 1st, 1853, 
 accompanied by a friend, Otto Frederich ; went 
 from Galveston to New Braunfels via Indianola, 
 spent two months at New Braunfels and one year 
 in San Antonio, where he worked at gardening an<l 
 then, in 1854-6, served as wagon-master from Port 
 Lavaca to El Paso, making occasional trips into the 
 mining districts of Arizona. In 1861-4 he served 
 the Confederac3' as a ranger on the Texas frontier 
 under Col. Jones. He was married 18C1, to Miss 
 
 Mary Beyer, of Bexar Count}-. They have three 
 children: Clara, now Mrs. Henry Clemmens; 
 Bertha, now Mrs Adolph Weyrick, of Boerne, and 
 Adolph, who married Miss Ida Phillip, of Boerne. 
 Mr. Harz was born October 22, 1824, in Saxony. 
 Mrs. Harz' father, Antone Beyer, a German by 
 birth, came to America in 1844 from Bohemia, 
 where he owned a woolen factory. He devoted his 
 attention to farming after coming to America. 
 Mrs. Harz was born in Bohemia, February 5, 1844, 
 and was two and one-half years of age when her 
 family reached this country. 
 
jyUiAy WAILS AXD PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 (501 
 
 JOHN YORK. 
 
 This gallant pioneer, whose name was long fa- 
 miliar in every cabin in the land, was an early set- 
 tler and ever ready to meet a public enemy, whether 
 Indian or Mexican. He was, pliysically, a man of 
 portly and commanding presence, a i)ure, blue- 
 eyed blonde, with a native suavity and dignit}' 
 deemed by book worms and cloistered scholars un- 
 attainable attributes to men of cabin and forest 
 life — a complacent assumption disproven by man}' 
 of the early and buckskin-attired defenders of in- 
 fant Texas. 
 
 Capt. York was one of two brothers (Allison 
 York being the other), besides several sisters, 
 who first settled on the Lavaca and afterwards 
 west of the Brazos in Austin County. He partici- 
 pated in numerous expeditions against the Indians 
 and always exhibited the ability to lead. In com- 
 mand of a company in the citizen armj' before 
 
 Bexar in 1835 he and all his men volunteered to 
 follow the intrepid Milam in storming that strongly 
 fortified place, defended by Gen. Cos and about 
 1,500 Mexicans. The contest lasted from the 5th 
 to the 10th of December, though Milam fell on the 
 8th, and terminated in the capitulation of Cos to 
 his three hundred assailants. No royal insignia of 
 merit or valor bestowed ever conferred greater 
 honor on a body of men than was won by the citi- 
 zen heroes who triumphed at Bexar, and none of 
 that gallant band exhibited more determined cour- 
 age than Capt. John York. 
 
 In 1846 be removed to the CoUeto creek, in De- 
 Witt, where the pretty village of Yorktown per- 
 petuates his name. 
 
 His death, in command of a company west of 
 the San Antonio river, in 1848, in a contest with 
 ambushed Indians, is elsewhere narrated. 
 
 JAMES H. CALLAHAN'S FIGHT IN MEXICO. 
 
 This modest but gallant man was a volunteer 
 from Georgia and one of those who escaped slaughr 
 ter in the Fannin massacre in March, 183G. He 
 long lived at the exposed frontier village of Seguin 
 and from 1838 to 1855 was in most of the expedi- 
 tions from that section against both Indians and 
 Mexicans, frequently serving as commander of a 
 company or detachment. In March, 1842, he com- 
 manded a company in the retreat from San Antonio 
 before the Mexican column of Vasquez, the writer 
 of this being a subordinate officer under him. He 
 also commanded a company in the battle of Salado, 
 September 18th, 1842. 
 
 As senior officer of three small volunteer com- 
 panies, in 1855 he pursued a party of Lipan and 
 Kickapoo Indians across the Rio Grande to their 
 chief encampment near San Fernando, twenty- 
 seven miles inside of Mexico and there had a 
 bloody fight. He was soon confronted by over- 
 whelming odds, including large numbers of Mexi- 
 can outlaws, and was compelled to retreat, but in 
 
 doing so displayed such admirable tact and courage 
 as to not only preserve the utmost coolness among 
 his followers, but to repulse the frequent attacks of 
 his pursuers. His wounded, including little B. 
 Eustace Benton, whose brains were oozing through 
 a bullet-hole in his eye, were successfully brought 
 away. This heroic youth, now of Pine Bluff, 
 Ark., was carried for that long distance by Capt. 
 Wm. A. Pitts, of Austin, who placed the wounded 
 and unconscious boy in his saddle and rode behind 
 him on the same horse, tenderly holding his little 
 friend in his arms. This scene with bullets whiz- 
 zing from a relentless foe, and the father (Col. Nat. 
 Benton) wrought almost into frenzy by what he 
 considered the death wound of his only child, 
 involuntarily recalls the legend of Damon and 
 Pythias. Another youth, Willis, the son of the 
 Hon. William E. Jones, was left dead on the field. 
 The enemy expected to greatly cripple Callahan's 
 force while recrossing the Rio Grande at Eagle 
 Pass, but in this they were disappointed by the 
 
602 
 
 JNDIAN WARS AXl) PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 liinely action of the United States coinmauder, 
 Capt. Burbanif, of Fort Duncan, on the Texas 
 banl<, who turned his guns so as to rake tiie west- 
 ern bank and by this ocular demoustra'.ion said to 
 the pursuers: "If you attack my countrymen 
 while the}' are crossing the river, I shall pour shot 
 and shell into your ranks." The admonition had 
 the desired effect and unquestionably saved many 
 lives. It won the heart of Texas to that gallant 
 officer, who hazardeil his commission in tiie cause 
 
 of humanity, as did his second in command, Capt. 
 John G. Walker, afterwards a Confederate Major- 
 General. 
 
 Capt. Callahan about this time settled on the Rio 
 Blanco, in Hays County, and soon afterwards fell 
 a victim to assassination, regretted by all who 
 knew his worth and his services to the country. It 
 was the privilege of the writer, joyfully exercised 
 in the Legislature of 1857-8, to name the county 
 of Callahan as a tribute to his memory. 
 
 MRS. ANGELINA BELLE EBERLY, 
 
 To dwell on the characters of the early pioneers 
 and portray their courage and virtue has ever been 
 a sad pleasure to the author, the more so because of 
 the oft-repeated and unpardonable falsehood that 
 Texas was originally settled by refugees from jus- 
 tice, and outlaws from the United States — a more 
 infamous slander than which never fell from human 
 lips or peu. In the plenitude of His mercy the 
 God of our fathers and our God never allotted to 
 the wilderness of an}' country, as its pioneers, a 
 grander or purer-hearted people than those who 
 first settled the colonies of Austin, DeWitt, Robert- 
 son, De Leon, Powers and Hewitson and McMuUen 
 and McGloin in Texas. They were neither outlaws 
 nor refugees from justice, but fathers and mothers 
 who came here, under the enticing colonial laws of 
 Mexico, in search of lands so munificently tendered 
 that they hoped to be able to ejive to each son and 
 daughter, as he or she married, a landed home of 
 his or her own, rather than to have them become 
 tenants to some rich landholders, as in the older 
 States and in all old countries. To even do this 
 required a courage, morally and physically, worthy 
 of the highest commendation, for this country was 
 then a vast wilderness in the possession of roving 
 bands of treacherous, bloodtiiirsty and hostile sav- 
 ages. There was no field for robbers, for there was 
 nothing to rob. There was no field for murderers, 
 for love and mutual affection and dependence per- 
 vaded every household. There were no drunken rows, 
 for whisky was unknown in the great bulk of the 
 country. Peace, harmony, mutual dependence and 
 mutual regard pervaded every cabin from the Trin- 
 ity to the San Antonio. The only murder ever 
 
 committed for robbery in colonial Texas, from 1821 
 to the Republic in 1839, was by one stranger upon 
 another — by the son of an ex-Governor of Ken- 
 tucky. The murderer was arrested, tried, and 
 sentenced to be hung, but died in prison before the 
 day of execution. Can the world surpass such 
 facts in the settlement of any wilderness country? 
 But in the comparison, remember that Texas was a 
 foreign and a wilderness country, settled by for- 
 eigners, born to the use of the pistol and rifle, and 
 then the comparison more distinctly stands forth in 
 vindication of the early pioneers of Texas. No 
 man who has lived fifty or sixty years in Texas can 
 make the comparison to-day of the " then " and the 
 " now " without a sense of pain. I speak for my 
 fellow-men and women, as one who has seen, has 
 been a part of and lived through both eras of our 
 civilization. 
 
 It is a solemn and indisputable fact that among 
 the earliest pioneers of Texas there was an extraor- 
 dinary per cent of the purest, most refined and lov- 
 able women, and in this and succeeding chapters I 
 desire to speak of a few of them as fair representa- 
 tives of the class to which they belonged. 
 
 The first to be mentioned was Angelina Belle 
 Peyton, born in Tennessee, the daughter of an early 
 Virginia surveyor located in that then new State, 
 and a sister of the long-noted Bailie Peyton. She 
 married her cousin, Jonathan C. Peyton, and as a 
 young bride landed at the mouth of the Colorado, 
 on Matagorda Bay, in one of the first schooner- 
 loads of immigrants (both arriving at the same time) 
 in February, 1822. 
 
 This young couple, in due time, settled at the 
 
ISDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 603 
 
 new town of San Felipe, on tbe Brazos. Two chil- 
 dren were born to tLem — Alexander G. Peyton 
 and Mag, who became a pet child of Travis, Bowie, 
 the Wharton brothers, the Jaclc lirothers, Lesas- 
 sure, Stephen F. Austin, R. M. Williamson, and all 
 the prominent men of that day. She was a beauti- 
 ful child. Mr. Peyton died before the revolution, 
 leaving these two little children. Mrs. Peyton, 
 with a few household servants, thrown upon her 
 own resources, opened a hotel in San Felipe, which 
 became the headquarters of the most distinguished 
 men of Texas. When the revolution broke out in 
 1835, and San Felipe was the virtual capital of the 
 country, she was thus occupied, and was known 
 throughout Texas, not only as a devoted patriot, 
 but as one of the handsomest and most queenly 
 women ever born in the valley of the Mississippi. 
 In his celebrated and only speech before the coun- 
 cil, in December, 1835 (of which an account has 
 been elsewhere given), Col. James Bowie, while 
 appealing for active service and iustice, said: — 
 
 " My attendants are encamped under a tree, my 
 horses are shivering on the prairie as the sleet falls, 
 and I am a guest on the bounty of that grandest of 
 American women in this countr}', Mrs. Angelina B. 
 Peyton." 
 
 At the close of the revolution Mrs. Peyton mar- 
 ried Capt. Jacob Eberly, who was in the ranging 
 service, and when Austin was founded in the 
 autumn of 1839, she built, opened and kept the 
 Eberly house in that place. In the dismal periods 
 of 1843, connected with what is historically known 
 
 as the Archive war, her son, Alexander G. Peyton, 
 was murdered in the streets of Austin. Capt. 
 Eberly died not far from the same time and this 
 early pioneer mother found herself again alone, 
 with only little Majf, the early pet of San Felipe, 
 left to her. The virtual desolation of Austin from 
 1842 to 1844 swept away her available property 
 values. So about 1848, with her only remaining tie 
 to earth, little Mag, she removed to Matagorda 
 Bay — first to Lavaca and then to Indianola. Mag 
 married a noble young lawyer and ex-soldier in 
 Ben MeCuUoch's company in the Mexican War, 
 named James T. Lytle. In October, 1850, she 
 gave birth to a son, Peyton Bell Lytle, and died, 
 leaving the little innocent but a few days old. This 
 child's history would furnish material for a thrill- 
 ing novel, in which the name of the Hon. Fletcher 
 S. Stockdale (his secondary father) would be hon- 
 ored among the pure and just. But I cannot dwell 
 upon those delicate and heart-stirring facts. Time 
 passed. Mrs. Eberly visited Lexington, Ky., and 
 was clasped by the hand of Henry Clay, as one of 
 the historic and lovable women of the Southwest, 
 and tlie sister of his life-long friends, Bailie, Holmes 
 and William R. Peyton. 
 
 A little later this queenly daughter of Tennessee 
 and Texas died. Despite her sorrows, she left a 
 handsome and landed estate, and her memory was 
 revered by Houston, Burnet, Lamar, Jones, Burle- 
 son, Bee, Sherman and all the then prominent 
 survivors of the Texas revolutionary and ante- 
 revolutionary days of Texas. 
 
 RANDALL JONES. 
 
 Among the very earliest defenders of Texas 
 was Capt. Randall Jones, who was born in 
 Columbus, Ga. , on the 19th of August, 1786. 
 In 1810 he removed to Wilkinson County, Miss. 
 In 1812 he became a Captain of United States 
 Volunteers and on the 12th of November, 1813, 
 commanded in the celebrated "Canoe Fight," 
 on the Alabama river, in which nine Creek war- 
 riors were killed. Pickett's history of Alabama 
 omits mention of Capt. Jones in this affair, award- 
 ing the credit to Jere Austill, Samuel Dale, Mr. 
 Smith and others. Many years later Dale was lionized 
 
 as the hero of the occasion, the real commander 
 having soon left that country and, having "no 
 friend at court," to guard his laurels — a fate that 
 has befallen numerous early heroes of Texas, whose 
 merits, after their death, have been overlooked and 
 sometimes awarded to others. In the instance re- 
 ferred to Capt. Jones, in command of sixty volun- 
 teers, marched from Fort Madison for the Alabama 
 river, on the 11th of November, 1813, and on the 
 12th fell in with and defeated two parties of decks, 
 the second being the canoe party. The facts written 
 in the detachment itself, from the east bank of the 
 
60-1 
 
 IXIJIAN WAJiS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Alabama, ou the 25tli of November, were publisUed 
 in the WashingtoQ (Mississippi) liepublican, ou 
 the 23d of December, 1813. The writer said: 
 " Capt. Jones and his party deserve tlie greatest 
 praise and honor for the handsome manner in which 
 the enterprise was conducted." 
 
 In the fall of 1814, Capt. Jones visited the Sabine 
 river. In 1815 again he entered Texas wilii goods 
 and traded with the Indians. In 1816 he opened a 
 store at Nacogdoches and visited Lafitte on Galves- 
 ton Island to buy negroes, but whether he succeeded 
 or not cannot be stated. He was hospitably enter- 
 tained, however, and found in the famous buccaneer 
 a man of external polish and winning address. He 
 temporarily allied himself with the first scheme of 
 Long, in 1819, and in command of a small party 
 near where Washington is on the Brazos, he was 
 driven, along with all of Long's followers, from the 
 country, by Spanish troops from Mexico. 
 
 Early in 1822 he permanently settled, as an Amer- 
 ican colonist, on the Brazos, in Fort Bend County, 
 and thenceforward, till age asserted its supremacy, 
 was all that patriotism and good citizenship imply, 
 his courage and experience in Indian warfare ren- 
 dering him doubly useful. In September, 1824, he 
 commanded in a severe but unsuccessful engagement 
 with the Carancahua Indians on a creek in Brazoria 
 County, from which the stream has ever since been 
 known as "Jones' creek." In this fight fifteen 
 Indians were killed, and three white men, viz. : 
 Spencer, Singer and Bailey. 
 
 Capt. Jones reared a highly respectable family, 
 served in the Consultation, the first revolutionary 
 convention, in November, 1835, and continued to 
 reside on his original Brazos home till a short time 
 before his death. Losing his eyesight he removed 
 to Houston, where he died in June, 1873. 
 
 JOHN AUSTIN. 
 
 The early death of the sterling patriot, Capt. 
 John Austin — dying before the revolution began in 
 1835 — has been the cause (as is true of a number 
 of other gallant and conspicuous men in the earliest 
 trials of Texas, who died prior to the same period), 
 of his name not being familiar to the people of the 
 present time. Yet he is justly entitled to be ranked 
 among the foremost and most valuable men of the 
 colonial period of our history and, as will be seen, 
 somewhat before that period was inaugurated. 
 
 John Austin was born anil reared in Connecticut, 
 but was not of the family of jMoses Austin, a native 
 of the same State, who, in 1821, received the first 
 permission ever granted under the authorities of 
 Spain to form an American settlement in Texas. 
 When quite young John Austin drifted to the 
 Southwest, in various ways developing nerve, intel- 
 ligence, love of adventure and capacity to lead. In 
 1819 he left New Orleans under the auspices of 
 Capt. Long's second expedition into Texas, then 
 announced as in aid of the patriot cause in the 
 Mexican revolution against Spain. (Long's first 
 expedition, a few months before, avowed the pur- 
 pose and actually inaugurated at Nacogdoches, on 
 paper, the form of an independent Republic, but 
 
 his divided force of about three hundred men was 
 speedily driven from the country by Spanish troops.) 
 This second expedition avowed a different purpose 
 and was joined by a number of exiled Mexican 
 patriots, the chief of whom was Don Felix de Tres- 
 palacios. The expedition rendezvoused on the 
 barren island of Galveston and Bolivar Point on the 
 mainland. Trespalaeios, accompanied by the in- 
 trepid Kentuckian, Col. Ben. R. Milam, Col. 
 Christy, of New Orleans, and others, sailed down 
 the coast and effected a landing somewhere north 
 of Vera Cruz and formed a junction with patriots 
 in the country. Long, with only fifty-two men, by 
 an understanding with Trespalaeios, sailed down 
 the coast into Matagorda Bay, thence into the bay 
 of Espiritu Santa and up the Guadalupe river a 
 few miles, where he landed and marched upon La 
 Bahia, now known as Goliad. John Austin was 
 one of his chief lieutenants. La Bahia was sur- 
 prised and easily captured. A few days later a 
 Spanish force from San Antonio appeared and hos- 
 tilities began, lasting two or three days, when Long 
 was seduced bj' Spanish cunning into a capitula- 
 tion, under the absurd pretense that his assailants 
 were also patriots and had been fighting under a 
 
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 (505 
 
 misapprehension, and a promise tliat their arms 
 shoukl be restored as soon as the alarm of the cit- 
 izens subsided, and that they shouhl be treated as 
 brother patriots. As soon as disarmed, however, 
 they were harshly treated as prisoners and sent to 
 San Antonio and next to Monterey. Omitting de- 
 tails, it so happened that about this time news 
 spread all over Northern Mexico that the revolution 
 had triumphed and a new order of things had been 
 inaugurated in the ca[)itol. Then Long and his 
 men were released and considered as brethren. 
 Long, with John Austin and Maj. Byrne, was al- 
 lowed to proceed to the city of Mexico, where 
 they were hailed as friends and co-workers in the 
 great cause of Mexican independence. Time hur- 
 ries. Trespalaeios, Milam and Christy had also 
 reached the capitol. Trespalaeios was announced 
 as prospective Governor of Texas. Long was 
 basely assassinated. His countrymen there be- 
 lieved Trespalaeios, through jealousy or some other 
 cause, instigated the murder. They (Milam, Aus- 
 tin and Christy) hastened back to their fifty friends 
 in Monterey and arranged a plan to wreak vengeance 
 on Trespalaeios on his way to Texas. They were 
 betrayed by two of their own number and sent to 
 the capitol as prisoners, where they remained some 
 months, till late in 1822, when, through the inter- 
 cession of Joel R. Poinsett, Commissioner from the 
 United States, they were released and through 
 him sent from Tampico to the United States on the 
 sloop-of-war, "John Adams." John Austin and 
 athers were landed at Norfolk, Va. , and a few pro- 
 ceeded from Havana to New Orleans. 
 
 In the meantime, under the inspiration of the 
 then deceased Moses Austin, but under the leader- 
 ship of his son, Stephen F., American settlements 
 were beginning in Texas. Ere long John Austin 
 cast his lot with them, and thenceforward was a 
 pillar of strength to tlie settlements on the lower 
 Brazos. A man of sound mind, conservative and 
 courageous, he was a safe counselor and a recog- 
 nized leader. Yet, for several years, nothing oc- 
 curred to distinguish him from other intelligent and 
 conscientious men. He married and lived happily. 
 When all of Austin's colony constituted one mu- 
 nicipality, entitled to a first and second Alcalde, the 
 year 1832 marked the era — Horatio Chriesman 
 being first and John Austin second Alcalde, cover- 
 ing what now constitutes about twelve important 
 counties. Cliriesman lived in what is now Wash- 
 ington Count}' and Austin in Brazoria, San Felipe 
 being the seat of justice. 
 
 In the early part of 1832 began the first hostile 
 troubles between the Americans in Texas and the 
 ^lexican government, inaugurated by a decree of 
 
 April G, 1830, promulgated by that rare combina- 
 tion of demagoguery, political ignorance, tyranny 
 and stupidity, Anastasio Bustamente, self-constitu- 
 ted President of the Republic. That arbitrary de- 
 cree — the keynote to the downfall of Mexican 
 power in Texas — forbade the further immigration 
 of Americans into Texas. Its direct effect, if tol- 
 erated, was to sever hundreds of husbands, then in 
 Texas erecting homes, from their families in the 
 United States, expecting soon to follow them. 
 More remotely it burst into atoms the plans and 
 prospective intentions of vast numliers of kindred 
 and neighbors in the United States, represented in 
 their several special plans by some trusted friend 
 or agent already in Texas. It was a barbarous 
 and senseless decree, issued in utter ignorance of 
 the Anglo-Saxon character. But in co-ordination 
 with this exercise of power came the establishment 
 of custom houses and military garrisons, utterly un- 
 necessary to the enforcement of the revenue laws 
 and designed only to "harass the people and eat up 
 their substance." Without going into detail, it is 
 enough to say that the commander at Anahuac 
 (mouth of the Trinity), who, we blush to say, was 
 a Kentuckian Ijy birth, but in nothing else, so out- 
 raged the people by his brutal and despotic acts, 
 that the country rose almost en masse, resolved to 
 drive the Mexican soldiery from the country. John 
 Austin stood forth as a leader in that crisis. The 
 events belong to our general history and cannot he 
 detailed here. The matters at Anahuac were over- 
 come without serious bloodshed. But at Velasco, 
 at the mouth of the Brazos, a bloody battle was 
 fought on the 2(;th of June, 1832. John Austin 
 was the commander, supported by a company under 
 Capt. Henry S. Brown, co-operating with iiim on 
 the shore and an armed schooner in the river, 
 under Capt. William J. Russell. This force — 
 forty-seven each under Austin and Brown and 
 eighteen under Russell — fought 130 Mexicans, in 
 a strong earthen fort, for nine hours and compelled 
 them to surrender after two-thirds of their number 
 had been killed or wounded — the Texians losina- 
 seven in killed and twenty-seven wounded. It was 
 the first battle between the colonists of Texas and 
 the Mexican soldiery — a soldiery not of the Re- 
 publican but of the Reactionary party in Jlexico. 
 It was a victory heroically won under the leader- 
 ship of John Austin, and entitles his memory to a 
 warm place in the heart of every child of Texas, 
 now and hereafter. 
 
 Almost at the same instant in Jlexico, Santa 
 Anna, as the chami)ion of liberty, rose up and drove 
 the tyrant from power. Texas rejoiced and hailed 
 him as a deliverer. Still, grave questions needed 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 adjustment and the people of Texas earnestly de- 
 sired to explain their grievances to the new govern- 
 ment of Mexico and to ask simply to be let alone 
 and live in peace. To accomplish this purpose 
 Horatio Chriesman and John Austin, first and sec- 
 ond Alcaldes, called a convention of chosen dele- 
 gates from all the districts in Texas, to meet at San 
 Felipe on the 1st of October, 1832. Fifty-eight 
 duly elected delegates assembled. John Austin 
 was himself a member, and for himself and associ- 
 ate Alcalde called the convention to order and in a 
 most lucid and concise manner explained both the 
 reason for calling and the material objects of the 
 convention. Stephen F. Austin was elected presi- 
 dent, and Francis W. Johnson. secretar3\ Among 
 the members were William H. Wharton, Luke 
 Lesassier, James Kerr, Henry S. Brown, Nestor 
 Clay, Charles S. Taylor, Patrick C. Jack and 
 William R. Hensley. 
 
 The convention sat six days and formulated a 
 series of measures which, being followed up by the 
 convention of April 1, 1833, of which William H. 
 Wharton was president, finally led to the revolution 
 of 1835 and the independence of Texas. Even at 
 that early date the sense of the convention was taken 
 for and against asking that Texas be erected into a 
 State distinct from Coahuila. Thirty-six votes 
 were cast in favor of, and twelve against, the meas- 
 ure. This convention, so strangely overlooked by 
 historians, caused infinitely more agitation among 
 the Mexican officials than did that of 1833, so often 
 mentioned, and which sent Stephen F. Austin to 
 Mexico to ask for the admission of Texas as a State 
 of the Mexican union, resulting in his dastardly 
 
 imprisonment in that country. The result was that 
 by the ignorant, jealousy-inspired conduct of the 
 then rulers of Mexico, instead of becoming a happy, 
 prosperous and contented State of Mexico and a 
 bulwark to her people against hostile savages, 
 Texas, within less than three years, threw off the 
 Mexican yoke and l)ecame an independent Republic. 
 Full many high-spirited youth, in this land of ours, 
 have been virtually driven from home by similar 
 parental tyranny, some to ruin, as illustrated in the 
 Central American States, others to happiness and 
 prosperity, as in Texas, and, in a qualified sense, 
 Chili and Venezuela. 
 
 In all these years John Austin was a true and 
 wise citizen, with promise of increasing usefulness, 
 but a few months after this convention, in the sum- 
 mer of 1833, the grim messenger, stalking under 
 the insignia of Asiatic cholera, paused sufficiently 
 long in Brazoria to strike down not only him, but 
 D. W. Anthony, a pioneer editor, and other valued 
 citizens. He left a widow, but no children. The 
 city of Houston stands on land granted to him. 
 Neither county, town nor street perpetuates his 
 name, because appropriated to one more conspicu- 
 ously identified with colonial affairs. Yet, while 
 this is so, it seems meet and eminentlj' just that, in 
 some way, the distinctive names of both Moses and 
 John Austin should be engraved on the map of 
 Texas. 
 
 William T. Austin, a younger brother of John, 
 came to Texas in 1830, served in the armies of 
 1835-0, and died in Galveston in 1874^. A third 
 brother, named Willis Austin, never in Texas, in 
 1870 resided in Norwich, Conn. 
 
 J. E. MOORE, 
 
 TEMPLE. 
 
 Jonathan Ewing Moore, one of the founders of 
 Temple, has been a resident of Bell County since 
 1859, and of the Lone Star State for more than 
 four decades. He was born in Marion County, 
 Ala., in 1840, and is a son of Jesse W. and Dezina 
 (Filzgerald) Moore, natives of South Carolina and 
 Alabama respectively. Jesse W. Moore removed 
 to Texas in 1851, arriving in Bastrop County on the 
 first day of that year. He purchased land on which 
 he made his home until 1859, and then moved to 
 Bell County and settled on Elm creek. There he 
 
 opened up a large tract of land vv'ith his brother, 
 James W. His death occurred in 1864, and that 
 of his wife in 1853. Both were worthy members 
 of the Baptist Church. After the death of his first 
 wife, Mr. Moore married a second time, and his 
 widow now resides on the old homestead in Bell 
 County. 
 
 J. E. Moore acquired an education in the com- 
 mon schools of Bastrop County. He came to Bell 
 County with his father, and engaged in farming and 
 stock-raising. In 1871 he bought a tract of 350 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 607 
 
 acres of land, to which he added other tracts, lyin^ 
 on the wild prairie, and opened a fine farm. Ten 
 years later the Santa Fe Eailroad was built through 
 the section and the company bought 200 acres of 
 Mr. Moore's farm for a town site. The place was 
 named Temple in honor of B. M. Temple, Chief 
 Engineer of the Santa Fe Road. Mr. Moore at 
 once laid out a portion of his remaining land in 
 town lots, and entered into the real estate business. 
 He made six individual additions to the place, 
 called Moore's Addition, Moore's Park Addition, 
 Moore's Railroad Addition, Moore's Knight Addi- 
 tion, Moore's Hargrove Addition and Moore's 
 Crawford Addition. He, also, in copartnership 
 with others laid out the Jones & Moore and Moore 
 & Cole Additions. He is also a director of Free- 
 man Heights Addition. Besides attending to his 
 large real estate interests, he has assisted in form- 
 ing some of the most important corporations doing 
 business in the town. He aided in the organization 
 
 of the Compress, Oil Mills and Water Works com- 
 panies, is a stockholder in the Temple Building 
 and Loan Association and the Temple National 
 Bank, is a director in the Temple City Company, 
 is president of the Temple Hotel Company, and 
 has an interest in the plow factory. He owns some 
 valuable real estate in Temple and elsewhere, and 
 his familiarity with the soil, climate and resources 
 of Texas is equaled by that of few men in the State. 
 In 1868 Mr. Moore married Miss Martha V. Free- 
 man, daughter of John T. Freeman, a native of 
 Georgia, who came to Texas in 1866. Six children 
 have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Moore: Dura 
 Estelle, Jodie PI, Jesse Freeman, Mary E., Willie, 
 and Thomas Edgar, the latter of whom died at two 
 years of age. The family are members of the 
 Baptist Church. Mr. Moore is a Knight Templar 
 and is a member of the Knights of Honor, the 
 Knights of Pythias, the A. O. U. W., the United 
 Friends of Temperance and the Grange. 
 
 HENRY J. HAMILTON, M. D., 
 
 LAREDO. 
 
 Dr. H. J. Hamilton, of Laredo, Texas, was born 
 in 1864, in Barrie, Canada. The present Countess 
 of Dufferin and Lord Claud Hamilton of Scotland 
 are cousins of the Doctor's grandfather, Alexander 
 Hamilton, Esq., one of the York pioneers and 
 founders of Toronto, Canada. Dr. Hamilton re- 
 ceived his preparatory education at Barrie High 
 School, and graduated at Hamilton Collegiate 
 Institute in 1880, and then came to Texas, his 
 parents having moved to this State in 1874. In 
 1883 he commenced the study of medicine under 
 Dr. A. E. Spohn, at Corpus Christi, and graduated 
 at Louisville, Ky., in 1888, receiving the Regent and 
 three other gold medals. For three years thereafter 
 he practiced his profession in Mexico, spent one 
 
 winter in New York, and another in Philadelphia, 
 during which time he still further perfected his 
 knowledge of the science of medicine and surgery, 
 and, returning to Texas, associated himself with 
 Dr. Spolin, at Corpus Christi, where they estab- 
 lished Bay View Infirmary, for the treatment of 
 diseases of women. In December, 1893, he moved 
 to Laredo, and a year later, in that city, married a 
 daughter of Capt. and Mrs. C. Benavides. Dr. 
 Hamilton is United States Pension Examining Sur- 
 geon for the Laredo District, has recently been 
 elected a member of the Texas Academy of Science, 
 and is one of the most popular citizens of the 
 section in which he lives. 
 
608 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 THE POET RANCHMAN, 
 
 WILLIAM LAWRENCE CHITTENDEN, 
 
 JONES COUNTY. 
 
 Larry Chittenden, the " Poet Ranchman of 
 Texas," was born in 1862, in Monlclair, N. J., the 
 beautiful siiberb of New York. Fond of athletic 
 sports, bunting, swimming and fisiiing, when a boy, 
 he became famous before attaining manliood as a 
 rider, swimmer and diver, and in the summer of 
 1891, distinguislied himself at Spring Lake Beach, 
 N. J., by his daring rescue of two young women 
 from drowning in the surf, at tlie risk of Ids life. 
 
 several years in Texas as a salesman for that popu- 
 lar New York house, and in 1886 moved to this 
 State and engaged in ranching with his uncle, Mr. 
 S. B. Chittenden, of Brooklyn, near Anson, in 
 Jones County, where, as a bachelor, he now resides. 
 As to the Chittendens, the family has an un- 
 broken record in this country for thrift and culture, 
 extending as far back as 1639, when Maj. William 
 Chittenden settled and established the family at 
 
 LA1;1;Y tllUTENDEN. 
 
 He also early showed an inclination for stud}' and 
 literature, acquired a good education, possessed 
 himself of a wide knowledge of the P^nglish classics 
 and laid the foundation, undesignedly at the time, 
 for the career upon which he has entered in the 
 realm of poesj-. The man whose claim to recogni- 
 tion is based solely upon ancestry finds a cold wel- 
 come awaiting him in Texas, but, when personal 
 merit is added, and the man is admirable and lov- 
 ing in himself, the people are quick to admire and 
 to admit him to their heart of hearts. 
 
 When very young he entered the wholesale dry 
 goods business of his father and untile, and later 
 with Tefft, Weller & Co., in New York, traveled 
 
 Guilford, Conn., on the estate now known as 
 Mapleside, which is still owned by his descendants. 
 "It was from this hardy old pioneer ancestor," 
 says Mr. Clarence Ousley, of Galveston, in The 
 Illustrated .[merican, " that the poet received his 
 first name, his second coming from his maternal 
 grandmother, who belonged to the distinguished 
 Lawrence family. His maternal grandfather was 
 Alaj. Daniel Gano, a gentleman of the old school 
 noted in the South and West for his great learning, 
 literary talents and courtly manners. Maj. Gano 
 was himself a poet, and a member of the famous 
 Kentucky pioneer family of that name. His daugh- 
 ter, Mrs. Henrietta Gano Chittenden, is the poet's 
 
INDIAN^ WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXA.s. 
 
 (iOlt 
 
 motber, and some one has aptl}' said that Chitten- 
 den is a rare combination of Northern force and 
 Southern fire — the Puritan and the Cavalier." 
 Mr. F. S. Brittain in the Abilene. Texas, Reporter, 
 thus describes his personal appearance : — 
 
 " When the people who do not know Chittenden 
 see a slight, well-liuilt, active, 3-oungish man, with 
 a well-shaped head of wavy, glossy black hair, with 
 black mustache, a face browned by out-of-door life, 
 with a nose that seems as sensitively full of life as 
 that of a well-bred terrier, and a mouth both strong 
 and sensitive, the whole lit up by a pair of change- 
 able eyes, now gray, now blue, ever moving and full 
 of interest; if the man is dressed in fine raiment 
 which does not appear fine, and which half pro- 
 claims the ranchman, half the man of the world, 
 with a dash of the yachtsman and a soupcon of 
 Bohemianism — that's Larry, God bless him." 
 
 Mr. G. Herbert Brown, in writing about our poet 
 in the Galveston News, says of him: — 
 
 ' ' The manner of man he is is best made known by 
 the statement that ten minutes after an introduc- 
 tion you are calling him ' Larry.' ' Mr. Chitten- 
 den ' seems distant and foreign. His is a warm, 
 jovial, sympathetic nature — you want to sit down in 
 a big easy chair and talk with him between whiffs 
 of smoke ; you forget about dollars and financial 
 planks and politics and go off into the sweet realms 
 of fancy. ' The Poet Ranchman of Texas ' — a Bos- 
 ton man would at once picture him as a strapping 
 big fellow, with flannel shirt open at a hairy throat, 
 big, drooping mustache, sombrero, boots, belt, pis- 
 tols, knives — the typical Texas ranchman of the 
 comic papers and melodrama. Whatever Larry 
 may wear on his ranch he doesn't make up any such 
 patent medicinal fakir fashion in town. He wears 
 the clothes of a citizen of the world, wears them i 
 such a manner that you don't notice them at all. 
 His face is bronzed by the sun, but it is neither 
 burned nor swarthy. And he has a charm of man- 
 ner, an ease of address that captivates men and 
 women alike." He has traveled over a greater part 
 of the United States and much of Europe, as well, 
 with an eye ever alert to detect, a soul ever ready 
 to absorb, and an imagination ever ready to drape 
 in the robes of poetic fancy the majesty and beauty 
 and witchery of all that the treasuries of art and 
 nature disclose to the observant and appreciative 
 traveler. 
 
 His first efforts in the field of letters were con- 
 fined to literary and reportorial work for New York 
 newspapers and magazines. His first poems ap- 
 peared in the New York Mail and Express and the 
 Galveston-Dallas (Texas) Daily News. The broad 
 prairies, the mountains, the pure, fresh air, the 
 
 songs of the birds and the wild, free life of his 
 Western home have furnished the immediate inspir- 
 ation for " Ranch Verses," published by G. P. Put- 
 nam's Sons, New York, which have now run through 
 four editions and which have met with a reception 
 accorded to the verses of few American poets in the 
 latter part of the nineteenth century. 
 
 This is what some of the leading papers s.ay of 
 " Ranch Verses:" — 
 
 "Chittenden's poems have a swing about them 
 which is very attractive. He gives us Flemish pic- 
 tures of Texas life, the realism of which is never 
 vulgar and the habit of which is rich, rare and 
 racy." — Chicago Post. 
 
 " A volume of poems which will fully entertain 
 lovers of song. It is in great variety and eapitalh^ 
 rendered. Mr. Chittenden is a born poet." — 
 Chicago Inter- Ocean. 
 
 " ' Ranch Verses' are tuneful, manly in sentiment 
 and musical in flow — full of spirit and vivacity." — 
 London Saturday Review. 
 
 "Curious and entertaining. A volume that is 
 sure to become a favorite." — Glasgoiv, Scotland, 
 Herald. 
 
 " There is originality and spontaneity of inspira- 
 tion in ' Ranch Verses.' " — London Times. 
 
 "Have a catching cheerfulness. They are all 
 bright, fluent and readable." — ■ Edinburgh Scotch- 
 man. 
 
 "The ballads and character sketches have the 
 genuine ring. They are worthy of a place beside 
 those of Riley, Field, Harte and Miller." — 
 Review of Revieus. 
 
 " Will win from readers old and young unstinted 
 praise and warm eulogy. The bold intellect of the 
 author, tempered by culture and refinement, has 
 produced a volume that must bring him fame." — 
 Public Opinion. 
 
 " One of the most interesting and readable books 
 of poetry ever published." — N. T. Press. 
 
 " Contains most genial information about Texas 
 and the cowboys. One must really attach value to 
 this hook." — N. Y. Evening Post. 
 
 " A most charming book of poetrj'. Mr. Chit- 
 tenden is a genuine poet." — Boston Traveller. 
 
 "Bright and entertaining from cover to cover. 
 A book tiiat one may open at random and be sure 
 to find something interesting and entertaining." — 
 American Bookseller. 
 
 " Texas has a poet of whom she may well feel 
 proud. The muses were dispensing their best gifts 
 when they threw their spell on ' Larry * Chitten- 
 den." — Peck's Sun. 
 
 These selections of press notices are only a few 
 of the many thousands that have been printed in 
 
610 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 praise of " Ranch Verses " in our own country and 
 Great Britain. 
 
 Tlie following extracts from his poems will give 
 the reader some idea of the merits and charm of his 
 verse: — 
 
 FROM "THE cowboys' CHRISTMAS BALL." 
 
 The leader was a feller that came from Swenson's Ranch, 
 They called him " Windy Billy," from "little Deadman's 
 
 Branch." 
 His rig was " kinder keerless," big spurs and high-heeled 
 
 boots ; 
 He had the reputation that comes when " fellers shoots." 
 fiis voice was like a bugle upon the raouutaiu's height; 
 His feet were animated, an' a might'/ movui' sight. 
 When he commenced to holler, "Neow fellers, stake yer 
 
 pen! 
 " Lock horns ter all them heifers, an' russel 'em like men. 
 " Salootyer lovely critters; neow swing an' let'em go, 
 "Climb the grape vine 'round 'em — all hands do-ce-do! 
 "You Mavericks, jine the round-up — Jest skip her 
 
 waterfall," 
 Huh! hit wuz gettin' active, "The Cowboys' Christmas 
 
 Ball!" 
 
 The boys were tolerable skittish, the ladies powerful 
 neat, 
 
 That old bass viol's music i«s« got there with both feet! 
 
 That wailin', frisky fiddle, I never shall forget; 
 
 And Windy kept a singin' — I think I here him yet — 
 
 " O Xes, chase your squirrels, an' cut 'em to one side, 
 
 " Spur Treadwell to the centre, with Cross P Charley's 
 bride, 
 
 "Doc. Hollis down the middle, an' twine the ladies' 
 chain, 
 
 " Varu Andrews pen the allies iu big T Diamond's train. 
 
 " All pull yer freight tergether, neow swallow fork an' 
 change 
 
 " ' Big Boston' lead the trail-herd, through little Pitch- 
 fork's range 
 
 Purr 'round yer gentle pussies neow rope 'em! Balance 
 all! " 
 
 Huh! hit wuz getting active —"The Cowboys' Christ- 
 mas Ball! " 
 
 The dust riz fast an' furious, we all just galloped 'round. 
 Till the scenery got so giddy, that Z Bar Dick was 
 
 downed. 
 We buckled to our partners, an' told 'era to hold on. 
 Then shook our hoofs like lightning, until the early 
 
 dawn. 
 Don't tell me 'bout cotilions, or germans. No sir 'ee! 
 That whirl at Anson city just takes the cake with me. 
 I'm sick of lazy shufflin's, of them I've had ray fill, 
 Give me a frontier break-down, backed up by Windy 
 
 Bill. 
 McAllister ain't nowhar! when Windy leads the show, 
 I've seen 'em both in harness, and so I sorter know — 
 Oh, Bill, I sha'n't forget yer, and I'll oftentimes recall. 
 That lively gaited sworray — " The Cowboys' Christmas 
 
 Ball." 
 
 — {From " lianch Verses.") 
 
 HIDDEN. 
 
 Afar on the pathless prairies 
 
 The rarest of flowers abound; 
 And in the dark caves of the valleys 
 
 There is wealth that will never be found; 
 So there are sweet songs in the silence 
 
 That never will melt into sound. 
 
 The twilight illumines her banners 
 With colors no artist can teach; 
 
 And aloft in the sky there are sermons 
 Too mighty for mortals to preach; 
 
 So life has its lovely ideals 
 Too lofty for language to reach. 
 
 Afar on the sea there's a music 
 That the shore never knows in its rest; 
 
 And in the green depths of the forest 
 There are choirs that carol unblest; 
 
 So, deep in the heart, there's a music 
 And a cadence that's never expressed. 
 
 NEPTUNE'S STEEDS. 
 
 Hark to the wild nor'easter! 
 
 That long, long booming roar, 
 When the storm king breathes his thunder 
 
 Along the shuddering shore. 
 The shivering air re-echoes 
 
 The ocean's weird refrain, 
 For the wild white steeds of Neptune 
 
 Are coraing home again. 
 
 No hand nor voice can check them, 
 
 These stern steeds of the sea, 
 They were not born for bondage, 
 
 They are forever free. 
 With arched crests proudly waving, 
 
 Too strong for human rein, 
 The wild white steeds of Neptune 
 
 Are coming home again. 
 
 With rolling emerald chariots 
 
 They charge the stalwart strand. 
 They gallop o'er the ledges 
 
 And leap along the land; 
 With deep chests breathing thunder 
 
 Across the quivering plain. 
 The wild white steeds of Neptune 
 
 Are coming home again. 
 
 Not with the trill of bugles. 
 
 But roar of muffled drums. 
 And shrouded sea weed banners. 
 
 That mighty army comes. 
 The harbor bars are moaning 
 
 A wail of death and pain. 
 For the wild white steeds of Neptune 
 
 Are coming home again. 
 
 Well may the sailor women 
 
 Look out to scan the lee, 
 And long for absent lovers, 
 
 Their lovers on the sea. 
 Well may the harbored seamen 
 
 Neglect the sails and seine. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 611 
 
 When the wild white steeds of Neptune 
 Are coming home again. 
 
 How sad their mournful neighing, 
 
 That wailing, haunting sound; 
 It is the song of sorrow, 
 
 A dirge for dead men drowned. 
 Though we must all go seaward. 
 
 Though our watchers wait in vain, 
 The wild white steeds of Neptune, 
 
 Will homeward come again. 
 
 TEXAS TYPES — THE SHERIFF. 
 
 He's a quiet, easy fellow, with his pants tacked in his 
 
 boots. 
 And he wears a big revolver, which he seldom ever 
 
 shoots ; 
 He has served his time as ranger on the reckless Rio 
 
 Grande, 
 And he has the reputation for great marksmanship and 
 
 sand ; 
 He has strung up several horse thieves in the rustler days 
 
 gone by. 
 And although he seems so pleasant there's a devil in his 
 
 eye. 
 
 When he goes to take a prisoner he calls him by his 
 
 name, 
 In that confidential manner that suggests the bunco 
 
 game; 
 If the culprit is not willing, takes exception to the plan, 
 Our sheriff gets the drop, sir, and he likewise gets his 
 
 man; 
 Oh, it's " powerful persuadin'," is a pistol 'neath your 
 
 nose, 
 " Hands up, you've got to go, Sam," aud Sam he ups and 
 
 goes. 
 
 In the fall at " county 'lections " when candidates appear. 
 The sheriff's awful friendly, for he loves to " 'lectioneer;" 
 Then he takes the honest granger and ye stockman by 
 
 the hand. 
 And he augers them for votes, sir, in a manner smooth 
 
 and bland; 
 He is generous, brave and courtly, but a dangerous man 
 
 to sass. 
 For his manner is suggestive of the sign — " Keep off 
 
 the grass." 
 
 His poems descriptive of ranch life have given 
 him his distinctive fame, but his marine verses are 
 equally good, if not superior. Frank Doremus, 
 his friend, and veteran editor of the Dallas News, 
 in writing of him, says: — 
 
 "Our poet is also a singer. For 'tis under the 
 inspiration of the moon aud stars, by the dying 
 embers of the camp fire in tlie lonely hours on the 
 trail, that Larry has most endeared himself to his 
 Texas cowboy friends. With one accord they 
 listen to his sweet, musical tenor voice. His songs 
 are original verses modestly sung in minor-key 
 melodies of his own composition. Some are gaj' 
 and rollicking, but most of them are sad. ' Gwine 
 
 Back to Texas' and 'The Cowboy's Dream,' and 
 ' Remembrance,' — the last 'dedicated to an unknown 
 divinity,' — are the most popular and best known." 
 
 It would be difficult to find in the language a 
 poem capable of provoking a broader smile than 
 "Brer Brown's Collection," lines more instinct with 
 the joy of life and motion than the "Ranchman's 
 Ride" or the " Round-up," anything containing a 
 finer vein of melancholy than the " Dying Scout," 
 anything more delightfully Western than "The 
 Majah Green," "Maverick Bill," the "Parson 
 Pickax Gray," and " Texas Types," or anything 
 breathing a more cheerful or manly spirit than 
 "The Cynic and the Poet," "Never Despair," 
 and similar poems in " Ranch Verses " — the book 
 is full of the choicest pabulum suited to almost any 
 unvitiated taste. 
 
 The Chittenden ranch comprises 10,000 acres of 
 rich land, 200 acres of which are in a high state of 
 cultivation, is all under fence, and is stocked with 
 a large herd of high-grade Polled Angus, Here- 
 ford and native cattle, and something like 200 head 
 of horses and mules. The ranch house is a com- 
 fortable frame structure, with a broad gallery, or 
 porch, running along the entire front of it, and on 
 the roof of the gallery is a neat little sign, " Chit- 
 tenden Ranch," surmounted by the head of a 
 buffalo. The house sits back from the yard fence, 
 and in front of it are a few nicely kept beds of 
 flowers. From the front of the house you have a 
 view of the east end of the pasture and the rich 
 valley farm. From the window, near the poet's 
 writing desk, there is a fine view of the Skinout 
 Mountains, on the west-. His life at the ranch is 
 an ideal one. His den is a cosy little southeast 
 room, simply, but nicely, furnished. The walls are 
 covered with rare pictures and photographs of 
 admiring friends from all parts of the world. His 
 library contains over 900 volumes of carefully 
 selected books by the best writers. It is here that 
 he sits and writes those verses which are read and 
 praised throughout the civilized world. 
 
 The Poet Ranchman possesses a versatility of 
 genius that gives him a wide range of power. His 
 love sonnets (all poets have a weakness for lustrous 
 eyes and crinoline) are true love sonnets, his humor 
 is fresh and true, his pathos is sweet and unaffected, 
 and his descriptions of his life in his ranch house 
 by the blazing winter fire are so vivid that, with 
 slight effort, we can see "Larry, God bless him," 
 sitting in his easy chair penning his lines and ever 
 and anon raising his head to listen to the distant, 
 lonely hoot of the owl, or the nearer and lonelier 
 howl of the coyote, pausing for a moment in the 
 moonlight outside the cabin door. 
 
612 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 JAMES H. DURST, 
 
 CORPUS CHRISTI. 
 
 Born at Nacogdoches, Texas, about the year 1818, 
 and is said to have been the first while child born 
 in Eastern Texas. He grew up in his native county 
 and was an intimate friend of Gen. Sam Houston, 
 Gen. Thomas J. Eusk, and other leading patriots 
 of his time. He was an aggressive Indian fighter, 
 and did much to help subdue the Cherokee Indians, 
 who for a time terrorized that section of the coun- 
 try. He lived at San Augustine, Texas, for sev- 
 eral years, and about the close of the Mexican War 
 located at Rio Grande City, on the Rio Grande 
 frontier, where he engaged in merchandising for 
 two years and became a prominent and influential 
 citizen of Starr County. In the year 18.52 he oc- 
 cupied a seat in the Texas State Senate and took 
 an active part in shaping legislation. 
 
 Later he was appointed to and most accept- 
 ably filled the position of Collector of Customs 
 of the District of Brazos Santiago until the year 
 1857. 
 
 He married Miss Mary Josephine Atwood in 
 1854 at Austin, at the home of Maj. James H. 
 Raymond. She was a daughter of William At- 
 wood, a Texas pioneer, who resided near Manor, in 
 Travis County, engaged in stock-raising. The At- 
 woods were people of prominence, members of an 
 
 old and aristocratic family. Mr. Atwood married 
 MaryNealy, a relative of Gen. Nealy, of Confeder- 
 ate fame. In 1852 Maj. Durst purchased twenty- 
 one leagues of the Barreta land grant, located in 
 Cameron County, and granted to Francisco Balli, 
 of Reyuosa, in 1804, by the King of Spain. 
 
 Fourteen leagues of this grant belonged to Maj. 
 Durst at the time of his death, in 1858, and were 
 left by will to his wife and three children. 
 
 James W. Durst, of Corpus Christi, was born 
 March 28, 1857, at Brownsville, Texas, which was 
 for a few years the home of the family, and was 
 only one year old when his father died. 
 
 Under the guidance of his widowed mother he 
 was given careful moral training and a good Eng- 
 lish education, which was completed at Roanoke 
 College, Roanoke, Virginia. He then accepted a 
 position as railroad accountant, remained so em- 
 plo3'ed until 1882, and then returned to Texas, re- 
 joined his mother and lived for a time with her at 
 Austin. In 1883 he moved to his present ranch in 
 Cameron County. The estate has been partitioned 
 among the heirs. Mr. Durst owns a large tract of 
 land, embracing about thirty thousand acres, front- 
 ing on the Laguna Madre, improved and stocked 
 with cattle. 
 
 ROBERT J. SLEDGE, 
 
 KYLE. 
 
 Col. Robert J. Sledge, one of the best known 
 stock-raisers and planters in the State of Texas and 
 a man who has contributed much to the advance- 
 ment of the portion of the State in which he resides, 
 was born in Warren County, N. C, on the 31st of 
 July, 1840, and was educated at the celebrated 
 private school of Ebenezer Crocker, at Whitis 
 Creek Spring, near Nashville, Tenn. His parents 
 were Robert and Frances Sledge. His mother's 
 maiden name was Miss Frances O'Briwn. She was 
 a granddaughter of the O'Briwn who led the Irish 
 rebellion of 1798. 
 
 Col. Sledge came to Texas in 18G.'i and located at 
 
 Cbappel Hill, and for two years was employed on 
 tbe H. & T. C. Railroad and engaged in farming 
 near that point. He soon perceived that he could 
 enlarge the scope of his operations by resigning this 
 position and moving further into the interior. This 
 he did and in 1875 purchased 10,000 acres in Hays 
 Count}', on which he established a ranch, whose 
 area he has since somewhat curtailed. It is known 
 as Pecan Spring Ranch. He has devoted his atten- 
 tion principallj' to raising horses and mules on this 
 property. He also owns herds of fine imported 
 cattle. 
 
 During the war between the States he served in 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 613 
 
 the Confederate army as u soldier under Generals 
 Polk and Cbeatham. 
 
 On the 25th of July, 1877, he married a daughter 
 of Col. Terrell Jackson, of Washington County, 
 Texas. For more than ten years he has been the 
 Texas representative in the Farmers' National Con- 
 gress, a bod3' composed of the wealthiest and most 
 intelligent farmers living in the various sections of 
 the Union. He is also a member of the Board of 
 the National and State Alliance and contributed a 
 majority of the stock necessary for the establish- 
 ment of the Economic Publishing Company, of 
 Washington, D. C. He is president of the com- 
 
 pany. He was also one of the three members who 
 composed the National Cotton Committee and was 
 one of the organizers and promoters of the New 
 Orleans Exposition. A man of wide and varied 
 information, a graceful and pleasing conversation- 
 alist, and an excellent public speaker, he has 
 wielded a powerful influence in every assemblage of 
 which he has been a member. Conversant with the 
 pursuit which he has chosen for his life work, he 
 has no desire for political preferment. He is a fine 
 type of the elegant country gentleman and is a man 
 thoroughly representative of the section in which 
 he resides. 
 
 SANTOS BENAVIDES, 
 
 LAREDO. 
 
 It is doubtful if there is a city of its size in Texas 
 that has counted, in time past, in its citizenship, a 
 larger number of worthy pioneers and successful 
 men than the city of Laredo. As a class they were 
 of the true pioneer type and suited in every way to 
 frontier life. Col. Santos Benavides, an eminent 
 soldier and citizen, was one of this class and a fit- 
 ting representative of an old and prominent family. 
 
 His father, Jose Maria Benavides, was a Captain 
 in the Mexican army and came to Laredo in com- 
 mand of his company. Here he met and married 
 Dona Marguerita Ramon, a granddaughter of Don 
 Toraas Sanchez, the founder of Laredo. By this 
 marriage he had two sons, Refugio, a resident of 
 Laredo, and Santos, the subject of this memoir. 
 
 He suffered the loss of his first wife and at a later 
 period married Dona Tomasa Cameras, who bore 
 him four children: Eulelaio, Cbristobal, Juliana de 
 Lyendicker and Francisca de Farias. 
 
 The father died in the year 1846 in Laredo. 
 Santos Benavides grew up with other members of 
 the family in Laredo, attended schools at home and 
 abroad and acquired a thorough knowledge of 
 stock-raising in all of its details. He also served 
 as salesman in a store in Laredo, where he acquired 
 a technical knowledge of merchandising. As a 
 young man he possessed a somewhat restless and 
 altogether daring and fearless nature. Among his 
 first military services he raised a company of State 
 troops for the protection of the Southwestern fron- 
 tier against marauding Indians. At the beginning 
 of the great war between the States, the State 
 
 troops were reorganized and his regiment was 
 mustered into the Confederate States' service under 
 Col. Duff, and he was advanced to the rank of 
 Major, his brother, Christobal Benavides, assuming 
 command of his company. As the organization of 
 the Confederate army progressed Maj. Benavides 
 was promoted to the rank of Colonel, and from 
 that time on his regiment was known in military 
 circles as Benavides' Regiment. He served at the 
 head of his command until the close of the war, 
 mainly on the Rio Grande frontier, holding in check 
 the Indians from the north and repelling marauding 
 Mexicans from across the river. His campaigns 
 were at times characterized by thrilling incidents, 
 making, as he did, many aggressive raids and often 
 pursuing lawless Mexicans into their own country. 
 The Confederate army contained no braver or more 
 loyal and efficient officer than Col. Benavides, 
 and, as a graceful and just acknowledgment of his 
 almost invaluable services to his State and the Con- 
 federate cause, the Texas Legislature in 1864 in 
 joint session passed the following resolution of 
 thanks : — 
 
 "Be it resolved by the Legislature of the State 
 of Texas, that whereas in the autumn of the past 
 year, our enemy was invading the State from many 
 directions and was exultant in the prospect of 
 success by overpowering armies, by insidious 
 policies, by aid of traitors in our midst, by deser- 
 tions from our army and by fears of the weak in 
 faith, and at times which tried men's souls, when 
 unwavering patriotism and true courage were more 
 
(!14 
 
 INDIAN WAES AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 than ever to be appreciated, the people of this 
 State witnessed with admiration the attitude of 
 Col. Santos Benavides and his handful of men 
 who dared to dispute and did successfully main- 
 tain the possession of an extensive tract of our 
 frontier. 
 
 " 2d. That the thanks of this people are due and 
 are hereby tendered to Col. Santos Benavides and 
 the officers and men under his command for their 
 steadfast opposition to the enemy in the field and 
 the zeal they have shown in the service of their 
 country. 
 
 " 3d. That the Governor of this State be requested 
 to transmit a copy of these resolutions to Col. 
 Benavides and that they be read to his regiment on 
 dress parade. 
 
 " Approved May 2Uh, 1864. 
 
 " P. MUKRAH, 
 
 " Governor. 
 " M. D. K. Taylor, 
 " Speaker of the House of Eepresentatives. 
 " F. S. Stockdale, 
 " President of the Senate." 
 
 During the last days of the war, Col. Benavides 
 was promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General, but 
 the war closed before he assumed command in that 
 capacity. Col. Benavides was in poor health dur- 
 ing the latter part of the war, but remained in the 
 service until the final surrender and then returned 
 to his home in Laredo. There he regained in a 
 measure his health and almost immediately entered 
 business as a merchant, taking as a copartner his 
 brother, Capt. Christobal Benavides, under the 
 firm name of S. Benavides & Brother. They did a 
 large retail and wholesale business, the latter ex- 
 tending far into the interior of Mexico. The firm 
 continued business for several years and was then, 
 by mutual consent, dissolved, and Col. Benavides 
 entered trade alone at a stand opposite the city hall 
 and market, continuing therein up to the time of 
 his death, which occurred November 9th, 1891. 
 In civil life he was a polished and courteous gentle- 
 man of plain and easy manners. 
 
 In military life he was an aggressive, gallant and 
 skillful ofBcer. Under all circumstances and at all 
 times he exhibited a kindness of heart and consider- 
 ation for the rights and feelings of others that en- 
 deared him to his comrades in arms and to his 
 thousands of other friends. 
 
 He was always cool and deliberate in the forma- 
 tion and expression of his opinions. He fully ac- 
 cepted the verdict of the Civil War and gave his best 
 counsel and influence to the cause of reconstruction 
 and, with great hope for and faith in the future, 
 
 set vigorously about the building up of his impaired 
 business and estate. He was not a politician in the 
 usual acceptation of the term, and was never an 
 office-seeker ; but, at the urgent solicitation of his 
 people and in accordance with what he believed to 
 be the duty of a citizen, served the public in vari- 
 ous important capacities, notably as Mayor of 
 Laredo, in 1856, and three terms in the Texas State 
 Legislature, during the sessions of which he was a 
 member of various important committees and made 
 his influence felt in the shaping of important legis- 
 lation. He did not speak or write the English lan- 
 guage sutHciently to address that bod}' in the 
 vernacular, and his public utterances were all in- 
 terpreted by a private secretary, who was ever at 
 his side, and was noted for his directness of state- 
 ment, clear and sound logic, and broad statesman- 
 ship. He was a commissioner from Texas to the 
 World's Cotton Exposition at New Orleans in 1884 ; 
 he was ever a safe and ready champion of the doc- 
 trine of popular rights and government, therefore 
 at the time of the French invasion of Mexico his 
 influence, which was far-reaching in the border 
 Mexican States, was thrown on the side of the lib- 
 eral party and at critical times and under permissi- 
 ble circumstances he did not fail to exercise it and 
 from the time that Gen. Gonzales and Gen. Diaz 
 were put in power he was a friend and supporter of 
 their government. 
 
 Col. Benavides married, in 1842, Dona Augustine 
 Vallareal, a native of Laredo. They had no chil- 
 dren of theirown, but adopted and liberally educated 
 four. Of these, Augustina, an acccomplished lady, 
 became the wife of Gen. Garza Ayala, of Monterey, 
 Mexico, once General of Mexican Artillery and ex- 
 Governor of the Mexican State of Nuevo Leon, an 
 intrepid military officer, an able statesman, and 
 eminent lawyer. Dona Augustina died at Mata- 
 moros, Mexico, in 1882. She bore one son. Dr. 
 Frank Garza Benavides. 
 
 Santos Benavides, the second of the adopted 
 children, died in 1883, at nineteen years of age, at 
 Monterey, Nuevo Leon. 
 
 .Juan V. Benavides, the ODly surviving child, a 
 well-known member of the Webb County bar, lives 
 at Laredo, where he practices law and manages the 
 Santos Benavides estate. He married, in 1877, 
 Miss Laura, daughter of Thomas Allan. She was 
 born in Ohio, but was reared at Corpus Christi, 
 Texas, where her parents for many 3-ears resided. 
 
 Dr. Frank Garza Benavides, of Monterey, son of 
 Gen. Garza Ayala, before mentioned, is their third 
 adopted son. He was born at Monterej', July 14th, 
 1874, was educated in his native city under private 
 tutorship, took a commercial course of study at St. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 615 
 
 Louis, Mo., later attended Priuceton University, 
 N. J., and graduated in medicine at the University 
 of Philadelphia, Pa., taking the degree of M. D. 
 
 He married, February 6tb, 1895, Jliss Lila, 
 daughter of Don Christobal Benavides, of Laredo, 
 Texas. 
 
 H. M. COOK, 
 
 BELTON. 
 
 Henry Mansfield Cook was born in Upson County, 
 Ga., December 29, 1825. His parents were Arthur 
 B. and Mary Cook, early and highly respected pio- 
 neers in that State. In 1840 his father moved to 
 Alabama and in 1844 to Lowndes County, Miss., 
 near the town of Columl)us, on the Tombigbee 
 river, where he continued farmino;. 
 
 was elected Lieutenant-Colonel and W. P. Rogers, 
 of Aberdeen, was elected Captain in his stead. 
 The regiment participated in many engagements 
 and took part in the storming and capture of Mon- 
 terey. After the close of the war Mr. Cook re- 
 turned to Mississippi, attended school for a short 
 time, after which he taught a few sessions (intend- 
 
 II. M. COOK. 
 
 In 1846 the subject of this notice walked thirty 
 miles to Columbus to join a company which was 
 being organized for the Mexican War, by the cele- 
 brated Alex. K. McClung. The company was 
 known as the Tombigbee Volunteers and, when 
 completed, was marched to Vicksburg, where it 
 was incorporated in the First Mississippi Regiment, 
 more familiarly known as the Mississippi Rifles. 
 This was commanded by the illustrious and gallant 
 Col. Jefferson Davis and covered itself with glory 
 upon the field of Buena Vista. Capt. McClung 
 
 ing to thereafter take a thorough collegiate course), 
 but found it necessary to abandon the latter pur- 
 pose. 
 
 In August, 1852, he was united in marriage to 
 Miss Margaret E., daughter of Thomas and Mahala 
 Carr, of Oktibbeha County, Miss. Still having his 
 eyes fixed in a westerly direction, he, with his 
 father-in-law and family, took up the line of march 
 in the spring of 1855 for the Lone Star State and 
 settled in the western portion of Leon County, on 
 the Navasota river, where he opened a farm, built 
 
t;i6 
 
 INUIAS^ WAliS AND PIONEERS OF TEXA^S. 
 
 a gill-house and blacksmith shop, and, together 
 with stoflc-raising, entered heartily into agricultural 
 pursuits. But he had not more than gotten the 
 rough places made smooth when he was called upon 
 b}' the citizens to give a portion of his time to the 
 |)ublic weal, and was elected Justice of the Peace 
 anil made a member of the County Court, which 
 positions, though unsought (for he always con- 
 tended that the office should seek the man), were 
 tilled with credit to himself and satisfaction to his 
 constituents. When the war between the States 
 burst upon the country' and a regiment was organized 
 in his military district, he was elected Lieutenant- 
 Colonel ; but, as the regiment was not called to the 
 front as soon as he expected, he became impatient, 
 and, fearing that the war would end before he 
 could take a hand, resigned his offices, went to 
 Louisiana, and entered the army as a private, join- 
 ing Carrington's company, in Baj'lor's cavalry 
 regiment. In a short time he was elected Orderly 
 Sergeant, and subsequently, by gradations, filled 
 the positions of Third, Second and First Lieuten- 
 ants, and rose to the command of the company 
 during the last year of the war. 
 
 With that gallant regiment he assisted in escort- 
 ing Banks' armj' from Brashear City (now Morgan 
 City) up through Louisiana to Manstield. There 
 the Confederates fell short of provisions and con- 
 cluded to utilize Banks' commissary stores — and 
 sent him back to New Orleans. After the war he 
 continued farming up to 1869, and then went into 
 the mercantile business at Centerville and soon 
 built up a good trade. He continued business at 
 this point until 1876, and then, in connection with 
 others, started a new town on the International & 
 
 Great Nortliern Railroad at a i)oint between Jewett 
 and Oakwood, wliicli they called Buffalo, because 
 of its proximity to Buffalo creek. He continued to 
 do business at that place until 1884, when his 
 accumulated capital necessitated his removal to a 
 point offering better facilities for mercantile enter- 
 prise and investments. Consequently he wound up 
 his business at Buffalo and moved to Belton, where 
 he continued the mercantile business on a larger 
 scale. About this time, however, his health failed 
 suddenly, and, having made his son, T. A. Cook, 
 and a son-in-law, T. W. Cochran, equal partners 
 with himself, he turned the management over to 
 them and retii'ed from active business pursuits. 
 Mr. Cook always conducted his business on a 
 straightforward, conscientious basis, and, although 
 he started with a small capital and a very limited 
 experience, was successful from the beginning, 
 accumulated a handsome fortune and never com- 
 promised a debt for less than one hundred cents on 
 the dollar. Four children were born to Mr. and 
 Mrs. Cook. Two of them are married and have 
 families and are prosperous associates with him in 
 his mercantile pursuits. Mr. and Mrs. Cook are 
 members of the Presbyterian Church. Mr. Cook 
 has been an active worker for the upbuilding of 
 the city in which he has so long resided and enjoys 
 the respect and confidence of his fellow-citizens of 
 all classes. He has passed his three score j'cars 
 and ten, man's allotted time here, and is patiently 
 awaiting the summons to come up higher and rejoin 
 his sainted wife in the Glory-land, who walked with 
 him along life's rugged pathway as his solace and 
 comforter fortj'-two years. She departed this life 
 February 6, 1893. 
 
 J. A. BONNET, 
 
 EAGLE PASS. 
 
 The subject of this brief memoir is a Texas 
 pioneer in all that the term implies. 
 
 His advent to the Lone Star State dates back to 
 December 31st, 1845. He came from Scharlotten- 
 burg, Dukedom of Nassau, Germany, with his 
 father's family (P. D. Bonnet) and was then about 
 seven years of age, the youngest of a family of 
 five children. They came as members of the 
 Meusebach colony, landing at Galveston, where 
 they remained for several months with other immi- 
 
 grants, housed in what was called " dos Verins 
 Haus," a large, barn-like structure, built for the 
 protection of the colony- immigrants upon their ar- 
 rival, and they were crowded therein to the number 
 of from three to five hundred. 
 
 The Bonnet family, with otliers, finally' left Gal- 
 veston by sail-vessel for Indian Point (later known 
 as Indianola), Texas. Although the distance was 
 comparatively short, they encountered a storm, 
 drifted far out into the Gulf and nine days were 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 617 
 
 consumed before they reached their destination. 
 They remained at Indian Point a few months, when 
 a malignant fever broke out, wliicii, in a majority of 
 cases, proved fatal. P. D. Bonnet, our subject's 
 father, having a little means, secured transportation 
 by ox-team to New Braunfels, where they safely 
 landed after a tiresome trip of about three weeks. 
 The now lovel3' little German cit3' of New Braun- 
 fels then contained but one house, an old log-cabin 
 which stood on the hill overlooking the valley, and 
 was used as a commisarj'. 
 
 They remained at New Braunfels until the fall 
 of 1846 and then removed to San Antonio. Through 
 the kindness of some person they were loaned two 
 tents which thej' pitched on the river bank on the 
 present site of the Sullivan Banking House. The 
 father and the daughter were taken sick and the 
 oldest son, Charles, had joined Col. Jack Hays' 
 Regiment and gone to Mexico, and the support of 
 the family was thrown upon the mother. She 
 sought and found employment in a boarding-house 
 and from the remnants left at the table supplied the 
 family with food, until the sick recovered and the 
 father with his eldest remaining son, Peter, obtained 
 work from the United States Government. This 
 was in the year 1847. San Antonio then contained 
 about 3,000 inhabitants, mostly Mexicans. The 
 marauding Indian was decidedly in evidence in 
 those days and it was by no means safe to venture 
 outside the city limits without protection. The 
 grounds of Fort Sam. Houston were then covered 
 with a fine growth of live oaks and the sportsman 
 could there take his choice of shooting deer, turkeys 
 or Indians. P. D. Bonnet was a miner by trade. 
 He engaged in freighting and accumulated some 
 property. He owned the property where Turner 
 Hall now stands and in his declining years lived on 
 the income derived from his rents. He died about 
 the year 1886. 
 
 Our subject after many vicissitudes, secured a 
 position in the printing office of the San Antonio 
 Ledger, learned the printer's trade, and later 
 worked in other printing offices in the city. He 
 followed this business until 1859, and then went to 
 Savannah, Ga., from which place he proceeded to 
 Waresboro, Ga., where he enlisted in the Con- 
 federate army, April 18, 1861. He was mustered 
 into the Twenty-sixth Georgia Infantry and fought 
 under Gen. Stonewall Jackson. He was wounded 
 in the leg at Cold Harbor, in the side at Antietam, 
 and again at Spottsylvania Court House, where he 
 suffered the loss of one eye. These wounds were 
 
 all very severe. He participated in all of the 
 battles fought by Lee's army, was advanced to the 
 rank of Sergeant-Major and served as such until 
 final)}', on account of disabilities, he received an 
 honorable discharge. He returned to San Antonio 
 in 1868, suffering intensely from his wounds. He 
 states that he found it " uphill business " to get 
 employment, and was virtually ostracised because 
 of his having been a " rebel " soldier. He em- 
 barked in several enterprises to gain a livelihood, 
 but met with such indifferent success, that he 
 went to Austin in 1870, but returned to San An- 
 tonio to act as tax collector of Bexar County 
 under his brother Daniel, who was sheriff in 1872. 
 He went to Eagle Pass in 1877, and embarked in 
 merchandising on a modest scale, and in due time 
 developed a profitable business. Later he opened 
 a private bank, which he subsequently merged into 
 the Bank of Eagle Pass, with E. L. Walkins as 
 partner. In September, 1888, the institution was 
 reorganized as the Maverick County Bank with 
 a capital of $30,000. As an outgrowth of this 
 enterprise the present First National Bank of 
 Eagle Pass was organized, with a cash capital of 
 $50,000. Mr. Bonnet served as president of the 
 latter institution until he resigned the position in 
 1895. 
 
 He was elected County Judge of Maverick 
 County and served two terms. He has always 
 worked and voted with the Democratic party, but 
 could not indorse the tariff policy of the Cleve- 
 land administration, and has of late years voted 
 with the Republicans. Judge Bonnet has been an 
 actvve, enterprising and useful citizen. Viewing 
 the adverse circumstances under which he came 
 to this country, the difficulties that he had to over- 
 come as a bo3' and young man, and considering the 
 fact that he came out of the war ruined in health 
 and pocket, too much credit cannot be given him 
 for the prominent position he has attained in the 
 professional and business world. As a soldier he 
 did his full duty ; as the incumbent of a respon- 
 sible office in San Antonio he acquitted himself 
 with credit and superior ability ; as a merchant and 
 business man he attained prominence and success ; 
 as County Judge he was impartial, and served his 
 people with fidelity ; and as a citizen he is highl}' 
 esteemed. He was born at Scharlottenburg, Ger- 
 many, March 23, 1838, and married in Georgia. 
 His wife died in 1875 in San Antonio, leaving four 
 children. He married again in 1877, wedding, in 
 San Antonio, Mrs. Gesell Alejandro, a widow. 
 
618 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 GUSTAV SCHMIDT, 
 
 BULVERDE. 
 
 One of the well-known pioneers of Comal County, 
 was born September 20th, 1839, on a farm in 
 Nassay, Germany. His father and mother, Mr. 
 and Mrs. Jacob Schmidt, and their children, three 
 in number, came to America iu 1845, with a por- 
 tion of the Prince Solms' Colony, and located near 
 New Braunfels in the latter part of the year and 
 engaged in farming. At twenty-one years of age 
 Gustav married Miss Caroline Ucker, daughter of 
 William Ucker, of New Braunfels. They have nine 
 children : William, Emma, Edna, Anna, Gustav, 
 Henry, Theresa, Edward, and Otto. 
 
 Mr. Schmidt, subject of this notice, settled 
 
 upon his present farm very near Bulverde in 
 1875; but, has however, lived in the moun- 
 tain district of Comal County since 1859. 
 Mr. Schmidt's sympathies were with the Union 
 cause during the war between the States. He 
 went to Mexico shortly after the beginning of 
 hostilities and remained there until 1863. He then 
 went to New Orleans, where he enlisted in the 
 Federal army, August 8tli of that year, as a soldier 
 in the First Texas Cavalry, with which he served 
 until honorably discharged, October 31, 1865. He 
 was with Gen. Banks and took part in the battles of 
 Brownsville, Sabine Pass and Mobile. 
 
 CHARLES L. McGEHEE, SR., 
 
 SAN MARCOS. 
 
 Mr. McGehee, the subject of this brief memoir, 
 is one of the well-known citizens of San Marcos, 
 and a son of one of Texas' early pioneers, his 
 father also, Charles L. McGehee, having come to 
 the State as early as 1836. He was an Alabamian 
 and was born at McDavid's Mills in the j'ear 1810. 
 He married Miss Sarah Vance Acklin, a member of 
 one of the oldest and most noted families of 
 Huntsville, Ala. He was an ambitious and 
 enterprising man and engaged extensively and 
 successfully in the local stone trade, in Alabama 
 and adjoining States, accumulating thereby a large 
 fortune. He lived in the meantime at Yazoo, on 
 the Mississippi river, and also engaged in the 
 steamboat business, owning several steamers. 
 Besides, he owned and conducted several planta- 
 tions. He met with business reverses and, coming 
 to Texas, cast his fortunes with those of the Lone 
 vStar commonwealth. His first trip was a prelim- 
 inary one and he returned East, settled up his 
 business and with his family located near Bastrop 
 on the east bank of the Colorado river about 1843. 
 He possessed great industry and mechanical genius 
 and, besides farming, owned and conducted a 
 wagon shop. He also traded in stock and lands 
 and made a second comfortable fortune. In 1851 
 
 he secured a contract with the State of Texas for 
 the construction of a capitol building at Austin 
 and entered upon the prosecution of the work. 
 He did not live to finish the structure, however, 
 and Q. J. Nichols completed the contract. He 
 died in 1852. He left two daughters and one son ; 
 of these, Mary, married D. A. Wood and located 
 in Guadalupe County, and Sarah, married C. H. 
 Wood, a brother of D. A. Wood, located in Ha3's 
 County and died in 1894. 
 
 Mr. McGehee was a man of strict integrity, a 
 consistent member of the Methodist Church in 
 later years and left an honorable name and an 
 estate valued at about $40,000 as an inheritance to 
 his surviving family. 
 
 Charles L. McGehee, the subject of this sketch 
 was the only son. He inherited from his father a 
 natural love of adventure. He was born in Ala- 
 bama, December 21st, 1837, and was brought to 
 Texas upon his father's second trip with the family, 
 being then about six years of age. He spent his 
 childhood and youth, up to about fourteen years of 
 age, on the farm in Bastrop County. Farm life 
 was, however, too tame for him and, after traveling 
 for about a couple of years, he went to San Marcos 
 and offered his services to Maj. Ed. Burleson, who 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 619 
 
 was recruitiug a company of Texas rangers for 
 operations against the Indians. McGehee being 
 only seventeen j'ears of age, Maj. Burleson informed 
 him that he was too young, by law, to draw pay. 
 Thereupon, McGehee informed him that pay was 
 no object and that he owned his own horse and gun 
 and wanted to go to the frontier. The Major ad- 
 mired the boj''s pluck and enthusiasm and admitted 
 him to membership and made special provisions for 
 the payment of his salary. He served as a ranger 
 about one year, rendezvousing at Hi Smith's camp 
 in Gillespie County, making also a raid into Mexico 
 with Capt. Callahan. After a campaign of one \'ear, 
 Mr. McGehee went to Austin and became inter- 
 ested in a farm near that city. In 1858 he mar- 
 ried Miss Sarah, a daughter of Joseph Humphreys, 
 Esq. She is a native of Texas and was reared in 
 Caldwell County, on the San Marcos river. After 
 marriage Mr. McGehee pursued farming and spec- 
 
 ulating in cattle, horses and mules and dealt in 
 lands. He has become one of the most substantial 
 property owners in Hays County. He owns a val- 
 uable estate at San Marcos, fronting for a mile and 
 a half on the San Marcos river, and a chartered 
 water power. He has splendid improvements 
 thereon and an excellent irrigating system that he 
 is developing. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. McGehee have five sons : Walter 
 A., Hugh W., Charles L., Jr., Miles H., and 
 Wade B. 
 
 At the breaking out of the war between the States 
 Mr. McGehee enlisted in Col. Wood's regiment at 
 San Marcos ; but, having served as a ranger, the 
 discipline of the army was not satisfactory and he 
 secured a transfer to Capt. Carrington's independ- 
 ent company of Texas rangers and served on the 
 Mexican frontier in the Rio Grande Valley about 
 fourteen months and then returned to his home. 
 
 A. J. HAMILTON, 
 
 AUSTIN. 
 
 The late ex-Governor A. J. Hamilton, of Texas, 
 was born in Madison County, Ala., on the 28th of 
 January, 1815, and was admitted to the bar of that 
 State in 1841. 
 
 In 1846 he emigrated to Texas and located at La 
 Grange. In 1849 he was appointed, by Governor 
 Bell, Attorney-General of the State, and from that 
 time made Austin his permanent home. He served 
 as a representative from Travis County in the Leg- 
 islature in 1851 and again in 1853. In 1856 he was 
 a presidential elector on the Buchanan ticket and in 
 1859 was elected to a seat in the United States Con- 
 gress, as an independent candidate, in opposition to 
 Gen. T. N. Waul, the regular nominee of tiie Demo- 
 cratic party. He was a strenuous opponent of the 
 policy of secession and retained his seat in Congress 
 after the other members from the seceding States 
 had returned to their constituencies. He returned 
 to Austin in the latter part of 1861 and was made 
 the Union candidate for the State Senate, to which 
 he was elected, but Texas had now cast her lot with 
 the Confederacy and he declined to take the required 
 oath of office. 
 
 In 1862, being still opposed to the purposes and 
 progress of the war on the part of the South, he left 
 the State and, making his way through Mexico, re- 
 
 paired to the city of Washington and was immedi- 
 ately appointed Brigadier-General of the Texas 
 troops in the Union service. 
 
 In 1865 he was made provisional Governor of 
 Texas by President Johnson, as the most suitable 
 person he could find in the State to effect his con- 
 servative plan of reconstruction. In this position 
 he greatly endeared himself to the people of the 
 State irrespective of party affiliations. Crushed 
 down in the dust of defeat and disfranchised they 
 had reason to expect that they would be subjected 
 to misgovernment and to such outrages as a knowl- 
 edge of history taught them that a conquered people 
 might expect. Some remarks contained in a speech 
 delivered by Mr. Hamilton on landing in Galveston 
 still further intensified their apprehensions, but to 
 their surprise and to his lasting honor, beseemed to 
 lose sight, upon assuming the duties of the Gover- 
 nor's office, of the fact that he had been compelled 
 to leave the State for oninion's sake and only to re- 
 member that he had sworn to faithfully discharge 
 the duties of the trust confided to him and to 
 as speedily as possible bring about the complete 
 rehabilitation of Texas as a State of the 
 American Union. His administration was charac- 
 terized by honesty, ability and patriotism, and even 
 
620 
 
 INDIAN WAIiS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 lliose who found it necessary, on political grounds, 
 to differ witli him in nearly every essential particu- 
 lar, have united in bearing testimony to his rectitude 
 and [jurit}' of purpose and they would be amoug 
 the first to resent any effort to cast a stain upon his 
 honor as an ofScial or as a private citizen. In 1866 
 he was appointed as Associate Justice of the Su- 
 preme Court, and was a prominent member of the 
 reconstruction convention of 1868 — in which he 
 was the author and chief promoter of the Electoral 
 Bill and Franchise measures, which were engrafted 
 in the new constitution. In 1870 he was the Con- 
 servative candidate for Governor, but was defeated 
 by p;. J. Davis, the Eepubltcan nominee, in a con- 
 test so close as to give excuse for the intervention 
 of and decision by the military authorities. Re- 
 turning now to the seclusion of private life he 
 eschewed any further active participation in the 
 political events of the period and, falling into a de- 
 cline of health, died in Austin during the month of 
 April, 1875. 
 
 Governor Hamilton's decisions as a Judafe 
 
 of tiie Supreme Court, while comparatively few, 
 are noted for learning, dignity and force. Chief 
 among these is his opinion on ah initio rendered 
 in 1868 in the case of Luter v. Hunter, 30 
 Texas, 690, and in Culbreath v. Hunter, 30 Texas, 
 712, known as the Sequestration cases, in which he 
 held that the States composing the Confederacy 
 occupied a higher ground than the Confederate 
 government, having been in their origin peaceful, 
 legitimate and constitutional ; that they continued 
 to exist, notwithstanding the war, without a hiatus 
 or interregnum, and that the United States govern- 
 ment had not interfered with the mere civil laws of 
 the States, whether enacted before or during the 
 war, except as to such laws as naturally resulted 
 from the war, and such as were unconstitutional or 
 in hostility to the United States. It would have been 
 well indeed if the doctrine enunciated in these cases 
 had been accepted by the dominant party; the 
 hostility of the heart would have ceased with the 
 hostilitj' of the sword. 
 
 SANTIAGO SANCHEZ, 
 
 LAREDO. 
 
 All history is centered in the lives and characters 
 and the personal achievements of the people. No 
 State in the American Union has furnished the his- 
 torian a more prolific field for the employment of 
 his pen than the Lone Star State, and the Rio 
 Grande Valley has provided him with some of his 
 most prominent historical subjects. The venerable 
 Don Santiago Sanchez, the subject of this brief 
 memoir, is a fine type of the successful Texas-Mex- 
 ican pioneer and one of the most prominent and 
 wealthy ranchers of Southwestern Texas. He is a 
 native of the city of Laredo, where he was reared 
 and has lived for over half a century. He was 
 born December 31st, 1838, and is a son of Don 
 Antonio and Dona Jiiana Mendiola Sanchez. The 
 Sanchez name is one of the very oldest in Laredo's 
 history. Captain Tomas Sanchez, the founder of 
 the city, was also the founder of the family in 
 Texas, and was a grandfather of Don Santiago 
 Sanchez, our subject. Himself conspicuous in his 
 day, his descendants have, several of them, held 
 prominent positions of local trust, and have per- 
 petuated and held in sacred honor the family name. 
 
 Our subject spent his boyhood and youth in 
 Laredo. He early formed those habits of thrift 
 and industry that have ever since characterized his 
 life and have had so much to do with shaping his 
 destiny. He attended the local schools of Laredo, 
 and later pursued a course of study in the city of 
 Monterey, Mexico, which was, however, interrupted 
 by revolutionary movements of a serious character, 
 in that country. From that time up to the year 
 1863 he was employed in various capacities, and 
 by industry and the careful husbanding of his re- 
 sources he was enabled to enter business. He 
 formed a copartnership with a friend, Don Ese- 
 bano Salinas, and they entered merchandising 
 in the town of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, the style of 
 the firm being Sanchez & Salinas. The venture 
 ()roved a most successful one, the house became 
 widely known, its business covered a broad extent 
 of country, and the firm gained an almost unlim- 
 ited credit in the great commercial centers of the 
 United States and Mexico, and ranked as the lead- 
 ing mercantile house in the Rio Grande Valley. 
 Sanchez & Salinas continued in business until 1877, 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 (•>21 
 
 when Don Estabano died, and the affairs of 
 the firm were wound up. Don Santiago then 
 turned his attention to stocic-raising on an 
 extensive scale. He purchased lands in Ta- 
 maulipas and Texas and stocked them with 
 cattle and so successful has he been that he now 
 leads in that most important industry in the Laredo 
 country. His progressive ideas, put into practical 
 execution, have gained for him a wide reputation. 
 He owns about 200,000 acres of land, a greater por- 
 tion of which is in Mexico, and his ranch. La Jarlta 
 Sanchez, and Las Crevas are among the largest and 
 most modernly equipped in Western Tamaulipas. 
 He raises horses, cattle and sheep. He is one of 
 the pioneers of the cotton-raising industry of Ta- 
 maulipas and was the first to introduce the cotton- 
 gin and corn-mill into that State. Don Santiago is 
 typically a business man and has never allowed 
 politics or any other side issue to divert his attention 
 from his calling, his chief ambition having always 
 been to attain success in his chosen occupation. 
 He did, however, serve for about eleven years as 
 Mayor of Laredo, giving to his people an honest and 
 
 successful administration. Don Santiago early 
 learned the lesson of personal independence and 
 self-reliance. He never received financial aid from 
 any source and entered business on capital of his own 
 acquisition. He is therefore a self-made man and 
 the great success he has attained and the elevated 
 position he has acquired in the business world and in 
 the estimation of his legion of friends is entirely 
 due to his tireless energy and industry, his thrift 
 and keen business foresight, his unswerving in- 
 tegrity and his honorable business methods. 
 
 He married, September 10th, 1863, Dona Macaria, 
 a daughter of Don Juan and Dona Tiburcia (Gon- 
 zales) Ramos. Her father was then Collector of 
 Customs at the city of Neuvo Laredo, and an influ- 
 ential citizen. The issue of this happy union is 
 three sons and six daughters. The Sanchez family 
 mansion in Laredo is architecturally one of the 
 most beautiful and imposing homes in the Rio 
 Grande Valley. It is perfect in its appointments 
 and exemplifies the fine discrimination and domestic 
 tastes of its owner. 
 
 W. A. SHAW, 
 
 CLARKSVILLE. 
 
 Col. W. A. Shaw was born in Green County, 
 Ala., the 15th day of April, 1827. His father was 
 .Tames Shaw, a native of North Carolina, and 
 his mother, nee Miss Carolina Elliot, a native of 
 Virginia. After their marriage they moved to 
 Tennessee, then to Alabama, from there to Missis- 
 sippi, and in 1852 to Kaufman County, Texas, 
 where some of their children had preceded them. 
 A majority of the others soon followed. The 
 father, mother, and three daughters are buried in 
 Kaufman County, Texas. One son, killed in 
 battle, is buried in Louisiana. The oldest still lives 
 in Mississippi. The youngest, Capt. R. B. Shaw, 
 a farmer, merchant and stock-raiser, lives at Kemp, 
 in Kaufman County, Texas. 
 
 Col. W. A. Shaw received the rudiments of an 
 education in the old-field schools in Monroe and 
 Chickasaw counties. Miss., prepared for college 
 at Aberdeen, Miss., under Prof. Reuben Nason 
 and Richard Gladney, and entered the Fresh- 
 man class at Dickson College, Carlisle, Penn., 
 where he spent the Freshman and Sophomore 
 
 years. About that time a Mr. Kennedy, a citizen 
 of Maryland, came to Carlisle to claim a runaway 
 slave. The court awarded him his slave, but as 
 the master attempted to start home, an abolitionist 
 mob rescued the slave and killed the master. One 
 of the professors of the college, Rev. I. D. Me- 
 Clintock, was charged witli being the instigator of 
 the mob. While the college was in the North a 
 majority of the students were from the South. The 
 students called an indignation meeting to condemn 
 the professor for his conduct. Prof. McClintock 
 was very popular with the students — such students 
 as J. A. C. Creswell, a member of Gen. Grant's 
 Cabinet, and Barnes Compton, at present a mem- 
 ber of Congress from Maryland, espoused the 
 professor's cause and the meeting failed to pass 
 the resolutions. But W. A. Shaw and a few other 
 students from the far South took an active part 
 against the professor and voted to condemn him. 
 For this action, the subject of this sketch came to 
 the conclusion that the faculty of the college became 
 prejudiced against him and he left the institution 
 
622 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 and entered Princeton College, New Jersey, where 
 he spent his Junior and Senior years and gradu- 
 ated in the class of 1850. After graduation he 
 read law in the office of Lindsay & Copp, at Aber- 
 deen, Miss., and was granted license to practice by 
 Judge John Watts, of the Fourth Judicial District 
 of Mississippi. 
 
 As he returned home from college, he came 
 through Washington City and spent ten days there. 
 Congress was in session. The agitation of the 
 slavery question was at its height owing to the 
 recent acquisition of territory from Mexico, as a 
 result of the Mexican War. Tlie Nashville con- 
 vention had been called. Daniel Webster had just 
 
 Col. Shaw heard Clay read his report and listened 
 to the speeches of these giant intellects for ten 
 days. He then made up his mind to support the 
 compromise and the Union and fought secession 
 and disunion in every shape it afterwards assumed. 
 The Mississippi Senators, Foote and Jefferson 
 Davis, took opposite sides of the question and the 
 next year became opposing candidates for Gover- 
 nor of Mississippi. Col. Shaw took the stump for 
 Foote against Davis. Foote was elected by nine 
 hundred and ninety-nine votes, and from that can- 
 vass in Mississippi, the first after he returned from 
 college, to the last in Texas, Col. Shaw has been 
 an active participant in every political contest that 
 
 W. A. SilAW 
 
 delivered his great 7th of March speech and Foote, 
 one of the Mississippi Senators, had moved the 
 formation of a committee of thirteen to prepare a 
 plan for the compromise of ail questions between 
 the sections. The committee was composed of 
 thirteen of as able and patriotic men as ever lived 
 before or since in the United States. Henry Clay, 
 who was no longer a party man, was chairman and 
 had declared that he knew, " No North, no South, 
 uo East, no West" The balance of the committee 
 was made up of Daniel Webster, of Massachusetts ; 
 Dickerson, of New York ; Phelps, of Vermont ; 
 John Hell, of Tennessee ; Cass, of Michigan ; Ber- 
 rien, of Georgia ; Cooper, of Pennsylvania ; Downs, 
 of Louisiana; King, of Alabama; Mangum, of 
 North Carolina ; Mason, of Virginia; and Bright, 
 of Indiana. 
 
 has been waged. He was a candidate for electoi- 
 on the Filmore ticket in 1856 and also on the Bell 
 and Everett ticket in 1860. Col. J. A. Orr was 
 his opponent iu 1856 and Dr. Richard Harrison, 
 brother of Gen. Tom. Harrison, of Waco, Texas, 
 his opponent in 1860. He opposed the secession 
 of Mississippi in 1861. He took the position in 
 the canvass that disunion would sound the death- 
 knell of the institution of slavery ; that, were it 
 possible to divide the Union and set up a sep- 
 arate Confederacy without the firing of a gun, 
 the institution of slavery would die a hundred 
 years sooner than it would if the South remained 
 in the Union with the protection and guarantees 
 of the constitution, and that, were he an aboli- 
 tionist and wished to abolish slavery, he would 
 advocate disunion as a means to accomplish it. He 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 623 
 
 was a planter on the Mississippi river when the war 
 commenced. In 1863 he moved to Texas with his 
 family and lived near Chatfield Point, in Navarro 
 County, until the close of hostilities. After the 
 close of the war, the levees on the Mississippi river 
 having been cut and his plantation there being sul)ject 
 to the overflows every year, he never returned to 
 it, but rented land and became a tenant on Red 
 river, in Bowie County, and continued to plant 
 there until he bought his landlord's plantation, 
 which he now owns. 
 
 He moved his family to Clarksville, Red River 
 County, in 1879, wliere he still lives. He was 
 elected to the Thirteenth Legislature at the general 
 election in 1872, from the district then composed of 
 what is now the counties of Red River, Franklin, 
 Titus and Morris, and was made chairman of the 
 Committee on Enrolled Bills and was a member of the 
 Committee on Internal Improvements, Public Lands 
 and Counties and County Boundaries, and took an 
 active part in all the legislation of the session. He 
 favored every measure providing for internal 
 improvements presented to the Legislature, favored 
 exempting factories from taxation for a term of 
 years and advocated a liberal policy toward rail- 
 roads and aiding them by the donation of public 
 lands. He has never been a candidate for any 
 office since, but has been a delegate to every Demo- 
 cratic State couvention from 1874 to the Dallas 
 convention of 1894, and is still a strong advocate 
 of the "dollars of the daddies," and believes with 
 Senator Carlisle when he said: " According to my 
 view of the subject, the conspiracy which seems to 
 have been formed here and in Europe to destroy 
 
 by legislation, and otherwise, from three-sevenths 
 to one-half the metallic money of the world, is the 
 most gigantic crime of this, or any other age." 
 
 Col. Shaw has been twice married. He first mar- 
 ried Miss May Kate Sliannon, of Pontotoc County, 
 Miss., in the j'ear 1857, by whom he had five 
 children, three of whom died in infancy. His 
 eldest son. Dr. Thad Shaw, died in Bowie County. 
 The only surviving son of this union, the Hon. Gus 
 Shaw, lives at Clarksville, Texas. 
 
 His second marriage was to Mrs. C. A. Fain, 
 whose maiden name was Miss Caladone A. Corne- 
 lius, in 1867, in Bowie County, Texas, by whom he 
 had one son. Dr. R. L. Shaw, who died at DeKalb, 
 Texas. Col. Shaw gave all his sons good literary 
 and professional educations. 
 
 Col. Shaw belongs to the Methodist Church and 
 takes an active interest in its work and welfare. 
 
 He is possessed of an ample income. He and his 
 wife have more than a thousand acres of Red river 
 land in cultivation, besides some real estate in the 
 town of Clarksville, enough to keep the wolf from 
 the door. 
 
 He possesses a good library of some 150 or 200 
 volumes, consisting of miscellaneous, historical, 
 political and religious works, which he puts to good 
 use. While Col. Shaw is a Methodist in his religious 
 beliefs, and belongs to that Church, one could never 
 tell from the collection of religious books in his 
 library to what Church he belongs. 
 
 No citizen of Red River County is more generallj* 
 and highly esteemed, and he deserves the regard of 
 his fellow-citizens, for his life has been full of activ- 
 ity and good works. 
 
 E. TOM COX, 
 
 BRUCEVILLE. 
 
 A prominent farmer and stock-raiser in McLennan 
 County, was born in Tennessee, October 2, 1829, 
 the fourth of ten children born to James and Eliza- 
 beth (Green) Cox, natives of North Carolina. 
 They went as colonists to Tennessee before mar- 
 riage, locating in Carroll County. The father was 
 a successful farmer in that State until his death, 
 which occurred in 1853. The mother died in 1877, 
 aged seventv-nine years. 
 
 E. Tom Cox at the age of eighteen years com- 
 menced life for himself. In 1849 he began farm- 
 
 ing in Marshall County, Miss., two years later went 
 to Dallas County, Ark., and during the follosving 
 two years lived in various places in the southern 
 portion of the State, principally engaged in raft- 
 ing ; in 1853 traveled with a friend into Texas as 
 far west as the Brazos river; then returned to 
 Tennessee, but the following 3'ear came to Texas 
 and engaged in farming and stock-raising in Bell 
 County. In 1861 Mr. Cox located in McLennan 
 County, where he purchased several acres of unim- 
 proved land and opened a farm. He has added to 
 
624 
 
 lyDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 this place until he now owns one thousand acres 
 under cultivation and a large body of pasture and 
 timbered lauds. In the last eighteen years he has 
 been engaged in the ginning business, having erected 
 the first gin erected in the portion of the country in 
 which he lives, in 1867 or 18G8. During the war, 
 he was a soldier in Smith's Battalion, stationed at 
 Plouston, but participated in no engagement. He 
 was elected Lieutenant of the second company 
 in Bell County, but was exempted from active duty 
 on account of being a cripple After the close of 
 hostilities, he found himself worth only about one- 
 half of what he was at the beginning of the war 
 and immediately resumed farming and stock-raising, 
 at which he has since greatly prospered. He was 
 appointed the second postmaster at Martensville, 
 now Bruceville, the name of the town having been 
 changed after the completion of the Mississippi, 
 Kansas and Texas Railroad. 
 
 Mr. Cox was married in 1856 to Mrs. Mary C. 
 
 Harris, a daughter of H. H. and Mary J. (Tubb) 
 Holcomb. Her first husband died September 1, 
 1855, leaving one child, G. B. Harris, now a prac- 
 ticing physician, born February 4, 1856. Eleven 
 children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Cox, viz. : 
 R. M. , a railroad agent at Morgan; Bettie G., 
 wife of ]j. G. Fields, a merchant at Waco ; George 
 F., a physician and merchant at Bruceville ; Mattie 
 B., William R., Zella P., Mary T., and five who 
 died in infancy. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Cox are members of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Cluirch South. He is a member of Helton 
 Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He 
 served as Justice of the Peace of his precinct for 
 one term and also served as County Commissioner 
 for two years. He is a member of the Peoples 
 Party. He is an active, progressive and sub- 
 stantial farmer and a citizen thoroughly represen- 
 tative of the best interests of his section of the 
 State. 
 
 ROBERT SNEAD KIMBROUGH. 
 
 MESQUITE. 
 
 Robert S. Kimbrough was born near Madison- 
 ville, East Tennessee, September 19, 1851. 
 
 He came to Texas in 1874 and first settled in 
 Clay Count}', but eighteen months later moved to 
 Mesquite, in Dallas County. Mr. Kimbrough is a 
 member of the Baptist Church, and Knights of 
 Honor. In 1873 he was united in marriage to Miss 
 Fannie Wesson, at Little Rock, Ark. His wife 
 lived only a short time, and in 1878 he married 
 Miss Jennie Curtis. In 1881 he established the iV/es- 
 qniter, and it wielded a potent influence in local 
 and general politics during the four years lie con- 
 ducted its columns. 
 
 He was elected to represent Dallas County in the 
 Nineteentii Legislature, by 1,111 majority over his 
 colleague, and two other opponents. In that body 
 he made a good record, and on November 4th, 
 1888, was elected to the State Senate (long term) 
 from the Sixteenth District. In the latter body he 
 was Chairman of the Committee on Roads and 
 Bridges. 
 
 Mr. Kimbrough was a member of the sub- 
 committee of the Senate Committee on Internal 
 Improvements, to which was assigned the duty of 
 
 framing a Railroad Commission Bill. He intro- 
 duced, among others, a bill to amend the law as to 
 attachment and garnishment, so as to allow any, or 
 all, creditors to intervene in attachment suits, 
 prove their claims, and get a pro rata share of the 
 assets of debtors. He is a clear reasoner, a good 
 speaker, and was one of the ablest men in the 
 Senate. He took an active part in the canvass 
 against the constitutional prohibition in 1887 ; and 
 in 1890 was one of the leaders in the fight for the 
 nomination of James S. Hogg, by the Democratic 
 party, for Governor, and the adoption of the 
 amendment to the constitution that provides for a 
 State Railroad Commisson. Senator Kimbrough 
 was the author of the " dirt road " amendment to 
 the constitution, which was adopted by the people 
 at the general election in 1890. He made a strong 
 fight in the Senate against State uniformity of 
 text-books, holding that State uniformity was im- 
 practicable, and a species of governmental tyranny 
 that should not be tolerated in any country where 
 the doctrine of local self-government prevails. 
 
 Mr. Kimbrough is a Democrat true and tried and 
 has done loyal service. 
 
INDIAN WAH^ AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 625 
 
 THOMAS J. OLIVER, 
 
 DALLAS. 
 
 Thomas J. Oliver was bora in Haidemnn County, 
 Tenn., September 15. 1834. 
 
 His parents were Roderick and Temperance 
 ' (Darley) Oliver, the former a native of North Car- 
 olina and the latter of Kentucky. They came to 
 Texas in 1846 with their family, consisting of eight 
 children (four boys and four girls), and located in 
 Limestone County, where they thereafter resided. 
 The mother died in 1853, and the father in 1857, 
 and are buried at Fairfield, Texas. The children 
 were: Narcissa, Ellen, Rosina, .John E., F. C, W. 
 W. and T. J., all of whom are deceased except 
 Ellen, widow of M. M. Miller, of Limestone County ; 
 Narcissa, widow of M. Stroud, of HiUsboro ; F. C, 
 engaged in the hardware business at Groesbeck, 
 and Thomas J., the subject of this brief sketch. 
 
 Mr. Roderick Oliver opened the first farm in what 
 is now Freestone County, Texas, and put in a cot- 
 ton gin there in 1847. The Indians at that time 
 and for years subsequent thereto committed numer- 
 ous minor depredations, but the settlers had no 
 serious trouble with them. 
 
 Thomas J. Oliver had but limited educational 
 advantages, was reared on his father's farm until 
 twenty years of age ; clerked in his brother's store 
 for ayear ; worked in the district land office as a clerk 
 under Jesse J. Cunningham, until 1856, and was 
 then elected and served as Surveyor of the Robert- 
 son land district for two years, after whicli he and 
 his brothers, John E. and W. W., engaged in mer- 
 chandise and stock-raising until the beginning of 
 the war between the States, and then entered the 
 Confederate army. He took twenty-nine men to 
 Milligan to organize them into a company, but they 
 became dissatisfied and went on to Houston and 
 enlisted in Terry's Texas rangers. He did not 
 enlist, but accompanied Company C. of that regi- 
 ment, as a volunteer. After the battle of Fort 
 Donaldson he was detailed by Gen. Johnston to 
 return to Texas and make arrangements for cloth- 
 ing and arms for certain Texas troops who had 
 escaped from Fort Donaldson and some of whom 
 were in the hospital. He remained in Texas about 
 two weeks and returned to the army just in time 
 to participate in the battle of Shiloh. Among 
 many other battles, he took part in those of 
 Chickamaugua, Dalton and on to Atlanta. After 
 Hood assumed command, he was detailed as 
 one of the scouts under Capt. Shannon. The 
 
 Shannon scouts were to report at heail-fjuar- 
 ters every day. After the fall of Atlanta, Gen. 
 Hood wheeled down toward Newman, and Shan- 
 non was ordered to Stone Mountain on the left 
 wing of the Federal army to report the movements 
 of the enemy in that direction, got lost, hovered 
 .around Sherman's forces until after the Federal 
 army reached Savannah and then rejoined the Con- 
 federate army and reported to Gen. Wheeler, who 
 had assumed command. The Shannon scouts 
 continued activel}' employed until the final sur- 
 render. 
 
 Mr. Oliver had three horses shot from under him 
 and many perilous adventures and narrow escapes, 
 but was never captured or wounded. 
 
 His brother, W. W., died in February, 1865, 
 shortly before the close of the war. T. J. Oliver 
 reached home July 22, 1865 ; engaged in merchan- 
 dising and stock-raising and the land business with 
 his brother, John E., at Springfield, and in Septem- 
 ber of that year was married to Miss Alice Peeples, 
 daughter of R. D. Peeples, of Limestone County. 
 They have six children, viz. : Mattie, widow of the 
 late J. W. Webb, of Dallas; Lila, Kate, Emily, 
 Dick and Fannie. The brothers moved their busi- 
 ness to Weatherford in 1870. The following year 
 John E. died in that place and the survivor sold out 
 the stock and returned to Springfield in 1872, 
 and shortly thereafter established a private bank 
 in Mexia, in copartnership with a Mr. Griggs, 
 under the firm name of Oliver & Griggs, and 
 built up a prosperous business, w'hich they sold in 
 1883 to Prendergast & Smith, and moving to Dallas 
 purchased a private banking business at that place, 
 which they conducted until 1887, and then merged 
 into the Fourth National Bank, organized by them- 
 selves and others with a capital of $200,000. Mr. 
 Griggs was elected president but died in November 
 of that year, and Mr. Oliver was elected to and 
 filled the position for one year. Thereafter, while 
 he remained a large stockholder, he did not devote 
 much attention to the institution until 1890, when 
 he was elected its cashier, an office that he filled 
 until 1891. In 1892 he took charge of another 
 national bank as president, but found its affairs in 
 bad condition and i-esigned in October. 
 
 Mr. Oliver is one of the leading and most pro- 
 gressive men in the section of the State in whici 
 
 resides. 
 
620 
 
 ISVI^LX WAli8 AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 JOHN W. CRANFORD, 
 
 SULPHUR SPRINGS. 
 
 John W. Cranford, president pco tempore of the 
 Senate of the Twenty-second Legishiture, and 
 chairman of the Committee on Finance in that 
 l)ody, although theij scarcely more than thirty-one 
 years of age, ranked as one of the most popular 
 speakers and influential memljers of the Senate. In 
 1888 he was nominated and elected by the Democ- 
 racy of the Fifth District (composed of the counties 
 of Hunt, Hopkins, Delta, Franklin and Camp) to 
 serve in the Twenty-first and Twenty-second Legis- 
 latures. In the Twenty-first Legislature he was 
 chairman of the Senate Committees on State Affairs 
 and Engrossed Bills. 
 
 This year he was nominated for election to 
 the House of Representatives of the United States 
 Congress by the Democracy of the District so long 
 represented by Hon. D. B. Culberson, and will be 
 elected, no doubt, by one of the largest majorities 
 ever given a candidate in that district. 
 
 In 18G5 he came from Alabama to Texas with his 
 father, who settled in Hopkins County, and soon 
 thereafter died, leaving him, at a tender age, an 
 orphan. Early compelled to encounter the stern 
 realities of life, he bent himself to the task of 
 preparation for future usefulness, with a hopeful 
 and courageous heart, and did well whatever iiis 
 hands could find to do. As a consequence he had, 
 in due time, both work and friends, and out of his 
 earnings succeeded in securing a thorough classical 
 education. An opportunity offering for him to 
 
 study law, he left school before completing the 
 regular curriculum of the graduating class, obtained 
 license, opened a law office in Sulphur Springs 
 (where he still lives), and by devotion to his pro- 
 fession and a determination to fight to the front, 
 has succeeded in building up a fine law practice. 
 He is considered a tower of Democratic strength in 
 North Texas. He gratefully attributes his success 
 in life to his noble and accomplished wife, nee Miss 
 Medora Ury, of Sulphur Springs, to whom he was 
 married in 1880. 
 
 In the Twenty-second Legislature he resigned the 
 chairmanship of the Committee on Finance to accept 
 the chairmanship of the Committee on Apportion- 
 ment. He took a prominent part in the debates on 
 the Railway Commission Bill, and other important 
 measures, and added new and brighter laurels to 
 his fame. He favored uniformity of text-books, 
 and in a speech strongly advocated the use of 
 Southern histories in the public schools of Texas. 
 He received requests from all over the country for 
 copies of his speech. Mr. Cranford was one of the 
 foremost members of that galaxy of talent that 
 adorned the Senate of the Twenty-second Legis- 
 lature, and in the broader field upon which he is 
 about to enter will no doubt soon take rank among 
 the foremost of his colleagues. 
 
 In 1896 he received the nomination for Congress 
 and was elected by a large majority over his oppo- 
 nent. 
 
 JAMES W. SWAYNE, 
 
 FORT WORTH. 
 
 James W. Swayne was born at Lexington, Tenn., 
 •October 6th, 1855. His mother's maiden name was 
 Miss Amanda J. Henrj*. His father, James W. 
 Swayne, was an eminent lawj'er and amassed a fine 
 fortune during his years of practice at Lexington 
 and Jackson, Tenn. He died at the latter place in 
 1856, and Mrs. Swayne moved back to Lexington 
 with her family, where she died the following year. 
 ' The sul)ject of this biography was educated at the 
 
 Kentucky Military Institute, and, in 1877, also 
 graduated at the Lebanon (Tenn.) Law School, 
 and was admitted to the bar. He returned to Lex- 
 ington, Tenn., and had a settlement with his 
 guardian. That gentleman, before the war and 
 during the early part of the struggle, loaned large 
 sums of money belonging to the estate, was com- 
 pelled to receive pa3'ment in Confederate money, 
 and little was left of the fortune bequeathed by Mr. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 627 
 
 Swayne's parents to their children. Although the 
 share secured by Mr. Swayne proved barely ade- 
 quate to pay the expenses incurred in securing an 
 education, he refused to hold his guardian respon- 
 sible for the losses sustained, and in January, 1878, 
 went to Fort Worth, Texas, where he located, and 
 commenced, without a dollar, the practice of his 
 profession. 
 
 He was elected City Attorney of Fort Worth, and 
 served during the years 1883, 1884 and 1885, and 
 in 1890 was elected to the Twenty-second Legisla- 
 ture from the Thirtj'-fourth Representative District, 
 Tarrant County. He conceived the idea of build- 
 ing a magnificent natatorium in Fort Worth, and 
 owing to his efforts one was constructed, at a cost 
 of $100,000, that is an ornament to the city and a 
 credit to the State. He subscribed liberally in dona- 
 tions to every railroad secured by Fort Worth, gave 
 large amounts to and took stock in every valuable 
 enterprise for years until financial reverses that no 
 foresight could guard against befell him during the 
 commercial panic of a few years since. 
 
 Thirteen years ago Mr. Swayne landed in this 
 State without a dollar, and with no hope of financial 
 assistance. He determined to push his way to the 
 front, and with a buoyant, hopeful spirit at once 
 started about the work of making his life honored 
 and successful. He is engaged in practice with his 
 cousin, ex-Congressman John M. Taylor, of Ten- 
 nessee, under tiie firm name of Taylor & Swayne. 
 
 Mr. Swayne was married to Miss Josie B. 
 Latham, at Terrell, Texas, October 6th, 1887. 
 Richard Philip Latham, her father, was an A. M. 
 of the University of Virginia, and president of the 
 Tuscaloosa College until the beginning of the war, 
 and then entered the Confederate army as a member 
 of a civil engineering corps. He remained in this 
 service until his death, occasioned by pneumonia, 
 brought on by exposure. Her grandfather. Rev. 
 
 Joel S. Bacon, was president of Madison College, 
 New York, and afterward, up to the time of his 
 death, president of the Columbian College, Wash- 
 ington City. Mrs. Swayne was a student at Vassar, 
 and afterwards graduated with honor at the Uni- 
 versity of Missouri. Governor Crittenden witnessed 
 the commencement exercises, and Professor Fisher 
 introduced her to him, saying that Miss Josie 
 Latham was the best Latin scholar who ever gradu- 
 ated from the University of Missouri — a high and 
 well deserved compliment. She is one of the most 
 accomplished ladies of Texas. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Swayne have one child, a daughter, Ida Lloyd 
 Swayne. Judge Noah H. Swayne, for years one of 
 the judges of the United States Supreme Court, was 
 an uncle of Mr. Swayne and Wagner Swayne (a 
 member of the law firm of Dillon & Swayne, long 
 chief solicitors for .Lay Gould in his corporation 
 properties) is a cousin. 
 
 Mr. Swayne is a Master Mason, Past Chancellor 
 of the Knights of Pythias, and a thorough-going 
 Democrat ; one of the men to whose efforts is due 
 Tarrant County's freedom from "dark lantern" 
 rule. 
 
 In 1888 Isaac Duke Parker was nominated and 
 elected to the Twenty-first Legislature on the Demo- 
 cratic ticket. In 1890 we find Mr. Parker running 
 on the Independent ticket (put forward by a branch 
 of the Farmers' Alliance) against the regular Dem- 
 ocratic nominee, Mr. James W. Swayne, who defeated 
 him in Tarrant County by a majority of 3,000 votes. 
 In the prime of vigorous manhood, what Mr. Swayne 
 has already accomplished has but tested his mettle 
 and well breathed him for life's race, and no man 
 can tell what goals he will touch before the coming 
 of Nature's distant bed-time. He is one of the men 
 whom difficulties can not discourage and who make 
 their way to and maintain themselves at the 
 front. 
 
 P. L. DOWNS, 
 
 TEMPLE. 
 
 The name of P. L. Downs is closelj' associated 
 with the history of the founding and growth of 
 Temple. He located there soon after the establish- 
 ment of the town ; but, not being able to get a 
 building erected earlier, it was in February, 1882, 
 when he and his brother, F. F. Downs, opened the 
 
 first bank in the then straggling village. The bank 
 was known as the " Bell County Bank " — Downs 
 Bros., proprietors. In connection with banking 
 they also conducted an insurance, real estate, loan 
 and rental business, and when, in 1884, the bank 
 was nationalized, P. L. Downs personally assumed 
 
628 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 the management of the insiuance, real estate, loan 
 and rental departments and operated tbe "Down 
 Bros. Agency," which he conducted for a number 
 of years and placed in the front rank of similar 
 institutions in the State. He had not, however, 
 surrendered his financial interests, or ceased his 
 active connection with the bank as a stockholder 
 and director, so when, several years later, the bank 
 demanded his services, he surrendered the active 
 charge of tlie insurance, real estate, loan and rental 
 business to others, to take the eashiership of the 
 First National Bank, which position he continues to 
 fill with ability, and with credit and profit to the 
 institution. 
 
 The Church finds in him a liberal contributor and 
 staunch friend. As trustee, steward and com- 
 mitteeman, and in other positions, lie has been an 
 earnest, religious worker. 
 
 While quite prominent in the Grand Lodges of 
 Ancient Order of United Workmen, Knights of 
 Honor, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks 
 and other fraternal societies, in the Knights of 
 Pythias, especially, he has always been a leading 
 spirit. 
 
 In addition to enjoying all the honors the local 
 lodge could bestow, he has for five successive years 
 been Grand Master of the Exchequer of the Grand 
 Lodge, then served a term as Grand Vice-Chancel - 
 lor, then as Grand Chancellor. He is now (1896) 
 Past Grand Chancellor, and a regular attendant 
 upon the biennial sessions of the Supreme Lodge. 
 He also bears a commission as Colonel of the Uni- 
 form Rank K. of P. His administration of these 
 offices marked an epoch in the history of Pythian- 
 ism in Texas and the growth of the order, and the 
 
 reforms and new ideas promulgated have given him 
 a position as a Knight that will live as long as the 
 order survives in Texas. 
 
 The local fire department, as well as the State 
 Firemen's Association, owes much to his gener- 
 osity and services. 
 
 As a member, officer or director of the Texas 
 Life Insurance Company, Texas Real Estate Asso- 
 ciation, Texas Bankers' Association, Texas Fire 
 Underwriters' Association, and as a member of 
 many other State organizations, he has ever been a 
 strong supporter of home enterprises and local 
 development. As an Alumnus of the State A. & M. 
 College, he has been an industrious advocate of 
 home education. He has at all times been one of 
 Temple's most valuable citizens and a prime mover 
 in legitimate enterprises looking to the advance- 
 ment of the town's interests — a tireless and enthu- 
 siastic worker. It is a well-known fact that this 
 young man of affairs is one of the busiest men in 
 the town, and contributes more of his time and 
 abilities to the public weal and to the many insti- 
 tutions and enterprises with which he is associated, 
 than any other citizen of the place. He is a leading 
 stockholder, director, or officer, in neai'ly every 
 corporation or worthy enterprise in the cit}'. Every 
 enterprise ever inaugurated in Temple that has 
 promised benefit to the town has received his sup- 
 port. But, while he has occupied such an impor- 
 tant place in the business progress of Temple, he 
 has no less won for himself an enviable position in 
 the estimation of the people of the State, as he has 
 l)een identified with a number of movements look- 
 ing toward the development of its resources and its 
 upbuilding in various ways. 
 
 L. H. PARRISH, 
 
 CALVERT. 
 
 The Biazos Valley enjoys an almost world-wide 
 reputation for the fertility of its soil and the extent 
 and variety of its agricultural resources. The 
 town of Calvert, county seat of Robertson County, 
 is centrally located in this favored region, and by 
 virtue of its fortunate situation and tbe entei'prise 
 and push of its leading business men has become 
 one of tlie most prosperous inland towns in the 
 State. There are few of its citizens, if any, who 
 have done more for its upbuilding than L. H. Par- 
 
 ish, the subject of this brief memoir. He was 
 scarcely eight years of age when his parents lo- 
 cated in Texas, and his life has since been spent 
 here. He is a native of Tennessee, born near the 
 town of Dresden, in Weekly County, that State, 
 October 27, 1846. 
 
 His father, Isham Parish, was a North Carolin- 
 ian, born near the city of Raleigh, and a farmer by 
 occupation, who removed to and located in Weekly 
 County, Tenn., where he followed farming until 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 629 
 
 1854, wlien Le moved with his family to Texas, and 
 located six miles east of Calvert, in Robertson 
 County. Mr. Isham Harris brought with him a 
 family of seven children, to whom four others were 
 afterward added. He vyas a man of the old-school 
 type, plain and conservative. He was a successful 
 farmer, an upright and highly esteemed citizen, 
 and one of the founders and chief supporters of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church in his locality. He 
 relinquished the cares of business and spent the 
 later years of his life in comparative retirement in 
 Calvert. He died full of years and good works at 
 his home in that place, in 1887, at sixty-eight 
 years of age. His wife, whose maiden name was 
 Frances Baxter, also a native of North Carolina, 
 died a year later (in 1888), at sixty-five years of 
 age. Of the eleven children born to them eight 
 are now living, of whom L. H. Parish is the oldest. 
 Few men in Texas have lived a more active, frugal 
 and industriou-s life than L. H. Parish. In boy- 
 hood, as the oldest son of a pioneer farmer, he 
 learned some of the valuable and practical lessons 
 of life. He was a beardless youth of fifteen years 
 at the beginning of the late war between 
 the States, but was among the first who 
 responded to his country's call. He joined 
 the Confederate army as a private in the Second 
 Texas Infantry, Company E. , and was elected Ser- 
 geant. His regiment was called to the front and 
 engaged in some of the hardest fought battles of 
 the war, notably the battles of Shiloh, Corinth, 
 Chickasaw Bayou and hundreds of other minor 
 engagements and skirmishes incident to a four 
 years' service. He was at the long and fearful 
 siege of Vicksburg, where his division of the Con- 
 federate army was disbanded. During his four 
 years of continuous service he received only a few 
 
 slight wounds and between the ages of eighteen and 
 nineteen years he returned to Texas, still full of 
 energy, courage and hope for the future and in the 
 enjoyment of comparatively good health. He 
 located at Marshall, in Harrison County, there 
 engaged for five years in farming and then, in 1873, 
 returned to Robertson County. 
 
 Since 1882 he has been the senior partner in the 
 well-known firm of Parish & Proctor, doing an 
 extensive and successful merchandising and cotton- 
 shipping business at Calvert. During Mr. Parish's 
 continuous twenty-four years business connection 
 at Calvert he has identified himself with every 
 movement tending to the development and advance- 
 ment of the city and county, giving liberally of his 
 time and means. 
 
 He is a stockholder and director in the Calvert 
 Compress Company, President of the Farmers' 
 Cotton Company, and a stockholder in the First 
 National Bank of Calvert. Essentialh' a business 
 man, he has never talien an aggressive intesest or 
 part in politics. Once, somewhat contrary to his 
 wishes and tastes, he consented to serve a term 
 as a member of the Board of Aldermen of his 
 town. 
 
 Mr. Parish married, January 23, 1871, Miss 
 Mattie Wilder, daughter of Judge Wilder, of Rich- 
 mond, Ark. They have one son, S. W. Parish, 
 born at Marshall, Texas, in 1872, and now a mem- 
 ber of the firm of Parish & Proctor and also the 
 owner of one of the best appointed thoroughbred 
 Jersey ranches and dairies .in Central Texas, sit- 
 uated one mile east of Calvert. 
 
 Mr. Parish, as his father was before him, is a 
 man of quiet and unobtrusive manners and enjoj'S 
 the confidence and esteem of a wide circle of 
 friends, acquaintances and business associates. 
 
 CHARLES M. ROSSER, M. D. 
 
 TERRELL. 
 
 Dr. Charles M. Rosser, of Terrell, Texas, was 
 born in Randolph CountJ^ Ga. , December 22, 1862. 
 His parents were Dr. M. F. and Mrs. Julia A. 
 (Smith) Rosser. His mother is a sister of Senator 
 Hampton A. Smith, of Valdoster, Ga. His father 
 was, in early life, a practicing physician, but later 
 devoted his time and energies to the ministry of 
 the Methodist Episcopal Church, doing active work 
 
 in this field in Georgia and Texas for forty years, 
 about ten years of this time serving as President of 
 the Northeast Texas Conference. During the war 
 he was Chaplain-Captain of the Georgia Fort3'-flrst 
 Infantry for four years. He was taken prisoner at 
 Vicksburg, but was subsequently exchanged. He 
 is now, as he has been for twenty-seven years, an 
 honored resident of Camp County, Texas. He is 
 
630 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 fifty-nine and bis wife fifty-eight years of age. 
 Of their eight children, the subject of this notice 
 was the fifth born. Four others are still living. 
 
 Dr. Charles M. Rosser received a liberal educa- 
 tion under that distinguished educator, Maj. John 
 M. Richardson, rector of the East Texas Academic 
 Institute. For several years he was engaged in 
 teaching school, and at the same time studied med- 
 icine under the direction of Dr. E. P. Becton, now 
 Superintendent of the State Institution of the Blind 
 at Austin. He attended the medical college at 
 Louisville, Ky., first in 1884-85 and graduated 
 there in 1888, at which time he was awarded Whit- 
 sett Gold Medal by the faculty. Previous to his 
 graduation he was engaged in practice for three 
 years at Lone Oak, in Hunt County, and at Waxa- 
 hachie, Texas. He went to Dallas in March, 1889, 
 and has since been identified with the medical pro- 
 fession in that city. The first year of his residence 
 at Dallas he was editor of the Courier Record of 
 Medicine at Dallas, and the third year served as 
 
 health officer of the city. He is a member of the 
 Dallas County Medical Association, the Northern 
 Texas Medical Association, the Central Texas 
 Medical Association, and the Texas State Medical 
 Association. As a member of the latter, he was 
 elected secretary of the section of practice in 1891, 
 and chairman of the section of State medicine in 
 1892. Dr. Rosser married, September 11, 1889, 
 Miss Elma Curtice, daughter of Mr. John Curtice, 
 of Louisville, Ky. They have two children, 
 Curtice and Elma. Both he and his wife are 
 members of the Methodist Elpiscopal Church South. 
 He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias 
 fraternity. Politically, he has always been an 
 active Democrat. He was appointed, by Governor 
 C. A. Culberson, Superintendent of the State 
 Asylum for the Insane, located at Terrell, a grace- 
 ful recognition of his abilities and services as a 
 physician, appreciated by himself and by his wide 
 circle of friends in the learned profession of which 
 he is a member. 
 
 H. M. HITCHCOCK. 
 
 GALVESTON. 
 
 Capt. S. M. Hitchcock first came to the island 
 with his father, Capt. S. M. Hitchcock, who com- 
 manded the brig " Potomac," in the year 1828, when 
 there was nothing on the island except an old 
 barge wliich was used as a Mexican custom-house. 
 He and his father had to move their tent out to the 
 sand hills to procure fresh water by digging. 
 
 He returned North with his father in that year 
 and fitted out the schooner " Brutus "for the Texas 
 navy, returned with her to Galveston and remained 
 on her as an officer until 1837, when he resigned 
 from the navy, went to Connecticut, where he was 
 married to Miss E. Clifford, and then returned to 
 the island, where he followed the profession of a 
 pilot on Galveston bar until the time of his death, 
 which occurred on the 28th of February, 18G9. He 
 
 was the first American custom-house officer at Gal- 
 veston, served as Harbor Master at various times, 
 and more than once was elected Mayor of Gal- 
 vestou. Besides following liis calling as a sea 
 pilot and connection witli other business enter- 
 prises during his long residence on the island, he 
 owned stock in a number of the banking and insur- 
 ance companies of the city and the Brazos Naviga- 
 tion Company. 
 
 He was the father of four children, two boys and 
 two girls, of whom the only one now living is L. M. 
 Hitchcock, a prominent business man and highly 
 respected citizen of Galveston. This gentleman 
 still owns the old home, where his father and 
 mother spent so many pleasant hours together, and 
 around which clusters so many sacred memories. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 G31 
 
 M. LASKER, 
 
 GALVESTON. 
 
 Morris Lasker was born February 19tli, 1840, at 
 a small town called Jarocin, Province of Posen, in 
 Prussia. His parents were Daniel and Rebecca 
 Lasker, both of whom died in their native country. 
 Morris Lasker was eighteen months old at the time 
 of his mother's death and lost his father during the 
 cholera epidemic of 1852. He attended school 
 until he was fifteen years old and at the age of six- 
 teen emigrated to America on a sailing vessel bound 
 for New York. The ship, after encountering storms 
 and adverse winds, arrived at Fortress Monroe, 
 Va., thirteen weeks after she left Hamburg, having 
 been compelled to enter that port to obtain sup- 
 plies, after her commissary was entirely completed. 
 After disembarking he secured employment as a 
 clerk in a store at Portsmouth, Va.. where he re- 
 mained four months, then went from that place to 
 New York. He earned a livelihood there as best he 
 could up to 1857. In the financial panic of that 
 year all of his little earnings were swept away. He 
 was then induced by a distant relative, whom he 
 met, to go to Florida and, after living a few months 
 in Florida, he went to Georgia, whei'e he carried on 
 a mercantile business for three years. Not meeting 
 with any extraordinary success and learning of the 
 possibilities offered in Texas, he concluded to come 
 to this State and arrived at Weatherford in the early 
 part of 18fiO. At that time Weatherford was an 
 extreme frontier town furnishing ample opportuni- 
 ties for adventure, and there he engaged as a clerk 
 in a dry goods store and participated in various 
 expeditions against the Indians. He cast his first 
 vote at Weatherford, against secession; but, after 
 the State was carried for secession, joined a com- 
 pany of rangers raised by Capt. Hamner to serve 
 in Col. John G. Ford's regiment, which, with 
 others, was raised under orders of the secession 
 convention. These regiments first entered into the 
 State service for frontier protection, but were soon 
 mustered into the Confederate army at San Antonio. 
 He participated in the battles which resulted in the 
 recapture of Galveston and Sabine Pass from the 
 Federals and in the breaking up of the blockade at 
 both of these ports. 
 
 He also participated under Gen. Majors in the 
 subsequent engagements in which his regiment took 
 
 part during the campaign iu Louisiana that resulted 
 in the defeat of Banks' army. 
 
 At the close of the war he embarked in 
 mercantile pursuits, comparatively penniless, 
 at Millican, where he later formed a busi- 
 ness connection with Sanger Bros., who are 
 now carrying on dry goods business at Dallas 
 and Waco. When the Central Road was extending 
 towards Dallas he entered business at Bryan and 
 subsequently at Calvert, where he remained several 
 years, doing a fairlj^ successful business. He was 
 then taken in as a partner by the wholesale grocery 
 firm of Marx & Kempner, at Galveston, which firm 
 he remained with but one year, entering in July, 
 1873, into business with Louis Le Gierse, under the 
 firm name of Le Gierse & Co., a firm which for 
 years, and until the winding up of the business, 
 carried on one of the most successful grocery busi- 
 nesses in the city of Galveston and in the State. At 
 the present time Mr. Lasker is president of the 
 Island City Savings Bank, vice-president of the 
 First National Bank, president of the Lasker Real 
 Estate Association, president of the Galveston and 
 Houston Investment Company, and president of 
 the Citizens' Loan Company. In 1876 he married 
 Miss Nettie Davis, from Albany, N. Y., who came 
 to Galveston, on a visit to her uncles, the Messrs. 
 Heidenheimer. The marriage resulted in the birth 
 of seven children, six of whom are living now, to 
 wit: Edward, aged nineteen; Albert, sixteen; 
 Harry, fourteen ; Fiorina, twelve ; Etta, eleven ; and 
 Loula, nine. 
 
 Mr. Lasker was elected to fill an unexpired term 
 in the State Senate in 1895. He introduced and 
 pushed through the Senate the bills regulating fish 
 and oyster culture in this State, and also the bill 
 known as the Drainage Bill. He was one of the 
 chief supporters of Governor Culberson in the extra 
 session called by him to suppress prize-fighting. 
 He ranks as one of the leading and representative 
 citizens of Galveston, and is considered one of the 
 most thorough and successful financiers in the 
 South. He has always believed in the future of 
 Galveston, and few have done as much toward the 
 upbuilding of that important port and Texa- i 
 larsre. 
 
632 
 
 JNDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 MATTHEW CARTWRIGHT, 
 
 SAN AUGUSTINE. 
 
 It is a source of real pleasure to tlie author to 
 preserve iu this volume, containing as it does so 
 many memorials of honored Texians who have 
 passed awaj% his estimate of the services and worth 
 of Matthew Cartwright, whose memory is revered 
 by thousands of the older people of the Stale who 
 knew and esteemed him. Texas never had a more 
 upright or useful citizen. 
 
 He was born in Wilson County, Tenn., Novem- 
 ber 11th, 1807, and removed to Texas with his 
 parents in 1825. They settled on a farm four miles 
 east of the present site of San Augustine, and there 
 he grew to manhood and engaged in farming and 
 merchandising until 1833 or 1834. 
 
 In 1835 Col. Isaac Holman, with his family, 
 moved from Lincoln Count}', Tenn., and settled 
 three miles northwest of San Augustine. His fam- 
 11}^ consisted of himself, his wife, five sons, and five 
 daughters. During the year Matthew Cartwright 
 became a frequent visitor at the Holman home and 
 on the 18th daj' of October, 1836, he and Miss 
 Amanda Holman were united in marriage and 
 settled iu San Augustine. She was a faithful help- 
 meet and assistant in building up their fortunes 
 and in raising an intelligent family, all of whom 
 (except A. P. Cartwright, who died in 1873) are 
 still living and are useful and respected citizens of 
 Texas. 
 
 After his marriage, Mr. Cartwright embarked in 
 merchandising at San Augustine in copartnershij) 
 with liis father, later bought his father's interest 
 and thereafter conducted the business in his own 
 name until about the year 1847, meeting with 
 marked success and accumulating large property. 
 From 1847 to 1860 he was activelj' engaged in 
 locating and dealing in Texas lands, riding horse- 
 back through the State, looking out good locations, 
 and selling in small tracts to actual settlers on most 
 favorable terms — frequently granting extensions 
 covering a score of years to enable purchasers to 
 secure their homes, and iu many instances of death 
 before completion of payment would make title to 
 widow or children without further consideration. 
 Thus he assisted iu building up man}' happy homes 
 and in settling the country with worthy and pros- 
 perous people, a man's character for industry and 
 integrity having great weight with him in control- 
 ling sales. 
 
 In the fall of 1865 he once more engaged iu mer- 
 
 chandising, taking into the business his sons, A. P. 
 and Leonidas Cartwright, in order to afford them 
 business training. His landed interests in about 
 three years began to demand all of his attention, 
 but the mercantile business was continued Ijy his 
 sons until 1870. April 2d of that year his long 
 and useful career was closed in death. Besides his 
 man}' friends, he left his wife, four sons and two 
 daughters to mourn his loss. 
 
 Mrs. Amanda Cartwright survived her husband 
 twenty-four years, dying at San Augusline in her 
 seventy-seventh year. After the death of her 
 husband she resided at the old family homestead, 
 with her son, Leonidas, who acted as her business 
 manager until the time of her death. Mr. and 
 Mrs. Cartwright were beloved by all who knew 
 them and numbered among their friends all of the 
 old settlers in San Augustine and adjoining coun- 
 ties. Columbus Cartwright, the eldest son, was 
 born in San Augustine August 23, 1837, and still 
 resides at the old home. He is engaged in the 
 real estate business, is a very worthy and highly 
 respected citizen, and is beloved by those among 
 whom he has so long resided. 
 
 A. P. Cartwright, the second son, born March 
 27, 1840, was a merchant and dealer in real estate 
 and a fine business man, but was cut short in his 
 career by the fatal disease, black jaundice, August 
 11, 1873, at the age of thirty-three years. He was 
 one of nature's noblemen, honored by all who 
 knew him, and his death cast a gloom over the 
 town in which he lived. 
 
 Leonidas, Cartwright, the third son, born No- 
 vember 27, 1842, at San Augustine, was engaged 
 in the mercantile business with his father and 
 brother, A. P. Cartwirght, from 1865 to 
 1869, but in 1870 devoted himself to farming, his 
 health having become impaired under confinement 
 in the store. After the death of his father, he 
 became business manager for his mother in con- 
 nection with the management of his own real estate 
 interests and resided at San Augustine until 1895, 
 when, in April of that year, he removed to Terrell, 
 Texas, where he has since continued in the real 
 estate business and is interested to some extent 
 in live stock, raising fine horses and cattle. 
 
 Columbus, A. P., and Leonidas Cartwright were 
 all in the Confederate army, the former in the 
 Trans-Mississippi Department under Gen. E. Kirby 
 
MATIUKW CAKTWRIGHT. 
 
MRS. MATTHEW CARTWRIGHT. 
 
INDIAN WAliii AND lUONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 033 
 
 Smith. A. v. Cartwrigbt served in the Missouri 
 campaign under ;Gens. Ben McCuiloch and Ster- 
 ling Price — in 1861 and 1862, until after the battle 
 of Elk Horn, when the Third Texas Cavalry was 
 transferred to Mississippi. He was First Lieuten- 
 ant ofJCompany E., in that regiment, but resigned 
 in the spring of 1862 and served during the re- 
 mainder of the war in Louisiana and Texas in Gen. 
 Major's Brigade. Leonidas Cartwright was a 
 member of Company E.,Tiiird Texas Cavalry, and 
 served through the war with it, first under Gens. 
 McCuiloch and Price in Missouri and afterwards in 
 Mississippi, Tennessee and Georgia under the 
 several commanders who succeeded Gen. A. S. 
 Johnson in command of the army of Tennessee, viz. : 
 Beauregard, Bragg, Joseph E. Johnson, and Hood. 
 Matthew Cartwright, their fourth and youngest 
 son, born August 11, 1855, resides at Terrell, 
 Texas, where he is engaged in the real estate and 
 live stock business, is president of the FirstNational 
 Bank, and is Maj'or of the cit}'. He has lived in 
 Terrell since 1875 and is highly respected (in fact 
 is beloved by all who know him), being of that 
 generous and warm-hearted nature that wins the 
 affections of those who come in contact with him in 
 a social or business way. He has been very suc- 
 cessful in business, and for^^earshas worked asfew 
 citizens of that place have worked in the upbuild- 
 ing of the best interests of Terrell. 
 
 Mrs. Anna W. Roberts, a daughter of Mr- 
 Matthew and Mrs. Amanda Cartwright, was born 
 April Otli, 1844, and resided at San Augustine until 
 1888, wlien she moved to Terrell, Texas, after the 
 death of her late husband, B. T. Roberts, by whom 
 she had seven children, all living and three of them 
 grown to man's estate, active business men and 
 useful citizens of Terrell. She is one of those 
 lovable women who live to do good and to train 
 and teach the members of their families to be 
 ambitious, to excel in the faithful discharge of the 
 duties of citizenship. 
 
 Mrs. Mary C. Ingram, the second daughter, wife 
 of Capt. J. M. Ingram, now resides at Sexton, 
 Sabine County, Texas, on Capt. Ingram's father's 
 old homestead, but is building a residence at Ter- 
 rell, intending to make that place their future 
 home. She was born October 18, 1845, at San 
 Augustine. After her marriage she resided near 
 Opelousas, La., until 1870, when they removed to 
 San Augustine and thence from -which place thej' 
 moved in 1873 to their present home. She will be 
 missed in her old home where, by her noble Chris- 
 tian example, she has won the affections of her 
 neighbors, and will leave many warm friends to 
 regret that she saw fit to leave them. But, too, 
 warm hearts will give her and hers a hearty welcome 
 to Terrell. 
 
 W. M. C. HILL, 
 
 DALLAS. 
 
 W. M. C. Hill, the etHcient postmaster at Dallas 
 and also a prosperous and progressive farmer and 
 stock-raiser in Dallas County, was born in Franklin, 
 Simpson County, Ky., April 5lh, 1846, the sixth 
 of a family of ten children born to Isaac and 
 Pauline (Carter) Hill, natives of Virginia and Ten- 
 nessee. The father, a mechanic by trade, was 
 married in Tennessee and at an early date located 
 at Franklin, Ky. In 1861 he started for Texas and 
 died en route at Shreveport, La., in September, and 
 the mother and youngest daughter, Amanda, also 
 died about the same time from fever contracted on 
 the journe}'. Our subject and his sister, now Mrs. 
 C. G. Gracey, were thus left alone, but were taken 
 care of by their brother-in-law, J. P. Goodnight. 
 In 1862, Mr. Hill enlisted, in Dallas County, in Com- 
 
 pan}' K., Nineteenth Texas Cavair}', for three years, 
 or during the war, and served principally in Arkan- 
 sas and Mississippi. He was also in the Red River 
 campaign in Louisiana and at the close of the war 
 returned to Dallas County and followed freighting 
 for four years. In 1871 he engaged as clerk for 
 Uhlmau & Co., with whom he remained for four 
 years. In May, 1875, he engaged in the wholesale 
 and retail grocery business. In November, 1882, 
 he was elected County Clerk of Dallas County and 
 served until 1888, since which time he has been 
 engaged in breeding fine stock. He has a large 
 stock ranch of 3,000 acres in Dallas County, where 
 he is principally engaged in breeding mules and 
 trotting horses, and raising graded short-horn 
 cattle. He has opened up Fairview Addition to 
 
634 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 the city of Dallas, has made many profitable in- 
 vestments in land in Dallas, and is one of the 
 directors of the American National Bank of that 
 city. In August, 1885, Mr. Hill bought a lot and 
 built a flue residence on Gaston avenue, where he 
 now resides. Politically, he votes with the Demo- 
 cratic party and in 1877 was elected an Alderman 
 of the city, which position he resigned after one 
 year. He is a member of Tannehill Lodge, A. F. 
 & A. M., has passed all the chairs of Dallas Chap- 
 ter No. 47, R. A. M., is a member of Dallas Com- 
 mandery No. 6, and of K. of P. Cceur de Lion 
 Lodge No. 70. Both Mr. and Mrs. Hill are mem- 
 bers of the East Dallas Baptist Church. 
 
 Mr. Hill was married in P^Uis County, Texas, in 
 July, 1875, to Lena Bullard, a native of Missouri, 
 and daughter of John Bullard, a native of Ten- 
 nessee. Mrs. Hill's mother, nee Parmelia Hodges. 
 
 was born in Tennessee and died about 1858 in 
 Missouri. 
 
 The father afterwards emigrated with his slaves 
 to Ellis County, settling first near the Louisiana 
 line in Texas and later near Waxahachie, where he 
 bought land. He died at the home of Mr. Hill in 
 Dallas, in October, 1876. Our subject's father 
 was prominent in politics in Kentucky for many 
 years. He was a member of the Church and was 
 well and favorably known. His wife was a Church 
 member from her girlhood days and was an excellent 
 and pious woman. 
 
 Mr. Hill was appointed Postmaster at Dallas by 
 President Cleveland and has discharged the duties 
 of that position in such a manner as to win the 
 highest encomiums from the department and to give 
 entire satisfaction to the people. Dallas has no 
 worthier or more popular citizen. 
 
 SAMUEL D. HARLAN, 
 
 AUSTIN. 
 
 The subject of this brief memoir, Capt. Harlan, 
 was an early navigator of Galveston Bay, Buffalo 
 Bayou, the Brazos and the Trinity. 
 
 Capt. Harlan was about twenty years of age 
 when he embarked at Pittsburg, Pa., on the steam- 
 boat" Washington," for Texas. The " Washington" 
 had been built at Pittsburg for the Texas trade and 
 made her voyage safely. He landed at Galveston 
 and in time became one of the originators and pro- 
 moters of the Houston Direct Navigation Company 
 and one of its most influential stockholders. This 
 company has done more for the advancement and 
 grovFth of the city of Houston and the develop- 
 ment of its contiguous territory than any other one 
 business enterprise. At the beginning of the late 
 war he promptly identified himself with the South- 
 ern Confederacy and, upon offering his services to 
 the government, was detailed as a purchasing 
 agent. He served as such in Texas during the 
 conflict, devoting the greater part of his time to 
 buying mules and horses for the service. After the 
 
 war he returned to Galveston and engaged in the 
 cotton trade. He also acquired business interests 
 at Leadville, Colo., and Chicago, 111. From over- 
 work and exposure he contracted disabilities which 
 resulted in a gradual decline in health. He located 
 in Austin in 1887, which was thereafter, to the time 
 of his death, August 14lh, 1889, his home. He 
 died at Waukesha, Wis. 
 
 Capt. Harlan married at Washington, on the 
 Brazos, Miss Martha, a daughter of B. McGregor, 
 a Texas pioneer of 1844. Capt. Harlan was unob- 
 trusive in manner. He was a man of strict integ- 
 rity, social and affable and of noble and generous 
 impulses. 
 
 He left a wide circle of friends and a valuable 
 estate. 
 
 Mrs. Harlan and five children survive. The 
 children are: Mrs. Mary E., widow of Sam J. 
 Doggett, of Chicago ; Samuel D. Harlan, of Austin ; 
 and Ada, Lillie and Robert. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 636 
 
 THOMAS J. RUSK, 
 
 NACOGDOCHES, 
 
 Was born in Pendleton District, S. C, Decem- 
 ber 5th, 1803. He early attracted the atten- 
 tion of John C. Calhoun, under whose counsels he 
 was educated and studied law. He then settled in 
 Georgia, rose rapidly at the bar, married au ac- 
 complished daughter of Gen. Cleveland aud moved 
 to Nacogdoches, Texas, in the winter of 1834-35. 
 In personal appearance he was of tall and com- 
 manding presence, bad a dark, ruddy complexion, 
 
 Nacogdoches and his name is affixed to the declara- 
 tion. Thence till his death in 1857, his history 
 formed a large and inseparable part of that of 
 Texas. 
 
 By David G. Burnet, the President ad interim 
 from March to October, 1836, he was made Secre- 
 tary of War, and later was sent forward to the 
 army and was a leading actor at the battle of San 
 •Jacinto. When Gen. Houston retired early in May 
 
 THOMAS J. RUSK. 
 
 deep set and benevolent eyes, and kindly and en- 
 gaging features instinct with sensibility and reflect- 
 ing the noble soul within. A single glance won 
 every heart, and the whole people took him on 
 trust. Without desire or effort upon his part, he 
 became the leader of the ])eople of the old munici- 
 pality of Nacogdoches in the first faint stirrings of 
 a bloody revolution. 
 
 The convention which declared Texas an inde- 
 pendent Republic met at Washington, on the Brazos, 
 March 1, 1836. Rusk was there as a delegate from 
 
 in search of medical treatment in New Orleans 
 Rusk was made Commander-in-Chief of the army, 
 and, at its head, followed the retreating Mexicans 
 to Goliad. There he called a halt, caused the bones 
 of Fannin's four hundred and eighty massacred 
 men to be collected and interred, and over the 
 remains of the martyred dead delivered an address 
 that moistened the cheeks of every man in the motley 
 group of half-naked, half-starved and illy-armed 
 volunteer soldiery, who with him performed these 
 last sad rites. For a few months he remained in 
 
636 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 command of the army ; then returned to his home 
 in Nacogdoches, where he was elected to the first 
 Congress of the Republic. By that body he was 
 elected a Brigadier-General of the Republic and as 
 such in October, 1838, fought and defeated a large 
 body of Indians at the Kickapoo village in East 
 Texas. 
 
 In July, 1839, he commanded a portion of the 
 troops in the Cherokee battles of July IG and 
 17. In the same year he was elected by Con- 
 gress, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the 
 Republic, and held the first term at Austin in the 
 winter of 1839-40. Under the Republic the 
 Chief Justice and the District Judges composed 
 the Supreme Court. He held the position for a 
 time, then resigned it and devoted liimself to the 
 practice of law, in which he had but a single rival 
 in East Texas, in the person of his friend. Gen. J. 
 Pinckney Henderson. He loved the freedom of 
 retirement and had no taste for office-seeking or 
 office-holding. However, in 1845, when a conven- 
 tion was called to form a constitution for Texas as 
 a proposed State of the Union, he was unanimously 
 elected a delegate from Nacogdoches. When the 
 convention assembled on the fourth of July, he was 
 unanimously elected its president, and when the 
 Legislature, under its new constitution, assembled 
 on the 16th of February, 1846, he was elected 
 by the unanimous vote, of both the Senate and 
 House, to be one of the two first Senators from the 
 State of Texas to the Congress of the United States, 
 his colleague being Gen. Sam. Houston. In 1843 
 he had been elected Major-General of the Re- 
 public. 
 
 Together, they took their seats in March, 1846 — 
 together, by the re-election of each, they sat eleven 
 years, till the melancholy death of Rusk in 1857. 
 Together, they represented the sovereignty and 
 defended the rights of Texas — together, they shed 
 luster on their State — together, they sustained 
 President Polk in the prosecution of the Mexican 
 War — together, they, each for himself, declined a 
 proffered Major-Generalship in the army of inva- 
 sion in Mexico — together, they labored to give 
 Texas the full benefit of her mergence into the 
 Union in regard to mail routes, frontier protection 
 and custom house facilities — together, they labored 
 in behalf of the compromises of 1850, the adjust- 
 ment of the boundary of Texas and sale (as a peace 
 offering), of our Northwest Territory to the United 
 States — and together, they sought to encourage the 
 
 construction of a transcontinental railway, on the 
 parallel of thirty-two degrees north latitude from 
 the Mississippi river and the Gulf of Mexico, 
 through Texas, to the Pacific Ocean, an achieve- 
 ment that found its final accomplishment Decem- 
 ber 1, 1881, twent}--four years after the death of 
 Rusk. 
 
 For several years Gen. Rusk was elected to 
 the honorable position of president pro tern, of the 
 United States Senate and presided with a dignity 
 and impartiality that commanded the respect and 
 esteem of every member of that body. 
 
 In 1854, with a select band of friends, he 
 traversed Texas from east to west on the parallel of 
 thirty-two degrees to see for himself the prac- 
 ticability of a railway route, and became thor- 
 oughly satisfied of its feasibility and cheap- 
 ness. He was a wise man in his day and 
 generation, a just man in all the relations of life, 
 a true patriot, a husband and father tender to 
 weakness, a friend guileless and true, an orator 
 persuasive and convincing, a soldier from a sense 
 of duty, in battle fearless as a tiger, in peace 
 gentle as a dove ; ambitious only for an honorable 
 name, honoralily won, and regarded as dross the 
 tinsel, display and pomp of ephemeral splendor. 
 In a word, Thomas J. Rusk was a marked mani- 
 festation of nature's goodness in the creation of 
 one of her noblest handiworks. When he died 
 Texas mourned from hut to palace, for the whole 
 people, even the slaves, wherever known to them, 
 loved him. 
 
 Would that I could reproduce a few sentences 
 from the eulogy upon him by that peerless son of 
 Texas, the late Thomas M. Jack, before a weeping 
 audience in Galveston. But my copy of it is 
 among the treasures lost in the late war. 
 
 Fidelity to truth bids the statement — so painful 
 to a whole commonwealth — that this noble citizen, 
 patriot and statesman, died by his own hand, at 
 his own home, in Nacogdoches, in the summer of 
 1857. 
 
 His cherished and adored wife, to whom he was 
 not only attached with rare devotion, but for whom 
 he had a reverence as remarkable as beautiful, had 
 died a little before. His grief, quiet but unap- 
 peasable, superinduced melancholy. A ravenous 
 carbuncle at the base of the skull racked his brain, 
 and, in a moment of temporary aberration, he took 
 his own life, by shooting himself with a gun, and 
 his soul went hence to a merciful God. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEEliU OF TEXAS. 
 
 637 
 
 JOHN H. SEARS, M. D., 
 
 WACO. 
 
 Dr. Sears is known throiighout the State as one 
 of the pioneers of the medical profession in Texas. 
 
 Born in what was at the time Prince Edward, but 
 now Appomattox, Count}^ Virginia, October 9th, 
 1826, he was reared under tiie stable and staid 
 influence of one of the most historic and patriotic 
 communities of the Old Dominion. His father, 
 John Sears, was a thrifty and successful planter 
 who lived near Appomattox Court House, and the 
 history of his antecedents, both paternal and 
 
 attended a course of medical lectures. Later he 
 studied medicine at the South Carolina Medical 
 College, at Charleston, graduating and receiving 
 his diploma therefrom in the year 1852. He had 
 visited Texas in 1848, and shortly after the com- 
 pletion of his medical studies moved to Texas, 
 influenced in so doing, perhaps, by an elder brother 
 who had located and become fairly established as a 
 farmer in Brazoria County. After a brief visit to 
 his brother. Dr. Sears located for a short time at 
 
 JOHN H. SEARS, M. D. 
 
 maternal, for generations, dates back to the early 
 days of Virginia's history. His father was born in 
 Prince Edward County in 1798 and died in 1890, at 
 ninetj'^-one years of age. 
 
 Dr. Sears' boyhood and youth were spent on the 
 old homestead where he, with other members of the 
 famil}', enjoyed the privileges of good society, good 
 schooling and a careful and judicious home train- 
 ing. 
 
 After receiving preliminary instruction at Davis 
 Academy, where be took a special course of study 
 embracing Greek, Latin and mathematics, he 
 entered the University of Virginia, wliere he 
 
 Port Sullivan, where he remained until 1854, and 
 then moved to Waco, which has ever since been bis 
 home. What is now the beautiful, bustling city of 
 Waco was then a frontier trading-post, consistino- 
 of one general store and three houses, one of which 
 was a public stopping-place. Here Dr. Sears " put 
 out his shingle " and entered upon the practice of 
 his profession with that vigor and conscientious 
 devotion to duty that has ever characterized his 
 professional life. His practice extended over a 
 wide scope of country, covering the surrounding 
 counties of Bosque, Hill, Navarro, Limestone, Falls, 
 Bell, Coiyell, and adjacent territory. 
 
638 
 
 IXDIA^^ WARS AXD PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 There are probably few, if any, physicians in 
 Texas who iiave seen more of pioneer life and had 
 wider experience as a frontier pliysician than the 
 subject of this memoir. As the country became 
 settled and Waco developed, Dr. Sears' profes- 
 sional labors were contracted to his home city and 
 its environs. 
 
 Dr. Sears married October 12th, 1854, Mrs. 
 Angle Amelia Downs, nee Gurley. She was born 
 in Alabama; a daughter of Davis Gurley. 
 
 Dr. and Mrs. Sears have two daughters and one 
 son, viz. : Sallie, wife of Mr. J. W. Taylor, the 
 l)resent efficient District Attorney of McLennan 
 County ; Mary, wife of Jesse N. Gallagher, of 
 Waco and candidate for election to the office of 
 County Judge of McLennan County this year, 
 1896, and John Sears, a candidate for District Clerk 
 of McLennan County. 
 
 When the clouds of war lowered over the coun- 
 trj', Dr. Sears aligned himself with the cause of 
 the Confederate States and in 1862 joined the 
 
 Thirty-second Texas Cavalry and served as its sur- 
 geon during the conflict between the States. His 
 regiment became attached to the army brigade 
 under command of Gep. Gano, and Dr. Scars was 
 promoted to the position of Division Surgeon with 
 the rank of Major. 
 
 When the war closed he returned to his home 
 and resumed his medical practice. Successful in 
 all that he attempts, his life and best energies have 
 been faithfully devoted to his professional labors. 
 He has long counted among his patients many of 
 the leading men and women of Cential Texas, and 
 from the time of his arrival in that section has dis- 
 tinguished himself as a physician and surgeon. 
 Lofty-minded strength of purpose and a scrupulous 
 regard for the ethics of the profession are qualities 
 that have marked his career. He is physically and 
 mentally well preserved, although in his seventieth 
 year, and apparently many years of usefulness yet 
 await him. 
 
 ROBERT CALVERT, 
 
 ROBERTSON COUNTY. 
 
 The subject of this sketch, Judge Robert Calvert, 
 was born near Wartrace, Tenn., February 9, 1802, 
 and came of pioneer stock, his parents and grand- 
 parents being among the early settlers of the trans- 
 AUeghany country. 
 
 His father was William Calvert and his mother, 
 before marriage, was Lucy Rogers, both reared in 
 Tennessee, and the latter a native of that State. 
 His ancestry on his father's side is traced to Ire- 
 land and on his mother's side to Knglaud. His 
 parental grandfather emigrated from Ireland to 
 America towards the close of the last century and 
 settled in Winchester, Va., whence he moved at a 
 later date to Tennessee. He was a Scotch-Irish 
 Presbyterian and was amply endowed with the 
 rugged virtues and strict religious views for which 
 his people were distinguished. Robert was reared 
 to the practice of these virtues and schooled in the 
 same religious faith, never departing from them in 
 after life. He grew up in Tennessee and North 
 Alabama, his parents moving to the latter State 
 during his boyhood. In Bibb Count3% Ala., on the 
 28th of August, 1823, he married Miss Mary 
 Keesee and, setllinsf on a farm, resided there until 
 
 1838. He then moved to Saline County, Ark., 
 whence in 1850 he came to Texas and settled in 
 Robertson County. 
 
 In Alabama, Arkansas and Texas, Judge Cal- 
 vert was engaged in agricultural pursuits, in which 
 he met with noteworthy success. His plantation in 
 the Brazos Bottoms was not only the first opened 
 in that section of Robertson County, but was for 
 yeais one of the best equipped and best conducted, 
 and from its fruitful flelds was annually gathered a 
 wealth of cotton and corn, then, as now, the 
 sovereign products of that valley. In a rapidly 
 settling country, such as Texas was during the early 
 years of Judge Calvert's residence here, there was a 
 constant demand for corn and bacon to supply the 
 incoming settlers, and these commodities he always 
 had in abundance and sold at reasonable prices. 
 He was engrossed almost entirely with his farm- 
 ing operations, but interested himself in a general 
 way in everything going on around him and was a 
 firm friend to all sorts of public improvements. 
 He advocated the extension of the Houston & 
 Texas Central Railway, through Robertson County, 
 and, as contractor in connection with Judge William 
 
ROBT. CALVERT. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 639 
 
 Davis and Maj. Willium Hanna, he graded several 
 miles of that road. 
 
 He was past the age for military service during 
 the late war, but was a friend of the South and gave 
 the cause of the Confederacy very substantial aid, 
 fitting the wagon-trains and supplying the soldiers 
 with horses and equipments. His only son, William 
 Calvert, was suffering from disease contracted in 
 the Mexican War and was also unfit for service, but 
 a grandson, Robert Calvert, then in his eighteenth 
 year, enlisted and died in the army. 
 
 After the war Judge Calvert set himself to work 
 to repair his wasted fortunes, and during the time 
 he lived he succeeded admirably with the task. He 
 was a man of fine business qualifications, had an 
 extensive acquaintance with the leading men of 
 Texas, and took up the problems of peace in 1865 
 with much better prospects of success than did any 
 of his associates, but unfortunately his life was not 
 spared to carry forward the work of adjustment 
 thus begun. 
 
 Judge Calvert's only public service in Texas was 
 as a Representative from Robertson County to the 
 State Legislature for several terms between 1853 
 and 1860. During that time he made a creditable 
 record and strengthened the confidence of the peo- 
 ple in his honor and ability. In Arkansas he had 
 been for several terms County Judge of the county 
 in which he lived, and both there and in Texas he 
 was active in local politics. He had an acquisitive 
 mind, was a constant reader, and in those matters 
 with which he concerned himself he was a sound 
 thinker. His judgment always commanded re- 
 spect. He was slovr to form conclusions, but he 
 rarely ever receded from a position when once he 
 had taken it. He was a man of benevolent dispo- 
 
 sition, and his ample means enabled him to give 
 practical force and meaning to this trait of his 
 character, nor was he content with merely giving, 
 but exerted himself personally and assisted others 
 with his counsel and advice. Knowing that misfor- 
 tunes would overtake men in spite of the exercise 
 of good judgment, and, knowing especially, from 
 experience, the difHculties under which young men 
 labor in beginning life, he took a pride and pleasure 
 in aiding such, and in this way created enduring 
 friendships among his neighbors and those with 
 whom he was associated. Judge Calvert was for 
 thirty-five years a ruling elder in the Presbyterian 
 Church, to the support of which he was a liberal 
 contributor. He was made a Mason late in life, 
 but such was the interest he took in the work that 
 he rose rapidly in the order, becoming a Knight 
 Templar. 
 
 During the prevalence of the yellow fever epi- 
 demic in Texas in 1867 Judge Calvert was taken 
 with the disease and died on the 20lh of Septem- 
 ber of that year. His wife survived him till 1873 
 (December 16), when she, too, passed away. The 
 issue of their union was the son, William, already 
 mentioned, who died in Robertson County in 1864 
 from disease contracted in the Mexican War, and 
 three daughters, the eldest of whom, Lucy, was 
 married to George W. Rutherford and died in 
 Saline County, Ark., in 1851 ; the second, Pauline 
 J., was married to J. Tom Garrett, and resides at 
 Calvert, and the youngest, Mary, was married to 
 Dr. Peter Smith, and died at Waxahachie, Texas, 
 in 1889. The descendants of Judge Calvert are 
 not numerous, but wherever found occupy honorable 
 positions in society and maintain the high standard 
 of citizenship set up by him in his own career. 
 
 SAM. HOUSTON, 
 
 HUNTSVILLE, 
 
 Was born in Rockbridge County, Va., on the 2d 
 day of March, 1793. In childhood he was left 
 fatherless and his mother moved to East Tennessee 
 adjoining the Cherokee Indians, where he grew to 
 manhood, familiar with that tribe and much attached 
 to them and they to him. 
 
 He fought as an Ensign under Gen. Andrew Jack- 
 son and was wounded, a wound that never healed, 
 at the Horse-Shoe, in the Creek War. He afterward 
 
 studied law, was admitted to the bar, served as Gen- 
 eral of Militia and was elected to Congress in 1823 
 and 1825. After these terms in Congress he was 
 elected Governor of Tennessee. While in this posi- 
 tion he married a lady of beauty and accomplish- 
 ments. From motives and for causes never made 
 known, he resigned his high position, withdrew from 
 his wife, and took up his abode with his old friends, 
 the Cherokees, then living west of Arkansas. 
 
G40 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 There he remained until December, 1832, and then 
 entered Texas and located at Nacogdoches and San 
 Augustine. He was without means. In 1833 he 
 was a member of the Provincial Convention held at 
 San Felipe. In 1835 he served as a delegate to the 
 Revolutionary , Consultation, which created a pro- 
 visional Government and made him Commander-in- 
 Chief of the army it provided for. In March fol- 
 lowino', he sat in the convention which declared 
 independence, adopted a constitution, and estab- 
 lished an independent Republic and by that body 
 was re-appointed Commander-in-Chief. After receiv- 
 in" the tidings at Gonzales of the fall of the Alamo, 
 he retreated slowly to the Colorado, the Brazos, 
 and finally to San Jacinto, and there, April 2 1st, 
 1836, fought and won the decisive battle that scored 
 Texian Independence. He showed great bravery 
 and was severely wounded in the engagement. 
 Leaving the army he repaired to New Orleans for 
 medical treatment and remained there for some 
 time. In August, 18oG, with slight opposition, he 
 was elected the first President of the Republic of 
 Texas. Bj' the constitution he was ineligible for 
 re-election, and was succeeded, at the close of 1838, 
 by Gen. Lamar, the former Vice-president, for a full 
 term of three years. In 1839 and 1840 he was 
 elected to Congress from San Augustine and took a 
 leading position on all the great questions, and they 
 were numerous, in that body. His influence was 
 never greater. In the prime of life, his great 
 powers of oratory and reason were used with 
 signal effect. It was then, at the session of 
 1839-40, that the compiler of this memoir first 
 saw and heard him in debate, and his youth- 
 ful mind was struck with surprise and admiration 
 at his magnificent person and magnetic power. 
 Neither before nor since has he ever beheld a finer 
 specimen of physical manhood. Standing about six 
 feet two inches, with large and perfectly formed 
 frame, erect as possible for man to be, dressed in 
 excellent taste, grace in every movement and a voice 
 as deliberate as melodious, he seemed the embodi. 
 ment of nature's handiwork in preparing a leader 
 for the people. Occasional outbursts carried every 
 auditor with irresistible force. When aroused, in 
 repelling attack, his shafts of sarcasm and defiance 
 struck wherever aimed with the precision of a gladia- 
 tor. His services at this time were greatly appreci- 
 ated by the people and in 1841 he was returned to 
 the presidential chair by a large majority. His sec- 
 ond term covered three eventful and portentous 
 years in our history, covering three Mexican invas- 
 ions of the frontier, a continued border warfare, 
 the temporary removal of the seat of government, 
 treaties with some of the wild tribes — negotiations 
 
 with Great Britain touching the integrity of the 
 Republic and our relations with Mexico, and the 
 earlier negotiations with the United States in relation 
 to the annexation of Texas to that country, besides 
 many other grave matters of deep import to the 
 country. That he rose equal to every emergency 
 and displayed the highest order of executive ability 
 and statesmanship, is conceded even by those who 
 then or since differed from him on questions of 
 policy. He retired from the presidency at the close 
 of 1844 on the eve of the proposition made in March 
 following by the United States for our annexation, 
 which was peacefully and happily consummated in 
 the succeeding Februar^^ 
 
 In 184.5 Gen. Houston was elected to the conven- 
 tion which framed our first State constitution, but 
 he hurried to attend the dying bed of his life- 
 long friend and |)atron, Gen. Andrew Jackson, and 
 did not, in consequence, sit in that one of the ablest 
 of the many able assemblages which have made 
 constitutions and laws for Texas. 
 
 One of the first acts of the first Legislature which 
 assembled in February, 1846, was almost unani- 
 mously to elect Gen. Houston and his friend, Gen. 
 Thomas J. Rusk, to the United States Senate, where 
 they both remained, Gen. Rusk until his death in 
 18.57, and Gen. Houston for about twelve years. 
 
 Prior to this, on the 9th day of May, 1840, Gev. 
 Houston wedded Miss Margaret M. Lea, of Ala- 
 bama, a lady eminently fitted by sound judgment, 
 the most substantial graces, quiet but sincere affec- 
 tions, aversion to pomp, and of the strongest domes- 
 tic attachments, to fill the void which must have 
 existed in the recesses of his heart in former years. 
 The union proved most happy until severed by 
 death and was blessed, as will hereafter be seen, by 
 the birth of four sons and four daughters. Mrs. 
 Houston was a consistent Christian woman, and a 
 member of the Baptist Church. A few years later 
 her husband joined the same body of Christians, 
 and both died in its faith. 
 
 When Gen. Houston entered the United States 
 Senate, in March, 1846, he was regarded with 
 more interest, real as well as romantic, than 
 any man who ever entered that august body. 
 Twenty years before he had left the House of Rep- 
 resentatives with a brilliant reputation. His career 
 since, in its vicissitudes, alternating between exile 
 in the wilderness and the highest positions, both 
 civil and military, was without a parallel in Ameri- 
 can history and had thrown a halo around his name 
 which interested and captivated wherever his 
 stately form was seen. In the Senate he was 
 warmly greeted by Clay, Calhoun, Webster, Ben- 
 ton and other eminent men who were in Congress 
 
SAM HOUSTON. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 G41 
 
 during his service so long before. The respect 
 shown him by such men, irrespective of political 
 divisions, must have been touchingly grateful to 
 him and was hailed by the people of Texas with 
 both pride and gratulation. It was a scene worthy 
 of the master hand of Rafael. 
 
 His long service in the Senate, during which 
 occurred the Mexican War, the sectional strife fol- 
 lowing the acquisition of California, the compro- 
 mise measures of 1850, the repeal of the Missouri 
 Compromise, and the enactment of the Kansas- 
 Nebraska Bill, of 18.54, was characterized by great 
 moderation and a sincere desire to heal and avoid 
 sectional irritation as the means of preserving har- 
 mony in the Union and perpetuating its blessings 
 to posterity'. His utterances breathed a lofty spirit 
 of patriotism and commanded universal respect, 
 including as well those who differed from him on 
 any given question. He retired from the Senate 
 with a name unsullied, and worthy of an American 
 Senator in our best days. 
 
 In 1857, a year or two before the expiration of 
 Gen. Houston's term in the Senate, his friends 
 placed him in the field as a candidate for Governor, 
 against Hardin R. Runnels, the Democratic nom- 
 inee. The vote stood, for Runnels, 32,552 ; for 
 Houston, 23,028; Runnels' majority, 8,924 — total 
 vote, 56,180. 
 
 In 1859, Gen. Houston was elected Governor 
 over Mr. Runnels by about six thousand majority. 
 To some extent sectional issues influenced the can- 
 vass, but the question of protection to our frontier 
 against the wild Indians did more than any one 
 thing to secure his triumph before the people. It 
 overshadowed all other issues, with several thou- 
 sand exposed people, dissatisfied with the existing 
 state of things, and who yielded him almost their 
 unanimous suffrage. 
 
 The historic canvass of 1860, crowned with the 
 election of Mr. Lincoln to the presidency, followed. 
 The history of those days is fresh in the public 
 mind and need only be referred to in so far as to 
 state correctly the position of Governor Houston, 
 about which, in some respects, there is diversity of 
 opinion and certainly some misconception. That 
 he was opposed to secession and desired the pres- 
 ervation of the Union in its original spirit, there 
 can be no division of opinion. He regarded seces- 
 sion by separate State action as calculated to inter- 
 pose insuperable obstacles to final reconciliation 
 and used his influence to prevent it. He thought a 
 fraternal consultation through commissioners from 
 all the Southern States should precede final and 
 distinct action by either ; and trusted that such a 
 convocation would lead to peaceful measures of 
 
 adjustment and preserve the Union intact. As a 
 last resort, should secession occur, there is reason 
 to believe that he preferred that Texas should 
 remain alone, assume her position as an independent 
 Republic, and await the developments of time and 
 providence — mayhap it might thus become her 
 mission to be the means of ultimate reconciliation. 
 His messages to the Legislature, his public addresses 
 and other utterances, which were numerous and 
 elaborate, will furnish the key to his true position 
 at that momentous period of our history, while 
 secession was yet an open question. With an im- 
 mense majority, about three-fourths of the people, 
 as subsequently shown, manifestly in favor of a 
 different course — of secession by separate State 
 action — both the Legislature and convention being 
 in session — the bearing of Gen. Houston was 
 worthy of his great name. 
 
 He declined calling a convention of the people, 
 as had been done in most of the other Southern 
 States ; but convened the Legislature in extraor- 
 dinary session. Under recommendations from the 
 Lieutenant-Governor and other public functiona- 
 ries, besides a considerable number of representa- 
 tive men, a convention was chosen and assembled 
 in Austin on the 27th of January, while the Legis- 
 lature was in session. 
 
 The secessionists in the Legislature and conven- 
 tion, were resolved that Texas should link her 
 destiny with her sister Southern States. The ordi- 
 nance of secession was passed February 1st, the 
 convention adjourned and the ordinance was sub- 
 mitted to and adopted by the people by an over- 
 whelming vote. The convention reassembled on 
 the 2d of March. Houston advised Texas to resume 
 her former position as a Republic. The conven- 
 tion, however, passed an ordinance uniting it with 
 the Southern Confederacy. All State officers were 
 required to take the oath to support the new gov- 
 ernment. This he and his secretary of State, Mr. 
 Cave, refused to do, were displaced from office and 
 Lieut. -Gov. Edward Clark inaugurated as Gover- 
 nor. 
 
 While Houston published an address to the 
 people of Texas protesting against this action, he 
 offered no serious opposition and quietly retired to 
 private life. Thrall says: "In Houston's retire- 
 ment, he was not happy. He looked upon seces- 
 sion as an accomplished fact: he viewed with 
 inexpressible grief the war measures adopted by 
 both contending armies ; he feared that Republican 
 institutions would be superseded by two centralized 
 despotisms in which the liberties of the people 
 would be swept away ; and the prospect saddened 
 him. His last appearance before a public audience 
 
642 
 
 INDIAN WAES AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 was in the city of Houston, on the 18ih of March, 
 1863." 
 
 His address ou that occasion was one of the 
 most touching and s|)lendid orations ever delivered 
 on American soil. 
 
 He died on the 26th of July, 1863, and his 
 remains are interred at the city of Huntsville. His 
 life found its close while the clouds of war lowered 
 over the countr3'. 
 
 Ex-President Anson Jones and some others of 
 less note severely criticised Gen. Houston for not 
 offering battle to Santa Anna at the Colorado, 
 checking him there and preventing the laying waste 
 of the settled part of Texas IjMng east of that 
 stream ; and still others have charged that he 
 deserved no credit for, but was compelled by those 
 serving under him to fight the battle of San Jacinto ; 
 but these aspersions have been time and again dis- 
 proved and one of the strongest evidences of their 
 falsity is the fact that Gen. Thomas J. Rusk, the 
 Texian Secretarj' of War, in his official report of the 
 battle of San Jacinto, gives Houston full credit for 
 that engagement, and testifies to the personal hero- 
 ism that he displayed on the field, and the further 
 fact that at no other time during the campaign and 
 at no other spot and under no other circumstances 
 could such a decisive and crushing defeat have been 
 inflicted upon the enemy. That single battle won 
 for Texas her independence. No engagements with 
 Santa Anna troops on the Colorado could have done 
 so. If other testimony were needed, it would be 
 only necessary to call attention to the fact that the 
 verdict of his countrymen and of the world during 
 his lifetime recognized that he had justly won tlie 
 laurels that clustered upon his brow. Furthermore, 
 there is not an old Texian living to-day who would 
 not hasten to speak up in his defense should an 
 effort be made to blacken his memory. 
 
 Dueling was in vogue in Gen. Houston's day. 
 The only rencontre of the kind to which he was a 
 party, took place while he was a member of Con- 
 gress from Tennessee. One of his constituents 
 complained that he had not received garden seed 
 wliich Houston said he had sent him from Washing- 
 ton. Gen. Houston stated his belief that the fail- 
 ure was due to the local postmaster, and criticised 
 that individual severely. The result was a chal- 
 lenge which Gen. Houston declined, under the code, 
 declaring that the postmaster was not his equal. 
 The bearer of the challenge sneeringl}' remarked 
 that he believed that Houston would not fight any- 
 body, or under any circumstances, to which Hous- 
 
 ton replied, " Suppose you try me." The gentle- 
 man at once challenged Houston, the challenge was 
 promptly accepted, and at the meeting Houston 
 severely wounded his antagonist at the first fire. In 
 Texas, Gen. Houston was challenged a number of 
 times, but in each instance declined the field and 
 that very properly. At the Horse Shoe, at San 
 Jacinto and on the so-called field of honor itself, 
 and in a thousand ways he had abundantly proven 
 his intrepidity. His bold and aggressive course in 
 public life necessarily made for him hundreds of 
 enemies and, had he accepted one of these chal- 
 lenges, scores of others would have been presented 
 to him, as his enemies would have been delighted 
 at an opportunity to sacrifice his valuable life. He 
 was too great a man and his services were too 
 greatly needed by the country for him to have been 
 made a victim of a desperado's bullet under the 
 barbarous code duello. 
 
 He was for a time the leader of the Know- 
 Nothing parly in Texas, and this, to some extent, 
 alienated a large number of his friends; but no 
 man doubted his purity of purpose or devotion to 
 what he considered the best interests of his country. 
 It is a fact not generally known that — before the 
 Democratic convention of 1860 split — and put two 
 tickets in the field, he came very near receiving the 
 nomination of the united Democracy for the office 
 of President of the United .States. Had he received 
 the nomination and the entire Democratic vote of 
 the country been cast for one set of candidates, 
 Mr. Lincoln would have been defeated, the war 
 between the States at least been postponed, and, pos- 
 sibly, some compromise been effected that would 
 have harmonized the differences existing between 
 the Northern and Southern States. The ambition 
 of his life was to be the President of two republics, 
 and at one time it looked as if that ambition was to 
 be gratified. His biographers, on the one hand, have 
 committed the error of representing him as a man 
 entirely without faults, and on the other of dealing 
 almost solely in detraction. The truth is, that all 
 men, both small and great — the greatest that have 
 trod the vporld's stage of action not excepted — 
 have had their defects ; but, in such instances as 
 his, these infirmities have but served to bring out 
 in stronger relief their nobility of mind and charac- 
 ter, and to intensify the l)rilliancy of their achieve- 
 ments. He was truly a great man and Texas owes 
 him a debt of undying gratitude that posterit}', like 
 tiie Texians of this generation, will never cease to 
 acknowledge. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 643 
 
 WILSON 1. RIDDLE, 
 
 SAN ANTONIO. 
 
 Wilson Irwin Riddle, a pioneer Texian of San 
 Antonio, now deceased, was born near Dublin, Ire- 
 land, in 1811, and at the age of eight years was 
 brought to America by his parents, who settled 
 in Howard County, Penn., where his boyhood 
 and youth were chiefly spent. At about the age of 
 twenty he went to Nashville, Tenn., where he 
 became a clerk in the mercantile house of Robinson, 
 Gibson & Co. From that city he went to Pulaski, 
 Tenn., where he was in business for himself for 
 about five years. From that place he went to New 
 Orleans and there, in 1839, joined Fisher & Miller's 
 colony and moved to Texas, coming direct to San 
 Antonio, where he took up his residence and at 
 once embarked in merchandising. Mr. Riddle was 
 successfully engaged in business at this place until 
 the capture of San Antonio in the spring of 1842 
 by Vasquez. In the meantime he paid two visits to 
 Tennessee, one in 1840 and another in 1841. On 
 the occasion of his last visit he married (April 26, 
 1841) Miss Elizabeth Menefee, of Pulaski, Tenn., 
 and immediately brought his bride out to 
 Texas. This lady, now Mrs. Canterberry, is still 
 living in San Antonio, and is one of the oldest 
 American residents of the place- — a lady of intelli- 
 gence, with a memory richly stored with reminis- 
 cences of early days in Texas. She is a native 
 of Culpepper County, Va. , and a daughter of 
 John and Elizabeth Menefee, also of Virginia 
 birth, who, about the close of the first quarter of 
 this century, moved to Middle Tennessee, where 
 their daughter was reared, her education, which 
 was ample, being obtained in Nashville. 
 
 Mrs. Canterberry gave the writer an interesting 
 account of her bridal trip to Texas. The journey 
 was made by the river route from Nashville to New 
 Orleans, thence by the gulf to Houston, and thence 
 to San Antonio by private conve3'ance, her husband 
 having arranged for his servants to meet them at 
 that point with a carriage and baggage-wagon and 
 necessary camping outfit. The time consumed in 
 making the journey from her old home in Tennes- 
 see to her new home in Texas was one month, lack- 
 ing two days. 
 
 On the occasion of the Mexican raid under Vas- 
 quez, in the spring of 1842, Mr. Riddle was among 
 the last Americans to leave the city. There had 
 been so many rumors of invasions that he had come 
 to distrust such reports, and it was not until he was 
 
 shown a letter from Mexico by one of the local 
 priests. Padre Calvo, that he finally became con- 
 vinced. As soon as he was satisfied that the Mexi- 
 cans were coming, he rolled what powder he bad on 
 hand — six kegs — into the river so as to prevent its 
 falling into the hands of the enemy, and, abandon- 
 ing the rest of his goods and household effects, 
 took his family to Gonzales for safety. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Riddle's only child, now Mrs. 
 Sarah E. Eagar, was then an infant ten days old. 
 All of Mr. Riddle's property fell into the hands of 
 the raiders, and all of it, except a piano, which had 
 been hastily boxed up, was either appropriated to 
 their use or destroyed. 
 
 In the fall of 1842 he returned to San Antonio to 
 attend court, and was taken prisoner when the city 
 was captured by Adrian Woll. The District Court 
 was in session, and the judge and lawyers in at- 
 tendance were captured. He was chained to one 
 of the attorneys, William E. Jones, and taken to 
 Mexico, where he was imprisoned at Perote for 
 eleven months, at the end of which time he was re- 
 leased and returned to San Antonio. His wife had 
 in the meantime (October, 1842) returned to the 
 city and was occupying their property on Com- 
 merce street, and looking after her husband's inter- 
 ests as best she could in the then unsettled condi- 
 tion of affairs. She was residing in San Antonio 
 when the Somervell expedition was organized at 
 that place, and knew Gen. Somervell well, he being 
 a warm personal friend of her brother, Judge 
 George Menefee, of Indianola, Texas. In passing, 
 it may be mentioned that she met, at one time or 
 another, a majority of the men who figured in the 
 history of those times, many of them having been 
 guests at her home. 
 
 After Mr. Riddle's release from Perote and re- 
 turn to San Antonio he settled on a ranch eighteen 
 miles distant from the city, where, a few years later, 
 September 12, 1847, he died, his death resulting 
 from the exposure and hardships endured by him 
 during his imprisonment in Mexico. His widow 
 subsequently married Mr. Harvey Canterberry, 
 from Greenup County, Ky., whom she now 
 survives. His death occurred December 21, 
 1859. 
 
 By her marriage with Mr. Riddle Mrs. Canter- 
 berry had two children — Sarah Elizabeth, now 
 Mrs. Eagar, of San Antonio, and James Wilson 
 
C44 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Riddle, recently deceased, who was for many years 
 a resident of Eagle Pass, Texas. 
 
 By her second marriage Mrs. Canterberry has 
 two children — John Warner Canterberry, of Mon- 
 terey, Mexico, and Mrs. Mildred Lee Watkins, of 
 Eagle Pass, Texas. She has a number of grand- 
 children and four great-grandchildren. Her eld- 
 est born, Sarah Elizabeth, was married to Robert 
 Eagar in 1866. Mr. Eagar was born in Nova 
 
 Scotia, and came to Texas in 1850, at which date 
 he settled in San Antonio. He was for a number 
 of years a merchant in that city, and died there 
 February 1, 1883. 
 
 To Mr. and Mrs. Eagar three children were 
 born — Florence (single), Blanche, who was mar- 
 ried to F. J. Badger, December 17, 1890, and 
 Fannie, who was married to Pj. .1. McCnlloch, .Jan- 
 uary 16, 1890. 
 
 SAM. M. JOHNSON, 
 
 CORPUS CHRISTI. 
 
 S. M. Johnson, a well-known citizen and lawyer 
 of Southwest Texas, and ex-Postmaster of San 
 Antonio, now residing at Corpus Christi, was born 
 in Austin, Texas, September 10th, 1841. His 
 father, Moses Johnson, was a native of Eastern 
 New York, born about the year 1808. Moses 
 Johnson was reared on a farm, but inclined to 
 books and professional life and studied medicine. 
 He went West, located near Knoxville, in Knox 
 County, Illinois, practiced his profession, bought 
 large tracts of land and made money, but suffered 
 some financial reverses during the panic year of 
 1837. He married, at Knoxville, Miss Olivia 
 Higgins, a daughter of David Higgins. Mr. John- 
 son after marriage completed his studies at Jeffer- 
 son Medical College, at Philadelphia, Penn. He 
 moved from Knoxville to Texas in 1837. Proceed- 
 inof from Velasco to Washington on the Brazos, 
 then the capital of Texas. He remained there 
 until the seat of government was changed to Inde- 
 pendence, and then moved to that place. He fol- 
 lowed the final removal of the capital to Austin, 
 and served by appointment under President Anson 
 Jones as Treasurer of the Republic of Texas, and 
 was afterward elected to the office. He was Sur- 
 veyor of the Port of Lavaca in 1848, and died at 
 Lavaca in 1852. His wife died three years later. 
 They left three children. 
 
 S. M. Johnson, subject of this notice, lived with 
 his parents at Lavaca until 1854, and that year was 
 sent to school at Peoria, 111., and later completed 
 his education at Whcaton College, near Chicago. 
 In 1861 he enlisted in the Union army as a member 
 of the Peoria Battery, attached to the Thirteenth 
 Army Corps and served for three years, the period 
 
 of his enlistment, during which time he took part 
 in the battles of Prairie Grove, Pea Ridge, Port 
 Gibson, Champion Hill, Magnolia Grove, Jackson 
 (Miss.), Black River, and the sieges of Vicksburg 
 and of Jackson, Miss., and in 1864 was honorably 
 discharged from the service. After the war he 
 came South to his old home at Port Lavaca, and 
 engaged in shipping produce, wool and cotton to 
 New York, in which business he continued until 
 1873. He was elected a member of the Constitu 
 tional Convention of 1867 and took an active part 
 in the deliberations and work of that body. There- 
 after he went to Austin, Texas, where he served as 
 Assistant Clerk of the Supreme Court for about a 
 year, and in the summer of 1874 went to San 
 Antonio, where he was appointed Deputy Collector 
 of Customs for the District of Saluria, Texas, 
 under C. R. Prouty, Collector. 
 
 In 1878 he was appointed bj' the President, Col- 
 lector of United States Customs for the Corpus 
 Christi District, which office he filled for four years 
 under the administration of President Hayes. He 
 had in the meantime studied law, and in 1878 went 
 to San Antonio and entered the office of Judge 
 Wesley Ogden and his son, C. W. Ogden, and was 
 admitted to practice in 1883. Mr. Johnson was 
 appointed Postmaster at San Antonio in 1890 by 
 President Harrison, and filled the office for four 
 years with marked satisfaction to the people. Later 
 he organized the Laguna Madre Horticultural Com- 
 pany and is now its general manager. The com- 
 pany owns a large tract of good land fifteen miles 
 below Corpus Christi, on the coast of Corpus Christi 
 Bay, and raises choice table grapes for early spring 
 delivery in Northern markets. The enterprise is 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 645 
 
 on a fine financial footing, and bids fair to be a 
 source of great profit to those who inaugurated 
 it. 
 
 Mr. Johnson married, at Port Lavaca, Miss 
 Helen, the accomplished daughter of Judge "Wesley 
 
 Texas (from 1870 to 1872), and Mrs. Jane (Church) 
 Ogden, whose brother was a Chief Justice of the 
 Court of Appeals of New York. Mrs. Johnson is a 
 lady of rare literary and domestic attainments. She 
 was born at Rochester, N. Y. Mr. and Mrs. John- 
 
 Ogden, ex-Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of son have two children, Ogden C. and Ethel. 
 
 MRS. M. W. PETERS, 
 
 BEEVILLE, 
 
 The following is from an obituary notice an- 
 nouncing the death of this excellent lady : — 
 
 "After a prolonged illness of several months, 
 ]\Irs. Margaret Williams Peters, wife of Maj. Stephen 
 Peters, died at the residence of her son-in-law, Mr. 
 A. P. Eachal, in this city, last Tuesday morning, at 
 3 o'clock, July 3d, 1894, and her^remains were in- 
 terred at the Beeville Cemetery the following even- 
 ing, attended by a large number of friends of her 
 daughter, with whom she and her venerable hus- 
 band made their home for a number of years. 
 
 "Few citizens, other than natives, are credited 
 with a longer residence in Texas than the deceased. 
 Of her seventy-six years, sixty-four were spent in 
 Texas, she having emigrated from Tennessee in 
 
 1830 with her parents, wlio settled near where the 
 city of Paris now stands. While a resident of that 
 part of the State she was united in marriage to 
 Maj. Stephen Peters, himself a pioneer, and who, a 
 decade past the scriptural allotment of three score 
 and ten years, still survives her. Their wedlock 
 was also blessed with more than the usual allotment 
 of years, their married life having extended over a 
 period of fifty-six years. 
 
 "Since 1859 Mrs. Peters was a resident of this 
 section of the State. Early in life she joined and 
 ever after remained a devout and consistent member 
 of the Methodist Church. Three of eight children 
 survive her." 
 
 STEPHEN PETERS, 
 
 BEEVILLE. 
 
 The following is an extract from a notice pub- 
 lished at the time of Maj. Peters' death: — 
 
 " Maj. Stephen Peters, an old citizen of South- 
 west Texas, died at the residence of his son-in-law, 
 Mr. A. P. Rachal, in Beeville, Wednesday after- 
 noon, August 7th, 1895, and was buried the follow- 
 ing morning at 10 o'clock with Masonic honors. 
 
 "The deceased had led an eventful life, and 
 notwithstanding the hardships incident to the resi- 
 dence of a pioneer in the West, survived to the ripe 
 old age of eighty-four. He was born in the State 
 of Tennessee in 1812, when that State was regarded 
 as the frontier of American civilization. 
 
 " He removed to Texas early in the 30's with one 
 
 of the colonies that were induced by the influence 
 of such prominent Tennesseeans as Crockett to cast 
 their fortunes with the nucleus of Americans who 
 had already settled in Texas, and had begun a revolt 
 against the authority of the Mexican autocracy. 
 Settling in that portion of the State which is now 
 known as Lamar County, he assisted in laying out 
 the town of Paris, which of late years has become 
 a prosperous city. As a natural consequence, life 
 in Texas at that time was fraught with exciting 
 incidents, and Maj. Peters experienced his share 
 of the hardships incident to repelling the Indians 
 from the young colony of which he was a member. 
 " On the declaration of war between Mexico and 
 
646 
 
 INDIAX WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 the United States over the admission of the young 
 Republic to the Union, he joined a company of vol- 
 unteers and rose to the rank of Major under Gen. 
 Rusk, serving throughout the entire campaign. 
 
 " At the close of the war he settled in Grayson 
 County, shortly after which he was attracted to 
 California by the discovery of gold in that section. 
 Returning to Texas be went to Madson County 
 where he resided until 1859 and then removed to 
 St. Mary's, then a prosperous shipping point on the 
 coast, and has since resided in this section of the 
 
 State. Maj. Peters was married in 1837 to Miss 
 Margaret Williams, whom he survived but little 
 more than a year. 
 
 " During his years of active life, Maj. Peters 
 was a man of strong individuality. Having lived 
 through and observed the making of the greater 
 part of the political history of the country, he 
 always took a lively interest in public affairs and, 
 though an invalid for the past few years, he always 
 exercised the privilege of voting when his health 
 permitted of his reaching the polls." 
 
 DANIEL MURPHY, 
 
 TAYLOR. 
 
 The subject of this brief memoir was a pioneer 
 settler in the now thriving town of Taylor, Texas, 
 one of its most enterprising and successful business 
 men, and one of its most highly esteemed citizens. He 
 was a native of Ireland and was born of humble but 
 respected parents. His father died about one month 
 before Daniel's birth. When our subject was about 
 two years old, his widowed mother came with her 
 infant son and daughter to America. At an early 
 age he was by force of circumstances thrown upon 
 his own resources and drifted into railroad work. 
 He was a partner of Mr. Burkitt, of Palestine, Texas 
 (a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this volume) 
 for about twenty-five years. His early struggles in 
 Texas were manfully made and from the beginning 
 his sterling character and great business sagacity 
 rendered it certain that he would carve out for him- 
 self a successful career. A man of great ambition 
 and tenacity of purpose, he pursued his business 
 with a method and determination that brought to him 
 his financial success. He foresaw the possibili- 
 ties of Texas in the line of material development and 
 thoroughly identified himself with the work of build- 
 ing up the waste places of the State. 
 
 He and his partner, Mr. Burkitt, as contractors, 
 were active factors in the building of the M., K. & 
 T. , and International & Great Northern railways, 
 and built almost entirely the Austin & Northwestern 
 road-bed. Upon the dissolution of the firm of 
 Burkitt & Murphey, Mr. Murphey located at Taylor 
 and laid the foundation for the fortune which, by 
 business tact and enterprise, he has amassed. More 
 than any other citizen of Taj'lor he aided in inaug- 
 
 urating useful enterprises and local improvements 
 and, when bis tragic and untimely death occurred, 
 was Taylor's foremost business citizen. He owned 
 a half interest in the Taylor Ice & Water Company, 
 was a stockholder and director in the Taylor Inter- 
 national Bank, owned the La Grande Hotel Block, 
 besides much other valuable property in and about 
 the eitj', and valuable mining properties in Mexico. 
 
 He was a man of domestic tastes. Mr. Murphey 
 married at Austin, Texas, Januar}' 9th, 1877, in St. 
 Mary's Church, Mrs. Hanna Boyle, widow of Mr. 
 Michael Boyle. She proved a most affectionate 
 and faithful wife and helpmeet, sharing with 
 him with great fortitude, all of his cares aud 
 reverses and, with great pleasure and gratification, 
 his many and signal successes. As a widow she 
 brought to the household one infant daughter. Miss 
 Grace, now grown and finely educated. Later, 
 two sons were born to the happy union, viz. : Daniel 
 George, born in Houston, January 29th, 1878, and 
 .Joseph, born in Palestine, October 26th, 1880. 
 George is now (1890) eighteen years of age, has 
 been given excellent educational advantages and, 
 having also been schooled by his father in business 
 matters, is practically the manager of the Taylor 
 Ice and Water Company. Joseph, too, is a young 
 man of fine business judgment and has given some 
 attention to his father's mining interests in Mexico. 
 
 Mr. Murphey' s death occurred at the Pacific Hotel 
 in Waco, Texas, Sunday, September 13th, 1896. 
 The remains were brought to Taylor for interment, 
 and it is said to have been the largest funeral in 
 the history of Taylor. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 WILLIAM M. HARRISON, 
 
 FORT WORTH. 
 
 Col. William M. Ilairison was born in Bouiljon 
 County, Ky., April 2G, 1819. His grandfather, 
 James Harrison, immigrated in an early day from 
 Ireland to Pennsylvania, and settled near Philadel- 
 phia, and there married a Miss Carlysle, an English 
 lady of fine educational accomplishments, by whom 
 he had ten children, in the order named, viz. : 
 Hugh, James, William, Hettie, John, Mary, Robert, 
 Carlysle, Joseph, and Thomas. 
 
 John moved to Kentucky, whore he married Eliz- 
 abeth, daughter of William and Elizabeth {nee 
 
 the education in the uountr3' schools of that county. 
 At sixteen he started out for himself, leaving Mis- 
 souri for Arkansas, and engaged as a clerk in his 
 brother James' store, in Washington, Hempstead 
 County, in 1835. After remaining in this position 
 eighteen months, upon a moderate salary, he went, 
 in the fall of 1836, to Jonesboro, then in Miller 
 County, Ark., now Red River Count}', Texas, where 
 he commenced mercantile business on his own 
 account, on a capital of about $1,500 and credit for 
 any amount he wanted. He left Jonesboro ami 
 
 WILLIAM M. HARRISON. 
 
 Newman) McClanahan, both of whom were natives 
 of Virginia, where they were married before their 
 advent into Kentucky. After his marriage John 
 Harrison, in consequence of his limited means, 
 engaged in various kinds of manual labor, one of 
 which was the building of post and rail fences. 
 After accumulating some means he engaged in dis- 
 tilling. In 1819 he moved to Howard County, 
 Mo., and settled near where Glasgow now stands. 
 Col. Harrison's mother died in the year 1845, 
 about sixty years of age. His brothers, of whom 
 the late well-known James Harrison, of St. Louis, 
 was one, all became wealthy. He was raised to 
 farm life in Howard County, Mo., and received all 
 
 went to Clarksville in 1844, where he continued 
 merchandising until the breaking out of the war. 
 He purchased a plantation of 1500 acres (600 in 
 cultivation) in Red River County in 1849, com- 
 menced planting and continued this business, in 
 connection with his mercantile operations, during 
 the same period, when the mercantile business was 
 discontinued, but the planting continued until the 
 surrender. After having served as Quartermaster 
 in the Confederate armj^ with the rank of Captain, 
 about eighteen months, he returned from Corinth, 
 where he had been stationed, and was elected to 
 the Legislature from Red River County, serving one 
 term. 
 
(318 
 
 INDIAy WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 The accumulations of liis life, up to the begin- 
 ning of the war, which were not less than S150,000, 
 consisting largely in negro property and assets due 
 in mercantile pursuits, were swept away by the 
 results of the struggle. After the surrender he sold 
 his plantation for ten thousand dollars in gold (not 
 half its real value prior to the war), and on this 
 capital and twenty thousand dollars, which he bor- 
 rowed, commenced the warehouse, wholesale gro- 
 cer}' and commission business at Jefferson, Texas, 
 as partner in the firm of Wright, Harrison & Co. 
 Afterwards Mr. Wright retired, having sold out his 
 interest to his partners, when the style of the firm 
 was changed to J. W. & J. R. Russell & Co. In 
 this company and business he continued until the 
 partnership was dissolved by the death of J. W. 
 Russell. After the firm's dissolution Col. Harrison 
 became one of the original charter members of the 
 First National Bank of Jefferson, which began 
 business in March, 1871, and was elected its first 
 president, a position that he continued to fill until 
 he removed to Fort Worth. He was one of the 
 projectors of the East Line and Red River Railway, 
 now extending from Jefferson to McKinney, which, 
 after languishing for several years as a corporation 
 in name only, was taken in hand by him, and 
 mainly by his efforts pushed to successful comple- 
 tion. Desiring a more extended field of operations, 
 be moved to Fort Worth in 1884, where he estab- 
 lished the State National Bank. He was president 
 of the State National Bank at the time of his death. 
 The estate he left to his widow and children was 
 estimated at $500,000. 
 
 Col. Harrison became a mason in 1842, in Friend- 
 ship Lodge, No. 16, Clarksville, and afterwards 
 took the Chapter and other degrees. He was also 
 a member of the Legion of Honor. 
 
 He was raised an ardent Henry Clay Whig, but 
 acted with the Democratic party after the sur- 
 render. He was opposed to secession, but went 
 with his people, feeling it his duty to aid them, 
 both by contributions and service. 
 
 He first married, in Clarksville, Texas, July 1, 
 1845, Miss Elizabeth Shields, who was born in 
 Giles County, Tenn., September 7, 1829, daughter 
 of William Shields, a farmer, and niece of Col. 
 Ebenezer J. Shields, at one time a member of 
 Congress from Tennessee. She died September 11, 
 1855. By this marriage, Col. Harrison had three 
 children, all born in Red River County, Texas: 
 Medora, born September 12, 1848, died September 
 17, 1864; Mavy E., born December 20, 1850, died 
 October 25, 1851; and Elizabeth Louise, born 
 October 17, 1852, still living. 
 
 Col. Harrison married, in Clarksville, Texas, 
 January 18, 1855, Miss Elizabeth Ann Epperson, a 
 native of Tennessee, born October 11, 1835, daugh- 
 ter of Cairo Epperson, a planter, and a scion of a 
 South Carolina family. By this marriage Col. 
 Harrison had six children, all born in Clarksville, 
 viz. : Mary, born March 19, 1856 ; William B., bom 
 January 13, 1858; John C, born June 25, 1859; 
 Sally (now Mrs. Gov. C. A. Culberson), born July 
 25, 1861 ; James, born September 17, 1863, and 
 Amanda, born September 28, 1865, the latter of 
 whom died June 21, 1866. 
 
 Col. Harrison was a member of the Cumberland 
 Presbyterian Church. 
 
 He was one of the clearest-headed and ablest 
 financiers ever in tlie State ; enterprising, public- 
 spirited, and generous in his support of every 
 worthy cause. He is remembered lovingly by 
 thousands of friends and admirers. 
 
 CONRAD MEULY, 
 
 CORPUS CHRISTI. 
 
 It is doubtful if Texas ever had a more brave, 
 loyal and patriotic pioneer than the late Conrad 
 Meuly, whose home during a greater portion of his 
 life was at or in the vicinity of Corpus Christi. 
 
 He was born in Canton Graubunten, Switzer- 
 land, April 12, 1812, and there lived until twenty- 
 one years of age and then came to America. His 
 father was an ofBce-holder. a man of affairs and a 
 
 well-to-do citizen. Conrad, with others of the 
 family, grew up under good business and social 
 influences and was accorded a good education. 
 Upon coming to America he landed at New York 
 City, and at once set about the study of the English 
 language, which in a short time he so far mastered 
 as to speak and write it with intelligence and 
 fluency. 
 
IXDIAN^ WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 049 
 
 In New York he heard of the wonderful resources 
 of Texas and the opportunities offered there to 
 young men to make fortunes ; purchased a stock of 
 silk dress-goods and hices and started with them 
 for the Lone Star Republic. He reached Texas 
 just in time to join the Santa Fe expedition, taking 
 along with him his stock of merchandise, which 
 was valued at $1,600, and upon which he sus- 
 tained a total loss. The outcome of the ill-fated 
 expedition is well known to the readers of Texas 
 history. 
 
 Mr. Meuly was among those who marched on foot 
 to Mexico as prisoners, condemned to be shot for 
 intriguing against the Mexican government, and 
 required to draw beans in the lottery of death that 
 decided who were and who were not to be executed. 
 He drew a white bean and escaped with his life. 
 Those who drew black beans were shot. Upon be- 
 ing released from imprisonment he started for 
 Texas with John Rahm, and, after suffering almost 
 indescribable hardships, reached San Antonio. 
 From San Antonio he went to Houston, where he 
 met and made the favorable acquaintance of the 
 late T. W. House, whose confidence he gained and 
 whose aid he secured in opening a bakery and con- 
 fectionery business. The business prospered, and 
 Mr. House was ever after his staunch friend. 
 Mr. Meuly married, in New Orleans, June 19, 1847, 
 Miss Margaret Rahm, sister of his friend John, 
 German by birth, and a lady of superior intelli- 
 gence and education. The year following they 
 located in Corpus Christi, where they embarked in 
 the baker}' and confectionery business on Water 
 street. When Gen. Taylor's army was on its way 
 South Mr. Meuly furnished him quantities of the 
 
 product of the bakery, for which Gen. Taylor paid 
 him well. 
 
 His business increased ; to his stock were added 
 groceries and dry goods, and he continued there 
 until 1862. Mr. Meuly was a brave and patriotic 
 man and made no concealment of his pronounced 
 loyalty to the Union and, when the war between the 
 States broke out, he openly predicted failure for 
 the Confederacy, and for this he was unpopular and 
 made to suffer in various ways ; but even threats 
 of hanging and the confiscation of his property 
 failed to intimidate him and he continued in trade 
 until the bombardment of Corpus Christi in Aug- 
 ust, 1802, and then moved to his ranch, twenty-five 
 miles distant in the country. He is said to have 
 owned 15,000 head of cattle on this ranch. Many 
 were confiscated by the Confederacy, however. 
 Mr. Meuly, later, near the close of the war, con- 
 tracted under the United States Government to 
 deliver supplies and, while on one of his business 
 trips, died in Brownsville of yellow fever, July 10, 
 1865. He left a large estate in lands, stock and 
 property in Corpus Christi to his widow and family. 
 Mrs. Meuly still survives, lives at the old home in 
 Corpus Christi, and of her twelve children, six are 
 still living, viz.: Herman, Charles A., Alexander 
 H., Margaret, Amelia A. and Mary E., the latter 
 of whom is now Mrs. Charles F. H. Blucher. 
 Ursula, the eldest, married William H. Daim- 
 wood. She died May 14th, 1895, leaving five 
 children. 
 
 Mr. Meuly was a kind-hearted and benevolent 
 man, always in sympathy with the worthy poor. 
 
 He was honest and upright in all his dealings 
 and was highly respected by all who knew him. 
 
 JAMES LAWLOR, 
 
 HOUSTON. 
 
 Capt. James Lawlor was born in the city of 
 Limerick, Ireland, November 1st, 1855. Spent 
 his earlj' boyhood days in Clontarf, Dublin, and 
 came to America in 1870, landing at Boston, Mass., 
 where he remained for a short time ; then proceeded 
 west to Chicago, and from that city on to Colorado, 
 where he worked as a miner and engaged in various 
 business pursuits. From Colorado he went to St. 
 Louis, Mo., where he engaged in the hotel business. 
 
 About ten years ago Capt. Lawlor moved to 
 
 Houston. Texas, where he is the proprietor of the 
 Lawlor Hotel, and has identified himself with the 
 business and social interests of that city. 
 
 Always deeply interested in the movement being 
 made in this country in behalf of Irish self-govern- 
 ment, Capt. Lawlor's name, at everj- stage of his 
 busy life, has been associated with those of the men 
 who have done most in behalf of down-trodden and 
 misgoverned Ireland. Pressing business engage- 
 ments, however, kept Capt. Lawlor from the New 
 
650 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Movement Convention, recentlj' held at Chicago, 
 but his genial friend, Mr. Patrick Barry, of Galves- 
 ton, Texas, suggested his name as a member of the 
 Executive Board of Nine, and he was unanimously 
 elected to that position by the convention. 
 
 Capt. Lawlor is in command of the Emmet Rifles, 
 a crack company of the Texas Volunteer Guard, 
 and is also president of the Emmet Council and 
 Benevolent Association, of Houston, Texas. He is 
 an exemplary citizen, a steadfast Irish Nationalist, 
 
 a friend of the oppressed of all countries, a 
 man of commanding appearance ; whole-souled, 
 generous and genial, and has many thousands of 
 friends throughout Texas. 
 
 Before leaving Colorado Capt. Lawlor married 
 Miss Anne McNally, a resident of St. Louis, but 
 claiming Ireland as her native land, and with his 
 handsome wife and a lovely daughter, just growing 
 into young womanhood, Capt. Lawlor's domestic 
 life leaves nothing to lie desired. 
 
 GREEN A. RABB, 
 
 CORPUS CHRISTI. 
 
 It is seldom, if ever, that the writer of local his- 
 tory has occasion to chronicle the life of a more 
 successful and popular citizen than that of the sub- 
 ject of this brief memoir. 
 
 A member of one of Texas' oldest and most 
 respected families, a great-grandson of a member of 
 the first colony of American settlers of the State, 
 his life reflected those strong traits that have char- 
 acterized his ancestors wherever known. Prior to 
 the year 1819 data concerning the Rabb family is 
 quite meager, and to various pioneers of Texas and 
 also to old records and published documents the 
 writer is indebted for the following briefly stated 
 facts touching this pioneer family: — 
 
 The founder of the Rabb familj- in Texas was 
 Wm. Rabb, who was a Pennsylvanian by birth and 
 of Dutch descent. His family lived at the time of 
 his birth in Fayette County. They later came West 
 and located in Illinois on the Mississippi river, 
 nearly opposite St. Louis, Mo. There Mr. Rabb 
 erected a water-mill for grinding flour, operated it 
 successfully for a time, sold out, and with his fam- 
 ily removed to Washington, Ark., where he resided 
 until the year 1819. He then, with a son, Thos. J. 
 Rabb (known as Capt. Rabb), made a prospecting 
 trip to Texas, exploring quite an extent of country, 
 including the Colorado and Guadalupe valleys. In 
 1821 they put in a crop of corn on land included in 
 what is familiarly known as Rabb's Prairie. This 
 is conceded to be the first corn raised by an Amer- 
 ican in all that region of country. Returning to his 
 home and family in Arkansas tbey prepared to take 
 up their journey to their newly selected home in 
 Texas, and joined Austin's first colony of 300, 
 arriving in December, 1821. Early in 1822 Wm. 
 
 Rabb crossed the Colorado river at the present loca- 
 tion of the city of La Grange and erected one of the 
 first block-houses in that section. 
 
 It was located on what is known as Indian Hill, 
 about four miles east of West Point, Fayette 
 County, and the entire neighborhood took part in its 
 building. In 1823 the Indians raided the country and 
 the settlers look refuge in this fort, from which they 
 successfully, for three days, defended themselves, 
 suffering only the loss of some stock, killed 
 and stolen. Following the occurrence Mr. Rabb 
 moved with his family and belongings to Wharton 
 County, where two sons, Thomas and Andrew, had 
 previously located. There he pursued stock-raising 
 until 1829, and then returned to his former place 
 and settled on Rabb's Prairie, where he extensively 
 engaged in stock-raising. In 1831 he erected a 
 grist mill on the Colorado river at Rabb's Prairie, 
 getting the greater part of the material at New 
 Orleans. He imported the mill stones, or burrs, 
 from Scotland. They were landed at Matagordo. 
 There were no wagons in the country in those days 
 and how to transport the ponderous stones from 
 the coast to the point of destination became a 
 question. Mr. Rabb's ingenuity was equal to the 
 emergency, however, and he made a wooden axle, 
 attached thereto a tongue, used the mill stones foi" 
 wheels and, with several yoke of oxen brought 
 them to the site of the mill over some two hundred 
 miles of rough roads in a new country. For the 
 construction of this mill, the Mexican government 
 granted him three leagues of land which he located 
 on Rabb's Prairie — -said to have been the richest 
 bottom lands along the Rio Grande. 
 
 During the construction of this mill, Mr. Rabb. 
 
GRKKN A. UAKB. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 651 
 
 owing to the inflrmities of advancing years and ex- 
 posure to the rigors of frontier life, was taken sick 
 and died (in 1832) at about sixty years of age. 
 He was a man of great energy and strict integritj', 
 and liis name as a pioneer and the founder of a 
 large and influential family deserves a place upon 
 tlie pages of Texas liistory. Mr. Rabb was mar- 
 ried to Miss Mary Smalley in Illinois. She proved 
 to him an ever faithful wife and sympathizer in all 
 of his ambitions. She bore him five children, viz. : 
 Rachel, who became the wife of A. M. Newman; 
 Andrew, John, Thomas (who was known as Capt. 
 Rabb), and Ulysses. John Rabb, the father 
 of Green A. Rabb, the subject of this sketch, was 
 a son of Andrew Rabb. He was a successful 
 farmer and stock-raiser, came to Southwest Texas 
 and engaged in stock-raising. He served as an 
 officer, doing gallant service for the Southern Con- 
 federacy in the Rio Grande river country, during 
 the war between the States. He also helped Texas 
 
 gain her independence from Mexico. He was born 
 August 16th, 1825, and was married May 25, 1848, 
 to Miss Martha Regan, who bore him seven chil- 
 dren. 
 
 Green A. Rabb, subject of this sketch, was born 
 at Yorktown, Texas, August 29th, 1854, and mar- 
 ried, November 21st, 1883, Miss Cora B. Oppelt, a 
 daughter of Judge Benjamin Oppelt, of Kemper 
 County, Miss., a lawyer by profession, and Judge 
 of the District Court. 
 
 Mr. Rabb was educated at Corpus Christi. He 
 early engaged in stock-raising in which he was very 
 successful. He was a kind, genial and popular 
 citizen and of the strictest integrity. He had 
 legions of friends. He left a large . estate to his 
 bereaved widow, who survives him. He died at 
 Corpus Christi, September 8th, 1894. 
 
 He was a man of fine appearance and address, 
 and one of the most influential men of the section 
 of the State in which he resided. 
 
 ROBERT G. BLOSSMAN, 
 
 CORPUS CHRISTI, 
 
 Is a son of the late Richard D. Blossman, one of 
 Texas' early pioneers. He was born in New Or- 
 leans, La., January 26th, 1851. In 1857 his father 
 moved to Fort Lavaca, Texas, and entered mer- 
 chandising. Robert G. Blossman spent his youth 
 at Port Lavaca, and in 1867 went to Parral, Mexico, 
 where he worked as commissary for a mining com- 
 pany for two years. He then returned to Texas, 
 and clerked for seven years at Indianola for a mer- 
 cantile establishment. He went to Corpus Christi 
 in 1877 and remained there in the same capacity 
 until 1885. He then embarked in trade for himself 
 in gents' furnishing goods. He continued in this 
 line for three years, and was then elected District 
 
 and County Clerk of Nueces County, and served 
 one term, giving eminent satisfaction to his constit- 
 uents. He then entered the grocery business, and 
 after conducting it one year alone, took as his part- 
 ner James B. Thompson, Esq., organizing the firm 
 of R. G. Blossman & Co., which is now one of the 
 strongest and most prosperous mercantile firms in 
 Corpus Christi. Mr. Blossman married, in 1879, 
 Miss Ella Sallean, at Corpus Christi. She was 
 born in New Orleans, La. They have four chil- 
 dren, viz. : Laura R., Robert G., Jr., Elenita S., 
 and Joseph F. Mr. Blossman's high position in 
 business and social circles is due entirely to his 
 own personal exertions. 
 
652 
 
 IXDIAX WARS AND PIOXEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 MICAJAH H. BONNER, 
 
 TYLER. 
 
 Judge Micajah Hubbard Bonner was born near 
 Greenville. Butler County, Ala., Januar}- 25th, 
 1828. His father, William N. Bonner, a minister 
 of the Methodist Church, was born in Hancock 
 County, Ga., in 1806. His paternal grandfather, 
 Hubbard Bonner, of English descent, was a native 
 of Marj'land, and married Rachel McGee, in 1798. 
 The mother of M. H. Bonner was Martha Ellen 
 Wade, who was born in Hancock County, Ga., 
 April 28th, 1808. She was the daughter of Micajah 
 Wade and granddaughter of James McCormick, a 
 gallant Revolutionary soldier, who fought through- 
 out the seven years war for the liberty of the 
 Colonies. 
 
 From Butler County, Ala., William N. Bonner 
 removed with his family to Holmes County, Miss., 
 in 183.5. 
 
 His son, M. H. Bonner, completed his education 
 in La Grange, Ky. , and having carefully prepared 
 himself liy laborious study, obtained license, De- 
 cember ath, 1848, in Lexington, Holmes County, 
 Miss., to practice law. He emigrated to Texas in 
 1849, and soon evinced that capacity which ad- 
 vanced him to the front rank in his profession as 
 an accomplished and conscientious lawyer. He was 
 married at Marshall, Texas, July loth, 1849, to 
 Miss Elizabeth P. Taj'lor, whose virtues and accom- 
 plishments he appreciated with rare devotion. After 
 his marriage he located in Rusk, Cherokee County, 
 Texas, where, as a partner of J. Pinkney Hender- 
 son, and, after his election to Congress, as a mem- 
 ber of the law firm of Bonner & Bonner, he practiced 
 his profession until 1873, when he removed to Tyler, 
 Smith Count}', Texas. The other members of the 
 firm of Bonner & Bonner were F. W. Bonner, Col. 
 Thomas R. Bonner, who was Speaker of the House 
 of Representatives of the Fifteenth Legislature, 
 and William Hubbard Bonner, now deceased, son 
 of M. H. Bonner. 
 
 The subject of this sketch was, on the unanimous 
 recommendation of the lawyers of the Tenth Judi- 
 cial District, appointed Judge of that district in 
 May, 1873. It is but proper to state that he was 
 not at that time a resident of that district, a fact 
 that evinces the high regard in which he was held 
 
 by his professional brethren. On the 16th of Feb- 
 ruary, 1874, he was appointed by Governor Coke 
 to the Judgeship of the Tenth District, a position 
 which he held until 1876, when, after a change of 
 the State constitution, he was elected Judge of the 
 Seventh District. 
 
 On the first day of October, 1878. he was ap- 
 pointed by Governor Hubbard an Associate Justice 
 of the Supreme Court, to fill the vacancy caused bj- 
 the resignation of Judge Moore, and in November, 
 1878, vras elected by the people to the same posi- 
 tion, by a very large majority. His term of service 
 extended from 1878 to 18 — , when he resumed the 
 practice of his profession at Tyler. 
 
 Judge Bonner's career in Texas illustrates more 
 forcibly than that of almost any other prominent 
 man how the highest success may be obtained in 
 the profession of law by one who exemplifies in his 
 daily walk the life of a Christian gentleman. Dur- 
 ing his whole professional career he was a devout 
 member of the Methodist Church, always taking an 
 active interest in whatever pertained to the" cause 
 of religion. No press of official or professional 
 business ever induced him to regret the self- 
 imposed duties connected with his Church member- 
 ship. 
 
 Althougli always a consistent Democrat, he never 
 figured before the people as a politician. This may 
 be attributed quite as much to his retiring disposi- 
 tion as to his fondness for the laborious study and 
 practice of his profession. Few men ever estab- 
 lished a more enviable reputation as a District 
 Judge. His duties on the supreme bench, while 
 extending the sphere of his usefulness, were so 
 performed as to secure the unqualified approval of 
 the profession. Patient and laborious while inves- 
 tigating a cause, his opinions contain a clear ex- 
 position of his conclusions and compare favorably 
 with those of the ablest judges. 
 
 Judge Bonner died at his home in Tyler on the 
 28th day of November, 1883. Of his family his 
 wife and the following children survive: Charles 
 T. Bonner, John T. Bonner, Mrs. Annie R. Mc- 
 Clendon, Mrs. Elizabeth Smith and Mrs. Irvine 
 Pope, all of whom reside in Tyler. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 653 
 
 S. A. EASLEY, 
 
 CIRCLEVILLE, 
 
 Came to Texas in 1852. He was born about seven 
 miles from Greenville, S. C, just over the county 
 line, in Pickens County, August 26, 1826. His 
 parents were John and Elizabeth (King) Easley. 
 His mother was of Spartanburg, S. C. His father 
 was born in Virginia, where his grandfather, Robert, 
 was born, and lived until removing to South Carolina, 
 just prior to the close of the Revolutionary war. The 
 Easley family is a family of planters and Col. S. A. 
 P^asley was reared to that pursuit, acquainting him- 
 self thoroughly with all of its details. He married, 
 in 1848, Miss Elizabeth Sloan. His parents were 
 people of property ; but, of a proud and independ- 
 ent spirit, the idea of receiving their aid was dis- 
 tasteful to him, and he and his young wife, who was 
 in full accord with him, moved to Texas, expecting 
 to locate in Kaufman County. They visited Kauf- 
 man and, hearing that a fine tract of land on the 
 San Gabriel river in Williamson County was for 
 sale at a bargain, he visited the spot and purchased 
 the property, buying it from William Ashworth, a 
 mulatto free negro who had fought in the Texas 
 army, and by a special act of the Texas Congress, 
 had been made owner of the land as a reward for 
 his services. Col. Easley paid $1.50 per acre for 
 this league of as fine land as there is in the State. 
 It was uninclosed and stock roamed at will over 
 that entire section of the country. 
 
 Col. Easley commenced farming, however, rais- 
 ing wheat, corn and cotton and some stock. He 
 built on his farm the second cotton gin in the 
 county, and fenced, improved and developed one of 
 
 the finest farming properties in that part of the 
 State. 
 
 A man of broad intelligence and information, 
 he was elected to represent his district in the 
 Legislature during Governor Coke's administration. 
 Aside from this service he never aspired to or filled 
 a political office. He has practicall}' retired from 
 active business life to his elegant home, where he is 
 pleasantly spending his remaining years in the 
 society of his beloved wife and surrounded by their 
 six living children, all of whom are grown and com- 
 fortably settled in life. The children are: Mamie, 
 now Mrs. Daniel Wilcox, of Georgetown ; Samuel, 
 whose farm adjoins the old homestead ; Nannie, 
 now Mrs. Bonnell, of Taylor ; Lizzie, now Mrs. 
 Fred. Turner, of Austin ; Southie, now Mrs. J. L. 
 Root, of Williamson County ; and Florence, now 
 Mrs. Harry Derrett, of Wichita Falls. During the 
 war between the vStates Col. Easley served in the 
 Confederate army as Captain of a company of cav- 
 alry in Mann's Regiment for two years in the De- 
 partment of the Gulf. 
 
 In 1861, by order of the Governor, all men over 
 eighteen and under forty-five in Williamson County 
 were organized into a regiment and Col. Easley 
 was elected Colonel of the same, hence his title of 
 Colonel. 
 
 His soldierly bearing greatly endeared him to his 
 comrades in arms and his sterling traits of character 
 and useful and honorable career have won for him 
 a wide-spread popularity among his fellow-citizens 
 of Texas. 
 
 CHARLES KLEMME, 
 
 HASTINGS, 
 
 One of the early settlers of Kendall Count3', was 
 born in Germany in 1822, learned the brick and 
 stone mason's trade in his native land ; came from 
 Germany to San Antonio, Texas, in 1848, via Gal- 
 veston, Indianola and Victoria, and there worked at 
 his trade for a time. Mr. Klemme located on his 
 present home in 1872, and has developed one of the 
 
 best farms in Kendall County. He was married to 
 Miss Johanna Michel, a daughter of Thomas Michel 
 at New Braunfels, in 1853. She was born in Sax 
 ony. Mr. and Mrs. Klemme have seven children 
 Adeline, now Mrs. Christian Anderson ; Texanna 
 now Mrs. Tobias Freilweh ; Laura, John, Edward 
 Amelia, and Caroline. The Klemme ranch is beau 
 
654 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 tifully located in the mountains four and a half miles 
 from Boenie, and affords a quiet summer retreat 
 for invalids and people from San Antonio and other 
 cities, tired of the heat, dust and noise incident to 
 town life. Mr. Klemme is a typical old-timer. 
 
 plain, unswerving and faithful to his family and 
 friends. His sons and daughters were given good 
 educational advantages. His sons have excellent 
 social and business qualities, and his daughters fine 
 domestic tastes and phj'sical and mental graces. 
 
 SAM BELL MAXEY, 
 
 PARIS. 
 
 Hon. S. B. Maxey, long a distinguished figure in 
 public life in Texas, and eminent as United States' 
 Senator from this State, is well remembered and his 
 memory will ever be honored by the people of 
 Texas, in whose interest he spent the best years of 
 his life and who, with their descendants, will long 
 continue to enjoy the fruits of his patriotic labors. 
 In preparing a brief memoir of his life, liberal ex- 
 tracts are made from an article written by Col. Wm. 
 Preston Johnson and published in the New York 
 World. 
 
 "The Maxey family are of Huguenot descent, 
 having settled on the James river soon after the 
 revocation of the edict of Nantes. His great 
 grandfather, Radford Maxey, became a tobacco 
 planter in Halifax County, Va., and his grand- 
 father, William Maxey, removed to Kentucky in the 
 last century. His father. Rice Maxey, was born 
 in Barren County, Ky., in the year 1800, and was 
 a lawyer by profession. His mother was the 
 daughter of Samuel Bell, a native of Albermarle 
 County, Va., but resident in Richmond. 
 
 "Samuel Bell Maxey was born at Tompkins- 
 ville, Monroe County, Ky., March 30th, 1825. His 
 father removed, in 1834, to Clinton County, where 
 he was clerk of the circuit and county courts. In 
 1857 he immigrateil to Texas and settled at Paris. 
 Samuel was educated at the best schools, studying 
 Latin, Greek and mathematics, until he was ap- 
 pointed a cadet in the Military Academy at West 
 Point. He was graduated there in 1846, and 
 assigned to the Seventh Infantry as a Brevet Second 
 Lieutenant. That fall he went to Mexico. He first 
 joined Taylor at Monterey, and when Scott organ- 
 ized a new offensive line from Vera Cruz; Maxey 
 went in Twiggs' colunin to Tampico. He shared in 
 the siege of Vera Cruz, and was with Harvey's 
 brigade at the' battle of Cerro Gordo. He was 
 brevetted on the battlefield a First Lieutenant for 
 wallant conduct at the battles of Contreras and 
 
 Cherubusco, and was also engaged at Molino del 
 Rey and in the engagement which resulted in the 
 capture of the city of Mexico. After the city fell 
 into his hands. Gen. Scott organized a battalion of 
 five companies of picked men, under Col. Charles 
 F. Smith, as a city guard. Maxey was assigned to 
 the command of one of these companies, and 
 he was thus provost of one of the five districts 
 of the city. Maxey had learned French at West 
 Point. While in Mexico he became familiar with 
 the Spanish tongue, which subsequently proved 
 useful to him in the practice of law in Texas. He 
 returned to the United States from Mexico in the 
 summer of 1848, and was stationed at Jefferson 
 Barracks. Restless in intellect, and unwilling to 
 become one of the cankers of a long peace, he 
 amused himself for a while by the study of law, 
 and finally resigned, September 17, 1849. His only 
 brother, a prominent young lawyer, had gone to 
 Mexico as a Captain of volunteers, and had lost his 
 life there. INIaxey returned to his father's home, 
 studied law, and in 1850 began the practice at Al- 
 bany, Clinton County, Ky. On July 19, 1853, he 
 was married to Miss Marilda Cassa Denton, the 
 daughter of a farmer and grand-daughter of a Bap- 
 tist preacher famed for his eloquence, who attained 
 the age of eighty years. When Gen. Maxey cele- 
 brated his silver wedding, in 1878, in Paris, his 
 own father, his wife's father, the minister who mar- 
 ried him, and several witnesses of the ceremony 
 were present. In 1857 he located at Paris, a 
 promising town in Northeastern Texas. He pur- 
 chased five acres of land in the open prairie. It is 
 now a beautiful, tasteful home, surrounded by trees 
 and flowers. We lament the subjugation of nature 
 by the hand of civilization, but it is a false senti- 
 ment. The displacement of the savage by the 
 white man, the desert blossoming as the rose, is 
 the order of development towards higher" and bet- 
 ter things. Maxey practiced law until 1861. He 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 655 
 
 had beeu brought up a Whig, but the movement of 
 events brought him into the Democratic part}'. He 
 voted for Breckenridge and favored the secession of 
 the State from the Union. In 1861 he was elected 
 to the State Senate by a large majority, but the 
 war coming on, he declined to follow the peaceful 
 walks of life when needed in the field of danger ; 
 his aged father was elected to take his place, and 
 be joined the army. He raised the Ninth Texas 
 
 ized a considerable force in East Tennessee, and 
 through the agency of Col. A. M. Lea, a valuable 
 engineer officer, prepared a militai'y map of East 
 Tennessee, which afterwards proved of great use. 
 "After the battle of Shiloh, Gen. Maxey was 
 sent back to the army at Corinth, and remained 
 with it until Bragg led it to Chattanooga again. 
 Here he was put in command of a corps of observ- 
 ation on the Tennessee river, fronting Buell's army. 
 
 GEN. SAM B. MAXEY. 
 
 Infantry for the army under Gen. Albert Sidney 
 Johnston. In December, 1861, it marched by 
 land, and reached Memphis to join the army at 
 Corinth. In the meantime Maxey bad been pro- 
 moted to be a Brigadier-General. He joined Gen. 
 Johnston at Decatur, and was sent by him to Chat- 
 tanooga to collect and re-organize troops there. 
 Gen. Johnston attached importance to this point, 
 and wished to place an officer of some military ex- 
 perience there, in view of the possibility of Buell 
 sending an expedition against it. Maxey organ- 
 
 Wheu Buell withdrew Maxey at once advised Bragg 
 by telegrapli. He also assailed the Federal rear 
 guard, and drove it out of Bridgeport, Battle Creek 
 and Stevenson, capturing all its stores, horses, 
 maps, headquarters, papers, etc. 
 
 " Gen, Maxey's services in the army were many 
 and important. He was at the first siege of Port 
 Hudson, in which the enemy were repulsed. He 
 afterwards joined Gen. Joseph E. Johnston in the 
 Big Black campaign, and was at the siege of Cor- 
 inth. On the direct application of Gen. E. Kirby 
 
G56 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Smith, then in command of the Trans-Mississippi 
 Department, President Davis, in the fall of 1863, 
 ordered Gen. Maxey to take command of the Indian 
 Territory. Everything there was in terrible con- 
 fusion, and some ten or twelve thousand friendly 
 Indians were in a state of great destitution. 
 Maxey, with very little aid from headquarters, or- 
 ganized everything and put eight or ten thousand 
 troops under arms. In the spring of 1864 he kept 
 himself fully informed of the Federal movements. 
 He advised Gen. Smith of Steele's advance, and 
 moved into Arkansas, where he joined Price and 
 shared in his fight at Prairie d' Anne to check the 
 enemy. He fought Steele at Poison Springs, April 
 18, 1864, and captured his entire train of 227 
 wagons. The loss of his transportation compelled 
 Steele to retire. For his conduct on this occasion 
 Maxey was made a Major-General. 
 
 " During this campaign he acted as Superintendent 
 of Indian Affairs, and was very successful in his 
 management of these brave but troublesome allies. 
 The gallant Gen. Stan Watie, a Cherokee, under his 
 orders, managed to capture a steamboat with 
 $100,000 worth of stores on board, which were dis- 
 tributed among the Indians. In September, 1864, 
 he organized a command, under Gens. Gano and 
 Stan Watie, to ford the Arkansas river, and catch 
 a wagon train from Fort Scott to Fort Gibson. 
 They captured 260 wagons, 200 of which they 
 brought in. They secured clothing for 2,000 men. 
 They also captured 200 cavalry, with their trans- 
 portation and mules, near Fort Smith. This cam- 
 paign was made on grass. In the spring of 1865 
 he was put in the command of a cavalry division, 
 but the war was drawing to a close, and it was dis- 
 banded by orders. May 29, 1865. 
 
 " Gen. Maxey returned to his home and devoted 
 himself to the practice of law, which soon proved 
 laborious and lucrative. He was appointed Judge, 
 but declined. In 1874 he was elected to tlie United 
 .States Senate, and took his seat March 5, 1875. At 
 first Gen. Maxey was placed on the Committee on 
 
 Territories, but was transferred tlie same year 
 (1875) to that on military affairs. He served con- 
 tinuously on the committees on labor and educa- 
 tion, and on postofHces, of which latter he was 
 chairman, until he retired from the Senate. He 
 had more than ordinary success in practical legisla- 
 tion. He never made a report from any committee 
 which was not sustained. The postofflce committee 
 is a very important one to a frontier State. Gen. 
 Maxey aided greatly in increasing the postal facil- 
 ities of Texas. Gen. Maxey's success at the bar 
 and in political life was due in part to his oratori- 
 cal powers. His idea of the management of a case 
 was to attend to the important points and let the 
 rest go. His memory was quite remarkable and he 
 was never at a loss for a date. In the conduct of 
 the most protracted trial he could recall the entire 
 evidence without notes, and he cited his authori- 
 ties, case, volume, and page, with unerring accur- 
 acy. His remarkable memory was inherited from 
 his mother, who could quote page after page of her 
 favorite poets, such as Byron and Campbell. 
 
 "Gen. Maxey was a member of the Baptist 
 Church, to which his family has belonged for four 
 or five generations. He was a gallant, genial gen- 
 tleman, and a hard-working, useful Senator. Very 
 few Senators enjoyed so generally the affection and 
 esteem of their colleagues." 
 
 In January, 1881, Gen. Maxey was re-elected to 
 the United States Senate by the Legislature of 
 Texas for a second term of six years, from March, 
 1881, to March, 1887, on the first ballot, by the 
 following vote: — 
 
 In the Senate: Maxey, 22; Throckmorton, 8; 
 Davis, 1. In the House: Maxey, 51; Throck- 
 morton, 34; Davis, 6; Reagan, 1. 
 
 Upon the expiration of his term he was suc- 
 ceeded by Hon. John H. Reagan, and thereafter 
 devoted himself to his law practice at Paris, Texas. 
 Gen. Maxey died at Eureka Springs, Ark., August 
 16, 1895, and was buried in Evergreen Cemeter3', 
 Paris, Texas, August 18, 1895. 
 
 RUFUS C. BURLESON, 
 
 WACO. 
 
 Rufus C. Burleson, D. D., LL.D., president 
 of the Baylor University, Waco, Texas, is one of 
 the most successful educators in the South. He 
 has held his office for forty-five years, a longer 
 
 period than any similar position has been held by 
 anyone in the United States, except Dr. Eliphalet 
 Nott and Dr. Francis Wayland. He has instructed 
 over 8,000 young men and women, many of whom 
 
INDIAN WAKS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 657 
 
 are among the most prominent citizens of Texas 
 and the South. Their influence is powerfully felt 
 in every profession, every occupation, and every 
 political, educational and religious movement in 
 Texas. Some one has said that man is greatest 
 whose influence enters as a constructive power into 
 the life and character of other men. Measured by 
 this standard, few men are entitled to a higher 
 rank than Dr. Burleson. He was born near 
 Decatur, Ala., August 7, 1823. He entered Nash- 
 ville University in 1840, and was licensed to preach 
 bj' the First Baptist Church the same year. He 
 ■was married to Miss Georgia Jenkins, at Independ- 
 ence, Texas, January 2, 1853. 
 
 At seventeen years of age Dr. Burleson decided 
 to devote his life to preacliing the gospel and edu- 
 cating the Baptists, especially the Baptist ministry, 
 to a higher plane of zeal and intelligence, and that 
 he might be fully prepared for his life work he 
 spent seven years in arduous study, (irst in Nash- 
 ville University, then as a teacher in Mississippi, 
 and then in the Literary and Theological Institute, 
 at Covington, Ky. He graduated in 1847. He 
 then wrote down in his note-book the outline of the 
 work which he has now most successfully and zeal- 
 ously pursued for forty-nine years. Thus fully 
 equipped, he entered Texas in 1848, and three 
 years and a half after his arrival, became president 
 and organized the first college classes in Baylor 
 University, which now, after the many years of his 
 management, has the finest buildings and the most 
 beautiful campus in the South. It employs twenty- 
 six able, efficient, professional teachers, and matric- 
 ulated, in 1892, eight hundred and sixty-nine 
 students. It is the pioneer co-educational university 
 in the South, the second in America, and the third 
 in the world, and one hundred and ninety of the 
 greatest institutions in America and Europe have 
 followed its example in adopting co-education, so 
 much ridiculed thirty years ago. Dr. Burleson has 
 been equally successful as a preacher. He has 
 preached in every town, except new railroad 
 stations, in the Empire State of Texas. He 
 
 baptized the heroine of the Alamo and the hero of 
 San Jacinto ; such eminent men as Judges A. S. 
 Lipscomb, W. E. Donley, Gen. James Davis, Judge 
 William E. Davis, Col. James W. Anderson, and 
 scores of others, not only among the great and 
 learned, but among the most humble of all 
 classes. In addition to his great work as a 
 teacher and preacher. Dr. Burleson has been 
 a leading and influential advocate of railroads, 
 prohibition, and everything looking to the material 
 growth of Texas. He never forgets his duty 
 as a citizen on the day of election. He votes 
 invariably for every officer from Constable to Presi- 
 dent. 
 
 Though an ardent Southerner and a former slave- 
 holder, he is a devoted lover of the Union. In 
 the stormiest days of secession he often said: " I 
 would gladly wrap myself in the Stars and Stripes, 
 and lay my head on the executioner's block and die 
 to perpetuate the Union of the States as founded by 
 Washington, Jefferson, Adams, and our Revolu- 
 tionary fathers." Though an ardent Baptist, he is 
 a sincere lover of all Christians. He has never 
 used tobacco or intoxicating drinks, was never seen 
 in a ball room, a theater, nor on a race track, 
 knows nothing of cards, billiards or chess, and 
 never swore but one oath in his life. His habits of 
 temperance have given him his remarkable health 
 and vigor of mind and body. He toils daily from 
 7 o'clock in the morning to 12 at night, reserving 
 only thirty minutes for each meal, interspersed 
 with good jokes and hearty laughter, and another 
 thirty minutes for an afternoon siesta, and he will 
 keep on working to the end. He confidently hopes 
 to live to see Texas the grandest State between the 
 oceans, and the greatest Baptist State in the world. 
 He will then be able to say, like old Simeon, "Now, 
 Lord, let Thy servant depart in peace, for mine 
 eyes have seen Thy salvation." His early thorough 
 preparation, and undying devotion for over fifty 
 years to one great life purpose, presents a grand 
 model for all young men who desire great and hon- 
 orable success. 
 
 L. A. ABERCROMBIE, 
 
 HUNTSVILLE. 
 
 The late lamented L. A. Abercrombie was a 
 native of Alabama, born in Montgomery County in 
 December, 1832. His father, Milo B. Abercrom- 
 bie, was a Georgian, descended from the Aber- 
 
 crombies of England. His mother, whose maiden 
 uame was Sarah L. Haden, was a daughter of 
 Robert G. Haden, of North Carolina.'and a niece 
 of Hon. Albert Fisher, of Florida. 
 
658 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 The subject of this memoir completed his educa- 
 tion in Alexandria, Va., and read law under 
 Judge William P. Chilton (whose daughter he 
 afterwards married) and Hon. David Clopton, 
 in Tuskegee, Macon County, Ala. He was 
 admitted to the bar before the Supreme Court of 
 Alabama, in 1854, and moved immediately to 
 Madison County, Texas. Here he formed a part- 
 nership with Messrs. Yoakum (the historian) and 
 Branch, with whom he practiced law about eighteen 
 months. In the fall of 1856 he moved to Hunts- 
 ville, where he afterwards resided until the time of 
 his death. His practice grew upon him with the 
 extension of his acquaintance and experience, until 
 his business circuit embraced not only Walker, but 
 the adjoining counties. 
 
 In 1860 he was elected Prosecuting Attorney for 
 the district composed of Walker, Grimes, Harris, 
 Montgomery and Galveston counties, and in the 
 same year he was chosen a delegate to the seces- 
 sion convention that met at Austin. In 1861 he 
 resigned his office and entered the Confederate 
 arm}', enlisting in Gillespie's company of Nichol's 
 regiment, and served throughout the war. In 1862 
 he was made Lieutenant-Colonel of Elmore's regi- 
 ment, and held that position until the close of the 
 conflict. He commanded the regiment in the siege 
 and recapture of Galveston, Col. Elmore being 
 absent on furlough, but the regiment, being 
 infantry, was not actively engaged in the fight, 
 which was conducted by the artillery. 
 
 He was a Master Mason. In politics he was a 
 thorough-going Democrat, and several times repre- 
 sented his county in the State conventions of his 
 party. He conducted his business affairs with 
 prudence, industry and economy, and acquired a 
 large and valuable estate. His record as a lawyer 
 and citizen is without a blemish. By his profes- 
 sional brethren he was beloved and honored. One 
 of them, his esteemed friend, Judge Norman G. 
 Kittrell, has furnished the writer with the following 
 concerning him : — 
 
 " He came to Texas in 1853, and entered upon 
 the practice of law in 1855, and the year following 
 moved to Huntsville. He was elected a member 
 of the secession convention, and also District 
 Attorney of the district, which then included Harris 
 and Galveston counties, and resigned the latter 
 office to enter the Confederate armj', in which he 
 served as Lieutenant-Colonel. After the war, 
 poor, burdened with debt, and with only a local 
 reputation as a Iaw}'er, he set about overcoming the 
 difficulties that surrounded him and emerged with 
 a competency, his debts discharged and with a 
 reputation as a lawyer among the profession co- 
 
 extensive with the limits of the State. As a civil 
 pleader, his work was as near proof against suc- 
 cessful assault as that of any lawyer in Texas, and 
 as an ' all around law3'er,' in large cases and small, 
 civil and criminal, as they came in the course of a 
 miscellaneous nisi prius practice, he had few, if 
 any, superiors at the bar in the State. 
 
 " He had but little confidence in what men call 
 genius, and never depended for success upon the 
 inspiration of the moment. Work, work unceas- 
 ing, was the touchstone of his success. He was 
 a born fighter. He asked no favor for himself from 
 either court or counsel, while his courtesy to both 
 was uniform and unfailing. 
 
 " No development in the course of a trial, how- 
 ever unexpected, or however much it militated 
 against him, ever disconcerted him. No temporary 
 defeat discouraged him. He prepared at every 
 step for future battle, and fought on with dogged 
 persistence, and, if he finally lost, which in pro- 
 portion to the extent of his practice was an exceed- 
 ingly rare occurrence, his adversary felt that he had 
 indeed won at the ' very end of the law.' 
 
 " As a Senator from the Ninth District he was a 
 statesman in wisdom and counsel. In sunshine and 
 storm he was safe to trust. As a jurist he was 
 learned and patient, a lover of justice, absolutely 
 fearless in the discharge of duty, and without re- 
 proach ; a patriot in whose heart a love of country 
 reigned supreme, and who counted no sacrifice too 
 great for the welfare of his State and country." 
 
 Col. Abercrombie was married at Tuskegee, 
 Macon County, Ga., January 1st, 1860, to Miss 
 Lavinia Chilton, daughter of the Hon. Wm. P. 
 Chilton, who for fourteen years served as a member 
 of the Supreme Court of the State of Alabama, 
 and as Chief Justice for a number of 3'ears. He 
 was also a member of the Confederate Congress, 
 first at Montgomery and afterwards at Richmond. 
 The Chilton family have furnished some of the 
 most distinguished men known to our national 
 history. She was the first graduate of the East 
 Alabama College. In her education she received 
 the most careful training. A most accomplished 
 lady, she was a leader of the best society, and 
 made a model wife and mother. The Abercrombie 
 home at Huntsville has been long famous for its 
 hospitalit}'. The following children were born of 
 the marriage, all born in Walker County, viz. : 
 Mary, widow of Henry Finch, a prominent lawyer 
 of Fort Worth ; Lavinia, wife of Robert S. Lovett, 
 a leading railroad attorney at Houston ; Ella Haden, 
 wife of John H. Lewis, of Nortii Texas ; Francis 
 A. ; William Chilton, who is now at Harvard Uni- 
 versity studying law; Leonard A., also studying at 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 659 
 
 Harvard University; Corinne R. , who is attending 
 Wellesly College. 
 
 Col. Abercrombie died at Philadelphia, Decem- 
 ber 23d, 1891, and is buried at Huntsville. 
 
 Col. Abercrombie died at the University Hospital, 
 Philadelphia, on the 23d of December, 1891, and 
 his remains were brought to Huntsville, where they 
 now rest. 
 
 JOHN IRELAND, 
 
 SEGUIN. 
 
 The most distinguishing characteristic of Gover- 
 nor John Ireland was his uncompromising devotion 
 to duty, private or public. That was the guiding 
 star of his life, and he steered his course in all the 
 relations of life by that Polar Star. It gave him a 
 most exalted appreciation of justice, and no man 
 can complain that he was ever unjust in any of his 
 transactions. This may not have been a difficult 
 task for him, as his principles were fixed and of a 
 high standard, and his temperament was serene. 
 He had, therefore, a perfect control over himself, 
 and when a man attains that power over self and he 
 is conscientious, as he was, he will rarely err in his 
 decisions of what is just. 
 
 Governor Ireland's mind was singularly free 
 from the embarrassments of any kind of environ- 
 ment ; emergencies that always arise in the life of 
 a professional or public man found him equal to 
 them, and well may it be said of him that he had a 
 mind and character equal to any emergency. He 
 was by no means a brilliant man ; everything that 
 he attained he worked for with unrelenting assidu- 
 ity. There was no problem, either of law or states- 
 manship, that appalled him. He knew his powers 
 and he had them at his command. John Ireland 
 was the architect of his own fortunes, or, according 
 to the popular expression, he was a self-made man. 
 He did not come from the poorer class of society 
 that has furnished so many eminent men to this 
 country, but his father was a Kentucky farmer of 
 limited means, and educational facilities were not 
 then what they are now in that part of the State of 
 which he was a native and in which he was reared. 
 He obtained at the old field schools of his native 
 county the rudiments of an English education, and, 
 early in life, appreciating the importance of an edu- 
 cation, he made that more accurate than his fellows, 
 with the same opportunities, for he was an earnest 
 boy as he was an earnest man. 
 
 He went through the best kind of training for the 
 profession of law, which he early chose for a life 
 
 occupation, and the first office he held was that of 
 Constable. While in this way he became, through 
 the discharge of his duties in this inferior office, 
 familiar with writs and court papers, at the same 
 time he was at night digging into the mine of legal 
 wealth that any country lawyer's office then 
 afforded of the most profound legal writers. He 
 worked earnestly and hard, and while he was stor- 
 ing away the great principles of the Common Law 
 the mental exercise strengthened and enlarged his 
 intellectual perceptions. It might have seemed 
 from his practical association with statutory law 
 that he would have become a " case lawyer," but 
 he was not ; he was a broad-gauged lawyer, built 
 upon the strictest logical reasoning ; nothing was 
 valuable to him that had no reason for it. He had 
 no respect for a decision of a Supreme Court unless 
 it was based upon reason and bolstered by the clear- 
 est logical reasoning. 
 
 The life of John Ireland, however, was not des- 
 tined to be confined to the practice of law. There 
 was too much of that old Roman virtue of integrity 
 and patriotism about him not to have been appre- 
 ciated bj' his fellow-citizens and his services were 
 demanded by them in the legislative halls, in the 
 Judiciary, and the highest executive office of the 
 State of Texas. 
 
 He came to Texas while a young man, he was in 
 fact a pioneer, and became intimately associated 
 with those great men who molded the organic law 
 of the State, and who endured the hardships of 
 an unequal warfare to establish and maintain a 
 separate nationality as the "Lone Star State," and 
 from them he caught the spirit of the institutions of 
 the State and brought his strong mind to bear upon 
 its development. 
 
 It would be impossible in such a brief sketch as 
 this to follow John Ireland through the detail of 
 his legislative, judicial and executive career. He 
 first settled in Seguin and after that place had ad- 
 vanced to the dignity of an incorporated town he 
 
660 
 
 INIJJAX WA]{S AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 was chosen Mayor, the duties of which he executed 
 with all the care and conscientiousness that he 
 brought to bear on the weightier offices that meet 
 him later in life. 
 
 James D. Lynch, of the Bench and Bar of 
 Texas, has given the following brief resume of Gov- 
 ernor Ireland's career: — 
 
 " At the approach of the foreboding clouds of 
 the Civil War he ardently espoused the cause of 
 his section and the State, and favored the prompt 
 resumption of sovereignty by the latter, and its 
 withdrawal from the Union. He was a member of 
 the Constitutional Convention of 18G1, and as soon 
 as the status of political affairs was settled in his 
 State, he enlisted as a private in the volunteer 
 army of the Confederacy. The same purpose and 
 devotion to duty which characterized his profes- 
 sional career marked him as an efficient soldier and 
 invited promotion. He was made successively 
 Captain, Major and Lieutenant-Colonel. His services 
 extended through the campaigns in the Trans- 
 Mississippi Department, and at the close of the war 
 he returned to the practice of law at Seguin. In 
 18GC he was a member of the convention assembled 
 to form a constitution for the State in conformity 
 with the Johnson policy of reconstruction, and was 
 soon after elected Judge of his judicial district, but 
 was removed on the usurpation of military power in 
 1867. In 1873 he served as a member of the House 
 in the Thirteenth Legislature, and in the Four- 
 teenth he was a member of the Senate, and was 
 elected and served as president pro tern of that 
 body. In 1875 he was elected Associate Justice of 
 the Supreme Court. He was retired by the new 
 constitution of 1876, which required the court to 
 consist of only three judges. His decisions are 
 found in the forty-fourth and forty-fifth volumes of 
 Texas Reports. His assiduous habits and fond- 
 ness for close analytical investigation, his natural 
 inquisitiveness of mind, firm and well grounded 
 convictions, thorough legal training, and ample 
 resources of both principle and precedent made 
 him an excellent Supreme Judge, and his decisions 
 manifest a steady and profound search for truth 
 and justice. So confirmed and justly recognized 
 was his character for integrity, executive ability 
 and perfect devotion to the interests of his State, 
 that in 1882 he was nominated by the Democracy 
 and in November of that year elected Governor of 
 Texas by more than 100,000 majority of the popu- 
 lar vote. His advent to the executive office was at 
 a period of comparative prosperity, when the spirit 
 and pride of the people were ardently enlisted for 
 the advancement of the various public institutions 
 of the State, in which he also shared. The suc- 
 
 ceeding legislature made large appropriations for 
 that purpose, which he indorsed and carried out. 
 
 " The so-called free grass system in the State, 
 had resulted in the enclosure of large bodies of 
 land by the leading stock' men of the State, and in 
 often surrounding and shutting in the smaller 
 herdsmen and excluding them from the use of 
 water-courses. This produced an alarming system 
 of " fence cutting," which was extended to lawful 
 owners as well as to intruders upon the public 
 lauds, and so outrageous and universal had this 
 evil grown, that the Governor convened an extra 
 session of the legislature in January, 1884, to 
 devise a remedy for this species of lawlessness. 
 Stringent and efficient laws were enacted for its 
 suppression, which the Governors executed with his 
 characteristic promptness and vigor. This was 
 sought to be used to his prejudice and to impair his 
 popularity, but the innate justice of the people ap- 
 proved and appreciated alike his motives and 
 his official acts, and at the Houston Convention in 
 August, 1884, he was unanimously renominated 
 without call of the roll, and by acclamation. Later 
 he was re-elected by a majority vote of more than 
 100,000. During his administration important 
 measures were enacted for tlie promotion of the 
 cause of education. The office of State Superin- 
 tendent of Public Instructions was created. The 
 permanent school fund was safely invested in bonds 
 at six per cent rate of interest, and the sale of 
 school lands at the exceedingly low rate of fifty 
 cents per acre was prohibited. He was the first 
 Governor of Texas who attempted to make an3'thing 
 out of the wild lands of the State. Not one foot of 
 university or any other public lands were sold 
 except for good prices ; generally more than the law 
 demanded. The sales notes are bringing good inter- 
 est. The surplus proceeds were well invested, 
 instead of allowing them to remain in the treasury 
 to boast of as a cash surplus. Taxes under his 
 administration were reduced to the lowest possible 
 point. All the State institutions were left in a 
 splendid condition. The new Insane Asylum was 
 erected and put in successful operation at Terrell. 
 The laws were well executed and the State left in a 
 prosperous condition at the end of Governor Ire- 
 land's administration. 
 
 " Governor Ireland never once swerved from his 
 principles or the line of his conscientious rectitude 
 to conciliate his enemies or soften opposition. He 
 at all times boldly proclaimed his views and fear- 
 lessly followed tlie dictates of his judgment. His 
 career was characterized by incessant labor ; at 
 the bar he sedulously pursued the interests of his 
 clients, giving all his cases thorough preparation. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 661 
 
 He had au'abiding faith and a lofty pride in the 
 great destiny of his State, and as Governor, he 
 fought to harmonize the varied and often conllicting 
 interests of the great commonwealth over which he 
 .presided. Governor Ireland was a life-long Dem- 
 . ocrat of the Jefferson i an school. 
 
 " He was a' man who cared little for external ap- 
 pearances, show, or ceremonious effect, and at his 
 second. inauguration, his address, which he read 
 from a smallsheet of paper, was in dignified and 
 modest contrast with the vain display which modern 
 usage ,has introduced into inaugural exercises. 
 Texas had no statesman of sounder judgment, or 
 of more approved fidelity iu the promotion and pro- 
 tection of its interests and rights. 
 
 "As a public speaker. Gov. Ireland was forcible 
 and argumentative rather than fluent and eloquent. 
 His illustrations were plain and practical, his figures 
 of speech, apt and striking. In manner he was quiet 
 and ratlier reserved, but genial to those who knew 
 him intimately. As a citizen, he was ever temper- 
 ate in his habits of life, moral in his convictions, 
 just in his judgments and liberal iu his views." 
 
 Governor Ireland's policy in the matter of the 
 great railroad strike of 1887 and the manner of its 
 prompt and vigorous suppression, was characteristic 
 of the man, and at the time attracted wide attention 
 and received the highest commendation and indorse- 
 ment of the press and the people throughout the 
 country. This great strike, owing to the heavy 
 railroad interests at Fort Worth, seemed to have 
 established its base of operations in this State at 
 that point, and all lines running in and out of that 
 city were tied up. The strikers were belligerent, 
 business paralyzed, and life and propert3' were in 
 jeopard}'. The status of affairs was wired to the 
 Governor at Austin, soliciting the protection of the 
 State government, and the dispatch found him tem- 
 porarily at Seguin. He returned immediately to 
 Austin, and with a detachment of State troops pro- 
 ceeded forthwith to the scene of the difficulty. In 
 the Governor's arrival the strike leaders found 
 cause for reflection, which speedily resulted in 
 overtures to him for a settlement. They were, in 
 unmistakable terms, advised that all disorderly 
 strikers must promptly disperse, return to work, or 
 peaceably allow others to take their places, and 
 that traffic must resume before any terms of settle- 
 ment could be discussed ; that unless they immedi- 
 ately complied and ceased to unlawfully block the 
 wheels of business and avenues of trade, he would 
 open fire on them and that no blank cartridges 
 would be used. The Governor's action had the 
 desired effect; order was restored ; in three hours' 
 time the strike was at an end and trains were run- 
 
 ning. It was but a short time later that Governor 
 Rusk, of Wisconsin, emulated Governor Ireland's 
 example in subduing the strikers and mobs, in Mil- 
 waukee, in precisely the same way. In November, 
 1885, another difficulty of almost a precise nature 
 arose at Galveston, and the Governor's interven- 
 tion was solicited. He responded with a charac- 
 teristic disapproval of the policy pursued, and a 
 proposition to defend the lawa and maintain the 
 peace and dignity of the State even by force of 
 arms. The following communication in this con- 
 nection is significant : — 
 
 " Galveston, Texas, Nov. 8th, 1885. 
 " Hon. John Ireland, 
 
 " Governor of Texas. 
 " DeauSik: Your telegram of last night received. 
 I beg to state that the vessels with cargoes, wharves 
 and other properly of this company (Galveston 
 Direct Navigation Co.), were voluntarily abandoned 
 at noon to-day, by those who had forcibly held 
 them until that time. The result, I believe, is at- 
 tributable to the prompt and emphatic assurances 
 given by you, that the law sliould be vindicated and 
 the rights of property maintained in this State. I 
 respectfully tender you, in behalf of this Company, 
 its thanks for the protection thus afforded it, and 
 through it, the commerce of Texas. 
 
 " Respectfully yours, 
 
 ' ' J. J. Atkinson, 
 
 "Supt." 
 
 In other matters, notably that of the selection of 
 stone for the exterior walls of the new State capitol, 
 Governor Ireland's discriminating sense of justice, 
 pride of State and excellent backbone did his peo- 
 ple of the Commonwealth a lasting and invaluable 
 service. It was in 1885 the foundation for the 
 structure had been laid, according to terms of the 
 contract, of Texas limestone. The contractors were 
 under bond to furnish, at their own expense, the very 
 best material for the entire structure. A sentiment 
 had been created, in certain circles, strongly favor- 
 ing granite in lieu of limestone as the best material. 
 The Governor, hearing rumors of a change of the 
 material decided upon, called a meeting of the 
 capitol board. The contractors here affirmed that 
 the crying demand for granite would lie gratified, 
 if the commission desired it and the State would paj' 
 for it. This, the Governor saw, conten)|ilateil an 
 extra appropriation of one million dollars, whereas 
 if granite was the best material, the contractors 
 were under bond to furnish it at their own expense. 
 The controversy shaped itself into a demand 
 for Indiana limestone, and in this the alert 
 
662 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 executive saw a job, and promptly put his 
 stamp of disapproval upon it. After mucli con- 
 tention, tbe contractors and jobbers on one side, 
 the Governor on tbe defensive, Texas granite of a 
 fine color was decided upon, and as an additional 
 compensation, convict labor was supplied the con- 
 tractors to work in the quarries. The Indiana 
 limestone scheme fell flat. The settlement of the 
 much agitated question was received with great 
 satisfaction throughout the State, and the following 
 paragraphs from the San Antonio Times of July 
 tbe 19th, 1885, voiced tbe sentiment of columns 
 of comments that appeared in tbe leading journals 
 of tbe State: "The action is a complete backdown 
 on the part of the contractors. They ' bucked ' 
 against Texas material long enough to learn that 
 Governor Ireland would not submit to their arro- 
 gance. They even stated that if Indiana limestone 
 was rejected, they would throw up their contract. 
 This the Governor bad possibly anticipated, as in a 
 previous interview he bad said : ' The State has a 
 good contract, and all it has to do is to stand on it 
 and let them build the bouse, or quit. Thus far it 
 is well done, and would stand there fifty years and 
 be in perfect order, and we can sell the lands, com- 
 plete the building and have money left. There 
 would then be a chance to break up the land 
 monopoly created by this contract.' " Tbe Times 
 article further says: " But the Governor stood firm 
 as a rock. He held them to their contract, and 
 intimated that if they did not carry it out there was 
 a legal means of getting even with them. Seeing 
 that they could not be moved, that even a majority 
 of tbe board could not change his wise and patri- 
 otic determination, tbe millionaire syndicate was 
 forced to take ' back water.' To Governor Ireland's 
 patriotism and fidelity the triumph is due, and tiie 
 Times rejoices in knowing that when a question of 
 State pride and State interests comes to be decided 
 upon, we have a man in the executive chair who 
 first, last and all the time stands up for the State's 
 rights and can neither be coaxed, bulldozed or 
 driven into any other line of policy." 
 
 Governor Ireland was at various times solicited to 
 become a candidate for the United States Senate. In 
 1886, when a successor to Hon. S. B. Maxey was 
 to be elected, tbe demand for Governor Ireland to 
 become a candidate seemed to be peremptory from 
 all sections of the State. During the resulting 
 campaign the following appeared in the St. Louis 
 Post-Dispatch : — 
 
 "The campaign for United States Senator, in 
 which Governor Ireland is supposed to have an in- 
 terest, and for which position the solid thinkers of the 
 State are urging him to offer, fails utterly to dis- 
 
 tract his attention from the legitimate routine of 
 his official business. While others are sending out 
 printed speeches, essays, and so forth, as an earnest 
 of their ability for the transaction of Senatorial 
 work, and are making speeches for the same pur- 
 pose, all more or less imbued with tbe idea of their 
 importance to tbe State, Governor Ireland remains 
 passive and unmoved amid it all, and continues to 
 ply his pen in its regular channel." 
 
 Governor Ireland never was a candidate for any 
 office from an announcement of tbe fact by himself. 
 Official honors came to him unsolicited. 
 
 Governor Ireland died at San Antonio, Texas, at 
 11:55 a. m., March 15, 1896, of neuralgia of the 
 heart, after a brief illness. Mr. and Mrs. E. S. 
 Carpenter, of Seguin, and Mr. and Mrs. J. W. 
 Graves, of Houston, bis sons-in-law and daughters, 
 were at his bedside during bis last moments. Mrs. 
 Ireland was prevented by sickness from being pres- 
 ent. The remains were subsequently brought to 
 Austin, and after lying in State at tbe Capitol were 
 interred in tbe State cemetery, where sleep Texas' 
 most distinguished dead. The services were of the 
 most impressive character. Tbe Bar Association 
 of Austin met and passed resolutions of respect. 
 Tbe funeral cortege was one of tbe largest ever 
 known in tbe history of Austin. No mark of honor 
 to tbe memory of the dead that his eminent and 
 patriotic services deserved or that a grateful peo- 
 ple could pay was omitted. 
 
 Tbe following editorial from the pen of his 
 friend. Col. Joel H. B. Miller, editor of the Austin 
 Daily Statesman, published in tbe issue of that 
 paper of March 18, 1896, is a just tribute to the 
 worth of the deceased, and is inserted here as a 
 part of this biographical notice: — 
 
 "the late JOHN IRELAND. 
 
 "Ex-Governor John Ireland, or all that remains of 
 him, was buried in tbe State Cemetery in this city 
 yesterday. While Governor Ireland was respected 
 for his ability wherever he was known, he was person- 
 ally very popular in this city, where be has resided 
 officially off and on for a number of years. The 
 citizens of Austin not only had a full appreciation 
 for his sound sense and large acquirements, but for 
 his gentleness and suavity of manner to all he came 
 in contact with. He was by no means a demon- 
 strative or ostentatious man. Quite the contrary, 
 he was reserved, even with his most intimate asso- 
 ciates, and modest to timidity in the presence of 
 strangers and public crowds. 
 
 " He was a man of man}' sturdy qualities of head 
 and heart. According to our conception of his 
 general character, bis highest capacity consisted in 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 663 
 
 sound common sense, well cultivated b}' mingling 
 in the current of private and public life and 
 strengthened by a judicious course of reading. He 
 was an eminently just man. No self-interests or 
 political policy could swerve him from fair treat- 
 ment and the use of just means, even with his com- 
 petitors. While he was always apparently calm 
 and unexcited, he had great force of character, but 
 he was a man who had such control of himself 
 that his determination or will could only be dis- 
 covered by a manifest persistency that at last 
 made itself fell whenever that force of character 
 was needed, but he did not permit himself to he 
 disturbed by small things, over which he never 
 worried. 
 
 " Endowed with a strong mind, with no violent 
 passions to throw him off of his course and nothing 
 more attractive than duty, he built himself up by 
 unceasing application, and with his eye fixed on the 
 goal of success, he never permitted himself to be 
 jostled out of his course. He dug and dug hard 
 and deep for every mental accomplishment and 
 when he found it he held on to it. What he knew 
 he knew thoroughly and he could use all he acquired 
 to the very best advantage. He gave one the im- 
 pression of possessing a mental method by which 
 he labelled useful knowledge and laid it away on a 
 shelf convenient to be taken down and used at any 
 emergency. 
 
 "John Ireland was a representative American 
 citizen, illustrating the advantages that a free and 
 equal form of government affords to every boy 
 child born under its protecting flag. The public 
 school system had not been organized in Kentucky 
 when John Ireland wrung his education out of ad- 
 verse circumstances. His parents were not able to 
 educate him and he worked with his hands by day 
 and studied unaided by teacher or professor by 
 night to accomplish himself for the profession to 
 which his ambition directed him. He metaphoric- 
 ally dug into the ground with his nails and fingers 
 for all the learning he obtained in his youth, and 
 he never for a moment flinched from his task. 
 Bright young men and women swept past him on 
 gala days and holidays, but he crushed back the 
 social impulses of his nature and grasped the fleet- 
 ing hours to weave into the woof of his life some- 
 thing nobler and better than the passing smiles of 
 beauty and he passed on and on until he won 
 honors, representative in the Legislature of his 
 adopted State, judge of the courts, and Governor, 
 then it was that beauty and talent came to do him 
 reverence. He had won the goal, but it was with 
 scarred feet he stood upon the pedestal of fame. 
 He got there over rough roads, but he got there. 
 
 Any young man of such earnest purpose as he had, 
 can get there. 
 
 "Go to, thou sluggard, drop a flower on his 
 grave and turn away determined to be a man and 
 not a mere butterfly of fashion, an honorable and 
 useful man, a man whom the country in which he 
 lives would delight to honor and shed a tear on his 
 grave as this community did yesterday on the grave 
 of John Ireland." 
 
 He died an honored ex-Governor of Texas, an 
 eminent statesman and a distinguished jurist, 
 whose name is intimately associated with the 
 judicial and political history of Texas. He came 
 to this State in 1853, being then twenty-six years 
 of age. His arrival was opportune, as the then 
 newly constituted State was in need of men of his 
 quality — young men of sterling character, stout 
 hearts, intellectual endowments and practical zeal. 
 He was a native of Kentucky, and was born at 
 Millerstown, on the banks of the Nolyn river, in 
 Hart County, January 1, 1827. His father, Patrick 
 Ireland, was a well-to-do farmer, native of Ken- 
 tucky. His mother, whose maiden name was 
 Rachel Newton, was born and reared in the same 
 State. 
 
 Governor Ireland's boyhood and early youth 
 were spent at home on the farm, where he received 
 such schooling as his home county afforded in those 
 days. When about eighteen years old, through the 
 agency of the business men of Munfordsville, Ky., 
 he was declared of age by special act of the State 
 Legislature to enable him to qualify as Constable, 
 which office he filled for several years. He also 
 held the office of Deputy Sheriff of Hart County. 
 He was early possessed of an ambition which had 
 developed into a fixed purpose to achieve an honor- 
 able place among men. In the performance of his 
 official duties he acquired a practical knowledge of 
 process and legal methods which turned his atten- 
 tion to the law. In 1851 he entered the law offices 
 of Murray & Wood, of Munfordsville. By studious 
 application and patient industry he had, in the 
 space of one year, so thoroughly mastered the 
 principles of common law, that he was admitted to 
 practice. The opportunities there offered for 
 future advancement did not, however, seem to him 
 promising, and, in casting about for broader fields, 
 his attention was directed to the Lone Star State, 
 and he located at Seguin in 1853, as before men- 
 tioned, and thereafter made that place his unofficial 
 home. There he entered upon the practice of the 
 profession in which he afterwards so greatly dis- 
 tinguished himself. He brought with him to Seguin 
 naught but a clear head, a well-stored intellect, 
 honesty and tenacity of purpose, and an irrepressible 
 
0G4 
 
 INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 determination to succeed. He drew around him a 
 large circle of friends and soon built up a lucrative 
 practice. 
 
 Governor Ireland was twice married. His first 
 wife was Mrs. Faircloth, whose maiden name was 
 Matilda Wicks. She was a sister of John Wicks, 
 an extensive planter in Guadalupe County, and of 
 Col. Moses Wicks, formerly a banker of Memphis, 
 Tenn. She died in 1850, leaving one daughter, 
 Matilda, born in Seguin, August 6, 1855, who was 
 educated at Staunton, Va., and married E. S. 
 
 Carpenter, a prosperous planter and business man 
 of Seguin, further mention of whom is made else- 
 where in this volume. Governor Ireland's second 
 marriage occurred in Fayette County, Texas, and 
 was to Miss Anna M. Penn. Four children were 
 born of this union, viz. : Mary P., born in Fayette 
 County, educated at San Marcos, taking the first 
 prize for scholarship ; she married J. W, Graves, 
 a druggist of Seguin, Texas; Katie Penn, Rosalie 
 and Alva — all born in Seguin, none of whom 
 survive their father. 
 
 EVAN SHELBY CARPENTER, 
 
 SEGUIN, 
 
 Is a native of Kentucky', and was born in Lincoln 
 County, of that State, April 27th, 1843. His 
 father, William Carpenter, moved from Kentucky 
 to Guadalupe Count}', Texas, in 1852, and lived 
 near Seguin until the close of the war between the 
 States, and then returned with his family to the old 
 Kentucky home. Carpenter Station, an historic land- 
 mark of Lincoln County. In 1874 they returned to 
 Texas, the father dying in Bandera County, at 
 seventy-five years of age. Evan Shelby Carpen- 
 ter's mother was Miss Judith Slielby, a grand- 
 daughter of Gen. Isaac Shelby, of Revolutionary 
 fame, and the first Governor of Kentucky, an old 
 hero whose patriotic public career and romantic 
 life have furnished subjects for some of the most 
 thrilling stories of early Kentucky life. 
 
 Mr. Carpenter was about nine years of age when 
 his parents located at Seguin, where he spent his 
 early youth. Eight years later the great war be- 
 tween the States i)urst upon the country' and he 
 joined the Confederate army as a private in Com- 
 pany B., Carter's Regiment, Twenty-first Texas 
 Cavalry, and remained continuously in active 
 service until the close of the eonttict. In 1865 he 
 made a business trip into Mexico, thence to Mis- 
 souri, Kentucky and Michigan; but, his health 
 
 requiring such a balmy climate as that of Texas, he 
 located at Seguin in 1870, and has since resided 
 there. 
 
 In October, 187C, Mr. Carpenter married Miss 
 Matilda, oldest daughter of Governer John and 
 Mrs. Matilda Wicks Ireland, of Seguin. Mr. Car- 
 penter is well known as a successful business man. 
 During Governor Ireland's incumbency of the 
 gubernatorial office Mr. Carpenter served as his 
 Private Secretary, and as such made many warm 
 personal friends. Mrs. Carpenter was also called 
 upon to assist in the honors of the Governor's 
 household, for which duties her personal graces and 
 social accomplishments eminently qualified her. 
 Mr. Carpenter returned to Seguin at the close of 
 Governor Ireland's administration, and with Mr. 
 J. W. Graves, a brother-in-law, entered the drug 
 business. Since the dissolution of this firm, in 
 1894, Mr. Carpenter has occupied his time in at- 
 tending to his own and Governor Ireland's large 
 farming and landed interests. Mr. and Mrs. Car- 
 penter have three children : Patrick, born February 
 19th, 1880, who, having been adopted by his grand- 
 father. Governor Ireland, has had his name trans- 
 posed to Patrick Carpenter Ireland ; Emma Lee, 
 and George Jarvis. 
 
'/la?. 
 
 
 ./ry.-^.y '•.•/'. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 665 
 
 J. W. GRAVES, 
 
 SEGUIN, 
 
 A prominent druggist of Texas, is the son of the 
 Rev. H. A. Graves, one of the pioneer ministers of 
 the Lone Star State. 
 
 Mr. Graves was born in Nashville, Tenn., in 
 1857 ; came in early infancy to Texas, and grew 
 to manhood here and has become fully identified 
 -with Texas interests. 
 
 When the war between the States ended it left 
 Mr. Graves' father, like all Southern men, to face 
 the reverses of fortune. J. W. Graves was an 
 ambitious boy. By his own efforts he soon 
 acquired such a common school education as the 
 State afforded at that time ; not long thereafter 
 graduated in pharmacy, acquired the confidence of 
 the people by his studious habits and business 
 
 qualifications, and established himself successfully 
 in the drug business in Seguin. 
 
 In 1881 he married Miss Mollie, second daughter 
 of Hon. John Ireland, who died in 1891. After 
 his wife's death Mr. Graves sold his interests in 
 Seguin and identified himself with a large business 
 house in New Orleans, for which he traveled 
 through Texas. 
 
 Later he became a stockholder and worker for 
 the Houston Drug Company, which place he 
 retained until the death of Governor Ireland, of 
 whose large estate he was made one of the execu- 
 tors, and in the interest of which he now spends 
 most of his time in San Antonio. 
 
 Mr. Graves has one child, a bright boy of eleven 
 vears, whose name is Ireland Graves. 
 
 JOHN O. DEWEES, 
 
 SAN ANTONIO. 
 
 John O. Dewees, for many years identified with 
 the history of Southwestern Texas, and a leading 
 citizen and stockman of that part of the State, was 
 born in Putnam County, 111., where the town of 
 Greencastle now stands, on the 30th day of De- 
 cember, 1828. His parents were Thomas and 
 America Dewees, natives of Kentucky, respectively 
 of Welsh and P^nglish and German and English 
 descent. 
 
 His father was a farmer and stock-raiser, and 
 died on his farm, near Hallettsville, in Lavaca 
 County, Texas, in 1864. His mother died at San 
 Marcos, Hays Count}^ Texas, May 5th, 1889. 
 Mr. Dewees came to Texas with his parents in 
 1849. During the war between the States he joined 
 Compan}' B. , Thirty-second Texas Cavalry, and as 
 a soldier in the Confederate army participated in 
 the fight at Blair's Landing and the twenty-five or 
 
 thirty severe skirmishes, including the battle of 
 Yellow Bayou, that marked the retreat of Banks' 
 army to Lower Louisiana. He has resided in San 
 Antonio for a number of years past. He has been 
 engaged in the cattle business from early youth, 
 and from a small beginning has built up an estate 
 valued, at a low estimate, from §140,000 to $200,- 
 000. He is regarded as one of the leading stock- 
 raisers and financiers in the section of the State in 
 which he resides. 
 
 February 12th, 1873, he was married to Miss 
 Annalrvin at the home of her mother in Guadalupe 
 Count3^ They have one child, a daughter. Miss 
 Alice A. Dewees. Mr. Dewees is a fit representa- 
 tive of the men who have done so much toward the 
 development of the varied resources of South- 
 western Texas, one of the fairest portions of the 
 State. 
 
666 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 JOSEPH BLAND, 
 
 ORANGE, 
 
 Was born in Vermillion Parish, La., June 8, 1832, 
 and came to Texas in 1835 with his parents, who 
 settled in what is now Orange County. His father 
 was a farmer and stock-raiser by occupation, which 
 he continued until his death. 
 
 His mother is still living, and resides in Orange 
 County, twelve miles west of the town of Orange. 
 
 Mr. Joseph Bland went into business for himself 
 at nineteen years of age, and two years later he 
 married Miss Martha Ann Thomas, daughter of L. 
 R. and Annie Thomas, of Orange County. 
 
 He is County Survej-or of Orange, and is also 
 engaged in farming. During the war he served as 
 Sheriff of the county by election of the people, and 
 
 after the war was appointed Sheriff by Governor E. 
 J. Davis, notwithstanding the fact that he was a well- 
 known Democrat. He has seven living children, 
 viz. : Henry W., Constable of Orange; Clara, wife 
 of D. W. Stakes, of Orange ; Flavia, wife of A. 
 Prajan, of Orange; J. D., Sheriff of Orange; 
 Malony, wife of P>. C. Hall, of Orange County ; 
 Margaret, wife of G. S. Russell, of Orange, 
 and George W., who lives at Johnson's Bayou, 
 La. 
 
 His mother now has eighty-five descendants — 
 children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. 
 He is a Mason of forty-two years standing, and Las 
 held the Royal Arch degree since 1863. 
 
 WILLIAM R. HAYES, 
 
 BEEVILLE. 
 
 From the time of the establishment of the first 
 white settlements in America until the evolution of 
 conditions that approximate those that have so long 
 prevailed in Europe, the history of this country pre- 
 sents an almost unbroken record of romantic inci- 
 dents, the like of which can never occur in this 
 prosaic age. The race has not reached, however, 
 in its destiny a region of cloudless days. There is 
 many a storm for it yet to weather, but the strug- 
 gles of the future are to be those of a highly devel- 
 oped industrial and commercial civilization. The 
 man who has lived through the past half centurj' 
 and honorably met the responsibilities that dis- 
 tinguish it from all the other half centuries known 
 to human history, has had a schooling that no other 
 man can ever have again, and has a store of mem- 
 ories that no later soul that shall ever come from 
 out the infinite can possess though it should abide 
 upon this ancient earth a thousand years. The sub- 
 ject of this memoir. Judge William R. Hayes, was 
 born in 1835 (the 30th day of December), in Hick- 
 ory County, Mo., and like most young men of tal- 
 ent, courage, and possessed of a taste for adventure 
 who grew up in the West sixty years ago, was an 
 active participant in many stirring events. His 
 
 forefathers, on his father's side, came from England 
 to Virginia about the time of the establishment of 
 the settlement at Jamestown, and afterwards moved 
 to and lived in the Carolinas. His great-grand- 
 mother on his mother's side, named Young, came 
 from Ireland. In 1846 his father, Joseph Hayes, 
 sold his farm in Missouri and started for Texas, 
 but stopped in Sevier County, Ark., until 1854, 
 when he moved to Medina County, Texas. 
 
 The subject of this sketch, desiring to try his 
 fortunes in the West, in March, 1854, shipped with 
 Jim Sparks as conductor of a prairie schooner from 
 Fort Smith to California. 
 
 Reaching Salt Lake City late in August, too late 
 to cross the Sierras, the train went into winter quar- 
 ters there, and in the spring of 1855 he went with 
 a portion of Col. Steptoe's government train, via 
 Fremont's route, to California, and engaged in 
 mining there until December, 1858. Having made 
 a trip to Frazier river, in the British possessions, he 
 then came to San Antonio, via Tehuantepec and 
 New Orleans. He went to Bee County in April, 
 1859, bought land, and is living on the same place 
 now, engaged in farming and stock-raising. 
 
 He was married, in 1861, to Miss Amanda Fuller. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 667 
 
 He served during the war between the States for 
 three years, in Col. Hobby's regiment, and then 
 transferred to Edward's company, Pyron's cav- 
 alry, just before the close of the war. He was 
 appointed Treasurer of Bee County, iu 1870, and 
 continued to fill that office, being re-elected, until 
 April, 1876, when he was elected County Judge, 
 which office he filled for eight terms until November, 
 1892. 
 
 At the age of eighteen, as previously stated, Mr. 
 Hayes made a trip to California, and for many 
 years " roughed it," as he expressed it, in his 
 younger days chasing buffaloes on the plains, skir- 
 mishing with the Indians often, and hunting elk in 
 the mountains near Salt Lake City. He also 
 worked in the mines in California. During all of 
 this time he was blessed with remarkable health, 
 and in these extensive travels on mountain and 
 plain never missed a guard duty. The same may 
 be said of his service during the war ; in the three 
 years he was never on the sick list nor reported 
 absent without leave. During the eighteen years 
 and six months he served as County Judge he held 
 one hundred and sixty-three terms of the Commis- 
 sioners' Court, and was never absent a day. Of 
 terms of the County Court during that time there 
 were one hundred and eighty-five, and he was 
 absent only one day. 
 
 He is a believer in the Christian, or Campbellite 
 Church. 
 
 Mr. Hayes has managed to accumulate a com- 
 petency, and owns a pleasant home in one of the 
 fairest parts of the State. He is engaged exten- 
 sively in raising improved stock, horses and cattle, 
 and in farming. 
 
 He has eight children, to wit: Fannie, Mary, 
 Horace, Lucy, Homer, Annie, Travis, and Vivian. 
 
 Judge Hayes takes an active interest in public 
 affairs, and has been a conspicuous worker in 
 every enterprise which has been inaugurated for 
 the benefit of the section of the State in which he 
 resides. With J. W. Flournoy he was on a com- 
 mittee to negotiate for the extension of the Aran- 
 sas Pass Railroad to Beeville, and closed the trade 
 with President Lott that resulted in the building of 
 the road to that point. He contributed $500.00 of 
 the bonus given to that road, and to the Southern 
 Pacific $100.00 to build to Beeville. He has been 
 
 instrumental also in causing the erection of numer- 
 ous churches in his county during the past twenty 
 years, contributing liberally of his means to that 
 end. Indeed, we may say that his liberality to 
 schools, churches, and all charitable purposes has 
 been one of his distinguishing characteristics. 
 
 While serving as County Judge and ex-officio 
 Superintendent of Schools of his county, he took 
 an active interest in his duties, and each year met 
 the teachers of the State at the annual meetings of 
 the State Teachers Association. 
 
 When the County Judges' Association was or- 
 ganized, he was elected Treasurer and served as 
 such and met with them each year until he retired 
 from office, having then served longer than any 
 other County Judge in the State. 
 
 He is universally respected by all who know him, 
 as an honest man, upright and impartial judge, 
 public-spirited citizen, and Christian gentleman; 
 moreover, he is a man of fine, decidedly martial, 
 appearance, being six feet in height and as straight 
 as an arrow, and, though somewhat advanced in 
 years, he moves with a soldierly step and bearing. 
 He weighs 175 pounds, has a fair complexion and 
 has blue eyes. Affable and genial, easily ap- 
 proached by those even of the most humble station, 
 he has many devoted admirers and friends. 
 
 Judge Hayes has an excellent library and spends 
 many hours in the society of his books. He has 
 not, however, lost interest in the events that are 
 transpiring about him. On the contrary, he is as 
 deeply attached to the cause of good government 
 as at any former period of his life, and is active 
 with voice and pen in every campaign in which im- 
 portant issues are submitted to the hazard of the 
 ballot. His greatest pleasures are found, however, 
 within the limits of his delightful home circle and 
 in the companionship of his numerous friends. 
 
 Still in the full vigor of mental and physical 
 strength, and thoroughly interested in the drama of 
 life, through so many scenes of which he has al- 
 ready passed, he is still an active and progressive 
 worker, and has many plans that he hopes to ac- 
 complish before the coming of Nature's bed-time. 
 Strong, vigorous and manly ; patriotic and unselfish, 
 he is a fine representative of the men who have 
 made our present civilization possible, and it is to be 
 hoped that many years of usefulness yet await him. 
 
668 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 GEORGE WEBB SLAUGHTER, 
 
 PALO PiNTO COUNTY, 
 
 Was a nati\e of Lawrence County, Miss., his 
 birth occurring May 10, ISU. William Slaughter, 
 his father, was a Virginian, born in 1781, his death 
 occurring in Sabine County, Texas, in 185 L The 
 elder Mr. Slaughter was a farmer and had seen 
 service in the war of 1812, fighting under Jackson 
 at New Orleans. He married Miss Nancy Moore, 
 of South Carolina, and was the father of eight 
 children, four of them boys. In 1821 the family 
 moved to Copiah County, Miss., and four years 
 later started to Texas, but stopped for a time in 
 
 with headquarters at Nacogdoches. He was a man 
 of narrow and decided views and but poorly qual- 
 ified to exercise authority over a people reared in 
 the enjoyment of American liberty. There was no 
 tolerance of religious belief beyond a blind adher- 
 ence to the Catholic Church, and the arrest by Col. 
 Piedras of several Protestant clergj'men, who had 
 attempted to hold services in the colony, precipi- 
 tated one of the first conflicts between the colonists 
 and the Mexican government. G. W. Slaughter, 
 then a boy of nineteen or twenty, took an active 
 
 MRS. GEORGE WEBB SLAUGHTER. 
 
 Louisiana, and it was while living in the latter State 
 that George Webb Slaughter received the only 
 schooling (three weeks in all) which he ever had an 
 opportunity to obtain. In 1830 the Slaughter 
 family crossed the Sabine river and settled in what 
 was then the Mexican State of Coahuila and Texas. 
 At that time the country east of Austin was divided 
 into municipalities governed principally by military 
 laws. Petty officers were in charge at the different 
 l^oints and alcaldes, or magistrates, were appointed 
 by them, while all matters of importance were re- 
 ferred to the District Commandant. Col. Piedras 
 was in charge of the country along the Sabine, 
 
 part in the armed resistance to this act of tyranny, 
 and his relation of the events which followed is 
 vivid and interesting. A commissioner, sent to 
 Col. Piedras to intercede for the prisoners' release, 
 was treated with contempt, and Col. Bean Andrews, 
 who repaired to the city of Mexico on the same 
 errand, was thrown into prison. Despairing of 
 obtaining recognition and relief through pacific 
 methods, the colonists held a mass meeting at San 
 Augustine about June 1, 1832, and resolved to take 
 matters into their own hands and release the pris- 
 oners, if need be, through force of arms. Prep- 
 arations for this decisive step went quietly on, and 
 
COL. GEORGE WEBB SLAUGHTER. 
 
so c: 
 
 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 nc» 
 
 in a short time 500 armed men met wilbin two miles 
 of Nacogdoches and sent to Col. Pledras, under a 
 flag of truce, a demand for the prisoners' liberation. 
 In reply a company of cavalry came out with a 
 counter demand for the surrender of the whole 
 party. Immediate hostilities followed. The Mex- 
 icans were driven hack to town after one or two 
 ineffectual stands, and eventually forced to evacu- 
 ate the fort and seek safety in flight. Quite a num- 
 ber of Mexicans were killed, but only three Ameri- 
 cans, one of whom was G. P. Smith, an uncle of 
 G. W. Slaughter. At that time the Angelina river 
 was swollen with recent rains, its bottom lands 
 flooded and impassable except at one point, some 
 eighteen miles from the fort, where a bridge had 
 been built. Here all the men who were provided 
 ■with horses were directed to hasten and stop the 
 retreat of the panic-striken Mexicans, while the 
 remainder of the force followed on, thus bringing 
 the enemy between two fires and compelling the 
 entire command to surrender. Col. Piedras was 
 allowed to return to Mexico under promise of ex- 
 cusing the colonist's acts and interceding for their 
 pardon, but he proved false to his trust and his 
 report of the affair at Nacogdoches only still further 
 incensed the government. Mr. Slaughter was under 
 fire for the first time in this skirmish or battle. 
 During the temporary lull which followed previous 
 to the general outbreak of war, he was occupied in 
 freighting between Louisiana and Texas points, and 
 one of his loads — perhaps the most valuable of 
 them all — • consisted of the legal library of Sam. 
 Houston, which he hauled to Nacogdoches in 
 18.33. He had previously met Houston while 
 attending court at Natchitoches, La., and he men- 
 tions the fact that upon this occasion the future 
 President of the Texas Republic was dressed in 
 Indian garments and decked out in all the glory of 
 scalp-lock, feathers and silver ornaments. Mr. 
 Slaughter was an earnest admirer of Houston and 
 was more than pleased when the latter assumed con- 
 trol of the Texian forces. The company in which he 
 enlisted reported to Houston for duty at San 
 Antonio, and was in several of the engagements 
 which immediately followed, among others the 
 famous " Grass Fight," one of the hottest of the 
 war. Houston then advanced toward Mexico, but 
 halted near Goliad upon intelligence that Santa 
 Anna was approaching with an army of 15,000 men. 
 Col. Fannin with the forces under his command was 
 encamped in a strong position in a bend of the 
 river below Goliad. Travis was in the Alamo with 
 those gallant spirits who were to remain with him 
 faithful and uncomplaining until death. Houston, 
 safe in the consciousness that on the open prairie 
 
 lay perfect safety from beleaguerment, watched the 
 approach of the Mexican armj' and pleaded with 
 Fannin and Travis to abandon the fortifications 
 and join him. Mr. Slaughter served as a courier, 
 making several trips to Fannin and Travis in the 
 Alamo. On one of the latter, in obedience to in- 
 structions from Gen. Houston, he delivered into the 
 hands of Col. Travis an order to retreat. After 
 reading it, Travis consulted with his brother officers, 
 acquainted his men with the contents of the mes- 
 sage, and then drew a line in the sand with his 
 sword and called upon all who were willing to re- 
 main with him and light, if need be, to the death, 
 to cross it. The decision was practically unanimous 
 to defend the fort to the last extremity. Only one 
 of the little band chose to make his way to the main 
 army ; he was let down from the walls and effected 
 his escape. Travis hoped for reinforcements that 
 would enable him to inflict upon Santa Anna a 
 bloody and decisive repulse that would check him 
 on the outskirts of the settlements, or, failing in 
 this, detain his army a sufficient length of time to 
 enable the colonists to mass an adequate force to 
 meet him successfully in the open field. He fully 
 realized the peril of his situation and concealed 
 nothing from his comrades. They determined to 
 stake their lives upon the hazard and were immo- 
 lated upon the altar of their country. 
 
 Mr. Slaughter returned to headcjuarters and re- 
 ported the result of his mission. Later while on a 
 hazardous trip to the Alamo, then known to be 
 invested with Santa Anna's armj^ he encountered 
 Mrs. Dickinson and her negro slave, survivors of 
 the massacre, who had been released by the Mexi- 
 can commandant and instructed to proceed to Gen. 
 Houston with tidings of Travis' fate. The butcher3^ 
 of Fannin and his men followed shortly after, and 
 Santa Anna pressed on after Gen. Houston, who 
 had retreated to the east side of the Brazos. 
 Meantime Mr. Slaughter was employed in carrying 
 messages and in procuring subsistence for the 
 army, accepting many dangerous missions and 
 performing them all to the satisfaction of his com- 
 manding officer. History relates how Houston 
 retreated and how the Mexican army followed until 
 they were led into the trap at San Jacinto, where 
 the tables were turned and Santa Anna defeated 
 and captured ; his troops slaughtered, and his inva- 
 sion brought to an ignominious end. The victory at 
 San Jacinto was not the end of hostilities ; but, fol- 
 lowing it, there came a breathing spell, of which 
 Mr. Slaughter hastened to take advantage. Gain- 
 ing a leave of absence, under promise of returning 
 at once in case he was needed, he hastened to his 
 home, and on the 12th day of the following October 
 
670 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 iie was married to Miss Sarah Mason, to whom he 
 had been engaged for some time. The ceremony 
 was only deferred to this date because under the 
 disorganized state of the country there was no 
 officer with legal authority to perform it. The 
 marriage of Mr. Slaughter was the first ceremony 
 of the kind under the sanclion of the Republic 
 which he had been instrumental in establishing. 
 The newly wedded couple settled in Sabine County, 
 and Mr. Slaughter resumed freighting for a liveli- 
 hood, engaging in the employ of the new govern- 
 ment. 
 
 At the time of the Cherokee troubles, in IS.jO, 
 the eastern counties organized companies in pur- 
 
 fork of the Trinit}', three or four daj's march, by 
 companies of Capts. Slaughter and Todd. 
 
 The need which had prompted the organization 
 of an armed force now no longer existing, the men 
 disbanded, and Mr. Slaughter returned to the 
 labors and attendant comforts of home life. In 
 1852 he moved to Freestone County, intending to 
 turn his attention to stock-raising. He brought 
 with him ninety-two head of cattle and established 
 a ranch near the old town of Butler, and in the five 
 years lie resided there increased his herd to 600 
 head. Mr. Slaughter believed there were better 
 opportunities to be gained by removal further west, 
 and in l.sr>7 drove his herds to Palo Pinto County, 
 
 COL. C. C. SLAUGHTER. 
 
 suance of President Houston's orders, and Mr. 
 Slaughter was elected Captain of the company 
 organized in Sabine. The newly recruited forces 
 assembled at Nacogdoches, and in a body marched 
 to reinforce Gen. Rusk, who was stationed with a 
 small force on the Neches river, near where Chief 
 Bowles was encamped with 1,600 Clierokees. Two 
 daj's were spent in an ineffectual attempt to arrange 
 a treaty and the Indians dropped back from their 
 position, but were followed and a fight ensued in 
 which the Cherokees lost eleven killed and the 
 whites only three, though fourteen of their number 
 were wounded. The Indians again retreated and 
 the following day there was a general battle ; Chief 
 Bowles was killed, with several hundred of his fol- 
 lowers, while the remainder of the Cherokees fled 
 to the westward, being followed to the Bois d'Arc 
 
 locating five miles north of the town of that name, 
 at that time known as Golconda. He bought here 
 2,000 acres of land and located by certificate 960 
 acres more, and the ranch located at that time was 
 thereafter his home, though his residence at this 
 point was not continuous. In 1858-59 Mr. 
 Slaughter was occupied in raising stock and running 
 a small farm, but the following year moved his 
 stock to Young County, at a point near the Ross 
 Indian Reservation. He had then 1,200 head of 
 cattle and a small bunch of horses, but lost forty 
 head of the latter through theft by Indians in 1860, 
 and for these and other property stolen, he later 
 filed claims against the government aggregating 
 $6,500. 
 
 Mr. Slaughter's holdings of cattle had increased 
 in 1867-68 to such an extent that he decided to sell 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 671 
 
 the greater portion of them, and he accordingly dis- 
 posed of 12,000 to James Loving and Cliarles 
 Rivers at a uniform price of $6.00. Rivers was 
 afterwards killed by Indians while in camp in Jack- 
 son County, in June, 1871. Following the sale of 
 his cattle, Mr. Slaughter formed a partnership with 
 his son, C. C. Slaughter, and began driving cattle 
 through to Kansas. The first drove only consisted 
 of 800 head, but they brought the neat little sum 
 of $32,000. For the seven years up to and includ- 
 ing 1875, the herds of Slaughter & Son were driven 
 to Kansas points and from thence shipped to St. 
 Louis and Chicago. The drove in 1870 was proba- 
 bl}' the largest, numbering 3,000 head, and the 
 
 C. C, taking into business with him another son, 
 Peter, and in 1878 they sold and shipped 4,000 
 cattle. Six years later, on account of declining 
 health, Mr. Slaughter disposed of his cattle inter- 
 ests and afterwards devoted his time to the care of 
 his ranch and other property. He had at his Palo 
 Pinto ranch 1,280 acres of land, and owned 1,300 
 acres Id other portions of the State, besides town 
 property in Mineral Wells. Securing his land when 
 nearly tlie entire country was open for selection, Mr. 
 Slaughter had one of the most desirable locations 
 in the country, and prized it more highly in remem- 
 brance of the hardships and dangers attendant upon 
 its settlement. During the first few years of his 
 
 MRS. C. C. SLAUGHTER. 
 
 returns from this herd foated up $105,000. In 
 1870 Mr. Slaughter moved his family to Emporia, 
 Kan., in order that his children might have the 
 advantage of the superior educational facilities at 
 that point, but in 1875 he returned to Texas and 
 resumed operations on his old ranch in Palo Pinto 
 County. The number of cattle handled and the 
 money received from their sale can be expressed in 
 round figures, as follows: — 
 
 1868, 800 head, $32,000.00; 1869, 2,000 head, 
 $90,000.00; 1870,3,000 head, $105,000; 1871,2,000 
 head, $66,000.00; 1873,2,000 head, $66,000.00; 
 1874, 2,000 head, $60,000.00; 1865, 1,000 head, 
 $45,000.00. Such figures as these go a long way 
 toward impressing the reader with the importance 
 of the cattle business twenty years ago. In 1876 
 Mr. Slaughter dissolved partnership with his son. 
 
 residence in Palo Pinto County the Indians were 
 very troublesome, and Mr. Slaughter could 
 relate many incidents of Ijorder warfare from 
 the standpoint of an eye-witness and partic- 
 i|)ant. In 1864 he had a skirmish with seven 
 Indians on Cedar creek, in Palo Pinto County, 
 several shots were exchanged, but the Indians were 
 finally frightened away. Three years later the In- 
 dians made a raid on his ranch and stole all the 
 horses, and John Slaughter, a son, received a 
 bullet wound in the breast. Skirmishes with the 
 red-skins were then of too common occurrence to 
 attract much attention beyond the immediate 
 neighborhood. The entire Texas border was a 
 battle-field, and those who lived on the Upper 
 Brazos had to guard themselves as best they could. 
 In 1866 Mr. Slaughter was driving a small bunch 
 
CI -2 
 
 IXDIAX WAIi.s AND PIOXEERs OF TEXAS. 
 
 of cattle on Dry creek, near Graham, when he was 
 attacked by thirteen Indians, but his carbine and 
 revolver proved too much for their courage, and 
 they retreated after he had wounded one of their 
 number. In the month of April, 18fi9, a bunch of 
 Indians surrounded and massacred thirteen grov- 
 ernment teamsters near Flat Top Mountain, in 
 Young County. Mr. Slaughter was within two 
 miles of this place, camped with fourteen men, 
 holding 800 head of cattle which he had gathered. 
 The Indians attacked them, and they only escaped 
 through strategy. Sis of the men were sent with 
 the cattle in the direction of Sand creek, and the 
 remainder of them, including Mr. Slaughter and 
 his son C. C, made a breastwork of the horses and 
 awaited an attack. Profiting by a deep ravine at 
 hand, some of the men crept cautiouslj' away, and 
 suddenly appearing at another point, made a charge 
 upon the Indians, who supposed there were re-in- 
 forcements coming, and beat a retreat. 
 
 Mr. Slaughter was an earnest worker all his life, 
 and few men proved themselves so useful in so many 
 and varied capacities. He was for many years a 
 minister of the Baptist Church. During his minis- 
 try he baptized over 3,000 persons and helped to 
 ordain more preachers and organize more churches 
 than any other person in the State of Texas. When 
 Eev. Mr. Slaughter first came to Palo Pinto County, 
 in starting out to fill his appointments as minister, 
 he would saddle his horse, fill his saddle bags with 
 provisions, take along his picket rope and arm 
 himself with two six-shooters and his trusty carbine. 
 The distance between the places where he preached 
 being sometimes as great as sixty miles, it was 
 often nectssarj'for him to camp over night by him- 
 self. Twice he was attacked bj' Indians, but es- 
 caped uninjured. On one occasion, while he was 
 preaching in the village of Palo Pinto, the county 
 was so filled with hostile Indians and wrought up 
 
 to such a pitch that Mr. Slaughter kept his six- 
 shooter and his carbine at his side during the ser- 
 mon, and every member of his congregation 
 was likewise armed. He never permitted busi- 
 ness or fear of the Indians to interfere with his 
 pastoral work, and always made it a point to keep 
 his engagements. 
 
 He first united with the Methodist Church in 
 1831, but in 1842 joined the Baptist Church and ii- 
 1844 was ordained to preach. He studied and 
 practiced medicine, and was for a number of years 
 the only physician in Palo Pinto Count}'. It would 
 be impossible to overrate his usefulness during 
 those long years, when the citizens of the north- 
 western counties were practicall}- isolated from the 
 world and dependent upon each other for comfort 
 and aid in times of exlremit}'. Ever thoughtful 
 and kind, Mr. Slaughter gave freely of his time 
 and money to the poor of his community. 
 
 Eleven children were born to Mr. and Mrs. 
 Slaughter, six boys and five girls. Seven of them 
 are still living, as follows: — 
 
 C. C, Peter E., J. B., W. B., Fannie, Sarah 
 Jane, and Millie. Mrs. Slaughter died on the Cth 
 of January, 1894. 
 
 He died at his home, six miles north of Palo 
 Pinto, Texas, at 11 p. m., March 19, 1895. Dur- 
 ing his last illness he had the consolation of hav- 
 ing with him his three sons, C. C, J. B., and 
 W. B. Slaughter; his three daughters, Mrs. Jennie 
 Harris, Mrs. Millie Dalton, and Miss Fannie 
 Slaughter, and also his long-cherished friend. Rev. 
 Rufus C. Burleson, of Waco, and a number of 
 neighbors and other friends. His end was peace- 
 ful and in keeping with his Christian life. Just 
 before he died, he expressed his willingness to obe}' 
 the summons, his trust in God, and his belief in a 
 happy immortality. 
 
 ISAAC PARKS, 
 
 ANDERSON, 
 
 A native of Georgia and for manj' years a promi- 
 nent citizen of Chambers County, Ala., came to 
 Texas in 1853, and located two miles east of Ander- 
 son, in Grimes County, where he continued plant- 
 ing in, which he had been formerly engaged. He 
 married first, on April 1st, 1834, Miss Lucinda 
 
 Chipman, and after her death married, on January 
 16th, 1844, Miss Martha S. Stoneham, daughter of 
 Joseph Stoneham, and a niece of the venerable 
 Bryant Stoneham, of Stoneham Station, Grimes 
 County, Texas. He brought to Texas with him a 
 familv of six children, four of whom were bv his 
 
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 673 
 
 first wife and two bj- his second. Of tbese cliildren 
 three were daughters, all of whom married. They 
 are all deceased. A son, W. H. Parks, D. D., is 
 a clergyman of the Baptist Church, stationed at 
 Ennis, Texas. The Stonehams were among the 
 earliest settlers on Grimes Prairie, in Grimes 
 County. 
 
 By Mr. Parks' second marriage, there were six 
 sons and two daughters. Two sons, Eldridge and 
 Terrill, are deceased. The four surviving sons are : 
 Joseph F., of Bryan; Erastus, of Anderson; 
 Charles, of Brenham ; and Edwin L., of Stoneham, 
 Texas. The two daughters are: Carrie, now Mrs. 
 W. G. Hatfield, of Ennis ; and Laura, wife of L. S. 
 Coffey, of Navasota. Mr. Parks died June 14, 
 1877, at sixty-eight years of age, and Mrs. Parks 
 in 18S4, at fifty-eight j'ears of age, both at Ander- 
 son. 
 
 Joseph F. Parks is one of Bryan's successful 
 business men. He was born at Oak Bowery, 
 Chambers County, Ala., February 17, 1846. He 
 
 was reared on his father's farm and resided there 
 until 1869. He spent two years in the Confederate 
 army as a member of Chisholm's regiment, in 
 Major's brigade of Texas cavalry', and was attached 
 to Green's division in the Trans-Mississippi Depart- 
 ment. He was later transferred to Walker's divis- 
 ion (infantr3-), and was final!}' detailed as a clerk 
 in the commissar}- department of his (Waterhouse's) 
 brigade and served in that capacity until the end of 
 the war, when he returned to Anderson, where he 
 was employed for two years as manager of his 
 father's farm. In September, 1869, he married 
 Miss Helen Garrett, a daughter of Judge O. H. P. 
 Garrett, one of the original settlers of the historic 
 old county of Washington. He farmed during the 
 year of 1870 in Washington County. Late in that 
 year he engaged in the livery business, which he 
 has since followed, first in Navasota, then in Bren- 
 ham and, since 1885, in Brj'an. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Parks have five children, viz.: Ernest F., Joseph 
 F. , Eugene, Lilian, and Nannie. 
 
 G. W. GAYLE, 
 
 COLUMBIA, 
 
 Was born in Dallas County, Ala., in 1840. He 
 received his education at Auburn, Ala., and came 
 to Texas in 1860. He returned shortly afterward 
 to his native State, however, and enlisted for the 
 war in the Third Alabama Regiment. He served 
 through the war and surrendered with Gen. Lee's 
 army. In 1866 he returned to Texas and engaged 
 in steamboating on the Trinity river. This busi- 
 ness was followed with gratifying financial success 
 during those exciting and troublesome times, when 
 transportation facilities were so meager in Texas. 
 
 In 1873 he settled in Brazoria County, and steam- 
 boat navigation on the Brazos engaged his atten- 
 tion for quite a while. In 1888 be was elected 
 County Clerk of his county, and his great popu- 
 larity is attested by the fact that he has been re- 
 elected at each succeeding election. He lived in 
 Columbia and has a most interesting family. He 
 has been an indefatigable worker for the upbuild- 
 ing of the section of the State in which he resides, 
 and few of his fellow- citizens are more widely 
 useful or influential. 
 
 WILEY MANGUM IMBODEN, 
 
 RUSK, 
 
 Was born in Louisiana, iu 1861, and in 1863 was 
 brought to Texas with his parents, who located in 
 Cherokee County, Texas. He received the benefit 
 of a thorough education in the primary and acade- 
 mic schools of Texas and then read law and was 
 
 admitted to the bar. For a number of years he 
 was actively identified with Texas journalism as a 
 newspaper owner and an editorial writer of rare 
 force and elegance. He was then, as he has since 
 been, a prominent figure and gallant and effective 
 
G74 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 fighter in the political arena, contending against 
 all comers for the continued ascendency of the 
 Democratic party in this State and the establish- 
 ment and maintenance of good government. He 
 was elected and served as Journal Clerk of the 
 Texas Senate of the Nineteenth and Twentieth 
 Legislatures and upon the assembling of the Twen- 
 tieth-first Legislature was elected Chief Clerk of 
 the House of Representatives of that body. In 
 the years that have followed he has been repeatedly 
 elected a member of the Legislature, serving with 
 distinction both in the Senate and House of Repre- 
 sentatives, For the past decade or more, he has 
 
 taken an active and influential part in the counsels 
 of his party, has filled positions of honor in its 
 ranks and has done yeoman service ; he is recog- 
 nized as one of the brightest and truest blades that 
 Texas Democracy can boast. This 3'ear (1896) he 
 was nominated, and has just been elected a presi- 
 dential elector upon the Bryan and Sewall ticket 
 and will have the pleasure of voting for the re- 
 establishment of this government as a government 
 of the people. He has inherited the stature and 
 features of his illustrious ancestor, Wiley P. 
 Mangum, for a long time Senator of the United 
 States from North Carolina. 
 
 GEORGE T. JESTER, 
 
 CORSICANA. 
 
 Hon. George T. Jester, ex-member of the State 
 Legislature, in which he made an unusually brilliant 
 record, and now Lieutenant-Governor of the State 
 of Texas, was born in Macoupin County, 111., 
 August 23, 1847. His father died in 1858, leaving 
 the mother and six children a small amount of prop- 
 erty that served to support the family until Charles 
 W. and George T. Jester were old enough to con- 
 tribute to the maintenance of the family. 
 
 Hampton McKinney, related to the Hamptons 
 of South Carolina and maternal grandfather of the 
 subject of this memoir, moved to Texas in 1847 and 
 built the first house — a log cabin — on the site 
 now occupied by the thriving city of Corsicana. 
 On the death of his father in 1858, his mother and 
 six children made their way to McKinney's home, 
 traveling the long distance from Macoupin County, 
 III., to Corsicana, in a two-horse wagon. Soon after 
 their arrival the county commenced the construction 
 of a courthouse, the first brick building erected in 
 that part of the State. George T. Jester and his 
 elder brother, Charles W., secured employment, at 
 fifty cents a day, and earned a support for their 
 mother and sisters. 
 
 At seventeen years of age he began reading law, 
 but abandoned its study, and the following year 
 (the fourth of the war) joined Hood's Fourth Texas 
 Regiment. Before it reached Richmond, however, 
 Lee had surrendered. Returning home, the neces- 
 sities of the family were such that he could not 
 prosecute his studies to admis&ion to the bar. He 
 worked hard and earned money enough to purchase 
 
 a wagon and horses and for two years followed 
 trading and buying hides on a small scale. 
 
 He next secured a position in a dry goods store 
 in Corsicana at twenty dollars per month and clerked 
 three years, his salary being increased until it 
 reached one hundred and twenty-five dollars per 
 month. 
 
 He then began business on his own account and 
 merchandised from 1870 to 1880, meeting with suc- 
 cess. During five years of this time he was engaged 
 in buying cotton from farmers and shipping it direct 
 to spinners, the system now in vogue, and which he 
 has the honor of having introduced into Texas. In 
 1881 he retired from merchandising and cotton- 
 buying and embarked in the banking business with 
 his brothers, C. W. and L. L. Jester, under the firm 
 name of Jester Brothers. In 1887 the bank was 
 converted into the Corsicana National Bank, with a 
 capital and surplus of $125,000.00. Hon. George 
 T. Jester is president and manager of this institu- 
 tion. 
 
 He is as largely (perhaps more largely) inter- 
 ested in farming and stock-raising than in bank- 
 ing. The breeding and introduction of fine stock 
 and scientific farming is a passion with him. The 
 most highly enjoyed of his leisure hours are spent 
 at his pleasant country home. 
 
 He has been twice married : in 1871 to Miss Alice 
 Bates, who died in 1875, leaving two children (a 
 son, Claude W., and a daughter, named for her 
 mother, Alice Bates Jester) ; and in 1880, five years 
 after the death of his first wife, to Miss Fannie P. 
 
IXDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 fi75 
 
 Gordon, by whom he has one cbilcl, Charles G. 
 Jester. 
 
 Mr. Jester is a member of the Methodist Episco- 
 pal Church South and has been sent as a lay dele- 
 gate to several important sessions of the General 
 Conference, the highest body known to that church. 
 He is a director and treasurer of the Navarro 
 Bible Society, a member of the Corsicaua Relief 
 Association, Navarro County Fair Association and 
 Corsicana Board of Trade, and is a stockholder in 
 the Corsicana Street Railway Company and Corsi- 
 cana Manufacturing Company. 
 
 In 1890 he was nominated by acclamation by the 
 Democratic Convention of the Sixtieth District, 
 and, at the ensuing election, in November, was 
 elected to the House of Representatives of the 
 Twenty-second Legislature, without opposition. 
 In that body he served as a member of several im- 
 portant committees, helped frame and assisted in 
 passing the Railroad Commission Bill, introduced 
 several measures of far-reaching importance, took 
 
 an active part in the legislation of the session, won 
 the confidence and esteem of his fellow-members 
 and earned a State-wide reputation as a man of 
 uncommon abilit}' and a faithful servant of the 
 people. 
 
 In 1892 he was nominated and elected State Sen- 
 ator and served as Chairman of the Finance 
 Committee of the Senate of the Twenty-third Legis- 
 lature. The reputation that he earned in the 
 Legislature led to his nomination and election two 
 years later by the Democracy of the State of Texas 
 to the high and important office of Lieutenant- 
 Governor, which he now (1896) holds and so well 
 adorns. At the recent Democratic Convention he 
 was renominated for and at the approaching elec- 
 tion will be re-elected to the office of Lieutenant- 
 Governor. 
 
 He is truly a representative man of the people, 
 having worked his way, through many difficulties, 
 to the place he now occupies in the social, political 
 and business world. 
 
 C. R. COX, 
 
 HINKLE'S FERRY. 
 
 Christopher Randolph Cox, one of the best known 
 and most highly respected of the old Texas veterans 
 who still abides with us, was born in the town of 
 Bowling Green, Warren County, Ky., August 31, 
 1828. His parents emigrated to Texas in Decem- 
 ber, 1829, and settled in the town of Brazoria, now 
 in Brazoria County. His father, a physician by 
 profession, and a leading citizen in that section, 
 died in August, 183.3, and his mother in November, 
 1841. 
 
 Mr. Cox has lived in Brazoria County continu- 
 ously since 1829, with the exception of four years 
 spent in Houston and one year in Matagorda 
 County. It has been sixty-seven years since he 
 landed in Texas by schooner from New Orleans, 
 and during all that time, through the many changes 
 he has witnessed and through the many vicissitudes 
 of circumstance and fortune that he has been called 
 upon to encounter, he has come fully and squarely 
 up to the stature of good citizenship, and enjoyed 
 the confidence and esteem of the people among 
 whom he has dwelt. 
 
 In 1846 he joined Capt. Ballowe's company, 
 
 Hays' regiment, and served during the Mexican 
 War under Gen. Zacliary Taylor. He partici- 
 pated in the battle of Monterey, was at the storm- 
 ing of tlie Bishop's Palace and other Mexican 
 strongholds in and around the city, and was in all 
 tiie engagements in which his command took part, 
 bearing himself with the gallantry of a true soldier. 
 The war over, he returned to his home, and in 1856 
 was elected County Clerk of Brazoria County, and 
 was re-elected in 1858 and 1860. In 1862 he was 
 elected County Judge and in 1864 was re-elected to 
 that office. In 1866 he was elected Tax Assessor 
 and Collector of that county ; was appointed Sheriff 
 and Tax Collector in April, 1877, and filled that 
 office until December 1, 1878. He was elected 
 County Commissioner in 1882 and resigned that 
 position in October, 1883, since which time he has 
 held no public office. 
 
 Although in his sixtj*- ninth year, Mr. Cox is still 
 as vigorous, mentally, as in his prime, and his 
 physical health is such as to justify his friends in 
 the hope that he will be spared to them for many 
 years to come. 
 
676 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 A. T. ROSE, 
 
 SUPERINTENDENT OF THE TEXAS SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB. 
 
 Hon. A. T. Rose, the eflicient superintendent of 
 the Texas School for the Deaf and Dumb, is 
 well known tliroughout the State as a financier and 
 leading promoter of many useful public and private 
 enterprises in the section of the State in which he 
 for so many years made his unofficial home. He 
 was born in McLennan County, Texas, in June, 
 1858. When a boy he attended a preparatory 
 school at home and then entered the Texas Mili- 
 tary Institute at Austin, where he graduated in 
 1877. He married Miss Lillie Thomas, a young 
 lady of Austin, in 1878, and settled upon a farm at 
 his old home near Waco. In 1887 he moved to 
 Hillsboro, where he went into the real estate busi- 
 ness. By dint of energy, careful business habits 
 and superior financial ability, he rapidly enlarged 
 his interests, and took position as one of the most 
 effective workers for the upbuilding of Hillsboro 
 and the section tributary to it. He is now the 
 vice-president of the Hillsboro Investment and 
 Electric Light Co., and president of Rose Hill 
 Improvement Co., which owns and controls a large 
 addition to the city of Hillsboro. He also owns 
 otlier property in Hill and McLennan counties. 
 His married life has been blessed with four chil- 
 dren, the oldest seventeen years of age and the 
 youngest eleven. His wife has many friends in 
 
 Austin who grew up from cliildliood with her, and 
 is a social favorite. The superintendency of this 
 State Institution came to Mr. Rose witiiout his 
 seeking. When it was first tendered to him in 
 January, 189.5, he hesitated to accept, as by doing 
 so his varied interests might have to suffer, but it 
 was his wife's wish to move back to Austin, and he 
 yielded to her desire. He has now been at the 
 head of the institution for nearly two years, and it 
 has prospered greatly under his management, and 
 the wisdom of his appointment by the Governor 
 has been fully justified by results. This eleemosy- 
 nary institution is second in importance to none 
 maintained by the State, and requires for its 
 proper administration, qualities of heart and mind 
 of the highest order, and these the present super- 
 intendent has shown himself to possess in full 
 measure, and it is to be hoped, in the interest of 
 the unfortunates now in his charge, that he will 
 remain at its head for many years to come. His 
 energies and brain could not be employed in a 
 nobler cause than that in wliich they are now 
 enlisted — a life-work worthy to become the life- 
 work of any man whose ambition is of that high 
 order that animates to noble deeds in the ser- 
 vice of others, and in the interest of a broad 
 liuminity. 
 
 JOSE MARIA RODRIGUEZ, 
 
 LAREDO. 
 
 Jose Maria Rodriguez was born in San Antonio, 
 Texas, October 29th, 1829, of pure Spanish lineage. 
 He is the son of the late Ambrosio Rodriguez. 
 
 His mother, before marriage, was Miss Ma J. 
 Olivarri. She is still living in San Antonio. 
 
 The father of the subject of this sketch was born 
 in San Antonio, in 1807, was First Lieutenant in 
 Gen. Houston's army and participated in the deci- 
 sive battle of San Jacinto. 
 
 Jose Maria sprang from a warlike family on both 
 sides. His maternal grandfather, Andres Cour- 
 biere, was a sergeant in the Spanisli army tliat 
 
 occupied San Antonio at an early date. He re- 
 tired from the army and married at San Antonio, 
 and his descendants are scattered throughout the 
 State of Texas. 
 
 Jose Maria, when quite a boy, witnessed a fight 
 in the county courthouse of Bexar County, in 
 which his father was a participant, between Texians 
 and Comanche Indians, a full account of which is 
 to be found under the proper heading elsewhere 
 in this work. 
 
 Jose Maria Rodriguez was educated in Texas and 
 New Orleans, La., and in addition to tlie English 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 i\ll 
 
 language became also proficient in Spanish and 
 French, the two foreign languages generally in use 
 in the locality of his residence at that time. He 
 lived in San Antonio until 1861 and then moved to 
 Laredo, where he still resides, engaged in raising 
 stock — sheep, horses and cattle — on his ranch in 
 ICncinal County, Texas. His ranch at present is 
 one of the largest and finest in that county. 
 
 Mr. Rodriguez married Feliz Benavides, a daugh- 
 ter of Basilic Benavides, who was one of the public- 
 spirited and wealthy citizens of Southwest Texas, 
 and who represented his district in the Constitu- 
 tional Convention of 1859-60. They have had two 
 children: Natalie and Jose Arabrosio. Natalie, 
 the daughter, received a fine education at San An- 
 tonio, and the son, Jose Ambrosio, was educated 
 at St. Mary's University, at Galveston, Texas. 
 
 Mr. Rodriguez has been an active Democrat and 
 participant in political affairs. He was Assessor 
 and Collector of Taxes for Bexar County, and Alder- 
 man for San Antonio in 1857-8. Removing to Webb 
 County he commenced the study of law, was ad- 
 mitted to practice in the District Court in 1864, and 
 in 1879 was elected County Judge. He is a man 
 of fine intelligence and business habits, and the 
 fact that for years he was elected to the important 
 position of County Judge of his county, is the very 
 best evidence that his fellow-citizens have the 
 highest confidence in his integrity and ability. 
 Judge Rodriguez is a true and exemplary Catholic 
 and consistent Christian gentleman. 
 
 He has been a public-spirited man, ever ready to 
 unite with his fellow-citizens in improving the local- 
 ity of his home city. 
 
 GEN. THOMAS N. WAUL, 
 
 GALVESTON. 
 
 Gen. Thomas Neville Waul, of Galveston, one of 
 the most distinguished citizens of the common- 
 wealth of Texas, was born near Statesburg, S. C, 
 Januarj' 5lh, 1813, and is the last living descendant 
 of the Wauls of that State. 
 
 His ancestors at an early day emigrated to Vir- 
 ginia, and their children scattered thence through 
 New Jersey and the Carolinas, and were among the 
 early settlers of the Western States. His great- 
 grandfather settled on the Yadkin and Pedee riveis 
 in the southeastern portion of South Carolina, and 
 his grandfather on the Santee river. 
 
 His father, Thomas Waul, was married to Miss 
 Annie Mulcahay, daughter of a leading citizen of 
 South Carolina. 
 
 The grandfathers of Gen. Waul, on both sides, 
 were active Whigs and soldiers in the Revolutionary 
 struggle that achieved independence for the Ameri- 
 can colonies, and at its close settled in South Caro- 
 lina near their comrade in arms, the gallant and 
 illustrious Gen. Sumpter, " The Gamecock of the 
 South." 
 
 With such a lineage, rich in such memories and 
 reared in such an atmosphere, it is not surprising 
 that genius, courage and patriotism are distinguish- 
 ing characteristics of Gen. Thomas N. Waul. At 
 an early age he entered the University of South 
 Carolina, at Columbia, but left it in 18.''>2 without 
 
 graduating, owing to feeble health, straitened 
 means and the death of his father. He had early 
 lost his sainted mother. He generously gave his 
 stepmother, as a recognition of her affection for 
 him, his interest in the small estate left by his 
 father. Having determined upon the study and 
 practice of law at the age of seventeen, he mounted 
 his horse and, with no other possessions than the 
 contents of his valise and testimonials as to his 
 scholarship, capacity and integritj', set forth sus- 
 tained by a courageous spirit, to find or make for 
 himself a place in the world. Turning bis horse's 
 head westward, he stopped at Florence, Ala., in- 
 tending only to make a short stay, to recuperate 
 his strength. A vacancy occurring, upon his 
 application, he was elected principal of the 
 msle academy situated, at that place. Here 
 he taught one session but, becoming im- 
 patient to take definite steps to enter his 
 chosen profession, relinquished the position as 
 principal and with high testimonials from the 
 trustees of the academy, proceeded to 
 Vieksburg, Miss., where he formed the acquaint- 
 ance of S. S. Prentiss. Prentiss at that time, 
 though a young man, had already exhibited much 
 of that capacity which afterwards made him so fa- 
 mous ; for his brilliant genius, even then, had won 
 for him a commanding position at the local bar. 
 
678 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Naturally, 3'oung AVaul was captivated by his mag- 
 netic power and engaging eloquence. Tlie esteem 
 was mutual, and at the invitation of Prentiss the 
 young aspirant for legal knowledge became a stu- 
 dent in his oflice, received the advantage of his 
 training and enjoyed the friendship of that illus- 
 trious man throughout his life. The eager student 
 made rapid progress, and in 1835 was licensed to 
 practice by the Suj^reme Court of Mississippi. He 
 
 home. He followed his profession with such ardor 
 and success that in a few years he was able to aban- 
 don the general practice and confine himself to busi- 
 ness in the Federal, Chancery and Court of Appeals, 
 and to special engagements in imjiortant cases. Hav- 
 ing by his exertions acquired a sufficient fortune to 
 justify some degree of respite from toil, he, in 
 December, 1850, removed to Texas and established 
 a plantation on the Guadalupe river, in Gonzales 
 
 GEN. THOMAS N. WAUL. 
 
 was previous thereto appointed District Attorney 
 for the wealthy and influential river district, includ- 
 ing within its limits the towns of Vicksburg and 
 Natchez and the counties on the Mississippi river. 
 He resided a short time in Yazoo City, and thence 
 removed to Grenada. In 1836 he married Miss 
 America Simmons, a highly cultured and accom- 
 plished young lad^'of Georgia, descended from one 
 of the leading families of that State. She now pre- 
 sides with elegance and grace over his hospitable 
 
 County. Having still interests in Mississippi, he 
 opened a law office in New Orleans, and for a few 
 winters practiced in important cases in the higher 
 courts of Louisiana. 
 
 When the Kuow-Nothing party threatened to ob- 
 tain control of the country he found much of the 
 ability and many of the leaders of the Democratic 
 party the strongest supporters of the new movement, 
 at the head of which, in Texas, was the great name 
 of Houston. He attacked the principles and prac- 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 679 
 
 tices of the Know-Nothing organization, sought its 
 champions upon every battle-ground, and invited 
 controversy upon the hustings with all who upheld 
 its dangerous doctrines. 
 
 Though never in his long career a seeker for 
 political office, the people called him from his 
 retirement on the Guadalupe in 1859 as the proper 
 champion of Democratic principles and put him for- 
 ward as a candidate for Congress. 
 
 Though the party was defeated and the Hon. A. 
 J. Hamilton (the opposition nominee) elected, the 
 character and eloquence of Gen. Waul shone with 
 unabated brilliancj' in the midst of party defeat. 
 
 Afterwards, in 1860, Gen. Waul was selected as 
 one of the electors of the State at large on the 
 Breckenridge and Lane ticket and in the historic 
 canvas that followed, delivered some of the ablest 
 speeches of his life. An eye and ear witness re- 
 lates that during the delivery of one of these 
 speeches at Seguin, somebody in the audience 
 called out: "But, Gen. Waul, suppose that Lin- 
 coln should be elected, what would you do then.?" 
 Without a moment's hesitation, he replied: " God 
 Almighty grant that that day will never come, yet 
 should that evil day arrive, then, as under all 
 other circumstances, I shall remember that I am a 
 native son of the South, and shall say to her as 
 Ruth said to Naomi, ' Whither thou goesti will go, 
 and where thou lodgest, I will lodge. Thy people 
 shall be my people and thy God my God. Where 
 thou diest I will die, and there will I be buried : 
 the Lord do so to me and more also, if aught but 
 death part thee and me.' " The crowd was elec- 
 trified, shouts rent the air, tears moistened hundreds 
 of cheeks and the gathered thousands saw in him 
 the embodiment of chivalric and manly grace, sin- 
 cere devotion to country and magnetic oratory. 
 
 He demonstrated the importance of a united 
 South as the only hope of averting impending war. 
 As to secession, he said that, as to some of the 
 States, it could not be averted and in case of 
 attempted coercion, Texas could not remain inac- 
 tive against a united and aggressive North. Con- 
 tinuing, he argued that there was a hope that this 
 aggression might be obviated by the display of a 
 united South. He therefore invoked this union as 
 a measure of patriotism, disregarding on his part, 
 and asking others to sink all party issues. Subse- 
 quent events rendered war inevitable, but it was 
 doubtless owing to these masterly appeals that the 
 great majority of the bitter opponents of secession 
 took arms for the South when coercion was 
 attempted. 
 
 The State having seceded. Gen. Waul was sent 
 to the Provisional Congress at Montgomery and, 
 
 with his usual sagacity, urged upon that body 
 the necessity of adequate preparations for a 
 struggle, as the most effective method of se- 
 curing a satisfactory arrangement between the 
 sections or, if necessary, to fight for an hon- 
 orable peace. Before his term of service ex- 
 pired it was obvious that an amicable adjustment 
 was impossible. He declined re-election, being 
 resolved to take the field. He succeeded in raising 
 over two thousand troops. Tliey were organized as 
 " Waul's Legion," went into camp in Washington 
 County and proceeded thence to Vicksburg and 
 Corinth, where Federal and Confederate troops were 
 being concentrated. At Holly Springs he heard 
 of the defeat of the Confederate forces, and was 
 ordered to the front to protect and cover their re- 
 treat. Thenceforth, the Legion under the command 
 of Gen. Waul was actively engaged in hard service. 
 Its valor and discipline made its name a household 
 word in Southern homes never to be forgotten. 
 Gen. Waul knew perfectly the topography of Mis- 
 sissippi and by virtue of this knowledge and his 
 ability as a commander, was assigned to the per- 
 formance of arduous and responsible duties in de- 
 fense of the State. He urged the importance of 
 defending Yazoo Pass and, though engineers had 
 reported that entrance through that channel was 
 impossible, his dissenting views were adopted by 
 the government and, at the instance of the Presi- 
 dent, by Gen. Pemberton, he was ordered to the 
 defense of the Yazoo and Tallahatchie river. The 
 Commanding General requested him to make his 
 selection of troops in the field to aid the Legion in 
 this responsible undertaking. His choice fell upon 
 the gallant Second Texas, commanded by that brave 
 old soldier. Col. Ashbel Smith, whose efficiency and 
 gallantry had been demonstrated in many en- 
 
 He proceeded to a strategic point near the con- 
 fluence of the Yalobusha and Tallahatchie rivers and 
 promptly commenced the erection of a fortification 
 of cotton bales. The Federal General, Ross, with 
 troops and gun-boats, had already entered the river 
 and was approaching with a well-appointed land and 
 naval force. But the narrowness of the river and 
 the want of knowledge of the channel somewhat re- 
 tarded the Federal advance, and utilizing this slight 
 delay, the Confederates toiled all through the night 
 in the mud to complete their works. Simultane- 
 ously with the dawn of morning the Federal fleet 
 appeared and the fortification received its last and 
 only large gun. 
 
 Notwithstanding the heavy armament and supe- 
 rior force of the Federals, they were driven back 
 and for a time Vicksburg and the Mississippi were 
 
G80 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 saved to the Confederacy. Gen. Loring arrived 
 on the eve of the engagement, but his report of 
 the battle truthfully gave the credit for the victory 
 to the brave Texiaus and tiieir commander. At the 
 siege of Vicksburg Gen. Waul's command did 
 active service in the reserve, their presence being 
 required to repel every attack along the lines, and 
 it suffered greatly in loss of officers and men. 
 After the surrender of Vicksburg he was ordered 
 to Richmond and there promoted for gallant service 
 in the field to the rank of Brigadier-General. He 
 was then sent to Texas to recruit his Legion and 
 increase his battalions to the full complement of 
 regiments and to organize the command into a 
 brigade of cavalry and report for duty in the Cis- 
 Mississippi Department. Before the orders could 
 be executed, Gen. Banks appeared with a force to 
 invade Texas, and Gen. E. Kirby Smith, com- 
 manding the Trans-Mississippi Department, offered 
 Gen. Waul the command of one of his best brig- 
 ades. He accepted and led it in the battles of 
 Mansfield and Pleasant Hill, in both of which he 
 bore an active and conspicuous part. When the 
 Division Commander, Gen. Walker, was wounded, 
 Gen. Waul was placed in command of the division 
 and was subsequently placed in command of the 
 field by Gen. Taylor for personal gallantry and 
 military skill displayed in the successful massing of 
 the troops. The reputation earned by him on pre- 
 vious fields was more than sustained at the battle 
 of Saline, or Jenkins' Ferry, which, on account of 
 the mud rendering the use of the artillery impossi- 
 ble, was fought exclusively with muskets and bay- 
 onets. The Federals were driven from the field 
 with great slaughter. On the Confederate side the 
 heaviest losses were suffered by the Texas troops. 
 Of their three generals two were killed and Gen. 
 Waul severely wounded. 
 
 After the close of the war he returned to his 
 home on the Guadalupe and, against his protest, 
 was elected to the first reconstruction convention. 
 In obedience Solely to a sense of duty, he accepted 
 the position, and having done so employed every 
 influence that he could command to secure a con- 
 stitutional recognition of the rights of the people 
 of Texas and to allay sectional animosities. His 
 course in the convention, brave and wise, was 
 warmly supported by friends and respected by 
 political foes. He urged reciprocal compromises 
 and the guarantee of the inalienable rights of the 
 vanquished in justifiable war as the only means of 
 establishing sectional peace and national prosperity. 
 The effect of his councils and presence in that body 
 cannot be overestimated. Having lost his material 
 possessions by the war, he removed from the Gua- 
 dalupe to Galveston and resumed the practice of 
 
 law. His talent and devotion to business secured 
 for him a lucrative practice and placed him in the 
 front rank of active practitioners. He was soon 
 called by the profession to the presidency of the 
 Bar Association, over which he has since presided. 
 His practice is chiefly in commercial, corporation, 
 and admiralty matters, and in the Federal and 
 Supreme Courts, in cases involving large transac- 
 tions; he is intimately acquainted with the princi- 
 ples and practice of all branches of the law. His 
 broad capacity of mind, intuitive good judgment, 
 and the untiring labor bestowed upon his cases suf- 
 ficiently account for his success during the various 
 epochs of his professional life. Though devoted to 
 the law, he has found time to cultivate amenities 
 of literature, as well as make researches in the 
 domains of science and philosophy. He is partic- 
 ularly partial to botanical studies and devoted to 
 the cause of popular education. For intellectual 
 accomplishments and breadth of culture, he is with- 
 out a superior in the State. He has aided, to the 
 full extent of his means and opportunities, every 
 commendable enterprise, and has contributed more 
 than his distributive share to the development of 
 the resources and institutions of Texas and the 
 Soutiiwest. 
 
 His personal, like his mental, characteristics arc 
 strongly defined. With every attribute of moral 
 and physical courage, of the most undaunted char- 
 acter, is mingled justice and generositj'. A mem- 
 ber of the Baptist Church, and seeking to be a true 
 Christian, his highest ambition is under all circum- 
 stances to do his whole duty to God and to his 
 fellow-men. 
 
 He is one of the noblest surviving representatives 
 of a race that has shed undying luster upon the 
 Southern name, and is a citizen of whom Texas is 
 justly proud. 
 
 Since writing the foregoing we have learned that 
 Gen. Waul has retired from the practice of his pro- 
 fession, and removed from Galveston to a farm he 
 established some years since in Hunt County where, 
 after sixty years of married life, he and his wife 
 look for that rest and quiet so well suited to their 
 advanced years. 
 
 Born and reared in Southern plantation homes, 
 they return to their love of country life, surrounded 
 by orchard and vineyard, amid their flocks and 
 herds, they hope to approximate as near as the 
 changed conditions will permit, the open hospitality 
 of the ''Old South," and with doors widespread 
 they will give a hearty welcome to all visitors. In 
 pleasant companionship reviving agreeable remin- 
 iscences, with Ill-will towards none and kindness 
 to all, with well-founded hopes for the future, they 
 prepare to receive their last summons. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 G81 
 
 JOHN P. COLE, 
 
 WASHINGTON COUNTY. 
 
 John P. Cole, one of the first settlers of Texas, 
 was born in Rowan County, N. C, in 1793, where 
 he was reared to the age of eighteen, when he went 
 to Georgia. There he married Miss Mary E. 
 Owen, of Jasper County, and a year later moved to 
 Texas, coming overland by way of Arlvansas, 
 where he made a crop, reaching the Brazos bottom 
 in the vicinity of what is now Washington, in the 
 spring of 1822. He was the third man to cross the 
 Brazos, and took up his abode on the west side of 
 that stream. He located half his headright in that 
 vicinity and half in the vicinity of what is now 
 Independence, then known as Cole's Settlement. 
 This was in the year 1828. Mr. Cole put in the 
 first grist mill, and saw mill, and gin, in that part 
 of the country. He was a prominent man in 
 an early day and of great service to the 
 country. He held a number of public posi- 
 tions, and was known far and wide for his public 
 spirit and hospitality. During the revolution of 
 183.5-36 he offered himself for service in the cause 
 of the colonists, but on account of a failure of eye- 
 sight was incapacitated for active duty. He 
 removed his family, for greater safety, to Bever- 
 ley's settlement beyond the Neches, but returned 
 immediately after the battle of San Jacinto. He 
 
 was made the first Chief Justice of Washington 
 County, and later represented that county in the 
 Congress of the Republic. He was always a 
 planter, and acquired a considerable amount of 
 property, mostly in land. His death occurred 
 January 18, 1847, and that of his wife in February, 
 1874. 
 
 They were the parents of a large number of 
 children, only six of whom, however, five daughters 
 and one son, became grown. The son, William H., 
 died at about the age of twenty-one in the Confed- 
 erate army. The daughters were married. Four 
 are still living. Of these, Mary E. married 
 Thomas L. Scott, is a widow, and resides at Inde- 
 pendence ; Eliza M. was married to Andrew B. 
 Shelburne, and resides with her husband at Bryan ; 
 Victoria C. married Moses B. Hairston, and resides 
 with her husband at Bartlett, Williamson County ; 
 and Medora L. is the widow of John A. McCrock- 
 lin, and lives at Independence. Still another 
 daughter, Maria L., the first female white child 
 born west of the Brazos, was married to W. W. 
 Hill, and died shortly after her father, in January, 
 1847, in Burleson County. 
 
 This pioneer of Texas, John P. Cole, has but 
 few descendants now living. 
 
 GEORGE W. WOODMAN, 
 
 LAREDO. 
 
 George W. Woodman, deceased, a well-remem- 
 bered Texas pioneer, came to the State at about 
 seventeen years of age. 
 
 He was a native of New Orleans, La., where he 
 was born December 31st, 1832. He was the sec- 
 ond son of a successful building contractor of that 
 city, who died, leaving an estate valued at about 
 860,000.00, which was equally divided between 
 these two sons, his only children. 
 
 George W., the subject of this sketch, upon 
 coming to Texas, located at Indianola, where, 
 though yet a very young man, he entered exten- 
 sively into the wholesaling and retailing of wines, 
 
 liquors and groceries at the upper, or earliest, 
 settlement of that historical old point. Partially 
 owing to inexperience and a combination of un- 
 foreseen circumstances, the venture was unsuccess- 
 ful. He subsequently served, by appointment, as 
 Deputy District Clerk, of Calhoun Countj^ and 
 later by election he filled the same office for a 
 period in all of about twelve years. He there mar- 
 ried, April 2, 1856, Miss Ella C, daughter of Col. 
 Henry White, a Texas pioneer. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Woodman lived at Indianola from 
 1856 to 1872, and then moved to Corpus Christi, 
 whore he worked as an accountant for leading busi- 
 
682 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 ness houses until 1880, when they moved to Laredo, 
 where the older son had embarked in business. In 
 Laredo Mr. Woodman found employment as an 
 accountant, and died there in November, 1890. 
 Two sons, George C. and Albert V. (who now 
 compose the well-known hardware firm of George 
 C. Woodman & Brother, at Laredo) and Mrs. 
 Woodman still survive. 
 
 Mrs. Woodman's father. Col. White, came to 
 Texas as early as 1842 from Louisville, Ky., bring- 
 ing with him his family and a large amount of 
 money, made in the wholesale and retail dry goods 
 business in that city, where he owned at one time 
 three establishments. 
 
 He was a native of London, England, was 
 reared to the mercantile business, and came to 
 America when about twenty-two years of age and 
 located in New York City, where he engaged 
 in business as a broker and speculator, and 
 there met and married Miss Eliza Lackman, a 
 native of Buttermilk Falls, Westchester County, 
 N. Y. 
 
 Owing to poor health, Col. White came West, as 
 before stated, and for similar reasons left Louis- 
 ville, where he had accumulated a fortune, and 
 
 where his children were born, and came to Gal- 
 veston, Texas. 
 
 He soon purchased land and at a large expense 
 developed a countrj' home near Morgan's Point in 
 Galveston County, on Galveston Bay. Unused to 
 country life and rural pursuits he sold his property 
 at Morgan's Point and located with his family in 
 Galveston, and there engaged for a time in the 
 merchandise brokerage and auction business. 
 
 Upon the discovery of gold in 1849, he was one 
 of the first to go to California, taking with him a 
 stock of goods. He engaged in merchandising at 
 Sacramento for a period of about six years, and 
 then returned to his famii}' at Galveston, and took 
 them to St. Louis, Mo., where he followed the dry 
 goods business until the war broke out. 
 
 His three sons joined the Confederate army, and 
 he served the Southern Confederacy as a clerk in 
 the Quartermaster's department during the con- 
 flict. He died while on a trip to New Orleans, in 
 1865, and his widow a short time later, the same 
 year, at the home of her daughter, in Indianola, 
 Texas. Mrs. Woodman and an older sister, Mrs. 
 Harriett Merriman, are the only surviving members 
 of the famil}' of seven children. 
 
 EPHRIAM M. DAGGETT, 
 
 FORT WORTH. 
 
 No one among the pioneers of Tarrant Count3' 
 made a deeper impress or left behind him a mem- 
 ory that will longer endure in the respect and affec- 
 tion of the people than the late Capt. Ephriam M. 
 Daggett. As one of his eulogists has said of him : 
 " He was born great in stature, mind and soul," 
 and his extraordinary individuality made him easily 
 a leader in every company in which he found him- 
 self. He was born in Canada, eight miles from 
 Niagara P'alls, June 3, 1810. His father, who was 
 a Vermonter by birth, espoused the American cause 
 in the War of 1812, and after the war the gov- 
 ernment, in recognition of his services, made him a 
 grant of land in Indiana, where the city of Terre 
 Haute now stands. There the Daggett family, in- 
 cluding the subject of this sketch, who was then 
 ten years old, removed in 1820. He grew up on a 
 farm, and in 1833 went to Chicago, where he was 
 engaged for several years trading with the Indians. 
 About this time his father was seized with the Texas 
 
 fever, and the whole family, including Ephriam, 
 came South, landing at Shreveport, La., and from 
 there went to Shelby County, in Eastern Texas, 
 where they located. This was in April, 1840, and 
 there the Daggetts remained, engaged in cultivating 
 the soil. What is known as the Shelby War soon 
 broke out, and the community was divided into 
 two factions, one known as the Regulators and the 
 other as the Moderators. It seems to have been a 
 conflict between the law-abiding and the lawless 
 classes, and Ephriam Daggett, with his father and 
 brothers, did yeoman service with the former. 
 When the Mexican War broke out in 1846, Shelby 
 Count}- raised two companies of troops, and in one 
 of these E. M. Daggett and his brother Charles en- 
 listed. He went in as a Lieutenant, and was soon pro- 
 moted to a Captaincy in the celebrated regiment of 
 Texas rangers commanded by Col. Jack Hays. 
 His career during the war was one of splendid 
 courage and daring achievements, and he was con- 
 
'hnH VV^ood 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 683 
 
 spicuous for personal gallautry in many emergen- 
 cies. After tlie war he returned to Slielby County, 
 and tlie fact that he twice represented the county 
 in tlie Legislature is sufficient evidence of his recog- 
 nized leadership among those people. He made his 
 first trip to Western Texas in 1849, the same year 
 that his lirother Henry located there, but he did 
 not finally move his family West until 1854. His first 
 marriage occurred in Indiana in 1834, and his wife 
 bore him one son — Ephriam B. Daggett — who still 
 survived. His second marriage took place in 
 Shelby County, in 1841, and his wife was Mrs. 
 Caroline Adams, from South Carolina. She and 
 his only son, Ephriam, went with him to Fort 
 Worth in 18.54, and she died there in 1869. When 
 Capt. Daggett readied Fort Worth, his brother 
 Charles and sister Helen came with the family, his 
 brother Henry being already a resident there. 
 Capt. Daggett at once went into the general mer- 
 cantile business, as a member of the firm of Turner 
 & Daggett, and began the accumulation of a for- 
 tune. He was soon a man of commanding influence 
 and his personal efforts were largely instrumental 
 in getting the county seat removed from Birdville 
 and permanently located at Fort Worth. He did 
 not go into field service during the Civil War, being 
 past the age fixed by law, and after the war con- 
 tinued in the mercantile business at Fort Worth. 
 He had meanwhile acquired large landed interests 
 in and around Fort Worth aud was also heavily 
 
 interested in cattle. In 1872 he was one of the 
 leading men to welcome the Texas and Pacific Rail- 
 road magnates to Fort Worth, and as an induce- 
 ment for the company to build its line there, 
 donated nearly one hundred acres of land, and 
 upon part of it the Union Depot stands to-day. 
 He retired from merchandising and at once 
 launched into a career of enterprise and speculation 
 which made him a veritable giant in the great work 
 of building a city. His name is indissolubly asso- 
 ciated with those times, and his fellow citizens 
 pointed with pride to the stalwart old man as an 
 example of the class that was compassing big enter- 
 prises and carrying Fort Worth to metropolitan 
 greatness. He was a keen, broad, original thinker, 
 bold in execution, scrupulously honest and just, 
 and very charitable to the deserving poor. In relig- 
 ion he was more nearly allied to the Universalist 
 faith than any other, and in politics he acted with 
 the Democrats until 1878, when he espoused the 
 Greenback cause and was an unsuccessful candidate 
 for Congress on that ticket. He died in Fort 
 Worth, April 19th, 1883, and his death carried sor- 
 row to every home in the city as though it were a 
 personal bereavement. All classes and colors 
 mourned his loss and a vast concourse attended his 
 funeral. 
 
 He left a large estate and only one child, 
 Ephriam B. Daggett, long a prominent citizen of 
 Fort Worth. 
 
 JOHN H. WOOD, 
 
 ST. MARYS. 
 
 John H. Wood was born September 6, 181C, at 
 the family home, situated between Poughkeepsie 
 and Hyde Park, in the State of New York, and for 
 a brief time during boyhood attended local schools. 
 His parents were Humphrey and Maria Wood. His 
 mother, who died when he was eleven j'ears of age, 
 was a daughter of Richard DeCantillon and nearly 
 related to the Stoughtenburgs and Tailors, repre- 
 sentatives of the fine old patroon families whose 
 spacious manors in New York rivaled in extent and 
 the elegancies of social life the domains of their 
 progenitors in the Old World. Humphrey Wood 
 was of excellent Puritan stock. His ancestors were 
 sea-faring men, and in early life he became one of 
 the " toilers of the deep " and soon rose to the rank 
 
 of Captain of a vessel. Later he abandoned the 
 sea, engaged in farming, and established a pleasant 
 home upon the banks of the Hudson, between 
 Poughkeepsie and Hyde Park. He lived to the 
 advanced age of 103 years, dying at Genoa, N. Y., 
 in 1873. 
 
 After the death of liis mother the subject of this 
 sketch, Maj. John H. Wood, went to the city of 
 New York, where he spent a year or more with an 
 aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Stoughtenburg. At 
 the expiration of that time he returned to the fam- 
 ily homestead, attended school for a short time, and 
 then returned to New York City, where during the 
 succeeding three years he clerked first in a dry 
 goods establishment and then in a grocery store. 
 
684 
 
 INDIAN WAliS AND PIONEERS OF TEXA8. 
 
 His experience in the grocery store, which was 
 owned and eonduuted by a man of mean and over- 
 bearing spirit, thoroughly disgusted him. He 
 determined to never again stand behind a counter 
 as an employe, and, acting upon this resolution, 
 resigned his position, bound himself as an appren- 
 tice and began to learn the painter's trade. 
 
 The unjust treatment of her Anglo-American col- 
 onists by Mexico and the spirited action of the 
 Texans at Velaseo, Anahuac, and other places, 
 excited the attention and aroused the sympathy of 
 people living in all parts of the United States. The 
 expulsion of Bradburn from his stronghold, the 
 entire evacuation of Texas by Mexican forces, the 
 overthrow of the despotism of Bustamante, and 
 Santa Anna's pledges to be governed by and enforce 
 in its true spirit the Mexican constitution of 1824, 
 seemed to mark a happy ending of existing diffi- 
 culties, and popular excitement in the United States 
 was in a measure allayed. It was but the lull, how- 
 ever, before the storm. Santa Anna soon gave 
 unmistakable evidences of his intention to reduce 
 the people of Texas to a condition little better than 
 slavery, depriving them of nearly all their rights 
 and subjecting them to absolute dependence upon 
 his will. The colonists were not slow hi organiz- 
 ing for resistance. 
 
 Freemen with arms in their hands were apt to be 
 hard to deal with and in pursuance of the plans of 
 the central executive authority Ugartechea pro- 
 ceeded with a Mexican force to Gonzales to demand 
 a cannon in the possession of the people of that 
 place and convey it to San Antonio. A small Texian 
 force was quickly assembled, his demand was 
 answered with defiance, a sharp skirmish ensued 
 and the fust volley of the Texian revolution (as 
 fateful as that which greeted the British regulars at 
 Lexington) whistled through the air. Ugartechea 
 was defeated and driven back to Bexar and war 
 formally inaugurated. 
 
 News of this event spread rapidly, and was 
 answered in the States by a patriotic thrill in the 
 hearts of hundreds of young men who longed to 
 draw their swords in the cause of liberty. Texian 
 agents met with little difficulty in procuring volun- 
 teers. Stanley and Morehouse, acting as emis- 
 saries of the provisional government of Texas, 
 were in New York recruiting for the service. 
 
 John H. Wood, having procured permission from 
 the painter to whom he had apprenticed himself, 
 called upon Stanley and Morehouse and enrolled 
 his named. One hundred and eighty-four men 
 (whom the agents represented as emigrants) having 
 been secured, Stanley and Morehouse chartered a 
 vessel, the Matawomkeg, and in the night of 
 
 November 2."), 1835, slipped out of New York har- 
 bor. Arriving off Sandy Hook the vessel encoun- 
 tered a terrific storm, and for a time it seemed 
 certain that she would go to the bottom. 
 
 This night, which marked the commencement of 
 a new epoch in the life of Maj. Wood, was also 
 made memorable by the great fire that reduced 
 Wall street and contiguous parts of New York 
 City to ashes. 
 
 The ship safely weathered the storm, resumed 
 the voyage, drifted somewhat out of her course and, 
 after a rough passage, reached the Island of 
 Eleuthera, one of the Bahama group, and anchored 
 off the coast for a number of days. Members of 
 the crew and many of the passengers went ashore. 
 A number of the volunteers were roughs from such 
 unsavory purlieus of New York City as the " Five 
 Points," and through force of habit, perhaps, com- 
 mitted petty thefts and were guilty of outrageous 
 conduct that soon earned for them unenviable repu- 
 tations. The Captain, having taken aboard water 
 and ship supplies, compelled these men to return all 
 stolen articles, where that was possible, made ample 
 compensation for other losses, bestowed liberal 
 presents upon all injured persons who had preferred 
 complaints, and set sail for the Balize. A fisher- 
 man named Knowles, a man of low character, who 
 lived on that part of the coast of Eleuthera where 
 the vessel had anchored, hurried to Nassau, in the 
 Island of New Providence, and notified the British 
 authorities that a pirate was hovering in those seas 
 and had already ravished women and been guilty of 
 pillage. He represented himself as one of the 
 victims who had suffered most from the incursion, 
 his object being to put in a claim for heavy 
 damages. 
 
 According to his reckoning the Matawomkeg 
 would have time to get well out of the Bahamas 
 before pursuit could be attempted. His calculation 
 was at fault. The British brig-of-war Serpent and 
 another vessel loaded with marines at once gave 
 chase and soon overhauled and captured the ship 
 and conveyed her to Nassau, where all aboard were 
 imprisoned and detained in the barracks for sixty 
 da3's. While thus confined the Americans resorted 
 to various expedients to relieve the tedium of 
 prison life. Canvas was stretched on a large arch 
 in the center of the room and on this the}' painted a 
 representation of the battle of New Orleans, and 
 offered their production for exhibition January 8th, 
 the anniversary of that engagement. The younger 
 British officers and their wives visited the barracks 
 and examined and passed good-humored criticisms 
 on the picture. The old colonel of the regiment, 
 however, had participated in the battle of New 
 
IviKS. JOHN nAA/boQ 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 685 
 
 Oi-leans, and no doubt received his sliare of the 
 drubbing administered to the redcoats b3' Gen. 
 Jackson ou that occasion, and he was much 
 incensed and afterward proved one of the most 
 determined enemies of the embryo Texian patriots. 
 They cared little for him or his opinions, however, 
 and passed the time as satisfactorily to themselves 
 as circumstances would permit. 
 
 The Bahamas were inhabited mainly by negroes 
 who had been but recently manumitted by the 
 English Government. The troops stationed at 
 Nassau consisted of negro soldiers. For these sable 
 sons of Mars the prisoners manifested the utmost 
 contempt. There were no sentry boxes about the 
 barracks, and one tempestuous night the guards en- 
 tered the building to seek protection from the storm. 
 They were promptly and indignantly driven out and 
 compelled to pace their rounds amid the wind and 
 rain. To amuse themselves the prisoners would 
 occasionally gather up handfuls of the pebbles witJi 
 which the courtyard was thickly strewn and throw 
 them on the roof of the barrack, greatly terrifying 
 the soldiers, who thought this rattle of missiles a 
 signal for an uprising of the bold and hardy 
 Americans. 
 
 At last the grand jury assembled and Knowles 
 was called before them. Having examined him, 
 that body was satisfied that the charge of piracy 
 was unfounded, and ordered the release of all the 
 Americans, except a few against whom indictments 
 were preferred for theft. These men were promptly 
 tried, and the evidence showing that payment had 
 been made by the captain for all articles taken, 
 they were acquitted. While under arrest the Amer- 
 icans had been insulted by sailors from an English 
 ship lying in the harbor. These sailors had boasted 
 of what they would have done had they been a part 
 of the crew of the Serpent or aboard the transport 
 when the Matawomkeg was captured, and said that 
 they would have cleaned out the Yankees in short 
 order. The Americans determined not to leave the 
 port until they had settled their score with these 
 braggadocio tars, and shortly before embarking an 
 opportunity offered itself. A collision took place. 
 The native inhabitants of the place did not like the 
 English, and a number of mulatto and negro shop 
 keepers and others joined sides with the Americans 
 in the melee and the English seamen were soon 
 ingloriously routed and driven from the streets. 
 
 No lives were lost in the riot and the Americans 
 were allowed to go aboard their ship without suffer- 
 ing further molestation. After narrowly escaping 
 being wrecked on the coast of the Cuba, the Mata- 
 womkeg put into Matanzas, a port on that island, 
 and from that point proceeded to the moutii of the 
 
 Mississippi, where she waited sometime for supplies. 
 During this period of delay the better class of men 
 among the volunteers determined to rid themselves 
 of the company of the roughs who had accompanied 
 them thus far on the voyage. The quondam deni- 
 zens of the " B'ive Points " and Bowery heroes had 
 been carrying matters with a high hand, brow-beat- 
 ing and fist-beating those of their comrades who 
 would submit to such treatment. Their conduct, 
 long obnoxious, had now become unbearable and 
 the gentlemen of the party banded themselves to- 
 gether and soundly thrashed the roughs and drove 
 them from the vessel with orders not to return. 
 The commander of the Texian man-of-war, Brutus 
 (anchored near at hand), cleared her decks as if 
 for action, sent an armed force aboard and demanded 
 that the expelled men be allowed to return to the 
 Matawomkeg. Acquiescence was stoutly refused. 
 The remaining volunteers stated that not having been 
 mustered into the service they were not asyet Texian 
 soldiers and the commander of the Brutus had no 
 right to interfere with their affairs. The Texian 
 commander upon investigation acknowledged the 
 justness of their position, the propriety of the course 
 they had pursued with reference to the expulsion 
 of the I'ough characters who had been a source of 
 so much trouble and annoyance, and in due time 
 the two vessels proceeded to Pass Caballo, where 
 the volunteers disembarked March 1, 1836, acknowl- 
 edged the leadership of Morehouse and marched to 
 Matagorda. William Loring, a distingushed gen- 
 eral in the Confederate army during the war between 
 the States and later a general in the Egyptian 
 army ; Charles DeMorse, for many years editor of 
 the Clarksville Standard and a journalist of more 
 than State-wide reputation ; Lewis P. Cook, after- 
 ward Secretary ot State of the Republic of Texas ; 
 Captain William Gillam, afterward one of the most 
 efficient officers of the regular army of the Repub- 
 lic ; the late Charles Ogsbury, of Cuero, and other 
 men of brilliant talents and high ability were 
 members of this party. 
 
 At Matagorda the volunteers were formally mus- 
 tered into service. 
 
 At this time the Alamo had fallen, the horrible 
 massacre of Fannin and his command at Goliad 
 had taken place, and Santa Anna was sweepino- 
 eastward with his victorious columns. Morehouse 
 and his companions pushed forward, intending to 
 join General Houston's retreating army, but at 
 Casey's Ferry, on the Colorado, he was met by a 
 courier, who delivered orders from headquarters, 
 commanding him to gather together and protect the 
 families west of the Brazos river, and assist them 
 in their efforts to leave the country. The labor 
 
G86 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 assigned was efficiently performed, many of the 
 families being placed aboard a steamer at Colum- 
 bus, and sent to Galveston, and a few days before 
 the battle of San Jacinto, Morehouse and his men, 
 about 175 in number, including citizens and sol- 
 diers, found themselves encamped near Bingham's 
 plantation, situated at the head of Oyster Creek, 
 on the east side of the Brazos river. They pre- 
 pared to march up the river to Stafford's Point, on 
 the road from Houston to Richmond, and attack 
 Cos, who had encamped there with 600 or 700 men. 
 Cos had pitched his camp in an open place with a 
 bayou on one side and so environed by timber as 
 to offer every opportunity for a successful surprise. 
 The night preceding the morning of the proposed 
 assault, however, he left a few men to keep up the 
 sentry fires and marched away with his force to 
 join Santa Anna. The Texian force halted at a 
 designated point and sent forward scouts to recon- 
 noitre. It was agreed that they should await the 
 return of this small advance body, resume the 
 march, take position in the timber and as soon as 
 it was light enough to see the sights of their 
 guns open the engagement. Shortly after day- 
 light the scouts returned with the unwelcome 
 news that the enemy had folded his tents like 
 the Arab and silently stolen away. 
 
 After the decisive battle of San Jacinto, Major 
 Wood served as one of the soldiers in the mounted 
 force that, under the leadership of General Rusk, 
 followed as far as Goliad the retreating armj' of 
 General Filisola as it marched toward the Rio 
 Grande to evacuate Texas according to the terms 
 of the agreement entered into between General 
 Houston and Santa Anna. 
 
 At Goliad, Major Wood assisted in the burial of 
 the charred remains of Fannin's men, and listened 
 to the eloquent oration pronounced by General 
 Rusk at the edge of the pit in which they were 
 interred. The remains consisted of skulls, bits 
 of bone and blackened viscera. Long after the 
 performance of these affecting funeral rites, he 
 found in the thickets near by the scene of the holo- 
 caust a number of skeletons supposed to be those 
 of members of Fannin's command, who attempted 
 on the day of the butchery to make their escape 
 and were overtaken and cut down by the Mexican 
 soldiery. 
 
 After the war he went to Victoria and took 
 charge of the horses in the quartermaster's depart- 
 ment and held the position for about sis months. 
 According to a law enacted by the Texas Congress 
 the horses and cattle of all Mexicans who had 
 adhered to the cause of the enemy, and abandoned 
 the country during the war, were declared govern- 
 
 ment property and under this act it was the duty of 
 the quartermaster to collect and corral such stock. 
 Major Wood, as pay for his services, was given by 
 the quartermaster. Colonel Caldwell, an order for 
 cattle and began stock raising near Victoria. 
 Later he established himself on the Lavaca river, 
 in Lavaca Countj', near where the town of Edna 
 now stands. In the fall of 1845 he went to Corpus 
 Christi and had a conference with General Zachary 
 Taylor (then preparing to occupy the Rio Grande 
 frontier), in which he said that it was his desire to 
 move his cattle to the Nueces river, in what is now 
 San Patricio County, if General Taylor would 
 promise to furnish, as far as might be in his power, 
 protection from raiding Indians and Mexicans. 
 The promise was readily given, and early in the 
 year 184G Major Wood located on the Nueces. In 
 August, 1849, he moved to Refugio County and 
 established a home at St. Marys, on Copano bay, 
 where he has since continuously resided. 
 
 At that early day Southwest Texas was infested 
 with bands of hostile Indians. He witnessed many 
 of their shocking atrocities, and on several occa- 
 sions was a member of pursuing parties that sought 
 to wreak vengeance upon the treacherous and 
 blood-thirsty savages, who, at short intervals, 
 swept through the country, committing murder and 
 other crimes too horrible to mention, pillaging 
 hamlets and driving off stock. 
 
 While living in San Patricio County, he and other 
 pioneers were notified by a courier, who rode in 
 hot haste from the settlement (consisting of two 
 families, the Egrys and Waelders), situated near 
 where St. Marys now stands, of an Indian outrage 
 perpetrated at that place. 
 
 Jacob Craing, a little orphan boy employed by 
 the Waelders, went out to a corn field (located on 
 the side of a gully, distant only a few hundred yards 
 from where Major Wood's palatial home is now 
 situated), to stake his horse and was captured by a 
 party of prowling Comanches. Major Wood and 
 companions knew that it was useless to strike the 
 trail of the Indians and attempt pursuit and accord- 
 ingly cut-in to the Tuscoosa, sixty miles distant, 
 intending to attack the Indians at a crossing, sit- 
 uated at a point on the stream in the present 
 county of Live Oak. The men were on a knoll 
 when, toward the middle of the afternoon, they saw 
 the Indians advancing. The Texians numbered 
 eleven men ; the Indians probably a few more. 
 The two parties were nearly evenly matched and 
 the Texians would have intercepted and charged the 
 Indians in the open country had it not been that a 
 number of the men had neglected to fix their guns 
 and some delay was caused in getting ready for the 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 687 
 
 attack. The Indians succeeded in making their 
 way into a dense thicket and separated in parties 
 of two and three. Everj-thing having quickly been 
 placed in readiness, the Texians dashed into the 
 mesquite and chaparral. Major AVood, as the party 
 charged by, called to Jacob Craing: " Stay with 
 the horses! Stay wilh the horses!" The little 
 fellow obeyed and stayed with the loose horses at 
 the edge of the timber. Major Wood came upon 
 two Indians in the brush and, when at close quar- 
 ters,' they opened on him a hot fire with their bows 
 and arrows, to which he replied b^' impartially be- 
 stowing upon each of them a load of buckshot from 
 his double-barrel gun. Although badly wounded 
 they continued to fire at him. His gun, like all the 
 fire-arms of that period, was a muzzle-loader and 
 he had no time in which to recharge the piece. He 
 drew one of his holster pistols, intending to fire 
 again, but knowing that the trigger was out of fix 
 and that he would probably miss his aim and the 
 Indians escape, he called to a companion who was 
 passing and the man quickly dispatched the sav- 
 ages. Three Indians were killed in the fight, sev- 
 eral were wounded and forty or fifty stolen horses 
 were recaptured. Two of the Texians were wounded 
 and two of their horses were killed. The Texians 
 who were wounded were in the rear of Major Wood. 
 One of them had his arm pinned to his side by an 
 arrow and the other was shot in the leg and crippled 
 for life. Jacob Craing, although a boy eleven or 
 twelve years of age, had suffered so intensely from 
 terror while a captive of the Indians that when res- 
 cued he seemed to have forgotten his knowledge of 
 English and only responded with a dazed stare when 
 addressed in that language. When, however, 
 Captain Snively spoke to him in German his face 
 lit up with intelligence and he burst into tears and 
 sobs. The strain on his nervous system had been 
 too much for the little fellow and when the tension 
 was relaxed he became so ill that it was feared he 
 would die on the road to San Patricio. With the 
 exception of those mounted by Major Wood and 
 the boy, the horses of the Texians were broken 
 down with travel and could proceed but slowly and 
 after consulting with Captain Snively Major Wood 
 determined to push on with the lad to town, where 
 medical assistance could be procured. Turning to 
 Jacob, he said: "Whip up your horse, my little 
 man, and let's ride to San Patricio." The boy 
 obeyed. The excitement of fast riding revived him 
 and in a few hours he had completely recovered 
 from his indisposition. He is now living in Bee 
 County, where he has accumulated a competency 
 and raised a family. 
 
 During the war between Mexico and the United 
 
 States Major Wood made frequent trips to Browns- 
 ville for supplies and more than once witnessed the 
 robbing of wagon trains by the soldier-banditti that 
 infested the roads. These men did not hesitate to 
 swoop down on unprotected trains and appropriate 
 horses, wagons and goods, in fact, anything that 
 excited their cupidity, aften despoiling the owners 
 of their entire cargoes. Although he often came 
 in contact with these bands and bad experiences 
 more interesting than amusing he was never se- 
 riously molested. 
 
 During the war between the States he entered the 
 Confederate army as a volunteer and served in 
 Texas as a soldier and Major in the coast guards. 
 
 In politics Major Wood is a Democrat, but has 
 never been a politician in any sense of the word. 
 For fifteen or twenty years he served the people of 
 Eef uglo as a member of the County Commissioners' 
 Court, and made a faithful and efficient public 
 officer. A few years since he became a member of 
 the Catholic Church. He has donated to Nazareth 
 Convent at Victoria 900 acres of valuable land ad- 
 joining that town. 
 
 In Victoria, February 1, 1842, he was united in 
 marriage to Miss Nancy Clark, a noble Christian 
 lady, who, for nearly half a century, was his loved 
 counsellor, friend, companion and devoted wife — 
 rendering his home the abode of domestic happi- 
 ness and love, lightening all his cares and filling his 
 days and years with perennial sunshine. 
 
 In March, 1891, she died of heart failure at the 
 residence of her daughter, Mrs. Maria Carroll, at 
 Victoria. Her death was a sad blow to her hus- 
 band and children. Her memory is enshrined in 
 the heart of him whose every thought during all 
 their life-journey concentrated around the desire to 
 render her happy, and it will live and glow with fire 
 supernal as long as the spark of life lingers in his 
 breast and until the golden links of the severed 
 chain are reunited on the shores of the ever beauti- 
 ful river. 
 
 Maj. and Mrs. Wood had twelve children : Maria, 
 Catherine, Richard H., Agues, James, Cora, Tobias 
 D., Ida, John, Willie, Julia and Marian. 
 
 Catherine, who was the wife of Henry Sullivan, 
 of San Patricio, died in New Jersey, where she had 
 gone in search of health, in July, 1867. 
 
 Marian, who was a nun of the order of the In- 
 carnate Word in the convent at Victoria, died in 
 February, 1890. 
 
 James died at Goliad, March 15, 1875, leaving a 
 widow (wee Miss Mary Wilder) and one child. 
 
 Agnes is the wife of Albert J. Kennedy of Bee- 
 ville. 
 
 Maria is the wife of W. C. Carroll of Victoria. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Cora is the wife of Peter Mabon of Victoria. 
 
 Julia is the wife of William C. George of Bee- 
 ville. 
 
 Ida is a nun of the order of the Incarnate Word 
 in the convent at Victoria. 
 
 Richard H. married Miss Cannie Howard at St. 
 Mary's, and is now living at Eockport. 
 
 Tobias D., married Miss Mary Mabon of Victo- 
 ria, and is living at that place. 
 
 John, living at Beeville, married Miss Milly Sul- 
 livan, of San Patricio, who died in February, 1891. 
 
 Willie married INIiss Nellie Bowlen, of Victoria, 
 and now resides in that place. 
 
 Maj. Wood has twenty-five grandchildren. 
 
 By his fine business ability Maj. Wood accumu- 
 lated an immense fortune, the bulk of which he has 
 divided among his children, giving them fine starts 
 in the race of life. His remaining estate consists 
 of 35,000 acres of fine land in Southwest Texas, 
 7,000 cattle, 600 or 700 head of horses, a number 
 of fine mules, and valuable real estate in other 
 parts of Texas. His elegant home fronts upon 
 Copano Bay, affording a view unsurpassed in 
 beauty, and is situated somewhat more than a mile 
 from the quaint, sleepj% little fishing village of St. 
 
 Marys. It is fitted with every modern convenience, 
 and here, surrounded b}' an excellent library, and 
 receiving every attention from devoted domestics, 
 he spends the greater part of the time during the 
 autumn and winter months enjoying delightful 
 quietude and in the summer months surrounded by 
 a bevy of welcome guests. 
 
 He often visits the homes of his children, where 
 the place of honor is always reserved for him by 
 loving hands and where, seated by the ingleside, 
 prattling grandchildren play about his knees. 
 
 He is a man of high intellectual force and a gen- 
 tleman of that superb old school that has few 
 representatives left. He reminds the visitor at his 
 hospitable mansion of the Louisiana planters of the 
 olden time — Chesterfieldian, generous, hospitable 
 and brave. 
 
 As a young man he started without adventitious 
 aids and has succeeded in all those objects, the at- 
 tainment of which are worthy of ambition. He 
 has manfully and successfully run life's race and 
 now, surrounded by loving children and grand- 
 children and hosts of friends and respected for his 
 virtues by all who know him, he is enjoying in ease 
 the calm evening of a useful and well spent life. 
 
 B. A. SHEPHERD, 
 
 HOUSTON. 
 
 The subject of this sketch, Benjamin Armistead 
 Shepherd, was born May 14th, 1814, in Fluvanna 
 County, Va., at the old home place established by 
 his forefathers in the early days of the settlement 
 of this country. 
 
 He passed his j'outh on the paternal estate, in 
 the meantime acquiring the elements of an educa- 
 tion, till at the age of sixteen he entered a country 
 store as clerk, laying the foundation of that busi- 
 ness knowledge which was afterwards to make him 
 an accomplished merchant and banker. At the 
 age of nineteen, in order to widen his sphere of ex- 
 perience and usefulness, and to give scope to his 
 budding ambition, he left the paternal home, and 
 mounting horse, made his way to Nashville, Tenn., 
 to seek employment in a new field. 
 
 He found a place in the establishment of Samuel 
 Morgan & Co., and by close application and great 
 industry succeeded in giving entire satisfaction to 
 his eraploj'ers. As a token of their esteem, when a 
 
 few years later he left them, they presented him 
 with a fine gold watch which he carried till his 
 death, often referring to the gift with the fond con- 
 sciousness that he had, in his early days, as indeed 
 ever after, performed the full measure of his duty. 
 
 From Nashville, in 1837, he moved to New Or- 
 leans, where he obtained employment in a large 
 commission house as bookkeeper, and here he 
 remained till 1839. 
 
 During these years of commercial distress and 
 ruin to the whole country', when credit was utterly 
 destroyed, Mr. Shepherd gained an experience 
 which made a deep impression on his mind, and 
 which he never forgot. It made a naturally cautious 
 and conservative temperament doubly cautious and 
 prudent. When, in after years, tempting opportu- 
 nities of speculative ventures presented themselves, 
 his mind reverted to the events of the "panic of 
 '37," when old-established and wealthy houses 
 went down before the hurricane of financial disas- 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 fiSi) 
 
 ter, and he chose the safer and surer course of 
 building up his fortunes. 
 
 Kemoving to Galveston in 1839, he engaged in 
 business with A. C. Crawford, under the firm name 
 of Crawford & Shepherd, and this continued till 
 1841, when he moved to Houston, where he founded 
 a business for himself, soon after admitting into 
 partnership Mr. J. A. Burke. Under the firm 
 name of B. A. Shepherd & Burke he continued in 
 the mercantile business till 1855, when, disposing 
 of his interest to his partner, he embarked in the 
 banking business exclusively, thus founding the 
 first house devoted solely to banking in the State. 
 
 He bent his energy and ability to building up and 
 extending this business from the period of its incep- 
 tion to the breaking out of the war, when, inviting 
 his customers to withdraw their deposits, he retired 
 from active pursuits until the war should end. But 
 he had not confined his attention to his bank alone. 
 He was largely interested in, and president of, a 
 line of steamboats plying between Houston and 
 Galveston before a railway was thought of between 
 the two cities, and he was one of the projectors of 
 the Houston & Texas Central Railway, and a mem- 
 ber of its first Board of Directors. He also organ- 
 ized a company for the purpose of building a plank 
 road on the old Washington stage road, which had 
 graded some distance when the Central Eailroad 
 acquired it and used it as its road-bed. 
 
 During the war, Mr. Shepherd's sympathies were 
 aroused and sustained in behalf of the families of 
 the Confederate soldiers left in needy circum- 
 stances, and he contributed liberally of his means 
 to such as he found most needy and deserving. 
 The fact that his oldest son, the only one who was 
 of age to join the army, had enlisted in the Fifth 
 Texas Regiment (Hood's Brigade) strengthened 
 his natural sympathy for the Southern cause, and 
 he availed himself of every opportunity to exhibit 
 it. He used to say that he had no heart to engage 
 in business enterprises while his country was going 
 through that terrible ordeal. 
 
 In 1866 he re-established his bank, under the firm 
 name of B. A. Shepherd & Co., having admitted 
 into the partnership A. Wattermack, who had been 
 for many years his confidential clerk, and J. A. 
 Shepherd, a nephew. In 1867, having acquired a 
 large interest in the First National Bank of Houston, 
 he merged the business of his private bank into that 
 of the National Bank, and became its president, in 
 which position he continued for the remainder of 
 his life. But, notwithstanding this merge, the 
 institution was known popularly as J' Shepherd's 
 Bank," and this name still clings to it amongst the 
 older residents. Under his able management the 
 
 First National Bank of Houston grew and prospered, 
 and was recognized as an important factor in build- 
 ing up the business of Houston. The bank was 
 B. A. Shepherd, and enjoyed the confidence and 
 respect of the public, both at home and abroad. At 
 his death the property passed to his family, who 
 almost entirely own it and continue its successful 
 management. 
 
 Besides the bank Mr. Shepherd acquired a large 
 fortune, which he enjoyed modestly and sensibly, 
 without the least ostentation. He was proud of his 
 success in life, but not unduly so, attributing it to 
 the interposition of Providence with becoming thank- 
 fulness. In fact, long before he became a member 
 of the Church he manifested characteristics which 
 are commonly called Christian. Said a partner of 
 his in early days : ' ' Shepherd was the best natural 
 Christian I ever met." 
 
 After a long, useful, and honorable life, he died 
 December 24th, 1891, in the seventy-eighth year of 
 his age. 
 
 Like the great majority of the pioneers of TexaS) 
 Mr. Shepherd was a man of strong character and 
 individuality. Such qualities are necessary to those 
 who, breaking away from the conventionalities of 
 older civilizations, go forth to establish and build 
 upon new foundations. 
 
 Perhaps the most pronounced trait of Mr. Shep- 
 herd's character was his independence. He valued 
 his fortune chiefly because it enabled him to feel 
 and be independent. Having decided upon a course 
 of action, because primarily it was right, he per- 
 mitted the interference of no motives of policy in 
 the attainment of the object in view. He pursued 
 his aim careless of what others thought. He was 
 accustomed to do what to him seemed right, or to 
 avoid doing what to him seemed wrong, regardless 
 of adverse criticism. A marked instance of this 
 trait was his refusal to engage in the liquor traffic 
 as a part of his business, when it was the universal 
 custom of merchants in those early days to do so. 
 Though large profits resulted from that character of 
 trade, he was unwilling to avail himself of them. 
 It was not in accordance with his conception of 
 right. 
 
 Of his private charities many of the living can, 
 and many of the dead, if living, could, bear witness. 
 
 He was accustomed to subscribe liberally to all 
 charitable objects which appealed to his generosity. 
 On his seventy-fifth birthday he endowed a fund, 
 named theB. A. Shepherd Charity Fund, with $20,- 
 000, the interest on which is to be used for the 
 benefit of the poor of Houston. 
 
 His integrity was unquestioned ; it was prover- 
 bial. It is believed that no man who knew him or 
 
fi90 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 knew of bim ever said that his word was not as 
 good as his bond. He was upright and just, and 
 his life was pure and clean. He used to say that 
 he was prouder of his good name than of any suc- 
 cess which he had achieved in other directions. 
 He was married in Galveston, October 29th, 
 
 1840, to Mary Hobsou, who was born in Nashville, 
 Tenu., February 28th, 1821, and died in Houston, 
 February 20th, 1888. 
 
 The surviving children are: Mrs. A. P. Root, 
 Mrs. O. L. Cochran, Mrs. W. H. Palmer, Mrs. M. 
 L. Roberts, and Frank T Shepherd. 
 
 JOHN W. DARLINGTON, 
 
 TAYLOR. 
 
 One of the very few who participated in the stir- 
 ring events of the Texas Revolution and the period 
 of the Republic of Texas— one of the noblest of 
 the veterans who remain among us — was born in 
 what was then Harrison, Va., but is now Marion 
 County,WestVa., February 5th, 1821, of respected 
 parents. He was the second child and only son of 
 John W. Darlington, an Irishman, who came to 
 Virginia from his native country when very young ; 
 became an expert penman and successful school- 
 teacher; was a soldier in the War of 1812-15; 
 fought in the battle of New Orleans, and died in 
 the prime of life. The wife of John W. Darling- 
 ton, Sr., was Henrietta Lang, a daughter of Stan- 
 bury Lang, a private in the Continental army 
 during the Revolutionary War, and Lady Lang, a 
 Scottish lady of respectable lineage. Mrs. Dar- 
 lini^ton was left a widow without means, and the 
 little son was by custom and law bound out to earn 
 his livelihood and make his own way in the world. 
 His master, an avaricious man, imposed heavy 
 tasks upon the somewhat frail youth and in various 
 ways persecuted him. Young Darlington's proud 
 spirit rebelled, and he left his master, and heard of 
 and started for Texas. Carrying out the purpose 
 he had formed, he traveled sixty miles into West 
 Virginia, where he earned for a time his own living; 
 but being a minor, the law required that a guardian 
 be appointed for him, and having met Mr. John 
 Webster, he prevailed upon that gentleman to take 
 him to Texas, and in return for that service sold 
 his time to Webster until the expense incurred was 
 repaid. They landed at Matagorda January 14, 
 1838. Webster located in Travis County, on Gille- 
 
 land creek, fourteen miles south of Austin, and was 
 two years later killed by the Indians. Young Dar- 
 lington worked out his debt. After getting his 
 freedom he worked for a time as a laborer in the 
 construction of the first Texas capitol and the de- 
 partment log-houses in Austin, and remained around 
 Austin until January, 1840. He saved some 
 money, but by misplaced confidence lost it all. He 
 took part in many Indian expeditions, was in the 
 battle of Plum Creek, in 1840, was in the expedition 
 against Vasquez in 1842, and also participated in 
 the battle of Salado, near San .A.ntonio, in the fail 
 of 1842, the Mexican General, Adrian Woll, hav- 
 ing invaded Texas and captured the cit^' of San 
 Antonio. Mr. Darlington lived in Travis County 
 until 1873, since which time he has resided in Will- 
 iamson County. 
 
 He married, in 1843, Miss Ellen Love, in Rusk 
 County, Texas. She is still the loved companion 
 of his declining years. They have eight children. 
 Mr. Darlington has passed twenty-three years in 
 Williamson County and is now retired from active 
 pursuits and living in the pleasant little city of 
 Taylor. Successful in his financial affairs, he has 
 aided all of his children to a start in life. 
 
 He is one of the venerated and loved citizens of 
 his locality. He knew Gen. Sam Houston, Col. 
 Brown and all of the leading men of early days. 
 A member of the Texas Veterans' Association, it 
 is a pleasure to him to meet at the annual reunions 
 those who remain of his friends of the loved long 
 ago. 
 
 May he and others like him be long spared 
 to a grateful country. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 691 
 
 SAM. BRONSON COOPER, 
 
 WOODVILLE. 
 
 vS. B. Cooper was born in Caldwell County, Ky., 
 May 30tb, 1850. His parents, Rev. A. H. and 
 Mrs. Elizabeth Cooper, came to Texas in Decem- 
 ber, 1850, and located at Woodville. His mother 
 is still living. Mr. Cooper attended local schools 
 and secured a common English education. 
 
 His father died in 1853, and the subject of this 
 sketch was reared by an uncle, Sara. S. Frazer, who 
 was very kind to him. 
 
 At sixteen years of age Mr. Cooper secured a 
 clerkshii) in a general store at Woodville, and soon 
 displayed those qualities that have since made his 
 life honored and successful. The war left his uncle 
 old and without means. Mr. Cooper, out of his 
 earnings, supported his uncle and mother. He 
 read law at night for a number of years, was ad- 
 mitted to the bar in Januar}', 1872, and became a 
 member of the law firm of Nicks, Hobby & Cooper. 
 He was a member of this firm until 1876. In 1884 
 he formed a copartnerehip with John H. Kirby, 
 now of Houston, Texas, and July, 1890, formed a 
 copartnership with J. A. Mooney, with whom he 
 is now associated in the practice of law at Wood- 
 ville, under the firm name of Cooper & Mooney. 
 
 November 15th, 1873, Mr. Cooper was united in 
 marriage to Miss Phoebe Young. They have four 
 children: Willie C, Maggie H., Bird B., and Sam. 
 Bronson Cooper, Jr. 
 
 Mr. Cooper was elected County Attorney of Ty- 
 ler County in 1876, and was re-elected in 1878, and 
 in 1880 was elected to the State Senate and re- 
 elected in 1882, from the First District, Tyler 
 County. He was elected president pro tern, of the 
 Senate at the end of the Eighteenth Legislature. 
 
 He was appointed by President Cleveland Col- 
 lector of Internal Revenue for the First Texas 
 
 District, with headquarters at Galveston. He held 
 this office until 1887, when his district was consoli- 
 dated with the Third District, and the senior Col- 
 lector (Collector for the Third District) succeeded 
 to the office. 
 
 Mr. Cooper is the author of the bill, passed by 
 the Seventeenth Legislature, giving Confederate 
 veterans 1,280 acres of land. He gave special 
 attention to legislation affecting the disposition of 
 the public lands. He advocated sales to actual set- 
 tlers only ; the leasing of grazing lands for short 
 terms, and sales of timber for cash, holding the fee 
 in the State. He introduced and advocated a bill 
 embodying these views, and the main features of 
 his measure were enacted into a law. 
 
 Senator Cooper took an active and prominent 
 part in all the legislation enacted by the Seven- 
 teenth and Eighteenth Legislatures, and was con- 
 sidered one of the brainiest men in those bodies. 
 The reputation earned in the Legislature led to his 
 nomination and election to the United States Con- 
 gress in 1892. He was renominated and elected in 
 1894, and this year (1896) has been again honored 
 by renomination and will undoubtedly be re-elected 
 by his Democratic constituents. He has made a 
 splendid record in Congress. Each new session 
 has added to his laurels. His district (the Second) 
 and the State of Texas have reason to be proud of 
 him. He is a Democrat who has stumped his sec- 
 tion of the State in every campaign for years pagt. 
 He is a Royal Arch Mason. Mr. Cooper is consid- 
 ered one of the best lawyers at the bar in this 
 State, is in the prime of a vigorous manhood, and 
 will make bis influence still more widely felt in the 
 coming sessions of Congress, at which so much legis- 
 lation in the interest of the people is to be enacted. 
 
 WILLIAM THOMAS HUDGINS, 
 
 TEXARKANA. 
 
 Mr. Hudgins was born in Northumberland 
 County, Va., on January 15th, 1859. He comes 
 from Revolutionary families of that State. His 
 grandfather, Col. Thomas Hudgins, of Matth- 
 
 ews County, commanded the defense of the Vir- 
 ginia Peninsula during the War of 1812. His 
 maternal grandfather. Dr. William Heath Kirk, of 
 Lancaster County, was a Baptist minister of great 
 
692 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 ability, known aud loved Ihrougbout Virginia and 
 neighboring States. His father, William Philip 
 Hudgins (now of San Antonio, Texas), is a grad- 
 uate of Bethany College and of the University of 
 Virginia, and while a young Sergeant in the Fortieth 
 Virginia Volunteers, was seriously wounded at 
 Gaines' Mill, in 1862. He moved his family to 
 Texas in 1865, and settled at Marshall, in Harrison 
 County, where the subject of this slietch was 
 reared. 
 
 Mr. W. T. Hudgins became a telegraph operator 
 in 1873, and held a lucrative position with the 
 Texas & Pacific Railway Company in 1875, when 
 be resigned, at the age of sixteen, and matriculated 
 as a student at Richmond College, Richmond, Va., 
 from which institution he graduated as Master of 
 Arts, with highest honors, in 1879. Upon his malc- 
 ing a public address at the commencement exer- 
 cises of the College that year. Dr. J. L. M. Curry, 
 then Professor of Moral Philosophy, afterwards 
 president of the College, manager of the Peabody 
 Fund, and United States Minister to Spain, wrote 
 him a personal letter in which on bebalf of the 
 faculty of the College, he said: "All of us look 
 forward with hopeful anticipations to your future 
 career. You have wonderful powers of concentra- 
 tion, a quick intellect, and a philosophic mind." 
 
 Mr. Hudgins returned to Texas in 1879, and 
 studied law in the office of his cousin, Hon. Geo. T. 
 Todd, of Jefferson, Texas. He received his license 
 to practice from Judge R. R. Gaines, now Chief 
 Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas, in 1880. 
 He moved to Texarkana, Texas, in 1881, and there 
 established a law partnership with Hon. Chas. S. 
 Todd, which continued twelve years. In 1882 he 
 was elected County Attorney of Bowie County. In 
 1880 he was elected a Democratic member of the 
 Texas Legislature from the Seventeenth District, 
 then composed of the counties of Bowie, Cass, 
 Marion, and Morris. He served with distinction in 
 the regular and special sessions of the Twentieth 
 
 Legislature, after which he voluntarily retired from 
 politics, and traveled in Europe in 1889. While in 
 the Legislature he was Chairman of the Committee 
 on Enrolled Bills, and a member of the Judiciary 
 Committee, and the Committees on Towns and City 
 Corporations, and Counties and County Boundaries. 
 He was the special champion of the interests of the 
 University of Texas, in the House, and by his elo- 
 quent persistency, against great opposition, secured 
 the appropriations for erecting the main building of 
 that institution. 
 
 In 1891 he married Mrs. Sallie Norris Taylor, of 
 Red River County, and has since continued the 
 practice of law in Texarkana and the adjacent 
 country in Texas and Arkansas. He has been 
 identified with the most important cases, both civil 
 and criminal, in that territory. He is now General 
 Attorney and Second Vice-President of the Texar- 
 kana «& Fort Smith Railway Company, to accept 
 which position, in 1893, he severed his connection 
 with the well-known law firm of Todd, Hudgins & 
 Rodgers. 
 
 He was an alternate delegate from Texas to the 
 National Democratic Convention of 1884, which 
 first nominated President Cleveland. During the 
 political campaign of 1896 he was an ardent 
 sound money, or gold standard, advocate, was a 
 prominent member of the State Convention at 
 Waco, and a delegate from Texas to the Indianap- 
 olis Convention which nominated Generals Palmer 
 and Buckner for President and Vice-President. In 
 the final election he accepted the suggestion of Gen. 
 Palmer, and, for the first time, voted the straight 
 Republican ticket. Though not a candidate for any 
 office, he made strong speeches during the cam- 
 paign opposing free silver, but insisting upon fair 
 elections and a reasonable tariff for protection of 
 domestic products. 
 
 Mr. Hudgins is one of our broad-minded, pro- 
 gressive business men, who are doing great work in 
 advancing the development of Texas. 
 
 C. POTTER 
 
 COOKE COUNTY. 
 
 Capt. C. Potter, one of the most widely known County, Texas, in 1858, and settled sixteen miles 
 
 of the early pioneers who settled in Northwest northwest of Gainesville, then the extreme outpost 
 
 Texas and reclaimed that section to civilization, along the frontier of white settlements in that direc- 
 
 moved from the State of Mississippi to Cooke tion. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 693 
 
 He, like many others who pushed into the Far 
 West, expected the country to rapidly fill up with 
 immigrants and the frontier to recede with the in- 
 coming waves of the human tide that has since 
 swept across the continent to the Pacific Ocean, but 
 his calculation did not take into account the great 
 Ciyil War of 1861-5. This event brought a sudden 
 stop to the movement of population into Texas 
 and, during that struggle, the few people who re- 
 sided in the frontier settlements were subjected to 
 a continuous Indian warfare that taxed their en- 
 
 were killed. The Indians were everywhere com- 
 mitting depredations, and the Confederate govern- 
 ment, finding itself unable to furnish troops to 
 protect the frontier settlements, authorized the 
 State to organize State troops for that purpose, and 
 Capt. Potter was placed in command of five com- 
 panies and served with these until the end of the 
 war, holding the Indians in cheek, or where that 
 was impossible, pursuing them and inflicting bloody 
 chastisements upon them. 
 
 His three sons, C. C. Potter, J. M. Potter and 
 
 C. POTTER. 
 
 durance and resources to the utmost. During this 
 trying period he proved himself to be a natural 
 leader, rich in resource and dauntless in spirit, and 
 rendered valuable service to the State. In Decem- 
 ber, 1863, the Indians, about two hundred and fifty 
 strong, burned his dwelling-house and all its con- 
 tents. This loss, coming at the time it did, forced 
 his family to endure many privations, but he had 
 no thought of leaving the country, on the contrary 
 he determined to hold his ground and stand by his 
 neighbors and friends until the dawning of happier 
 and more prosperous days. In a battle near his 
 house, at one time, in which his eldest son was 
 wounded, several Indians and three white settlers 
 
 C. L. Potter, live in Gainesville ; of his daughters, 
 Mrs. W. A. Lanier lives at Sulphur Springs, Texas ; 
 Mrs. L. K. Evans, at Nocona, Texas ; Mrs. W. C. 
 Weeks, at Arlington, Texas, and Mrs. L. H. Mathis, 
 at Wichata Falls, Texas. His sons occupy honor- 
 able positions in business and professional circles, 
 Hon. C. C. Potter having represented his district 
 in the Legislature a number of times and won a 
 State-wide reputation in that body. His daughters 
 are among the brightest social ornaments of the 
 communities in which they reside. All the de- 
 scendants of this noble old pioneer have proven 
 worthy of their parentage, and have contributed 
 their part toward making the Texas of to-day. 
 
694 
 
 IXDIAX WANS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 A. FORC K E, 
 
 NEW BRAUNFELS. 
 
 For more than fifty years the subject of this 
 memoir has been a citizen of Texas. Coming to 
 this country a man of superior education and 
 attainments, he has been an intelligent observer and 
 eye-witness of the multifarious changes that have 
 transpired since he took up his residence at New 
 Braunfels, and few of the old pioneers of Texas 
 have a mind so well stored with interesting and 
 instructive reminiscences, or are more entertaining 
 conversationalists. 
 
 Mr. Forcke was born in Hildesheira, Germany, 
 April 21st, 1814, and was educated in local schools 
 at Hildesheim and Jena, and secured his diploma 
 as an apothecary and followed that avocation in his 
 native town. His parents were J. G. and Mrs. A. 
 M. J. (Grossman) Forcke, both of whom are dead, 
 his father dying in 1862 and his mother in 1868, at 
 Hildesheim. His father was a joiner by trade, and 
 a man much respected in the community in which 
 he spent his long and useful life. The subject of 
 this notice ami his family left his home in the 
 Fatherland for Texas in 1845, and in talking with 
 him he gave the writer the following account of his 
 coming to and settlement in this country: — 
 
 " After having joined the Fuersten-Verein, we 
 departed for Bremen on the 14th of November. 
 1845, and arrived at New Braunfels on the 14th of 
 July, 1846, after a voyage lasting eight months. 
 We suffered greatly from adverse weather and were 
 shipwrecked in the channel during a terrific storm, 
 but were happily driven to the mouth of the River 
 Weser after we had drifted about some four weeks. 
 Here a pilot came to meet us, risking his life, as 
 the weather was stormy, and called out to lower the 
 anchors. Fortunately the pumps were in order 
 and the vessel was kept afloat by them, going day 
 and night. The pilot, who was taken aboard with 
 much difficulty, guided the ship back to Bremer- 
 haven. It was nearly a total wreck and our lug- 
 gage was ruined for the greater part. 
 
 " My brother, who was a strong young fellow of 
 twenty-four, was stricken with typhus three days 
 later and died. 
 
 '' As our ship was utterly useless, we were fur- 
 nished another one, the " Creole," a strong vessel 
 which had just completed a voyage under Capt. 
 Dannemann, a very able seaman. A part of the 
 passengers, however, refused to continue their trip 
 and returned home. 
 
 " Some three weeks later, after everything had 
 been washed and cleaned as well as could be done, 
 we set sail and in time came to Dover, where we 
 droiiped anchor. Here we had a singular expe- 
 rience. The ship, which had been secured by cables 
 and chains, keeled over partially when the tide went 
 out, but was kept from entirely capsizing by the 
 cables, which held it. Still, the damage was suffi- 
 cient to spring a leak, and so we were forced to sail 
 for Cowes (Isle of Wight) to have the vessel calked 
 and its bottom coppered. This delayed us three 
 weeks, after which we again set sail and as we 
 struck the trade winds everybody rejoiced, for the 
 favorable current brought us nearer our destination 
 by a good many miles every day. 
 
 "However, we were not so lucky as to retain 
 favorable winds and after a short while we struck a 
 dead calm. In fact, the captain declared that he had 
 never before made a voyage under such untoward 
 circumstances. Several weeks later we encountered 
 a number of whales, there must have been a dozen 
 of them, and several icebergs were passed at a 
 respectful distance. 
 
 " Through the carelessness of the first mate we 
 came near colliding with a French frigate and, but 
 for the dexterity of the captain, both vessels might 
 have gone down. We now neared the West Indian 
 Archipelago and encountered daily storms until we 
 landed at Galveston, about the beginning of May. 
 Here we remained for several weeks and were then 
 transferred by schooners to Indianola, where we 
 were received by the physician of the society with 
 the words : ' I am awfully glad you have come, as 
 I will now have some assistance, ever^^body has the 
 cholera.' 
 
 " Of course we helped, and for the three weeks 
 we remained there, the sick were provided with 
 suitable medicine. On account of the very un- 
 favorable weather, cold and dampness, and lack of 
 care and attention, a great number of the patients 
 (lied, who could have been saved if it had been pos- 
 sible to take them to New Braunfels. 
 
 "^ The only obtainable vehicle for the continua- 
 tion of our journey was an ox-cart and a pair of 
 oxen, by which method two families were finally 
 brought to New Braunfels, where I was engaged by 
 the society as apothecary." 
 
 Mr. Forcke prospered in business at New Braun- 
 fels as an apothecary (in which he has since been 
 
COL. A. .]. rosp:. 
 
ryoiAx WARS axd pioneers of texas. 
 
 095 
 
 engaged) and soon came to take an active part in 
 the affairs of the community, of which be has been 
 a leading citizen from the beginning, worliing 
 always for the promotion of the best interests of 
 the town and for the upbuilding of the section in 
 which it is situated. No man in that part of the 
 State is more generally and justly esteemed for pur- 
 ity of character and services rendered. 
 He married, in 1848, at New Braunfels, Texas, 
 
 Miss Sophia Frickc, an estimable young lady of 
 that place, who has borne him three children: G. 
 H. Forcke, Mrs. Joseph Faust and Charles Forcke, 
 the latter of whom is deceased. Mr. Forcke has 
 served as a member of the Board of Aldermen of 
 the city of New Braunfels and of the Board of 
 School Trustees, in both of which positions he has 
 been an active worker for the best interests of the 
 city of his residence. 
 
 A. J. ROSE, 
 
 SALADO. 
 
 What Texas is to-day and what she may in the 
 future hope to be is founded upon the broad, liberal 
 and far-sighted wisdom and the stability of her 
 pioneers. The pioneers of Texas, as a rule, were 
 not adventurers as in most countries they usually 
 were, but were men of resolute and well deflned 
 purpose who came hither to aid in the building up 
 of a free and independent government and iden- 
 tify themselves with the development of a new and 
 promising commonwealth and to establish homes. 
 They were mostly young people with their lives 
 before them and with a sti-ong determination and 
 willing hands to develop the country. The subject 
 of this brief memoir was one of that class and it is 
 doubtful if there is to-day a pioneer who has been 
 more closely identified with the material growth of 
 Texas than he, and the author's aim in publishing 
 this work would not be accomplished witliout making 
 a becoming record of bis long and useful career. 
 
 Mr. Rose is a native of North Carolina and was 
 born in Caswell County, September 3d, 1830. His 
 father, H. S. Rose, was a farmer whose ancestors 
 were among the first settlers of North Carolina. 
 Mr. Rose's mother was Mary Duriiam, her family 
 likewise being pioneers of North Carolina. In the 
 early days of that State H. S. Rose removed with 
 his family onto the frontier in Missouri, lived in 
 Howard and Randolph counties, and in the year 
 1836 or 1837 removed to Macon County. Our sub- 
 ject was then a small boy of about six 3'ears, still 
 he vividly remembers the skeleton Indian tepes lo- 
 cated on the old homestead that had been but 
 recently abandoned when the family located there- 
 on. The father secured land from the government, 
 developed a pioneer home and there lived until bis 
 death in 1846. He was an active and enterprising 
 
 man, a typical pioneer and delighted in frontier life 
 and took a prominent part in opening up the Macon 
 County country. He erected the first saw and grist 
 mill in that section of the State, which proved a 
 great boon to the settlers of that and adjacent 
 counties. Of bis eight children five grew to maturity 
 and our subject was of these the oldest. He spent 
 his youth on bis father's farm and in the mill. He 
 was ambitious to make a start for himself in the 
 world and upon the discovery of gold in California in 
 1849 went overland in company with seven others 
 to the gold diggings with ox teams and wagons, con- 
 suming 134 days en route. This was a hazardous 
 and difficult undertaking in those daj's. He re- 
 mained in California until 1853, during which time 
 he engaged in mining and freighting, meeting, on 
 the whole, with fair success. He left Sacramento 
 City on the 23d of May, 1853, for his home in Mis- 
 souri, making the journey on a mule in sixty-six 
 days. After his return home Maj. Rose purchased 
 a farm and engaged in agricultural pursuits in 
 Macon County until 1857, when he sold his farm 
 and moved overland to Texas with a mule team, 
 bringing with him his young wife and two children. 
 They located in Travis County and he engaged in 
 raising stock, chiefly horses. He there remained 
 until 1860, when he removed to San Saba County, 
 where he had purchased a fine location for a home, 
 about fifteen miles west of the town of San Saba, 
 on the San Saba river, irrigating his farm from a 
 bold spring upon it. With bis accustomed energy 
 he soon opened up a fine farm. 
 
 The war came on and every available white man 
 enlisted, but owing to the monthly visits of the red 
 man to steal and kill, all heads of families were re- 
 tained for the protection of the women and children. 
 
(;9(; 
 
 IXDIAN WAIiS AXD PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 as the Indians not only became more troublesome 
 in tbeir depreciating expeditions but even more iios- 
 tile and murderous. 
 
 Maj. Rose was a duly accredited officer of the 
 Confederate army, served on the Indian frontier 
 first as Lieutenant and later as Major, and tooli 
 active part in numerous thrilling scenes and inci- 
 dents, doing bis country valiant service. He also, 
 in the meantime, pushed his farm operations, and 
 raised quantities of corn and potatoes and farm 
 produce, which he distributed generously and with 
 an open hand to the needy families of soldiers who 
 were at the front. He also erected, at his home, a 
 grist and saw mill. He also erected a schoolhouse 
 on his premises and employed a teacher, receiving the 
 hearty co-operation of his neighbors iu this good 
 work of schooling the children. He thus started 
 the nucleus for a thriving community, but owing to 
 the too frequent raids and the deadly hostility of 
 the Indians and lack of proper frontier protection, 
 he finally disposed of his holdings, and in February, 
 1868, located in Bell County. For two years he 
 lived near Belton, and in 1870 moved to Salado, 
 which is now (1896) his unofficial home. 
 
 Maj. Rose was married June 18, 1854, to Miss 
 Sallie A. Austin, of Missouri, daughter of Walker 
 and P^upbam McKinney Austin. The McKinney 
 family were among the earliest settlers of Texas. 
 Thomas F. McKinney, uncle of Mrs. Rose, came 
 to Texas in 18.34, was one of the old Santa Fe 
 traders, and was instrumental in selecting the site 
 of Austin. Following are the names of the chil- 
 dren born to Maj. and Mrs. Rose: Alice E., wife 
 of T. R. Russell, of Bell County; Mary H., wife 
 of A. J. Mackey; W. S., a farmer of Bell County; 
 Beatrice, wife of Levi Anderson, of Bell County ; 
 Sallie A., wife of George W. Perry, of Macon 
 County, Mo; Callie M. ; A. Johnson, Jr., and 
 Louselle are at home with their parents. 
 
 Maj. Rose joined the Missionary Baptist Church 
 in 1861, in San Saba, and is now deacon and treas- 
 urer of Salado Baptist Church at Salado, Bell 
 County, Texas. 
 
 In October, 1861, Maj. Rose was initiated into 
 the mysteries of Freemasonry in San Saba Lodge 
 No. 225. In December, 1862, he was elected its 
 Senior Warden, and in 1863 its Master, which posi- 
 tion he filled consecutively until he removed to 
 Bell County in 1868. Affiliating with the Belton 
 Lodge No. 166, December, 1868, was elected Mas- 
 ter of this Lodge. In 1863 be received the Royal 
 Arch and appendant degrees in Mt. Horeb Chap- 
 ter, No. 57, in Williamson County. In 1864 be 
 received the Council degrees in the city of Austin, 
 ^nd in 1872 the Knight Templar degrees in Colorado 
 
 Commandery No. 4. He was a charter member 
 of San Saba Chapter and served as High Priest 
 for several years. He also served as High Priest 
 of Belton Chapter No. 76. He was a charter mem- 
 ber of Salado Chapter No. 107, organized in 1872, 
 and filled the office of High Priest consecutively for 
 twenty-one years. He served as Master of Salado 
 Lodge No. 296, and was its secretary for four 
 years. 
 
 In 1882 be was elected R. W. Grand Junior War- 
 den of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Texas ; 
 also Grand Senior Warden, Deputy Grand Master, 
 and Grand Master of Masons in Texas in 1887. 
 
 Being a farmer himself, he very naturally sym- 
 pathizes with any legitimate movement to improve 
 the farmer's condition. Hence we find bim figuring 
 conspicuously in the Grange, a farmer's organiza- 
 tion. In 1873 he was admitted a member of the 
 first subordinate Grange organized in Texas. In 
 December, of the same year, he was elected its 
 Master, to which position be was elected annually 
 for six years. In 1875 be was elected Lecturer of 
 the State Grange of Texas, and in 1877 was elected 
 Overseer. In 1881 be became Worthy Master of 
 the State Grange, which position he held consecu- 
 tively for eleven years. He served as secretary 
 for two years, and now, 1896, is chairman of the 
 executive committee. 
 
 It will be seen from the foregoing that Maj. Rose 
 has spent about one-half of his life as a pioneer on 
 the frontiers of Missouri, California and Texas. 
 His father dying when our subject was yet a youth 
 in school, his cherished hope of securing a thorough 
 education was necessarily abandoned, and he 
 became practically the head of a large family. 
 Feeling keenly the loss of his father, and greatly 
 disappointed in the disarrangement of bis school 
 plans, be bravely buckled on the armor of respon- 
 sibility and courageously met the grave duties and 
 cares of life. His successful career is conclusive 
 proof that he possessed the ambition, the nerve, 
 the fortitude, and the stability to turn to use the 
 misfortunes that would have discouraged and 
 crowded down the young man of common mold. 
 
 He has always been aggressive in forwarding the 
 cause of education, and one of the most hearty 
 indorsers and promoters of the general free school 
 system for which Texas is to-day famous. Having 
 served efficiently for more than twenty years on 
 school and college boards, Salado College, Salado 
 public school, Baylor Female College, he was 
 appointed by Governor Ross, in 1887, a member of 
 the Board of Directors of the State Agricultural 
 and Mechanical College, near Br3'an, and was, in 
 1889, elected president of the Board. This not 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 697 
 
 only involved the administration of tlie affairs of 
 the Agricultural and Mechanical College but also 
 of the Prairie View State Normal School. During 
 President Rose's administration of the affairs of 
 these institutions the Board was liberally supplied 
 with money by the State for their extension and 
 development, and these funds have been most wisely 
 spent in building dormitories, professors' resi- 
 dences, steam laundry, electric light plant, and 
 other essential buildings. All this has drawn 
 largely upon Maj. Rose's time and energy, 
 and the great value of his services to the State 
 and the cause of education is inestimable. He 
 is still retained in that position to the present 
 time. 
 
 In 1895 Mr. Rose was appointed by Governor 
 Culberson Commissioner of Agriculture, Insurance, 
 
 Statistics and History, a position which involves 
 great responsibility and labor. 
 
 Maj. Rose is strictly a thorough-going man of 
 affairs, and has filled the numerous positions of 
 trust that have been thrust upon him with marked 
 fidelity to duty in the broad sense that he has ever 
 interpreted it. While he is a Democrat, he has 
 never pursued politics as an occupation, never 
 sought office, but has responded to the call of pub- 
 lic trust from a sense of duty, and has performed 
 these duties of office in every instance with credit 
 to himself and satisfaction to the public. His name 
 will live prominently in the history of Texas as that 
 of a public benefactor who filled his mission in life 
 faithfully and with honor to himself and his people. 
 Maj. Rose still continues his farming operations at 
 his home, Salado. 
 
 N. L. NORTON, 
 
 AUSTIN. 
 
 Col. Norton came to Texas when the State was in 
 the throes of reconstruction, and when her whole 
 people were in mourning for their dead on a hun- 
 dred fields. He soon became known as a potent 
 factor in the matei'ial development of the common- 
 wealth, and a staunch defender of the natural and 
 constitutional rights of the people and of the cause 
 of honest, accountable government. 
 
 N. L. Norton was born near Carlisle, Nicholas 
 County, Ky., April 18th, 1830. His father was 
 Hiram Norton, a successful business man, whose 
 father, John Norton, was the son of a retired Brit- 
 ish naval officer who had settled in Virginia prior 
 to the War for Independence, and at the outbreak 
 of hostilities equipped his five sons for the service 
 of the colonies. One of these sons died on the 
 English prison-ship stationed in Charleston harbor. 
 Another was a sergeant in Washington's body-guard 
 and stood near his chief at the surrender of Corn- 
 wallis at Yorktown. He was afterwards a field 
 officer in the several Indian campaigns of Harmer, 
 St. Clair, Clark and Wayne. His nephew, Capt. 
 James Norton, oldest brother of Hiram, the father 
 of Col. N. L. Norton, was killed at the battle of 
 Tippecanoe, while serving under Gen. Harrison. 
 
 Col. Norton's mother was a Miss Spencer, a 
 daughter of a Revolutionary sire, and a grand- 
 daughter of Thomas Spencer, who commanded a 
 
 brigade of Scottish rebels at the disastrous battle 
 of Culloden in 1746, in which he was wounded and 
 captured. He barely escaped the block, to which he 
 had been condemned, through the connivance of 
 British officials. Fleeing to America he settled in 
 Virginia, and subsequently removed to Bourbon, 
 now Clark, County, Ky. 
 
 Col. Norton took the log school house course 
 near the old home and, later, attended Fredonia 
 Academy, in Western New York, and the Military 
 Institute, in Kentuckj^ 
 
 He was married in 1853 to Miss Mary C. Hall, a 
 daughter of John Hall, an honored citizen of the 
 same county. The young couple moved to 
 Missouri, where they encountered many of the 
 inconveniences and trials incident to farm life in 
 that State nearly half a century ago. When the 
 war between the States became inevitable, the 
 young farmer recognized that it was the citizen's 
 duty to maintain his allegiance to the State which 
 guaranteed his civil rights ; and, although strongly 
 opposed to secession, denied even more bitterly the 
 right of coercion and promptly obeyed the call of 
 the legally elected Governor, and organized one of 
 the first companies raised north of the Missouri 
 river for the defense of the State. He served in 
 various capacities and grades of rank, and enjoyed 
 the special confidence of his Commander, Gen. 
 
698 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Sterling Price. As an evidence of his popularity 
 with the army and people, he was chosen, almost 
 unanimously, over three competitors as Representa- 
 tive in the Confederate Congress in May, 1864. 
 He is the youngest living meml)er of that now his- 
 toric body. 
 
 In the field bis duties were mainly those of staff 
 officer, but he was assigned to much special ser- 
 vice, and often of the most perilous nature, in 
 which he had many adventures and not a few very 
 narrow escapes. Gen. Price said of him, " He 
 is infinite in resource." In Congress he was faith- 
 ful and true, giving the best energies of his soul to 
 the support of a government which, like the tower 
 of Ushur, was already tottering to its fall. When 
 the end came, he took up life and business anew. 
 Unwilling to renew the struggle for subsistence in 
 the rigorous climate of Northern Missouri, he came 
 to Southern Texas, securing a home on the Lavaca 
 river. Here he introduced many improved farm 
 implements, blooded stock, and improved methods 
 of agriculture, of incalculable value to that section. 
 Energetic and progressive, he took an active, 
 almost initiative, interest in the formation of agri- 
 cultural societies in several counties, from which 
 beginning some of the most successful annual 
 county fair associations in Texas date their begin- 
 ning. Through his generous sympathies and active 
 efforts in behalf of a war-worn section and people, 
 he soon obtained an extensive acquaintance, and a 
 large circle of friends. 
 
 He was selected by Governor Roberts to make 
 the initial move that resulted in the great granite 
 ca()itol, that stands at the head of Congress avenue, 
 in the city of Austin. 
 
 The constitution of 187G provided for the erec- 
 tion of a new State capitol and set aside 3,000,000 
 acres of public land for that purpose. The loca- 
 tion and survey of so large a section became a 
 matter of importance, and required special abili- 
 ties. The trust was confided to Col. Norton, who, 
 accompanied by the surveyors and a small detail 
 from the frontier battalion of rangers, made sur- 
 veys embracing nearly all the vacant and unappro- 
 priated public domain in the counties of Dallam, 
 Hartley, Oldham, Deaf Smith, Palmer, and Castro, 
 as well as a large portion of Bailey, Lamb, and 
 Hockley. Prior to this examination and survey the 
 Llano Estacado, or "staked plains," were gener- 
 ally accepted at the estimate placed on them by 
 geographers, viz., as "The Great American Des- 
 ert," a region unsuited for civilized habitation and 
 valueless except as territorial expanse. 
 
 Col. Norton took a different view, and in his re- 
 port to Governor Roberts placed a high estimate 
 
 upon the capabilities of the soil, and expressed a 
 belief that enterprise and energy would there 
 achieve good results at no distant day. Time has 
 already more than justified these statements and 
 opinions. 
 
 The plains are being settled and cultivated, and 
 many stock men regard them as among the best 
 grazing grounds in the State. Aside from the in- 
 telligent observation evinced in this really able re- 
 port, the faithful labor shown in the long tal)ulated 
 annex, giving number of leagues, location, descrip- 
 tion, topography, adaptation, etc., was especially 
 gratifying to the authorities and the public. The 
 law providing a Capitol Board and Building Com- 
 missioners named the Governor, Comptroller, 
 Treasurer, Commissioner of the General Land Office 
 and the Attornej'-General as the members who 
 should compose the former, and this board elected 
 the Hon. Joseph Lee and N. L. Norton as the men 
 to compose the latter. The relations of Judge Lee 
 and Col. Norton were ever of the most pleasant and 
 fraternal character, and the survivor, Col. Norton, 
 speaks of his friend and fellow-worker in terms of 
 tenderest regard. The board had executive and 
 discretionary powers, while the commissioners were 
 to be guided solely by the law and the contracts 
 made thereunder ; yet, upon all deliberative ques- 
 tions they practically constituted one body, and the 
 freest discussions and exchange of views prevailed 
 among them, and, as an example of their joint 
 labor, this entire body held a continuous session of 
 thirty-five days in preparing and adopting the form 
 of contract and detailed specifications under which 
 the work was finally' done. Much of this time the 
 designing architect was also present aiding and 
 consulting. Plans having been solicited, a selec- 
 tion was made upon the advice of Mr. N. Lebrun, 
 a distinguished architect of New York Cily, ap- 
 pointed by the Governor upon the authority of the 
 Legislature. Pending the usual notice to bidders, 
 the commissioners began the search for material 
 suitable for construction. From their first prelim- 
 inary report on the subject, dated June 1st, 1881, 
 it is clear that they already realized that this was a 
 difficult and responsible task. They had found 
 stone in abundance, sound and strong ; but stone 
 sound, strong and durable, of uniform color and 
 texture (such as filled the requirements of both the 
 law and the contract), of proper thickness of strata 
 for the massive building blocks and heavy columns 
 and pilasters in sufficient amount, had not been 
 found. The following is from the eighteenth sec- 
 tion of the enabling act: "The interior and ex- 
 terior walls of the capitol shall be of the most 
 durable rock accessible, which shall sustain a 
 
IXDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 699 
 
 pressure at least equal to that used in the construc- 
 tion of the Travis County Courthouse." The 
 Travis County Courthouse is limestone, and none 
 other had hitherto been deemed "accessible." 
 The repoit contained the following on this subject: 
 "There are reasons to cause us to doubt the pro- 
 priety of adopting any ordinarj^ material for an 
 extraordinary structure. It will be time to con- 
 front the difficult problem of constructing a first- 
 class house with second-class material when all 
 hope of procuring the best shall have been aban- 
 doned." It was argued that the limestone used in 
 the Travis County Courthouse was the standard 
 created by law and, therefore, its use in the capitol 
 by the Commissioners was an imperative duty. 
 This view was irreconcilable with the spirit of the 
 law, which demanded that the "best accessible" 
 material should be used, and in a later paper, July 
 18th, they reported an extended examination, in- 
 cluding several counties, and presented eighteen 
 different samples of stone. Among them was red 
 granite from Burnet County. Some of these 
 samples, marble and limestone, as well as gran- 
 ite, on being subjected to mechanical and chem- 
 ical tests at the Smithsonian Institute, were 
 indorsed as suitable. Such indorsement was 
 deemed sufficient and the contract was let, 
 the contractors taiiing the risk of a supply of 
 the standard shown in the Travis County Court- 
 house. The quarries at Oatmanville were selected 
 by them as sufficient for all demands, and indeed 
 there could be no doubt of its fitness for founda- 
 tion and other unexposed worjj. Its character had 
 been established by mechanical tests at the Rock 
 Island arsenal and chemical analysis by Prof. Mal- 
 lett, of the Texas University. The Commissioners, 
 however, said as follows: "Experience, acquired 
 through means of extensive labor and observation, 
 shows a marked lack of uniformity in most, if not 
 all, the deposits of stratified rocks in this country, 
 and the quarry at Oatmanville is no exception to 
 the general rule. These variations include color, 
 texture and quality. The texture usually differs 
 Willi each separate stratum, while the color often 
 changes in the same stratum when no variation of 
 texture or quality is perceptible." They reported 
 the impracticability of literal compliance with the 
 clause in the contract stipulating that the stone 
 should in " no respect differ from the sample." The 
 board declined to consider the matter except in its 
 relation to the foundation and basement wall. For 
 this purpose only the Commissioners were author- 
 ized to accept such dimension stone as, after satis- 
 factory test, should prove " not inferior in quality 
 to the sample." The delicacy of the situation was 
 
 apparent. The contractors, evidently believing 
 their quarry capable of meeting all the varied re- 
 quirements of the contract, had, at much expense, 
 built a railway connection thereto, while the repre- 
 sentatives of the State could not see their way clear 
 except through a substantial compliance with the 
 contract, which required uniformity of quality, tex- 
 ture, color, etc. The work was completed to the 
 grade line above which covers the five-feet belt- 
 course, or water table, prescribed in the plans by 
 the architect and already covered by the contract. 
 This stone was furnished free of charge to the con- 
 tractors liy Messrs. Westfall, Lacy and Norton, 
 who had previously purchased the Granite Moun- 
 tain property in Burnet County. The basement 
 story thus completed was pronounced by the Com- 
 missioners "entirely sufficient," and lasting for 
 any kind of material that may be used above. 
 
 What that material should be was unsettled and 
 the same old embarrassing conditions still existed. 
 Nothing meeting all the requirements or proving 
 satisfactory to all concerned had been found. 
 There was an evident indisposition on the part of 
 the board to be unjust to the contractors or force 
 . them to unreasonable costs, but quite a strong 
 purpose to secure the " best accessible" material. 
 AVork was temporarily suspended, but interest in 
 and discussion of the situation continued. The 
 contract was, as has been shown, on a limestonebasis. 
 The contractors expressed a willingness, even an anx- 
 iety, to use the best of that class and asked only to be 
 shown such as would be satisfactory. At this 
 juncture the second biennial report of the Commis- 
 sioners was submitted, which had the effect of prac- 
 tically eliminating native limestone from further 
 consideration and convinced all parties that granite 
 was the only Texas material fit for the great struc- 
 ture. The following is taken from this report : — 
 "In this connection the offer made before the 
 inception of this work is renewed as follows: — 
 
 " Austin, Texas, November 6, 1884. 
 " We, the undersigned, owners of Survey No. 
 18, in Burnet County, Texas, and known as the 
 William Slaughter east half-league, upon which is 
 the granite deposit whence the material for the 
 ■water-table of the new State capitol was recently 
 taken, herebj' tender to the people of the State of 
 Texas, free of all or any charge, all the granite 
 stone required to complete the entire superstructure 
 of the building. 
 " Witness: 
 
 " John Hancock, G. W. Lacet, 
 
 " O. M. EoBEUTS, W. H. Westfall, 
 
 "N. L. Norton. 
 
700 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 " It will be seen that one of the Commissioners 
 is joint owner in the above property and an equal 
 associate in the proposed donation. 
 
 " Although this is an absolute gratuity, and not 
 an effort to sell or otherwise speculate on the State, 
 yet, to avoid all doubt of the propriety of such con- 
 tribution from a public servant, he prefers to sever 
 all connection with the work. If the proposition to 
 give this material shall incite others to greater lib- 
 erality, by which the State may be more benefited, 
 it will be more gratifying to none than to those 
 who make the offer, their sole purpose being to 
 secure for Texas at a minimum expense a monu- 
 mental capitol, worthy of her resources and her 
 people." 
 
 Thus closes the report, and soon after Col. Nor- 
 ton's connection with the work of building the 
 capitol ended. 
 
 Happily, through mutual concessions, a satisfac- 
 tory solution of a vexed question was arrived at, 
 and a new contract, providing for the use of granite 
 and a modification of the exterior of the building 
 to equitably compensate the contractors for the 
 extra cost entailed upon them by the change, was 
 entered into, and the noble edifice subsequently 
 constructed of Texas granite. 
 
 The Granite Mountain property has passed into 
 other hands and the old company, so liberal and 
 loyal to Texas, has been dissolved; but, while a 
 pillar of the capitol stands, or a notch in an ashlar 
 remains, their names and generosity will be indis- 
 solubly associated therewith. Soon after the dedi- 
 cation of the new capitol the Texas Legislature 
 gracefully acknowledged their services to the State 
 by a formal vote of thanks, and, at a subsequent 
 session, the same body set apart for their use and 
 occupancy during life one of the rooms of the great 
 building. A distinguished State officer, long a 
 member of the capitol board, referring in conver- 
 sation with the writer of this article to the building 
 of the State House, said : — 
 
 " Col, Norton's services were invaluable. His 
 
 discharge of the duties of commissioner was 
 marked by zeal, fidelity and ability and his reports 
 were models of their kind." 
 
 Dr. Westfall, of Burnet, who from the inception 
 of this enterprise took a most active interest and 
 rendered every practical aid, in a paper, now be- 
 fore the writer, says it was Col. Norton who first 
 suggested the use of granite for the capitol. 
 
 " One main purpose of the purchase of the gran- 
 ite mountain by Westfall, Lacey and Norton was 
 that the State of Texas might be assured in advance 
 of a home material for this building, of the very best 
 quality, and that without cost. No other consider- 
 ation was ever brought to bear on their action and 
 they never received or desired to receive any other 
 compensation. While Governor Ireland and the 
 capitol board are justly entitled to the credit of the 
 final contract, modifying the design and substi- 
 tuting granite, to Col. Norton more than any other 
 person, Texas is indebted for the magnificent 
 structure that adorns capitol hill." 
 
 Col. Norton is still a very busy man and, when 
 not actively engaged with his farming interests in 
 the country, he may be found at his elegant home 
 in the city of Austin and generally at his desk. He 
 has written much for the press but his chief pleas- 
 ure is found in books and in correspondence with 
 the friends of " auld lang syne." His family con- 
 sists of his wife, his daughter-in-law, Mrs. Annie 
 Lee Norton, and her child, little Onida, of whom he 
 is very fond, his only children, Mrs. Katie Spencer 
 Adair and Hiram Price Norton, having both died 
 within a few years. 
 
 He has been a mason since Ma}', 1851, and is 
 now a member of Colorado Encampment Knights 
 Templar and Ben Hur Temple of the Ancient Arabic 
 Order of the Mystic Shrine. He is plain, without 
 pretense or self-assertion, a man of broad and lib- 
 eral views and of the tenderest sympathies. He 
 has a profound respect and toleration for the 
 opinions and faiths of others and is most charitable 
 in his estimate of his fellowmen. 
 
 WILLIAM HADEN THOMAS, 
 
 DALLAS. 
 
 W. H. Thomas, president of the American Na- day of March, 1829, and received a good country 
 
 tional Bank, of Dallas, and for many years past a school education for tiiat day and time, which he 
 
 leading financier and prominent citizen of that has since enlarged by study and observation until 
 
 place, was born in Alien County, Ky., on the 11th he is now considered one of the best informed and 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 701 
 
 most accomplished gentlemen iu Texas. He came 
 to this State in the fall of 1852, making the jour- 
 ney on horseback, and located in Dallas County. 
 September 29lh, in the following year, he was 
 united in marriage to Miss Mary Skiles, daughter 
 of J. C. Skiles. She was born and reared iu War- 
 ren County, Ky., in which members of her family 
 have long been prominent. 
 
 Mr. Thomas secured a position with Gold & Don- 
 aldson, merchants at Dallas, and continued with 
 them until the fall of 1855, and then, on account 
 of failing health, settled on a tract of land on 
 
 & Co., the first banking institution established in 
 Dallas, composed of T. C. Jordan, J. P. Thomas, 
 and W. H. Thomas. 
 
 In 1872 he and W. H. Gaston organized the 
 banking firm of Gaston & Thomas at Dallas. In 
 1878 Gaston & Thomas bought the stock of the 
 Exchange Bank, chartered under State law, and 
 merged their bank into the Exchange Bank of Dal- 
 las. He was elected president, and held that posi- 
 tion until 1883 and then sold his stock. 
 
 In 1884 he, with others, organized the American 
 National Bank of Dallas. He was elected presi- 
 
 WILLIAM HADEX THOMAS. 
 
 Duck creek, Dallas County, and opened a small 
 farm. 
 
 In 1858 he was elected County Surveyor of Dal- 
 las County and was continued in that position by 
 successive re-elections, with the exception of the 
 period spent by him in the army, until removed by 
 Governor E. J. Davis in 18G6 as an impediment to 
 reconstruction. He enlisted in the Confederate 
 army as a private in Company I., Thirtieth Texas 
 Cavalry, and was transferred to the Brigade Com- 
 missary Department in the field in the Trans-Mis- 
 sissippi Department, and so continued until the end 
 of the war. 
 
 In 1871 he was one of the firm of T. C. Jordan 
 
 dent of the institution, and has been continued in 
 that position by successive annual re-elections to 
 the present time. 
 
 His wife died November 13, 1887. They reared 
 two children, a daughter. May, who married F. A. 
 Miller, and a son, Robert B., who married Miss 
 Eula Hatcher. 
 
 Mr. Thomas is not a member of any church, but 
 is an ardent believer in Christianity and has always 
 been a moral man. He has attended strictly to his 
 business interests, and by careful management has 
 accumulated a good estate, and has made the bank- 
 ing institution he controls one of the most success- 
 ful in the South. 
 
702 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 ROBERT N. WHITE, 
 
 CORSICANA. 
 
 The subject of this sketch was born in South 
 Carolina, in December, 1810. When he was a 
 child his parents moved to Green County, Ala., 
 where they resided a few years. He then moved to 
 Chickasaw County, Miss., from whence, in the 
 year 1845, he moved with his family to Texas, first 
 locating at Dresden. A short time after, in 1847, 
 the town of Corsicana was located and again the 
 family moved, taking up their residence at that 
 place. 
 
 Robert N. White was married in 1840, in Ala- 
 bama, to Miss Juliet Means, a native of South 
 Carolina. He followed farming after settling at 
 Corsicana. When tiie county of Norman was 
 organized, in 1847, he was elected County Clerk 
 and held the office for a period of ten years. At 
 the expiration of his term of office he retired from 
 
 active business, having accumulated a comfortable 
 fortune through his farming and other financial 
 operations. 
 
 He died May 25th, 1891, leaving a wife and six 
 children, all of whom are living. The children are 
 all married, except one sou, who is now living with 
 his mother at the old homestead, No. 208, Third 
 Avenue, in the town of Corsicana. 
 
 The remaining Children, with the exception of one 
 son residing and in business in the Indian Territory, 
 are living in Texas. 
 
 Mr. Wliite was never a politician, but was 
 trusted and honored by his fellow-citizens, as is 
 shown by the fact of his having been elected to fill 
 the important office of County Clerk for such a long 
 period of time. His death was deeply mourned by 
 his surviving family and acquaintances. 
 
 THOMAS HENRY MATHIS, 
 
 ROCKPORT. 
 
 No one who has been at all conversant with the 
 southern coast of Texas for the past twenty-five 
 years can have failed to hear the name of Thomas 
 Henry Mathis. His manly form, well chiseled 
 features and vigorous step, form a fitting index to 
 the volume of his good deeds. Under any circum- 
 stances he must have been prominent, and, indeed, 
 the sequel to this narrative will show that he has 
 developed a fine character, not under the favor of 
 plain sailing, but despite the buffetings of Dame 
 Fortune. Such a success as he lias achieved could 
 not have been accidental. Accidents do not occur 
 on such a colossal scale. 
 
 He was born in Stewart County, July 14th, 1834. 
 His parents were James and Isabella Mathis, the 
 former of whom died in 1864, and tlie latter in 1876. 
 They were both highly esteemed for their sterling 
 religious character. Thomas received his early 
 education in the country scliools of Tennessee and 
 Kentucky, and, being raised on a farm, he was 
 taught the value of a dollar by digging for it early 
 and late. As a boy he was proud to " hoe his own 
 
 row," and as a youth to swing his scj'the with the 
 foremost. At the age of nineteen he resolved to 
 strive for higher education, and this marks a turn- 
 ing point in his life, as he was thenceforth thrown 
 entirely on his own resources. Ardently as his 
 father longed to encourage his aspirations, he 
 could not do so in justice to his other children. 
 But nothing daunted, Thomas left the paternal roof 
 to enter the school of Dr. J. T. Mathis in Southern 
 Arkansas. At the end of the second session here 
 he negotiated a loan of $1,000 from his father, to 
 be paid back by him, or deducted from the estate 
 on final settlement of the same. With this aid he 
 continued another session at school. At the expir- 
 ation of this time he took a school at Warren, Brad- 
 ley County, Ark. In conjunction with a lady 
 teacher, he conducted his school successfully one 
 year, and then went to Bethel College, where he 
 finished his education, in 1857. In 1858 he 
 removed to Murray, Ky. , where he assisted Dr. J. 
 T. Mathis in teaching one session. 
 
 In 1859 he went to Southwest Texas, where his 
 
/M^.lOC^z^ciZclf 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 703 
 
 career as a business man commenced. His very 
 first enterprise was fraught with extreme peril, 
 from which men of less courage shrank. It was' 
 on the 3cl of February, 1859, that be left Gonzales, 
 Texas, with a party of eighteen, to make a trading 
 tour into Mexico. 
 
 Any one familiar with border troubles and border 
 characters, even at this late day, can have some 
 conception of the hazards of this trip in the next 
 decade after the Mexican War. On reaching Rio 
 Grande City the party was informed that it was out 
 of the question to think of crossing over into 
 Mexico, as the country was full of robbers and 
 brigands. Of the party of eighteen, only T. H. 
 Mathis and his cousin, J. M. Mathis, had the nerve 
 to cross the Rio Grande. Two young Alabamians, 
 who were not of the original party, also crossed 
 with them into the kingdom of the Montezumas, 
 together with a Mexican guide. As they lay in 
 camp on San Juan river, at China, the first night 
 after reaching Mexico, the custom-house officer 
 demanded of them a duty of six per cent of all 
 their money on the penalty of being imprisoned 
 and having all they had cout3scated. They sent 
 their interpreter to tell the officer that they were 
 buying stock in his country, and would leave all 
 their money there ; but that if he persisted in de- 
 manding the six per cent he mignt come and get 
 it, that there were four of them well armed with 
 shotguns and six-shooters, and that many of the 
 Mexicans would bite the dust in the attempted rob- 
 bery. It is needless to say that Mathis and ]iis 
 party were left unmolested. They remained in the 
 country six weeks, camping at night and throwing 
 out pickets like a regular army. But for this, they 
 would doubtless have been robbed or murdered. 
 Though this trip was quite successful, it was never 
 deemed prudent to repeat it. After making an- 
 other business trip to the Texas side of the Rio 
 Grande, Mathis temporarily left the stock business 
 and opened a five-months school in Gonzales 
 County in the spring of 1861. In the summer of 
 that year he removed to Victoria and extended the 
 scope of his business transactions, but was com- 
 pelled to close his business in the fall of that year, 
 on account of the closing of the Gulf ports at the 
 outbreak of the great Civil War. He then went to 
 Kentucky and Tennessee and bought a large lot of 
 tobacco, the price of which was rapidly rising in 
 Texas. He barely succeeded in getting out with this 
 commodit3' from Paris, Tenn., before the town fell 
 into the hands of the Federal troops. He shipped 
 this tobacco to Alexandria, La., and to it added 
 another lot purchased in New Orleans. Meantime 
 he sold the whole in Texas for one dollar a pound. 
 
 in Confederate money. In the spring and summer 
 of 1862 he was busily engaged in forwarding sup- 
 plies from Texas to the Confederate soldiers of the 
 Trans-Mississippi Department. In the fall of the 
 same year he joined Duff's regiment, Company E., 
 and fought for the Confederac}- till the close of the 
 war. He is not ashamed of the cause he espoused, 
 nor of the part he played in it. Yet when the flag 
 of the Confederacy was furled, he realized that the 
 war was over indeed. The same magnanimous 
 spirit with which he now treats the " boys who 
 wore the blue " enabled him to speedily forget the 
 bitterness of the struggle and, though with reduced 
 resources, to recommence his business career. He 
 again engaged in the tobacco trade between Ten- 
 nessee and Texas, in which he continued a year. 
 In February, 1867, he settled on Aransas Bay, and 
 selected the site on which the thriving little city of 
 Rockport now stands. The firm of J. M. & T. H. 
 Mathis built the first wharf which was established 
 there, and chartered the first steamship, " The 
 Prince Albert," that ever entered Aransas Bay for 
 commercial purposes. After this was lost at sea, 
 they induced the Morgan line to run their ships to 
 Rockport, and became their agents. This part of 
 our narrative deserves to be emphasized. The sub- 
 ject of this sketch was the founder of Rockport in 
 a sense in which no one else can claim that honor. 
 In 1869 the Mathis firm expended $5,500 for the 
 improvement of Aransas bar, thus blazing the way, 
 like hardy pioneers, of the future highway of com- 
 merce. It was about the same time that they 
 built the Orleans Hotel, and erected a number of 
 other buildings in Rockport. They also built 
 bridges, made good county roads, and aided in 
 securing many other public improvements. Later 
 on, T. H. Mathis contributed liberally toward 
 bringing the Union telegraph to Rockport, and to 
 the building of the first telephone line to that part 
 of the State. He was also a liberal contributor to 
 the establishment of the first cold storage meat 
 refrigerating plant in Texas. He was also one of 
 the first men in the State to introduce blooded 
 cattle and horses into Southwest Texas, and he is 
 said to possess the banner ranch of his portion of 
 the State, with regard to the quality of his stock. 
 When the Aransas Pass Railroad was built into 
 Rockport, in 1888, he was one of the principal pro- 
 moters of the enterprise, and it is one of the best 
 additions to the city which bears this name. 
 
 When, in 1872, the firm of J. M. & T. H. 
 Mathis was enlarged to that of Coleman, Mathis & 
 Fulton, again the progressive spirit of the subject 
 of this narrative was felt when the firm of which he 
 was from the beginning a member, built the first 
 
704 
 
 JNDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 large pasture that was ever established in the State. 
 In 1870 this firm was dissolved, and J. M. & T. H. 
 Mathis were the following year again associated in 
 business by themselves. Since that time T. H. 
 Mathis has been doing business on his own account, 
 with the exception of the purchase of a one-half 
 interest in about 24,000 acres of fine agricultural 
 laud in Wharton County, which he subsequently sold. 
 He now owns about 24,000 acres of fine agricultural 
 land in San Patricio County, on the Nueces river, 
 well fenced and stocked with fine horses and cattle. 
 On the same estate are several farms, orchards and 
 vineyards. The town of "Mathis" is named for 
 him, and is a portion of his original ranch. The 
 growth of a town so near the body of his ranch can- 
 not fail to appreciate the value of every acre of it. 
 Even at the present low prices of land, this is a 
 princely estate, while its prospective value is very 
 considerable indeed. Mr. Matliis possesses an 
 ordinary fortune, entirely aside from these fine 
 lands. He owns one of the best homes in Rockport, 
 besides thousands of dollars' worth of realty in 
 different portions of that city. He is liberally in- 
 sured, to the amount of $C0,000 in old line com- 
 panies. He is a principal stockholder in the First 
 National Bank of Rockport, of which institution he 
 is also president. Such is an imperfect statement 
 of the material results attending a successful busi- 
 ness career. But no correct inventory of Mr. 
 Mathis' wealth can be made tiiat does not include 
 liii ciiaracter as the main part. He has not achieved 
 financial success at the expense of character, which 
 is too often done. He was well-equipped for his 
 
 career, both by nature and acquirements, and hence 
 had no occasion to resort to dishonest methods. 
 His experience in the school room made an in- 
 delible impression on his life. Possibly he would 
 have made as much money without it, but he would 
 not otherwise have held money in as strict subjec- 
 tion to higher ends as he now does. Without such 
 culture he might have been made the slave instead 
 of the master of his large possessions. He is 
 a Democrat of the Jefferson-Jackson-Cleveland 
 type. 
 
 He is a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church. 
 Religiously, as otherwise, his professions are not 
 loud, and need not be. It would be hard to find a 
 beneficent institution near him that has not been 
 helped by him or that might not have been for tlie 
 mere asking. He was married twice. In 1869 to 
 Mrs. Cora C. Caldwell, of Gonzales County, Texas, 
 who died two months afterwards, and in 1875 to 
 his present wife (wee Miss Mary J. Nold), in Mur- 
 ray, Ky. She was born in Goliad, Texas, July 15, 
 1856, and educated in Kentucky. Her parents 
 were Henry and Mrs. E. M. Nold. Her father, an 
 eminent educator, died at Murray, Ky., November 
 2, 1886. Her mother is still living. Mr. Mathis is 
 the father of eight children: Walter N., Henry, 
 May, Thomas E., Edgar, Arthur, Lizzie Belle, and 
 AUie. Until a few months since it was an unbroken 
 family, when little AUie, aged seventeen months and 
 thirteen days, was taken from the bosom of the 
 family, demonstrating that " our life is even a 
 vapor, that appeareth for a little time and then 
 vanisheth away." 
 
 JOHN PRIES S, 
 
 FREDERICKSBURG, 
 
 Was born in Grosenbergan, Prussia, July 30, 1817, 
 and came to America in 1846, as a member of the 
 second company of emigrants sent out to Texas by 
 the German Emigration Company. The party 
 landed at Galveston and were almost immediately 
 transferred to Indianola, reaching the latter port 
 during the night of December 25, 1846. 
 
 Mr. Priess proceeded from Indianola to New 
 Biaunfels, and soon after, upon the platting of the 
 town, moved to Fredericksburg, where he ever after 
 resided. 
 
 He married Miss Elise Vogel, at Fredericksburg, 
 
 February 13, 1848. They had five children, viz. : 
 Carl F., a resident of Fredericksburg, and dealer 
 in live stock ; Louis, a prosperous merchant of Fred- 
 ericksburg ; Bertha, wife of Henry Pfeister, a 
 farmer living on Bear creek, in Gillespie County; 
 Amelia, wife of Edward Kott, a farmer on Bear 
 creek; and George, a farmer on Bear creek. Mr. 
 John Priess died at his home, in Fredericksburg, 
 in June, 1882. His wife is still living at that 
 place. 
 
 Louis Priess was born in Fredericksburg, Texas, 
 January 20, 1852, and was reared upon his father's 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 705 
 
 farm until about twenty-one years of age, when he 
 went to Austin, where he clerked in a wholesale 
 grocery store until 1876. He then formed a co- 
 partnership with his brother, C. F. Priess, under 
 the firm name of C. F. Priess & Bro., and engaged 
 in merchandising, a connection that continued until 
 1887, when he withdrew from active business pur- 
 suits for a time. 
 
 In 1888 he commenced business in his own name, 
 and in 1895 he formed a copartnership with Mr. 
 
 W. J. Moore, under the firm name of Priess & 
 Moore, and continued in merchandising in his native 
 town. 
 
 Mr. Louis Priess married Miss Anna Schoene- 
 wolf, at Fredericksburg, January, 1893. She is 
 a native of that place and a daughter of August 
 Schoenewolf , a gentleman well known throughout 
 Gillespie and adjoining counties. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Priess have five children: Erwin, Alice, Hugo, Ed- 
 mund, and Olga. 
 
 F. V. BLESSE, 
 
 EAGLE PASS. 
 
 F. V. Blesse, a leading citizen of Eagle Pass, and 
 president of the First National Bank of that city, 
 is a native of St. Louis, Mo. ; was born August 
 16th, 1855. His father, August F. Blesse, was a 
 stock-dealer and a successful business man. Mr. 
 Blesse received his preliminary education in his 
 native city, and later served as an accountant and 
 clerk in the Union Savings Bank at St. Charles, 
 Mo. He then attended school at the Westminster 
 College, at Fulton, Mo., for three years, after 
 which he returned to St. Louis, and soon thereafter 
 came, in 1881, to San Antonio, Texas. He trav- 
 eled over the State for about six months, and then 
 went to Eagle Pass and entered the bank of S. P. 
 Simpson & Co. as accountant and cashier, remain- 
 ing in their employ for about five years, during the 
 latter j'ear of which time he secured a partnership 
 in the business. He withdrew his interest in 1888, 
 and in September of that year, with the co-opera- 
 tion of leading capitalists of that city, organized 
 the Maverick County Bank of Eagle Pass, cash 
 capital $30,000.00. His partners were L. DeBona, 
 Wm. Nagley and J. A. Bonnet. This arrangement 
 continued for about three years, and in 1891 the 
 First National Bank of Eagle Pass, cash capital 
 
 $50,000.00, was organized, absorbing the capital of 
 the old institution. The First National Bank's cap- 
 ital has since increased to $60,000.00. Its officers 
 are: F. V. Blesse, president ; Wm. Hollis, vice- 
 president, and W. A. Bonnet, cashier. Directors: 
 F. V. Blesse, Wm. HoHis, W. A. Bonnet, L. 
 DeBona, Wm. Nagley, W. Kelso, and Dr. A. H. 
 Evans. The institution does a general banking 
 business, and is one of the solid financial houses of 
 Southwest Texas. 
 
 Mr. Blesse married, at Eagle Pass, Miss Nita, 
 daughter of J. M. Gibbs, and niece of Col. C. C. 
 Gibbs, of San Antonio. She was born at Nava- 
 sota, Texas, and is a lady of refinement and excel- 
 lent domestic and social accomplishments. They 
 have one son, Frederick. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Blesse affiliate with the Church of 
 the Redeemer (Episcopalian), of which he is a ves- 
 tryman. Mr. Blesse is a sound money Repub- 
 lican. He is considered one of the substantial and 
 enterprising citizens of the town. He eschews pol- 
 itics as a business ; but, as a citizen, is interested 
 in political movements in so far as they promise to 
 affect the well-being of his adopted city, county 
 and State, and the country at large. 
 
706 
 
 INDIAN WARS ^^D PTONEEUS OF TEXAS. 
 
 M. BUTLER, 
 
 AUSTIN. 
 
 Michael BuUer, one of Austin's leading business 
 men, is a native of Ireland, born near the citj' of 
 Limerick, February 17th, 1844, where his father, 
 John Butler, at that time lived. 
 
 John Butler owned farms, was a contractor in 
 the construction of public pikes, or roads, and was 
 regarded as a substantial, well-to-do citizen. Our 
 subject was the second youngest of five brothers ; 
 received the rudiments of a good common school 
 education in Limerick, and acquired good business 
 habits and an irrepressible longing to accomplish 
 something for himself in the business world. The 
 opportunities offered there for advancement were 
 not promising, and he, therefore, at the age of 
 twenty-one, left his native home and sailed for New 
 York, landing there in the spring of 1865. He 
 remained in New York but a short time and, in 
 harmony with the advice so freely given by Horace 
 Greeley to young men of those days, went West, 
 developed into a successful business man, and, in 
 1874, came to Austin, Texas, with a cash capital of 
 about $10,000.00. He came to Austin to continue 
 the contracting business. He found here a great 
 need for brick to take the place, at least for some 
 special purposes, of the native rock so generally in 
 use, and in his usually thorough manner explored 
 the country for a suitable clay possessing the neces- 
 sary ingredients from which a good quality and 
 color of brick could be produced. He soon accom- 
 plished the object of his search, and opened his 
 first brickyard in Austin. The brick theretofore 
 used had been of poor quality, and were shipped 
 from abroad and were expensive. His first efforts 
 were experimental, and his methods of manufac- 
 ture necessarily somewhat crude, but he had in- 
 formed himself thoroughly in the rhatter of clays 
 and, being of a naturally mechanical turn of mind, 
 soon constructed the necessary appliances, and 
 gratified his desire to show the people of Central 
 Texas what a good and sound brick looked like. 
 He then entered into the enterprise with his accus- 
 tomed energy and push, and the result is that 
 
 Austin has one of the finest brick yards in the 
 State. Houston has another which Mr. Butler 
 established in 1893. Both are doing a large busi- 
 ness, employ a large force of men, and annually 
 distribute large sums of money broadcast in these 
 communities. The results of Mr. Butler's work do 
 not stop here, however. His brick have so far taken 
 the place of stone in building, that the public 
 streets are now bordered with handsome brick 
 blocks and beautiful architectural residences, a 
 happy result that could have never been otherwise 
 obtained. 
 
 Mr. Butler also established a brickyard at Dallas 
 in about the year 1882, built up a fine trade and 
 disposed of it to a brother, Patrick Butler, who still 
 owns it. IMr. Butler is a thorough-going business 
 man, broad in his views, and public-spirited. He 
 is a self-made man in everything that the term im- 
 plies. His success in life has been phenomenal and 
 he has accumulated a splendid fortune. He is a 
 t'lorough and firm believer in Texas' and Austin's 
 future, and has practically demonstrated his faith 
 by liberally investing his means in Austin realty and 
 her business enterprises, until he is regarded as one 
 of her most substantial property owners. 
 
 Mr. Butler is prominently identified with the 
 banking interests of Austin as one of the promoters 
 of and a stockholder and director of the American 
 National Bank of that city, one of the strongest 
 financial institutions in the State. 
 
 He married, in 1878, Miss Mary Jane, a daughter 
 of Mr. and Mrs. Francis Kelly, of Austin. The 
 union has been a most fortunate and happy one. 
 They have two sons and one daughter, viz. : 
 John Francis, Margaret Emma, and Thomas 
 James. 
 
 The family mansion is one of the most elegant in 
 proportions and architecture, and most complete in 
 its arrangements and furnishings, in Austin, and 
 occupies a commanding position, overlooking large 
 portions of the city. Mr. Butler and his family are 
 ■members of the Roman Catholic Church. 
 
W.M. A. WORTH AM. 
 
MBS. W. A. WORTHAM. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 707 
 
 WILLIAM A. WORTHAM, 
 
 SULPHUR SPRINGS. 
 
 W. A. Worlham, Superintendent of the State 
 Orphans' Asj'lum, situated near Corsieana, was 
 born in Mauiy Count)', Tenn., November 3, 1830, 
 and came to Texas in 1842, with his widowed 
 mother, who settled in Harrison County. He was 
 principall}' educated at Marshall. Desiring to be 
 a printer, he placed himself in a printing office as a 
 bound apprentice and served three years, at the 
 end of which time he was an experienced journey- 
 man printer. On the 11th day of June, 1852, he 
 was united in marriage to Miss Adeline E. Ashcroft, 
 daughter of Dr. Levy and Elizabeth Ashcroft, of 
 Tyler, Texas, and in 1854 settled in Sulphur Springs, 
 where he now claims his home. They have five 
 children:' William B. (State Treasurer) ; Louis J., 
 Albert A., Thomas, James, and Levy D. Wortham. 
 
 Col. Wortham has been a member of the M. E. 
 Church South thirty-eight years, and his consis- 
 tent deportment during the dark days of war, and 
 since, is ample proof of his faith in the promises of 
 God. As a soldier he was kind to all in distress 
 with whom he came in contact, and on one occasion 
 he stopped for a moment, in the midst of battle in 
 August, and gave to a wounded and dying Federal 
 soldier the last drop of water in his canteen, not 
 knowing when or where he would get any more. 
 
 The greater part of Col. Wortham's life has been 
 spent as a newspaper publisher and editor. In 
 December, 1861, he was a volunteer in the Con- 
 federate army. 
 
 At the organization of his company he was 
 elected First Lieutenant and was attached to 
 Crump's First Texas Battalion. The battalion, 
 was afterward attached to Ector's Brigade. At 
 the close of the war he was Lieutenant-Colonel 
 commanding the Thirty-fourth Texas Cavalr)'. He 
 participated in many of the bloody engagements of 
 the war — Elk Horn, Richmond (Ky.), Perryville, 
 Murfreesboro, Jackson, Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, 
 Yellow Bayou, and many other engagements or 
 skirmishes of less note. 
 
 He has served as Justice of the Peace and Dis- 
 trict Clerk ; represented Hopkins County three 
 times in the House of Representatives of the Texas 
 Legislature ; represented his district during one 
 term in the State Senate, and in 1891 was appointed 
 by Governor James S. Hogg superintendent of the 
 State Orphans' Asylum at Corsieana. 
 
 Col. Wortham is one of the oldest, most widely 
 known and ablest editorial writers in Texas. 
 
 During the dark days that marked the recon- 
 struction era he fought fearlessly, through the 
 columns of his paper, the cause of civil liberty and 
 honest government, while being dailj- threatened 
 with incarceration in the Federal barracks, in Sul- 
 phur Springs, where be was editing The Gazette, if 
 he did not withhold his caustic criticisms of the 
 conduct of those in authority. 
 
 He has always been a Democrat — taking the 
 extreme Southern view of the rights of the States 
 as enunciated by Thomas Jefferson and advocated 
 by the great Southern leaders in 1860 and 1861, 
 and never abandoned that doctrine until it was set- 
 tled by the arbitrament of the sword. When that 
 was a fixed fact he counseled obedience to the 
 altered condition of affairs, and earnestly desired 
 to witness a complete reconciliation between the 
 Slates. 
 
 He has taken part, on the hustings, in many cam- 
 paigns. He has no patience with the so-called 
 " independentism " — another name, viewed in the 
 most charitable light, for a want of settled con- 
 victions, and, in the true light, for demagogy and 
 a want of principle. The kind of independentism 
 he has followed throughout his long career as a 
 newspaper man, has been to freely criticise Demo- 
 cratic leaders, when criticism was necessary to the 
 preservation of party integrity, and its adoption of 
 correct lines of public policy. Thus, helping to 
 keep the grand old ship true to her course, he has 
 been among the foremost when the enemy was to be 
 met and victory won or defeat sustained. Believ- 
 ing ardently that upon the ultimate triumph of the 
 principles of political economy, that forms Demo- 
 cratic faith, depends the preservation of a truly 
 Republican government, and the protection of the 
 rights, liberties and happiness of all the people, he 
 has devoted himself with unselfish, patriotic zeal, 
 to the cause of Democracy throughout his long, 
 useful and honored life. As a member of the 
 House and Senate of the Texas Legislature, he 
 served on many important committees, took an 
 active part in legislation, and made an excellent 
 record. His discharge of the duties of his position 
 as superintendent of the State Orphans' Asylum 
 has been characterized by great ability, and he has 
 
708 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 made the asylum what it was designed to be, one 
 of the noblest and most useful of the State's insti- 
 tutions. He attributes his success in the conduct 
 of the asylum more to his estimable wife than to his 
 own management. They have labored together to 
 make it as near a model home for the State's help- 
 less orphan children as possible. Every child 
 
 seems contented and happy. Col. Wortham and 
 wife feel that they are most happily rounding off 
 their long and useful lives in the care of helpless 
 children and stimulating them with just pride 
 to become useful men and women and to love 
 God, themselves. Texas, and their whole coun- 
 try. 
 
 JOSEPHUS CUMMINGS, M. D., 
 
 AUSTIN. 
 
 The late Dr. Cummings was one of the leading 
 physicians of the State, and an honored and useful 
 citizen of Austin. 
 
 His father, Stephen Cummings, was a native of 
 Maryland and his mother, Nancy G. (Rowe) Cum- 
 mings, a native of North Carolina. 
 
 His father was a Texas pioneer, resident at 
 Austin as early as 1840. Dr. Cummings was a 
 native of Austin and was born November 30, 1849. 
 During boyhood and youth he led an active outdoor 
 life, which gave him a robust physique and he ab- 
 sorbed the spirit of patriotism and valor that per- 
 meated the atmosphere during these exciting days 
 of struggle between the founders of Austin and 
 hostile Indians. He attended the schools of his 
 native city, took a course of study at Round Rock 
 (Texas) Academy, was an apt and thorough stu- 
 dent, and at the age of twenty years (1869) entered 
 Jefferson Medical College, at Philadelphia, Pa., 
 and graduated from that institution with the high- 
 est honors of a large class in 1871. August 5th, 
 1872, he married Miss Texas, daughter of Thomas 
 Glasscock, one of the bravest and most chivalrous 
 defenders of the cause of the " Lone Star Repub- 
 lic " in her struggle for independence. More ex- 
 tended mention is made of Mr. Glasscock elsewhere 
 in this volume. Mrs. Cummings, like her husband, 
 was born and grew up in Austin, and she there re- 
 ceived an excellent education. She seems to have 
 inherited from her parents that love of country, that 
 zeal and patriotism which finally secured to the 
 founders of this great commonwealth their rights, 
 viz., their liberty and their happiness, and there are 
 very few, if any, who hold in more grateful remem- 
 brance the glorious and heroic deeds of her imme- 
 diate ancestors and their allies, than does Mrs. 
 Cummings. She lives, in the prime of womanhood, 
 at her home in Austin, with a beautiful and accom- 
 
 plished daughter. Miss Penina Browning Cummings, 
 and a promising son, Josephus, in the enjoyment of 
 a comfortable competency. 
 
 Dr. Cummings immediately after his return to 
 Austin in 1872 entered upon the practice of bis 
 profession. He paid especial attention to surgery 
 and was called to perform many difflcult and won- 
 derful operations and so phenomenal was his success 
 in surgery that reports of his skillful work have been 
 recorded in the works of medical science and will 
 live in history to instruct these who seek to attain 
 perfection in the science of surgery. 
 
 He, therefore, became prominent and essentially 
 a leader of the profession in his section of the State, 
 and later in the State at large. He was for three 
 years secretary of the Travis County Medical Soci- 
 ety, and afterwards president of the same. He 
 was also a valuable and influential member of the 
 Austin District Medical Society, and the Texas 
 State Medical Association, before which latter body 
 he read several valuable papers on surgical science. 
 He held the responsible office of city and county 
 physician, and it was mainly due to his influence 
 that the spacious and comfortable city hospital was 
 built. He was a busy man, with active brain and 
 willing and ready hands. Aside from his various 
 contributions to the medical journals of his day and 
 papers read before the various medical associations 
 of which he was a member, he was at the period 
 of his untimely death collecting data and compil- 
 ing material for a contemplated work on surgery, 
 selections from which appeared from time to time 
 in the St. Louis Courier 3Iedical Journal. Few 
 men took greater interest in the benevolent and 
 fraternal interests of his city and State than he 
 did, and he gave much of his valuable time to such 
 organizations. He was a charter member of the 
 orders of Knights of Honor and Knights and La- 
 
A. L. MATLOCK. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND I'lONEEWS OF TEXAS. 
 
 700 
 
 dies of Honor ; held the office of Deputy Grand 
 Dictator of the former, and at the time of his death 
 was active in these societies. He was also an active 
 member of the Ancient Order of Worliing Men, the 
 Good Fellows, Knights of Dixie, Select Knights, 
 and Lake City Camp, Woodmen of the World. 
 Provisional Head Sovereign Frost, of Atlanta, Ga., 
 in a communication to Lake City Camp, at Austin, 
 said : " Woodcraft has lost a great sovereign and 
 Austin a good man." 
 
 The Texas Sanitarian, a medical periodical pub- 
 lished at Austin, his native city, refers to him in 
 a published sketch as strictly ethical in all of his 
 professional relations, and also paid him the most 
 graceful of all tributes in saying that " he was a 
 friend to the poor." 
 
 Dr. Cummings was, withal, a practical and suc- 
 
 cessful man of affairs. He eschewed politics as a 
 means of self-aggrandizement, or profit ; but, as a 
 loyal Democrat and a patriotic citizen, his vote, his 
 good counsel, and wide influence could always be 
 obtained, and, when given, was found to be on the 
 side of good government. He was for a time 
 United States Pension Examiner, served several 
 terms as city and county physician, and was sev- 
 eral times Alderman (when very young), and^in that 
 position was the promoter of nearly all of the early 
 sanitary means adopted by the city. Dr. Cummings 
 was a man of strong intellect, splendid physique and 
 presence, and great personal magnetism, and was 
 bound by ties of lasting endearment to his thou- 
 sands of loyal and admiring friends, embracing not 
 only members of his profession, but men in nearly 
 every other walk of life. 
 
 JOHN T. CRADDOCK, 
 
 GREENVILLE, 
 
 John T. Craddock was born in Henry County, 
 Ala., December 14, 1855. His parents were Hin- 
 ton and Elizabeth Craddock. He was reared in 
 Wood County, Texas ; received his preliminary 
 education in the common schools of tliat county 
 and for about two years attended Mansfield Col- 
 lege, in Tarrant County ; six years was County 
 Clerk of Wood County ; read law under Judge L. 
 W. Crow, of Quitman, Texas, where he was 
 licensed to practice ; served in 1889 and 1890 as 
 assistant to Attorney-General Hogg in the Attorney- 
 
 General's office ; has resided at Greenville, Texas, 
 since April, 1891, since which date he has been 
 General Attorney of the East Line & Red River 
 Railroad Company, now known as the Sherman, 
 Shreveport & Houston Railroad Company ; 
 married Miss Sarah Hart, daughter of V. 
 T. Hart, of Mineola, Texas, February 22, 1882 ; 
 is a lawyer of distinction and is widely known 
 to the members of his profession and men who 
 take an interest in public affairs throughout the 
 State. 
 
 A. L. MATLOCK, 
 
 FORT WORTH. 
 
 Hon. A. L. Matlock, one of the brightest orna- 
 ments of the Texas bar and a political leader, 
 whose white plume has led the way in more than 
 one hotly-contested political campaign, was born 
 in Roane County, Tenn., on the 23d of April, 1852. 
 His parents were Col. A. and Mrs. Margaret (Rus- 
 sell) Matlock, who were also born in East Tennessee, 
 
 The former was a son of Jason Matlock, of Welsh 
 and Scotch descent, a pioneer of that State. Rep- 
 resentatives of the family formed a settlement in 
 America at an early day. The mother of Mr. Mat- 
 lock was a daughter of William Russell, of Irish 
 descent, also a decendant of a pioneer family of 
 Tennessee. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 The childboofl and youth of A. L. Matlock were 
 passed in Blount County, Tenn., to which county 
 his parents moved during his infancy. He grew 
 up on a farm ; attended school and completed his 
 education at Ewing and Jefferson College, Tenn., 
 from which institution he graduated with the class 
 of 1870. Desiring to qualify himself for the bar, 
 lie prosecuted the study of the law under Judges 
 Green and Carruthers at the law school at Leba- 
 non, Tenn., from wliich he graduated with distinc- 
 tion in 1872. In the same year he was admitted to 
 practice, being at that time twenty 3'ears of age, 
 and located in Loudon, Tenn., where he opened an 
 office and pursued his profession until the fall of 
 1873, and then moved to Texas and settled at Mon- 
 tague, where he soonbuilt up alarge and paying prac- 
 tice and gave evidence of those superior qualities of 
 mind and that thorough grounding in the principles 
 and practice of law which have since enabled him to 
 achieve eminence in the profession. Mr. Matlock 
 continued to reside in Montague until 1889, and 
 then moved to Fort Worth, where he has since been 
 successfully engaged in practice, winning with the 
 passage of each year brighter laurels. He has had 
 to meet the best forensic talent in the legal arena, 
 but the most redoubtable have found him a foeman 
 worth}' of their steel. He is considered a conscien- 
 tious, painstaking, learned and able lawyer. 
 
 In 1876 Mr. Matlock was united in marriage 
 to Miss Annie Herbert, of Denton, Texas, 
 daughter of Dr. C. L. Herbert, a native of Ten- 
 nessee. She died a year later and in 1879 Mr. 
 Matlock married Miss Alice Hyatt, born in Missouri, 
 a daughter of Mr. Smith and Mrs. Clara (Weaver) 
 Hyatt, who came to Texas in 1878. Mrs. Matlock 
 is a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian 
 Church, and is a lady of many social and Christian 
 graces, and admired by a wide circle of friends, in 
 the city of Fort Worth and throughout Texas. 
 
 Mr. Matlock served as County Attorney of 
 
 Montague County from 1870 to 1878, during which 
 time he made a State reputation as a fearless and 
 successful prosecuting attorney. It was during 
 this time that many of the most notorious murder 
 cases in the State were tried and convictions 
 secured, notably the Krebs, Preston and Brown 
 cases. 
 
 In 1880 Mr. Matlock was elected to the State 
 Legislature from the district comprising Wise 
 County, and a contiguous section north of the 
 Texas and Pacific Railway. In that body he 
 served as Chairman of the House Committee on 
 Public Lands and Land Office, and succeeded in 
 securing the passage of several bills relating to the 
 public domain, that have resulted in great benefit 
 to that section of the State. In 1882 he was elected 
 to the State Senate, and served in that body for a 
 period of two years. In 1884 he was nominated by 
 the Democracy, made an active canvass, and was 
 elected a presidential elector and cast his vote for 
 Grover Cleveland. The Clark and Hogg guberna- 
 torial campaign was one of the most hotly con- 
 tested that has been fought in Texas since its 
 existence as a State. Both sides selected their 
 best men to lead in and manage the battle. Mr. 
 Matlock was selected as the chairman of the Clark 
 Democracy, and managed the forces at his dis- 
 posal with a skill and brilliancy that gained him a 
 national reputation as a political leader. Since 
 1887 he has represented the Capital Syndicate and 
 other large interests, and now enjoys a large and 
 lucrative practice. As a law^'er he has few equals 
 at the Texas bar. In social life he is genial and 
 engaging, and as a citizen he has sought to do his 
 duly faithfull}' and fearlesslj* as he has seen it, and 
 it is not surprising that he should occupy a place 
 among the foremost Texians of to-day. This suc- 
 cess has come to him as a result of correct living 
 and unremitting labor, and is well worth what it 
 has cost in self-denial and time expended. 
 
 W. L. DAVIDSON, 
 
 GEORGETOWN. 
 
 Hon. W. L. Davidson, Associate Justice of the 
 State Court of Criminal Appeals, and a jurist whose 
 labors have done much to cause the Texas reports 
 to take higher rank in other States, is a native of 
 Mississippi. He was born at Grenada, in that 
 
 State, November 5, 1845 ; moved to Texas in 1851 
 with his parents. Rev. Asbury and Mrs. Mary M. 
 Davidson, who settled at Gonzales ; was educated 
 at Gonzales College and Stonewall Institute, and 
 was admitted to the bar in 1871. December 22, 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 711 
 
 1870, be was united in marriage to Miss .Susan B. 
 Howard. They have fivo children, viz. : Nellie B., 
 Katie H., William Howard, Thomas Pope and 
 Frank Ross Davidson. In January, 1887, Judge 
 Davidson moved to Georgetown, in Williamson 
 County, which remains his non-official home. He 
 vras Assistant Attorney-General for four years, 
 from February 4th, 1887 (Governor L. S. Ross' 
 administration), until February 2, 1891, when he 
 was appointed by Governor James S. Hogg an As- 
 sociate Justice of the Court of Criminal Appeals to 
 fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of Judge 
 Sam. A. Wilson. During the war between the 
 States he served in the Confederate army as a 
 soldier in Company B., Thirty-second Regiment of 
 Texas Cavalry, and was with Taylor's army during 
 the Louisiana campaign in 1864, that was so brill- 
 iantly signalized by the battles of Mansfield, 
 Pleasant Hill and Yellow Bayou, and resulted in 
 driving Banks back to Lower Louisiana. Judge 
 Davidson has always been a Democrat, and has 
 done good work for the party. He is a member of 
 the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and Ma- 
 sonic fraternity. As a practitioner at the bar he 
 won deserved renown, not only as an able lawyer, 
 but as a forcible speaker, and as a lawyer whose 
 hands were clean, whose heart was pure and who 
 never deserted his clients. The writer of this 
 article remembers a dramatic scene in which Judge 
 Davidson was one of the principal actors. He was 
 employed in a case in which he felt no personal, 
 but certainly a deep professional, interest. The 
 defendants were charged with murder. The kill- 
 ing for which they were arraigned took place under 
 circumstances that aroused the greatest public in- 
 dignation. The town and county were in a wild 
 state of excitement, and threats of mob violence 
 were openly made. The occasion to which I 
 refer was the taking of evidence in the Dis- 
 trict Court upon an application that he had 
 made for bail under habeas corpus proceedings. 
 The court-room was packed with eager spectators 
 and listeners who glared at the defendants like so 
 
 many hungry tigers. There was not a friendly 
 face in the courtroom. The least mistake upon the 
 part of the counsel would have precipitated blood- 
 shed. Judge Davidson, while perfectly cool, stood 
 firmly up for the rights of his clients. His per- 
 sonal bearing and the skill with which he managed 
 his side of the case, won for him the admiration of 
 the court, local members of the bar, and even the 
 hostile crowd by which he was surrounded upon all 
 sides and which at the beginning felt for him very 
 little less animosity than it did for the men whom 
 he was defending. After court adjourned, at the 
 close of the proceedings, such remarks as the fol- 
 lowing were to be heard upon the streets: "Judge 
 Davidson was more than a match for all the lawyers 
 that were pitted against him. I tell you, he is a 
 mighty fine lawyer. Did you notice how cool he 
 was, how he stood up for the rights of his clients 
 and how he took advantage of every mistake of the 
 other side, while he was gentlemanly and courteous 
 throughout; they couldn't bulldoze him worth a 
 cent. He is the man, if I were in trouble, that I 
 would wantto employ." Judge Davidson's appoint- 
 ment to the bench of the Criminal Court of Appeals 
 met with the hearty approbation of his brother 
 members of the legal profession and of the people 
 of Texas, and he has since been nominated and 
 elected to that position practically without opposi- 
 tion. He possesses an essentially judicial mind. 
 A man of tender sensibilities, he nevertheless pos- 
 sesses the power of laying sentiment entirely aside 
 and looking exclusively at the law of the case in 
 passing upon a question submitted to the court upon 
 appeal, and guiding his course solely by the pole- 
 star of duty. He possesses the rare faculty of 
 looking at both sides of an issue, and giving full 
 weight and credit to the authorities and arguments 
 submitted in support of each side, and forming a 
 correct decision. As a result it is not strange that 
 he should have been elected to the position that he 
 now holds and that while holding it he reflects 
 honor upon himself, and credit upon the State and 
 the high court of which he is a member. 
 
 W. H. FORD, 
 
 BEAUMONT. 
 
 Judge W. H. Ford was born in Newton County, 
 Texas, August 13th, 1843. Parents, David and 
 Mariah V. Ford. 
 
 His father was one of the pioneer ministers of 
 the M. E. Church South, in Texas. 
 
 Judge Ford acquired a good literary education in 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 the common schools of his native county and at 
 McKenzie College, at Clarksville, Texas. 
 
 From 1862 to 1865 he served in the Confederate 
 army as a member of Whitfield's Legion, Eoss 
 Brigade, and participated in all the battles in which 
 that famous brigade was engaged. 
 
 In 1872-73 he served as Sheriff of Newton 
 County, studied law at leisure moments, and when 
 he retired from the office attended the law school at 
 Lebanon, Tenn., from which he graduated. 
 
 In 1875 he moved to Jasper, Jasper County, and 
 formed a law partnership with his brother, which 
 continued until 1880. 
 
 In 1878 he was appointed District Attorney of 
 the First Judicial District of Texas by Governor O. 
 M. Koberts, and two years later was elected Dis- 
 trict Judge of the district, which position he filled 
 until 1803. 
 
 He is a member of the M. E. Church Soutli, and 
 Masonic fraternity, in the latter of which he has 
 taken the Royal Arch degree. 
 
 His first wife was Miss Octavia Coleman, of Sa- 
 bine County, Texas. There was no issue by 
 this marriage. She died at Beaumont, April 6, 
 1893. 
 
 Later he married Miss Evalyn Thompson, of 
 Beaumont, by whom he has one child. 
 
 Judge Ford is a member of the firm of Ford & 
 Jones, at Beaumont. 
 
 As an ex-District Judge, lawyer and citizen, 
 Judge Ford stands deservedly high for his very 
 superior abilities, learning and probity. He has 
 taken an active interest in every movement designed 
 for the promotion of the best interests of the section 
 of the State in which he lives. 
 
 J. M. BROWN, 
 
 GALVESTON. 
 
 What a truly noble and praiseworthy achievement 
 it is to live an upright and useful life, to surmount 
 the numberless obstacles and dangers that obstruct 
 the way that leads from youth to old age and, at 
 last, to stand forth, honored and beloved, a victor 
 in the great struggle, and, surrounded by dear ones 
 and friends, to enjoy in the calm evening-time the 
 fruits of well directed efforts. 
 
 A successful life — a truly successful life — how 
 very much those words imply can only be fully ap- 
 preciated when we stop to consider how much it 
 takes to make up such a life and call to mind the 
 fact that to one such there are ten thousand total or 
 partial failures — due to energies wasted, talents 
 misapplied, judgments gone astray, the pursuit of 
 selfish and ignoble ends, idleness, want of mental 
 strength, fixedness of purpose and personal honor, 
 surrender to the allurements of vice and the world. 
 He who sails the ocean of this life must needs steer 
 his barque, not like the fabled Ulysses, between one 
 Scylla and Cliarybdis, but among many, and resist 
 charms of song more potent than those that lured 
 the unwary mariners of Grecian myth to ship- 
 wreck and death when they thought to find repose. 
 The successful voyager must be stout and true and 
 brave; success must have no power to spoil him, 
 danger no power to daunt, and disaster no power 
 
 to chill. He must toil in the sunshine and the rain 
 and in the winter's blasts, not only for himself, but 
 for all about him ; not only for those of his own 
 generation but, as far as in him lies, for mankind 
 in all time to come. There is a nobility that no 
 king, though an autocrat, can confer. The patent 
 is issued by the Almighty and it is conferred alone 
 as a reward of right living, of work well and ably 
 done — of true merit, whose truth has been tested 
 by trial. 
 
 While we are subject to misapprehensions with 
 reference to those who surround us in the land of 
 the living, we are enabled, in a measure at least, to 
 construct a connected history and fathom tbe mean- 
 ing of a life that has been lived. If there were 
 more real biography there would be more real his- 
 torj', for such history as we have is a patchwork, 
 poorly put together, made up of parts of many 
 lives. And when we speak of history it is well to 
 reflect and ask ourselves "What is the utility of 
 history? " Its true office is not merely to inform 
 us of what has happened nor why it has happened, 
 but to bequeath to us that wisdom that is to 
 be gathered alone from the dust of ages, that 
 wisdom which teaches men and nations how to 
 avoid mistakes and to live nobly, to catch up the 
 threads that lead through the labyrinth and advance 
 
^. Sfl,. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 713 
 
 along patlis that lead to the highest good ; to in- 
 struct the individual soul, in order that, according 
 to its capacity, it may best perform its part lierc in 
 tliis work-a-day world, and fit itself for whatever 
 higher destiny it is, by its inherent composition, 
 capable of attaining under the general plan of 
 being. 
 
 This ofHce of history of which I speak is mainly 
 to be accomplished through biography. 
 
 The life and character of the subject of this 
 memoir, the late Col. J. M. Brown, of Galveston, 
 are replete with useful lessons. Starting without 
 the aid of powerful friends or means, his life was 
 a successful one in the highest and truest sense, 
 and he has left to his descendants a heritage that 
 they prize more than the ample fortune that came 
 to him as a partial reward of his efforts and that 
 he has bequeathed to them. 
 
 The Galveston Daily News, of Thursday, Decem- 
 ber 26, 1895, says of him in its editorial columns : — 
 
 "In the death of Col. J. M. Brown, which oc- 
 curred last Tuesday night, Galveston lost one of 
 her most successful and influential business men 
 and Texas one of her most enterprising citizens. 
 Scarcely an enterprise of importance has been in- 
 augurated in Galveston during the past forty-odd 
 years that has not been assisted to success through 
 the splendid business judgment and executive ability 
 of Col. Brown." • * * 
 
 Col. Brown was born in New York City on the 
 22d day of September, 1821, and was one of a 
 family of sixteen children, all of whom preceded 
 him to the grave. His parents, John M. and 
 Hannah (Kroutz) Brown were natives of Holland. 
 They were well-to-do and bestowed upon him 
 every care that affection could dictate, but, while 
 he returned their love, he was eager to push out 
 into the busy world, and this spirit of adventure 
 becoming too strong for him to control, he, at 
 twelve years of age, left home without their knowl- 
 edge, and it was more than two years before they 
 located him and brought him back. He remained 
 with his parents for a time, and then again left, 
 going to the western portion of the State, where he 
 secured employment driving a canal-boat along the 
 Erie canal. During those days he had Charley 
 Mallory, afterwards of the famous Mallory Steam- 
 ship Line, as a copartner in driving canal-boats. 
 After his desire for adventure had been partly 
 appeased, his father put him at the brick-mason's 
 trade, at which he served a full term of appren- 
 ticeship. He also acquired considerable ability as 
 an architect, and in furnishing estimates on work. 
 
 Thus equipped, he started South, and the diarj' 
 of his travels shows that at different points south of 
 
 the Ohio river, he engaged in courthouse, cistern 
 and jail work, taking contracts, and furnishing 
 estimates. He arrived in Galveston in 1842 or 
 1843. He erected the first brick jail on Galveston 
 Island. Other monuments of his architectural and 
 mechanical skill are the old market house, the 
 cathedral, and the home in which he died, on the 
 northeast corner of Twenty-fourth street and 
 Broadway, that being, it is said, the first brick 
 residence erected in this State. He built it in 1859, 
 and some of the parlor furniture is the same that 
 he selected in New York, after completing his new 
 home. Some time before the war he formed a 
 copartnership with Mr. Stephen Kirkland and 
 engaged in the hardware business under the firm 
 name of Brown & Kirkland. Col. Brown was a 
 member of the first fire company organized in the 
 city, and his partner, Mr. Kirkland, built the first 
 hook and ladder truck used in the State. Col. 
 Brown held the position as foreman in the com- 
 pany for many years. 
 
 After the war. Col. Brown continued in the hard- 
 ware business under the firm name of Brown & 
 Lang, and after the death of Mr. Lang, his busi- 
 ness was incorporated into a stock company, known 
 as the J. S. Brown Hardware Company, which is 
 to-day the largest wholesale establishment of the 
 kind in the South. 
 
 Almost from the beginning Col. Brown took a 
 prominent place among the inhabitants of his new 
 home, and but a few years lapsed before he was 
 recognized as a powerful and leading spirit in the 
 promotion of every enterprise designed to benefit 
 the city, and as an effective worker for the up- 
 building of the commercial interests of Galveston. 
 He became interested in the Galveston, Houston & 
 Henderson Railroad, and during a period of four 
 years, embracing the latter part of the Civil War, 
 was president of the road. By his orders a portion 
 of Gen. Magruder's command was transported from 
 Houston to Galveston over the road when the city 
 was besieged by the enemy. It was then that Gen. 
 Magruder conferred upon him the title of Colonel. 
 During his term as president of the road he paid 
 off the floating indebtedness and declared monthly 
 dividends, an evidence of good management that 
 was very gratifying to the stockholders. Col. 
 Brown made money rapidly, but lost heavily as a 
 result of the war, all of his slaves being set free. 
 Not at all disheartened he furnished his ex-slaves 
 with comfortable homes and set to work witii 
 redoubled zeal. As a consequence prosperity 
 attended him, his power for usefulness increased, 
 he became the promoter and head of many great 
 enterprises and was enabled to accomplish an im- 
 
INDIAN WARS AND FIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 mense amount of good before the summons came 
 for him to cease his labors. 
 
 Col. Brown was debarred from active military 
 service during the war by reason of the fact that he 
 was purchasing agent in Mexico for the Confeder- 
 ate States government and tlie further fact that he 
 was president of an important railway line. Dur- 
 ing the E. J. Davis reconstruction period he, with 
 other well-known and influential businessmen, com- 
 posed the Board of Aldermen of Galveston, ap- 
 pointed by the Governor. Out of their private 
 funds they bridged the city over and placed it in a 
 condition to recover the ground it had lost by rea- 
 son of a siege of disaster. 
 
 Later business enterprises inaugurated by Col. 
 Brown embraced the Plrst National Bank of Gal- 
 veston, of which he was president for many years, 
 lie planned the bank building and superintended 
 its erection. 
 
 About ten years ago he was elected president of 
 the Galveston Wharf Company. Years prior to that 
 time he became identified with the interests of the 
 company, and his keen business judgment pointed 
 out to him certain improvements which he thought 
 the business of the company required, and which 
 would be a paying investment. He agitated, and 
 recommended, and contended for the improvements, 
 which have since been made along the wharf 
 proper, but he failed to enlist the enterprise of his 
 associates with his line of thought, and then, it is 
 said, his enthusiasm reached such a pitch that he 
 proposed to lease the entire property at an annual 
 rental to be fixed by a board of appraisers for a 
 term of fifty or one hundred years, and during that 
 time he proposed to put into effect his plans, which 
 subsequentlj' were given effect. When he became 
 president of the company he secured sufficient influ- 
 ence to carry out his ideas and to inaugurate the 
 system of improvements he had so long contended 
 for, and Galveston is now said to have as fine 
 wharf improvements as arc to l)e found anywhere 
 in this countr}'. 
 
 He was a moving spirit in the Galveston Gas 
 Company, the Galveston Electric Light Company, 
 the bagging factory, and he filled the position of 
 chairman of the construction committee which had 
 in hand the difficult task of bringing to perfection 
 the splendid system of waterworks of Galveston. 
 In business Col. Brown displayed splendid execu- 
 tive force. He was a good judge of human nature, 
 and rarely made a mistake in selecting his lieuten- 
 ants for business undertakings. His judgment was 
 quick and unerring, going into the most minute de- 
 tails of an enterprise. 
 
 Personally he was a man of strong likes and dis- 
 
 likes. He often said that he did not make money 
 to hoard it, but desired to surround his family with 
 comforts and advantages, and at the same time do 
 all in his power to make those around and about 
 him happy. He never turned his back on the needy. 
 His private charities will never be known. It is 
 said that he contributed at one time So, 000 for the 
 relief of the distressed after the great fire in Gal- 
 veston, but at the time nothing wag known about 
 it, and perhaps this is the first time his contribution 
 has seen the light of public print. Many families 
 will miss his gifts this Christmas, and many will 
 drop a silent tear when they learn that their erst- 
 while benefactor is no more. His contributions to 
 charity, it is said, are known only to his youngest 
 daughter, Miss Bettie, who shared his confidence to 
 a degree that marked the most tender companion- 
 ship between father and daughter. * » » 
 
 " Socially, Col. Brown was a gentleman of the 
 old Southern type. He was warm-hearted, cour- 
 teous and chivalrous. While his life was devoted 
 to business, in any social gathering he was always 
 at ease, and at his own home his hospitality was 
 unbounded. His love of home and family was a 
 strong trait in his character. For several years 
 five generations of the family have met in his home 
 at Christmas time and welded closer the sacred ties 
 of relationship, but all was changed on the eve of 
 the happy reunion which was looked forward to 
 again this j'ear. The haud that had so often ex- 
 tended the greeting of welcome was stricken pulse- 
 less in death. He was the oldest living member of 
 the Knights Templar in Galveston, and he was an 
 early member of the Odd Fellows. 
 
 " His extensive relations in New York and his 
 successful business enterprises widened the scope 
 of his acquaintance and brought him in touch with 
 many leading men of the country. During the life 
 of A. T. Stewart he never went to New York with- 
 out calling on the merchant-prince, with whom he 
 enjoyed an intimate acquaintance. 
 
 " For over a year past Col. Brown's health had 
 been failing, and last February he left with his 
 daughter. Miss Bettie, and his son. Dr. M. R. 
 Brown, hoping to stay the disease. He returned 
 last October, and since then had been confined to 
 his home. He passed away peacefully, surrounded 
 by members of his immediate family. 
 
 " The funeral will take place from Trinity Church 
 at 11 a. m. to-day. The following pall-bearers are 
 requested to meet at the family residence : George 
 Sealy, Leon Blum, W. L. Moody, Nicholas Weeks, 
 W. S. Davis, George E. Mann, Charles L. Beiss- 
 ner, C. O. C. Count, of New York, T. A. Stod- 
 dard, of St. Louis, .J. Fullar, of New York, O. G. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERii OF TEXAS. 
 
 715 
 
 Murray, of Cincinnati, John D. Rogers, J. 11. 
 Hutchings, B. F. Yokum, J. E. Baily, Henry 
 Runge, B. Adoiie, T. E. Thompson, L. C. Hirsch- 
 berger, AVm. M. Rice, of Houston, and J. D. Skin- 
 ner. 
 
 " After the services at Trinity Church the Knights 
 Templar will take charge of the remains and pro- 
 ceed to the cemetery, where the impressive burial 
 services of the order will be held." 
 
 Col. Brown was not only an exceedingly able, 
 but what is of far more importance, a really good 
 and sincerely pious man, loving and reverencing 
 God, loving and helping his fellow-man. and loving 
 and tenderly caring for the members of his imme- 
 diate household. He has left his impress strong 
 and deep upon the history of Galveston. The 
 
 influence of his thousands of good deeds, flowing 
 through countless unseen channels, will be felt for 
 many years to come. Col. Brown was married in 
 Galveston, Texas, in 1846, to Miss Rebecca Ashton 
 Stoddart, a beautiful young lady to whom he had 
 become deeply attached. From that time forward 
 until his death she was the companion of his joys 
 and sorrows, his successes and reverses. He at- 
 tributed much of his success in life to her wise 
 counsels and ever-cheerful aid. She and five chil- 
 dren survive. The children are: J. S. Brown and 
 C. R. Brown, of Galveston ; Dr. M. R. Brown, of Chi- 
 cago ; Matilda E. Brown and Miss R. A. (known as 
 Miss Bettie) Brown, of Galveston. Miss Bettie 
 Brown is well known in the world of art as a 
 painter. 
 
 EMILIO C. FORTO, 
 
 BROWNSVILLE. 
 
 It is written that " a prophet is not without 
 honor, save in his own country," but this does not 
 hold good with reference to the subject of this 
 sketch. The Laredo Times, in a review of 
 Brownsville and Cameron County, in 1889, said: 
 " Jurlge Forto has contributed over his signature 
 articles relating to his county to Texas periodicals 
 and is thoroughly familiar with everything that 
 pertains to it. He is a fine specimen of the edu- 
 cated Spanish gentleman. He left his native coun- 
 try, Spain, when quite a boy, and came here when 
 about seventeen years of age. He possesses one of 
 the most comfortable homes in Brownsville." 
 
 He was then County Judge of Cameron County, 
 which position he held for several j'ears, and con- 
 tinued on the bench until the fall of 1892, when he 
 was elected Sheriff. In the latter position he has 
 developed a promptness and skill in dealing with 
 law-breakers which insures to the people a continu- 
 ation of peace and quiet. 
 
 Sailing from his home in Spain, he landed in the 
 city of New Orleans, La., in 1867, when sixteen 
 years of age, and while in the Crescent City se- 
 
 cured a position in a prominent commercial house 
 at Matamoros, Mexico, and reached the latter place 
 and entered upon the discharge of his duties in 
 1868, and, at the end of 1869, located in Browns- 
 ville, Texas, where he occupied the position of 
 bookkeeper in the house of Don Antonio Yznaga 
 for two years, after which he started in business for 
 himself as a commission merchant and custom- 
 house broker. Upon tiic completion of the rail- 
 road between Laredo aad Monterey, the foreign 
 trade being then diverted from Brownsville, he de- 
 voted himself to the study of law and was admitted 
 to the bar in 1884. He has been in public life since 
 1876 and has held many important positions. For 
 twelve years in succession he served as a City Alder- 
 man, as Justice of the Peace for three years, as 
 District Clerk for two years, as County Judge eight 
 years, and at present holds the office of Secretary 
 of the Board of Public Education of the city of 
 Brownsville, and is Sheriff of the county of Cam- 
 eron. He has been a member of the Board of 
 Public Education since 1880 and Sheriff since 
 1892. 
 
716 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEEUS OF TEXAS. 
 
 A. HARRIS, 
 
 DALLAS. 
 
 Adolph Harris was born in Prussia, Germany, 
 Marcli 7th, 1842. In 1859 (June) he left the 
 scenes of his native land and came direct to Texas. 
 From 1859 to 1863 he attended the public schools 
 of Limestone County ; going from Limestone 
 
 Mr. Jalie Harris, in 1886. In 1887 the firm then 
 became Fellman, Grumbacb & Harris, of Dallas. 
 Mr. Harris was the only member of the firm who 
 resided in Dallas. This copartnership was formed 
 for five years. At the end of that time Mr. Harris 
 
 A. HARRIS. 
 
 County to Houston, where he formed a partnership 
 with a Mr. Fox, and engaged in the wholesale dry 
 goods business under the firm name of Harris & 
 Fox. This firm continued until 1878, when it was 
 reorganized ; Mr. Fox withdrawing, and Mr. Harris 
 took his brother, Jake Harris, in as a partner. The 
 firm of Harris Bros, continued until the death of 
 
 bought out his jiartners' interest, and took his 
 nephew, Mr. S. Marcus, in as a partner. They 
 have built up a business that few firms in the South 
 enjoy. 
 
 Mr. Harris is now in the prime of his manhood, 
 and by close attention to business has amassed a 
 large competency. Surrounded with an interesting 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 717 
 
 family, his home is one of the most beautiful in 
 Dallas, and noted for the hospitalitj' there dis- 
 pensed. While not a native of this State, his whole 
 energy has been directed to building up Texas. He 
 is a liberal contributor to every worthy enterprise 
 that tends to the advancement of Dallas. 
 
 On December 4, 1878, he was married to Miss 
 Fannie Grumbach, of Galveston, a sister of Mrs. 
 Sylvian Blum, of Galveston. They have four 
 
 children : Arthur, Leon, Camille and Marcelle. 
 Arthur, the oldest son, is now a student under Prof. 
 W. R. Abbott, of Belleville, Va. 
 
 Mr. Harris has a large and influential connection 
 in New York. Soon after Mr. Harris arrived in 
 this State, his father died in Germany, and his 
 mother followed the fortunes of her son to Amer- 
 ica. The venerable mother, now in her declining 
 years, is still a member of his household. 
 
 ROBERT BOWDRE SAVAGE FOSTER, 
 
 NAVASOTA. 
 
 The subject of this sketch is a native of Augusta, 
 Ga., born March 22, 1817. His father was Collier 
 Foster, who was a native of Columbia County, 
 Ga., and was a son of John Foster. John Foster 
 was a planter and prominent State politician in 
 Georgia, being elected eighteen out of the twenty- 
 one times that he was a candidate for the State 
 Legislature. 
 
 The mother of the subject of this sketch bore 
 the maiden name of Lucinda Bowdre, and was a 
 native of Columbia County, Ga. , and a daughter 
 of Robert Bowdre, of French descent, though him- 
 self a native of Georgia. 
 
 The subject of this sketch is one of eighteen chil- 
 dren born to his parents, and the only one living. 
 Subject was chiefly reared in Monroe County, Ga. 
 Received an academic education at Jackson Insti- 
 tute and his medical education at Transylvania 
 University, at Lexington, Ky., from which he 
 graduated in 1838. He began the practice of his 
 profession at Brownsville, Ga., but remained there 
 only a short time, when he moved to Forsyth, the 
 county seat. He subsequently moved to Alabama, 
 and thence in 1845 to Texas, settling in Washing- 
 ton County, near the old town of that name. He 
 brought with him to this State a considerable num- 
 ber of slaves and some ready money, and, pur- 
 chasing land, was soon engaged in planting and 
 the practice of medicine, which he followed with 
 equal success until the war. Dr. Foster was op- 
 posed to slavery on principle, and foresaw that as 
 an institution it was destined to give way before 
 the onward march of civilization, and, for his part, 
 favored surrendering the slaves for a money con- 
 sideration such as he believed the Government 
 would pay and such as was talked of at the time ; 
 
 and he opposed secession because he thought it un' 
 wise and unnecessary. But when Texas went out 
 of the Union he contributed of his means to sup- 
 port the families of Confederate soldiers at the 
 front and gave them his professional services with- 
 out pay, or the expectation of it, and in other 
 ways did what he could to promote the success of 
 the Southern cause. 
 
 In 1862 Dr. Foster moved to Grimes County, 
 locating on Roan Prairie, where he lived for twenty 
 years, when he settled at his present place of resi- 
 dence, three miles east of Navasota. He has been 
 engaged all these years, until a comparatively re- 
 cent date, in planting, and the practice of medicine, 
 but is now retired from both. He has lived a half 
 century in Texas, and has seen a great deal of ser- 
 vice in the practice of his profession, the circuit of 
 his calls in former days covering four counties, and 
 remaining large even up to the date of his retire- 
 ment. 
 
 He has had but little to do with politics, though 
 always an interested spectator in all political con- 
 tests. He is a veteran of the Seminole War of 
 1836, and draws a pension from the general gov- 
 ernment for services rendered in that war. 
 
 Dr. Foster married Miss Charlotte Elizabeth Pine- 
 kard, in Monroe Countj', Ga., in 1838. She was born 
 in that county July 5, 1819, and was a daughter of 
 Thomas and Sarah Pinekard, natives of Virginia. 
 The issue of this union was six children, who lived 
 to maturity: Thomas C, a physician and farmer; 
 Sarah Lucinda, who married Robert Blackshear; 
 William J. ; Georgie E. , who married William O. 
 Edwards ; Robert Bowdre Savage, and John Frank- 
 lin, all, except Mrs. Edwards (who is deceased), 
 residents of Grimes County, the sons being among 
 
718 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 the foremost men in the county, and all well-to-do. 
 Mrs. Foster died December 1, 1882. 
 
 Thomas C. Foster, A. M., M. D., eldest son of 
 the preceding, was born in Forsyth, Ga., February 
 7, 1839. He was brought by his parents to Texas 
 in 1845, and reared and educated in Washington 
 County, where he attended Soule University and 
 Baylor College. His medical education was se- 
 cured at the new school of medicine at New Or- 
 leans, La., which institution he was attending at 
 the opening of the war. He entered the Confeder- 
 ate army on the commencement of hostilities as a 
 private in the Tenth Texas Infantry, commanded 
 by Col. Roger Q. Mills, but was soon made Assist- 
 ant Surgeon of the regiment, and served as such 
 until the general surrender, when he returned to 
 Texas and engaged in the practice of his profession 
 
 and in farming and the stock business, gradually 
 relinquishing medicine and giving more and more 
 attention to farming and stock-raising, until these 
 pursuits have come to occupy his entire time and 
 attention. He has greatly prospered at both. A 
 staunch Democrat, he takes great interest in polit- 
 ical matters. Has served as Chairman of the 
 County Democratic Executive Committee and as a 
 member and Corresponding Secretary of the Na- 
 tional Democratic Committee. He has attended all 
 of the county conventions and most of the Con- 
 gressional and State conventions for the past twelve 
 or fifteen years. 
 
 In June, 18G5, he was united in marriage to Miss 
 Annie Blackshear, a daughter of Gen. Thomas 
 Blackshear. 
 
 H. M. GARWOOD, 
 
 BASTROP. 
 
 Hon. H. M. Garwood was born in Bastrop, Texas, 
 January lllh, 18G4, and is the son of C. B. and 
 Mrs. F. B. Garwood. He received a thorough 
 education at the University of the South, at Sewa- 
 nee, Tenn., graduating with the class of 1883. 
 After leaving college he selected the practice of 
 law as his profession, and under the guidance of 
 Hon. Joseph D. Sayers, Congressman from the 
 Tenth District, prepared himself for the bar, to 
 which he was admitted in November, 1885. He 
 at once began to practice in Bastrop, has since re- 
 sided there and now enjoys a lucrative practice and 
 occupies a position in the front rank of the legal 
 profession in Texas. He was elected to the House 
 of Representatives of the Twentieth Legislature, 
 and although the youngest member of that body, 
 took a prominent part in the legislation enacted, and 
 won for himself not only the confidence and high 
 regard of his fellow-members but a State-wide rep- 
 utation. In the Twentieth Legislature he was a 
 member of Judiciary Committee No. 2, the Com- 
 mittee on Constitutional Amendments and, as a 
 special trust, was put on the special committee to 
 which all the educational bills of the House were 
 referred. In 1888 Mr. Garwood was elected 
 County Judge of Bastrop County and a member of 
 the State Democratic Executive Committee. In 
 1890 he was nominated by the Democracy and 
 
 elected to the Senate of the Twenty-second Legisla- 
 ture from the Thirteenth District, composed of the 
 counties of Fayette, Bastrop and Lea. 
 
 He was chairman of the Senate Committee on 
 Public Buildings and Grounds, and although it is 
 generally conceded that in no previous Texas Senate 
 (for many years) were there so many men of brill- 
 iant talents and superior mental strength, he was 
 considered the peer of the most intellectual and in- 
 fluential of his colleagues. He is a member of the 
 Episcopal Church, Knights Templar Degree in Ma- 
 sonry, and Independent Order of Odd-Fellows. At 
 the dedication of the State capitol he was chosen to 
 deliver the Masonic address, a duty which he dis- 
 charged in a manner that fully sustained his repu- 
 tation as a finished, forcible and eloquent speaker. 
 His talents are recognized on every occasion and he 
 is put forward as a representative man of his sec- 
 tion and people. In the Twentieth Legislature he 
 was a leading advocate of the creation of a railroad 
 commission (a pioneer worker in that direction) and 
 in the Twenty-second Legislature he introduced a 
 bill providing for the creation of a commission to 
 regulate the freight and passenger charges of rail- 
 ways in this State and exercise general supervision 
 over those corporations. From this bill and the 
 one introduced by Senator Cone Johnson the Sub- 
 committee on Internal Improvements prepared the 
 
H. M. GARWOOD. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 710 
 
 measure which was favorably reported to the Senate. 
 Among other important bills, of which he was the 
 author in this bodj-, was one requiring every county 
 in the State to conform as to public schools to what 
 is known as the district system. 
 
 August 9th, 1890, Mr. Garwood was married to 
 Miss Hattie Page, daughter of Col. Page, a promi- 
 nent lawyer of Bryan, Texas. 
 
 Mr. Garwood is one of the most promising of the 
 able young men that the South can boast. The 
 future holds for him many bright possibilities and he 
 can rise to nearly any eminence, either in his chosen 
 profession or in the walivs of public life, that he 
 may desire. He commands the unbounded confi- 
 dence of the people of his section and of the 
 Democracy of Texas. 
 
 CHARLES ESSER, SR., 
 
 WESSON, 
 
 Was born on the Rhine, in Germany, May 1st, 
 1827, and emigrated to America in 1849, when 
 twenty- two 3'ears of age. Landing at New York 
 City he proceeded West, and for about two and a 
 half years lived on a farm at Burlington, near 
 Racine, Wis. He also lived for a time in the city 
 of Milwaukee. He left Chicago, January 1st, 1853, 
 for Missouri, and from that State came to Texas in 
 1854, and drove a team in the first government 
 train-load of supplies sent from San Antonio to Fort 
 Belknap. Later he worked for two years for B. F. 
 Smitbson, herding cattle in the Smithson's Valley 
 
 country. In the fall of 1857 he bought 207 acres 
 of mountain farm lands, and the following year 
 married Miss Henrietta Knetch. They have seven 
 sons and two daughters, viz. : William, Hermann, 
 Minnie, Paul, Clara, Henry, Charles, Jr., George, 
 and Richard. He now owns 400 acres of good 
 land. 
 
 Charles Esser, Jr., was born on the home farm, 
 January 6th, 1871, and married Miss Amelia, 
 daughter of John Krauser, of Kendalia, Kendall 
 Countj', Texas. They have one child, Cora, born 
 December 20th, 1894. 
 
 WILLIAM B. EDGE, 
 
 KENDALIA, 
 
 Was born in Madison County, Ala., April 13th, 
 1825, and reared in Georgia, where his father, 
 Thomas Edge, was a well-known and prosperous 
 farmer. The subject of this notice followed farm- 
 ing in Georgia until 1854 ; then came to Texas and, 
 after a brief sojourn, went to Arkansas, where he 
 lived until 1861, when he bought land from a Mr. 
 I'ruett and opened a farm near Kendalia, in Ken- 
 
 dall Count}', Texas, where he has since resided. 
 He now owns 3,000 acres of fine farming, grazing 
 and timbered land. He married Miss Josah C. 
 Carter, a daughter of Paul Carter, in Oglethorpe 
 County, Ga., in 1850. Mrs. Edge was born in 
 that county, February 12th, 1833. They have four 
 children: William T. , George W., Francis M., and 
 Elizabeth, now Mrs. Charles Dessler. 
 
720 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 BARNETT GIBBS, 
 
 DALLAS. 
 
 Hon. Barnett Gibbs, ex-Lieutenant-Governor of 
 Texas, ex-member of the State Senate and now, 
 and for many years, a prominent figure in public 
 life in Texas, was born in Yazoo City, Miss., May 
 19, 185L His parents were Judge D. D. and Mrs. 
 Sallie Dorsey Gibbs, of that State. He is a grand- 
 son of Gen. George W. Gibbs, of Tennessee. He 
 received his literary education at Spring Hill 
 College, Mobile, Ala., and at the University of 
 Virginia, and his professional education at the Law 
 School at Lebanon, Tenn. He came to Texas in 
 1873, and located at Dallas, his present home. The 
 citizens of Dallas early showed their appreciation 
 of Mr. Gibbs' legal talent by electing him City 
 Attorney. This position he held during a period of 
 six years. He was then elected to the State Senate, 
 made a splendid record, and was later nominated 
 by the Democracy and elected to the position of 
 Lieutenant-Governor. This office he filled from 
 1882 to 1886, during Ireland's administration. 
 
 Col. Gibbs is the youngest Lieutenant-Governor 
 Texas ever had, the youngest acting Governor, the 
 youngest Senator, and represented the largest sen- 
 atorial district in the State. His friends, recogniz- 
 ing in him the requisite qualities to represent the 
 State with creditable ability, brought him out for 
 Congress, and he made the race for the Democratic 
 nomination against Hon. Olin Wellborn. The con- 
 
 test resulted in locking the convention, and, as 
 usual, a compromise was effected by bringing in 
 the traditional "dark horse," named by Gibbs, 
 who withdrew in favor of Hon. Jo Abbott, who 
 received the nomination. 
 
 Col. Gibbs is a prominent Odd Fellow, being 
 Past Grand Master of the order in Texas. 
 
 His wife was Miss Sallie Haynes, a daughter of 
 the late J. W. Haynes. He was one of the princi- 
 pal and most effective workers in the movements 
 that resulted in Deep- Water conventions being held 
 in Fort Worth, Denver, Topeka and elsewhere, and 
 the Federal Congress making suitable appropria- 
 tions for securing deep-water harbors on the Texas 
 coast. He has been a liberal contributor to rail- 
 roads and every worthy enterprise designed for the 
 upbuilding of his section and the State at large. 
 As a lawyer, he stands deservedly high, and through 
 his practice and good financiering, he has accumu- 
 lated a comfortable fortune. 
 
 Enjoying a large personal and political following, 
 possessed of remarkable qualities as a statesman 
 and politician and being a powerful and magnetic 
 speaker and a polished and trenchant writer, he 
 has wielded a wide influence in shaping the course 
 of public events in Texas. He has at all times 
 shown himself a friend of the people and a champion 
 of the cause of good government. 
 
 DAVID 
 
 LEVEL, 
 
 LAREDO. 
 
 The subject of this brief memoir is one of the 
 few Texas veterans who still survive to relate to 
 the historian for the benefit of coming generations 
 the experiences of pioneer life on the Southwestern 
 frontier. With the rapid flight of years they have 
 one by one been passing away and if the story is 
 not gleaned now it will soon pass out of human 
 memory. Col. Level came to Texas at a time 
 when there was great need for young men of his 
 stamp. He is a native of the Old Dominion (State 
 of Virginia) and was born at AVhite Sulphur 
 
 Springs, in a portion of the State since set off as 
 West Virginia, January 1st, 1824. 
 
 His father, .James Level, was a mason b)' trade, 
 a native of County Down, Ireland, and came to 
 America at about twenty-one years of age a single 
 man and located in Virginia. He married Miss 
 Nancy McClure, a daughter of David McClure, at 
 her father's house in Green Briar County, where 
 she was born in the year 1798. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Level had two sons and two daugh- 
 ters, of whom the subject of this notice was the 
 
DAVID M. LEVEL. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 721 
 
 second born. Margaret was the eldest. She mar- 
 ried Robert Patten, and they located in Green 
 Briar County, Va., where she reared a large family 
 and there died. George was the third born. He 
 located in Calloway County, Mo., where he mar- 
 ried and reared a family of children. He served in 
 the Mexican War in 1846 as a volunteer from White 
 Sulphur Springs, Va., under Capt. Caldwell, 
 landing at Vera Cruz, and marching to the city of 
 Mexico under Gen. Winfield Scott. He re- 
 ceived a wound at National Bridge which resulted 
 in the loss of his left eye. He draws a Mexican 
 veteran's pension of $25.00 per month. Elizabeth 
 was the youngest of the family. She married 
 Washington Black, and located with him in Kan- 
 sas, near Council Grove, where they reared a fam- 
 ily of twelve children. 
 
 Col. Level lived at and in the vicinity of his 
 native home until 1846, when he came to Texas 
 on a prospecting tour. He found the country in 
 an unsettled condition, and in active preparation 
 for war with Mexico. He immediately identified 
 himself with the cause of its people and volunteered 
 for service against Mexico as a soldier in Capt. 
 Wilder's company, Col. Wood's regiment, which 
 was known as the Eastern Regiment of the Texas 
 Mounted Rangers. The regiment immediately 
 proceeded to the front, crossing on their way to 
 join Gen. Taylor the ground of the recently fought 
 battle of Palo Alto on the Resaca, in what is now 
 Cameron County, Texas, where. Col. Level relates, 
 the partially decomposed bodies of dead Mexican 
 soldiers lay in large numbers. 
 
 The rangers crossed the Rio Grande, joined Tay- 
 lor's forces at Marine, Mexico, and advanced to and 
 took part in the storming and capture of Monterey. 
 Col. Level served through his term of enlistment, a 
 period of six months, and received an honorable 
 discharge from the service. Col. M. B. Lamar was 
 recruiting a company of picked men from the dis- 
 charged men at Monterey for one year and in the 
 spring of 1847 was ordered to Beuna Vista ; but, 
 owing to sickness. Col. Level did not go. After 
 leaving the army he went to Washington County) 
 Texas, and there spent one year raising cotton. 
 When the gold excitement of 1849 broke out in 
 California, Col. Level prepared to go to the gold 
 fields and proceeded as far as San Marcos, Texas, 
 and there, owing to business miscarriages, abandoned 
 
 his purpose. In the fall of that year he rejoined 
 the ranger service, enlisting under Col. Rip Ford, 
 and spent three years in active campaigning along 
 the Rio Grande frontier, participating in numerous 
 Indian fights and skirmishes. Col. Level was 
 wounded in a fight with Comanche Indians and 
 also had his horse twice shot from under him at a 
 point about forty miles east of Corpus Christi. 
 After a continuous service of three years. Col. Level 
 tried farming on the Rio Grande above Laredo, 
 with indifferent success, however, owing to over- 
 flows of the river which ruined his crops, and the 
 theft of his stock by Indians. He next worked one 
 year for Chas. Webb, who had a contract for fur- 
 nishing tlie United States garrison at Fort Ewell 
 with supiilies. About the year 1856 he received the 
 appointment of mounted inspector of United States 
 customs at Laredo, at the hands of his former ac- 
 quaintatice, Hon. E. J. Davis (later Governor of 
 Texas) and held the position until 1861. The war 
 between the States then broke out and he served on 
 the Rio Grande until late in 1863 and then opened 
 a wagon-making shop in Laredo and conducted it 
 successfully for a period of about twelve months, 
 when he sold out and successfully associated himself 
 with Thomas Ryan in the ranch business, raising 
 sheep and cattle, in which business he is still 
 engaged. 
 
 Col. Level has never married. His life has been 
 one of continued activity. As a soldier he was 
 brave and aggressive and was a stranger to fear. 
 The State never had a more genial, courtly and 
 respected citizen. Now in the sunset of an active 
 and successful career, the writer finds him at old 
 Monterey, Mexico, surveying the scenes of his old 
 stamping ground where, a full fifty years ago, he 
 fought for and materially contributed to the defeat 
 of his country's enemies. Col. Level is a venerable 
 lookingman of stalwart and erect physique and bears 
 with becoming grace and fortitude the slight in- 
 firmities that have come to him with the advancing 
 years. He has the esteem and full confidence of a 
 wide circle of old-time acquaintances who are ever 
 delighted to meet him and recount the experiences 
 of by-gone days. He is a splendid type of the 
 Texas veteran and the author takes pleasure in 
 presenting herewith a life-like portrait of one whom 
 all Texian and Mexican War veterans delight to 
 honor. 
 
722 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 JOHN HOWELL, 
 
 BOERNE, 
 
 A thrifty and enterprising farmer of Kendall County, 
 was born inKerr County, Texas, November 16, 1855, 
 and was reared to farming and stock-raising near the 
 town of Waring. His father, Levi W. Howell, was 
 born in Wales, led a sea-faring life for five years, 
 and then^ in 1848, when twenty-two years of age, 
 located on the Texas coast in Goliad County and 
 engaged in stock-raising. He married, in 1853, 
 Miss Sarah E. Nichols, daughter of George Nichols, 
 then of Kerr, and now of Kendall County. They 
 
 had two children : John, the subject of this notice, 
 and Mattie, widow of Charles Bierschwald. She 
 lives at Waring. 
 
 Mr. John Howell was united in marriage to Miss 
 America J. Layton, in 1875. They have six chil- 
 dren : Monroe, Thomas Levi, John Murry, Minnie, 
 Elton Raj', and Henry. 
 
 Mr. Howell's mother died in 1886 at forty-eight 
 years of age. 
 
 LAWRENCE J. HYNES, 
 
 BROWNSVILLE, 
 
 Is a well-known and substantial citizen of the city 
 of Brownsville, and one of the pioneers of Cameron 
 County. He came to Texas at a lime when the re- 
 sources of the country were undeveloped and when 
 Cameron County was in the infancy of its material 
 growth. 
 
 Mr. Hynes was born in Philipstown, County Kings, 
 Ireland, May 15th, 1842. His father, Thomas 
 Hynes, was a well-to-do farmer, who reared a fam- 
 ily of ten children, of whom the subject of this 
 sketch is the youngest. Lawrence Hynes came to 
 America with a sister in 1850 and went to Utica, 
 N. Y., where two brothers, who had preceded them 
 to this country, had located. Here he spent his 
 boyhood and youth, and learned the carpenter's 
 trade with one F* D. Fish, for whom he worked a 
 considerable time. From Utica he went to Mis- 
 souri, and there worked at his trade. Later he 
 went to Mississippi, and pursued his calling in the 
 erection of cotton-gins. He went to Matamoros, 
 Mexico, and Brownsville, Texas, in the year 1864, 
 to erect houses that had been manufactured in and 
 
 shipped from the East. After completing this con- 
 tract and doing otiier contract work for a time, he, 
 in 1869, engaged in ranching, stock-raising and 
 merchandising at Santa Maria, where he continued 
 extensively and successfully building up a large 
 business until 1893, when he sold his mercantile in- 
 terests and a portion of his ranching interests, and 
 has since lived a comparatively retired life at his 
 elegant home in the citj' of Brownsville. Mi'. Hynes 
 is a practical and successful man of business. He 
 is self-educated, well-read and well-informed upon 
 all of the imitortant issues of the times. He owns 
 and occupies one of the most commodious, attract- 
 ive and completely equipped homes in the city, and 
 is a genial and hospitable gentleman, who delights 
 in entertaining his friends. Mr. Hynes has always 
 led a quiet and unostentatious life, and has never 
 sought political honors or dabbled in politics, and 
 has strictly at all times confined himself to his own 
 personal affairs. 
 
 His standing as a citizen is of the highest 
 order. 
 
[MICHAKL SCHODTZ. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 ?28 
 
 JAMES B. THOMPSON, 
 
 CORPUS CHRISTI, 
 
 Has for over forty years been a resilient of Ibe 
 Ijone Star State. He came to Texas in 1853 from 
 Louisville, Ky., where he was born July 23d, 1837. 
 His parents were Capt. James and Mrs. Nancy 
 (Baird) Thompson. Capt. James Thompson was a 
 native of Brimneld, Mass., and came West when a 
 youth, and pioneered as a steamboatman on the 
 Ohio and Mississippi rivers. His wife, nee Miss 
 Nancy Baird, was of Scoth antecedents and born in 
 Pennsylvania. Our subject was about sixteen 
 j'ears of age when he came to Texas. He was rest- 
 less and ambitious to accomplish something for 
 himself in the world, and lauding at Port Lavaca, 
 entered the, commission business at that place as a 
 partner with S. J. Lee, and remained there until the 
 war between the States, when he learned of the or- 
 ganization of Walker's Battalion at Hempstead, in 
 Waller County, Texas, and made his way to that 
 point and enlisted in the battalion. Thereafter he 
 served three years in the Confederate army in 
 Louisiana and Arkansas, during which time he par- 
 ticipated in the series of brilliant engagements that 
 characterized the Eed River campaign and resulted 
 in the defeat and rout of Banks' army. After the 
 war Mr. Thompson returned to Fort Lavaca and 
 associated himself in business with R. D. Blossman, 
 a Texas pioneer of prominence in his day, of whom 
 mention is made elsewhere in this volume. The 
 new firm did business at Port Lavaca until 1871 
 
 when they removed to Indianola. About this time 
 the present branch of the Southern Pacific Railway 
 was being built, and the firm opened an establish- 
 ment at Victoria, and as the road progressed, they, 
 in 1873, went to Cuero. 
 
 In 1875 the firm of Blossman & Thompson was 
 dissolved, and Mr. Thompson went to Galveston 
 where he formed a copartnership with W. S. Ly- 
 brook, with whom he embarked in the cotton trade. 
 
 In 1878 he returned to Cuero and was there ex- 
 tensively engaged in merchandising until 1889 
 when he came to Corpus Christi, and became a 
 member of the present well-known firm of R. G. 
 Blossman & Co. 
 
 In 1860 Mr. Thompson married Miss Rosalie, the 
 second oldest child of R. D. Blossman. She died 
 in 1879, leaving three daughters, viz. : Elanita, who 
 is now Mrs. Melvin Kirkpatrick, of Paris, Texas; 
 Nancy M. , deceased in 1896, and Miss Mary Lee, 
 unmarried. 
 
 There are few more active and energetic old-time 
 Texians than Mr. James B. Thompson. He is 
 essentially a business man, has never aspired to 
 political prominence or official honors, and his suc- 
 cess in life is entirely due to his energy, aggressive 
 enterprise and integrity. His firm leads in its line 
 of trade in Corpus Christi, and has the confidence 
 and esteem of a very extensive circle of friends and 
 patrons. 
 
 MICHEL SCHODTS, 
 
 BROWNSVILLE. 
 
 Michel Schodts was born in Antwerp, Belgium, 
 May SO, 1836, and came to this country during the 
 war between the States, spent some time in New 
 Orleans as accountant, and then located in Mata- 
 moros, in 1862, where he became a clerk and after- 
 wards a partner in a large impoiting house. In 
 1866 he married Miss Susan Diaz, at Matamoros, 
 Mexico. She died three years later, leaving one 
 little daughter, Marie Isabel, who now survives 
 them and is now married. Some time after he re- 
 
 moved to Brownsville, where he for many years 
 carried on a very successful trade in lumber and 
 other articles. There he built up a considerable 
 fortune, and won numerous warm friends by his good 
 qualities of mind and heart. He was highly es- 
 teemed as a business man, and generally respected 
 as a worthy citizen. The universal regret ex- 
 pressed at his untimely end by the people of 
 Brownsville proved the high regard in which he was 
 held. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 The uight of Friday, February 23, 1896, about ten 
 minutes before ten o'clock, two pistol-shots startled 
 tiie citizens of Brownsville living near llie corner of 
 Washington and Eleventh streets. People imme- 
 diately rushed toward the spot, and there found the 
 body of Michel Schodts weltering in his life-blood 
 and already stiffening in death. Mr. Schodts had 
 been passing the evening with a few friends at Ce- 
 lestin Jagou's, and was on his way home, having 
 walked as far as the corner of Washington and 
 Twelfth streets with his friend, Adolph BoUaek, 
 standing there and chatting with him before saying 
 good-night. His home was but a block further up 
 Washington street. Strolling along through the 
 beautiful moonlight, which was flooding the earth 
 like a silver stream, in the best of humor and prob- 
 ably musing on the pleasantries exchanged between 
 himself and friends, fearing no harm, suspecting 
 nothing, he was shot down in cold blood, within a 
 few yards of his own door, by the hand of an assas- 
 sin. There were none near enough to see the deed 
 in time to give warning to the unsuspecting man, 
 but there were people within half a block who heard 
 the shots, saw the victim fall and heard his death- 
 cry. They also saw the assassin flee, pistol in 
 hand, down Eleventh street toward the river, but 
 none of these could say who it was that did the 
 deed. The man had evidently followed Mr. Schodts 
 down the street, watching his opportunity. 
 
 Two weeks before, while walking home with a 
 friend, the subject of carrying arms came up, and 
 Mr. Schodts remarked: "I never carry any 
 weapon. I have never wronged anyone, and don't 
 feel afraid that anyone will wrong me." 
 
 A local paper contained the following the suc- 
 ceeding morning: — 
 
 " Our little city was shocked from center to cir- 
 cumference, as the direful news sped swiftly from 
 lip to lip, and at every turn was heard the question : 
 ' Who did it?' Michel Schodts was a man without 
 an enemy, so far as he or his friends knew. Who 
 could have been guilty of his murder? From all 
 accounts, the assassin was a Mexican and a 
 stranger in Brownsville. Shortly before Mr. 
 Schodts left Jagou's, where he with several others 
 was sitting in a rear room playing a social game, a 
 Mexican came into the saloon and asked for a pack- 
 age of cigarettes. The porter handed him a pack 
 and informed him that they were ten cents. The 
 man handed them liack, saying, ' Muy caro ' (too 
 dear), walked back to the rear and looked through 
 the lattice partition at the party in the back room 
 and then left the saloon, but relumed in a short 
 whde and asked for a match and again walked 
 
 back to the lattice, looking at those in the other 
 room. After this he lefi and was seen to cross the 
 street and stop in front of Bloomberg & Raphael's. 
 The porter who waited on the man had never seen 
 him before, and says that he was a strange Mexi- 
 can, rather short in stature, heavily built, appar- 
 ently of middle age, and wore dark trousers, with 
 a striped, coffee-colored coat and soft hat. This 
 man, it is supposed, was the murderer. He was 
 not seen or noticed an}' further, and has not been 
 seen since, but the man who was seen running down 
 Eleventh street with his pistol, just after the mur- 
 der, is similarly described. He was seen by Fred. 
 I. Hicks and J. D. Anderson running past the 
 National Bank. J. P. Putegnat, who was standing 
 near Dr. Putegnat's, ran toward the bank and fol- 
 lowed the fleeing murderer down Eleventh street as 
 far as the Woodhouse store, from which place he 
 saw the man disappear in the canebrake near the 
 river. 
 
 " Afterwards officers were stationed on the river 
 bank to patrol it, but probably too late to prevent 
 the murderer from crossing to Mexico. Parties 
 claim to have seen a man crossing the river from 
 Freeport to the Mexican side shortly after the 
 murder occurred. 
 
 " The Matamoros authorities were at once notified 
 to be on the lookout, and a report this afternoon 
 said that a man had been arrested on suspicion on 
 the Mexican side, but no particulars could be 
 learned." 
 
 The funeral took place the afternoon of February 
 24th, 189G, at half-past four, from the residence of 
 the deceased, the remains being taken to the Catholic 
 Church for the funeral ceremony. The pall-bearers 
 were: G. Follain, E. Benuevendo, Chris Hess, 
 Adol[)h Bollock, Celestin Jasjou, Miguel Fernandez, 
 Louis Sander, and Louis Wise. The remains were 
 encased in a fine metallic casket, which was covered 
 with handsome floral tributes. The cortege was one 
 of the largest and most imposing ever seen in 
 Brownsville. Many sorrowing friends followed the 
 body of their old friend to the grave and dropped 
 a tear upon the last earthly resting place of this 
 good man and true. His daughter offers a large 
 reward for the arrest and conviction of his as- 
 sassin. 
 
 "One daughter, Mrs. Frank B. Armstrong, of 
 Brownsville, and his son-in-law, Frank B. Arm- 
 strong, and two grandchildren, Marie-Sylvia and 
 Jennie Isabel Armstrong, also a brother, Ferdinand 
 Schodts, in Belgium, and a number of nephews and 
 nieces and other relatives in New York and Bel- 
 gium, survive the deceased." 
 
M. W. SHAW. 
 
MRS. SHAW 
 
INDniN WARS ^iND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 725 
 
 MICHAEL W. SHAW, 
 
 GALVESTON, 
 
 For many years an influential citizen of Galveston, 
 was born November 28, 1833, in Lambentheim, on 
 the Rhine, Hesse Darmstadt, Germany. His father 
 was a musician. By industry and economy he 
 managed to support his large family. Thinking to 
 improve his condition in the New World, he left 
 Germany in the fall of 1846, and in December of 
 that year landed with his family at Galveston, 
 Texas. Here be met with fair success, and might 
 have accomplished his purpose of preparing com- 
 forts for his declining years, but in 1847, at the 
 age of forty-seven, he was stricken with yellow 
 fever and died, leaving his wife and six children in 
 somewhat straitened circumstances. The widow 
 whom he left was his second wife. 
 
 Michael's mother died in Germany when he was 
 but three years of age. The children left at the 
 father's death had quite a struggle for a subsist- 
 ence until they grew to manhood and womanhood. 
 
 Michael's school opportunities were very limited. 
 His early education was much neglected, but hav- 
 ing a disposition to read and inform himself, he 
 has acquired a general knowledge of current litera- 
 ture. 
 
 His sister, Mary, married Daniel H. Pallais, a 
 •watchmaker, of Galveston, and a master of his pro- 
 fession. In 1848 Michael went to live with his 
 brother-in-law, who taught him the jeweler's trade, 
 and he remained with Mr. Pallais until 1856. 
 Having acquired proficiency in tiie trade, he began 
 business on his own account in the latter year, and 
 met with cordial encouragement. His business 
 was rapidly extending, and he was in a fair way to 
 achieve financial success when the late war com- 
 menced. 
 
 In 1862 he enlisted in the Confederate army as a 
 private in De Bray's cavalry regiment. The ser- 
 vice was to him particularly arduous, as the pre- 
 vious fourteen years of his life had been spent 
 under shelter, either at the bench or behind the 
 counter. The hardships of the military life soon 
 began to tell upon even his robust constitution, 
 and in 1864 he was discharged on account of disa- 
 bility. In 1865, having partially recruited bis 
 health, he again entered the army, enlisting in 
 the Second Texas Infantry, commanded by Col. 
 Moore, and remained with that regiment until the 
 final surrender. 
 
 The war which prostrated the South also swept 
 
 away nearly all of Mr. Shaw's means. He lost his 
 slaves and other property to such an extent that 
 when peace came he had but little left with which 
 to begin the battle of life anew. He had, however, 
 with a thorough knowledge of his business, youth, 
 energy and a little money, and with this capital he 
 went to work not only to retrieve what he had lost, 
 but to accumulate still more. In 1866 he again 
 opened an establishment in old Moro Castle, and 
 made money rapidly. In 1869 he experienced a 
 second misfortune in the destruction of his estab- 
 lishment by fire, in the great conflagration of that 
 year. He then moved into a house he owned on 
 Tremont street, where a third time he began busi- 
 ness. In 1872 he bought and moved into the build- 
 ing in which his business is at present conducted 
 on the corner of Tremont and Market streets. This 
 building was almost totally destroyed by fire on the 
 30th of January, 1880,'ibuthas been elegantly refitted, 
 and is now one of the substantial business liouses 
 of Galveston. He was well and favorably known 
 throughout the State when he commenced business 
 in 1865, and this formed no inconsiderable part of 
 the capital with which he resumed business after 
 the surrender. His name is now very widely known 
 in the Southwest, and his trade extends through- 
 out Texas and into Mexico on the West and Louis- 
 iana on the East. In addition to what he manu- 
 factures, he imports fancy goods directly through 
 the custom house from Paris, France, and buys 
 large quantities of domestic goods in New York and 
 Philadelphia. 
 
 Mr. Shaw is now reckoned among the ''solid 
 men" of Galveston. He owns a handsome resi- 
 dence on the corner of Fifteenth and Winnie streets, 
 and business houses in the city, which he rents. He 
 is a stockhoMer in the Montezuma Mines in New 
 Mexico, holding 1,600 shares of the stock. 
 
 Mr. Shaw is a publ c-spirited citizen, investing 
 his money in enterprises looking to the growth and 
 prosperity of Galveston, and lending liis experience 
 and energy to the public institutions which adorn 
 the city. He is a member in good standing of the 
 Catholic Cliurch. 
 
 In character he is above reproach ; as a citizen, 
 highly esteemed ; as the head of a family, affec- 
 tionate and devoted. He is endowed with groat 
 powers of endurance and is c.-ipable of long-contin- 
 ued exertion. He was married, in 1878, to Miss 
 
726 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Annie Mej'er, who was born in Houston in 1856, 
 and educated in that city. Her fatlier died vihen 
 she was seven years old, and her mother when she 
 was ten. Left alone at so tender an age, she be- 
 came a member of the family of Dr. C. R. Nutt, an 
 eminent physician and scientist, of Houston. 
 
 iSIr. and Mrs. Shaw have nine children. Ada, a 
 daughter of Mr. Shaw's by a former marriage, was 
 born March 15, 1858, in Chambers County, Texas, 
 and educated in Galveston and at St. Joseph Acad- 
 emy, Emmitsburg, Maryland, and is a thoroughly 
 accomplished young lady. She is the wife of Guido 
 Ruhl, managing clerk of the grocery department of 
 Kaufman & Rungy's store at Galveston. She has 
 two sons — Willie and Bernhardt. 
 
 The children born to Mr. Shaw by his present 
 wife are: Katherine Margaret, a daughter, born 
 March 22, 1879; Marshall William, l)orn July 25, 
 1880; Charles Leonard, born July 22, 1882, died 
 
 March 8, 1894; William Austin, born June 13, 
 1884; Hazel Phillepina, born October 29, 1887; 
 Annie Grace, born July 30, 1888; Chas. Trueheart, 
 born March 26, 1890; Viola Hildegard, born Jan- 
 uary 8, 1892, died April 2, 1894, and Bessie Graf- 
 ton, born July 30, 1893. 
 
 With laudable pride Mr. Shaw attributes his suc- 
 cess in life to industry, economy and fair dealing. 
 He has always been attentive to business. He 
 has never given a promissory note since he be- 
 gan operating for himself. His credit, wherever he 
 is known, is unlimited, and whatever he contracts 
 to do, he does, and does in the time, manner and 
 form promised. 
 
 He is a strong, independent and useful citizen — 
 one of the class of self-made men upon whom the 
 stability of the social fabric so largely depends, 
 and liy whom cities and nations are made prosper 
 ous and enduring. 
 
 JOHN M. DUNCAN, 
 
 TYLER. 
 
 Hon. John M. Duncan was born in Lawrence 
 County, Tenn., February 7th, 1851. His parents 
 were W. F. and M. C. Duncan, who came to Texas 
 in 1858 and 1859, respectively, Mrs. Duncan join- 
 ing her husband (who had found employment at 
 the Nash Iron Works, in Marion County), in the 
 latter year. Mr. W. F. Duncan was for many years 
 a respected citizen of Marion and Cass counties, 
 dying in Marion County a number of years since. 
 
 John M. Duncan, the subject of this memoir, 
 received a good common school education and 
 then, having learned the trade of a brickmason, by 
 means of which he could support himself, deter- 
 mined to undertake the study of law, procured the 
 necessary text-books from Hon. John C. Stallcup, 
 of Jefferson, read under him the course prescribed 
 by the rules of court, and was then admitted to 
 the bar at Jefferson in 1872. He soon found that 
 the briefless young lawyer's license by no means 
 constitutes a talisman, whose magic influence will, 
 in every instance, bring immediate recognition 
 of abilities, and supply even modest wants. His 
 experience was no worse than that of many other 
 men, but the fortitude and determination that he 
 displayed under adversit}' were remarkable. He 
 bad something more than genius, he possessed in 
 
 addition thereto the other qualities that compe- 
 success. He very soon had to take down his shin- 
 gle and resume the trowel. He had no idea of 
 permanently giving up the practice of law. He 
 simply saw that he must supply himself with fur- 
 ther means with which to again make a start. 
 Going to Longview he found no difficulty in secur- 
 ing employment, and helped to erect many of the 
 brick storehouses now used in that town. In the 
 intervals snatched from toil he kept up his studies, 
 and four 3'ears after he had secured his license we 
 find him, after a number of futile attempts, well 
 established in the practice of his profession. To- 
 day he is a lawyer second to no practitioner at the 
 Texas bar, and as a public speaker has no superior 
 in the State, either in the forum or upon the hust- 
 ings. His talents are of the highest order and 
 have been improved by cultivation. He was elected 
 County Attorney of Gregg County in 1876, but 
 resigned the office twelve months later, owing to 
 the fact that his growing practice demanded all of 
 his attention. From 1878 to 1882 he represented 
 the counties of Smith, Gregg, Upshur and Camp in 
 the State Senate, and made a brilliant record. In 
 1884 he was elected County Judge of Smith 
 County, and at the expiration of his term of office 
 
.lOHN M. DUNCAN. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 727 
 
 refused renomination and devoted himself eiitirel}' 
 to bis professional duties. 
 
 In January, 1884, he moved to Tyler and formed 
 a law partnership with Hon. James S. Hogg, after- 
 ward Attorney-General and G >vernor of Texas, 
 under the firm name of Duncan & Hogg. 
 
 This professional connection continued until Mr. 
 Hogg was elected Attorney-General. Mr. Duncan 
 and Hon. H(jrace Chilton, now United States Sena- 
 tor from Texas, were appointed general attorneys 
 for the receivers of the International & Great 
 Northern Railroad in February, 1889. Mr. Chilton 
 resigned, June 10th, 1891, leaving Mr. Duncan sole 
 attorney, a position which he has held since the re- 
 organization of the corporation, and in which he has 
 been leading counsel in some of the most celebrated 
 law cases known to the judicial history of this 
 country. His power and fame as a lawyer have 
 grown steadily with the passage of years, and he 
 now ranks among the ablest advocates that the 
 South can boast. 
 
 He was united in marriage to Miss Allie Davis, 
 
 of Longview, in 1876. She died at Tyler, in July, 
 1886, leaving no children. In January, 1890, he 
 married bis present wife, nee Miss Eddie 
 Louise House, at Tyler. He is a member of the 
 Methodist Church, Knights of Pythias, and Inde- 
 pendent Order of Odd Fellows. 
 
 He has been at all times an earnest Democratic 
 worker, and has done as much, perhaps, as any 
 other single individual in Texas to influence the 
 political fortunes of men who have risen to promi- 
 nence in this State in recent years, and in sliaping 
 the drift of public policies. He has also done his 
 full share, when hot campaigns were on, toward 
 securing party triumphs. He is well known to every 
 Texian, and contrary to the old saying that 
 " Prophets are without honor in their own country," 
 his services and abilities are generally recognized 
 and appreciated. 
 
 He is warm in his personal attachments, unos- 
 tentatious in manner, plain and straightforward, 
 and, as a lawyer, is one of the brightest ornaments 
 of the Texas bar. 
 
 O. CANUTESON, 
 
 WACO. 
 
 Ole Canuteson, a prominent manufacturer of 
 Waco, Texas, is a native of Norway, where he was 
 born September 4th, 1832, and is the son of Canute- 
 son Canuteson and Carina Oleson. His grandfather 
 was a watchmaker by trade and his father a black- 
 smith, chiefly engaged in the manufacture of tools. 
 His father was born in Norway in 1802, and died in 
 Bosque County, Texas, in 1888. His mother died 
 in LaSalle County, in 1850. Ole Canuteson was 
 reared to blaeksmithing and also acquired a good 
 general knowledge of mechanics. He came to the 
 United States with his parents in 1850. The family 
 located for a time in Illinois, where two uncles had 
 preceded them. Land at that time vras worth from 
 $15 to $20 per acre, and to purchase a farm there 
 at that rate, with the additional expense of a house, 
 outbuildings, fences and farm implements, was 
 beyond the means of the Canuteson exchequer. To 
 go farther west, to Iowa, where land was cheaper, 
 was suggested and was very nearly being acted 
 upon, but the plan was changed. Mr. Cleny Pur- 
 son, a Norse emigration agent who came to the 
 United States in 1820, and who had established set- 
 
 tlements for bis countrymen in New York, Illinois, 
 Iowa and Missouri, had made a tour of investiga- 
 tion into Texas and bad just returned with very 
 flattering accounts of tiie State, of its mild climate, 
 its fertile soil and vast resources. He reported 
 that good land could be bought there for fifty cents 
 per acre from families who had secured tracts of 
 640 acres under the State homestead law, and, after 
 duly weighing the advantages and drawbacks that 
 might follow, it was decided by the family to go to 
 Texas, and thither they started. The party con- 
 sisted of the subject of this sketch, his new-made 
 wife, his aged father and young brother Andrew, 
 and Mr. Purson, with a few single persons. The 
 route was bj' the Mississippi to JSTew Orleans, thence 
 up Red river to Shreveport, and from there overland 
 by wagon to Dallas, where the party arrived just 
 before Christmas, and shortly thereafter the Canute- 
 sons bought and improved 320 acres of land, paying 
 83 per acre. 
 
 In 1853 the subject of this notice and Mr. P. 
 Bryant, acting for themselves and a party of immi. 
 grants who bad come over from Norway, and who 
 
728 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 desired to find and locate upon unappropriated 
 public land under the land law of that year (giving 
 to each head of a family of actual settlers 320 acres 
 of land), visited Waco, then a little village, to con- 
 sult with the old pioneer and surveyor, Maj. George 
 B. Erath, in regard to land matters on the Bosque. 
 This gentleman, who had for years made survej-s 
 all over that section of the State, took at once a 
 friendly interest in him and his companion, showing 
 him on his maps where vacant land was to be had. 
 Later Maj. Erath, with Neil and Duncan McLen- 
 nan, went with Mr. Canuteson, made the surveys 
 and field notes for a large tract of land, and thus 
 about fifteen families were established on Neill and 
 
 own doors, but later on, when a grist-mill was 
 started at Waco, it was hauled there by ox- 
 wagons and sold from $1.25 to $L50 per bushel. 
 Corn at that period did not do well. The cultiva- 
 tion of cotton was not thought of by settlers, the 
 impression being that the soil was not adapted to 
 it ; that it was too black and sticky. Subsequently 
 this idea was proven to be erroneous. Good crops 
 of cotton are now raised on these farms. Attention 
 was also given to stock-raising, as grass was 
 abundant, both summer and winter. After a mail 
 route was established from Fort AVorth to George- 
 town a post office was given to Norman Hill, and 
 Mr. Canuteson was made Postmaster, which posi- 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 1 , j 
 
 O. CANUTESON. 
 
 Meridian creeks, and the Norwegian settlement in 
 Bosque County started. 
 
 Mr. Canuteson selected for his farm 302 acres in 
 the valley of Neill' s creek, near the center of which 
 rises a high peak, and on this elevation he built his 
 house, which was afterward known as Norman Hill. 
 Nearly all kinds of wild game were in great abun- 
 dance, and the newcomers felt that they had come 
 to a land of plenty, indeed. Being outside of the 
 line of forts, the new settlement was often exposed 
 to Indian raids. The settlement grew apace, the 
 county was organized and things became more 
 comfortable all around. Wheat was the only monej^ 
 crop made for a long time. Thej' had been used 
 to raising the smaller grains in the old country, 
 and hence knew how to cultivate the wheat. Most 
 of the grain raised found a ready market at their 
 
 tion he filled to the satifaction of the people up to 
 the beginning of the late war. He was given the 
 same position under the Confederacy, and when that 
 government collapsed he was again appointed by 
 the United States government to his old position. 
 This position he held until his removal to Waco. 
 
 Mr. Canuteson, as an inventive genius, was 
 booked to supply the wants of the community so 
 far as machinery was concerned, and built several 
 reapers and threshers. The first reaper that 
 he constructed did not contain a pound of iron 
 castings, as the nearest foundry was at Houston, 
 250 miles distant. The cutting blade was made 
 from an old cross-cut saw. Notwitstanding these 
 disadvantages the machine worked excellently and, 
 alihough for twentj'-flve j'cars past he has had the 
 leading and ahuost the only machine shop in Waco 
 
IJ^DIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 729 
 
 and has constructed engines, cotton gins, cotton 
 presses and machinery of all kinds against competi- 
 tion from other cities, he looks back with pride to 
 his " rawhide reaper" job as he called it, as being 
 the most successful of his mechanical undertakings, 
 considering ail the circumstances under which he 
 built it. Later he went to Houston for castings 
 and other material and tools, and built five more 
 reapers and two complete threshing machines, which 
 were run by horse-power and carried the grain into 
 the sack ready for the mill. 
 
 During the war he was exempt from military ser- 
 vice on account of physical disabilit}^ but through 
 his machines he was able to do much toward supply- 
 ing the arm}' with grain. After the war he opened 
 a general store and was building up a business 
 which promised fair for the future, but engaged in 
 an unlucky speculation in cattle by which he lost 
 most of his accumulations. He spent the winter 
 partly in Chicago and partly with his uncles in La 
 Salle County, III. While in Chicago awaiting re- 
 turns from New York he came across the Walter A. 
 Wood's self-raking reaper and the Collins cast steel 
 plow, the agency of which he secured for his sec- 
 tion of the State of Texas and handled them with 
 success for many j'ears. 
 
 Becoming convinced finally that the bent of his 
 mind was largely in favor of mechanical pursuits, 
 he decided to move to Waco, secured a good loca- 
 tion, and began the improvements necessary for a 
 
 foundry and machine shop and now has one of the 
 largest and most complete establishments for 
 machine, foundry, implement and general mechan- 
 ical work in Central Texas. He is largely engaged 
 in the manufacture of fronts for buildings and other 
 structural castings, which he supplies not only to 
 Waco, but to the surrounding towns. Recently he 
 has begun the manufacture of cotton presses and 
 intends in the near future to add the manufacture 
 of other cotton machinery. At various times he 
 has engaged in other business enterprises that have 
 met with a fair degree of financial success and that 
 have made his name familiar to the people of 
 Central Texas. 
 
 He was married in September, 1850, to Miss Ellen 
 M. Gunderson, a lady who came with his family to 
 the United States. To them have been born five 
 children: Caroline, now Mrs. F. W. Knight; Mary, 
 who was married to D. F. Durie ; Lizzie, now 
 Mrs. S. J. Smith ; Oscar, who assists his father 
 in his business ; and Cora. In 1884 Mr. Canut- 
 eson revisited his native land. He has con- 
 ducted his business with a constant increase for 
 over a quarter of a century without change of place 
 or firm name. The success he has met with is the 
 natural reward that follows honesty of character, 
 integrity of purpose, and a thorough knowledge of 
 the occupation pursued. He is a citizen of sterling 
 worth, a member of the Masonic fraternity and is 
 highly respected by all who know him. 
 
 MOSES AND STEPHEN FULLER AUSTIN, 
 
 GALVESTON. 
 
 Moses Austin was a native of Connecticut. 
 When but a youth he left the parental roof to seek 
 his fortune in Philadelphia, and there, at the age 
 of twenty, he married Miss Maria Brown. Shortly 
 thereafter, in conjunction with his brother, Stephen, 
 he established a commercial house in Richmond, 
 Va., a branch of the importing house in Philadel- 
 phia, of which the former was the head. The op- 
 erations of the brothers were doubtless remunera- 
 tive. Ere long they purchased the lead mines 
 called " Chissel's Mines," on New river, Wythe 
 County, Va. Moses, the younger brother, was 
 placed in charge and at once commenced extensive 
 mining and smelting operations. 
 
 Around the mines quite a village sprung up, 
 
 which was named Austinville, and there, November 
 3, 1793, was born Stephen Fuller Austin, the cel- 
 ebrated Texian empresario and patriot. The Phil- 
 adelphia and Richmond houses failed and the 
 mining speculation was abandoned. 
 
 Hearing flattering accounts of the lead mines of 
 upper Louisiana (now Missouri), Moses Austin 
 procured the necessary passports from the Spanish 
 Minister, visited that region, was highly pleased 
 with it, and obtained in 1797, from Baron de Car- 
 ondelet, Governor of the Provinces of Louisiana 
 and Florida, a grant of one league of land, 
 including ilie Mine-a-Burton, forty miles west of 
 St. Genevieve. Closing all of his affairs in the 
 United States, he removed his family, with a num- 
 
rso 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 ber of others, fioiu Wythe Comity, in 1799, to bis 
 new grant, and there in tlie wilderness laid tlie 
 foundation of the settlement in what is now Wash- 
 ington County, Mo. The early settlers of that 
 county have borne ample testimony to his enter- 
 prise, pulilie spirit and unbounded hospitality. 
 These admirable qualities are rarely found united 
 with great prudence and sound judgment in 
 financial matters ; nor were they in the case of 
 Moses Austin, the failure of the Bank of Missouri 
 causing him serious pecuniary embarrassment. 
 Once more he became involved, and, surrendering 
 his property to his creditors, he turned with una- 
 bated ardor, in the decline of life, to a new and 
 hazardous undertaking in the wilds of Texas. 
 
 In 1803 Louisiana was ceded by Spain to France, 
 and, in the same year, by the latter to the United 
 States, which government revived the old French 
 claim of the RioGrande as a boundary. But by the De 
 Onis treaty in 1819 the question was settled, and the 
 Sabine was made the boundary, and it was then 
 that Moses Austin arranged his plans for an appli- 
 cation to the government of Spain for a grant of 
 land in Texas on which to locate a colony of Ameri- 
 cans. As it was contemplated to bring the settlers 
 through Arkansas Territory, Moses Austin so far 
 anticii)ated matters as to send his son, Stephen, 
 with some hands, to Long Prairie, near Red river, 
 to open a farm there which might serve as a resting- 
 place and provision depot for his trains of 
 immigrants. 
 
 Having been told that the best way to lay his 
 petition before the home government would be 
 through the authorities of New Spain, as Mexico 
 was then called, the elder Austin at once started 
 for Bexar (now San Antonio), the capital of the 
 Province of Texas. 
 
 But, before starting, it had been decided to aban- 
 don the scheme of a farm at Long Prairie and to 
 adopt for the future colonists the route through 
 New Orleans by water to Texas. Accordingly, 
 Stephen F. Austin, proceeded to that city to perfect 
 arrangements for transportation, supplies, etc., 
 while his father started, on horseback, on his tire- 
 some and perilous journey across the vast prairies 
 of Texas. It was early in December, 1820, that 
 the elder Austin arrived in Bexar, the capital of 
 Texas. On presenting himself to the Governor, he 
 was not even allowed to explain the object of his 
 visit, but was peremptorily ordered to leave the 
 capital instantly, and the province as soon as he 
 could get out of it, the Governor being very angry 
 that he had violated the well-known Spanish law 
 excluding foreigners, without specific passports, 
 from Spanish territory in the New World, 
 
 There was nothing left but to obey, and Austin, 
 much dejected, withdrew, with as good grace as 
 possible under the circumstances, from the Gov- 
 ernor's mansion to prepare for his return home, 
 when, in crossing the plaza, he had the good luck 
 to meet the Baron de Bastrop, with whom many 
 years previous he had become acquainted in Lower 
 LouisiaTia. The Baron recognized his old friend, 
 cordially embraced him, took him home with him, 
 and was soon informed of all Austin's plans and 
 troubles. It was the turning-point in the fortunes 
 of the Austins ; and that chance meeting on the 
 plaza was pregnant with great events. 
 
 Baron de Bastrop was a gentleman of culture and 
 refmement, and in high favor with the Governor; 
 and on the morrow, when he laid before that irate 
 functionary the documentary proof that Austin had 
 become a regularly naturalized Spanish subject in 
 Lower Louisiana, in 1799, and stated that he was 
 now lying in bed very ill from the effects of his pro- 
 tracted journey, the order for his departure was 
 countermanded and his memorial received. In a 
 few days, thanks to the kind offices of De Bastrop, 
 the intelligence and the pleasing address of Austin, 
 the memorial asking permission to settle 300 fam- 
 ilies in Texas was forwarded to the superior gov- 
 ernment of the eastern internal provinces, in whose 
 jurisdiction Texas was, strongly recommended by 
 the local authorities of this province. Austin left 
 Bexar in January, 1821, anxious to get home and 
 complete his arrangements for moving to Texas as 
 soon as he could hear of the success of his applica- 
 tion. The journey was one which few would have 
 ventured upon at that season of the year. Over 
 the dreary wastes of the trackless prairie he took 
 his course. Losing his way at times, swimming the 
 creeks now swollen by the winter rains, rafting 
 himself and horse across the rivers which he met, 
 and suffering greatlj' from exposure and want of 
 provisions, Austin, some time in the spring, reached 
 the town of Nachitoches, La. From thence he pro- 
 ceeded at once to Missouri, where he died soon 
 after his arrival, his health having been completely 
 shattered by the hardships undergone on his Texas 
 trip. His last request was that his son, Stephen, 
 should prosecute the enterprise which had been 
 commenced at so costly a sacrifice. And never did 
 filial piety execute more faithfully the dying injunc- 
 tion of a revered parent. 
 
 The memorial of Moses Austin was approved by 
 the supreme government of the eastern internal 
 provinces of New Spain, at Monterey, on the 17th 
 of January, 1821, and the Governor of Texas was 
 at once informed of it. He thereupon dispatched 
 Don Erasmo Seguin (after whom the present town 
 
INDIAN WxiRS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 731 
 
 of Seguin is named), an influential citizen of Bexar, 
 to tlie United States as a special commissioner for 
 the purpose of communicating to Mr. Austin the 
 result of his application, and of conducting the 
 proposed immigrants into the country in a legal 
 manner. Hearing of the arrival of the commissioner 
 at Nachitoches, Stephen F. Austin hastened from 
 New Orleans to that point, and soon after reaching 
 it, learned for the first time of his father's death. 
 
 Thus, in the twentj'-eighth year of his age, the 
 son, unknown, with limited means, with a heart 
 crushed hy a sore atHiction, found resting upon him 
 the weighty responsibility of an enterprise which 
 nothing but the resources and influence of a pow- 
 erful government seemed adequate to carry to a 
 successful issue. Was he fitted for the task? Let 
 the testimony of that sturdy band which followed 
 him into the wilderness reply. Did he meet his 
 responsibilities in full? History has answered that 
 question by inscribing upon its immortal pages as the 
 unanimous verdict of his compeers : " Stephen F. 
 Austin was the father of Texas." He who was to 
 be the founder of a great State was no mere adven- 
 turer, with rude manners and uneducated mind. On 
 the contrary, he was cultivated and polished to a 
 degree rarely seen in the Southwest in those days. 
 When but eleven years old his father placed him at 
 one of the best academies in Connecticut to be pre- 
 pared for college ; and in his fifteenth year he was 
 duly matriculated as a student in Transylvania 
 University, Lexington, Ky. , an institution then of 
 high reputation. Here he remained for several 
 years and was distinguished among his fellow- 
 students for his gentlemanly deportment, applica- 
 tion and progress in studies. The next we hear of 
 young Austin is in the 3'ear 1813, when we find 
 him, at the age of twenty, representing Washington 
 County in the Territorial Legislature of Missouri 
 (where he met Thomas H. Benton, whose friendship 
 he retained through life), a position to which he was 
 regularly returned until 1819, when he left the ter- 
 ritory to open a farm at Long Prairie. He resided 
 in the territory of Arkansas the greater portion of 
 the years 1819-20, and while there was honored 
 with the appointment of Circuit Judge. Thus he 
 was unconsciously being prepared by a special 
 training for the great work, which, all unknown to 
 him, the future had in store. 
 
 Having resolved to accept the important trust 
 which his dying father had bequeathed him, Austin, 
 with seventeen companions, and accompanied bj' 
 the Spanish Commissioner, set out on horseback 
 for Bexar, where they arrived August 10, 1821. He 
 was duly recognized as the legal representative of 
 his father by the Governor, Don Antoino Martinez, 
 
 who received him most cordially. With the Gov- 
 ernor's permission he explored a large section of 
 country on the lower Guadalupe, Colorado and 
 Brazos rivers, and determined to locate his colony 
 between the last two rivers. At the suggestion of 
 the Governor, Austin now drew up the following 
 plan for the distribution of land among the settlers: 
 Each head of a family, and each single man, over 
 age, was to receive 640 acres, 320 acres in addition 
 for the wife, should there be one, and 80 acres ad- 
 ditional for each slave. This plan was approved by 
 Governor Martinez, who commissioned Austin to 
 take absolute control of the local government of 
 the colon}'. 
 
 Austin now returned to New Orleans, and ad- 
 dressed himself earnestly to the work of procuring 
 colonists. Advertisements widely scattered made 
 the public acquainted with his project and attracted 
 universal attention. 
 
 Applications to join the colony came in rapidlj', 
 but how was Austin, broken in fortune, to procure 
 the means of transportation ? Among the influential 
 citizens of New Orleans was Joseph Hawkins, a 
 lawyer, who came forward promptly and advanced 
 the greater part of the needed funds for fitting out 
 a vessel. He had confidence in the success of the 
 enterprise because he had confidence in its head. 
 Many years before the two men had been class- 
 mates and fast friends at Transjlvania University, 
 and the friendship then formed endured through 
 life. With the generous assistance of Hawkins a 
 small schooner, the " Lively," was dispatched in 
 November for Matagorda Bay. She had on board 
 eighteen men and the provisions, arms, ammunition, 
 farming implements, etc., necessary for the estab- 
 lishment of an outpost in a new and savage country. 
 But, as if some evil influence hovered around the 
 fatal shores of the bay where perished, in 1698, the 
 ill-starred colony of La Salle, the "-Lively " failed to 
 reach her destination, and was never heard of more. 
 Another cargo sent by Hawkins, in 1822, was 
 landed on the beach at the mouth of the Colorado, 
 were it was plundered by the Carancahua Indians, 
 and four men murdered. In the meantime, how- 
 ever, Austin had arrived by land on the Brazos, in 
 the last days of December, 1821, with the first immi- 
 grants, and the new settlement was begun in what 
 was then an entire wilderness. Accessions to the 
 body of colonists followed ; the seed of a new civil- 
 ization was newly planted, and notwithstanding its 
 man}' mishaps, the settlement began to wear a thrifty 
 aspect. It had been a terrible struggle, though, with 
 the colonists. They suffered great privations, were 
 without bread and salt, and were forced to subsist 
 on wild game and wild horses, the latter the best 
 
732 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 food, being fat and very abundant. The Indians 
 annoyed and robbed them and the settlers dared not 
 punish their crimes nor their insolence. 
 
 It will be remembered that Moses Austin's grant 
 had been made by the Spanish Government in Mex- 
 ico. But on the 24th of February, 1821, the cele- 
 brated "Plan of Iguala " was promulgated by 
 Iturbide. It declared tlie independence of Mexico 
 and was confirmed by the Mexican cortes ; so that 
 the official acts of Martinez relative to the new 
 settlement, dated August, 1821, were from a Gov- 
 ernor of the independent Mexican nation, and not 
 from a Spanish official. Hence it came about that 
 when Stephen V. Austin arrived at Bexar in the 
 spring of 1822, to make his report to the Governor 
 of the condition of the colony, he was informed by 
 the latter that it was necessary for him to at once 
 proceed to the city of Mexico and procure from 
 the Congress, then in session, a confirmation of his 
 father's grant, together with special instructions as 
 to the distribution of land, issuing of titles, etc. 
 Here was an embarrassing dilemma. His absence 
 at this critical period was certain to cripple his col- 
 ony- — might destroy it; but were he to remain, he 
 and his men would be without titles to their homes, 
 »^ which, with so much toil and suffering, they had 
 
 ''^Mt (Ul<J_won from the wilderness. 
 
 Austin's sense of duty quickly decided his 
 
 ^ course. Placing Mr. Josiah Barbellin charge of 
 
 « the colony, he started at once for Mexico, with one 
 
 \fLJi companion. After a perilous land journey of 1,200 
 miles, a great portion of it made on foot and dis- 
 
 jK^ . guised as a beggar, in ragged clothes and blankets, 
 on account of the numerous banditti, he arrived 
 
 i, Of-T . safely in the capital on the 29th of April. 
 
 'KO-A'",'*- Owing to the revolutionary changes which rap- 
 idly succeeded to each other, it was necessary for 
 Austin to remain for more than a year in Mexico 
 before the government became sufficiently stable to 
 resume its legislative functions. The time, how- 
 ever, lost was not lost to him, as it enabled him to 
 form many valuable friendships and acquaintances; 
 to perfect himself in the Spanish language, which 
 he could not speak when he left Bexar ; and to lay 
 the foundation of that great influence which he ever 
 exerted over the Mexican officials. Finally, on the 
 14th of April, 1823, the supreme executive power 
 issued a decree confirming in full the previous grant 
 to Austin, and on the 28th of the same month he 
 set out for Texas. 
 
 Reaching Monterey, the capital of the eastern 
 internal province, be presented a copy of his decree 
 to the Commandant, Don Felipe de la Garza, and 
 requested special instructions for the local govern- 
 ment of the colony committed to bis charge. 
 
 The provisional deputation of Nueva Leon, Coa- 
 huila and Texas, was then in session ; and the mat- 
 ter being referred to it, it was decreed that 
 Austin's authority, under the decree of the central 
 government, was full and ample as to the admin- 
 istration of justice and of the civil local 
 government of the colony and the command 
 of militia; that his grade as a militia officer 
 should be Lieutenaut-Colonel ; that he could 
 make war on the Indian tribes which were hostile, 
 that he could introduce, by the harbor of Galves- 
 ton, provisions, munitions, etc., needed for the 
 infant settlement ; In short, that he should preserve 
 good order and govern the colony in all civil, judi- 
 cial and military matters, according to the best of 
 his abilities and as justice might require, until the 
 government was otherwise organized. Never, < 
 before or since, in the history of this country, were ) 
 such extensive powers conferred upon an Ameri- ( 
 ican, and never has despotic power been less abused ' 
 or used for less selfish purposes. Austin's civil ^ 
 administration of his colony is the brightest chaplet 
 in his wreath of fame. It was not until July that 
 the weary traveler reached his little colony on the 
 Brazos, where he was welcomed with ever}' demon- 
 stration of joy. 
 
 The colony had suffered sadly in his absence 
 Discontent bred disorders which scattered the col- 
 onists. Some had left for the States, others moved 
 into Eastern Texas, and many immigrants on the 
 way to join the colony, frightened by the reports 
 which reached them of Austin's failure to secure 
 lands for his colonists, settled on the Sabine. His 
 return and the happy issue of his mission restored 
 at once life and confidence to the settlement. 
 
 Don Luciano Garcia was now Governor of Texas, 
 and on the 16th of July he appointed Moses Aus- 
 tin's old friend, the Baron de Bastrop, to act as 
 commissioner ou the part of the government to 
 take the necessary steps, in conjunction with 
 Stephen F. Austin, to put the settlers in possession 
 of their lands. On the 26th of the same month, 
 the Governor, by an official act, gave the name of 
 San Felipe de Austin to the town which was to be 
 laid off as the capital of the new colony, saying 
 that he wished to show his respect for Col. Austin 
 by uniting his name with the name of his own 
 patron saint, San Felipe. Time has given the saint 
 a decided advantage, for to-day that town bears 
 the name of San Felipe only. Austin used jocu- 
 larly to complain that he was near losing his right- 
 ful name of Stephen in consequence of Don 
 Luciano's compliment, for many persons supposed 
 that the town had been called after the Colonel 
 and, therefore, concluded that his name was Philip 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 733 
 
 (Felipe), aud be frequently- received letters thus 
 addressed. 
 
 Austin and Bastrop now commenced the dis- 
 tribution of lands and the issuance of titles. The 
 return of the Colonel had so strengthened the en- 
 terprise that the three hundred families authorized 
 were duly settled. Upon the payment of the fees 
 established by the Mexican Commissioner, titles 
 were issued to the settlers. The whole expense on 
 a league of land only amounted to $165. The 
 lands selected were among the most productive in 
 the State, the immigrants being scattered from the 
 east bank of the Lavaca to the ridge dividing the 
 waters of the San Jacinto and Trinity rivers, and 
 from the old San Antonio road to the Gulf. 
 
 The greatest care was taken by Austin that the 
 titles for all his settlers should be duly perfected 
 under the Mexican law, and where immigrants were 
 too poor to pay the legal fees be generally paid 
 them himself, or procured credit for them from the 
 government. Without compensation, and with much 
 labor be, in conjunction with Mr. Samuel M. Will- 
 iams, whom he bad appointed his private secretary, 
 in 1824, copied into a large bound register or rec- 
 ord book the land documents, title deeds, and de- 
 crees relating to the colony. This record book, 
 together with his land papers, are now in the land 
 otiice at Austin. Austin's private papers, jour- 
 nals, etc., a most valuable collection of historic 
 documents, are now in the possession of his nephew, 
 Hon. Guy M. Bryan, of Galveston. The machinery 
 for the civil government of the settlement was very 
 simple. By consent of the Governor, the colony 
 was divided into districts, each presided over by an 
 alcalde, or justice, elected by the settlers. To 
 these alcaldes Austin gave jurisdiction to $200, 
 with an appeal to him as judge of the colony on all 
 sums over $25. A code of provisional regulations 
 in civil and criminal matters was also drawn up by 
 him and approved by the Governor. 
 
 Stephen F. Austin' was the first who ever ob- 
 tained permission to settle a colony in Texas; and, 
 in the language of President Burnet, he was " the { 
 only empresario who fully carried out bis eon- ' 
 tracts with Mexico, and be labored sedulously in ' 
 doing so." 
 
 The colonization law of the State of Texas and 
 Coahuila, passed in 1825 in conformity with the 
 enactments of the national colonization law of 1824, 
 opened the vacant lands of Texas to all persons 
 who were desirous of becoming empresarios, or 
 contractors, for the settlement of bodies of immi- 
 grants, and who would comply with the require- 
 ments of the law. Under this general act grants 
 were made to many persons, among them Hayden, 
 
 Edwards, Leftwich, DeWitt, Milam, Burnet, and 
 Veblein. Colonies were thus started in various 
 parts of the State (but few of them introduced set- 
 tlers, and none of them completed tlieir contracts 
 except DeWitt), and the Anglo-American popula- 
 tion increased. But Austin was not idle. 
 
 In 1825 be contracted to bring in 500 families, in 
 1827 one hundred families more, and in 1828 signed 
 a contract for three hundred families. By the gen- 
 eral act referred to above, all settlers who were 
 farmers were entitled to a labor of land, one hun- 
 dred and seventj'-seven acres ; all stock-raisers a 
 sitio, or square league ; and the empress arios were 
 to receive as compensation, for each one hundred 
 families, five leagues and five labors. 
 
 The letter of the law required that "the new 
 settlers who present themselves for admission must 
 prove their Christianity, morality and good habits 
 bj' a certificate from the authorities where they 
 formerly resided." The State required for each 
 sitio or pasture land a payment of thirty dollars, 
 and for each labor two and a half or three and a 
 half dollars, according as the land was or was not 
 capable of irrigation. Unmarried men were only 
 allowed one fourth as much as married men were, 
 but at marriage their full share was made up to 
 them. And so as to encourage the more intimate 
 fusion of the new element with the old, the adven- 
 turous foreigner who would wed a senorita of the 
 Mexican blood was compensated with an extra 
 fourth. Austin's last contract was made in the 
 name of Austin and Williams, in 1831, and embraced 
 eight hundred families. 
 
 The foundations of a great State were now laid, 
 and the career of the colony was one of uninter- 
 rupted growth and prosperity in spite of the out- 
 breaks in 1827 and 1832. In 1827, in consequence 
 of what is known as the Fredonian War, the inhab- 
 itants of Eastern Tex.as would have been expelled 
 from the country but for the earnest intervention of 
 Austin in their behalf, with the political chief, 
 Saucedo, who, after their leaders had retired beyond 
 the Sabine, permitted them to remain undisturbed 
 in their rights of person and property. In 1831 
 bodies of Mexican troops had been established at 
 several points in Texas, and Col. Bradburn, at 
 Anahuac (mouth of the Trinity), had arbitrarily 
 displaced civil authorities and appointed others, 
 and had imprisoned prominent citizens of that sec- 
 tion, threatening to send them to Mexico for trial. 
 This aroused the colonists, who captured all the 
 posts and soldiers east of San Antonio. Santa Anna 
 promptly dispatched Gen. Mexia with five armed ves- 
 sels and troops to " suppress the rebellion." Austin 
 was then attending the Legislature of Coahuila and 
 
731 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Texas at SalUllo as member from Texas. When he 
 heard what liad taken place in Texas, he hastened 
 to Matamoras, joined Gen. Mexia, with whom he 
 was well acquainted, and sailed with him to the 
 month of tlie Brazos for the express purpose of 
 effecting some amicable settlement of the whole 
 affair. He now assumed the friendlj' office of 
 mediator between the contending parties, and they, 
 (the colonist) thus extricated themselves from 
 the impending ruin by receiving the olive branch 
 obtained by the inHuence, and passed to them 
 through the hands, of Stephen F. Austin. Austin 
 was welcomed back by the people with every 
 demonstration of joy, with balls, speeches, firing of 
 cannons, etc., at the mouth of the Brazos, Brazoria 
 and especially at San Felipe. Six miles below the 
 latter place he was met by a military company 
 under Lieut. Day, and escorted into town, where 
 he was received and addressed by William H. Jack 
 in behalf of his fellow-citizens. 
 
 Austin replied in a happy speech, and was then 
 received by the Mexican soldiers, who had surren- 
 dered at Velasco. Austin addressed them in Span- 
 ish, embraced the officers, who then fraternized with 
 the colonists, and all sat down to a sumptuous 
 banquet. Speeches were delivered, toasts drunk, 
 cannon fired, and there was every demonstration of 
 joy. Immediately after the expulsion of the Mexi- 
 can soldiery, political leaders began to excite the 
 people on the question of separation of Texas from 
 Coahuila. They held that Texas was entitled to a 
 separate State government; they made speeches and 
 publislied articles in the newspapers on this subject, 
 producing much excitement and discussion through- 
 out the colonies. 
 
 He became a member of the convention which 
 met at San Felipe on the 1st of April, 1833. In 
 spite of his original views, in opposition to the ma- 
 jority, he was selected by the convention as com- 
 missioner to bear the memorial and constitution 
 adopted by the convention to the national authorities 
 at the City of Mexico, to obtain the admission of 
 Texas as a State into the union of Mexican States. 
 
 When he arrived at the capital he found that he 
 had no easy task before him. " While all parties 
 were willing to trust the Commissioner, they dis- 
 trusted his constituents, and were unwilling to let 
 them have a government of their own and in their 
 own hands." He defeated the project to make a 
 territorial government for Texas, which would have 
 placed Texas immediately under the authorities at 
 the City of Mexico, and put all of the public do- 
 main of Texas on the market for sale to a foreign 
 company of speculators. He obtained a repeal of 
 the odious law of the Gth of April, 1830, which for- 
 
 bade the immigration of North Americans into 
 Texas (except to his own colonies or existing con- 
 tracts), and also secured the establishment of mail 
 routes from the capital (Mexico) through Texas to 
 Nachitoches, in Louisiana. 
 
 On the 10th of December, 1833, he left for Texas, 
 after having exhausted all his means to obtain the 
 admission of Texas as a State. He was overtaken 
 and arrested at Sallillo, carried back to the City of 
 ISIexico, and thrown into a dark, damp, stone dun- 
 geon, where he was deprived of light, books, paper, 
 ink, and society. The imprisonment of Austin 
 produced a profound impression in Texas. The 
 ayuiitamientos of Texas prepared and sent to Mex- 
 ico long memorials praying for his release. Peter 
 W. Grayson and Spencer H. Jack were selected to 
 bear these petitions to Mexico ; they did not secure 
 Austin's release, but they afforded him great com- 
 fort, as they showed that he was not forgotten by 
 the people of Texas, for whom he had suffered and 
 was suffering in mind and body, and spending his 
 private means. On the 12th of June, 1834, Austin 
 was transferred to the State prison, where his 
 quarters were more comfortable. Now there was 
 some talk of trying him for treason — a trial Austin 
 earnestly desired — but the judges of all the courts 
 refused to have anything to do with the case, for 
 they knew there were no real charges against him, 
 and that his imprisonment was wholly unwarranted. 
 Finally, after an absence of two years and four 
 months, under a general amnesty law, Austin was 
 permitted to return to Texas. He landed at the 
 mouth of the Brazos on September 1st, 1835. 
 
 On the 8th of September, 1835, Austin ad- 
 dressed a large concourse of citizens, in which he 
 detailed with great particularity the existing condi- 
 tion of Mexico, the progress of the revolution then 
 going on, the probalile result of the struggle, and 
 the changes he thought would be made in the fun- 
 damental law of that government. He advised that 
 a general consultation of the people of Texas be 
 held as speedily as possible, and decide what rep- 
 resentations ought to be made to the General Gov- 
 ernment, and what ought to be done in the future. 
 
 Austin proceeded immediately ;to San Felipe, 
 and was placed at the head of the Central Com- 
 mittee of Safety of that jurisdiction. 
 
 He labored day and night with his two secreta- 
 ries, Gail Borden, Jr., and Moses Austin Bryan, 
 sending out circulars giving information, and pre- 
 paring Texas for the great crisis so near at hand. 
 While these events were passing in Texas, the de- 
 struction of the Mexican Constitution was being 
 consummated in Mexico ; the State Legislatures 
 were abolished, the citizens disarmed, and the 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 735 
 
 States practically made military departments. 
 Tlirougli The Tdegraph and Texas Register Austin 
 sent forth addresses to the colonists, which per- 
 vaded every part of Texas, and reached the United 
 States. He soon saw the necessity for and coun- 
 seled armed resistance, and although in feeble 
 health, as soon as he could respond to the call from 
 the army after the affair with Ugarte Chea, left for 
 Gonzales, where he was chosen Commauder-in-Chief 
 of the volunteer forces in the Geld. 
 
 On the 12th of October Austin completed his 
 staff appointments and crossed over the Eiver 
 Guadalupe. On the same day he was also informed 
 of the capture of Goliad. On the 13th their or- 
 ganization was completed by the election of John 
 H. Moore, Colonel; Edward Burleson, Lieutenant- 
 Colonel, and Alexander Somervell, ftlajor of the 
 regiment. Patrick C. Jack was appointed Quarter- 
 master; William T. Austin, Second Aide, and 
 William H. Wharton, Judge Advocate. On the 
 18th Col. William H. Jack was appointed Brigade 
 Inspector. On the 14th Capt. Milam, in command 
 of a spy company, was ordered in advance of the 
 army to obtain information. 
 
 The army advanced, driving the Mexicans before 
 it, and on the 20lh of October encamped on the 
 Salado, within Ave miles of San Antonio. 
 
 The fight by the men under Bowie at Mission 
 Concepcion and further operations of the army 
 while under Austin, and the storming and capture 
 of San Antonio by columns under Milam and 
 Johnson, after Burleson succeeded to the command, 
 are familiar matters of history and need not be 
 recorded here. 
 
 Austin took leave of the army on the morning of 
 November 25, 1835, and, during the last daj^s of 
 December, sailed for New Orleans to act as one of 
 the commissioners (Messrs, Wharton and Archer 
 being his colleagues) sent from Texas to procure 
 aid for the Texian cause in the United States. 
 
 Up to the time of his arrival in New Orleans, he 
 had favored Texas fighting for her rights merely as 
 a Mexican State, but, on reaching that city and 
 finding that Texas could expect but little help in 
 the way of money or volunteers from the United 
 States unless a declaration of independence was 
 issued to the world, he wrote a strong letter advo- 
 cating such a declaration. 
 
 This action upon his part removed the last 
 vestige of opposition, and a few days later the 
 declaration was adopted by the plenary convention 
 that had assembled, and a government ad interim 
 was established, with David G. Burnet as President 
 and Lorenzo de Zavala as Vice-President. 
 
 The commissioners visited separately or together 
 
 the largest cities, spoke and conferred with leading 
 men, and all who wished to obtain information or 
 bestow aid. They raised men and money and re- 
 ceived donations for the cause of Texas. Austin 
 visited Washington City and conferred with his old 
 friends there, notably, Thomas H. Benton, John J. 
 Crittenden and others. He had repeated interviews 
 with the Piesident, and ascertained that the most 
 friendly feeling prevailed for Texas, and that after 
 her adoption of the constitution and establishment 
 of a permanent government, she would be recog- 
 nized, etc. 
 
 Gen. Austin was particularly successful ; his 
 long services in Texas, and his known truthfulness 
 and simplicity of character gave weight to what he 
 said. His address at Louisville, wliich was widely 
 published, presented the claims of Texas upon the 
 civilized world for sympathy and aid in such a 
 manner as to bring her both. Austin landed on his 
 return to Texas at Velasco (temporary capital of 
 the Republic), at the mouth of the Brazos, June 
 27, 1836. On the 23d of July, President Burnet 
 Issued his proclamation for an election for Presi- 
 dent and Vice-President and representatives to the 
 first Congress of Texas under the constitu- 
 tion, and also to decide upon the adoption 
 or rejection of the constitution, and on the 
 question of the annexation of Texas to the 
 United States. The election was ordered to take 
 place on the first Monday of the following Septem- 
 ber, and the new government to meet at Columbia 
 on the first Monday in October. Upon a call made 
 on Austin to become a candidate he said: "Influ- 
 enced by the great governing principle that has 
 regulated my actions since I came to Texas, which 
 is to serve this country in any capacity in which the 
 people may think proper to employ me, I shall not 
 decline the highly responsible and difficult one now 
 proposed, should the majority of my fellow-citizens 
 elect me." 
 
 Ex-Governor Henry Smith and Sam Houston 
 were also candidates. It was soon seen that the 
 army, now composed of volunteers from the United 
 States, and the newcomers, favored Houston, and 
 80 did many of the citizens of Eastern Texas ; they 
 formed a majority of the voters, and Austin's 
 friends saw before the election that Houston's elec- 
 tion was a foregone conclusion. Houston was 
 elected, and offered to Austin the positions of 
 Secretary of State or Minister to the United States. 
 His great desire was to attend to his health and to 
 his private business, which had been neglected 
 entirely since he left for Mexico in 1833, and to 
 close up his colonial land matters. But prominent 
 men and all classes of his old friends, especially 
 
73G 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 bis colonists, urged upon liim for their salies and 
 for the good of Texas to taiie the position of -Sec- 
 retary of State, in order that his valuable ser- 
 vices could be given to Texas. He permitted 
 himself to be persuaded, when his own judgment 
 told him his health required repose and building 
 up. 
 
 Having passed through the dark and stormy times 
 of the revolution, in which he took an active part, and. 
 which he was largely instrumental in bringing to a 
 successful issue, he was nowfast approachinghisend. 
 The immediate occasion of his last sickness was 
 three days and nights of continuous labor in an un- 
 comfortable room without fire, during a norther, 
 where he was preparing instructions on the great 
 question of annexation and other subjects for the 
 new Minister, Hon. William H. Wharton, to the 
 United States. 
 
 He was attacked with a severe cold, which 
 assumed the form of pneumonia, and in a short 
 time terminated his useful, eventful and valuable 
 life, in the forty-fifth year of his age. His death 
 was regarded as a national calamity, and as such 
 was mourned throughout the Republic. As a tes- 
 
 timonial of respect the government issued the fol- 
 lowing general order: — 
 
 " War Department, Columbia, ) 
 " December 27, 1836. | 
 
 " The father of Texas is no more. 
 
 " The first pioneer of the wilderness has departed. 
 Gen. Stephen F. Austin, Secretary of State, ex- 
 pired this day at half- past twelve o'clock, at 
 Columbia. 
 
 "As a testimony of respect to his high standing, 
 undeviating moral rectitude, and as a mark of the 
 nation's gratitude for his untiring zeal and inval- 
 uable services, all officers, civil and military, are 
 requested to wear crape on the right arm for the 
 space of thirty days. All oflScers commanding posts, 
 garrisons or detachments, will, as soon as informa- 
 tion is received of the melancholy event, cause 
 thirty-three guns to be fired, with an interval of five 
 minutes between each, and also have the garrison 
 and regimental colors hung with black during the 
 space of mourning for the illustrious dead. 
 
 " By order of the President. 
 
 " W^iLLiAM S. Fisher, 
 " Secretary of War." 
 
 HENRY W. LIGHTFOOT, 
 
 PARIS. 
 
 Henry William Lightfoot, now Chief Justice of the 
 Court of Civil Appeals for the Fifth Supreme Judi- 
 cial District of the State of Texas, was born on the 
 old family homestead plantation, in Lawrence 
 County, Ala., December 29th, 184G. His paternal 
 grandfather. Dr. Thomas Lightfoot, a native of 
 Virginia, was a physician, and became one of the 
 early settlers of North Alabama. His father was 
 John F. Lightfoot and mother Malena J. Lightfoot, 
 nee McKissack. 
 
 He attended country schools until twelve years 
 of age, and then the academy at Tuscumbia, Ala., 
 until sixteen years of age, when he joined the 
 Confederate army as a volunteer in the Eleventh 
 Alabama Cavalry and served as a soldier until the 
 war closed. In the fall of 1866 he visited Texas 
 and returned, determined to complete his educa- 
 tion and then make Texas his future home. The 
 property of his family being almost entirely swept 
 away by the war, he went to work as a field hand 
 upon the farm and saved enough money to enable 
 
 him to again attend school. He entered Cumberland 
 University at Lebanon, Tenn., in the fall of 1867, 
 and graduated from the Law Department in June, 
 1869, with high honors. His graduation speech 
 possessed unusual merit, gave promise of a suc- 
 cessful career that he has since carved out for him- 
 self at the bar, and was favorably commented upon 
 in the leading Tennessee and Alabama papers. He 
 entered upon the practice of his profession in his 
 native county, in the latter part of 1869, and, after 
 two years and six months of successful practice at 
 the bar there, moved to Sherman, Texas, in January, 
 1872. 
 
 At the spring term of the District Court at 
 Bouham, in 1872, he met Gen. Sam. Bell Maxey. 
 The}' occupied the same room at the hotel, became 
 well acquainted, formed a partnership to practice 
 law together, and Mr. Lightfoot moved to Paris, 
 Texas, Gen. Maxey's home, in June followlDg. 
 The partnership continued for more than twenty 
 years, the firm building up one of the largest and 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 7;; 7 
 
 most lucrative practices enjoyed by any firm in 
 Texas. 
 
 After Mr. Lightfoot's removal to Texas, in .Jan- 
 uary, 1872, he received an unsolicited appointment 
 from Hon. Robert Lindsay, Governor of Alabama 
 (who had not heard of his removal), as one of the 
 Directors of the Agricultural and Mechanical Col- 
 lege of Alabama, which, of course, was declined, 
 although considered quite an honor for a young 
 man of twentj'-five years. 
 
 Gen. Maxey having been elected to the United 
 States Senate, in 1874, the responsibilities of a 
 large and increasing law practice at the Paris bar. 
 
 St. Louis, and tool\ a prominent part in the exciting 
 and memorable campaign that followed. Actively 
 engaged in llie practice of law, he nevertheless 
 found time to take part as a Democratic champion 
 in the contests in the political arena, but sought no 
 office. He was nominated, however, and elected to 
 the State Senate without opposition in 1880, which 
 position he held for two years, and then voluntarily 
 retired to attend the pressing demands of his law 
 practice. In 1888 he was elected by the State 
 Democratic Convention a delegate to the National 
 Convention at St. Louis that nominated Cleveland 
 and Thurman, and was selected by the Texas 
 
 HENRY W. LIGHTFOOT. 
 
 which was not excelled by any in the State, fell 
 upon Judge Lightfoot. 
 
 On November 3d, 1874, he was united in mar- 
 riage to Miss Dora Bell Maxey (an adopted daugh- 
 ter of Gen. and Mrs. S. B. Maxey), who died in 
 June, 1884, leaving two children : Sallie Lee, who 
 was born June 8th, 1878, and Thomas Chenoweth, 
 who was born August 12th, 1880, their eldest son, 
 Maxey Bell Lightfoot, having died Noveml)er loth, 
 1876. 
 
 Judge Lightfoot was elected by the Democratic 
 State Convention, which met at Galveston, January 
 5th, 1876, a delegate to the National Convention, at 
 St. Louis, which nominated Tilden and Hendricks. 
 After the adjournment of the Convention, he ad- 
 dressed a large and enthusiastic mass meeting in 
 
 delegation to second the nomination of Mr. 
 Cleveland, which he did in a short and fehc- 
 itous address that met with favor, both in the con- 
 vention and at home. July 11th, 1889, he was 
 elected president of the State Bar Association, suc- 
 ceeding Hon. F. Chas. Hume, which position was 
 accepted as a distinguished honor at the hands of 
 his brother lawyers. In his annual address to the 
 association, delivered August 6th, 1890, which was 
 published in the proceedings of that bod}-, he dis- 
 cussed the Railroad Commission amendment to the 
 State constitution to be voted upon in November 
 following. Subsequent adjudications under that 
 amendment, before the Supreme Court of the 
 United States, have proven the correctness of the 
 views then expressed by him. 
 
738 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 December 5tb, 1889, Judge Lightfoot was mar- 
 ried to Miss Etta I. Wooten, daughter of Dr. and 
 Mrs. Tbos. D. Wooten, of Austin, who is now the 
 mother of two boys: Wooten, born on the 2d day 
 of October, 1890, and William Henry, born on the 
 23d day of August, 1892. 
 
 In 1893 Judge Lightfoot was counsel for the Hon. 
 W. L. McGauhey, Commissioner of the General 
 Land Office of Texas, in his celebrated State trial, 
 on impeachment before the State Senate, and was 
 selected by the eminent counsel engaged in the 
 defense to open the case on argument of the demur- 
 rers and present the principles of law relied upon, 
 a duty that he discharged in a manner that fully 
 sustained his high reputation as a sound lawyer and 
 clear logical and trenchant speaker. After one of 
 the most interesting and important trials ever held 
 in the State, his client was honorably dischargeil. 
 
 August 9th, 1893, Judge Lightfoot was appointed 
 Chief Justice of the Court of Civil Appeals for the 
 
 Fifth Sujjreme Judicial District of Texas, by Gov. 
 James Hogg, an office that had been recently 
 created by the Legislature. Hon. N. W. Finley 
 and Hon. Anson Rainey were appointed as Associate 
 Justices and the court was organized at Dallas, 
 Texas, and began its labors in September following. 
 At the general election of 1894 Judge Lightfoot was 
 nominated and elected to the position of Chief 
 Justice, without opposition, as were also his asso- 
 ciates, Justices Finley and Rainey. 
 
 Judge Lightfoot has been a member of the 
 Methodist Church for more than twenty-five years. 
 His high character, purity of private and public life, 
 eminent services, solid learning as a lawyer and 
 capability as a judge of a court of last resort, are 
 well known to the people of Texas, and they could 
 have given no higher testimonial of their apprecia- 
 tion of his worth than they have by continuing him 
 in the position he now holds, which they have done 
 without a dissenting voice. 
 
 THOMAS GLASCOCK, 
 
 AUSTIN. 
 
 The subject of this brief memoir lived at a time 
 when Texas had greatest need for young men of 
 his mettle and daring, and it is to him and those 
 living and laboring contemporaneously with him 
 that the present generation owes so much: the sub- 
 jugation of the Indians in Texas and the establish- 
 ment of a splendid civilization. He seemed especi- 
 ally fitted for the life and duties of a pioneer on the 
 frontier of a new and promising country, and, as 
 such, few men were better known in his day 
 throughout Central Texas. He came to Texas in 
 the fall of 1837. The battle of San Jacinto had 
 been fought in April of the previous year and 
 Texas' independence secured. 
 
 The country was in an unsettled and chaotic con- 
 dition. He was a native of Virginia, and was born 
 near Culpepper Court House in 1818. His father, 
 a farmer, died when Thomas was a small boy, and 
 he therefore spent his boyhood and youth with an 
 uncle. Dr. Harper Glascock, an influential citizen, 
 physician and planter of Virginia. By this uncle 
 he was accorded the advantages of excellent school- 
 ing and social privileges. He possessed an inher- 
 ent desire and ambition to accomplish something 
 for himself, and to get on in the world, and he left 
 
 his Virginia home and friends to seek his fortunes 
 in the then new State of Alabama. There he met 
 and married Miss Fancy Chamles and they soon 
 thereafter came to Texas. Mrs. Glascock remained 
 here but a short time, however, returning to her 
 home in Alabama, where she not long thereafter 
 died, leaving two daughters: Sarah, who lived until 
 her ninth year, and Mary, who is the wife of Will- 
 iam Patton, a resident of Austin, Texas. In 1344 
 Mr. Glascock married Miss Mary Philian Brown- 
 ing, a daughter of Christopher Columbus Brown- 
 ing, a Texas veteran and pioneer, more concerning 
 whom is related further on in this article. 
 
 Upon locating in Texas Mr. Glascock settled 
 upon and operated what has for years been known 
 as the Oliver farm, about five miles west of Bas- 
 trop. He there remained for about five j'ears, and 
 then removed to Austin, which was ever after his 
 home. He was known throughout Texas as one of 
 Austin's most active and influential citizens, and 
 as an aggressive Indian fighter. In the latter role, 
 his promptitude, intrepid zeal and relentless war- 
 fare upon the red savages, won for him the admira- 
 tion and gratitude of the people of his day. By 
 those who knew him it is said that Thomas Glas- 
 
C. C. UROWiNING. 
 
FKAXCIS UlKl'lUCU. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 r39 
 
 cock knew not fear. Fired by the reports of the 
 wonderful discoveries of gold in California in 1849 
 he saddled his mule and made the trip overland to 
 the gold diggings alone, through a trackless wilder- 
 ness inhabited only by savage Indians. He spent 
 two years in California, meeting with indifferent 
 success in his mining ventures. 
 
 Upon his return to Texas, he was unanimously 
 and almost immediately elected Tax-Assessor and 
 Collector for Travis County, a position for which 
 he was eminently qualified. He held the office 
 until his death, which occurred at Austin, Novem- 
 ber 22, 1853. 
 
 He was a man of strict integrity, fine education, 
 and great personal pride, and possessed a loyal 
 heart and business attainments of a high order. 
 The days in which he lived were the most troublous 
 and critical of any known to Texas history, and he 
 interested himself vitally in all issues involving the 
 good of his adopted country, and in all matters 
 pertaining to the safety of the young and growing 
 seat of government he was foremost. He figured 
 actively in what is known in history' as the " Archive 
 War," the circumstances of which are set forth in 
 detail in the two-volume history of Texas by Col. 
 John Henry Brown, and need not be recounted 
 here. He, with Col. Brown, participated in the 
 historic Plum Creek fight in 1840, the last of the 
 noted Indian encounters which settled the conquest 
 of civilization in Texas. 
 
 Mrs. Mary Philian Browning Glascock, his de- 
 voted wife, still survives and is well known and 
 highly esteemed in the city of Austin, her life-long 
 home. There is much in the life and character of 
 this venerable and estimable lady that would grace 
 the pages of history. There are few living to-day 
 who have passed through the hazardous, trying 
 and exciting experiences that Mrs. Glascock has. 
 Her father, Capt. C. C. Browning, before men- 
 tioned, came to Texas as early as the fall of 1836, 
 his family following in the spring of 1837. He 
 was a native of Greene County, Ga., and was born 
 February 9th, 1812, on a farm. 
 
 He came to Texas with, or at the same time, as 
 did his father, Daniel Browning, and they rented 
 land and pursued farming near Old Independence, 
 in Washington County, for one year, and later pur- 
 chased land and lived for three years near Gay 
 Hill, in the same county. In 1840 he removed to 
 Austin, and cleared and improved what has for 
 years been known as the old Goodrich place, near 
 Barton Springs. 
 
 He was reared in Alabama, and there met and 
 married Miss Penina Gunter, of Gunter's Landing. 
 Capt. Browning was one of the most intrepid and 
 
 daring of Indian fighters, and for years served in the 
 ranger service under Capt. D. C. Cady and later 
 under Capt. "Hi" Smith, in which he ranked as 
 Lieutenant of mounted rangers, and was in his sad- 
 dle almost constantly for years. He owned a horse 
 that seemed as aggressive and as much absorbed in 
 the warfare against the Indians as its owner, and 
 never flinched when duty demanded action. It is 
 said to have been the only horse in all the surround- 
 ing country that would allow the lifeless form of a 
 man to be laid across its back, and one year Capt. 
 Browning brought into the town of Austin on the 
 back of this faithful steed, from various localities, 
 no less than eighteen victims of the Indian's deadly 
 arrows or bullets. He lived an active and self- 
 sacrificing life and died at his home, near Austin, 
 March 3d, 1871. Mrs. Penina Browning, his faith- 
 ful and devoted spouse, survived him for several 
 years. A lady of most excellent traits of character, 
 she possessed those qualities of mind and heart that 
 greatly endeared her to the whole community in 
 which she so long lived. With Christian fortitude 
 she patiently endured the many hardships incident 
 to pioneer life at Austin, having been several times 
 driven by the Indians from home. On one occa- 
 sion she was pursued, with her girl baby in her 
 arms ; hid out of doors over night, and barely 
 escaped capture, which in those days proved inevi- 
 tably far worse than death. Hiding, however, her 
 child in a vacant house, she evaded capture and 
 returned at break of day to find her infant girl 
 safe and sound. This occurred at Austin, in 1846, 
 when her husband was away from home on ranging 
 duty. 
 
 Mrs. Penina Browning led a spotless life, well 
 worthy of emulation. She was for many years a 
 devout and consistent member of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church, upon which she left the impress 
 of her many charitable deeds. 
 
 A noble woman — she quietly passed to the life 
 beyond the tomb, November 13, 1882. 
 
 She had but two children, both daughters, who 
 survive her, viz. : Mrs. Glascock, before mentioned, 
 and Mrs. Sarah Elizabeth, widow of the late Rev. 
 J. M. Whipple, both of Austin. 
 
 It is fitting that in these memoirs some mention 
 be made of Capt. McLusky, the venerable step- 
 father of Mrs. Penina Browning. He was a native 
 of Tennessee, and performed the part of a gallant 
 and efficient officer throughout the Creek War under 
 Gen. Jackson. After coming to Texas his advanced 
 age did not prevent him from incurring the dangers 
 and hardships of aggressive Indian warfare in de- 
 fense of Austin and surrounding settlements, when 
 the removal of the seat of government and other 
 
INDIAX WARS AM) PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 causes left tliem daily exposed to assaults. lu fact, 
 the best energies of his life were ever given to the 
 service of his country. He lived to be sixty-nine 
 years of age, and died the death of a hero and 
 patriot at Austin. 
 
 To those who knew him best, and notably his 
 two surviving granddaughters, Mrs. Glascock and 
 Mrs. Whipple, he is held in loving remembrance as 
 a true friend and faithful protector. 
 
 Mrs. Whipple was born in Lowndes County, Ala., 
 in 1832, and recalls with feelings of both pleasure 
 and regret the many scenes of her girlhood, inci- 
 dent to the early settlement of her (now beautiful) 
 " city of the hills." 
 
 June 17, 1847, she wedded Mr. Francis Dietrich, 
 who for many years was one of the leading mer- 
 chants of Austin. He was a native of Germany, 
 and was born at Cassel, February 2, 1815. He 
 was sent to America in 1831 to be educated in New 
 York City. He became so interested in the strug- 
 gle for Texas Independence that he abandoned the 
 dea of schooling and joined the revolutionary forces 
 in 1835, and bore a valiant part in the sanguinary 
 struggle. He participated in the battle of Refugio, 
 in Marcli, 183(5, and later was captured with Fan- 
 nin and his men, but escaped massacre because of 
 his foreign birth. He engaged in business and 
 acquired property at Victoria, but lost it by fire 
 at the hands of Mexican invaders. He was 
 one of the first to engage in merchandising 
 
 at Austin, but left there on account of hostile In- 
 dians and sold goods at Washington on the Brazos 
 until the seat of government was located at Austin, 
 when he returned and was there actively engaged in 
 business until his death. May 31st, 1860. 
 
 Francis Dietrich was a good man and stood high 
 in business, political and social circles. He never 
 lost sight of the guiding star of right and justice. 
 He was an influential member of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church and at times held the office of 
 steward. He was successful in business, erected 
 substantial business blocks and left a handsome 
 estate. He was three times married. By his first 
 union to (Miss Bessie Reed) he had one son, James 
 Dietrich, living in Travis County. His second wife. 
 Miss Martha Brown, lived only about one year and 
 died without issue. June 17, 1847, he married Miss 
 Sarah E. Browning, of whom mention has above 
 been made, and she has one son, Thomas Dietrich, 
 of Austin. 
 
 January 1st, 1863, Mrs. Dietrich married Rev. 
 Dr. J. W. Whipple, an esteemed and able member 
 of the Methodist clergy, well remembered for the 
 life-long and faithful service that he rendered to the 
 cause he espoused. 
 
 Dr. Whipple died May 10, 1895. Mrs. Whipple 
 lives in retirement on her handsome estate near and 
 overlooking the city of Austin. She is a lady of 
 refined and artistic tastes and gracious manner, 
 and, as such, is widely known. 
 
 ELIJAH B. THOMAS, 
 
 ALVIN. 
 
 Elijah B. Thomas is a native of Louisiana, born 
 on Johnson Bayou, in Clarke's Parish, November 
 2nd, 1842. His father, Elisha Thomas, was a 
 stock-raiser and farmer, who came to Texas in early 
 times, where he followed the stock business. Serv- 
 ing as a boy in the transportation department, he 
 enrolled as one of the Texian soldiers of 1836. He 
 died in Victoria County. A twin brother of Mr. 
 Elisha Thomas, also named Elisha, located near 
 San Antonio, pursued stock-raising, and there died. 
 The mother of the subject of this notice dying, his 
 father was twice married thereafter, by the first of 
 which later unions were born seven sons and three 
 daughters ; by the other six children, two of whom 
 are living in Texas. Elijah B. Thomas, the sub- 
 ject of this sketch, was, like his father, a twin, and 
 
 his twin brother, named Elisha, witii whom ho en- 
 listed in the Confederate army at Houston, Septem- 
 ber 10th, 1861, as soldiers in Company B. 
 (commanded by Capt. John A. Wharton), Terry's 
 Eighth Texas rangers. 
 
 Elisha served during the entire conflict with the 
 rangers, and survived the war only to lose his 
 life by accident on the railroad, near Galveston. 
 Elijah B. Thomas served about one }'ear. In 
 1865 he married Miss Mary Jane Garrett, daugh- 
 ter of Wilboan Garrett, a stock-raiser, and an early 
 Texian. The marriage took place in Houston. 
 The same j'ear (1865) he located in Brazoria 
 County on Clear creek, and one year later on Choc- 
 olate bayou. He now lives on Mustang slough, 
 where his father located on the R. L. Ware head- 
 
C. C. CULBERSON. 
 
INDIAN WAR!^ AND I'lONEERfS OF TEXAS. 
 
 right in 1848. His maternal grandfather, Hayes, 
 was one of the earliest settlers at St. Louis, Mo., 
 and once owned and lived upon the ground now 
 covered by the famous St Louis stock-yards. 
 
 Mr. Thomas has six children living, and is a well 
 and favorably known citizen. He has for years 
 acted as Deputy Sheriff and Hide and Animal In- 
 spector of Brazoria County. 
 
 CHARLES A. CULBERSON, 
 
 DALLAS. 
 
 Charles A. Culberson, Governor of Texas, was 
 born at Dadeville, Tallapoosa County, Ala., and is 
 about thirty-eight years of age. He is a son of 
 Hon. D. B. Culberson, ex-Congressman from the 
 Fourth Texas District, and has inherited the intel- 
 lectual strength and forensic genius of his distin- 
 guished father. His mother is a lady of rare 
 intelligence and is a daughter of Dr. Allen Kimbal, 
 of Alabama. His parents removed from Alabama 
 to Gilmer, Texas, in 1858, and from that place, in 
 1861, to Jefferson, where they have since resided. 
 The subject of this sketch attended the common 
 schools in Jefferson, the high school of Prof. 
 Morgan H. Looney, at Gilmer, and in 1870 entered 
 the Virginia Military Institute, at Lexington, Va., 
 from which he graduated in the class of 1874. 
 Until 1876 he studied law in his father's office and 
 then entered the law department of the University 
 of Virginia, where he remained a year. He was 
 chosen Judge of the moot court, the highest honor 
 of the law class, and in 1877 was selected as the 
 final orator of the Jefferson Literary Society. In 
 1878 he was admitted to the bar and soon partici- 
 pated in the trial of a number of important cases, 
 acquitting himself in a manner that gave him a high 
 character at the bar. In 1882 he defended Le 
 Grand (charged with murder and indicted under 
 the ku-klux law) in the Federal District Court at 
 Jefferson. Le Grand was convicted and the case 
 was appealed to the Circuit Court. Culberson 
 attacked the constitutionality of the ku-klux law ; 
 contended that the Federal courts had no jurisdic- 
 tion to try Le Grand, and supported his views with 
 such learning and logic that Justice Woods, who 
 presided over the Circuit Court, agreed with him, 
 reversed the verdict and sentence rendered below, 
 ordered that the defendant be discharged from 
 custody and declared the ku-klux law unconstitu- 
 tional. 
 
 The United States Supreme Court afterward, in 
 other cases, passed upon the ku-klux law and 
 
 followed the decision of Justice Woods, fully 
 concurring with him. This was quite a victory for 
 the young attorney, and he pushed on with 
 redoubled zeal toward a place in the front ranks of 
 his profession. 
 
 While not disregardful of social duties, he never 
 abandoned the habit of study that he had acquired 
 at college, continued to burn the midnight lamp, 
 and dug deeper into the rich mine of the law, 
 gathering into the well ordered storehouse of his 
 disciplined mind its priceless treasures. He was 
 elected County Attorney of Marion County in 1880, 
 but his professional engagements multiplied so 
 rapidly that he resigned the office after discharging 
 its duties for a short time. He was nominated for 
 the Legislature by the Democracy of that county 
 in 1882, but declined to accept the honor and con- 
 tinued to build up a lucrative practice. Four 
 years since he removed to Dallas, where he is a 
 member of the well-known law firm of Bookhout & 
 Culbertson. At the Democratic State Convention 
 held in San Antonia in 1890 he was nominated for 
 Attorney-General by acclamation, a fitting recogni- 
 tion of his services to the party and his great 
 abilities. His wife is a daughter of Col. W. W. 
 Harrison, of Fort Worth. He has the easy port 
 and bearing of a polished gentleman, and in social 
 intercourse is affable and engaging. It is a need- 
 less assurance to say that he made one of the ablest 
 Attorney-Generals who has ever guarded the inter- 
 ests of Texas. 
 
 Mr. Culberson was nominated for Governor by 
 the Democratic State Convention at Dallas in 
 August, 1894. He was elected by a handsome 
 majority. Two years later, at Fort Worth, he was 
 renominated for the same office, and again elected 
 l)j^ over 00,000 majority in face of a most pow- 
 erfully organized fusion movement, which grew out 
 of the free-silver sound money contest, that 
 formed the leading issue in the Presidential cam- 
 paign of 189G. 
 
712 
 
 INDIAN WAliS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 JAMES S. HOGG, 
 
 AUSTIN. 
 
 John Hogg, the great-grandfather of Governor 
 James S. Hogg, when a mere boy was left an orphan 
 in Virginia, his parents having died soon after their 
 emigration from Ireland. After arriving at man- 
 hood he removed to South Carolina and settled in 
 Newberry District, where he married and raised a 
 family of seven children, the oldest of whom was 
 Thomas Hogg, the grandfather of Governor Hogg. 
 
 From Georgia, in 1818, the family moved to Tusca- 
 loosa County, Ala., where Joseph Lewis Hogg was 
 reared. In that county in 1833 he married Lucanda 
 McMath, daughter of Elisha McMath, a well-to-do 
 planter in Roupes Valley. Moving to Texas in 
 1840, he settled first at Nacogdoches, and finally at 
 Rusk, in Cherokee Count}', where he raised a family. 
 He represented his district (including Nacogdoches 
 
 JAMP:s S. HOGG, 
 
 The old family in South Carolina took part against 
 England in the war that secured American independ- 
 ence. One of the brothers, James, was killed ; 
 another, Lewis, was wounded, and Thomas escaped 
 unhurt. 
 
 Thomas Hogg, grandfather of the subject of this 
 sketch, married Martha Chandler, daughter of John 
 Chandler, of Newberry District, after the Revolu- 
 tion and moved to Georgia, where Joseph Lewis 
 Hogg, the father of Governor Hogg, was born. 
 
 County) in the Congress of the Republic; was a 
 member of the Constitutional Convention of 1845 ; 
 was in the first State Senate ; resigned his position 
 in the latter body and entered the United States 
 army and fought through the war with Mexico and 
 returned home after the war was over, and was re- 
 elected to the State Senate, where he served the 
 people for many years. He was a lawyer by pro- 
 fession, but relied mostly on his plantation for sup- 
 port. He was elected and served as a member of 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 743 
 
 the secession convention. In 1861 he received a 
 commission from President Davis as Brigadier- 
 General and entered the Confederate army, where 
 he died at Corinth at the head of his brigade in 
 May, 1862. Ilis father and mother lived with him 
 at Rusk, where they died and were buried in 
 1848-9. 
 
 He had a sister and two brothers (Thomas and 
 Stephen), all of whom raised families and died in 
 Mississippi, and left surviving him his wife, who 
 died in 1863, and two daughters (Mrs. Fannie Davis 
 and Mrs. Julia McDougal), and five sons — Thomas, 
 John, James S., Lewis and Richard. The latter 
 two died while boys ; Thomas served through the 
 war, married, raised a family and died at Denton, 
 Texas, in 1880 ; John lives with his family in Wise 
 County, and is a worthy and prosperous farmer, of 
 fine education and intelligence. 
 
 Ex-Gov. James S. Hogg was born on the "Moun- 
 tain Home " near Rusk, in Cherokee County, March 
 24, 1851. He was left an orphan at twelve years 
 of age. 
 
 The property of the family was swept away by 
 the war, and the boy was compelled to, unaided, 
 take his part in that struggle for existence in which 
 "if the race is not always to the swift, the battle 
 is assuredly with the strong." He disdained no 
 honest employment and did any work his hands 
 could find to do. To secure a practical education 
 he entered a newspaper office as printer's devil, and 
 worked his way until he owned and edited a paper, 
 the Longview Neivs, which was subsequently re- 
 moved to Quitman, Wood County, Texas, and the 
 name changed to Quitman Neivs. He read law four 
 }-ears while residing at the towns of Tyler, Long- 
 view and Quitman ; was admitted to the bar in 1875 ; 
 after three years successful practice was elected 
 County Attorney of Wood County, and after filling 
 that office for two years, was elected District At- 
 torney for the Seventh Judicial District, a position 
 that he held for four years. On the close of his 
 official term as District Attorney, he settled at Ty- 
 ler, where he secured a fine paying practice. 
 
 April 22, 1874 (before he was admitted to the 
 bar), he was united in marriage to Miss Sallie Stin- 
 son, daughter of Col. James A. Stinson, an intelli- 
 gent and highly respected farmer, in Wood County. 
 They have four children — William C, sixteen; 
 Ima, eight; Mike, five, and Tom, three years 
 old. 
 
 Governor Hogg was nominated by the State con- 
 vention of 1886, over three opponents, for Attorney- 
 General, and was elected in November of that year, 
 and in 1888 he was renominated without opposition 
 and re-elected. In accepting his second nomina- 
 
 tion to the office of Attorney-General he spoke as 
 follows: — 
 
 " Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Conven- 
 tion: — For this, the second expression of confi- 
 dence in me by the Democracy of Texas, I am 
 weighed down with renewed gratitude. To dis- 
 charge the welcome obligation by a continued faith- 
 ful adherence to duty certainly now is my highest 
 ambition. In the past the talisman of my life has 
 been that palladium of a Republic's safety, the con- 
 stitution. Its majesty has ever commanded my 
 most devout reverence, and within its shadow 1 
 shall, if your action is confirmed at the polls, con- 
 tinue two years longer to stand at the post of official 
 trust. 
 
 " The department over which your partiality has 
 placed and proposes to continue me for another 
 term is one of no mean importance. Upon it is 
 frequently imposed demands of the State of the 
 most vital concern. Without action from there the 
 avenues of justice would be stifled and the statutes 
 in many material particulars might remain untested 
 — their usefulness unfelt and unknown. Not ob- 
 structing, but opening the way, now and then with- 
 out a precedent, I have attempted to serve the 
 constitutional purpose of the office so that the laws 
 should take the place of those evils which are a 
 menance to Republican institutions. How far this 
 course has been successful must be determined by 
 those who shall do me the honor to investigate the 
 records of the department and the courts. To them 
 I refer and by them I stand, under the pardonable 
 consciousness that the action which I took in their 
 making was never inspired nor accelerated by 
 motives of policy at the expense of duty or 
 principle. With an eye single to the law and a 
 heart set upon duty, I have done some work in hith- 
 erto unexplored regions that were bewildered by 
 ominous and apparently insuperable obstacles. 
 Failure meant professional ruin ; success 
 vouchsafed the establishment of public rights 
 upon well defined but latent principle. Re- 
 sults so far are satisfactory, notwithstanding 
 that the efforts have been declared by critics to 
 have grown out of mistaken zeal and to have proved a 
 wicked boomerang. Throughout the undertaking I 
 have had the good-will, cordial encouragement and 
 hearty support of my brethren at the bar all over 
 the State. This alone is highly gratifying. To 
 them I tender my special acknowledgments in these 
 times of an unreasonable and relentless crusade 
 against their profession. At no time in the history 
 of tiiis grand profession have its members failed to 
 respond to their country's call nor to defend the 
 liberties of the people. They can and will do so 
 
744 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 in tbe face of blind malice tbat seeks to scythe tbem 
 to tbe ground. The spirit of patriotism will ever 
 enshrine them and form a magnetic .T3gis that will 
 repel tbe malignant vituperation so commonly and 
 indiscriminatelj' hurled at them on account of their 
 occupation. With but few exceptions and without 
 political distinction the lawyers have stood with me 
 in each round I have taken in support of the law. 
 Concurring with them was the great conservative 
 press and masses composing the bulk of the Demo- 
 cratic party. This generous support has ever 
 cheered me on in the belief that I was right 
 and that justice would finally prevail. These 
 grand people, without distinction as to class, 
 occupation or financial standing, make up 
 to-day our party of the government, that occupies 
 a position between two powerful contending forces 
 that threaten tbe demolition of all. On the one 
 extreme stands an organized class whose purpose 
 seems to be to remodel society by regulating prop- 
 erty upon new theories, limiting modes of industry, 
 prescribing the sources of livelihood, changing 
 domestic relations and governing the social morals 
 of mankind. On the other is to be seen a federa- 
 tion of voracious individuals whose insatiate avarice 
 leads tbem on to feast indiscriminately upon tbe 
 vital substance of every class within their way, 
 without respect to the comfort or welfare of society 
 at all. 
 
 " The first has for its chief weapon of success tbe 
 terror of force, propelled by inflamed passion under 
 tbe guidance of distempered reason. Tbe second 
 holds within its grasp the power of wealth as tbe 
 means of its triumph, fostered by that vicious 
 spirit which blinds tbe glutton to the wails of the 
 hungry crowd around him. The former means 
 destruction by blunt coercion ; tbe latter intends it 
 by insidious absorption. Tbe encroachments of tbe 
 one are as dangerous as tbe stealth of tbe other. 
 Subject to the incursions of both is that great con- 
 servative class who compose a Republic's life. 
 However, at the command of it, for use in defeuse 
 or aggression, to protect tbe cherished institutions 
 of our government from wreck and ruin by the col- 
 lision of these two contending extremes, is tbe law ! 
 [Prolonged applause.] Let it impartially but stub- 
 bornly prevail. Stand beneath tbe waves of its 
 banner, planted upon judicial temples for tbe 
 country's good. Both the cormorant and tbe com- 
 mune fear it. To each let it be applied, and in due 
 season tbe causes for their existence will cease and 
 their practices and principles will forever disappear 
 under tbe withering influence of patriots' frowns, 
 showered upon tbem in the forums of justice. 
 [Applause.] Tbe Democratic party has enacted 
 
 and sustained wholesome laws and has provided 
 pure tribunals for their enforcement. To tbem all 
 citizens should bow and welcome their supremacy. 
 Efforts to enforce them should be upheld and de- 
 fended. From Constable to the highest ofBcer in 
 tbe land attention to them should be impartially, 
 zealously, fearlessly given without a question as to 
 policj' or probable results. When they are passed 
 they should be given life by conscientious officials' 
 action. 
 
 " In tbe future as in the past tbe Democratic party 
 will make tbe laws for Texas, and will indorse her 
 servants who with fidelity enforce them. [Ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 " Not wishing to claim your valuable time longer, 
 I again beg to thank you for this high compliment 
 you have just paid me, and here in the presence of 
 this vast assemblage of tbe Democracy's repre- 
 sentatives I pledge to the people of Texas a record 
 two years from now that can be read in the light of 
 law undimmed by the work of passion or prejudice, 
 and unhurt by foul schemes or considerations of 
 policy. [Applause.] " 
 
 At the Democratic State Convention held in San 
 Antonio, August, 1890, he was nominated for Gov- 
 ernor on the first ballot, amid tbe wildest enthus- 
 iasm, having swept all opposition from tbe field 
 long before tbe assembling of that body. Ex- 
 Lieutenant-Goveruor Wheeler was the only one of 
 bis five opponents who stayed in the race to the 
 end, and he received only seventeen out of the nine 
 hundred votes cast by the delegates. 
 
 Governor Hogg's record as Attorney-General was 
 of such a character as to win tbe admiration of tbe 
 profession and masses, and he was called to the 
 gubernatorial office more nearly by the will of tbe 
 whole people than perhaps any man ever elected to 
 tbe Governorship in Texas. While Attorney-Gen- 
 eral he forced the "Texas Tratfic Association " to 
 dissolve and compelled certain railway corporations 
 to re-establish their general offices and headquar- 
 ters in the State, as re(iuired by the constitution. 
 Acting under tbe constitution, without precedent, 
 in tbe face of formidable opposition, be enjoined 
 and finally succeeded in dissolving and breaking up 
 that association. Following its destruction was the 
 organization of tbe International Traffic Associa- 
 tion, with headquarters out of the State, having like 
 pnrposes in view, and also tlie International Weigh- 
 ers' Association, located in Texas, intending to op- 
 crate in disguise to regulate tbe traffic of the country. 
 Each of these be succeeded in dissolving by the 
 power and effect of the decree entered in the first 
 instance. Following up these precedents and the 
 law that was passed subsequent to their establish- 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 74o 
 
 ment, he compelled the removal of the headquarters, 
 general offices and shops of every railroad ia this 
 State, which were located in foreign cities and 
 States, back upon the line of their respecitve roads. 
 The roads were compelled to bring them back to 
 San Antonio, to Houston, to Galveston, to Dallas, 
 to Fort Worth, to El Paso, to Denison, to Texar- 
 kana, to Tyler, and to other places where they 
 belonged under the terms of the charters of the 
 railways. 
 
 The very section of the constitution which creates 
 the office of Attorney-General requires him to look 
 after private corporations : It says : 
 
 " He shall especially inquire into the charter 
 rights of all private corporations, and from time to 
 time, in the name of the State, take such action in 
 the courts as may be proper and necessary to pre- 
 vent any private corporation from exercising any 
 power * « * not authorized by law." 
 
 Within forty days after he quahfied he took 
 action under this provision of the constitution, and 
 continued to operate under it actively and effect- 
 ively. His first work under it was against illegal 
 fire and life insurance companies, generally called 
 " wild-cat " concerns. Then there were about forty 
 of them operating in Texas in violation of law. By 
 the aid of an efficient and faithful commissioner of 
 insurance, through the courts, he effected the ex- 
 termination of every one of them within twelve 
 months. It is said many good men were innocently 
 in the service of those companies. Some of them 
 may yet regret the loss of lucrative positions by the 
 rigid enforcement of the law, but they all ought to 
 be, and doubtless are, patriotic enough to rejoice 
 at the general public good effected as the general 
 result. By this work the commissioner says the 
 people have been saved at least $2.50,000 per year. 
 
 The railroad from Sabine Pass to Beaumont had 
 ceased to operate. For months no trains of any 
 character were run between the two points, a dis- 
 tance of thirty miles. It was the only road 
 to the Pass and the company refused to 
 operate it down there. Complaint was made 
 to the Attorney-General and he brought action 
 against it and forced it to reconstruct, equip 
 and operate the road. Since that time it has been 
 doing its duty to the public without complaint. 
 
 Without entering into further details of the 
 services he performed as Attorne}--GeneraI, it is 
 enough to state that by suits and official action dulj' 
 taken, he compelled most of the railroads in Texas, 
 so far as the law would warrant, to decently repair, 
 equip and operate their roads, to cease discrimina- 
 tion in many instances between shippers, to con- 
 struct and keep in proper order suitable depot 
 
 buildings, and to otherwise perform their duties to 
 the public. In the same way he compelled the 
 dissolution of many unlawful combinations within 
 the State that had been for a long time operating 
 in defiance of law. Included within these were 
 the express association, insurance underwriters, 
 coffin combine, tobacco trust and others. He also 
 represented the State in numbers of cases in the 
 Supreme and District Courts against defaulting 
 sheriffs and tax-collectors, delinquent land lessees 
 and others, who were due the State or sought' 
 to recover from it sums of money. He stirred up, 
 through the efficient district and county attorneys, 
 delinquent taxpayers and many others who refused 
 to perform their legal obligations to the govern- 
 ment. By proceedings in the nature of quo vxtr- 
 ranto he procured a forfeiture of the charter of the 
 East Line and Red River Railway on account of 
 the failure of that corporation to comply with its 
 stipulations. He instituted actions to recover lands 
 illegally acquired by railroads and filed a large 
 number of other important suits. 
 
 In the Twenty-first Legislature a strong effort 
 was made to pass a bill providing for a commission 
 to regulate and control the rates of railway traffic 
 having its origin and destination within the State, 
 but it failed of passage, mainly because a large 
 number of members of that body considered such a 
 law in conflict with the constitution. As a com- 
 promise and to determine the popular will, the 
 Twenty-first Legislature submitted, for adoption or 
 rejection by the people, a constitutional amendment 
 providing expressly for the creation of such a com- 
 mission. Other important amendments were sub- 
 mitted at the same time, but the one relating to rail- 
 waj's overshadowed in prominence all others, and it 
 constituted the main issue of the gubernatorial 
 campaign. While the passage of a commission bill 
 through the Legislature had been attempted and its 
 provisions, constitutionality and expediency were 
 discussed in the debates attending the-effort, yet a 
 great majority of the people had no clear concep- 
 tion of the fundamental principles involved, the 
 extent of the evils to be remedied and the rights 
 and powers of the State and roads in the premises, 
 until Governor Hogg's great opening speech was 
 delivered at Rusk. Before the campaign opened 
 the public mind was in a state well-nigh bordering 
 upon indifference. His speech at Rusk, April 19, 
 1890, however, was like the blast of a bugle in 
 some enchanted hall filled with sleeping men at 
 arms, who, at the martial sound, leap to their feet, 
 clash their weapons and sally out in full array of 
 battle, ready anfl eager for the fray. The 
 Galveston-Dallas Nvtvs published the speech in full 
 
746 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 next morning, introduced by the following comment 
 of their reporter : — 
 
 "Attorney-General Hogg made bis speech here 
 to-day in bis native place, the first he has made in 
 the campaign. Many distinguished men were here 
 from over the State, all told 3,000 people. Hogg 
 clubs from Smith and Wood counties were here in 
 good numbers. The Campbell Guards from Long- 
 view and brass bands of Jacksonville and Tyler 
 were here in full uniform. Mr. Hogg spoke three 
 hours and his effort is pronounced a masterpiece 
 and was well received by the people." 
 
 The paths of men make many turnings. Some 
 move with an onward sweep, recrossing at no im- 
 portant point, and the great events of life are like 
 resting-places along a dusty roadside. This is not 
 true of others. One man finds himself, after many 
 years, drawn by a combination of powerful circum- 
 stances to a spot rendered sacred by some hour of 
 sorrow and trial, through whose travail be came 
 forth a truer, nobler man, or to which memory has 
 often fondly turned from far distant lands ; and 
 another, while bearing the heat and burden of some 
 great contest, on whose successful issue depend 
 his fortunes, gathers courage and inspiration from 
 the spot that knew his childhood. So it was with 
 Governor Hogg. His was not a childhood whose 
 happy way lay through banks of flowers, but a child- 
 hood that called for fortitude and toil. With his hon- 
 ors, won as Attorney- General of Texas, fresh upon 
 him, and about to give the signal for a tremendous 
 conflict, he selected bis birthplace as the scene, and 
 April 19, 1890, delivered an address whose every 
 word reverberated throughout the confines of the 
 State. In beginning that speech he said: — 
 
 "Fellow-Citizens — Acting on the invitation of 
 a committee from Rusk, and in obedience to nat- 
 ural impulses, I am here, where I was born, at the 
 playground of my childhood, to begin among my 
 life-long friends and associates a formal canvass of 
 the State as a candidate for Governor. Just after 
 the war, when merely a boy, many of you will re- 
 member that I left these familiar scenes and gener- 
 ous people to cast my lot among strangers in 
 another county. How they have trusted and treated 
 me, ask them. Look among this vast concourse 
 and you will see many of those good people, a hun- 
 dred miles away from their homes, taking part in 
 this demonstration. They have been drawn here 
 by ties of affection that are too strong for dissolu- 
 tion, too pure for others than friends to bear. To 
 them I direct you for an account of myself in all 
 the walks of life since I left you so many years ago. 
 
 As a day laborer and a penniless printer they re- 
 ceived me to their firesides and cheered me on. In 
 the journalistic field they gave me a generous, lib- 
 eral support, and made my paper a success. They 
 trusted me with positions of Road Overseer, Jus- 
 tice of the Peace, and County Attorney ; they 
 joined with five other counties in making me their 
 District Attorney, and afterward they generously 
 contributed their full strength in electing me Attor- 
 ney-General, the office I now hold." 
 
 This speech inaugurated a most remarkable and 
 important campaign. The merits and demerits of 
 a railway commission were exhaustively discussed 
 through the columns of the press and from the ros- 
 trum. The opposition to Governor Hogg and the 
 amendment was not slow to effect thorough organ- 
 ization, and numbered in its ranks many men of 
 great experience in politics and whose civic virtues 
 commanded respect. J. W. Throckmorton, Gus- 
 tave Cook, H. D. McDonald, T. B. Wheeler and 
 R. M. Hall were respectively (although not in the 
 order named) selected as standard-bearers by mem- 
 bers of the party opposed to a commission. As the 
 battle progressed and county after county instructed 
 for Hogg, they one by one retired from the race, 
 leaving Hon. T. B. Wheeler to alone go before the 
 Democratic convention at San Antonio and contest 
 with Gen. Hogg for the nomination. Not only was 
 Gen. Hogg nominated for Governor on the first bal- 
 lot, practically without opposition, but the amend- 
 ment was also unqualifiedly indorsed. It was a 
 famous victory. 
 
 Governor Hogg's message, sent to the Legislature 
 the day following his inauguration, was a state 
 paper that fully met the just expectations of his 
 friends. Every question of public policy was ex- 
 haustively discussed and proper legislation recom- 
 mended. No stronger document has ever eman- 
 ated from the Governor's office in this State. 
 
 Governor J. S. Hogg is a very tall and large man, 
 measuring six feet and two inches in height and 
 weighing 285 pounds. His success in life is to be 
 attributed to his own unaided efforts, a faith- 
 fulness to duty, and unshakable steadiness of pur- 
 pose. 
 
 He served as Governor a second term, having 
 been renominated at Houston in 1892. In tliis 
 campaign the Democracy of Texas divided in the 
 famous Hogg-Clark contest. Governor Hogg made 
 a most remarkable canvass and beat the Clark fol- 
 lowing and the most able and popular Populist 
 candidate for Governor Texas ever had (Judge T. 
 L. Nugent) by nearly GO, 000 plurality. 
 
K. M. s\\KAi;i>.<;i:x. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 747 
 
 R. M. SWEARINGEN, 
 
 AUSTIN. 
 
 Dr. Richard M. Swearingen was born in Noxubu 
 County, Miss., on the 26th day of September, 1838. 
 He is the lineal descendant of Garrett Van Swear- 
 ingen, who emigrated from Holland to Maryland in 
 1645, and the son of Dr. R. J. Swearingen and 
 Margaret M. Swearingen, who settled in Washington 
 County, Texas, in 1848. 
 
 His father was a pioneer in the cause of educa- 
 tion, and was the projector of the splendid schools 
 that, in ante-bellum days, made Chappel Hill 
 famous throughout the State. His mother was the 
 daughter of Maj. Boley Conner, of Irish descent, 
 who was an otHcer under Jackson in the War of 
 1812. She was a lady of gentle manners, marked 
 individuality and deep piety. In the new town, 
 made by their efforts and a few congenial friends a 
 center of wealth, culture and refinement, their 
 children, Sarah Frances, Patrick Henry, Helen 
 Marr, Richard Montgomery, John Thomas, and 
 Mary Gertrude, were raised and educated. 
 
 R. M. Swearingen was growing into manhood 
 when the political excitement of 1860-61 began to 
 shake the foundation of the government. Fiery 
 denunciation of Northern aggression and stormy 
 oratory was the order of the day. Reason gave way 
 to passion, and men seemed driven by inexorable 
 forces on to an inevitable destiny. 
 
 The voice of Sam Houston rang through the land 
 like an inspired prophet, but was drowned in the 
 whirlwind that heralded the impending war. 
 
 The subject of this sketch, nearl}' thirty 3'ears 
 after the guns of Fort Sumpter sounded the death 
 knell of peace, with satisfaction records the fact 
 that he was one among the few who stood with the 
 immortal Houston in opposing and voting against 
 the ordinance of secession. When, however, his 
 State, by an overwhelming majority, went out of the 
 Union, he felt in duty bound to give his allegiance 
 to her, and responded to the first call ever made 
 for troops. 
 
 On the 28th day of February, 1861, he embarked 
 at Galveston, under Gen. McLeod's command, for 
 the lower Rio Grande. After a six months' cam- 
 paign in the regiment of that well-known and gal- 
 lant old frontiersman. Col. JobnS. Ford, the young 
 soldier returned to his home in Chappel Hill. After 
 resting a few days, information having been re- 
 ceived that his younger brother, J. T. Swearingen, 
 
 was sick at Cumberland Gap, Tenn., he started for 
 that place. 
 
 J. T. Swearingen had left the State some months 
 before, with troops bound for Virginia, but having 
 been refused enrollment on account of extreme 
 youth, left them at Knoxville, Tenn., and volun- 
 teered in Brazelton's battalion of Tennessee cav- 
 alry. The brave boy had served under the ill-fated 
 ZoUicoffer, in Kentucky, and had won the admira- 
 tion of his comrades, but the rough campaign had 
 too severely taxed his physical powers, and rest 
 was imperatively demanded. The ordinary methods 
 to secure his discharge having failed, the older 
 brother took his place in the ranks, and for the 
 second time donned the uniform of a Confederate 
 soldier. 
 
 The new company joined was commanded by 
 Capt. A. M. Gofarth, who, a few months later, was 
 promoted Major of the regiment, and who fell at 
 its head, sword in hand, leading a desperate 
 charge. 
 
 About two months after the brothers had changed 
 places, the company was reorganized, and the gen- 
 erous Tennesseeans elected the only Texian in the 
 company their First Lieutenant, and in less than 
 six months promoted him to the Captaincy. For 
 nearly three years he commanded this noted com- 
 pany ; noted, not only for faithful and arduous 
 services rendered during the war, but for the brill- 
 iant successes made by some of its members after 
 the war had closed. Pryor Gammon, of Waxa- 
 hachie, Texas, was First Lieutenant ; George Moore, 
 Louisiana, was second; and Sam. M. Inman, of 
 Atlanta, Ga., was third. Mr. D. C. Williams, of 
 Collinsville, Ala., and James Swann, of the firm of 
 Inman, Swann & Co., of New York, and Sam. 
 Dick, of the firm of S. M. Inman & Co., were Ser- 
 geants. John H. Inman, of New York, now one of 
 the railway kings of this continent, was a member 
 of the company. The firms of Inman, Swann & Co., 
 and S. M. Inman & Co., rank high among the great 
 business houses of the world, and he who commanded 
 the men who made those houses great, through per- 
 haps the stormiest periods of their lives, gives to 
 history this testimony, " that fame and fortune, 
 for once, found men worthy of their richest offer- 
 ings." 
 
 During the occupation of Cumberland Gap, while 
 
718 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 on a scout in the mountains of East Tennessee, 
 Private Swearingen was prostrated with pneumonia, 
 and left in Sneedville, at tbe house of INIr. Lee 
 Jessee. This trifling episode would not be worthy 
 of record, but for the fact that Mr. Jessee had an 
 accomplished daughter, named Jennie, who was 
 very kind to him while sick, and who won his life- 
 long gratitude and affection. During the subsequent 
 years of the war, neither distance nor danger de- 
 terred him from seeing that genial, happy family, 
 whenever it was possible to do so. On the 12th 
 day of September, after a rough and perilous 
 journey over the mountains from Sneedville (then 
 witiiin the enemy's lines) to Jonesville, Va., Miss 
 Jennie Jessee, in the presence of her brave, sweet 
 sister, Sallie, was married to Richard M. Swearin- 
 gen. 
 
 Ten days after the marriage, upon a dark night, 
 Capt. Swearingen ventured into Sneedville, to tell 
 his wife and the family good-bye, but before the 
 words were spoken, the house was surrounded 
 by a company of mountain bushmen, and he 
 was forced to surrender. For two weeks he was 
 in the hands of these hard men, suffering all kinds 
 of cruelties and indignities. Once he was tied, 
 apparently for prompt execution, and would cer- 
 tainly have been killed, but for the interference of 
 one Joab Buttry, who had once been the recipient 
 of some kindness from Mr. Jessee, his wife's 
 father. Buttry was the chief of the band, and his 
 hands were stained by the blood of many Confed- 
 erates. He had seen his own brother shot down in 
 cold blood by a scouting party of Confederate 
 soldiers, and the bold mountaineer, then a quiet 
 citizen, hoisted a black flag and enlisted for the 
 war. 
 
 During the days of imprisonment, the young wife 
 and her friends were not idle. A written proposi- 
 tion from Gen. John C. Breckenridge, commanding 
 the department, "that he would give the bushmen 
 any three men that they might name, then in Con- 
 federate prisons, in exchange for their prisoner," 
 was accepted. That same day the chief of the 
 band, alone, took his captive to the north bank of 
 Clinch river, and released him, with expressions of 
 good will. 
 
 Joab Buttry seemed made of iron, but through 
 the dark metal would shine the gold of a noble 
 manhood, that desperate deeds and a desperate life 
 had not altogether obliterated. 
 
 After his fortunate escape, Capt. Swearingen 
 started on a long hunt in search of his lost com- 
 pany, and found it not a great distance south of 
 Raleigh, N. C. The space allotted him in this vol- 
 ume of biographies will not permit even a casual 
 
 notice of the incidents and experiences of those 
 eventful 3-ears. The company participated in many 
 engagements ; was with Bragg in Tennessee, Kirby 
 Smith in Kentucky, Joseph E. Johnston in the 
 retreat through Georgia, with John H. Morgan 
 when he was killed, with Hood at Atlanta, and 
 again with Joseph E. Johnston in South and North 
 Carolina. To enable the reader to form some esti- 
 mate of the hardships of the Confederate service, 
 the statement is here made that this company, the 
 last j-ear of the war, did not possess a tent or 
 wagon, or anything in the shape of a cooking 
 vessel. Their rations of meat were broiled upon 
 coals of fire, and the cornmeal cooked in the same 
 primitive fashion. Notwithstanding these depriva- 
 tions, the men, as a rule, were happy, buoyant, 
 capable of great physical endurance, and they 
 wept like children when, among the tall pines of 
 Carolina, their flag went down forever. In obedi- 
 ieuce to the cartel of surrender, Capt. Swearingen 
 marched the company back to Tennessee, before 
 disbanding it. 
 
 That last roll-call and parting scene on the banks 
 of the French Broad river is one of those clearly 
 defined memory-pictures that possibly live with our 
 souls in higher forms of existence. 
 
 For three years those men had shared each 
 other's dangers, and under the shadow of a com- 
 mon sorrow, the humiliation of a hopeless defeat, 
 the}' were to look for the last time upon each other. 
 The commanding officer, whose route at that point 
 diverged from the one to be taken by the company, 
 fronted them into line and tried to call the roll, but 
 failed to do so. He then moved around by the 
 roadside and they filed by, one at a time, and shook 
 his hand. There was a profound silence ; no one 
 attempted to speak a word, and every eye was filled 
 with tears, as the curtain rolled slowly down upon the 
 saddest act in that long and well-played drama of 
 war. 
 
 Capt. Swearingen, a few weeks later, assisted by 
 his wife, was teaching a country school at the foot 
 of the Cumberland Mountains in Lee County. 
 
 In the autumn of 1865, information having 
 reached him of a requisition from Governor Brown- 
 low, of Tennessee, upon Governor Pierrepont, of 
 Virginia, for his arrest and return to Sneedville, 
 the newly-installed teacher abruptly closed his 
 prosperous school. 
 
 Capt. Swearingen was confronted with an indict- 
 ment for some unknown offense, and the trial of 
 Confederates in East Tennessee, at that time, was 
 on the style of drumhead courtmartials, with ver- 
 dicts prepared in advance. To remain there, only 
 twenty miles from Sneedville, was not to be thought 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEEliS OF TEXAS. 
 
 749 
 
 of ; to go elsewhere for safety, and leave his 
 wife without a protector and without money, was 
 another dilemma equally as painful as the first. 
 About 10 o'clock, the first night after closing the 
 school, while the husband and wife were discuss- 
 ing the situation, a rap upon the door, and an 
 unforgotlen voice, announced the arrival of the 
 young brother, who four years before had been 
 found at Cumberland Gap, only a few miles from 
 the place of their second meeting. J. T. Swear- 
 ingen had heard of his brother's dangerous sur- 
 roundings, and, selling about all of his earthly pos- 
 sessions to get funds for the trip, went to his relief. 
 
 The next morning R. M. Swearingen left his 
 wife in safe hands and started for Texas. At 
 Huntsville, Ala., he awaited (as had been previously 
 planned) the arrival of those left in Virginia, and 
 with bright faces they journeyed on to Alta Vista, 
 where the best of all good sisters, Mrs. Helen M. 
 Kirbj', received them with open arms. 
 
 The State was then going through the agonies of 
 reconstruction, and the machinery of the govern- 
 ment was virtually in the hands of military rulers 
 and reckless adventurers. Old customs and sys- 
 tems, and ties, and hopes, and fortunes, were lost 
 forever, but the old South, crushed to earth, with 
 vandals on her prostrate form, and bayonets at her 
 breast, bravely staggered to her feet and faced a 
 glorious future. The courts were closed, or only 
 opened to make a burlesque of justice and a 
 mockery of law. 
 
 In such a reign of anarchy, the profession of 
 medicine was the only one of the learned professions 
 that offered any promise of immediate success, and 
 Capt. Swearingen selected it for his life work. He 
 at once commenced the study, and graduated in the 
 school of medicine, New Orleans, March, 1867, de- 
 livering the valedictory, and located in Chappell 
 Hill. The friends of his parents, and the friends of 
 his youth, received him with great kindness, and 
 when the yellow fever epidemic of that year deso- 
 lated the town, he was conspicuous as a tireless 
 worker among all classes, and was rewarded with a 
 patronage both gratifying and remunerative. His 
 wife, as courageous as when tried in the furnace of 
 war, would not leave her husband, although urged 
 l)y him to do so, rendered faithful services to the 
 sick, and survived the epidemic, but her only child, 
 beautiful little Helen, was taken from her. 
 
 In 1875 Dr. Swearingen removed to Austiui 
 where he still resides, and where a clientelle has 
 been secured that satisfied his ambition, and enabled 
 him to provide comfortably for those dependent on 
 him. His family consists of wife, one daughter 
 (Bird), now happily married to E. B. Robinson, 
 
 their baby (winsome Jennie), and his wife's niece, 
 Miss Lulu Bewley. When the yellow fever epi- 
 demic of 1878 made such fearful ravages in the 
 Mississippi Valley, he responded to an appeal for 
 medical assistance made b^'^ the relief committee of 
 Memphis, Tenn., and with his friend, Dr. T. D. 
 Manning, reached that city the 3d day of Septem- 
 ber. From there they were transferred by the 
 relief committee to Holly Springs, Miss., where 
 they organized a hospital service that did effective 
 work until the close of the pestilence. 
 
 The good accomplished, however, viewed through 
 the dim lights of human understanding, seemed 
 dearly bought, for in less than two weeks after they 
 had entered that valley of death, a thousand hearts 
 were sorrowing for the young, gifted and dauntless 
 Manning. The great loss of life, and the destruc- 
 tion of property caused by that wide-spread epi- 
 demic, induced the Congress of the United States 
 to enact a law, authorizing the President to appoint 
 a board of experts upon contagious diseases, con- 
 sisting of nine men, and directed them to prepare a 
 report upon the causes of epidemics, and also to 
 suggest some plan of defense against subsequent 
 invasions, for the consideration of that honorable 
 body. Dr. Swearingen was a member of that board, 
 and the bill creating the National Board of Health 
 was drawn in accordance with the plan presented to 
 Congress by that board of experts. 
 
 January, 1881, Governor O. M. Roberts ap- 
 pointed Dr. Swearingen "State Health Officer," 
 and in 1883 Governor John Ireland reappointed 
 him to the same position. Under the guidance of 
 those two distinguished executives, he controlled 
 the health department of the State for six consecu- 
 tive years. He has always been a zealous friend of 
 public schools, and has been a member of the board 
 of trustees of Austin City schools since the free 
 school system was inaugurated. He is a member 
 of the American Public Health Association, and the 
 president of the State Medical Association, num- 
 bering more than 500 active, progressive physicians. 
 In January, 1891, Governor James S. Hogg ten- 
 dered Dr. Swearingen the office of State Health 
 Officer, and that gentleman accepted the honor and 
 entered upon the duties of the position. 
 
 By his friends he is classed among conservatives, 
 but is positive in his convictions, and was never 
 a neutral upon any great moral or political ques- 
 tion. 
 
 He has made some reputation as a speaker, but 
 has no aspirations in that line. His last effort, un- 
 dertaken at the earnest solicitation of old Confed- 
 erate soldiers, was made in the House of Repre- 
 serriratives, December 11, 1889, to an audience of 
 
750 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 two thousand people. The occasion was the mem- 
 orial service io honor of Jeffersoa Davis. 
 
 It is Dr. Swearingen's wish to have the address 
 appended to his biography, not on account of any 
 special merit claimed for it, but to perpetuate, aud, 
 if possible, to make imperishable some evidence of 
 his love and admiration for a pure, a good and 
 great man. 
 
 "memorial address." 
 
 " Mk. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen — The 
 unsuccessful leaders of great revolutions loom up 
 along the shores of time as do lighthouses upon 
 stormy coasts, all of them brilliant and shining afar 
 off like stars! But few of these men have left be- 
 hind them substantial evidences of their greatness, 
 or monuments of their works. Their names are not 
 often wreathed in the marble flowers that glisten 
 upon splendid mausoleums. Tradition tells no 
 story of loving hands having planted above them 
 the myrtle and the rose, and of manly eyes paying 
 to their memories the tribute of tears. History 
 can now write another chapter. Last Friday, when 
 the wires flashed the news to the uttermost borders 
 of civilization that the ex-President of the Confed- 
 erate States was dead, a wave of sorrow swept over 
 the fairest portion of the earth. The soldiers of the 
 dead Confederacy were bowed down in grief, and 
 men and women, from the Potomac to the Rio 
 Grande, talked in low, tremulous tones of their old 
 chief, and the glorious record he had made. 
 
 " This occasion will not permit even of a brief re- 
 view of his illustrious life, nor an analysis of the 
 'why' he formed a new republic, nor the 'how' 
 that young republic, after a colossal struggle, went 
 down beneath the tread of a million men. 
 
 " Jefferson Davis was the ideal Southerner — the 
 highest t3'pe of American manhood. 
 
 "For four consecutive years he was the central 
 figure in the stormiest era in the world's history. 
 Around him gathered the hopes of a nation, and 
 upon his shoulders rested her destinies. At his 
 word legions sprang to arms, and his name was 
 shouted by dying lips upon every field of battle. 
 
 " Nearly a quarter of a century has passed since 
 the last shell exploded over the contending armies. 
 
 Green forests have grown up in the rifle pits and 
 in the trenches. An universal charity has thrown 
 a white mantle of forgiveness over the men who 
 fought beneath the stars and stripes, and over tha") 
 gallant few who followed to the death the waning 
 fortunes of that ' bonnie blue flag ' we loved so well. 
 
 " Through all these years the dark-robed reaper 
 has been busy at his work, striking with impartial 
 hand the fearless hearts that formed the lines, and 
 the lofty plumes that led the van. 
 
 "Lincoln, Grant, Sheridan, Thomas, Albert Sid- 
 ney Johnston, Lee, Jackson and Bragg have long 
 since passed to the other shore, and to-day the mar- 
 tial form of Jefferson Davis, clothed in the uniform 
 of gray, is consigned to mother earth. 
 
 "Death never gathered to her cold embrace a 
 purer Christian ; the cradle of childhood never 
 rocked to sleep a gentler heart ; the fires of martyr- 
 dom never blazed around a more heroic soul ; the 
 Roman eagles, the lilies of France nor the Lion of 
 St. George never waved above a braver, truer sol- 
 dier. 
 
 " On the field of Monterey, wounded and almost 
 dying, he bore through fire and smoke the victor's 
 wreath! In the counsels of State he wore the in- 
 signia of a leader, and when his official light went 
 out forever, he won the glory of a martyr. Crushed 
 down by defeat, cast into the dungeons of Fortress 
 Monroe, unawed by manacles, unterrified by a fel- 
 on's death that seemed inevitable, this ideal South- 
 erner, this leader of the lost cause, was still true to 
 his people, and rose above the gloom of his sur- 
 roundings, tall, majestic and eternal as the pyra- 
 mids that look down upon Sahara. As bold Sir 
 Belvidere said of kingly Arthur, ' The like of him 
 will never more be seen on earth.' 
 
 "Farewell, m}' peerless, unconquered old chief. 
 
 " Your fame will go down the ages as the purest 
 aud grandest of mortals ; and I do pray that your 
 mighty spirit has found some beautiful spot on the 
 ever shining river, where no beat of drum nor clank 
 of chains shall mar the melody of golden harps 
 when swept by angel fingers ; where no prison walls 
 can hide the light of the throne, and where the 
 smile of a loving God will fall around you for- 
 ever." 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 751 
 
 THE HOUSTON AND TEXAS CENTRAL RAILROAD. 
 
 The Houston & Texas Central Railroad is 
 known throughout Texas and tlie whole United 
 Stales as the pioneer railroad line of Texas. It was 
 founded by men who took part in the early develop- 
 ment of the State, and they gave to the location of 
 this great line the results of their knowledge of its 
 agricultural capacities, and the lay of the land 
 affecting the movement of products toward the 
 proposed line. 
 
 They planted this railroad at the head of tide- 
 water on Buffalo bayou, at the city whose name is 
 linked in song and story with that immortal day at 
 San Jacinto, when the Lone Star of Texas rose 
 resplendent over the ever glorious field of San 
 Jacinto — Houston. 
 
 Here, where the flow of the Gulf of Mexico rests 
 against the alluvial deposits from the great prairies 
 on the divide between the Brazos and the San 
 Jacinto rivers, was started, in 1853, that great rail- 
 road which, in every stage of the development of 
 Texas, since its first fifty miles was built, has dem- 
 onstrated the wisdom of its route and its hold on 
 the business of the State. It has the open sea at 
 its base of operations, and the goodl}- land of Texas 
 on each side to give it sustenance. The Trinity 
 lies about sixty miles to the eastward, and the 
 Colorado about 100 miles to the westward. It 
 commands the rich lands of the Brazos for about 
 160 miles, and thence almost due north to Denison, 
 making a total distance from Houston of 338 miles. 
 As it leaves the waters of the Brazos, the Trinity, 
 which has been on a line almost parallel to the east, 
 now bears to the westward, and the road is soon 
 among its tributaries. Then, touching the main 
 stream at Dallas, it continues through a region thus 
 watered, until it reaches the tributaries of the Red 
 river, near its terminal point. These contiguous 
 water-courses give the drainage and moisture that 
 insure growth and constant sustenance to the crops. 
 The bottoms of the rivers and creeks are subject to 
 but occasional overflows, have rich alluvial, while 
 the uplands of prairie and timber have a great 
 depth of fertile soil, varying according to the 
 peculiar features of the region, its elevation and 
 geological formation. The trade of the prosperous 
 cities on its line from Houston to Denison, and its 
 close connections with Galveston, have made the 
 cross lines, which have been built by other interests, 
 feeders to an extent which more than overcomes 
 competition. 
 
 At Austin the Houston & Texas Central connects 
 with one of the new lines working harmoniously 
 with its system, the Austin & Northwestern Rail- 
 road. This line penetrates the great county of 
 Williamson, and thence through Burnet and Llano 
 counties to its present terminus among the Granite 
 Hills, from whence come the thousands of tons of 
 rock for the Galveston jetties. 
 
 At Garrett, on its main line, 234 miles from 
 Houston, another of its feeders, the Central Texas & 
 Northwestern Railway, and Fort Worth & New 
 Orleans Railway, pour into its lap the business of 
 those rich counties, which lie between the main line 
 and the famed city of Fort Worth, and the business 
 which flows from and through to the Gulf. 
 
 The Lancaster Branch from Hutchins gives to 
 the enterprising town of Lancaster, in Dallas 
 County, an independent connection. 
 
 The Houston Direct Navigation Company, which 
 carries out to the Gulf over 400,000 bales of cotton 
 via the Houston Ship Channel, is one of the prin- 
 cipal connections of Houston. 
 
 The lines of the Houston & Texas Central cover 
 the richest agricultural region of Texas, embracing 
 the timbered and rolling prairie region from 100 
 to 700 feet above the Gulf, resting upon the "Timber 
 Belt" beds of sandstone and limestone, which al- 
 ready are quarried to a considerable extent. The 
 soils are red clay, red sand or mulatto, just as they 
 are underlaid by sands or clays respectivel}'. On 
 many of the uplands there is a gray sandy soil, 
 grading down into a red subsoil, which is especially 
 adapted to the growth of fruit. This whole area 
 from Houston to the Red river will compare favor- 
 able with any region of the world in its combination 
 of rich soil. 
 
 The controlling interest of this great line is princi- 
 pally in the hands of capitalists connected with the 
 Southern Pacific Company, and although under a 
 separate management, it is operated in harmony 
 with the great Southern Pacific system jf railways 
 and steamships. 
 
 Since the Houston & Texas Central Railroad was 
 completed in 187G, a number of new and important 
 lines have been constructed, affecting, in part, the 
 territory from which its main business comes, yet 
 its advantageous position continues to assert itself. 
 It carries to tide water annually about one-fourth 
 of the entire cotton crop of Texas. 
 
762 
 
 J.XJJIAX WJL'S AND PIONEEliS OF TEXAS. 
 
 The traveler cannot see Texas without journey- 
 ing over the line of the Houston & Texas Central 
 Railroad. Galveston is but fifty miles distant upon 
 the Gulf. Houston, Austin, Piano, McKinncy, 
 Corsicana, Ennis, Dallas, Sherman, Denison, Wax- 
 ahachie and Fort Worth are directly on Us lines. 
 On every side, as its trains course through the land, 
 are to be seen fields heavy with the reward of the 
 farmer ; town after town evidences the thrift and 
 progress that has followed its construction and 
 sustains its fortunes. 
 
 The Houston & Texas Central Railroad, which 
 
 has it southern terminus in Houston, has its prin- 
 cipal repair shops there, valued at about $250,000. 
 The Southern Pacific Company also has its principal 
 repair shops there, valued at $650,000. In the 
 shops of these two companies, 1875 skilled laborers 
 are given constant employment, and the monthly 
 pay-roll of those two companies, in the shops alone, 
 amounts to about $56,000. The Houston & Texas 
 Central also has at Houston one of the finest and 
 most complete depot buildings in the South, with 
 such splendid facilities that most of the other roads 
 depot with it. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
754 
 
 [NDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 J. P. SMITH, 
 
 FORT WORTH. 
 
 A perusal of this work will disclose many native 
 Kentiickians who have settled in Texas and made 
 successes of life, but we doubt if any of the sons 
 of the "blue grass" region have made a more 
 remarkable success than Col. J. P. Smith, of Fort 
 Worth. Owen County, Kentucky, is his birth- 
 place, and September 16, 1831, the date. His 
 father, Samuel Smith, was also a Kentuckian, 
 having been born at Ghent, in Carroll County, in 
 1798. He was married to Miss Polly Bond, of 
 Owen County, tlie sime Stale, in 1828. Miss Bond 
 was born in Scott County in 1808. They resided 
 in Owen County until 1838, when they removed to 
 Ohio County, near Hartford, where they both died 
 in 1844, leaving six sons, as follows: H. G., 
 Louis, R. T., J. H., Samuel and J. P., our subject. 
 
 Col. J. P. Smith was born and raised on a farm, 
 and after the death of his parents he took up his 
 residence with his cousin, W. H. Garnett, of Owen 
 County, whom he selected as his guardian. He 
 worked on his cousin's farm, attending the best 
 schools during the winter months. He kept this up 
 until 1849, when he entered Franklin College, Indi- 
 ana, where he remained ten months, 'n September, 
 1850, he entered Bethany College, Vir nia, where he 
 tjok first honors in his classes of anc.ent languages 
 and mathematics, graduating from this institution 
 in 1853. Having finished his studies, in Novem- 
 ber, 1853, he left Kentucky for Texas, and in De- 
 cember of the same year reached Fort Worth. He 
 opened the first school ever taught in Fort Worth, 
 i je close confinement of the school-room so seri- 
 ously impaired his health, however, that he was 
 forced to close his school, after a short '.ession of 
 three months. He devoted his time and attention 
 to surveying, which occupation he followed at inter- 
 vals until the year 18fi0. While engaged in survey- 
 ing he read law with A. Y. Fowler, of Fort Worth, 
 and without attending a law school, was admitted to 
 the bar in 1858, since which time he has practiced 
 in the State and Federal courts. He was distinctly 
 opposed to secession and voted against it in 18G1. 
 When war broke out, however, he gave his services 
 to his State and assisted in raising a company of 120 
 men, with whom, as Company K, Seventh Texas Cav- 
 alry, he was mustered into service at San Antonio, 
 under Col. Wm. Steel, Sibley's brigade. This brig- 
 ade served principally in New Mexico, Arizona and 
 Western Louisiana. He was at the recapture of 
 Galveston from the Federals, January 1, 1863, was 
 
 severely wounded on June 23, 1863, near Donald- 
 sonville, and slightly wounded at the battle of 
 Mansfield, Louisiana. In 1864 he was promoted to 
 Colonel of his regiment, which he disbanded on the 
 Trinity river, in Navarro County, Texas, May 18, 
 1865. The regiment then numbered something like 
 600 well armed and thoroughly equipped men, and 
 at the time of disbandment was on the march from 
 Louisiana to Texas. The Colonel, in 1865, returned 
 to Fort Worth and resumed his law practice, buy- 
 ing and selling real estate on the outside. 
 
 He was married in Tarrant County, Texas, on 
 October 16, 1867, to Mrs. Mary E. Fox, widow of 
 Dr. F. A. Fox, of Mississippi. Mrs. Smith was 
 born in Carroll Count •, Miss., of English-American 
 parentage. Of this '.nion there are five children: 
 James Young, born OL-tober 15, 1869; Peter, born 
 May 19, 1873; Florence, born November 14, 1875, 
 William Bealle, born December 8, 1878, and 
 Samuel C, born June 15, 1885. Mrs. Smith is an 
 unassuming, domestic lady, a charming conversa- 
 tionalist and a most popular member of society. 
 
 Col. Smith has the distinction of being an original 
 charter member of the Masonic Lodge established 
 in Fort Worth in 1854. In 1858 he became a 
 Royal Arch Mason, and served two years as High 
 Priest of the Chapter. 
 
 Col. Smith has always been an earnest Democrat. 
 He is very often referreil to by the older residents 
 as "the father of Fort Worth." He was elected 
 Mayor of the ciiy in April, 1882. Some idea of 
 the benefits accruing to Fort Worth during Col. 
 Smith's term of office may be had when it is known 
 that the city did not have a paved street at his 
 inauguration. Col. Smith was elected to a second 
 term as Ma3'or, and before the expiration of his 
 second term was urged all over the State to accept 
 the nomination of Governor, but prefeering not to 
 sacrifice his extensive private interests, which the 
 acceptance of this nomination would have entailed, 
 he declined. Nearly, if not all, of the large cattle 
 companies of Northwest Texas are under more or 
 less obligation to the enterprising ability of Col. 
 Smith for their organization. 
 
 On August 12, 1890, Col. Smith was again 
 almost unanimously elected Mayor of Fort Worth. 
 He is universally liked and esteemed for his noble 
 character, generous disposition and impartiality of 
 opinion, and Fort Worth points with pride to his 
 name on her list of honored citizens. 
 
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INDIAX WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 765 
 
 W. H. GETZENDANER, 
 
 WAXAHACHIE. 
 
 W. H. Getzendaner was born May 14, 1834, in 
 Frederick County, Maryland. His father, Abratn 
 Getzendaner, was a farmer, as were his thrifty 
 Swiss ancesters for several generations before him. 
 The family settled in Maryland in 1730, when it 
 was a wild and sparsely inhabited country. His 
 mother, Marj^ was born in Frederick City, Mary- 
 land, in 1814, and was the daughter of Peter Buckey, 
 a tanner and farmer. Her mother's maiden name 
 was Marj' Salmon, whose father was an officer in 
 the Revolutionary armj-, though before the war 
 began he was a retired officer of the British 
 army. 
 
 W. H. Getzendaner was reared on the farm until 
 he was nineteen, when he attended Frederick Acad- 
 emy for two years. In 1855 he was sent to Dick- 
 inson College, Carlisle, Pa., to complete his educa- 
 tion, and graduated in that institution with the 
 degree of bachelor of arts in 1858. During the 
 senior year of bis collegiate course he pursued the 
 study of law, which he more fully mastered in the 
 office of W. J. Ross, in Frederick City. Thus pre- 
 pared to enter upon the practice of his profession, 
 he went to Huntsville, Texas, in the latter part of 
 1858, where he remained six months. In 1859 he 
 removed to "Waxahachie. 
 
 In the latter year he was admitted to the bar at 
 Tyler, and practiced in Waxahachie from 1859 to 
 1875, except during the Civil War and two years 
 following. The latter period he devoted to improv- 
 ing and cultivating his farm. His practice was re- 
 munerative from the beginning, and he acquired a 
 high character as a lawyer and advocate. 
 
 In 1861 he recruited and organized Compan}' E, 
 Twelfth Texas Cavalrj', for the Confederate army. 
 In this company he was a Lieutenant ; but after the 
 fighting was over he was assigned to duty as Quar- 
 termaster of the regiment, with the rank and pay of 
 Captain. He was also for a time Adjutant-General 
 of Parson's cavalry brigade. During the war he 
 was in more than thirt}- engagements, and was 
 wounded both at Cloutierville and Yellow Bayou. 
 After the war be turned bis attention somewhat to 
 agriculture, but in 1867 returned to Waxahachie. 
 
 In 1872, at the solicitation of his fellow-citizens, 
 he accepted the office of Mayor of the city, organ- 
 ized the corporation, drafted the ordinances and 
 set in motion the municipal machinery. After one 
 
 year's service he retired, his health, from overwork, 
 having partially failed. 
 
 Julj' 1, 1868, the firm of Ferris & Getzendaner, 
 composed of -J. W. Ferris and W. H. Getzendaner, 
 opened a private banking house in Waxahachie, 
 continuing also their business as lawyers. This 
 partnership continued for eight years. In 1876 
 Capt. Getzendaner withdrew from the law firm and 
 Judge Ferris from the banking bouse, the latter 
 leaving his son. Royal A. Ferris, in charge of his 
 banking interests. The firm name they changed to 
 Getzendaner &' Ferris. This bank was established 
 on a capital of $6,000 ; but in twelve years, so 
 greatly had the operations of the bank increased, 
 the capital had grown to §100,000. It has for cor- 
 respondents S. M. Swenson' & Son, New York; 
 Ball, Hutchings & Co., Galveston; Louisiana Na- 
 tional Bank, New Orleans; Continental Bank, St. 
 Louis; First National Bank of Houston, and the 
 City National Bank of Dallas. The partnership 
 and individual property of this banking house 
 amounts to about $200,000. It is, therefore, on a 
 safe basis and enjoys the confidence of the business 
 men of Texas. 
 
 He is a Master Mason and a communicant of the 
 Episcopal Church. Up to the war he was an " Old 
 Line" AYhig, but since that time has voted and 
 acted with the Democrats. He voted for the ordi- 
 nance of secession after his return from the expedi- 
 tion in Clay, Archer and Jack Counties against the 
 Comanches in 1860-61. 
 
 Capt. Getzendaner was married, in Ellis County, 
 Texas, August 2, 1865, to Mrs. Willie Neel, widow 
 of Hon. T. C. Neel, formerly State Senator, who 
 died in 1862. She was born in Hancock County, 
 Ga., August 29, 1832, and is the daughter of John 
 B. Latimer, a large planter and slaveholder. She 
 is the granddaughter of Maj. Gonder, of Georgia, 
 and related by marriage to Judge Thomas Linton 
 Stephens, and other distinguished families of that 
 State. Her brother, Mark Latimer, was formerly 
 a banker at Ennis, Texas. By her first husband 
 she has one daughter, Mattie, born in Hancock, 
 Ga., educated at Emmetsburg, Md., in St. Joseph's 
 Academj', and married to Frank Templeton, for- 
 merly editor of the Waxahachie Argus, and now a 
 farmer in Ellis County. Mrs. Getzendaner is a 
 member of the Baptist Clnircli. 
 
756 
 
 INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 Partly as revealing a prominent ebaiacteristic of 
 the man and |)artly as a lesson to young men who 
 may read this biograplij', it may be stated that 
 when Capt. Getzendaner arrived in Waxahachie he 
 had but five dollars and was forty dollars in debt. 
 He at once went to, work, in no wa^^ disheartened 
 hy his impecunious condition, and by diligence, 
 studj', application and economy, dealing fairl3' and 
 honorably with all men and therebj- gaining their 
 confidence, he attained success in his profession 
 and accumulated property. He is now owner of 
 a residence and several business houses and lots 
 in town, a farm of 1,400 acres in Ellis County, 
 9,000 acres of unimproved land in Ellis and 
 other counties, besides his bank stock, bonds and 
 notes. 
 
 In appearance Capt. Getzendaner is rather pre- 
 possessing, standing five feet eight inches in height, 
 wifth blue eyes and prominent features, and weigh- 
 ing 15.5 pounds. In form be is broad, muscular 
 
 and strong, the physical corresponding with -he 
 intellectual man. His manners are retiring, but he 
 is an active and energetic business man. 
 
 He is a man growing in the estimation of the 
 people and rising to prominence. As a business 
 man, he is a success, making money rapidly by his 
 energy, tact and capacity. His moral worth is un- 
 excelled. He is social and companionable, but his 
 principal characterisiius are firmness, pride of 
 opinion and financial ability. He is an independent 
 thinker, and does not always follow a beaten track. 
 He is grateful to those who have done him a favor, 
 and is a liberal and charitable citizen. 
 
 Mr. Getzendaner represented his district in the 
 State Senate from 1882 to 1884, and since then has 
 often been urged to canvass the State for Gover- 
 nor, but having no taste for politics he refused all 
 importunities, preferring the enjoyment of the 
 fruits of his well-spent life around his fireside with 
 his family. 
 
 JOSEPH CHRISTOPHER TERRELL, 
 
 FORT WORTH. 
 
 Joseph Christopher Terrell was born in Sumner 
 County, Tenn., October 29, IS.'Jl, while his father's 
 family were en route from Virginia to Missouri to 
 make a new home. His paternal grandfather was a 
 Virginian, and his grandmother, whose maiden 
 name was Johnson, was of the same State. Thej^ 
 were Quakers, and when they died left two chil- 
 dren. Dr. C. J. Terrell, the elder, was a graduate 
 of Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia, emi- 
 grated and settled in Boonville, Mo., in 1831, and 
 died there in 1832, leaving a large estate to his 
 three children. These children were: A. W. Ter- 
 rell, now State Senator, and formerly Judge of the 
 Capital District at Austin, Texas; Dr. John J. 
 Terrell, of Campbell County, Va., and Joseph C. 
 Terrell, the subject of this sketch. 
 
 Joseph C. was reared on the farm near Boonville, 
 Mo., left by his father as part of his estate. Hav- 
 ino' wealth, and, therefore, no necessity to work, 
 his boyhood was spent in idleness and in doing what- 
 ever his fancy dictated. He had no taste for books 
 and despised study, a disposition which contrasts 
 strangely with his subsequent application and stu- 
 dious habits. Notwithstanding his antipathy to the 
 acquisition of knowledge, he was sent to school, his 
 
 teacher being Prof. F. T. Kemper, of Boonville, one 
 of the most finished scholars, strictest disciplina- 
 rians and accomplished instructors in the West — 
 accurate, methodic and energetic. From his teacher, 
 therefore, young Terrell iearned useful lessons in 
 system and order, which he has appropriated and 
 made useful in his later life. Although his educa- 
 tion thus forced upon him had little effect at the 
 time, yet Prof. Kemjier, who is still (1881) teaching 
 in Boonville has influenced his entire life. Though 
 considered " wild" in his youth, the young man 
 was never led into the dissipation that usually ac- 
 companies such a life, but studiouly advoided gam- 
 bling and the use of intoxicants. 
 
 Leaving the Kemper school, he began the study 
 of law in the office of his brother, A. W. Terrell, and 
 after two j^ears' reading was admitted to the bar at 
 St. Joseph, Mo., in 1852. Immediately after re- 
 ceiving his license, he set out on a visit to the Pa- 
 cific Coast. In 1853-54 he practiced law in Santa 
 Clara, Cal., and in Monterey in the same State in 
 1851-55. But he had as yet no fixed purpose in life 
 and was rather drifting on the surface of occasion. 
 He had gone to the West rather for adventure than 
 for work, and steady employment in a fixed place 
 
/"■>^^ 
 
 fc-l 
 
JXDIAN WAliS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 was exceedinglj' distasteful to him. In 1855-5U Le 
 wandered in Oregon, and, though he could scarcely 
 be said to have had a habitation there, he occasionally 
 practiced his profession there, and now and then 
 picked up a stra}' fee. He returned to "the 
 Slates " in 1856, and spent some months in Virginia 
 visiting relatives and friends. In 1857 he visited 
 liis brother, Judge Terrell, at Austin, Texas, and 
 thence set out to return overland to California. 
 
 He reached Fort Worth in February, 1857, where 
 he met his old school-mate, D. C. Dade, who was 
 then practicing law in that place. He was per- 
 suaded to pitch his tent in Fort Worth and form a 
 partnership with his old schoolfellow. This part- 
 nership was continued several years and until the 
 Civil War began. Mr. Terrell opposed secession 
 and concurred with Gen. Houston in his plan to 
 effect the co-operation of Texas with the North- 
 ern border States in an armed neutrality. When 
 the war could no longer be avoided, he recruited a 
 company in Tarrant County for the Confederate 
 service and joined Waller's battalion in Greer's 
 Cavalry Brigade. He took part in the battles of 
 Yellow Bayou, Camp Bisland, Foedoche, etc., and 
 was present at the capture of the gunboat " Diaiia " 
 and when Col. Waller received her surrender. 
 When the war closed, he returned to Fort Worth 
 and i-esuraed the practice of law among a people 
 impoverished by the war, and there and in the sur- 
 rounding country he has continued to pursue his 
 profession ever since. Twenty-four years have 
 thus elapsed since he first opened an office in Fort 
 Worth, and during all that time his place of busi- 
 ness has alwaj's been on the same street. 
 
 In May, 1871, Capt. Terrell was married to Miss 
 Mary V. Lawrence of Hill County, Texas. She is 
 the daughter of David T. Lawrence, formerly of 
 Tennessee, a successful farmer and large land- 
 holder, who died in 1867, leaving four daughters 
 and several sous. Her family relatives are very 
 numerous and most of them reside in Dallas 
 County. Mrs. Terrell was born Februarj' 28, 1842, 
 in Marshall County, Tenn., and was the eldest 
 daughter of D. T. and Anna B. Lawrence. She 
 was educated in the common schools of the coun- 
 try, but having from childhood a taste for learning 
 and books, she has been a close student and a 
 reader of general literature. At the age of eighteen 
 she taught the village school of Covington, Texas, 
 where she grew to womanhood. She continued to 
 alternately teach and attend school for a period of 
 five years. Privately she was pursuing the stud}' 
 of the higher branches. She was for three years 
 first assistant in the female department of the Port 
 Sullivau School, and for two years first assistant in 
 
 Waco Female College. AVhile at Covington teach- 
 ing and attending school, she look a thorough 
 course in Latin and higher mathematics, besides 
 giving considerable attention to French, Spanish 
 and Greek. Her education has been both classical 
 and practical, and as her disposition has always 
 been retiring, her ambition is to embellish home 
 and perform home duties, rearing her familj' in such 
 manner as to make them worthy of the coun- 
 tr}- in which they live and an ornament to the 
 society in which they mov^. She is regarded as one 
 of the best educated women in Texas. Reared in 
 the cross-timbers, and self-educated, she is devot- 
 ing herself to training her children for usefulness 
 in the world, and at the same time cultivating in 
 them a taste for the true, the beautiful and the 
 good. In solid scholarship, dignity and grace, 
 this noble lady is the peer of the highest, and is at 
 once the delight of her social circle and the pride 
 of the city of her residence. 
 
 Capt. Terrell and wife have five children : Sue 
 A., born Ma}' 13, 1872; John Lawrence, born 
 August 1, 1873 ; Joe C, born May 31, 1875 ; Mary 
 v., born January 12, 1877, and Alexander W., 
 born December 26, 1878. 
 
 In politics, Capt. Terrell was originally an old 
 line Whig, voted against secession and since the 
 war has had nothing to do with politics, but has 
 voted an independent ticket, generally, however, 
 with the Democrats. He is not a Church member, 
 though he recognizes the influence an early Chris- 
 tian training has had upon his life and character, 
 and contributes liberally to all benevolent objects, 
 and to the support of ministers and Church enter- 
 prises. Mrs. Terrell is a member of the Methodist 
 Church. Capt. Terrell is a Mason and has taken 
 the council degrees. 
 
 He always made money, but had no disposition 
 to amass wealth until after his marriage. He is 
 now the owner of six brick storehouses, four resi- 
 dences, two frame storehouses, several unimproved 
 blocks in the city, and about four hundred acres of 
 wild lands in Tarrant and Johnson counties. 
 Probably the value of his city propertj' and lands 
 is $25,000. He owes his success to promptness in 
 business matters. He is orderly and systematic in 
 all his affairs. For many years he has been a hard 
 student and his books have engaged much of his 
 attention. He stands well in the community as an 
 honorable man in all his dealings. He is a safe, 
 reliable business man, but bis practice has been 
 that of an office, rather than a courthouse 
 lawyer. He is even-tempered, jovial and social, 
 and probably the most systematic business man in 
 his city. 
 
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 In person be is five feet and eight and a half 
 inches in height, weighs one hundred and eighty- 
 five pounds, is port)}' and muscular, with clear 
 complexion, blue eyes and a generally healthy 
 
 and robust appearance. His brain is large and 
 intellectuality is unusually well developed. He 
 is vivacious and affable, but is fond of a quiet 
 life." 
 
 ACCOMMODATIONS AND TRAIN SERVICE BETWEEN 
 
 TEXAS, ST. LOUIS AND THE NORTH, 
 
 EAST AND WEST. 
 
 The Iron Mountain Route is the short line 
 between all important points in Texas and Little 
 Rock, Memphis and St. Louis, having three daily 
 trains in both directions between Texas points and 
 St. Louis. All these trains enter the magnificent 
 new Union Station at St. Louis, wheje direct con- 
 nections are made for the East, North and South, 
 with all outgoing and incoming trains. The Texas 
 special, with through Pullman Buffet Sleeping ears 
 between Laredo, San Antonio, Galveston, Fort 
 Worth, Dallas, and St. Louis, has long been the 
 favorite train between Texas, St. Louis and the 
 North and East. The schedule of this train is 
 very fast, and the equipment is the most modern, 
 being vestibuled throughout, and lighted by the 
 famous Pintsch Gas Light System. 
 
 The other trains that are scheduled for the per- 
 formance of first-class passenger dutj' between 
 Texarkana, Little Rock, Memphis and St. Louis 
 are the Forth Worth & Dallas Express, and the 
 California, El Paso and Texas Express. The 
 former carries a complement of Chair Cars and 
 Day Coaches to Memphis, arriving at the lower 
 Mississippi River Gateway for breakfast, while the 
 latter train with similar equipment enters the Ten- 
 nessee City in the evening, thus opening up a most 
 admirable route to the Southeast and to the lower 
 Atlantic Se.'xboard. Pullman Buffet Sleeping Cars 
 
 and Reclining Chair Cars (in which the seats are 
 free) are also run through to St. Louis, these same 
 trains performing the service. 
 
 As a highway from Eastern and Southern Texas 
 to the trade centers between the Alleghenies and 
 the Rockies, this popular route offers diverse 
 avenues, either of which are at once acceptable 
 when their advantages are known. The line via 
 Memphis is the best for all points in the Southeast, 
 and the one via St. Louis is the shortest, quickest 
 and best equipped for the North, East and West, 
 and the one via Little Rock, known locall}' as 
 "The Wagoner IJoute," for the great West and 
 Northwest. 
 
 The Texas Fast Mail, which carries the through 
 Pullman Sleeping Cars between St. Louis, El 
 Paso and California points, has revolutionized the 
 Government mail service between the East, North 
 and the Great Southwest by placing Texas in 
 closer communication with the business interests of 
 the far North and East bv from eight to fifteen 
 hours. A visit to tlie immense train sheds of the 
 Union Station, St. Louis, during the morning or 
 evening will disclose as fine equipped trains as can 
 be found anywhere, well filled with passengers to 
 or from Texas, which in itself is a commendation 
 of the Iron Mountain Route's claim as a superior 
 line, whose motto is " Texas to the World." 
 
I N DEX. 
 
 HISTORICAL. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Introduction 5 
 
 Mrs. Jane Long at Bolivar Point — 1820 9 
 
 The Cherokee Indians and their Twelve Asso- 
 ciate Bands, etc 10 
 
 Cherokee and Tehuacano Fight — 1830 13 
 
 First Settlement in Gonzales in 1825 — Attack 
 by Indians in 1826 — Battle of San Marcos, 
 etc 14 
 
 The Early Days of Harris County— 1824 to 
 1838 17 
 
 Fight of the Bowies with the Indians on the 
 San Saba, 1831 19 
 
 The Scalping of Willbarger and Death of 
 Christian and Strother, 1833 23 
 
 Events in 1833 and 1835 — Campaigns of Old- 
 ham, Coleman, John H. Moore, Williamson, 
 Burleson and Coheen — Fate of Canoraa • — 
 Choctaw Tom — The Toncahuas 25 
 
 Attempted Settlement of Beales' Rio Grande 
 Colony, 1834; Failure and Sad Fate of 
 Some of the Colonists — Mrs. Horn and Sons 
 and Mrs. Harris Carried into Captivity 27 
 
 Heroic Taylor Family 38 
 
 Fall of Parker's Fort in 183G — Van Dorn's 
 Victory, 1858 — Recovery of Cynthia Ann 
 Parker — Quanah Parker, the Comanche 
 Chief 39 
 
 Break-up in Bell County, 1836 — Death of 
 Davidson and Crouch, etc 43 
 
 Murder of the Douglas and Dougherty Families 45 
 
 Erath's Fight, January 7, 1837 46 
 
 Surveyor's Fight in Navarro County, October, 
 1838 47 
 
 Karnes' Fight on the Arroyo Seco, August 10, 
 1838 50 
 
 Captivity of the Putnam and Lockbart Chil- 
 dren 51 
 
 Texas Independence — Glimpse at the First 
 Capitals, Harrisburg, Galveston, Velasco, 
 Columbia — The First Real Capital, Hous- 
 ton, and Austin, the First Permanent Cap- 
 ital 53 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Tragedies in Houston and Anderson Coun- 
 ties — Cordova's Rebellion, Battle of Kick- 
 apoo — Cremation at John Eden's House, 
 and Butcherj' of the Campbell Family 55 
 
 First Anniversar}' Ball in the Republic 58 
 
 Death of Capt. Robert M. Coleman and Mur- 
 der of Mrs. Coleman and Her Heroic Boy — 
 Battle of Brushy, 1839 61 
 
 Cordova's Rebellion, 1838-9 — Rusk's Defeat 
 of the Kickapoos — Burleson's Defeat of 
 Cordova — Rice's Defeat of Flores — Death 
 of Flores and Cordova — Capt. Matthew 
 Caldwell 62 
 
 Expulsion of the Cherokees from Texas, 1839 66 
 
 Col. Burleson's Christmas Fight, 1839 — Death 
 of Chiefs John Bowles and the " Egg" 69 
 
 Bird's Victory and Death, 1839 70 
 
 Ben. McCulloch's Peach Creek Fight, 1839.... 73 
 
 Moore's Defeat on the San Saba, 1839 75 
 
 Famous Council House Fight, San Antonio, 
 March 19, 1840 — Bloody Tragedy, Official 
 Details 76 
 
 Great Indian Raid of 1840 — Attack on Vic- 
 toria — ■ Sacking and Burning of Linnville — 
 Skirmish at Casa Blanca Creek — Overthrow 
 of Indians at Plum Creek 78 
 
 Moore's Great Victory on the Upper Colorado, 
 1840 83 
 
 Raid into Gonzales and Pursuit of Indians by 
 Ben. McCulloch, 1841 84 
 
 Red River and Trinity Events, 1841 — Yeary 
 and Ripley Families — Skirmish on Village 
 Creek and Death of Denton — Expeditions 
 of Gens. Smith and Tarrant So 
 
 Death of McSherry, Stinnett, Hibbins and 
 Creath — Capture of Mrs. Hibbins and Chil- 
 dren, 1842 88 
 
 Snively Expedition Against the Mexican Santa 
 Fe traders, 1843 91 
 
 Thrilling Mission of Commissioner Joseph C. 
 Eldridgc to Wild Tribes in 1843, by Order 
 of President Houston — The Treaty — Ham- 
 
 (757) 
 
7^8 
 
 INDEy. 
 
 V PAGE. 
 
 ilton P. Bee, Tbouias Toney, the Three 
 Delawares, Jim Shaw, John Connor and Jim 
 
 Second Eye 9;! 
 
 Murder of Mrs. Hunter, Daughter and Servant 100 
 Captivity of Simpson Children, Murder of 
 Emma and the Recover}- of Thomas, 1844... 101 
 
 Brief History of Castro's Colony 102 
 
 Chihuahua El Paso Pioneer Expedition, 1848.. 104 
 
 Bloody Days of Bastrop 106 
 
 Raid into Gonzales and De Witt Counties, 
 1848 — Death of Dr. Barnett, Capt. John 
 York and Others — Death in 1850 of Maj. 
 
 C. G. Bryant 107 
 
 Southwest Coast in 1850 — Henry McCulloch's 
 
 Fight on the San Saba, 1851 109 
 
 Governor Fitzhugh Lee's hand-to-hai^S^"ight 
 with an Indian Warrior, 1855 Ill 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Van Dorn's Fight at, the Wichita's Village, 
 
 Oct. 1, 1858 112 
 
 A Story of Gen. Lee — His Attack of Savages 
 
 in 1860, on His Way to the Rio Grande 113 
 
 Raid in Burnet County, 1861 — Death of 
 James Graeey — George Baker and Family's 
 Escape — Escape of John H. Stockman, a 
 
 Boy 114 
 
 Raid into Cooke County, December, 1863 115 
 
 Murder of Mrs. Hamleton and Children, Tar- 
 rant County, April, 1867 118 
 
 Bloody Raid into Cooke County, 1868 119 
 
 Indian Massacres in Parker County, 1858-1873 121 
 
 Heroism of Dillard Boys, 1873 123 
 
 Don Lorenzo De Zavala 124 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 
 
 A. PAUE. 
 
 Abercrombie, L. A , 657 
 
 Adler, Fritz 490 
 
 Ahrenbeek, B. H 433 
 
 Aiken, W. B 221 
 
 Allen, Samuel L 354 
 
 Allen, Augustus C 357 
 
 Allen, Robert A 498 
 
 Alley, Wm. W 532 
 
 Alley, John R 532 
 
 Aldredge, George N 258 
 
 %Amsler, Charles 506 
 
 Armistead, W. T 361 
 
 Armstrong, Frank B 591 
 
 Astin, James H 514 
 
 Austin, John 604 
 
 Austin, Moses, and Stephen Fuller 729 
 
 Ayers, D. Theo 452 
 
 B. 
 
 Ball, George 155 
 
 Baker, Waller S 361 
 
 Ballinger, Wm. Pitt 376 
 
 Bates, Joseph 546 
 
 Baugh, Levin P 454 
 
 Bauer, Henrj' 523 
 
 Barnes, A. H •. 423 
 
 Barnhill, John B 533 
 
 Beaton, Alexander 250 
 
 Becton, E. P 212 
 
 Benavidcs, Santos 613 
 
 Bender, Henry 544 
 
 •^Beierle, Sebastian 554 
 
 Bland, J... 666 
 
 Blake, Bennett 298 
 
 Blesse. F. V 705 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Blum, Leon 281 
 
 Blumberg, Ernst 496 
 
 Blossman, R. G 651 
 
 Boerner, Henry 488 
 
 Boerner, C. W 505 
 
 Bozman, R. W 500 
 
 Bonham, J. B 131 
 
 Boone, H. H ^ 363 
 
 Bonner, M. H ' 652 
 
 Bonner, George S 411 
 
 Bonnet, J. A 616 
 
 Bowie, Rezin P. and James 134 
 
 Braches, Mrs. Sarah Ann 246 
 
 Briscoe, Andrew 237 
 
 Briscoe, Mrs. Marv Jane 168 
 
 Brown, J. M ~. 712 
 
 Brown, R. A 543 
 
 Browne, James G 555 
 
 Brooks, Joseph 438 
 
 Brosig, F. W 439 
 
 Bryan, Moses Austin 168 
 
 Buikitt, George W 387 
 
 Burleson, R. C 656 
 
 Burnet, David G 128 
 
 Burnett, J. H 335 
 
 Burvier, W. C 523 
 
 Butler, M 706 
 
 Cabell, Wm. L 254 
 
 Call, Dennis 467 
 
 Call, George 469 
 
 Callahan's Fight in Mexico 601 
 
 Caldwell, John 225 
 
INDEX. 
 
 759 
 
 I 
 
 PAGli. 
 
 Calvert, R 638 
 
 Canuteson, O , 727 
 
 Carr, L. W 445 
 
 Carpenter, E. S 664 
 
 Carpenter, John C 576 
 
 Carstanjen, Rudolph 489 
 
 Carson, Thomas 410 
 
 Carr Family of Bryan 193 
 
 Cartwright, M 632 
 
 Christian, Ed 422 
 
 Chittenden, Wm. L 608 
 
 Clark, George 187 
 
 Clemens, Wm 330 
 
 Cole, James 510 
 
 Cole, J. P 681 
 
 Cole Family of Bryan 199 
 
 Combe, Chas. B 592 
 
 Connor, Orange C 222 
 
 Cook, H. M 615 
 
 Cooper, S. B 691 
 
 Coreth, Ernst 489 
 
 Cox, E. Tom 623 
 
 Cox, C. R 675 
 
 Crawford, J. W 626 
 
 Craft, William 211 
 
 Craddock, J. T 709 
 
 Cross, John S 481 
 
 Cummings, Joseph 708 
 
 Culberson, Chas. A 741 
 
 Curry, Putnam B 575 
 
 D. 
 
 Daggett, E. M 683 
 
 Dancy, J. W 484 
 
 Dalzell, Robert 581 
 
 Darlington, J. W 690 
 
 Davidson, W. L 710 
 
 Davies, John H. P 312 
 
 Davis, Wm. Kinchin 308 
 
 Dawson, Mrs. Mary E 500 
 
 De Bona, L 420 
 
 Devine, Albert E 514 
 
 Devine, Thomas J 220 
 
 Dewees, J. O 665 
 
 Dietert, William 520 
 
 Dignowity, Mrs. A. J 243 
 
 Dignowity, A. M 241 
 
 Dosch, Ernest 495 
 
 Downs, P. L 627 
 
 Driscoll, A. P 449 
 
 Dudley, James G 251 
 
 Duncan, J. M 726 
 
 Dunn.GeorgeH 432 
 
 Dunn, W. W : 556 
 
 Durant, G. W 566 
 
 Durst, J. H 612 
 
 Dyer, J. E 440 
 
 E. 
 
 Easley, S. A , 653 
 
 Easterwood, H. B 417 
 
 Eberling, Edward 569 
 
 Eberly, Mrs. Angelina Belle 602 
 
 Eckhardt Family, The 338 
 
 Edge, Wm. B 719 
 
 Eikel, Andrew 502 
 
 Elbel, Gottlieb 492 
 
 Elmendorf, Henry 326 
 
 Elliolt, William 510 
 
 Ennis. Cornelius and Wife 324 
 
 Esser, Chas 719 
 
 Evans, Andrew H 400 
 
 Faltin, August 524 
 
 Fenn, John Rutherford 301 
 
 Ferris, Justus W 372 
 
 Fest, Sr., Simon 568 
 
 Field, Henry M 402 
 
 Finley, Newton W 410 
 
 Fischer, Andrew 519 
 
 Fischer, Herman E 472 
 
 Fisher, Wm. S 140 
 
 Fitzgerald, Alexander 590 
 
 Ford, W. H 711 
 
 Fordlran, Chas 524 
 
 Forcke,A 694 
 
 Forts, E. C 715 
 
 Foster, R.B. S 717 
 
 Fossett, Samuel 574 
 
 Fowler, Chas 178 
 
 Fuller, Louis T 507 
 
 G. 
 
 Gardner, Alfred S 'il 
 
 Garrity, James 319 
 
 Gayle, G. W 673 
 
 Garwood, H. M 718 
 
 Gerfers, Theodore 458 
 
 Getzeudaner, W. H 755 
 
 Gibbs, Barnett 720 
 
 Giddings, J. D 209 
 
 Giddings, De Witt Clinlon 385 
 
 Gilmer, Alexander 195 
 
 Glascock, Thomas 738 
 
 Glasscock, Sr., G. W 273 
 
 Glasscock, Jr., G. W 274 
 
 Gonzales, Francis De Paul 389 
 
 Gonzales, Thomas 297 
 
 Goodman, C. L 451 
 
 Goodrich, L. W 345 
 
 Gordon, Isabella H 206 
 
 Gray, Edgar P 425 
 
 Graves, F. R .. 365 
 
 Graves, J. W 665 
 
 Gregg, Elbert L 344 
 
 Green, Edward H. R 424 
 
 Gresham, W 349 
 
 Gross, J. J 222 
 
 Gross, Charles 288 
 
 Grossgebauer, Chas S39 
 
 Griffith, L. E 400 
 
 Griesenbeck, Chas • 496 
 
 Grune, Sr., Ernest 491 
 
 Gruene, Henrv D 516 
 
 Gunn, J. D...: 263 
 
76() 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 H. PAGE. 
 
 Haerter, Constantin 445 
 
 Hamilton, H. T , 607 
 
 Hamilton, A. J 619 
 
 Harlem, E 570 
 
 Harlem, S. D 634 
 
 Harlem, Joseph 569 
 
 Hardy, Rufus 563 
 
 Hart, John T 554 
 
 Hardeman, William P 396 
 
 Harris, A 716 
 
 Harris, J. R 236 
 
 Harris, Andrew J 320 
 
 Hartley, O. C 186 
 
 Hancock, George 253 
 
 Harrison, William M. 647 
 
 /, Hardins, The 413 
 
 Hanisch, Paul 470 
 
 Hampe, Frederick 533 
 
 Hayes, William R 666 
 
 Ilarz, Ferdinand 600 
 
 Hausser, William 465 
 
 Hearne, H. R 264 
 
 Helton, J. K 427 
 
 Henderson, Robert M 359 
 
 Henry, Francis M t n;^6 
 
 Herring, M. D 350 
 
 Herndon, J. E 643 
 
 Hebert, Joseph 551 
 
 Hebert, Joseph M 551 
 
 Higgins, Jacob C 323 
 
 Hill, W. M. C 633 
 
 Hirsch, David 412 
 
 Hitchcock, H. M 630 
 
 Hobron, C. B 527 
 
 fl'oDbs, George 362 
 
 Hodges, J. C 391 
 
 Hogg, James S 742 
 
 Holekamp, Frederick 520 
 
 Holland, Sam. E 304 
 
 Horlock, Robt. A 431 
 
 House, T. AV 321 
 
 Houston, Sam 639 
 
 Houston & T. CTR. K 751 
 
 Hoxcy, Asa 446 
 
 Howard, H. C 360 
 
 Howell, John 722 
 
 Hudgins, W. T 691 
 
 Hughes, Wm. G 483 
 
 Hume, FrancisC 327 
 
 Hunt, Wm. G 481 
 
 Hynes, L. J 722 
 
 1. 
 
 Imboden, W. M 673 
 
 Ireland, John 659 
 
 J. 
 
 Jagou, Celestin t^ 223 
 
 Jackson, James i, 421 
 
 Jarvis, J. J y. 268 
 
 Jennings, Thomas J 370 
 
 Jester, G. T ^ 674 
 
 Johnson, Jefferson ■ 390 
 
 PAliE. 
 
 Johnson, S. M 644 
 
 Jones, Henry 311 
 
 Jones, H. K 328 
 
 Jones, John Maxwell 331 
 
 Jones, Randall 603 
 
 Jones, Wiley 314 
 
 K. 
 
 Kargen, Emil 477 
 
 K^rger, Cbas 536 
 
 Kalteyer, Fred 272 
 
 Kearby, J. C 522 
 
 Keidel, Albert 571 
 
 Kelly, Wm 559 
 
 Kempner, H 278 
 
 Kenedy, Mifflin 229 
 
 Kenedy, Mrs. P. V 232 
 
 Kenedy, John G 232 
 
 Keonnecke, August 473 
 
 Kerr, James 139 
 
 Kidd, Robert 565 
 
 Kidd, G. W 565 
 
 Kimbrough, R. S 624 
 
 King, Richard 26t> 
 
 Kingsbury, W. G 552 
 
 Kleck, John 527 
 
 Klemme, Chas 653 
 
 Knibbe,Chas 492 
 
 Knibbe, Fritz 535 
 
 Knibbe, Herman 488 
 
 Knight, Wm. M 441 
 
 Kleberg, R. J 289 
 
 Koch, Fritz 534 
 
 Koch, Antone 487 
 
 Kopperl, Moritz 295 
 
 Kott, Richard 509 
 
 L. 
 
 Lacy, P^win 494 
 
 Langhara, J. B 530 
 
 Landa, Joseph 270 
 
 Landes, Daniel 352 
 
 Landes, J. A 353 
 
 Lawler, James 649 
 
 Level, D. M 720 
 
 Lewis, I. R 172 
 
 Lewis, Chas 380 
 
 Leasch, Fred 490 
 
 Leistikow, Cbas 492 
 
 Lesker, W 631 
 
 LigLtfoc!; H. W 736 
 
 Lipscomb, Y. Gaines 502 
 
 Lott, Robt. A 430 
 
 Loughery, R. W 180 
 
 Luby, James 504 
 
 Ludwig, Henry 591 
 
 Lumpkin, J. P 425 
 
 Lumpkin, Simon H 412 
 
 Lutcher, Henry J., 104 
 
 M. 
 
 Marx, Marx 279 
 
 Markward, John 234 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Matbi3, T. H 702 
 
 Matlock, A. L 709 
 
 Masterson, J. K 303 
 
 Maxey, S. B C5o 
 
 Maynard, W. E 528 
 
 Menly, Conrad 648 
 
 Meyer, C. J.,H 590 
 
 Metcalf, J. N 409 
 
 McAlpine, J. A 501 
 
 McCord, Felix J 586 
 
 McFadden, David 529 
 
 McFadden, Wm 337 
 
 McGeehee, Sr,, C. 1 618 
 
 McLean, AVm. P 344 
 
 Milam, Ben. R 132 
 
 Miller, John T 596 
 
 Miller, W. R 583 
 
 Miller, Leopold 547 
 
 Miguel, R. San 580 
 
 Michel, John A 597 
 
 Mitchell, J. H 287 
 
 Mitchell, Harvey 503 
 
 Moody, W. L 381 
 
 Morgan, Alvin 516 
 
 Moore, J. E 606 
 
 Moore, William .1 477 
 
 Moore, Thomas 395 
 
 Morris, T. J 4?,9 
 
 Moss, C. T 444 
 
 Moss, James R 442 
 
 Moye, Albert 224 
 
 Munson, M. S 573 
 
 Murphy, Daniel 646 
 
 N. 
 
 Neale, William 599 
 
 Nimitz, Sr.,C. H 418 
 
 Norsworthy, B. H 595 
 
 Nowlin, Peyton W 484 
 
 Norton, N. L f.97 
 
 O. 
 
 Obst, Gottlieb 558 
 
 O'Brien, G. W 266 
 
 Ogden, Charles W 518 
 
 Ogden, Wesley 517 
 
 Ohlrich, Charles 486 
 
 Oliver, T. T 625 
 
 Oppenheimer, M. L 396 
 
 Owen, John H 532 
 
 P. 
 
 Parker, Milton 578 
 
 Parks, Isaac 672 
 
 Pantermuehl, Henry 539 
 
 Parrish, L. H '. 628 
 
 Parrott, R. B 348 
 
 Pease, E. M 201 
 
 Pendleton, G. C '. 577 
 
 Perner, Fred 578 
 
 Perry, G. L 508 
 
 Peters, E. S 530 
 
 I'ACK. 
 
 Peters, Stephen 645 
 
 Peters, Mrs. M. W 645 
 
 Pieper, August 536 
 
 Pillot, Eugene 577 
 
 PoUey, J. B 219 
 
 Potter, C 692 
 
 Prendergast, 1). M 256 
 
 Piiess, John 704 
 
 Pritchett, B. F 585 
 
 Proctor, Geo. K 508 
 
 Piickett, T. H 542 
 
 n. 
 
 Rabb, G. A 650^ 
 
 Rabb, John 391 ^ 
 
 Rainey, Anson 462 
 
 Raymond, J. H 166 
 
 Read, D. C 505 
 
 Remler, Gabriel 472 
 
 Richter, Henry 491 
 
 Richardson, Willard 190 
 
 Riddle, W. 1 643 
 
 Roberts, F. G 437 
 
 Roberts, Wm. C 451 
 
 Robertson, S. C 392 
 
 Robertson, James H 286 
 
 Robertson, James M 428 
 
 Rodriguez, J. M 676 
 
 Roman, Richard 142 
 
 Rompel, Carl 465 
 
 Rose, A. T 676 
 
 Rose, A. J 695 
 
 Ross, Mrs. Kate...... 318 
 
 Ross, L. S 317 
 
 Ross, S. P 315 
 
 Rosser, Chas. M 629 
 
 Rosenberg, H 143 
 
 Rosenberg, W. von 388 
 
 Rosenberg, Wm. von 282 
 
 Rowan, L. H., D. H., and W. A 518 
 
 Runge, Julius 312 
 
 Rusk, J. J 635 
 
 Rust, August 579 
 
 Ryon, William 309 
 
 S. 
 
 Sanchez, Santiago 620 
 
 Sanger, Samuel 307 
 
 Sanger, Philip ... 305 
 
 Sauer, J. D 572 
 
 Saunders, X. B 342 
 
 Salter, Chas. P 501 
 
 Saxon, Chas. 571 
 
 Scarborough, E. M 456 
 
 Schmidt, Gustav 618 
 
 Schmidt, Jacob.. 459 
 
 Schmidt, Christopher 536 
 
 Scherff, Ernst 566 
 
 Schodts, M 723 
 
 Schwope, Charles 572 • 
 
 Scbandna, John 588 
 
 Schnahel, John .528 
 
 Schaeffer, Franz 477 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Schumacher, H 416 
 
 Sealy, John 149 
 
 Sealy, George 159 
 
 Sears, J. H ()37 
 
 8erger,Emil 471 
 
 Shaw, M. W •.... 725 
 
 Shaw, \Y. A 621, 
 
 Shaeffer, Franklin W ^'i'i^ 
 
 Sheldon, B.M 550 
 
 Shepherd, B. A 668 
 
 Slaughter, G. VV 668 
 
 Slaughter, C. C ^ 670 
 
 Slaughter, Mrs. C. C 671 
 
 Sledge, E. J 612 
 
 Sholars, S. W 493 
 
 Simpson, Chas. T 515 
 
 Silliman, Chas. H. 429 
 
 Simkins, E. J 313 
 
 Skinner, Roswell 478 
 
 Slayden, S. W 277 
 
 Smith, Fayette 497 
 
 Smith, Joel P.. 503 
 
 Smith, Joseph F 549 
 
 Smith, Sara. S 444 
 
 Smith, Brooke , 459 
 
 Smith, S. H 403 
 
 Smithson, B. F 539 
 
 Spence, Robert 499 
 
 Stafford, John 260 
 
 Standefus, The 381 
 
 Startz, A. G 472 
 
 Stein, Louis 465 
 
 Steeli A. L 495 
 
 Stone, William 587 
 
 Sueltenfuss, C. H 470 
 
 Swayne, J. W 020 
 
 Swearingen, R. M 747 
 
 T. 
 
 Talbot, James 538 
 
 Talbot, Romanus 537 
 
 Taylor, M. A 275 
 
 Terrell, E. H 377 
 
 Terrell, A. W 559 
 
 Terrell, J. C 756 
 
 Theis, Jacob 459 
 
 Thomas, E. B 740 
 
 Thomas, Frank 567 
 
 Thomas, W. H 700 
 
 Thompson, J. B 723 
 
 Tidwell, C. W 428 
 
 Tivy, J. A 204 
 
 Telle, August 568 
 
 Townaen, O. H. P 463 
 
 Traylor, J. H 346 
 
 Trent, D. H 401 
 
 Trueheart, H. M 258 
 
 Voges, Sr., Henry 537 
 
 Voges, Jr., Henry 498 
 
 Voges, Jr., Charles 491 
 
 Voges, Fritz 523 
 
 Vogel, Otto 635 
 
 Vogt, William 493 
 
 Voelcker, Julius 471 
 
 Voelcker, Emil 515 
 
 W. 
 
 Wahrenberger, J 486 
 
 Wahrmund, Max 554 
 
 Wallis, J. E 366 
 
 Walton, Geo. S 286 
 
 Warmund, Emil 545 
 
 Warren, Sr.. John 552 
 
 Watson, S. E 582 
 
 Watson, A. E 540 
 
 Ward, J. C 390 
 
 Waul, T. W 677 
 
 Weakley, J. C 466 
 
 Weidner, Wm 521 
 
 Weinheimer, John 534 
 
 Weber, J. J 583 
 
 West, Chas. 8 189 
 
 Westfall, Wm. H 196 
 
 Westbrook, T. C 207 
 
 Wheelock, E. L. R 271 
 
 White, H. K 420 
 
 White, R. N 702 
 
 Willie, A. H 382 
 
 Willis, R. S 374 
 
 Willis, P. J 589 
 
 Wilson, L.J 434 
 
 Wilson, N. C 435 
 
 Wilson, T. D : 450 
 
 Williamson, R. M 404 
 
 Williams, J. M 449 
 
 Williams, Henry S 535 
 
 Wiess. Simon 473 
 
 Wood, J. H 683 
 
 Woodman, G. W '. 681 
 
 Woodhouse, H. E 584 
 
 Wollschlaeger, Andraes 488 
 
 Wortham, Wm. A 707 
 
 Wynne, R. M 261 
 
 Yarborough, James Quincv 433 
 
 York, John '. 001 
 
 Z. 
 
 V. 
 
 Zaudt Van, Isaac 511 
 
 Zandt Van, Mrs. F. C 513 
 
 Vanderstueken, F 487 Zimpelman, (^. B 394 
 
 Vaughn, Chas. V 458 Zipp, John M 541 
 
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