USA > Texas > A pictorial history of Texas, from the earliest visits of European adventurers, to A.D. 1879. Embracing the periods of missions, colonization, the revolution the republic, and the state; also, a topographical description of the country together with its Indian tribes and their wars, and biographical sketches of hundreds of its leading historical characters. Also, a list of the countries, with historical and topical notes, and descriptions of the public institutions of the state > Part 46
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SOMERVELL, ALEXANDER .- Came to Texas in 1833, and in company with James F. Perry opened a store in San Felipe. At the orgaization of the army at Gonzales in 1836, he was elected Major in Burleson's regiment, and when the re-organization took place, on the Brazos, he became Lieutenant Colonel, and commanded the right wing of the regiment at San Jacinto. He was, for a time, Acting Secretary of War in Burnet's Cabinet, and afterwards Senator in the Texas Congress. In 1841, he was elected Briga- dier General of the militia; and the next year, commanded an expedition ordered to the Rio Grande by General Houston. After his return from the West, he was appointed Collector of Customs at Saluria, and held that position until annexation, when he was re-appointed to the same office, and held it until his death, in 1854. No satisfactory statement of the manner of his death has ever been given to the public. He started from Lavaca to Saluria, in a small boat, carrying a considerable amount of money. When found, the boat was bottom side up, and General Somervell was lashed to the timbers. Whether he was killed for money, which was never found, or the boat capsized, will probably never be known.
STAPP, DARWIN M .- A native of Kentucky; came to Texas in 1830; joined the army in 1835; was in the State Legislature in 1850-54; in 1856- 1864, Collector of Customs at Indianola; in Secession Convention in 1861, and died in Victoria, in 1875.
STERNE, ADOLPHUS .- A native of Germany ; settled in East Texas in 1826; was an active patriot during the Revolutionary period, and after annexation, served in the Legislature ; died in New Orleans, in 1852.
STEWART, DR. C. B .- Came from South Carolina to Texas in 1820; was Secretary of the Convention in 1835, and a member of the Convention in 1836; was in the Legislature in 1850-51, and again in 1875. Resides in Montgomery county.
THE CAPITOL AT AUSTIN IN 1870.
625
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES.
SUTHERLAND, GEORGE .- Came from North Alabama to Texas in 1830, and settled on the plantation on which he died, in 1855, in Jackson county. He was in the Convention in 1833; had a horse killed under him at San Jacinto, April 20th, 1836; was a member of the Second Congress of the Republic.
SWISHER, JAMES G .- Immigrated to Texas during the Colonial period and settled in Washington county ; was Captain of a company at the taking of San Antonio, in 1835, and a member of the Convention in 1836. After annexation he removed to Austin, where he died in 1862. Mrs. Swisher lived until 1875.
TARRANT, E. H .- Was born in North Carolina, in the year 1800; fought in the battle of New Orleans; came to Texas in 1835; served successively in the Congress of the Republic and in the army. He was in command on the Northern frontier, and was in the battle in which John B. Benton was killed, in 1841. He was a member of the Annexation Convention, and afterwards in the State Legislature. He died in Ellis county in 1858.
TEEL, HENRY .- A Captain at San Jacinto; was sent as one of the Com- missioners with Santa Anna's order to Filisola; was imprisoned at Mata- moras ; he made his escape, and while with the army camped on the Lavaca river in the fall of 1837, was shot while asleep in his tent. The murderer was a man by the name of Shultz, who, though not suspected at the time, was afterwards tried in Galveston for another murder, and confessed to the killing of Teel. Shultz had formerly belonged to the Murrell band in Mississippi.
TERAN, J. MIER Y .- A violent Centralist of Mexico, who was, in 1830, commander of the Eastern internal provinces. He visited Texas in 1831, and established the posts of Teran, on the Neches, and Anahuac, on Gal- veston bay. It was his intention to bring Texas into complete subjection to the Centralist party, and he sent garrisons to our principal posts. On the triumph of the Liberal party in 1832, Teran killed himself rather than fall into the hands of the Republicans.
THROCKMORTON, J. W .- Was born in Tennessee in 1825; immigrated with his father's family to Texas in 1841, and settled in Collin county. (His father, Dr. William E. Throckmorton, for whom Throckmorton county was named, died in Collin county, in 1842). J. W. Throckmorton was in the Legislature from 1851 to 1856, when he was elected to the Senate, and remained in that body until 1861; was in the Secession Convention, and one of the seven who voted against secession. He gave his No! witlı an emphasis. This was hissed in the gallery, when he exclaimed: " When the rabble hiss, patriots may tremble !" After the adjournment of the Con- vention, he raised a company and entered the Confederate service, first in Young's, and afterwards in B. Warren Stone's regiment, of which he became Major. He was with M'Culloch at the battle of Elk Horn, and
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
afterwards in the army of Dick Taylor. He was again elected to the Senate in 1863. In 1864, Governor Murrah commissioned him as a Briga- dier-General, and assigned him to the command of the Northern frontier, with headquarters at Decatur, Wise county. Early in 1865, General E. Kirby Smith appointed him general Indian Agent, with special authority to treat with the wild Indians. After consulting with Generals M'Culloch at Bonham, Maxey at Fort Towson, and Cooper at Fort Washita, he, in May, collected at the latter post, large numbers of chiefs and warriors of the Choctaws, Cherokees, Seminoles, Creeks, and Osages, of the more friendly tribes, and representatives of various bands of Comanches, Cheyennes, Caddoes, Arapahoes, Lipans and Kickapoos, and a few Sioux. He made a treaty very advantageous to Texas; but when he returned General Lee had surrendered, and the Confederate armies were on the point of disband- ing. He was elected to the first Reconstruction Convention in 1866, and called to preside over that body. At the ensuing popular election, he was elected Governor of the State. After filling the gubernatorial chair for a little over a year, General Sheridan, then in command at New Orleans, which included Texas, pronounced him " an impediment to reconstruc- tion," and removed him from office. His political disabilities having been removed, in 1874 he was elected to Congress, and re-elected in 1876. In 1878, he was a prominent candidate before the Democratic State Conven- tion, for the office of Governor, but failed to receive the nomination. He resides in Bonhanı.
TOLEDO, DON ALVAREZ .- A Cuban patriot of splendid abilities; joined Morelos in his attempt to revolutionize Mexico, and when that effort failed, he, in 1813, appeared at San Antonio, and was elected commander of the Republicans then in possession of the city. He displayed wonderful energy in organizing his forces, and preparing to defeat the Royalist army ap- proaching under Arredondo. The treachery of some of the Republican officers caused his defeat, and he fled to the United States ; and was indicted for attempting to get up another expedition against Mexico. He and Mina next formed a plan for the conquest of Florida. Here he was again thwarted; and his next move was to visit New York, for an interview with Aaron Burr, in hopes of reviving the project once entertained by that gen- tleman. Burr was without means or influence; and Toledo finally made his submission to the king of Spain, and re-entered the service of that sovereign.
TORRY FAMILY .- During Houston's first Presidential term, the Torry brothers established a trading post at the old Waco village, on the Brazos river. In 1840, the trading-house was removed to the neighborhood of Comanche Peak, about one hundred miles above Waco. In 1843, David Torry was an Indian agent, and died while at Bird's Fort, on the Trinity, negotiating a treaty. David S. Torry was killed by the Apaches, in 1850. John S. Torry, another brother, lives in New Braunfels, where he estab- lished a cloth factory.
627.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES.
TRAVIS, WILLIAM B .- The hero of the Alamo; was a native of North Carolina, but was raised in Alabama. In early life he taught school, and studied law. He married one of his pupils, and a year later, leaving his family in Alabama, he came to Texas. He located in Anahuac, where Bradburn was then exercising his petty tyrannies. Commenting somewhat freely on the conduct of the commander, he was seized and confined a prisoner in the barracks, with others who had incurred the displeasure of the haughty officer. After his.release, he removed to San Felipe, the capi- tal of the colony. He then had to compete, in his profession, with such men as R. M. Williamson, T. J. Chambers, Ira R. Lewis, William H. and P. C. Jack, Mosely Baker, Luke Lassassier, and others of less note. While Secretary of the Ayuntamiento, in 1834, lie drew up an able petition, praying for the release of General Austin, who was then confined in the city of Mexico. In the spring of 1835, Santa Anna sent a small squad of troops, under a Captain Tenorio, to garrison the post at Anahuac. Travis, smarting under the wrongs he had suffered from Bradburn, raised a com- pany, and captured, and disarmed Tenorio and his men. But this act was promptly disavowed by the authorities, and the men released, and their arms and papers restored. On the first of September, 1835, Ugartechea, then in command at San Antonio, ordered the arrest of some obnoxious Texans, Travis among them. Nothing daunted by this order, Travis hastened west and joined the army under Austin. In November, while out on a scout, he captured two hundred Mexican horses, about forty miles below the city. Among the very singular orders issued by General Hous- ton, when elected Commander-in-Chief, was one sending Travis to San Felipe and Fannin to Velasco, on recruiting service. We say singular, because it would have been supposed that such soldiers would have been needed in the front.
If Travis went to San Felipe, he did not long remain there. Early in De- cember, the Council elected Neill Lieutenant-Colonel and Travis Major of Artillery. Yoakum says that Governor Smith ordered Travis back to San Antonio, and when Neill, in obedience to Houston's order, left that city, Travis became commander. He found less than one hundred soldiers ou duty, most of those who had assisted in the capture of the city having re_ turned to their homes, or having joined the party of Grant and Johnson in their expedition to the Southwest. One of Travis' first calls was for five hundred recruits, and he requested that they should be Regulars, supplied with all necessary arms and clothing. The recruits never reported, but he made all practicable preparation to meet the foe, who was massing his forces on the Rio Grande for the Texas campaign.
Santa Anna's advance division reached the Alasan, in the neighborhood of the city, February 22d, 1836, when Travis, with his brave band of one hun- dred and forty-five men, retired to the fortress of the Alamo, which had been put in a state for defense. On the 24th he wrote as follows: "To the people of Texas and all Americans in the world-Fellow citizens and compatriots : I am besieged by a thousand or more Mexicans, under Santa Amma. I have sustained a continual bombardment and cannonade for twenty-four hours, and have not lost a man. The enemy have demanded ' a surrender
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
at discretion,' or that the garrison will be put to the sword when taken. I have answered the summons with a cannon-shot, and our flag still waves proudly from the walls. I shall never surrender or retreat. Then I call upon you, in the name of liberty, patriotism, and everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid with dispatch. The enemy are re- ceiving reinforcements daily, and will doubtless in a few days be increased to three or four thousand. Though this call may be neglected, I am deter- mined to sustain myself as long as possible, and die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor and that of his country. Victory or death!" In a postscript he added: "The Lord is on our side. When the enemy appeared in sight, we had not three bushels of corn. We have since found in deserted houses eighty or ninety bushels, and got into the walls twenty or thirty beeves."
On the 3d of March, he wrote again to the Convention at Washington: "I am still here, in fine spirits, and well to do. With one hundred and forty-five men, I have held the place against a force variously estimated from 1,500 to 6,000; and I shall continue to hold it until I get relief from my countrymen, or I will perish in its defense. We have had a shower of bombs and cannon-balls contiually falling among us the whole time; yet
none of us have fallen. We have been miraculously preserved.
*
*
*
Again, I feel confident that the determined spirit and desperate courage heretofore exhibited by my men will not fail them in the last struggle; and although they may be sacrificed to the vengeance of a Gothic enemy, the victory will cost that enemy so dear that it will be worse than a defeat. * * * A blood-red banner waves from the church in Bexar, and in the camp above us, in token that the war is one of vengeance against rebels. * *
* These threats have had no influence on my men, but to make all fight with desperation and with that high-souled courage which character- izes the patriot who is willing to die in defense of his country's liberty and his own honor. God and Texas! Victory or death ! ! "
In a private note to a friend, Travis adds: "Take care of my little boy. If the country should be saved, I may make him a splendid fortune; but if the country should be lost, and I should perish, he will have nothing but the proud recollection that he is the son of a man who died for his country."
Three days after these last letters were sent off, the final grand assault of the enemy was ordered, and the Alamo fell. According to the most reliable reports we have of the final struggle, Travis was in command of a gun on the south wall, and fell early in the action. Kennedy says: "Travis re- ceived a shot and fell as he stood on the walls, cheering his men. When he dropped, a Mexican officer reached forward to dispatch him. Summon- ing up his powers for a final effort, Travis met his assailant with a thrust of 1 his sword, and both expired together." So perished WILLIAM BARRETT TRAVIS, the hero of the Alamo. He was in his twenty-eighth year. In person, he was about six feet high, weighed 170 pounds, light hair, blue eyes, with reddish beard and whiskers, fair complexion, round features, well proportioned, fine looking figure. His son, Charles, died in 1870. A daughter, Mrs. Grissett, lives in Washington county.
629
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES.
TURNER, AMASA .- A native of Massachusetts ; born in 1800; came to Texas in 1835, and settled in Bastrop; was the first to receive a Captain's commis- sion from General Houston, after his appointment as commander of the army in 1835 ; went to Alabama and enlisted a company of regulars to serve in the Texas army during the war; reached Texas and reported to Houston February 27th, 1836; commanded his company at San Jacinto. After the battle, was for a time commander of the post of Galveston. While at Ve- lasco on business connected with his command, he thwarted the attempt to arrest President Burnet and overthrow the civil government. During the Republic, Colonel Turner resided at Galveston, having been one of the first to settle upon the island ; after annexation, opened a cotton plantation in Lavaca county ; served in the Legislature in 1850 and 1851, and in the Senate in 1852-53. During the civil war, was Provost-Marshal of Lavaca county ; at the close of the war removed to the town of Gonzales, where he died, July 21st, 1877.
VANZANDT, ISAAC .- Was a member of the House of Representatives of the Fifth Congress ; Minister to the United States in 1842; in 1847 was a prom- inent candidate for Governor, but during the canvass died of the yellow fever in Houston.
WALKER, SAMUEL H .- Was one of the Mier prisoners; wounded when they overpowered the guard at Salado; wounded again in 1844, while in Hays' Ranging company, in a fight with the Indians; was one of the first Texas Captains to join Taylor's army on the Rio Grande, and appointed Captain of a scouting and spy company. In a few weeks, in this daring service, he lost one-half of his men. He was first a Captain and then a Lieutenant-Colonel of a newly-formed regiment of dragoons; distinguished himself at the battle of Monterey, and was killed at the battle of Human- tla, in 1847. His body, with that of Captain Gillespie, was brought back to Texas and interred at San Antonio.
WALLER, EDWIN .- Came from Virginia to Texas in 1831; was slightly wounded in the battle of Velasco, in 1832; in 1833, he was Alcalde at Brazoria; 1835, in the Consultation; 1836, in the Convention at Washing- ton ; 1838-39, Commissioner to lay out the new city of Austin and sell the lots ; for a time filled the office of Postmaster-General. After annexation, he was for twelve years Chief Justice of Austin county, and represented that county in the Secession Convention in 1861. In 1873, he was President of the Texas Veteran Association; lives in Waller county.
WARD, THOMAS WILLIAM .- A native of Ireland; came to Texas in 1835 with the New Orleans Grays; at the taking of San Antonio, was Captain of Artillery, and lost a leg ; he subsequently lost an arm by the accidental discharge of a gun. A wooden leg gave him the name of " Peg-leg " Ward. In 1840, he was Mayor of Austin; 1841-48, Commissioner of General Land Office ; 1853, American Consul at Panama; 1867, Collector of Customs at Corpus Christi ; was defeated for the office of Land Commissioner in 1869; and died in Austin in 1872.
3
630
HISTORY OF TEXAS.
WATROUS, JOHN C .- Was a native of Shelby county, Alabama, and Attorney-General under President Lamar. After annexation, he was appointed United States District Judge, and held the office until he was stricken with paralysis in 1869; he died in 1874.
WEBB, JAMES .- Came from Florida to Texas; was Secretary of State under Lamar ; and after annexation, District Judge ; he died in 1856.
WHARTON, WILLIAM H .- A native of Virginia; came from Nashville, Tennessee, to Texas, in feeble health, in 1829. His health improved and he commenced the practice of law; married the daughter of Jared E. Groce, one of his first clients ; was President of the Convention in 1833; in 1835, was with the army at San Antonio; but was sent by the Consulta- tion, as one of the Commissioners to the United States; 1836-37, Min- ister to the United States; on his voyage back, was captured on the Gulf and imprisoned in Matamoras; made his escape, and represented Brazoria county in the Senate in 1838-39. While mounting his horse at Mr. L. Groce's, was mortally wounded by the accidental discharge of his pistol. This was in March, 1839.
WHARTON, JOHN A .- Brother of the above; was in the Consultation in 1835; Adjutant on Houston's staff at San Jacinto, and afterwards Secretary of the Navy; member of Congress from Brazoria in 1838, and died the same year. In a eulogy pronounced by President Burnet, he said: “ A nobler spirit than John A. Wharton's does not adorn the annals of Texas."
WHITE, S. ADDISON .- Found his first employment in Texas as an over- seer on the plantation of Judge Waller, and while so employed, found time to read law ; was in the Congress of the Republic, and after annexation, served in the State Legislature. In 1865 he was appointed District Judge under the Provisional Government. He, for many years, conducted a newspaper in Victoria. He died in Indianola, in 1869.
WILBARGER FAMILY .- Came from Kentucky to Texas in 1830, and set- . tled on a creek that bears their name, in Bastrop county. In 1833, Josiah Wilbarger and two companions, while out hunting, were attacked by Indians. One was instantly killed; young Hornsby escaped on a fleet horse to Bastrop; Wilbarger was scalped and left for dead. He had suf- ficient life to crawl to a water-hole, where his neighbors found him the next day, still living. He survived twelve years, and married, but finally died from the effects of the wound. His brother Matthias, Surveyor of Milam Land District, died of the small-pox in Georgetown, in 1852.
WILLIAMS AUGUSTUS W .- Brought a company to Texas in 1842; repre- sented Fayette county in the Ninth Congress ; in a duel, growing out of a political canvass, just before the extra session of Congress, he killed Mr. Gaudinier, the sheriff of Fayette county. Mr. Williams was a member of the Annexation Convention, after which he removed to Brownsville, where he died in 1847.
631
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES.
WILLIAMS, ROBERT H .- Came from North Alabama to Texas in 1830, and settled on a plantation in Matagorda county ; lost an eye in the battle of Velasco in 1833 ; is still living (1878).
WILLIAMS, SAMUEL M .- Was a native of Baltimore; while young, spent several years in Mexico, where he acquired a thorough knowledge of the language. He met in Mexico Colonel Jared E. Groce, who invited him to Texas. He arrived at the mouth of the Colorado in 1822, in the same vessel with Jonathan C. Peyton, Mrs. Eberle, Messrs. Clopton, Clare and other colonists. At the opening of the Land Office in San Felipe, in 1824, Mr. Williams became the Secretary, and he kept the records of the Land Office for Austin's colony during the whole colonial period. In reference to these books, Judge Burnet, who had frequent occasions to consult them, says : "There cannot be found so nice, clear, correct and legible a volume of manuscript as that which contains the land titles of Austin's colony, the work of his pen." Judge James H. Bell says also: " Williams was, of all men, best qualified for this position. His labors in the extension of titles to lands, and in a variety of services, were immense, and justly entitle him to honorable remembrance."
He formed a partnership with Thomas F. M'Kinney, and during the financial difficulties of the Revolutionary period the firm of M'Kinney & Williams transacted nearly all the business of the Government, and frequently advanced money to meet the necessities of the Public Treasury. This firm, in 1837, transferred their business from the mouth of the Brazos to Galves- ton, and were the first to open a regular commercial business on the island.
On the 30th of April, 1835, Mr. Williams obtained from the Legislature of Coahuila a charter for a bank, in the Department of the Brazos; the charter to run twenty years. By an Act of Congress, of February 3d, 1841, the Congress of Texas fully recognized the validity of Williams' bank charter, and authorized the firm of M'Kinney & Williams to issue $30,000 in paper, to circulate as money. Mr. Williams opened his bank in Galveston, in 1846. He was the first and only President of " The Commercial and Agricultural Bank of Galveston." After his death, which occurred in 1858, the affairs of the bank went, we believe, into liquidation.
WILLIAMSON, ROBERT M. (Three-legged Willie) .- A native of Georgia; in early life afflicted with a white swelling, which stiffened one of his knees; came to Texas in 1827, and located at San Felipe in the practice of law; was Alcade in 1834; in 1835 commanded a company in a campaign against the Indians, and was one of the Committee of Safety at Bastrop, where he then lived; was in the General Consultation the same year. In 1836, he was District Judge; in 1840, entered the Texas Congress and was re-elected to represent Washington county until annexation ; and for several years represented the same county in the State Senate after annexation.
Of all the popular leaders during the period of the Texas Revolution, none wielded a more potential influence than R. M. Williamson. He deserves a more extended notice, and we copy some of the closing paragraphs of a sketch of his life which appeared in the Texas Almanac for 1861:
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
"Although his opportunities for acquiring wealth and independence were unequaled by those of any other man, yet was he of such generous and im- provident nature, that he was often embarrassed in his pecuniary affairs. Like Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Monroe, and many other greater men, he not unfrequently felt the iron pressure of ' Res angusta domi.'
"It may be stated as creditable to his integrity, that in the midst of corrup- tion and speculation he lived and died in poverty.
" In 1857, he had a severe attack of sickness, which seriously affected his intellect. The death of his wife, a daughter of Colonel Edwards, of Wharton county, occurred shortly afterwards. From these combined shocks, his mind never entirely recovered until the time of his death, which transpired peacefully and calmly on the 22d December, 1859, in Wharton county.
" We have thus traced rapidly and imperfectly a few of the leading events in the life of this distinguished patriot. It has been done under unfavorable circumstances, and without pretense to absolute certainty as to dates, etc. Yet in no instance have the value of his services been magnified knowingly. His character deserves a higher and more extended notice.
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