A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume I, Part 12

Author: Paddock, B. B. (Buckley B.), 1844-1922; Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing co.
Number of Pages: 968

USA > Texas > A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume I > Part 12

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On the final triumph of Union arms, Gover- nor Murrah retired to Mexico, and General

HISTORY OF TEXAS.

Granger of the United States army be- came military commander. In the meantime A. J. Hamilton was appointed by the presi- dent as provisional governor of Texas. On May 29, 1865, general amnesty was granted, with certain exception, to all persons who had taken part in the war. Boards were ap- pointed by the provisional governor to register all loyal voters and thus put the political ma- chinery of the state once more in operation. Governor Hamilton showed much generosity toward former political offenders and pursued the policy of reconstruction as favored . by President Johnson. But Congress feared, too much liberality in dealing with the late seces- sionists, and antagonism soon developed be- tween that body and the president, which finally led to open rupture and impeachment, and. added to the bitterness and delay in bringing back the southern states. All the slaves were of course free by the thirteenth amendment to the Constitution, and when it is remembered that by this act nearly four hundred thousand ignorant and helpless, although politically free, persons were turned loose to go and do as they pleased in this state, it will be realized that the problems confronting the citizens were almost beyond human solution. Little wonder that race hatred should arise, and that the lines between black and white should at once and forever be tightly drawn. However, not the same bitterness existed in Texas as in. some of the other slave states where the conflict had been fought out, and the people as a whole were more easily reconciled to the new order of things, and yet the course of events following the war was so exasperat- ing, and harmonious settlement proceeded so slowly, that of the ten seceding states Texas was the last to be readmitted.

January 8, 1866, were elected delegates to a state constitutional convention. By April the labors of this convention were complete and the constitution was ratified by the people on June 25. The constitution was practically the same as that in force before secession, but with all the changes and amendments made necessary by the outcome of the war. It rec-

ognized the abolition of slavery, extending civil and political rights and privileges to the freedmen, declared the principle of secession henceforth null, repudiated the Civil war debt, and assumed its share of United States taxes levied since the date of secession. With the ratification of this constitution was elected at the same time J .W. Throckmorton as governor of Texas.

At the first session of the legislature there came before that body the question of approval of the fourteenth amendment to the Constitu- tion of the United States. The third section of this amendment, by its exclusion from state and national offices of all persons who had be- fore the war taken the oath of office and subse- quently engaged in the rebellion, would have operated to keep, for years to come, the best citizens of the state from the direction of its affairs, and the amendment was accordingly almost unanimously rejected in Texas, as it was by most of the other southern states, al- though it was approved and became a part of the Constitution through adoption by the northern states. This legislature also resolved that the presence of the United States troops was no longer needed in the interior of the state, and should be withdrawn for the pro- tection of the frontier against Indians or en- tirely removed from the state.

Thus Texas seemed to be well restored to her former place in the Union, but Congress then decided that President Johnson's plan of reconstruction was too liberal and by three acts of 1867 provided for a "more efficient government of the rebel states." Five military districts were created, Texas and Louisiana forming the fifth and General Sheridan being appointed commander of this district, with am- ple if not dictatorial powers. It was resolved that the Confederate states should not be ad- mitted until each should adopt the fourteenth amendment and should allow the negroes full participation in the reorganization of the gov- ernment (from which reorganization, how- ever, many of the best white citizens were excluded by the third section of the four- teenth amendment).

HISTORY OF TEXAS.

The alleged disloyalty now felt the iron heel of the oppressor, and thenceforth the people of Texas had to swallow a very bitter pill of reconstruction. The "iron-clad oath" of alle- giance shut out the finest citizens of the state from participation in public affairs, and civil government became either a frightful travesty ' or was administered with military rigor. Gen- eral Sheridan removed Governor Throckmor- ton as being "an impediment to reconstruc- tion," former Governor Elisha M. Pease be- ing appointed to the office in his stead. The few men who held the offices of government were not representative, had no sympathy with Texans, and too often were entirely actuated by personal greed, so that it is small wonder that the Black Republican party of those days incurred opprobrium and hatred and placed in disrepute the thousands of magnanimous men whose nominal representatives they were. Al- so, the Freedman's Bureau, organized to as- sist the freed negroes, by lack of tact and undue interference in behalf of the black men, added to the irritation and widened the breach between the white southern men and the ne- groes although the industrial salvation and prosperity of the country manifestly depended upon harmonious co-operation between the two races.

During the reconstruction period the fifth military district had several governors. After Sheridan's removal General Hancock was placed in command, but his leniency was as displeasing to Congress as his predecessor's harshness was to President Johnson, and he was displaced by General Reynolds, and the latter in turn by General Canby.

After the registration of the qualified voters had been completed according to the will of the commander of the district, the election of a new constitutional convention was held. This convention met at Austin in June, 1868. This body was found to be strongly factional, and it was only after protracted debate and much wrangling that the scheme of government was drafted. One party in the convention wished the constitution of 1866 and all acts of the leg- islature subsequent to the act of secession to

be considered nullified, ab initio, and this branded that faction with the name of Ab Initios. There was also much disagreement between the liberal and radical factions as to whether the franchise should extend to those who had sustained the Confederate cause. The liberal party finally triumphed, but the con- vention ended in extreme disorder, without formal adjournment, and the completed draft of the constitution was drawn up after the convention had dissolved and at the order of General Canby. This new constitution was finally submitted to the people in November, 1869, and adopted by a large majority. At the same time state officers and congressmen were elected, Edmund J. Davis being chosen governor, and entering office in the following January. By order the legislature convened February 8, 1870, and at once ratified the thir- teenth and fourteenth amendments to the Con- stitution and elected United States senators. Reconstruction was now complete, and on the following March 30th President Grant signed the act readmitting Texas into the Union, and on the following day her senators and represen- tatives took their seats in Congress. A few days later the powers lodged with the mili- tary officials were remitted to the civil authori- ties, all but several small garrisons of federal troops were withdrawn from the state, Gover- nor Davis, who had formerly acted only in a provisional capacity, became the actual execu- tive of the state, and Texas, after ten years of wandering, returned to the fold of the Union.

Nevertheless, the fact that the affairs of the state were under the control of the minor- ity Republican element did not tend to smooth out the seas of political discontent. There was a Republican governor, Republicans held the majority of offices, and the great bulk of citizens felt they were still ostracized from political participation. Agitation and anxiety among the people were not allayed, and the appalling list of murders in the state, penalties for which were seldom applied un- less by lynch law, shows better than many words the disorganized status of society dur-

HISTORY OF TEXAS.

ing this period, and how through ten years of strife civilization had become debauched and the structure of state, church and social organ- isms become weakened by successive on- slaughts of martial fury and military despot- ism.

But the coercion of reconstruction times was now past, and at the next election the natural strength of the Democratic party as- serted itself, and it was not long before the carpetbagger and the negro officeholders gave place to the respectable and public-spirited citizen. In the election of November, 1872, the Democrats secured control of the legisla- ture and elected all the congressmen, but the governor, having been chosen for four years, held over in office until 1873. The legislature at once proceeded to institute some desired re- forms, and by passing a measure for a reappor- tionment of state representation they brought about a special state election for 1873. At this election the Democrats carried everything, Richard Coke being the victorious candidate for governor. Davis, however, maintained that the law under which the election had been held was unconstitutional, and refused to surrender the government. For a time the two sides were arrayed in arms, the legislature with a militia guard holding the upper floor of the state house and Governor Davis guarding the lower floor of the capitol with a company of colored troops. But when President Grant refused to support Davis in his contention, the latter gave up the fight and left the office, which was taken possession of by Coke in January, 1874, and the entire Democratic ma- chinery of administration installed.

The last stigma of the reconstruction period was removed by the adoption of a new state constitution in 1876. There were numerous manifest defects in the old document, and the fact that it was largely a product of the re- constructionists added to its unpopularity. Ac- cordingly, in March, 1875, the legislature or- dered the question of calling a constitutional convention to be submitted to the people, and on the appointed day a large majority voted for the convention. Delegates were then elect-

ed, and by the latter part of November their work was completed, and in February, 1876, the new frame of government was ratified by the people. At the general election held on the same day Richard Coke was re-elected gov- ernor of the state. The new constitution purged away the galling restrictions and references to the past which had marked the former docu- ment, and when it went into effect the people of Texas felt themselves released as far as possible from all the bitter bonds of the Civil war, and that their course would henceforth lead along paths of political pleasantness, do- mestic tranquillity, and the general welfare of state and citizens.

During the three decades of "modern" Texas history the course of political adminis- tration yields precedence in true importance to industrial, social and educational develop- ment, and the state capitol at Austin is not the source of as much influence and power as have come to the people from some of the large railroad enterprises or the general system of education. The center of historical interest is henceforth transferred from the leaders of the people to the great masses and their every- day occupations.

Richard Coke went through the formality of a second inauguration to the governorship in April, 1876. The new constitution had still fallen far short of perfection, and in his mes- sage he devoted much space to criticisms of its most glaring faults. In his message he also reviewed the status of frontier affairs, declar- ing that Indian raids were becoming less fre- quent, but that the Rio Grande border was in- fested by Mexican and American banditti who were a source of constant danger to the citi- zens and of untold destruction of property. About this time occurred what were known as the Salt Lake Riots, on the western frontier in El Paso county, where a desperate feud broke out between the American and Mexican population and was not put down until lives and property were destroyed and military in- tervention became necessary. A short time after entering upon his second administration Governor Coke was elected to the United

HISTORY OF TEXAS.

States senate, and Lieutenant Governor Hub- bard filled the executive chair during the re- mainder of the term.

At the election of 1878 Oran M. Roberts was chosen governor, with the other offices also filled from the Democratic ticket. Governor Roberts, whose administration was a very strong one and during which many reforms were placed before the legislature and people for consideration, was re-elected, so that his term ran from 1879 to 1883. His successor was

John Ireland, who also served two terms, and from 1887 to 1891 L. S. Ross was the incum- bent of the executive chair. J. S. Hogg, serv- ing two terms, was the incumbent from Janu- ary, 1891, to January, 1895, succeeded by C. A. Culberson, who served the two terms ending in January, 1899. Joseph D. Sayers held the gubernatorial chair from 1899 to 1903, and the present governor of Texas, elected in No- vember, 1904, and taking office in January, 1905, is S. W. T. Lanham.

HISTORY

OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS

A NARRATIVE OF THE PROGRESS OF THE INSTITUTIONS OF CIVILIZATION FROM EAST TO WEST AND OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMMERCE, INDUSTRY, AND NATURAL RESOURCES.

CHAPTER I.

THE HISTORY OF PETERS COLONY.

The earliest important event connected with the history of that portion of North Texas with which our present narrative has to deal was the act of the republic which gave official exist- ence to Peters Colony. The eastern boundary of this vast land grant defines accurately enough for our purpose the eastern limits to which our historical investigation extends, and the general area included within the bound set by the act forms the arena upon which there arose the splen- did political and industrial civilization whose out- lines are sketched in the following pages.

The policy of colonizing by contracts or under the empresario system was continued from the Spanish and Mexican period into the Republic. This policy indeed seems to have become im- bedded in the stratum of Texas political economy, and the fact that it was under this system that Moses Austin introduced into Texas the Ameri- can nucleus of a free republic may have caused a little sentiment of reverence to attach to the custom, even when its worth as a sound agrarian doctrine became generally disputed.

In line with this policy, and that the powers of the Republic might be exercised to introduce bodies of permanent settlers into the vacant re- gions, Congress passed an act which became a law in February, 1841, by which the president, acting under certain general provisions therein laid down, could enter into contracts with one or more individual parties with the object of col- onizing certain portions of the public domain.

In pursuance of this act of Congress, President Lamar entered into a contract, August 30, 1841, with W. S. Peters, D. S. Carroll, and eighteen others, for the introduction of six hundred fami-

lies into Texas within three years thereafter. W. S. Peters being the person first mentioned in the article and the leading spirit in the enterprise, his name ever afterward attached to the colony.

The boundaries of Peters Colony as defined in the contract have considerable bearing on this history, for the territory thus set off has been subject to certain influences which not only affect- ed the progress of settlement but also affected the character of the settlers. Of the latter state- ment there is interesting evidence in the cosmo- politan genius of the people as manifested in the years preceding the war. Whereas eastern and southern Texas received the bulk of its population from the pronounced slave states to the east and along the same parallel of latitude, it was rather from the northeast, from the border states of Missouri, Kentucky, Illinois and Indiana that the line of migration came which resulted in col- onizing this vast grant of land in North Texas. Of the political results which followed this comin- gling of those whose thought-cleavage was for state rights with those who believed in strong federal forms, perhaps the most conspicuous was the almost even division in several counties of Peters Colony, in the vote for and against seces- sion ; Tarrant county, for instance, declaring for secession by a majority of less than two score. While Texas is numbered among the ten seceding states and, the secession ordinance once passed, its citizens adhered with intense loyalty to their commonwealth, yet the catholicity of their views and variety of opinion are of first importance in the study of their history, and especially true is this of the North Texas people.

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

The contract which President Lamar made with Peters and his associates indicated the fol- lowing boundaries for the colony: The point of beginning was in what is now Grayson county, where Big Mineral creek joins the Red river. Thence the line extended due south one hundred miles to a point in the east part of Ellis county ; thence due west one hundred and sixty-four miles ; thence north to the Red river; and this stream formed the northern boundary down to the place of beginning. Seldom does history record the granting of a territory of such imperial magni- tude to individuals, and never again in the life of the world can such an immense body of practi- cally unoccupied land be opened for settlement. Peters Colony grant, as above defined, included the whole or part of the following counties : Gray- son, Collin, Dallas, Ellis, Johnson, Tarrant, Den- ton, Cooke, Montague, Wise, Parker, Hood, Erath, Palo Pinto, Jack, Clay, Wichita, Archer, Young, Stephens, Eastland, Callahan, Shackel- ford, Throckmorton, Baylor and Wilbarger. The most western of these counties were on the fron- tier less than a quarter of a century ago, with- out a railroad in a hundred miles, and only a short time before had ceased to be the splendid buffalo hunting grounds for the Indians and white hunters. In this same area is now com- prised the great Texas wheat belt and farming region, and its counties afford the richest field for agricultural and industrial development in the entire state.

As happened in practically all of the coloniza- tion enterprises, the Congress had to favor the contractors by extension of the time limit, and on January 16, 1843, an act extended the time for fulfillment of the contract terms until July I, 1848, and the conditions were altered so as to require the contractors to introduce two hundred and fifty families each year. The colonist who was head of a family received six hundred and forty acres of land, provided he should build a house and live in it, should remain on the land three years, and should cultivate fifteen acres. To a single man over seventeen years old was granted three hundred and twenty acres.

By the signing of the contract in 1841 the first formal move was taken toward extending the

frontier of North Texas. Along the eastern and southeastern borders of the colony there were some few settlers, exposing themselves as the outposts of civilization in the regions of barbar- ism, and of course there were hunters and sol- diers who ranged over this region, but aside from these Peters Colony in 1841 was uninhabited.

Very few Peters Colonists have survived the whips and scorns of time and can tell us from their own lips how they came to this country and what they found here on coming. In Sherman, Grayson county, there lives M. L. Webster, who, born in 1826, will soon be eighty years old, and who in many ways is one of the remarkable old men of the state. Of New England stock, the fam- ily came west and settled in Missouri, where one of the son's early experiences was in carrying the mail over a seventy-five mile route between Kirks- ville and Paris. Into the home of E. D. Webster, the father, came each week a copy of the old Missouri Republican, now the St. Louis Repub- lic, and its columns furnished nearly all the secu- lar reading of the household. "Along in the early forties," relates Mr. Webster, "the Republican was filled with information about the Peters Col- ony in Texas ; how every married man could have a splendid tract of choice land by merely going and taking possession, and also much was said in praise of the climate and the beauty of the re- gion. It was by means of this broadcast adver- tising in the papers of Missouri, Arkansas, Ken- tucky and other states that the contractors ob- tained immigrants. Well, father discussed this tempting proposition with the rest of us, it re- curred daily in our conversation until it was finally decided that we should start for the great southwest and accept its promises. We came overland in wagons-for of course there were no railroads-and reached the Cross Timbers near the western edge of the present Grayson county-it was Fannin county then-a few miles south of the present town of Whitesboro, on the evening of November 24, 1845. There were then six families living along the edge of the Cross Timbers-Charles Wheelock, Myron Mud- git, the widow Underwood, Frank Carpenter, Dr. Leaky and the widow Middleton. The colony lands, you see, were settled only along the border,

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

although a great many families had come in since the first surveys were made in the winter of 1841-42. From our place of settlement it was twenty miles to the house of the next settler, near where Sherman is now located, and we had to go for our mail to Preston, in the bend of the Red river, about at the corner of the Peters Colony grant. On the other side of the river above the site of Denison, was a place called Shawneetown, and in this county, also near the present Denison, was a big plantation belonging to a Mr. Mitchell, who had a lot of darkies to cultivate his crops, and who had on his place the first flour mill in the county, and later a cotton gin, and I have hauled corn there to be ground. Over to the west there were nothing that you could call set- tlements, although I suppose if you had explored the timbers carefully you would have found many a cabin half hidden in some secluded spot, for oftentimes a man would locate his home along the creeks and in such an out of the way situation that he would long escape the attention of his neighbors, and for this reason it was hard to es- timate just how many people there were in the country. But there were no towns to the west, Gainesville not being settled until 1847. To the south, near the present site of Mckinney, was a little hamlet called Buckner, and it was there that Agent Hedgecoke of the Peters Colony had his headquarters when I came to the country. Also there was Alton, the seat of Denton coun- ty, about six miles from the present Denton. Then further to the southwest was Dallas, with only a few families and a store or two along the Trinity river; Cedar Springs was its postoffice then. As far as I know these were the only centers you could call towns in all of Peters Col- ony. Game of all kinds was plentiful in our neighborhood, and by going west as far as where St. Jo now is you would find buffalo.

"There were five families in our company, Henry Boggs, John Grimes, E. D. Webster, Ramy Dye, and Jacob Dye, and such parties came in so frequently during that and the following year that in 1846 Grayson county was organized. The county seat was built at a point four or five miles west of where it now is, but in 1848 T. J. Shan- non, who had been elected to the legislature from

this county in 1847, succeeded in getting the offi- cial center moved to where it now is, it being lo- cated on his land. One curious circumstance was that my father's farm was at successive times in three different counties. When we first came here the land was part of Fannin county, then when Grayson was organized it was part of that county, and, at the erection of Cooke county, by a mistake of the surveyors the line was so run as to place our land in Cooke county, where it re- mained until a resurvey could be made."

Important though the Peters Colony grant is in its bearing upon the early history of North Texas, the entity of the Colony, both legally and in fact, was of short duration. As a colony the enter- prise failed in so far as the cohesion and solidarity of the individual elements which the word "col- ony" implies were concerned ; settlers came ingreat numbers, some attracted by the advertisements or agents of the Peters company, others finding this rich country through incident of migration, and, accepting the privileges offered under the colo- nial contract, filed upon their choice of a home- stead, and, without concerning themselves further about the contractors, proceeded with the serious business of founding a home on the Texas fron- tier. The terms of the contract once fulfilled, the relations of the settler with Peters and his as- sociates ceased, and he was responsible to the general government alone. So it is that Peters Colony now has little or no significance to the popular mind, and only the pioneers and those familiar with the complications of Texas real es- tate laws speak the phrase with ready meaning.

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A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume I, Part 12

Author: Paddock, B. B. (Buckley B.), 1844-1922; Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, pub Publication date: 1906 Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing co. Number of Pages: 968

Author: Paddock, B. B. (Buckley B.), 1844-1922; Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing co.
Number of Pages: 968