USA > Texas > Border wars of Texas; being an authentic and popular account, in chronological order, of the long and bitter conflict waged between savage Indian tribes and the pioneer settlers of Texas > Part 12
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31
"On this first night the Indians attacked the lonely camp of Sparks and Jack. Many shots were fired and were heard by Michael Reed and John Welsh on the opposite side of the river. Sparks and Jack, in the dark, sought refuge in a thicket. The Indians seemed afraid to attack the camp and retired. In the morning Sparks and Jack struck out for Temoxtitlan, on the Brazos. Michael Reed and John Welsh on visiting the camp and finding no ce, took up their effects and returned to the Brazos. On their way and near where Brushy Creek enters the San Gabriel, Sparks and Jack met two men, brothers, named' Riley, with two wag-
145
BORDER WARS OF TEXAS.
ons, their effects, wives and children, destined for the Little River settlement. They apprised them of the previ- ous night's happenings and advised them to return, but they would not, and moved on. Inside of a mile the In- dians appeared, professed friendship and claimed only to be following Sparks and Jack. Thereupon the brothers Riley countermarched. But as they were entering the bot- tom at Brushy Creek the Indians appeared on each side of the wagons. As they entered the creek one savage jumped on the lead horse, cut loose his hames, and was about to whirl round for offensive measures, when one of the Riley brothers shot him dead. Then began a vigorous fight. A young man of the party, with the women and children, fled to the brush and kept on fleeing until, in about two days, they reached the settlements on the Brazos. Very soon one of the Rileys was mortally wounded, but before dying killed two so that the deceased brother and five Indians lay dead in the bed of the creek, within a few feet of each other. The attacking party, in view of such mortality, fled, and left the field to the surviving Riley. Nothing daunted, he took from one of the wagons a mat- tress, on which he laid his dead brother-covering him in sheets and quilts, to keep the wolves from mutilating his body-then mounted one of the horses and next day ar- rived at the settlement of Yellow Prairie, now in Burleson county. He returned with a party and buried his broth- er. Soon afterward, the Rileys left Texas and returned to Mississippi."
Both Reed and Sparks have relatives yet living in that vicinity ; all honorable and worthy-William, a son of Mi- chael Reed, having served as first sheriff of Bell county. Sam Sparks, a most estimable and worthy descendant of W. C. Sparks, is now holding the office of State Treas- urer .*
Numerous other tragedies and incidents of border
*Resigned in 1912.
146
BORDER WARS OF TEXAS.
warfare occurred during this year-the exact dates, and in most instances reliable details. of which are lacking.
MURDER OF THE RANCHEROS.
In the course of some excavations being made in the courthouse yard at Corpus Christi in 1902, eighteen human skeletons were unearthed. The gruesome discovery ex- cited much curiosity and speculation till the mystery was cleared away by Mr. Frandalig, one of the oldest inhabit- ants of the coast country, and' residing in the vicinity as far back as 1835. "In 1835," he said, "there resided short distance west of the site of Corpus Christi, a ranchman Alejandro Garcia, who had in his employ about twenty peons. The Lipan Indians, about one hundred strong, made a raid on the ranch, and recognizing his inabilty to hold out against so formidable a band of Indians, Garcia and his peons fled for their lives in this direction. They were pur- sued and overtaken near the present site of Corpus Chris- ti, and though they made desperate resistance, were final- ly overcome and most, if not all, massacred. After the Indians had retreated, Mexican soldiers from San An- tonio and rancheros from intervening points, came and bur- ied the unfortunate victims at or near where they fell, and, to the best of my recollection, that point is about where the present court house stands." This is the ac- count in brief-the key that unlocks the past and reveals the fate of participants in one of the many bloody, but un- written scenes by which this "fairest spot of God's crea- tion,"* now peopled with a generation who know the red
*DeCordova says: "Depredation after depredation continued, innumerable parties of frontiersmen were fitted out, who, whenever an opportunity offered, did good service; yet the Indians were seldom to be seen, although the settlers, to their sorrow, often felt their presence. No sooner was a murder committed, or horses stolen, than, even before the alarm could be given, the savages had traveled far upon the way to their homes; and, with the characteristic cunning and skill which they ever displayed on their predatory incur- sions, it was difficult for the white men to follow their trail. Besides, their power of en- durance of fatigue and want of food were far beyond those of their pursuers. It is well known that these hardy sons of the forest have repeatedly traveled more than one hun- dred miles over hill and dale, swimming creeks and rivers, without food or rest."
147
BORDER WARS OF TEXAS.
man only as some, legendary being, was wrenched from as cruel and relentless a race, when roused to resentment, as ever inhabited any portion of the globe from the day it was first flung untamed, uncultivated, from the creative hand of God.
FATE OF PETER MERCER.
The Mercers, (Peter and Jesse) were the first settlers cn the San Gabriel. They built a rude cabin on the bank of the river, and cleared a small farm in the bottom near what is now San Gabriel post-office. Jesse Mercer's wife was dead and he and his children lived with Peter Mercer, who was married, but had no children. One day when Jesse* was absent, a party of Indians approached the house, but manifesting friendship, surrounded the settler in his yard, when they seized his gun and discharged its contents into his body, In the agonies of death he ran some distance and sprang from a bluff, Lodging in the underbrush below, a corpse. While the Indians were engaged in a futile search for his body, Mrs. Mercer with the children and a negro boy, fled down the bottom, and reached the slightly flushed river, which was crossed with some difficulty-tying a grapevine around the waist of the megro boy, and holding the other end while he carried the children across, one at a time. After other adventures and much suffering from hunger, the fugitives made their way down to the settle- ment on the San Gabriel, in what is now Milam county.
OTHER ENCOUNTERS.
Enroute from Fort Marlin to the Falls of the Brazos, and when about midway their journey, David Ridgeway,
* In his series of "Frontier Sketches," published in the Fort Worth Gazette, 1884-5, pioneer Frank M. Collier wrote interestingly of this same Jesse Mercer-then married, though somewhat unhappily, a second time-as one of the first settlers on Mercer Creek six miles south of the present town of Comanche, in 1851, and adds: "Mercer was an old Texan, having emigrated from Georgia in 1835, and had assisted in surveying most of the Leon Valley from Gatesville up, and was the owner of several tracts of land on South Leon and Mercer creeks.
148
BORDER WARS OF TEXAS.
recently from Tennessee, and another man whose name is not given, were ambushed by a party of Caddos. Ridge- way fell mortally wounded at the first volley of arrows, but his companion fortunately escaped by the fleetness of his horse. Citizens pursued, but failed to overtake these marauders. "Quite a number of people about this time" says Wilbarger, "were killed around Fort Marlin and the settlement robbed of an immense amount of property-the Indians doing all they could to break it up." "For some reason," continues Wilbarger, "the Indians fought harder to retain the Brazos country than any portion of the State. The soil of no State in the Union has been crimsoned with the blood of so many brave defenders as that of Texas-not even excepting Kentucky, the 'dark and bloody ground.""'
In the summer of this year, James Alexander, one of the early and valuable citizens of Bastrop, and his son, a youth of sixteen, were murdered by Indians at the head of Pin Oak Creek, on the Wilbarger "trace," near its intersec- tion with the old La Bahia (Goliad) road. They were freight- ing goods in ox wagons from Columbia to Bastrop, and halted to "noon," when the Indians, under cover of a ra- vine, crept up and fired at such close range as to powder- burn the clothing of the two unsuspecting men. After scalping and horribly mutilating the bodies of their vic- tims, killing the oxen, and plundering and destroying the wagons and contents, the fiends left, going in the direc- tion of the "Falls."
The bodies of the unfortunate men were discovered by parties traveling the road a few hours later, when the alarm spread, a party was soon organized, and in pursuit, following the trail of the savages to Little River where it was lost. However, the party continued to scour the coun- try, and when some fifty miles above the "Falls" of the Brazos, they found a Caddo Indian who was captured and forced to guide them to his camp some five miles away, where they found four other warriors, and two squaws. The whites killed the five warriors, but spared the women-an
149
BORDER WARS OF TEXAS.
act that at least palliates to the favor of the whites, since the Indians make no distinction in such instances; sparing neither men, women mor children.
No statement has been preserved alleging that goods or any other evidences were discovered in the camp of these Indians implicating them in the murder of the Alexan- dens.
Briefly, in closing this period, we mention a few of the many incidents and tragedies occurring in 1835: A Mr. Al- bright was killed by Indians on his farm near Fort Houston; James Boazman (or Boozeman), was killed at Boozeman's Ferry on the Trinity-he had driven his wagon into the river to soak and swell the wheels, when Indians killed him and carried away his horses; about the same time and perhaps the same Indians, (a foot party of ten or twelve) killed Mr. Bradley Davis. Davis and a Mr. Leathers were out bee tree hunting-Leathers escaped after a hard race; Tom Green was waylaid and killed by Indians on Keechi Creek in what is now Leom county; two families named Rity were moving west, on the old San Antonio road, and were near the Navasota River, when they were attacked by Indians. They corralled their wagons and perpared for defense- one of the men was killed at the first fire, but the other, aided by, the women, made it hot for the red skins, causing them to finally withdraw. These emigrants retraced their steps back east; the Indians stole some horses on San Pedro Bayou and were pursued by a small party of men. In the charge James McLane and Isaac Sheridan were killed and the remainder of the party forced to retreat; at another time horses were stolen and a party of settlers went in pur- suit, overtaking, and killing some of the Indians on the Trinity. In the fight Wm. Foster was killed.
At this period scouts were kept in the woods most of the time watching for trails and signs of Indians and to give alarms.
T
CHAPTER IX.
HOUGH ushered In amid dark and ominous war-clouds, followed by a series of the bloodiest and most appalling disasters that ever stained the history of any land, the year of 1836-most memorable in the an- nals of Texas-soon evolved from its slough of despair.
The campaign of 1835 was settled by such brilliant and complete success for Texan arms, as to render wholly unexpect- ed the disasters that befell them in 1836 up to the very moment that, with the suddenness of a transformation wrought by Prospero's wand, the clouds of defeat were dis- pelled, April 21, by the signal victory of San Jacinto, and the star of Texas, no longer obscured by lurid vapors, blazed forth steadily and serenely from a clear sky, as a new orb in the galaxy of nations.
BIRTH OF THE LONE STAR REPUBLIC.
The siege and fall of the Alamo; the destruction of Grant and his command beyond the Neuces; the defeat and annihilation of Johnson's force at San Patricio; the killing of King and his followers, and the capture of Ward and his men at Refugio; the surrender of Fannin and his troops, and their subsequent massacre, together with that of Ward and his men and other prisoners of war, held at Goliad; the retreat of Gen. Houston from Gonzales to the Colorado, and
151
BORDER WARS OF TEXAS.
thence to the Brazos, exposing to the devastating and san- guinary fury of Mexican soldiery, all the settlements in Tex- as, save those on Red River and about Nacogdoches and San Augustine; and the sweeping forward of a powerful Mexi- can army across Texas in three divisions, from the western frontier toward the Sabine, like a drag net, constituted & series of calamities of the most appalling nature. Apparent- ly they portended that the tragedy enacted on the plain of Guadalupe, in Zacatecas, was to have a dreadful sequel in Texas, that would leave the despotism of Santa Anna firmly enthroned from the western confines of the United States to the Pacific Ocean, and southward to the Caribbean Sea. It seemed probable that the only visible reminders that would
remain of the effort made by Anglo-American civilization and liberty, to plant themselves in the beautiful and pleas- ant land, and change it from a wilderness into a well or- dered and populous commonwealth, would be the graves of patriot heroes, who had tried and failed.
When Gen. Houston fell back from the Colorado, the greater number of the volunteers with him, left the army to hurry to their homes and remove their families eastward, before the Mexicans reached them.
Panic-fear among the defenseless women and children, spread like fire in flax, resulting in what is known to his- tory as the "Runaway Scrape.". Nothing could allay it. Thousands of women and children, with and without escort, thronged all the routes of travel, hurrying afoot, horse- back, and in vehicles in the direction of Louisiana. Women gave birth to children by the roadside with no one to care for them. Many of the sick and feeble died by the way. Back of those who constituted the anguished, scattered, scurrying throngs, were their homes, and all the proper- ty they had accumulated by years of toil and hardship. The Mexican troops reduced many of these habitations to ashes, and they wantonly destroyed thousands of cattle and horses.
In addition to all this, the Indians took advantage. of
152
BORDER WARS OF TEXAS.
the confusion and weakened power of resistance, to wage fiendish warfare, attended by murder and robbery.
Parties of refugees were several miles east of the battle ground when they heard the booming of cannon at San Ja- cinto. They halted to await news of the issue of the con- test. Couriers dashed along the roads next day and gave intelligence of the splendid and decisive triumph. A few more days, and it was known that Santa Anna had been captured at San Jacinto, and that, under a treaty entered into with him, all the Mexican troops in Texas, except those captured at San Jacinto, were on the march back to Mexico, followed by a Texan force that buried the remains of the victims of the Goliad massacre, and saw that the terms of the agreement were observed.
An election was held in September, at which the consti- tution framed by the Plenary Convention in March, was adopted, and a president and vice president, members of con- gress and other officers, were chosen. Congress met in October, and General Sam Houston, as president, and Mira- beau B. Lamar, as vice president, were inaugurated; and the Republic of Texas was launched upon its glorious career- extending to the time that Texas became a state of the American Union in February, 1846.
The charred bones of the martyrs of the Alamo were collected by Seguin from the ashes of the pyres upon which their bodies had been consumed, and were interred at the Cathedral of San Fernando in San Antonio. The people bent themselves to the accomplishment of the new destinies that opened before them, and the constructive work of building a noble commonwealth, consecrated to liberty, order, peace, prosperity, enlightenment and progress, was begun in earnest, and has been continued to this day- with results that prove that the blood that was shed, the sacrifices that were made, and the sufferings that were en- dured, were not in vain.
The Texas people of 1836 mourned that Travis, Bowie, Bonham, Crockett, Fannin and a host of others were gone,
153
BORDER WARS OF TEXAS.
and were not with them to enjoy the fruits of victory ; this sorrow, too, was made more poignant by the untimely loss of the great Stephen F. Austin, also the noble pa- triot, Lorenzo de Zavalla. But their sorrows were tempered with the proud joy that they had won renown and deathless fame, establishing for Texas, memories and traditions that conserve patriotism and civic virtue to remotest times. "A land without memories and traditions of patriots is a land without liberty."
The Texan war for independence in some respects is without a parallel, and the final victory at San Jacinto will ever rank as one of the astonishing feats of military history. The great leader in that campaign and victor at San Ja- cinto, Sam Houston, (he needs no title), was yet long spared to the people. And he it was that so well and faith- fully guided and guarded the destinies of the dearly bought new land of liberty-the Lone Star Republic.
The matter of the Cherokee claims came before the Plenary Convention, but was not finally acted upon, owing to the haste, confusion and alarm that prevailed.
The Cherokees considered their rights secure, in view of the action taken by the Consultation in 1835, and of the treaty entered into with them in January, 1836. They, therefore, remained quiet. But Sam Houston was the factor that kept these Indians pacified and in check. Other and hostile Indians glutted, as far as they could, their lust for revenge, blood and plunder, and the Texas people had to fight them with one hand while they fought combined Mexi- co with the other.
Morfitt's report to Secretary Forsyth in 1836, gave the following estimate of the number of Indians in Texas at that time: Wacos, 400; Tehuacanas, 200; Tonkawas, 800, Cooshatties, 350; Alabamas, 250; Comanches, 2,000; Caddos, 500; Lipans, 900; smaller bands, 800; Cherokees and their as- sociate bands, 8,000, a total of 14,200.
154
BORDER WARS OF TEXAS.
FAILURE OF BEALE'S COLONY.
Noting the futile efforts of the few English colonists un- der Dr. John Charles Beale, to exist on the extreme bor- ders of Texas, or rather, at that time, within the limits of the state of Tamaulipas, between the Nueces and Rio Grande, we find its sequel in a most sad and bloody tragedy.
In 1832 Dr. Beale, a native of England, but then resi- dent in the city of Mexico-having married the widow of Richard Exeter, an English merchant, and whose maiden name was Dona Maria Dolores Soto-in partnership with one or two other gentlemen, secured a contract or permit from the State of Coahuila and Texas for colonizing a tract of three million acres between the rivers Rio Grande and Nueces.
Omitting many interesting details incident to its estab- lishment and brief existence, we shall briefly trace the his- tory of this colony as gleaned principally from Kennedy's "Texas"-closing with the sad sequel.
The first and so far as we can find, only English colony- fifty-nine men, women and children-sailed from New York on November 10th., 1833, in the schooner Amos Wright, Capt. Monroe, for Aransas Bay, and where after a tempestuous voy- age they arrived and disembarked on the 12th. of December, going into camp, and remaining through most in- clement weather, till the end of the month. On the 3rd. of January, 1834, Dr. Beale having procured teams and means of transportation from Goliad, the party left overland for the intericr. The weather continued very wet and cold, and much suffering was experienced by the "new comers" on the route. Crossing the San Antonio River and leaving Goliad with fresh oxen on the 20th., they arrived at the "Rancho" of Don Erasmo Seguin at noon on the 31st. of January. Borrowing of the Don five yokes of oxen, they pounded on.
"February 4th., made an early start reaching a small
155
BORDER WARS OF TEXAS.
brook called the Salado, twelve miles distant, where we formed our camp with great precaution, as this place is famous for the murders committed by the Tahuacanas, being one of their usual resting places." -
About noon on the following day the travel-worn emi- grants drove into San Antonio. "Bexar is one of the poor- est, most miserable places in this country. The Indians steal all their horses, rob their rancheros and nearly every week, murder some one or two of the inhabitants. From want of union and energy, they tamely submit to this out- rage, which all admit is inflicted by a few Tahuacanas."
Resting here till the 18th. of February, the now more cheerful colonists left Bexar with fifteen carts and wagons for their final destination near the Rio Grande. Ten days travel from San Antonio brought them to the Nueces River -which they crossed "with the English and Mexican flags flying and the people cheering most enthusiastically" -- and for the first time entered the lands designated as Beale's Colony ; and in commemoration of which event one of the party, Mr. Little, carved upon a large tree on the west bank : "Los Primeros Colonos de la Villa de Dolores pasaronel 28 de Febrero, 1834," the English rendition being: "The first colonists of the village of Dolores passed here on the 28th. of February, 1834,"-many of them, alas, never to pass again.
After exploring the country in various directions and arranging other preliminaries, the little band of colonists fi- nal'y halted, March 16, on the Los Moras Creek, below the present town of Del Rio and some ten or twelve miles from the northeast bank of the Rio Grande; and where they chose the site for the proposed village of Dolores-a name bestowed by Dr. Beale in honor of his absent wife. Munic- ipal officers were now elected, the corner stone of a church laid with much ceremony, tents, huts, and cabins erected, streets and plazas platted, and the foundation for a perma- nent town laid-including the building of a brush wall around it for protection against the wild Indians, who then, as for generations before and for fifty years afterwards,
156
BORDER WARS OF TEXAS.
were a terror to the Mexican population of that frontier. "But the settlement at Dolores did not prosper," says Kennedy, owing to a variety of causes; of which the principal, apparently, was the absence of proper quali- fications of the colonists themselves. A drouth prevailed and, without irrigation, the colonists failed to raise crops; the fre- quent murders of rancheros by Indians caused the colonists much apprehension and uneasiness, lest they should be attacked by the savages. As time passed conditions
grew worse, and much dissatisfaction
arose,
causing
parties of the settlers to leave for Manclova, and other Mexican towns, Santa Pisa, San Fernando and other places, and still others for the coast to seek vessels and re- turn passage to their native land-till finally on the 17th. of June, 1836, the settlement was entirely abandoned, the last to leave being Mr. Palmer and seven others who went to San Fernando where we lose sight of them. And thus perished the bright hopes and persevering efforts of those ardent, but unfortunate men and women, to sustain them- selves and acquire a home and heritage in the wilds of the the new world. In the language of historian Kennedy, himself an Englishman, and chronicling the trials and fail- ures of his own countrymen: "And though Dolores ob- tained a place on the map, it had no pretentions to the name of a successful settlement-further supplying evi- dence of the superiority of the Anglo-American in forming colonies. The North Americans are the only people who, in defiance of all obstacles, have struck the roots of civili- zation deep into the soil of Texas. Even as I trace these lines, I reflect upon their progress with renewed wonder and admiration. They are, indeed, the organized conquer- ers of the wild, uniting in themselves the three fold attri- butes of husbandmen, lawgivers, and soldiers."
THE SAD SEQUEL.
And now, passing over the truly pathetic, revolting and
157
BORDER WARS OF TEXAS.
heart-rending parts, we must briefly narrate the sad, sad- dest of all, sequels the murder of the last twelve colonists; capture of Mrs. Horn, Mrs. Harris and their children; a story replete with cruel torture and sufferings that must elicit deepest sympathy, and cause even the maudlin sentimentalist to burn with rage and indignation.
Among other discouraged settlers were a party of eleven men, including John Horn, wife, and two little sons, John and Joseph; a Mr. Harris, his wife and three months old girl baby, probably the only child born at Dolores-in all sixteen souls-who left the fated settlement on the 10th., of March, 1836, hoping to reach the coast by way of San Patri- cio on the lower Neuces, and obtain passage by water to other and more favored lands. They reached the Neuces, and camped for several days in a secluded spot near what they supposed was the road leading to San Antonio. They pur- posely kept from view, as they had learned of Santa Anna's invasion of Texas. They heard teams, and men on horse- back passing, and supposed them to belong to the Mexican army. The party resumed their journey April 2. Two days later while camped near a small lake, they were surround- ed and attacked by fifty or sixty Comanches, who killed all of the men outright, except Mr. Harris and a young Ger- man whom they left for dead, made prisoners of the wo- men and children, and secreted such effects of the colonists as they desired to appropriate, and destroyed the remainder. They later returned to the scene and got the property they had cached. At the same time they found Mr. Harris and the German alive and dragged them to camp and murdered and scalped them in the presence of the agonized prison- ers. A savage also amused himself by tossing Mrs. Harris's infant in the air and letting it fall upon the ground until it was dead. The Indians were part of a force of four hun- dred Comanches who were operating in the rear of the Mex- ican army, plundering and murdering without regard to na- tionality. After killing several Mexicans and Americans, the entire body of Indians moved northward, out of Texas,
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.