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 16
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Republic-a story full of pathos and tragedy, to be recount- ea hereinafter.
Following this sixth admonition, Mr. and Mrs. Howard at once removed to the present vicinity of Hallettsville, in La- vaca county, and thenceforward her life encountered no repetition of the horrors which had so terribly followed her footsteps through the previous thirteen years. 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, where she died and where he is believed to be now living, probably a little past four-score years.
Other incidents without exact dates, but all occurring during this year, in different sections of the country-most- ly within the limits of Austin's colonies will be briefly no- ticed. Mainly, these are small affairs, in view of greater ones, but deserving of notice-illustrating at least, in an eminent degree, too, the tremendous hazards taken, and trials suffered, by the early pioneers of Texas in their struggles to secure and retain homes for themselves and their children, in this fair, but blood-bought land.
THE HARVEY MASSACRE.
Among other brave and worthy pioneers, were the Har- vey family, emigrating from Alabama, and settling near Wheelock, in what is now Robertson county, Texas, in 1835. In November of the following year, while the happy family were enjoying the frugal evening meal-little think- ing of near danger-a party of Indians, cautiously ap- proaching, attacked the house. Mr. Harvey attempted to se- cure his gun, in a rack over the door, but was struck in the neck by a bullet and instantly killed. His wife concealed herself under one of the beds in the room, but was discov- ered, dragged out and after a desperate resistance, killed and | horribly mutilated-the savage fiends cutting her heart out and placing it on her breast. The son, a lad of about ten years, was also killed-"with many wounds"
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-his coat containing more than twenty holes. Securing the scalps of their victims the savages now departed, car- rying away as captives the little nine year old daughter, whose arm was broken during the massacre, and a negro servant girl.
Finally, after more than a year's search, and the ex- penditure of considerable money, the daughter was found and ransomed by an uncle, James Tolbert, who carried her to his home in Alabama-removing therice to Texas.
"They settled," says the Rev. Morrell, "near where her parents and brother were killed. She has since married, and when recently (1873) heard from, was living. I have often been at her house, and used the family Bible at worship, owned by her father; and which yet has upon its pages the blood of her parents, spilled by the hands of the In- dians on that fearful night."-"Flowers and Fruits, or Thir. ty-Six Years in Texas," pp. 68, 69. --
CAPTURE OF MRS. YEARGIN AND CHILDREN.
In the night, a few weeks before the battle of San Ja- cinto, a party of Comanches attacked the Yeargin home, on Cummings Creek, in Fayette county. This family was one of the few that had not joined their neighbors in the "runaway scrape." Mrs. Yeargin and her two little sons were captured-the aged husband and father escaped after pursuit, running afoot, it is said, ten miles, from the effects of which he soon died.
After a captivity of some three months, the mother was reclaimed by relatives, at Coffee's trading house on Red River-the ransom paid being $300. But the Indians stead- fastly refused to sell the two little boys, and they were nev- er after heard of. Eventually recovering from the effects of exposure and ill treatment at the hands of her cruel captors, but ever mourning the loss of her loved ones, this estimable lady survived many years, dying at her old home- stead a few years since.
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FATE OF THE REEDS.
Joseph and Braman Reed, brothers, were natives of Vir- ginia, emigrating to Texas in 1829, and first locating in the Bastrop community, removing after a short time to what is now Burleson county, settling on Davidson's Creek, where they followed the business of stock raising. One day in the spring of this year, Joseph Recd rode out on the range, looking after his cattle, and when about half a mile from home, was suddenly attacked by a party of forty or fifty Indians. Amid a perfect shower of arrows, Reed put spurs to his horse and fled for his home, pursued by the yelling savages. Mortally wounded, the poor man fell from his horse just as he reached his yard gate. His hero- ic wife, determining he should not be scalped and mutilat- ed, now rushed out and, under the excitement of the oc- casion, actually lifted her dead husband to her arms and dragged him into the cabin, which she succeeded in reach- ing unharmed, although the target of many arrows.
Fortunately, the Indians did not attack the house, but left, camping, however in the vicinity. The brother of the dead man, arriving on the scene, spread the alarm, and soon collected a small party of settlers, who attacked the Indians in their camp. In the hard fight, Braman Reed, too, was killed, and several others wounded; and for a time the situation of the whites was desperate, but finally the chief fell, when the Indians fled, leaving their dead on the field. Though seldom following the harrowing practice of the savages, so exasperated were the whites on this occa- sion, we are told, they scalped the dead chief.
In Travis county, in May of this year, depredating In- dians plundered the house of Nathaniel Moore, who, with his family was absent, and on the following morning at 'Thom- as Moore's, killed Conrad Rohrer, from ambush, as he was saddling his horse to ride out after his team. Showing themselves now, to the number of ten, they threatened to attack Moore's house, but desisted on the appearance of sev-
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eral men, who happened to be stopping over night at Moore's.
KILLING OF EDWARDS.
About the same time, and in the same section, John Ed- wards, one of the early pioneers of Texas, was killed by In- dians. In company with Mr. Bartholomew Manlove, he was traveling from the town of Bastrop to Washington. Ap- proaching under the guise of friendship, the Indians shook hands with Edwards, and then fell upon him, spearing him to death. Manlove had fled at the first sight of the enemy and after a hard race of several miles, effected his escape .*
On one occasion, three men-John Marlin, Jarrett and Lanham Menifee, repaired to the vicinity of a beetree they had !discovered. Walking single file along a narrow, wood- ed trail, they suddenly discovered an Indian aiming at them, but his gun missed fire, when Marlin and Lanham Menifee both fired, "each killing the same Indian." Re- loading their guns, the settlers proceeded but a few paces further, when they were fired upon by other Indians in am- bush. The fire was quickly returned with fatal effect- killing two more Indians and causing the others to retreat to a dense thicket. Joined at this moment by another set- tler, who chanced to be riding in that direction, the two re- maining Indians were attacked, one being killed and the other escaping.
TROUBLES IN THE HORNSBY SETTLEMENT.
Hornsby's on the Colorado, some ten miles below the present city of Austin, was one of the earliest, and outside, settlements in Austin's upper colony, and at this date con- sisted of the Hornsbys, Harrells and a few other brave families.
In the spring of 1836, these families, escorted by Wil-
* Wilbarger, p, 231.
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liams, Hoggett and Cain, three young men detailed by Cap- tain Tomlinson, then in command of a small ranger force in that vicinity, fled like others, before the Mexican army of invasion, toward the Sabine. On arriving at the old town of Nashville, they heard the glorious news of Santa Anna's defeat at San Jacinto, and at once returned to their homes, and to the tilling of their fields. "They had only been home a few days (says Wilbarger) when about ten o'clock one bright morning in the early part of May, while Williams and Hoggett were in one part of the field, hoeing and thinning corn, and the Hornsby boys and Cain were working in another portion, about one hundred In- dians rode up to the fence near where Williams and Hog- gett were at work, threw down the fence and marched in, bearing a white flag hoisted on a lance-the wily redskins thus throwing the young men off their guard. As they rode up, forming a circle, they shook hands with the two young men, and almost at the same moment commenced their bloody work, spearing one of them to death, and shooting the other dead as he attempted to flee."
At this juncture the Hornsby boys, Billy, aged 19; Mal- colm, 17; Reuben, Jr., about twelve years of age, and the young man Cain, witnessing the attack upon, and fate of their two companions in the adjoining field, fled for the river bottom, crossed and went up the stream some dis- tance, recrossing about the present Burdett ford, and then traveled down through the thicket brush of the bottom to within about a mile of their home, where they concealed themselves until after dark, when they cautiously ventured in-expecting perhaps, to find their parents and oth- ers slaughtered, and the house plundered or burned. But the murderous fiends, "after riding around and firing off a few guns, had departed, carrying with them all the stock they could gather in the neighborhood," amount- ing to some seventy-five or one hundred head of cattle, some of which got loose from the Indians and came back home about three weeks afterward. "The joyful meeting,":
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continues Wilbarger, in telling of the return of the five boys, "can better be imagined than described, for up to this time neither party knew what had been the fate of the other."
In this same vicinity, in the fall, two other men were killed by the Indians. Blakely, Harris and one other, name now forgotten, came up from Webber's Prairie, some six or seven miles below, and stopped over night at Hornsby's, leaving next morning to hunt for wild stray cattle-"mav- ericks"-of which there were a great number ranging on the river at that time-common property and "free to who- ever might be lucky enough to kill them." Having crossed the river and entered the range, and just as Harris and the unknown man were ascending the bark of a small ravine, they were fired upon and killed. Blakely, who fortunately was some distance in the rear, wheeled, put spurs to his horse and succeeded in escaping by fast riding. The mur- dered men were scalped and disemboweled, their entrails strewn upon bushes, their arms chopped off and hearts cut out. "Such," says Wilbarger, was the unsettled state of affairs in the Hornsby settlement in 1836; nor did the Indians cease their murders in this section for many years afterward, as late as 1845-as will be shown further on.
Note-The following letter from Hon. W. T. Davidson, (lately deceased) gives further details of the murder of his father and of Crouch, his companion, by the Indians. The statements can be relied on as true. The letter follows:
Belton, Texas, March 25, 1907.
Mr. J. T. DeShields,
Farmersville, Texas.
Dear Sir :- At your request I send you a short account of the killing of Robert Davidson, my father, by the Coman- che Indians in 1836. Mr. Davidson was born in Kentucky on July 1, 1799. Married Rebecca Landis in Ohio in 1825; settled in Illinois and from there moved to Texas in 1838. First stopped in Burleson county on Davidson's Creek, near
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the present town of Caldwell, and set up the body of a log house, but never did finish it, and moved from there up to Nashville on the Brazos, and from there in the fall of 1834 moved with his family up to the Three Forks of Little River, settled on his headright league of land, and built a log cabin in the bottom on the river bank, for protection against the Indians. In 1835 he cleared about four acres of land and put it in corn and pumpkins. The Indians having become so bold and troublesome, my father moved his fam- ily back to Nashville in the fall of 1835, but in the spring of 1836, he went back to his home on Little River to plant a crop, but before he got through, Santa Anna had invaded Texas, butchered the defenders of the Alamo, and then the settlers having been notified by couriers, sent from Nash- ville up on Little River, to fall back to Nashville, as the country was being over-run by Mexicans and Indians. My father, Jasper Crouch, Gouldsby Childers, O. T. Tyler, - - Shackelford, Jno. Beal, Jack Hopson, Ezekiel Robertson and probably two or three others, on receipt of this informa- tion, made immediate preparations to retreat in a body to Nashville. Their only vehicle was a wagon to be drawn by a single pair of oxen. They had some horses but not enough to mount the entire party. On the morning of the first day they arrived at Henry Walker's on Walker's Creek, about 7 or 8 miles north of the present town of Camer- on. There they found Henry Walker, Campbell Smith and - - Monroe. On the next morning the party started on their journey to Nashville, and father and Crouch concluded the party was out of danger from the Indians, and their families being down at Nashville, told the balance of the party they would go on ahead, and reach Nashville that evening, but they had got about 300 yards ahead of the main party, when about 200 Indians, coming up in their rear, passed by the main party without making any halt, and pushed ahead and attacked my father and Crouch, who made a bold stand, but were both slain by the merciless savages, after losing one or two of their number.
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This occurrence took place in the month of March ac- carding to my necollection of the event; others say as late as June, 1836.
My father had studied medicine before moving to Texas, and brought some valuable medical works with him, but not Being sufficiently settled, he never practiced in this country. Essper Crouch, who was killed with my father, was a Mis- sonary Baptist preacher, he and my father were close friends, and were both buried in the same grave on the gezirie where they were slain about 7 or 8 miles north of the present town of Cameron. They were buried the next day Dy friends who came up from Nashville. Judge O. T. Tyler zxd a few others performed the last sad rites. Years after I went on the ground where my father and Crouch were mur- dered, for the purpose of finding their grave, if possible, that I might give them a more decent burial. The land hav- ing been put in cultivation, and all plowed over, I soon Found that I would never be able to find it. So gave up the Soca with a sad heart. I am the only member of the origi- 33al Davidson family that moved to Texas in 1833, now liv- Eng. And Mrs. O. T. Tyler, Hon. Geo. W. Tyler's mother, is the only member of the original Childers family, left, and she is living in Belton, loved and respected by all. Rob- xt Childers after living a long and useful life, died near Temple on his farm.
Robert Childers related the following incident to me as Having occurred on the first day's march of the party down to where they camped the first night: As the party in wagon stayed close together, my father traveled near them trying to kill a deer for supper. Finally he succeeded, and when he overtook the party, he told them he had seen 227 Indian, when one of the party remarked, "Davidson is scared !" Another one repliel, saying, "when Davidson zgets scared, the rest of us had better look out."
A few years after my father's death, my mother married ZL M. H. Washington. There were three children by this
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marriage, namely, Elizabeth, Jennie and Annie, and all of them are still living and have interesting families.
In 1846, my mother's family moved from Nashville to Austin, but after several changes, went back to her old home in Illinois to visit her brother, Fred Landis, who has two sons in Congress, and one a United States District Judge, in Chicago. My mother died very suddenly while on that visit, May, 1874, at Mt. Pulaski, Ill., at the home of one of her nephews.
Hoping you may be able to use this hastily prepared sketch of my father and his death, I remain, 1
Yours truly,
W. T. Davidson. 1
..
CHAPTER X.
T HE flow of events in Texas history has now reached into a distinctive era-that of the Lone Star Republic-and henceforward the affairs and destinies of Texas are under the guidance and control of its patriot fathers, who had heroically battled for and won this independence But many breakers were yet to be encountered. A predatory and menac- ing Indian warfare had now been carried on for fifteen years-a strife but yet in the incipient stage and which was to increase in fierceness and bloody atrocity as the Republic's emboldened and increasing population expanded her borders, and pushed further into the Indian country.
AFFAIRS OF STATE-INTERNAL MATTERS.
At the first general election in the Republic, on Mon- day, the first day of September 1836, Gem. Sam Houston was chosen President and Mirabeau B. Lamar, Vice President. The First Congress convened at Columbia, Oct. 3, and on the 22nd the President and Vice President-elect were inaug- urated. The Cabinet was composed of the following fa- mous and talented men: Stephen F. Austin, Secretary of State; Henry Smith, Secretary of the Treasury; Thos. J. Rusk, Secretary of War; S. Rhodes Fisher, Secretary of the Navy; James Pinckney Hender.om, Attorney General; and Robert Barr, Postmaster General.
Though the Texas Congress at its first session in 1836 refused to pass a resolution authorizing the liberation of
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Santa Anna, President Houston assumed the responsibility of discharging him from custody and sending him and Col. Almonte, to Washington, D. C., in charge of George W. Hockley, (Inspector General of the Texas army) and an escort consisting of Gen. Barnard E. Bee and Maj. W. H. Patton.
Santa Anna left Texas in December, 1836; arrived in Wash- ington January 17, 1837, where he had an interview with President Jackson; later sailed from Norfolk, Va., for Vera Cruz, where he disembarked February 23, 1837; was de- feated in the Mexican presidential election March 1, 1837, and retired to his magnificent hacienda-Mango de Clavo.
Santa Anna regained popularity by his loss of a leg in an actiom at Vera Cruz during the blockade of that port by a French fleet in 1838. He was later elected President of Mexico. After the capture of the city of Mexico by Gen. Winfield Scott in the war of 1846-8, between the United States and Mexico, Samta Anna fled the country, and was subsequently formally banished. He returned in after years ; experienced a slight rise to favor; was again compelled to leave; and was finally permitted to return and end his days in Mexico.
Although Mexico had repudiated Santa Anna's treaty and declared she would never recognize Texas independ- ence, but little serious fears were entertained of a second invasion-for awhile at least. The invincible Texans had taught the Mexicans a lesson not to be soon forgotten. But a more stubborn, cunning and determined foe was yet to be subdued and banished.
Comanche chiefs are said to have visited the seat of government in the latter part of January and had a friend- ly talk with President Houston .* If they did, they scarce-
* It will be interesting to note in this connection the cheerful-but it proved erroneous -view, which the first British Minister to the Republic of Texas-Jas. T. Crawford-writ- ing his government under date, May 29, 1837, entertained regarding Indian affairs in Texas * * * "Texas has several companies of Rangers on the various frontiers to check the In- dian tribes. These however, have but little cccupation, as the policy of Gen. Houston has been conciliatory and he has very lately entered into treaties with the most influential chiefs, who were at the seat of Government on a 'Big Talk' and returned well satisfied."
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ly got back to their camps before they and their followers murdered in February, Hon. John G. Robinson, representative of Fayette county in the house of the First Texas Congress, his brother, and others-incidents that will be detailed in their proper sequence.
March 1, 1837, W. H. Secrest," living on the Colora- do, wrote to President Houston, telling of the murder of the Robinson's, Fortran and two children. In the course of the letter he says: "They are killing and stealing all of our stock, and we can't help ourselves. We are so few in num- ber that we can't leave our homes to rout them. I am here the same as both hands tied-four women to guard- so that I can't get out to see about them. If you can't do some- thing for us, we are in a bad situation and will be, no doubt some of our women and children massacred the next time you hear from us."
The Independence of Texas was recognized by the United States March 2, 1837-the anniversary of its declara- tion by the Plenary convention.
"During the spring of 1837," says Yoakum, "a party of Mexicans visited all the Indian nations on the frontier, making to them the most seductive offers to induce them to make war on the Texans. They promised them arms, am- munition, and the plunder and prisoners-women and child- ren included-taken during the war; also peaceable posses- sion of the country then held by them. At the same time, these emissaries succeeded in persuading them that, if the Texans were successful in the war then pending between the latter and Mexico, they would seize the country then oc- cupied by the different tribes, and drive them from the land of their fathers. Thus many of the prairie tribes were in- duced to join the Mexicans."
Maj. Le Grande, who was sent to have a talk with the Comanche Chief, Chiconie, reported him as saying that so long as he continued to see the gradual approach of the
*Texas Archives-State Library.
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whites and their habitations to the hunting grounds of the Comanches, so long would he believe to be true what the Mexicans had told him, and so long would he continue to be the enemy of the white race.
At the beginning of 1837 there was a small ranger forte in the field. It was divided into detachments, which were established at the Falls of the Brazos, the Three Forks of Little River, Walnut Creek, and the Trinity River.
During the early part of the year, while there was no defacto Texas army, parties of cavalry under Wells, Seguin, Cook, Karnes, and Deaf Smith, rendered valuable service against the Indians-Deaf Smith, on one occasion, scouting as far west as the Rio Grande and defeating a superior force of Mexicans and Indians.
The appointment of Albert Sidney Johnston to the command of the Texas army, with the rank of senior Brig- adier-General, reduced Gen. Felix Huston from first second place, and was followed by Huston challenging Johnston. In the duel that followed, Johnston was danger- ously, and for a time, it was thought, mortally, wounded.
His wound incapacitating him for the discharge of the duties of the position, Gen. Johnston devolved the command of the army on Col. Rogers May 7, and went to the United States to recuperate his health. On May 18, following, Prosi- dent Houston furloughed all the army (a total of 1,800 or 2,000 soldiers of all arms) except six hundred men, who, un- paid and ill-supplied, personneled the mere semblance of a miz- tary force, which soon dwindled almost to the vanishing point, owing to the men quitting the service as fast as thes could.
The First Congress reconvened May 1, 1837. It passed an act, approved June 12, 1837, providing for a corps of rangers, to consist of an aggregate of six hundred white men, and a spy company of Shawnee, Delaware or other friendly Indians. The act appropriated no money to carry its provisions into effect, hence it was inoperative, and re- mained so until the Second Congress passed an act, appros- ed December 28, 1837, appropriating $25,000 for the creation
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and maintenance of the corps. No protection resulted from the measure during 1837.
The First Congress doubtless relied on the President be- ing able to negotiate at least some part of the $5,000,000 loan (or rather, "borrow") he had been given authority to consummate in the United States. It leaned on a broken reed, with the usual result. The financial panic that con- vulsed the United States at that time rendered it impossible for anybody to secure ready money on even much better se- curity than Texas had to offer.
One vessel of the Texas navy was captured after an en- gagement with a Mexican brig, and two other vessels foundered, leaving only one schooner in the service-and it was fit for, and only used as, a receiving ship.
It was with the greatest difficulty that a ranging force was kept in the field. It could not have been maintained for a month, if the officres and men had been actuated by mercenary motives.
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