USA > Texas > Dallas County > History of Dallas County, Texas: From 1837 to 1887 > Part 7
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100
HISTORY OF DALLAS COUNTY,
but the delay of such a course would compel the loss of the advantages at least one season, and perhaps more, the import- ance of which needs only to be mentioned to command its reason. Feeling that you will not hesitate to act in a public matter of so much magnitude, and especially when those to be burthened are asking the action, we therefore ask your honorable body to pass an ordinance authorizing the Police Court of Dallas county to levy and collect a tax of five thou- sand dollars in specie upon all property in Dallas county subject to ad valorem taxation, said tax to be assessed upon the schedule or lists rendered to the assessor for the year 1868, said money to be expended under the direction of the Police Court in removing the obstructions in the Trinity river, between the town of Dallas and the East fork. Pro- vided, that one-third of the amount shall be collected from property situated within the corporate limits of the town of Dallas; and provided further, that the tax levied shall not be more than twenty cents on the hundred dollars, except on property within the corporate limits of the town of Dallas, which may be taxed as high as sixty cents for each hundred dollars.
DALLAS, TEXAS, June 4, 1868.
Ben Long, M. Thevenet, J. A. Freeman, John Davis, Henry Notzli, Jacob Vogel, Henry Brannon, Wesley Brannon, John Poindexter, J. Pinckney Thomas, Henry Boll, John Boll, John F. Barbier, Wm. A. Hartze, Joshua Addington, John L. Pyles, H. C. Caldwell, D. J. Capps, Thos. J. Brown, W. W. Peak, T. A. Wilson, J. J. Applin, Ed. C. Browder, J. B. Louckx, J. H. Wilson, J. W. Galbreath, M. G. Pitts, T. J. Pitts, Howard Mercer, R. D. Jones, F. F. Green, Thos. S. Moore, R. W. Daniel, B. B. Howell, Daniel Cornwell, Thos. H. Nance, John King, Sam. King, J. Peak,
99
FROM 1837 TO 1887.
by the small sum proposed to be expended; in fact, they are beyond enumeration; to the State, of opening up to success- ful navigation a stream penetrating her interior a distance of seven hundred miles from her seaboard, securing the rapid settlement of millions of acres of rich and fertile lands by thrifty and enterprising emigrants, which are now lying idle and yielding but little revenue to the State, and none to the owner. The saving in the single item of pine lumber in one year will fourfold repay the amount expended, besides the advantage of the great reduction in prices in the items of salt, sugar, iron and other articles of necessary consumption. The immense pineries of the counties of Anderson, Houston and Walker, almost valueless in their present condition, because of the slow and expensive means of transportation to the prairies, where every description of pine lumber is in constant demand. Navigation to Dallas, three months annually, would reduce the price of pine lumber one-half, thereby bringing it within the reach of every farmer to supply himself for the improve- ment of his farm and home.
To raise the money by private contribution would nat- urally become onerous upon those who are determined upon the success of the enterprise, while those, for reasons whether selfish or otherwise, refusing to contribute, would reap an equal benefit. Therefore, your memorialists are impressed that a more proper and just course would be to levy a suffi- cient tax upon the property in Dallas county to raise the sum of five thousand dollars in specie, and as the citizens in the town of Dallas have signified their willingness, let the tax be so levied that one-third of the whole amount shall be paid by those owning property within the corporate limits of said town.
Your memorialists are aware that more properly this peti- tion should be presented to the Legislature when it assembles,
101
FROM 1837 TO 1887.
Jas. Galbreath, A. J. Gouffe, L. Von Gronderbeek, Otto Frick, F. L. Behng, L. P. Hauser, Jacob Vogel, Julien Rever- chon, Wm. Jackson, Jacob Tiler, Jas. C. Miller, S. H. Beeman, F. L. Churignon, J. D. Keaton, N. T. Johnson, W. A. Harwood, J. M. Braun, E. W. Field, A. L. Car- nett, Martin Riggs, Wm. Irwin, Wm. B. Cole, S. Mayer, Wm. A. Riggs, W. H. Saunders, F. Davis, Wm. D. Waters, E. T. Myers, R. L. Sears, Frank M. Cox, Newton Hutchen, W. Von Gronderbeek, Alexius Barbier, F. Priot, G. Poitevin, J. Nusbaumer, M. Livy, J. McCommas, Chas. G. Vingard, Allen Collins, N. B. Owen, R. B. Gan- naway, Jas, Winters, E. G. Bower, J. K. P. Record, N. . M. Burford, T. G. T. Kendall, W. H. Ragsdale, J. M. Richards, Jonathan Petty, J. W. Bumpass, A. Pemberton. W. L. Hall, J. W. Everett, Jas. O. Thomas, J. D. Ker. foot, W. Mays, John Chenault, John Coit, J. W. Cobb, T. B, Scott, H. L. Hicks, S. S. Jones, Sam. Dunaway, Isaac Jones, Enoch Strait, J. M. Martin, Isaac B. Webb, W. D. Chapman, Isaac Bates, Joseph Bigler, Raleigh C. Martin, R .- D. Coughanour, Jas. H. Field, J. C. Drake, Jr., W. F. Flewellen, D. J. Ellis, J. K. White, Chas. R. Pryor, E. E. Russell, John P. Isbell, S. B. Stone, J. J. Beeman, J. M. Pruitt, J. W. Miller, If. C. Smidt, Amon McCommas, W. J. Pruitt, F. N. Humphreys, J. P. Beeman, L. B. Sands, F. F. Ball, Tom Johnson, Jas. McCommas, Andrew Pruitt, Q. J. H. Smith, T. J. Jackson, J. Jeffries, Lewis Pyles, G. L. Blewett, J. T. Corcoran, J. R. Fondren, J. B. Lowery, Geo. White, W. T. Gill, G. W. Hatter, Sam. Uhl, A. S. Clark, N. R. Fondren, George Marier, W. Cotton, John Caudle, R. S. Guy, Wm. Waters, John Harvey, Jerry Snow.
It is not the purpose of this work to go into the personal biography or detail of the progress of Dallas county after it
102
HISTORY OF DALLAS COUNTY,
-
ceased to be a frontier, and the people, being freed of the dangers attending that relation, became self-sustaining and comparatively independent ; but to put in form for preserva- tion those essential matters and facts that otherwise are largely destined to be submerged in obscurity and the fickle cloud of fiction and tradition. After the year 1849, in which an ably conducted newspaper was established to chronicle events, the history of Dallas is but a repetition of events common to all intelligent and law-abiding communities, similarly situated in a large portion of Texas. Truth justifies the observation, however, that the county was rated as exceptionally enter- prising and progressive, perhaps surpassed by none and not equalled by exceeding seven or eight in the State. To recount the more recent events preceding the war, the destructive fire of July, 1860, the evidence of concerted incendiarism, the intense excitement and uprising of the people and the execution of several colored men considered the instruments of foreign fanatical emissaries, would be to open a question, the discussion of which should be left to a later day-farther removed from the acrimonies of the war and of the actors in those scenes.
When the sectional controversy assumed the character of war, there were probably not twenty bona fide citizens of Dallas county who were not truly and sincerely southern in feeling and in principle. Incontestible facts prove this. It will be the pleasure of some future writer to collate from the rolls in Washington the names of the men and officers who shed lustre on Dallas county during that four years' mighty clash of arms; to portray how the sons of Dallas fought and starved and suffered and died under the flag of their native or chosen country ; how, under the lead of their own chosen chiefs and neighbors, the Colonels Stone, Darnell, Burford,
103
FROM 1837 TO 1887.
Hawpe, with their Lieutenant-Colonels Coit, Crill Miller and others-their fearless battery under John J. Good and their. captains and lieutenants of companies, followed and upheld by perhaps nearly a thousand of the best blood of Dallas county ; gray-haired sires, young men in the primest vigor and youths of tender years; how all these went forth and bared their breasts to leaden rain and iron hail ; many to yield up their lives in " storm, and shout, and clash of steel ; " many to die in camp and hospital ; many to survive bereft of limb or otherwise mutilated ; all of the survivors to return home to the embrace of poverty and desolation and heart- broken wives, mothers or sisters, to perform a lustration rarely seen in the world's history, by faithfully, industriously and peacefully seeking to rebuild the waste places and once more live under their own " vines and fig trees." All these and the ordeal through which they were yet to pass, must be elimi- nated from these pages and left, in the hereafter, to some other pen, excepting such allusions to the process of recon- struction as seem essential to an intelligent understanding of events deeply affecting the rights and welfare of the people.
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Reconstruction.
(NDER President Johnson's appointment Andrew J. Hamilton became provisional governor July 25, 1865 ; under the same the first reconstruction convention met Feb- ruary 10, 1866, framed a constitution and adjourned April 2; on the 4th of June the people ratified the constitution and elected State, district and county officers ; the Legislature met August 9, when James W. Throckmorton, elected by the people, succeeded Hamilton as governor. Congress, March 2, 1867, repudiated the work of President Johnson ; placed the
104
HISTORY OF DALLAS COUNTY,
:
Southern States under military rulers, with power to remove and appoint civil officers, etc. ; in short, established a mili- tary despotism, under officers recently engaged in the subju- gation of the people they were to rule. On the 30th of July, 1867, the military dictator over Texas-Philip H. Sheridan by name-removed Throckmorton and appointed Elisha M. Pease governor, who afterwards resigned. Under this system, with universal suffrage to the late slaves and disfranchisement to probably thirty thousand whites, a second reconstruction convention met June 1, 1868, sat three months, then took a recess till December 7th ; "backed, filled," sailed to " wind- ward and leeward"; fussed, fumed, quarrelled, and at last stood without a quorum and never completed their work, but simply quit in a state of bewilderment. The military dictator collected the fragments, patched them together without date or signature, and submitted the conglomerate mass to the people, to be ratified as the constitution of Texas, in order that she might be restored to the Union as a State !! The election to ratify this instrument was to have taken place in July, 1869, but President Grant, by proclamation, postponed it and ordered that it be held November 30th and December 1st, 2d and 3d, 1869. At that time the step-child of the military was legitimated and a full set of officers elected. Per military orders, the new legislature met, as a provisional body, February 8, 1870, ratified the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the United States constitution, performed some other prerequisites, and adjourned on the 24th to await the pleasure of Congress. On the 30th of March that body approved the unsigned and undated instrument as the con- stitution of Texas, and gave her permission to send members to that body in Washington. Thereupon the legislature reas- sembled on the 16th of April, the State officers were installed
105
FROM 1837 TO 1887.
and it was said Texas was reconstructed ; but until January, 1874 (when Richard Coke became governor), the chief offi- cials, from the governor and the adjutant-general down to Sergeant Lufkin, perhaps the vilest of a mercenary State police, the State was treated much as an insurrectionary province.
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Personal Memoirs.
OHN NEELY BRYAN, in addition to what has already been said, was not only the first settler of Dallas county, and the first man married on its territory, but also the first lawyer. He had been a licensed lawyer in Tennessee, and, soon after settling here, brought his library, respectable in extent, which was of great utility, and was used by many. He was also licensed in Texas, and did some practice, but was too much engrossed with other cares to follow the profession regularly. His legal training, however, was of great benefit to others in drafting titles and other legal papers, and as an advisor to newcomers. He visited Austin and secured the creation of the county-then organized it. He was a trusted medium, on one or two occasions, through whom President Houston communicated with the wild tribes. He was a hos- pitable, large-hearted pioneer-freely spent his substance for others and public uses, and at last, from impaired intellect and other causes, died destitute. The children of Dallas ought to erect a monument to his memory, for he was ever the children's friend and the friend of their mothers.
JAMES MARTIN PATTERSON, of the first regular mercan- tile firm in Dallas, was born near Lexington, Ky., July 31, 1812, the son of Francis and Mary (nee Martin) Patterson, and was reared on a farm near Bowling Green, becoming a
106
HISTORY OF DALLAS COUNTY,
millwright, and residing with his parents till, at the instance of John W. Smith, temporarily returned from Dallas, he left for that place in the latter part of November, 1845, in com- pany with Mr. Smith. At New Madrid they temporarily separated on some business, to meet in New Orleans about the 1st of January, 1846. Mr. Smith failing to arrive, he started up Red river about the 10th. From Shreveport, with three single men, accompanying Mrs. William Clark and children, coming in a little wagon to join her husband at Dallas, he walked to his destination on foot, arriving late in January. One of his infantry companions was S. A. Venters, afterwards long in public life in Denton county. The names of the other two are forgotten. Mr. Smith, wife and child arrived about ten days later. The firm of Smith & Patterson, under great obstacles, built up a large trade, and was distinguished for enterprise. They sunk large amounts in the vain effort to clear out and navigate the Trinity. Their career sounds almost like a romance, and is too long to be repeated here. They enjoyed the confidence and patronage of the country. In 1851 James N. Smith, brother of John W., arrived and joined the firm-thenceforward J. W. Smith & Co.
- In 1854 the firm dissolved in the bonds of fellowship, and Mr. Patterson went to farming. In August of that year he was elected chief justice of Dallas county, and, by five suc- cessive re-elections, presided over its affairs for twelve years. Under his administration the county had good roads, bridges, mile-posts and sign boards, was always out of debt, paid every obligation promptly, and ever had a few thousand dollars sur- plus. It is admitted by all informed on the subject that he was the model county chief justice in the State of Texas. At 75, in good flesh and with a clear conscience, but not in har- mony with much of the looseness, a measure of humbuggery
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107
FROM 1837 TO 1887.
and an unhealthy desire for the vanities of the world, which characterize the times, he serenely lives in the bosom of his family, enjoying the repose due a well-spent life and the con- fidence and esteem of all who have known him longest and best.
Dallas County Pioneer Association.
I HIS Association was formed in the court house July 13th, 1875, the twenty-ninth anniversary of the organization of the county. For temporary organization, Wade H. Witt was president, Isaac B. Webb (now dead), vice president, and Martin V. Cole secretary. A constitution was adopted and 115 members enrolled. For the first year John C. McCoy was elected president; Isaac B. Webb, Wm. H. Hord, Mrs. Eliza- beth B. Durgin and Mrs. Nancy J. Cochran (now dead), vice presidents; Edward C. Browder (now dead), secretary; John W. Smith, treasurer; Elder Amon McCommas (now dead), chaplain; executive committee, John M. Crockett, John H. Cochran, Mrs. Elizabeth B. Durgin, Mrs. Martha Beeman, Mrs. Fanny Laws (now dead), Mrs. Thomas Ellis, Wm. B. Elam and R. Alex. Rawlins. John Henry Brown, though not a pioneer of the county, was elected a member of the Association, on account of long residence in the State.
The next meeting was held at Shady View Park, Dallas, July 12, 1884. The officers elected were John C. McCoy, president; Wm. H. Hord, R. Alex. Rawlins, Mrs. Emily Beeman and Mrs. Elizabeth B. Durgin, vice presidents; John H. Cole, treasurer; Zach. Ellis Coombes, secretary; executive committee, Dr. A. M. Cochran, Martin V. Cole, Elisha McCommas, Mrs. Martha Beeman, Mrs. S. E. Johnston, Elder John M. Myers and Wm. H. Beeman.
The third annual reunion was held at Shady View Park,
108
HISTORY OF DALLAS COUNTY,
July 13, 1885. The officers elected were John C. McCoy, president; Wm. C. McKamy, Mrs. Elizabeth B. Durgin and J. A. Vanning, vice presidents; Martin V. Cole, secretary; John H. Cole, treasurer; executive committee, John M. Crockett, Mrs. S. E. Johnston, A. M. Cochran, Dr. A. A. Johnston, M. D. L. Gracey, Mrs. Martha Beeman, Elisha McCommas, Mid. Perry, Wm. H. Beeman and W. G. Veal.
The fourth and much the most successful reunion was held in the City Park, July 12th and 13th, 1886. The officers elected were John C. McCoy, president (died April 30, 1887); John J. Eakins (died 1886), Mrs. Virginia Bledsoe Rawlins, Mrs. S. E. Johnston, Mrs. Mary Knight Burford, Col. George Wilson, Wm. C. McKamy, David R. Cameron, George W. Glover, Richard Bruton and Middleton Perry, vice presidents; John M Crockett, secretary; Martin V. Cole, treasurer; Elder John M. Myers, chaplain; executive committee, W. G. Veal, John Henry Brown, M. D. L. Gracey, Middleton Perry, Wm. H. Beeman, Elisha McCommas, Mrs. S. E. Johnston, John Hale and John H. Cochran.
The fifth annual reunion is to be held at the City Park, July 12th and 13th, 1887.
Mr. John Beeman lived at first in a sort of fortified camp, near his future home, on the north side of the road, about a mile beyond the State Fair Grounds, where he plowed the first land and raised the first crop in the county; but a year or so later Wm. M. Cochran grew the first wheat, and it was mown by John H. Daniel. Returning from the colony surveyor's camp on Farmer's branch, Mr. Beeman, riding one of the horses captured when Denton was killed in 1841, at Village creek, was chased by Indians from near the site of the Epis- copal college to his camp, losing his hat and some letters, which were found next day. The Indians refused to risk
109
FROM 1837 TO 1887.
an attack on the camp and retired. Mrs. Beeman, with her daughters, and Mrs. James J. Beeman, deceased, a few days after the arrival of Mrs. Gilbert, was the second civil- ized lady to see and to settle in Dallas county. She was born Elizabeth Hunnicut. Mrs. Beeman yet lives in the vicinity of her original home, and, by common consent, should be entered and kept on the rolls as " Mother of the Pioneer Association."
It is altogether foreign to my purpose to follow the moral and material progress of the city and county of Dallas down to the present time, or in any sense to serve as an advertising medium for them. Their rapid growth-phenominal since the first railroad came on the 16th day of July, 1872-is well understood, not only at home, but extensively throughout the Union. The present population of Dallas, in its entirety- embracing the population on the John Neely Bryan section and the John Grigsby league, is believed to be about forty thousand souls-of the county sixty thousand. In that limited space are twenty-five churches for white, and ten or twelve for colored people, with trunk line railroads diverging in nine directions and others under construction or soon to be so. Everything else, approximately speaking, has kept pace, and now the growth is marvelous. All the facts accom- plished and all the present indications justify the belief that Dallas is to be the chief central city of a very large and productive country, with a corresponding trade and com- merce. This much may be said in perfect candor, as it is said to our own people and not intended for those elsewhere; and more will not be said.
My chief object has been to stimulate an honorable pride and closer assimilation on the part of the citizens of the city and county, by culling from all available sources and putting
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HISTORY OF DALLAS COUNTY,
in form for preservation, the most material, interesting and instructive facts connected with the settling and rescuing this admirable portion of the country from barbarian savagery, that the descendants of the pioneers may have indefeasible titles of inheritance to their courage, their patriotism and their heroic virtues.
My residence in Dallas dates only from July 17th, 1871, but my identity with Texas dates from 1824, and actual resi- dence for over half a century-so that Texas-one, entire and indivisible-holds my allegiance and my affections ; and no human power can ever cause a betrayal of the one or the alienation of the other.
It is the first attempt of the kind ever made in the State -carried forward largely in the midst of other cares, and must needs be imperfect in the multitude of points sought to be covered; but I trust those for whom it is most largely intended may be gratified at the result.
Hoping yet, by the aid of those omitted and their friends, to make a COMPLETE list of the early pioneers of Dallas county, I beg them to believe me their friend, jealous of their good names, and keenly jealous of the good names and well being of their children and grandchildren; with the expres- sion of a single [deeply seated conviction-that the way to make good men and women is to train them in virtue's ways under the parental roof, and send them forth into the battle of life fortified in the principles of honor, truth, justice and charity.
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1 ADDENDA.
1 THE five men killed by Indians in the military road expedition of Col. Wm. G. Cooke, in the fall of 1840, mentioned on
111
FROM 1837 TO 1887.
page 7, it is now quite certain, were killed at a spring four or five miles east of Ferris. This opinion is based on the discovery of human bones there several years ago, bearing conclusive evidence that they were the remains of white men, a fact communicated since the narrative of Cooke's expedition was printed in this work. -
In August, 1841, Gen. James Smith, of the Nacogdoches militia, led a regiment through Dallas county. The evening before he reached King's Fort, or Block House, where Kauf- man stands, an attack by Indians on that house had been repulsed. Gen. Smith followed the Indian trail across Cedar Creek, East Fork and White Rock to the vicinity of Dallas .. He crossed the Trinity where Dallas is and camped at the spring branch a mile or so from the courthouse, and sent Capt. John L. Hall in command of eleven others, to discover the Indians. Of this number were John H. Reagan, Samuel and Isaac Bean, John I. Burton, Hughes Burton, George Lacey, Warren A Ferris, a Creek Indian named Chaxty, and three others. They discovered a large Indian encampment low down on Village Creek and returned to the Dallas camp. Gen. Smith moved upon the village, arriving at noon the next day. Smith, in command of one battalion, and guided by Reagan, moved upon the upper end of the village, and Lieut .- Col. Elliott in command of the other battalion, and guided by Isaac Bean, moved upon the lower end of the village; but as the commands approached each other it was found the Indians had fled. The explanation was that Gen. . Tarrant, with another party from Red river, had passed through the cross timbers above, and was then on Village Creek several miles above. The Indians had discovered him and fled. Corn was found in their fields, and more or less
112
HISTORY OF DALLAS COUNTY,
camp equippage. The expeditions, therefore, failed in the chief object of chastising the Indians, but indirectly effecte much good. This was after the expeditions in May, 1841, i which John B. Denton was killed on Village Creek, and b fore John Neely Bryan pitched his lonely camp in Dalla late in November of the same year.
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The locally famous cyclone struck Cedar Hill, eightee miles south westerly from Dallas, April 29, 1856. Mr. Dicl son, a merchant, James Berry and family, Mr. Hart and fan ily, and perhaps others were killed. Mrs. Merrifield an children escaped almost miraculously, the house being lifte and twisted into fragments, and "they in the midst" thereo: but none seriously hurt. The destruction of houses, fenc and wagons was complete. Thence the wind shot northeas erly, only sweeping the earth at an unoccupied locality, o the ridge on the south side of the river, three or four mile below Dallas; next in Hunt county, aud lastly in the south west corner of Arkansas. Some almost incredible inciden occurred.
John Neely Bryan spent some time in California, preti early in the rush for that country. He started home with single companion. In the Gila-Colorado country they di fered as to the route and separated. Bryan made the tri home alone, than which it would be difficult to conceive more perilous or lonely one. Can it be possible that the per ple of Dallas will allow his remains to repose unmarked i Austin? Will they not, with one accord, see that they sha be brought to Dallas and rest under a monument, plain bt durable, befitting his character and commemorating h memory?
113
FROM 1837 TO 1887.
In July, 1843, President Houston accompanied the com- missioners appointed by him to treat with the wild Indians, through Dallas county to Grapevine Springs. The commis- sioners were General E. H. Tarrant and Attorney General George W. Terrill. John H. Reagan was the pilot, and there was an escort commanded by Col. Thos. L. Smith, and a supply train. Before starting, Gen. Houston delivered a Fourth of July address at Crockett. . The camp was moved first from Grapevine to near Thomas Keenan's cabin, in the vicinity of Farmer's Branch. The delay of the Eldridge party, who had gone out in March to bring the Indians in, compelled the president to leave before their arrival. The camp was next moved to what afterwards became known as Johnson's Station, and there, on the 29th of September, 1843, a treaty was concluded by Messrs. Tarrant and Terrell with the following tribes, viz: Tehuacanos, Keechis, Wacos, Cad- dos, Anadarcos, Ionies, Boluxies, Delawares and thirty isolated Cherokees. The Wichitas and Tow-e-ashes were deterred from coming in by the lies of some of the Creeks. Estecayu- catubba, principal chief of the Chickasaws, signed the treaty
merely for its effect on the wild tribes. Leonard Williams and Luis Sanchez, of Nacogdoches, were present and aided in collecting the tribes, who failed to assemble on the 10th of August, because of the non-return of Eldridge and his party. Roasting Ear, S. Lewis and McCulloch, Delaware chiefs, were present at the signing, and rendered service in favor of the treaty. .
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The Dallas Company in the Mexican War. 51 INCE the list on page 46 was printed, Messrs. Samuel A. Haught and Benj. J. Prigmore have furnished the fol- lowing additional names of those who served in Capt. Witt's
114
HISTORY OF DALLAS COUNTY,
company in the Mexican war, viz .: Benjamin Abbott; Gi bert R. Brush, of Fort Bend county, an ex-Mier prisoner Thomas Callahan, Cotton, who was wounded in th service ; Goodman, called "Old Music;"
Gardner, whose revolver burst in Vera Cruz, wounding hi hand and killing his horse; John Huitt (not th same who was sheriff of Dallas county), Jolly (1), Jolly (2), (brothers, afterwards
Hopkins county); Kaufman, Benj. Leppard, Jame
Newton, - Robbins (brother of Shelton), William Swit son, who married a Mexican and remained in the country; Alfred Siss, killed in a row in the Cit of Mexico; Vance, a youth; Milton Vincen and Harvey Vanslyke, who died in Puebla. This a total of eighty-nine names out of what was probably ninety five, though some of the survivors say 110, 114 and 121, a of whom are believed to be mistaken. Mr. Prigmore is cor fident the number was ninety-five.
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ERRATA.
James J. Beeman and family came with John Beema from Bird's Fort in April, 1842.
On page 23 read Annie M. " Kimmel" instead of Her derson.
On page 25 read " Burnett M." Henderson.
On page 78 read "Thomas J." instead of George Jack son ; and "Gord " instead of Good Jackson.
On page 79 read " Amanda Knight married B. B. Car non, of Jacksonville."
On page 93 read "John W. Smith came in 1845, his fan ily in Feb. 1046. His surviving children are Lucinda, wido of W. W. Peak, Ellen, Eldon W. and Lula, wife of Robe; Berry." Tne omission was a typographical oversight.
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INDEX. .
PAGE.
Bird's Fort.
10
Colony, Peters
4
DALLAS COUNTY-
First Settlement of
12
Creation of.
19
Organization of.
21
Seat of Justice of
20
First Records of
22
Officers of, 1846 to 1888
24 to 30
District Judges of
.30
Delegates of, in Conventions
.31
Representatives of, 1847 to 1887
.32
Senators of, 1846 to 1887
32 to 36
Soldiers of, in Mexico
45
Rangers of, in 1848
.50
Town Government, 1856 to 1888 ..
.51 to 61
INDIAN MURDERS-
Of David Clubb, 1840
10
Of Hamp Rattan.
11
Of Phelps, etc.
48
Of Clements and Whistler
37
Of Dr. Calder
40
Of Muncey and Family, Jamison and Rice. . 41
Grand Prairie Fight in 1846
43
Military Road in 1840 .. 6
Pioneers of Dallas County 62
Pioneer Association of
107
Personal Memoirs
105
Reconstruction
103
Trinity River, Navigation of
.97
Van Benthuysen, defeat of in 1837
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