USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume I > Part 9
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HISTORY OF TEXAS
permission to remain where they are till Mr. Power could place them properly and give them their titles. They have in consequence, been about five years in this situation, and as they imagined their sojourn would be temporary they made no improvements, not even cultivating a bit of garden ground."
Most of the Irish settlers located during 1829-33. In 1835 the set- tlements received the designation of "municipality of Refugio." Their three representatives to the general consultation were engaged in the capture of the Mexican post of Lipantitlan, on the Nueces above San Patricio, and hence did not participate in that meeting, but one of their number received a seat in the general council of the Texas provisional government on November 22d. The municipality had two repre- sentatives in the convention of 1836.
AUSTIN MUNICIPALITY
In July, 1823, under directions from the governor of Texas, the Baron de Bastrop was directed to lay out a town for the Austin colony, and Commissioner Bastrop selected a site on the southwest margin of the river Brazos on a high prairie bluff. Following the instruc- tions of the governor the commissioner gave the town the name San Felipe de Austin. In accordance with the colonization law, four leagues of land were set aside for this town, and as a result of this original grant San Felipe now has the distinction of being the only municipality in Texas conducted without taxation.
It was at San Felipe that Colonel Austin had his home during the four or five years when he was local governor of the colony. Later it was the seat of the ayuntamiento which provided the local civil gov- ernment, and then and later was recognized as the official center and the real capital of that portion of Texas occupied by American settle- ment. At San Felipe assembled the first convention of the Texas people in 1832 and 1833, and likewise the general consultation of 1835, and during the succeeding months it was the capital of the provisional government. San Felipe was also the place where one of the earliest Texas newspapers was published, the Telegraph and Texas Register. San Felipe might properly claim to have been the capital of Texas from 1823 to 1836, a period of thirteen years. With all these official distinctions, San Felipe was like most Texas towns of that time, a mere collection of rude pioneer dwellings and business houses. In 1828 it was said to consist of about twenty houses, chiefly of hewn logs, and the home of Colonel Austin was the most commodious in the place.
WASHINGTON
The municipality of Washington was organized in July, 1835. On the authority of the historian Thrall, a ferry was established at the junction of the Navasota and Brazos rivers in 1821. A number of the Austin colonists settled in that vicinity, and the first land was culti- vated in 1822 near Independence. In 1835, John W. Hall, who had acquired some of the land adjoining the old ferry, laid out the Town of Washington on the river bank opposite the mouth of the Navasota.
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The Washington Town Company, organized about that time, exhibited much enterprise in promoting the town as a rival over San Felipe. Efforts had been made to have the general consultation meet in Wash- ington in November, 1835, but were unsuccessful. When the consulta- tion adjourned it fixed Washington as its place of meeting on March 1, 1836, and the convention which assembled at that date to draw un the declaration of independence and the constitution of the republic met in Washington. Thus it became the first capital of the republic and the "cradle of independence." The government and most of the inhabitants fled before the Mexican army when the convention ad- journed on March 17, 1836, and did not return until after the battle of San Jacinto. Steamboat navigation along the Brazos to Washington began about 1834.
VICTORIA
Martin de Leon received a colony contract from the Mexican gov- ernment, October, 1824, and established the largest Mexican colony in Texas outside of San Antonio, Nacogdoches and Goliad. A second contract was given him in April, 1829, and his lands were bounded between the coast and the La Bahia road, between the Lavaca River on the one side and the Guadalupe and Coleto on the other. Some of DeWitt's colonists established homes within these limits, and there was some dispute over boundaries with the colonists of Power and Hewitson on the south. The municipality of Guadalupe Victoria was authorized by the first contract and was organized probably in 1824.
As a Mexican settlement, Guadalupe Victoria was not repre- sented in the early conventions of Texas. However, a representative from that locality took his seat in the general council in November, 1835, after the adjournment of the general consultation.
GALVESTON
Galveston Island and Bay from the earliest period of exploration and colonization was frequented and the locality was brought into notice by some of the larger events of early Texas history. In 1816 Commodore Aury arrived in Galveston, and made it a general ren- dezvous for vessels cruising against the Spanish commerce of the gulf. Soon afterwards it became a center for the operations of the great pirate. Lafitte, who occupied the east end of the island early in 1817 and with his followers established a town, with a few frame buildings. General Long, who headed an expedition into Texas in 1819, made his headquarters for a time at Point Bolivar, and endeavored to enlist Lafitte as a partner in his enterprise. But in the meantime the United States government had directed that the pirate Lafitte should be driven from the south coast and in May, 1820, all the buildings of the pirate's capital were burned, and Galveston was thus rid of its unique distinction. General Long continued to occupy the site of Lafitte's fort for a time, and after he departed on his disastrous expedition to Mexico, his wife remained at Bolivar until informed of his death. Thus, for many years Galveston was practically uninhabited. and nothing of importance occurred until the early years of the revolution.
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In 1830 the Mexican government provided for the establishment of a military post and custom house for the Galveston Revenue District, and the Port of Galveston first came into official existence at that time. On the site of Lafitte's fort a small building was erected for the custom house, but in the following year the collector moved his headquarters to Anahuac, on the other side of the bay, and once more Galveston Island was abandoned. The Texas Provisional Govern- ment, in December, 1835, provided for the formation of the Galveston Revenue District and the establishment of the Port of Galveston Bay as a port of entry. About the time of the battle of San Jacinto, in April, 1836, the officers of the Texas government assembled on Gal- veston Island, and it was the temporary capital for about three weeks.
LIBERTY
On the Trinity River, near the modern town of Liberty, the presidio of Orcoquisac and the mission of Nuestra Senora de la Luz were founded in 1756, to be abandoned about sixteen years later. The lands were embraced in the empresario grants of 1826 and 1828 to Joseph Vehlein. In a memorial drawn up by the Texas convention of 1832, it was stated that settlers had located in the country between the San Jacinto and the Sabine beginning with the year 1821, but up to 1832 no titles had been issued for their lands. It was asserted that the number of inhabitants in that section was sufficient for the establish- ment of new municipal governments. "There are but two ayunta- mientos between the San Jacinto and Sabine rivers, one at Nacog- doches and one at Liberty on the Trinity." A commissioner in 1834 issued about 350 titles to the settlers of Vehlein's colony.
An account of the founding of Liberty was written for the Texas Almanac of 1859 by Dr. N. D. Labadie, who, in 1831, became surgeon of the Mexican garrison at Anahuac. In response to a petition of seventy-two residents of this vicinity, Francisco Madero had been ap- pointed to issue titles to their lands. "Having arrived at Atascosito, near the present town of Liberty, he (Madero) stopped with Cap+ William Orr, a most excellent man and good citizen. A call having been duly notified, a meeting was held at that place, to select a county seat, and Smith's Plantation and Moss' Bluff were the two places put in nomination. A majority of three or four votes having been in favor of Smith's place. it was publicly proclaimed the seat of justice and called Libertad. The requisite municipal officers were next elected : but this coming to the knowledge of Colonel Bradburn at Anahuac, he immediately had Madero arrested by a file of soldiers, and his next step was to send forth a proclamation, accompanied by a fife and drum, declaring that Libertad was abrogated and that Anahuac was the county seat." However, after the expulsion of Bradburn from Anahuac in 1832, the municipality of Liberty retained its organiza- tion and sent delegates to the San Felipe convention of that year. Its jurisdiction was over all the coast country between the San Jacinto and the Sabine.
In the De Zavala empresario grant of 1829, a settlement of about thirty families scattered from the Sabine to the Neches was known as
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HISTORY OF TEXAS
"Bevil's settlement," from John Bevil, the original settler. A wilder- ness of forty miles separated that settlement from the "Ayish Bayou settlement" near San Augustine, while it was seventy miles to the "Cow Bayou settlement" on the south. The first comers were named John Bevil, James Cheshire, Thomas Watts, John Watts, John Saul, Isaac Isaacs and Hardy Pace, who settled about 1828 or before. In 1830 this settlement was organized as a precinct of the municipality of Nacogdoches. The municipality of San Augustine was constituted in March, 1834, and the municipality of Bevil was probably created in the same year. Bevil sent five delegates to the general consultation of October, 1835. The provisional government, on December 3, 1835, changed the name to the municipality of Jasper, thus honoring sergeant Jasper, and under the republic the municipality became a county.
Before the Texas revolution the principal settlement between Lib- erty on the Trinity and the Sabine was the "Cow Bayou settlement," in what is now Orange County. During the Mexican regime the settlement had been attached as a precinct to the Liberty municipality in 1832, but in the fall of 1835 the separate municipality of Jefferson was organized. The municipal boundaries defined in the same year included only the country lying in the angles of the Neches and the Sabine, now forming Orange County. When three commissioners se- lected the seat of justice they called the site "Jefferson," which in the Texas Telegraph of September 9, 1837. was referred to as "the former county seat," on the east bank of Cow Bayou, and containing about a dozen houses.
HARRISBURG
The municipality of Harrisburg was created in 1835, its boundaries being defined by the provisional government on January 1. 1836, with Harrisburg designated as the capital. The first settlers came in 1822, but no land titles were issued until 1824. Some of the historical land- marks of the county received names from the pioneers-Lynchburg on the league of Nathaniel Lynch ; Vince's Bayou from the Vince broth- ers; Clopper's Bar from Nicholas Clopper ; Morgan's Point from Col. James Morgan, who had a grove of bearing orange trees at the time of the Battle of San Jacinto. Lorenzo de Zavala, the first vice presi- dent of the republic, had a small home on Buffalo Bayou, across from the site of the battleground, used for a hospital after the battle, while David G. Burnet, the first president of Texas, was the founder of the sawmill which was the nucleus of the village of Lynchburg. Lynch- burg had had many vicissitudes as a town ; it is still a place of ferriage. as it was when San Jacinto was fought.
Harrisburg was founded about 1826-27, and was named for John R. Harris, one of a prominent family of first settlers. A little later a trading company built a warehouse and Harris put up a sawmill. A schooner once a year brought merchandise from New Orleans, and the principal exports were cotton and hides. After the constitutional con- vention adjourned at Washington on March 17th of that year, Presi- dent Burnet and cabinet and a large following of citizens retreated to Harrisburg, which was the temporary capital of Texas until the day
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HISTORY OF TEXAS
before the arrival of Santa Anna. The twenty houses, stores and fac- tories were all consumed when the army of Santa Anna arrived on April 15, 1836.
HOUSTON
The land on which the original town of Houston was founded was a portion of a grant made to John Austin under date of July 20, 1824. C. Anson Jones, a son of President Anson Jones, stated that the first settlers arrived at Houston about 1822, but no event of importance and no particular interest attaches to the place until after the success of the Texas revolution.
MINA
The municipality of Mina was created in April, 1834, and the capital town was "the new town established on the left bank" of the Colorado River "at the crossing of the upper road leading from Bexar to Nacog- coches." Thus the town of Bastrop is one of the few landmarks in modern Texas geography to show the position of the famous old San Antonio Road, which was the chief military highway of the eighteenth century and had many prominent associations with the early settle- ment and development of Texas during the nineteenth century. The town of Mina had been laid out about 1830, and before the creation of the municipality the vicinity was known as the District of Mina. The jurisdiction of the old municipality extended over a large territory both above and below the San Antonio Road and on both sides of the Colorado River. The settlers were very active in all the movements for Texas independence. They sent three delegates to the first con- vention at San Felipe in October. 1832, and were also represented in the second convention of the next year. They were the first to or- ganize a "committee of safety" in May, 1835, and were represented in all the movements until the establishment of the Republic. Under the Republic the municipality became the County of Mina, but in Decem- ber, 1837. the name was changed of both the county and county seat to Bastrop.
SAN AUGUSTINE
About the time the Texas-Louisiana boundary question was set- tled, in 1819, or even earlier, some Americans had made settlement along the Ayish Bayou in what is now San Augustine County. The earliest of these had come several years before Austin brought into Texas the first official American colony. The little settlement at Ayish Bayou furnished some volunteers to the short-lived Fredonian Republic during 1826-27. In 1834 the settlers along the Avish Bayon obtained a separate municipal organization, under the name San Augustine. This municipality was represented in the general con- sultation at San Felipe in 1835 by Alexander Horton, who settled at Ayish Bayou in January, 1824, by A. Houston, W. N. Seigler, A. G. Kellogg and A. E. C. Johnson. There were volunteers froin the inu- nicipality who served in the revolution, and after the establishment of the republic the municipality became a county. The historic town of San Augustine, which was laid out and established as a town in 1831.
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was long known as "The Gateway to Texas," being the first town on the old San Antonio road after crossing the Sabine River.
In 1716 one of the group of missions and military garrisons de- signed to preserve the authority of Spain on the borders of East Texas was established in the vicinity of the present Nacogdoches. By 1770 there were considerable numbers of Spanish, Indians and French set- tled about Nacogdoches, and situated close to the border of Louisiana, there were attractive opportunities for trade intercourse with the French inhabitants of Louisiana, although such intercourse was rigidly
forbidden by the Spanish authorities. Consequently there was much opposition to the royal order, issued in 1772, for the abandonment of all the presidios, missions and settlements in East Texas, and though the removal was made to San Antonio, under the escort of a military guard, some of the inhabitants contrived to stay behind, and in 1779 a number of the exiles, under the leadership of the enterprising and in- fluential Gil Ybarbo. returned and chose to locate at Nacogdoches. Their arrival marks the beginning of the history of modern Nacog doches as a town. From that time until the American settlement of Texas began during the '20s. Nacogdoches was the only point of any considerable importance north and east of San Antonio. In 1805 it had an estimated population of about 500. Nacogdoches was at that time the eastern terminus of the great San Antonio road, the old military thoroughfare leading from Mexico across the entire province of Texas. In spite of the rigid decree forbidding intercourse between the inhabi- tants of Texas and Louisiana, illicit trade went on, and Nacogdoches enjoyed this and other peculiar advantages as a border town. After the United States had acquired Louisiana Territory in 1803, and as a result of the various filibustering and revolutionary expeditions or- ganized for the purpose of conquering Texas, Nacogdoches became a frontier military post, and a garrison of Spanish soldiers was main- tained there for a number of years. After the settlement of the Texas- Louisiana boundary in 1819 and the repeal of the laws forbidding trade and immigration from the American side, Nacogdoches continued to profit by its position on the frontier and along the chief highway into Texas. During the first two decades of the nineteenth century Nacog- doches was several times occupied by American revolutionary expedi- tions, and alternately by the Spanish forces, and the town suffered from the retributive measures by which Spain endeavored to keep its eastern borders free from American influence. When Stephen Austin passed through Nacogdoches in 1821, the town was in ruins and had only the church and seven houses, including the Stone House, around the old public square. During 1826-27 Nacogdoches was the central point in the Fredonian war. In spite of the settlement of Americans in increasing numbers over all East Texas, Nacogdoches long retained its Spanish-Mexican character and was the seat of a considerable Mexi- can population, even up to the revolution.
CHAPTER VI F. W. JOHNSON'S REMINISCENCES
The following account of conditions in Texas up to the opening of the revolution is largely an arrangement of the reminiscences of Fran- cis W. Johnson. The account presents an interesting picture of social and economic conditions in Texas .*
In the latter part of July, 1826, some six or eight persons, among whom was Francis White Johnson, a Virginian by birth, but late of the state of Missouri, embarked on board the schooner Augusta, Capt. James Lynch master, then lying at New Orleans, for Lynchburg, Texas. After alternate calm and storm, some time in August, they came to Galveston Island, the sight of which cheered all on board. From thence, on the third day, we made Lynchburg, the place of destination, which is situated on the left bank of the River San Jacinto. opposite the mouth of Buffalo Bayou. All were glad again to place their feet on the land.
The arrival of a vessel at that early day, though not the first, was of sufficient importance and interest to call forth the population for miles around. Hence, we found a number of the lords of the land assembled to greet the captain and such newcomers as he was for- tunate enough to enlist for Texas, learn the news from the "old states" and have a jollification. We found them a hardy, jovial and hospitable set of fellows, and enjoyed ourselves with our new acquaintances. We
*Johnson was, during this period, surveyor of the Ayish Bayou district in East Texas in 1829, one of the leaders in the attack on Anahuac and the expul- sion of Bradburn from that place in 1832, secretary of the convention which met in October of 1832 to petition the general governmnet for the separation of Coahuila and Texas and for other reforms, and during 1833 and 1834 surveyor in the "upper colony" of Austin and Williams west of the old San Antonio Road. Early in 1835 he became one of the more active leaders of the war party which promoted the revolution, and when the fighting began in the fall of 1835 he was among the volunteers that marched to the siege of San Antonio. He commanded a division of the force that stormed the town (December 5-9), and after the death of Milam succceded to full command. After the surrender of General Cos on December 9, Johnson and Dr. James Grant began preparations for an invasion of Mexico, the contemplated point of attack being Matamoras. The expedition was opposed by Governor Smith, but the General Council of the Provisional Government authorized it and appointed Johnson and James W. Fannin, Jr., to the command. Before the expedition got under way Santa Anna invaded Texas, in February of 1836, and Johnson's force was surprised at San Patricio by General Urrea and destroyed, Johnson and three or four others alone escaping. General Houston was at this time encamped on the Colorado a short distance above Columbus, and Johnson says that he joined some fifteen or twenty others and started for headquarters, "but being met on the way and informed that the army was retreating to the Brazos, we returned home. I took no further part in the struggle. I was thoroughly disgusted with the scramble for office-civil and military. I retired to the Trinity, where I remained quietly until 1839, and then visited the United States, having been in Texas thirteen years."
Johnson's historical manuscripts, including the reminiscences, were published under the editorship of Prof. E. C. Barker as "A History of Texas and Texans," in 1914.
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were invited by nearly all to make them a visit, rest and recreate our- selves. The next day our little party broke up into several visiting parties. White and myself accompanied Capt. William Scott, formerly of Kentucky, to his residence on the lower San Jacinto-then called "Larkinsink." Here we were kindly received by his amiable lady and family, and feasted on the good things of the land for two days. We then returned to Lynchburg with a view of making our way to the interior.
Harrisburg, some thirty miles distant, and at the junction of Bray's with Buffalo Bayou, was the next and only port in the direction we wished to travel. Our party divided, some determined to go by land and others by water. Of the latter I was one, being at that time not sick enough to keep my bed, yet not strong enough to perform a jour- ney over land on foot. We took passage on a large canoe, without fire, and voyaged into Harrisburg, each of those able taking a turn at the oars. Having made a late start we were on the bayou most of the night, which we did not regret, as our captain was an old hunter and frontiersman of the good old times and enlivened the passage by anec- dote and song. He was a character in his way ; had experienced many hairbreadth escapes by flood and field. A short time after daylight we made what was then and still is known as Vince's, on the right bank of Buffalo Bayou, and a short distance below Vince's Bayou, a bavou of classic notoriety. Here we landed and got a sumptuous breakfast of fresh, rich milk, butter and corn bread ; though there was meat on the table, none partook of it-all were surfeited on fat pork and felt a sort of horror for meats. We then proceeded on our way to Harris- burg, where we arrived a short time after meridian. The town con- sisted of a warehouse and tannery and few families, viz .: John Taylor and family, Widow Owens and family, Capt. Sam C. Hirams and family ; a young man by the name of William Laughlin, a tanner, and Capt. John R. Harris, owner of the land, and an old log warehouse. The canoe party stopped at Captain Hirams', the only public house in the place.
While here Messrs. Heddy and Moore. or Coates, arrived with a wagon and ox-team. They lived near San Felipe de Austin, the capital of Austin's colony, and came for the purpose of buying family stores. Porter, Anderson and myself arranged with Mr. Heddy to take our baggage-light-and to spend the fall and winter at his house. White had stopped at Lynchburg and turned merchant on a small venture. Jimmy, our fellow passenger and cook on the voyage, was employed by Captain Scott as a blacksmith : the remainder of our party deter- mined to try their fortune in Harrisburg.
The first day out from Harrisburg we accompanied the wagon and encamped near the crossing of Buffalo Bayou, on the road to San Felipe de Austin. The weather was lowering, and we had a light rain. or rather heavy mist, at night. The next morning Porter and myself determined to part company with the wagon, first being informed bv Mr. Heddy that we could reach his house that day, and that we would meet his son, whom he had directed to meet him with provisions and to draw on him for a part. After we crossed the Bayou it came on to
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