USA > Texas > History of Texas : from 1685 to 1892, volume 1 > Part 12
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1 Know all men by these presents that I, Ben. R. Milam, empresario of a certain colony known as Milam's colony, and bounded by the road from Nacogdoches to San Antonio de Bexar, commencing at a point where said road crosses the river Guadalupe; thence along said road (i. e., from New Braunfels to Bastrop) to the river Colorado; thence up said river fifteen leagues; thence on a line parallel with said road to the river Guadalupe; thence down said river to the point of beginning, which said colony was conceded to me, Ben. R. Milam, by grant from the Executive of the govern- ment of the State of Coahuila and Texas, bearing date the 12th day of January, 1826, have made, constituted and appointed, and by these presents do make, constitute and appoint Major James Kerr, Surveyor-General of De Witt's adjoining colony, my true and lawful attorney, in all respects and for all purposes connected with or relating to said colony or the settlement thereof, my full, complete and entire agent, for me and in my name to do and transact all manner of acts and concerns relating to the colony afore- said or to the settlement thereof; to receive settlers, to issue certificates for land and receive the proper payments thereon ;- to lay off and assign the lands of said colony and in all respects and in all matters connected with the said colony, to do and perform each and every act and thing that I could or would were I personally present ;- hereby ratifying and confirming all the said acts so done or to be done by the said James Kerr in the premises.
In testimony whereof I hereunto set my hand and seal, at the town of San Felipe de Austin, this 26th day of August, 1827.
Signed in presence of
BEN. R. MILAM, Empresario. [L. S.] DAVID G. BURNET and J. B. AUSTIN.
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Among the early and most worthy settlers at the extreme northeast corner of Texas on Red River, sometimes in Arkansas, the line being unsurveyed, was Collin McKinney, who reached there in 1824. He was a warm friend of Milam and was the oldest man, being seventy, who signed the declara- tion of Texian Independence. Mckinney and Collin County, in which he died in 1861, at the age of ninety-five years, perpetuate his name. His son, William C. Mckinney, a man of integrity, in response to a letter written him in 1874, by the author of this work, wrote as follows in regard to Milam : --
COLLIN CO., TEXAS, April 26, 1874. Col. John Henry Brown :
DEAR SIR - In the year 1826 Col. Benjamin R. Milam came to my father's house on the south side of Red River. He was accompanied by Earl Stanley Williams, John Martin, and Jefferson Milam (who was to be his surveyor ). He informed us that he and Arthur Wavel, an Englishman, had secured from Mexico the right to colonize our section of the country extending up Red River to the Bois d'Arc fork. I was then about thirteen years of age, saw much of Milam, and became greatly attached to him. He gave me many incidents con- nected with his service in behalf of the revolutionary patriots in Mexico, with Trespalacios and Long, and of his impris- onment in that country.
In the same year, 1826, he settled at a place near Lake Comfort, a little below the mouth of Little River, on the south side of Red River. I assisted him in moving to the place. He purchased a lot of cattle in Caddo Prairie and drove them to his new place. He was often back at my father's house, in what became Bowie County. In 1827, with such provisions as he could carry on horseback, he left on a mission through the wilderness south, to meet his associate, Wavel, possibly in England, but found him in Mexico. In 1829 he came back, having with him Mr. Belt and John M. Dorr, who
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was his clerk. In 1830 he opened a land office for the colony and began the survey of lands. He had an eleven-league tract surveyed opposite the mouth of Little River. He told me that he had been naturalized as a Mexican citizen, and from that fact, had a right to buy one of these tracts -a right denied to all excepting citizens of Mexico. He had the large tract surveyed and plainly marked. I have often seen the marks. [The title to Milam was never perfected. ] He con- tinued the. survey of lands and the issue of certificates to settlers to the number of one hundred and sixteen.
About that time the question became serious as to the boundary line between the United States and Mexico (that is between Arkansas and Texas), on the south side of Red River, a question never settled till the line was run and marked, from latitude 32 degrees on the Sabine due north to Red River, by the joint commission of the United States and Texas, in 1840-41. Milam thereupon ceased operations till the ques- tion could be settled.
Colonel Milam resolved, if possible, to open Red River to navigation for steam-boats above the famous raft, where nothing but canoes and flat boats had ever been used. He bought a steamboat on the Mississippi and undertook the enterprise, and in 1832 had the honor of passing the first vessel of that kind through the raft and into the upper waters of that wide but fickle stream of the plains. He sailed up as far as the landing for Fort Towson, now in the Choctaw nation. It was said he had sold in England a half interest in two silver mines in Mexico, and, on arriving at old Jones- boro with his boat, he told me he had the money to pay for the eleven leagues previously surveyed.
On account of the uncertainty about securing their land titles, the people of that section held a meeting in the spring of 1835, to consult. I was one of the assemblage. All eyes turned to Milam as the man to send to see the Mexican authorities in their behalf. He was ever ready to serve his
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fellow-men and agreed to make the trip. With a few biscuits and a little parched coffee, he struck out through the wilder- ness, to San Felipe and thence via San Antonio, to Monclova, the capital of Coahuila and Texas.
Colonel Milam was a noble, great-hearted man, of com- manding appearance and fine address. The result of his mission - his arrest and imprisonment, his escape, his acci- dentally falling in with the volunteers near Goliad on the night of the successful attack on that place October 9th, 1835, and his heroic death in the storming of Bexar, December 8th, 1835, are a part of the history of the country.
Respectfully,
WILLIAM C. MCKINNEY.
The career of Milam, involving his participation in so many affairs, is difficult to connect in one truthful narrative. A sketch of his earlier life by his one-time youthful associate, Dr. C. G. Graham, of Kentucky, when over eighty years of age, and deposited in the public library of Kentucky, is doubt- less correct, while later events, pertaining to his career in Texas, are in some points incorrectly given. It appears that he was born in Kentucky in 1791 and was a soldier in the British-American war of 1812-15, Dr. Graham being with him. In 1815 he sailed from New Orleans as supercargo in a vessel loaded with flour for Maricaibo, but was shipwrecked and returned to the United States. From the pen of David G. Burnet, the first President of Texas, we learn that during his health-seeking sojourn among the Comanches, 1817-18, he and Milam slept on the same buffalo robe at the head of the Colorado River in Texas, about the close of 1818. Milam was among those wild people on a trading expedition and found Burnet among them. We next find Milam meeting and joining Long and Trespalacios in New Orleans in 1819 - halting on Galveston Island - then sailing down the coast with Trespalacios and Christy, landing in the region of
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Tampico, while Long was captured at La Bahia and with his men conveyed to Mexico.1
On the downfall of Iturbide in 1823, Milam again visited Mexico and remained a year or two. We next find him on the 12th of January, 1826, receiving a colonial grant between the Guadalupe and Colorado rivers, and later in the same year, founding a settlement as stated by Wm. C. Mckinney, on Red River. The remainder of his career is given elsewhere as already transpired or as yet to transpire. President Burnet says of him :
" The illustrious Marshal Ney was not more entitled to the compliment conferred upon him by the great Napoleon, 'the bravest of the brave,' than was our own Milam. I have seen him in perilous surroundings, and have never seen him more cheerful and placid than on such occasions. His temper was naturally calm and serene, and never more so than in the midst of danger. * * The writer knew this gallant man in Texas as early as 1818 ; he has camped with him many nights, on the head waters of the Colorado, having the star- spangled heavens for a canopy, and the earth shrouded by a buffalo robe for a couch. His physical developments were of the finest order, in stature and features worthy of the celebrity of his native State. His mind, endowed by nature with the richest elements, displayed its energies in a passionate fond- ness for adventure and enterprise. He was by birth, education and deliberate preference a republican."
1 Himself, John Austin and Burns conveyed to the city -the others detained at Monterey.
CHAPTER XVII.
Changes in the names of Towns and Districts following the Revolution - Governors of Texas-Baron de Bastrop succeeded by Flores as Commis- sioner to issue titles to settlers in Austin's Colony .- Civil divisions of Austin's Colony - Revolution in Mexico headed by Santa Anna and Lorenzo de Zavala - Expeditions of Brown and Kuykendall against the Indians - Arrival of a number of men who afterward figured prominently in the affairs of Texas - Murder of a number of the members of Roark's party by Indians on the San Antonio Road.
It is proper here to refer to a number of concurrent events transpiring from about 1824 to 1828.
Among these was the change, by the State Legislature, of the name of the ancient town of La Bahia del Espiritu Santo, (the bay of the holy Spirit) to that of Goliad, which it still bears- Goliad being an anagram in honor of him who raised the first cry for Mexican independence on the 16th of Sep- tember, 1810, the martyred priest, patriot and general, Hidalgo. Following the success of the Mexican revolution the political authorities changed the ancient names of many places and districts, by bestowing upon them the names of revolutionary chieftains. Thus Revilla became Guerrero ; Refugio became Matamoros; Alcantro became Mier; and in this way the names Hilalgo, Morelos, Allende, Victoria and others are found scattered throughout Mexico.
The first Governor of provincial Texas after the revolution, was Felix Trespalacios, in 1822. He was followed in 1823 by Luciano Garza. But on the union of Coahuila and Texas as a State in 1824, Rafael Gonzales served as provisional governor till 1826, when he was succeeded by Victor Blanco; in 1828 by Jose Maria Viesca; in 1831 by Jose Maria Letona ; in 1833
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by. Francisco Vidaurri Villa Señor, and, in 1834, by Augustin Viesca, who, so far as Texas was concerned, by the fiat of the people, through delegates in convention assembled, on the 14th day of November, 1835, was succeeded by the first American to preside over her destinies, the unflinching patriot, Henry Smith, like Milam, a noble son of Kentucky. Viesca was driven out by Santa Anna's army after the battle of Zacatecas.
The Baron de Bastrop, commissioner to issue titles in Austin's colony, becoming a member of the Legislature at Saltillo, was succeeded by Gasper Flores.
In the early days of Austin's colony it was divided into two municipalities or districts, with an Alcalde and other civil officers in each. This was done by Colonel Austin himself under the ample powers provisionally conferred upon him. When 1828 arrived the number of such districts had increased to seven. On the first of February, 1828, Austin's power ceased in this behalf, and his colony, with those of De Witt, De Leon and all the remainder of Texas was organized under the constitution and laws of the State, under which frequent changes occurred by the formation of new settlements and the creation of new districts.
In the meantime, in regard to national affairs, under the re- publican constitution which went into effect on the 4th of October, 1824, the first presidential term of four years was filled by that purest of all Mexican chiefs, Guadalupe Victoria. In the election of September, 1828, for his successor, Vicente Guerrero was supported by the liberal or progressive party, and Manuel Gomez Pedraza by the centralist or aristocratic party, a rather strange choice when it is considered that afterwards, Ped- raza opposed the corruption and exactions of the ecclesiastical establishment and became the friend of religious liberty in the country. It was claimed that Guerrero received a large majority of the popular vote, but when the electoral college met, Pedraza received the votes of ten of the eighteen States
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eaving but eight to Guerrero. The installation was to follow in April, 1829, and this gave time to the disappointed sup- porters of Guerrero to foment a revolution. It was headed by Santa Anna and Lorenzo de Zavala, who, at the head of an army, pronounced at Jalapa, and marched upon the capital, where heavy fighting occurred for several days, terminating in triumph for the pronunciados. Victory was followed by the installation of Guerrero, and the exile of Pedraza to the United States, to be followed, in 1832, by the expulsion, flight, and murder of Guerrero, and the recall of Pedraza, his installa- tion and occupancy of the presidency during the latter portion of the term ending in April, 1833. On his death, Pedraza was denied burial in consecrated ground, because, as was charged, of his advocacy of religious liberty and his desire to have the bible placed in the hands of the people. His re- mains were deposited in the cemetery of the British embassy, and were still there in 1869, when his tomb was seen by the author of this work, in close proximity to those of the widow of General Antonio Mexia, who figured in Texas in 1832 and 1835, and who was defeated, captured and put to death by Santa Anna, on the plains of Perote, in 1839. His only son, Colonel Enrique Mexia, is well known and much esteemed in Texas, in which a flourishing town bears his name. The de- ceased wife of Gen. Mexia had been Miss Charlotte Walker of England. Their only daughter is the wife of George L. Hammekin, in the city of Mexico.
In all these years the colonists of Texas were greatly harassed by hostile Indians. Colonel Austin was ever vigilant in adopting and encouraging every available means for pro- tection, defense and chastisement. Of events in 1828 and 1829 the following authentic accounts are taken from the biography of Captain Henry S. Brown :
In 1827, Captain Brown, on returning to New Orleans from Mexico and Texas, visited Missouri. In the beginning of 1828, he again resumed the Mexican trade, making two
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trips.1 On the first trip he was robbed of a considerable amount of goods by the treachery of a Mexican in whom he had placed confidence.
In the month of December, 1828, Captain Brown was returning from a trading expedition to Mexico, having as the proceeds of the expedition, about five hundred horses and a considerable amount of silver in rawhide-wrappers. He had with him nine Mexican rancheros, a faithful old Cherokee Indian named Luke, and two or three Americans. At night on the road between San Antonio and Gonzales, his animals were stampeded and driven off by a party of hostile In- dians, leaving a portion of his men on foot. He repaired to Gonzales and increased his force to twenty-nine men. With these he moved leisurely up the country through
1 While encamped on Peach Creek, east of Gonzales, on his first trip, Captain Brown found in a thicket the nude body of young Early, a stranger from Georgia. A short time before the murdered man left San Felipe for San Antonio in company with Isaac B. Desha (also a stranger) the son of the Governor of Kentucky. Desha had been sentenced to death for the murder of a Mr. Baker, a southern merchant en route to Philadelphia on horseback, but the father pardoned his son. But previous to hearing of his pardon, Desha while in jail cut his throat, which ever after necessitated his wearing a silver tube in his windpipe. Captain Brown found him in San Antonio in possession of the horse and effects of Early. He reported the facts to the political chief, by whom he was commissioned to arrest and convey Desha to San Felipe for trial. He performed this duty and safely delivered Desha, who was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to be hanged; but before the day of execution died in prison and was buried. Soon after the discovery of Early's body, Dr. Geo. M. Patrick, an honored citizen of Grimes County, with two or three companions, found the clothing of Early secreted in a thicket near where Captain Brown had found his body. Peri- odically for forty years, absurd rumors were current in Kentucky that Desha still lived, a block of wood having been buried, and he allowed to escape. This was false, beyond a doubt. Among many who saw the dead body of Desha was the well known Thomas M. Duke, who wrote the facts for the St. Louis Republican at the time, and the files of that paper still contain the letter.
The Desha family, with this exception, ranked as high as any in Ken- tucky for talent, honor and probity. The son was evidently a homicidal monomaniac.
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the mountains, and finally crossed the Colorado a little above the mouth of Pecan Bayou into the present territory of Brown County, hoping to surprise an Indian village, and recover his own, or an equal number of horses and mules. He suddenly came upon an encampment almost destitute of horses, and scarcely any women and children. Quite a fight ensued, the Indians occupying a rocky point near its termination at a brushy little stream. For a time the Indians seemed defiant and killed one of Captain Brown's Mexicans, besides wounding several of his men slightly, but several of the Indians fell, and suddenly they all fled into the creek bottom. Captain Brown, still anxiuos to find the object of his search, traveled westerly till night and encamped. During the night some of the guard discovered a camp-fire apparently about two miles distant. As day dawned the party mounted, and moving cautiously, struck the village just as it was light enough to see. Six of the Mexicans, under prior instructions, stampeded the Indians' horses. The other twenty-three men covered the rear and prepared for battle. Forty or fifty mounted Indians made pursuit, and fighting ensued, until four or five warriors had been tumbled from their horses. The Indians then drew off until reinforced by about as many more, who, however, made no attack, but traveled parallel with the retreating party, occasionally showing themselves till the sun went down. All this time the horses were, however, pressed into a gallop, and rendered too tired to be easily stampeded at night - the forlorn hope of the enemy. The retreat was continued to the full capacity of the animals for two or three successive days. Then, still traveling all night and grazing the horses and sleeping by alternation portions of each day, the party arrived safely at Gonzales with the loss of one Mexican killed and four or five wounded, but none fatally. I once had the name of every man in this party, but lost the list many years ago. Among them, however, were Bazil Durbin -
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Shelley, Andrew Scott, Luke the Cherokee, nine Mexicans, Jesse Robinson, Moses Morrison, Abram M. Clare and Wm. Bracken. They reached Gonzales late in January, 1829. They started in with about seven hundred animals, but got in with only a little over five hundred, the remainder having escaped in the night marches. These were equitably divided among the captors to the satisfaction of all. It was this affair that prompted Captain Brown, later in the year 1829, to lead a second expedition into the same section of country, in which, at the mouth of the San Saba, he accidentally fell in company with Captain Abner Kuykendall, in command of a hundred men, or two companies under Captains Oliver Jones and Bartlett Sims, organized in Austin's colony. The same authority is again quoted. After describing the departure of Kuykendall from Austin's colony, the following occurs :
" About the same time, but without concert, a company of thirty-nine men of De Witt's colony, under Captain Henry S. Brown, left Gonzales on a mission against the depredating hostiles, supposed to be in the mountains. Among these thirty-nine early defenders of infant Texas, were Samuel Highsmith, deceased in 1849, Bazil Durbin, Moses Morrison, James Curtis, George W. Cottle (killed in the Alamo), and Friley. Kuykendall scoured the country between the Brazos and Colorado: when about twenty miles below the mouth of the San Saba, a sort of epidemic appeared among the men, caused probably by their having eaten wild fruits. He halted and sent forward scouts. The scouts returned on the third day and reported a large encampment on the west bank of the Colorado, just below the mouth of the San Saba. Kuykendall determined, if possible by a night march, to make a daylight attack the next morning. The night march was made, but owing to cedar brakes and broken ground, to the regret of all, daylight appeared when they were five or six miles short of their destination. Still, anxious for the advantages of a surprise at dawn, Captain Kuykendall concealed his force in a
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dense cedar brake to await another night. But a party of warriors, during the day, fell in with Kuykendall's scouts, followed them, discovered the main body, and rushed to their camp to give the alarm. Kuykendall mounted and followed as rapidly as possible. Arriving in sight of the village, the Indians were seen mounting and fleeing, some already ascend- ing the highlands near by. Kuykendall made a gallant charge on a band of warriors who remained to cover the retreat, but their stand was feeble. Only a few shots were fired, one of which by Nester Clay,1 a brave and talented Kentuckian, killed the only warrior-Indian who fell. A few squaws and children in the rear were allowed to follow their people. The Indians lost their entire camp equipage, including a great number of copper rattles, blankets, buffalo robes, a considerable quantity of corn, and a large number of horses, all of which were secured, and taken in by the victors. During the afternoon, Captain Brown appeared. He had discovered the camp, secreted his men, put out concealed watchers, and like Kuy- kendall, expected to attack at dawn on the following morning. He had passed through the mountains on the east side of the Guadalupe across the Piedernales and Llano, to the head of the San Saba. He encountered two small bands, in the first killing three Indians. Near the Enchanted Rock he surprised the second band in a small camp near heavy thickets. Five or six Indians fell, the remainder escaping into the brush. Both appeared to be only hunting-parties of warriors. It was on this trip that Captain Brown, with his men, became the discoverer of the Enchanted Rock. He had followed the San Saba down to its mouth, and a little below that discovered the Indian encampment, as already stated. Neither he nor Kuykendall knew of the other being in that section, until Brown discovered the flying Indians turning a
1 Nester Clay served with distinction in the first convention of 1832, and the second of 1833. He was a man of superior ability and his early death was a loss to the country.
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ridge about two miles away, upon which he moved to the late Indian camp, and there found the other party. The two commands moved down to Kuykendall's late camp, Several new cases of sickness appeared among the former's men, but none died. While here one of the men went out hunting, did not return, and could not be found. There were a number of wearied horses unable to travel with the command. Jesse Robinson, and another man of Captain Brown's company, volunteered to remain with, and if possible, take them in, which, greatly to their credit and to the surprise of all, they successfully accomplished. On the sixth day, in a perishing condition, the lost man fell in with Robinson and was saved. After traveling together two days, Kuykendall and Brown separated, the former deflecting eastward to and down the Brazos, reaching San Felipe without other incidents worthy. of mention. Of his two captains, Oliver Jones became a leading and talented senator in after years, and Bartlett Sims, a noted surveyor, and a long resident of Bastrop County. Captain Brown bore down the Colorado, and crossed it at the mouth of Shoal Creek where the city of Austin now stands, scoured the country on Onion Creek, the Rio Blanco and San Marcos, and reached Gonzales without further adventure. It was these expeditions into its territory which twenty-two years after his death caused Brown County to be named for him."
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