USA > Texas > History of Texas : from 1685 to 1892, volume 2 > Part 22
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44
Captain Eldridge, anxious to report to the President, tarried not at the fort, but with Bee, Callaway H. Patrick, (now of Dallas County ), and the Delaware, continued on. On the ยท way Mr. Bee was seized with chills and fever of violent type, insomuch that, at Fort Milam, Eldridge left him in charge of Mr. Patrick and hurried on. Mr. Bee finally reached the hospitable house of his friend, Colonel Josiah Crosby, seven miles above Washington, and there remained till in the winter before recovering his health. Captain Eldridge, after some delay, met and reported to the President, but was not received with the cordiality he thought due his services. Jim Shaw and John Conner had preceded him and misstated various matters to the prejudice of Eldridge, and, to the amazement of many who knew his great merit and his tried fidelity to Pres- ident Houston, he was dismissed from office. Very soon, however, the old hero became convinced of his error ; had Eldridge appointed Chief Clerk of the State Department under Anson Jones, and, immediately after annexation in 1846, secured his appointment by President Polk as pay- master in the United States navy, a position he held till his death in his home in Brooklyn, New York, in 1881. Except-
277
HISTORY OF TEXAS.
ing only the incident referred to - deeply lamented by mutual friends - the friendship between him and President Houston, from their first acquaintance in 1837, remained steadfast while both lived. Indeed, Captain Eldridge subsequently named a son for him - his two sons being Charles and Hous- ton Eldridge.
On the 29th of September, 1843, a few days after Eldridge and Bee left, a treaty was concluded by Messrs. Tarrant and Terrell with the following tribes, viz. : Tehuacanos, Keechis, Wacos, Caddos, Anadarcos, Ionics, 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. Estecayucatubba, principal chief of the Chicasaws, signed the treaty merely for its effect on the wild tribes. Leonard Will- iams 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.
The most potent chief in the council to whom the wild tribes looked as a leader, was Kechikoroqua, the head of the Tehuacanos, who at first refused to treat with any one but the President, but finally yielded after understanding the powers of the commissioners.
A line of demarkation was agreed upon between the whites and Indians, along which, at proper intervals, trading houses were to be established. Three points for such houses were selected, which indicate the general line chosen, viz. : one at the junction of the west and Clear Forks of the Trinity (now Fort Worth ), one at the Comanche Peak, and one at the old San Saba mission.
From undoubted data this narrative has been prepared, the first full account ever published of the most thrilling succes- sion of events in our Indian history. It reflects the highest
278
HISTORY OF TEXAS.
credit on the three courageous young men who assumed and triumphed over its hazards, though sadly followed by the death of the heroic and much loved Thomas S. Torrey.1
The seventh Congress met on the 14th of November, 1842 (the exigencies of the times at the close of the call-session demanding an earlier meeting than the regular time - the first Monday in December), and adjourned on the 16th of January, 1843.
Among the acts passed by this Congress was one pro- viding for the election of a major-general of militia (an office which the Executive had power to fill ), whose duty it should be to organize for immediate service on the frontier, six com- panies. That officer should take the field in person if he should think it necessary, and command all troops, in his offi- cial capacity, and $50,000 were appropriated for this purpose. The President returned the bill with the objection that it made the military independent of the civil government. The act, however, was passed over the President's veto. The danger indicated by him was obviated by the election of Thomas J. Rusk to this office.
1 The Torrey brothers, seven in number, and all from Ashford, Connec- ticut, deserve further mention. David K., born in 1815, came to Texas in 1839, rendered important services in Indian matters and, on such a mission, was killed by the Mescaleros, near Presidio del Norte, Christmas Day, 1849. John F., born in 1817, came to Texas in 1838 - a merchant in Houston, in- terested in the Indian trade - later in woolen manufactures in New Braun - fels and now (in 1892) the only survivor, owns, and lives at Comanche Peak, in Hood County. Thomas S., born in 1819, came to Texas in 1840. He was a Santa Fe prisoner, released and joined John F. in the Indian trade, sent, as we have seen, by the President with Eldridge, and died at the treaty grounds (since known as Johnson's Station), September 28, 1843. James N., born 1821, came to Texas in 1841. As a Mier prisoner on the 25th of March, 1843, he drew a black bean and with sixteen others, was murdered under the order of Santa Anna. The remains of both James N. and Thomas S. repose on Monument Hill, La Grange, Texas. The brothers Judson, George B. and Abraham, all came to Texas and died at the threshold of manhood. The father came in 1858, lived fifteen years in New Braunfels and died in 1873, aged eighty-three years.
279
HISTORY OF TEXAS.
They also provided for trading posts for the Indians, pro- hibiting the sale of liquor among them and it was made a capital crime for a white man to kill an Indian except in war or in self-defense ( which of course included defense of his family, etc. ). This Congress was in session at the time of the battle of Mier and adjourned just as the news of the surren- der of the Texians reached the country.
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE LATER COLONIES IN TEXAS.
Peters', Fisher and Miller's (the German colony), Castro's and Mercer's.
With the declaration of Texian independence, March 2nd, 1836, all prior colonial grants and contracts with Mexico or the State of Coahuila and Texas ceased. Really and practi- cally they ceased on the 13th of November, 1835, by a decree of the first revolutionary assembly, known as the Consulta- tion, which, as a preventive measure against frauds and villainy, wisely and honestly closed all land office business until a permanent government could be organized. Hence, as a historical fact, the colonial contracts of Stephen F. Austin, Austin and Williams, Sterling C. Robertson, Green De Witt, Martin De Leon, Power and Hewitson, and McMullen and McGloin ceased on the 13th of November, 1835. The con- cessions to David G. Burnet, Joseph Vehlein and Lorenzo de Zavala, previously transferred to a New York syndicate, known as the New York and Galveston Bay Company, of which Archibald Hotchkiss, of Nacogdoches, was made resi- dent agent, and which, in reality, accomplished little or noth- ing, also expired by the decree of the 13th of November, 1835.
The Republic was born March 2nd, 1836, and for the five succeeding years, until February 4th, 1841, the last year of Lamar's administration, there was no law authorizing colonial contracts. But on the last named day a law was passed author- izing the President, under conditions set forth, to enter into contracts for the colonization of wild lands in Northwest and Southwest Texas. That act was amended January 1st, 1843.
(280)
281
HISTORY OF TEXAS.
President Lamar entered into a contract for what became known as Peters' colony, in North Texas, August 30th, 1841, which was altered November 20, 1841, and by President Hous- ton, on the 26th of July, 1842, Houston having succeeded Lamar as President. Under this law, besides the Peters' colony, already granted, President Houston made grants to Henry F. Fisher and Burchard Miller, for what afterwards became known as the German colony, which did much to populate the beautiful mountain country drained by the Perdernales, Llano and San Saba rivers.
About the same time a grant was made to Chas. Fenton Mercer for settling immigrants in the territory now embraced in and adjoining Kaufman County. It was but partially suc- cessful and many of the settlers located elsewhere.
The contract with Fisher and Miller passed into the hands of what became known as the German immigration company, and covered the waters, in whole or in part, of the Perdenales, Llano, San Saba and the lower Conchos. From 1844, to and including 1848, they introduced a large number of valuable and industrious immigrants into that mountainous section, previously without a habitation and open to the inroads of the wild tribes, from which, till after the close of the civil war in 1865, they periodically suffered dire calamities, involving rob- beries, murders and captivities of their women and children. Landing at Indianola, as their permanent entrepot, they acquired a considerable tract of land on the Guadalupe, at the foot of the mountains, and founded the beautiful and after- wards flourishing town of New Braunfels, which became the base of their colonial operations. Some of the immigrants remained at Indianola and a few in Victoria, Gonzales and Seguin, and from time to time, quite a number settled in San Antonio, but a large number adhered to the colony proper, founding the towns of Fredericsburg, Boerne, Sisterdale, Comfort and other rural villages, and opening a large number of farms. Among them were a due proportion of professional
282
HISTORY OF TEXAS.
and educated men, supplemented by enterprising merchants, mill men and mechanics. Some noblemen were for a time interested in the enterprise, but did not long so continue, the annexation of Texas to the United States probably modifying their hopes of establishing institutions akin to those to which they had been accustomed. It was well, for it left in Texas an element suited to her condition, a brave, self-reliant, law- abiding and industrious yeomanry, the fruits of whose labors, after so many years of hardship and danger, are everywhere visible.
Peters' colony, on its east line, ran from the mouth of Big Mineral creek, in Grayson County, due south, passing about ten miles east of Dallas, to a point in the eastern part of Ellis county, and thence west and north to Red River, embracing a large district of the best lands in North Texas. Beginning in 1842, it was rapidly settled chiefly by farmers, from Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee and other States. It has developed in the fifty intervening years, despite bloody Indian wars, the civil war and the calamities following, into the wealthiest and most populous portion of the State, in which are comprehended the whole or large parts of the counties of Grayson, Collin, Dallas, Ellis, Johnson, Tarrant, Denton, Cooke, Montague, Wise, Parker and several others on the west. In this colony every head of a family received a head- right of 640 acres and each single man 320 acres. The com- pany received its pay in premium-lands lying further west.
On the 15th of January, 1842, Henry Castro entered into a contract with President Houston for settling a colony west of the Medina, to continue for five years, the eastern boundary being four miles west of the Medina and cutting him off from that beautiful stream ; but he bought from private parties the lands on it and thereby made the Medina his eastern bound- ary. At the same time President Houston appointed Mr. Castro Texian Consul-General to France. He was an edu- cated and accomplished Frenchman. Owing to the invasion
283
HISTORY OF TEXAS.
of Texas in 1842, and other obstacles, on the 25th of Decem- ber, 1844, after he had brought over seven hundred immi- grants, on seven different ships, chartered at his own cost, his contract was prolonged for three years from its original period of termination - a just and honorable concession by Texas to one of such approved zeal and energy.
An interesting volume could be written descriptive of the efforts of Mr. Castro to settle his colony, then exposed to the attacks of bandit and guerilla Mexicans but a little to its west, and to all the hostile Indians north and west of his proposed settlement. He hurried to France and, besides his official and personal affairs, did great service in aiding General James Hamilton, the Texian Minister, in popularizing the cause of Texas in France. He encountered great obstacles, as the French government was using immense efforts to encourage migration to its colony in Algiers ; but on the 13th of Novem- ber, 1842, he dispatched the ship Ebro, from Harve, with 113 immigrants, for Texas. Soon afterwards the ships Lyons, from Harve, and the Louis Philippe, from Dunkirk, with im- migrants, accompanied by the Abbe Menitrier, followed. These were followed from Antwerp on the 25th of October, 1843, by the ship, Jeane Key, and on May 4th by the Jeanette Marie. The seven ships named brought over seven hundred colonists. In all; in thirty-seven ships he introduced into Texas over five thousand immigrants, farmers, orchardists and vine-growers, chiefly from the Rhenish provinces, an excellent class of in- dustrious, law-abiding people whose deeds " do follow them " in the beautiful gardens, fields and homes in Medina and the contiguous counties on the west.
On the 3d of September, 1844, after many delays, the heroic Castro, at the head of the first party to arrive on the ground, formally inaugurated his colony. A town was laid out on the west bank of the Medina, and by the unanimous vote of the colonists, named Castroville. It was a bold step. He confronted dangers unknown to the first American
284
HISTORY OF TEXAS.
colonists in 1822, for besides hostile savages, now accustomed to the use of fire-arms, it challenged inroads from the whole Rio Grande Mexican frontier, which, in 1822, furnished friends and not enemies to foreign settlements in Texas. It was doing what both Spanish and Mexican power had failed to do in 153 years ( from 1692 to 1844) - since the first settle- ment at San Antonio. It was founding a permanent settle- ment of civilized, Christian men, between San Antonio and the Rio Grande, the settlements and towns on which, from Matamoros, Reynosa, Camargo, Mier, Guerrero, Laredo, Dolores, San Fernando, Santa Rosa, Presidio del Rio Grande, Presidio del Norte, bristled in hostility to Texas and its people. It was an achievement entitling the name of Henri de Castro to be enrolled among the most prominent pioneers of civilization in modern times. Yet the youth of to-day, joyously and peacefully galloping over the beautiful hills and valleys he rescued from savagery, are largely ignorant of his great services.
Colonel John C. Hays, Colonel George T. Howard, John James, the surveyor, and among others, John M. Odin, the first Catholic Bishop of Texas, visited Castroville and bade Godspeed to the new settlers from La Belle France and the Rhine. Bishop Odin laid and blessed the corner-stone of the first house dedicated to the worship of God - a service ren- dered before the settlers had completed respectable huts to shelter their families.
Mr. Castro, soon after inaugurating his colony, was com- pelled to revisit France. He delivered a parting farewell to his people. On the 25th of November, 1844, to the number of fifty-three heads-of-families they responded. Their address is before me. They say : " We take pleasure in acknowledg- ing that since the first of September - the date at which we signed the process verbal of taking possession - you have treated us like a liberal and kind father. Our best
285
HISTORY OF TEXAS.
wishes accompany you on your voyage and we take this occa- sion to express to you our ardent desire to see you return soon among us, to continue to us your paternal protection." Signed by Leopold Mentrier, J. H. Burgeois, George Cupples, Jean Baptiste Lecompte, Joseph Weber, Michael Simon and forty-seven others.
The Indians sorely perplexed these exposed people. In the rear of one of their first immigrating parties, the Indians, forty miles below San Antonio, attacked and burnt a wagon. The driver, an American, rifle in hand, reached a thicket, and killed several of them ; but they killed a boy of nineteen - a Frenchman - and cut off his head and nailed it to a tree. In the burnt wagon was a trunk containing a considerable amount of gold and silver. In the ashes the silver was found melted, the gold only blackened. This was one of the first parties following the advance settlers.
In this enterprise Henry Castro expended of his personal means over one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. He fed his colonists for a year - furnished them milch cows, farming implements, seeds, medicines and whatever they needed. He was a father, dispensing blessings hitherto unknown in the colonization of Texas. He was a learned, wise and humane man, unappreciated by many, because he was modest and in nowise self-assertive and his tastes were literary. He was a devoted friend of Presidents Lamar, Houston and Jones, all of whom were his friends and did all in their power, each dur- ing his term, to advance his great and patriotic idea of plant- ing permanent civilization in Southwest Texas. He was a devout believer in the capacity of intelligent men for self-gov- ernment, and abhorred despotism as illustrated in the kingly governments of Europe. He believed, with Jefferson, in the God-given right of every association of men, whether in com- monwealth, nation or empire, to select their own officers, and, by chosen representatives, to make their own laws. Hence
286
HISTORY OF TEXAS.
he was, in every sense, a valuable accession to the infant Republic of Texas.1
1 When war raged and our ports were closed, Mr. Castro sought to visit the land of his birth, and, to that end, reached Monterey in Mexico. There he sickened and died, and there, at the base of the Sierra Madre, his remains repose; but his memory has an abiding place in the bosom of every surviv- ing Texian who had the good fortune to know him and his labors in the cause of civilization. He is ably, honorably and faithfully represented in the person of his enlightened and gifted son, Mr. Lorenzo Castro, of San Antonio.
CHAPTER XXVII. THE SNIVELY EXPEDITION AGAINST THE SANTA FE TRADERS IN 1843.
The Snively expedition - Capt. Cooke, U. S. Army - Capt. Myers F. Jones - Joseph S. Pease of St. Louis.
The year 1843 was one of the gloomiest, at least during its first half, ever experienced in Texas. The perfidious and bar- barous treatment given the Texian Santa Fe prisoners of 1841, after they had capitulated as prisoners of war, preceded by the treason of one of their number, William P. Lewis, had created throughout Texas a desire for retaliation. The expedition that surrendered to the overwhelming force of Armijo, the Governor of New Mexico, was both commercial and peaceful, but, of necessity, accompanied by a large armed escort to protect it against hostile Indians. The wisdom and the legality of the measure, authorized by President Lamar, on his own responsibility, were severely criticised by many ; but Texas was a unit in indignation at the treacherous, dastardly and brutal treatment bestowed upon their brave and chivalrous citizens.
The Mexican raids of 1842, ending with the glorious but un- successful battle of Mier, intensified the desire for retaliatory action toward Mexico and especially toward New Mexico.
As a result of this feeling, on the 28th of January, 1843, Jacob Snively, who had held the staff rank of colonel in the Texian army, applied to the government for authority to raise men and proceed to the upper boundaries of Texas, and capture a rich train belonging to Armijo and other Santa Fe Mexicans. Permission was issued by George W. Hill, Secretary of War,
(287)
288
HISTORY OF TEXAS.
on the 16th of February, with provisos that half the spoils should go to the government and should only be taken in honorable warfare.
On the 24th of April, near the present town of Denison, the expedition, about 175 strong, was organized and Snively unanimously chosen as commander. A few others joined a day or two later, making a total of about 190. They followed the old Chihuahua trail west till assured of being west of the hundredth meridian, then bore north, passing along the west- ern base of the Wichita mountains, and on the 27th of May encamped on the southwest bank of the Arkansas. This was said to be about forty miles below the Missouri-Santa Fe crossing, but was only eight or ten miles from the road on the opposite side of the river.
It was known before they started that a Mexican train of great value (for that day ) would pass from Independence to Santa Fe, some time in the spring, and as the route for a long distance lay in Texas, it was considered legitimate prey.
They soon learned from some men from Bent's Fort that six hundred Mexican troops were waiting above to escort the caravan from the American boundary to Santa Fe. Snively kept out scouts and sought to recruit his horses. His scouts inspected the camp of the enemy and found their number as reported, about six hundred. On the 20th of June a portion of the command had a fight with a detachment of the Mexi- cans, killing seventeen and capturing eighty prisoners, includ- ing eighteen wounded, without losing a man, and securing a fine supply of horses, saddles and arms. Snively held the prisoners in a camp with good water. On the 24th three hundred Indians suddenly appeared; but seeing Snively's position and strength, professed friendship. There was no confidence, however, in their profession, excepting so far as induced by a fear to attack.
The long delay created great discontent and when scouts came in on the 28th and reported no discovery of the caravan,
289
HISTORY OF TEXAS.
a separation took place. Seventy of the men, selecting Captain Eli Chandler as their commander, started home on the 29th. Snively, furnishing his wounded prisoners with horses to ride and the others with a limited number of guns for defense against the Indians, and such provisions as he could spare, set the whole party at liberty. Whereupon he pitched another camp further up the river to await the caravan, perfectly con- fident that he was west of the hundredth meridian and ( being on the southwest side of the Arkansas, the boundary line from that meridian to its source, ) therefore in Texas. Subsequent surveys proved that he was right. By a captured Mexican he learned that the caravan was not far distant, escorted by one hundred and ninety-six United States dragoons, commanded by Captain Philip St. George Cooke. On June 30th they were discovered by the scouts and found to have also two pieces of artillery. Cooke soon appeared, crossed the river, despite the protest of Snively that he was on Texas soil, and planted his guns so as to rake the camp. He demanded uncon- ditional surrender and there was no other alternative. Cooke allowed them to retain ten guns for the one hundred and seven men present, compelled to travel at least four hundred miles through a hostile Indian country, without a human habitation, but their situation was not so desperate as he intended, for a majority of the men, before it was too late, buried their rifles and double-barrel shot guns in the sand-mounds, and meekly surrendered to Cooke the short escopetas they had captured from the Mexicans. Cooke recrossed the river. He awakened to a partial realization of his harsh and unfeeling act, and sent a message to Snively that he would escort as many of his men as would accept the invitation, into Independence, Missouri. About forty-two of the men went, among whom were Captain Myers F. Jones, of Fayette County, his nephew, John Rice Jones, Jr., and others whose names cannot be recalled. With Cooke, on a health seeking trip, was Joseph S. Pease, a noted hardware merchant of St. Louis, who bitterly denounced
19
290
HISTORY OF TEXAS.
Cooke and defended the cause of the Texians on reaching St. Louis.
Colonel Snively hastily dispatched a courier advising Cap- tain Chandler of these events and asking him to halt. He did so and on the 2d of July the two parties re-united. On the 4th the Indians stampeded sixty of their horses, but in the fight lost twelve warriors, while one Texian was killed and one wounded.
On the 6th scouts reported that the caravan had crossed the Arkansas. Some wanted to pursue and attack it -- others opposed. Sniveley resigned on the 9th. Sixty-five men selected Charles A. Warfield as leader (not the Charles A. Warfield afterwards representative of Hunt County, and more recently of California, but another man of the same name who, it is believed, died before the civil war). Colonel Snive- ley adhered to this party. They pursued the caravan till the 13th, when they found the Mexican escort to be too strong, abandoned the enterprise and started home. Warfield re- signed and Snively was re-elected. On the 20th they were assaulted by a band of Indians but repulsed them, and after the usual privations of such a trip in midsummer, they arrived on the west fork of the Trinity (since known as Johnson's station ), pending the efforts to negotiate a treaty at that place, as elsewhere set forth in this work. Chandler and party had already gotten in.1
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.