USA > Texas > History of Texas : from 1685 to 1892, volume 2 > Part 40
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The first paper in San Antonio was The Western Texian, founded in 1848-9, by a Mr. West. It was soon followed by the Ledger and both existed for several years. Since that time the papers published in San Antonio have been too numerous to mention, nor is it necessary to mention the large number of papers published in different parts of the State, whose existence was of short duration, nor attempt a list of the numberless papers and periodicals established since the war, some short-lived, and a great number yet in existence.
In 1842 Charles De Morse 1 established and, until his death
1 Charles De Morse was born in Massachusetts, grew to manhood in New York, and came, as a volunteer, to Texas, in the " Morehouse battal- ion," arriving too late to participate in the battle of San Jacinto, though in hearing of its guns. He served in both the army and navy, and from 1839 to 1842 filled different civil government offices in Austin. He served as col- onel in the Confederate army, and also in the constitutional convention of 1875. He was a man of ability, irreproachable character and always a public benefactor. With him came to Texas two youthful twin brothers, Charles A. and John J. Ogsbury ; the latter died in 1836; Charles A., from 1857-8 until his death in Cuero, 1891, was connected with the press; first in Indianola and afterwards at Cuero. His paper at each place was known as
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
in 1887, successfully conducted the Northern Standard in Clarksville. In 1848 Robert W. Loughery established and until 1868 edited the Texas Republican in Marshall, where, as ex-consul to Acapulco, he still resides. In 1849 James W. Latimer founded the Dallas Herald, and, with his subsequent associate, John W. Swindells, conducted it until his death in 1859 ; Mr. Swindells continued it until 1876, when it passed into other hands, and in 1885 was merged into another estab- lishment. Dallas now has - political, religious, mechanical, literary and agricultural - about thirty newspapers.
The Nueces Valley, said to have been the first paper pub- lished in Corpus Christi, was conducted at different times by James R. Barnard, Charles C. Bryant and H. A. Maltby.
About 1849, soon after the Mexican war, the Bandera Americano or American Flag, was established at Brownsville by Edwin B. Scarborough, from Florida ( many years senator from that district), and conducted by him until his death, in 1860.
The Bulletin. He was a gallant soldier in different expeditions, an hon- orable man, and a fervid patriot.
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CHAPTER LI.
CHIEF OFFICERS AND GOVERNORS OF TEXAS FROM 1685 TO 1892.
1. TEMPORARY FRENCH DOMINATION.
Robert Cavalier, Sieur de La Salle, 1685 ; the Sieur Barbier, 1687.
2. SPANISH DOMINATION
Domingo Teran de los Rios, 1691|(it was Coahuila and Texas until 1725) ; Dón Martin de Alarconne, 1718; Marquis of San Miguel de Aguayo, 1720; Fernando Perez de Almazan, 1723 ; Melchior de Mediavilla y Arcona, 1725. (Texas alone until 1824.) Juan Antonio Bustillos y Cevallos, 1731; Manuel de Sandoval, 1734 ; Carlos de Franquis, 1736 ; Prudencio de Oribio d' Basterra, 1738; Justo Boneo, 1740; Jacinto de Barrios y Jaurequi, 1756 ; Antonio de Martos y Navarrete, 1762; Juan Maria Baron de Ripperda, 1770; Domingo Cabello, 1778; Rafael Pacheco, 1789 ; Manuel Muñoz, 1790; Juan Bautista Elguezabal, 1803; Antonio Cardero, 1806 ; Manuel de Salcedo, 1810 ; Juan Bautista Casas (under Revolution of Hidalgo), January 22, 1811 ; Spanish Provisional Junta, overthrew Casas and re-instated Salcedo, 1811; Salcedo killed by the revolution- ist, Gutierrez, 1813; Christoval Dominguez, 1813; Antonio Martinez, 1818.
3. UNDER MEXICAN DOMINATION.
Felix de Trespalacios, 1822. Texas under the Eastern Cap- tain-General until the organization of Coahuila and Texas as (527)
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
one State under the constitution of 1824, Don Luciano Garcia (acting governor), under the constitution of 1824, 1823; Rafael Gonzales, 1824; Victor Blanco, 1826; Jose Maria Viesca, 1828 ; Jose Maria Letona, 1831; Francisco Vidaurri y Villaseñor (acting), 1834.
(Civil war broke out in Coahuila and Texas. Saltilllo pro- nounced and on the 19th of July, 1834, José Maria Goribar was appointed governor. On the 30th of August, 1834, the party of Monclova appointed Juan José Elguezabel, governor. The matter was referred to Santa Anna, who ordered a new election.) Augustin Viesca, elected under this order, 1835.
UNDER THE REVOLUTION OF 1835.
Henry Smith, Governor from November 13, 1835, to March 11, 1836; James W. Robinson Lieutenant-Governor.
UNDER THE REPUBLIC OF TEXAS.
David G. Burnet, President ad interim from March 17, 1836, to October 22, 1836 ; Lorenzo de Zavala Vice-President.
UNDER THE CONSTITUTION.
1. Sam Houston, President from October 22, 1836,. to December 10, 1838; Mirabeau B. Lamar, Vice-President. 2. Mirabeau B. Lamar, President from December 10, 1838, to December, 1841; David G. Burnet, Vice-President. 3. Sam Houston, President from December, 1841, to December, 1844; Edarwd Burleson, Vice-President. 4. Anson Jones, President from December, 1844, to February 19, 1846; Ken- neth L. Anderson, Vice-President.
AS A STATE OF THE UNION.
1. James Pinkney Henderson, Governor from February 19, 1846, to November, 1847 ; Albert C. Horton, Lieut .- Gov-
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
ernor (acted as Governor part of the term). 2. George T. Wood, Governor from November, 1847, to November, 1849 ; John A. Greer, Lieut .- Governor. 3. Peter H. Bell, Gov- ernor from November, 1849, to November, 1851; John A. Greer, Lieut .- Governor. 4. Peter H. Bell, Governor from November, 1851, to November, 1853; James W. Henderson, Lieut .- Governor. 5. Elisha M. Pease, Governor from November, 1853, to November, 1855; David C. Dickson, Lieut .- Governor. 6. Elisha M. Pease, Governor from Novem- ber, 1855, to November, 1857 ; Hardin R. Runnels, Lieut .- Governor. 7. Hardin R. Runnels, Governor from November, 1857, to November, 1859 ; Francis R. Lubbock, Lieut .- Gov- ernor. 8. Sam Houston, Governor from November, 1859, to November, 1861; Edward Clark, Lieut .- Governor, and acting Governor, after March 16, 1861, when Governor Houston retired from the office. 9. Francis R. Lubbock, Governor from November, 1861, to November, 1863; John M. Crockett, Lieut .- Governor. 10. Pendleton Murrah, Gov- ernor, from November, 1863, to May, 1865; Fletcher S. Stockdale, Lieut .- Governor. This closed the era of the war between the States.
AFTER THE WAR.
1. Andrew J. Hamilton, presidential appointee, provisional governor from July 25th, 1865 to August, 1866. 2. James W. Throckmorton ( by election ), Governor from August, 1866, to August 8th, 1867, removed by military authority and E. M. Pease appointed in his stead; George W. Jones, Lieu- tenant-Governor, was also removed. 3. Governor Pease resigned and General J. J. Reynolds, United States army, acted as military. governor until February, 1870, when he appointed Edmund J. Davis, provisional governor. 4. Edmund J. Davis, Governor by election, from April 28, 1870, to January 14th, 1874. The office of Lieutenant-Gov-
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
ernor being vacant, Don A. Campbell, Webster Flanagan and E. B. Pickett, successively presidents pro tem of the senate. 5. Richard Coke, Governor from January 14th, 1874, to April 18th, 1876 ; Richard B. Hubbard, Lieutenant- Governor. 6. Richard Coke ( under the new constitution), Governor from April 18, 1876, to December 1st, 1876, when he resigned to take his seat in the United States senate, and Richard B. Hubbard, the Lieutenant-Governor, served as Governor until the expiration of the term in January, 1879. 7. Oran M. Roberts, Governor from January, 1879, to Janu- ary, 1881 ; Joseph D. Sayers, Lieutenant-Governor. 8. Oran M. Roberts, Governor from January, 1881, to January, 1883 ; Leonidas J. Story, Lieutenant-Governor. 9. John Ireland, Governor from January, 1883, to January, 1885; Marion Martin, Lieutenant-Governor. John Ireland, Governor from January, 1885, to January, 1887; Barnett Gibbs, Lieutenant-Governor. 10. Lawrence S. Ross (two terms), Governor from January, 1887, to January, 1891; Thomas B. Wheeler, Lieutenant-Governor. 11. James S. Hogg, Governor from January, 1891, to January, 1893; George C. Pendleton, Lieutenant-Governor.
STORMS AND FRESHETS.
A brief allusion to the storms and freshets that have visited Texas since its settlement by the American people is deemed appropriate, as a matter of history. The early population was confined to the southern part of the province, and the effects of floods in the rivers were simply to overflow the bottom lands, on which but few people lived. The first flood of any considerable magnitude occurred in 1833, when the Brazos overflowed its banks and spread to a width of three or four miles in the lower country, compelling persons living near the river to remove to higher grounds. No lives were lost, but many lost horses, cattle and sheep. In September, 1837,
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
a strong gale prevailed for several days on the coast, raising water in the bays to a previously unknown height. Galveston was the only place injured. When the wind veered to the northwest, the water was driven from the bay across the island with such force as to carry with it the board houses and shanties which, with one or two exceptions, constituted the buildings of the town. A number of schooners were driven across the island into the gulf, others were wrecked in the harbor and a brig was stranded near the center of the present city, to be used for several years afterwards as a prison. The place being in the first year of its existence as a town, had no strong buildings and but few people. It is believed no lives were lost, and the damage was soon repaired. In January, 1843, the Brazos and other streams in the lower country again overflowed, but the loss was confined to horses and cattle win- tering in the cane-brakes. Such overflows, to a greater or less extent, occurred in 1846 and 1849, and occasionally after- wards, but rarely did material damage, except in a few locali- ties. Such freshets, nearer the heads of the streams, rarely did damage because of the narrowness of the bottoms and the high ground bordering there. This was especially true with regard to their tributaries. The streams in the mountainous country, such as the upper Guadalupe, Perdenales, Llano, San Saba and the Upper Colorado, have been subject to sudden and rapid rises from floods of rain, but confined within rising ground on their margins. Yet many persons, unaware of these freaks of nature, in after years settled on the first rising ground, and became sufferers in both life and property.
In 1871, on the Concho, Colonel , of the United States army, with his wife and two or three children and an escort, in a period of drouth, in passing through the country, while visiting the frontier posts, encamped on a branch of the Concho. The ambulance containing himself and family was halted on a rise of ground not exceeding fifty or sixty yards wide, but twenty or more feet above the bed of the stream.
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
The horses and escort were encamped on higher ground in his rear. In the night, without warning, caused by a water spout above, in a very few minutes, water rushed down in such a torrent as to carry away the ambulance with the mother and children, and they were drowned, despite the frantic efforts of the Colonel and his escort.
In August, 1883, at Ben Ficklin and Fort Concho, on the Concho, including the overland mail station, where a consid- erable community had settled, at daylight on the morning of the 24th the inhabitants awoke to find water rapidly rising in their houses. On the next day, Mr. Joseph Spence, a young gentleman then a resident at Ben Ficklin, in a letter to his father at Austin, gave a graphic description of the fearful scene. Among other things he said: " The people in Ben Ficklin barely escaped to the hills with their lives. By one o'clock there were but six or seven houses in the town, besides the court house and jail, the last two being the only buildings finally left standing in the valley. At Mrs. Metcalf's - the old mail station -they were all up early, and most of them taken out in an ambulance by Mr. Sterling C. Robertson.1 Mrs. Metcalf, her daughter Zemmie, Mr. Taylor, a Mexican, a negro man, and a white boy about 18 years old, - six in all, -refused to leave the house. They realized their danger when too late. Mr. Robertson, after conveying the others to high ground, swam his horse back to the house, vainly hoping to remove those left, but the water was rising so rapidly and rushing with such velocity, that he could not even get back himself; so, abandoning his horse and · getting a ladder, they all seven climbed to the
1 Sterling C. Robertson is the eldest son of Colonel E. Sterling C. Rob- ertson, who died at Salado, Bell County, the only child of Major Sterling C. Robertson, the empresario of Robertson's colony. The heroism dis- played by him on this occasion was due no doubt to his ancestral blood, drawn from ancestors both in Texas and Tennessee. His grand-uncle, General James Robertson, was the founder of Nashville.
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top, and there awaited their doom. This was between seven and eight o'clock yesterday morning. One by one they saw the houses go by, until about one o'clock, when the house they were on gave way. The roof broke in three or four pieces and in an instant all were whirled down the maddened current, among tree tops, logs, etc. Old Mr. Taylor was soon lost. Mr. Robertson caught on a tree-top, but was soon knocked from that by drift, and was swept down near a quarter of a mile, when he succeeded in getting into the top of a very large pecan tree, where he stayed until seven o'clock this morning, having had nothing to eat since Wed- nesday night. That portion of the roof bearing Mrs. Metcalf and Zemmie passed Mr. Robertson, and he saw them sink just below him. The Mexican, negro man and white boy sank near the same spot. Two other men who bravely tried to get to them on the house-top were also washed down and saved themselves by clinging to a tree-top until this morn- ing.
" Mr. Robertson is one of the bravest men I ever saw. He swam back to the house against the appeals of his wife. Of the seven who were on the roof he is the only survivor. Everything in the station is lost ; everything in the valley and in Ben Ficklin in lost. * * Learning where Mr. Robertson was supposed to be I hurried to him just as some clothes were brought to him from the other side. I rode into his then island and brought him out."
GREAT STORMS AT INDIANOLA.
On the 15th.of September, 1875, a violent storm began to rage along the gulf coast, the wind, as in the gale of 1837, coming from the northeast. Before sunset the water in Matagorda Bay reached a higher point than ever before known. But, as the September equinox, in its annual visitations, was every year more or less violent, and no serious harm had resulted, the
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
people felt no serious alarm. By daylight on the 16th the gale had become a hurricane and then a cyclone. The waters of the bay, lashed to fury, rushed westward over the town, and out into the low. prairie, on both the north and south sides of the inner water, known as Powder Horn Lake. Every effort was made to remove families by boats to places of safety in the upper or old part of the town. Before night many houses on the water front and in the lower places were wrecked, but during the night of the 16th " the scene became indescribable. Houses on the higher grounds, which had become places of refuge, began to totter and many to fall. An eye-witness a day or two later, wrote: " Many of these buildings contained from fifteen to sixty per- sons, whose only hope of life was in the strength of their places of refuge. Under this accumulation of horrors, the intrepid conduct seen on every hand stood out in bold relief. Neck deep in water, the buildings reeling and tottering, de- spairing of life, and beyond the reach of human aid, amid the howling of the wind and waves, men, women and even children calmly awaited an expected doom. Husbands gathered their families, or remnants of families, into the safest places possible, and then rushed to the assistance of others. Youths, and even young girls, with steady nerves, resolutely risked their lives to save others from being washed away, and, in some instances, met the death they had so unselfishly attempted to avert from others. By midnight a large proportion of the loss of life and destruction of property took place. The water was filled with buildings, in all stages of demolition, being hurried westward into the bayou, and on to the low prairie beyond. Clinging desperately to portions of the debris, and, with it, being swept away, were dozens of persons who had been precipitated into the flood by the falling of the houses they occupied. The few survivors recount the horrors of their fearful journey and tell of heart-rendering scenes of death amid the surging waves and rushing wrecks. From the lower part of the town, one
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
building, containing thirty-one men, women and children, was swept into and across Powder Horn Bay. Twenty-one of them are among the dead. A number of persons were saved by being carried against the wreck of the depot buildings which remained where they fell. One young man, while clinging here, saw his sister swept by almost within his reach, but could render no assistance, and she sank in his sight. About midnight the wind changed from northeast to north- west. This caused a check in the flow outward, and thrown back with terrific force through the town, many houses yet standing were carried into the bay by the returning water. Others crumbled where they stood, and the wreck floated with the out-going tide into Matagorda Bay. Many persons were swept into the bay clinging to pieces of the wreck. Wm. Coffin, his wife and two children, floated in the direction of Matagorda Pass. The two children were lost and afterwards found, six miles west on the prairie. Mrs. Coffin died of exhaustion on the wreck, and Mr. Coffin with her body was drifted on the beach, where he watched by her remains until the storm was over, where he was found by his twin brother, Arthur, the next day in an exhausted condition. The building of Mr. Alexander, occupied as a dry goods store in which were, besides Mr. Alexander, Messrs. Robert Blossman, - Manserratte, Ed Crosland, Wm. Trayler, Wm. Terry and others - was washed towards the bayou but all were saved. The waves, after the change in the wind, rapidly receded and, on the morning of the 17th, the streets were free from water."
A scene of absolute desolation greeted the eyes of the sur- vivors. A flourishing town of two thousand inhabitants with its handsome residences and happy homes, its ware- houses stored with the varied products known to commerce, its costly churches and splendid marts of business, all a shat- tered and unsightly ruin! - while nearly two hundred of its citizens had sunk into watery graves, or otherwise perished in the fury of the storm.
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
The gulf, for the first time known to Americans, had broken over Matagorda Peninsula, for seventy miles sepa- rating the bay from the gulf, washing away the sand hills on the gulf side, cutting immense canals through the peninsula and thus exposing Indianola on a low beach fronting the west side of the bay directly to the fury of the gulf. Its cross streets were converted into canals, as were lots on which stood many residences. The houses at Decrow's Point, fronting the pass at the lower end of the peninsula, were washed away. Thomas Decrow, the founder of the town in 1834, together with his wife and all the inhabitants then at home, were lost. St. Joseph's Island, on the south side of the pass, met the same fate. The keepers of the lighthouse near the entrance to the pass with their families were lost, as were the two keepers east of the two lighthouses in the inner bay.
Saluria, the only town on the island at its northern extrem- ity, fronting the pass, was washed away, and of its forty-three inhabitants over thirty were lost, besides the mother of the brothers Coffin, Dr. John H. Leake, and Dr. J. K. McCreary - the quarantine officer, all citizens of Indianola. The storm extended beyond Galveston, but the damage on the coast centered on and near Matagorda Bay.
Another great storm visited Indianola and the country bordering on the coast, including Victoria, Goliad and Cuero, on the 20th of August, 1886. The destruction of property in all that section of country was very great in houses, fences, etc., and some few lives were lost. On the bay it was much more lamentable. Numerous lives were lost at Indianola and on Matagorda Bay and island. But the remaining houses at Indianola - those that remained after the storm of 1875 - were destroyed, and caused the abandonment of the place by its remaining inhabitants, the majority having previously sought homes elsewhere, some at Victoria, many at Cuero and a number at Dallas. Indianola ceased to be a town. Lavaca, twelve miles above on Lavaca Bay, on a bluff about twenty
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feet above ordinary tide, and beautifully located, while suffer- ing from the wind in both storms, was injured by the flood in neither. This town succeeded Indianola as the county seat of Calhoun County, and while commerce on that bay has been reduced to merely local traffic, it has become a favorite summer resort.
It must be borne in mind that the low ground on that portion of the coast subject to inundation by the waters of the gulf is confined to a few localities of very limited extent ; nor is it by any means as subject to hurricanes and cyclones as the interior, and especially the northwestern part of the State. Ordinary hurricanes, very limited in extent, are not uncommon in the latter section, and genuine cyclones, like those in Kansas and Nebraska, are occasional visitors.
THE FLAGS OF TEXAS.
Texas does not lay claim to originality in the use of the lone star as her emblem, but for permanency of its use she is entitled to precedence over every other claimant. Its adop- tion by statute of the Congress of the Republic, was peculiarly fitting after the rejection by the United States of her petition for annexation, and emphatically so after having by every assurance short of the confirmation of the senate, been lured into the attitude of an unsuccessful petitioner the second time. Volunteer companies from the United States brought flags, presented by the ladies in their localities, which were thrown to the breeze wherever the foes of Texas were to be met ; as Captain Sidney Sherman's flag from the ladies of Newport, Kentucky, and Cincinnati, Ohio, which floated at San Jacinto, and was afterwards presented to Mrs. Sherman by Gen. Rusk with well-earned praises of her husband and his brave company from Ohio and Kentucky.
When Captain ( afterwards Lieutenant-Colonel ) Wm. Ward was passing from Macon through Georgia to Texas, Miss
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
Troutman (afterwards Mrs. Pope) of Crawford County in that State, presented his command with a lone star flag, which was unfurled on their arrival at Velasco and again at Goliad.
It floated proudly over the walls of that fortress until the 8th of March, when news of the Declaration of Independence reached them. After a day of rejoicing, as the usual. sunset gun was fired, an attempt was made to lower the flag, when its folds became entangled in the cordage and it was left for time to destroy shred by shred. This flag was constructed of white silk with an azure star of five points. On one side was the motto : Victory or Death, on the reverse, in Latin, Where Liberty dwells there is my Country.
In 1835 a lone star flag was presented to a Harrisburg com- pany, Captain Andrew Robertson, by Mrs. Sarah R. Dawson of that place. It was red, white and blue. The star, white and five pointed, was set in a ground of red.
Over the cabin in which the convention met and declared for independence, floated a flag with the design of a sinewy hand grasping a red sword, and underneath this was a lone .star flag.
The flag which floated from the Alamo was the emblem of constitutional liberty in Mexico - the Mexican tri-color with 1824 stamped upon it. The news of the Declaration of Inde- pendence never reached them.
The present State flag is red, white and blue ; the star is white with five points, the fifth point at the top, set in a per- pendicular light blue ground which is next the staff, and one- third the width of the whole flag. From this run the two stripes, the upper being white and the red underneath. The seal of the State is a star surrounded with a wreath of laurel and oak.
OVERLAND MAIL FROM TEXAS TO CALIFORNIA.
In the month of June, 1857, a contract was awarded to James E. Birch of California for establishing and maintaining
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