USA > Texas > Indian wars and pioneers of Texas, Vol. 2 > Part 19
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INDLIN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
river. Col. Steel located the road to Allerton, and surveyed the line from that point to San Antonio. He continued to fill the position until the beginning of the war between the States, when railroad building ceased.
He joined the Eighth Texas Cavalry (Terry's Texas Rangers) as a private; became Quarter- master of his regiment, and November 18th, 1862, was promoted to the rank of Major of Engineers.
He remained in the service until the war closed, participating in many hot engagements, and was five times wounded. After the close of hostilities he returned to Texas and located at Houston, where he has since resided; engaged first in the real estate and later in the insurance business. He is a member of the Masonic, I. O. O. F. and K. of P. fraternities, and is one of the best known and most highly respected citizens of Houston.
CHARLES GRIESENBECK,
SAN ANTONIO.
Charles Griesenbeck, well known in San Antonio and Southwestern Texas because of his long connec- tion with the banking and business interests of the Alamo city, was born in Prussia, February 9th, 1829 ; attended local schools and took a collegiate course in his native town; afterwards accepted a position as bookkeeper and librarian in a large publishing house, with which he remained until twenty years of age, and then, in 1849, came to Texas, of which he had read so much that his am- bition had become fired to succeed in a new and prosperous country. He landed first at Galveston, proceeded from that place to New Braunfels, where he stayed a short time, and then went to Gillespie County, where he pursued farming for six months. After leaving Blanco County he went to New Braun- fels and Seguin, where he filled positions as clerk and salesman in various stores. From 1856 to 1861
he sold dry goods in San Antonio and then went to Mexico, where he remained until 1865. In the lat- ter year he returned to San Antonio, where for twenty-one years thereafter he kept books for and acted as cashier of the bank of John Twohig. Dur- ing the past five years he has been engaged in the cotton buying and commission business at San Antonio.
He married twice, having three sons - Louis, Arthur and Charles F., by his first marriage ; and then married Miss Wilhelmine Boekel, of New York, by whom he has five children -- Hugo, Ber- tha, Baldwin, Emily and Eugene. Mr. Griesen- beck is a pronounced type of a thorough-going Ger- man scion of a race that has done so much for the development of Southwestern and Central Texas, and a representative citizen of his section as well.
.
ERNST BLUMBERG,
NEW BRAUNFELS.
Ernst Blumberg, a well-known pioneer of New Braunfels, Texas, came to America direct to Fredericskburg, by way of Galveston, with his parents in 1845. Ile soon, in 1846, settled on a farm near New Braunfels with his father, Carl Blumberg. Carl Blumberg was born near the town of Kulm, in Prussia. He was an educated man, a professional tutor, but as a colonist came to the
then new country to engage in agriculture, hoping to better his fortunes. Hle located five miles below New Braunfels, on the Guadalupe river. Ile brought with him to this country a wife and eight children : Ernst, whose name heads this sketch; Frederick, 3 citizen of Seguin, Texas; Julius, who resided at San Francisco, Cal., until his death in 1893; Betsy, who married in Texas and died some years
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INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
since ; Henrietta (now Mrs. Rev. Gust of Elley) and Hulda (now Mrs. Michael Koepsel of Guada- lupe Valley). Carl Blumberg lived on the farm until his death, which occurred in 1856 of yellow fever.
Ernst Blumberg pursued farming in its vari- ous branches until recently, when he practically retired from active business pursuits. He con- tinues, however, to nominally act as the local agent of the Lone Star Brewing Company. He married, in 1859, Miss Margaret Zipp. She is a native of
Prussia and a daughter of John Zipp, who was a New Braunfels pioneer in 1846. The family name is a familiar one in the community. Mr. and Mrs. Blumberg have ten living children: Ernst, Jr., Martha, Henry, August, Matilda, William, Lydia, Ferdinand, Olga, and Pauline.
Emma, a daughter, died some years ago. Mr. Blumberg made his home permanently in New Braunfels in 1891. He is a progressive and popu- lar citizen and one who has done much for his section and Southwest Texas.
FAYETTE SMITH,
NAVASOTA.
The subject of this sketch was born in Alabama, January 22, 1832. His father was James W. Smith, and his mother bore the maiden name of Angeline D. Stamps. She was a daughter of Elijah Stamps, of Talledega, Ala. His par- ents were married in Alabama, and moved thenee to Texas in February, 1837, his father stop- ping for a while at San Felipe and the family joining him in 1837 at Old Washington, on the Brazos. In 1838, when the seat of government was changed from Washington to Austin, they changed their abode to the latter place, and were residing there in 1841 when the tragic death of the father occurred, and the strange and thrilling episode in the life of the son, the subject of this sketch, took place. The main incidents connected with the killing of his father and capture of himself, as told by Mr. Smith to the writer, are as fol- lows : --
" It occurred on January 22, 1841, the day I was nine years old. My father was riding out on horse- back close to Austin (only a little way from the houses), and I accompanied him, riding behind. We were suddenly surprised by five Comanche Indians, who, coming out of the bushes, opened fire with bows and arrows and a gun or two. Almost the first missile, an arrow, struck my father's left arm, breaking it, and glanced, striking me on the forehead. The horse wheeled around and gave a bound or two and became ummanageable. As lie dashed under a tree both my father and myself were swept off by a limb, and my father was imme- diately dispatched by the Indians and I was taken captive. The Indians started at once in a north-
westerly direction, and joined a band of twenty Indians the first night, with whom we journeyed several days longer (probably a month), when we fell in with the main body of the tribe. Our course was still to the northwest, and after two or three months of weary travel we came upon some Mexican traders who, as I afterward learned, were from Taos, New Mexico, and who could speak a little English. The Indians sold me to these Mexicans, and we started for Taos. I asked the trader the question how far it was to where they lived. They replied: 'About a hundred years' travel.' I then asked them if they did not mean one hundred days, and they said yes. At Taos I was turned over to a man named John Rowland, an American, who had married a Mexican woman and settled at Taos, where he was engaged in trading with the Mexicans and Indians. I gave Rowland my mother's name and place of residence, and the name and residence of my grandfather, Stamps, but I do not think that he wrote to them, as there were no mails between Taos and the States.
" I remained with him and made myself as useful as possible awaiting developments. While there the Santa Fe Expedition arrived, and I remember sceing some of the members and of hearing about Texas, but did not get any tidings from any of my people. My uncle, William Smith, who was living at Austin at the time of my father's murder and my capture, soon after joined a party of Tonkaway Indians and went direet to Santa Fe to effect my release, supposing that I would be taken there by the Indians or Mexicans for a ransom. He reached that place, however, before I did, and went on
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INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
from there to St. Louis, where he hoped to get track of me. My mother, as I afterward learned, left Austin shortly after my father's death, and returned to Washington. A place was seenred for me by Rowland in the first overland train that started from Santa Fe to Missouri, and I accom- panied it to Independence, its destination. My unele having gone to St. Louis, I missed him again, but was put in care of Lewis Jones, at Independ- ence, who wrote to my mother at Austin and to my grandfather, Stamps, at Talledega, Ala., and from the latter received a reply that he would be on in a few days for me. As soon as my grandfather heard of me, he wrote to my mother to come on to Alabama. He arrived, as promised, and I was taken by him to his home in Talledega, which we reached a few days before the arrival of my mother. I returned to Texas with my mother and, she having settled at Old Washington, there my youthful lines were again cast under the single star of the Republic of Texas. I had no more experience with the Indians, and I do not want any more, yet I hold no ill-will toward them, as I think that they have been badly treated and robbed of a country, the best for their purpose in the world. They killed both my father and
my grandfather, Smith, near the same place and date."
Young Smith became a clerk in the store of Shackelford, Gould & Company, at Washington, at about the age of seventeen years, and was in their employ for several years, spending the spring and summer behind the counter, and the fall and winter traveling through the Central and Western parts of the State, collecting for and looking after the interests of their business.
In 1855 he married Miss Elizabeth A. Gresham, a daughter of George M. Gresham, of Washington County, and began business for himself as a mer- chant and planter. Ile resided in Washington County until 1888, when he moved to Navasota, Grimes County, where he now lives. During the Mexican War he was a hoy helping the sutler in Twiggs' regiment, and during the late war was a volunteer in the Confederate army, De Bray's regiment, serving in Texas and Louisiana, up to the battle of Mansfield, where he was wounded and disabled from further service. He has never held an official position and does not care to. He has raised a family of two sons and three daughters, all of whom remain with him, namely: Carrie, Edith, Rowland, Angeline D., and Roger.
HENRY VOGES, JR.,
BULVERDE,
A successful farmer, was born December 26, bein, of Sisterdale, Kendall County. Mr. and Mrs. 1810, in Germany, and grew to manhood in Comal County, where he has since resided. He is a son of Henry Voges, Sr., the well-known Comal County pioneer settler. Married June 26, 1868, Miss Charlotte Langbein, a daughter of Andraes Lang- Voges have eleven children: Ida (now Mrs. August Wehe), Hermann (a prosperous business inan at Bulverde), Emilie (now Mrs. Louis Bart- tels), Richard, Edmund, Adolph, August, Walter, Bertha, Emma, and Arthur.
ROBERT A. ALLEN,
HEARNE,
A prominent merchant of Hearne, Robertson was a child and there he was mainly reared. Dnr- County, was born in Cabarras County, N. C., ing the war between the States he served first in a six months company, organized in Searey, Ark., in the spring of 1861, and afterwards, in the in 1840. Ilis parents, Alexander and Serena (Townsend) Allen, moved to Tennessee when he
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
499
Eighth Arkansas, Army of Tennessee, participating in the battles of Corinth, Chickamauga and Perry- ville, and the one hundred days fighting of the Georgia campaign from Dalton to Atlanta, and then followed Hood on his return into Tennessee, taking part in the battles at Franklin and Nashville. Later he was with Jolinston in the last fight at Bentonville, N. C., and surrendered at Greens- boro, in that State. He served a great part of the time as a private, but hield the rank of First Sergeant at the time of the surrender. Although he served continuously throughout the war he was never captured or wounded. Mr. Allen's parents having come to Texas during the war, he came out immediately after the surrender and settled with them at Lancaster, in Dallas County. He made a crop there in 1866 and in the fall of that year went to Millican, then the terminus of the Houston & Texas Central Railway, and secured a clerkship; remained there a year or so and then went on with the terminus to Bryan, at which place he formed a copartnership with W. R. King, under the firm name of Allen & King, and was engaged in business until 1873, when he moved to Hearne, where he has since been engaged in merchandizing and is now
the head of the firm of R. A. Allen & Son, dealers in hardware, furniture and saddlery, and has one of the largest establishments along the line of the H. & T. C. R. R. between Dallas and Houston. He has, as a matter of course, interested himself in some outside enterprises, taking stock in the Hearne & Brazos Valley Rail- road. He is publie-spirited, broad-minded and generous with bis means. He began without a cent, a friend paying his way to the State and what he has represents the results of his own labor. In 1889, Mr. Allen married Miss Alice Cyrus, of Bryan, Texas, a native of the State and a daughter of J. T. Cyrus, an old Texian. A son, Robert Cyrus Allen, who is the junior member of the firm of R. A. Allen . & Son, was born of this union. Mr. Allen had two brothers who came to Texas about the time he did, namely, William C. Allen, now of Thurber, this State, and Samuel Allen, who lives at Dallas. Two other brothers, James and Marshall, went to California at an early day and still reside there. His father, Alexander Allen, died at Hearne in 1890, at the advanced age of eighty-two. His mother died at Austin in 1885 at the age of seventy- five.
ROBERT SPENCE,
HEMPSTEAD,
A well-known and successful business man, of Waller County, is an Englishman by birth ; came to America in 1836, landing at New York City and shortly thereafter located near Hamilton, Canada, where he resided for two years. He heard much of New Orleans, La., and the year 1838 found him in that city, where he remained thirteen years as a bookkeeper in a mercantile house. Ill-health ren- dered a change of climate and business habits de- sirable and he accordingly moved to Illinois and lived for a time in that State, ten miles east of St. Louis, Mo., at the town of Collinsville. From that time until 1854, he pursued farming near Collins- ville and in Louisiana, spending several months of each year in the city of New Orleans. In 1865 he came to Texas and located in Houston, where he clerked and kept books in a store for two years.
Here he met and married Mrs. Isaac Major, a lady of English birth, who came to America when a child, in 1850. Mr. and Mrs. Spence moved to Hempstead in 1867, where he engaged in merchandising, at which he has since prospered. He is now and has been for many years one of the most substantial citizens of that thrifty inland city. By a former marriage Mr. Spence had one daughter, a devont Roman Catholic, who became a sister of Charity aud died at Mobile, Ala. Mr. and Mrs. Spence have a lopted and reared two grandchildren, C. M. and W. S. Close. Mr. Spence was born in Yorkshire, England, October 9th, 1812. He was one of ten children. One brother, William, came to Texas in 1840, lived for several years at Hempstead but finally returned to the mother country. Mr. Spence some years since retired from business.
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INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
R. M. BOZMAN,
HEMPSTEAD,
Was born in Hempstead, Texas, August 10, 1869. His father, Richard Morton Bozman, was born in the town of Golconda, Polk County, Ill., and was a son of Wesley Winfield Bozman and Cor- nelia (Pryor) Bozman. Cornelia Pryor was a daughter of Gen. Pryor, a frontiersman in Illinois and Iowa in the carly days of the settlement of the Mississippi valley, whose name has been perpetu- ated in Pryor's Island, a prominent landmark in the Mississippi river.
Riehard Morton Bozman served with distinguished gallantry in the Federal army during the war between the States as Adjutant of Company F, Twenty-ninth Illinois Infantry, and after the close of that struggle came to Texas in 1865 and settled at Hempstead, in Waller County, where for many years he was a prominent farmer, merchant and eitizen.
He married Miss Margaret Elizabeth Peebles, a
daughter of the lamented Dr. Richard Rogers Peebles, one of the most widely known and beloved of the early pioneers of Texas and a veteran of the revolutionary war of 1835-6. Dr. Peebles first settled at the town of Old Washington, in Washing- ton County. His death oceurred at the residenee of Mrs. Richard Morton Bozman (mother of the subject of this sketch), at Gaylord. Mr. Riehard Morton Bozman died November 19th, 1876, and his wife, May 10th, 1893, at their home, Gaylord, one inile south of- Hempstead, leaving one child, the subject of this notice, Mr. R. M. Bozman, who succceded to his father's estate and is now a leading citizen and one of the most considerate farmers and merchants of Waller County. Mr. R. M. Bozman married Miss Nina K., daughter of E. O. Jones, of Hempstead. They have one ebild, a daughter, Margaret Elizabeth Bozman.
MRS. MARY ELIZABETH DAWSON,
ALLEYTON.
Mrs. Dawson was born December 18, 1843, and is a native Texian. Her parents were Abraham and Nancy Alley. Her father was a brother of Ross Alley, famous in Texas history. Abraham Alley was married to Miss Nancy Miller, April 26, 1835, and in 1836, when Santa Anna's legions were sweeping eastward across the country, moved his family to the Trinity, where they were encomped when the engagement that won Texian independence was fought. Mr. Alley and Daniell Miller, a brother of Mrs. Alley, left the family on the Trinity, hurried to the front and took part in the battle of San Jacinto. After the battle Mr. Alley moved to Colorado County and settled on the east side of the
river. He died in 1862, respected and esteemed by all who knew him. His wife, a noble Christian lady, died in 1893. Mrs. Dawson married Mr. T. C. Wright, in June, 1863. He died in June, 1874. In the year 1883 she was united in marriage to Mr. G. C. Dawson, who died in 1889. Mrs. Dawson has been blessed with two children: Lula Wright (now the wife of Dr. G. L. Davidson, of Wharton, Texas) and William J. Wright, who is now married and is living with his mother on the old home plaec.
Mrs. Dawson has a fine farm and a beauti- ful cottage home. Here she spends her days in the loved society of her children and friends.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS
501
CHARLES P. SALTER,
CALVERT,
Was born in Washington County, Ga., March 9th, 1830. Son of Zadoc and Nancy (Gainer) Salter, both of whom were also natives of Georgia. Parents died when Charles P. was about fifteen. He went some three years later to Pike County. Ala., where he subsequently married a daugh- ter of James Talbot, in company with whom, in 1852 he came to Texas, stopping in Washington County. He moved from that county in the fall of 1853 to Robertson County, where he purchased and settled on a tract of land about five miles from the present town of Calvert, in the Brazos bottom, and opened a farm. He was one of the first set- tlers in that locality and resided there for thirty years. Selling this place, he purchased another and has for the past forty-odd years been identi- fied with the agricultural interests of Robertson County, and now one of the wealthiest planters of that county. Planting has been
his chief and almost exclusive pursuit,
though at intervals he has had some mercantile interests and as contractor built
the Houston & Central Railroad from Bryan to Calvert in 1868. He has also interested himself in local enterprises, subscribing for stock in banks, railroads and manufacturing industries, and has, whenever and wherever occasion offered, stood ready to help out with his means and personal efforts every worthy measure. He was elected to the State Legislature in 1873, from Robertson, Freestone and Leon counties and served for a time as Alder- man of the town of Calvert. Was made a Mason at Old Sterling in Robertson County in the early 50's and is still a member of the order. Is also a member of the Knights of Honor. Is a Democrat in State and national politics and independent in local matters. For his second wife Mr. Salter mar- ried Miss Bertha Lovett, a native of Alabama and a daughter of Thomas Lovett, who moved to Texas in 1863. The issue of this union has been one daughter, Charlie, now living. He is an active, energetie, prosperous and popular gentleman of Irish extraction and is possessed of a large vein of Irish wit and good humor.
DR. JOHN A. MCALPHINE,
WHITE HALL,
Was born in Ansen County, N. C., in 1812, but was chiefly reared in Alabama, to which State his parents moved when he was a child. His edu- eation, begun at Glenville Military Institute, Alabama, was interrupted by the war of 1861-5. Ile entered the Confederate army in 1863 as a member of the North Carolina Artillery, Webb's Battalion, with which he served around Richmond and Peters- burg from the date of his enlistment until the surren- der as Quartermaster of the battalion. After the war he went to Bozier Parish, La., whither his father had in the meantime moved and where he had died. There young MeAlpine tried farming one year, but, being unable to control negro labor gave it up and began reading medicine with a view to qualifying himself for practice. He entered on the pursuit of his profession in Louisiana bnt shortly
after came to Texas and settled in Grimes County. There he took up the practice and has followed it constantly and successfully since. The Doctor has also acquired large landed interests in Grimes Coun- ty and is a successful and extensive planter. He is regarded as one of the men of solid means of his county. He represented Grimes County in the Eighteenth Legislature, being nominated and elected on the Democrat ticket at a time when the election of a Democrat was somewhat doubtful on account of the large negro vote in the county. This was due to his popularity with all classes and con- ditions of people in the district. He made a very acceptable representative, but, much to the regret of his constituents, declined a second nomina- tion.
He has always manifested a proper interest in
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INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
public affairs and has given his party the benefit of his services when needed.
In 1873 Dr. MeAlpine married Miss Willie Cam- eron of Grimes County, a native of Louisiana and daughter of John D. Cameron, who moved to that
county just after the war. Nine children have been born of this union, to all of whom he has, or is giving the best educational advantages that money can seeure. He is a firm believer in and friend of education and religion.
ANDREW EIKEL,
NEW BRAUNFELS,
Came to America in 1843 from Coblentz, Ger- many. He spent his first year in this country at New Orleans, and then (1844) joined the German colony at New Braunfels, Texas. He was a wagon- maker and wheelwright by trade and an enterpris- ing and eminently successful business man. He did a large business in his line at New Braunfels, employing from time to time thirty to forty work- men, and turning out a large number of durable wagons, some of which may still be seen in service on mountain farms in Central Texas. He continued in this business until about 1875 and then retired, and, to occupy his time agreeably, developed a fruit farm near New Braunfels. April 20, 1847, he was united in marriage to Miss Barbara Klein, a daughter of the late Stephen Klein, who came to Texas in 1815 and was a man of influence in his
day and generation, and whose children became eonnceted by marriage with several of the promi- nent pioneer families of Central Texas. Mr. Eikel died April 8, 1889. Mrs. Eikel survives him and lives in retirement in New Braunfels. She had seven children, five sons and two daughters, viz. : Joseph and Walter, who are grocers in San Antonio ; Albert and Frederiek, who are hardware merchants in Taylor; Robert, who is a salesman in the large wholesale and retail hardware establishment of Walter Tipps, at Austin ; Bertha, wife of William Smith, who eonduets a blacksmithing and repair shop at the old stand of Andrew Eikel; and Anto- nio, wife of Joseph Whittaker, of Seguin. One daughter, Annie, died single at Austin in 1882.
The family is one of high moral, social and busi- ness standing.
Y. GAINES LIPSCOMB,
HEMPSTEAD.
The late lamented Hon. Y. Gaines Lipscomb was a native of Mobile, Ala., and was born in the year 1824. His father, A. S. Lipseomb, was an eminent lawyer, at one time Chief Justice of Alabama. Ilis mother, whose maiden name was Miss Elizabeth Gaines, was a daughter of Col. Young Gaines. Chief Justice Lipscomb resigned his seat on the Supreme Bench and came to Texas in 1842. Y. G. Lipscomb, the subject of this sketch, was eighteen years of age when he came to Texas. He received his schooling chiefly at Bascomb College, in South- ern Ohio. He started for Texas with others to join the Somervell expedition, but was taken sick and
delayed on the way and reached Texas too late to join the forces on the Rio Grande. This he deeply regretted at the time, but it was really a stroke of good fortune, as he would probably have taken part in the fight at Mier and been captured there with the other Texians, who were afterwards doomed to years of imprisonment. On reaching the new Re- publie he joined the Texas Rangers under Col. Ed. Burleson, and participated in a number of Indian fights. Ile also served in the Mexican War and was present and took part in the battle of Monterey. Y. Gaines Lipscomb married in 1861 at Chappel Hill, Texas, Mary, widow of Thos. Bates, a daugh-
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