USA > Texas > Indian wars and pioneers of Texas, Vol. 2 > Part 41
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ROBT. CALVERT.
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INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Davis and Maj. William Hanna, he graded several miles of that road.
Hle was past the age for military service during the late war, but was a friend of the South and gave the cause of the Confederacy very substantial aid, fitting the wagon-trains and supplying the soldiers with horses and equipments. His only son, William Calvert, was suffering from disease contracted in the Mexican War and was also unfit for service, but a grandson, Robert Calvert, then in his eighteenth year, enlisted and died in the army.
After the war Judge Calvert set himself to work to repair his wasted fortunes. and during the time he lived he succeeded admirably with the task. IIe was a man of fine business qualifications, had an 4extensive acquaintance with the leading men of Texas, and took up the problems of peace in 1865 with much better prospects of success than did any of his associates, but unfortunately his life was not spared to carry forward the work of adjustment thus begun.
Judge Calvert's only public service in Texas was as a Representative from Robertson County to the State Legislature for several terms between 1853 and 1860. During that time he made a creditable record and strengthened the confidence of the peo- ple in his honor and ability. In Arkansas he had been for several terms County Judge of the county in which he lived, and both there and in Texas he was active in local politics. He had an acquisitive mind, was a constant reader, and in those matters with which he concerned himself he was a sound thinker. His judgment always commanded re- spect. He was slow to form conclusions, but he rarely ever receded from a position when once he had taken it. He was a man of benevolent dispo-
sition, and his ample means enabled him to give practical force and meaning to this trait of his charvetor, nor was he content with merely giving, but exerted himself personally and assisted others with his counsel and advice. Knowing that misfor- tunes would overtake men in spite of the exercise of good judgment, and, knowing especially, from experience, the difficulties under which young men labor in beginning life, he took a pride and pleasure in aiding such, and in this way created enduring friendships among his neighbors and those with whom he was associated. Judge Calvert was for thirty-five years a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church, to the support of which he was a liberal contributor. He was made a Mason late in life, but such was the interest he took in the work that he rose rapidly in the order, becoming a Knight Templar.
During the prevalence of the yellow fever epi- demic in Texas in 1867 Judge Calvert was taken with the disease and died on the 20th of Septem- ber of that year. His wife survived him till 1873 (December 16), when she, too, passed away. The issue of their union was the son, William, already mentioned, who died in Robertson County in 1864 from disease contracted in the Mexican War, and three daughters, the oldest of whom, Lucy, was married to George W. Rutherford and died in Saline County, Ark., in 1851; the second, Pauline J., was married to J. Tom Garrett, and resides at Calvert, and the youngest, Mary, was married to Dr. Peter Smith, and died at Waxahachie, Texas, in 1889. The descendants of Judge Calvert are not numerous, but wherever found occupy honorable positions in society and maintain the high standard of citizenship set up by him in his own carecr.
SAM. HOUSTON,
HUNTSVILLE,
Was born in Rockbridge County, Va., on the 2d day of March, 1793. In childhood he was left fatherless and his mother moved to East Tennessee adjoining the Cherokee Indians, where he grew to manhood, familiar with that tribe and much attached to them and they to him.
He fought as an Ensigu under Gen. Andrew Jack- son and was wounded, a wound that never healed, at the Horse-Shoe, in the Creek War. Ho afterward
studied law, was admitted to the bar, served as Gen- eral of Militia and was elected to Cougress in 1823 and 1825. After these terms in Congress he was elected Governor of Tennessee. While in this posi- tion he married a lady of beauty and accomplish- ments. From motives and for causes never made known, he resigned his high position, withdrew from his wife, and took up his abode with his old friends, the Cherokees, then living west of Arkansas.
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INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
with Great Britain touching the integrity of the Republic and our relations with Mexico, and the carlier negotiations with the United States in relation to the annexation of Texas to that country, besides many other grave matters of deep import to the country. That he rose equal to every emergeney and displayed the highest order of executive ability and statesmanship, is conceded even by those who then or since differed from him on questions of policy. He retired from the presidency at the close of 1844 on the eve of the proposition made in March following by the United States for our annexation. which was peacefully and happily consummated in the succeeding February.
In 18.45 Gen. Houston was elected to the conven- tion which framed our first State constitution, but he hurried to attend the dying bed of his life- long friend and patron, Gen. Andrew Jackson, and did not, in consequence, sit in that one of the ablest of the many able assemblages which have made constitutions and laws for Texas.
One of the first acts of the first Legislature which assembled in February, 1846, was almost unani- mously to elect Gen. Houston and his friend, Gen. Thomas J. Rask, to the United States Senate, where they both remained, Gen. Rusk until his death in 1857, and Gen. Houston for about twelve years.
Prior to this, on the 9th day of May, 1840, Ger. Houston wedded Miss Margaret M. Lea, of Ala- bama, a lady eminently fitted by sound judgment, the most substantial graces, quiet but sincere affec- tions, aversion to pomp, and of the strongest domes- tic attachments, to fill the void which must have existed in the recesses of his heart in former years. The union proved most happy until severed by death and was blessed, as will bereafter be seen, by the birth of four sons and four daughters. Mirs. Houston was a consistent Christian woman, and a member of the Baptist Church. A few years later her husband joined the same body of Christians, and both died in its faith.
When Gen. Houston entered the United States Senate, in March, 1846, he was regarded with more interest, real as well as romantic, than any man who ever entered that august body. Twenty years before he had left the House of Kep- resentatives with a brilliant reputation. His careet since, in its vicissitudes, alternating between exile in the wilderness and the highest positions, both civil and military, was without a parallel in Ameri- ean history and had thrown a halo around his name which interested and captivated wherever las stately form was seen. In the Senate he was warmly greeted by Clay, Calhoun, Webster, Bea- ton and other eminent men who were in Congress
There he remained until December, 1832, and then entered Texas and located at Nacogdoches and San Augustine. He was without means. In 1833 he was a member of the Provincial Convention held at San Felipe. In 1835 he served as a delegate to the Revolutionary ;Consultation, which created a pro- visional Government and made him Commander-in- Chief of the army it provided for. In March fol- lowing, he sat in the convention which declared independence, adopted a constitution, and estab- lished an independent Republic and by that body was re-appointed Commander-in- Chief. After receiv- ing the tidings at Gonzales of the fall of the Alamo, he retreated slowly to the Colorado, the Brazos, and finally to San Jacinto, and there, April 21st, 1836, fought and won the decisive battle that scored Texian Independence. Ile showed great bravery and was severely wounded in the engagement. Leaving the army he repaired to New Orleans for medical treatment and remained there for some time. In August, 1836, with slight opposition, he was elected the first President of the Republic of Texas. By the constitution he was ineligible for re-election, and was succeeded, at the close of 1838, by Gen. Lamar, the former Vice-president, for a full term of. three years. In 1839 and 1840 he was elceted to Congress from San Augustine and took a leading position on all the great questions, and they were numerous, in that body. His influence was never greater. In the prime of life, his great powers of oratory and reason were used with signal effect. It was then, at the session of 1839-40. that the compiler of this memoir first saw and heard him in debate, and his youth- ful mind was struck with surprise and admiration at his magnificent person and magnetic power. Neither before nor since has he ever beheld a finer specimen of physical manhood. Standing about six feet two inches, with large and perfectly formed frame, erect as possible for man to be, dressed in excellent taste, grace in every movement and a voice as deliberate as melodious, he seemed the embodi. ment of nature's handiwork in preparing a leader for the people. Occasional outbursts carried every suditor with irresistible force. When aroused. in repelling attack, his shafts of sarcasin and defiance struck wherever aimed with the precision of a gladia- tor. His services at this time were greatly appreci- ated by the people and in 1841 he was returned to the presidential chair by a large majority. Ilis sec- ond term covered three eventful and portentous years in our history, covering three Mexican invas- ions of the frontier, a continued border warfare. the temporary removal of the seat of government. treaties with some of the wild tribes -- negotiations
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SAM HOUSTON.
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INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
during his service so long before. The respect shown him by such men, irrespective of political divisions, must have been touchingly grateful to him and was hailed by the people of Texas with both pride and gratulation. It was a scene worthy of the master hand of Rafael.
His long service in the Senate, during which occurred the Mexican War, the seetional strife fol- lowing the acquisition of California, the compro- mise measures of 1850, the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the enaetment of the Kansas- Nebraska Bill, of 1854, was characterized by great moderation and a sincere desire to beal and avoid sectional irritation as the means of preserving bar- mony in the Union and perpetuating its blessings to posterity. His utterances breathed a lofty spirit of patriotism and commanded universal respect, including as well those who differed from him on any given question. He retired from the Senate with a name unsullied, and worthy of an American Senator in our best days.
In 1857, a year or two before the expiration of Gen. Houston's term in the Senate, his friends placed him in the field as a candidate for Governor, against Hardin R. Runnels, the Democratic nom- inee. The vote stood, for Runnels, 32,552; for Honston, 23,628 ; Runnels' majority, 8,324 - total vote, 56,180.
In 1859, Gen. Houston was elected Governor over Mr. Ryanels by about six thousand majority. To some extent sectional issues influenced the can- vass, but the question of protection to our frontier against the wild Indians did more than any one thing to secure his triumph before the people. It overshadowed.all other issues, with several thou- sand exposed people, dissatisfied with the existing state of things, and who yielded him almost their unanimous suffrage.
The historic canvass of 1860, crowned with the election of Mr. Lincoln to the presidency, followed. The history of those days is fresh in the public mind and need only be referred to in so far as to state correctly the position of Governor Houston, about which, in some respects, there is diversity of opinion and certainly some misconception. That he was opposed to secession and desired the pres- eivation of the Union in its original spirit, there can be no division of opinion. He regarded seces- sion by separate State action as calculated to inter- pose insuperable obstacles to final reconciliation and used his influence to prevent it. He thought a fraternal consultation through commissioners from all the Southern States should precede final and distinct action by either; and trusted that such a convocation would lead to peaceful measures of
adjustment and preserve the Union intact. As a last resort, should secession occur, there is reason to believe that he preferred that Texas should remain alone, assume her position as an independent Republic, and await the developments of time and providence - mayhap it might thus become her mission to be the means of ultimate reconciliation. His messages to the Legislature, his public addresses and other utterances, which were numerous and elaborate, will furnish the key to his true position at that momentous period of our history, while secession was yet an open question. With an imu- mense majority, about three-fourths of the people. as subsequently shown, manifestly in favor of a different course - of secession by separate State action - both the Legislature and convention being in session -- the bearing of Gen. Houston was worthy of his great name.
He declined calling a convention of the people, as bad been done in most of the other Southern States ; but convened the Legislature in extraor- dinary session. Under recommendations from the Lieutenant-Governor and other public functiona- ries, besides a considerable number of representa- tive men, a convention was chosen and assembled in Austin on the 27th of January, while the Legis- lature was in session.
The secessionists in the Legislature and conven- tion, were resolved that Texas should link her destiny with her sister Southern States. The ordi- nance of secession was passed February Ist, the convention adjourned and the ordinance was sub- mitted to and adopted by the people by an over- whelming vote. The convention reassembled on the 2d of March. Houston advised Texas to resume her former position as a Republic. The conven- tion, however, passed an ordinance uniting it with the Southern Confederacy. All State officers were required to take the oath to support the new gor- ernment. This he and his secretary of State, Mr. Cave, refused to do, were displaced from office and Lieut .- Gov. Edward Clark inaugurated as Gover- nor.
While Houston published an address to the people of Texas protesting against this action. he offered no serious opposition and quietly retired 10 private life. Thrall says: " In Houston's retire- ment, he was not happy. He looked upon seces- sion as an accomplished fact: he viewed with inexpressible grief the war measures adopted by both contending armies : he feared that Republican institutions would be superseded by two centralized despotisme in which the liberties of the people would be swept away ; and the prospect saddened him. His last appearance before a public audience
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INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
was in the city of Houston, on the 18th of March, 1863."
His address on that occasion was one of the most touching and splendid orations ever delivered on American soil.
He died on the 26th of July, 1863, and his remains are interred at the city of Unntsville. His life found its elose while the clouds of war lowered over the country.
Ex-President Anson Jones and some others of less note severely criticised Gen. Houston for not offering battle to Santa Anna at the Colorado, checking him there and preventing the laying waste of the settled part of Texas lying cast of that stream; and still others have charged that be deserved no credit for, but was compelled by those serving under him to fight the battle of San Jacinto ; but these aspersions have been time and again dis- proved and one of the strongest evidences of their falsity is the fact that Gen. Thomas J. Rusk, the Texian Secretary of War, in his official report of the battle of San Jacinto, gives Houston full credit for that engagement, and testifies to the personal hero- ism that he displayed on the field, and the further fact that at no other time during the campaign and at no other spot and under no other circumstances could such a decisive and crushing defeat have been inflicted upon the enemy. That single battle won for Texas her independence. No engagements with Santa Anna troops on the Colorado could have done so. If other testimony were needed, it would be only necessary to call attention to the fact that the verdict of his countrymen and of the world during his lifetime recognized that he had justly won the laurels that clustered upon his brow. Furthermore, there is not an old Texian living to-day who would not hasten to speak up in his defense should an effort be made to blacken his memory.
Dueling was in vogue in Gen. Houston's day. The only rencontre of the kind to which he was a party, took place while he was a member of Con- . gress from Tennessee. One of his constituents complained that he had not received garden seed which Houston said he had sent him from Washing- ton. Gen. Houston stated his belief that the fail- ure was due to the local postmaster, and criticised that individual severely. The result was a chal- lenge which Gen. Houston declined, under the code, declaring that the postmaster was not his equal. The bearer of the challenge sneeringly remarked that he believed that Houston would not fight any- body, or under any circumstances, to which Hous-
ton replied, " Suppose you try me." The gentle- man at onee challenged Houston, the challenge was promptly accepted, and at the mecting Houston severely wounded his antagonist at the first fire. In Texas, Gen. Houston was challenged a number of times, but in each instance declined the field and that very properly. At the Horse Shoe, at San Jacinto and ou the so-called field of honor itself. and in a thousand ways he had abundantly proven his intrepidity. His bold and aggressive course in public life necessarily made for him hundreds of enemies and, had he accepted one of these chal- lenges, scores of others would have been presented to him, as his enemies would have been delighted at an opportunity to sacrifice his valuable life. He was too great a man and his services were too greatly needed by the country for him to have been made a victim of a desperado's bullet under the barbarous code duello.
He was for a time the leader of the Know- Nothing party in Texas, and this, to some extent, alienated a large number of his friends; but no man doubted bis purity of purpose or devotion to what he considered the best interests of his country. It is a fact not generally known that - before the Democratic convention of 1860 split -- and put two tickets in the field, he came very near receiving the nomination of the united Democracy for the office of President of the United States. Had he received the nomination and the entire Democratic vote of the country been cast for one set of candidates, . Mr. Lincoln would have been defeated, the war between the States at least been postponed, and, pos- sibly, some compromise been effected that would have harmonized the differences existing between the Northern and Southern States. The ambition of his life was to be the President of two republics, and at one time it looked as if that ambition was to be gratified. His biographers, on the one hand, have committed the error of representing him as a man entirely without faults, and on the other of dealing almost solely in detraction. The truth is, that all men, both small and great -- the greatest that have trod the world's stage of action not excepted -- have bad their defeets; but, in such instances as his, these infirmities have but served to bring out in stronger relief their nobility of mind and charge- ter, and to intensify the brilliancy of their achiere- ments. He was truly a great man and Texas owes him a debt of undying gratitude that posterity, like the Texians of this generation, will never cease to acknowledge.
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INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
WILSON I. RIDDLE,
SAN ANTONIO.
Wilson Irwin Riddle, a pioneer Texian of San Antonio, now deceased, was born near Dublin, Ire- land, in 1811, and at the age of eight years was brought to America by his parents, who settled in Howard County, Penn., where his boyhood and youth were chiefly spent. At about the age of twenty he went to Nashville, Tenn., where he became a clerk in the mercantile house of Robinson, Gibson & Co. From that city he went to Pulaski, Tenn., where he was in business for binself for about five years. From that place he went to New ยท Orleans and there, in 1839, joined Fisher & Miller's colony and moved to Texas, coming direct to San Antonio, where he took up his residence and at once embarked in merchandising. Mr. Riddle was successfully engaged in business at this place until the capture of San Antonio in the spring of 1842 by Vasquez. In the meantime he paid two visits to Tennessee, one in 1840 and another in 1841. On the occasion of bis last visit he married (April 26, 1841) Miss Elizabeth Monefce, of Pulaski, Tenn., and immediately brought his bride out to Texas. . This lady, now Mrs. Canterberry, is still living in San Antonio, and is one of the oldest American residents of the place --- a lady of intelli- gence, with a memory richly stored with reminis- cences of early days in Texas. She is a native of Culpepper County, Va., and a daughter of Jobn and Elizabeth Menefee, also of Virginia birth, who, about the close of the first quarter of this century, moved to Middle Tennessee, where their daughter was reared, her education, which was ample, being obtained in Nashville.
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Mrs. Canterherry gave the writer an interesting account of her bridal trip to Texas. The journey was made by the river route from Nashville to New Orleans, thence by the gulf to Hoaston, and thence to San Antonio by private conveyance, her husband having arranged for his servants to meet them at that point with a carriage and baggage-wagon and necessary camping outfit. The time consumed in making the journey from her old home in Tennes- see to her new home in Texas was one month, lack- ing two days.
On the occasion of the Mexican raid under Vas- quez, in the spring of 1842, Mr. Riddle was among the last Americans to leave the city. There had been so many rumors of invasions that he had come to distrust such reports, and it was not until he was
shown a letter from Mexico by one of the local priests, Padre Calvo, that he finally became con- vinced. As soon as he was satisfied that the Mexi- eans were coming, he rolled what powder he had on hand - six kegs ---- into the river so as to prevent its falling into the hands of the enemy, and, abandon- ing the rest of his goods and household effects, took his family to Gonzales for safety.
Mr. and Mrs. Riddle's only child, now Mrs. Sarah E. Eagar, was then an infant ten days old. All of Mr. Riddle's property fell into the hands of the raiders, and all of it, except a piano, which had been hastily boxed up, was either appropriated to their use or destroyed.
In the fall of 1842 he returned to San Antonio to attend court, and was taken prisoner when the city was captured by Adrian Woll. The District Court was in session, and the judge and lawyers in at- tendance were captured. He was chained to one of the attorneys, William E. Jones, and taken to Mexico, where he was imprisoned at Perote for eleven months, at the end of which time he was re- Jeased and returned to San Antonio. His wife had in the meantime (October, 1842) returned to the city and was occupying their property on Com- merce street, and looking after her husband's inter- ests &s best she could in the then unsettled condi- tion of affairs. She was residing in San Antonio when the Somervell expedition was organized at that place, and knew Gen. Somervell well, he being a warm personal friend of her brother, Juulge George Menefee, of Indianola, Texas. In passing, it may be mentioned that she met, at one time or another, a majority of the men who figured in the history of those times, many of them having been guests at ber home.
After Mr. Riddle's release from Perote and re- turn to San Antonio he settled on & ranch cighteen miles distant from the city, where, a few years later, September 12, 1847, he died, his death resulting from the exposure and hardships endured by him during his imprisonment in Mexico. His widow subsequently married Mr. Harvey Canterberry, from Groenup County, Ky., whom she now stuvives. His death occurred December 21, 1859.
By her marriage with Mr. Riddle Mrs. Canter- berry had two children - Sarah Elizabeth, now Mrs. Eagar, of San Antonio, and James Wilson
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INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Riddle, recently deceased, who was for many years a resident of Eagle Pass, Texas.
By her second marriage Mrs. Canterberry has two children - John Warner Canterberry, of Mon- terey, Mexico, and Mrs. Mildred Lee Watkins, of Eagle Pass, Texas. She has a number of grand- children and four great-grandchildren. Her eld- est born, Sarah Elizabeth, was married to Robert Eagar in 1866. Mr. Eagar was born in Nova
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