USA > Texas > Indian wars and pioneers of Texas, Vol. I > Part 19
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Eldridge and Bee it was a perilous one. I shall follow them.
On the second day, at 3 p. m., they halted in a pretty grove, on a beautiful stream, to cook their last food, a little Wichita green corn. This en- raged Second Eye, who seized the hunter's gun, and galloped away, leaving them with only holster pistols. The Delaware hunter was a stranger in the country and could only communicate by signs. For three days he kept a bee line for Warren's trading house on Red river, as safer than going directly to Bird's Fort, guided by the information he had casually picked up from his brothers on the trip, for neither of the white men knew the country. On the third day they entered the Cross Timbers where brush and briers retarded their progress, and camped near night on a pretty creek. Tlic Delaware climbed a high tree and soon began joy- ful gesticulations. Descending he indicated that Eldridge should accompany him, leaving Bee in camp. He did so and they were gone two or three hours, but finally returned with a good supply of fresh corn bread, a grateful repast to men who had been without an ounce of food for three days and nights. The camp visited proved to be that of a party of men cutting hay for Fort Arbuckle, on the Washita, who cooked and gave them the bread and other provisions, with directions to find the trading bouse and the information that they could reach it next day. With full stomachs they slept soundly ; started early in the morning and about 2 p. m. rode up to Warren's trading house. The first man seen was Jim Second Eye, the treacherous scoundrel who had left them at the merey of any straggling party of hostile or thieving savages. He hastened forward with extended hand, exclaim- ing : " How are you, Joe? How are you, Ham? Glad to see you ! "
The always courteous Eldridge, usually gentic and never given to profane language, sprang from his horse and showered upon him such a torrent of denunciatory expletives as to exhaust himself ; then, recovering, presented himself and Mr. Bee to Mr. Warren, with an explanatory apology for his violent language, justified, as he thought, towards the base wretch to whom it was addressed. Quite a crowd. of Indians and a few white men were present. Mr. Warren received and entertained them most kindly. They never more bcheld Jim Second Eye.
After a rest of two days Eldridge and Bee, with their faithful Delaware, left for Bird's Fort, and, . without special incident, arrived there about tlie middle of September, to be welcomed by the com- missioners, Messrs. George W. Terrell and E. H. Tarrant, who had given them up as lost. The
President had remained at the fort for a month, when, chagrined and greatly disappointed, he had left for the seat of government.
Capt. Eldridge, anxious to report to the Presi- dent, tarried not at the fort, but with Bee and the still faithful Delaware, continued on. On the way Mr. Bee was seized with ehills and fever of violent type, insomuch that, at Fort Milam, Eldridge left him and hurried on. Mr. Bee finally reached the hospitable house of his friend, Col. Josiah Crosby, seven miles above Washington, and there remained till in the winter, before recovering his health. Capt. 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 Connor had preceded him and misstated vari- ous matters to the prejudice of Eldridge, and to the amazement of many who knew his great merit and his tried fidelity to President Houston, he was dismissed from offiee. 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 annexa- tion in 1846, secured his appointment by President Polk, as Paymaster in the United States Navy, a position he held till his death in his long-time home in Brooklyn, New York, in 1881. Excepting 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 Capt. Eldridge subsequently named a son for him - his two sons being Charles and Houston Eldridge.
A TREATY MADE.
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, Keeehis, Wacos, Caddos, Anadarcos, Ionics, Boluxies, Delawares, and thirty isolated Cherokees. The Wiehitas and Towdashes were deterred from coming in by the lies of some of the Creeks. Estecayucatubba, principal chief of the Chickasaws, signed the treaty merely for its effect on the wild tribes. Leonard Williams 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 iu favor of the treaty.
The most potent chief in the council, to whom the wild tribes looked as a leader, was Kechikoro- qua, the head of the Tehuacanos, who at first
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refused to treat with any one but the President ; bat finally yielded, after understanding the powers of the commissioners.
A line of demarcation was agreed upon between the whites and Indians, along which, at proper in- tervals, 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 Trin-
ity ; one at the Comanche Peak; and one at the old San Saba Mission.
From undoubted data this narrative has been pre- pared, the first ever published of this most thrilling succession of events in our Indian history. It reflects the highest eredit 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 Torrey.
Scenes on Red River - Murder of Mrs. Hunter, Daughter and Servant.
From the first settlements along and near Red river in the counties of Fannin and Grayson, cov- ering the years from 1837 to 1843, the few and scattered inhabitants were at no time free from the sneaking savages, who in small parties, often clan- destinely entered the vicinity of one or more of the new settlers and lay in wait till opportunity should offer for their murderous assaults under cir- cumstances promising them greater or less immun- ity from danger to themselves. The number of such inroads during those years was considerable, and relatively many lives were lost, besides quite a number of women and children being carried into captivity. It must seem incredible to those who have ever lived in peace and security in old com- munities, that men, in no sense compelled to abandon such localities on account of crowded population, should, with their wives and children, thrust themselves forward entirely beyond the arm of governmental protection, or even the aid of their own countrymen. To such persons thousands of the hazards thus voluntarily assumed must appear as the offspring of inexcusable temerity. The idea of voluntarily subjecting women and helpless chil- dren to the constant hazard of such fiendish horrors, is appalling to those who are born, live and die in the older States of our country. All this seems unreasonable to those around the peaceful firesides of home, in the midst of population, comfort, schools, churches, law and government. But the political philosopher as well as the enlightened stu- dent of American history, meets these tender sen- sibilities of the human heart with the stubborn and all-pervading fact, that had it not been for this trait in the Anglo-Saxon character, this lofty defi-
ance of danger and love of adventure, the Ameri- can Union to-day would scarcely have passed the Ohio in its march towards the West. The truth of this opinion, in a large degree, if not in its entirety, is attested by the blood of the slain in ten thousand places west and southwest of the Alleghanies, and by the heroism, the anguish, the tears and the prayers of more than ten thousand mothers ascend- ing to the throne of God pleading for their children " because they were not." It is a truth the quintessence of which should ever comfort every American freeman as one of the great testimonials by which he enjoys life and liberty, home and hap- piness in much the larger portion of this Republic of Republics, reaching from the Eastern to the Western ocean, entirely across the New World. Of all men on earth such a freeman should be a good citizen, jealous of his rights, as sacred boons, con- ferred that he and his fellows might stand forth as true men - the unfaltering friends of good govern- ment and of liberty, regulated by wise and just laws.
As samples of the horrors referred to, the sub- joined narrative of one of the lesser demonisms pertaining to our pioneer settlements is given.
In the year 1840, Dr. IIunter and family located in the valley of Red river, about eight miles east or below the trading house or village of Old Warren and several miles from any other habitation. The family consisted of the parents, a son nearly grown, three daughters, aged about eighteen, twelve and ten, and a negro woman. They soon erected cabins, and the elder daughter married Mr. William Lankford of Warren, and settled at a new place. The family were pleased with the surround-
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ings and labored assiduously in opening up a house and before he could strike a light, stumbled permanent home. Like thousands before them, they finally fell into a state of fancied security and became eareless, till on one occasion, the father and son both left home to be absent till night.
Late in the afternoon of the ill-fated day, the two little girls went to the spring, about a hundred yards from the eabin, for a bucket of water. But as they started on their return to the house, a party of eleven lurking savages sprang from the brush, shot one of the children to death and seized the other so suddenly that neither made the slightest noise. Scalping the slain child and holding fast to the other, they noiselessly approached the cabin, unheard and unseen till they sprang into the door and there, in the presence of the captive, merci- lessly killed and sealped her mother and killed, without scalping, the negro woman. As speedily as they eould they plundered the house of all they eould carry off and left at dark, of course bearing away the child prisoner.
Before they had passed beyond hearing young Hunter reached home and hallooed for some one to come out. The Indians increased their pace, a stout warrior earrying the child on his shoulders. Receiving no answer the young inan entered the
over his dead mother. The light, when struck, revealed the dead bodies and the destruction other- wise wrought. He lost no time in mounting and hastening for help, but the people were too few and scattered to make any effective pursuit. Arriving at the place next day the dead little girl was found, and this led to grave apprehensions as to the fate of the other. It had rained all night, rendering it impracticable to rapidly follow the trail of the retreating marauders.
Subsequent developments showed that the Indians traveled all night in the rain, but during the next day slackened their pace and thereafter traveled slowly for several days to their villages. At night, before the fire, the little captive was compelled to work in dressing her mother's scalp. Months passed and no tidings came of the missing one ; but perhaps a year later the father and son learned that a party of Choctaws had bought such a child from wild Indians. The son hastened into the country of those friendly people and after three or four days' travel, found and recovered his sister. He hastened her back to the embraces of hier stricken father and sister, to cherish through life, however, an everpresent recollection of the ghastly scene she was compelled to witness.
Captivity of the Simpson Children - The Murder of Emma and the Recovery of Thomas - 1844.
Among the residents of Austin in the days of its partial abandonment, from the spring of 1842. to the final act of annexation in the winter of 1845-6, was an estimable widow named Simpson. During that period Austin was but an outpost, without troops and ever exposed to inroads from the In- dians. Mrs. Simpson had a daughter named Emma, fourteen years of age, and a son named Thomas, aged twelve. On a summer afternoon in 1844, her two children went out a short distance to drive home the cows. Soon their mother heard them .cream at the ravine, not over 400 yards west of the center of the town. In the language of Col. John S. Ford, a part of whose narrative I adopt : "She required no explanation of the cause; she knew at once the Indians had captured her darlings. Sorrowing, and almost heartbroken, she rushed to
the more thickly settled part of the town to implore citizens to turn out, and endeavor to recapture her children. A party of men were soon in the saddle, and on the trail.
" They discovered the savages were on foot - about four in number - and were moving in the timber, parallel to the river, and up it. They found on the trail shreds of the girl's dress, yet it was difficult to follow the footsteps of the fleeing red men. From a hill they descried the Indians just before they entered the ravine south of Mount Bon- nell. The whites moved at a run, yet they failed to overtake the barbarians. A piece of an under- garment was certain evidence that the captors had passed over Mount Barker. The rocky surface of the ground precluded the possibility of fast trail- ing, and almost the possibility of trailing at all.
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Every conceivable effort was made to track the Indians, and all proved unavailing. They were loth to return to Austin to inform the grief-stricken mother her loved ones were indeed the prisoners of savages, and would be subject to all the brutal cruelties and outrages of a captivity a thousand times more terrible than the pangs of death. The scene which ensued, when the dread news reached Mrs. Simpson's ears, can not be painted with pen or pencil. The wail of agony and despair rent the air, and tears of sympathy were rung from fron- tiersmen who never quailed when danger eame in its most fearful form. The pursuing party was small. All the names have not been ascertained. Judge Joe Lee, Columbus Browning and Thomas Wooldridge, were among them."
Pursuit under the then condition of the almost defenseless people of Austin was impossible. No further tidings of the lost children were had for a year or more. About that time Thomas Simpson was ransomed by a trader at Taos, New Mexico. He was finally returned to his mother, and then the fate of Emma became manifest. Thomas said " his sister fought the Indians all the time. They carried her by force - dragged her frequently, tore her clothing and handled her roughly. Thomas was led by two Indians. Ile offered no resistance, knowing he would be killed if he did.
" When the Indians discovered they were fol- lowed they doubled, coming back rather in the direction of Austin. They made a short halt not far from Hon. John Hancock's place. Thomas begged his sister not to resist, and told her such a · course would canse her to be put to death."
The Indians then divided for a short time, the
sister in the charge of one and the brother of the other couple. When they reunited on Shoal ereek, ahont six miles from Austin, Thomas saw " his sister's scalp dangling from one's belt. No one will ever know the details of the bloody deed. Indeed, a knowledge of Indian eustoms justifies the belief that the sacrifice of an innocent life involved incidents of a more revolting eharaeter than mere murder. In the course of time the bones of the unfortunate girl were found near the place where Mr. George W. Davis erected his residence, and to that extent corroborated the account of Thomas Simpson. It is no difficult matter to conceive what were the impressions produced upon parents then living in Austin by this event. It is easy to imagine how vivid the conviction must have been that their sons and daughters might become the victims of similar mis- fortunes, suffering and outrages."
In the language of Col. Ford : " Let the reader extend the idea, and include the whole frontier of Texas in the scope, extending, as it did, from Red river to the Rio Grande, in a sinuous line upon the outer tiers of settlements, and including a large extent of the Gulf coast. Let him remember that the country was then so sparsely populated it was quite all frontier, and open to the ineursions of the merciless tribes who made war upon women and children, and flourished the tomahawk and the sealping-knife in the bedrooms and the boudoirs, as well as in the forests and upon the bosoms of the prairies. When he shall have done this he can form a proximate conception of the privations and perils endured by the pioneers who reclaimed Texas from the dominion of the Indian and made it the abode of civilized men."
Brief History of Castro's Colony.
With the declaration of Texian independence, March 2d, 1836, all prior colonial grants and con- traets with Mexico or the State of Coahuila and Texas ceased. Really and practically 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 & Williams, Sterling C. Robertson, Green De Witt, Martin DeLeon, Power & Hewetson and McMullen & McGloin ceased on the 13th of November, 1835. The concessions to David G. Burnet, Joseph Vehlein and Lorenzo de Zavala, previously trans- ferred to a New York syndicate, known as the New York and Galveston Bay Company, of which Archi- bald Hotchkiss, of Nacogdoches, was made resi- deut agent, and which, in reality, accomplished
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little or nothing, also expired by the deeree of the 13th of November, 1835.
The Republic was born Mareb 2, 1836, and for the five succeeding years, until February 4th, 1841, in the last year of Lamar's administration, there was no law authorizing colonial eontraets. But on the last named day a law was passed authorizing the President, under conditions set forth, to enter into contracts for the eolonization of-wild lands in Northwest and Southwest Texas. That act was amended January 1st, 1843.
President Lamar entered into a contraet for what became known as Peters Colony, in North Texas, August 30, 1841, which was altered Novem- ber 20, 1841, and, by President Houston, on the 26th of July, 1842, Houston having sueeeeded Lamar as President. Under this law, besides the Peters Colony, already granted, President Houston made grants to Henry F. Fisher and Burehard Miller, for what afterwards became known as the German Colony, which did mueh to populate the beautiful mountain country drained by the Perder- nales, Llano and San Saba rivers.
On the 15th of January, 1842, Henry Castro entered into a contraet 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 boundary. At the same time President Houston appointed Mr. Castro Texian Consul-Gen- eral to France.
Who was Henry Castro? He was an educated' and accomplished Frenehman, bearing a Spanish name, and was rightfully Henri de Castro. Owing to the invasion of Texas in 1842 and other obstacles, on the 25th of December, 1844, after he had brought over seven hundred immigrants, 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 eoneession by Texas to one of suel approved zeal and energy.
A volume of interest could be written deseriptive of the efforts of Mr. Castro to settle his eolony, then exposed to the attacks of bandit and guerrilla Mexicans but a little to its west, and to all the hostile Indians north and west of bis proposed settlement. He hurried to France and besides bis official aud personal affairs, did great service in arling Gen. James Hamilton, the Texian minister, in popularizing the eanse of Texas in France. He encountered great obstacles, as the French govern- went was using immense efforts to encourage
migration to its eolony in Algiers ; but on the 13th of November, 1842, he dispatched the ship, Ebro, from IJovre with 113 immigrants for Texas. Soon afterwards the ships Lyons, from Havre, and the Louis Philippe, from Dunkirk, followed with im- migrants, aecompanied by the Abbe Menitrier. 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 introdueed into Texas over five thousand immigrants, farmers, orchard- ists and vine-growers, chiefly from the Rhenish provinces, an excellent elass of industrions, law- abiding peeple, 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 heroie Castro, at the head of the first party to arrive on the ground, formally inangurated his eolony as a living faet. A town was laid out on the west bank of the Medina, and by the unani- mous vote of the colonists, named Castroville. It was a bold step, confronting dangers unknown to the first American colonists in 1822, for besides hostile savages, now aceustomed to the use of fire arms, it ehallenged inroads from the whole Rio Grande Mexiean frontier, which, in 1822 furnished friends and not enemies to foreign settlement in Texas. It was doing what both Spanish and Mex- jean power had failed to do in 153 years - 1692 to 1844. --- sinee the first settlement at San Antonio. It was founding a permanent settlement of eivilized, Christian men, between San Antonio and the Rio Grande, the settlements and towns on which, from Matamoros (Reynosa, Camargo, Mier, Guerrero, Larioredo, 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 and fertile hills and valleys he rescued from savagery, are largely ignorant of his great serviees.
The gallant Col. John. C. Hays, the big-hearted Col. George T. (Tom) Howard, Jobu James, the surveyor, and, among others, the pure, warm- hearted and fatherly John M. Odin, the first Cath- olie Bishop of Texas, besides many generous hearted Americans, visited Castroville and bade godspeed to the new settlers from La Belle Franee and the Rhine. Bishop Odin ( friend of my youth and of my mother's house), laid and blessed the
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corner-stone of the first house dedicated to the worship of God - a service rendered before the settlers had completed respectable hints to shelter their families. On his return from this mission the good bishop dined at my mother's house, and, though a Baptist, both by inheritance and forty-six years of membership, in the broader spirit of civil- ization and that spirit which embraees all true and pure hearts, regardless of party and erced, she congratulated him on the work he had done. But in fact every man, woman and child who knew Bishop Odin (O-deen) in those years of trials and sorrow in Texas, loved him, and sorrowet when he returned to and died in his native Lombardy.
Mr. Castro, soon after inaugurating his colony, was compelled to revisit France. He delivered a parting farewell to his people. On the 25th of November, 1844, to the number of fifty-three licads of families, they responded. Their address is before ine. They say: " We take pleasure in acknowledging 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 wishes accompany you on your voyage and we take this occasion 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 Lecomte, Joseph Weber, Michael Simon and forty- seven others.
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