USA > Texas > Indian wars and pioneers of Texas, Vol. I > Part 39
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70
He was a delegate from Texas to the convention of Southern loyalists that met at Philadelphia in 1866 and was elected one of the vice-presidents of that body. Later in the same year he was the can- didate of the Union party for the office of Governor of Texas, but was defeated by Hon. J. W. Throckmorton. In August, 1867, he was appointed Provisional Governor of the State by Gen. Sheridan,
but resigned before the end of the year because he differed with the commanding general of the de- partinent, Gen. J. J. Reynolds, as to the course that should be pursued in the reconstruction of the State. He represented the State in the Liberal Republican Convention of 1872 that assembled in Chicago and nominated Horace Greeley for the presidency. In later days he attended various State and national Republican conventions and continued to act with the Republican party. Shortly after the war it was charged that he was an extremist, but, it is a fact well and gratefully remembered by the people of Texas that, when he saw during the administration of Governor Davis to what iniquities the extreme policy that was being pursued would lead, he opposed it and threw the great weight of his influence into the scales of conservatism.
The stormy days before, during and after the war are gone and the waves of passion and preju- dice that beat so fiercely have subsided. The war was inevitable. Questions were settled by it that had long vexed the people and been a prolific source of discord and that could have been settled in no other way. Old social and commercial con- ditions were changed that could have been changed in no other way. Mutual confidence, respect and friendship were restored as they could have been restored in no other way, and a fraternal, and it is to be hoped, eternal, Union secured that could have been secured in no other way. Now we can enter into full sympathy with those who could see neither safety nor profit in continuing to live under a com- pact of Union, every essential provision of which they believed to have been violated, and who de- termined to seek peace in a Confederation com- posed of friendly States with interests in common. We can also enter into full sympathy with those who opposed the policy of secession. They thought that, if wrong had been done, it could be redressed within the Union -- that the slavery and all other ques- tions could be settled there. Governor Pease and others of undoubted patriotism looked upon the dissolution of the Union as the greatest calamity that could befall the country. Upon the continu- ation of that Union he believed depended the destinies and future welfare of the race, for its fall, he well knew, would seal the doom of free institutions, which in a few years would perish from the earth. "Should the blood " said men of his party " shed upon the battle fields of the Revolution of 1776, be shed in vain? Should the labors of Washington and Jefferson and their compeers prove unavailing ? A thousand times no!" They were right in their prognostications of the evils that
205
INDLIN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
would inevitably follow a dissolution of the Union. They were wrong in the belief that the questions that divided the people eould be settled peace- fully. From their standpoint they were right in opposing seeession. It is fortunate, all now agree, that the attempt to secede was unsuccessful. It was, however, written in the book of fate that it should be made and fail. A stronger hand than man's controlled the course of events and brought about the benefieent results that have followed in their train. We admire the moral and physical courage that led men of both sides to brave ani- madversion, the loss of prestige and death itself in support of their opinions and principles that they believed to be eorreet. They were animated by that desire for the promotion of the general good and by that spirit of their fathers that led Pym and Hampden and Sidney to dare the block and the soldiers at Coneord to fire upon the British reg- ulars. Let us strew flowers with impartial hand upon those whom death has gathered in its cold embrace and transmit their memories to posterity, freed from reproach and with imperishable assur- anees of our love and veneration for them.
There was nothing of the time-serving spirit in Governor Pease's composition. He was ineapable of allowing a desire for personal aggrandizement or for the promotion of any of his private interests to induee him to compromise with what he believed to be wrong. He stood for principles and, seeing that they were about to be violated, he could not remain silent and inactive. He had no superstitious reverenee for majorities. He knew full well that majorities are often wrong and that the pages of history are stained and blurred all over by records of the mistakes they have made, and the erimes they have committed. The majority believed for centuries that the earth was flat and the eenter of the universe ; in witches and wizards and necro- mancy ; that it was impious to attempt by sanitary measures to stay the pestilence, which they consid- ereil a divine visitation upon the people for their sins, and it was in accordance with the will of majorities that Christ was eondemned to a shameful death upon the cross, the fires of persecution were kept ablaze at Smithfield and Oxford, and many noble lives were sacrificed and much cruel wrong inflicted. He believed that the day had not yet come when majorities were invested with the attri- butes of infallibility. If the majority was right, lie cheerfully went with it. If he considered it in error, he as manfully opposed it, nor could he be com- pelled by any consideration to cease his opposition. Even his opponents at all times freely admitted his honesty of character and purpose. He retired from otlice enjoying the respeet of all the people.
In 1874 he was tendered the office of Collector of the Port of Galveston by Secretary of the Interior Bristow, but declined it.
In 1877 he retired from the active practice of law in which he had been engaged, exeept wlien em- ployed, in the diselarge of publie duties, sinee 1837.
In 1879 he was tendered, without solicitation upon his part, the Collectorship of the port of Gal- veston, and, this time, accepted it. This was his last publie serviee.
He was vice-president of the First National Bank of Austin, at the time of his death, which occurred at Lampasas Springs, Texas, August 26, 1883, where he had gone in search of health. & His remains were interred in the cemetery at Austin.
Governor Pease became a Mason in 1839, joining St. John's Lodge, No. 5, at Columbia, Texas and took all the regular degrees. IIe was not a member of any religious organization, but attended the serviees of the Episcopal Church, the church in which he was reared.
As a lawyer he had few equals in the State. His briefs were always elear, fair and logical, and, while his patient research armed him at every point in a case, he never sought undue advantage. So fixed were these traits [that Chief Justice Wheeler onee said that the statements of faets in his briefs were always so lueid and just he could rely upon them without reference to the record. He was fre- quently consulted upon important public matters having a legal bearing, even after his retirement from practice, and always rendered such services without charge.
Sineerity and candor; and an observance of the golden rule marked his intercourse with his fellow- men. Courtly in manner, kindly and genial, he enjoyed the affectionate regard of the circle of friends whom he admitted to his acquaintance. He had as much influence in framing the publie policies and general laws of the State as any man who ever lived in Texas. He was identified with the soil from the days antedating the revolution. It was his fortune to perform many important publie ser- vices. His career covered the most momentous periods known to our history. He was the intimate friend and associate of such men as Wharton, Houston, Williamson, Rusk and Areher, and the leaders of thought of later days, and his name de- serves a place beside theirs upou the pages of the State's history.
He was married in 1850 to Miss L. C. Niles, a daughter of Col. Richard Niles, of Windsor, Conn. This accomplished and most excellent lady and her only surviving danghter, live at the family seat near the city of Austin.
5
206
INDLIN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEX.IS.
ISABELLA HADDON GORDON,
CLARKSVILLE,
One of Red River County's early settlers, a noble Christian woman who linked her name permanently with that of the county's history, was born August 10th, 1805, in Montgomery County, Ky., and was a daughter of Frank and Katie ( Elliott) Hopkins, of Kentucky. Her paternal grandfather, Wm. Hop- kins, was from one of the New England States, and her maternal grandfather, James Elliott, was from Virginia. Her maternal grandmother was Katie (Stewart) Elliott of Virginia. Her father was a leading and wealthy planter of Kentucky. He moved to Indiana the year of the battle of Tippe- canoe, carrying with him all his slaves, which he lost by some legal technicality. In 1823 he moved to Texas, settling at the mouth of Mill creek, which is now in Bowic County. At that time all the white settlers lived in neighborhoods within a mile of Red river, and it was ten years before there were any white settlements on the prairie. The subject of this sketch was married, April 18th, 1824, to John Hanks, a native of Kentucky, who died in 1827. One child, Minerva, blessed this union, is still living and is the widow of Robert Graham. The subject of this notice was married the second time to James Clark, then a member of the Arkansas legislature and a son of Benjamin Clark, a native of Tennessee, who at the time lived in Arkansas, but moved soon after to Texas. To this nnion three children were born. The first, Frank II., born April 27th, 1830, attended law school at Lexing- ton, boarding with Chief Justice Marshall, and had the benefit of the advice and association of that eminent jurist. This bright son and promising lawyer died in 1856. The second sou, Dr. Pat Clark, is a physician and resident of Red River County. The third and youngest son of this union is Capt. James Clark, a leading and representative citizen of Red River County. In the fall of 1832, when Mr. Clark was a resident of Jonesboro, a settlement on Red river, Gen. Sam Houston crossed the river with five companions and with one of them passed his first night in Texas at the house of the subject of this sketch, his four other companions being prepared to camp out. He remained with the then Mrs. Clark awaiting guides to take him to Nacogdoches, as at that time there were no roads. The whole party were gentlemanly in dress and conduct, contrary to a statement published as a matter of history, that they were intoxicated and
disorderly ; the companions of Gen. Houston were white men and not Indians, as erroneously declared in the statement alluded to. James Clark died in 1838 at the late home of his widow in Clarks- ville, Texas, which city is named in his honor. This husband and the second of her brothers were in the war of 1836, and fought for the independ- ence of Texas and it was through the instrument- ality of Mrs. Gordon, who at that time was Mrs. Clark, that a large number of recruits were col- lected and cquipped at her expense and sent for- ward to aid in gaining the independence of the Lone Star Republic. The third husband of this lady was Dr. George Gordon, of Covington, Ky. John, their first son, died while discharging the duties of a soldier in the Confederate army. Belle was their second and Dick the third. Dr. Gordon served in the Confederate army as assistant to her son (and his step-son) Dr. Pat Clark, who was surgcon of Gen. Lane's Regiment. Prior to the time of Mrs. Gordon's arrival in Texas, the prairies were inhabited by hostile Indians, but from about 1826 to 1836 settlements were made by several tribes of friendly Indians, Kickapoos, Delawares, and Shawnces, who were really a pro- tection to the whites. There was one Delaware chief who had lost a hand (he said in the battle of Tippecanoe), and there is a creek in the neighbor- hood that derives its name from him -- " Cut- hand." Mrs. Gordon knew many of these Indians, as they came to trade with the white people. After the war of 1836, Texas made no provisions for these Indians, and they returned peacefully to their . homies. The Shawnee chief was called "Cow-leach," and lived on a prairie four miles from Clarksville, and it still bears his name. When our subject was first married, for one year she lived within a mile of a village inhabited by friendly Choctaw Indians, and they were good neighbors. Her nearest white neighbor, a Mr. Cullum, was four miles off. The white people at an early day were in constant dread of hostile Indians. There was a settlement of Caddos on the Sabine river, about one hundred and fifty miles distant, and one of them came and told Mrs. Gordon that the friendly Indians near had planned to kill the white people. This was a favorite trick of the Indians to get the white people to leave their homes so that the redskins could pillage.
1-
. 207
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
On this occasion the men took the Indian and whipped him, the whipping taking place near the house of a Mr. Murphy. Just one year after a party of Caddos came, found Mr. Murphy alone with his sled to haul rails, and mending his fence. He had nothing to do with the whipping, but they killed him, took his scalp, and had a war dance over it at their village, as reported by a trader, who said it was done for revenge, which must have been the case, as they did not even take away the horse. Mrs. Murphy heard the gunshot and went to see what was the matter. The Indians were gone, but she found her husband's body. She was entirely alone and carried water to wash the body, covered it and took the horse from the sled and rode two miles to her nearest neighbor to give the alarm.
For the first year after Mrs. Gordon came to Texas, unless the vessels were brought with them, the people had none but gourds. For some years all the cloth was made from cotton, the seeds picked out with the fingers, then spun and woven. In those days there were cotton pickings, but not like those of this day. In the long winter evenings people would meet at a house and pick out seeds. Then it was ready to spin for making cloth.
The pioneers had no chairs, but made stools. Beds were made fast to the wall. For seven years Mrs. Gordon never saw a plank floor, as all floors were made of puncheons- that is, lumber hewn out of logs. For a number of years there were no wagons, and people moved in canoes. The men wore clothes made entirely of deer skins, the skins of deer and cattle being tanned in a trough. The nicest shoes were made of deer skins, and our sub-
ject was married to Mr. Clark in a pair made by a shoemaker named Huey Shaw.
The people had an abundance of food at an early date, deer and bear meat and fat wild turkeys being plentiful. The woods were full of bee trees. Bread was made by beating out the corn in a mortar. Later the people had steel mills which they turned by hand. About once a year a keel- boat would be pushed up Red river with such sup- plies as sugar, flour and coffee.
Mrs. Gordon still has relatives living in Ken- tueky and Indiana, among them the Hamiltons of Montgomery County, in the former State. Judge Elliott, who was killed at Frankfort, Ky., a few years ago, by Judge Buford, was a great-grand- nephew of her mother.
Mrs. Gordon's name is synonymous with all that is good and charitable. The wealth which a beneficent Providence entrusted to her care was judiciously used for the relief and com- fort of her fellow-creatures. Her whole life was spent toward the advancement and good of her country and its population. For many years her life was not connected with any religious denom- ination, but her life and its example could have been followed to good purpose by many of those who claimed to have passed through the purifying fires of repentance. In 1864 she joined the Cath- olic Church, of which she was thereafter a devout and consistent member.
The love for this good woman is shown by the numerous namesakes she has in the States of Arkansas and Texas. She gave land, lots and houses to many poor, but deserving, people. Hun- dreds reverence her memory.
She died in June, 1895, and is buried at Clarksville.
T. C. WESTBROOK,
HEARNE.
Capt. T. C. Westbrook, born at West Point, Mississippi, October 1st, 1842, of well-to-do and highly respected parents, representatives of the fine old Southern aristocracy of the halcyon days before the war, had the advantage in youth of care- fal training and thorough education, graduating with the rank of Captain from the Military Insti- tute, at Frankfort, Ky., when seventeen years of «.I age, and soon after came to Texas with his step-
father, L. W. Carr, who located with his family on the rich alluvial lands of the Brazos river bottom near the town of Hearne, in Robertson County. Mr. Westbrook entered the Confederate army in the spring of 1862 as a soldier in Company B., en- listing for three years, or so long as the war might last, and was stationed with his command first on Galveston Island, then at Virginia Point, and then at Camp Speight, Texas, near Millican, where the
1
208.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
.
.
.
Fifteenth Texas Infantry was organized, with J. W. Speight as its Colonel, and M. D. Herring, Captain, and the subject of this memoir Lieutenant of Com- pany B. The regiment was ordered to Arkansas, remained at Camp Daniels until 1862, reached Little Rock in October following, and did garrison duty at Camp Nelson and Camp Bayou Metre until shortly before the fall of Arkansas Post, when it was ordered to Fort Smith, and from thence through the Indian Territory, to Camp Kiamisha on Red river. In 1863 the Fifteenth, and the brigade of which it formed a part, were ordered to Louisiana to oppose, with the other troops under Gen. Tay- lor, the advance of Gen. Banks. The brigade was commanded by Gen. J. W. Speight, Sr., Gen. King and Gen. Polignac, in the order named, and participated in the fights at Fordash, Bayou Bourdeau, Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, Marks- ville,. Yellow Bayon, and numerons skirmishes and smaller engagements. Capt. Westbrook was slightly wounded at the battle of Mansfield. When mustered out of the service at Houston, Texas, after the final surrender of the Confederate forces, he held the rank of Captain and was acting Adjutant of his regiment. A friend, speaking of his bearing as a soldier, says: "In camp he was modest and unobtrusive, kind and jovial; in the thickest and hottest of the raging battle, cooler than most men on dress-parade, prompt to aet and utterly fearless. Ife enjoyed the respect and con- fidence of his men and brother and superior officers. Knowing him as I did, I can truthfully say that he was as a friend as true and tried as tempered Damascus steel ; as a soldier and patriot, as brave and devoted as any man who wore the gray."
Returning to his home in Robertson County he engaged in farming upon his own account. His possessions increased from year to year until he took rank as one of the wealthiest planters in Texas. Ile was an ideal. practical farmer -- one of the most successful in the State - and his large Brazos bottom plantations near Ilearne, on which he continued to reside until his death, showed at all times the perfection of good management. He spared no expense in securing and enjoying the good things of life. He and his beloved wife (formerly Mrs. Jennie Randle), to whom he was married December 1th, 1878, dispensed a generous and wholesale hospitality at their palatial home to their many friends and the chance " stranger within their gates." It was his custom, assisted by his wife, to see that every one on his plantation, black or white, received each Christmas day some suitable present. He lived in the half patriarchal, half princely style of his ancestors and was a noble sur-
vival of the high-souled, warm-hearted and chivalric gentlemen of a by-gone day. While exact in his business methods, bis hand dispensed liberally to others of what it gathered. He sympathized with human suffering and sorrow and sought when he could to relieve it, and few contributed so much to the support of the church. It was chiefly through his influence and exertions that the Hearne & Brazos Valley Railroad was constructed and put into successful operation. He was elected president of the company upon its organization and served in that capacity up to the time of his death, the road earning handsome dividends on the money in- vested, under his management.
He manifested a lively interest in and was active in support of all worthy enterprises. He was a life-long Democrat and ardent advocate of clean, wholesome measures and always interested himself in helping elect good men to office. He was a delegate to numerous county and State convention ; and was more than once importuned to become a candidate for election to the legislature, but de- clined, having no desire for political honors and much preferring the quiet and peaceful home-life to which he was accustomed. In July, 1893, he suf- fered from a severe attack of la grippe from which he never fully recovered. He sought restoration to health by travel, sojourning for a time in Mexico, and visiting, among other places, San Antonio, Hot Springs and Wooten Wells. A month before the coming of the end he was taken to Mineral Wells and died there on the 17th of September, 1893, leaving a wife, a daughter of Mrs. Westbrook by her former marriage ( Mrs. Monroe, Miller, of Ans- tin), two brothers (C. A. Westbrook, of Lorena, McLennan County, and M. L. Westbrook of Waco), a sister ( Mrs. S. C. Beckman, of IFearne), a step-father, to whom he had been as a favorite son ; two nieces and a nephew and many score of devoted friends to mourn his loss. The announce- ment of his death cast a shade of sorrow over the community of which he had been such a prominent, useful and honored citizen. The remains were con- veyed to Hearne in a special car and were followed to their last resting-place in Oakwood Cemetery by the largest funeral cortege known in the history of the town, many of those in attendance coming from a distance. So ended the career of a noble man. There is something peculiarly sad in the reflection that he was cut down in the full maturity of ripened manhood and when he was surrounded by all the endearments that render a continuance of life desirable. However, if ever man was ready for the summons, he was ready. To his devoted wife is left the consolation that through her example and
J. D. GIDDINGS.
...
209
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
influence he was led to give his heart to God and to the perfect day of a happy immortality and that a blessed reunion awaits them beyond the grave.
Mrs. Westbrook is a daughter of Allen Carr, who came to Texas in 1858 and settled in Burleson County, were he was for many years a prominent citizen and she was reared.
J. D. GIDDINGS,
BRENHAM.
Jabez Demming Giddings was one of eight sons of James Giddings, a farmer of Susquehanna County, Pa.
James Giddings was descended from George Giddings, of Saint Albans, Hertfordshire, England, a gentleman of property, who emigrated to America in 1635, settling in the town of Ipswich, Mass. James was born in Norwich, Conn., June 29th, 1780. At an carly age, he entered the merchant marine, rising to a captaincy, with full charge of cargo on attaining his majority.
In consequence of a shipwreck off the Carolina coast in 1810, by which was destroyed the fruits of many years of daring adventure and successful trading, he abandoned the sea and settled on a farm in the then wilderness of Western Pennsyl- vania.
He was a man of great firmness and bravery and of an adventurous spirit, qualities generously transmitted to his numerous progeny.
The mother of J. D. Giddings was Susie Dem- ming, of Connecticut, whose ancestors were early immigrants from France, and who distinguished themselves, as did the descendants of George Giddings, by their loyalty to the fortunes of the American Colonies in the Revolutionary War.
In 1835 Giles A. Giddings, an older brother of J. D. Giddings, came to Texas to select and sur- vey a tract of land for a colony, but finding the Texians engaged in a struggle with Mexico, joined the army of Gen. Ilouston, just previous to the battle of San Jacinto, and died from the effects of wounds received in that engagement. The night before the battle he wrote to his parents a letter worthy of copying in full as a model of literary excellence, but from which only a few sentences will be quoted, as disclosing the patriotic courage and love of liberty which marks his family.
". It is reported Houston will attack them, [Santa Anna's army] in the morning. What will be the result or fate of Texas is hid in the bowels of
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.