USA > Texas > Indian wars and pioneers of Texas, Vol. I > Part 43
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In September, 1838, he was elected to represent his district in the House of the Third Texas Con- gress (the first under Lamar's administration) and acquitted himself in a manner that fully sustained the high reputation he enjoyed, and added fresh laurels to those he had already won.
The Congress assembled at Houston on the 15th of November.
In the Senate were Harvey Kendrick, of Mata- gorda ; Edward Burleson, of Bastrop; William HI. Wharton, of Brazoria; and in the House such men as Jolin W. Bunton, Greenleaf Fisk (Col. Cald- well's associate from Bastrop), Jose Antonio Navarro, Cornelius Van Ness, John A. Wharton, Wm. Menefee, Holland Coffee, Moseley Baker, Isaac Parker, David S. Kaufman, John M. Hansford and John J. Lynn.
It was a very important session. Laws were to be enacted to provide for a change from the eivil to the common law (in compliance with an amend- ment to the constitution previously adopted), a stable currency was to be provided, steps were to
be taken to lay the foundation for a free school sys- tem and to effectually check the hostile Indian tribes in East Texas and elsewhere and suppress Mexican brigandage on the southwestern border. All this and more was accomplished by that body or placed in process of accomplishment. A ranger force for frontier protection was created, a law passed for the permanent location of the seat of government, steps were taken to provide a more efficient navy, fifty leagues of land were set aside for a university and lands to each county for free school purposes ; the land, judiciary and probate laws were improved, land grants were extended to encourage immigration and a score or more of other mueh needed and salutary laws enacted.
The law providing for the permanent location of the seat of government was passed in January, 1839. It was a question of deep interest and excited more or less sectional feeling. The whole West and upper frontier wished it located as far in the interior as practicable in order that it might become the focus of frontier protection. Col. John Caldwell, of Bastrop, William Menefee, of Colorado, James Kerr, of Jackson, and Cornelius Van Ness, of Bexar, were the especial champions of the measure and Col. Caldwell is said to have afterwards pointed out to the commissioners, appointed under the law, the site on the Colorado selected by them, for the beautiful capital city of Austin.
The next session of the Congress convened at the new capital in November, 1839. This he also at- tended. He took an active part in all the important debates and legislation of the session and in shap- ing the general lines of State policy that were then developed, many of which, notably those inaugurat- ing the policy of free popular education and of erecting and maintaining elecmosynary institutions, have since been very closely followed. .
Returning home, he was called upon more than once to help chastise hostile Indians and responded with that alacrity that was characteristic of the pioneers of that day. The Indian outrages in 1837 and 1838 and in 1839 and 1840, incited by promises of help from Mexico, were appalling. The frontier was bleeding from savage fury, from San Antonio to Red river.
On the 5th of August, 1840, a band of a thon- sand, composed of Comanches and Kiowas, but in- einding also many lawless Mexicans and Indians from some of the more civilized tribes, passed down the country to Victoria. They committed many murders along the way, massacred several persons in sight of Victoria and, after making a feint on that town, proceeded to the village of Linnville, on
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Matagorda Bay, which they looted and then burned to the ground, massacring those of the inhabitants who failed to make good their escape in boats moored along the shore. The raiders then took up the line of march on their return. The news spread like wildfire and pursuing parties were organized, one of which was led by Col. Caldwell. A short distance from Victoria, twenty-five volun- teers eame up with the Indians and had a skirmish ; but, with this exception, they managed to make their way unmolested to Plum ereek, where, three miles southwest of the present town of Lock- hart, they were attacked on the 12th of August by & foree of about one hundred and eighty men, com- manded by Gen. Felix Huston, Col. Ed. Burleson, Capts. Ward, Bird and others, and defeated with considerable slaughter. This was one of the last of a series of bloody confliets in Southern Texas, and was such a chastisement of the Comanches, that they remained comparatively quiet for a number of years thereafter.
After the capture of San Antonio by the Mexicans under Gen. Adrian Woll, in 1842, Col. Caldwell hastily organized a regiment, composed of the eom- panies of Capt. Childress, of Bastrop, and Capt. Cooke, of Austin, and hurried to the appointed ren- dezvous at the front where he joined the force (about 2,000 men) commanded by Col. Ed. Burle- son. In a few days Brig .- Gen. Somervell arrived on the ground and assumed command. Seouts soon brought in information that the enemy, after holding San Antonio a few days, had rapidly retreated. Col. Caldwell remained with the troops as long as they were kept in the field. Later, he participated in the Somervell expedition, designed for a retaliatory invasion of Mexico, and, after the regular disbandment of Somervell's force on the Rio Grande, returned home.
The extra session of the Ninth Congress that met at Washington on the Brazos on the 16th of June, 1845, gave its consent to the joint resolution of the Congress of the United States, providing for the annexation of Texas and to the convention of sixty- one delegates called by President Anson Jones, to meet at Austin, on the 4th of July and speak the voice of Texas on the main issue. Col. Caldwell was elected a delegate to this convention. It met at Austin on the day appointed and adjourned on the 27th of August, after ratifying the terms of annex- ation and framing a constitution for the proposed State, which was duly ratified by a vote of the peo- ple. The constitution of 1845 was one of the best that Texas has ever had.
Col. Caldwell's knowledge of the philosophy and practice of law and the principles that underlie free
government and his natural breadth of mind and philanthropic spirit, enabled him to render invalua- ble serviee in this body, and to leave the impress of his labors upon the organic law that it framed and submitted to the people.
His next public service was as a member of the Texas Senate in 1857-8. Here he was intimately associated with George M. Paschal, Lewis T. Wig- fall, Jesse Grimes, Bob Taylor, Henry MeCulloch, John M. Borroughs, M. D. K. Taylor, Lott, Stoek- dale, and a host of other men of great and brilliant abilities then in the prime and bey-day of their fame and Col. Caldwell easily moved to the front among them as a man of unusual force of mind and undoubted purity of purpose. He exercised an in- fluenee second to none in the committee rooms and on the floor of the Senate and played a prominent part in the important legislation enaeted at that session.
From this period the gathering elouds of sectional hatred, that shortly after the foundation of the government first began to rise above the horizon of the American Union, rapidly overeast the entire politieal sky and threatened a storm that would destroy the grand fabric that the fathers of 1776 reared with the hope that it would endure to afford an asylum for the oppressed, serve as a model for patriots in other lands to aspire to, and bless man- kind through all coming ages. The South was an agricultural country. It considered that under the tariff laws in force it was being bled to enrich New England manufacturers. The Democratie party brought about the Louisiana and Florida purchases, forced the annexation of Texas and supported the Mexiean war and carried it to a successful issue. One of the opponents of that war went so far as to say he hoped the soldiers of Santa Anna would wel- come our army " with bloody hands, and hospitable graves." Thus the Democratic party had extended the territory of the Union from ocean to ocean. The South was solidly Democratie and contended that its citizens should have the right to go into any of the territories of the United States with their slaves, which were recognized as property at the formation of and by the compact of Union. Then the fugutive slave laws were trampled under foot and men who went in pursuit of their slaves mob- bed. Confliets in Kansas, the John Brown raid, and other events, tended to intensify publie exeite- ment on both sides of Mason and Dixon's line. Threats of secession grew louder and deeper and, when the news of the election of Mr. Lineoln swept over the country, it was attempted and both sides prepared for war --- the North determined to prevent the extension of slavery, preserve the
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Union at all hazards and trample what it considered the heresy of secession to death ; the South to retire from what it no longer considered a fraternal Union and seek that peace and security under a separate government denied it within its limits.
Col. Caldwell was present, as a spectator, at the meeting of the Seeession Convention at Austin and used all of his great personal influence to prevent the framing of the ordinance providing for the withdrawal of Texas from the Union. He coincided with his friends, Gen. Sam Houston and Hon. James W. Throckmorton, on the want of necessity for and unwisdom of such a step. He saw nothing but disaster in store for the people, whether they lost or won in the coming struggle. He thought the South had suffered many wrongs, but his idea was to redress them within the Union. A greater than any human power, however, had decided the settlement of the questions involved (which eould have been settled in no other way) by the fiery ordeal of war. The ordinance was passed and soon there rang out the call to arms. Deeply grieved at the woes which he saw that his beloved country must suffer, Col. Caldwell, too feeble for active service himself, sent four of his gallant sons to the front to fight and, if need be, die, for the Confederate States.
He also loaned the State or Texas a quarter of a million of dollars in gold to carry on the govern- ment, when the treasury was empty, and received bonds therefor. These bonds, owing to the down- fall of the Confederacy, became worthless and he never received a cent in return.
It is unpleasant to dwell upon the war period and the period of reconstruction that followed it. Both passed.
During the latter period, in 1866, when it was attempted to rehabilitate the State under the plan proposed by President Johnson, a Democratic con- vention assembled for the purpose of nominating candidates for State offices and a caucus-com- mittee, of which Hon. James W. Throckmorton was a member, ealled upon Col. Caldwell and formally requested him to accept the nomination for Governor, stating that he was considered the proper man to lead the way to the re-establishment of honest government in the State. Thanking them for the honor conferred, he deelined to secede to their request and urged the nomination of his friend and associate in the Senate in 1857-8, Mr. Throck- morton. In accordance with this advice, Throck- morton was given the nomination and subsequently elected, only to be removed in a short time as an impediment to reconstruction, by Gen. Sheridan, military commander of the district, acting under
authority of the illiberal reconstruction laws passed by Congress in opposition to Johnson's policy.
Col. Caldwell retired to his home near Bastrop, where he spent in quietude the four remaining years of his life. There he peacefully breathed his last on the 22d day of October, 1870, surrounded by his sorrowing family.
Death never gathered to its cold embrace a more devoted patriot or stilled the pulsations of a truer or more manly heart. His memory deserves ever to be revered by the people of Texas, whom he served in so many and such various capaeities, and his name deserves a place on the pages of the State's history beside those of ber bravest, and brightest and best, from the days that preceded the revolution down to those that witnessed the close of his useful and illustrious career.
His beloved wife survived him for many years, dying December 30th, 1895, in the city of Austin, where she removed in the spring of 1871 to live with her children. She was born in Knoxville, Tenn., December 8th, 1809. She was a noble Christian lady, distinguished for every grace that endears to us the names of wife and mother. She was a daughter of Rev. John Haynie, one of the most famous and best remembered of the pioneer preachers of the M. E. Church, who made their way into the wilderness of Texas and blazed the way for other and later Christian workers.
Rev. John Haynie was born in Botetourt County, Va., April 7, 1786, and married Elizabeth Brooks, May 2Sd, 1805. While he was young his family moved to East Tennessee, and located near Knoxville. In his twentieth year he married Elizabeth Brooks. In 1815 or 1816 be settled in the then village of Knoxville, where he carried on a successful mercantile business and labored for the establishment of Methodism. He spent about fifteen years at Knoxville and then removed to North Alabama, where he labored in the ministry until 1839, when he came to the Republic of Texas. He was admitted to the West Texas conference in 1840 and assigned to Austin. This was his first year in the itineracy, although he had received license to preach as early as 1811. The Austin circuit, to which he was appointed, included the new capital eity and the counties of Bastrop and Travis. Shortly after his arrival at Austin he was elected Chaplain of the Texas Congress, a position that he several times subsequently held. In 1846, Rev. Mr. Ilaynie was assigned to Corpus Christi and started for his field of labor, leaving his family at their home in Rutersville, Fayette County. At Goliad he was informed that it would be unsafe for him to proceed without a guard and Capt.
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l'rice, commanding a company of rangers, fur- nished him one. Corpus Christi was an army station and crowded with a floating population. It was difficult for him to find board, lodging or a place to preach. He finally found a place to get his meals and, after considerable effort, he obtained permission to sleep in a store house on bags of shelled corn. Next he procured one of the theaters to preach in on Sunday, but at night there were theatrical performances held in the same room. Owing to the breaking ont of the Mexican war and
the removal of the army, the town was nearly de- populated and Mr. Haynie returned toThis home. -. He died at Rutersville, August 20, 1860. His wife, Elizabeth B., died October14, 1863, at John Caldwell's, Bastrop County.
Mrs. Caldwell was mother of eight children, viz. : Margaretta, deceased; John Adam, deceased ; Mary, now Mrs. John H. Pope; Charles G. ; Walter H .; Lucinda P., widow of the late R. T. Hill; Oliver B., and Orlando, all occupying honorable positions in life.
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MIFFLIN KENEDY,
CORPUS CHRISTI.
Capt. Mifflin Kenedy was born in Downingtown, Chester County, Pa., June 8, 1818. His parents were John Kenedy and Sarah (Starr) Kenedy, members of the Society of Friends.
The ancestors of Capt. Kenedy's father emi- grated from Ireland to Maryland as members of Lord Baltimore's colony. They were Catholics, but in the course of the next century some of them embraced Protestantism. Capt. Kenedy's ances- try, on his mother's side, is traced back to a very remote period and boasts a long line of distin- guished men; among the number, mitred prelates and paladins of chivalry, and last, those quiet heroes of peace, the Quakers, who dared and suf- fercd all things for conscience sake.
The branch from which he is descended appear in France, as Huguenots, early in the fifteenth century, and were compelled to worship in fear and seclusion in the forests and in the fastnesses and gorges of the Pyrenees. At some time between the massacre upon Saint Bartholomew's Day, in 1572, and the promulgation of the Edict of Nantes by Henry of Navarre, in 1598, they escaped to
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England. After a residence of some time in Great Britain, they became Friends or Quakers, but they had not yet found an asylum, where they could worship the true God after the manner dictated by their own consciences. Here they were made the victims of hostile legislation, derided by a fanatical populace and imprisoned in filthy dungeons, until they looked toward the shores of America for relief. In 1683, Mrs. Kenedy's progenitors, George and Alice Maris, with their six children, sailed as members of William Penn's first colony.
They settled at Springfield, twenty miles from Philadelphia, in what is now called Delaware County, Pa., and there many of their descend- ants yet reside. The old homestead, originally purchased from William Penn by George Maris, still remains in undivided succession in the Maris family.
Capt. Kenedy's childhood was spent in the quietude of a Quaker home. He attended the common schools of the country, acquired the ele- ments of an English education, and was then, for three months, in 1833, a pupil at the boarding school of Jonathan Gause, afamous Quaker educator of the time. He taught school during the winter of 1833-4, after leaving the institution of Jonathan Gause, and in the spring of 1834 ( April 4) sailed on board the ship Star, at Philadelphia, as a boy before the mast. The vessel was bound for Calcutta and on the out- ward voyage touched at the Madeira Islands, Island of Ceylon, at Madras and other points of interest. When homeward bound, the vessel encountered a typhoon, or hurricane, in the Bay of Bengal, sprung a leak, and, after safely weathering the storm, put into the Isle of France, where she underwent neces- sary repairs. While on the Isle of France, Kenedy visited what are shown as the tombs of Paul and Virginia, at a little hamlet called Pamplemouses, high up on the side of the mountain, and also the port-hole in the rock, where it was Paul's custom to sit watching for the ship that would bring back Virginia. This pathetic story is familiar to nearly every one who is acquainted with French, English or Spanish literature.
. The Star soon resnmed her voyage and, touching
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at St. Helena for water, arrived at her wharf in Philadelphia during the month of January, 1836.
The voyage to Calcutta thoroughly cured him of his penchant for the sea. He returned to his home and for three months taught school at Coatsville, Chester County, Pa. While thus engaged he met an old friend of his family and a resident of that place, who had been out West and who told him that steamboating on the Ohio river offered fine opportunities for young men to get on . in the world and promised to give him a letter of recommendation to a friend residing in Pittsburg, Pa., and largely interested in steamboats. Kenedy determined to take the advice proffercd him, surrendered his school, procured the letter of reeommendation and made his way to Pittsburg.
Arriving at his destination in June, 1836, he delivered the letter and met with a kind reception and was told that an effort would be made to secure
From that time until 1812 he ran on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers as clerk - sometimes acting as captain.
In 1842 be went to Alabama and during one season on the Alabama river served as clerk of the Champion, a boat running from Mobile to Mont- gomery. The Champion then proceeded to Apala- . chicola, Florida, and ran on the Apalaehie and Chattahoochie rivers until 1846. He retained his position as clerk during these years and, in the absence of the captain, aeted as commander. While thus engaged in Florida, he met Capt. Richard King, then a river pilot and in after years his partner in steamboat operations on the Rio Grand and rauching in Southwest Texas.
Every spring, from the year 1843 to 1846, the . Champion was sent along the Gulf coast to Now Orleans and from that point up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers to Pittsburg, where she was owned, to be repaired. In the early part of 1846, Capt. Kenedy was placed in charge of the boat and ordered to take her to Pittsburg, Pa., and reached his destination in April following.
Upon his arrival at Pittsburg, he met Maj. John Saunders, an engineer in the United States Army and a friend of his, who was sent there by Gen. Zachary Taylor to obtain boats for the use of the army on the Rio Grande. He employed Capt. Kenedy to assist him in this work. Maj. Saun-
ders purchased the Corvette, Colonel Cross, Major Brown, Whiteville and other boats for the service. Capt. Kenedy was made commander of the Corvette, and directed to proceed to New Orleans and report to Col. T. F. Hunt, of the Quartermas- ter's Department, U. S. A. Col. Hunt confirmed the appointment of Capt. Kenedy and he thereupon enlisted for the war, as master, and was ordered to proceed with the Corvette to the mouth of the Rio Grande and report to Capt. E. A. Ogden, Assistant Quartermaster, U. S. A. One of the reasons for scleeting him for this work was his experience in conducting light boats over the Gulf.
He reached the station at the mouth of the Rio Grande June 17, 1846, and from that time until the close of the Mexican war transported troops and provisions to Matamoros, Reynosa, Camargo and other points on the river.
After the victory at Buena Vista and while mov-
for him the first vacancy that occurred. In the . ing on Vera Cruz, Gen. Winfield Scott stopped meantime he realized that he must secure employ- at the mouth of the Rio Grande, desiring to go to Camargo and consult with Gen. Worth. Capt. Kenedy's vessel, the Corvette, was the best in the service and he was selected to take Gen. Scott and staff up the river. ment by which he eould carn funds sufficient to defray current expenses, and, accordingly, worked in a brick-yard until October 1, 1836, when he was notified that the position of clerk on a steamer had been secured for him.
Capt. Richard King joined Capt. Kenedy in May, 1847, and acted as pilot of the Corvette until the close of the war, in 1848. They were thoroughly experienced steamboatmen and rendered their country good service. Capt. Kenedy during his long experience as a steamboatman never met with an accident while in charge of a boat.
At the end of the Mexican war, he and two other gentlemen (Mr. Samuel A. Belden and Capt. James Walworth) bought a large number of mules and wagons and a stock of merchandise and started for the fair at San Juan, in the State of Jalisco. They did. not succeed in reaching the fair, and sold their outfit at Zacatecas and returned to Matamoros, where they divided the proceeds of the trip and dissolved partnership. Capt. Kenedy immedi- ately purchased another stock of goods and, with his merchandise loaded on pack-mules, started for the interior of Mexico. Upon arriving at Monterey, he sold out and returned to Brownsville, reaching the latter place in the spring of 1850.
Sceing the necessity for good boats on the Rio Grande, he then formed a partnership with Capt. Richard King, Capt. James O'Donnell and Mr. Charles Stillman, under the firm name of M. Kenedy & Company. The gentlemen associated themselves together for the purpose of building boats and run- ning them upon the Rio Grande and along the Gulf coast to Brazos Santiago. Capt. Kenedy proceeded at once to Pittsburg, Pa., and
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built two boats, the Comanche and Grampus, vessels of 200 and 500 tons burden. He bought Capt. O'Donnell's interest in the business dur- ing the following two years and in 1865 the new firm of King, Kenedy & Company was formed, as Charles Stillman had retired from the firm. These two firms, during their existence, built and pur- chased twenty-six boats for the trade. In 1874 the firm of King, Keuedy & Company dissolved and divided assets.
Capt. Richard King established the Santa Ger- trudes ranch in Nueces County, Texas, in 1852, and Capt. Kenedy bought a half interest in it December 6, 1860. They dissolved partnership in October, 1868, taking share and share alike of the cattle, horses and sheep. Capt. King, by agree- ment, retained Santa Gertrudes ranch.
After the war between the States large bodies of thieves, marauders and outlaws remained on the frontier and committed such depredations on stock that Capt. Kenedy and Capt. King saw that the only way to effectually protect their cattle interests was to fence and, in order that they might adopt this system; severed their business relations
in this connection. Capt. Kenedy purchased and inclosed the Laurelas ranch, situated in Nueces County and consisting of 132,000 acres. Capt. King also immediately made preparations to fence and soon closed his pastures. They were the first cattle-raisers in the State to inclose large bodies of land. Capt. Kenedy remained on the Laurelas ranch until he sold it, in 1882, to Under- wood, Clark & Company, of Kansas City, for $1, 100,- 000 cash. At the time of the sale it contained 242,000 acres of land, all fenced; 50,000 head of cattle and 5,000 head of horses, mares and mules.
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