Indian wars and pioneers of Texas, Vol. I, Part 60

Author: Brown, John Henry, 1820-1895
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Austin : L.E. Daniel]
Number of Pages: 922

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Leaving his native isle a penniless young man he made his way into a new country, devastated by a war marked by the most sanguinary atrocities and the greater extent of whose territory was an unre- deemed wilderness. Animated by the spirit of ancient Cresy and Agincourt, like a true Briton, he was as ready to use a musket as to settle down to the more peaceful business of laying for himself the foundation of financial independence. A wise philosopher has said and said truly that the young men who left their homes in foreign lands from 1800 to 1860 to come to America and push into its wildernesses constituted a bold and enterprising class and as a rule were possessed of more than usual natural abilities. They were not content with the hard conditions to which fate had ap-

parently consigned them. The plodder, the timor- ous and the laggard might stay discontentedly amid such scenes, but, as for these choice spirits, in very childhood their eyes looked wistfully out to sea and thoughts arose in their minds of lands beyond the far-away horizon-bar, and these thoughts gave birth to resolves, carried in due time into exe- cution, to try their fortunes under other skies where courage, self-reliance and ability insured honor- able and useful careers. Such men as these came to America by hundreds, and many of them to Texas, among the number the subject of this memoir, T. W. House. In their veins flowed rich and ruddy the blood of the old Norman conquerors. Where armed foes were to be met, they overcame them. Where the wilderness was to be subdued, they subdued it. Where cities were to be built, they built them. Where the genius of commerce was to be evoked they evoked it with the magic of their indomitable wills. They were state and nation builders who occupy a unique position upon the pages of the history of the country, whose serviees to posterity have been incalculable, whose rugged virtues are worthy of all admiration, and remembrance of whom should be preserved to remotest time. Should the nation ever be in dan- ger of sinking into effeminacy, those to whom is committed its rejuvenation can turn to these men as models to be imitated, and rebuild and restore the vigor of the State.

Long before his death the name of T. W. House had become a household word in Texas. He was one of the foremost citizens of the commonwealth -- one of the most useful men of his day and genera- tion. In his career be demonstrated the truth of the aphorism of the author of Lacon that " while fortune may be blind, she is by no means invisible, and he who will seek her determinedly will be sure to find her."

He has passed from shadow-land to shadow-land - from birth to death.

He played his part nobly and well. May others seek to emulate his example.

+س

J. C. HIGGINS.

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JACOB C. HIGGINS,

BASTROP.

Jacob C. Higgins was born in Caledonia County, Vt., November 2, 1815. His parents were Samuel and Betsey (Chamberlain) Higgins. His father came from Ireland and his mother from England. They first met aboard a ship bound for America, married and located in Caledonia County, Vt., where his father died, when the subject of this memoir was four years of age, Mrs. Higgins follow- ing him two years later. About a year after the death of his mother Jacob C. Higgins fell into the hands of an old sea-captain, Capt. Armington, who was a Universalist and objected to his going to Sun- day school. Consequently it became a regular practice with the lad to play on that day with a crowd of companions. On one of these occasions while engaged in some sport, lie was aceosted by Mr. Erastus Fairbanks, superintendent of the local Presbyterian Sunday sehool, who asked him his name, the names of his parents and his place of residence. In the conversation that followed, the mutual discovery was made that Mr. Fairbanks' wife was a first eousin of the boy's mother, and a few days thereafter he was transferred to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Fairbanks, where he was treated in every respeet as one of their sons, grew to manhood and was given every opportunity to perfect himself in the trade of a machinist and mill- wright. He was quick to learn and soon became proficient, and in 1836 was sent by the firm to superintend the building of a saw-mill upon the banks of one of the rivers of Alabama. This he completed, and then engaged in steamboat engineering, which he pursued for three years.

In 1840 he determined to try his fortune in Texas, and landed in Galveston, Mareh 16th of that year, with $2,500 in good Alabama and Louisiana money, the proceeds of a year's labor. With this he purchased a stock of merchandise from C. C. Ennis, of Galveston, and went to Austin, where he sold the goods for Texas money, which he discov- ered, when too late, was of little or no value. He had also bought a number of bonds. Regarding these as worthless he laid them aside. They became valuable later on, however, as Texas by the treaty of annexation, sold the Santa Fe territory to the United States for $10,000,000 and with a part of the money so procured, called in and paid off all outstanding bonds issued by the late Re- public at their face value with all accumulated in-

terest thereon. Mr. Higgins, by this means, came into possession of a considerable sum of money, his profits on his bond purehases amounting to about three hundred per eent. In June, 1840, soon after his arrival in Austin, he was present at the organ- ization of the first Methodist church established in that town, and in fact in that section. Dr. Haney held religious services in the old capitol on the occasion referred to. When he called for all Meth- odists present to come up and shake hands with him, one man and one woman responded ; and with these he organized the church. During the re- mainder of that year Mr. Higgins was variously engaged, part of the time working with a eorps of surveyors, and part of the time participating in expeditions against the Indians.

In June, 1841, he moved to Bastrop, and was there employed to run a mill situated on Copperas creek, two miles distant from town. In 1842 he purchased the mill and ten acres of ground from his employers on eredit, and for years thereafter husbanded his resources and invested all the money that he could command in negroes and lands, purchasing ten thousand acres of land in the sur- rounding country and thereby laying the founda- tion of future wealth.

He is an indefatigable worker and a clear-headed financier, and hence prospered in all his business undertakings. From the time that he landed in Galveston to the annexation of Texas to the United States, he endured many hardships and privations, but thereafter when he had realized upon his bonds and secured sufficient eapital to operate upon, lived more easily. Ile resided alone at the mill, did his own cooking and housekeeping, and often, for ten days at a time, did not see a human being during the year 1842. In the early days of his residence at Bastrop the Indians came into the town and stole stock and committed numerous depredations. About 1843, Bishop Morris, of Baltimore, visited the place to see his son, and while there preached in an old storehouse. During the services a band of Indians, who were out on a raid, broke up the meeting and the congregation was obliged to fly for safety to a fort that had been provided for such emergencies. During Mr. Hig- gins' residence on Copperas creek he was also frequently troubled by Indians. From 1871 to 1885 lie added merchandising to his other busi-

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ness. During these years he also established a private bank. He continued banking until 1892, when he retired from active pursuits.

He was first married in Bastrop County, in 1843, to Miss Sarah Gamble, daughter of Col. William I. Gamble, who came to Texas from Alabama with his family in 1839. By this marriage he had two children : William, now a prosperous farmer in Bastrop County, and Erastus Fairbanks Higgins, who died leaving one child, Claud C., who now re- sides with his grandfather. Mrs. Higgins died in 1849. Mr. Higgins was married at Seguin, in 1852, to Miss Mary Keener, daughter of a prominent col- lege professor of Alabama, and first cousin of United States District Judge John B. Rector of Texas. Five children were born of this union, three of whom grew to maturity : Samuel, who is a well-to-do farmer in Bastrop County ; Blanche, wife of Brook Duval, of Bastrop County, and Horace, who died June 4, 1880. Horace graduated at the University of the South at Sewanee, Tenn., and later in the Law Department in the University of Virginia. After returning home he formed a co-partnership with Hon. Joseph D. Sayers, but he died three months later, and thus came to a close what promised to be a brilliant career at the bar.

Mrs. Mary (Keener) Higgins died in Bastrop County, in 1861.

In 1867, Mr. Higgins married his present wife, Mrs. Carolina Yellowley, a widow with two daugh- ters. The elder, Bella, married Dr. G. M. Patten, of Waco, in 1883, and died in 1888. The younger, Charlton, became Mrs. Brieger, and now resides in Bowie, Texas. Mr. and Mrs. Higgins have two daughters: Liclah, wife of D. Pope Holland, of Atlanta, Ga., and Fairbanks who is now at Bishop Garrett's College, at Dallas.

Upon returning to Texas in 1857, from a visit to the home of Mrs. Fairbanks, in Vermont, Mr. Hig-

gins found that he had been elected to the House of Representatives of the Texas Legislature. He served one term as. a member of that body. He could have been re-elected but would not consent to become a candidate for that or any other political office. During the war between the States he served in the Confederate States militia for twenty- two months. Hle is a member of the Masonic fraternity and has taken all the chapter degrees of that order. In religion he is an Episcopalian, and is senior warden of the Episcopal church at Bastrop. In politics he is a Democrat. Although he lost greatly by the result of the war between the States, owning eighty valuable slaves who were set free at its close, he has practically in all instances been successful in his investments, and is now one of the wealthiest men in his section and the largest tax- payer in Bastrop County.

Up to his eleventh year, when Providence discov- ered him to his noble benefactors, Mr. and Mrs. Fairbanks, the prospect that apparently laid before him was cheerless. Whatever boyish hopes that were to arise in his breast it seemed were doomed to wither one by one, through long years of toil and saddening disappointments, and in the end be drifted to their graves adown the blasts of Destiny's chill December. There was work for him to do in life, however, and it was to come to him and be done by him if he proved worthy. He did prove worthy of the labor assigned him when the opportunity came, and he embraced it.

He was grateful, he was honest, he was ambitious, he was industrious, he was enterprising, he was daring, resolute and patient, and as a result, his life has been an honored, useful and successful one. Had he failed in any of these particulars this would not have been. Such a life contains a moral that the young will do well to ponder and profit by.

CORNELIUS ENNIS AND WIFE,

HOUSTON.

From the days when the commerce of Phoenicia extended itself to the verge of the then known world merchants have been the pioneers who have carried forward the illumining torch of civilization. With- out their energy and determination to attain success amid difficulties apparently insurmountable, there

would be but little progress in wresting from nature the waste places of the earth for the benefit of man- kind. In the days when railroads were thought to be impracticable and the telegraph a superstition, a brave and hardy set of men were traveling over Texas from end to end, on horseback, or in wagons,

CORNELIUS ENNIS.

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the compass being their only guide, or, if haply pre- ceded by some comrade, they followed his footsteps by means of the notches he had cut in trees. The roads were almost impassable in rainy weather - and, as there were no bridges, many an anxious hour was spent at the fords. In traveling, pistols. bowie knives and a gun across the knees, were necessary to afford protection against man and beast. Their avocation was, indeed, a perilous one, but when have the sons of commerce been deterred by peril? They have braved alike the terrors of the . Barcan desert and the icy North, nor have they feared to go among any savage people or travel any foot of earth. Prominent among the pioneer mer- chants of Texas was the subject of this memoir, Cornelius Ennis, born in 1813 in Essex County (now Passaic County), New Jersey. Mr. Ennis' great-grandfather was Mr. William Ennis, who came from the north of Ireland in the latter part of the seventeenth century, and settled in Bergen County, New Jersey, with his wife (nee Miss Han- nah Brower). Mr. Ennis' mother was a Doremus, of Knickerbocker stock, from one of the original Holland families that settled in this country.

After receiving as liberal an education as that State then afforded, he went to New York in 1834, and obtained a position in a drug store, and three years later began a trip down the Ohio and Mis- sissippi rivers in search of a desirable location. Traveling on the Mississippi he met a great num- ber of people from Texas, going to Canada to join the patriots around Toronto. All were en- thusiastic concerning the agricultural and business opportunities afforded by Texas. These recitals together with stories of the gallantry and courage of the victors in the War for Independence, fired the imagination of the young merchant -and be determined to make his home in the Republic. He returned to New York in May, continued in busi- ness there until January, 1839, and then purchased a stock of drugs and medicines and embarked on the schooner " Lion " (Capt. Fish commanding) for Galveston.

He found Galveston very sparsely settled, with- out a hotel or wharf, and proceeded to Houston, then two years old and the capital of the Republic. Here he immediately established himself in busi- ness, purchasing a lot on Main street, where he built a storehouse. In November of the same year he formed a partnership with Mr. George W. Kimball, and extended his business to general merchandise. This connection continued until 1842, when Mr. George W. Kimball and family took passage to New York on the brig .. Cuba " (Capt. Latham), and were lost at sea in a gale off the

Florida coast. Mr. Kimball had with him cotton and funds to be invested in the business at Hous- ton; but this loss served only to further develop the energy and courage of the surviving partner, and the business continued to prosper.

The first cotton received at Houston was in Jan- uary, 1840, and came from Fort Bend County. Previous to this the merchants of Columbus and Brazoria controlled the crop. Cotton was hauled to market in wagons which were very much delayed by rains, there being no bridges across streams and the roads in a miserable condition. That received at Houston was ferried across the bayou at the foot of Main street, and later at the foot of Com- meree and Milam streets where the iron bridge now stands. The firm of Ennis & Kimball made the first shipment of cotton from the port of Galves- ton to that of Boston in 1841, on the schooner " Brazos " (Capt. Hardy, commander) a new departure in business noted with mueh interest and promising many benefits.

Mr. Ennis was long and prominently connected with the building of railroads in the State. He was one of the incorporators and directors of the Houston and Texas Central, and also of the Great Northern, until that road was merged into the International. The city of Ennis, in Ellis County, was located and named for him while he was in control of the railroad which passed through it. While he was mayor of Houston the city built the Houston Tap Railroad, connecting with the Harris- burg & San Antonio Railroad, to the construction of which he gave his personal attention, Mr. Stump being the civil engineer. He was for some time general superintendent and comptroller of the Houston & Texas Central and, later, its financial agent, with offices in New York, where he resided for several years, negotiating bonds and purchasing supplies and material for the road. In 1856 and 1857 he was mayor of Houston, and gave his ser- vices to the city without remuneration, and con- tributed very materially to its advancement, and also to the general welfare of its people by ferreting out a band of outlaws who for many years had caused the traders much anxiety and loss, waylay- ing their negro drivers and appropriating their goods. A young German was murdered and his money stolen. The erime was supposed to have been committed by Kuykendall (the leader of this gang) and his negro, Napolcon. Mr. Ennis con- tributed more than any one else in time and money to the pursuit of these and other desperadoes - and succeeded in having five of them arrested, tried and sentenced to the penitentiary. They escaped in 1861 and joined the Confederate army. During

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the reign of terror inaugurated by these ruffians one of the gang met Mr. Ennis in the street and introduced himself, thereby giving Mr. Ennis a decided thrill.

During the war between the States, Mr. Ennis remained in Texas, importing supplies and export- ing cotton. In 1864, he went to Havana by way of Matamoros and there met Capt. Jack Moore, a bar pilot of Galveston, whom he sent to New York to purchase an iron-clad steamer, the " Jeannette," at au expenditure of $40,000 in gold. He brought her out to Havana, where he loaded her with muni- tions of war, consisting of twelve hundred English Enfield rifles, ten tons of gunpowder, three million percussion caps, a large lot of shoes and blankets and other army supplies for the Confederate army, all of which he turned over to the Confederate authorities.

Mr. Ennis was married in 1841, to Miss Jean- nette Ingals Kimball, a sister of his partner. Miss Kimball had come to this country with her brother from Vermont, in October, 1839. She came of English stock, long settled in New England, and is related to the Emersons and Ripleys of literary fame. She was always deeply interested in the development of her adopted State, and contributed much to the comfort and happiness of those asso- ciated with her in this pioneer work by her gentle

and efficient ministrations in times of sickness and epidemics which too frequently attend the opening up of a new country. Her devotion was especially marked during the fearful epidemics of yellow fever. She was noted for her cheerful, generous and unfailing hospitality and, also, for her efficient co-operation with her husband in the establishment of churches and schools. Mr. and Mrs. Ennis have four children living, three daughters and one son. The eldest daughter married Col. A. H. Belo, president of the Galveston and Dallas News. The next is Mrs. Frank Cargill, of Houston, Texas, and of the youngest daughter is Mrs. C. Lombardi, also Houston, Texas. The sou, Richard, lives in Mexico.

Mr. Ennis is a man of magnificent physique, being over six feet in height and now, although advanced in years, of erect and commanding pres- ence. His wife is a perfect type of lovely woman- hood. Although Mr. Ennis has passed his long life in active business pursuits, in which fortunes have been at intervals made and lost, his name has always been unsullied and he has been honored for fair dealing and blameless rectitude in all his bus- iness dealings. And now, with the partner of his youth and old age still by his side, they are spend- ing the evening of life serenely and happily at their home in Houston, surrounded by children, grand- children and friends.

HENRY ELMENDORF,

SAN ANTONIO.

Henry Elmendorf, a prosperous merchant of San Antonio and mayor of that historic and progressive city, is a native Texian, born in the town of New Braunfels, April 7, 1849.

His parents, Charles A. and Amelia Elmendorf, were born in Prussia. His father emigrated to Ameriea in 1844, and his mother in 1848, and set- tled in New Braunfels. In the " Old Country " Mr. Charles A. Elmendorf was engaged in mercantile pursuits. He changed to farming upon his arrival in Texas which he followed until about the year 1852, when he moved to San Antonio. Six or seven years later he embarked iu merchandising again upon his own account as a member of the house of Theisen and Deutz, dealers in hardware, and con- tinued in that pursuit until the beginning of the war between the States, meeting with a liberal degree of

success in his ventures as a result of his talent as a financier and fine business capacity. He died in the Alamo City in 1878. His wife still survives him and is residing there. Henry Elmendorf, the subject of this biographical notice, attended local schools until he was fifteen years of age; then went to Germany, where he completed his education ; returned home in the fall of 1866, and entered his father's store as a clerk. After clerking for three years his father admitted him to a partnership in the firm of Elmendorf & Co.

In 1873 he was united in marriage to Miss Emilie Baetz, of San Antonio. Five children have been born to them. Mr. Elmendorf was elected to the City Council as Alderman for two years, extending from the year 1893 to 1895, and served in that body until September, 1894, when he was elected

MRS. CORNELIUS ENNIS.

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INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.

Mayor by the Council to fill a vacancy eaused by the death of Mr. George Paschal. February 11, 1895, he was elected by the people to fill that office by a majority of one thousand votes over Bryan Callaghan, whom it had been thought it was well-nigh an impossibility to defeat at the polls. Mr. Elmen- dorf has been a liberal contributor to and promoter of every meritorious public movement, and many important private enterprises. Brilliant, polished,

popular, patriotic, of high abilities and wide busi- ness experience, San Antonio, one of the largest, most cosmopolitan and fastest growing of Texas cities, has a chief executive of which she and the State at large are justly proud.

With such a man at the head of public affairs, the city's upward and onward march is sure to receive an added impetus and the cause of law and order be jealously and effectively defended.

FRANCIS CHARLES HUME,

GALVESTON.

The following is extracted from a biographical sketch penned by the late Col. Thomas M. Jack, of the Galveston bar, a near friend and professional brother of its subject, and published in the En- cyclopedia of the New West: -

F. Charles Hume was born in Walker County, Texas, February 17, 1843, the son of John Hume, a native of Culpepper County, Va., a planter, who emigrated to Texas 1839, and resided in Walker County until his death in 1864.

Mr. Hume received a liberal education. At the age of eighteen he left his native State, immediately after the first battle of Manassas, in a company of volunteers known as Company D., Fifth Texas Regiment, organized in Virginia, and placed under command of Col. J. J. Areber, of Maryland. This regiment, together with the First and Fourth Texas, at one time the Eighteenth Georgia, and subse- quently the Third Arkansas, constituted the famous command known in history as "Hood's Texas Brigade," of which Gen. Louis T. Wigfall was the first, and Gen. John B. Hood the second commander. Its first winter was spent in the snows about Dum- fries, on the Potomac. He participated in John- ston's celebrated retreat from the Peninsular, and entered his first battle at Eltham's Landing ( West Point), near the York river. He was in the battle of Seven Pines, and shortly afterwards near the same ground, was wounded in the right leg while participating in an assault on the enemy's works led by Capt. D. N. Barziza in command of one hundred and fifty men chosen for the purpose from the three Texas regiments. Confined in the hos- pital at Richmond by his wound until after Mc- Cleilan had been defeated and driven to Harrison's Landing, he did not rejoin his regiment until the

beginning of the lighter engagements that culmi- nated in the second battle of Manassas. Seven flag-bearers of the Fifth Regiment were wounded in . the battle, Mr. Hume being the sixth, receiving a bullet in the left thigh. He was mentioned in complimentary terms in the official report of the battle made by the Colonel of the regiment, J. B. Robertson, afterwards commander of the brigade.

After the healing of his wound, Mr. Hume re- joined the army at Culpepper Courthouse, and participated in the battle of Fredericksburg, late in 1862. Shortly after this he was promoted from the ranks to a First Lieutenancy in the Confederate States army, and assigned to duty on the Peninsula as Adjutant of the Thirty-second Battalion of Virginia Cavalry. In this capacity he served until the battalion, with another, was merged into a regi- ment, when he was assigned to command a pieket detail of scouts on the lower Peninsula. With this command Lieut. Hume operated for several months near Williamsburg, experiencing all the perils of that peculiar service and becoming familiar with its ceaseless ambuscades and surprises.

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Indian wars and pioneers of Texas, Vol. I, Part 60

Author: Brown, John Henry, 1820-1895 Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Austin : L.E. Daniel] Number of Pages: 922

Author: Brown, John Henry, 1820-1895
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Austin : L.E. Daniel]
Number of Pages: 922