USA > Texas > Prominent women of Texas > Part 3
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funeral oration, said of his death in terse and touching symbol: "The keenest blade of the field of San Jacinto is broken."
Mrs. William H. Wharton's only child was named for this lamented brother, and to the rearing of the child-the future Gen. John A. Wharton of the Confederate army-she devoted the energy, the wealth, the culture, and the affection, with which she was richly endowed. He was born in Tennessee while the mother was there on a visit, was educated at the University of South Carolina, married a daughter of Gov- ernor Johnson, of that State, served with distinguished ability in the Civil War, and, at its close, was killed in a per- sonal rencounter at Houston. His widow and their little daughter did not long survive him, thus leaving Mrs. William H. Wharton the sole representative of an illustrious Texas family, and rendering its name totally extinct at her death.
She is remembered as a forceful personality in both social and political life, and she is described by a writer of her time as "a model of womanly dignity, courtesy, and liberality." She gave freely of her bounty to alleviate the sorrows of the poor, to promote the cheerfulness of society, and to advance the cause of national freedom. There are still extant some of her letters addressed to prominent public men in the days when doubts darkened the prospects of Texan independence, which breathe a spirit of fervor, of energy, and of patriotism worthy the noble women of Saragossa in this century, and those of Carthage in the heroic ages of the past. Her appeals in the cause of human liberty were not unheard by the reso- lute, nor unheeded by the wavering, and she lived to rejoice in the fulfillment of her supreme prayer that the Texans, then grappling with tyranny, should become "a great and happy people."
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CHAPTER III.
PIONEERS-HARBINGERS OF CIVILIZATION.
MRS. CHARLOTTE WOODMANCY MITCHELL-MRS. CHARLOTTE M. ALLEN-MRS. ISABELLA GORDON-MRS. ELIZABETH CANTERBURY.
MRS. CHARLOTTE WOODMANCY MITCHELL .- In the first year of the nineteenth century, at Elizabethtown, New Jersey, was born the subject of this memoir. While yet a child she was taken by her parents to Pennsylvania, where, at the age of sixteen, she married Mr. Jennings, who lived only three weeks. The young widow, in the year fol- lowing her bereavement, was married to Asa Mitchell, whose fortunes she shared and whose name she bore to the end of her brief, but eventful life. The young couple moved to Kentucky, from which State, in 1822, they embarked in a flat boat down the Mississippi, destined for the wilds of Texas, to which they were allured by the eloquent agents of Austin's colony. Arriving in New Orleans with little else besides the youth and hope and energy that inspired their brave quest of adventure, they were joined by kindred spirits, all at- tracted to the new El Dorado in the West. A schooner was chartered by the party, numbering about thirty, and largely made up of young men, and the voyage begun. After a sail of forty days down the Mississippi, and westwardly on the gulf, they entered Matagorda Bay, and landed near the mouth of the Colorado River, upon a point on which is now situated the town of Matagorda. The schooner, after dis- charging her passengers and cargo, sailed away and left the intrepid colonists upon an unexplored shore, cut off, by their own resolute choice, from return or retreat, and irretrievably committed to a fortune as unknown as the strange coast on which they stood.
The country was wild, desolate and uninhabited, save by hostile savages ; the first step of the colonists, therefore, was to study their environments and reconnoiter the land
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that lay beyond. In one of their excursions they encoun- tered a party of Mexican traders from whom they bought a few horses, and, with these to bear their burdens and assist their locomotion, they resolved to explore the interior. Leaving a force of eight young men to guard the provisions and baggage, they moved slowly northward along the west bank of the Colorado, bivouacing at night and closely senti- neled, until they reached the beautiful bend of the river where now is built the town of Columbus. They there pitched their camp and began to construct shelters from the rude lumber they hewed from the forest around them, and in one of these Mrs. Mitchell was comfortably housed. Having then found the haven of their search, and provided it with tem- porary security, a few men were detailed for its protection, and the rest, mounted on the horses they had bought, re- turned to the coast to bring the provisions and the guard that had been left behind. Great was their consternation, on reaching the Bay, to find nothing but a plundered camp, and not even a trace of the eight men left to protect it. Neither the goods nor their custodians have ever since been heard of. It was then and is still believed, with almost conclusive proofs, that the Carankawa Indians were the dep- redators, and that the unfortunate men who fell in their hands were sacrificed in the savage carnivals of the can- nibal captors. This man-eating tribe then infesting the gulf coast, were experts with the canoe and subsisted principally on fish; it numbered about a thousand braves whose his- tory is an unvarying record of thefts and murders perpe- trated on all who happened in the path of their bloody forays. They were of large stature, of brawny strength, and of mar- velous skill in the use of the bow; they were cruel, crafty and cowardly, and to the same extent that they were feared by weaker tribes did they become a terror to the members of Austin's colony. It was, therefore, resolved to extirpate them. In 1825 they were vigorously pursued in their westward flight beyond the San Antonio River, where, through the inter- cession of a friendly priest, they were permitted to enter into a convention wherein they solemnly promised never again to
W. of T .- 3
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enter the territory or disturb the peace of the white men. As might have been expected, the faithlessness of the barba- rians made short work of the truce, and the war of exter- mination was revived. While it was still waged, the Catholic Church undertook the conversion of these heathens, and, for that purpose, the Mission of Refugio, previously built by the Franciscans, was devoted to their instruction. This mission was situated on the San Antonio River, about thirty miles south of the town of Goliad, then known as the settlement of La Bahia. Neither the canons of the Church nor the guns of the colonists, though the methods of conversion peculiar to each were vigorously exerted in their own way, succeeded in bringing a single penitent to the altar of civilization. They persisted in their atrocities, and their enemies persisted in organized efforts to destroy them; their numbers grew less from year to year until, in 1842, they had dwindled to less than half a hundred men, women and children; these took refuge in Mexico, and there they ceased from their troubling until not a single Carankawa is left to tell the story of his tribe. Such were the savages whose bloody hospitality so early clouded the lives of Asa Mitchell and his companions. The men from the camp, appalled by the calamity that was pictured to their mind, hurried back to their camp, resolved to abandon their desperate enterprise and go back to the civilization they had left behind. For the purpose of raising money to defray the expenses of their return, Asa Mitchell, and a few others, went West and bought mules which they took overland to Louisiana, and there sold at a profit. They proceeded to New Orleans and invested their funds in supplies suitable for colonists, and recruited about thirty young men for a new colonizing adventure beyond the Rio Grande. They chartered a schooner and cleared for Matamoras, Mexico, intending to stop at Matagorda Bay, and there take on board Mrs. Mitchell and the other colonists who had been left with her, who were to be brought down from the camp for em- barkation. After entering the gulf, the schooner encountered a storm and was finally cast upon the beach near the mouth of the Brazos River. All hopes for the Matamoras scheme
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had now to be abandoned. From the wreck the men rescued their supplies, also the ship's two yawls and enough of its timbers to build a secure retreat from danger and exposure; this latter was constructed on the east bank of the river, on the site of the present town of Velasco, and was often used as a rampart of defense against the dreaded Carankawas.
While Asa Mitchell and his companions were passing through these experiences, Mrs. Mitchell, who had been left in the camp on the Colorado, was exposed to perils equally as exciting, and none the less dangerous. The Carankawas made frequent forays into the neighborhood of the encamp- ment, and on one of these massacred an entire family. Alarmed for her own safety, and that of her two little child- ren, she at last procured a guide and sought safety in flight, going eastward till she reached a block house built and oc- cupied by one of the first pioneers. This was on the west bank of the Brazos River, and upon a spot now forming part of the town of Richmond. Thus, after months of separation and perilous adventure, Mrs. Mitchell and her husband found themselves, driven by calamity, at places of which neither, on parting, had any knowledge, and yet at places watered by the same river-he at its mouth, and she not more than sixty miles above it.
After vigorous search, Mrs. Mitchell's retreat was located, and her husband ascended to it in one of the schooner's yawls. Both came down the river in safety, notwithstanding hostile Indians on either shore, and landed in the Velasco camp, where, for the first time during her peregrinations, Mrs. Mitchell was comfortably and securely quartered. Asa Mitchell here left his family, and, with a few men, reascended the river to examine the land on its shores. About thirty miles from the mouth they landed at a place now covered by the town of Columbia; made a clearing and planted corn, vegetables, and tobacco; from the sale of the latter, to the Mexican traders, they realized the snug sum of twelve hun- dred dollars. This was in 1823. In the year following Asa Mitchell went to San Felipe, where Austin's colony had opened its office, and enrolled himself as a colonist, receiving
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his head-right certificate for a league and labor of land. This certificate he at once located at the mouth of the Bra- zos, where Mrs. Mitchell had been previously provided with a home. Colonists now began to arrive in large numbers from the States, and lands were located and cultivated by them all along the fertile valley of the Brazos.
These accessions proved too formidable for the prowess of the Indians, who soon ceased to be dangerous, and, in time, altogether disappeared. Mrs. Mitchell lived in her new home on the site of the present town of Velasco, and enjoyed its security and abundance for ten years from the date of her arrival. She died there in 1832, leaving four children, of whom the only survivor is the venerable and respected Na- than Mitchell, of San Antonio. She was buried with a newly- born babe, in the soil for which she had struggled and suf- fered. Her life was pure, brave, and active, and her memory is fragrant with the incense of good and noble deeds. To use the words of one of her biographers, she was "a brave, intelligent, and Christian woman."
MRS. CHARLOTTE M. ALLEN .- The bright and busy city of Houston owes her name and much of the nurture that gave the initial impulse to her infantile years to Mrs. Char- lotte M. Allen. She and her husband were the owners of the land on which the city is built, having acquired their title by purchase from the widow of John Austin. At this time their home was in the town of Nacogdoches, where they dispensed their generous cheer to all who came within their gates. It was on the occasion of a visit of Sam Houston to this home that occurred the incident which determined the name of the beautiful city then not in embryo. General Houston, who was then wearing the laurels of San Jacinto, was a guest of the Allens, and was discussing with them the possibilities of their proposed enterprise to found a town on the land they had purchased, when he asked Mr. Allen what name he in- tended to give it. Mrs. Allen, before he could answer, said that she should claim the honor of naming the new city, and that the name should be "Houston." This settled the
MRS. CHARLOTTE M. ALLEN.
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matter, and the future infant, like the predicted Immanuel, was named before it was born. The General, with the grace and fervor that were his by nature, acknowledged the com- pliment of his hostess, and, in a sentiment that proved prophetic, wished that the new town might expand in its growth to the magnitude of a great city, and become the pride of the Lone Star Republic.
Mrs. Allen was the daughter of Doctor Baldwin, of New York; was born in 1805; and was married at the age of twenty-six to Augustus C. Allen, who was one year her junior. Two years after their marriage he moved to Texas and set- tled in Nacogdoches, where, the year following, his wife joined him. Two years later-just after the battle of San Jacinto, they bought the tract of land to which reference has been made. To this land the young couple removed, and began with the young town to build up the destiny for which they were reserved. All her later years were passed within its limits; her life winds its course like a thread through the web of its history; the hopes of both were bound up in its destiny.
In 1837, the Texas Congress, then sitting at Columbia, honored the new city by making it the temporary capital of the Republic. This was mainly effected through the energetic efforts of Mr. Allen, aided and supplemented by the winning influence of his wife. He and his brother, John K. Allen, built the statehouse that sheltered the government until the removal of the capital to Austin in 1839.
Several years after the annexation of Texas to the United States, Mr. Allen was sent as consul to Minatitlan, Mexico, where he officiated until the Civil War. He then proceeded to Washington to settle his consular accounts with the govern- ment, and there died in 1863. During the eleven years of his absence Mrs. Allen had remained at Houston, developing the interests left in her charge, and dispensing the amenities and charities of life for which she was greatly distinguished.
After a widowhood of thirty-two years, Mrs. Allen died in her home in Houston, on the 3rd of August, 1895, at the venerable age of ninety years. She was
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the mother of four children, only one of whom, a daugh- ter, lived to reach the age of mature years. A single descendant, Thomas Pierce Converse, survives to repre- sent the fame and the virtues of the Mother of the city of Houston.
MRS. ISABELLA GORDON .- The subject of this sketch, better known as " Aunt Ibbie Gordon," came to Texas from Kentucky, with her father in 1823, being then eighteen years of age. The family settled on Mill Creek in what is now Bowie County, the extreme northeastern division of the State. In the following year the daughter married John Hanks, and the couple moved to Jonesboro, then an im- . portant trading-post, on the southern bank of Red River and on the main line of travel along the western frontier. There the husband died three years later, leaving one daugh- ter as the issue of the marriage, and the young widow went back to her father's house. Two years afterwards she mar- ried Capt. Jim Clark, a native of Tennessee, with whom she returned to the former domicile in Jonesboro where they con- tinued to abide pending the preparation of a new home farther west.
It was while living there that the war for Texas' independ- ence began to be waged ; and it was there, on the highway of travel, that recruits from the northwest halted in their pas- sage to the scenes of conflict. Their zeal added fuel to Mrs. Clark's patriotism, and her patriotism gave aid and com- fort to their cause. It was there that, in 1832, one of the illustrious men of Texas' history first set foot on Texas' soil. This was Sam Houston, American by birth and in- stinct, Cherokee by adoption, once congressman and Gov- ernor of Tennessee, and already famous as warrior, statesman and politician. Hewas commissioned by Andrew Jackson to negotiate treaties with the Indian tribes of the southwest, and was on his way to hold conference with their chiefs. To reach the scene of his operations he followed the trail that led through the Indian Territory, and came to the northern bank of Red River, opposite which stood the trading-post
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of Jonesboro. He there fell in with Ben Milam, the future hero of Goliad and San Antonio, and of him he inquired the probabilities of finding something to eat. Milam told him that he himself was a guest of the family living on the other bank, and that accommodations could no doubt be had there. They, accordingly, crossed the river together, and, entering the only house on the southern bank, were wel- comed by Milam's hostess, Mrs. Clark, the "Aunt Ibbie Gor- don" of our narrative. In relating the sequel of this meeting she says that with her own hands she cooked the first food that Sam Houston ever ate in Texas, and that her roof was the first on Texas soil to shelter the future President of the great Republic. Her distinguished guest tarried but a day, and resumed his southward trail to Nacogdoches, the Mecca in those days of all western enterprise. His visit, though brief, was long enough to impress himself upon his admiring hostess, who described him as handsome, courteous, intelli- gent, and most fascinating in manner and conversation.
Two years after this episode in her life, Mrs. Clark re- moved with her husband to their new home in what is now Red River County, and on a site upon which is seated the present flourishing town of Clarksville. They then laid its foundation and began the labors that have culminated in its present importance. It was in 1835, the year following their removal, that Mrs. Clark met another of the heroes who are famous in Texas history. This was David Crockett, who gave up his life in the bloody siege of the Alamo. He was following the usual trail on his way to the headquarters of the Texan army. She heard of his approach and resolved on giving him the welcome she had extended to the many patriots who had passed that way before him; but having removed to Clarksville, somewhat off the line of travel, she knew she could not see him unless she intercepted him in the course of his route. This she determined to do, and, after a brisk horse-back ride of a few miles, brought up at the house of a settler where she found the object of her eager pursuit. A few words served to introduce these earnest advocates of a common cause, and a mutual hatred of oppression soon
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gave to each a knowledge of the glowing patriotism that burned in the bosom of the other. After a few hours of mutual solace and encouragement they parted, he, for the field of his exploits, and she, for the home where dwelt the brightest spirit of Texas independence. This home was sad- dened, not many months afterwards, by the fate that befell the brave Crockett; and only three years later it was made desolate by the death of Captain Clark. In the year fol- lowing this second bereavement, Mrs. Clark was married to Dr. George Gordon, who died in 1872, after a happy mar- ried life of thirty-three years, during which he and his wife lived in her old Clarksville domicile. There, in the house she entered sixty years ago, "Aunt Ibbie Gordon" lived to reach the patriarchal age of ninety, not seared but only mellowed by time, bright in mind, cheerful in spirit, and, prior to her last illness in 1895, sound in body and rejoicing in the reverence and affection of all who lived around her. Her life had, moreover, been blessed by several sons whose honorable lives reflected the virtues of their venerable mother, and brought to her declin- ing years the peace that only a mother's heart could feel.
MRS. ELIZABETH CANTERBURY. - Mrs. Canterbury's maiden name was Elizabeth Menifee and her first husband was Wilson Irvine Riddle, with whom she came to Texas in 1841. He was a British subject and a merchant; she was a native of Virginia and belonged to a family that had given to Texas, in the time of her need, one of the men who wrested from its oppressive masters the land in which his kinswoman had ventured to cast her lot. This man was William Menifee, who, in 1830, emigrated from Alabama to Texas; was a delegate to the convention that declared Texas' independence ; was one of the committee appointed by that body to draft a constitution for the new government; was twice a member of Congress, and was one of the commissioners who located the new capital at Austin.
Mr. Riddle, on entering Texas, at once proceeded west-
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ward to his destination and opened a mercantile house in San Antonio, then the most exposed and the most tur- bulent of the frontier towns. He and his young wife were, from the first, almost daily shocked by reports of lawless- ness and savagery around them. They awaited with anxious fear for the beginning of their own rough experience. . The suspense was not a long one. It was in 1842-the year fol- lowing their arrival, and a most memorable year in the annals of the Republic- that they became active partici- pants in one of the tumultuary scenes common in that day. In March of that year the Mexican general Vasquez entered the unprotected town and took possession in the name of his government beyond the Rio Grande. Mrs. Riddle, following the example of most of the American resi- dents and only concerned for her personal safety, fled before the invader to the neighboring town of Gonzales. There she remained till October following, notwithstanding that Vasquez and his horde had evacuated San Antonio after only a few days' occupation. Meanwhile Gen. Adrian Woll, in September, marched into the town with a still more for- midable army, and so craftily had his approach been con- ducted that the invasion was not suspected until fully accomplished. The little frontier force was absent on one of its many duties, the people were pursuing their business as in times of peace, and the district court was in session with the usual number of persons in attendance. All this was changed in a moment. Stores and houses were closed, valuables concealed, and couriers dispatched for military help. In the course of a few days Colonel Caldwell had col- lected a small force of Texans on the Salado, several miles from town. Woll there attacked the Texans and was re- pulsed with heavy loss. On his retreat toward the town, he found himself confronted by a few Texans under Captain Dawson, who were on their way to reinforce Colonel Cald- well. A desperate battle followed between Dawson's fifty- three men and Woll's eight-hundred. The issue of such unequal contest was easily foreseen, but it did not weaken the splendid valor of the heroic little band, of which only two
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escaped unscathed. Nearly two-thirds fell, sword in hand, and the rest were overwhelmed by numbers. The enemy concealed his loss, but enough was seen to know that his victory was dearly won. Humiliated by the contrast be- tween his conscripted myrmidons and his indomitable foe, Woll hastened to his quarters in the town, and on the follow- ing morning began his countermarch to Mexico. He carried with him as prisoners the entire judicial branch of the gov- ernment-judge, lawyers, officers, and all-together with other prominent citizens, among whom was Mr. Riddle. Chained together in pairs they were marched to Mexico, and there held during a season of wretched and degrading captivity.
After Woll's departure Mrs. Riddle returned to San An- tonio from her refuge to find her husband carried off, his store pillaged, and their home plundered of its most valuable effects. Being British subjects, a spoliation claim was filed against Mexico by their government, but, following the dilatory course that usually attends diplomatic negotia- tions of the kind, it is still pending.
Mrs. Canterbury in her marriage with Mr. Riddle had two children : James Wilson Riddle, who is a merchant at Eagle Pass; and Mrs. Eager, now a widow residing in San An- tonio. She lives with her widowed daughter; and though broken in health, her memory is untouched by time and she sometimes brings from its stores vivid scenes in the expe- rience of a long and eventful life.
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CHAPTER IV.
MRS. MARY E. BELL-MRS. JOHN W. McCULLOCH-MRS. PIETY LUCRETIA HADLEY-MRS. JANE RICHARDSON CONNELL - MISS ANNE WHARTON CLEVELAND-MRS. WILLARD RICHARDSON-MRS. VIR- GINIA HUNT DICKENS.
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