USA > Texas > Bexar County > San Antonio > San Antonio de Bexar; a guide and history > Part 14
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"At Major Sutherland's boarded Captain Sylvester, from Ohio, who had captured Santa Anna after the battle of San Jacinto. I attended a San Jacinto ball at Texana on April 21st. Here, too, I met old 'Bowles,' the Cherokee chief, with twelve or thirteen of his tribe.
"After tea we were dancing when Bowles came in dressed in a breech cloth, anklets, moccasins and feathers and a long clean white linen shirt which had been presented to him in Houston. He said the pretty ladies in Houston had danced with, kissed him and given him rings. We, however, begged to be excused, and even requested him to retire. , He stalked out in high dudgeon, and our dance broke up. Bowles told us of President Houston living in his Nation, and that he had given Houston his daughter for a squaw, and had made him a big chief.
"June 2nd we set off for San Antonio de Bexar, in those days frequently simply called Bexar. .. . .. June 12th, late in the afternoon, we reached camp again, and were loading up to move two or three miles further to a better camp-
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MEMOIRS OF MRS. M. A. MAVERICK.
ing place, when several Indians rode up. They said 'mucho amigo,' and were loud and filthy and manifested their intention to be very intimate. More and more came, until we counted seventeen of them. They rode in amongst us, looked greedily at the horses, and without exaggeration annoyed us very much. They were Tonkawas and kept repeating 'mucho amigo,' telling us further that they were just from the Nueces, where they had fought the Comanches two days previously and gained a victory. They were in war-paint and well armed and displayed in triumph two scalps, one hand and several pieces of putrid flesh from various parts of the human body. These were to be taken to the tribe, when a war-dance would ensue over the trophies, and they and their squaws would devour the flesh. I was frightened almost to death, but tried not to show my alarm. They rode up to the carriage window and asked to see the 'Papoose.' I held up the baby and smiled at their compliments, but took care to have my pistol and bowie knife visible and kept cool. . . I kept telling Griffin to hurry the others, and Mr. Maverick worked cooly with the rest. Jimmy said, 'Let's cook some supper first,' and grumbled mightily when Griffin* ordered her into the wagon and drove off. Imagine our consternation when the Indians turned back and every one of the seventeen followed us. It was a bright moonlight night and finally the Indians, finding us unsociable and dangerous, gradually dropped behind."
On June 15th, 1838, the travellers reached San Antonio, having left home October 14th of the previous year. While Mrs. Maverick was at Spring Hill, Mr. Maverick made one journey back to purchase household effects in New Orleans.
Mrs. Maverick goes on to describe the San Antonio of the period and gives a charming picture of the society of the little coterie of Americans then living here.
" Early in February 1839, we moved into our own house at the Northeast cor- ner of Main and Soledad streets. This house remained our homestead until July 1849-over ten years-altho' five of the ten years, those from '42 to '47 we wand- ered about as refugees. Let Mrs. Maverick describe a San Antonio home of the better class at that period. "The main house was of stone, and had three rooms, one fronting South on Main street and West on Sole- dad street, and the other two fronting West on Soledad; also a shed along the East wall of the house toward the north end. This shed we closed in with an adobe wall, and divided it into a kitchen and servants' room. We also built an adobe room for the servants on Soledad street, leaving a gateway between it and the main house, and we built a stable near the river. We put a strong picket fence around the garden to the North, and fenced the garden off from the yard. In the garden were sixteen large fig trees, and many rows of pomegranates. In the yard were several china trees, and on the river bank, just below our line on the De la Zerda premises, was a grand old cypress which we could touch through our fence, and its roots made ridges in our yard. It made a great shade, and we
*This Griffin was a faithful slave, who after Mr. Maverick's capture at San Automo, in 1842, determined to follow his master into Mexico to serve him as he best might. He was killed fighting bravely with Dawson's com- mand in the beginning of the journey. Mr. Maverick often remarked: " We owe Griffin a monument."
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erected our bath-house and wash place under its spreading branches. Our neigh- bors were the De la Zerdas. In 1840 their place was leased to a Greek, Roque Catahü, who kept a shop on the street and lived in the back rooms. He married a pretty bright-eyed, laughing Mexican girl of fourteen years. He dressed her in jewelry and fine clothes and bought her a dilapidated piano. He was jealous and wished her to amuse herself at home. The piano had the desired effect, and she enjoyed it like a child with a new trumpet. The fame of her piano went through the town, and after tea, crowds would come to witness her performance."
"Our neighbors on the north were Doña Juana Varcinez and her son Leonicio. She sold us milk at 25 cents per gallon, pumpkins at 25 cents each, and spring chicken at 1212 cents each. Butter was 50 cents {1b. When we returned from the coast in '47, she had sold her place to Sam S. Smith. (The Court House stands there now, and the son, Thad. Smith, is there too as County Clerk). My son Lewis Antonio, was born at this house of ours, and, until quite recently, I was of the opinion that he was the first child of pure American stock born in San Antonio. But now I understand that a Mr. Brown came here with his wife in 1828 from East Texas, and during that year a son was born to them. That son, John Brown, is said to be now a citizen of Waco.
"This summer (1839) M. B. Jaques brought his wife and two little girls and and settled on Commerce Street. Also Mr. Elliott came with his wife and two children and bought a place on Soledad street, opposite the north end of our garden .*
Mr. Maverick was a member of the Volunteer Company of 'Minute Men,' commanded by the celebrated Jack Hays, an honored citizen of Cali- fornia. He came to Texas at the age of eighteen and was appointed a deputy surveyor. The surveying parties frequently had 'brushes' with the Indians and on these occasions Jack Hays displayed marked coolness and military skill, and soon became by unanimous consent the leader in all encounters with the Indians. There were from fifty to seventy-five young Americans in San Antonio, at this time, attracted by the climate, the novelty or by the all-absorbing spirit of land speculation. They came from every one of the United States. Many had engaged in the short and bloody struggle of '35 and '36 for the freedom of Texas. Some possessed means and others were carving out their own fortunes; all were filled with the spirit of adventure and daring and more or less stamped with the weird wildness of the half-known West.
"They were a noble set of 'boys,' as they styled one another, and were ever ready to take horse and follow Hays to the Indian strongholds. . ... They accomplished wonders, for in a few years they crushed the Comanche Nation and the country around San Antonio became habitable.
" The signals for their expeditions were the ringing of the Cathedral bell and the hoisting the flag of the Republic in front of the Court House."
Mrs. Maverick tells of many depredations by Mexicans and Indians, showing the insecurity of the place even up to the very walls of San Antonio.
* Mr. Thomas Higginbotham, a carpenter and his wife, took the house opposite us on the corner of Commerce Street and Main Plaza, where the Danenhauer building now stands.
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MEMOIRS OF MRS. M. A. MAVERICK.
"This year (1839) our negro men plowed and planted one labór above the Alamo, and were attacked by Indians. Griffin and Wiley ran into the River and saved themselves. The Indians cut the traces and took off the work horses. We did not farm again."
Here is a riding party of the period : -
" In November, 1839, a party of ladies and gentlemen came from Houston to visit San Antonio. They rode on horseback. The ladies were Miss Trask, of Boston, Mass., and Miss Evans, daughter of Judge Evans, of Texas. The gentle- men were Judge Evans and Col. J. W. Darcey, Secretary of War of the Republic of Texas. Ladies and all were armed with pistols and bowie knives. I rode with this party and some others around the Head of the San Antonio River. We gal- loped up the West side and paused at and above the Springs long enough to admire the lovely valley of the San Antonio. The leaves were almost all fallen from the trees, leaving the view open to the Missions below town. The day was clear, cool and bright, and we could see as far as San Juan Capistrano, seven miles below town. We galloped home down the east side, and doubted not that the Indians watched us from the heavy timber of the River bottom.
"In the fall of 1839 or '40, eighteen dead bodies were brought in from the edge of town and laid out in the Court House. They were the remains of a party who had been surprised and cut off while out riding, a Mr. Campbell alone escaping by the fleetness of his horse. The bodies had been found naked, hacked with tomahawks and partly eaten by wolves. The following day the nine Ameri- cans were buried in one large grave west of the San Pedro, outside of the Catholic burying ground, and very near its southwest corner. The nine Mexicans were buried inside the graveyard.
"Indians being so numerous and 'bad' makes agricultural produce dear. Farming reminds one of the difficulties of the Jews on their return from the captivity or the first plantings of the Pilgrim Fathers. Corn selling from two to three dollars a bushel."
Mrs. Maverick was an eye witness of the terrible hand to hand conflict with the Comanche braves in 1840. The fight was nothing less than Homeric. We give it in her own words: "On Tuesday, March 19th, 1840, (dia de San José) sixty-five Comanches came into the town to make a treaty. They brought with them, and reluctantly gave up, Matilda Lockhart, whom they had captured with her younger sister, in December, 1838, after killing two others of the family. The Indian chiefs and men proceeded to the Court House where they met the city and military authorities. The jail then occupied the corner formed by the east line of Main Plaza and the north line of Calabosa (now Market) street, and the Court House was north of and adjoining the jail. The Court House yard, back of the Court House, was what is now the City Market on Market street .* Tlie Court House and Jail were of stone, one story, flat roofed and floored with dirt. Captain Tom Howard's Company was at first in the Court House yard. The Indian women and boys came in there too and remained during the pow-wow.
* See maps.
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-- "The young Indians amused themselves shooting arrows at pieces of money put up by some of the Americans.
"I adjourned over to Mrs. Higginbotham's, whose place adjoined the Court House yard, and we watched the young savages through the picket fence.
" This was the third time the Indians had come for a talk, pretending to seek peace and trying to get ransom money for their American and Mexican captives. Their present proposition was that they should be paid an enormous price for Matilda Lockhart and a Mexican they had just given up, and that traders be sent with paint, powder, flannel, blankets and such other articles as they should name to ransom the other captives. This course had been adopted once before, and when the traders reached the Indian camp the smallpox broke out amongst them, and they killed the traders, alleging that they had introduced the disease to kill off the Indians. After the slaughter they retained both the captives and the goods. Now, the Americans, mindful of the treachery and duplicity of the Indians, answered as follows :
" ' We will, according to a former agreement, keep four or five of your chiefs and the others of you shall go to your Nation and bring all the captives here, and then we will pay all you ask for them. Meanwhile, the chiefs we hold we will treat as brothers, and not one hair of their heads shall be injured. This we have determined upon, and if you resist our soldiers will shoot you down.'
"The above ultimatum being interpreted, the Comanches, instantly, and as one man, raised a terrific war-whoop, drew their bows and arrows and com- menced firing with deadly effect, at the same time endeavoring to break out of the Council Hall. The order, 'Fire !' was given by Capt. Howard and the soldiers fired into the midst of the crowd. The first volley killed several Indians and two of our own people. Soon, all rushed out into the public square, the civilians to procure arms, the Indians to escape and the soldiers in close pursuit. The Indians generally struck out for the River. Some fled southeast towards Bowen's Bend, · some ran east on Commerce street and some north on Soledad. Soldiers and citi- zens pursued and overtook them at all points: Some were shot in the River and some in the streets. Several hand-to-hand encounters took place, and some Indians took refuge in stone houses and closed the doors. Not one of the sixty-five Indians escaped ; thirty-three were killed and thirty-two taken prisoners.
"Six Americans and one Mexican were killed and ten Americans wounded. Our killed were Julian Hood the Sheriff, Judge Thompson an attorney from South Carolina, G. W. Cayce, from the Brazos, and one officer and two soldiers and one Mexican whose names I did not learn. Those severely wounded were Lieutenant Thompson brother of the Judge, Captain Tom Howard, Captain Mat. Caldwell a citizen volunteer from Gonzales, Judge Robinson, Mr. Morgan Deputy Sheriff, Mr. Higginbotham and two soldiers. Some others were slightly wounded.
"When the deafening war-whoop sounded in the Court Room, it was so loud and shrill, so sudden and inexpressibly horrible, that we women, looking through the fence cracks, for a moment could not comprehend its purport. The Indian boys, however, instantly recognized its meaning, and turning their arrows upon Judge Robinson and other gentlemen standing near by, slew the Judge on the spot.
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MEMOIRS OF MRS. M. A. MAVERICK.
We fled precipitately, Mrs. Higginbotham into her house and I across the street to my Commerce street door. Two Indians rushed by me on Commerce street and another reached my door, and turned to push it, just as I slammed it to and beat down the heavy bar. I rushed into the house and in the north room found my husband and my brother Andrew sitting calmly at a table inspecting some plats of surveys. They had heard nothing ! I soon gave them the alarm, and hurried by to look after my boys. Mr. Maverick and Andrew seized their arms. Mr. Maverick rushed into the street and Andrew into the back yard where I was, now shouting at the top of my voice, 'Here are Indians ! Here are Indians !' Three Indians had gotten in through the gate on Soledad street and were making towards the River. One had stopped near Jinny Anderson, our cook, who stood bravely in front of the children, mine and hers. She held a great stone in her hands, lifted above her head, and I heard her cry out to the Indians : 'G'way from heah, or I'll mash your head with this rock !' The Indian seemed regretful that he hadn't time to dispatch Jinny and her brood ; but his time was short, and, pausing but a moment, he turned and rushed down the bank, jumped into the River and struck out for the opposite shore. As the Indian hurried down the bank my brother ran out in answer to my loud calls. While the Indian was swimming, Andrew drew his unerring bead on him. Another Indian was climbing the opposite bank and was about to escape, but Andrew brought him down also. Then Andrew rushed up Soledad street looking for more Indians.
"I housed my little ones and then looked out of the Soledad street door. Near by was stretched an Indian wounded and dying. A large man, an employé of Mr. Higginbotham, came up just then and aimed a pistol at the Indian's head. I called out, ' Oh, don't ; he is dying !' and the big American laughed and said, 'Well, to please you I won't ; but it would put him out of his misery.' Then I saw two others lying dead near by.
"Captain Lysander Wells, about this time, passed by riding north on Soledad street. He was mounted on a gaily caparisoned Mexican horse, with silver- mounted saddle and bridle, which outfit he had secured to take back to his native State on a visit to his mother. As he reached the Veramendi house, an Indian who had escaped detection, rushed out from his hiding place, and jumping upon the horse behind Wells, clasped his arms and tried to catch hold of the bridle reins. The two men struggled some time, bent back and forwards and swayed from side to side, until at last, Wells managed to hold the Indian's arms with his right hand and with his left to draw his pistol from the holster. He turned partly round, placed the pistol against the Indian's body and fired, -a moment more and the Indian rolled off and dropped dead to the ground. Wells put spurs to his horse and did good service in the pursuit.
" I had become so fascinated by this struggle that I had unconsciously gone into the middle of the street, when Lieutenant Chevalier, who was passing, called out to me : 'Are you crazy ? Go in or you will be killed ? ' I obeyed ; but my curiosity and anxiety again got the better of me, and I peeped out on Commerce street where I saw the dead bodies of four or five Indians. It was dark when Mr. Maverick and Andrew returned.
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" Several incidents occurred soon after the fight of the 19th which are worth narrating. On March 28th, 250 or 300 Comanches under a dashing young chief, Isimanica, came close to the edge of the town, where the main body halted, while Chief Isimanica and another warrior rode daringly into the Public Square and circled around the Plaza, then rode some distance down Commerce street and back, shouting all the while, offering to fight, and heaping abuse and insults on the Americans. Isimanica was in full war-paint and almost naked, He stopped quite a while in front of Bluck's saloon, on the northeast corner of the square. He shouted defiance, rose in his stirrups, shook his clenched fist, raved, and foamed at the mouth.
" The citizens, through an interpreter, told him that the soldiers were all down at the Mission San José de Aguayo, and that if he went there Colonel Fisher would give him fight enough.
" Isimanica took his braves to San José, and with fearless daring bantered the soldiers for a fight. Colonel Fisher was sick in bed and Captain Redd, the next in rank, was in command. He said to the chief: 'We have made a twelve days' truce with your people, in order to exchange prisoners. My country's honor is pledged, as well as my own, to keep the truce, and I will not break it. Remain here three days, or return in three days, and the truce will be over. We burn to fight you.' Isimanica called him 'liar,' 'coward,' and other opprobrious names, and hung around for some time ; but; at last, the Indians left and did not return. Captain Redd remained calm and unmoved throughout this stormy talk, but his men could with difficulty be restrained ; and, in fact, some of them were ordered into the Mission church and guarded there.
"When Captain Lysander Wells, who was in town, heard of all this, he wrote Captain Redd a letter, in which he called him a 'dastardly coward,' and alluded to a certain petticoat government, under which he intimated the Captain was restrained. This allusion had reference to a young woman who, dressed in boy's apparel, had followed Redd from Georgia and was now living with him. This letter of Wells was signed, much to their shame, by several others in San Antonio.
"Colonel Fisher removed his entire force of three companies to the Alamo in San Antonio. Redd challenged Wells to mortal combat, and one morning at 6 o'clock they met where the Ursuline Convent now stands. Facing his antagonist, Redd coolly remarked: 'I aim for your heart' ; and Wells replied: 'And I for your brains.' They fired! Redd sprang into the air, and fell dead with a bullet in his brain. Wells, too, in fulfillment of their fearful repartee, was shot very near the heart ; he, however, lived a fortnight in great agony, begging every one near him to dispatch him or furnish him with a pistol to kill himself. Dr. Weidemann, of whom more anon, nursed him tenderly. It turned out that the girl before referred to was married to Redd, and they found the marriage license and certificate in his pocket ; also letters to members of his own and her families, speaking of her in the tenderest manner and asking them to protect and provide for her. She followed him to the grave and seemed heart-broken, and soon thereafter returned to her people."
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MEMOIRS OF MRS. M. A. MAVERICK.
Mrs. Maverick gives terrible accounts of the fearful treatment of captives by the Indians, and her narrative is another warrant for the belief that the only "good Indian is a dead one."
"Matilda Lockhart, who came in on March 19th, had been in captivity about two years. When she was taken, two of her family were slain and she and her little sister were taken prisoners. At that time she was thirteen and her sister three years old. She came along with the Indian party as a herder driving a herd of extra horses-thus the Indians could change horses from time to time for fresher ones. . . . . She was in a frightful condition, poor girl. . . .. Her head, arms and face were full of bruises and sores, and her nose actually burned off to the bone.
"March 26th, Mrs. Webster came in with her three-year-old child on her back. The poor, miserable being was so unlike a white woman that the Mexicans hailed her as 'Indio ! Indio !' She came into the Public Square from the west and was dressed as an Indian, in buckskin, her hair was cut short and square upon her forehead, and she was sunburned dark as a Comanche. She called out in good English, however, saying she had escaped from Indian captivity. She was im- mediately taken into John W. Smith's house, and we American ladies gathered to see her and care for her. She was very tired and hungry and almost exhausted. Her story was as follows: She came to Texas from Virginia early in 1835, with her husband, who, she claimed, was a relative of Daniel Webster. They built a house northeast of Austin; and in August of that year her husband was removing her and her four children to to this wild home. They had also in the party two negroes and one white man. "They were camped one evening on Brushy Creek, not far north of Austin, when a large body of Comanches suddenly attacked them. The three men fought bravely, but were overpowered and killed. Mrs. Webster's infant was taken from her arms and its brains dashed out against a tree and her second child killed. She and her eldest boy, 'Booker' were tied upon horses and she held her child of two years so tightly to her breast and pleaded so pite- ously for its life that the Indians left it with her. They were taken by rapid marches to the mountains, where they stripped 'Booker' and shaved his head. He was attacked with brain fever, and an old squaw, who had just lost a son of his age, adopted him and nursed him very tenderly. The Indians let her keep her little girl, but forbade her talking to her son. They made her cook and stake out ponies and beat her continually. She had been nineteen months in captivity when she seized a favorable opportunity to escape. It was one night after a long day's march, when, having learned the general direction of San Antonio, she quietly slipped out of camp with her child in her arms and bent her steps towards Bexar. She spent twelve terrible days on the road without meeting a human being. She sustained herself all this while on berries, small fish which she caught in the streams and on bones which she sucked and chewed. Sometimes she gave up and almost resigned herself to death. . . The morning of the 26th a fog came on, and unable to see any distance through the fog, she gave up all for lost and lay down in utter despair. Soon the sun shone out and the fog disappeared, when, looking towards the East, she saw a "golden cross shining in the sky." Then she felt that God had answered her prayers, and again took up the march with a
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thankful heart. She approached the golden cross with earnest steps. It proved to be the cross of the Cathedral of San Fernando* in San Antonio "
In the great raid to Lavaca Bay, in August, 1840, when Linnville was sacked and General Felix Houston inflicted a memorable defeat on the Indians, Mrs. Maverick lost many household effects en route from New Orleans. Amongst other things, was a set of law books for Mr. Maverick. These were heard from as being " tacked by strings to the Indians' saddle-bows and then used as cigar- ette papers. This shows how little respect the Indians had for Blackstone and the law."
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