USA > Texas > The history and geography of Texas as told in county names > Part 13
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CHAPTER VII.
THE REPUBLIC OF THE RIO GRANDE.
In 1839 there was a movement in Northern Mexico for the establishment of a Republic to be independent of Mexico. President Lamar declined to commit Texas to the move, but many in Texas sympathized with it. A force of about 600 Texans joined the movement and marched into Mexico to be betrayed by the Mexicans. The names of persons in that en- terprise now on the map are Cameron and Zapata.
CAMERON.
Ewen Cameron was born in the highlands of Scotland in 1811. He came to Texas in 1837 and immediately allied his fortunes with the Republic. The first opportunity which pre- sented itself for active service came in 1839. In furtherance of the cause of those liberal Mexicans who were still struggling against the tyranny of their government, he organized a com- pany of which he was elected Captain, and commanded it in a battle known as the battle of Alcantra, in which they were victorious. The revolution was a failure. Cameron then re- turned to Texas. Two years later he organized a company, and commanded it with conspicuous gallantry in the battle of Mier. With the entire command he was surrendered a pris- oner. While on their way to prison the Texans, led by Cam- eron, rushed upon their guards and made their escape, but after a series of horrible sufferings among the mountains of Mexico they gave themselves up to the Mexican soldiers. At the Haciendo Salado seventeen of the men were shot. Cam- eron, after drawing a white bean at this lottery of death, was ordered shot by Santa Anna later on. When he was taken out he bared his breast to his executioners, and his body was pierced by many bullets. His execution occurred April 25, 1843.
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THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS
ZAPATA.
This county was named for Colonel Antonio Zapata, a na- tive of Mexico and a wealthy stockman. He owned a large cattle ranch on the Rio Grande in the region which is now Zapata County. He was an ardent Republican. He was Col- onel in command of forces in the army which was raised to fur- ther the interest of the Republic of the Rio Grande. He was captured at night while on his ranch, and was taken out and shot; his head was severed from his body and stuck on a pole somewhat after the fashion of the Royalists' treatment of the patriot Hidalgo.
CHAPTER VIII. THE TEXAS NAVY.
MOORE.
This county was named for Commodore Edwin Ward Moore, a native of Virginia. At the breaking out of the Revolution in Texas he was a Lieutenant on the United States sloop Bos- ton; he resigned his commission and was appointed Captain in the Texas Navy. During President Houston's second admin- istration there occurred between Moore and the President a serious misunderstanding, the details of which may be learned in the Quarterly of the Texas Historical Association of April, 1910. By the terms of annexation he was entitled to a trans- fer to the United States Navy, with the same rank which he held in the Texas Navy, but there were complications which prevented this and he retired from naval service. He went to Virginia, but returned to Galveston, Texas, in the employ of the Buchanan administration. Later he returned to his na- tive State and died there in 1865.
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CHAPTER IX.
EARLY STATESMEN OF TEXAS.
The work of the early statesmen of Texas admits of no ex- tended comment in a review of this character, but there are several prominent features of it that cannot be passed over.
The first and foremost is our homestead law. "It is pecu- liarly an American institution," says Thompson, in his work on "Homestead and Exemptions." If anything similar to it exists in any other country we are not aware of it. The earliest homestead law, of which the writer has any knowledge, was an act of the Congress of the Republic of Texas, passed Jan- uary 26, 1839. Since the passage of this act the protection of the homestead became a favorite object with all legislatures of Texas. When the State adopted a new Constitution, on en- tering the American Union in 1845, that instrument guaran- teed, for the first time, a family homestead. (See the article on Van Zandt, page 190.) Vermont led in 1849 in following the example of Texas, and today, with probably not an ex- ception, every state in the Union has a homestead law.
The next feature to be noticed is the twelfth article of the Declaration of Rights in the Constitution of the Republic, which provides that "no person shall be imprisoned for debt in conse- quence of inability to pay." This, too, has been followed first by the Congress of the United States in 1839, and the statutes of all the states are today unincumbered by this relic of me- deival barbarism.
The other feature is the simplified system of pleading, based upon the abolition of the distinction between law and equity in our courts, especially the doing away with the action of ejectment with John Doe, and Richard Roe and the casual ejector. Texas led in this, and in all the States of the Union there has been similar action.
These were immense strides in the work of civilization, wor- thy of the pride of every patriotic Texan.
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AS TOLD IN COUNTY NAMES
Among these the following are on our county map :
Anderson
Henderson
Jack
Rains
Bee
Howard
Jones
Van Zandt
Bell
Hunt
Kaufman
Wilson
Crosby
Irion
Lamar
Wood
Hamilton
ANDERSON.
This county was named for Kenneth L. Anderson, who was born in Hilsboro, N. C., September 11, 1805, and was edu- cated in the celebrated Bingham School in his native county. He removed to Shelbyville, Tenn., about the year 1829. After practicing his profession at that place until 1837, he removed to Texas and located at San Augustine. He was appointed District Attorney in 1842, and later was elected a member of the lower branch of the Texas Congress, of which he became Speaker. He was one of the most eminent lawyers of the Re- public, and at different times formed partnerships with Gen- tral Rusk and Governor Henderson. He was Vice-President of the Republic in 1844, and died while on his way home from a session of Congress at Washington, on the Brazos. He was buried at Fanthorps, in Grimes County, July 3, 1845. The name of Fanthorps was afterward changed to Anderson in his honor.
BEE.
This county was named for Barnard E. Bee, who was born in Charleston, S. C., in 1787. He was educated in the law and served on the staff of Governor James Hamilton of South Car- olina. (See the sketch of Hamilton below.) Bee was also prom- inent in the nullification troubles of the State. He came to Texas and joined the army in the summer of 1836. He was elected as one of three commissioners to accompany Santa Anna to Washington City in order that he might, in the presence of General Jackson, renew the promises he had made to the Re- public of Texas in regard to independence and other matters.
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THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS
The promises were renewed in General Jackson's presence, but they were never complied with. When the commissioners reached New Orleans Santa Anna, being in want of funds, drew his draft upon his bank in Vera Cruz for $2,000, and by the en- dorsement of Colonel Bee, he obtained the money. Upon his return to Vera Cruz, he repudiated the draft upon the plea that he was a prisoner under duress. Colonel Bee made good the draft, and after waiting for some time was paid back by the Republic of Texas. He was Secretary of War under Pres- ident Houston, and Secretary of State under President Lamar, and later Minister to the United States from the Republic of Texas. He was subsequently commissioned as Minister to Mex- ico. When his credentials were sent to Mexico, Santa Anna politely returned them, with the statement that he would be delighted to receive Colonel Bee as his friend, but never as the official representative of the rebellious province of Texas. He was opposed to annexation, and after that event was con- summated, he returned to South Carolina, where he died in 1853.
While General Hamilton P. Bee was speaker of the House of Representatives of Texas the county of Bee was named in honor of his father. To another son, Colonel Barnard E. Bee Jr., a graduate of West Point, who was killed at the first bat- tle of Manassas, the world is indebted for the prefix "Stone- wall" to the name of General T. J. Jackson.
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AS TOLD IN COUNTY NAMES
BELL.
This county was named for Peter Hansborough Bell, who was born in Culpepper County, Va., in 1808, and was reared and educated there. Upon attaining his majority, he removed to Petersburg, Va., and was engaged in business there when in March, 1836, learn- ing that the Texans were hard pressed in their struggle for liberty, he set sail and arrived off the mouth of the Brazos in the first days of April. As nearly all the inhabitants had fled from that section upon hearing of the approach of Santa Anna, there was no communication with the in- terior, and he was presented with the alternative of either re-embarking and sailing back to the United States or plunging through the wilderness on foot to find Houston's army. He set out on foot, following the course of the river, and on the 12th of April found Hous- ton's army just as it was leaving the Brazos. He immediately enlisted, marched with the army to San Jacinto, and partici- pated in the conflict as a private in Captain Karnes' Cavalry Company. He remained in the army for some time and then attached himself to the ranger service, and was thus engaged when he was appointed Inspector General in 1839. After the expiration of his term he again joined the ranger service and in 1845 was commissioned Captain of rangers and was in this service when the Mexican War began. In 1846 he enlisted in the volunteer service of the United States and was in Taylor's army. Upon the organization of Hays' Second Regiment it was divided, part going to the army of General Scott under Hays and the re- mainder, under Bell, as lieutenant colonel, was assigned to duty on the Rio Grande. After the conclusion of the war he returned
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THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS
to Texas. In 1849 he was candidate for Governor against Gov- ernor Wood, who was asking for a second term. He defeated Wood, served as Governor, and was re-elected Governor in 1851. Some months before the expiration of his term, in 1853, he was elected to the United States Congress and served until 1855, when he was re-elected and served until 1857. He then married Mrs. Ella Eaton Dickens, daughter of Hon. William Eaton of North Carolina, moved to North Carolina, and was living there on his plantation in 1861 when the Civil War began. He was ten- dered a commission as Colonel in the Confederate Army by President Davis, but declined it. He was now fifty-three years old, and added to this, shared the feeling of many of his neigh- bors that the policy of secession was of doubtful expediency in the first place, and in the second place the odds were too large- ly against the South. He was a silent and sad spectator of that four year's conflict and at its close witnessed the destruction of his fortune. He lived a retired life the remainder of his days. In 1891 the Legislature of Texas voted him an annual pension for life. He died March 8, 1898, and was buried in the cemetery at Littleton, Warren County, N. C., by the side of his wife, who died in the preceding year.
Upon the brick vault over their remains is the following inscription :
"Peter H. Bell, ex-Governor of Texas, died March 8, 1898, age 90 years. Died July 16, 1897, Ella Reeves Bell, wife of ex-Governor Bell, in her 62 year."
Of him, Brown, the Texas Historian says: "He was a man of splendid physique, and combined with true courage, was distinguished by kind and genial characteristics. It is believed that he had not personal enemy in Texas."
CROSBY.
This county was named for Stephen Crosby, who was born in South Carolina in 1808. He went to Alabama about 1830 and engaged in steamboating, and continued in this until about 1845 when he came to Texas and accepted the position of chief clerk in the Land Office, to which position he was elected in
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1853 and in 1855. In describing the Democratic convention of 1857 Governor Lubbock says in his memoirs: "There was some fun in nominating the Commissioner of the General Land Office. The convention was really anxious to nominate Cap- tain Stephen Crosby the incumbent of the office, and without doubt one of the most popular officers and men in the State. He had, however, strayed off from the Democratic party and joined the Know Nothings. He was shelved by the pledge pre- scribed by the convention and ran as an independent, but was defeated, but was re-elected in 1859, and under successive elections served until removed by the military authorities in August, 1867." He died in Austin, Texas, in 1869.
HAMILTON.
This county was named for General James Hamilton, lawyer and Governor of South Carolina. He was born May 8, 1786, in Charleston. He served with distinction in the war of 1812 on the Canadian frontier. In 1823 he was a member of the South Carolina Legislature; in 1825, he was elected to the Con- gress of the United States, and was re-elected in 1829. In 1831, he was elected Governor of South Carolina. He became inter- ested in promoting the cause of Texas independence in 1838 and was appointed commercial and diplomatic agent to Eu- rope by President Lamar. He negoiated treaties of commerce and navigation with England and the Netherlands; while in this service he sacrificed most of his private fortune. He de- clined the command of the army of the Texas Republic, and declined the seat from South Carolina in the United States Senate, made vacant by the death of Senator Calhoun in 1850. In 1857 he started to Texas in the hope of obtaining financial relief for the losses he suffered while in the service of the Re- public, but was lost in the wreck of the steamship "Opelousas," on which he was a passenger. He was a highly cultured man and was one of the founders of the Southern Review.
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THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS
HENDERSON.
This county was named for J. Pinckney Henderson, the first Governor of the State of Texas. He was born March 31, 1809, in Lincoln County, N. C. He attended the university of that state at Chapel Hill in 1830, and then studied law, removing to Mississippi and settling at Canton, where he practiced his profession until he came to Texas. In 1836 he raised a company of volunteers and brought them to Texas, ar- riving at Velasco in June. At the inauguration of President Houston in October, 1836, Henderson was appointed Attorney General and later became Secretary of State. In 1837 he was Minister to Eng- land and France, and negotiated treaties of commerce and navigation with these countries. He returned to Texas in 1840 and resumed the practice of law with Thomas J. Rusk and Kenneth L. Anderson as partners. He was sent in 1844 as special Minister to the United States. In 1845 he was elected first Governor of the State of Texas. During the Mexican War he temporarily abandoned his office and be- came commander-in-chief of the Texas forces with the rank of Major General. For his gallantry at Monterey he was pre- sented a sword by the United States Congress. In 1857 he was elected United States Senator to succeed Senator Rusk, but died June 4, 1858, at Washington, D. C., before taking his seat, and was buried in that city.
HOWARD.
Volney Erskine Howard was born in Oxford County, Maine, October 22, 1809. He had the usual experience of a bright New England boy, laboring on the farm and attending school alter- nately. He entered Bloomfield Academy and afterward Water-
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field College. Upon the invitation of an uncle, who was prac- ticing law, he went to Mississippi in 1832, but upon his arrival there he learned that his uncle had just died. He at once began the study of law and located at Brandon, where he was elected a member of the Legislature and in the same year was elected to carry the electoral vote to Washington. While in that city he was married to Catherine Elizabeth Gooch, a native of Massa- chussetts, a lady of rare accomplishments. Upon his return to Mississippi he was appointed reporter for the Supreme Court and compiled seven volumes of Howard's Mississippi Re- ports. During this time he purchased "The Mississippian" and made it the leading Democratic newspaper of the Southwest. In 1840 he was nominated as the candidate of the Democratic party for a seat in the United States Congress, and although he ran one thousand votes ahead of his ticket, he was defeated by his Whig opponent, Governor Tucker. During his career the union Bank monopolized the politics of Mississippi. He voted against the bill by which the State guaranteed the bank's issue and predicted the insolvency of the bank and the repudiation of the State's obligation by the friends of the bill, in the event of its passage, a prediction that became true in a few years. He was severely criticized by the press and as severely retorted through his paper and on the stump. In the midst of public discussion on the subject he was chosen by the Democratic party to answer the challenge of Sargent S. Prentiss to a joint dis- cussion at Jackson. This meeting has always been regarded as a famous event in the political history of Mississippi. Par- tisans of the respective sides both claimed that their champion won the victory, but all admitted that Howard carried his end of the discussion with matchless skill and ability. It was dur- ing this stormy period that Hiram G. Runnels, president and manager of the bank, challenged Howard to fight a duel; the challenge was promptly accepted, and the duel was fought at Columbus. Howard was shot, the ball striking a rib and cours- ing around the breast. As he had predicted, the bank became involved and the question of repudiation came before the Leg- islature. Repudiation was vigorously opposed by Howard, but the measure carried, greatly to his disgust.
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THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS
He immediately afterward shook the dust of Mississippi poli- tics from his feet and moved to New Orleans, where he began again to practice law. Just at this juncture, the annexation of Texas to the United States was assuming tangible shape, and late in December, 1844, he removed with his family to San An- tonio, and within a short time after his arrival there was elected a delegate to the first State Constitutional Convention in July, 1845. He took an active part in the convention, and at the first election for State officers and a legislature, he was chosen Sen- ator from San Antonio. On the 27th of February, 1846, Gov- ernor Henderson appointed him to the position of Attorney Gen- eral, but he declined to qualify and kept his place in the State Senate. In 1849 he was candidate for the United States Con- gress to succeed Timothy Pilsbury, also a native of Maine, and was opposed by Judge Williamson ("Three-legged Willie") a very popular man, but he defeated Williamson and served two terms in Congress. He achieved a national reputation by his speeches on the compromise measures of 1850, especially the features directly affecting Texas. At the expiration of his term he was appointed by President Pierce attorney to the Land Com- mission of California, but served only a few months, when he located in San Francisco and began the practice of law. In 1856 the "Vigilantes" were at the height of their power in San Fran- cisco. Howard was an outspoken, uncompromising advocate of the supremacy of the law and strenuously opposed the policy of the Vigilantes. The Governor issued his proclamation, order- ing them to disband, but they defied his order. He called out the militia and put Howard in command, but their strength was too great to be overcome by the militia. The enemity to Howard, resulting from his course, was so great in San Francisco that he removed to Sacramento in 1858, and in 1861 located in Los Angeles, where he devoted himself to the practice of law for about ten years. He accepted the office of District Attorney for several terms and was a member of the convention that framed the Constitution of California. He was elected Judge of Superior Court of Los Angeles in 1880, and while holding this position was nominated to a place on the Supreme Bench, but declined, owing to advancing years and the necessity of having
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to be away from home. His term as district judge expired in 1884, when he reached the age of seventy-five years. He then retired and died in 1889.
HUNT.
This county was named in honor of General Memucan Hunt, who was born in North Carolina, in Granville (Now Vance) Coun- ty, August 7, 1807. Memucan Hunt, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was a member of the Provincial Assembly of North Carolina in 1774, and again in 1776, and in 1777 was appointed First State Treasurer, and held the office ten years. William Hunt, father of General Memucan Hunt, was a Major in the Revolutionary War.
General Hunt was reared on his father's farm. At the age of four- teen he entered Bingham School, at Hillsboro, N. C. After finishing the course, he returned home and assisted in the management of his father's business. At twenty-two he entered a commercial partner- ship, doing business at Weldon and Norfolk. In 1834 he was a leader in the internal improve- ments conventions held at Hillsboro and Raleigh, and late in that year removed to Mississippi and took charge of a plan- tation and slaves his father had given him, and was engaged in a large and lucrative business when the Texas Revolution broke out. Early in 1836 General Thomas J. Green, a brother- in-law of Wm. H. and Jno. A. Wharton, was in Mississippi, raising troops for Texas, under authority of the Consultation of Texas. J. Pinckney Henderson, another North Carolinian, had but a short time before removed to Mississippi and had begun the practice of law at the county site of Madison, and
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THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS
both he and Hunt warmly sympathized with the cause of Texas. When news of the tragedies of the Alamo and Goliad reached them, they immediately joined Green. Hunt was offered a Brigadier General's commission upon their arrival in Texas. Several hundred men were soon mustered in, and they proceed- ed by boat to New Orleans, and then to Velasco, Texas, arriv- ing there in June, 1836, eight weeks after the battle of San Jacinto. Although the revolution ended with the victory of San Jacinto, Mexico was threatening another invasion, and President Burnet offered Hunt a commission as Major Gen- eral, to serve only in case a renewal of the war, with power to appoint subalterns, and he appointed, among others, J. Pinckney Henderson, a Brigadier General and Dr. Ashbel Smith, Surgeon. In the interim, Hunt, through agents in Miss- issippi, Tennessee, and North Carolina, organized and equip- ped troops at his personal expense, issuing stirring appeals to the people of those states. On December 25, 1836, there being no further apprehension of an invasion from Mexico, he re- signed and started back to Mississippi, but was urged by Pres- ident Houston to accept the position of Minister from the Republic of Texas to the United States, to act with W. H. Wharton, and in the last hours of President Jackson's Admin- istration, they succeeded in having the United States recognize the independence of Texas. Wharton immediately returned to Texas and Hunt remained in charge of the interests of Texas until August 1837, when he left for a business trip to Miss- issippi. Just prior to his departure he was banqueted by Cal- houn, White, and other members of the United States Senate and lower house of Congress.
Lamar succeeded Houston as President in 1838, and appoint- ed Hunt Secretary of the Navy. He then secured the services of a number of the better young officers of the United States Navy who resigned their commissions and joined the Texas Navy. The brilliant exploits of this shortlived navy are among the precious relics of the history of the Republic.
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