USA > Texas > The history and geography of Texas as told in county names > Part 5
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SAN PATRICIO.
While this is the name of the patron saint of Ireland (St. Patrick) it properly belongs to the Colonial era of Texas his- tory. It is the name given to the town established by McMul- len and McGloin, the empresarios of the Irish colony before mentioned. The town of San Patricio was granted, besides lots, four leagues of land, and the County subsequently, four leagues additional.
CHAPTER III.
THE AMERICANIZATION OF THE MAP OF TEXAS.
The immigrants to Texas from the United States began to honor their statesmen and heroes as soon as any sort of or- ganized government began. Their early attachment to their native country was shown in naming the following counties :
Clay
Knox
Newton
Fayette
Liberty
Shelby
Jackson
Madison
Washington
Jasper
Marion
Jefferson
Montgomery
CLAY.
Henry Clay was born in Hanover County, Virginia, April 12, 1777. His father, who was a Baptist minister, died in 1781. His mother was a woman of vigorous intellect and great energy. She reared her fam- ily in comparative comfort but Henry Clay's early years were years of much labor and little education.
It was then that he was of- ten seen going to mill on the Pamunky River, mounted on a scrub pony with a meal bag for a saddle, and a rope for a bridle, and from this circumstance he became known as "The mill boy of slashes." Up to the age of 14 he had received only three years of schooling. He was placed in the store of Richard Denny of Richmond, and a year later he obtained the position of Deputy Clerk in the High Court of Chancery. In 1792, his family removed to Wood- ford County, Kentucky.
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THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS
While employed as clerk in Richmond, Va., he attracted the attention of Chancellor Wythe, who was attracted to him and he made him his private secretary and encouraged him to study law, which he afterward did in the office of Robert Brock, At- torney General of Virginia. Having obtained his license to practice, he moved to Lexington, Ky., in November 1797. He made his first public speech in Lexington in the summer of 1798, on the alien and sedition laws, and thus won his first laurels as an orator. 1803 he was elected to the lower house of the Legislature and served until 1806, when he was chos- en United States Senator, to succeed General Adair. After serving out that term, he resumed the practice of law. In 1807 he was again elected to the Legislature of Kentucky and was made Speaker of the House, serving in that capacity un- til 1809, when he was returned to the Senate of the United States to fill out the unexpired term of Senator Thurston.
In 1811 he was elected to the lower house of the United States Congress and chosen Speaker. He was returned and served for thirteen consecutive years, except for two short pe- riods, one in 1814 and another in 1815, when he was one of the Commissioners in negotiating the treaty of Ghent, and in 1820-22, when he returned home and resumed the practice of law. In 1825 he became Secretary of State in the Cabinet of the younger Adams, which position he held until 1829. After his term as Secretary of State expired he resumed the prac- tice of law, and in 1831 was elected to the United States Sen- ate, and resigned his seat with the purpose of not re-entering politics, but in 1848 he was again elected to the United States Senate, and was a member of that body until his death, in Washington, D. C., June 29th, 1852.
He was the master spirit of the War of 1812, and a cham- pion of the cause of Greece. He was the author of the "Amer- ican System" in behalf of the internal improvements. He was foremost in securing the Missouri Compromise, and the author of the compromise measures of 1850, which, among other things, adjusted the boundaries between Texas and the United States. He may be said to have been the founder of the Whig party in 1832. He was nominated for the Presidency in 1844,
55
AS TOLD IN COUNTY NAMES
but on the paramount political issue, "the annexation of Texas," he was defeated. He became a member of the Episcopal Church on June 25, 1847, and upon his dying bed whispered to the at- tending clergyman: "I have an abiding trust in the merits and mediation of the Savior."
FAYETTE.
This county was named for the Marquis de la Fayette, who was born at the chateau of Chavagniac, in Auvergne, France, September 4, 1797. He was nineteen years old and a captain of dragoons in the French army when the thirteen colonies de- clared independence.
He warmly espoused the cause of independence in America, and over the protests of friends he made arrangements to join the struggling colonists in Decem- ber, 1775. Denied any public aid in France, he purchased a ship on his own account and in- vited his friends to go with him.
At the instance of the British ambassador, orders were issued to seize the ship, and La Fayette was arrested. The ship was sent to Spain, but he escaped from his guards, and was soon on the high seas on his way to America.
After a two months' voyage he landed at Georgetown, S. C., with eleven companions, and immediately went to Philadelphia and asked for a commission as major general, which had been promised him by the American minister in France. He soon felt the embarrassment of a promotion over native officers and then tendered his services on two conditions, viz: That he should receive no pay and should act as a volunteer. These
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THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS
were accepted, and on July 21, 1777, he was appointed major general by resolution of Congress, and on the next day joined General Washington. He took part in the battle of Brandywine and was wounded in the leg, and also fought at Monmouth. He then returned to France, and remained six months, when he came back to America and rendered active service until the close of the war, when he returned to France. He visited Amer- ica in 1784 and 1824. He again appeared in public life in 1787, becoming conspicuous in the French Revolution.
After 1797 he retired to the castle La Grange and lived a re- tired life. In 1824 he revisited the United States and traveled through all the states from Boston to Georgia, and was every- where received with the greatest demonstration of welcome, and in that year was voted $200,000 and a township of land. In 1830 he took command of the National Guard and served in the second revolution in France. He died at Paris May 20, 1834. His name is spread over all sections of the map of the United States and most appropriately on the map of Texas, as she was aided in her early struggles by so many, who, like La Fayette, came from distant states to aid in her struggle for liberty.
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AS TOLD IN COUNTY NAMES
JACKSON.
The municipality of Jackson was created by the Consulta- tion in 1835, when Andrew Jackson was President of the United States, and in 1837 was made a county. Andrew Jackson was born in the Waxhaw set- tlement in what is now Union County, North Car- olina. The Waxhaw settle- ment was so near the boun- dary line of South Carolina that for a long time the state of his birth was in doubt.
At the age of nineteen he moved to Salisbury, in North Carolina, and stud- ied law, and about the year 1790 he was appointed Dis- trict Attorney for that por- tion of North Carolina now known as Middle Tennessee and located in Nashville. He was elected as a delegate to the convention which framed the first Constitution of the State of Tennessee, in 1796, and was elected as the first representative of the state in the Congress of the United States. In 1797 he was elected to the United States Senate, but resigned in 1798 to become Judge of the Supreme Court of Tennessee, which position he held until 1804. At the beginning of the War of 1812 he joined the army and was made a major general of vol- unteers and fought the Indians and British. On the 8th of January, 1815, he won his greatest military laurels in the Bat- tle of New Orleans. He resigned the position in 1818 and in 1821 he was appointed territorial Governor of Florida. In 1823 he was again elected to the United States Senate, and in 1824 was the leading candidate for the Presidency, but not hav- ing a majority of all the votes, although a large plurality, the
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THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS
election was thrown into the House, and he was defeated. This was greatly to his advantage, and in the next election he over- whelmingly defeated his opponent, John Quincy Adams. He was re-elected in 1832, and after a stormy career in that office he retired to the "Hermitage," near Nashville, in 1837, and died there June 8, 1845.
JASPER AND NEWTON.
These counties were named for twin heroes of the Revolu- tionary War, and as they are placed side by side on the map of Texas, they are placed together in this sketch.
William Jasper was born in South Carolina in 1750, and enlisted in the Seventh Cavalry, under the command of Captain Dunbar, of Colonel Isaac Mott's regiment, of which Francis Marion was Lieutenant Colonel. The date of his enlistment was July 8, 1775, and the period for which he enlisted was three years. At the expiration of his term he re-enlisted in the same command. His record as a private soldier was a succes- sion of gallant deeds, and in the month of October, 1776, he was appointed a Sergeant while at Fort Johnson, in North Caro- lina. From the Charleston Year Book (1889) which gives the diary of Captain Elliot we learn of the estimate placed upon him by the following extract :
"The President, John Rutledge, this day returning his thanks to the Sullivan's Island garrison for their gallant conduct and behavior in defense of the fortress," and taking his own sword from his side, presenting it to Sergeant Jasper, he said, "No doubt he will soon compliment him with a commission."
The story of his rushing through the embrasure and seizing the flag, which had been shot down and fell on the outside, and taking it, in the midst of a hot fire, from the enemy and plant- ing it safely upon the ramparts, is too well known to be re- peated here. He was killed while attempting to plant the American colors on the parapets of Spring Hill redoubt at the storming of Savannah, October 9, 1779. The City of Savannah has erected a handsome monument to his memory.
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AS TOLD IN COUNTY NAMES
Newton County was named for Sergeant John Newton, who was the son of a pastor of the Baptist church at Charleston, S. C. He was born in that city in 1752. He enlisted in the same command with Sergeant Jasper and was his "Alter Ego" in all his exploits. He was a corporal and piper in the same company, but survived the siege of Savannah, to be taken pris- oner later at the capitulation of Charleston in 1780, and was one of those who succumbed to smallpox shortly afterward.
JEFFERSON.
In 1835 a municipality named in honor of the third Presi- dent was created in the southeastern portion of the present State of Texas. Under the Constitution and laws of the Re- public it became a county in 1837, with Beaumont as its county seat.
Thomas Jefferson was born at Shadwell, in Albermarle Coun- ty, Virginia, April 13, 1743. Af- ter a short course in the schools of that vicinity he entered Wil- liam and Mary College, in 1762, and graduated in 1766. He stud- ied law, and in 1769 was elected a member of the Virginia Leg- islature. He was a delegate to the Continental Congress, which assembled at Philadelphia in 1775. He was made chairman of the committee which drafted the Declaration of Independence and was the author of that document. He served in the State Leg- islature until 1779, when he was elected Governor to succeed Patrick Henry. He held that office two years.
In 1783 he was again elected to Congress and was made chairman of the committee having in charge the treaty of peace with Great Britain. In 1784 he was appointed minister plenipotentiary to assist Adams and Franklin in negotiating treaties of commerce with the different countries on the conti-
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THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS
nent of Europe, and in 1785 was appointed minister plenipo- tentiary to France, and served in that position until appointed by President Washington Secretary of State in his Cabinet in 1789. On December 31, 1793, he resigned the secretaryship. In 1796 he was elected Vice President when John Adams was elected President, and acted in that capacity during Mr. Adams' term.
On February 17, 1801, he was elected President by the Con- gress of the United States, the electors having failed to make a choice. He was inaugurated as President on March 4, 1801. In the inauguration ceremonies "he did not ride up Pennsyl- vania Avenue alone and hitch his horse to the Capitol fence, go into the Capitol and take the oath; but was escorted up Pennsylvania Avenue by a large force of militia and a large concourse of citizens and entered the Capitol amid shouts and cheers of the assembled multitude, the beating of drums and waving of flags. He proceeded to the Senate chamber, took the oath and delivered his address."
In December, 1801, when he sent his first regular message to Congress, he, for reasons which he explained, did not go in person, and this has been followed by his successors down to President Wilson.
He served two terms as President, making many reforms in the administration of the government, greatly reducing the expenses, paying off a large part of the debt incurred by the Revolutionary War, and dispensing with ceremonials incident to the social functions of the White House. At the expiration of his term, in 1809, he retired to his estate at Monticello, in sight of the spot where he was born. With the exception of a narrow escape from capture by the British during the War of 1812 he lived a comparatively quiet life up to his death, July 4, 1826. During that interim he devoted himself to sci- entific research and to literary labors, outlining a public school system for Virginia and busying himself with other matters pertaining to the public welfare, among which, the crowning act of his career, was the founding of the University of Vir- ginia in 1825, in plain sight of Monticello.
He practically demonstrated that the people were capable
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AS TOLD IN COUNTY NAMES
of self-government, brought the masses in close contact with the government and instilled in the minds of the people prin- ciples of government which have ever since been universally recognized by the various political parties.
One of his first and most important achievements was the Louisiana Purchase, which, owing to his ideas of strict con- struction, he deemed unconstitutional. But his friend, Wilson Cary Nicholas, insisted that the treaty-making clause of the Constitution permitted the act, and the constitutional amend- ment which Jefferson suggested to meet the case was never sub- mitted to the people.
He was, perhaps, the greatest publicist and political phil- osopher of his day. His "Notes on Virginia," "Rights of Brit- ish-America," and his "Manual of Parliamentary Law" are among his principal published works. He was buried on his estate at Monticello. In 1892 the Congress of the United States had a ten-volume edition of his works published.
NOTE .- The claim is made, and two of our standard his- tories seem to endorse it, that the county and county site were named for Jefferson Beaumont, but the claim does not seem to be sustained by the facts.
The name was first given to the municipality when it was created in 1835. Jefferson Beaumont did not come to Texas until thirteen years later, and when he came did not locate in or near Jefferson County, but settled in Calhoun County, where he lived until 1865, and while temporarily in Jackson County died there in that year.
Henry Millard, who represented that municipality as a del- egate to the Consultation in 1835, was one of the original or- ganizers of the municipality, and Beaumont was named in compliment to his wife, whose maiden name was Beaumont, probably a relative of Jefferson Beaumont, and it is possible the claim that it was named for Jefferson Beaumont came in this way.
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THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS
KNOX.
This county was named for General Henry Knox, who was born in Boston, Mass., in 1759, made a Brigadier General of the Continental Army in 1776, and in 1781 a Major General, and became Secretary of War in Washington's first Cabinet. He died on October 25, 1806, at Thomaston, Me.
LIBERTY.
This word has become a geographical name eighty-eight times in the various States of the Union. Following a custom that began with the Revolutionary War, the inhabitants of this region named their first town Liberty, and from this the county took its name.
MADISON.
James Madison was born in Orange County, Virginia, March 16, 1751. He was pre- pared for college by private tu- tors, and in 1768 entered the Sophomore class at Princeton College and graduated in 1771. He then studied law and in 1773 began the practice of his profession in his native county. He was elected a member of the Virginia Legislature in 1774. In 1778 he was chosen a member of the Executive Council, and in 1779 was elected a delegate to the Continental Con- gress and served in that body continuously until 1784, when he was sent as a delegate to the convention at Annapolis,
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AS TOLD IN COUNTY NAMES
Md., which was assembled for the purpose of devising a plan to regulate commerce between the states.
In 1787 he was elected a delegate to the Constitutional Con- vention which met in Philadelphia. He was a member of Con- gress from 1789 to 1797. In 1793 he was tendered the position of Secretary of State, made vacant by Jefferson's resignation, but declined to accept it owing to his important duties as a member of Congress. In 1798 he again became a member of the Virginia Legislature. In 1801 he was appointed Secretary of State by President Jefferson, and at the close of Jefferson's administration was elected President of the United States, and served two terms, retiring in March, 1817.
After his retirement from the arena of national politics he was chosen a member of the State Convention of Virginia, called to revise the State Constitution. He took an active inter- est in the local affairs of his county, being at one time presi- dent of an agricultural society. He died at his home in Orange County, Virginia, June 28th, 1836.
He was a man of varied learning. He was not only familiar with the science of his profession, but had a critical knowl- edge of the classics, of the French and Italian languages, and had studied Hebrew. He had studied closely the writings of the French philosophers. He was lawyer, naturalist, scientific farmer, ethnologist, and brought all of his varied knowledge to his aid in his greatest accomplishment, political science.
It was at his instance that the convention was called to meet at Annapolis, which led to the convention at Philadelphia which framed the Constitution of the United States. He was the admitted leader of that body and drew up the plan of govern- ment upon which its work was based. By his published es- says, which make up the greater part of the "Federalist," he became the chief agent in accomplishing its adoption, and from 1789 to 1797, as a member of Congress, led in those measures that put it in successful operation.
The "Federalist" and the "Madison Papers" are quoted and relied upon by the Supreme Court of the United States in all questions involving constitutional construction. The verdict of posterity justly accords to him the title "Father of the Consti- tution."
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THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS
MARION.
Gen. Francis Marion was born near Georgetown, S. C., in 1732. He became distinguished in the War of the Revolution while in command of the forces in South Carolina, eluding the superior forces of the British and making constant war upon the Tories. His command was familiar with the swamps of that region and they were made the hiding and camping places of himself and men, and for this reason he obtained the title "Swamp Fox." He was conspic- uous for bravery at the siege of Savannah, at Fort Moultrie and other hotly contested engage- ments.
He served in the State Senate of South Carolina, and was a leader in all measures contem- plating leniency to the Tories. He received from that body a solid gold medal as a token of appreciation for his services in the Revolution. He died on his plantation near Georgetown, S. C., February 27, 1795.
MONTGOMERY.
This county was named for Richard Montgomery, who was born in Ireland, December 2, 1736, and settled at King's Bridge, New York, in 1773. In 1775 he was elected a delegate to represent Dutchess County, New York in the First New York Provisional Assembly. In the same year he was ap- pointed Brigadier General, and was killed at Quebec December 31, 1775.
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AS TOLD IN COUNTY NAMES
SHELBY.
This county was named for Isaac Shelby, who was born De- cember 11, 1750, at Hagerstown, Md. He was a surveyor in Western Virginia (now Kentucky) in 1774; was in his father's company at the battle of Point Pleas- ant, Virginia; was made Captain in 1776, and commissary in 1777.
In 1779 he became a member of the Virginia Assembly; he was commis- sioned a Major by Governor Jeffer- son; he was made a Colonel and de- feated Ferguson at the battle of King's Mountain in October, 1780; was a member of the North Carolina Legislature in 1781 and 1782 (Ten- nessee then being a part of North Carolina). In 1788 he settled at "Traveler's Rest," in Ken- tucky.
From 1792 to 1796 he was Governor of Kentucky, and in 1813 he joined General Harrison in his campaign against the Indians. In 1818 he was a Commissioner with General Jack- son to treat with the Cherokees. Shelby County, in Kentucky and a college in Shelbyville were named in his honor. He died in Lincoln County, Kentucky, on July 18, 1826.
WASHINGTON.
George Washington was born at Bridges Creek, on the Poto- mac River, February 22, 1732. At the age of nineteen he was appointed Adjutant General of one of the districts of Virginia, with the rank of Major. At the age of twenty-one he was sent by Governor Dinwiddie to visit the French in the Ohio Valley on an important mission. Also at the age of twenty-one he was promoted to the rank of Colonel.
5
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THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS
When twenty-seven he was married to Mrs. Martha Custis, a wealthy widow, who was the mother of two children by a former marriage. Five years later he was elected a member
of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, and served in that position until the con- vention at Williamsburg in 1773. In 1774 he was sent as a delegate to the Conti- nental Congress at Phila- delphia, and in 1775 was chosen Commander-in- Chief of the Continental Army. He commanded the armies throughout the war for independence.
On December 23, 1783, he resigned and retired to Mount Vernon, his home. In 1787 he was sent as a delegate to the national convention which framed the Constitu- tion, and was chosen president of that body. He was unani- mously elected President of the United States, and inaugurated April 30, 1789. He was unanimously re-elected in 1793 and retired March 4, 1797. In July, 1798, he was appointed Lieu- tenant General, but had no occasion to serve as such. He was a Free Mason of high rank.
On December 11, 1799, he contracted a severe illness from exposure. His physician resorted to bleeding to relieve him, and on December 14 he died at his home at Mount Vernon, Va. His name is on every State map in the Union.
CHAPTER IV.
THE PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
The following list of county names by no means represents this large class of early Texans, as will be shown from the various sketches preceding and following. The list will show the character of their struggle with the Indians from 1823 to 1881, when the savages finally left the State.
There is no more comprehensive characterization than the following in Theodore Roosevelt's "Winning of the West:"
"The warlike borderers who thronged across the Alleghanies, the restless and reckless hunters, the hard, dogged, frontier farmers, by dint of grim tenacity, overcame and displaced In- dians, French, and Spaniards alike, exactly as fourteen hun- dred years before Saxon and Angle overcame and displaced the Cyrmic and Gaelic Celts.
"They warred and settled from the high hill-valleys of the French Broad and the Upper Cumberland to the half tropical basin of the Rio Grande, and to where the Golden Gate lets through the long-heaving waters of the Pacific.
"The fathers followed Boone, or fought at King's Mountain ; the sons marched south with Jackson to overcome the Creeks and beat back the British; the grandsons died at the Alamo, or charged to victory at San Jacinto."
It will be seen, however, that states in different sections of the Union furnished their quota of the men who assisted in conquering the wilderness. .
Counties named in honor of these men are :
Armstrong Gaines
Kinney Smith
Borden Hall
Loving
Starr
Brown Harris Maverick
Sterling
Caldwell Harrison Menard Tarrant
Coleman Hill
Montague Taylor
Collin Hopkins
McLennan Throckmorton
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