Vol 14 No. 07 - April 1937

Battle Of Coleto And The Goliad Massacre

From John C. Duval's "Early Times in Texas."

Mr. Duval, who survived the battle, and later the massacre of Fannin's men, wrote this account of this tragic event in Texas history:

A Mexican who arrived in Goliad, February, 1836, told Col. Fannin that Santa Anna, the Mexican general, had already crossed the Rio Grande with a large army and was invading Texas in two divisions—one toward Goliad and the other toward San Antonio. A few days later two Texans came to Goliad from San Patricio with the information that Capt. Grant and twenty-five or thirty of his men, stationed at that place, had been attacked and killed by Mexican guerillas. A courier also arrived from Refugio citizens, urging Col. Fannin to send soldiers to protect them, that they daily expected an attack from Mexican guerillas. So begins the sad account of the brutal slaughter of Goliad.

Further Mentions: Col. Fannin * Capt. King * Refugio * Victoria * Bahia mission-fort * Col. Horton * Coleto creek * Capt. Dashiell * Major Wallace * Dr Joseph Barnard * Major Miller * Copano * Mr. and Mrs. Guy Skiles at Langtry, Texas * the Chisos Mountains

THE KOTHMANNS OF TEXAS

Mentions: Mr. and Mrs. J. D. Eckert of Mason, Texas * Mr. D. F. Lehmberg of Mason * by Mrs. E. Marschall, Selma Minnick, and Margaret Schade * Mr. and Mrs. Heinrich Conrad Kothmann *

"CLEARING IN THE WEST"

Mentions: Mrs. Florence Atkinson * Her mother, Mrs. Nellie L. McClong

Story Of An Old Washington Hand Press

Hobart Huson, San Antonio, Texas.

Account of the old Washington hand printing press which for so many years lay outside the old capitol building at Washington-on-the-Brazos, and the frame of which has been mounted in concrete at the side of the building. It was formerly used in the printing office of The Texas Ranger, a newspaper established by the late Captain Joseph Lancaster, at Old Washington, in 1848, and was the original press used in printing that newspaper, and was discarded when the new cylinder press was installed. It was again used after the burning of The Ranger office at the close of the Civil War, until a new press was obtained.

Mentions: The Lancaster family, which was for a quarter of a century prominently identified with Washington county * the Herald, published in New York City by the famous James Gordon Bennett. Horace Greeley * Samuel A. Maverick and Mary Adams * Dr. John Shackelford * Mary Evalina Barnett * Colonel John Franklin Barnett * Dr. B. H. Carroll * Dr. Rufus C. Burleson * W. W. Herring * The Patriot, published at Houston, Mississippi * Mrs. General Scurry * The Lancasters established friend-ships, which have lasted for three or four generations, with the cultured families of Washington county, among them being the Jones, Baylor, Houston, Scurry, Hoxie, Greer, Giddings, Lipscomb, and numerous others, who are landmarks in the history of early Texas. Shortly before the Civil War Mrs. Lancaster's father, Colonel Barnett, came to Texas and settled at Round Top, over the line in Fayette county. This family, too, had been well represented in the Texas Revolution, several members of it having been signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence.

* Franklin Briscoe Lancaster * General E. Kirby Smith * Dan McGary * The Southern Banner * McGary of the Brenham Banner, George Robinson of the Huntsville Item * Miss Kitty Lancaster, the "Joan d'Arc" as she was called of Texas Confederacy

The Survival Of The Fittest

Max Coleman, Lubbock, Texas.

1878! To the present generation these four numbers mean merely a year that has passed. But back in the wild old days, when the first intrepid frontiersmen were venturing west of the 100th meridian on the Llano Estacado, it represented the turning point in West Texas civilization. This is the story of the settling of that region.

Mentions: Quanah Parker * Buffalo Springs, some eight miles southeast of the City of Lubbock * John Cauzy * R. C. Parrack * Tom Franklin who in the 1880 's and 1890's trapped wolves in Crosby and Lubbock counties * B. T. Ware * the T. & P. Railroad * Colorado City * Old Tascosa * Smith & Walker * Scaling & Tameron of St. Louis * the XIT Ranch * Mr. Boyce * J. K. Milwee and Rollie Burns * Jim East, Bob Robertson and Bill Moore * Will and Van Sanders * Uncle Dick Arnett * George Arnett * John T. Beal who managed the famous HHH Ranch in the 1890's * Dink Logan * Lovington, New Mexico * Mr. S. D. Vaughn * Mrs. Sam Vaughn * Dick Ware, Charles Ware and Arthur Ware * Mr. John Rhea

Uncle Sam Moore, Old Time Texan

By Odie Minatra, Austin, Texas

Account of the colorful and rugged life of a typical pioneer, who as a child sat on Houston's knee, and has lived to the present wonder age. Mr. Moore in the far west brushed elbows with cattle rustlers and gentlemen; roped tough mustangs from wild herds; knew Buffalo Bill and John Wesley Hardin, and even had a fleeting acquaintance with Wild Bill Hickok.

Mentions: Sidney Sherman * the old Ku Klux Klan * Nacogdoches * Peg-leg station on the San Saba river * knew Buffalo Bill and John Wesley Hardin * Wild Bill Hickok * Buffalo Bayou

A Journey Through Texas In 1856

By Frederick Law Olmsted

(CONCLUSION)

A Senate Of Pioneers

By T. U. Taylor, Austin, Texas

Account of Texas Constitutional Convention held in 1876, attended by thirty-one senators, some of whom are chronicled briefly in this story including that of William H. Burges * John Creighton Buchanan * William Matthew Burton * Sam Bronson Cooper * John Martin Duncan * Jewett Harbert Davenport * John Young Gooch * Andrew Jackson Harris * Steven W. Powers * Marion Martin * Samuel Collier Patton * Anson Rainey * Lawrence Sullivan Ross * William Russell Shannon * Charles Stewart * James B. Stubbs * William Jesse Swain * Alexander Watkins Terrell * William H. Tillson * etc., etc.

Further Mentions: Judge Joseph C. Hutcheson * Senator W. H. Lightfoot * Dick Wynne * A. W. Terrell * Senator W. W. Weatherred * Lane, Ellsberry R., Twenty-eighth District * Lightfoot, Henry W., Ninth District * Martin, John Alfred, Twenty-second District * Martin, Marion, Fourteenth District * Moore, A. W., Twenty-sixth District * Patton, Samuel Collier, Twenty-seventh District * Rainey, Anson, Thirtieth District * Shannon, William Russell, Twenty-third District * Stewart, Charles, Eighteenth District * Stubbs, James B., Nineteenth District * Swain, William Jessie, Sixth District * Tilson, William H., Fifth District * J. R. Burnett * Miss Fenner of North Carolina * Judge Thomas J. Devine * John P. White * William H. Burges * Miss Bettie Rust * Judge P. S. Watts * Gov. W. P. Hobby * John C. Stallcup * R. S. Chadick, of Upshur county * J. M. Purdu * Thomas Kleber, James, Worth Bee (Mrs. Lee Burleson), and Abbie (Mrs. J. J. Gill) * Mrs. Marsh Trigg * Miss Ann Miller * Colonel John Miller * James and Lottie Power * Miss Ida B. Foster * Henry and Virginia (Carr) Foster * Nine children were born. to Mr. and Mrs. Powers, namely: Edwin C., Pearl, Lottie, Mary, James, Steven, Nora, Zene and Georgia * A. A. Hyden * Dr. P. C. Winn, Greenbacker * Matthew F. Rainey * General Tom Harrison * Captain H. P. Wells * Judge J. W. Ferris * N. J. Nash * Hon. John T. Brady * Ellen A. Kirkpatrick * Mrs. James B. Maupin * Whitfield's Cavalry Legion * Wiliam P. McLean, * Dr. C. J. Terrell * A. H. Cox of Cass county * Dr. C. J. Terssouri * Dr. Robert Oliphant * Sarah Eliza Williams * George W. and Agnes Williams * Miss Laura Kelly * Joseph D. Sayers

THE STORY OF ALFRED SIMPSON

The story of Sergeant York, the stalwart Tennessee mountaineer who, during the World War, single-handed captured a German machine-gun nest and slew twenty-three Germans, is now rivaled by the story of Alfred Simpson, of the Hill Country of Texas. Harold Preece of Austin, wrote a very entertaining story of the Hill Country people around Austin, and of Alfred Simpson he said:

"Alfred Simpson, a lanky mountaineer, has become a legendary figure in the cabins. Word of a war across the ocean came to the hills in 1917, and young Simpson enlisted in the army. During a tough engagement in France the order came for the American forces to retreat. Simpson looked up from his machine gun and drawled. `I'm from Texas where we don't retreat.' Single-handed the young hill- men held all enemy corners at bay, and finished his self-imposed task by bringing a score of German prisoners …

Murder Of The Dollahites In Blanco County

By Allie B. Jenkins

Account of brutal slaying of J. C. Dollahite and his son, Little Sammy by Comanche Indians near Birdtown in Blanco County in 1870.

Mentions: Rev. Joseph Bird * a well known family by the name of Bird * Cypress Creek * Mrs. Jake Roberts * Captain Dan Roberts * A Mr. Jordan * the Louis Green ranch, about three miles north of the school, and in the neighborhood of Pecan, near Pecan Springs * Thad Crownover * Henry Wells * Allie B. Jenkins * Mrs. Mary Price Dodgen, Mrs. Amanda Price Galloway, Mrs. Mary Glass Crider, Mrs. Sue Bird Wolf, and Mrs. Docia Bird Collins. Mrs. Lizzie Dollahite Wagnon and Mrs. Alice Dollahite Lovelady * Misses Docia and Susie Bird * Crownover boy, Rucker boy, Kemp girl and two Kemp boys, two Shugart boys and a Shugart girl, two Bird boys * Sue Ingram Sharp, Mary Price Dodgen, Emil and Charles Klett, H. Glass, Bill Wolf, * J. A. Patton * Joe Shugart * C. C. Patton * Marble Falls * Mormon Mills * Rev. Rucker, a Baptist minister * J. C. Tate * Wesley Dollahite * Lockhart

Grandmother Mcfarland: Early Texas Settler

Jean Shelley Henry, Texas Christian University

Account of a remarkable pioneer Texas woman who came to Texas from Illinois with her family in 1861. She eventually settled in Fannin county and her life of high integrity and frontier resilience is the subject of this detailed and excellent story.

Mentions: Moore's Prairie * Ellis Co * McKnight home * Bartley * Walker's school house * Mary Jane Harper * Eufala, Oklahoma * Waxahachie * Uncle Tom Burnett * Buck Brilliant cook store * Samuel J. McFarland, of Lubbock, Texas * Mrs. W. M. Williams, a daughter who lives in Denton, Texas * Miss Ela Hockaday * Betsy's German friend, Miss Kusel * Enoch Arden * Miss Lillie Benson, of Arlington, Texas * Ladonia * Mr. and Mrs. Joe M. Hill, Dallas, Texas * Mrs. Joel Hulsey, Ladonia, Texas * Mrs. W. P. Jennings, Plainview, Texas * Dr. Gordon B. McFarland, Dallas, Texas * Mr. and Mrs. John A. McFarland, Ladonia, Texas * James R. McFarland * S. J. McFarland, Lubbock, Texas * Mrs. W. P. Jennings