The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 20, July 1916 - April, 1917 Page: 145

Don Carlos Barrett

he was at Galveston.21 Among his papers there is an itemized
statement for salary as judge advocate general-the appointment
which Governor Smith had 'vetoed,-rations, servants, etc.,, for
$880 for the five months from February 22 to July 22, 1836,
though during most of that time he was, as we have seen, in the
United States. It was evidently his intention to present this bill
to the government, but whether or not he did so is uncertain. He
died at the home of Colonel Hall, near Brazoria, May 19, 1838.22
While in the United States, he had probably visited his family at
Erie,23 Pennsylvania, since his son George was with him when he
died. E. M. Pease wrote that his estate was inventoried after his
death at about $140,000, of which land valued at $56,000 was in
litigation. Fifty-four thousand dollars was in the form of notes,
and there were five slaves and a comfortable home at Quintana.
Yoakum and Brown have given publicity in their histories to
Governor Smith's charges against Barrett, while the record of his
faithful and valuable services during the early period of the revo-
lution has for the most part been buried in the journals of the
Consultation and of the General Council.
"1Lamar to Ellis, May 8, 1837; Leigh to General R. G. Dunlap, August
26, 1837.
2"E. M. Pease to Mrs. Barrett, June 18, 1838. "His disease was dropsy
about the heart. I should not have been surprised if he had died at
any time in the last two years, although he sometimes flattered himself
with the hope of recovery. . . . I became acquainted with Colonel B.
at New Orleans in January, 1835. I came to this country with him
and continued with him as a partner in the practice of law, until his bad
health induced him to visit the United States in the spring of 1836,
while absent we corresponded occasionally and since his return to. Texas
our former intimacy has been renewed."
-That Erie was his home is shown by a letter signed R., dated June
14, 1836, and addressed to Barrett at Cincinnati. From the tone of the
letter it seems likely that R. was Barrett's father-in-law. He says that
Barrett's old homestead, "now in the hands of R. T. Reed," is worth a
fortune, twenty or thirty thousand dollars.

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