The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 60, July 1956 - April, 1957 Page: 354
616 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
Bowie owed him. In 1839 the moth-eaten coats were inventoried
again. In 1840, F. L. Paschal, sheriff of Bexar County, became
administrator. He had somehow got hold of a certificate for 640
acres of land donated by the Republic of Texas to the heirs of
James Bowie. It was appraised at $5o, and then sold at public
outcry for $51. The court ordered the proceeds to be paid to the
Veramendi estate for credit on Bowie's dowry bond, which was
on file.29
The San Antonio probate court perhaps knew nothing of
Bowie's will; certainly it ignored official proceedings at Houston
and elsewhere to the east on the Bowie estate. On November 11,
1836, Major William Oldham, styled "Administrator," petitioned
the Texas Congress to pay the Bowie estate for expenditures made
by Bowie in a military capacity. Early in 1837 Oldham was adver-
tising for claims against the estate and for payments due it. There
must have been dissatisfaction with his administration. In Janu-
ary, 1839, the Texas Congress passed an act giving Reason [sic]
P. Bowie and Alexander B. Sterritt (the executors named by
James Bowie in his will) power to probate Bowie's will in Harris
County, letters of executorship to be transferred to San Antonio
"when the settled state of the country will permit the transaction
of business in the usual way." At the same time, the Bowie peti-
tion of November 11, 1836, was withdrawn. Also, on January 29,
1839, Felix Huston acknowledged Bowie's will before a justice
in Houston and on March 7 following, Edwin Morehouse added
his acknowledgment of it. So far as can be ascertained by incom-
plete records, this will was not actually recorded until August 11,
1852, "at 9 o'clock A.M."30 Parish records in Louisiana might
29Records of the Bexar County Probate Court, San Antonio. See also Edward
S. Sears, "The Low Down on Jim Bowie," Texas Folklore Society Publications,
No. XIX.
soThe Telegraph and Texas Register, of Houston, regularly published official
records of the proceedings of the Texas Congress. On November 23, 1836, it sum-
marized the Oldham petition. On March 28, 1837, it ran Oldham's advertise-
ment, repeated in the next two issues. On February 27, 1839, in a record of the
proceedings of Congress, it published the fact that the 1836 petition had been
withdrawn, the identical item being in the Journal of the House of Representa-
tives of the Republic of Texas, January 24, 1839, p. 408. The act of January 26,
1839, making Rezin P. Bowie and Alexander Sterritt executors of Bowie's will
is recorded in Gammel's Laws of Texas, II, 123. The writer is indebted to Andrew
Forest Muir of Houston for the fact that Bowie's will is recorded in the Deed
Records of Harris County, Q, 147-149. See also Note 19, ante.354
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 60, July 1956 - April, 1957, periodical, 1957; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101163/m1/383/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.