The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 60, July 1956 - April, 1957 Page: 503
616 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Texas Pioneer Surveyors and Indians
frontiersman in the party returned home. He told his friends at
Bastrop why he had left the surveyors and prophesied that none
of the party would survive the trip. When the surveyors failed
to return to the settlement, a party was organized to find them.
The searching party accidentally found the spot where the sur-
veyors had been killed by the Indians. It appears that the sur-
veyors had found a number of bee trees and had felled six or
seven of the trees before they attempted to take the honey. At
this point, it is supposed they were attacked by the Indians. The
bee trees were not touched. The searching party found the
skeletons of the surveyors. Only one of the skeletons could be
identified, that of a young man by the name of Beatty. His
skeleton was found lying at the root of a tree on which, with
his pocket knife, he had carved his name. Beatty, mortally
wounded and left for dead by the Indians, had revived sufficiently
to carve his name upon his own tombstone before he died.
Captain John Harvey, a surveyor from Tennessee, came to
Texas in 1834, and settled first in San Augustine County and
after a few years moved to Bastrop.5 In June, 1839, Harvey, with
a party of ten men, made a surveying trip up the Colorado River
into Burnet County. The party encamped on the river and began
surveying a number of tracts. The members continued their work
for several days without any excitement to interrupt their labors.
The brave but cautious Harvey had a guard out at night. Early
one morning just before day, Captain Harvey was in the act of
awakening his party when it was fired upon by a band of Indians.
The Indians had crawled up unnoticed to some small bushes
close to camp. In the darkness, the Indians hit only a Mr. Burnet,
whose arm was broken. This surprise attack, of course, threw the
surveyors into confusion but Captain Harvey soon rallied them.
He ordered his men to take to the woods and each to defend
himself. The fight was on. As Indians could not resist a fine horse,
one ventured from his position to capture a horse that was tied
to a tree. The Indian was in the act of cutting the rope when
three shots from the surveyors cut him down. The Indian chief
then ordered a retreat. In spite of the rapid fire from the guns
of the surveyors, the Indians ran to where their comrade had
Ilbid., 263.503
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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/m1/543/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.