Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, Volume 5, Number 1, January 1995 Page: 15
66 p. : ill., ports. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Reconstruction in Colorado County, Texas, 1865-1876
In the meantime, relations between Colorado County's whites and blacks remained rela-
tively calm. The new Freedmen's Bureau agent, Louis M. Stevenson, who replaced
E. M. Harris in February 1868, complained at first about the attitudes of local whites.
He reported six cases of attacks by whites on blacks during his first three months of
service, and wrote in May: "There is no man so bad but that the best men as a rule will
bail him for an outrage on a freedman." William M. Smith, the military appointee as Mayor
of Columbus, echoed Stevenson's views later that month in a letter to Governor Pease,
concluding "The Bureau is the greatest and almost the only protection the colored people
of this vicinity have." However, Stevenson reported only three assaults on blacks by
whites for the remainder of 1868 and usually commented that few problems existed and
that troops need not be stationed in the county.40 The outcome of several potentially
serious racial incidents bore out the agent's optimistic assessment. In September, after
a white storekeeper in Columbus stabbed a freedman, a group of blacks beat and cut the
attacker. Local whites reacted by preparing for a race "war," but after talking to
Stevenson, they calmed down and committed no violent acts. In December a black man
was executed for the rape of a German woman. District Judge McFarland and others
feared violence, but nothing happened.41
Unlike his view of race relations, Stevenson's attitude toward local civil
officeholders became steadily more negative during 1868. In May, he reported that
county officials were "efficient and obedient," but within a few months he began to
complain about their inefficiency. My greatest difficulty, the agent wrote in November,
is the "unreliability of civil officers." District Judge McFarland made the same sort of
complaints to Governor Pease, aiming his objections especially at County Judge John
D. Gillmore and Sheriff J. B. Leyendecker, and William M. Smith added the extreme
charge that most local officials were either members of the Ku Klux Klan or were
intimidated by it. In early 1869 Robert P. Tendick and the commander of Federal troops
at Columbus demanded the replacement of Leyendecker with Charles Schmidt, a
merchant born in Germany.42
These complaints did not lead to any removals, but an act of Congress on
February 18, 1869 had the same effect. The law required all government officials in
states still not restored to the Union-Texas, Georgia, and Virginia-to take the Test Oath
of 1862 that they had never voluntarily supported the Confederacy.43 Most Colorado
County officeholders could not meet this requirement when it became effective in April,
and they had to vacate their positions. Daniel D. Claiborne, a one-time large slaveholder
who had opposed secession and become a Republican, replaced Gillmore as county
40 L. W. Stevenson to Second Lieutenant Charles A. Vernon, May 31, June 30, July 31, August
31, September 30, October 31, November 30, December 31, 1868, BRFAL; William M. Smith to E. M. Pease,
May 25, 1868, Governors' Papers: E. M. Pease.
41 L. W. Stevenson to Second Lieutenant Charles A. Vernon, September 21, December 31, 1868,
BRFAL; I. B. McFarland to E. M. Pease, December 4, 1868, Governors' Papers: EMP.
42 Stevenson to Vernon, May 31, November 30, 1868, BRFAL; Stevenson to E. M. Pease, July 13,
1868, McFarland to E. M. Pease, December 4, 1868, William M. Smith to E. M. Pease, December 7, 1868,
Governors' Papers: EMP; Robert P. Tendickto I. W. McFarland, February 19, 1869, Second Lieutenant James
W. Tanfield to Lieutenant W. H. W. Krebbs, March 19, 1869, OCA.
43 United States Statutes at Large, vol. 20, 40th Congress, 3rd Session, p. 344.
15
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Nesbitt Memorial Library. Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, Volume 5, Number 1, January 1995, periodical, January 1995; Columbus, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth151393/m1/15/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Nesbitt Memorial Library.