Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas Page: 462 of 894

INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAIS.

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mercantile pursuits (being incapacitated for active
outdoor work by wounds received during the war)
was engaged in merchandising in Bastrop County
till his death May 23, 1889. He met with good
success and left his family well provided for. A
widow and six children survived him, though a son
and daughter have since followed him to the grave.
His children are Nannie Olive now Mrs. M. L.
Hines; Woody Allison who died in 1892 at the age
of fifteen; Lula Love who died in 1895 at about

the same age; Charles Herbert, Dick Hunter and
Grace Vaughn.
Mrs. Tex Standefer widow of Richard V. Standefer
also comes of old settled families, her father
Thomas Gatlin, having come to this country in
1840 and her mother, Nancy R. Christian, in 1832.
She being a daughter of Thomas Christian who
was killed by the Indians at the time Wilbarger was
scalped. (See account of this elsewhere in this
volume.)

DEWITT CLINTON GIDDINGS,
BRENHAM.

This well-known ex-member of Congress, lawyer
and banker, was born on the 18th of July, 1827, in
Susquehanna County, Penn. His father, James
Giddings, a native of Connecticut, was in early life
a ship captain, and in later years a farmer in Susquehanna
County, where he died in 1863.
The earliest account in this country of the family
(which is of Scotch extraction) is of George G iddings
and his wife, who emigrated to America in
1635. Members of the family joined the patriot
army at the beginning of the Revolution and remained
in the ranks until victory perched upon the
Continental colors and the independence of the
colonies was won.
Col. Giddings' mother, Lucy (Demming) Giddings
was a native of Connecticut. The Demmings
are of French descent. Representatives of the
family were early emigrants to America. In the
Revolutionary War they associated themselves with
their fellow-colonists and fought for independence.
Mrs. Giddings was a woman of rare force of
character. She reared a large family, and her sons
proudly boast that to the lessons of self-denial,
industry and love of freedom taught them by her
is due whatever of success has attended them.
Col. Giddings was the youngest son. As his brothers
finished school and attained maturity, one by
one they left the old home and the dull routine of
farm life. Wishing to keep his youngest boy with
him, his father refused to educate him as he had
the others; but Col. Giddings determined to secure
a liberal education, and this he obtained in
the best schools of New York, earning the money
to defray his expenses by teaching country schools.
At the age of twenty he was for a short time
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a civil engineer on a railroad, but in 1850 commenced
reading law at Honesdale, Penn., under
the direction of Earl Wheeler, a distinguished lawyer
of that State, and in 1852 came to Texas, whither
he had been preceded by five brothers. The eldest,
Giles A.., a civil engineer, came to Texas in 1838,
and in 1836, on his return from a campaign against
the Indians, in which he had been engaged for
several months, learned that Houston's army was
retreating, and, with his companions, hastened to
join it. Three days before the battle of San Jacinto
he wrote his parents a letter, full of the purest
patriotism, telling them that if he fell, they would
have the joy of knowing that their son died " fight.
ing against oppression and for the rights of man,"
a letter that was almost prophetic, for he received
wounds during the battle from which he died the
second day of May following. The subject of this
memoir, Col. D. C. Giddings, on settling in Texas,
associated himself in partnership with his brother,
J. D. Giddings, for the practice of law at Brenham.
In 1860 he married Miss Malinda C. Lusk, a
daughter of Samuel Lusk, an early pioneer, who
was an active participant in the Texas revolution, a
member of the Convention which framed the Constitution
of the Republic of Texas, and for many
years County Clerk of Washington County. They
had five children, only three of whom survived infancy,
viz.: Dewitt Clinton, Mary Belle (who married
E. H. Cooke and whose death occurred in 1895)
and Lillian Giddings. Col. Giddings opposed the
idea of secession, believing that Southern rights
could best be secured within the Union; but, when
the State seceded, he went with her heart and soul.
He entered the Confederate army in 1861 as a