Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas Page: 54 of 894
762 p., [172] leaves of plates : ill., ports. ; 30 cm.View a full description of this book.
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46
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
where Hallettsville is, but found that every one had
retreated. They then followed the Lavaca down
about thirty-five miles to where their older sister,
the wife of Capt. John McHenry, and a few others
lived
but found that all had been gone some
time. They then took the old Atascosita road
from Goliad which crossed the Colorado a few
miles below where Columbia is. Near the Colorado,
almost starved to death, they fell in with
some Mexican scouts and were conducted to the
camp of the Mexican general, Adrian Woll, a
Frenchman, who could speak English and to whom
they narrated their sad story. Woll received them
kindly and had all needful care taken of them. In
a few days the boys were taken by a Frenchman
named Auguste, a traitor to Texas, to his place on
Cummins' creek, where he had collected a lot of
negroes and a great many cattle belonging to the
retreating citizens, from which he was supplying
Gen. Woll with beef at enormous prices. The 21st
of April passed and San Jacinto was won. Very
soon the Mexicans began preparations for retreat.
Auguste, mounting Augustine Douglas on a fine
horse, sent him down to learn when Woll could
start. In the meantime a party of Texians, headed
by Alison York, who had heard of Auguste's
thieving den, hurried forward to chastise him before
he could leave the country with his booty. He
punished them severely, all who could fleeing into
the bottom and thence to Woll's camp. When
York's paity opened fire, little Thadeus Douglas,not understanding the cause, fled down the road
and in about a mile met his brother returning from
Woll's camp on Auguste's fine horse. With equal
prudence and financial skill they determined to save
both themselves and the horse. Thadeus mounting
behind, they started at double quick for the
Brazos. They had not traveled many miles, however,
when they met the gallant Capt. Henry W.
Karnes, at the head of some cavalry, from whom they
learned for the first time, of the victory of San
Jacinto, and that they yet would see their only surviving
sister and brother-in-law, Capt. and Mrs.
McHenry. In writing of this incident in De Bow's
Review of December, 1853, eighteen years after
its occurrence, I used this language:"These
boys, thus rendered objects of sympathy,
formed a link in the legends of the old
Texians, and still reside on the Lavaca, much respected
for their courage and moral deportment."
It is a still greater pleasure to say now that they
ever after bore honorable characters. One of the
brothers died some years ago, and the other in
1889. The noble old patriot in three revolutionsMexico in 1820, South America in 1822,
and Texas in 1835
preceded by gallant conduct
at New Orleans in 1815, when only sixteen years
old
the honest, brave and ever true son of Erin's
isle, Capt. John McHenry, died in 1885, leaving
a memory sweetly embalmed in many thousand
hearts.Erath's Fight, January 7, 1837.
Among the brave and useful men on the Brazos
frontier from 1835 till that frontier receded far up
the river, conspicuously appears the name of the
venerable Capt. George B. Erath. He was born in
Austria. His first services were in Col. John H.
Moore's expedition for the relief of Capt. Robert
M. Coleman, to the Tehuacano Hill country, in
July, 1835. Though green from the land of the
Hapsburgs, he won a character for daring courage
in his first engagement, leading in the charge and
gaining the soubriquet of "The Flying Dutchman."
His second experience was on the field of San Jacinto,
April 21, 1836. In the summer of that year
he located at Nashville, at the falls of the Brazos,
and ever after resided in that vicinity and McLennan
county. As surveyor and ranger for ten years
or more he had many adventures and was in many
skirmishes and engagements with the Indians. He
served in the Congress of the Republic, and afterwards
in the one or the other house of the Legislature,
at intervals, till 1865.
His third engagement as a soldier occurred on
the 7th of January, 1837, on Elm creek, in
Milam County. At that time Lieut. Curtis commanded
a small company of illy equipped rangers
at a little fort at the three forks of Little river, in
Bell County, subsisting chiefly on wild meat and
honey. Erath, as a lieutenant, was first there and
erected several cabins, but on the arrival of Curtis
he became the ranking officer.
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Brown, John Henry. Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas, book, 1880~; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6725/m1/54/?rotate=90: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.