The Texas Gulf Historical and Biographical Record, Volume 21, Number 1, November 1985 Page: 47
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HENRY MILLARD, FORGOTTEN TEXIAN
The New Land
Two of the three members of the new "Joseph P. Pulsifer & Co." had
no prior experience to prepare them for the alien conditions awaiting them
in the Mexican state of Coahuila y Texas, where loneliness, physical danger,
and an encroaching wilderness were a part of daily existence. Even more
foreign was the political climate; as Mexican citizens, Texian immigrants
lived under the rule of a country whose laws, culture and ethnic origins were
in sharp contrast to their own Anglo norms. To compound the problem,
at the time of Millard's migration in the summer of 1835, Mexico, nominally
bound to a federal constitution enacted in 1824, was actually under the thumb
of a would-be dictator - General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. The situa-
tion was explosive.
At this time, very few Anglo-Texians wished total independence from
Mexico. Their allegiance remained with the Constitution of 1824; their ob-
jection was to the dictatorship of Santa Anna. Events of that summer,
however, had begun to point inexorably toward war, particularly when
Texians heard that the Mexican Army, under Santa Anna's brother-in-law,
General Martin Perfecto de Cos, had crossed the Rio Grande and was
marching to Bexar (San Antonio). A general call went out for a Consulta-
tion Convention to be held the following October, either to obtain peace
under the constitution or to prepare for war.
Meanwhile, for their new enterprise, the three partners had chosen a
spot on the Neches River at the crossing of the Atascosito, or Opelousas,
Trail, where two tiny settlements had grown up on the high bluffs: Tevis
Bluff, named for the first family to settle the area, and Santa Anna, a short
distance downriver, named for the dictator before he deserted the Mexican
Constitution.
A few days after his and Pulsifer's arrival in late July, Huling left for
his store in Zavalla. Pulsifer settled into their store in Santa Anna to await
Millard, who arrived in August. Within days of his arrival, both men were
embroiled in local politics and preparations for hostilities. On September
2, able-bodied men of Santa Anna and Tevis Bluff formed a military com-
pany, naming themselves the Neches Guards and adopting the motto, "Try
Us." Millard, their elected chairman, addressed them with inspiring words
and led them in drills.
In spite of the excitement, Millard, who had come to Texas to make
money, plunged immediately into land speculation. On September 4, a mere
two or three weeks after he had arrived, he bought from Noah Tevis, the
area's first settler, fifty choice acres on the high bluff overlooking the river.Nov. 1985]
47
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Texas Gulf Historical Society. The Texas Gulf Historical and Biographical Record, Volume 21, Number 1, November 1985, periodical, November 1985; Beaumont, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1433656/m1/49/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Gulf Historical Society.