Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, Volume 6, Number 1, January 1996 Page: 36
This periodical is part of the collection entitled: Texas Cultures Online and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Nesbitt Memorial Library.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal
Ross' predecessor as militia captain, Robert H. Kuykendall, maintained a far
better reputation than Ross, but suffered an equally grievous fate. Apparently in the late
1820s, he went blind from what a physician later described as "a supposed depression of
the brain." That physician, Robert Peebles, performed surgery on Kuykendall on March
20, 1830 in Brazoria, and reported the following week that his patient seemed to be better
though he still could not see. Neither the details of the surgery nor the degree of
Kuykendall's improvement after it is known. Kuykendall was tough enough to survive the
medical attentions of the time, though only for a year or two. He died, probably in 1832,
but certainly before November 1833.3
In early 1828, the government of Austin's Colony was reorganized. The colony
itself was elevated to the status of a municipality, designated the Municipality of Austin.
The Colorado District, and the other districts, were eliminated, and the local alcaldes were
replaced by a single assembly, known as the ayuntamiento, which convened regularly in
the municipality's capital, San Felipe. Initially, the ayuntamiento consisted of a single
alcalde, two regidors, and an officer called the sindico procurador, of which Rawson Alley
was the first. Each official served a term of one year. The new civil form of government
seems to have left the existing militia divisions intact, ordering an election for a captain and
two lieutenants in the former Colorado District on March 30, 1828, for its first year.
However, on February 11, 1829, the ayuntamiento reorganized the militia districts,
creating five, the first four of which were to field one company. The fifth, which comprised
all of the territory along the Colorado River north of Skull Creek, that is, most of what is
Harriet Smither (vols. 5-6), eds., The Papers of Mirabeau Bonaparte Lamar, 6 vols. (vols. 1 and 2, Austin:
A. C. Baldwin & Sons, [1921], 1922; vols. 3-6, Austin: Von Boeckmann-Jones, [1923-1927]), vol. 4, part 1,
pp. 215-216; John Henry Brown, Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas (Austin: L. E. Daniel, 1880), p. 526; Texas
Monument, August 28, 1850; Colorado County District Court Records, Civil Cause File No. 658: George C.
Hatch v. Elizabeth Cass, et al. Andrew Rabb, who supplied the information on Ross to Lamar, stated that Ross
had been killed in January or February 1834. However, Ross was certainly alive on February 20, 1834, when
William Barret Travis gave him a note, and was presumably still alive some three months later, when Travis
received a letter from him and wrote him a reply (see Robert E. Davis, ed., The Diary of William Barret Travis
(Waco: Texian Press, 1966), pp. 129, 172). Ross' stormy relationship with women had continued. In 1827, he
abandoned James Cummins' daughter Mariah (to whom he may or may not have been married twice, once in
Arkansas in about 1822 and again Texas in 1825) and took up with her younger sister, Nancy (see Colorado
County District Court Records, Civil Cause File No. 658: George C. Hatch v. Elizabeth Cass, et al.).
3 Texas Gazette, March 27, 1830; Gulick, Elliott, Allen, and Smither, eds., The Papers of Mirabeau
Bonaparte Lamar, vol. 4, part 1, p. 216; Davis, ed., The Diary of William Barret Travis, p. 71. A news article
reported that Kuykendall had been trepanned by Dr. Peebles, meaning that small circular sections of corneal
tissue or of bone, presumably from his skull, were cut away. The economic state to which this former public
servant had been reduced might be judged by his pursuit, a few months after the surgery, of a claim against the
United States government for depredations committed against him by Indians in 1816. His signature, present
in full on earlier documents, had diminished to an unsteady "X" (see Austin County Colonial Records 1810
[1824]-1832. For an earlier signature, see, for example, his July 13, 1823 letter to the governor of Texas, which
is reproduced on pages 28-29 of Ernest William Winkler, ed., Manuscript Letters and Documents of Early
Texians 1821-1845 (Austin: The Steck Company, 1937)).36
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Periodical.
Nesbitt Memorial Library. Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, Volume 6, Number 1, January 1996, periodical, January 1996; Columbus, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth151396/m1/36/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Nesbitt Memorial Library.