Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, Volume 6, Number 1, January 1996 Page: 8
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Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal
Law enforcement, like medicine, was left to amateurs. Apparently, from their
earliest days in Texas, the colonists were bothered by thieves, many of whom were Indians,
and many of whom were not. Initially, when thieves were apprehended, they were flogged.
However, when the thievery continued, the settlers adopted more draconian methods of
dealing with it.
The numerous incidents of theft from the colonists began almost as soon as they
arrived. In early June 1822, the ships John Motley and Only Son, each carrying provisions
and settlers, landed at the mouth of the Colorado River. The settlers on the John Motley,
who had originally set out from New Orleans on another vessel, the Lively, and who had
been marooned for a short time on Galveston Island when the Lively was wrecked, had had
a harrowing journey, and many of them were ill. To escape the sea air and to find the
settlements, they went inland. Many went to a site known as Jenning's Camp, perhaps
twenty-five miles from the coast. Others went to or established a second camp, which
became known as Wilson's Camp. Most or all of the passengers from the Only Son,
including William Kincheloe, who had owned the vessel, established yet another camp.'
On July 23, the Only Son was back in New Orleans, planning another voyage
to Texas. When it embarked, it carried provisions for the colonists and, apparently, a few
immigrants, among them Nicholas Clopper, Jr., and Peter White. By September, the ship
had landed at the Colorado. Clopper, White, and at least one other man were left at the coast
to guard the provisions while the remaining passengers went inland. When the settlers
returned to retrieve the goods, they found the guards missing and the provisions either
stolen or destroyed, and concluded, quite logically, that Indians were the culprits."
10 See Kuykendall, "Reminiscences of Early Texans," The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical
Association, vol. 6, no. 3, January 1903, pp. 236-237, 247; The Austin Papers, vol. 1, p. 476. Jenning's Camp
had been established by Jacob Jennings, who had been a passenger on the Lively when it made its first voyage
to Texas in late 1821, together with John Hanna, Israel Massey, Phillip Dimmitt, and perhaps others. Within
a year, however, Jennings, and another man at the camp, Thomas Harrison, had died; and Hanna, Massey, and
everyone else who might have been present in the camp had abandoned it. Hanna and Massey had gotten involved
in a horse and mule business with Littleberry Hawkins. The two men, financed by Hawkins, were to get a herd
of horses and mules to the United States where they could be sold for a profit. The deal quickly soured, however;
and apparently no one made any money. Hanna hired Freeman Pettus to drive the herd from near James
Cummins' house to the house of his brother, William Pettus, nearer Louisiana, where he intended to pick them
up. But Pettus lost control of the herd, and many or all of the animals were lost. Further complicating things,
Hanna and Massey had earlier agreed to trade some of the now-lost horses to a third party for coffee, sugar,
and rice, all of which they had already sold (see The Austin Papers, vol. 1, pp. 632, 699-700, 917-922, Dewees,
Letters from an Early Settler of Texas, p. 31).
11 See The Austin Papers, vol. 1, pp. 532-533, which contains a letter dated July 23, 1822 that was
sent to Austin via the captain of the Only Son; Edward N. Clopper, An American Family (Cincinnati: Standard
Printing and Publishing, 1950), pp. 109-110, 298; Province of Texas v. Stephen R. Wilson, Minutes, March 8,
1823, Bexar Archives, The Center for American History, University of Texas, Austin, which identifies the camp
from which the goods were stolen as that of Nicholas Clopper and Seth Ingram; Dewees, Letters from an Early
Settler of Texas, pp. 30-32; Kuykendall, "Reminiscences of Early Texans," The Quarterly of the Texas State
Historical Association, vol. 6, no. 3, January 1903, pp. 236-237, 247.
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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/m1/8/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Nesbitt Memorial Library.