True stories of old Houston and Houstonians: historical and personal sketches / by S. O. Young. Page: 102
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102 TRUE STORIES OF OLD
Tom succeeded in getting untangled. He took a look at the
negro and started across the street to get his gun. The other
negroes shouted to the one up the post warning him of Tom's
intention. I don't know that there is any truth in the story, but
the other negroes told it as true for a long time, that when the
negro found Tom had gone after a gun he came down the post
so quickly that the friction set his pants on fire. He made a
dive at the fence, knocked of two or three boards, and when
Tom came back with his gun he found his victim gone.
SAN JACINTO VETERANS.
R ECENTLY I have been reading Texas history. The Alamo
and Goliad made my blood boil with indignation, but San
Jacinto more than paid the debt that was due the Mexicans.
The account of San Jacinto battle is charming reading
for all native Texans, and I take particular pleasure in reading
about it, because I knew so many of the men who took part in
that glorious victory. When I was a boy the San Jacinto veterans
were as thick about Houston as Confederate Veterans are
today and you know that is a strong statement, for the latter
appear to be numberless. The most conspicuous of the San
Jacinto veterans was old man Tierwester, who had a powder
horn with a Mexican bullet in it. I have told before how he
would commence drinking early in the day on April 21, and keep
it up all day. The more he drank the louder he talked and the
more viciously he would shake the horn and tell the history of
the bullet it contained. He was a Frenchman and lived down
in Frostown, not far from where the gas works are now located.
There was old man Jarmond, too, and a score or two of others.
I speak of them as being old, but they were not really aged.
They seemed oldTo me, but they could not have been more than
40 or 60 on an average.
One thing I have never seen mentioned in print and which
seems forgotten by everybody, was the old "Liberty Pole" that
was erected near the Houston House by the San Jacinto veterans
and the people of Houston to commemorate Texas independence.
A few days ago I met Captain William Christian and
he asked if I remembered the old pole. I remembered seeing
only a part of it that was preserved by the veterans for many
years. This liberty pole was a pine tree that had been trimmed
and converted into a fine flag pole from which flew the Lone
Star flag on festive occasions and always on San Jacinto day.
It did duty as long as Texas remained a republic, but by the time
it was admitted as a state the old pole had grown so decayed
and weak that it broke off and fell to the ground. The veterans
of San Jacinto, who had used the pole as a rallying point for
years, secured a piece of it, about 20 feet long, and on April 21,
after an appropriate salute had been fired from the 'Twin Sisters,"
the two brass cannon used by the Texans at the battle,
the veterans shouldered the piece of liberty pole and headed for
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Young, Samuel Oliver. True stories of old Houston and Houstonians: historical and personal sketches / by S. O. Young., book, 1913; Galveston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth24646/m1/102/?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.