Indian wars and pioneers of Texas / by John Henry Brown. Page: 307 of 894

                                
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.

266

In 1844 be went to San Antonio and joined (
Jack Hays' Rangers, and remained with that c,
pany about a year. In 1845 he was appoin
deputy surveyor of Bexar District, and in t
year surveyed and made the locations in Gilles
County. In 1846 he surveyed the lands on
upper portion  of the Guadalupe river. Fr
1846 to 1849 he was often interrupted in the w<
of surveying by hostile Indians. During 1847
completed the surveys on the San Saba. One d
during this time while in camp with about twer
men, he was visited by Ketemsey, a celebrat
chief of the Comanches, and ordered not to ma
any more trees up there, the chief pointing at t
same time to a range of hills and saying: " That
the white man's line." But these orders were n
obeyed, the whites being armed with rifles ar
revolvers and the Indians having only bows an
arrows and spears.
In the spring of 1849, Capt. Tivy took the Cal
fornia fever and, in company with several other,
set out in June for the Pacific Coast.' The
reached San Gabriel Valley in Southern Californis
in October following, after many trials and muci
suffering and went into camp for the winter a
Mission San Gabriel. In the spring of 1850, th(
party resumed its journey and finally reached th4
mines by way of Tejon Pass. Here Capt. Tivy
went into the hotel business, renting the " United
States Hotel" at $200 per month. The building
was made of stakes and poles and roofed with canvas.
There was only one long, narrow room which
was used as a dining room. On the sides and ends
of this the lodgers were bedded in bunks arranged
one above the other. The cooking was all done in
the open air, excepting the baking, at which two
men were kept busy almost day and night, so great
was the demand for pies, cakes and bread. The
rate charged for board and lodging was $3.00 per
day in gold dust, there being no coin.
After following this occupation for a few months
Mr. Tivy sold out and went to mining, which he
followed a little over two years. He then went
into the mercantile business, which he followed for
about a year. In July, 1853, Tulare County was
organized and he was elected county surveyor. In
connection with his official duties he went to farming
and employed successfully a band of Indians,
whom he trained to agricultural pursuits. These
he would have liked to retain, but Gen. Fremont,
having secured a contract from the general government
to feed all the Indians of that locality at so
much per head, they were taken away from him
and transported to a point near the base of supplies.
The same year he was appointed United

Col.  States Deputy Surveyor of California and elected to
om
  the Legislature and served in the Legislature during
ited  the winter of 1853-4. In the spring of 1855 he
Lhat  was ordered by the surveyor-general to run a line
ipie  through the Sierra Nevada mountains, accomplished
the  the task and ran the first correct standard line run
om   through those mountains. The expedition was full
Drk  of perilous adventures and hair-breadth escapes
he from Indians and grizzly bears. In 1857 he went
lay  from California to New Mexico and in the fall of
ity  1858 returned to Texas and settled in Karnes
ed   County, where he engaged in raising horses and
rk   mules. In 1862 he enlisted in the Confederate
he  army, becoming a Lieutenant in Capt. John H.
is Dunkard's Company. In the fall of the same year
ot  he was promoted to the position of First-Lieutenant,
id  and later put in command of the company and held
id  this position until the fall of 1864. In the meantime
his health had become impaired and he was
li
finally forced to quit the service.
s,    Being still in feeble health, on the recommenday
  tion of his physician he moved to Kerr County in
k,  1872 and settled on a tract of land (on which Kerrh
  ville now stands) which he had located while surkt
veying in that section in the "forties."  In 1873
e  he was elected to the Legislature. From 1874 to
1888 he engaged in farming. On the establishment
of Kerrville in 1888 he was made the first mayor of
I the place. As soon as the town was incorporated
he donated to it sixteen acres of land for a school
building and grounds and later donated other lots (in
all more than one hundred acres) for the erection of
buildings and for other improvements. He watched
the growth of the town from its inception and
always manifested a liberal spirit in promoting its
interests.
He married late in life, his wife being Mrs. Ella
Losee, widow of Dr. Henry Losee, a United States
army surgeon who died at Kerrville. She died
three or four years before Capt. Tivy. His death
occurred July 5th, 1892.
For some time he had been actively engaged in
overseeing the work of boring for artesian water
on his place. Owing to his advanced age and physical
condition, this undue activity and exposure
brought on stomach complications which proved to
be the immediate cause of his demise. He was a
member of the Masonic fraternity. Religious services
were conducted at the church and services at
the grave by Kerrville Lodge No. 697, A. F. and
A. M., and Burleson Chapter Royal Arch Masons of
San Antonio. A large delegation from Rising Star
Lodge were also present from Center Point. The
funeral cortege consisted of more than one hundred
carriages and was the largest ever seen in the town.