Recollections of Early Texas (31 page)

J
OHN
C
OOKE
and his partner Isaac Hughes were Old Three Hundred settlers. On December 15, 1830, however, the title to their land was taken away from them because they had done nothing to improve the land since their arrival in 1824. John Cooke then received a league of land in Austin's Little Colony on April 4, 1831, in Fayette County. A John Cook was killed in the Alamo, who may or may not have been the same man. E. C. Barker, “Minutes of the Ayuntamiento of San Felipe de Austin,”
Southwestern Historical Quarterly,
XXIII; Bugbee, “The Old Three Hundred,”
Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association,
I, 117; Gulick and others (ed.),
The Papers of Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar,
IV, pt. 1, 39–40.

J
AMES
C
RAFT
came to Texas early in 1835, enlisted in the Mina Volunteers and was elected second lieutenant. He and his brother, Russell B. Craft, were both in the Battle of San Jacinto and were discharged at Bastrop on June 2, 1836. Russell built the first jail in Bastrop in 1840. James died in 1847, John S. Craft being appointed administrator of his estate. Comptroller's Military Service Records (Texas State Library), #3177; Dixon and Kemp,
Heroes of San Jacinto,
163; Minutes of the Corporation of Bastrop, April 4, 1840; Probate Records, Bastrop County, File C-1.

L
EANDER
C
ALVIN
C
UNNINGHAM,
ninth child of James and Margaret Cunningham, was born on the family farm in eastern Tennessee on July 10, 1810. The family moved to Alabama Territory in 1815 and it was here that young Cunningham studied law and was admitted to the bar, in 1832. Leander and two of his brothers emigrated to Texas in 1833. He settled in the then thriving town of Bastrop, where he began his practice of law. When Travis sent his famous letter from the Alamo in March, 1836, Cunningham and a few others tried to go to his aid, but could not get through the Mexican forces that surrounded the Alamo. Cunningham then joined the Mina Volunteers under Jesse Billingsley and fought in the Battle of San Jacinto.

In 1838 he married Mrs. Ann Sloan Slaughter, who had recently come to Texas from Kentucky. He ran for representative from Bastrop to the Second Texas Congress, receiving sixty-four votes to Jesse Billingsley's sixty, and took his seat in Congress when the first session opened. Billingsley protested that the election was illegal because thirteen of Cunningham's votes were from a company of Texas Rangers, who did not have the right to vote in such an election. Cunningham pointed out that ten of these had enlisted only as volunteers and had never taken the oath as soldiers. This still gave him a majority of one vote over Billingsley. Billingsley then showed that all thirteen names appeared on the muster roll of Company C and that they were therefore technically members of the company. The issue was put to vote in the House of Representatives; Billingsley won, thirteen to eleven, and took his seat the next day. However, in the same year Cunningham was elected County Judge of Bastrop
County and in 1841 Mayor of Bastrop. His home was even used as a courthouse for a short period of time in 1839.

He moved away from Bastrop in 1860, first to Alleyton, then successively to Columbus, Waelder, and finally, in 1895, to Seguin, where he died on December 24, 1896. He was buried at Waelder, next to his wife, who had died on June 19, 1895. Bastrop County History, Historical Records Survey (Archives Collection, University of Texas Library), 4; Brown, “Annals of Travis County”; L. C. Cunningham Papers (Archives Collection, University of Texas Library); Dixon and Kemp,
Heroes of San Jacinto,
163–164;
Journal of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Texas, Second Congress, First Session, 1837
(1838), 25–27; Kemp, San Jacinto Roll; McDowall, “Journey,” 30–31;
Monuments Erected . . . to Commemorate the Centenary of Texas Independence,
171; Police Court Records, Bastrop County, A, 7–8, 25; Register of Spanish Archives, XVI, 410; Lewis Publishing Company,
Twentieth Century History of Southwest Texas
(1907), II;
U.S. Census,
1850, Bastrop County, 19.

J
AMES
C
URTIS,
a participant in the Battle of San Jacinto, was born in Alabama in 1780. As one of Austin's Old Three Hundred he received a league of land in Burleson County, but moved to Bastrop County in 1831. He was the oldest man at the Battle of San Jacinto, which he entered to avenge the death of his son-in-law, Wash Cottle, who had fallen at the Alamo. He accompanied each shot at the Mexicans with the words, “Alamo! You killed Wash Cottle!” He died in 1849.

Curtis had three sons and two daughters by a first wife who died before 1830. He was married again, to a woman named Sarah, from whom he separated in 1838. He left his property to his children. Bugbee, “The Old Three Hundred,”
Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association,
I, 112; Dixon and Kemp,
Heroes of San Jacinto,
164; Kemp, San Jacinto Roll; Smithwick,
Evolution of a State,
126–128, 132, 207.

M
ATTHEW
D
UTY,
son of Solomon Duty, settled near Webberville, Travis County, with his brothers about 1830. Early in 1837 he and Billy Hornsby had an encounter with Indians which shows the courage and heroism of some of the early
frontiersmen. They were out with a group of men, all of whom were mounted except Billy. When the Indians fired on them, all of the party ran off, not giving a thought to young Hornsby. Matthew Duty, however, wheeled his horse and put himself between Billy and the Indians. He presented his gun but knowing that once he fired the Indians would be on him before he could reload, he did not shoot. The bluff worked on the Indians perfectly. Every time he presented his gun the Indians fell back. Billy reached his home finally and Duty fired his gun at one of the Indians and entered the house in safety. Mrs. Hornsby watched helplessly the whole race, expecting every minute to see her son killed.

Matthew was riding a horse known as the “Duty roan,” on which he was killed a few weeks later. The horse was ridden by Joseph Duty after Matthew's death and was captured by Indians, who shot at Joseph but only succeeded in wounding the Duty roan, while his rider escaped unharmed. In the Battle of Plum Creek in 1840 one of the Burlesons shot an Indian, whose horse turned out to be none other than the Duty roan. It was then kept and ridden by the Burlesons in many Indian fights. Brown, “Annals of Travis County,” V, 19;
Handbook of Texas,
I, 528; Smithwick,
Evolution of a State,
224, 226.

N
ICHOLAS
W. E
ASTLAND
was born in Woodford County, Kentucky, in 1803. He moved to Tennessee with his family, where he grew up. Eastland then preceded his brother, William M. Eastland to Texas. He received a league of land in Bastrop County on February 16, 1836. Jenkins tells the rest of his life in his sketch. Burlage and Hollingsworth,
Abstract of Land Claims,
620;
U.S. Census,
1850, Bastrop County, 191.

J
AMES
E
DMONDSON
was in Tumlinson's Rangers during the Texas Revolution and was then about sixteen years old. He was one of the men under Mark B. Lewis who recaptured the archives from Smith and Chandler in 1842. Edmondson went to California during the gold rush and lived nearly to the turn of the century there; the exact date of his death is not known. Smithwick,
Evolution of a State,
124, 207; Hope Yager, “Archive War in Texas” (Master's Thesis, University of Texas, 1939).

J
OHN
E
DWARDS
received land in April, 1831, in either Fort Bend or Montgomery County, but lived for some time in Bastrop. Edward's horse and rifle were taken by the Indians in this encounter in 1836 described by Jenkins. Burlage and Hollingsworth,
Abstract of Land Claims,
20; Wilbarger,
Indian Depredations in Texas,
231.

S
TEPHEN
V. R. E
GGLESTON
received two free building lots from the town commissioners of Bastrop. These lots were given to every “artist” who might settle in the town. This is the only intimation as to Eggleston's profession, but there is no record of what type of “artist” he may have been. He built the first two-story house in the town and it was used as a meeting house, courthouse, and dance hall.

Although Wilbarger says it was John Eggleston who was killed and Smithwick says it was James, the probate records of Bastrop County prove that Stephen died in 1839 and that he was survived by John and James. Probate Records, Bastrop County, File E-1; Ray,
Austin Colony Pioneers,
318, 340; Smithwick,
Evolution of a State,
202; Wilbarger,
Indian Depredations in Texas,
88.

N
ATHANIEL
W. F
AISON
was one of the original thirteen men who left La Grange with Captain Dawson on September 16, 1842. He was captured during the Dawson Massacre, one of the fifteen spared from death. After the battle he was the only prisoner who had any funds, about two dollars, of which he was soon relieved. His gold ring was also demanded, but he pretended that it wouldn't come off. A Mexican came up with a knife, evidently about to cut off Faison's finger. Then, however, Faison discovered that the ring would come off with ease.

He was taken to Perote Prison, where he was confined until his release on March 24, 1844. Faison was a merchant by trade. Chabot,
The Perote Prisoners,
54, 82, 112, 297, 309; Weyand and Wade,
An Early History of Fayette County,
151–161, 176.

D
R.
J
AMES
F
ENTRESS
was born in Tennessee on May 7, 1802. He came to Texas in an early day and married Mary Ophelia Hardeman, who was born on June 8, 1822, also in Tennessee. He played the fiddle, and along with Rev. Hugh M. Childress
and Noah Smithwick often kept dances and parties in a lively mood all night long. Fentress participated in the Battle of Plum Creek, as well as the Cordova fight. In one of these encounters he cut off the head of an Indian he had killed and took it home with him for medical observation.

He and his wife settled near Prairie Lea, Caldwell County, where he died on July 7, 1872, and his wife on July 13, 1888. Fentress, a town with a population of 250, now stands on the site of his home. D. W. C. Baker,
A Texas Scrapbook
(1875), 579; Traylor, “Benjamin Franklin Highsmith,”
Frontier Times,
XV, 314;
Monuments Erected . . . to Commemorate the Centenary of Texas Independence,
171; Smithwick,
Evolution of a State,
155.

G
REENLEAF
F
ISK
is listed as having been detailed to guard the baggage at Harrisburg during the San Jacinto battle. “Left at Harrisburg” was the term used for all Texan soldiers who were on official duty during the Battle of San Jacinto, even though some were on other army service.

Fisk was born in New York, May 19, 1807, and came to Texas in 1834. He settled at Bastrop and served in Billingsley's Mina Volunteers in 1836. He was Clerk of the District Court at Bastrop in 1837, Mayor of Bastrop in 1840, and Chief Justice of Bastrop County from 1841 to 1844. He served as a member of the Third Congress of the Republic of Texas and participated in the Mexican War. Moving to Brown County, he taught school and in 1862 was made first Chief Justice of that county. In 1870 he donated land upon which the town of Brownwood was built. Fisk died January 26, 1888, father of fifteen children, seven by Mary A. Manlove and eight by Mary Hawkins.
Biographical Directory of Texas Conventions and Congresses,
84; Burlage and Hollingsworth,
Abstract of Land Claims,
621; Kemp, Harrisburg Roll; Minutes of the Corporation of Bastrop, November 1839; Police Court Records, Bastrop County, A, 11; Probate Minutes, Bastrop County, A, B, C; Ray,
Austin Colony Pioneers,
348.

T
UCKER
F
OLEY
was the son of an eccentric but wealthy planter, W. G. L. Foley, who gave up two other sons for Texas. Arthur Foley was killed in the Goliad Massacre in 1836 and James
Foley was killed by Mexicans in 1839. Boethal, “History of Lavaca County, 1685–1930” (Master's Thesis, University of Texas, 1932), 23; Brown,
History of Texas,
I, 168n.

C
HARLES
F
URNASH,
popularly known as Jehu, was born about 1780. He was one of Austin's Old Three Hundred and received title to a sitio of land in present Burleson County on August 19, 1824. He and his wife Sally had five sons, Charles, Jr., John, Robert, Conrad, and Jehu, and two daughters, Lucinda and Eliza Ann. The family moved to Washington County, where many stories are told about Jehu, but it is not known whether the stories are about old or young Jehu Furnash. Burlage and Hollingsworth,
Abstract of Land Claims;
Rena Green (ed.),
The Swisher Memoirs
(1932), 9;
Handbook of Texas,
I, 657; Ray,
Austin Colony Pioneers,
99.

J
AMES
G
ILLELAND
was born September 8, 1798. He married a sixteen-year-old girl named Diana on October 11, 1821, and a week later they moved to Texas. His wife was the first white woman to cross the Brazos River. In the 1830's they settled on their headright league on Gilleland Creek, to which they gave their name. It was then part of Bastrop County—later it became part of Travis County. In the spring of 1834 he organized the first Methodist Church in Austin's Little Colony. Services were held in the incompleted storehouse of Jesse Halderman.

In the Brushy Creek battle Gilleland was shot in the neck, the ball going down through his lungs. He was survived by his wife, several daughters, and one son. His wife died in Waco in 1895. Brown, “Annals of Travis County,” V, 35; Korges, “Bastrop County, Texas: Historical and Educational Development” (Master's Thesis, University of Texas, 1933), I, 167–168; Perkins, “The Local History Approach . . . Bastrop” (Master's Thesis, University of Texas, 1954), 174; Ray,
Austin Colony Pioneers,
314; Sowell,
Early Settlers,
17.