“My Dear Wife”: Abishai Dickson’s Last Letter Home on His Way to Texas

One of the treasures in the library’s archival collections is an 1835 letter written by Abishai Dickson to his wife. Like Alamo defender Daniel William Cloud, Dickson wrote his letter in late December 1835 while in Louisiana on his way to Texas to join the struggle for independence.

Dickson was a member of the Alabama Red Rovers, a unit organized by Jack Shackelford and named for the red uniforms of its members. Joining James Fannin’s regiment in Texas and participating in several engagements of the Texas Revolution, the Red Rovers surrendered to the Mexican army with the rest of Fannin’s force following the Battle of Coleto. Dickson, along with more than 300 others, was executed in the Goliad Massacre on March 27, 1836.

The first page of Abishai Dickson's letter to his wife.

The second page.

A transcription of the letter is included below. Please note that original punctuation and spelling has been maintained and remains uncorrected.

New Orleans 29th Decr 1835

My Dear Wife

We arrived here yesterday morning and having a good oppertunity of writing by Mr Sevier who goes up shortly: – We had a tedious time coming down. the Capt of the Steam Boat was sulkey & unaccomodating — but we had to bare with him — We are all still on board his boat and will remain until the vesel is ready to start — which will be day after to morrow — We have just heard from Texas the Americans have whiped the Spaniards and taken St Antonio & killed Genl. Coss & at this time there is not an armed Spaniard in Texas — The first 2 or 3 days after I started I was very sick Dr Shackleford gave me some medicine which operated very well Since that time I have fattened every day and I have now a better apetite than I have had for the last 12 months, the doctor is & has been like a Father to me ever since I started, the company agrees very well Francis has been quite sick for the last few days but is mending — I have met with several of my acquaintances here Mr Roper – Sevier – Gist. Cooper. B. McKernan & several others I have nothing more to write you at this time – I will write you again when I land in Texas – I am in hopes that we will all return Soon – I want you to write as soon as you get this and direct your letter to me at this place to the care of K & Roper who will take it out and send it me as also all letters that I may write they will forward them to you — Kiss all the dear children for me & tell Puss to kiss you 10 times for Pa — My Dear my lips have not been wet with spirits of any description since I left you & I do hope they never will again — & I think this trip will not only wean me entirely from it but will give me a new constitution

I have some hopes yet of making a little fortune I feell more anxious than I ever did — dont fail to write and direct your as I have written it below — Give my love to all

I am Dear Wife your

Affectionate Husband

Abishai Dickson

We sail this morning on board of an armed schooner

Mr. Abishai Dickson

Care of Kirkman & Roper

New Orleans

According to genealogical materials in the library’s Dickson family papers, Abishai Mercer Dickson was born on January 19, 1803 at or near Reynoldsburg, Tennessee. He and his family – his father Michael Dickson (1777-1859), mother Sene Williams Dickson,  and eleven siblings – were the first Anglo-American settlers in Tuscumbia, Alabama, a town in the northwestern part of the state near its borders with Mississippi and Tennessee.

Abishai Dickson married Ann Margaret Lucas (1809-1862) in 1825 in Franklin County, Alabama. The couple had four children: Louisa McIntosh (1826-1898), Eliza Josephine (1829-1843), Richard Hoge (1831-1931), and Ellen Edwards (1834-1840). In the twentieth century, descendants recorded Richard Hoge Dickson’s recollections, which he documented in 1911 at the age of eighty years old:

The first thing I can recall was riding in my Father’s lap down the Cumberland Mountains, going from Russellville to Tuscumbia, Alabama, where we lived. I must have been about fours years of age. I well remember when my Father joined the Red Rovers, under Dr. Shackelford, and started for Texas, to aid her in getting her independence. They were all dressed in red suits and were called Red Rovers. When Mother made Father’s suit I recollect how she cried. When they started to Texas they were all dressed in their red uniforms and passed close by the house where he bid us all Goodbye. It was a crying time for us all. My mother took her children and went to Grandpa Lucas’s to live, till Father came back – but he never came. One morning I was awakened by my mother crying over me in my bed, and calling me her ‘orphan boy.’ She told me my Father was killed.

Ironically, it was in death that Abishai Dickson found the “little fortune” he sought in Texas, as his widow received a 640-acre donation land grant due to his execution at Goliad. Ann Margaret later married John Sutherland, who claimed to have been at the Alamo garrison before its fall.

For Further Reading:

The  San Jacinto Monument and Museum near Houston, Texas, has several items relating to Abishai Dickson and his family. The site’s Herzstein Library has a collection of archival materials relating to the Dickson family; a finding aid, or guide to the collection, is available online. The museum also has a portrait of Abishai Dickson, which can be viewed on its website.

The Sons of DeWitt Colony Texas provide detailed information about the Goliad Massacre, which is published on the website of Texas A & M University. Included is an account of the event written by Jack Shackelford, who was spared due to his skills as a doctor.

The John W. Lilly Family Papers at the DRT Library also contain archival materials relating to the Dickson family; an online finding aid to the collection is available.

Click here for a full citation of the documents and images included in this entry.

Volunteer Improves Access to German-Language Materials

Volunteer Lore A. Senseney.

For the past year, Lore A. Senseney has been volunteering at the DRT Library with Assistant Director Martha Utterback and Archivist Caitlin Donnelly, working to translate German-language materials held in the library’s archival collections into English. Thus far, Ms. Senseney has translated almost 200 documents, primarily letters, in the Beckmann family papers and the general correspondence series of the Conrad A. Goeth papers. The translations are being filed with the original document so they will be accessible to researchers. Lore will next be translating documents in the Frances Drennon Shaughnessy family papers.

Translating the documents requires a special and rather unique skill: the ability to read the old Sütterlin German script that is no longer used. Today, Germans cannot read this script. However, Ms. Senseney, a native of Germany, learned it during her first two years of school, as Sütterlin was commonly taught in German schools during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The first page of a letter to John C. and Regina Muller Beckmann, presumably written by Felix Muller, Regina's father.

Lore's translation of the above letter, which Felix Muller began by writing "I have waited for seven years for (a response from you) in vain, and had given up all hope to receive a letter from you ever again."

The rest of Lore's translation of the above letter.

Lore’s journey to San Antonio was an interesting one. She started learning English in 1945 when school resumed following the end of World War II. Three years later, she escaped from East Germany with her mother and joined her father in Frankfurt, West Germany. There, Lore continued her English studies as an apprentice; a student at a school of business for industrial merchants and banking; and a student in the last class of industrial interpreters at the Berlitz school. Ms. Senseney arrived in the United States on August 5, 1959, landing in New York on the USS Buttner with her husband – a career non-commissioned officer (NCO) in the U.S. Army who had been stationed in West Germany and was newly stationed at Fort Sam Houston – and their two-year-old daughter. Lore and her husband later had two more children and at various times lived in San Antonio and Germany.

Ms. Senseney has been a member of the San Antonio Needlework Guild (SANG) and the Embroiderers’ Guild of America (EGA) since 1976. She has been particularly interested in whitework embroidery, a technique in which the stitching is the same color as the foundation fabric, traditionally white linen. Lore researched this type of embroidery during trips to Germany and began teaching about the technique in San Antonio. Since 1982, Lore has been volunteering at the Witte Museum, using her expertise to help in the conservation of its textile collection.

Throughout her time at the Witte, Ms. Senseney has periodically been asked to translate German texts. Her skills have been increasingly utilized since 2006, when she began undergoing treatments for breast cancer that left her hands numb, making it difficult to hold a needle and continue her textile conservation work at the Witte. However, Lore has found the work of translating historic documents to be equally rewarding, stating “I love it. It is something I can do that I enjoy and is as much fun as restoring an old textile, so it can live another 100 years.”

Of the letters she has worked with from the DRT Library’s collections, Lore writes that they have had “the most diverse content and challenging handwriting styles.” In the course of the project, she has also “researched and learned about the Germans who arrived in Texas in the 1840s and founded a lot of the businesses in San Antonio.”

Thank you, Lore, for all of your hard work!

Click here for a full citation of the documents and images included in this entry.

“How Old Man Henry and His Family are Getting Along in America”

On October 13, 1856, Henry Baumberger, a recent immigrant and resident of San Antonio, wrote to family and friends in his native Switzerland. The document is part of a collection of eight lengthy letters written by and to Baumberger between 1856 and 1867. Written in an older Sütterlin German script that is no longer used, the letters have been translated into English.

The first page of Henry Baumberger's letter of October 13, 1856. "On this here letterhead," he told his family and friends, "you see some views etc. of our City of San Antonio."

In the letter of October 13, Baumberger described life in Texas in great detail for loved ones living very differently in Europe. “The way people live here is strange,” he wrote. “You hardly will believe me if I tell you the truth and I am telling you nothing but the truth.” On one hand, Baumberger found much to criticize in San Antonio:

An enormous rudeness is generally prevalent in this country. Nobody cares about enlightenment and education. Nobody lived intellectually. Everybody strives for money and for money only. Money is the idol that is worshipped. The officers are not in the least interested in public welfare…Every day on the streets you can see loafers by the dozens, carrying knives and pistols. They are looking for trouble and stab or shoot, as they please. Every week some people are killed in the public street. And as the officers are mostly people of the same kind, usually nothing is done about it. Every night horses, mules or cattle are stolen. In the beginning all this seemed terrible to me and I was afraid of these rascals but not now any more.

On the other hand, however, Baumberger also described circumstances in Texas that he believed and observed to be an improvement over conditions in Switzerland. He explained ways in which American women enjoyed more legal rights than their European counterparts; praised laws that protected debtors from losing all of their property and belongings as payment to creditors; and described the “very happy life” enjoyed by Texas farmers, even though they were “sometimes raided by wild Indians.” Despite his mixed feelings about life in Texas, Baumberger ultimately wrote that “in general I am doing pretty well and so far I never regretted that I have emigrated [sic] to America.”

A detail of the last page of Henry Baumberger's letter, which he closed by asking that his loved ones "don't forget" him, "now in a far away country."

Based on evidence in the letters, Henry Baumberger (born circa 1823) and his wife, Anna Weiss Baumberger, immigrated to Texas with their two daughters, Anna (born circa 1852) and Eliza (born circa 1855). In his letter of October 13, Henry marveled that his young children could “already babble [in] English.” In the same letter, he happily announced the birth of his son, Henry, and explained that the “little fellow is already now an American citizen, because everybody born here is as a matter of course a citizen of this country.” Sadly, in a letter dated July 18, 1857, Baumberger informed his relatives and friends that baby Henry had died from a fever. “God has called him away,” he wrote, “and the hearts of the parents are struck again, because this is the third boy we had to see leaving us…I had trusted to have at last a male offspring. But it was not so to be.” However, by 1867 the Baumberger expanded to include two additional children: Paulina (born circa 1858) and Charles (born circa 1863).

While Henry Baumberger had worked as a teacher in Switzerland, his letters in the DRT Library document the variety of jobs he undertook in Texas: at different times he worked as a merchant, a beer garden owner, and an owner of shipping business that transported freight by wagon from San Antonio to Mexico or Port Lavaca. The 1870 census listed Henry as a member of the San Antonio police force and the 1880 census stated that he was once again working as a teacher.

Click here for a full citation of the documents and images included in this entry.

Adrian Woll Captures San Antonio and Takes Prisoners

On September 11, 1842, Mexican general Adrián Woll and his force of 12,000 men captured San Antonio. Woll’s expedition reflected Mexico’s refusal to recognize Texas independence and its belief that Texas was merely a rebellious province. The expedition was also part of continued border skirmishes between Texas and Mexico, which persisted from the end of the Texas Revolution (1835-1836) until the Mexican War (1846-1848). It followed six months after Brigadier General Rafael Vásquez’s raid on San Antonio in March 1842, and Texans responded to Woll’s attack by launching the Somervell and Mier expeditions.

When Woll’s forces captured San Antonio, several prominent San Antonio citizens also became their prisoners; they, along with Texas soldiers captured in the battles that followed, were marched to Mexico City and held in Perote prison.

Samuel Augustus Maverick, 1803-1870. (SC96.154)

Among the prisoners was Samuel A. Maverick, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence who was also a businessman, landowner, and government official. Maverick had left his family, who had already fled San Antonio in advance of Vásquez’s raid, with friends near La Grange on the Colorado River. He returned to San Antonio in order to take part in the fall term of the Fourth District Court of Texas; he was defending Shields Brooks against the city of San Antonio in a dispute over an allegedly unpaid fifty-peso fee when Woll’s forces entered the city. Approximately sixty Anglo-Americans were captured, including Maverick and everyone else – the judge, jurors, court attachés, attending witnesses, and attorneys – who had also been in court.

Mary Ann Adams Maverick, 1818-1898. (SC96.153)

During his seven-month imprisonment, Samuel Maverick left behind his wife, Mary Ann Adams Maverick, who wrote in her memoirs, “I tried to follow [my husband's] advice and kept up at times a semblance of cheerfulness, but I was then only twenty-four years of age – and almost a child in experience. I had the care of three helpless little children [one of whom was seriously ill with typhoid fever] and the birth of a fourth to look to in the future – a refuge in a strange land and my husband a captive in the power of a cruel and treacherous foe.”

Waddy Thompson's letter to Samuel Maverick, March 16, 1843.

Two interesting items from the library’s archival collections of Maverick family records help document Samuel Maverick’s experiences in Perote prison. The first, shown above, is a letter written by Waddy Thompson, who was related to Maverick by marriage and who in 1843 was the U.S. minister to Mexico stationed in Mexico City. Thompson was instrumental in acquiring a release for Samuel Maverick and others. In the above letter, Thompson informs Maverick that his freedom had been secured:

Mexico March 16th 43

Dear Maverick,

I have this moment received a letter from President Santa Anna informing me that orders had this day been sent for the liberation of yourself Jones & Hutchison and that you are first to come here I am not sorry for this as it will not delay yr [your] departure for the Unites States & will offer me an oppertunity [sic] of serving you and you of serving the great city of Mexico

Yrs W THompson

On the back of the letter, Samuel Maverick noted “order of 16th[;] this recd 18th[;] chains taken off 19^th[;] Begin journey evng. of 22^nd[;] arrive at Puebla 25th.”

Document releasing Samuel Maverick from Perote prison, March 31, 1843.

The second related document in the Maverick family papers is Samuel Maverick’s prison release. On the reverse side, he copied a map of the route to Veracruz, where he boarded a U.S. Navy ship en route to the United States. Maverick made it back to Texas in late April 1843.

Detail of a map drawn by Samuel Maverick on the back of his prison release. To the right of this map he wrote, "Altitude of Mexico and of the Road to Veracruz, drawn from an engraved Map in the City of Mexico."

Detail of a second map drawn by Samuel Maverick on the back of his prison release, showing the altitudes of cities along his route from Mexico City to Veracruz on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

The Maverick Family Papers at the Center for American History, the University of Texas at Austin, contains correspondence and journals that also document Samuel Maverick’s journey to Mexico City and his experiences in Perote prison as well as the effect of his absence on the rest of his family. Selections from these materials are quoted and discussed in Turn Your Eyes Toward Texas: Pioneers Sam and Mary Maverick by Paula Mitchell Marks and Memoirs of Mary A. Maverick: A Journal of Early Texas, arranged by Mary A. Maverick and her son, George Madison Maverick.

Click here for a full citation of the documents and images included in this entry.

Historic Texas Taxes

This receipt shows that Thomas W. Grayson owed $16.25 in state and county taxes for 1852. Grayson's taxable property included 660 acres on Salado Creek in Bexar County, two "negros," thirty-five head of cattle, one wagon, and one carriage.

While filling out tax forms can at times be tedious and frustrating work, future scholars may very well find information in these records that will help them examine and understand everyday life in early twenty-first century America. Indeed, historians and genealogists find that preserved tax records such as receipts and rolls – along with other financial records like ledgers and account books – can be gold mines of information about people living in the past. Tax records can help family historians locate an ancestor who cannot be found in other sources. Moreover, tax records often include additional information besides the amount of tax owed by the taxpayer; such details can be used to determine, for example, birth, marriage, and death dates; conditions of servitude; parentage; and the migration of individuals and families from place to place. Tax records sometimes even fill in for other primary sources that were never created or that have not survived to the present day. For example, no census exists for the Republic of Texas for 1840; however, using tax rolls and other archival documents, Gifford White was able to compile a substitute list of citizens for that year. (This source is available at the DRT Library.)

 

Confederate tax receipts for James Lincoln showing money due in 1862 and 1863. The taxes had to be paid in Confederate treasury notes; their value collapsed during the course of the Civil War, and at the end of the conflict they became worthless.

Many archival collections at the DRT Library contain tax records. This is particularly true of collections created by individuals and members of families, as many of these collections contain nineteenth-century receipts for state, county, school, and poll taxes paid. Some collections include receipts for taxes paid to the Confederate States of America during the Civil War (1861-1865). Additionally, the DRT 9 Documents Collection contains tax records dating back to the seventeenth century. In addition to the documents shown below, DRT 9 includes a 1677 letter in which Spanish viceroy (the royal official who governed New Spain in the name of and as representative of the monarch) Enriquez de Rivera acknowledges a judicial appointment and an investigation of tax rolls; a 1713 letter in which viceroy Lencastre Norona y Silva transmits a royal decree regarding the collection of taxes; and an 1803 broadside published in Mexico City concerning the payment of taxes imposed to finance Spain’s war with England.

The first page of a decree - published in Mexico City on March 29, 1759 - demanding an accounting of the taxation of Indian women.

A receipt dated Mexico City, January 30, 1796, showing that Jose de Espinosa paid the required taxes for street improvements.

 Finally, materials in the library’s collections reveal that frustration about taxes is nothing new. Sentiments of dissatisfaction, disagreement, and apprehension are most succinctly and directly summarized in the title of Byron C. Utecht’s 1949 book, “The State of Texas or the State of Taxes?” The below cartoon by Hal Coffman, which originally appeared in the Fort Worth ­Star-Telegram, was included in the front of this work to visually depict Utecht’s argument about the predicament of Texas taxpayers.

Hal Coffman's 1949 illustration, "Just One Thing After Another."

For more information about using tax records in historical or genealogical research, check out these online resources:

“Taxes: One of Life’s Certainties” from Archival Chronicle (March 2009), available online through the Center for Archival Collections at Bowling Green State University. This article includes a list of common types of auditor’s records and a tax glossary.

“Income Tax Records of the Civil War Years” by Cynthia G. Fox, published in the National Archives and Records Administration’s Prologue Magazine (Winter 1986). This article debunks a common belief that the sixteenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1913, resulted in Americans paying income tax for the first time.

“Tax Records” from For the Record (May/June 1995), available through Ancestry.com.

“The Tax Man Cometh…and He Leaveth Records!” from The Ancestry Daily News (April 12, 2001), available through Ancestry.com

Click here for a full citation of the documents and images included in this entry.

The Alamo and DRT celebrate Texas Independence Day

The Alamo and the DRT commemorate Texas Independence Day with a ceremony in Alamo Plaza.

On Monday, March 2, the Alamo and the DRT celebrated Texas Independence Day with a ceremony in Alamo Plaza. The ceremony, held by the Alamo Mission Chapter of the DRT, featured a speech from DRT Library Director Leslie Stapleton. Mrs. Stapleton spoke about the library’s history and collection. Specifically, Mrs. Stapleton discussed the great primary sources that the library has in its archives.

Leslie Stapleton, DRT Library Director, speaks about the library's history and collection.

Among the one-of-a-kind documents is a letter written by Alamo defender Daniel William Cloud on December 26, 1835 to his brother, John B. Cloud. A lawyer from Kentucky, Daniel William Cloud joined David Crockett’s Tennessee Volunteers to help in the fight for Texas Independence. He describes what many of these young men might have been feeling when he writes,

If we succeed, the Country is ours. It is immense in extent, and fertile in its soil, and will amply reward all our toil. If we fail, death in the cause of liberty and humanity is not cause for shuddering. Our rifles are by our side, and choice guns they are, we know what awaits us, and are prepared to meet it.

This letter was donated to the library by the Cloud family in 1979. Click here for a previous post about the Cloud letter.

Another great document in the collection is a letter written by Abishai Mercer Dickson written to his wife from New Orleans on December 29, 1835 on his way to Texas. He writes to her,

My Dear, my lips have not been wet with spirits of any description since I left you and I do hope they never will again and I think this trip will not only wean me entirely from it but will give me a new constitution.

He closes the letter by writing:

I have some hopes of making a little fortune. I feel more anxious than I ever did.

Dickson joined the Alabama Red Rovers and served under Col. Fannin at Goliad, where he was killed by the Mexican army along with more than 340 other Texan soldiers.

Lastly, another unique document in the collection is Samuel Augustus Maverick’s copy of the Texas Declaration of Independence. Maverick was an early Texas land baron, legislator, and leading citizen of the Republic. He lived at the corner of Alamo Plaza and Houston Street and played a large role in the Siege of Bexar in December 1835. He was chosen as one of two representatives from the Alamo to go to the independence convention on March 1, 1836 at Washington-on-the-Brazos.

Maverick left on March 2 but did not arrive at the convention until March 5. By that day, the Declaration had already been drafted and adopted. Maverick printed his name as well as the names of the other late arrivals to his broadside copy of the Declaration. Although one thousand broadside copies were originally printed, today only thirteen are known to exist. The DRT Library is fortunate to have two of these known copies. Click here for a previous post about the Maverick copy of the Declaration of Independence.

After the ceremony, Mrs. Stapleton invited all guests to visit the library, which is not usually a browsing collection, to view these and other special primary sources from the library’s collection.

Library visitors look at items on exhibit from the collection.

Texas Secession, Continued

Main Plaza in San Antonio. This photograph is captioned "Texas troops at San Antonio at the time of the surrender of the U.S. arms." (SC11484C)

In last week’s post, we presented some documents in the library’s collections relating to the actions taken by Texans in February 1861 to secede from the union. Meanwhile, members of the Committee of Public Safety, assembled by the state’s secession convention, also worked to move their state toward allegiance with the Confederacy.

Dismissed from the U.S. army due to his surrender to McCulloch, Twiggs joined the Confederate army in May 1861. (SC96.381)

According to historian Walter L. Buenger, when General David E. Twiggs, commander of the Department of Texas, “appeared ready to resign, the [Committee of Public Safety] ordered General Ben McCulloch and his men to enter San Antonio rather than wait and deal with Twiggs’s successor, who was less favorably inclined to the South.” On February 16, 1861, Twiggs agreed to surrender between 1.3 and “three million dollars’ worth of federal stores to Texas” and to evacuate all federal troops in the state (154), which included 160 men in San Antonio and 2,700 soldiers (or approximately fifteen percent of the entire pre-war U.S. army) scattered in forts across Texas.

One unit that participated in the surrender of federal supplies and troops was the Alamo City Guards, a local militia company comprised of volunteers from the San Antonio area that was formed in 1859. Captain William M. Edgar, commander of the unit, recorded what happened once the Texans accepted Twiggs’s surrender:

…as I with my command was placed in charge of the Alamo, this flag was hoisted and remained on the Alamo building for some time and in recognition of the Secession of the State [and] was the first flag and only flag used in San Antonio at that eventful time.

Edgar’s company was later sent east, where it served under the command of Confederate General Earl Van Dorn during the Civil War.

In this letter of February 16, 1861, Samuel Maverick authorizes and orders Captain William Edgar to seize an iron safe and its contents.

The flag described by Edgar was donated to the Alamo by his daughter in the early twentieth century and restored in 2006 by Textile Preservation Associations. The field was always thought to have originally been blue; however, conservators determined it had actually been cream colored with a salmon colored star in the center. The Latin motto on the flag translates to Let justice be done though the heavens should fall.

The flag of the Alamo City Guards. Donated by Mrs. O. M. Burt; restoration assisted by the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Image courtesy of Ernesto Rodriguez, Alamo assistant curator.

The flag is temporarily on display inside the Alamo shrine.

Some information for this entry was provided by Dr. Bruce Winders, Alamo historian and curator.

References and Further Reading

The Exodus of Federal Forces from Texas, 1861 by J. J. Bowden.

Secession and the Union in Texas by Walter L. Buenger.

Ben McCulloch and the Frontier Military Tradition by Thomas W. Cutrer.

Click here for a full citation of documents and images included in this entry.

Letter from Daniel Cloud, Alamo Defender

First page of Daniel Cloud's letter to his brother, December 26, 1835.

One of the treasures in the DRT Library’s collections is a letter written by Daniel William Cloud, a twenty-two year old lawyer from Kentucky. Written on December 26, 1835 near Natchitoches, Louisiana, and addressed to his “beloved brother,” the letter primarily discusses the circumstances of various family members and acquaintances and describes the weather, soil quality, and business prospects Cloud and his traveling companion, Peter J. Bailey, observed as they traveled through Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana on their way to Texas. In perhaps the most well-known and often-quoted section of the letter, Cloud explains his views on the causes of the Texas Revolution and his reasons for wanting to enlist (all punctuation and spelling in the original document have been maintained here):

Ever since Texas has unfurled the banner of Freedom and commenced a warfare for Liberty or Death, our hearts have been enlisted in her behalf. The progress of her cause has increased the ardor of our feelings, until we have resolved to embark in the vessel which contains the flag of Liberty and sink or swim in its defence. Our Brethren of Texas were invited by the Mexican Government while republican in its form to come and settle, they did so, they have endured all the privations & sufferings incident to the settlement of a frontier country and have surrounded themselves with all the comforts and conveniences of live. Now the Mexicans with unblushing effrontery call on them to submit to a Monarchical, tyrannical, Central despotism, at the bare mention of which every true hearted son of Kentucky feels an instinctive horror followed by a firm and steady glow of virtuous indignation. The cause of Philanthropy, of humanity, of Liberty & human happiness throughout the world call loudly on every man who can, to aid Texas. If you ask me how I reconcile the duties of a soldier with those of a Christian I refer you to the memorable conversation between Genl. Marion & DeKalb on this point, and the sentiments of the latter I have adopted as my own. If we succeed, the country is ours, it is immense in extent and fertile in its soil and will amply reward all our toils. If we fail death in the cause of liberty and humanity is not cause for shuddering. Our rifles are by our sides and choice guns they are; we know what awaits us and are prepared to meet it.

Along with Bailey, Cloud joined the Tennessee Mounted Volunteers and was killed when Santa Anna’s troops attacked the Alamo on the morning of March 6, 1836.

Second and third pages of Cloud's letter.

Final page of Cloud's letter, which he ends by telling his brother, "If I were with you, I could talk enough to tire you. I hope we shall meet."

Click here for a full citation of the documents and images included in this entry.

Honoring Texas Veterans

Each year on November 11, Americans commemorate Veterans Day to honor those who have served in our nation’s military. Originally established to honor Americans who fought in World War I and commemorate the armistice that ended the conflict, following World War II the holiday was expanded to remember veterans of all wars.

Although the collections of the DRT Library most thoroughly document the Texas Revolution and its participants, they also include primary and secondary sources relating to all American conflicts from the American Revolution to the Vietnam War.

Portrait of Hal Irby Greer taken in France during World War I.

In honor of Veterans Day, this entry focuses on one of the approximately 198,000 Texans who served in the armed forces during World War I. Preliminary research indicates that Hal Irby Greer was born in Beaumont on October 18, 1885. He attended both Texas A. & M. and the University of Texas; the library’s copy of the 1905 Cactus, the yearbook of the University of Texas, contains a photograph of him with his fraternity brothers in Phi Kappa Psi and lists him as a member of the class of 1907 majoring in law. Greer married Catherine Lindsay “Kitty” Smith (b. 1887) in 1908. The couple had two sons before divorcing in 1917.

Certificate of appointment to the Air Service, U.S. Army, May 18, 1918.

According to obituaries published following his death, Greer was quick to enlist in the military soon after the United States entered World War I in April 1917, even though he was “past the conscript age.” Greer completed air training in Austin and Garden City, New York, before he went to France, where he may have faced additional instruction before being sent to the front. While Greer was cited for bravery in the war, he was also left permanently physically disabled, as his lungs were frozen due to exposure and high flights. Greer began receiving treatments while still in France, and when he returned to the United States following the war he spent significant amounts of time in hospitals and underwent several operations, none of which fully restored his health. Greer continued to reside in Beaumont until relocating to Houston around 1924; there he worked as an independent oil operator and oil land developer. Greer also apparently remarried, as obituaries wrote that his wife, Vallie Hubbard of Houston, had died in August 1930. Greer committed suicide in February 1936, stating in a note that his reasons were continued ill health and financial difficulties, which were presumably worsened by the Great Depression.

First page of Hal Irby Greer's letter to his mother, October 16, 1918.

The DRT Library’s collection of Hal Irby Greer’s papers (COL 896) contains photographs, letters, and other documents relating to his work as a pilot during World War I. In three letters to his mother, written from France between May and October 1918, Greer describes daily life in the 11th Aero Squadron and writes about his family. He includes details and anecdotes about training, his fellow pilots and friends, the weather, and places he visits and people he meets in France. In his letter dated September 14, 1918, excerpted here, Greer describes how he became the first member of the 11th Squadron to shoot down a German plane:

Hal Irby Greer at the gun of an airplane.

We penetrated far into Germany on a bombing trip. . .I was put out on the rear guard of the formation, and Reuben and I had our work cut out, I assure you! In the first place, we had to put up with the most severe “archie” [anti-aircraft] fire, which is terrible. First, you hear a “rack-crack,” and a smoke ball opens up in your rear somewhere, then the next one is over you, then under you, then to the side of you – all the time biting closer and closer! God! What a feeling! It’s terrible! Then, finally, you hear one “crrrrrra-S-H”! after another, and you know they’re horribly close! You can’t dodge, you just stand there and watch those ominous balls of smoke, and I steadied myself by counting them and thinking, “Well, if only one hits me from above, it will probably be in the head, and I won’t know it, so what’s the use?” Then I asked God to forgive all my past, and if it be His will to make me at least die like a man, and protect my two little boys and brother. Then the “archie” fire let up, just as we reached our objective. We dropped our bombs, those of us who carried them, and I knew something was coming! It did alright! The “Richtofen Circus” [the Jagdgeschwader 1, a German fighter unit] jumped us! Lord, but the air was full of “Boches” [German soldiers]! They dived on us over my right shoulder. . .After they shot at our leader, they wheeled and came up on our rear. They  divided up, and a bunch took each plane. Three swung around in back of me. I stood up high, so as to protect Reuben’s head with my body, and waited for them to come up. Two were to one side and beneath me, and the other was to other side and beneath me. It was curious to watch them come. They had red noses and all sorts of fantastic colors. The three of them opened up and got me in a cross fire, and I could see the bullets (tracer and incendiary) flashing all round me. I singled one out, and put my guns on him.

Click here for a full citation of the documents and images included in this entry.

Documents from Texas Elections

In the spirit of the elections held earlier this week, this entry highlights some materials in the DRT Library’s manuscript and book collections that document elections held throughout 120 years of Texas history.

Letter, Juan Martin de Veramendi, Leona Vicario [Saltillo], Coahuila y Tejas, to José Antonio Navarro, 1833 March 2, DOC 6813, Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library, San Antonio, Texas.

Veramendi was an influential San Antonio native who in 1833 was the Governor of Coahuila y Tejas and James Bowie’s father-in-law. In this letter – which was also signed by Juan Delgado, Jose Melchor Sanchez Navarro, and Jose Maria de Goribar – he notifies Jose Antonio Navarro of his election to the Mexican Congress. Also a native of Bexar, Navarro became a “leading Mexican participant in the Texas Revolution.”

Juan Martin de Veramendi to Jose Antonio Navarro, 1833.

Letter, P. R. Lilly, Montgomery, Texas, to Chas. B. Stewart, Montgomery, Texas, 1842 February 17, DOC 9613, Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library, San Antonio, Texas.

In this letter, Lilly announces his intention to challenge Stewart’s election as District Clerk for Montgomery County. Stewart was a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence and held several political offices; he is also “credited with drawing the original draft of the Lone Star flag.”

Montgomery February 17^th 1842

Chas B Stewart Esq

Sir

As the law provides in cases of contested elections I herewith notify you of my intention to contest your election to the office of District Clerk for Montgomery County which was held on the first Monday in this month – for divers good causes, amongst those which I shall set forth in my argument are that the returns from the Montgomery box were not made in accordance with law, that non-residents were suffered to exercise the right of suffrage, which I shall make appear when permitted to [illegible] the voters names at the Montgomery box – that the returns from Crawfords, from [illegible] from Carolina and from other pecincts [sic] were not made as the law prescribes, and other causes shall be exhibited in my argument which I deeem [sic] worthy of notice as coming within the perview [sic] of the statute regulating elections – I shall submit my argument to the chief Justice on Saturday the 19^th of the present month – when & where you will please appear & make defence [sic] if any defence you have

All of which is respectfully submitted

Yours Respectfully

P. R. Lilly

First page of P. R. Lilly's 1842 letter to Charles B. Stewart.

Second page of P. R. Lilly's 1842 letter to Charles B. Stewart.

Certificate of Election, State of Texas, 1902 December 15, William Lewis Davidson Papers, DOC 11151, Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library, San Antonio, Texas.

Signed by Governor Joseph D. Sayers and Secretary of State John G. Tod, this document certifies that, having received 300,651 votes, William Lewis Davidson was elected as a judge in the Court of Criminal Appeals.

Certificate of Election for William Lewis Davidson, 1902.

Printed handbill, “Fergusonism vs Capitalism” by Charles E. Coons, [1930], DOC 2811, Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library, San Antonio, Texas.

This document promotes the gubernatorial candidacy of Miriam A. (“Ma”) Ferguson and attacks Ross S. Sterling, her opponent in the second Texas Democratic primary of 1930. Although Sterling defeated her in that election, Ferguson won her second term in office by defeating him and Republican candidate Orville Bullington. The central argument made by Coons in this handbill is summarized in the final paragraph of this document:

“Are you prepared to take your place in the front ranks, of this battle of the rich against the poor, the high against the low, the great against the small. Let me admonish you to resolve at once to go to the ballot box and pole your vote on August 23rd for Ross S. Sterling, multimillionaire friend of foreign corporations, or for Miriam A. Ferguson, the home loving, God serving friend of the common people.”

Front of printed handbill, "Fergusonism vs Capitalism."

Institute of Public Affairs, University of Texas. A Handbook for Texas Voters. Austin, Texas: The University of Texas, 1953.

This is a selection of pages from the 53 page Handbook. Notice the mention of the poll tax, which was used to disinfranchise African Americans and in Texas also kept Mexican Americans from voting. Poll taxes were prohibited in elections for federal officials by the 24th Amendment to the Constitution in 1964.

"Who May Vote in Texas," from the Handbook for Texas Voters, 1953.

Institute of Public Affairs, University of Texas. “Facsimile of the General Election Ballot Used in 1952” in A Handbook for Texas Voters. Austin, Texas: The University of Texas, 1953.

In addition to this facsimile ballot, the Handbook also includes reproductions of ballots used in the 1952 first and run-off Democratic primaries. This image is only of the top half of the ballot.

Facsimile ballot for the 1952 election, from the Handbook for Texas Voters, 1953.

Click here for a full citation of the documents and images included in this entry.