Recollections of Early Texas (34 page)

S
ARAH
J
ENKINS
N
ORTHCROSS.
A year or so after Edward Jenkins' death, Sarah Jenkins remarried. Her new husband, James Northcross, was a Methodist preacher. Born in Virginia in 1802, he had been living for some time in Alabama before he arrived in Texas in August of 1829 and settled in the town of Bastrop. On September 16, 1834, the Ayuntamiento of the Municipality of Mina granted him a four-acre building lot in Bastrop for four dollars. It was stated that he already had a house built on that lot. On April 22, 1835, he was granted a league of land in Milam's Colony in Travis County. He joined the Texas Army and was killed in the Alamo on March 6, 1836. His estate consisted of a horse, a league and labor of land, 640 acres of donation land, and an account on James Smith (the man who married Rousseau's widow) for fifteen dollars. Northcross and Sarah had a son, James C. Northcross, whose guardian John Holland Jenkins was made in 1846. Sarah died in 1840. James C. Northcross died in January of 1852, while living with Jenkins.

Jenkins makes no mention of his stepfather or stepbrother in his reminiscences but named one of his sons James Northcross Jenkins, proving his respect for Northcross. Jenkins' ideal was always Edward Burleson, however, as the memoirs plainly show. Bastrop
Advertiser,
August 29, 1935; Burlage and Hollingsworth,
Abstract of Land Claims,
645; Probate Minutes, Bastrop County, Book A; Probate Records, Bastrop County, File N-1; Register of Spanish Archives;
U.S. Census,
1850, Bastrop County, 191; Williams, “A Critical Study of the Siege of the Alamo and of the Personnel of Its Defenders,”
Southwestern Historical Quarterly,
XXXVII, 274.

C
LAIBORNE
O
SBORN
was born in 1826 in Matagorda, Texas, the son of Benjamin and Leah (Stark) Osborn. His mother died in 1828 and the family moved to Austin's Little Colony, where his
father died in 1829. He was evidently raised by his older sister, Mrs. Louisa Hamilton.

The scalping incident occurred in 1840 at Rice's Crossing on Brushy Creek in Williamson County. A party of ten, not three, left the house of William Hamilton. The party included Claiborne's brothers, John Lyle Osborn, a San Jacinto veteran, Alexander Hamilton, and James Hamilton. Alex Hamilton and Claiborne went in one direction and the rest of the party in another. They discovered a band of Indians and turned to run away, but Claiborne's horse was shot, leaving him on foot. Before he knew what had happened the Indians had caught him and stabbed him in the back with a skinning knife. He fainted, but soon returned to consciousness and heard the Indians arguing over possession of part of his scalp, a large, double curl on the crown of his head. Parts of his scalp had already been taken.

Hamilton, who had decided to try to rescue his friend no matter what the risk, rode into the midst of the Indians. Claiborne jumped up in back of Hamilton and the two reached the rest of their party. Osborn was taken to Noah Smithwick's at Webberville, where his wounds were treated. He recovered completely, married Almira Jane Leverett in 1854, had ten children, and lived fifty-nine years after his scalping. He died on March 6, 1899. Bastrop
Advertiser,
August 2, 1956; Brown, “Annals of Travis County,” VII, 42; DeShields,
Border Wars,
341; Register of Spanish Archives, IX, 137.

L
EVI
P
AYNE
was born in Tennessee in 1820 and was living in Bastrop County, Texas, in 1838. A member of the Santa Fe Expedition, he was released with Bill Alsbury and John Morgan on June 14, 1842. In 1850 he was living on his 320-acre farm in Harris County. Brown, “Annals of Travis County,” VIII, 14; Burlage and Hollingsworth,
Abstract of Land Claims; Northern Standard
(Clarksville, Texas), August 20, 1842; Ray,
Austin Colony Pioneers,
308;
U.S. Census,
1850, Harris County, 60.

C
ICERO
R
UFUS
P
ERRY,
better known as “Old Rufe,” was born in Alabama on August 23, 1822. He emigrated to Texas with his parents in 1833, settling first at Bastrop, then in Washington County. He participated in the Siege of Bexar and served from July 1 to October 1, 1836, in Captain W. W. Hill's Texas
Ranger company. He was wounded in John H. Moore's defeat on February 12, 1839. Perry served under Samuel Highsmith and Thomas Green in 1841. He was a scout for General Edward Burleson and Mark B. Lewis at various times and was a member of the Somervell Expedition. He joined Jack Hays's Texas Rangers in 1844 and participated in many Indian fights in that force. In 1874 he was captain of Company D, Frontier Battalion. He died at Johnson City, Texas, on October 7, 1898. It was said he could point out twenty bullet, arrow, and spear wounds on his body. Brown,
Indian Wars,
75;
Handbook of Texas,
II, 363; Muster Roll Book; Sowell,
Early Settlers,
58, 148–154, 272–274, 642.

D
R.
J
OEL
P
ONTON
was a son of William Ponton, who was killed by Indians in 1834, and a brother of Andrew Ponton, who was Alcalde and first Judge of the Municipality of Gonzales. Dr. Ponton was born in 1802 in Maine. He was County Judge of Lavaca County under the carpetbag rule of 1866–1867. He then returned to medicine and enjoyed a large practice. Boethal, “History of Lavaca County, 1685–1930” (Master's Thesis, University of Texas, 1932), 25, 104, 169; Brown,
History of Texas,
I, 168n.; Brown,
Indian Wars,
78–79; Hallettsville
Herald,
October 17, 1907; Morrell,
Fruits and Flowers from the Wilderness
(1872), 126;
U.S. Census,
1850, Lavaca County, 116, 639.

H
UTCHINSON
R
EED
was born in South Carolina in 1808, and his wife Elizabeth was born in Alabama in 1816. They had five children. Reed was County Surveyor of Bastrop County for many years and in 1850 he possessed real estate valued at $7,960. He was a scout for Burleson during the Plum Creek Campaign. Brown,
Indian Wars,
78–82; Ray,
Austin Colony Pioneers; U.S. Census,
1850, Bastrop County, 178.

J
OSEPH
R
OGERS,
son of James and Rachael Rogers, came to Texas with his parents in 1831 from Tennessee. He was granted his own league in Travis County on October 30, 1832. He served as first lieutenant of Tumlinson's Rangers. In November of 1837 he and a Captain McCullom from Alabama were cutting timber on Captain James Rogers' farm when they were attacked by Indians. McCullom was killed but Rogers escaped, only to be
killed a few days later in the encounter narrated by Jenkins. Rogers left a wife and several children. He was an uncle of Joseph B. Rogers, who was a ranger captain for many years. Brown, “Annals of Travis County,” VII, 82; Brown,
Indian Wars,
88–91; Burlage and Hollingsworth,
Abstract of Land Claims,
651; DeShields,
Border Wars,
236–237; Register of Spanish Archives, IX; Smithwick,
Evolution of a State,
124; Wilbarger,
Indian Depredations in Texas,
238, 261–262.

C
ONRAD
R
OHRER
was wagonmaster for General Houston in the Texas Revolution. “General” Rohrer, as his friends nicknamed him, was ordered to confiscate all the work oxen he could find to pull the artillery during the retreat to San Jacinto. He took a yoke of oxen belonging to an old woman, Mrs. Mann, who lived on her farm on the Brazos River. He had not gone far when she rode up with a knife and pistol plainly visible under her skirts. Rohrer disregarded her request for the return of her team, cracked his whip over the oxen, and urged them on in the trail driver's colorful language. Mrs. Mann then unlimbered her pistol and a vocabulary to match Rohrer's. General Houston, although himself rather proficient in the art of swearing, had never heard anything like the oaths she poured forth and finally threw up his hands and told her she could take them back. Rohrer refused to dismount and unhitch the team, so she herself got down from her mount and released them, retiring in triumph. This was the only time Houston and Rohrer were ever known to have been defeated.

Rohrer joined Tumlinson's Rangers soon after the disbanding of the army. He was particularly active in the Hibbans fight. At one point, when an Indian was about to shoot Captain Tumlinson, Rohrer ran up to the savage, jerked the gun from his hands, and dealt a blow on his head so powerful that it crushed his skull. When he mistook Mrs. Hibbans' son for an Indian, he pulled the trigger twice, but the gun refused to fire. He drew a bead for the third time, but one of the men saw him and knocked up the gun just as Rohrer squeezed the trigger—it fired clear. The boy had been carefully wrapped in a buffalo robe and tied on his mule, thus giving him the appearance of an Indian. The mule was so frightened that it had to be shot in order to get the boy untied. Rohrer scalped the Indian he had knocked down
and gave the trophy to Noah Smithwick. Marquis James,
The Raven, a Biography of Sam Houston
(1929), 243; Smithwick,
Evolution of a State,
121–123, 209.

M
OSES
(or M
OSEA
) R
OUSSEAU
was born in 1794 and came to Texas in 1828 with his wife Sarah, their three children, Mary, James, and Lavinia, and a woman named Polly Childress. The family first lived in San Felipe, but moved to Bastrop County where he was chairman of the election of the Ayuntamiento of San Felipe de Austin, which was held at William Barton's house in 1830. In 1829 Sarah had died, and Rousseau then lived with Polly Childress for a period of two years, finally marrying her in December, 1831. No children were born to them after their marriage, but Polly bore two children before their marriage. Rousseau acknowledged these children and had them baptized as his own after he married Polly.

On April 4, 1831, Rousseau applied for and received a league of land in Bastrop County on the Colorado River. On November 7, 1831, he was elected Sindico (notary public and city attorney combined) by one vote over Jesse Tannehill.

In April, 1832, he and Edward Jenkins had an argument that developed into a knife fight in which Rousseau was wounded. He had his wound dressed, bought a quart of whiskey and a blanket from Dr. Thomas J. Gazley on April 23, 1832, and died from his wounds prior to April 30, when Matthew Duty billed his heirs for one coffin and some medicated salt. Rousseau's second wife, Polly, soon married James Smith, who had also been living with the Rousseau family. When Smith gained title to half of Rousseau's league after Polly's death in 1839, a suit arose between him and Rousseau's legitimate children. This finally reached the State Supreme Court in 1845, and the Rousseau league was ordered divided equally among Rousseau's five children. Barker, “Minutes of the Ayuntamiento of San Felipe de Austin,”
Southwestern Historical Quarterly,
XXIII; Burlage and Hollingsworth,
Abstract of Land Claims,
55; Fitzwilliam, “Early Election Held in Bastrop in 1831,”
In the Shadow of the Lost Pines,
42; Gulick and others (eds.),
The Papers of Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar
(1940–1945), IV, pt. I, 40; Oliver C. Hartley (reporter),
Reports of Cases Argued and Decided in the Supreme Court of the State of Texas
(1851–1852), VII, 184;
Probate Records, Bastrop County, Texas, File R-1; Register of Spanish Archives.

M
ICHAEL
S
ESSOM
was born in Tennessee in 1811 and moved to Texas where he received a league of land in Robertson's Colony in Falls County on August 3, 1835. He lived in Bastrop, however, at least until 1845, when he was present at an auction of part of the estate of Joseph Weeks. He then moved to Hays County, where he built the second house in the town of San Marcos, where he was living in 1850. Jesse Billingsley Papers (Archives Collection, University of Texas Library); Burlage and Hollingsworth,
Abstract of Land Claims,
652;
U.S. Census,
1850, Hays County, 241.

B
ARTLETT
S
IMS
was one of Austin's Old Three Hundred colonists. He received title to a sitio of land in present Wharton County on August 7, 1824. Two months later he became surveyor for the colony. He married Sally Curtis in January of 1825 and they had at least one son. In June, 1826, Sims was captain of a company on an expedition against the Waco and Tawakoni Indians and was elected a militia captain in March, 1829. He served in that capacity on the San Saba Expedition.

Moving to Bastrop, he surveyed much of the land in Austin's Little Colony. The Convention of 1832 appointed Sims a member of the subcommittee of safety and vigilance from Bastrop, as well as District Treasurer of Bastrop. He represented the Bastrop area at the Convention of 1833 and the Consultation of 1835. After service under Robert M. Coleman before and during the Siege of Bexar, Sims served in an advisory capacity to the General Council.

Sims was on several of John H. Moore's expeditions and participated in the Battle of Brushy Creek. He served as captain of an unattached company of volunteers on the Somervell Expedition in 1842. After 1843 Sims moved to Williamson County, where he was living in 1850. Brown, “Annals of Travis County,” IV, 19–20; Bugbee, “Old Three Hundred,”
Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association,
I, 116; Gammel,
Laws of Texas,
I, 497, 503; Handbook of Texas, II, 614; Henderson,
Colonel Jack Hays, Texas Ranger,
50; Ray,
Austin Colony Pioneers,
211, 307–308.

F
RENCH
S
MITH
was a regular in the Texas Ranger force. He fought under Caldwell in the Cordova Rebellion and participated in the Battle of Salado. He was a member of Colonel Jack Hays's Rangers and rose to the rank of colonel in the Mexican War. He lived on Darst Creek, twenty-six miles from Gonzales and served on the first grand jury of Gonzales County. Brown,
Indian Wars,
62–65; Henderson,
Colonel Jack Hays, Texas Ranger,
12; Sowell,
Early Settlers,
313, 416, 418, 420, 427, 437, 808.