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History |
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In 1982 as part of the Twin Centennial, the
Edna Herald (now the Jackson County Herald-Tribune) published a
special edition of its newspaper in honor of the celebration.
The late Brownson Malsch, local historian and author,
contributed to a section titled “Some Highlights of 400 Years in
Jackson County.” |
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Brownson Malsch has published two books,
Indianola, The Mother of Western Texas and Captain
M. T. Gonzaullas, “Lone Wolf.” Indianola won the prestigious
Summerfield G. Roberts Award in 1977. At its 1978 annual
meeting, the Texas State Historical Association gave the first
Honorable Mention in its 81 year history to Indianola,
ranking it next to Volume III of the Handbook of Texas, also
published in 1977.
Jackson County Herald Tribune,
August 31, 2011 |
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The century that followed the moving of the Presidio de Nuestra Senora de Loreto from the west bank of Garcitas Creek in Victoria County and the Mission de Nuestra Senora del Espiritu Santo de Zuniga from the east (Jackson County) bank of that stream in 1726 was quiet. The land returned to a state of remoteness and somnolence, interrupted briefly only by quarrels between bands of nomadic Indians.
Then in
1829 change was in the wind. In that year, Moses Austin appeared
in San Antonio de Bexar to take the first steps toward
introduction of Anglo settlers into Texas. With the aid of the
Baron de Bastrop, Moses Austin was able to secure approval and a
grant of 200,000 acres early in 1821, however, he died before
summer and the responsibility of carrying out the plans fell on
the shoulders of his son, Stephen Fuller Austin, a bachelor who
later came to be known as the “Father of Texas.”
Lands in
the colony were allocated by Austin as early as 1824, but the
Mexican government forbade actual
Robert
Guthrie - July 19, 1824
Beginning
in 1830, there were a great many land grant allocations. Stephen
F. Austin and Sam Houston each had land grant property in
southern Jackson County as the boundaries were set upon creation
of the Municipality on Dec. 5, 1835. Austin’s two league tract
was on the east side of the Navidad. Its north line was almost
directly across stream from the later town of Texana. The Austin
property included Red Bluff and extended south to just below the
confluence of the Navidad and Lavaca Rivers. Title was recorded
on Dec. 18, 1830. Sam Houston’s grant was southeast of Austin’s.
It lay on the west side of Carancahua Bay and included Wolf
Point. Houston’s title was dated Jan. 8, 1833. Both were choice
pieces of property. Upon the creation of Calhoun County in 1846,
Houston’s grant was removed from Jackson County and placed in
In the
beginning years, there were encounters between the Carancahua
Indians and Austin colonists, but the former were routed easily
and caused little trouble thereafter. It is a fact of history
that during the Texas Revolution, the remaining Carancahuas
displayed sympathy for the Texian cause. John S. Menefee’s
historical writings and papers from before the time of the
Revolution until his death in 1884 are the source of much
valuable information on the settlement and development of what
is now Jackson county. He stated that the lure of Texas brought
three fellow Alabamans to Austin’s colony in 1829 to scout the
situation. They were to return home with recommendations to
interested citizens in their county about emigrating from that
state to the colony where land could be secured easily. In some
cases, they could get it free and in others at an extremely
nominal cost.
Jackson County Herald-Tribune, July 13, 2011 |
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In his book “Methodism in Texas,” published in 1872, the Methodist minister Homer Thrall, who visited Texana many times during his service as pastor of the Indianola Methodist Church, gave some insight on this migration. Referring to the wagon train of which Menefee was a part, Thrall wrote, “In the fall and winter of 1830-31, about twenty families, most of whom had been Methodists, migrated from North Alabama to the Navidad River in Jackson County, Texas. “Six of these families, including the Heards, Menefees, Sutherlands, and Thomas J. Reads, came across the country by land. This company camped one night on the bank of the Sabine river in Louisiana. It so happened that Rev. John C. Burruss of the Mississippi Conference camped with them. “According to the custom of itinerants of the olden time, Mr. Burruss had all the company assembled at Major Sutherland’s tent for prayer. There were times when John C. Burruss seemed to pray as though he was especially inspired for the exercise. He has been know to pray a full hour at the opening of worship and during the prayer the whole congregation would be bathed in tears, while sinners were convicted, mourners were converted and Christians made unspeakably happy. This was one of the times in which he prayed. The company around him were entering a foreign land where Protestantism was not tolerated and he felt keenly for them. “In his prayer, he alluded to Jacob’s flight from his brother and his vision at Bethel; to Abraham journeying into a strange land; and he interceded with the God of Jacob and of Abraham for this company, that God would direct these pilgrims to their new homes and bless them and multiply them and furnish them with pastors and the regular means of grace. “To the day of their death, some of these emigrants retained a most vivid recollection of that prayer, and during the long months and years in which they were without regular preaching, they cherished the hope that the fervent petition offered at their campfire would be answered. And, it was. “As early as 1833, a preacher passing through the county preached to them, and Mr. Kinney visited them in 1834. “It would be impossible to estimate the influence which these North Alabama colonists have exerted upon the destiny of Texas. They have occupied distinguished positions at the bar and on the bench, in conventions and legislative assemblies, in the pulpit and on the battlefield. They have especially exerted a wholesome moral and religious influence, not only where they first settled, but wherever they have been dispersed over the country.
“A
traveler visiting Texas just after the Revolution entered Texana
one Sunday morning. He said, ‘There was preaching here by a
Methodist clergyman (probably Mr. Kinney), which drew together
the whole neighborhood and made the little village appear quite
religiouslike. These Methodists are “Though we anticipate a little, we may state that the class organized by Dr. Ruter in Egypt in December 1837 all belonged to this company. They were Mrs. Jemima Heard, who died in 1859; Agnes Menefee, who died the same year; Martha Read and Martha Stanback, who died in 1845; Nancy Kellett, who died in 1868; Frances Borden, who died in 1841; Sarah Armstrong (afterwards Jones), who died in 1858; America Heard, who died in 1855; Jemima Heard (afterwards Mrs. Elijah Mercer) who died in 1871. “Of those who joined the church at its organization in Texana, Aunt Polly White died in 1857; Thomas Menefee, Sr., died in 1858 (he had just paid $500 toward the ‘Texas Christian Advocate’ and Depository Building in Galveston); Dr. John Sutherland died at Sutherland Springs in 1868. (His son, Alexander, is an itinerant in the Mexican Border Mission Conference). Samuel Rogers, a local preacher, Francis M. White and John White, George and John S. Menefee, Mrs. Frances Sutherland and some others, lived for years in Jackson County.” The Texana Methodist Church, the first congregation of any denomination in Jackson County, was organized in 1838 and its first sanctuary erected 10 years later, in 1848.
The Texas
Almanac, in its edition of 1872, published a statement from
William J.E. Heard, a hero of San Jacinto, in which he replied
to a question, stating, “...In October 1830, I started from
North Among the party of about 200 that came from Alabama to the Lavaca-Navidad region by water was the Rev. Samuel C.A. Rogers. The group, apparently led by Captain Jesse White, traveled by flat bottom barges from Decatur in Morgan County, down the Tennessee river to the Ohio and the Mississippi down to New Orleans. From New Orleans, they moved by schooner to Cox’s Point on Matagorda Bay, Roger’s group arriving April 5, 1831. At the point, the men built a flat bottom craft and used it to transport passengers and baggage up the Lavaca and Navidad, disembarking at White’s league on the east bank. Several of this band of settlers died within two years, among them Mrs. Rogers. After her death, Samuel Rogers gave up housekeeping and moved back down the river to Cox’s Point. His son William then died at the point, after which Rogers moved again, that time upstream where he settled between the Navidad and Mustang. Rogers is regarded as the founder of Methodism in Jackson County. In later years, the Ganado Methodist Church stemmed from the Rogers Chapel. Captain Philip Dimitt placed Rogers in charge of a train of about 20 carts to take provisions from Dimitt’s Landing to the army stationed at San Antonio near the end of 1835. He arrived at San Jacinto on April 22, the day after the decisive battle. Upon returning to his home place from San Jacinto, Rogers found that the Mexican force under General Urrea had appropriated all movable property and had burned the rest. In his comments about the prayer session among the Alabamans on the bank of the Sabine River in Louisiana before crossing into Texas, Thrall pointed to John Burruss, noting that the migrants were “about entering a foreign land where Protestantism was not tolerated...” Dr. Francis F. Wells was one of the many Protestants who were baptized as Roman Catholics because that was a prerequisite to the awarding of land grants in Texas by the Mexican government. The original baptismal certificate in the Barker Texas History Center of the University of Texas Library, Austin, shows that Francis (Franciscus) F. Wells was baptized by Michael Muldoon on July 4, 1831, with Stephen F. Austin as sponsor. Translated from the Latin, the certificate states, in part, “I, the undersigned parochial pastor of Austin’s Colony and also General Vicar of all Immigrants (or Foreigners) by Papal and Bishoply (sic) Authority in the Regions of Texas forearmed as respects Dispensations: To All Whom it Concerns, I certify Franciscus (Francis) F. Wells, adult, Stephen F. Austin, being sponsor, to have been baptized according to the rite of the Holy Roman Catholic Church on this 4th day of the month of July in the year of our true Salvation 1831. /s/Michael Muldoon.” In his new role, Dr. Wells immediately acted as sponsor or “Rosa McNutt” (undoubtedly Rosannah McNutt, who married Francis M. White). Her baptism was on the same day as that of Dr. Wells and was administered by Father Muldoon, who was loved and highly respected by members of Austin’s Colony. It was common practice for those Protestants who had been baptized in this manner to shrug off the ceremony as an expedient necessary to acquire headright grants of land. Because they regarded it as a coercive practice, they did not consider it to be morally binding on their conscience. That attitude led settlers to privately handle their personal religious affairs in the manner to which they were accustomed. Clinging to their Protestant teachings, they at first conducted worship services quietly in order not to attract the attention of Mexican authorities. The difficult situation did not last long. In a few years, the establishment of the Republic of Texas gave all people complete religious freedom to worship as they pleased. At that time in 1831 an interesting and potentially serious event was taking place in present-day Jackson County on the west bank of the Lavaca River. The Mexican Army had begun work on a large brick kiln at a point on the Lavaca commonly called “el Banco Colorado.” The ultimate purpose of the kiln, which down through the years had been referred to locally as “the Mexican brickyard,” was to manufacture building bricks for use in the construction of a fortress nearby to be staffed by Mexican soldiers and named the Lavaca Command. The location was close to the soon-to-be founded town of Santa Anna on the Navidad. Had that planned masonry fortress been erected, it would have had a powerful, direct influence on the course of Texas history. The Lavaca Command would have held tight control over the coastal plain roads between the Rio Grande and East Texas, as well as maritime traffic along the middle coast. The strength of the army force quartered there would have forestalled Texian volunteer movement against San Antonio de Bexar and Goliad. Therefore, a revolution of colonists in Texas would have been, in all likelihood, doomed to failure if it was ever able to get started in the first place. There would not have been a Mexican War fought by the United States, and the latter’s boundaries would not have been extended to the Pacific Coast. John J. Linn of Victoria said that the work at the brick kiln was supervised by Don Manuel Choval and that the Lavaca Command post was under a Captain Artiaga. Linn knew whereof he spoke. He was left holding the bag for a very large amount of provisions and other supplies purchased from him by the Mexican forces for use at the kiln and command, but for which he never received payment from the government. During the two years that the brick kiln was under construction and in operation, it is believed that approximately 200-250 soldiers were stationed there.
Suddenly
in 1833, for reasons known only within governmental circles in
Mexico City, the project was halted. Over the years that followed, the site of the brick kiln and storage yard was raided frequently by settlers, who hauled away bricks for use in construction of chimneys and fireplaces.
Jackson County Herald-Tribune,
July 20, 2011 |
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Dissatisfaction with policies of the Mexican government toward Anglo colonists caused some residents of the Lavaca, Navidad and Mustang area to join in 1832 at a meeting at Thomas Menefee’s to explore means of conveying their sentiments to the proper authorities.
Presided
over by George Sutherland, the Menefee Meeting followed
the Anahuac Disturbances and is credited with having a
galvanizing effect insofar as rebellious thought was concerned.
Kerr
attended the Conventions of 1832 and 1833. Both were held at San
Felipe de Austin, that of 1833 on April 1, the day that Antonio
Lopez de Santa Anna became president of Mexico, following his
election as a liberal. |
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Santa Anna had declared in 1834 that conditions in Mexico were not right for a democratic form of government and began to assume the role of a dictator. That was a dismaying circumstance to colonists who had come from the United States with the assurance of political freedom. Samuel C.A. Rogers was chosen secretary of the meeting, which drew the attendance of practically all of the most important men in the Lavaca-Navidad basin. The lively session at William Millican’s ginhouse is recognized as having exerted a powerful influence on the rapidly growing sentiment against what Texians regarded as intolerable positions taken by Mexican authorities. It was a direct predecessor of the Texas Declaration of Independence signed at Washington-on-the-Brazos on March 2, 1836. Elijah Stapp represented the Municipality of Jackson and signed the Declaration of Independence. Stapp had been elected second judge of the Municipality on Dec. 5, 1835 by the General Council of Provisional Government. He was postmaster at LaBaca in 1840. James Kerr had been elected a delegate to the Convention of 1836 but found it impossible to attend. From the beginning of settlement, present Jackson County was a part of the District of LaBaca in the Municipality of Austin, whose capital was at San Felipe. To ease administrative problems caused, largely, by distance and difficulty of transportation, the Municipality of Matagorda was organized on March 6, 1834 and the District of LaBaca transferred to it. The western boundary of the Municipality was at the Lavaca River. Inspired in part by Texian actions, such as the Lavaca-Navidad Meeting of July 17 and the Battle of Gonzales on Oct. 2, a meeting named the Consultation of 1835 was called to assemble at San Felipe on Oct. 16. However, due to road conditions and the necessity of completing the harvesting of crops, a quorum was not constituted until Nov. 2. James Kerr had been elected as a delegate but was unable to be present because he was engaged in the campaign to capture Fort Lipantitlan. The purpose of the Consultation was to reach a consensus of Texians as to what position should be taken regarding the increasing tyranny of Mexican President Santa Anna. Another resident of the Lavaca-Navidad who had been elected as a delegate to the Consultation but who was unable to attend was George Sutherland. He, to, was involved in military action.
On Nov.
6, 1835, the delegates to the Consultation decided to throw
their lot with liberal Mexicans, remain a part of Mexico and
fight for restoration of the Constitution of 1824. It was a
fateful and profoundly important step that would affect all of
Texas, the District of LaBaca not excepted. The conclusions were
published in what is known as the Declaration of Nov. 7, 1835.
It was intended to justify the Texian action against despotism.
The next step of the Consultation was to establish a Provisional
Government of Texas as an independent state in the Mexican
nation. The inhabitants of the Lavaca-Navidad region became
directly involved in the growing storm of threatened armed
conflict. Philip Demitt had established a trading post on the
point of high ground on the lower Lavaca River overlooking the
bay. It had become known as Dimmitt’s Landing and was believed
by many to have been the site of LaSalle’s Fort St. Louis. As a
naturalized Mexican citizen who had married a Mexican-born
woman, Maria Louisa Lazo, Dimmitt enjoyed a favored status and
had a lucrative contract to supply the Mexican Army garrison at
San Antonio by imports discharged at the landing. However,
Dimmitt placed principle above personal gain. In October, he and
several other
Later in
the month, George Collingsworth was advanced to the rank of
major and ordered to San Antonio de Bexar. The men of the
company then elected Philip Dimmitt as captain to succeed
Collingsworth at Presidio LaBahia. Benjamin J. White of the
Lavaca-Navidad was in charge of commissary stores at the
Presidio under Dimmitt. Captain Dimmitt sent a force to capture
Fort Lipantitlan on the Nueces River. Counted among that company
were James Kerr and William Bracken of the Lavaca, the latter
being wounded in the siege of the fort by having a finger shot
off. The capture of Fort Lipantitlan was another morale booster
for the Texians. Soon thereafter Augustin Viesca, the last
governor of Coahuila and Texas, having escaped from imprisonment
ordered by Santa Anna, made his way into Texas in company with
Dr. James Grant and Jose Maria Gonzales. As the approach of the
party to Goliad on Nov. 11 became known, Captain Dimmitt sent
Colonel James Power, John J. Linn and James Kerr, all of whom
were fluent In a dispute with Stephen F. Austin, Dimmitt was relieved of his post at Goliad on Nov. 18. Sixty-seven of Dimmitt’s command at the Presidio La Bahia drafted resolutions vehemently protesting his removal, and signed the document on Nov. 21. Dimmitt went to take part in the Siege of Bexar on Dec. 5 to 9, during which Ben Milam was killed. A company of artillery under Captain Thomas K. Pearson, having entered Matagorda Bay through Pass Cavallo in Nov. 1835, came on to Dimmitt’s Landing. There, they aided in loading and transporting an 18-pounder cannon from the landing to San Antonio de Bexar. It was a remarkable feat of engineer ing, but it caused Pearson to miss the action at San Antonio by arriving on Dec. 13, three days after the surrender of General Martin Perfecto de Cos.
After
Cos’s surrender, Dimmitt returned to Goliad where he and Ira
Ingram (from Matagorda) drafted the famous Goliad Declaration of
Independence on Dec. 20. The Declaration was signed by 92
Jackson County Herald Tribune,
August 10, 2011 |
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While men
were dying during the Siege of Bexar, political events affecting
the Lavaca and Navidad settlers moved forward. Provisional
Governor Henry Smith signed, on Dec. 5, an ordinance creating
the Municipality of Jackson out of the west side of the
Municipality of Matagorda. The name was selected to honor Andrew
Jackson, seventh president of the United States, who was a close Because of the antipathy toward the Mexican president, citizens of the town of Santa Anna had taken action to change its name to Texana. The precise date of the change is not known, but it was between October 23, 1835 and the passage of the ordinance of creation of the Municipality of Jackson. There exists a letter dated at Santa Anna on Oct. 23, which places the change of name between that time and Dec. 5. The Ordinance of the Provisional Government provides: “An Ordinance Creating a Municipality off of and from the west side of the present Municipality of Matagorda, to be called the Municipality of Jackson. “Be it Ordained and decreed, and it is hereby ordained and decreed, by the General Council of the Provisional Government of Texas, that a Municipality shall be created off of and from the west side of the present Municipality of Matagorda, the same shall be known by the name of the Municipality of Jackson and the Capital shall be at the town of Texana, lately known as Santa Anna. “The Municipality of Jackson is to be comprehended in the following boundary, to wit, beginning at a point on Matagorda Bay, equidistant from the Trespalacios and Carancahua Bay Bayous, and from thence running by a dividing line to the head waters of the Trespalacios Bayou. And from thence a due north coast (sic) to the northern boundary line of the Municipality of Matagorda, thence along said boundary line a due west course to the Labaca River, thence down the centre of the said river to the anchorage ground of the Labaca Bay in the Matagorda Bay, thence to the eastward along the northern shore of Matagorda bay to place of beginning.
“The said
Jackson Municipality shall be entitled to all the functionaries
which the other Municipalities are or may be entitled to and
they shall be created in the same manner as in others.
James W.
Robinson
Approved
5th Dec. 1835 Events involving the Municipality of Jackson began to move swiftly. Philip Dimmitt was at the Alamo when Col. William B. Travis entered the fortification with an occupation force that was to be swelled by later additions, and which would remain until the fall on March 6, 1836. On that day of Feb. 23, Dimmitt and B.F. Nobles were sent out into the countryside to recruit reinforcements for the garrison. Dimmitt was later assigned to collect and maintain a military force stationed at the Landing to protect it, and the Lavaca-Navidad area, from possible Mexican invasion by sea. Dimmitt was on close, friendly terms with James Bowie. They had participated in the Siege of Bexar on Dec. 5 to 9 of the previous year and Bowie had spent time in the home of Sylvanus Hatch while paying court to Clara Lisle in Texana. It was from Texana that Bowie went on to the Alamo. There was another direct tie between the people of the Texana vicinity and the brave men behind the walls of the Alamo. One of that number soon to be martyred was William Sutherland, son of Major George and Fanny Menefee Sutherland. Young Sutherland had also been at the Lavaca-Navidad meeting of July 17, 1835. Volunteers from the United States disembarked at Dimmitt’s Landing and at Texana early in the year. They trained at Texana for two weeks before marching on to join Col. James W. Fannin’s command at Presidio La Bahia, Goliad. They departed Texana with an enthusiastic sendoff by the townspeople and wishes of Godspeed, but practically all of them marched to their death.
Jackson County Herald Tribune,
August 31, 2011 |
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Copyright 2019-
Present by author |
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| Created Apr 4, 2019 |
Updated Apr 6, 2019 |