The British Question

Retaliation against Mexico so far had been a major fail except in one respect - it did revive US interest in Texas and the whole annexation question.  The best hope for Texas' survival lay in the United States and Houston knew that, but how was he to prove that to an uncertain country who often voted against anything to do with Texas?

Houston became a shrewd diplomat, creating the impression that Britain was exerting considerable influence on him in wanting Texas as a territory.  The US expansionists who were always eager for adding territory to the US would take notice, he figured.

Britain was interested in Texas but wanted Texas to remain independent.  British industrialists wanted cheap cotton and a market without US tariffs on manufactured goods.  They also wanted to persuade Texas to ban slavery.  This was the main point...In 1843 President Tyler (photo right), a southern sympathizer, heard of the slavery ban pressure by Britain and begin to get nervous.

In 1843, Santa Anna, in the middle of his own rebellion in the Yucatan sent word to Houston that he wanted to open peace negotiations.  Houston read Santa Anna's terms - Mexico would cease hostilities if Texas would acknowledge Mexico's sovereignty in controlling the internal affairs - and Houston refused.

But, he didn't tell Santa Anna right away.  he allowed the British to intercede in the negotiations.  When the peace treaty was signed in June of 1843, Houston made it a point of advertising his gratitude to the British.

Washington was alarmed.  "For the safety of New Orleans, the prosperity of the great valley of the Mississippi and our whole union, require the annexation of Texas".  President Tyler sent word to Houston that the US would not oppose annexation if Texas would submit her request to join the Union. 

Houston smiled - the plan had worked beautifully!

Next time...The Final Round
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Today in Pioneer History:  On November 10, 1808, in a decision that would eventually make them one of the wealthiest surviving Indian nations, the Osage Indians agree to abandon their lands in Missouri and Arkansas in exchange for a reservation in Oklahoma.

Go West Young Germans!

Germans contributed far more to Texas than any other European immigrants.  They came to represent the largest foreign born element in Texas, outnumbering even the Mexicans!

Mainzer Adelsverein was a society for the protection of German immigrants in Texas.  It was organized by a group of German noblemen in 1842, and was largely responsible for the German migration to Texas. 

In 1844, the society published an offer; each single adult who subscribed $120 would receive free passage to Texas and 40 acres; families for $240 got free passage and 80 acres.  The society also would provide houses, livestock, and tools as well as build the public buildings and roads for the settlement.  Pretty good deal, right?

In answer, 180 German families joined the society's leader, Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels who had gone to Texas earlier.  The emigrants landed at Galveston in the fall of 1844 to quite a surprise!  The land promised was a remote wilderness, mostly uninhabited except for unfriendly Indians. 

The following spring Prince Carl moved his group to an area NE of San Antonio and set up the town of New Braunfels.  The settlers had to build cabins, plant the first corn crops, keep the Indians at bay, and deal with the savage wind storms accompanied by driving sleet that froze their livestock.  But the settlers survived despite Prince Carl, who was replaced within a year by a more capable Baron Hans von Meusebach. 

Meuseback later led a second group of German settlers to found the settlement at Fredericksburg.  Other German villages grew to the south including Sisterdale, Boerne, and Comfort, to the southeast at Sequin, Victoria, and Indianola. 

Next time...Life on the Raw Texas Frontier
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Today in Pioneer History:  On October 31, 1892,  The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Arthur Conan Doyle, is published. The book was the first collection of Holmes stories, which Conan Doyle had been publishing in magazines since 1887.

New Slogan - GTT!!

When the Panic of 1837 threw thousands of frontiersmen off their lands, Texas was a second chance for many of them.  Single men were granted 640 acres and families 1280 acres, plus the option to buy more at 50 cents an acre.

Soon GTT (Gone to Texas) was written across abandoned cabin doors and across creditors' accounting books in the United States, not just on the frontier but in the eastern seaboard as well.  Between 1836 and 1847, the total population of Texas went from 40,000 to 142,000!

The old empresario system was revived - a given section of public domain was designated a colony and assigned a proprietor who collected fees for surveys, moving and building costs, along with all other necessities he brought with the colonists.

Henri Castro, a wealthy Frenchman, was such a empresario.  He obtained a grant in the Medina River country between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande.  In 1844 the first group of French colonists moved in, escorted by 20 Texas Rangers, and laid out the town of Castroville.  The area was dangerous territory, with both Indian and Mexican raids.  Castroville was the first permanent settlement between San Antonio and the Rio Grande.

The settlers stayed through severe droughts and Indian raids.  By 1847 more than 2000 Frenchman had settled in the town and surrounding area.

Next time...It's the German's Turn
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On October 27, 1873, Joseph Glidden, a De Kalb, Illinois farmer, submits an application to the U.S. Patent Office for his clever new design for a fencing wire with sharp barbs, an invention that will forever change the face of the American West.

Change of Leadership Ends Badly

For two years Sam Houston's economy and moderation kept the republic alive.  Texans were growing impatient for annexation.  The constitution barred Houston from succeeding himself, so in 1838, Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar became the new president.

Lamar was a violinist, a poet and a Houston foe who opposed annexation and dreamed of making Texas a powerful independent nation.  He opened  thousands of acres to settlers by driving Cherokee out of east Texas and crushing the Comanche in west Texas.  He moved the capital to Austin in 1839.

By 1840 Britain, France and the Netherlands all recognized the republic, thanks to Lamar, but his lavish spending exceeded his income by more than $4 million! The Texas "red back" dollar's value plunged, and credit collapsed. 

Then Lamar launched his greatest scheme - a secret invasion of New Mexico.  He hoped to corner Santa Fe trade and extend Texas borders all the way to the Pacific.  He believed that New Mexico, plagued by Indian revolts, would welcome Texas traders and would rally behind the Lone Star Flag.

In June 1841, 300 soldiers and traders, along with 24 wagons set out for Santa Fe. You might say the trip didn't go so well...first they got lost.  Then Indians picked off the stragglers.  Finally prairie fires destroyed the wagons.  After 1300 miles of desert, they were seized by Mexican troops and marched on bleeding feet another 2000 miles to Mexico City and prison.  No, didn't go well!

The fiasco didn't help relations between Texas and Mexico either.  Lamar's career was  obviously over.  Houston took back the presidency in 1841.  As one the people recorded, "Houston drunk in a ditch is worth a thousand of Lamar sober."  :)

Next time...Can you say oui, oui?
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Today in Pioneer History:  On October 24, 1901, a 63-year-old schoolteacher named Annie Edson Taylor becomes the first person to take the plunge over Niagara Falls in a barrel.

Remembering the Alamo

Dawn.  March 6, 1836, Santa Anna's 1800 men charged the Alamo.  Twice they were repelled.  The third time their reserves joined in, scaling the walls and Col. William Travis died, slumped over a cannon.  Hand to hand fighting with knives and clubbed rifles against bayonets ensued.  The defenders fell back and died in the barracks and chapel.  By 7am the fighting was over, but as Santa Anna approached the mission, a last defiant shot went over his head and he turned and ran. 

Santa Anna later strolled through the Alamo over the dead bodies of Travis, Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett and said, "It was but a small affair." Santa Anna was wrong.  He had lost 600 men and given Texas a symbol - a battle cry that would come back to crush him just six weeks later.

The Alamo defenders had included combative, hot-tempered Colonel Travis who believed the Alamo was the key to Texas; Jim Bowie, who grieving over the death of his wife and two children to illness, said, "we would rather die in these ditches that give it to the enemy." Sam Houston said of Bowie, "there is no man on whose valor I place a higher estimate."  Finally there was Davy Crockett, who along with his Tennesseans fought to the death on the south wall.  All became legends in history. 
legend says that Bowie fought his last fight from his sickbed near the main gate armed with pistols and the knife that bears his name.

The Mexican attackers were led by Juan Amador Manuel Fernandez Castrillon.  Santa Anna directed the attack from a nearby command post.  Reports say Castrillon offered protection to six wounded men (of which Crockett may have been one) but Santa Anna ordered all six tortured and executed instead.

Colonel Travis' last message: "Fellow citizens - I am besieged by a 1000 or more Mexicans for 24 hours and have not lost a man.  Our flag still waves proudly from the walls.  I shall never surrender or retreat.  I am determined to die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor and that of his country.  Victory or Death!"

Next time - First Citizen of Texas Houston
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Today in Pioneer History: "On September 26, 1820, the great pioneering frontiersman Daniel Boone dies quietly in his sleep at his son’s home near present-day Defiance, Missouri. The indefatigable voyager was 86.

The Fredonia Revolt

Mexico's record of governing so far had been less than impressive.  Centuries of colonial rule by Spain had left her ill prepared to run her own affairs.  Chaos below the Rio Grande meant that Texas was often forgotten.  There were few troops to offer protection from the Indians.  No trial by jury.  Local government was antiquated and inefficient. 

The signs of trouble began with the "Fredonian Revolt" of 1826.  Haden Edwards, an empresario whose land grant included Nacogdoches and part of the northeast Texas squatter's zone, began causing trouble by favoring the new settlers over the old.  The Mexican officials annulled his contract and expelled him from the country.

Edwards' brother, Benjamin, led a small band of men into Nacogdoches and unfurled a red and white flag that read "Independence, Liberty, and Justice".  He took over the town and proclaimed the "Republic of Fredonia".

Stephen Austin who was the American leader in Texas had tried to mediate the quarrel with no success.  He finally called out his own colony's militia to help the Mexicans put down the revolt.  The revolt collapsed.  Austin's refusal to support Edwards should have calmed the Mexican officials, but they saw this as proof of America's desire to take Texas from them.

Next time...An offer on the table
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Today in Pioneer History: "On September 1, 1836, Narcissa Whitman arrives in Walla Walla, Washington, becoming one of the first Anglo women to settle west of the Rocky Mountains.

Founding Father of Texan - Stephen Austin

"The redemption of Texas from the wilderness, fidelity and gratitude to my adopted country, and to  be inflexibly true to the interest and just rights of my settlers."  Such was the code of Stephen F. Austin, a small man in stature but huge as a diplomat and statesman.  He was cautious of the Spanish officials during the early years which his settlers didn't approve of, but Austin said "It was my duty to steer my precious colony through all the shoals and quicksands regardless of the curses and ridicule of the passengers.  I knew what I was about - they did not." 

Austin was born in southwest Virginia in 1793, the eldest son of Moses Austin, a mine owner who took his family to Spanish Louisiana (Missouri) in 1796.  Stephen began to learn respect of different cultures early in life.  He held many jobs - mine manager, bank director, territorial legislator, circuit judge of Arkansas,  law student in New Orleans, and editorial writer for the Louisiana Advertiser. 

After 15 years of fulfilling his father's Texas legacy, he had created a sturdy colony, lead the 1835 revolution against Mexico, and laid the groundwork for US recognition as the new republic's first secretary of state.  At 43 years of age, Austin wrote "I have no house, nor a roof in all of Texas to call my own, no comforts - all my wealth in prospective and contingent upon the events of the future...my health and strength and time have gone in the service of Texas and therefore I am not ashamed of my present poverty."  Austin died soon after writing this on December 27, 1836, leaving no family, no children.  A single minded man with a single minded purpose - Texas belonging to the United States. 

Next time...A Clash of Cultures
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On this Day in Pioneer History:  On August 25, 1835, the first in a series of six articles announcing the supposed discovery of life on the moon appears in the New York Sun newspaper.  The incident became known as the Great Moon Hoax.

Americans Come to Texas to Stay

In 1820 Moses Austin appeared in the Texas capital of San Antonio with a proposal for the Spanish governor - to found a settlement of 300 US settlers in east Texas...all Roman Catholic who would become Spanish subjects. Surprisingly, the governor accepted because Austin had lived in Spanish Louisiana territory and was therefore a Spanish citizen. 

Austin returned home to Missouri to gather the settlers but died before he could return to Texas.  His son, Stephen agreed to carry out his father's last wishes.  The 28 year old brought his first "Texans" in 1821 to an empty, fertile area centered on the Columbia and Brazos Valleys.  The entire population of Texas at that  time (excluding the Indians) was 4000, most living in San Antonio and Nacogdoches.

The determined pioneers cleared land, built cabins, sowed crops, repeatedly drove off Apache and Comanche Indians, and in two short years had their capital, San Felipe de Austin.  Rugged living and hard work were rewarded in corn and cotton with inexhaustible pasture land "green year round".  The forests and rivers were rich in game and fish.  One Texan wrote "there does not appear possible that there can be a land more lovely."

Included in the new capital were settlers like blacksmith Gail Borden, future inventor of condensed milk.  The only other commercial building in the new capital belonged to Copper and Cheves Saloon, the village's only frame building.  All the rest of the buildings were log cabins.

The Anglo Saxons settlers spread through the wooded eastern area while the Mexicans preferred the dry southern grasslands of Texas.

Next time...a closer look at Stephen Austin
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On this Day in Pioneer History:  "On August 22, 1898, the hired assassin Jim Miller briefly joins the Texas Rangers, demonstrating how thin the line between outlaw and lawmen often was in the West.

Early Expeditions into Texas

As early as 1791, Louisiana horse trader Philip Nolan began traveling Spanish Texas in search of wild mustang horses.  His efforts were profitable but he had more on his mind than just horses.  He is believed to have surveyed Spain's defenses of the territory, which of course aroused the suspicions of the Spanish officials.  When he returned to Texas with 28 armed men in 1800 to round up more horses, he was shot and killed by the Spanish officials.

Beginning in 1810, uprisings in central Mexico took Spain's attention away from Texas as well as gained the sympathy of the US frontier.  Americans, fresh from the American Revolution, believed that an independent, republican Mexico would be more hospitable to US settlers than Spain was. 

In the summer of 1812, Bernardo Gutierrez, a revolutionary from Mexico, and Augustus  Magee, an ex-US Army officer, led a Republican army of the North deep into Texas.  Most of the 600 man army were rough and tough men interested in loot as much as in liberty for Mexico.  After Magee died at La Bahia, the army disintegrated and most of the men were killed by those loyal to Spain.

The last expedition into Texas was led by Dr. James Long with a 300 man volunteer army that believed Texas rightfully belonged to the US as part of the Louisiana Purchase.  Long was a friend of Andrew Jackson and in June of 1819 captured the town of Nacogdoches without a shot fired.  Dr. Long proclaimed the "Republic of Texas" and himself the president with Nacogdoches the capital.

Dr. Long made one mistake - he left his new capital to go to Galveston Island to enlist the help of  the Gulf Coast pirate, Jean Lafitte, who refused him.  In Long's absence, the Spanish trounced the disorderly defenders of Nacogdoches. 

Next time...the Americans come to stay
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Today in Pioneer History:  On August 11,  1856, a hurricane hits the Louisiana coast, killing more than 400 people.  Isle Derniere, a resort community, was totally submerged by the storm surges.