Come and Take It!

While Austin sat in a Mexican jail, Santa Anna changed allegiance from the Federalists to the conservative Centralists and proclaimed himself the permanent president of Mexico in 1834.  He abolished the federal government and installed his own yes-men.  Then he turned his attention to Texas...

In 1835 Santa Anna prepared to lead an army northward to crush uprisings in the northern regions of Texas.  This stirred the Texan radicals to action and with a band of 40 men, they forced the Anahuac garrison to evacuate.  William Travis and his men were promptly arrested and marshal law are proclaimed throughout Texas.

Stephen Austin who was by then released from jail, had come to the end of his patience along with most of the citizens of Texas.  When Santa Anna ordered San Antonio held under military watch, that was the last straw.  Austin ordered a petition declaring "there is no other remedy but to defend our rights, ourselves and our country by a force of arms."

The actual revolution began when General San Martin Perfecta de Cos (Santa Anna's brother-in-law) attempted to forcefully take a cannon belonging too the citizens of Gonzales.  The cannon had been given to defer Indian attacks and was a pseudo-symbol of the community.  The citizens responded to Cos by placing a sign on the cannon "COME AND TAKE IT".  Then they let fly with a load of nails, wire, and horseshoes, followed by rifle fire.  The Mexicans, shocked that the citizens would retaliate, fled to San Antonio.

The cocky Texans of Gonzales resolved to drive General Cos and his entire army all the way back to Mexico.  The "Army of the People" was hastily assembled with 500 armed farmers.  With their celebrated cannon they set out for San Antonio and found the city well fortified.  It was a long siege.

Next time...Preparing for Independence
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Today in Pioneer History: "On September 19, 1827, after a duel turns into an all-out brawl Jim Bowie disembowels a banker in Alexandria, Louisiana, with an early version of his famous Bowie knife. The actual inventor of the Bowie knife, however, was probably not Jim Bowie, but rather his equally belligerent brother, Rezin Bowie, who reportedly came up with the design after nearly being killed in a vicious knife fight.

Revolution Building 101

The first step to revolution in Texas came at the port of Anahuac on Galveston Bay in 1832, from the governor who was commanded by Col. John Bradburn, a bully from Kentucky in the service of the Mexican military. He alienated the settlers by "borrowing" their slaves and supplies without payment, then ordered those who objected arrested and held for military trial.

In June 1832, 160 angry settlers took the fort, demanding Bradburn resign and the release of his prisoners.  The officers yielded, but there was a skirmish between settlers and Mexican troops.  The Texans settlers won. 

The Mexicans at this time were caught up in a political battle at home between the conservatives and the Federalists, champions of the new democratic constitution. The settlers at Anahuac were not against the new laws, but voiced their support for the Federalists.  The Federalists had taken power in 1824 in a coup led by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna.

The settlers had two conventions at Austin in 1832 and 1833 in which they drew up a list of reforms they wanted to present to Santa Anna, who they considered their "Federalist ally".  Among those requests was the repeal of the prohibition of American immigration, trial by jury, and the separation of Texas from Coahuila. 

Stephen Austin was elected to take the requests to Mexico City.  When he arrived in 1833 he learned that President Santa Anna was away fighting rebels and the city was in a cholera turmoil.  Austin and the Vice President clashed over the slow pace of negotiations, after which Austin wrote to officials in San Antonio urging them to begin forming a new state without Mexico's permission.

Santa Anna, returning to the capital, agreed to some of Texan's requests - trial by jury and the repeal of the ban on American immigration, but he opposed Texan statehood.  Meanwhile Austin was arrested on his way home when Mexican officials intercepted his letter...

Next time...Who is this Santa Anna?
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Today in Pioneer History:  On September 12, 1846, Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning elope. Barrett’s strict father disliked Browning, whom he viewed as an unreliable fortune hunter, so most of the courtship was conducted in secret. On September 12, 1846, while her family was away, Barrett sneaked out of the house and met Browning at St. Marylebone Parish Church, where they were married. She returned home for a week, keeping the marriage a secret, then fled with Browning to Italy. She never saw her father again. (not much "pioneer history" on this date :)

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.