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Columbus, Texas

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Consider the Lily:
The Ungilded History of Colorado County, Texas

By Bill Stein

(Copyright, Nesbitt Memorial Library and Bill Stein)

Notes to Part 5

1 Texas Monument, December 2, 1851, December 10, 1851, December 24, 1851, February 11, 1852, March 17, 1852, June 30, 1852, January 25, 1854; William Bluford Dewees, Letters from an Early Settler of Texas (1852. Waco: Texian Press, 1968), pp. 306, 311-312; Hans Peter Nielsen Gammel, comp., The Laws of Texas 1822-1897 (Austin: The Gammel Book Company, 1898), vol. 4, pp. 97-101. The stage line through Columbus also ran through Eagle Lake, which at the time meant not the lake itself or the city which would soon be established beside the lake, but the post office manned by George Washington Thatcher, which was established on June 19, 1849 and remained in service until June 29, 1854 (see Record of Appointment of Postmasters 1832-September 30, 1971, National Archives Microfilm Publication M841, Roll 122).

2 Gammel, comp., The Laws of Texas 1822-1897, vol. 3, pp. 971-973; Dewees, Letters from an Early Settler of Texas, p. 312; Colorado County Commissioners Court Minutes, Book 2, pp. 64, 75, 86, 89, 97, 99, 105-106; Texas Monument, April 13, 1853, April 20, 1853, December 7, 1853; Charles William Tait to James Asbury Tait, October 16, 1853, Tait Family Papers (Ms. 32), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus, which contains the earliest known mention of Frazer's death. In 1854, the legislature effectively renewed the law which stimulated the effort to build the courthouse, over the governor's veto, agreeing to return 90% of the tax money collected in 1854 and 1855 (see Gammel, comp., The Laws of Texas 1822-1897, vol. 3, pp. 1474-1476). Here, on their final page, the writers of Letters from an Early Settler of Texas make their final mistakes. They report that the law turned over half the tax money rather than the correct amount, 90%, and they assign to the "letter" in which their incorrect statement is made the date of February 3, 1852, ten days before the law was passed.
    In April 1853, the district court settled fifteen cases and levied nearly $500 in fines. Seven men were fined $10 each for various gambling offenses, and Caleb Claiborne Herbert, John Gilbert Montgomery, John H. Robson, and William W. Bonds were fined $200, $100, $50, and $50 respectively for assault and battery. John B. Botard escaped with a $10 fine for an assault he committed, but was hit with a $100 fine and one day in jail for stealing a small piece of ribbon. In contrast, a year earlier only one criminal case had been decided. In that case, Herbert was fined $2 for assault and battery. Only three criminal cases had been decided in the session before that, in October and November 1851. Two fines were handed down then, one of $50 and one of $1, each for assault and battery. For some reason, the district court did not convene in the fall of 1852 (see Colorado County District Court Records, Minute Book C, pp. 845-928).

3 Commissioners Court Minutes Book 2, pp. 105-107, 130, 145, 164-165, 223. By March 2, 1857, Jamison had been paid $7427.56. That day the commissioners paid him an additional $1122.44. Beginning on July 10, 1855, Jamison also worked for the county as a deputy sheriff (see Colorado County Bond and Mortgage Records, Book E, p. 49).

4 Colorado Citizen, August 29, 1857; Galveston Tri-Weekly News, September 4, 1856, September 6, 1856, September 11, 1856. Tooke may have been John Tooke, who owned fourteen slaves in 1856, David Tooke, who owned twelve, Isam Tooke, who owned ten, or Allen Tooke, who owned two (see Tax Rolls of Colorado County, 1856).

5 Norma Shaw, "The Early History of Colorado County Organized as a Model for Teaching a Local History Unit" (Master's thesis, Southwest Texas State Teachers College, 1939). Shaw interviewed two men she identified as former slaves: Richmond Norman, who is the source of the torture stories, and Charlie Phillips, who stated that the rebellion was a myth. Phillips' story is lent credence by the fact that he knew, in the 1930s, that the story had come from a slave named Tom who belonged to Tooke. We know this to be true because it is reported in the Galveston Tri-Weekly News of September 6, 1856. Phillips, of course, would not have had access to 1856 newspapers; therefore, we must assume that he came by the name Tooke from a basically honest source, and that therefore the rest of his tale might also be true.

6 Galveston Tri-Weekly News, September 4, 1856, September 6, 1856, September 11, 1856. The idea that Mexicans had instigated the rebellion may have been induced by an incident that occurred in Fayette County some six years earlier. In the fall of 1850, three Fayette County slaves were accused of conspiring to steal horses and escape to Mexico. One of the three, whose name is given as Talbot, had escaped some years earlier and lived in Mexico for about two years, then, in April 1850, voluntarily returned to servitude in Texas. Certainly Fayette County's slaveowners, and those in Colorado County, quickly deduced that Talbot's sojourn in Mexico had given him "ideas," that those ideas were dangerous to their interests, and that his presence in the community was a contaminant (see Texas Monument, October 16, 1850). As they no doubt saw it, their slaves had little reason to be unhappy with their lot in life, and would not have considered rebellion without some pernicious outside influence. (The Texas Monument of February 26, 1851 quotes a report from a publication identified as the Western Texan that an incident very similar to that that occurred in La Grange, occurred in Columbus. We must regard this as false. Probably, the Western Texan had its cities confused.)
    The citizens of Washington County, having read about the plot in Colorado County, were soon convinced that their own slaves had similar designs. In September, they met in Washington, read a few letters from their fellow slaveholders in Colorado County, and agreed to impose stricter limitations on the movements of their slaves (see Washington American, September 10, 1856, September 24, 1856).

7 Colorado County Tax Rolls, 1851, 1856; Colorado County Probate Records, Final Record Book B, p. 100; Colorado County Marriage Records, Book B, p. 141; Colorado County Deed Records, Book G, p. 271, Book I, pp. 161, 208, 470, 673; Colorado County Bond and Mortgage Records, Book E, p. 20. John G. Montgomery was the son of James S. Montgomery and the brother-in-law of the man who killed his wife's father, George W. Thatcher. William J. Herbert's land was in the Strawschneider Survey, and James Tait's in the Cook & Dewees Survey. Williamson's plantation home was in the Samuel Kennelly Survey. The other two tracts of land he purchased from Turner were in the Leander Beeson Survey and the James Ross Survey. Dunovant and Gordon's land was in the McLain & McNair Survey.
    Montgomery's honeymoon might have been somewhat troubled. Eight days before his wedding, he had assaulted a man named Lewis H. Gaines. Whatever the trouble between them, it apparently was serious enough that when Gaines turned up shot to death on March 8, Montgomery was immediately suspected. He was indicted for both assault and murder. On April 8, 1853, he was convicted of the assault and fined $100. The next day, he was acquitted of the murder (see Colorado County District Court Records, Criminal Cause File No. 118: State of Texas v. John G. Montgomery, Criminal Cause File No. 119: State of Texas v. John G. Montgomery, Minute Book C, pp. 918, 920).

8 Colorado County Tax Rolls, 1856; Colorado County Deed Records, Book H, pp. 94, 98, 206, 307, 363, Book I, pp. 289, 290, 398, 701, 702, 712, Book J, p. 30, 123; Campbell Family File, Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus. Crisp's land was in the James Tumlinson Survey, Harbert's and Taylor's in the John Hadden Survey, Burford's in the James Cummins Lower Hacienda League, Garner's in the Elizabeth Tumlinson Labor and the William B. Dewees Survey, Campbell's in the Elizabeth Tumlinson Survey, James and William J. Wright's in the Rawson Alley Survey, and Fowlkes' in the Cook & Dewees Survey.

9 Colorado County Tax Rolls, 1856; Colorado County Deed Records, Book H, pp. 82, 357, Book I, pp. 105, 229, 375, 396, 403, 598, 666, 676; Book J, p. 301, Colorado County Probate Records, Final Record Book E, pp. 346, 348-349; Colorado County Bond and Mortgage Records, Book D, p. 212. Grace's land was in the William R. Hunt, William R. Turner, and Bernard Schneider Surveys, Pearsall's and Jarmon's in the Joseph Duty Survey, Adkins' in the Freeman Pettus Survey, Darden's in the Henry Austin Survey, Insall's in the Henry Austin and M. H. Phelps Surveys, Henry's in the Basil G. Ijams Survey, Tooke's and Smith's in the William W. W. Thompson Survey, and Womble's in the James Bowie Survey. Brown also purchased a small part of Joiner's plantation (see Colorado County Deed Records, Book G, p. 305).

10 Baptismal Records, Sts. Peter & Paul Church, Frelsburg; Colorado Citizen, August 15, 1857, January 30, 1858. The slaves who were baptised in Frelsburg belonged to a family named Spann, several members of which lived in Washington County. After they were emancipated, they formed the core of the Washington County community known as Spann's Settlement, notable for its predominantly black Catholic population (see James F. Vanderholt, The Catholic Experience at Old Washington-on-the-Brazos Washington County, Texas (n. p., 1988. Rev. 1995). This community is incorrectly called "Spain's Settlement" in the New Handbook of Texas (6 vols., (Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1996) vol. 6, p. 2), and in the local history publication which is cited therein (Bruno Gorzycki, History of St. Mary's Parish, Brenham, Texas, and Catholicism of Washington County and Early Texas (n. p., 1986) p. 117).

11 Colorado County Deed Records, Book K, pp. 90, 537; Colorado Citizen, June 1, 1858, July 31, 1858. The land on which the church was located is in the Jesse Burnam Survey, south of but not adjacent to Clear Creek. All that remains of the church today is its cemetery.

12 Colorado County Deed Records, Book J, pp. 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 503, Book U, pp. 447-449; Colorado Citizen, September 29, 1859. Hereford did not file the plat of his town at the courthouse until 1878. Then, he stated that he had laid out the town "in say 1855 or 6" (see Colorado County Deed Records, Book U, p. 449). The same day that Hereford purchased the Terrell plantation, November 28, 1853, Townsend was appointed postmaster at the newly created Prairie Cottage Post Office. Four months later, on March 16, 1854, he was also appointed to serve as postmaster at another new post office, this one called Millins. Both of Townsend's post offices were discontinued on the same day, August 18, 1854. Given that we know that Townsend lived on the site of Prairie Point in August 1856, we might assume that the Prairie Cottage Post Office was the genesis of the town. However, the application for the Prairie Cottage Post Office states that the Columbus Post Office was thirteen and three-fourths miles east of the proposed new post office, and that the Oakland Post Office was nine miles "westerly" of it. The Oakland Post Office was in Lavaca County, about a mile from where Prairie Point was established. From this information, we must conclude that Townsend's Prairie Cottage Post Office was not on the site of Prairie Point, and the fact that his post office was established on the same day as Hereford bought the land on which he established Prairie Point was a remarkable coincidence (see Post Office Department Reports of Site Locations, 1837-1950, National Archives Microfilm Publication M 1126, Reel 569).

13 Colorado Citizen, August 28, 1858, October 2, 1858. The earliest known extant edition of the Colorado Citizen is volume 1, number 4, dated August 15, 1857. Prior to the establishment of the Citizen, the people of Colorado County evidently regarded a newspaper published in La Grange, the Texas Monument, as their local paper (see Texas Monument, July 27, 1853; Charles William Tait to James Asbury Tait, October 2, 1850, Tait Family Papers (Ms. 32), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus).

14 Dewees, Letters from an Early Settler of Texas, p. 311.

15 Book of Record of Luther Chapel Columbus, Texas, The Center for American History, University of Texas, Austin; Colorado County Deed Records, Book I, p. 440. The property which Scherer acquired is precisely described as subdivided lots 1 and 2 in block 48. The Scherer deed was followed by another deed, which apparently supersedes the first, that transferred the property to the congregation itself. That deed was dated January 21, 1856 (see Colorado County Deed Records, Book I, p. 738).

16 Colorado County Bond and Mortgage Records, Book E, pp. 96, 116; Colorado County Deed Records, Book J, p. 542. Emaretta Crawford, it will be remembered, was the secret co-author, with William B. Dewees, of Letters from an Early Settler of Texas. She had married Marquis L. Crawford on June 12, 1855. The minister who performed the ceremony is identified as J. A. Kimball and may have been her father (see Colorado County Marriage Records Book C, p. 29. More on J. A. Kimball can be found in Zachariah Nehemiah Morrell, Flowers and Fruits from the Wilderness, (Boston: Gould and Lincoln, 1872), p. 261). The property which the church acquired was part of lot 4, block 75, which is on the corner of Fannin and Washington Streets. That the church had not yet been built by 1860 is confirmed by the 1860 census, which reports that there were only two Lutheran churches in the county (see Eighth Census of the United States (1860) Schedule 6, Colorado County, Texas). One of the two was that built by the Scherer congregation, the so-called American Lutheran Church in Columbus; the other was Trinity Lutheran Church in Frelsburg.

17 H. C. Ziehe, A Centennial Story of The Lutheran Church in Texas 1851-1951 (Seguin: South Texas Printing Company, 1951), pp. 72-74, which provides a translation or transcription of part of a manuscript written by Roehm; Colorado County Deed Records, Book G, p. 489, Book J, pp. 419, 588, 596; Colorado County Bond and Mortgage Records, Book D, p. 515; Colorado Citrizen, February 24, 1881; Records of Trinity Lutheran Church, Baptismal Book, Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus, Texas; Record of Appointment of Postmasters 1832-September 30, 1971, National Archives Microfilm Publication M841, Roll 122; Records of St. Roch's Catholic Church, Baptismal Book, Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus, Texas. In 1858, Roehm declared that he had arrived in the United States on November 5, 1851, meaning that he must have come directly to Texas (see Colorado County Naturalization Records, Unmarked Transcribed Book 1, p. 116).
    The clerks who recorded the earliest baptisms under the aegis of Trinity Lutheran Church thoughtfully left several pages at the front of the register for the parishioners to record baptisms that had occurred before the church was established. Three of the several such baptisms that were recorded on these pages were performed by Ervendberg. Eighteen, with the earliest dated August 29, 1847 and the latest September 28, 1854, were performed by Fibiger.

18 Report of George Washington Freeman, Spirit of Missions, July and August 1849, p. 265; Journal of the Seventh Annual Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church, of the Diocese of Texas, Held at Trinity Church, Galveston, 1856 (Anderson: 1856), pp. 5, 18, 22; Journal of the Eighth Annual Convention, of the Protestant Episcopal Church, in the Diocese of Texas, Held in the Church of the Epiphany, Austin, May 21, 1857 (Austin: 1857), pp. 8-12, 14; Report of Hannibal Pratt, The Spirit of Missions, April 1856, p. 212. The four delegates to the Episcopal convention were Robert Robson, William J. Darden, John S. Shropshire, and William G. Banks.

19 Report of Hannibal Pratt, The Spirit of Missions, June 1857, pp. 255-256; Report of Hannibal Pratt, The Spirit of Missions, February 1858, pp. 75-76; "The Late Rev. Hannibal Pratt, of Texas," The Spirit of Missions, March 1858, pp. 119-120; Journal of the Ninth Annual Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Texas, Held in Christ Church, Houston, April 15th, 16th and 17th, 1858 (Houston: 1858), p. 14; Journal of the Tenth Annual Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Texas, Held in Trinity Church, Galveston, May 5th and 6th, 1859 (San Antonio: 1859), pp. 31-32; Report of John M. Goshorn, The Spirit of Missions, October 1859, p. 451. The congregation of St. John's held services four times in 1858. Though no record of the site of those services seems to be extant, local legend has long held that some Episcopal services were held at Robson's celebrated residence, which was referred to as Robson's Castle. Since Robson was the senior warden of St. John's, it is possible that the parish's irregular services beginning in 1858 were indeed held at his home.

20 Colorado Citizen, August 15, 1857, January 30, 1858, May 29, 1858.

21 Colorado Citizen, October 10, 1857; Colorado County Deed Records, Book H, p. 677, Book J, p. 276; Colorado County Bond and Mortgage Records, Book D, p. 533; Galveston Tri-Weekly News, September 11, 1856; Colorado County Tax Rolls, 1855, 1856, 1857. According to Myrah Jane Draper, until recently, there was a Tatum portrait, of Thornton Thatcher, in existence. However, neglect and the passage of time deteriorated it to such a degree that, a few years ago, it was discarded. It is highly likely that portraits of Charles William Tait and his wife, Louisa Mary Tait, which have remained in the family’s hands, were painted by Tatum. Neither is signed, but they are certainly of the right vintage, and Tatum’s plantation had been near Tait’s.

22 Colorado Citizen, January 23, 1858, February 20, 1858, March 20, 1858, July 24, 1858, October 2, 1858.

23 Colorado Citizen, June 26, 1858. If indeed she produced other writings, they are now apparently lost. There are no known extant copies of many issues of the Citizen from before the Civil War.

24 For the work of "Hope," see Colorado Citizen, October 3, 1857; for that of "Argus," see Colorado Citizen, May 14, 1859 and May 28, 1859; for that of "Horse-Fly," see Colorado Citizen, October 6, 1859. The poems of W. M. B. appear in the March 27, 1858, April 17, 1858, and May 29, 1858 issues of the Colorado Citizen.

25 For biographical data on Osborne, see Colorado Citizen, August 29, 1857, January 30, 1858, June 19, 1858, May 28, 1859, July 9, 1859, October 27, 1859; Colorado County Deed Records, Book J, pp. 481, 779. For his work, see Colorado Citizen, January 9, 1858, February 27, 1858, April 10, 1858, March 12, 1859, April 30, 1859, June 11, 1859, and June 25, 1859.

26 William Eugene Hollon, William Bollaert's Texas (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1956), pp. 261, 266; Colorado County Deed Records, Book E, p. 182, Book F, p. 308; Colorado Citizen, October 16, 1858; Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Schedule 1, Colorado County, Texas. Unhappily, there is little contemporaneous information regarding the castle. Certainly it was built between 1848, when Robson purchased the lot, and January 21, 1860, when the building is specifically referred to in the Colorado Citizen. A comment in the Colorado Citizen of July 2, 1859 indicates that it was covered with a material that was thought to be fire and/or waterproof.

27 Colorado Citizen, August 20, 1859; Galveston Daily News, June 10, 1866, Pauline A. Pinckney, Painting in Texas (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1967), pp. 141-145 contains a full discussion of the portrait of Houston, with citations to and quotations from original documents which are in private hands and thereby inaccessible. Pinckney, who incorrectly states that Robson's Castle was near Richmond, goes on to report that the state did not buy the picture, prompting Robson himself to purchase it, and that the picture later devolved to the Rosenberg Library at Galveston but was subsequently lost. However, a photograph of it, by which we can judge Behné's considerable talent, does exist.

28 Texas Monument, March 5, 1851, June 4, 1851, September 22, 1852; Sam Houston Dixon, The Poets and Poetry of Texas (Austin: Sam H. Dixon & Co., 1885), pp. 45-48; Colorado Citizen, June 2, 1881.

29 Colorado Citizen, August 29, 1857. The writer signed the letter "Public Good."

30 Commissioners Court Minutes, Book 2, pp. 240-241, 309; Colorado Citizen, June 26, 1858, August 14, 1858, February 19, 1859, November 3, 1859.

31 See Colorado County Commissioners Court Minutes, Book 2, p. 246; Colorado County Deed Records, Book L, p. 53; Colorado Citizen, February 27, 1858, April 24, 1858, June 26, 1858, October 2, 1858, January 8, 1859, August 25, 1860; Colorado County District Court Records, Criminal Cause File No. 271: State of Texas v. Daniel W. Shaver; Criminal Cause File 272: State of Texas v. Patrick McNamara. The precise site of the jail was lot 4 in block 17.

32 Weimar Mercury, February 18, 1922; Colorado County Commissioners Court Minutes, Book 2, p. 246; Colorado County Citizen, October 5, 1933; Sanborn Maps, City of Columbus, 1890, 1896, 1900; Colorado Citizen, October 3, 1857, November 27, 1858, December 8, 1860. The Baptist Church was on block 18 near the corner of Live Oak and Washington Streets, the Harbert Building, on block 8 near the corner of Walnut and Milam Streets, the Foard House on block 46 near the corner of Walnut and Live Oak Streets, the Darden House, on block 46 adjacent to the Foard House and near the corner of Walnut and Prairie Streets, the Townsend House, on block 35 facing Milam Street, and the Dilue Rose Harris House on block 18 near the corner of Washington and Bowie Streets. The 1933 article cited above identifies the fourth house as the Baldwin Hill House. On March 25, 1929, Baldwin Hill and his wife, Alice, purchased what is now known as the Dilue Rose Harris House and the property on which it stands from Angela Stein for $3300 (see Colorado County Deed Records, Book 84, p. 300). The Hills sold the property to A. J. Brune on November 11, 1937 (see Colorado County Deed Records, Book 101, p. 488). Since the Hills owned the house in 1933, and since it is evidently constructed of the same materials listed in the newspaper article, it is reasonable to conclude that the Dilue Rose Harris House was the same house identified in the article as the Baldwin Hill House. The article chronicled the destruction of the Townsend house to make way for a playground for the nearby school, leaving the Dilue Rose Harris House as the only one of the seven buildings that remained standing. The Townsend House was apparently constructed in 1859, for when it was demolished, a newspaper bearing the date of January 1, 1859 was discovered in the door frame (see Colorado County Citizen, October 5, 1933). Fannie Amelia Dickson Darden purchased the residence of William H. and Margaret A. Gazeley, at the site of the house that came to be known as the Darden House, on December 31, 1861 for $2700 ($1200 in cash plus a slave named Jim that was valued at $1500) (see Colorado County Deed Records, Book L, p. 216). Clearly, some kind of house was already on the property. The Gazeleys had purchased the two lots on which their residence would sit a little less than eight years earlier, on March 11, 1854, for $200. It seems reasonable to conclude that they built the house shortly thereafter (see Colorado County Deed Records, Book I, p. 109). Robert Levi Foard purchased the lot on which his house was built, and an adjoining lot, on May 19, 1857 for $200. The fact that improvements are not mentioned, and the price of the lots, which matches exactly that that the Gazeleys paid for two seemingly vacant lots on the same block three years earlier, are strong evidence that the Foard lots were then vacant. Again, it seems reasonable to conclude that Foard built his home on the lots soon after he bought them (see Colorado County Deed Records, Book J, pp. 389, 395). Ira Albert Harris, the husband of Dilue Rose Harris, purchased the property on which the house that would bear his wife's name would sit, on December 9, 1857. He paid $450 for a single lot and the improvements on it. He purchased the adjacent lot, lot 5, on July 7, 1858 for $288 (see Colorado County Deed Records, Book J, pp. 547, 711).
    Modern concrete is a mixture of sand, gravel, and a bonding agent known as portland cement. Portland cement was invented and named in 1824, but not fully developed until about 1850. It was not manufactured in the United States until after the Civil War. Earlier concretes had substituted other bonding agents, including lime. Probably, lime-based concrete was used in Columbus buildings only until the more substantial portland-cement-based concrete could be easily obtained.

33 See Colorado County Deed Records, Book O, p. 388; Colorado Citizen, August 21, 1858, September 4, 1858, September 18, 1858, August 20, 1859, September 22, 1859, November 3, 1859, November 17, 1859, June 16, 1860, July 21, 1860, September 8, 1860, October 26, 1871; Wesley Smith, A Family History and Fifty-two Years of Preacher Life in Mississippi and Texas (Nashville: University Press Co., 1898), p. 148). The Baptist Church of Columbus did not purchase the lot on which their church stood, subdivided lot 10 in block 18, from Tooke until April 15, 1867. Tooke stated, in the deed transferring the property to the church, that the lot had been "purchased by me for said Baptist Church in March 1859 from F W Grassmeyer but the said Deed from him was lost before recording." That the Baptists had not yet begun holding weekly services was deduced from the announcement in the September 8, 1860 Colorado Citizen that Covey was scheduled to preach in the church the following Sunday, September 9, which makes the event seem peculiar. Lest people think that the preachers in Columbus were lazy, on the Sundays that they did not hold services in town, they held them in the country (see Smith, A Family History and Fifty-two Years of Preacher Life in Mississippi and Texas, p. 148).

34 Colorado County Deed Records, Book F, p. 234; Colorado County Commissioners Court Minutes, Book 1, p. 46; Lewis E. Daniell, Personnel of the Texas State Government with Sketches of Representative Men of Texas (San Antonio: Maverick Printing House, 1892), p. 606; James A. Kehl, Boss Rule in the Gilded Age Matt Quay of Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1981), pp. 7-9; William S. Speer, Encyclopedia of the New West: Texas, Arkansas, Colorado, New Mexico and Indian Territories (Marshall, Texas: The United States Biographical Publishing Co., 1881), vol. 1, pp. 214-216. The first known mention of Neavitt's "fever pill" is in the earliest known extant edition of the Colorado Citizen, that of August 15, 1857. Neavitt had returned to Colorado County in 1852 after a mostly unsuccessful career as a gold miner. In January 1854, he and Carl H. Gieseke decided to open a grocery store in Columbus. However, the business was a disaster for Neavitt, as Gieseke absconded with more than $1000. Neavitt would finally make his fortune by marrying, on August 7, 1856, William Fitzgerald's daughter Julia (see Texas Monument, August 22, 1854; Colorado County Marriage Records, Book C, p. 42). Quay went on to win the Congressional Medal of Honor for his work as an administrator during the Civil War. He served in the Pennsylvania legislature and in various other offices before rising to the United States Senate in 1887. He served in that body until 1899, and again from 1901 through 1904.

35 Gammel, comp., The Laws of Texas 1822-1897, vol. 3, pp. 475-476, 1461-1465, vol. 4, pp. 525-530; Colorado County School Lands, Fannin District First Class File 464, Original Land Grant Collection, Archives and Records Division, Texas General Land Office, Austin; Colorado County Commissioners Court Minutes, Book 2, p. 205. The county had failed to act on a law passed by the congress of the Republic of Texas on January 26, 1839 which authorized them to secure three leagues within the county or elsewhere in the state "for the purpose of establishing a primary school or academy in said county" (see Gammel, comp., The Laws of Texas 1822-1897, vol. 2, pp. 134-136).

36 Gammel, comp., The Laws of Texas 1822-1897, vol. 2, pp. 1099-1101; "The Diary of Rev. J. J. Scherer, D. D." in Goodridge Wilson, A Brief History of Marion College (Bristol, Tenn.: The King Printing Company, 1948), pp. 44-45; Colorado County Deed Records, Book J, p. 436, Book Q, p. 532; Colorado County Commissioners Court Minutes, Book 2, p. 245. The so-called Scherer diary is actually a brief autobiography. He also states that he helped in some way to attract the Baker brothers and their newspaper to Columbus, and that he provided the name for the newspaper (see p. 45). Ten acres, the exact amount deeded to the Harvey's Creek school by Adkins, was the most that a school could own without paying taxes.

37 Colorado Citizen, January 9, 1858; January 23, 1858, February 6, 1858; March 20, 1858, March 27, 1858, June 19, 1858, July 24, 1858, August 28, 1858, November 6, 1858; Letter of James W. Holt, in "Looking Backward: Letters to the Weimar Mercury, 1915," Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, vol. 6, no. 1, January 1996, p. 56 (or in Weimar Mercury, May 15, 1915). Yates, incidently, was blind. The Columbus Female Seminary probably was the "female Academy" which conducted classes on the second floor of the Methodist church in 1852 and was probably also the school for which a special building was constructed at a cost of "not less than $3,000" in 1853. If so, then the building also served as the meeting hall for the Masonic chapter, for, according to a report written by Hannibal Pratt in 1855 or 1856, the Masonic female school was in "a commodious room . . . fitted up in the lower part of the lodge." Pratt also states that the school had a board of twelve trustees, who "individually obligate[d] themselves to pay $1,500 per annum for the services of a gentleman and lady to teach forty scholars" (see Texas Monument, June 30, 1852, February 16, 1853; Report of Hannibal Pratt, The Spirit of Missions, April 1856, p. 212).

38 Colorado Citizen, August 29, 1857, September 12, 1857, February 6, 1858, February 20, 1858, August 28, 1858, November 6, 1858, February 19, 1859, October 6, 1859, September 8, 1860; Gammel, comp., The Laws of Texas 1822-1897, vol. 4, p. 19. Hermann Emil Mathias Jordt and Daniel Draub, both of whom had been associated with Hermann University for some years, were among the original 25 trustees of Colorado College. John J. Scherer replaced his half-brother, Gideon, as pastor of the local Lutheran church in early 1858 (see Book of Record of Luther Chapel Columbus, Texas, The Center for American History, University of Texas, Austin). In 1860, there were ten schools in the county. All but the Columbus Female Seminary and Colorado College had one teacher. Henderson, that year, lived with the family of Jacob Clapp, who had lived near where Alleyton would be established since 1851 (see Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Schedule 1, Schedule 6, Colorado County, Texas; Colorado County Deed Records, Book H, p. 79, Book J, p. 792).

39 Colorado County District Court Records, Civil Cause File No. 1585: Gustav A. Behné v. Colorado College; Lavaca County District Court Records, Civil Cause File No. 830: Colorado College v. John Toliver; Colorado Citizen, March 5, 1859, May 21, 1859.

40 Colorado Citizen, August 20, 1859, December 22, 1859, March 26, 1891; Colorado College Daily Register, Shropshire-Upton Chapter, U. D. C. Collection (Ms. 25), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus. For Loomis' credentials as a Lutheran minister, see Colorado Citizen, November 27, 1858. Seminary Square had been formally conveyed to the chief justice of Colorado County and his successors in office by William B. Dewees on October 12, 1840, and "appropriated to the use of a seminary in the town of Columbus" by the county on January 6, 1845 (see Colorado County Deed Records, Book C, p. 1; Colorado County Commissioners Court Minutes, Book A, p. 105).

41 Lavaca County District Court Records, Civil Cause File No. 830: Colorado College v. John Toliver; Minute Book B, p. 446; Colorado County District Court Records, Civil Cause File No. 1585: Gustav A. Behné v. Colorado College, Minute Book D, p. 2; Dallas Weekly Herald, May 19, 1866. Colorado College's daily register for the second term of 1859 indicates that though the school charged a tuition ranging from eight to twenty dollars for the full term, it reduced that tuition by an amount ranging from 10 to 25 cents for each day a student missed, Thus, a student who missed twenty days of school had to pay only $6 if his full-term tuition was $8, and only $15 if his full-term tuition was $20. This pricing system led to the massive loss of tuition revenue that the school experienced as the students dropped out toward the end of the first term of 1859 (see Colorado College Daily Register, Shropshire-Upton Chapter, U. D. C. Collection (Ms. 25), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus).

42 Colorado Citizen, July 21, 1860, August 31, 1861, November 2, 1861; Eighth Census of the United States (1860) Schedule 6, Colorado County, Texas; "The Diary of Rev. J. J. Scherer, D. D." in Wilson, A Brief History of Marion College, p. 46. The female seminary announced the addition of Loomis to their faculty with an advertisement in the July 21, 1860 edition of the Citizen. Though Loomis had thereby departed, Colorado College's ad with Loomis listed as principal, which had run since January, continued to run through the issue of August 11. The college may not have conducted sessions for the following year, for their next newspaper ad did not appear until August 31, 1861. The 1860 census reported that each school had three teachers, that the seminary had sixty students and had generated $2400 in income, and that the college had seventy students and had generated $1800.

43 Gammel, comp., The Laws of Texas 1822-1897, vol. 5, pp. 256-258; Minute Book of Hermann Seminary, Colorado County Archives Collection, Ms. 10, Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus; Colorado County Deed Records, Book P, p. 284. Frels signed the deed on May 23, 1860. It was not recorded at the courthouse, however, until September 30, 1871, suggesting that the school was not built on the site until around then. Though the deed did specify that the land was not to become the property of Herman Seminary unless the school was built on it, it did not give the board of trustees a time limit in which to act.

44 Charles J. Mathis to Jean Marie Odin, July 20, 1861, Records of the Catholic Church, Archdiocese of New Orleans, Louisiana, Archives of the University of Notre Dame; Colorado County Deed Records, Book K, p. 76; Colorado Citizen, July 28, 1860; Record of Appointment of Postmasters 1832-September 30, 1971, National Archives Microfilm Publication M841, Roll 122. In 1860, the Cuba school was taught by E. T. Grissom. Grissom advertised that students might obtain board at the nearby home of Charles P. Brown. Brown's home was in a tract of land adjacent to and east of the Robert Cunningham Survey and near Skull Creek. Ijams had secured a land grant of 640 acres in the immediate vicinity on June 28, 1848. The Cuba post office was discontinued on November 5, 1866 (see Colorado County Deed Records, Book K, p. 271, Book L, p. 646; Record of Appointment of Postmasters 1832-September 30, 1971, National Archives Microfilm Publication M841, Roll 122 ).

45 Colorado County District Court Records, Final Record Book B, pp. 1137, 1157, 1159, 1165, 1166; Colorado County Tax Rolls, 1855-1858; Colorado County Deed Records, Book I, p. 636, Book J, p. 513, Book K, pp. 505, 512, 514; Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Schedule 1, Colorado County, Texas. Schlopata's land was in the John Martin Survey, that of the Vincent and Johann Silar, Coufal, Marek, and Motl in the James Tyree Survey, that of Pechajek and Kubicek in the Peter Pieper Survey, and that of Joseph Silar in the John McCrosky Survey. According to the deed records, Pechajek and Kubicek did not purchase their farms until 1857 and 1858 respectively, and Marek and Motl did not do so until 1860. However, Pechajek was charged taxes on his farm in 1855, Kubicek and Schlapota in 1856, and the Silars, Motl, Marek, and Coufal in 1857. Coufal's name is given on the 1857 tax roll as "Zofal." Many Czech names are spelled in a variety of ways. Among the variant spellings encountered for Pechajek are Pecashek, Pechacek, Pechaceck, and Pekachek; among those for Silar are Sillar, Schiller, Schillar, Shiller, Scheller, and Sihlar. Kubicek has been written as "Kubyzek" and "Kubjtzek," and Marek as "Marrick." The 1860 census taker recorded Koss as "Guss."
Of the 162 persons of Czech descent listed by the 1860 census taker, 126 had been born in Europe, specifically, according to the census taker, in Bohemia, and 36 had been born since their parents had arrived in Texas. Czechs constituted about 3.7% of the total free white population of the county in 1860.

46 Clinton Machann and James W. Mendl, Jr., trans. and ed., Czech Voices (College Station: Texas A & M University Press, 1991), pp. 34-38; Colorado County Deed Records, Book J, p. 52; Colorado County District Court Records, Civil Cause File No. 1271: Frantisek Branecky v. Franz Prechectil, Minute Book C, p. 1305; Marriage Records of Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church, Frelsburg, Book 1, Record No. 139. The itemized expenses that Prechectil said he had incurred on Branecky's behalf were: $5.00 which he loaned to Branecky as spending money, $10.40 for train fare to Leipzig and then on to Bremen, $42.00 for passage to Galveston, $1.50 for passage from Galveston to Houston, $1.50 for passage from Houston to Cat Spring, $48.00 for boarding Branecky in Europe for four months before the voyage, $12.00 for boarding him in Texas for one month before he started work, $27.00 for doing his laundry for 18 months, $15.00 for medicine and care during a five day illness, $16.30 for five shirts, five pairs of pants, and one pair of shoes, and $1.30 for chewing and smoking tobacco.

47 Gammel, comp., The Laws of Texas 1822-1897, vol. 3, pp. 632-636; Texas Monument, June 11, 1851, October 22, 1851.

48 Gammel, comp., The Laws of Texas 1822-1897, vol. 3, pp. 1253-1261; Texas Monument, May 26, 1852, June 16, 1852.

49 Texas Monument, November 17, 1852, January 19, 1853, September 28, 1853; Gammel, comp., The Laws of Texas 1822-1897, vol. 3, pp. 1357-1359, 1427-1433; Charles P. Zlatkovich, Texas Railroads A Record of Construction and Abandonment (Austin: Bureau of Business Research of the University of Texas and Texas State Historical Association, 1981), pp. 26, 63). The January 19, 1853 issue of the Texas Monument confirms only that the railroad that the newspaper referred to as "the Harrisburg railroad" was in fact the B B B & C. Neither the Brazos and Colorado Railroad nor the Colorado Valley Railroad would ever build any track. The Colorado Valley Railroad, one of whose backers was John Duncan, was scheduled to have its first meeting in Columbus on August 1, but apparently did not. On January 27, 1854, the legislature amended their charter to allow the railroad to meet for the first time in Matagorda on May 1, 1854. On January 20, 1858, the legislature gave the company until August 7, 1860 to construct 25 miles of track, a deadline they apparently did not meet (see Gammel, comp., The Laws of Texas 1822-1897, vol. 3, p. 1432, vol. 4, pp. 31-32, 1232). Yet another railroad that intended to serve the Colorado River, the Columbia, Wharton and Austin Railroad Company was chartered on January 30, 1854. It was authorized to build track from Columbia on the Brazos River to Wharton on the Colorado, thence up the Colorado as far as Austin. It too, failed to build any track (see Gammel, comp., The Laws of Texas 1822-1897, vol. 4, pp. 35-40).

50 St. Clair Griffin Reed, A History of the Texas Railroads (Houston: St. Clair Publishing, 1941), pp. 61-62; Colorado Citizen, April 17, 1858; Zlatkovich, Texas Railroads A Record of Construction and Abandonment, pp. 26, 63); Colorado County Bond and Mortgage Records, Book E, pp. 176, 571.

51 Colorado County Bond and Mortgage Records, Book E, p. 127; Colorado County Deed Records, Book L, p. 280; Colorado Citizen, August 15, 1857; Record of Appointment of Postmasters 1832-September 30, 1971, National Archives Microfilm Publication M841, Roll 122. The Goods purchased the land from James Reels, whose father, Patrick, had patented it only eight years earlier. According to The New Handbook of Texas (vol. 3, p. 472), Harris was the son of John Richardson Harris, who was the founder of Harrisburg and after whom Harris County had been named. By the summer of 1859, if not before, Harris held a seat on the board of directors of the B B B & C (see Colorado Citizen, July 2, 1859). The first Colorado County post office named Eagle Lake had been established on George Washington Thatcher's plantation on June 19, 1849. Thatcher served as postmaster until June 29, 1854, when the office was discontinued. Two years later, on April 5, 1856, the office was reestablished, with John Thatcher as postmaster. He was replaced by Good. An 1879 article on the history of the county stated that Good's post office was about a mile from what by then had become the city of Eagle Lake (see Laura Jack Irvine, "Sketch of Colorado County," American Sketch Book, vol. 5, no. 3, 1879, p. 95).

52 Colorado Citizen, June 19, 1858, July 3, 1858, August 7, 1858, August 14, 1858, August 20, 1859, September 29, 1859, November 3, 1859, November 17, 1859, December 8, 1859; Colorado County District Court Records, Criminal Cause File No. 271: State of Texas v. Daniel W. Shaver; William Henry Harrison, Alleyton, Texas "Back Door to the Confederacy," Alleyton: Show Me Type & Print, 1993, p. 72. Shaver was convicted of the murder and sentenced to five years in the state penitentiary, however, in the summer of 1859, responding to a petition signed by most of the qualified voters in Colorado County, Governor Hardin R. Runnels pardoned Shaver (see Colorado Citizen, June 11, 1859).
Though buildings were certainly erected earlier, the earliest recorded sale of a lot in Eagle Lake is dated May 31, 1860 (see Colorado County Deed Records, Book K, p. 734). The records of the Railroad Commission of Texas, as transcribed and published by Charles P. Zlatkovich, refer to Eagle Lake as "Milepost 65," reflecting, presumably, the town's largely theoretical nature when the track was completed (see Zlatkovich, Texas Railroads A Record of Construction and Abandonment, pp. 26, 63). In her 1879 article entitled "Sketch of Colorado County," Laura Jack Irvine reported that the first house in Eagle Lake was built by "Vandervier." Certainly, there were two early residents of the city named J. P. and Catherine Vandeveear, however, the earliest verifiable date on which they owned land in Eagle Lake was not until September 22, 1866, well after the first buildings are known to have been constructed (see Irvine, "Sketch of Colorado County," American Sketch Book, vol. 5, no. 3, 1879, p. 95; Colorado County Deed Records, Book M, p. 283).

53 Colorado County Deed Records, Book K, pp. 621, 633, 638, 684, 698, 699, 699, 700, 735, 740, 789, Book L, pp. 123, 124, 133, 296, Book M, p. 746, Book N, p. 358, Book O, p. 593; Colorado Citizen, March 17, 1860, July 28, 1860, August 11, 1860, September 29, 1860, November 3, 1860, December 8, 1860; Record of Appointment of Postmasters 1832-September 30, 1971, National Archives Microfilm Publication M841, Roll 122; Petition of Charles H. Bell Regarding Yellow Fever in Alleyton, January 21, 1870, Memorials and Petitions, Texas State Archives, Austin, which contains a letter dated September 14, 1867 from R. G. Howard that confirms that Alley operated the Globe Hotel. See also the February 18, 1860 edition of the Citizen for a notice regarding V. F. Cook's store in Eagle Lake. On the first and second days of December 1860, V. F. Cook sold his interest in the store to James H. Cook, who presumably was his brother, and James H. Cook sold the entire store to A. G. Woods (see Colorado County Deed Records, Book K, pp. 791, 793).

54 Gammel, comp., The Laws of Texas 1822-1897, vol. 4, pp. 1345-1350, vol. 5, pp. 169-170.

55 Colorado Citizen, June 4, 1859, July 2, 1859.

56 Colorado Citizen, August 20, 1859, September 3, 1859; January 7, 1860.

57 Colorado Citizen, December 22, 1859; Gammel, comp., The Laws of Texas 1822-1897, vol. 5, pp. 127-132. By 1860, Logue had become a commissioner of the Columbus, San Antonio, and Rio Grande (see Gammel, comp., The Laws of Texas 1822-1897, vol. 5, p. 169).

58 Colorado Citizen, January 7, 1860. Nothing is known of the fate of the Sam Houston. Persistent legends hold that boats named the Moccasin Belle and the Flying Jenny also navigated the Colorado River before the Civil War. In fact, an often reproduced photograph (see for example Colorado County Chronicles (Austin: Nortex Press, 1986), vol. 1, p. 67) is said by many to be a picture of the Moccasin Belle and by others of the Flying Jenny. For decades, the Tait family has owned a bell and anchor from a boat that they believe to have been salvaged from the Moccasin Belle by Charles W. Tait. However, no mention of a boat by either name has been encountered in any contemporaneous document. In his landmark article on Colorado River navigation, Comer Clay lumped a boat he called the Lareno in with the Moccasin Belle ("The Colorado River Raft," Southwestern Historical Quarterly, vol. 52, no. 4, April 1949, p. 423). As we will see, this boat, which was actually called the Lorena, did not operate on the river until after the Civil War.

59 Colorado Citizen, March 17, 1860, June 2, 1860, July 21, 1860, September 22, 1860, November 3, 1860, December 22, 1860, January 5, 1861, March 16, 1861, July 13, 1861; Colorado County Deed Records, Book K, p. 750; Colorado County District Court Records, Civil Cause File No. 1731: James Lee Taylor v. The Columbus Tap Railway, Civil Cause File No. 1732: James Lee Taylor v. The Columbus Tap Railway, Minute Book D, p. 216. Both the treasurer and the clerk of the Columbus Tap were required to post bonds. Because Whitfield, as clerk, and Tait, as treasurer, did so, it is clear that they were named to those positions at a meeting of the board of directors on September 21, 1860. At their meeting on December 17, Cleveland Windrow took Whitfield's place as clerk. Whitfield, who served as president in early 1861, evidently was promoted at that time (see Colorado County Bond and Mortgage Records, Book E, pp. 497, 498, 526).
Though Taylor was not happy with the configuration of the railroad's track, which had disected his 310 acre plantation lengthwise and thereby made it extremely inconvenient to cross from one part of it to another, his suit, which he filed on April 11, 1861, was apparently fully anticipated by and indeed endorsed by the railroad. Taylor preferred to have a court decide how much the railroad should pay, and to have a court decree that the cash-starved railroad should pay. The suit was not finally decided until March 5, 1869, when Taylor was awarded $2614.06. The railroad's track had consumed some 22 acres of his land and made another four or five acres between the track and the public road to Alleyton, which also passed through his plantation, unusable. Four days after he sued the railroad, and about a month after he had asked the commissioners court for suitable compensation, Taylor filed suit against the county for cutting down a great many of the trees on his plantation for use in repairing the road to Alleyton. That suit too had to wait until the Civil War was over. He was awarded $75 on November 11, 1865 (see Colorado County District Court Records, Civil Cause File No. 1729: James Lee Taylor v. Colorado County, Minute Book C2, p. 498).

60 Colorado Citizen, August 15, 1857, January 8, 1859; Colorado County District Court Records, Criminal Cause File No. 354: State of Texas v. John W. Stith, Criminal Cause File No. 359: State of Texas v. Gideon Scherer and John Scherer, Criminal Cause File No. 364: State of Texas v. Alexander Dunlavy. Dunlavy was eventually convicted of negligent homicide and fined $10. The cases against the Scherers and against Stith were eventually dismissed (see Colorado County District Court Records, Minute Book C2, pp. 312, 401). Only three previous indictments for cruelly treating slaves had been handed down in the county's history, the first in 1843 against Jacob Tipps, the second in 1854 against Elijah Wright, and the third in 1855 against John Crier, who was accused of abusing his own slave (see Colorado County District Court Records, Criminal Cause File No. 154: Republic of Texas v. Jacob Tipps, Criminal Cause File No. 171: State of Texas v. Elijah Wright, Criminal Cause File No. 200: State of Texas v. John Crier).

61 Colorado Citizen, August 18, 1860; Machann and Mendl, trans. and ed., Czech Voices, pp. 17-18, wherein the brief autobiography of one of the four representatives, Josef L. Lesikar, is presented in English translation. Lesikar was said to be the newspaper's representative at Industry. The fourth representative, at New Ulm, was C. Silar. Reymershoffer was listed as the paper's representative at Cat Spring, though by 1860 he was living in Alleyton. It has been reported that to defer suspicion about his reading habits, Reymershoffer "actually purchased a slave for nine hundred dollars." Perhaps so, but, if the tax rolls are to be believed, Reymershoffer did not own a slave until 1864, four years after the controversy. Then, however, he owned only one, which was valued at $200 (see Clinton Machann and James W. Mendl, Jr., Krásná Amerika (Austin: Eakin Press, 1983), pp. 216-217; Colorado County Tax Rolls, 1861, 1862, 1864 (Reymershoffer's name is absent from the 1863 tax roll)).
    Pisscacek, like nearly every other Czech name, is spelled in a variety of ways. The spelling used here is taken from a signature on a document in Colorado County District Court Records, Civil Cause File No. 1271: Frantisek Branecky v. Franz Prechectil.

62 Record of Appointment of Postmasters 1832-September 30, 1971, National Archives Microfilm Publication M841, Roll 122; William Arthur Yates, "About the New Southern Fruit List," Texas Farm and Ranch Journal, vol. 14, no. 27, July 6, 1895; Frank W. Johnson, A History of Texas and Texans, ed. by Eugene Campbell Barker and Ernest William Winkler (Chicago and New York: The American Historical Society, 1916), vol. 3, pp. 1366-1367; Descriptive Catalogue of Pearfield Nursery and Poultry Farm, Frelsburg, Colorado County, Texas (Columbus: Colorado Citizen, n. d.), p. 12; Century of Agricultural Progress 1856-1956 Minutes of the Cat Spring Agricultural Society (San Antonio, 1956). Exactly when Becker began successful cultivation of his apple is in some doubt. The Pearfield Nursery catalogue cited above stated that the apple was "imported from Germany about the year 1854." However, the catalogue was certainly published more than forty years later, for the catalogue published by the nursery in 1894 states that "apples have been almost a complete failure here" and makes no mention of the Becker apple (see Descriptive Catalogue of Pearfield Nursery, Frelsburg, Colorado County, Texas (Columbus: Colorado Citizen, 1894), p. 13). Though it had been developed virtually in his backyard, the proprietor of the Pearfield Nursery, Johann Friedrich Leyendecker, may not have learned about the Becker apple until the Yates article was published, after which he may have learned about its origins by interviewing members of the family. Yates described the Becker apple as "highly colored red" and the Pearfield catalogue as "overspread with read [sic] and small white dots." The Gulf Coast Nursery catalogue for 1910-1911 describes it as "reddish blue flecked with white" (see Gulf Coast Nursery Catalogue 1910-1911, published by E. S. Stockwell & Son of Alvin, Texas). Another, apparently earlier catalogue simply calls it "highly colored" (see Fruit and Ornamental Trees, Roses, Etc. published by William Watson Rosedale Nurseries of Brenham, Texas).

63 Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Schedule 1, Colorado County, Texas; Colorado County Deed Records, Book I, p. 252, Book J, p. 59, Book K, p. 511, Book L, p. 5, 7, 9, 59. The census lists 919 persons in the county who were born in places that are considered German. In addition, families with two German-born parents had exactly 500 children who could reasonably be identified as their children but who were born in Texas or some place other than Germany. Thus, there were at least 1419 persons of German descent in the county. The total free, white population was 4324.
    Other tracts along one or the other of the roads which passed through Frelsburg had been sold to George Herder and Caspar Heiman, and another tract in the town to Anna Catherine Rensing (see Colorado County Deed Records, Book I, p. 108, 112, Book G, p. 519, Book L, p. 15). Two of the tracts in town had gone through several owners in just a few years. The tract of 2.56 acres on the southeast side of the crossroads which Frels had sold to Gerhard Heinsohn on August 5, 1853 had been sold by Heinsohn to Jacob Doree on June 14, 1856, and Doree had sold it to Sabath and Moeckel on October 10, 1856. Originally partners, Sabath and Moeckel divided the lot on January 29, 1859 (see Colorado County Deed Records, Book H, p. 566, Book J, pp. 79, 226, Book K, pp. 72, 73). A tract of one acre across the road from it had been purchased from Frels by Friedrich Jacoby on February 19, 1855. Though Jacoby paid only $10 for the acre, he sold it just two days later, to Mathias Beck for $350. Beck sold it to Otell on October 8, 1857 (see Colorado County Deed Records, Book I, pp. 488, 492).

64 Eighth Census of the United States (1860) Schedule 1, Schedule 2, Colorado County, Texas; Colorado County Tax Rolls, 1860; Frank W. Johnson, Eugene C. Barker, and Ernest William Winkler, A History of Texas and Texans (Chicago and New York: The American Historical Society, 1916), vol. 3, p. 1577; Colorado County District Court Records, Minute Book C2, p. 185; Colorado Citizen, April 6, 1861; Colorado County Deed Records, Book G, p. 342, Book H, pp. 239, 241, 458, 664, Book I, pp. 433, 554, 760, Book J, p. 335, Book M, p. 630. Elizabeth Ehlinger had married Jacob Hahn on July 29, 1849 (see Colorado County Marriage Records, Book B, p. 98). Kessler apparently pursued money-making schemes with great vigor. In 1858, he manufactured flour on his plantation (see Colorado Citizen, June 19, 1858). Kelch, like Kessler, was not really a member of the German community. On September 30, 1847, he had married Ellender Dickson, the widow of both James Dickson and William Earp, who each had owned a considerable number of slaves, and was thus accepted into society (see Colorado County Marriage Records, Book B, pp. 47, 77; Colorado County Probate Records, Final Record Book B, p. 204, Final Record Book C, pp. 14, 16).

65 Eighth Census of the United States (1860) Schedule 1, Schedule 2, Colorado County, Texas; Colorado Citizen, May 14, 1859. Mention should also be made of John Simmons, a sixty year old farmer originally from Mississippi, who owned one slave, certainly for humanitarian reasons. His slave, who was said to be 100 years old, apparently because of his advanced age, was accorded by the census taker the special privilege of having his name, Jim, recorded.

66 Eighth Census of the United States (1860) Schedule 1, Schedule 2, Colorado County, Texas; Colorado County Probate Records, Final Record Book E, p. 447, Final Record Book F, pp. 301-303; Colorado County Marriage Records, Book D, p. 7. Mary Walker McNeill Harper married Thomas Scott Anderson in Travis County on January 30, 1858 (see Colorado County Deed Records, Book 10, p. 573).

67 Colorado County Probate Records, Final Record Book F, pp. 47-61; Colorado County Tax Rolls, 1860; Eighth Census of the United States (1860) Schedule 2, Colorado County, Texas; Colorado County Deed Records, Book H, p. 101, Book J, p. 786, Book K, pp. 33, 34; Colorado County Bond and Mortgage Records, Book E, p. 428. Though Garrett did not finally complete purchase of Ware's plantation until February 21, 1863 (see Colorado County Deed Records, Book L, p. 353), it is clear from the tax rolls that he had acquired title to it earlier. Probably Garrett's purchase of the property was contingent upon him making a series of payments, which were only completed in 1863, at which time the deed was written. Rhodes came to the county in 1858, that year entering into a partnership with Angus McNeill and his family to cultivate McNeill's plantation (see Colorado County Bond and Mortgage Records, Book E, p. 171).

68 Colorado County Deed Records, Book J, p. 443, Book K, pp. 171, 310, 325, 340, 618; Eighth Census of the United States (1860) Schedule 2, Colorado County, Texas; Colorado County Tax Rolls, 1860; Lavaca County Probate Records, File No. 114: Needham W. Eason. Ivey bought the land on August 27, 1859, however, for some reason a second deed was written on January 7, 1860. By then, Ivey had conveyed the land for the school. When she sold a lot on March 2, 1860, the town was still called Prairie Point. Three months later, on June 4, 1860, when she sold another lot, the place is referred to as "Prairie Point (now Oakland)" (see Colorado County Deed Records, Book K, pp. 325, 481, 583, 641).

69 Colorado County Deed Records, Book H, p. 296, Book J, pp. 369, 370, 372, 374, Book K, pp. 144, 262; Colorado County Marriage Records, Book D, p. 52; Twentieth Century History of Southwest Texas (Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1907), p. 462; Campbell Family File, Burford Family File, Shropshire Family File, Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus. On April 27, 1857, James S. Montgomery also conveyed land to his daughter, Jane Sophia Webb, and son John Gilbert Montgomery. It will be remembered that the last mentioned had married the daughter of Benjamin Franklin Stockton and operated a plantation for some time. Harriet Burford first had been married to Weston B. Yates, then to Dick Burford's father, Jonathon. Dick Burford's mother was Jonathon Burford's first wife, Euphemia Chafin.

70 Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Schedule 1, Schedule 2, Colorado County, Texas; Colorado County Tax Rolls, 1860; Colorado County Deed Records, Book H, pp. 101, 106, 117, 441, Book I, p. 623, Book J, pp. 276, 599, 738; Book K, pp. 176, 210, 212, 240, 532, Book M, p. 145; Colorado County Bond and Mortgage Records, Book E, pp. 350, 414. Waddell had purchased his plantation from Howal A. Tatum. Strahan's plantation, which he acquired on January 27, 1858, was in the Martin D. Ramsey Survey. Shrewsbury had purchased his plantation, which was in the James Ross Survey, in partnership with James S. Tanner on April 25, 1852. He and Tanner subsequently divided the land. Newsom had purchased the old James Dickson plantation from Dickson's heirs on September 8, 1858. The land Wicks and Frazer rented was also in the James Ross Survey.

71 Colorado County Deed Records, Book G, pp. 205, 340, 382, Book I, p. 739, Book J, p. 285, Book K, pp. 694, 695; Colorado County Bond and Mortgage Records, Book E, p. 356; Eighth Census of the United States (1860) Schedule 2, Colorado County, Texas.

72 Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Schedule 1, Schedule 2, Schedule 4, Schedule 5, Colorado County, Texas.

73 Colorado Citizen, August 25, 1860.

74 Colorado Citizen, March 17, 1860, March 24, 1860, November 3, 1860, May 21, 1909. This Richard Putney ought not to be confused with a younger Columbus man of the same name. The other Richard Putney, who was in his mid twenties in 1860, later became a private in the Confederate army. The Colorado Citizen of January 1, 1859, March 12, 1859, and March 17, 1860 all carry notices of the imminent arrival of circuses, all to play in Columbus and one to also play Prairie Point, and that of October 13, 1859 gives notice of a celebrated lecturer, Eloise Bridges.

75 Colorado Citizen, May 26, 1860, May 30, 1860. The slaveholdings of Herbert, Williamson, Cook, Harcourt, Anderson, Robson, Davidson, Shropshire, and Baker have all been previously referred to. Davidson had only very recently arrived in Columbus (see Colorado Citizen, February 18, 1860).

76 Colorado Citizen, May 30, 1860.

77 Colorado Citizen, September 8, 1860, September 15, 1860, September 22, 1860, September 29, 1860, November 3, 1860, January 5, 1861. Those who cancelled their newspaper subscriptions were William B. Roever, William J. Darden, Andrew J. Bonds, William J. Herbert, William Bridge, Thornton Thatcher, John H. Bowers, John T. Harcourt, John G. Logue, Bowers & Goss medical practice, Charles Schmidt, Augustus Jones, C. J. Ward, Robert L. Foard, George Metz, John F. Hicks, Charles Kessler, Nicholas A. Snavely, James G. Newsom, Claiborne Herbert, Henry D. Rhodes, William G. Hunt, A. Boyd Bonds, Charles Ehlinger, and Henry Terrell. Attentive readers will count only 25 names. Perhaps Pluto added two persons to the number of seceders because one of the subscriptions that was cancelled had been taken out by the medical partnership of Bowers and Goss. This would be reasonable, since John H. Bowers and Samuel E. Goss were in fact two persons, except that since Bowers also cancelled his own subscription, he would then be counted twice.

78 Colorado Citizen, January 5, 1861.

79 Colorado Citizen, December 22, 1860, March 2, 1861, March 30, 1861. Charles Bickley was a nephew of George W. L. Bickley, who has been credited with originating many of the rituals, emblems, and costumes of the Knights of the Golden Circle.

80 Colorado Citizen, January 5, 1861, January 12, 1861. The people who lived near the New Mainz Post Office voted at the nearby Dunlavy School. For that reason, the newspaper reports refer to the community as "Dunlavy."

81 Colorado Citizen, January 12, 1861, February 16, 1861; Colorado County Election Records, [Book 1] 1854-1866. Since 1861, the Colorado County secession referendum results have been printed at least four times in historical works: first in the September 26, 1931 issue of the Eagle Lake Headlight, in a story which carried no byline and gave no source for the figures; second, in chart form, in 1936, in a footnote on page 245 of Leonie Rummel Weyand and Houston Wade's An Early History of Fayette County (La Grange: La Grange Journal Plant, 1936), and again with no attributed source; third in 1939, by Norma Shaw, in her masters thesis, "The Early History of Colorado County" (p. 42), wherein she erroneously credits "Commissioners Court Records, Colorado County, Texas. Not indexed until 1880. These records are known as 'Police Records;'" and finally, on page 99 of Colorado County Chronicles (Austin: Nortex Press, 1986), wherein An Early History of Fayette County is cited. In all previous publications, the precinct numbers have been omitted, and two errors, albeit minor ones, have been made. The vote total in Precinct 8 has always previously been given as ten for and one against, when in the original chart it is quite clearly given as fourteen for and zero against.
    Mention should also be made of the variant spelling of the names given to Precincts 5 and 6. In the original, they are called "Harvey Creek" and "Dunleavy." The spellings used herein, which are the same as those used in all previously published versions, are the more common ones now and were more common in the 1860s. Both Harvey's Creek and Dunlavy, as well as Sandies, refer to school houses bearing the same names at which the residents of the various precincts voted. As has been seen, the people near the Dunlavy School had already adopted the name New Mainz for their community. The residents of Precinct 7, which evidently included Walnut Bend and the plantations just upriver, went to the home of Andrew Crier to vote; therefore the election records give the precinct name as "Crier's."