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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 7

1 Ernest Wallace, David M. Vigness, and George B. Ward, Documents of Texas History (Austin: State House Press, 1994), p. 201.

2 [La Grange] True Issue, June 3, 1865; Colorado County District Court Records, Criminal Cause File No. 594: State of Texas v. William Thompson, et al., Criminal Minute Book D, p. 129. On May 23, 1865, the day after the former cavalrymen had taken all the Confederate property in La Grange, another group of former soldiers arrived in town. Dismayed that they were too late to participate in the confiscation of government property, they turned their attention to private property, though with much less public approval.
    Redgate's wife, Mary Theresa, was the same woman who had been captured by Indians in 1836 when she was the wife of Conrad Jürgens. Jane Margaret Jordt, who was actually Jürgens' daughter, was the same child who was born while her mother was in captivity and who had been adopted by Redgate. On September 23, 1855, she had married Hermann Emil Mathias Jordt, who, it will be remembered, died during the Civil War while serving as the captain of a Confederate army company (see Colorado County Marriage Records, Book C, p. 33).

3 War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1889-1896), series 1, vol. 48, part 2, pp. 969, 1069, 1078; Frederick H. Dyer, Compendium of the War of the Rebellion (Dayton, Ohio: Press of Morningside Bookshop, 1978), pp. 1174, 1334; Des Moines [Iowa] Register, July 19, 1865; Harold D. Brinkman, ed., Dear Companion The Civil War Letters of Silas I. Shearer (Ames, Iowa: Sigler Printing and Publishing, 1995), pp. 156, 158; Letter of Frederick E. Miller, December 22, 1865, Barry A. Crouch Collection (Ms. 41), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus; 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), p. 44. The 23rd Iowa was mustered out on July 26 and the 30th Missouri on August 21, 1865.

4 Colorado County Tax Rolls, 1864, 1865. Total valuations in 1864 were $5,972,552. That year, the slaves in the county were valued at $2,299,455, and the taxable land in the county at $2,196,696. In 1865, total valuations were $2,100,568, with the bulk of that, $1,433,145, in land. The tax rate in 1864 was 50 cents per $100, that in 1865, 12.5 cents per $100. The average value of an acre of land was set at $7.29 in 1864 and $5.00 in 1865. The county collected $30,626.96 in taxes in 1864 but only $3442.71 in 1865. Of course, 1864 taxes were collected in Confederate dollars and 1865 taxes in United States dollars. Comparing the valuations assigned to horses, cattle, sheep, and rural land by the Colorado County tax assessor in 1861 and 1862 to those assigned in 1865 and 1866 leads to the conclusion that the assessor valued a Confederate dollar at about 70 United States cents, meaning that the 1864 tax collections were equivalent to more than 20,000 United States dollars (see Colorado County Tax Rolls, 1861-1866). It may be assumed that most of the additional tax money the county collected in 1864 went to pay expenses caused by the war.

5 Lavaca County Probate Records, File No. 114: Needham W. Eason.

6 Colorado County Deed Records, Book K, p. 176, Book L, p. 749.

7 Colorado County Bond and Mortgage Records, Book F, pp. 248, 256. Washington's plantation comprised four tracts, all of which he pledged to cover the debt. On May 30, 1868 he mortgaged one of the tracts for $343.75 to William B. Roever, but apparently could raise no other cash. Incidentally, Roever, a former Frelsburg store owner and Confederate army officer, committed suicide on February 6, 1869 (see Houston Daily Times, February 12, 1869).

8 Colorado County Bond and Mortgage Records, Book F, p. 438; Colorado County Deed Records, Book L, p. 613, Book P, p. 222, Book Q, p. 609; Record of Appointment of Postmasters 1832-September 30, 1971, National Archives Microfilm Publication M841, Roll 122; Hans Peter Nielsen Gammel, comp., The Laws of Texas 1822-1897, vol. 5, p. 936. Adkins did not file his plat of Osage at the courthouse until September 13, 1869. Though it designates a tract for a Baptist church, it might be worth mentioning that this tract apparently was not reserved by Adkins for the church---rather it was purchased by the Baptists on February 7, 1868 (see Colorado County Deed Records, Book N, p. 472). The law office in Content, which is pronounced with the accent on the first syllable, had been occupied by "Payne and Putney," neither of whom can be more definitely identified. Probably the "Payne" was Don Fernando Payne and the "Putney," Richard J. Putney.

9 Statements of James L. Walker and Andrew C. Burford, December 9, 1867, Statements of Nathaniel Axion, Charles Banks, James Banks, Fabe Caldwell, Henry Chavers, Mark Ervin, Jr., William Gilchrist, James Harris, Anderson Lee, Caswell Smith, and Grandison Smith, October 7, 1867, all in Barry A. Crouch Collection (Ms. 41), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus.

10 Colorado Citizen, September 7, 1865, May 5, 1866; P. H. Webster to Edgar M. Gregory, February 5, 1866, Report of Enon M. Harris, October 8, 1867, Letter of Richard V. Cook and David H. Crisp, October 8, 1867, all in Barry A. Crouch Collection (Ms. 41), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus; Colorado County Deed Records, Book M, p. 417; Colorado County Bond and Mortgage Records, Book E, p. 777.

11 Colorado County Deed Records, Book M, pp. 503, 598; Colorado County Bond and Mortgage Records, Book F, p. 231; Letters of John H. Crisp, March 15, 1868, March 19, 1868, December 17, 1870, all in Reconstruction Documents Collection (Ms. 70), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus. The impulse to flee the country was common, even if the means to do so were not. In March 1867, George Millan McCormick, a Confederate veteran, wrote his brother, "the Rads are hard at work on us wish I had money would leave this Yankee cursed county" (see Letter of George M. McCormick March 22, 1867, Draper/McCormick Papers (Ms. 6), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus). Crisp's letters mention five other Texans who settled in Brazil: Peter Hardeman, A. Thomas Oliver, John Perkins, J. H. White, and T. B. White. Because his family did not like living in Brazil, Hicks moved back to the United States, though not to Colorado County, in the 1870s. In 1880, he was living in Tennessee. His youngest living child, a ten-year-old daughter named Trula, had been born in Brazil (see Tenth Census of the United States (1880) Schedule 1, Sullivan County, Tennessee). Oliver was killed by his slaves, apparently in 1873. Waddell lived in Brazil for nine years, then returned to Colorado County. Crisp remained in Brazil for the rest of his life. He died there on July 7, 1888, a little less than two months after the May 13, 1888 law which abolished slavery in Brazil (see Letter of John H. Crisp, October 12, 1874, Reconstruction Documents Collection (Ms. 70), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus; Eagle Lake Headlight, June 6, 1908; Colorado Citizen, October 18, 1888; Robert Edgar Conrad, ed., Children of God's Fire: A Documentary History of Black Slavery in Brazil (Princeton University Press, 1984. Reprint. University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1994), pp. 480-481).

12 Galveston News, May 14, 1867, April 4, 1869; [Mexico City] Two Republics, September 5, 1868; Conveyance of property by T. J. M. Richardson to John G. Montgomery, July 11, 1867, Montgomery Family File, Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library. The Montgomery child born in Mexico, more specifically on the Rio Verde in the state of San Luis Potosí was Ella Birdie Montgomery. Another of the settlers at Tuxpan, Gideon Lincecum, restated his reasons for leaving Texas in an April 27, 1871 letter to John Henry Brown, who also had lived at Tuxpan and encouraged others to move there: "As for myself, I do not, neither can I care one cent for the 'United States of America.' The victorious Yankee has trampled under foot every principle of justice and equality, and are now encouraging the triumphant negro to put the finishing stroke on the degraded condition of the Southernor by conjugal union with with [sic] his daughters; While the Southernor, those who are most capable, and best able to do something, for the fear of losing a few dollars have joined the loyal league. No no, John Henry Brown, I cant care for such a demoralized nation. But I can remain here in this calm, peaceful, clean washed country, where Bowie Knives and six shooters are not regarded as the indespensable equipments of a gentleman, and where man shooting is not considered an honorable occupation. Where, as you know, doorlocks are not necessary, and, where indeed there is nothing to fear" (see Gideon Lincecum to John Henry Brown, April 27, 1871, Gideon Lincecum Papers, The Center for American History, University of Texas, Austin).

13 Letter of John T. Raper, November 29, 1865, Letter of Fred Ed Miller, December 22, 1865, both in Barry A. Crouch Collection (Ms. 41), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus.

14 Letter of Eli W. Green, October 24, 1865, Service Record of Eli W. Green, both in Barry A. Crouch Collection (Ms. 41), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus. Freedmen's Bureau agents were officially known as Sub-Assistant Commissioners.

15 Letter of Leander C. Cunningham, November 20, 1865, Letter of John T. Raper, November 24, 1865, both in Barry A. Crouch Collection (Ms. 41), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus.

16 Letters of John T. Raper, November 29, 1865, December 26, 1865, to Edgar M. Gregory, January 15, 1866, to C. H. Whittelsey, January 15, 1866, Letter of Fred Barnard, December 26, 1865, Service Record of John T. Raper, all in Barry A. Crouch Collection (Ms. 41), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus.

17 Colorado County District Court Records, Criminal Cause File No. 570: State of Texas v. Mack Oates and Tom Tate, Criminal Cause File No. 591: State of Texas v. Tom Tate and Polly, Criminal Cause File No. 603: State of Texas v. Mack Oates and Tom Tate, Criminal Cause File No. 611: State of Texas v. J. Ernest Goodman, Criminal Minute Book D, pp. 114, 126, 185, 226; Notes from sub-assistant commissioner's field notes: Endorsement of J. Ernest Goodman, May 30, 1866, Barry A. Crouch Collection (Ms. 41), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus. The indictment of Tate characterized the Sunday religious gathering of the freedmen as a riot.

18 Galveston Daily News, June 30, 1867. Celebrations of what the freedmen called "Juneteenth," the anniversary of their emancipation, were regular annual events in later years. It is not known if the 1867 festival was the first or second such event. Rock was preceded on the speaker's platform by Columbus attorney Richard V. Cook. Both speakers were white men who urged the blacks to improve their economic situations through education, industry, frugality, and sobriety. Cook, a former Confederate officer, added his assurance that the white community always kept the best interests of the freedmen in mind.

19 Letter of Enon M. Harris, October 8, 1867, Letters of David H. Crisp and Richard V. Cook, October 8, 1867, October 16, 1867, October 20, 1867, and November 16, 1867, all in Barry A. Crouch Collection (Ms. 41), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus; Letter of John H. Crisp, March 19, 1868, Reconstruction Documents Collection (Ms. 70), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus. On January 10, 1868, Columbus' masonic lodge, the Caledonia Lodge #68, Free and Accepted Masons, advertised that it had expelled Hanford for "gross unmasonic conduct" and warned other lodges not to let him join. One may only guess that he was expelled as a result of his conduct in the Crisp affair (see [La Grange] State Rights Democrat, January 10, 1868).

20 Notes from sub-assistant commissioner's field notes: Letter of Charles Schmidt, February 1, 1867, Letter of Enon M. Harris, February 15, 1867, Letter of Robert P. Tendick, March 1, 1867, Letter of Enon M. Harris, March 1, 1867, Barry A. Crouch Collection (Ms. 41), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus.

21 Petition of Benjamin F. Williams, Edmund Eason, Ed Tobin, and Isiah Tobin and accompanying letter from Enon M. Harris, March 16, 1867, Notes from sub-assistant commissioner's field notes: Letter of Enon M. Harris, February 15, 1867, both in Barry A. Crouch Collection (Ms. 41), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus.

22 Monthly Report of Enon M. Harris, August 3, 1867, Letters of William H. Sinclair, December 8, 1867, January 30, 1868, Letters of Louis W. Stevenson, February 29, 1868, March 20, 1868, Report of Louis W. Stevenson, April 30, 1868, Report of William H. Sinclair, May 20, 1869, all in Barry A. Crouch Collection (Ms. 41), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus; Houston Daily Times, October 8, 1868.

23 Reports of Louis W. Stevenson, April 30, 1868, May 31, 1868, June 30, 1868, September 30, 1868, all in Barry A. Crouch Collection (Ms. 41), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus. Jones Bend, named after William Jefferson Jones, who owned the nearby land, would later develop into Vox Populi.

24 Colorado Citizen, September 7, 1865, May 5, 1866; Colorado County Bond and Mortgage Records, Book E, p. 590, Book G, p. 436; Gammel, comp., The Laws of Texas 1822-1897, vol. 5, pp. 1479-1480.

25 [La Grange] True Issue, May 13, 1865; Columbus Times, February 20, 1869; Colorado Citizen, October 5, 1871, April 4, 1872, February 27, 1879, April 28, 1911; Houston Daily Times, November 6, 1868, November 28, 1868, February 12, 1869, [Hempstead] Texas Countryman, August 6, 1869; [La Grange] State Rights Democrat, November 12, 1869; [Houston] Evening Telegraph, January 10, 1870; Fayette County New Era, October 24, 1873. There are no known extant editions of The South. The edition of the True Issue cited above gives The South's editor's name only as "Baker." Presuming that this Baker was one of the three brothers who ran the Colorado Citizen before the Civil War, and since one of the three, A. Hicks Baker, was killed during the war, then the editor of The South must have been either Jim Baker or Ben Baker. Ben Baker was one of the few remaining members of his company who surrendered at Appomattox on April 9, 1865, just about a month before the first issue of The South appeared. He probably could not have arrived in Columbus in time to organize and produce the newspaper. Jim Baker was discharged from the army in 1862, and presumably had lived in Columbus since that time, making him the logical candidate to have created The South. He was probably forced to wait until after the war to establish the newspaper because paper itself was in very short supply during the war.
    Daniels, the physician, lawyer, and editor, evidently left town shortly after selling the Times. In 1873, he was living at the small community of Fiskville near Austin and serving as a state policeman when he and seven other state policemen, among whom was another Colorado County man, Wesley Cherry, were sent to Lampasas to confront the Horrell brothers. The Horrells, Thomas, Martin, Merit, and Bill, and a number of their relatives and friends, were accused of "branding, killing and skinning other peoples' cattle," of attempting to murder the sheriff, and of randomly shooting into people's houses. On March 14, the policemen arrested Bill Bowen, a brother-in-law of the Horrells. Bowen led them to the saloon where the Horrells and a number of their adherents were waiting. Daniels, Cherry, and two other state policeman, Thomas Williams and Andrew Melville, entered the saloon; the other four officers waited outside. Almost as soon as they entered, Daniels, Cherry, Williams, and Melville were mowed down in a hail of gunfire. Daniels, Cherry, and Williams all died on the scene (see [Austin] Daily State Journal, March 19, 1873, March 26, 1873; [Austin] Daily Democratic Statesman, March 20, 1873; Annie Doom Pickrell, Pioneer Women in Texas (Austin: Jenkins Publishing Company, 1970), pp. 462-463; Colorado County Marriage Records, Book D, p. 130).

26 Letter of George W. Smith, December 30, 1865, Governor's Papers (RG 301), Andrew J. Hamilton, Archives and Records Division, Texas State Library, Austin; Letter of Enon M. Harris, August 23, 1867, Barry A. Crouch Collection (Ms. 41), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus; Gammel, comp., The Laws of Texas 1822-1897, vol. 5, pp. 1256-1257, 1308-1312; Colorado County Bond and Mortgage Records, Book F, p. 150. On August 28, 1868, the legislature amended the charter of the Columbus, San Antonio and Rio Grande Railroad to allow it to commence its rail line at Gonzales, or some other point on the as yet unbuilt rail line of the Indianola and Austin Railroad, rather than at Columbus, removing it from the concerns of Colorado County historians (see Gammel, comp., The Laws of Texas 1822-1897, vol. 6, p. 56).

27 Colorado County Police [Commissioners] Court Minutes, Book 1862-1876, pp. 92, 93, 94, 105; Colorado County Bond and Mortgage Records, Book F, pp. 150, 188; Galveston Daily News, February 9, 1867, February 15, 1867, May 4, 1867, November 15, 1867; George M. McCormick to Willis B. McCormick, May 15, 1867, Draper/McCormick Papers (Ms. 6), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library. The cannon used to greet the train was undoubtedly that built by Andrew Jackson Nave during the Civil War. It was certainly used for other similar events in later years.

28 Colorado County Deed Records, Book M., pp. 436, 548, 595; Colorado County Bond and Mortgage Records, Book F, p. 196. The first passenger depot in Columbus was built on the west side of Block 3. As we will see, it was moved to its better remembered downtown location in 1874.

29 [La Grange] State Rights Democrat, August 30, 1867, December 6, 1867, December 21, 1867, February 14, 1868, February 28, 1868, March 6, 1868; Weekly Austin Republican, March 18, 1868; Galveston Daily News, June 30, 1867, December 24, 1867, February 28, 1868; Houston Daily Times, September 23, 1868, November 4, 1868, January 7, 1869, May 11, 1869. Though the newspaper report refers to Macumrer simply as "Captain Macumrer," he is presumed to be the same man as G. R. Macumrer, who was listed as a 36 year old engineer in the 1870 census of Fayette County (see Ninth Census of the United States (1870) Schedule 1, Fayette County, Texas). There is some indication that a second boat for service on the river was also constructed in early 1868, though the name of that boat, if it existed, is unknown. The Galveston Daily News of February 28, 1868 states that a man named "Benthal" was also building a boat. He may have been John C. Benthall, who worked as a blacksmith before the war.

30 Petition of Charles H. Bell Regarding Yellow Fever in Alleyton, January 21, 1870, Memorials and Petitions, Archives and Records Division, Texas State Library, Austin; Report of Dr. S. W. Welsh in Greensville Dowell, ed., Yellow Fever and Malarial Diseases Embracing a History of the Epidemics of Yellow Fever in Texas (Philadelphia, 1876), p. 67; Galveston Daily News, September 20, 1867; Howard Association of Galveston, Records of the Secretary, 14-0030, Rosenberg Library, Galveston, August 23, 1867 entry. Dr. Skinner was apparently K. W. Skinner, whose name appears in the Galveston City Directory of 1868-1869.
Though it has often been stated that Alleyton was a larger town than Columbus during the Civil War, the evidence, including that provided by the reports on the yellow fever epidemic, is all to the contrary. Dr. John F. Hicks, who is quoted by Welsh in his report on the epidemic, refers to Columbus as "a considerable town," and to Alleyton as "a village." Secondly, he states that "nearly every inhabitant" of Alleyton became ill, and that there were only about 90 cases. If these statements are even close to being true, then clearly Alleyton was a very small town in late 1867. More evidence of the relative size of Colorado County's towns at the close of the war is given by the activities of the police court in licensing saloons. In 1866, eleven retail liquor dealers were licensed in Columbus, and two in each of Alleyton, Eagle Lake, and Frelsburg. Unless it is to be believed that the people of Columbus were unusually heavy imbibers of alcoholic drink, or that those of Alleyton, Eagle Lake, or Frelsburg were unusually abstemious, it seems clear that Columbus was substantially larger than any other county town (see Colorado County Police [Commissioners] Court Minutes, Book 1862-1876, pp. 44-46, 51, 53, 55, 56, 64, 65, 66).

31 Colorado County District Court Records, Civil Cause File No. 2111: Maria A. Veramendi, et al. v. William J. Hutchins, et al., Minute Book D, pp. 55, 143, 200, 247, 311, 448, Minute Book E, pp. 3, 98, 183, 267, 364, 444, 501, 523, Minute Book F, pp. 54, 136, 156, 170, 215, Minute Book G, pp. 366, 431, 432, 442; Cases Argued and Decided in the Supreme Court of the State of Texas [Texas Reports], vol. 48 (Houston: E. H. Cushing, 1878), pp. 531-554.

32 Colorado County Deed Records, Book M, p. 371, Book N, pp. 73, 472, 685, Book O, pp. 241, 384, 493; Book P, pp. 12, 189, Book 6, p. 168. The Baptists acquired their land in Osage on February 7, 1868. The Methodist tract near Alleyton was one acre near the mineral spring in the John McCroskey Survey; that in Osage, which was deeded on August 31, 1870, eight acres adjacent to the ten acre school tract. The lot which the Episcopal church purchased, on October 3, 1870, was subdivided lot 10 on block 41 in Columbus.

33 Minutes of the Congregation of the Union Baptist Church, partial xerographic copy in Colorado County Archives Collection (Ms. 10), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus; Colorado County Bond and Mortgage Records, Book E, pp. 785, 786; Colorado County Deed Records, Book M, p. 2, Book O, p. 1. The trustees of the Columbus Methodist Episcopal church were Benjamin Franklin Williams, Edmund Eason, Willis Hunter, Colin Mays, and William Norman; those in Alleyton were Romeo Hill, Robert Holters, Robert Matthews, Samuel Wells, and Samuel Burney. The lot the Methodist Episcopal congregation purchased was subdivided lot 8 in block 62; that that the Columbus African Methodist Episcopal congregation purchased was subdivided lot number 7 in block 48.

34 Colorado County Deed Records, Book L, p. 643, Book M, pp. 97, 123, 197, 208, 266, 268, 445, 447, Book N, pp. 81, 82, 83, 86, 88, 89, 90, 98, 103, 158, 168, 192, 226, 235, 307, 523, Book O, pp. 91, 146; Daily Houston Telegraph, June 11, 1868. The trustees of the Freedmen's School Association were William Norman, Willis Hunter, Harry Taylor, Henry Tanner, Allen Nail, Burrell Green, and Isaac Zumwalt.

35 Colorado County Deed Records, Book L, p. 598, 798, Book M, pp. 194, 201, 492, 626; Book N. p. 72.

36 Colorado County Deed Records, Book M, pp. 428, 429, 759, Book N, pp. 516, 521, Book O, p. 203, Book 3, p. 619; Colorado County District Court Records, Civil Cause File No. 2868: Sophie Bacon v. John Rosenfield, Administrator, Minute Book E, p. 408. Bacon had unusual difficulty in securing title to her land. She bought the block from William Alley for $25, making a down payment of $13. However, when Alley died later in 1869, he had not yet signed the deed which would have transferred title to Bacon. Bacon offered the remaining amount due on the block, $12, to Alley's estate. The administrator, John Rosenfield, did not accept the money and refused to sign a deed, whereupon Bacon filed suit. On October 19, 1872, the district court ruled in Bacon's favor, stipulating that she must pay the $12 due and all court costs. On October 7, 1874, after she complied with the terms of the settlement, Alley's estate transferred title to Bacon.

37 Colorado County Deed Records, Book L, p. 645, Book N, pp. 667-670, Book O, p. 76. The name of the community that Swenson set up is so informal that it seems seldom to have been written down, though there are hundreds of transactions regarding the land that are recorded in the Colorado County courthouse. About a century after the community was created, the commissioners court created a road through the area which they named the Judyville road (see Colorado County Commissioners Court Minutes, vol. 21, p. 503). Current residents use several variations; Judyville, Judaville, Juniorville, and Jewittville being four. If the original version was Judyville, the name may derive from that of one of the original eighteen grantees, Judy Swenson.
    There are many other mysteries regarding this community. Swenson lived in New York at the time he set it up. He specified in the deed that the persons who were to receive the land were black and had rendered "faithful services," presumably, though he does not say so, to himself. However, at the time the land was conveyed, Swenson is not known to have owned any slaves for about twenty years (see Larry E. Scott, The Swedish Texans (San Antonio: University of Texas Institute of Texan Cultures, 1990). pp. 57-59). The land was conveyed in 1869, but none of the persons who received it appear on the 1870 federal census of Texas or on the 1870 Colorado County tax rolls.
    On June 30, 1874, three of the original grantees conveyed their 40 acres to two men in return for legal services rendered on behalf of Leonard Robinson, who had five criminal indictments pending against him. The others seem to have retained their ownership for many years longer (see Colorado County Deed Records, Book T, p. 2).

38 Colorado County District Court Records, Criminal Cause File No. 542: State of Texas v. William H. Trammell, Criminal Cause File No. 629: State of Texas v. Henry Montgomery, Criminal Cause File No. 648: State of Texas v. John Rogers, Criminal Cause File No. 650: State of Texas v. Anderson Putney, Criminal Cause File No. 651: State of Texas v. J. Wallace Foote; Notes from sub-assistant commissioner's field notes: Affidavit of Tony Williams, April 17, 1867, Barry A. Crouch Collection (Ms. 41), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus. A count revealed 171 criminal indictments in 1866, 1867, and 1868, 80 in each 1866 and 1868 and only 11 in 1867. Of the 171, it could be determined with certainty that 77 were against freedmen; 30 in 1866, 3 in 1867, and 44 in 1868.

39 Galveston Tri-Weekly News, June 27, 1865; Colorado County District Court Records, Criminal Cause File No. 664: State of Texas v. Phocian Tate, Criminal Minute Book D, p. 239; [La Grange] State Rights Democrat, August 30, 1867.

40 Galveston Daily News, July 18, 1867; Texas State Gazette, July 13, 1867; Letter of Blanche and Will to Mother, July 6, 1867, Letter of John H. Bowers, July 10, 1867, both in Reconstruction Documents Collection (Ms. 70), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus.

41 Galveston Tri-Weekly News, March 9, 1866; Letter of Caledonia C. Wright, March 11, 1866, Josepha Wright Papers, The Center for American History, University of Texas, Austin, or transcription in William H. Harrison, Alleyton, Texas "Back Door to the Confederacy," (Alleyton: Show Me Type and Print, 1993), p. 181; Colorado County District Court Records, Civil Cause No. 2098: Colorado County v. William B. Dewees, et al.; [Houston] Evening Star, April 12, 1866. It is at least possible that all three robberies were committed by the same gang of men. Perhaps it is no coincidence that they occurred after the departure of Freedmen's Bureau agent John T. Raper but before the arrival of his replacement, George Van De Sande.

42 Letter of Enon M. Harris, June 17, 1867, Barry A. Crouch Collection (Ms. 41), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus; Colorado County Police [Commissioners] Court Minutes, Book 1862-1876, pp. 86, 99, 116, 158.

43 Houston Daily Times, September 12, 1868; Reports of Louis W. Stevenson, August 31, 1868, October 31, 1868, Barry A. Crouch Collection (Ms. 41), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus. As we have seen, Turner was one of the men who moved to Brazil in 1868. He must have done so very shortly after the Goode shooting; and was perhaps partly motivated to move away by what Stevenson reported as an enduring hostility of the Harberts toward him.

44 Colorado County District Court Records, Criminal Cause File No. 732: State of Texas v. John Thomas, Criminal Minute Book D, pp. 194, 199; Report of Louis W. Stevenson, October 31, 1868, Clippings attached to letter of Louis W. Stevenson, November 22, 1868, Letter of J. B. McFarland, December 4, 1868, all in Barry A. Crouch Collection (Ms. 41), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus.

45 Weekly Austin Republican, May 6, 1868; Reports of Louis W. Stevenson, April 30, 1868, June 30, 1868, August 31, 1868, all in Barry A. Crouch Collection (Ms. 41), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus. The last contingent of troops which assisted the Freedmen's Bureau agent in Columbus left town on March 1, 1868. The Columbus chapter of the Ku Klux Klan seems to have been organized shortly thereafter. If indeed the Klan was responsible for both the lynching of Bowen and the robbing of Ridge, one must wonder if Bowen was lynched by mistake. The principal factors against that proposition are that Bowen was in the custody of the mob for a considerable time; and that when he was taken from the jail, the jailor conversed with him, calling him, he said, by name (see Houston Daily Times, September 12, 1868).

46 Houston Daily Times, September 22, 1868; Reports of Louis W. Stevenson, September 21, 1868, September 30, 1868, Barry A. Crouch Collection (Ms. 41) Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus; Colorado County District Court Records, Minute Book D, pp. 113, 151, 152, 192. Actually, a special session of the district court convened on September 21. That session ended on October 3 and the regular session began on October 5. It adjourned on October 17.

47 Reports of Louis W. Stevenson, October 31, 1868, November 18, 1868, Letters of Louis W. Stevenson, November 22, 1868, December 5, 1868, February 10, 1869, March 1, 1869, Testimony in the Case of E. C. Powell, all in Barry A. Crouch Collection (Ms. 41), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus; Columbus Times, July 4, 1868; Post Returns, United States Military, xerographic copies in Reconstruction Documents Collection (Ms. 70), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus; Colorado County District Court Records, Criminal Cause Files No. 779 and 778: State of Texas v. Amos Burrell, Criminal Minute Book D, p. 248. The fact that Burrell was not lynched further complicates interpretation of the Bowen lynching. If the mob which lynched Bowen really meant to lynch Thomas, then it seems reasonable to assume that some attempt would have been made to lynch Burrell. Perhaps though, the reaction to the Bowen lynching was so strong as to deter future efforts. Perhaps too the mob got the man they wanted man when they lynched Bowen, and, at this time in county history, were not interested in black rapists such as Thomas and Burrell.

48 Letter of John H. Crisp, March 19, 1868, Reconstruction Documents Collection (Ms. 70), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus; Galveston Daily News, October 11, 1868; Houston Daily Times, December 12, 1868; [Hempstead] Texas Countryman, June 25, 1869, July 16, 1869, July 23, 1869, July 30, 1869, August 6, 1869, September 17, 1869; Colorado County District Court Records, Criminal Cause File No. 789: State of Texas v. Rudolph Mewes; Colorado County Police [Commissioners] Court Minutes, Book 1862-1876, pp. 144, 145. In reporting the deaths in Eagle Lake, the newspaper states that "Wilson Wood, Drumgoole, wife and two children" were drowned. None of these persons have been further identified.

49 Record of Appointment of Postmasters 1832-September 30, 1971, National Archives Microfilm Publication M841, Roll 122); Eagle Lake Headlight, September 19, 1914. Clapp later served another term as Eagle Lake's postmaster, being appointed on January 30, 1873.

50 Letter of Robert E. Stafford, October 14, 1859, Shropshire-Upton Chapter, U. D. C. Collection (Ms. 25), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus; Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers who Served in Organizations from the State of Texas, National Archives Microfilm Publication No. 323, Roll 305; James Cox, The Cattle Industry of Texas and Adjacent Territory (St. Louis: Woodward and Tiernan, 1895), p. 640. Though Robert Earl Stafford was in Texas as early as 1859, he does not appear on the 1860 federal census. He might easily be confused with a man who is listed on the 1860 census of Colorado County, Robert Frederick Stafford, who was the same age and was also born in Georgia. Robert F. Stafford did not reappear in the county after the war, perhaps because he was classified as a deserter from his Confederate army unit: Company H, 13th Texas Infantry.

51 Colorado County Bond and Mortgage Records, Book F, pp. 266, 267, 386-390. Stafford borrowed the $2100 from Wright's wife, Esther. Wright had inherited a considerable number of cattle from his father, William J. Wright, and, in the preceding two years, had purchased most of the cattle his numerous siblings had inherited (see Colorado County Bond and Mortgage Records, Book F, pp. 90, 174, 175, 184, 257, 258, 259).

52 Colorado County Bond and Mortgage Records, Book F, pp. 414, 415, 416, 418, 419, 420, 421.

53 Colorado County Bond and Mortgage Records, Book F, pp. 318, 324, 341; Book G, pp. 29, 42, 213; Colorado County Probate Records, File No. 634: Robert B. Johnson; John Edward Folts, "A Faithful Negro Servant," in John Marvin Hunter, ed., The Trail Drivers of Texas (Nashville, Tennessee: Cokesbury Press, 1925), pp. 645-646; J. Frank Dobie, "The Old Trail Drivers," The Country Gentleman, vol. 40, no. 7, February 14, 1925; Typewritten affidavit attributed to George Glenn in Johnson Family File, Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus. Henry M. Johnson had married Harriet Barbara Stafford on March 19, 1868 (see Colorado County Marriage Records, Book E, p. 96). It has been assumed, perhaps incorrectly, that the conveyance of some 800 cattle by Henry Johnson and Bob Stafford to Bob Johnson, Ben Stafford, and John Stafford was the formality necessary to allow the last named three to sell the cattle when they got them to Kansas, and that therefore all three went along on the drive. Glenn implies that Johnson's brothers went along. It is not inconceivable that he meant the Staffords, who were Johnson's brother's brothers-in-law. Folts, writing about fifty years later, states that Johnson died in July 1870, however, in January 1871, Henry Johnson, in a document relating to his brother's probate proceedings, stated that he died "in the State of Kansas about the first part of October 1870."

54 Galveston Daily News, July 14, 1865. Though Johnson's amnesty proclamation excluded fourteen categories of persons, few people in Colorado County fell into them.

55 Records of the Secretary of State, Election Registers, 1865, Archives and Records Division, Texas State Library.

56 Colorado County Election Register 1854-1866; Colorado County Police [Commissioners] Court Minutes, Book 1862-1876, pp. 56-57. Three candidates got a considerable number of votes in the runoff for county treasurer on July 14. The third candidate was William Crebbs, who had gotten many fewer votes than either German candidate, but who had had the highest total of the non-German candidates in the regular election. Crebbs, whose principal support was in Columbus, nearly took the post in the runoff, finishing six votes behind Schmidt and well ahead of Thulemeyer. Dewees, who had been appointed county treasurer in 1865, was one of the seven candidates for the post in 1866. Though he was the founder of Columbus and, we must suppose, was held in some veneration, he got only thirteen of the 932 votes that were cast. His low vote total reflected his performance in office. He had been county treasurer twice. In 1854, the state sued him for failing to transfer the full amount of taxes due to the state during his first tenure in office, which began in 1840. As we have seen, during his second term as treasurer he kept the county's funds in a safe inside a Columbus law office, which was robbed on March 24, 1866. When he left office shortly thereafter, he was unable to make restitution to the county, and, on October 15, 1866, the county sued him. The suit was not decided until March 12, 1869, when Dewees and his bondsmen were ordered to indemnify the county. They appealed all the way to the State Supreme Court, where they again lost the following year. In the interim, Dewees faced a criminal indictment, handed down on September 29, 1868, for embezzling $53 during his time as county treasurer. In this case, at least, he was quickly exonerated. One can only imagine the effect these events had on the aging Dewees, who had lost much of his own money in the same 1866 robbery (see Colorado County District Court Records, Civil Cause File No. 850: Elisha M. Pease v. William B. Dewees, Civil Cause File No. 2098: Colorado County v. William B. Dewees, Criminal Cause File No. 740: State of Texas v. William B. Dewees, Minute Book C, p. 1093, Minute Book D, pp. 215, 230; Reports of Cases Argued and Decided in the Supreme Court of the State of Texas [Texas Reports] vol. 32 (Galveston: Richardson, Belo, & Co., 1871), pp. 570-573).

57 Letter of Benjamin F. Williams, November 7, 1867, Records of the Office of Civil Affairs for the Department of Texas and the Fifth Military District, 1865-1870, U. S. Department of War, Records of the United States Army Continental Commands (RG 393), National Archives, Washington, D. C.; Notes from sub-assistant commissioner's field records: Letters of Enon M. Harris, July 15, 1867, July 22, 1867, July 29, 1867, August 5, 1867, August 12, 1867, August 19, 1867, August 23, 1867, August 26, 1867, September 2, 1867, Barry A. Crouch Collection (Ms. 41), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus; Election Returns, 1868, Colorado County, Texas, Records of the Secretary of State (RG 307), Archives and Records Division, Texas State Library, Austin; Columbus Times, June 6, 1868. Happily, the February 1868 vote totals were broken down by race. The totals for the black voters were: for the convention 999, against the convention 0, Foster 994, Williams 921, Leyendecker 77, Boettcher 5. The totals for the white voters were: for the convention 85, against the convention 64, Foster 7, Williams 3, Leyendecker 151, Boettcher 145. Foster, the candidate who got the most votes, has not been definitely identified. Men named Henry Foster appeared on both the 1860 and 1870 censuses of Colorado County. The 1860 Henry Foster was a white, 22 year old farmer who had been born in Texas. He enlisted in a Confederate infantry unit on June 1, 1862, but seems to have spent most of the war absent with an illness. He finally was declared absent without leave on August 31, 1863, after which no further record of him has been found. The 1870 Henry Foster was a black, 22 year old farm laborer. Neither man seems likely to be the man elected as a delegate to the constitutional convention in 1868 (see Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Colorado County, Texas, Schedule 1; Ninth Census of the United States (1870), Colorado County, Texas, Schedule 1; a synopsis of the 1860 Henry Foster's military record can be found in Bill Stein, "Consider the Lily: The Ungilded History of Colorado County," part 6, Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, vol. 7, no. 2, May 1997, p. 120).

58 Monthly Reports of Louis W. Stevenson, September 30, 1868, October 31, 1868, both in Barry A. Crouch Collection (Ms. 41), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus; Special Order 59, October 16, 1868, File 860-15, Special Order 95, April 22, 1869, File 860-23, Special Order 102, April 30, 1869, File 860-23, Special Order 114, May 14, 1869, File 860-25, Special Order 115, May 15, 1869, File 860-25, all in Adjutant General's Records (RG 401), Archives and Records Division, Texas State Library, Austin; Columbus Times, July 4, 1868; Colorado Citizen, May 6, 1869. The Citizen took the April purge of county officials philosophically, remarking that the departed county judge was "as fat and soggy as ever, and seems to be musing upon the uncertainty of worldly glory," and reporting with amusement one young man's difficulty in getting a marriage license, because "our county officers having been removed by the 'powers that be,' and none others as yet spoken into existence, we are 'every man his own Captain' in this county."

59 Gammel, comp., The Laws of Texas 1822-1897, vol. 7, pp. 412, 414-415, 428-429; Reconstruction in Texas, Senate Miscellaneous Document 77, 41st Congress, 2nd Session, 1870 (serial 1408), pp. 38-79; Special Order 179, July 31, 1869, File 861-2, Adjutant General's Records (RG 401), Archives and Records Division, Texas State Library, Austin; Galveston Daily News, May 15, 1868; Colorado County Police [Commissioners] Court Minutes, Book 1862-1876, pp. 122, 123; Columbus Times, July 4, 1868. Zwiegel was among the delegates to the June 27, 1868 meeting of Colorado County's Democrats.

60 Special Order 306, December 30, 1869, File 861-11, Special Order 21, January 27, 1870, File 862-8, Special Order 28, February 5, 1870, File 862-9, Special Order 78, April 9, 1870 File 861-19, all in Adjutant General's Records (RG 401), Archives and Records Division, Texas State Library, Austin; Colorado County Police [Commissioners] Court Minutes, Book 1862-1876, pp. 160, 168. One might wonder why Dodd rather than one of the recently elected officials, was appointed to complete Malsch's unexpired term. However, because the existing government called for four county commissioners and the future one for five justices of the peace, there was no clear successor among the electees to Malsch. Dodd was a sixty year old, small-scale farmer who had been born in Georgia (see Ninth Census of the United States (1870), Colorado County, Texas, Schedule 1). The attitude of their successors toward the new county officials, and Yates in particular, is reflected in a series of pencil notes made in the margins of the commissioners court minutes, probably within ten years of the events chronicled. In the margin at the place where Yates is first mentioned as a commissioner, the anonymous notemaker wrote "the first nigger." In 1997 or 1998, someone erased that note. As of this writing, the other notes remain. They do not contain racial slurs.

61 Colorado Citizen, September 22, 1860, November 15, 1888, October 22, 1889; Galveston Daily News, May 15, 1868; Eagle Lake Headlight, January 8, 1927; War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1889-1896), series 1, vol. 48, part 2, pp. 259; Letter of Camillus Jones, July 6, 1870, Letter of Robert P. Tendick, July 6, 1870, Governor's Papers (RG 301), Edmund J. Davis, Archives and Records Division, Texas State Library, Austin; Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Colorado County, Texas, Schedule 1, Washington County, Texas, Schedule 1; Biographical sketch of Daniel D. Claiborne in Memorial and Genealogical Record of Southwest Texas (Chicago: Goodspeed Brothers, 1894), pp. 203-204. The Loyal League, or Union League, was an organization which supported candidates for office who had remained loyal to the Union, and opposed those who had supported the Confederacy.

62 Weekly Austin Republican, March 16, 1870; [Austin] Daily State Journal, March 18, 1870, May 25, 1870.