1 Sadly, there is very little documentary information on the county's changing biota. Stephen F. Austin noted, in August 1823, that the place on the Colorado River he had in mind for the capital of his colony, which seems to have been very near where Columbus was eventually located, was "very well watered with the best of springs" (see Eugene Campbell Barker, ed., The Austin Papers, 3 vols. (vols. 1 and 2, Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, 1924 and vol. 3, Austin: University of Texas Press, 1926) vol. 1, p. 690). An unknown traveler through Texas in 1837 noted that he found "in the vicinity of Columbus . . . a number of large springs which issued from the banks of the river" (see Andrew Forest Muir, ed., Texas in 1837 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1958), p. 81). William Bluford Dewees described the county, and indeed most of this part of the state, as largely prairie "interspersed with beautiful groves," and broken only by narrow forests along the river, creeks, and other streams (see Dewees, Letters from an Early Settler of Texas (Louisville: Morton & Griswold, 1852. Reprint. Waco: Texian Press, 1968), pp. 37, 130-131). Though farmers certainly burned fields in the early days of settlement (see, for example, Dewees, Letters from an Early Settler of Texas, p. 37, and Wilhelm Steinert, North America, Particularly Texas in the Year 1849: A Travel Account, Gilbert J. Jordan, trans., Terry G. Jordan-Bychkov, ed., (Dallas: DeGolyer Library and William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies, 1999), p. 79), by 1871 at least one newspaper was campaigning against the practice (see Houston Daily Union, February 4, 1871). That trees were consuming the county's prairie is confirmed by an article on page 193 of the 1872 Texas Almanac. Charles William Tait, who used dogs to hunt bears in 1848 and found them plentiful, complained that they had already become rare in 1854 (see "Letters of Charles William Tait, 1848-1864," Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, vol. 6, no. 2, May 1996, pp. 96, 106).

2 Colorado Citizen, February 1, 1872, September 23, 1875, July 6, 1876, January 18, 1877; Robert Henry Harrison, "The Epidemic of 1873, in Columbus, Texas," Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, vol. 2, no. 3, September 1992, pp. 137-138.

3 Ninth Census of the United States (1870) Colorado County, Texas, Schedule 1; Mike Kingston, ed., 1994-1995 Texas Almanac and State Industrial Guide (Dallas: The Dallas Morning News, 1993), p. 331; S. T. Burney to Edmund J. Davis, June 22, 1870, Edmund J. Davis Records (RG 301) Archives Division, Texas State Library; Colorado County Bond and Mortgage Records, Book G, pp. 232, 233; Contract with Freedmen, Harbert Family Papers (Ms. 50), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus. The 1870 census listed 978 white persons and 688 black persons who owned either real estate or other property. These white persons owned real estate totaling $1,649,035 and personal property totaling $608,657; the black persons $9,960 and $10,479. Of these persons, 873 whites and 678 blacks were identified as heads of households. The 873 whites owned $1,474,295 in real estate and $560,806 in other property; the 678 blacks $9,310 in real estate and $9,849 in other property. Of the black heads of household, 572 listed no assets at all.
    From 1860 until 1870, Colorado County's population grew by 5.6%. This must be considered as very slight when measured against the state's overall population growth of 35.5%. Colorado County's growth outpaced only one of its immediate neighbors, Wharton County, which grew by only 1.4% in the decade. In the same time span, Fayette County grew by 43.8%, Austin County by 48.8%, and Lavaca County by 54.2%. It should be noted, however, that local genealogical researchers hold the 1870 census of Colorado County in low regard, noting that many persons who are believed to have been living in the county before, during, and after 1870 are missing from its pages (for state population figures, see Mike Kingston, ed., 1986-1987 Texas Almanac and State Industrial Guide (Dallas: The Dallas Morning News, 1985), p. 443).

4 Colorado County Probate Records, File No. 602: William Alley, Final Record Book H, pp. 701, 703, 705, 710, 721, 723; Colorado Citizen, November 2, 1871. William Alley died in 1869, Caroline in January 1867. The plaintiffs were Walter Alley, Albert Alley, George Alley, Jane and John B. Burton, Amanda and Pierce Henderson, Mary and Joseph Allen, Catherine and Ben Cloman, Julia and Briscoe Calhoun, and Sarah and Ben Preston. Marriage records for two of the female plaintiffs, Jane Burton and Julia Calhoun, have been found. Both women used the name Alley as their maiden names. The earliest known use of the Alley name by one of these former slaves is on Jane Burton's marriage license, which was taken out on November 10, 1865 (Colorado County Marriage Records, Book D, pp. 180, 234).

5 Colorado County Police [Commissioners] Court Minutes, Book 1862-1876, pp. 114, 115, 117, 121, 158, 175, 198, 200, 203, 210, 212; Colorado Citizen, September 7, 1876.

6 Hans Peter Nielsen Gammel, comp., The Laws of Texas 1822-1897 (Austin: The Gammel Book Company, 1898), vol. 6, p. 1290, vol. 7, pp. 1044, 1402; Colorado Citizen, March 16, 1871, February 15, 1872, February 22, 1872, February 27, 1873. The organizers of the German Casino were Sophus Johann Theodor Harde, George Witting, Robert P. Tendick, Charles Schmidt, Theodore Oswald, Simon Thulemeyer, and William Beethe; those of the German Germania were Harde, Witting, Johann Zwiegel, Helmuth Kulow, and Friedrich Gustav Schultz. The earliest known appearance by a dramatic company at the Casino Hall featured an actor named Vining Bowers on March 1, 1872.

7 Colorado Citizen, February 22, 1872, March 14, 1872, March 28, 1872, April 4, 1872; La Grange New Era, March 15, 1872, April 19, 1872, May 3, 1872; Members of the Texas Legislature, 1846-1962 (Austin: n. p., c. 1963), pp. 39, 45, 51. The festival grounds contained a platform for the speakers, a platform for dancing, and a refreshment stand. Harcourt was state senator in the Ninth and Tenth Legislatures, which met under the state's Confederate government; Cook was state senator in the Eleventh Legislature, which met in 1866. The fat men's races were won by John Rosenfield and George Gegenworth. The other participants were Helmuth Kulow, Isam Tooke, Henry Merseberger, and J. Kulow.

8 Poems by Darden were published in Colorado Citizen, February 22, 1872, February 29, 1872, March 14, 1872, March 28, 1872, May 21, 1874, July 16, 1874, November 12, 1874, and April 22, 1875. For the Sutherland Springs material, see Colorado Citizen, August 30, 1877 and September 13, 1877. The Cooper article was preceded by a declaration from Cooper that Darden's version was correct. The declaration was dated August 18, 1870, suggesting that the article was written several years before it was published. Simpson's poetry and prose were published in Colorado Citizen, July 23, 1874, December 10, 1874, April 15, 1875, May 6, 1875, May 20, 1875, July 8, 1875, October 7, 1876, and October 14, 1875. Several other prose pieces concerning the State Geological Survey were published in other issues, but because they were signed "S. G. S." they cannot be attributed to Simpson. It is likely, though, that he wrote them. His poems were signed "S." That they were his is confirmed by their inclusion in his privately published 1900 book, A Study of Nature and Other Poems. The book provides the date and place many of Simpson's poems were written, including two at Oakland in 1864. Though only two of his poems are known to have appeared in print in the period, the book indicates that Simpson was most prolific between 1864 and 1876. Of the 58 poems in the book, thirty bear dates. One other, the title poem, can be dated to 1874 by virtue of its appearance in the newspaper. Of these 31 dated poems, all but three were written between 1864 and 1876. The other three were written more than thirteen years later. More about Simpson can be found in Colorado Citizen, October 29, 1874, May 6, 1875, and September 2, 1875.

9 Colorado Citizen, October 19, 1871, April 9, 1874, July 9, 1874, August 20, 1874, September 10, 1874, November 5, 1874, January 21, 1875, July 1, 1875, August 12, 1875, September 23, 1875, October 7, 1875, October 21, 1875, January 27, 1876, February 17, 1876, November 9, 1876, March 8, 1877, March 22, 1877; David Haynes, Catching Shadows (Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1993).

10 Colorado Citizen, November 19, 1874, December 24, 1874, January 14, 1875, May 11, 1876, July 6, 1876, November 9, 1876, September 21, 1876, September 28, 1876, May 3, 1877; Colorado County Deed Records, Book R, p. 495; Colorado County Marriage Records, Book E, p. 215.

11 Colorado County Deed Records, Book Deed S, p. 245; Colorado Citizen, January 28, 1875, May 20, 1875, September 23, 1875, November 18, 1875, March 2, 1876, March 23, 1876, June 8, 1876, June 22, 1876, November 2, 1876, February 1, 1877, February 15, 1877, March 22, 1877, May 10, 1877. The man who was known as Blind Tom, Thomas Green Bethune, was born a slave in 1849. Blind and of severely limited intelligence, he became celebrated for his ability to play, on the piano, music he had heard, and toured the United States and Europe demonstrating his ability. Tom Thumb's real name was Charles Sherwood Stratton. In his early adult years, he is said to have been little more than two feet tall and to have weighed about fifteen pounds. He was given his stage name by his original promoter, the highly successful entertainment entrepreneur Phineas T. Barnum.

12 Colorado County District Court Records, Civil Cause File No. 3429: Henry Ilse for the use of James H. Simpson & Co. v. Reinhard Dick and Charles W. Rau, Civil Minute Book G, p. 135; Colorado Citizen, October 18, 1877, November 15, 1877, February 14, 1878, August 1, 1878, September 11, 1878, October 10, 1878, October 17, 1878, February 13, 1879, July 3, 1879, July 10, 1879, July 24, 1879, June 17, 1880, July 15, 1880. The Citizen of November 15, 1877 indicates that Dillon had appeared in Galveston in two productions, "Our Boys" and "Lemons." The first was performed at the Tremont on October 29 and 30, the second on October 31, November 1, and November 3 (see Joseph S. Gallegly, Footlights on the Border (The Hague, The Netherlands: Mouton and Co., 1962), p. 190).
    It has been assumed that Dick hired Ilse to run the theater because (1) after November 1877, the theater was known as Ilse's Hall, and (2) a contract by which Dick hired Ilse to run the theater for three years beginning on October 1, 1883 is on record, and if, as seems reasonable, this was Ilse's third consecutive three-year contract, then Ilse's employment would have started on October 1, 1877, a date which fits in nicely with the date of the theater's change in name (see Colorado County Bond and Mortgage Records, Book M, p. 122).

13 Colorado Citizen, May 11, 1871, March 21, 1872, November 19, 1874, December 17, 1874, December 31, 1874, January 14, 1875, May 6, 1875, July 8, 1875, December 2, 1875, April 20, 1876, May 11, 1876, June 1, 1876, June 8, 1876, August 31, 1876, October 26, 1876, November 2, 1876, April 19, 1877, March 28, 1878, April 11, 1878, November 14, 1878, November 28, 1878, July 17, 1879; Osage Debating Club Records (Ms. 49), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus. The records of the debating club and literary society contain four or five handwritten poems. Three were written by Ann Elizabeth Townsend, the widow of Moses Solon Townsend and mother of Marcus Harvey Townsend. The authors of the other poems cannot be determined.

14 La Grange New Era, May 24, 1872, June 7, 1872, August 2, 1872, Colorado Citizen, May 14, 1874, May 21, 1874, May 28, 1874, April 29, 1875, December 21, 1876, April 12, 1877, May 3, 1877, May 10, 1877, July 12, 1877, April 4, 1878. The Volks Fests were not completely characterized by sober conviviality. At the festival on May 8, 1873, one of the town's leading citizens, Dr. Robert Henry Harrison, evidently became inebriated and loudly berated John Rosenfield. The city marshal, James W. Fields, arrested Harrison for disturbing the peace and banished him from the festival. The next day, Rosenfield swore out a complaint, and Harrison was again arrested. He was tried the same day and fined, by a jury, one dollar. The mayor, John C. Miller, added $12.75 in court costs, and demanded immediate payment. To avoid going to jail, Harrison paid. Then, however, he sued the city for false arrest, seeking damages of $5000. He took the case to the state's supreme court where, in 1876, he was finally defeated (see Cases Argued and Decided in the Supreme Court of the State of Texas [Texas Reports], vol. 44 (Houston: E. H. Cushing. 1876), pp. 418-421).

15 Colorado Citizen, June 24, 1875, June 22, 1876, July 5, 1877, June 20, 1878, June 12, 1879, June 26, 1879. The Weimar Juneteenth celebrations in 1878 and 1879 were held at Grace's Grove.

16 Colorado Citizen, April 23, 1874, April 30, 1874, May 14, 1874, May 21, 1874, May 28, 1874, April 22, 1875, May 13, 1875, May 20, 1875, May 27, 1875, June 3, 1875. Though there would be no Volks Fest for the next several years, the festival would be revived, very successfully, in 1880.

17 Colorado Citizen, May 11, 1876, June 1, 1876, November 2, 1876, November 9, 1876, April 19, 1877, May 3, 1877, May 9, 1878, May 23, 1878, August 15, 1878, April 17, 1879, May 8, 1879, May 15, 1879, September 11, 1879. The date of the establishment of the Frelsburg Gesang Verein has been derived from subsequent accounts of celebrations of its anniversary. In 1880, it celebrated its tenth anniversary, in 1881 its eleventh, and in 1884 its fourteenth (see Colorado Citizen, April 29, 1880, June 2, 1881, June 5, 1884).

18 Colorado Citizen, May 11, 1871, June 15, 1876, July 6, 1876; Gammel, comp., The Laws of Texas, 1822-1897, vol. 6, pp. 810-814; Colorado County Election Returns, Secretary of State Records (RG 307), Archives Division, Texas State Library, Austin. In addition to the three black aldermen named above, the governor also appointed Simon Thulemeyer and John Richard Brooks aldermen, and John C. Miller mayor.

19 Camillus Jones to Edmund J. Davis, July 6, 1870, Robert P. Tendick to Edmund J. Davis, July 6, 1870, William M. Smith to Edmund J. Davis, February 23, 1871, Edmund J. Davis Records (RG 301), Archives Division, Texas State Library, Austin; Edmund J. Davis to Camillus Jones, July 9, 1870, Executive Record Books (RG 307), Edmund J. Davis, vol. 1, p. 207, Archives Division, Texas State Library, Austin; Colorado County Bond and Mortgage Records, Book G, pp. 286, 296; Colorado County District Court Records, Civil Cause File No. 2634: William Beethe, et al. v. William M. Smith. Jackson and Leyendecker had earlier been identified with and endorsed by the Republicans, and they still, in 1870, were regarded by them as reasonable men. Both, however, had firmly joined the Democratic Party by 1876 (see Colorado Citizen, August 3, 1876). Jones' drunkenness may have been the product of a personal tragedy. On May 11, 1868, Jones had married Annie W. Naill. On March 28, 1869, the couple had a child, William Naill Jones. It seems likely that Annie Naill Jones died in childbirth or shortly thereafter. No further record of her existence has been found, and the infant was almost immediately turned over to the family of Jacob J. Dick to be raised (see Colorado County Marriage Records, Book E, p. 101, Colorado Citizen, November 9, 1893, Ninth Census of the United States (1870) Colorado County, Texas, Schedule 1, which shows the one-year old child living with the Dick family).

20 Galveston Daily News, November 30, 1870, December 1, 1870, December 2, 1870, December 3, 1870; Houston Daily Union, December 1, 1870, December 2, 1870, December 3, 1870, December 7, 1870, December 9, 1870, December 10, 1870, December 12, 1870, December 13, 1870, December 14, 1870, December 17, 1870, December 19, 1870, December 22, 1870, December 24, 1870, December 27, 1870; Tri-Weekly Houston Union, December 9, 1870; Colorado County Election Returns, Secretary of State Records (RG 307), Archives Division, Texas State Library, Austin; Roster and Record of Iowa Soldiers in the War of the Rebellion Together with Historical Sketches of Volunteer Organizations 1861-1866, six vols. (Des Moines: 1908-1911), vol. 5, pp. 485, 920; Colorado County District Court Records, Criminal Cause File No. 869: State of Texas v. John Davis. Across the district, Tendick got 1762 votes to Thompson's 1628, and Shoemaker got 1774 to Arnim's 1620. In Colorado County, Tendick got 1283 votes, Thompson 1071, Shoemaker 1276, and Arnim 1080. The Democratic candidates actually carried Lavaca County, in Thompson's case 557 to 479, and in Arnim's 540 to 498. For information about Thompson's 1869 campaign for lieutenant governor, see [Hempstead] Texas Countryman, August 13, 1869; Galveston Daily News, August 19, 1869; Hempstead Weekly Countryman, September 17, 1869, November 26, 1869.
Tendick, who was born in Prussia on June 19, 1837, came to the United States in 1856. After first settling in Illinois, he moved to St. Louis, Missouri. There, he joined the Union army, rising to the rank of lieutenant and serving as quartermaster for the 30th Missouri Infantry. He was discharged with that unit at Columbus in 1865 (see Colorado Citizen, November 15, 1888). Shoemaker, who had been born in Indiana on February 18, 1839, was elected lieutenant in the 38th Iowa Infantry on August 11, 1862. He held the same rank in the 34th and 38th Consolidated Iowa Infantry after that unit was created on January 1, 1865. He was wounded slightly in action at Fort Blakely, Alabama on April 9, 1865. He came to Texas with his unit the following month, and was released from service, with the rest of his unit, at Houston on August 15, 1865 (see Eighth Census of the United States (1870) Lavaca County, Texas, Schedule 1; Sammy Tise, Lavaca County, Texas Cemetery Records (Hallettsville, 1985) vol. 2, p. 35; Roster and Record of Iowa Soldiers in the War of the Rebellion Together with Historical Sketches of Volunteer Organizations 1861-1866, vol. 5, pp. 485, 841, 920).
The returns of the election provide more evidence that the 1870 federal census takers severely undercounted Colorado County's population. In Colorado County, 2402 people cast ballots, more than twice as many as the approximately 1040 who voted in Lavaca County. However, according to the 1870 census, Lavaca County contained 842 more people, and 413 more males, than Colorado County. Noting that females were not eligible to vote, and estimating that one-fourth of the male population was under the legal voting age, then Colorado County's voter turnout was an extraordinary 75%, and Lavaca's a more believable 30%.

21 Muster and Pay Roll, Company E, 8th Regiment, State Guards, September 1, 1870, Adjutant General's Records (RG 401), Archives Division, Texas State Library; Gammel, comp., The Laws of Texas 1822-1897, vol. 6, pp. 185-190; Colorado County Deed Records, Book N, pp. 81, 86. Of Nail's 100 men, only 29 could be reasonably identified on the 1870 census. Of those 29, 27 were black. The other two were named John Harbert and John Smith, whose common names make absolute identification problematical. Two other members of the unit, Nail himself and Tom Braker, are identified as black men in Colorado County's deed records. The reserve militia companies were: Company A, with Captain George Millan McCormick, headquartered at Columbus, containing 103 members; Company B, with Captain Ed H. Adams, headquartered at Frelsburg, containing 100 members; Company C, with Captain A. Braden, headquartered at New Mainz, containing 100 members; Company D, with Captain Alex Matthews, headquartered at Alleyton, containing 102 members; and Company E, with Captain Isaac N. Wall, headquartered at Oakland, containing 88 members (see Muster Rolls, Second Regiment, Reserve Militia, 1870-1871, Adjutant General's Records (RG 401), Archives Division, Texas State Library, Austin). Several Colorado County men held higher offices in the reserve militia. Robert P. Tendick was a brigadier general, George S. Ziegler a colonel, Camillus Jones a lieutenant colonel, Nathan W. Lane a major, and Isaac Yates a quartermaster. Tendick, Ziegler, and Jones will be encountered many more times in this chapter (see The Texas Almanac for 1871, and Emigrants Guide to Texas (n. p., n. d.), pp. 242-243).

22 State Police Roster, Seventh Police District, p. 422, Adjutant General's Records (RG 401); Colorado County Deed Records, Book M, p. 23; Report of Louis W. Stevenson, April 30, 1868, Barry A. Crouch Collection (Ms. 41), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus; Colorado County District Court Records, Criminal Cause File No. 840: State of Texas v. Fayette Yancy, Criminal Cause File No. 858: State of Texas v. Fayette Yancy, Criminal Cause File No. 932: State of Texas v. Fayette Yancy, Minute Book E, pp. 38, 73, 294, 296, 305, 354; Robert P. Tendick to Edmund J. Davis, June 1872, Leyendecker Family Papers (Ms. 37), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus. Various state policemen would serve Colorado County until the force was abolished by the legislature on April 22, 1873 (see Gammel, comp., The Laws of Texas 1822-1897, p. 493).

23 Colorado County District Court Records, Civil Cause File No. 2634: William Beethe, et al. v. William M. Smith, Minute Book E, p. 73; J. D. Thomas to Edmund J. Davis, January 31, 1871, William M. Smith to Edmund J. Davis, February 23, 1871, James B. Good to C. K. Hall, June 29, 1871, William M. Smith to Edmund J. Davis, June 29, 1871, Petition to Edmund J. Davis to Appoint James B. Good Sheriff, June 30, 1871, William J. Darden to William Alexander, June 30, 1871, Edward M. Glenn to Edmund J. Davis, July 2, 1871, Benjamin F. Williams to Edmund J. Davis, July 2, 1871, Benjamin F. Williams to James P. Newcomb, July 2, 1871, Livingston Lindsay to Edmund J. Davis, July 2, 1871, Petition to Edmund J. Davis to Appoint John R. Brooks Sheriff, July 8, 1871, Andrew J. Vaughan to Edmund J. Davis, July 9, 1871, George S. Ziegler to Edmund J. Davis, July 10, 1871, Edward Wilson to Edmund J. Davis, July 10, 1871, Robert P. Tendick to Edmund J. Davis, July 10, 1871, Petition to Edmund J. Davis to Appoint Charles Schmidt Sheriff, July 15, 1871, Charles Schmidt to Edmund J. Davis, July 1871, Edmund J. Davis Records (RG 301), Archives Division, Texas State Library, Austin; Colorado County Election Returns, Register of Elected and Appointed State and County Officials, 1870-1875, both in Secretary of State Records (RG 307), Archives Division, Texas State Library, Austin. Smith asked for the position of cattle and hide inspector in August, but did not receive either of his new appointments until December 9 (see William M. Smith to Edmund J. Davis, August 8, 1871, Edmund J. Davis Records (RG 301), Archives Division, Texas State Library, Austin).

24 Colorado County Police [Commissioners] Court Minutes, Book 1862-1876, pp. 215, 216, 217, 219, 222, 232; Colorado County Bond and Mortgage Records, Book H, pp. 148, 152; Colorado County Election Returns, Register of Elected and Appointed State and County Officials, 1870-1875, both in Secretary of State Papers (RG 307), Archives Division, Texas State Library, Austin; Colorado County District Court Records, Criminal Cause File No. 915: State of Texas v. Robert P. Tendick, Criminal Cause File No. 916: State of Texas v. Charles Schmidt, Criminal Cause File No. 916: State of Texas v. Charles Schmidt, Minute Book E, pp. 250, 260, Minute Book F, pp. 44, 45, 113; Colorado Citizen, November 16, 1871, February 29, 1872, March 7, 1872; Livingston Lindsay to Edmund J. Davis, September 10, 1871, Edward Wilson, et al. to Edmund J. Davis, November 3, 1871, Petition to Appoint Johann Baptist Leyendecker Sheriff, November 3, 1871, Edmund J. Davis Records (RG 301), Archives Division, Texas State Library, Austin. The Colorado Citizen, in reporting on Tendick's trial, speculated that the jury had been packed with Tendick supporters, including "eight gentlemen of color were selected three German citizens and one native American," prompting an angry reply from Tendick the following week.

25 Colorado County District Court Records, Criminal Cause File No. 859: State of Texas v. Camillus Jones, Criminal Cause File No. 1000: State of Texas v. Camillus Jones, Criminal Cause File No. 1001: State of Texas v. Camillus Jones, Criminal Cause File No. 1003: State of Texas v. Camillus Jones, Minute Book D, p. 372, Minute Book E, pp. 111, 380, 381; Livingston Lindsay to Edmund J. Davis, April 9, 1871, John C. Miller to Edmund J. Davis, March 27, 1872, George S. Ziegler to Edmund J. Davis, March 28, 1872, George S. Ziegler, et al. to Edmund J. Davis, March 28, 1872, John C. Miller to Edmund J. Davis, March 29, 1872, John C. Miller to Edmund J. Davis, April 4, 1872, Livingston Lindsay to Edmund J. Davis, April 15, 1872, John C. Miller, et al. to Edmund J. Davis, April 29, 1872, Edmund J. Davis Records (RG 301), Archives Division, Texas State Library; City Officials Appointment Book, City of Columbus, p. 36, Colorado County Election Returns, Secretary of State Records (RG 307), Archives Division, Texas State Library; Colorado Citizen, October 12, 1871. Jones had moved to the state of Colorado by 1874 (see Colorado Citizen, October 8, 1874). Perhaps Jones never filed his bond because he had second thoughts about working under the Columbus mayor, John C. Miller. In late 1871, probably still fuming over his forced resignation as presiding justice, he characterized Miller as "one of the most worthless men in this comunity besides being an ignorant ass he is a drunken imbecile without the dignity sense or anything else that would create respect in others." For good measure, he added a few words about the city marshal, Joseph P. Harris, calling him "a much worse man" than Miller, and declaring that "there is nothing in the catalogue of crime that he could not be induced to do." Patient readers will encounter Harris again later (see Camillus Jones to Edmund J. Davis, December 13, 1871, Edmund J. Davis Records (RG 301), Archives Division, Texas State Library).

26 Colorado Citizen, October 12, 1871, October 19, 1871, October 26, 1871, November 30, 1871; William S. Speer and John Henry Brown, eds., The Encyclopedia of the New West (Marshall, Texas: The United States Biographical Publishing Co., 1881), pp. 122-127; Executive Record Books, Edmund J. Davis, vol. 1, p. 753, Archives Division, Texas State Library, Austin. The vote totals in the 1872 election to replace Jones were: Johnson 404, Gillmore 234, Newsom 189. Fleming, after moving away from the county, would serve as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1875, as a district judge, as a state Senator, and as a presiding officer at the state Democratic convention and a delegate to the national Democratic convention in 1894 (see The New Handbook of Texas (Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1996) vol. 2, p. 1030).

27 Colorado Citizen, May 11, 1871.

28 Robert P. Tendick to Edmund J. Davis, July 6, 1870, Edmund J. Davis Records (RG 301), Archives Division, Texas State Library, Austin; Galveston Daily News, June 24, 1870, August 6, 1870; Henry Calhoun Thomas, "A Sketch of My Life," Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, vol. 1, no. 3, February 1990, p. 90; Colorado County District Court Records, Criminal Cause File No. 912: State of Texas v. David Landers; Criminal Cause File No. 913: State of Texas v. Sidney Ludlow, Minute Book E, pp. 150, 151, 389; Colorado Citizen, October 26, 1871, March 14, 1872; E. H. Wheelock, Reports of Cases Argued and Decided in the Supreme Court of the State of Texas [Texas Reports], vol. 35 (Austin: Statesman Book and Job Office, 1873), pp. 359-361.

29 Lavaca County District Court Records, Criminal Cause File No. 700: State of Texas v. David Snodgrass, et al., Minute Book D, pp. 135, 664, 669, 768, Minute Book E, p. 122. The five defendants were David Snodgrass, Rupert "Ben" Van Wagner, Mac W. Rhodes, William C. Meredith, and William Burton Simpson. Townsend was about eighteen when he was killed. His father, Spencer Burton Townsend, had died before he was ten. After his father's death, he seems to have lived with his uncle, and the man for whom he was apparently named, Stapleton Townsend. In addition to Stafford, Townsend was attended on his deathbed by a Dr. DeGraffenreid. This was certainly one of three brothers, William G. DeGraffenreid, Thomas Tscharner DeGraffenreid, and Fleming Taylor DeGraffenreid, all of whom practiced medicine in the Oakland area at the time. The most likely candidate is Fleming DeGraffenreid who was, like his brother Thomas, married to a close relative of Townsend. He, rather than Thomas, is the more likely because the attending physician did not testify at the trial. Fleming died in 1869, two years before it was held. Thomas lived until 1875, and would certainly have been called to confirm or refute Stafford's testimony if he could (see Seventh Census of the United States (1850) Schedule 1, Lavaca County, Texas; Eighth Census of the United States (1860) Schedule 1, Lavaca County, Texas; DeGraffenreid Family File, Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus; and Tula Townsend Wyatt, The Seven Townsend Brothers of Texas 1826-1838 (Austin: Aus-Tex Duplicators, 1974), p. 187. The latter work has been used as the source of the date of Spencer Townsend's death. Curiously, it omits mention of the suspected horse thief).

30 Colorado Citizen, December 7, 1871. February 27, 1873; Robert P. Tendick to Edmund J. Davis, December 11, 1871, Edmund J. Davis Records (RG 301), Archives Division, Texas State Library, Austin; Colorado County District Court Records, Criminal Cause File No. 920: State of Texas v. Richard R. Ratcliff; Criminal Cause File No. 921: State of Texas v. John Stafford; Criminal Cause File No. 922: State of Texas v. Robert E. Stafford; Criminal Cause File No. 923: State of Texas v. Benjamin F. Stafford; Criminal Cause File No. 924: State of Texas v. Sumner Townsend; Criminal Cause File No. 949: State of Texas v. John Stafford; Criminal Cause File No. 950: State of Texas v. Benjamin F. Stafford; Criminal Cause File No. 951: State of Texas v. Robert E. Stafford; Criminal Cause File No. 952: State of Texas v. Richard R. Ratcliff; Minute Book E, pp. 305, 306, 320, 321, 329, 483, 484, Minute Book F, p. 113. The shootout occurred on the corner of Milam and Walnut Streets. The Staffords were all brothers of Joseph W. Stafford, who had been murdered near Oakland in May 1870. Tendick, in reporting the incident to the governor, characterized the Staffords as a "lawless band of desperadoes."

31 Ninth Census of the United States (1870) Colorado County, Texas, Schedule 1; Colorado Citizen, November 2, 1871, June 18, 1874, November 12, 1874, April 15, 1875, May 13, 1875, June 10, 1875, August 26, 1875, September 9, 1875, October 21, 1875, November 11, 1875, November 18, 1875, April 27, 1876, July 13, 1876, October 5, 1876, January 11, 1877, February 1, 1877, February 8, 1877, February 15, 1877, April 5, 1877, May 10, 1877, September 6, 1877. A few of these people were said to be Jewish in articles cited above. Others were established as Jewish by virtue of their membership in the Columbus chapter of the B'nai B'rith, which was founded in 1879 (see Colorado Citizen, May 1, 1879).

32 La Grange New Era, August 2, 1872; Colorado Citizen, February 27, 1873, April 2, 1874, April 9, 1874, April 30, 1874, October 14, 1875, March 9, 1876, March 23, 1876, December 21, 1876. Though the earliest discovered mention of the Simpson bank is in an advertisement in the April 2, 1874 issue of the Colorado Citizen, William Henry Harrison's History of Banking in Colorado County, Texas (n. p., 1976) reproduces, on page 16, a Simpson bank letterhead that states that the bank was established in 1873. A document dated March 26, 1873 on the letterhead of the bank of Frazell & Autrey is preserved in Leyendecker Family Papers (Ms. 37), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus. Their firm was in business as early as March 6, 1873, when Charles Wesley Traylor mortgaged his goods to them. They dissolved their partnership some time after July 2, 1873 but before 1874 (see Colorado County Bond & Mortgage Records, Book I, p. 217; Colorado County District Court Records, Civil Cause File No. 3037: D. F. Frazell v. John W. Guynn, et al.).

33 Colorado Citizen, July 29, 1875, November 4, 1875, December 16, 1875, April 27, 1876, July 27, 1876, August 24, 1876, October 19, 1876, December 7, 1876, July 19, 1877, November 8, 1877; Price List of the Pearfield Nurseries, Pearfield Nurseries File, Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library; Colorado County Deed Records, Book P, p. 99. Kessler also had some success in growing apples and pine trees. He lived in the area of the county that now contains numerous pines. The Citizen of July 19, 1877 catalogued the spread of these trees with: "A few days ago I had the pleasure of a visit to Mr. Charles Kessler and his grapery, five miles North-east of Columbus. Mr. Kessler owns the pinery, and surrounding his residence is one of the most beautiful pine groves that can be found anywhere. This is the only pinery in this county or portion of the State, and for the past few years it has rapidly spread throughout the post-oaks; and if the people would be more careful with fire in the winter and spring, young pines would soon spring up all over this county, and in a few years would be of great benefit." Though this might be taken to mean that Kessler planted the trees which grew into the presently expansive piney woods, dendrologists seem to believe that the Colorado County piney woods, like those in Bastrop County, are "remnants of a once-contiguous range from East Texas" (see Paul W. Cox and Patty Leslie, Texas Trees A Friendly Guide (San Antonio: Corona Publishing, 1988), p. 13; Benny J. Simpson, A Field Guide to Texas Trees (Austin: Texas Monthly Press, 1988), p. 228). However, it should be noted that no earlier mention of pine trees in Colorado County has been found, not even in the extensive descriptions of the countryside provided by William Bluford Dewees (see Dewees, Letters from an Early Settler of Texas), or in the list of the area's trees written in 1844 by Johann Leyendecker, who lived just north of the present piney woods (see Anders Saustrup and Jean Gross, trans. and eds., "From Coblenz to Colorado County, 1843-1844: Early Leyendecker Letters to the Old Country," Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, vol. 1, no. 6, August 1990, p. 184). And, the January 7, 1860 issue of the Colorado Citizen goes to great lengths to praise a man for arranging to regularly bring "cedar and pine lumber (which is in great demand in our town,)" from Bastrop and Fayette Counties, helping to alleviate "the very extravagant prices" locals then had to pay for such wood. One must wonder why, if pine trees were present in Colorado County, citizens had to pay high prices to obtain pine lumber from elsewhere. Further, in 1923, T. L. Bailey identified the Colorado County trees as "short leaved pines (Pinus echinata)," and reported that the pine forest "occupies only a few hundred acres and is surrounded by post oak woods. . . The pines here seem to be actually spreading and numerous small pines interspersed with post oaks occur on the border of the area" (see Bailey, The Geology and Natural Resources of Colorado County, University of Texas Bulletin No. 2333 (Austin: University of Texas, 1923), pp. 129-130). Most experts identify the pines in Bastrop County as loblolly pines, that is, Pinus taeda, a different species. And, if the Colorado County piney woods are indeed a remnant of a primeval forest, the question must be asked: what caused them to begin spreading through the surrounding post oaks in the mid nineteenth century and to continue spreading through them well into the twentieth?

34 Colorado Citizen, January 6, 1876; Index to Abstracts of Lands, Colorado County, Texas, Colorado County Abstracts Collection (Ms. 43), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library. In the newspaper cited above, Stafford was said to have built a $6000 investment into a $200,000 fortune. In 1870, when signing the controversial bond for Sheriff William M. Smith, he had listed his property. Then he owned two tracts of land in Colorado County, one of 420 acres worth $1500 and another of 170 acres worth $1480, plus 800 acres in Gillespie County valued at $800. He also owned a half interest in 10,000 cattle, with his interest valued at $15,000; forty horses worth a total of $1200; and he had "no Debts and . . . several thousand Dollars in cash." His net worth at the time then was at least $20,000, and, depending on how much "several thousand" dollars was, perhaps as much as $40,000. Nonetheless, the 1870 census declares that he owned only $3000 in real estate and $1500 in other assets (see Colorado County Bond and Mortgage Records, Book G, p. 286; Ninth Census of the United States (1870) Colorado County, Texas, Schedule 1).

35 Index to Abstracts of Lands, Colorado County, Texas, Colorado County Abstracts Collection (Ms. 43), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library; Colorado Land District, Scrip Files No. 118, 178, 212, 274, Original Land Grant Collection, Archives and Records Division, Texas General Land Office, Austin.

36 Colorado County District Court Records, Minute Book F, p. 170, Minute Book G, p. 431; Reports of 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.

37 City Officials Appointment Book, City of Columbus, p. 36, Secretary of State Records (RG 307), Archives Division, Texas State Library, Austin; Letter of Bartley Harbert et al., September 4, 1872, Letter of John C. Miller, September 5, 1872, Letter of John C. Miller, October 18, 1872, Governor's Papers (RG 301), Edmund J. Davis, Archives Division, Texas State Library, Austin. It is assumed that the mayor did not support Fondren's candidacy because he, quite conspicuously, did not sign the letter the council sent to the governor on September 4.

38 Colorado County Election Returns, Lavaca County Election Returns, Secretary of State Records (RG 307), Archives Division, Texas State Library, Austin. In Colorado County, Zwiegel got 1203 votes, Overbay 1166, Williams 1162, Leyendecker 1153, Smith 1127, and Hester 1124. In Lavaca County, the totals were: Zwiegel 315, Overbay 323, Williams 296, Leyendecker 838, Hester 859, and Smith 833.

39 Gammel, comp., The Laws of Texas 1822-1897, vol. 7, pp. 906-911; Colorado Citizen, August 13, 1874, August 20, 1874, September 24, 1874, October 1, 1874, January 7, 1875, February 11, 1875, February 25, 1875; Petition for Repeal of the Charter of Columbus, February 5, 1875, Petition to Refuse the Repeal of the Charter of Columbus, February 13, 1875, both in Memorials and Petitions, Archives Division, Texas State Library, Austin. Though no account of the 1873 city elections has been found, subsequent reports of city council activity reveal the names of at least some of the men who served on it. Though there were only five seats on the council, because of resignations, at least seven men served as aldermen between 1873 and 1875. Three of the seven: Sophus Johann Theodore Harde, Henry Ilse, and Julius F. Sandmeyer, have been identified as German. The other four were John A. Carter, John Keith, Henry S. Obenchain, and Lott W. Simpson. John C. Miller, the same man who had been appointed by Governor Edmund J. Davis in 1870, apparently won reelection as mayor, for he continued to serve (see Colorado Citizen, May 14, 1874, July 9, 1874).

40 Gammel, comp., The Laws of Texas 1822-1897, vol. 8, pp. 592-594; Colorado Citizen, November 5, 1874, November 26, 1874, December 3, 1874, February 18, 1875, February 25, 1875, March 11, 1875, March 18, 1875, April 8, 1875, April 15, 1875, April 29, 1875, May 6, 1875, May 27, 1875, July 1, 1875, July 15, 1875, July 22, 1875, August 5, 1875, August 12, 1875, August 19, 1875, September 2, 1875, March 23, 1876. In the bridge's first year of operation, the highest toll charged was fifty cents, for a four-horse carriage. Wagons drawn by six horses or four or more yoke of oxen cost 30 cents. If they were drawn by four horses or three yoke of oxen, 25 cents; if by two yoke of oxen, 20 cents; and if by two horses or one yoke of oxen, 15 cents. Two horse wagons cost 15 cents and one horse carts 10 cents. Men on horseback, and each unridden horse, cost a nickel. Other livestock cost three cents per head. People who walked across the bridge were charged two and a half cents. However, persons could buy ten dollars worth of tolls in advance for only five dollars. Most of these tolls were well under the maximums established by the company's charter (see Colorado Citizen, June 15, 1876).

41 Colorado Citizen, December 9, 1875, January 6, 1876, January 20, 1876, February 3, 1876, March 23, 1876, April 6, 1876, April 13, 1876, June 15, 1876, October 5, 1876, March 15, 1877, November 15, 1877, December 27, 1877; Colorado County Police [Commissioners] Court Minutes, Book 1862-1876, pp. 397, 416, 421.

42 Colorado County Election Records, Book 1874-1884; Colorado County Police [Commissioners] Court Records, Book 1862-1876, pp. 309, 311, 313. Johnson abandoned his office to seek a seat in the State Senate. He secured the nomination for the seat, however, on November 17, 1873, he withdrew his name from consideration because of "serious illness" (pneumonia) and because he was occupied with "business far more lucrative, and, I think, a little more honorable." In abandoning the race, he stated that though "Republicanism is honorable and has saved the nation," the German and black factions within the party were threatening its continuance, and suggested that they nominate, in his place, "the Emporer of Germany or the King of Dahomey." Like Camillus Jones, Charles Schmidt, and Robert Tendick, Johnson and three other Republican officeholders, Himley, Steiner, and Ziegler, would all be indicted for some criminal offense or another during the 1870s. Some might regard this as evidence of their incompetence; some as evidence that their political opponents used the court system to harass them. All the indictments were eventually quashed or dismissed, which some might regard as a consequence of the political favor of the prosecutor and the district judge (see Colorado Citizen, October 10, 1878; William S. Speer, ed., The Encyclopedia of the New West (Marshall: United States Biographical Publishing Company, 1881), p. 125; Colorado County District Court Records, Criminal Cause File No. 1090: State of Texas v. George S. Ziegler, Criminal Cause File No. 1116: State of Texas v. Leopold Steiner, Criminal Cause File No. 1117: State of Texas v. Leopold Steiner, Criminal Cause File No. 1118: State of Texas v. Leopold Steiner, Criminal Cause File No. 1119: State of Texas v. Leopold Steiner, Criminal Cause File No. 1120: State of Texas v. Leopold Steiner, Criminal Cause File No. 1127: State of Texas v. Leopold Steiner, Criminal Cause File No. 1165: State of Texas v. Jahu W. Johnson, Criminal Cause File No. 1168: State of Texas v. Jahu W. Johnson, Criminal Cause File No. 1169: State of Texas v. Jahu W. Johnson, Criminal Cause File No. 1226: State of Texas v. Eugene Himley, Criminal Cause File No. 1464: State of Texas v. George S. Ziegler, Minute Book F, pp. 99-100, 119, 190, 192, 278, Book G, p. 79).

43 Colorado Citizen, May 20, 1875, June 3, 1875; Register of Elected and Appointed State and County Officials, 1870-1875, Secretary of State Records (RG 307), Archives Division, Texas State Library; Colorado County Election Records, Book 1874-1884. The Democratic winners in the city elections of 1875 were Charles Brunson, James H. Simpson, and Richard A. Thornton; the Republican winner was Jahu W. Johnson. The winner who was endorsed by both parties was William Franckel. The Republican losers were Charles Schmidt, Charles Olaf Nelson, and Edmund Eason, who was the only black man in the race. The Democratic loser was Joseph W. Brown.

44 Colorado County Election Returns, Lavaca County Election Returns, Senatorial Election Returns, 27th District, 1876, all in Secretary of State Records (RG 307), Archives Division, Texas State Library, Austin; Colorado County Election Records, Book 1874-1884; Colorado Citizen, January 13, 1876, February 3, 1876, February 24, 1876, March 2, 1876, March 9, 1876, March 23, 1876, April 20, 1876; Colorado County Police [Commissioners] Court Minutes, Book 1876-1879, pp. 21, 23. Three of the 1875 candidates for the state legislature, Arnim, Ballard, and Whitfield, were from Lavaca County. Two more early candidates for sheriff in the 1876 county elections, W. H. Eason and Sumner H. Townsend, withdrew from the race shortly before the election. Eason may have been a black man.
    Perhaps there is no clearer indication of the change in the political attitude of the Germans than the election of Mike Muckleroy, a virtual outcast in the community ten or fifteen years earlier, as county commissioner. Thirteen years after the emancipation of the slaves, and thirty years or more after the establishment of the German community, new German voters, many of whom were born in Texas and knew little or nothing about the pre-war slavery debates and concerns, were allying themselves with the conservatives.

45 Colorado Citizen, January 14, 1875, November 23, 1876, May 24, 1877, May 31, 1877, June 7, 1877, September 27, 1877, October 4, 1877; Colorado County Police [Commissioners] Court Minutes, Book 1876-1879, pp. 247, 250; William S. Speer and John Henry Brown, eds., The Encyclopedia of the New West (Marshall, Texas: The United States Biographical Publishing Co., 1881), pp. 122-127. Johnson's resignation was probably prompted by the demands of his business. In 1874, he had invented an insecticide designed to kill cotton worms, which he called Dead Shot. He also raised cattle. Twice during his short tenure as county judge he was granted lengthy leaves of absence to attend to business (see Colorado Citizen, June 25, 1874; Colorado County Police [Commissioners] Court Minutes, Book 1876-1879, pp. 54-55, 229). Earlier, the commissioner from Oakland, Christian Heydorn, had been replaced on the court by a known Democrat, Joseph C. Kindred. Heydorn had resigned, both from his commissioner's seat and from another office he held, justice of the peace, in March 1877. In each of the previous two months, he had, it seems, collected two fines amounting to $56 which he had not yet turned over to the county treasurer. When he rather suddenly left the county, he was pursued by a special deputy, who arrested him and placed him in jail in Columbus. The following September he was indicted for embezzlement, but was subsequently acquitted (see Colorado Citizen, March 15, 1877, March 22, 1877, March 29, 1877; Colorado County District Court Records, Criminal Cause File No. 1593: State of Texas v. Chris Heydorn, Criminal Cause File No. 1594: State of Texas v. Chris Heydorn; Colorado County Police [Commissioners] Court Minutes, Book 1876-1879, p. 202; for Kindred's status as a Democrat, see Colorado Citizen, August 3, 1876).

46 Colorado Citizen, May 4, 1876, June 22, 1876, September 14, 1876, October 5, 1876, November 21, 1878; Members of the Texas Legislature, 1846-1962 (n. p., n. d.), pp. 87-92. Colorado County had perhaps its profoundest influence in Austin in 1876 during the Fifteenth Legislature. Not only did Thompson preside over the state senate, but another of its members, James Harvey McLeary, then living in San Antonio, had been born and raised in the county. In the legislature, Ibzan W. Middlebrook was joined by Michael Quin, who lived in Colorado County before the Civil War and, in the Confederate army, commanded a company of men he helped raise in the county, but had since moved to Galveston.

47 Houston Daily Union, February 1, 1871; Colorado Citizen, February 2, 1871, October 5, 1871, October 19, 1871, November 16, 1871, January 18, 1872. Malsch wrote two reports of his activity for the Colorado Citizen. His reports give the names of two ships which carried his immigrants, the Erna and the Bremen. He gives the dates of three departures: March 13, October 1, and October 17; and the dates of two arrivals: May 21 and December 20. He stated that he had sponsored a total of 848 immigrants in 1871, and that 338 passengers were on the two boats which left in October. It is evident that these were the last of his immigrants to depart. The quarterly reports from the Port of Galveston from the first half of 1871 have survived, but the dates they provide do not match Malsch's. They list four arrivals: the Meteor on January 30 with 185 passengers, the Bremen on May 10 with 126 passengers, the Weser, on June 15 with 135 passengers, one of whom died, and the Galveston on June 19 with six passengers. Though the arrival dates do not match, we must presume that the last three of these ships were completely or largely filled with passengers sponsored by Malsch. Adding these 267 passengers to the 338 who apparently arrived in December leaves 243 of the 848 unaccounted for. These must have been the "some two hundred and fifty German and Bohemian immigrants" which the Colorado Citizen reported arrived in Columbus on October 13. Leo Baca, in his study of Czech immigration to Texas, using a German immigration newspaper, the Deutsche Auswanderer Zeitung, identified four other immigrant arrivals at Galveston in 1871: the Texas, which embarked on August 29 with 94 passengers and arrived on October 23, the Iris, which embarked on September 4 with 120 passengers and arrived on November 7, the Bremen, which embarked on September 17 with 101 passengers and arrived on November 17, and the Erna, which embarked on October 18 with 291 passengers and arrived on December 23 (see Baca, Czech Immigration Passenger Lists, (Hallettsville: Old Homestead Publishing, 1983) vol. 1, pp. 37-38). Despite the discrepancies, we must presume that these were the voyages of the Erna and the Bremen which delivered the last 338 of Malsch's passengers. This leaves the 250 or so immigrants who arrived in Columbus on October 13 unaccounted for. Obviously, these immigrants could not have arrived on the Texas or the Iris, as neither vessel arrived in Galveston before October 13. We can only speculate that the missing 250 immigrants first sailed into another American port (perhaps New Orleans), or that some other voyages arrived in Galveston in 1871.

48 Colorado County District Court Records, Minute Book E, p. 213; Colorado Citizen, October 19, 1871, August 6, 1874, September 10, 1874, October 28, 1875, November 4, 1875, December 23, 1875, January 13, 1876, April 13, 1876, May 18, 1876, July 20, 1876, August 17, 1876, January 11, 1877, April 12, 1877, February 8, 1877, April 19, 1877, January 17, 1878, January 24, 1878; Rowan Green, Colorado County, Texas: Its Health, Climate, Soil, Advantages and Resources, Columbus: Colorado Citizen, 1877. Some people, notably Washington County's state senator, Matthew Gaines, a black man, had strongly suggested that Texas attempt to encourage immigration from Africa. He was motivated at least in part by his belief that a marked increase in the number of whites in the state relative to the number of blacks would erode black political power. Colorado County's state senator, Robert P. Tendick, though a Republican, ridiculed the notion of encouraging African immigration in a speech he made on April 19, 1871, saying in part: "The children of the ancestors of Senator Gaines do not encumber their minds with money used as a valuable medium of circulation: many of them even never thought of the luxury of clothing to cover themselves. Now, then, will the Senator inform me who would pay the passage of his countrymen," and "If the Senator from Washington is afraid, as he said, that too many white people are coming into the State, and they would sooner or later tell him to pick up his little carpet bag and leave, I think for that reason, if no other, he should encourage the emigration of people of the Northern States and Europe, who come here with the inherent doctrine of political equality to all; whereas on the other hand, if we do not counterbalance that immense immigration which is pouring in from the Southern States, every one with State sovereignty on the brain, his prophesy might come to pass, and certainly if the State administration should unfortunately become Democratic" (see Speech of Hon. R. P. Tendick on Immigration, Delivered in the Senate of the State of Texas, April 19, 1871, n. p., n. d.).

49 Galveston Daily News, October 11, 1868; Houston Daily Times, January 7, 1869, February 19, 1869, March 23, 1869; Gammel, comp., The Laws of Texas 1822-1897, vol. 6, pp. 547-551; Colorado Citizen, August 12, 1875, April 4, 1878; Colorado County Deed Records, Book Q, p. 574, Book R, pp. 55, 56, 57, 59, 60, 62, 87, 91; Colorado County Bond and Mortgage Records, Book I, pp. 225, 601, 604, 607; St. Clair Griffin Reed, A History of Texas Railroads (Houston: St. Clair Publishing, 1941. Reprint. New York: Arno Press, 1981, p. 192). When it became clear that the existing railroad had no intention of building a line to La Grange and Austin, as had earlier been intended, a new railroad, the Columbus, Austin, & Parker County Railway Company, was chartered. The company, which was incorporated by virtue of an act passed by the legislature on April 2, 1873, was to construct track from Columbus to Weatherford, through La Grange, Bastrop, and Austin. Two Colorado County men, Josiah Shaw and John Richard Brooks, were listed among the original commissioners of the railroad. Evidently, however, the C. A. & P. C. built no track, and, in keeping with the provisions of their charter, went out of existence in two years (see Gammel, comp., The Laws of Texas 1822-1897, vol. 7, pp. 886-891).

50 Colorado County Deed Records, Book O, pp. 606, 608, Book Q, pp. 524, 597-599; Colorado County Bond and Mortgage Records, Book I, pp. 595, 596, 605; Colorado Citizen, March 14, 1872, April 2, 1874, June 25, 1874, July 22, 1875, June 6, 1878; Petition to Prohibit the Sale of Alcoholic Beverages at Borden, March 22, 1873, Memorials and Petitions, Archives Division, Texas State Library, Austin; Record of Appointment of Postmasters 1832-September 30, 1971, National Archives Microfilm Publication M841, Roll 122; Joe Bertram Frantz, Gail Borden Dairyman to a Nation (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1951), p. 275, which has been used as the source of the date of Borden's death. Borden may have moved to the area because his son-in-law, Jahu W. Johnson, had moved to Columbus.

51 Colorado County Deed Records, Book I, pp. 602, 603, Book R, p. 61; Record of Appointment of Postmasters 1832-September 30, 1971, National Archives Microfilm Publication M841, Roll 122; James L. Rock and W. I. Smith, Southern and Western Texas Guide for 1878 (St. Louis: A. H. Granger, 1878), p. 213; Colorado County Police [Commissioners] Court Minutes, Book 1862-1876, pp. 423-424; Colorado County Election Records, Book 1874-1884; Colorado Citizen, August 13, 1874, December 10, 1874, September 23, 1875. The indication, in the Rock and Smith book, that the town was laid out on October 3, 1873 is almost certainly erroneous. Several lots had been sold by that time.

52 Petition of the Citizens of Weimar in Colorado County Relative to the Formation of a New County, May 27, 1876, Memorials and Petitions, Archives Division, Texas State Library, Austin; Colorado Citizen, April 13, 1876, July 6, 1876, August 10, 1876, March 8, 1877, March 22, 1877, October 18, 1877, December 13, 1877, January 17, 1878. Menefee County was to contain parts of Fayette, Caldwell, Gonzales, DeWitt, Lavaca and Colorado Counties.

53 Colorado County Bond and Mortgage Records, Book I, p. 220, Book K, pp. 256, 257; Colorado Citizen, April 9, 1874, April 16, 1874, August 27, 1874; Colorado County Deed Records, Book Q, p. 578. The railroad had purchased the twenty-acre farm because the owner would not give them a right-of-way through it.

54 Galveston Daily News, October 16, 1873, October 17, 1873, October 18, 1873, October 19, 1873; Galveston Tri-Weekly News, October 17, 1873, October 19, 1873, October 22, 1873, November 7, 1873; Fayette County New Era, October 24, 1873; Colorado Citizen, April 6, 1882; Colorado County District Court Records, Criminal Cause File No. 1149: State of Texas v. John Wesley Brown, Criminal Cause File No. 1881: State of Texas v. John Wesley Brown. Brown was not apprehended until early 1882, when he was arrested in Milam County and returned to Colorado County to stand trial. However, he died in the Colorado County jail after a long illness on November 20, 1882 (see Colorado Citizen, April 6, 1882, November 23, 1882).

55 Colorado County Bond and Mortgage Records, Book I, p. 220; Robert Henry Harrison, "The Epidemic of 1873, in Columbus, Texas," Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, vol. 2, no. 3, September 1992, pp. 137-138; Fayette County New Era, October 24, 1873, November 7, 1873.

56 Harrison, "The Epidemic of 1873, in Columbus, Texas," Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, vol. 2, no. 3, September 1992, pp. 131-157; Colorado County District Court Records, Minute Book F, p. 63; Fayette County New Era, October 24, 1873, November 7, 1873, November 14, 1873, November 21, 1873, December 5, 1873; Galveston Daily News, October 21, 1873, October 22, 1873, October 23, 1873, November 7, 1873, November 19, 1873, November 23, 1873, December 2, 1873, December 11, 1873; Colorado Citizen, July 20, 1876, September 12, 1878, March 25, 1880, May 22, 1884; Colorado County District Court Records, Minute Book E, p. 366. The incarceration in the countryside provided Colorado County's prisoners with their second easy opportunity to escape in three months. On July 26, when a woman named McCarter had been arrested for stealing, the jailor refused to put her in the jail's single cell because eight men, most of them black, were already inside. Instead, he let her sit in the office; and when he left the building, she unlocked the cell door and she and all the other prisoners escaped (see Fayette County New Era, August 1, 1873).

57 State Police Roster, Seventh Police District, p. 422, Adjutant General's Records (RG 401); City Officials Appointment Book, City of Columbus, p. 36, Colorado County Election Returns, both in Secretary of State Records (RG 307) Archives Division, Texas State Library, Austin; Statements of Bartley Harbert, Westley Burford, and Andrew Pickens, December 12, 1871, Letter of Camillus Jones, December 13, 1871, Governor's Papers (RG 301), Edmund J. Davis, Archives Division, Texas State Library, Austin; Fayette County New Era, December 19, 1873; Colorado Citizen, March 21, 1872, January 14, 1875; Colorado County District Court Records, Criminal Cause File No. 1277: State of Texas v. Joseph P. Harris; Criminal Cause File No. 1368: State of Texas v. Joseph P. Harris. Before his first stint as city marshal, Harris had worked for the county as a jailor (see Colorado County Police [Commissioners] Court Minutes, Book 1862-1876, p. 154). At the time of their assault on Harbert, Harris and McDowell were good friends. That friendship lapsed in mid 1872. McDowell married Harris's sister, Sarah, on February 11, 1872, without telling her, or anyone else, that he already had a wife, who was living, abandoned, in Alabama. When the Harris family found out, McDowell fled, apparently to Tennessee. Joe Harris wanted to pursue him, but was hindered by the fact that he had to support his poor, widowed mother. She was Dilue Rose Harris, who would later become well known as the author of reminiscences of her life in early Texas and the traumas of the Runaway Scrape, and as the subject of a number of biographical efforts. Sarah Harris later married George S. Ziegler, the important local Republican politician who spent the latter part of his adult life in Eagle Lake. It was at his home that Dilue Harris wrote her reminiscences, and at which she died. Another of her daughters, and of Joe Harris's sisters, Mary Victoria, was married to Johann Baptist Leyendecker, the one-time Republican sheriff of Colorado County. That family connection may partially explain why Joe Harris kept receiving appointment after appointment despite his many difficulties (see Colorado County Marriage Records, Book E, p. 258; Letter of Joseph P. Harris, September 2, 1872, Governor's Papers (RG 301) Edmund J. Davis, Archives Division, Texas State Library, Austin; Colorado County District Court Records, Criminal Cause File No. 974: State of Texas v. James McDowell; Harris Family File, Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus. Dilue Rose Harris's reminiscences appear in Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, vol. 4, no. 2, October 1900, vol. 4, no. 3, January 1901, vol. 7, no. 3, January 1904. Publications about Harris include: Jeanette Hastedt Flachmeier, "Dilue Rose Harris," in Evelyn M. Carrington, ed., Women in Early Texas (1975. Reprint. Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1994), Ann Fears Crawford and Crystal Sasse Ragsdale, "Texas’s Rose," in Women in Texas Their Lives Their Experiences Their Accomplishment. (Burnet, Texas: Eakin Press, 1982), Flachmeier, A Rose in Texas (n. p., 1986), and Rita Kerr, Texas Rose (Austin: Eakin Press, 1986).

58 Colorado Citizen, March 16, 1871, May 14, 1874, October 1, 1874, October 15, 1874, October 29, 1874, February 25, 1875, September 2, 1875, June 8, 1876, March 15, 1877, March 22, 1877, October 11, 1877, November 15, 1877, May 23, 1878, October 3, 1878. The rise in industrial accidents was shortly followed by the introduction of the personal injury lawsuit to Colorado County. In the summer of 1877, Cecile LaGierse, the widow of the man who died as the result of injuries he received when attempting to board the train at Borden, sued the railroad. The case dragged on for years, and was finally dismissed, on grounds that the plaintiff had not come to court, on March 9, 1887 (see Colorado Citizen, June 7, 1877; Colorado County District Court Records, Civil Cause File No. 3454: Cecile LaGierse v. Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Railroad, Minute Book I, p. 72).

59 Colorado Citizen, July 2, 1874, May 18, 1876, June 1, 1876, June 15, 1876, June 22, 1876, July 27, 1876, September 14, 1876, August 9, 1877, September 13, 1877. The jury which was bedeviled by the odor of the courthouse privy sent a complaint about it, in the form of a mock court decision, to the Colorado Citizen. The newspaper printed it on September 14, 1876. The jury included Dallas Stoudenmier, prompting his biographer, Leon Claire Metz, to write of the incident. Metz indicated that the matter was a genuine court proceeding, surely a highly questionable interpretation (see Metz, Dallas Stoudenmire: El Paso Marshal (Austin and New York: The Pemberton Press, 1969), pp. 28-29).

60 Seth Shepard McKay, Debates in the Texas Constitutional Convention of 1875 (Austin: University of Texas, 1930), p. 434; Colorado Citizen, October 1, 1874, October 22, 1874; District Court Records of Colorado County, Criminal Cause File No. 1268: State of Texas v. Matt Woodlief, Criminal Cause File No. 1269: State of Texas v. Matt Woodlief, Criminal Cause File No. 1286: State of Texas v. Matt Woodlief, et al., Criminal Cause File No. 1287: State of Texas v. Matt Woodlief, et al., Criminal Cause File No. 1290: State of Texas v. Matt Woodlief, et al., Criminal Cause File No. 1291: State of Texas v. Matt Woodlief, et al., Minute Book F, p. 304. Woodlief got into trouble less than a year later in San Antonio. There, after a brief altercation with police, he was arrested and tried for assault. He was again acquitted, though this time on grounds of insanity. Two years after that, on May 15, 1877, his career, and his life, came to an end, when he was killed by a city marshal in Houston (see Colorado Citizen, May 13, 1875, June 3, 1875, May 17, 1877).

61 Colorado Citizen, January 14, 1875, April 29, 1875, June 3, 1875, August 19, 1875; Gammel, comp., The Laws of Texas 1822-1897, vol. 7, p. 1309; Colorado County Police [Commissioners] Court Minutes, Book 1862-1876, pp. 386, 427. The new cells were apparently four-sided, independent structures which were installed inside the existing building. They were apparently much stronger than the earlier cells, for the building had to be strengthened to hold their weight. Immediately after installing the new cells, the commissioners court improved the jail further by adding a kitchen (see Colorado County Police [Commissioners] Court Minutes, Book 1862-1876, pp. 392, 438-439).

62 Colorado Citizen, April 8, 1875, April 22, 1875, May 6, 1875, June 24, 1875, July 29, 1875, September 14, 1876; Colorado County District Court Records, Criminal Cause File No. 1349: State of Texas v. Milly Walker and Fanny Walker, Minute Book F, pp. 529, 617, Minute Book G, p. 55. It was the jury in the Fanny Walker case which spent the night in the courthouse and complained of the foul smelling privy.

63 Colorado County District Court Records, Criminal Cause File No. 1472: State of Texas v. Emile Houillion; Colorado Citizen, March 2, 1876, March 22, 1877, April 18, 1878, May 9, 1878, May 23, 1878, May 30, 1878, June 6, 1878; Galveston Daily News, May 8, 1878; Executive Clemency Papers, Emile Houillion, Secretary of State Records (RG 307) Archives Division, Texas State Library, Austin. Malsch had been authorized to practice law by the commissioners court on October 26, 1871 (see Colorado County Police [Commissioners] Court Minutes, Book 1862-1876, p. 228). Houillion's time in jail was apparently not in the least pleasant. On June 5, 1877, citing the conditions under which he was incarcerated, he asked the county to transfer him to another jail. The county refused. On September 14, 1877, his jailor, George Best, was indicted for malfeasance in office because he kept Houillion in "a loathsome and unhealthy cell" with insufficient drinking water, poor food, and no "means by which he could keep himself healthy and clean," forcing him "to wallow in filth and inhale the vapors of a filthy and unhealthy prison cell . . . causing dangerous and ill health and great personal and inhumane suffering" (see Colorado County Police [Commissioners] Court Minutes, Book 1876-1879, p. 230; Colorado County District Court Records, Criminal Cause File No. 1609: State of Texas v. George Best). Curiously, shortly after his death, a rumor arose that Houillion had faked his death, and that he had escaped to Europe. Sheriff Toliver stated that he had buried the body in the Columbus City Cemetery.

64 Colorado Citizen, May 31, 1877, June 7, 1877, October 11, 1877, January 10, 1878, February 28, 1878, March 7, 1878, June 20, 1878, February 27, 1879, May 8, 1879, March 25, 1880. Brown had moved to Columbus from Tennessee in 1866. His first wife, Margaret, died in the yellow fever epidemic in November 1873. Ironically, Brown had examined the bodies of each of Amos English, Mose Perry, and Mathias Malsch, the three men who preceded him as annual sensational murder victims (see Colorado County Police [Commissioners] Court Minutes, Book 1876-1879, p. 102).

65 Colorado County District Court Records, Criminal Cause File No. 984: State of Texas v. Ben F. Gee, Criminal Cause File No. 993: State of Texas v. George S. Walton, Criminal Cause File No. 995: State of Texas v. Colonel S. Stoudenmier, Criminal Cause File No. 1073: State of Texas v. Nat Morris, Criminal Cause File No. 1102: State of Texas v. O. M. McKinney, Criminal Cause File No. 1135: State of Texas v. O. M. McKinney, Criminal Cause File No. 1608: State of Texas v. Thomas A. Woolridge; Fayette County New Era, May 16, 1873, September 19, 1873; Colorado Citizen, October 26, 1871, April 8, 1875. "Colonel" was Stoudenmier's first name; not a title. He was the brother of the celebrated El Paso marshal Dallas Stoudenmier, who is said by his biographer, Leon Claire Metz, to have engaged in gunplay in Colorado County during these years. No evidence of any gun battle involving Dallas Stoudenmier in Colorado County has been found. In fact, Dallas Stoudenmier lived in Fayette County in 1870. Metz based his statements on second-hand reports of interviews with persons in 1965, or nearly one hundred years after the incidents might have occurred. It is possible that the people interviewed in 1965 confused the Stoudenmier brothers, attributing Colonel Stoudenmier's difficulties with George Walton to Dallas. Though it is likely that no one alive in 1965 had a direct memory of the otherwise obscure Stoudenmier family in Colorado County, memories of the family might have been passed down after a biographical sketch of Dallas Stoudenmier was included in Eugene Cunningham's 1934 book, Triggernometry. Both Cunningham and Metz spell the name "Stoudenmire." The spelling used herein is that on the marriage licenses of both Stoudenmier brothers and that on Colonel Stoudenmier's tombstone. He died on July 10, 1927, and is buried in Llano, Texas. Dallas Stoudenmier was killed in an El Paso gunfight on September 18, 1882. He had gotten married in Colorado County only seven months earlier. His body was shipped to Alleyton for burial. Though the precise site of the grave has long been forgotten, in November 1998, a man named Red Underhill erected a tombstone for the former marshal in the Alleyton Cemetery (see Metz, Dallas Stoudenmire: El Paso Marshal, pp. 29-30; Cunningham, Triggernometry (New York: The Press of the Pioneers, 1934), pp. 171-188; Dallas Stoudenmire Vertical File, Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus, which contains xerographic copies of both marriage certificates and the relevant page from the 1870 census of Fayette County; Colorado Citizen, February 16, 1882; Colorado County Citizen, December 28, 1994, November 25, 1998).

66 Galveston Tri-Weekly News, November 21, 1873, November 28, 1873; Fayette County New Era, November 28, 1873; Houston Daily Union, December 27, 1870, January 2, 1871; Colorado Citizen, September 24, 1874, April 1, 1875, December 16, 1875, September 7, 1876, December 7, 1876, December 28, 1876, December 27, 1877, February 14, 1878; Colorado County District Court Records, Criminal Cause File No. 903: State of Texas v. Pete Lyons; Criminal Cause File No. 1105: State of Texas v. James G. Ward; Criminal Cause File No. 1145: State of Texas v. William Long; Criminal Cause File No. 1271: State of Texas v. James Byrne; Letter of Camillus Jones, May 6, 1871, Governor's Papers (RG 301), Edmund J. Davis, Archives Division, Texas State Library, Austin. The Citizen took different approaches to its coverage of the murders in December 1876. Of the first victim, Si Hunter, it reported: "The negro killed is said to be of good character, and no one knows the cause of the difficulty. The stranger immediately left, and was not pursued, as no clue could be had of his destination." Of the second, Westley Burford, the Citizen said: "Though the deceased had not the best character, we object to this mode of getting rid of him."

67 Colorado County Bond and Mortgage Records, Book I, p. 114; Colorado Citizen, March 2, 1876, March 30, 1876, May 2, 1876, May 11, 1876, June 1, 1876, July 13, 1876, August 10, 1876. The theft of livestock, of course, was not new; however, the primacy of the notion that ranchers must exact their own retribution was. One must wonder what effect cases like that of Karl Friedrich Sophus Jordt, a longtime resident of Frelsburg and then Columbus, had on the psyches of ranchers. Jordt was convicted of stealing "a certain sorrel horse" and sentenced to five years in the penitentiary. He appealed the case to the state supreme court, which, in early 1869, overruled his conviction on the grounds that Jordt ought not have been convicted of stealing a horse because the term "horse" meant either a male or a female animal and Jordt had actually stolen a gelding (see Colorado County District Court Records, Criminal Cause File No. 775: State of Texas v. Charles Jordt; George W. Paschal, Reports of Cases Argued and Decided in the Supreme Court of the State of Texas [Texas Reports], vol. 31 (Washington, D. C.: W. H. & O. H. Morrison, 1870), pp. 571-572; Galveston Daily News, March 10, 1869).

68 Colorado Citizen, August 3, 1876, August 10, 1876, August 17, 1876, September 7, 1876; Henry Calhoun Thomas, "A Sketch of My Life," Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, vol. 1, no. 3, February 1990, pp. 84-86. Thomas, who was one of the Stafford cowboys, stated that the incident was ever afterward referred to as the Stafford War. Besides Cotton and Gaskin, the sheriff identified Zach Hughs, Dick Terrell, Isam Devenport, and Reuben Wheeler as the men killed in the war. Thomas identified the man who was wounded on August 10 as Wiley Balock. The story of the Stafford War evidently made it as far as New York, though by then it had been expanded to include the deaths of thirteen blacks and one white man, former union soldier and former Wharton County sheriff Isaac N. Baughman (who is identified as J. N. Baughman in the article). The New York story had it that one black man was "shot seven times in the legs and arms, before killed" and that Baughman was "taken from his sick bed, where he had been confined for weeks, tied up to a tree, for he could not stand by himself, and eighteen bullets put into his body." Baughman was indeed killed in August 1876, though not until August 27, some two weeks after the Staffords went home. The Colorado Citizen reported, "He was shot in the middle of the forehead, through the right temple, one arm torn off, and otherwise mutilated by fire-arms. As to who did the killing, there are conflicting opinions." Baughman had, for years, been vilified by some residents of Wharton County, eleven of whom, in 1875, published a lengthy statement accusing him of cattle theft, incitement to riot, financial impropriety, and "basely insulting" his partner's wife (see "The Horrible Murders in Texas," New York Times, September 18, 1876 as reproduced in A History of Eagle Lake Texas (Austin: Nortex Press, 1987), p. 27; Colorado Citizen, March 11, 1875, August 31, 1876; Wharton County District Court Records, Civil Cause File No. 839: W. J. Godsey, et al. v. Isaac N. Baughman and L. L. Lacy). There was one other brief postscript to the Stafford War. In March 1877, a notice, signed "Committee of 25 Navidad," arrived at the post office at Texana (which is now Edna). The notice, which stipulated that the "committee" had been organized on August 4, 1876, during the height of the Stafford War, and which contained several spelling and punctuation errors, threatened cowboys with some vague retribution if they worked for Stafford, or for another cattleman, Samuel William Allen. Nothing further is known of this "committee" (see Colorado Citizen, July 19, 1877, August 9, 1877).

69 Colorado Citizen, November 16, 1876, January 4, 1877. One story stemming from this period has it that a cattle rustler who was caught butchering a cow was murdered and sewn up inside the cow's carcass. The story has been repeated so often that it probably bears at least a kernel of truth (see Horton Foote, Farewell (New York: Scribner, 1999), p. 159, for a printed version of the story).

70 Colorado Citizen, November 2, 1871, April 4, 1872, June 4, 1874, October 1, 1874, December 31, 1874, June 8, 1876, March 15, 1877, March 22, 1877, April 5, 1877; Colorado County Police [Commissioners] Court Minutes, Book 1876-1879, pp. 184, 203. The final vote was 1853 against prohibition to 263 in favor of it. The measure got its strongest support in Oakland and Weimar. In Oakland, 37 of the 147 voters voted for prohibition; in Weimar, 80 of the 420 voters did so. The vote in Columbus was 567 to 83 and in Eagle Lake 217 to 35. All 189 people who voted in Frelsburg and 142 of the 144 who voted at New Mainz were against prohibition. Women, of course, could not vote.

71 Colorado Citizen, May 11, 1871; Colorado County Deed Records, Book M, p. 148, Book P, p. 473, Book S, pp. 521, 538; Colorado County District Court Records, Civil Cause File No. 3340: Mollie Billert Nelson and Charles O. Nelson v. Simon Thulemeyer and Henry Boedeker as Trustees of the German Lutheran Church, Minute Book F, p. 608; Colorado County Marriage Records, Book E, p. 370; Galveston Tri-Weekly News, December 3, 1873. Billert might be considered a peculiar choice to loan money to a church, for he ran a brewery. Billert's Brewery was located on the river in Columbus, south of Spring Street and north of Washington (block 89). He purchased the property on March 23, 1868. When he died, the inventory of his estate listed 120 empty kegs, three or four kettles, four beer trucks, various measures and funnels, and one malt mill. Though for a time a man named Fred Zaugg leased the brewery and produced beer, it did not survive long after Billert's early death. It is interesting to consider how the history and reputation of Columbus might have been changed had this business continued (see Colorado County Probate Records, Final Record Book H, p. 582; Colorado County Deed Records, Book M, p. 704; Colorado Citizen, April 9, 1874).

72 Records of St. John's Episcopal Church, Columbus, Register Number 1, 1874-1892, p. 7; Colorado Citizen, October 19, 1871, November 16, 1871, February 22, 1872, February 29, 1872, August 3, 1876, November 9, 1876, February 24, 1881; Colorado County Bond & Mortgage Records, Book I, p. 56; Colorado County Deed Records, Book O, p. 384, Book S, p. 287, Book T, p. 15. The Colorado Citizen of February 27, 1873 (which is the only known surviving copy from that year) reported that there were services conducted by Urbane C. Spencer in the Methodist Church on both the morning and the evening of the second, third, and fourth Sundays of each month. On June 25, 1874, the Citizen reported that "Rev. Mr. Archer officiates in the Methodist Church at this place." Beginning on October 15, 1874, the Citizen began running a regular column listing religious services in town. Naturally, only white services were considered. The first column notes that, besides two Sunday schools, (the Methodist Sunday School and the Columbus Union Sabbath School), there were regular services only in the Episcopal church. On November 26, 1874, the newspaper noted, "Two of our Churches have regular service, though the attendance upon it is somewhat meagre, one of them is occupied only on occasions." The regular column noted a once-a-month Lutheran service from February 25, 1875 through April 6, 1876, and weekly Baptist services from March 2, 1876 through November 9, 1876. At no time in the years between 1874 and 1876 were Methodist services (other than the Sunday school) noted, though the official church history reports that the church had pastors named A. L. P. Green from 1872 through 1876 and F. A. McShan from 1876 through 1878 (it does not mention Spencer). Green had certainly left by March 1876, when he opened a hotel in Schulenburg. The records of the church itself are little help. The earliest recorded event at the church (again except for Sunday school classes) is a wedding performed on December 21, 1895. The oldest record book also contains a membership list, which begins with an alphabetical listing of the 192 members of the church at the time the book was started. For some of these members, the date they joined the church is recorded. Of the dates which are recorded, none is before 1890. However, for most of the 192 persons, the date they joined the church is not recorded, suggesting that they had been members for some time. The Columbus Baptist church records are even less useful. The earliest record discovered in a thorough search of the church office with thirteen-year employee Fay Elliott were the minutes of the church council from 1964 (see Katherine Evans Wooten, A History of First Methodist Church Columbus, Texas 1822-1957 (n. p., 1957), p. 16; Colorado Citizen, March 16, 1876; Records of First United Methodist Church, Columbus, Texas; Records of First Baptist Church, Columbus, Texas).
    More evidence of the limited religious activity in the county is provided by the admittedly inadequate 1870 census. The census takers counted only three congregations (two Lutheran and one Catholic) and two churches (one Lutheran and one Catholic) in the county. Though there were surely more congregations and church buildings in existence at the time, this low count cannot be taken as an indication that there were several flourishing denominations present (see Eighth Census of the United States (1870) Schedule 5, Colorado County, Texas).

73 Colorado Citizen, February 1, 1877, March 8, 1877, March 22, 1877, October 18, 1877; Records of First United Methodist Church, Eagle Lake, Texas; Eagle Lake Headlight, January 26, 1929; Colorado County Deed Records, Book T, p. 359. What is apparently the earliest record book of the Methodist church in Eagle Lake states that the congregation was organized in May 1872. Though the earliest record in the book is of an 1878 wedding, the books apparently were acquired around 1890. Earlier events were recorded later, but not necessarily in the order they occurred. The congregation, though, certainly dates from before 1873, for one of the listed members is William L. Wynn, who, as we have seen, was murdered in May 1873. The Baptist church in Eagle Lake has no early records. The obituary of John B. Armstrong, in the above cited issue of the Eagle Lake Headlight, reports that he arrived in town in 1877.

74 Colorado Citizen, September 2, 1875, August 3, 1876, November 16, 1876, May 10, 1877; Colorado County Deed Records, Book S, pp. 665, 666, Book T, p. 262, Book W, p. 368. Weimar's St. James African Methodist Episcopal Church's own history states that the congregation was established in February 1874, however no mention of its existence before 1877 could be located (see Mary Hinton, Weimar, Texas First 100 Years 1873-1973 (Austin: Von Boeckmann-Jones, 1973), p. 134).

75 Frederick Eby, comp., Education in Texas Source Materials, (Austin: University of Texas, 1918), pp. 516-535; Colorado Citizen, May 11, 1871. The Constitution of 1869 had required that the legislature compel all children between six and eighteen years old to attend either a public or a private school for at least four months each year. The 1870 law attempted to do so, but provided only the weakest of penalties, stipulating that if its children failed to attend school, the county would forfeit its "interest in the school fund for the time being," but affording no punishment for the parents.

76 Colorado Citizen, May 11, 1871, October 5, 1871, October 12, 1871, November 2, 1871, January 18, 1872, February 15, 1872, February 29, 1872; "Reminiscences of Mrs. F. G. Mahon," Nesbitt Memorial Library Journal, vol. 9, no. 1, January 1999, pp. 45-46; Dewey Homer Brown, The History of Education in Columbus, Colorado County, Texas (Master's thesis, Sul Ross State Teachers College, 1942), p. 68. Though public schools were not popular with the Colorado Citizen, the newspaper did find it proper to praise new history textbooks which were adopted, complaining that the old ones taught "that the Southern people were heathens, murderers, and traitors" (see Colorado Citizen, November 30, 1871).

77 Lease, Independent Order of Odd Fellows Lodge No. 51 to J. C. Degress, Superintendent of Public Instruction for the State of Texas, September 1, 1872, Shropshire-Upton Chapter, U. D. C. Collection (Ms. 25), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library, Columbus; Colorado Citizen, February 27, 1873, September 10, 1874, September 17, 1874, September 24, 1874, October 1, 1874, November 26, 1874, December 24, 1874, January 7, 1875, March 18, 1875. Holloman apparently also made some money as a writer. He published a poem in the Colorado Citizen of June 11, 1874.

78 Colorado Citizen, August 6, 1874, September 17, 1874, March 18, 1875, August 12, 1875, August 19, 1875, August 26, 1875, September 23, 1875, November 16, 1876, January 18, 1877, December 13, 1877; Gammel, comp., The Laws of Texas 1822-1897, vol. 8, pp. 811, 1035-1046; Samuel D. McLeary, "School in Osage," in Hinton, Weimar, Texas First 100 Years 1873-1973, p. 286; Colorado County Deed Records, Book S, p. 122. The original directors of the Colorado Institute were William S. Delany, Rowan Green, Robert H. Harrison, Jahu W. Johnson, Charles O. Nelson, Robert E. Stafford, James Lee Taylor, Exum P. Whitfield, and George Witting.
    It will be remembered that what became Hermann Seminary had started out as Hermann University. On August 10, 1870, the legislature incorporated a second Hermann University, this one to be organized in Comal County, and assigned the league of land that had been designated for the original Hermann University to it. Naturally, this created a problem, for an earlier legislature had already given the league to Hermann Seminary. Perhaps for this reason, little more than a year later, on November 1, 1871, the legislature revoked the charter of the second Hermann University (see Gammel, comp., The Laws of Texas 1822-1897, vol. 5, pp. 256-258, vol. 6, pp. 635-636, vol. 7, p. 164).

79 Colorado County Deed Records, Book O, p. 203, Book Q, pp. 168, 532, 545, 749, Book R, p. 353, Book S, p. 612; Records of the Content School, Dittmar-Hinkel Collection (Ms. 8), Archives of the Nesbitt Memorial Library. The deed records, of course, reveal only that the above mentioned schools acquired land. It has been assumed that schools operated on these lands. The Frels Prairie School acquired its land on August 2, 1870, the Walnut Bend School on December 19, 1871, the school at Boggy Branch on December 28, 1871, the school at Miller's Creek on September 5, 1872, the school on the San Bernard on January 20, 1873, and the New Mainz Prairie School on April 15, 1874.

80 Record of Appointment of Postmasters 1832-September 30, 1971, National Archives Microfilm Publication M841, Roll 122; Colorado Citizen, October 5, 1871, July 16, 1874, December 23, 1875, April 13, 1876, June 1, 1876, October 12, 1876. Tendick became postmaster on September 22, 1873 and held onto the post until he resigned in early 1883. On January 1, 1879, he conveyed his store to John A. Tendick and George W. Hoeffert, who operated it until it failed in November 1881. Robert Tendick opened a bank in April 1879. However, his wife's health began to decline, and, in mid 1880, acting on the advice of physicians who thought the climate might help her, he moved to San Antonio. She died there, at the age of 33, in February 1881. He remained in San Antonio, becoming vice president and manager of the San Antonio Brewing Association, and died there, quite wealthy, on November 3, 1888 (see Colorado Citizen, December 26, 1878, April 10, 1879, February 17, 1881, February 24, 1881, November 24, 1881, February 8, 1883, November 15, 1888, September 24, 1891).

81 Colorado Citizen, August 30, 1877, April 18, 1878; Colorado County Police [Commissioners] Court Minutes, Book 1876-1879, p. 301. Nor did Dewees's obituary mention his book, Letters from an Early Settler of Texas. At this point in the county's history, local history was thought insignificant. Dewees' book, like Fannie Darden's previously-noted article about Dillard Cooper, and like Dewees's and Wallace's obituaries, concentrated instead on what might be called state history, and particularly on the revolution of 1836.