Part 3, Note 29

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[Houston] Morning Star, August 1, 1839; Day, comp. and ed., Post Office Papers of the Republic of Texas 1836-1839, pp. 65, 67; Petition to the Congress of the Republic to create Lavaca County, n. d. [c. 1841], Memorials and Petitions, Texas State Archives; Colorado County Commissioners Court Minutes, Book A, p. 83. For more on Margaret Hallett, see the many books of Paul Carl Boethel, most particularly History of Lavaca County (Austin: Von Boeckmann-Jones, 1959). Kessler's Bluff Post Office was in the Roland Thompson Survey, where Charles Kessler purchased land on August 2, 1841 (see Colorado County Deed Records, Book C, p. 102). Kessler was no ordinary immigrant. His brother, Henry, had run two important early businesses in Houston, Kessler's Arcade and Kessler's Round Tent, and had, reportedly, served on Houston's city council. After Henry's death, on October 30, 1840, Charles had inherited some $2000 worth of land and property, including his brother's $400 gold watch (see Harris County Probate Records, Record Book E, pp. 386-388; Telegraph and Texas Register, October 27, 1838, December 1, 1838; Gustav Dresel, Gustav Dresel's Houston Journal, Max Freund, trans. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1954), pp. 32, 89, 108, 131, 144).