During the 3rd quarter of the Cowboy - Bengal game a few Sundays back, a Bengal running back fumbled after his team had just recovered a crucial on-side kick. My wife commented that Cincinnati had just given the Texas lads a real "gift." I replied not as big as the gift the Ohioans had given a bunch of Texas boys in 1836. Photo -Twin Sister Replicas built by the University of Houston College of Technology.For in 1836, during the Texas struggle for Independence, the citizens of Cincinnati , Ohio, furnished Sam Houston's army with two artillery pieces that later came to be known as the "Twin Sisters."
According to the Bulletin of the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio, [Volume 10, 1952 written by E.N. Clopper] on November 17, 1835, a group of Cincinnatians', Friends of Texas, met in the Court House to consider the reports of ward committees on giving aid to Texas insurgents. The Ohio gentleman who presided over this meeting was Nicholas Clopper, also the brother-in-law of David Burnet, who would later serve as president of the Republic of Texas.
Also present at the meeting was a former United States legislator, Robert T. Lytle, who offered several resolutions, one being, "-That we approve and recommend to the citizens of this meeting a plan by which the citizens of Texas, shall be supplied through their agent, Mr. Smith, (William Bryan) by our contributions with such an amount of hollow ware as he (Smith) may deem sufficient, to contain other provisions, by which they shall be filled, according to his judgement and sound discretion."
The resolution was unanimously accepted.
The cannon were manufactured at the Eagle Foundry [also referred to in some documents as Eagle Iron Works] in Cincinnati, and later shipped down the Mississippi to New Orleans to Galveston to Harrisburg and finally to the Texian army at Groce's Plantation. The Eagle Foundry was owned by Miles Greenwood and Joseph Webb. The "Twins" were passed through customs as "hollow ware" which was the customs designation for glass ware and bottles. The fact that United States customs allowed the pieces through is indicative of Andrew Jackson's "neutrality" during the conflict.
Nicholas Clopper personally contributed half a ton of cannon-balls to the cause.
Greenwood's Iron Eagle Works burned to the ground in 1852. Later, after re-building his foundry, Greenwood put together Cincinnati's first fire department and the United States' first paid fire department complete with a horse-drawn steam engine water pumper.
In the Bulletin of the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio, [Volume 11, 1953, written by E. N. Clopper] Clopper offers a letter excerpt from Hugh C. Mitchell of Washington D.C., written by his grandmother, Elizabeth Rice. Elizabeth's father, Dr. Charles W. Rice, joined the Texas Navy in 1836. Elizabeth and her twin sister, Eleanor, were aboard the same steamboat as the cannon in April 1836. All arrived in Texas together. Legend has it that Elizabeth and Eleanor were taught a short presentation speech to formally present the cannon to Texas . . . and from that time on the cannon were referred to as the "Twin Sisters." Elizabeth also wrote, "I have not made much noise in this world, but my Namesake did."
And the "Twin Sisters?" Well as the Texian troops departed Groce's Plantation on April 14, 1836, businesswoman, Pamelia Dickinson Mann, agreed to allow the army use of a yoke of her oxen to pull the "Twin Sisters" through the mud and to the safety of Nacogdoches. Days later at the famous "fork-in-the-road", Houston's men marched toward Harrisburg, Santa Anna, and their victorious destiny.
But Mrs. Mann would have nothing of it, and when Wagon Master, Conrad Rohrer refused her request to take back her stock, Mrs. Mann let loose with a fit of swearing that made Houston throw up his hands in exasperation. Mrs. Mann jumped from her horse, cut her oxen loose, and headed up the road toward Nacogdoches. It's said that Captain Rohrer later gave pursuit of Pamelia to retrieve the oxen. . . but that . . . well that's a whole 'nuther story. . .
Read more about the Twin Sisters at The Handbook of Texas Online.
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/TT/qvt1.htmlCopyright 2008 Mike Kearby
