The Marlow Brothers

In 1888, Deputy Marshall Ed Johnson of Graham labeled five Young County men, the Marlow brothers, as rustlers and murderers. Many historians believe Johnson concocted the story against the brothers as a means of gaining favor with the powerful cattleman's association. Johnson's work for the association, had failed to apprehend any of the known rustlers working in the county.

Sheriff Marion Wallace of Graham tried to serve papers on the Marlow's at the behest of Johnson on December 17, 1888. Wallace was shot by Boone Marlow and died a week later. Boone Marlow claimed that Deputy Tom Collier, who accompanied Wallace that evening, fired the first shots inside his house and then fled outside. Boone said he pursued Collier and seeing a man approaching, gun in hand, shot and mistakenly killed Wallace. Boone took flight, but brothers, George, Epp, Alfred, and Charley were arrested and jailed in Graham.

On January 14, 1889, the captured brothers dug out of their jail cell, but were recaptured the next day outside of their ranch. Tom Collier, now sheriff, shackled the men together in pairs to prevent any further attempts at escape. A vigilante group mobbed
the jail on the night of January 17 in an attempt to extricate the Marlow's to a suitable place for lynching, but the brothers thwarted their assailants. George struck one vigilante, Robert Hill, so hard that the man died of his injuries two days later.

The next morning, a concocted story made its way through Graham saying that the jailhouse ruckus had been caused by Boone Marlow's attempt to free his brothers and only the jailer's bravery prevented such escape. A telegraph sent to United States Marshall, William Cabell in Dallas repeated the fabrication. Cabell immediately ordered his deputy, Ed Johnson, to move the brothers to Weatherford for safekeeping.

The day of the transport, outside of Graham, on Dry Creek, the vigilantes attacked the brothers once again. At the fight's conclusion, three vigilantes lay dead, as well as Alfred and Epp Marlow.
Boone Marlow was killed in Indian Territory on January 28, 1889.
In 1892, damage suits brought against their attackers awarded Charley Marlow $1950.00 and George Marlow $1000.00.

The movie, The Sons of Katie Elder, was based on the Marlow brother's story.

Mike Kearby's Texas copyright 2010

The Dictator and Thomas Adams

Thomas Adams (1818-1905) was the first person in the United States to manufacture chewing gum that had chicle as the base ingredient. Image - Thomas Adams.

Large quantities of chicle, which comes from the sapodilla tree in Central America, had been given Adams by friends of General Antonio López de Santa Anna. The former Mexican dictator was in exile at the time and spent time at Adams’ house on Staten Island. Santa Anna persuaded Adams that the inexpensive chicle could be compounded with the more expensive rubber to make an economical alternative for carriage tires.

Adams tried for a year but was unsuccessful at every attempt to accomplish the ex-dictator’s “get-rich” scheme. One day, after yet another rubber failure, Adams is reported to have popped a piece of chicle into his mouth. He remembered that Santa Anna enjoyed chewing chicle gum. Adams realized that the softer chicle gum was superior to the paraffin wax gum that was popular at the time in the United States.

Shortly after that, Adams and his oldest son, Thomas Jr., made up “penny sticks” of the gum and distributed them to a local drugstore. The chicle gum was an instant hit. Adams sold his chicle gum with the slogan "Adams' New York Gum No. 1 - Snapping and Stretching."

In 1888, Adams’ Tutti-Frutti flavored gum was the first gum to be sold in a vending machine. By 1899, Adams Sons and Company had become the largest and most profitable chewing gum company in the United States. In that same year, Adams and five other chewing gum companies joined forces as the American Chicle Company. Thomas Jr. was named chairman of the board of directors for the new company.

Thomas Adams Sr. died in 1905.

Mike Kearby's Texas copyright 2009

Cuerno Largo

In early November of 1493, a fleet of seventeen Spanish ships carrying over one thousand men, including Christopher Columbus, landed on an island that Columbus named, Dominica. Also on-board the ships were domesticated pigs, horses, and of course, cattle.

Twenty-six years later, Hernán Cortés began his conquest of New Spain, (Mexico) with six hundred soldiers and fifteen horsemen. The horses were descendents of the original herd brought to Dominica in 1493. In 1521, Gregorio de Villalobos transported the first cattle, also descendents of the first herd, from Dominica to New Spain.

New world cattle soon became a form of currency for the Spanish. Owning a great herd provided men with disposable and liquid wealth. Cortés stocked his great estate in New Spain with significant numbers of the animal.

As the Spanish began their campaigns to conquer their new world, they took with them, horses and cattle. In 1540, one conquistador, Francisco Vázquez de Coronado set off in search of the famed Seven Cities of Cibola. He departed with thousands of sheep, goats, hogs, and, by most estimates, five-hundred head of cattle. Coronado’s ‘five-hundred’ were the first cattle to set ‘hoof’ in what is now the United States.

Over time, escaped, dispersed by Indian raids, abandoned, or left behind purposely, these strays or wild cattle propagated prolifically. Left to their own survival, Spanish cattle developed the traits necessary to survive and reproduce efficiently and providently in the new world environment. These traits included robustness, vitality, fertility, and most importantly browse-efficiency. By 1835, wild cattle, sometimes referred to as mustang cattle, and later, Texas cattle, could be found from the Red River to the Rio Grande. Some records of the same year put the total number of cattle and horses running wild inside this area as three million head.

These Texas cattle, what we today call longhorns, were, in the words of Captain Richard Ware, “…wilder than deer.”

Another chronicler, Colonel Richard Irving Dodge offered the following comment on wild Texas cattle. “…animals miscalled tame, fifty times more dangerous to footmen than the fiercest buffalo.”

After the Civil War, men returned home to Texas to find untended fields and millions of wild Texas cattle. A few far-thinking men looked at the vast cattle herds and saw a profitable future ahead. These far-thinking men began to round-up, brand, and then drive these wild Texas cattle toward railheads that serviced burgeoning northern markets, markets “hungry” for beef. We know these men by names such as cowboy, rannie, buckaroo, or cowpuncher, but they are all descendents, not by blood, but instead by the common love of their occupation from the Mexican vaquero.

The cattle drive era was short in duration but provided millions in gold to those few entrepreneurs who saw the potential of a rangy, long-legged animal that was shaped by Mother Nature for self-preservation. The Texas longhorn could live on a diet of browse that would kill other breeds. It was an animal that could go tremendous distances without a drink, swim the broadest rivers, and run, when needed, like a mustang pony. In short, the longhorn of that period was the right animal to accomplish what those far-thinking men had in mind. The longhorn, Cuerno Largo, was without peer.

Mike Kearby's Texas copyright 2009

The McCormick League

The San Jacinto battlefield, a prairie located eight miles north of New Washington, was situated within a league of land owned by Margaret (Peggy) McCormick. Buffalo Bayou bordered the league on the northwest, San Jacinto Bay on the northeast, and a large swamp known as Peggy's Lake on the southeast.

Eight miles to the southwest lay Vince's Bridge, which led to Harrisburg, the only escape route for the Texian and Mexican armies before the battle. Deaf Smith, and six volunteers, Peter Alsbury, Moses Lapham, Denmore Reaves, John Coker, E.R. Rainwater, and John Garner, burned the bridge on April 21 before the fighting began.

Photo- Henry McArdle's Battle of San Jacinto 1895

Peggy McCormick moved to Texas in 1824 with her husband, Arthur and sons, Mike and John. The McCormick's were members of Stephen F. Austin's first colony. Arthur McCormick drowned in Buffalo Bayou in 1824 leaving Peggy and her two young sons to work the land as best they could. The widow McCormick made ends meet by raising and selling cattle.

Peggy and her sons fled their ranch in late April as Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna's troops approached. Days after the battle of San Jacinto, Peggy returned home to find her cattle pilfered by both armies and her land strewn with the bodies of Mexican soldiers. She confronted Sam Houston and Santa Anna demanding that one or both men bury the dead. Both refused. Peggy and her sons buried what bodies they could.

John J. Linn who arrived at San Jacinto with Vice-president Lorenzo de Zavala after the battle and later interviewed Santa Anna recalled the conversation between Peggy and Gen. Houston that day. Linn said Houston told Mrs. McCormick, "Madam, your land will be famed in history." To which Peggy replied, "To the devil with your glorious history!"

Peggy later petitioned the Republic of Texas for damages caused by the two armies to her property. The new government refused her request of one hundred forty head of cattle, seventy-five bushels of corn, and two horses. Later county surveyor, George M. Patrick re-surveyed the McCormick league and unbeknown to the family, moved almost half of the McCormick land east into the San Jacinto swamp. The "new" western land produced by the re-survey was assigned to a veteran of San Jacinto who quickly resold the land to Patrick.

Peggy died in a suspicious fire in her home in 1854. Speculation was that the widow, who had once owned one of the largest cattle herds in Harris County, had been robbed and possibly murdered before the fire was set.

Mike McCormick drowned in Buffalo Bayou in 1875 near the spot where his father had drowned in 1824. During the revolution, Mike, acting as a courier between Gen. Houston and Pres. Burnet, warned Burnet of the approaching Col. Almonte at New Washington thus saving the lives of Burnet, his wife, as well as other members of the provisional government…but that…well that's a whole 'nuther story...

Read more about Peggy McCormick at: http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/MM/fmcbs.html

Mike Kearby's Texas Copyright 2009 All Rights Reserved

The Tragedy of Post-Independence Texas

After the Texian victory at San Jacinto in April 1836, a flood of animosity was unleashed first on Bejareños [1] and later on all Tejanos in the new Republic. Anglo-American volunteers who participated in the revolution were largely ignorant of Tejano culture and politics. This lack of knowledge led to a belief that all Mexicans were dubious in their intentions toward Anglos and held hidden loyalties to General Don Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna's centralist government. (Image - Don Martín De León from the Sons of DeWitt Colony, http://www.tamu.edu/)

Under a swell of Anglos surging into Texas from the United States, Tejano families who had fought valiantly alongside Anglo-colonists and volunteers found themselves fighting once again, only this time for ancestral property and land. In a short period, Texas, a once-proud colony of Spanish acculturation, now embraced Anglo-American values and manners. The homogeneous tide of settlers into the Republic viewed Spanish culture and its caste mentality as mongrel and inferior. Moreover, those Tejanos who had rejected centralism became pariahs in both Mexican and Texan society.

Perhaps one of the greatest tragedies inflicted upon loyal Tejanos involved the aristocratic family of Empresario Don Martín De León, founder of De León Colony and Victoria, Texas. Don Martin died in 1833, but his wife, Madam Doña Patricia De León provided both sons and money to the Texas revolution. After San Jacinto, the family suffered the cruel prejudices and antipathy of the new Anglo citizenry. Victims of racial hatred, the De León family fled to New Orleans, where they lived in abject poverty for three years before returning to Mexico.

In 1844, Madam De León returned home to Victoria only to discover that her family's homes, property, and livestock were all gone, seized by ruthless and dishonest newcomers into the Republic. The De León family, who contributed much to the independence of Texas, found their repayment to be ostracism and banishment. Madam De León died in 1849 and was buried next to Don Martin in the Victoria churchyard.

Victor Rose concludes his History of Victoria (1883) with, "Alas, what a sad commentary upon the administration of human justice, to say nothing of its ingratitude, is that presented in the misfortunes of this most worthy family."

In 1971 the Don Martín De León Memorial Foundation was established and funds were raised and permission granted to establish State Historical Markers and a preserved site in the cemetery to honor members of the De León family and their contribution to Texas. Markers were established for Empresario Martín De León, wife Patricia De León, and sons Fernando, Silvestre, Felix and Agapito. On 8 April 1972, dedication services were held at Victoria City Hall and Evergreen Cemetery. It was attended by several hundred including dignitaries from Texas, the United States and Mexico. Present was the great grandson of first President of Mexico Guadalupe Victoria after which the city was named.[2]


[1] A citizen of San Antonio de Bexar
[2] From The Empresario by A.B.J. Hammett, 1973 – Sons of DeWitt Colony Texas Web Site

Read more about the De Leon family at: http://www.tamu.edu/ccbn/dewitt/deleon2.htm

Mike Kearby's Texas Copyright 2009 All Rights Reserved

Travis's Last Messenger

On Saturday evening March 5, 1836, James L. Allen volunteered to deliver Col. William B. Travis's final plea for relief to Col. James Fannin at Goliad. The twenty-one year-old courier arrived in Goliad on March 8, but was unable to obtain any assistance from Fannin. Allen then rode to Gonzales where on March 11, he learned that the Bexar garrison had fallen. Image - Messenger James Butler Bonham Arrives Back at the Alamo on March 3.

Alamo Legacy, author, Ron Jackson tells in his book of an interview with F.C. Proctor who claimed to have heard Allen's own account as a young boy. Proctor's account was later verified by Allen's daughter, Mary L. Cunningham.

" . . . Travis told Allen he would be the one to make the attempt to carry the message to Fannin because he had the fleetest mare. Shortly after nightfall, Allen grabbed the reins on the bridle of his horse and mounted bareback. A gate was opened and off he rode. Allen bent low and hugged the horse's neck, providing a lesser target as he dashed through the Mexican lines . . . "

After learning of the Alamo's fall, Allen realized he owed his life to his horse.

A month later, Allen served as a scout with Deaf Smith and helped burn bridges around San Jacinto dooming any thoughts of retreat by the Mexican army.

After San Jacinto, Allen rode with the Texas Rangers under Captains Ward and Bell.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Allen worked as a tax-assessor-collector for Calhoun County. Refusing to take an oath of allegiance to the Union, Allen was arrested and detained on Saluria Island where he escaped and fled to Port Lavaca . . . but that . . . well that's a whole nuther story.

Read more about James L Allen at the handbook of Texas online:

www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/AA/fal20.html

Mike Kearby's Texas Copyright 2009 All Rights Reserved

Dilue Rose Harris

In 1900, the recollections of Dilue Rose Harris were published in the Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association. (Vol. IV, Southwestern Historical Quarterly) Dilue's reminiscences were combined with journal accounts kept by her father, Dr. Pleasant W. Rose. The journal dates, 1833 – 1837, offer readers an intense, vivid pictorial of the "Runaway Scrape," the scramble by Texas colonists to the Louisiana border and protection in the United States. Photo of the Runaway Scrape Oak, where Sam Houston camped during the first night of the Texian retreat from Gonzales.

The Rose family farm was located on the east bank of the Brazos River, (Fort Bend County), west of present day Houston. The Roses' were friends of Colonel William B. Travis and after hearing of the deaths of he and his men at the Alamo began making plans to flee Santa Anna's approaching Santanistas. Mrs. Rose's brother, James Wells, made preparation to join Houston's army and Dilue recounts how her mother sewed James two striped hickory shirts, while she (Dilue) melted lead in a pot to be used in the molding of bullets for her uncle. In Mid- March, the Rose family left home hauling their possessions on a sled pulled by a yoke of oxen. Upon reaching the San Jacinto River crossing, they became part of an exodus of five-thousand people. The ferry crossing took three days.

Dilue recalled how her mother reminded the children that a hundred-mile walk with thousands of people was not frightening compared to the family's other travails in Texas, shipwrecked on the coast, attacked by wolves, and a most unsettling visit to their farm by an escaped slave, known locally as The Wild Man of the Navidad. Dilue's account of the Trinity River crossing provides a powerful chronicle of the hardships placed on the fleeing farmers. A rising Trinity ran over its banks stranding the family for several hours. During their crossing, one of Dilue's young sisters, sick when their journey began, went into to convulsions and died later. The Roses' buried the child in Liberty, Texas.

On April 22, while proceeding to the Sabine, a courier named McDermot, arrived with a dispatch from Gen. Houston telling the colonists that Santa Anna's army had been defeated at San Jacinto and it was safe to return to their homes. McDermot, an actor, stayed in the Rose family camp that night relating the Battle of San Jacinto in great theatrical fashion . . . but that . . . well that's a whole 'nuther story . . .

Read more about Dilue Rose online:

www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/HH/fha.89.html

www.archive.org/stream/southwesternhist04texauoft/southwesternhist04texauoft_djvu.txt

Copyright 2009 Mike Kearby