FIELDS, SMALLWOOD S. B. (?-1846). Smallwood S. B. (Steamboat) Fields, lawyer and editor, moved to Fayette County, Texas, when the county was organized in 1838. From January 21 to February 25, 1839, he campaigned with John Henry Moore^qv against the Comanches. He practiced law in La Grange in 1839, was elected county tax assessor in 1840, and served until 1849. In 1842-43 he also represented Fayette County in the Texas House of Representatives during the Seventh Congress. Although he was a member of the La Grange Company under William M. Eastland,^qv he did not participate in the Mier expedition.^qv With the departure of William P. Bradburn, Fields became editor of the La Grange Intelligencer^qv in March 1844 and promised that each issue would be devoted to "Politics, the Sciences, Agriculture, Religion, Foreign Affairs, Miscellaneous Items, [and] Domestic Matter." Until 1845 the paper presented a flamboyant and often cynical view of life in Texas and maintained a critical rivalry with the National Vindicator,^qv edited by Thomas Johnson^qv of Washington-on-the-Brazos. The September 12, 1845, issue of the Intelligencer reported "Hard times! Hard times! and the scarcity of money is wrung upon us at every turn and corner of life." The following week the La Grange Intelligencer suspended publication. Seven months later, in April 1846, Fields died in Austin.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Frank Lotto, Fayette County: Her History and Her People (Schulenburg, Texas: Sticker Steam Press, 1902; rpt., Austin: University of Texas Press, 1981). Leonie Rummel Weyand and Houston Wade, An Early History of Fayette County (La Grange, Texas: La Grange Journal, 1936).

Jeff Carroll