QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.
Mound Prairie.—The Mound Prairie referred to by Yoakum and Thrall, and mentioned on page 307 of the April Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association as being five and one-half miles west of Alto, was doubtless so designated because of the existence of two ancient Indian mounds on the old San Antonio road, two miles east of the Neches River, and formerly known as the Bradshaw place.
There is a locality which has been known, for at least sixty years, as Mound Prairie, which is situated some six miles northeast of the town of Palestine, in Anderson County, on the old Kickapoo road, and not ten miles west of Palestine, as stated by Mr. Dabney White.
John H. Reagan.
I should be glad to receive through The Quarterly, answers to the following queries: 1.
What is the date of an order of Philip II., cited by several writers on Texas history, forbidding any but Spanish ships to enter the Gulf of Mexico? How could this furnish a pretext for capturing La Salle's St. François, before she had reached the Gulf?
2.Besides the claim which La Salle made in 1682, to all Louisiana, did he make a second formal claim to the region around Ft. St. Louis? Neither Joutel nor Douay, so far as I have noticed, mention any second claim.
3.In the translation by French of the proclamation wherein La Salle takes possession of Louisiana, the Mississippi is called the “River Colbert, or Mississippi.” 35 Joliet, as quoted by Margry, calls it the “Colbert, ou Mississippi selon les sauvages.” Who gave it the name Colbert?
4.In the same document, La Salle mentions by name the tribes along the Mississippi, so far as he knows them; further on he uses the expression: “* * * upon the assurance which we have received from all these nations, that we are the first Europeans who have descended or ascended the said River Colbert.” French, in the History of the Discovery of the Mississippi River, says: “By reading the accounts of the Spanish adventurers, La Salle seems to have been the first to identify the great river of Marquette and Joliet with the great river of De Soto.” 36 If he knew of these early explorations, how could he, in good faith, say that the French were the first Europeans on the river?
5.What was the “Seignelay, or Illinois,” which La Salle mentions in his memoir to M. Seignelay, as a branch of the Colbert, by which he hopes to find his way to the South Sea?
6.When was the name Nuevas Filipenas first applied to Texas? How long was it used?
7.Did St. Denis leave the City of Mexico for San Juan Bautista, before the expedition for reoccupation started, or did he accompany young Ramon?
Elizabeth H. West.
John Rice Jones.—On page 307 of the last number of The Quarterly, Edmond J. P. Schmitt seeks information concerning the John Rice Jones who was Postmaster-General of Texas during, and immediately subsequent to, the Texas Revolution. Through the courtesy of James H. Jones, Esq., Austin, Texas, and of his daughter, Mrs. M. F. Lochridge, I have obtained information concerning the John Rice Jones who is here mentioned, and who was the father of James H. Jones, which enables me to answer as follows:
This John Rice Jones did live at Vincennes, Indiana, in the beginning of this century, but he was then only a boy, having been born at Kaskaskia in 1792. At that time his Christian name was only John, but some time after the death of an older half-brother, Rice, who was murdered by political and personal enemies at Kaskaskia in 1808, he added this more distinctive name to that which he already bore. 37 The John Rice Jones, however, to whom Mr. Schmitt refers as living at Vincennes early in this century, was, it may be inferred, not the subject of this note, but his father. The latter was very prominent in the early history of Indiana, and later of Missouri, where he was associated with Moses Austin in his mining ventures. He was a member of the first board of trustees of Vincennes University.
From a pamphlet by W. A. Burt Jones, reprinted from Vol. IV., Chicago Historical Society's Collections, and having for the title of one of its parts “John Rice Jones: a Brief Sketch of the Life and Public Career of the First Practicing Lawyer in Illinois,” 38 I quote the following (pp. 33-34) relative to the John Rice Jones inquired about:
“Gen. John Rice Jones, the eldest son, 39 served under Capt. Henry Dodge in the war of 1812, and removing to Texas, then a Mexican State, as early as 1831, he became identified with its struggles for independence; which gained, he became Postmaster-General under the three forms of the Republic, provisional, ad interim, and constitutional—proof enough of his ability and fidelity—in the cabinets of as many of its executives, namely, Governor Henry Smith and Presidents David G. Burnet and Mirabeau B. Lamar, respectively, and was a personal friend of and fellow-patriot with those men and their compeers, Hon. Stephen F. Austin, `the father of Texas,' and his dearest of friends; Gen. Sam Houston, Col. Wm. B. Travis, Col. James Bowie, Col. David Crockett, Col. Benjamin R. Milam, and many others whose memories are justly dear to the people of Texas, and whose names are as `familiar in their mouths as household words.' General Jones was one of the two executors of the will of the heroic Col. Travis, the other being ex-Governor Henry Smith.
“Locating in 1831 at San Felipe de Austin, he was one of the first settlers of that place, which, as Austin, is now the capital of the great `Lone Star State,' 40 and for years was one of its prosperous merchants. He died in Fayette County, Texas, on his plantation, `Fairland Farm,' in that eventful year in which the Republic he loved so well had so long and faithfully served ceased to exist on becoming a State of the American Union, 1845; and having married a daughter of Maj. James Hawkins, in Missouri, in 1818, he left a large and respectable family of children to cherish the memory and contemplate with just pride the record of a devoted father and a noble man.”
F. B. Wilkie, in a sketch of Geo. W. Jones, of Dubuque, Iowa, 41 published originally in the Chicago Times, and afterwards in the Iowa Historical Record, says 42 of the Texas John Rice Jones that “he was twice Postmaster-General of the Republic of Texas, and later United States Senator, serving in the same session with his brother, the subject of this sketch.”
This is clearly a mistake; Mr. Jones died in 1845, before Texas had a United States Senator.
George P. Garrison.
36. Historical Collections of Louisiana, Part IV., Preface, page XXXV.
37. This is the statement of Mr. James H. Jones, and Mrs. Lochridge.
38. This title refers to the father, not to the son, John, who afterwards called himself John Rice. The pamphlet, as well as that quoted further on, was furnished me by Mr. James H. Jones.
39. By the second wife.
40. This, of course, is a mistake caused by confusing San Felipe de Austin with the city of Austin.
41. Younger brother of John, or John Rice, Jr., himself quite prominent in ante-bellum Northwestern history. He died in 1897.
42. Iowa Historical Record, p. 434.
How to cite:
"QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.", Volume 002, Number 1, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, Page 99 - 102. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v002/n1/back_10.html
[Accessed Mon Dec 1 17:41:56 CST 2008]
