NOTES AND FRAGMENTS.

Capt. Jesse Burnam's Name.—As intimated in the editorial note on page 12 of the July Quarterly, historians have spelled his name “Burnham”; but he evidently spelled it Burnam; for I have had extensive correspondence with some of his intimate acquaintances, all of whom so spelled it. One of these correspondents was his youngest son, who wrote to me a short time before his own death.

W. P. Zuber.

“The Escape of Rose from the Alamo.”—The editorial footnote (on page 5, Vol. V, No. 1, of the Quarterly) to the article bearing this title is correct, towit: “In the letter carried by Smith [dated March 3d, 1836], Travis says, “Col. J. B. Bonham * * * got in this morning at eleven o'clock.” I remember to have read the letter, as it was printed in hand bill form, not many days after it was written. I should have noted this myself, but happened not to think of it. Yet, considering the circumstances under which Travis wrote, it does not disprove my position that he wrote it after midnight, on the morning of March 3d.

It is very probable that Travis had not slept since Bonham's arrival. Under such circumstances it is not uncommon for persons, conversing or writing, to make such blunders as to say this morning or this evening for yesterday morning, or for last evening or tonight. It is not unreasonable to infer that Travis, being weary, made such a blunder; and, as he was unquestionably pressed for time, failed to discover the blunder, or had not leisure to correct it. The distance which Smith rode after the writing proves this hypothesis to be correct. A ride of one hundred and eighty miles in three days is more than man or horse could perform.

My inference is that Bonham arrived at eleven o'clock on March 2nd;—more probably p. m. than a. m., as he could escape the vigilance of the Mexican guards and scouts more easily in the night than in daylight.

W. P. Zuber.

The Beginnings of Hopkins County.—Late in December, 1842, William Hargrave and his brother, Harvey Hargrave, moved into what is now Hopkins county from Red River county. There were in the two families eighteen persons, five of whom are now living. At that time there was only one other family living in Hopkins county, that of Mr. John Bivin, whose home was four miles east of Sulphur Bluff. The first week in January, 1843, “Uncle Billy” Barker settled south of White Oak, six miles west of Sulphur Springs. In 1843, Capt. E. M. Hopkins moved into the settlement from Red River county, and his widow, “Aunt Rebecca,” still lives in Hopkins county.

The first mill in the county, a grist and saw mill combined, was a water mill built by Robert Hargrave upon the old bluff on South Sulphur in 1844.

The first burial in the county was on the 26th day of August, 1843. The first wedding was on the 16th day of October, 1843. The license was procured at Clarksville, Red River county, fifty miles away, and the minister rode from Clarksville on horseback to perform the ceremony. The first barbecue was on the 4th of July, 1845, near the water mill on South Sulphur. The first election was held on the first Monday in September, 1844, at the same place, it being a part of Lamar county at that time. There is only one man living now who voted at this election. It is “Uncle Perry” Hargrave, and he is eighty years old. His children and grandchildren today are drinking water out of the first cistern that was dug in Hopkins county. This cistern, which dates from 1842, is situated in the northeast portion of Hopkins county, sixteen miles from the county seat, Sulphur Springs.

Mrs. Stella Putman Dinsmore.  Sulphur Springs, Texas.

The Number of “Decimated Mier Prisoners.”—Mrs. Adèle B. Looscan, historian of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, is entitled to our gratitude for her note (Quarterly, Vol. V. No. 1) on the “Letter from a Mier Prisoner to His Mother”; but the number of those who were subjected to the “death lottery,” as stated on page 67, is erroneous,—probably a misprint. ¹²⁶ Their number was not one hundred and seventeen, but one hundred and sixty-five; hence, the number seventeen was as nearly a precise decimation as could be made. I learned this from a letter directed to Hon. Jesse Grimes, but addressed to all citizens of Texas,—especially to those residing in and near Grimes Prairie and Alto Miro, ¹²⁷ Montgomery county. It was written at Castle Perote, Mexico (I do not remember the date), in the handwriting of Capt. J. G. W. Pearson; and signed by J. G. W. Pearson, Leonidas Saunders, Sidney S. King, — Middleton, —West, and probably others. Pearson was one of the first settlers of Robertson's Colony, but then resided in Grimes Prairie. He was distinguished as having commanded several companies in service against Mexicans and Indians. Saunders was a young lawyer, and had served one term as chief justice of Montgomery county. King resided in what is now Madison county. Middleton and West resided north of the San Antonio road,—I think in the present county of Leon. Saunders died in Castle Perote, of prison fever; and so, I believe, did West. Pearson, King, and Middleton lived to return home. During their imprisonment, King and Middleton were chained together; and became such friends that they determined never to separate. Accordingly, after their return home, they bought adjacent tracts of land, and built their houses near the dividing line, fronting each other, and not many yards apart.

Judge Grimes passed the letter to Mr. Fanthorpe, of Alto Miro, who called a public meeting at that place; and it was publicly read by James W. Barnes. Its signers stated that all the prisoners were in much need of clothing, bedding, and wholesome food; and solicited aid of their countrymen in money, clothing, or blankets. They instructed us to send all supplies to a certain commercial house in New Orleans, which would forward them to a certain American firm in Vera Cruz, to be sent by American and English friends to the prisoners. They said that the two houses mentioned had promised to forward all supplies entrusted to them, free of charge; also that American and English friends would forward their letter to Judge Grimes. I handled that letter, and examined the writing and the signatures; though I did not read it all, but heard Barnes read it.

A committee was elected whose duties were to solicit, receive, and forward supplies, as directed in the letter. A subscription paper was immediately circulated, by which each subscriber promised, on or before a certain day, to pay to said committee a certain sum of money for the relief of our unfortunate countrymen who languished, as prisoners, in Castle Perote in Mexico. The sums thus promised amounted to between fifty and sixty dollars; but in consequence of the difficulty in forwarding,—and, I think, also the inactivity of the committee,—no relief was sent to the prisoners.

The letter gave a condensed but clear account of their capture, their cruel treatment, their march to the hacienda Salado, their escape and retreat, their recapture and return to the hacienda, the lottery of death, the execution of those who drew the black beans, their tedious march to Castle Perote, their imprisonment there, and the inhuman treatment to which they were subjected.

The account of the lottery, as I remember it, was as follows: The Mexicans placed one hundred and sixty-five beans, seventeen of which were black, in a crock. Then the prisoners, blindfolded, were led forward to the vessel, which was set on a block and covered with a handkerchief. Each had to run his hand under the handkerchief and draw out a bean. Then he was led back to his seat and his eyes uncovered. Being chained in pairs, all but one of the prisoners had to approach the vessel twice. When the drawing was completed a priest entered and offered absolution to those who had drawn the black beans and were to be shot. Only four of them accepted his offer. None of these were members of any church. The priest then conducted them into a room where he advised them and prayed for them about half an hour. Then the hands of the seventeen were bound and their chains were taken off. They were carried to the rear of the building and there shot. We could not see them, but we heard the firing and the groans and cries of some of the victims.

I noted that, according to the account contained in this letter, every tenth man was shot. Sixteen was less than the required number, and seventeen was more; and the Mexican commander had the larger number shot.

The letter closed with a request by Mr. West, who was unmarried, concerning his brother's little daughter. He had left a fine mare in charge of his brother; and, seeming to have a foreboding that he would never see home again, he requested that his brother be instructed to sell the mare for his little niece when he should have opportunity, and invest the proceeds in cattle for her benefit.

Robert H. Dunham's letter to his mother reached her before the return of his surviving comrades. Doubtless some of them had opportunity to send it to her. She resided at Groce's Retreat, in the present county of Grimes. She had two sons in service in the Somervell campaign. The eldest, Capt. D. T. Dunham (usually called Tom) commanded a company under General Somervell, but he returned home from the Rio Grande. Her second son, Robert H. Dunham, was brigade major of Somervell's command; but he crossed the Rio Grande with Colonel Fisher, was in the surrender at Mier, and was one of the seventeen who drew black beans, and were shot by order of Santa Anna. He was a pious young man, and led prayer with his doomed comrades who declined the priest's service. The tidings of his violent death sorely grieved his aged mother, and was believed to have hastened her own demise.

W. P. Zuber.

Did Texas Secede?—To what extent Texas, as a political body, was a party to secession will probably never be known. But that a greater part of the population of our State was in favor of the Union, I think is more than probable; and that the vote for secession did not receive the sanction of the people also seems probable. Had the votes of the country people, the farmers who lived away from the influence of political excitement, been fairly counted, it seems to me that the result would have been far different and that Texas would have remained in the Union and would have avoided the horrors of war as General Houston so eloquently besought her to do in his Address to the People of Texas, in which he tried to prevent the State for whose freedom he had shed his blood from rushing into a fate so dire as the one he foresaw would be hers in the war which was sure to follow disunion of the States.

I have often read that address of Gen. Houston's and talked with my mother of the vote which took our county, a part of Texas, out of the Union. I have also wondered if the experience of Chambers county was peculiar or general in the counting of votes, the result of which was to strew the bones of Texans over the fields of Virginia and so many other Southern States where they died gallantly fighting for the “Lost Cause,” a cause, alas, of which in their hearts they had not desired to make an issue.

To illustrate this I will relate an incident which occurred during the voting which was to decide whether Texas should remain in the Union or secede. This incident occurred at Double Bayou, a polling precinct of Chambers county, situated near Anahuac, the birthplace of Texas independence. “Straws show which way the wind blows.” The result of this election, in that small and humble precinct, if it may be called an election, which was to determine whether Texas should secede or remain in the Union, seemed to show that she did not secede.

My mother was then residing at Smith's Point, which was included in Double Bayou polling district, with Wallisville as the county seat of Chambers county, the latter having formerly been a part of Liberty county. She was a friend of General Houston, whom she had loved and honored from her early childhood; and when she read his burning words against secession it seemed to her that they would certainly carry conviction to those who were about to vote on the fate of their country. Consequently, she asked her husband to take the address with him to the polls and read it to the voters. When he returned she asked him if he had read it. He answered that there was no use in reading it, as the voters were almost unanimously against secession. Out of twenty-two votes cast, the total number of votes in the precinct, there was but one for secession, and it was cast by a Frenchman, a gunsmith by trade; yet when the returns were published there were but nineteen Union votes in all of Chambers county, the rest being, of course, for secession. It is quite certain that the sentiment of the rest of the county, as well as that of East Texas, judging from the expressions of individuals in general, was about the same as it was in Double Bayou.

After the war began these same men collected from different parts of the county at Double Bayou, where my step-father drilled them. Some enlisted and some were conscripted, but however gotten, they were formed into companies and marched off to check invasion.

It seems that the question as to whether Texas seceded will always remain unanswered.

Mrs. Agnes Paschal McNeir.