NOTES AND FRAGMENTS.

Records of the Mission of Nuestra Senora del Refugio.— It has been supposed by writers that the mission of Nuestra Señora del Refugio, more commonly called the mission of Refugio, situated near Copano Bay, Texas, ceased to exist as an active mission as early as 1812. But the discovery of two original record books of this mission in the archives of the parish church of Matamoros, Tamaulipas, shows that this supposition is incorrect, and that, on the contrary, the mission continued in operation, till 1828.

One of the books referred to is a record of baptisms from 1807 to 1828, while the other is a record of burials from 1807 to 1825. They are bound in leather and are in a good state of preservation. The tradition is that they were taken to Matamoros during the Texas revolution, which is an altogether plausible explanation when we know from positive evidence that important secular records were taken there from Goliad at that time. It is not improbable that the reason why they have remained at Matamoros till the present is that it has been erroneously supposed, through a confusion of names, that they related to the parish church where they are preserved, whose early name was Nuestra Señora del Refugio de los Esteros, or, more commonly, Nuestra Señora del Refugio.

The cover-title of the book of baptisms is “Libro No. 2. 1807. Bautismos. Confirmaciones del Año 1868.” The inside, and correct, title is “Libro II de Bautism[o]s Hechos en la Mision de Ntra. Sra. del Refugio de la Bahia Desde el año de 1807.” The record shows 214 baptisms, the earliest being April 21, 1807, and the latest February 21, 1828. A number of the persons baptised were Spaniards. A note on folio 35 states that “all of the baptisms made after the ninth of July, 1824, were performed at the Parochial Church (la Parroquia) of la Bahia, because the Minister could not remain in the Mission, on account of the hostilities of the Comanches.” The implication is plain that up to July 9, 1824, the mission activities were conducted at Refugio, and that thereafter until February, 1828, the mission continued to exist, but that its functions were performed at Bahia (Goliad). The cause of the abandonment is seen to be the Comanche depredations. Baptisms are shown for every year except 1826. The average number for the twenty-one years was slightly more than ten per year. The period of greatest activity was between 1808 and 1819, when the average was about fifteen baptisms per year.

Lest it be supposed that the persons baptized were all children of survivors of a long dead mission, it may be noted that a considerable percentage up to the last were children of “gentiles,” fresh from the woods. The tribes represented were the Carancahuases, Pihuiques (Piguiques), Copanes, Huapites (Coapites), Pamaques, Cujanes, Malaguites, (Malaquites, Malahuites), Pajalaches, Tobosos, Cocos, Xaranames (from the mission of Espíritu Santo), and Lipanes.

The title on the cover of the book of burials is, strangely enough, “Entierros, Mision Mision (sic) de Ntro. Padre Sor. S. José de Camargo. XX. No. 4.” The inside, and correct, title is “Libro II De Entierros. Hechos en la Mision de Ntra. Sra. del Refugio de la Bahia Desde el año de 1807.” It contains 157 entries, between May 16, 1807, and Nov. 18, 1825. A number of these, as of the baptisms, were of Spaniards. When we note that twenty-seven of the one hundred and seven, or one-fourth, of the persons buried during the last eleven years were killed by the Indians, we can understand that Indian depredations furnished a sufficient reason for deserting the unprotected mission. Fifteen of these twenty-seven, buried in 1814 all at one time, were persons killed at Rancho Diexmero, on the Nueces.

From the signatures affixed to the records we learn the names of the missionaries in charge of the congregation during the period covered. Most of the baptisms and burials between 1807 and 1817 were performed by Fray José Manuel Gaitán, “minister of this mission of Ntra. Sra. del Refugio.” Fray Juan Maria Sepulveda signed entries in 1810 and 1811. An entry shows that this father died and was himself buried at Refugio on June 28, 1815. At the time of his death he was minister of the mision of Espíritu Santo de Zuñiga, and was about thirty-four years of age. In 1817 and 1818 some of the entries were signed by Fray Antonio José Diaz De León. After 1818 all of the entries were signed by Fray Miguel Muñoz.

These brief notes have been prepared from much fuller ones with the hope that they may supply welcome information regarding the little known Refugio mission at the same time that they bring to light these precious records of the Old Regime. It will be observed that each of the books is No. II of a series. The earlier ones, covering the period from 1791, when the mission was established, to 1807, were not found.

Herbert E. Bolton.

Imanuel Frederick Gibenrath, the German Drummer of Goliad.—[The following sketch appeared in the Houston Post of July 31, 1910.] When volunteers were being enlisted in Kentucky during the fall of 1835 for the assistance of the Texans in their revolt against Mexico there was in the city of Louisville a young German named Imanuel Frederick Gibenrath. The place which gave him birth was Wittenberg, and there he had left his wife, two little girls, the younger still in infancy, when, a few years before, he had emigrated to America, the land of promise.

Having landed first at Baltimore, he there made acquaintances and friends, but the spirit of adventure beckoned him toward the West, and in the city of Louisville, Kentucky, he found profitable employment in a factory. He was eagerly looking forward to the time when his earnings would permit him to send for his family to join him. But a call was made for volunteers to aid the liberty-loving Texans, a vision of a fairer land arose before him, his martial spirit took fire, he had served in the army of his fatherland as a drummer boy, and his skill with the flying sticks now did good service in calling together volunteers. He joined one of the companies and marched with his young comrades to Texas. How the merry music of his drum quickened their steps on the long and tedious march, how its rumblings and bellowings seemed to tell of coming battle and its thrilling reverberations sounded the note of certain victory!

History tells us nothing of his adventures on the way, whether he entertained hopes or fears, but we find on one of its bloodiest pages the record that among the dead who were massacred with Fannin at La Bahia on that memorable Palm Sunday, 1836, was Frederick Gibenrath, a member of Captain Peyton S. Wyatt's company, Oliver Smith in command.

How brief the record of many a gallant soldier's fate: “Dead on the field of honor.”

In the city of Goliad, in Fannin Park, there stands a noble marble shaft; on the north side is engraved the battle cry of San Jacinto, “Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!” on the west, “Independence declared March 2, A. D. 1836, consummated April 21, A. D. 1836”; on the south, “Fannin; erected in memory of Fannin and his comrades”; and on the east, “Massacred March 27, A. D. 1836.” It forms at once an epitome of history, and the epitaph of the German drummer and his companions, whose bodies, after lying for more than two months unburied, were deposited with military honors near the old mission church of La Bahia.

When the widow of Imanuel Frederick Gibenrath, with her two children, reached Texas in 1839, she met and talked with men who told her particulars of the last days of her husband. One said that Gibenrath foresaw that the Mexicans were deceiving the Texans, and told his comrades that they were going to be butchered instead of being paroled, as they had been led to believe. Among articles picked up on the field of slaughter were pieces of brass bands of the drum of the German drummer, which were given to his widow and cherished by her as a precious memento.

After her husband's death, Mrs. Gibenrath, whose maiden name was Christina Johanna Hildwein, was married to John Frederick Hassmann, and she died in Houston many years ago. Her two children, daughters of Gibenrath, grew to womanhood, and the elder, Rosanna Balistier, died in New Orleans at the Little Sisters of the Poor, an institution which she had assisted in founding; the other, Katharine Gibenrath Hooker, now in her eighty-first year, lives in Houston at the home of her grandson, George Allien.

Mrs. Hooker was married four times; her first husband was Frank B. Allien, the father of Captain Fred Allien, a well known citizen living at Morgan's Point.

Mrs. Hooker has passed through many thrilling scenes. Living in New Orleans during the war between the States, she was under military surveillance while the Federals were in possession, and her ardent Southern feeling subjected her to danger of arrest on several occasions. Her familiarity with four languages, German, English, French and Spanish, combined with her ready wit, enabled her to extricate herself from severely trying situations at this period.

She is still strong and lively in spite of her four score years; her life has been full of good work; many a sick bed has she tended; many a helpless orphan has she soothed and cared for; after all the trials of her long and varied life she still wears a cheerful smile, and her heart beats in sympathy with the young and hopeful. As the daughter of a man who gave his life for Texas, and the widow of Mr. Hooker, a Confederate soldier, she is identified with two important epochs of this country's history. Scores of family letters written in German and yellow with age, which she carefully treasures, tell of the Gibenraths and the Hildweins for many generations away back in Suabia, but her pride centers on the Gibenrath, her father, who was one of “Fannin's men” and a Texan.

Adele B. Looscan.

Professor John A. Lomax, of the University of Texas, is collecting Folk-Songs of the United States, and would appreciate assistance from members of the Historical Association. “Whenever,” says Professor Lomax, “people, from whatever cause, live for a time in primitive isolation they make songs that reflect the feelings of the whole community. Such songs also spring up from groups of unlettered men following a particular occupation, especially one that calls for supreme physical effort. In most cases the authorship can be traced to no one person. The songs are perhaps rarely written out, and less seldom find their way into print. They are often crude in form and matter, sometimes vulgar, but always interesting as a reflection of the intimate life of the people. These are the Folk-Songs, either handed down by `word of mouth' from generation to generation, or entirely submerged in the rush of progress or lost through the dominion of the newspaper.”

Types of the ballad in which he is interested are the lumber songs of the Northern forests, sailor songs, mining songs, army songs, fishing songs, cowboy songs, negro songs, etc., etc. He has already more than a hundred cowboy songs, and thinks that his collection is far from complete.

Professor Lomax particularly desires information concerning the romance of “Mustang Gray,” and wishes to complete the Texas revolutionary balled which begins: To Houston at Gonzales town  Ride, Ranger, for your life;  Nor stop nor stay  This day to say  Good-bye to child or wife. 

Judge Z. T. Fulmore, whose sketch of General Volney E. Howard appears in this number of The Quarterly, is preparing a volume, which will be published during the winter by Rand, McNally &Company, giving in compendious form the history of the county names of Texas.

Mrs. Adele B. Looscan is preparing for The Quarterly a history of Harris county. It will be based largely on the records in the country clerk's office. This is an important phase of local history, and it is to be hoped that other members of the Association will take up the work in their own counties.