A Texas Pioneer . By August Santleben , edited by I. D. Affleck. [New York and Washington: The Neale Publishing Company, 1910. Pp. 321.]
The parents of August Santleben came to Texas from Germany in 1845, when he was only a few months old. He grew up on the frontier near Castroville and served as a mail-carrier, a private in E. J. Davis's regiment—the First Texas (Union) Cavalry—1863-1865, as a stage driver, 1866-1867, and as a freight-contractor between San Antonio and Monterey, Saltillo and Chihuahua, 1867-1877. In later years he has been engaged in business and politics in San Antonio.
His autobiography, though concerned chiefly with personal experiences, nevertheless, presents an interesting picture of the anterailroad days on both sides of the Rio Grande, and especially of the methods and difficulties of transportation between Texas and Mexico when it was dependent upon the slow, squeaking, clumsy Mexican ox-carts or even the trains of huge freight wagons drawn by mule-teams. The organization of the wagon-train, the long drives between watering places, the precautions necessary against Indians and white robbers are simply but vividly detailed; while the statements as to the heavy freight charges and the infrequent arrival of the caravans emphasize to this later generation the cost and scarcity of even simple luxuries and comforts on the frontier. Here is presented considerable data, both social and economic, that may be of service to the future historian of the Texas frontier. The coming of the railroad to San Antonio in 1877 and its rapid extension westward put the wagon trains out of business and transformed the adventurous Indian-country freighter into a ward politician and the head of a transfer company in San Antonio!
The author has the helpful habit of connecting with interesting incidents the names of living individuals from his wide circle of acquaintances in both Texas and Mexico. Among the last chapters are some giving an interesting account of the settlement of Castroville and the adjacent communities. There is also a list “from memory” of prominent families in San Antonio between 1845 and 1857, a period, by the way, which belonged to the childhood of the author and before he could, by his own account, have been very well acquainted with the town.
The editor has not succeeded in correcting all errors of grammar and diction; but it would be ungrateful to cavil at the language of an old frontiersman, which, indeed, is generally clear and direct enough. Every person interested in the history of the border should be glad that the book is written.
Charles W. Ramsdell .
How to cite:
Ramsdell, Charles W., "A Texas Pioneer", Volume 015, Number 1, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, Page 91 - 92. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v015/n1/review_25.html
[Accessed Mon Nov 23 8:11:11 CST 2009]
