The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 5, July 1901 - April, 1902 Page: 169
370 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Notes and Fragments.
169
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 poll-
ing precinct of Chambers county, situated near Anahuac, the birth-
place of Texas independence. "Straws show which way the wind
blows." The result of this election, in that small and humble pre-
cinct, 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.
Mly 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 nine-
teen 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 got-
ten, 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 PASOHAL MCNEI.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 5, July 1901 - April, 1902, periodical, 1902; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101021/m1/175/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.