The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 18, July 1914 - April, 1915 Page: 287

Allen's Reminiscences of Texas, 1838-18422

ALLEN'S REMINISCENCES OF TEXAS, 1838-1842
EDITED BY WILLIAM S. RED
II
Rockville, Ind., April 15th, '79.
The Men of Galveston Forty Years Ago.2-Gail Borden was a
collector of customs. He occupied a rambling old building near
the landing. There was no wharf then. We rowed as near the
shore as a small boat could go for the mud. Then, we mounted
a sailor's back, and in this way he staggered out to dry land at
the imminent risk of slipping on the slimy bottom and letting
us down in the water. Gail lived then far out of town towards
the Gulf. He made me feel at home whenever I was in town.
He was one of the noblest men and friend of religion, although
not then a member of a church. He was one of the first mem-
bers of the Baptist Church, organized, I think, in 1841. Dr.
Levi Jones was another staunch personal friend, at whose house
I found a home whenever I was in town, after his family came
to him in the summer of 1838'. I had known him in Kentucky,
where he was a medical student. He married a, member of the
church in which I was brought up.
Then, there was Moseley Baker, a many sided man, one of my
most generous friends. He subscribed one thousand dollars to
build the first church in Houston. His wife was a Presbyterian.
He was then far from being a religious man. But in 1846 I met
him in Kentucky. He was then a Methodist preacher and seemed
truly a devout man.
McKinney and Williams were the principal business men of
the place. [Thomas F.] McKinney was a man of extraordinary
energy. He did not wait to be carried out from a boat on a
sailor's back, but generally waded out. It was said of him, that
wishing to go south from his home, away up, on the Brazos river,
1The first installment of these reminiscences appeared in THE QUAR-
TERLY, XVII, 283-305. For circumstances of their original publication
see Ibid., 43, note 1, and 283, note 1.
'Texas Presbyterian, IV, No. 9. April 18, 1879.

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