The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 54, July 1950 - April, 1951 Page: 326
544 p. : ill., ports., maps. (some col.) ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
picker now makes $12 per day,"6 and two months later, he
advised Lapham to "bring out a Bull of the beef kind a wagon
or two would sell well here."7
When Lapham returned to Texas in 1835, it was to find war
talk on all sides, for the dissatisfaction with Mexico was rapidly
coming to a boil. The Ohioan, however, had returned to survey,
not to fight, and in December, 1835, he was in Fort Bend doing
just that, not succumbing to the patriotic call to arms until the
following February 23.8
Perhaps because his surveying experience gave him a superior
knowledge of Texas topography, Lapham was assigned to active
spying after enlisting in the army. After Sam Houston's army
had evacuated the Colorado country, Lapham and three others
stayed behind to scout the Mexicans. When the fourth day came
and no report, Lapham's friends believed he must be either
killed or captured, but on that day he returned to the army.
Before the battle of San Jacinto he volunteered to join Deaf
Smith's band in the dramatically inconsequential destruction of
Vince's bridge, returning just in time to participate in the April
21 rout of the Mexicans. Like a typical enlisted man of any age
he believed the Texians won the battle despite the officers. Ac-
cording to Lapham, the Mexicans spotted the Texians at three
hundred to four hundred yards and began to fire before the
advancing army came into range. The Texian officers then or-
dered their men to fire at two hundred yards, but the men
ignored the order, advancing within one hundred yards before
opening up.9
About September 29, 1836, Lapham left the army to return
to surveying with Thomas and Gail Borden. A prospectus for
the proposed town of Houston had been advertised in the Tele-
graph and Texas Register;o the first of October found Lapham in
OT. H. Borden to Moses Lapham, September 4, 1833.
7T. H. Borden to Moses Lapham, November 7, 1833.
sMoses Lapham to Amos Lapham, December 26, 1835; May 17, 1836. Moses
Lapham to Levi Lapham, January 31, 1836. Moses Lapham to Mr. and Mrs. Amos
Lapham, February 15, 1836.
*Moses Lapham to Amos Lapham, May 17, 1836. T. H. Borden to Amos Lapham,
August 9, 1836. For a more detailed account of Lapham's army career, see S. H.
Dixon and L. W. Kemp, The Heroes of San Jacinto (Houston, 1932), and Mr.
Kemp's manuscript notes on the San Jacinto participants (in the Archives, Texas
State Library).
loTelegraph and Texas Register (Columbia), August 3o, 1836.36
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 54, July 1950 - April, 1951, periodical, 1951; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101133/m1/438/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.