The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 66, July 1962 - April, 1963 Page: 425

Notes and Documents

During the Mexican War, Erhard moved to Hays County where
he was elected the first county clerk in 1847, became the first post-
master, and opened the first store in San Marcos. In January,
1851, he received 32o acres of land for his services on the Santa
Fe Expedition and in June he married Harriet E. Smith of Bra-
zoria. Money from the sale of the bounty land paid for the con-
struction of a drug store in San Marcos, and during the 1850's
Erhard prospered. Two sons and a daughter were born during
these years.
Erhard remained in business at San Marcos during the Civil
War. In October, 1865, however, he moved his store to Bastrop
and continued there as a druggist. Cayton again became a local
official in 1872 when Republican Governor Edmund J. Davis
appointed him judge of municipal elections in Bastrop. By 1875
Erhard had returned to the Democratic Party and led the Bastrop
delegation to Austin for the state constitutional convention which
followed the end of Reconstruction in Texas.
In the fall of 1882 Cayton Erhard began to write his reminis-
cences of the Texan Santa Fe Expedition for weekly publication
in the San Marcos Free Press. He carefully placed each article in
a scrapbook until his death on July 21, 1884. The series ran from
November 16, 1882, to July 24, 1884.1
For many years there had been vague rumors of another ac-
count of the Santa Fe expedition of 1841, some of them connected
with Cayton Erhard. Through the intelligence and patience of
his daughter Cora Erhard of Bastrop, who preserved her father's
scrapbook and papers, the mantle of mystery finally has been re-
moved from Cayton Erhard's contribution to the historiography
of that significant chapter in Texas history. The entire Erhard
Collection has been placed in the Archives of the University of
Texas Library.
In a letter to the San Marcos Free Press written prior to pub-
1C. Erhard to Genl. McLeod. August 14, 1848; Land Grant, P. H. Bell to Kayetan
[sic] Erhard, January 3, 1851; Cayton Erhard, "Reminiscences of the Republic of
Texas," undated newspaper clipping; Billy Pitts, "Recollections of Uncle Billy
Pitts," undated newspaper clipping; Alfred E. Menn, "Oldest Texas Drug Store in
Bastrop," undated newspaper clipping, all in Cayton Erhard Collection (Archives,
University of Texas Library); Seth Shepard McKay, Debates in the Texas Constitu-
tional Convention of 1875 (Austin, 1930), 167, 239, 326; Dudley R. Dobie, A Brief
History of Hays County and San Marcos, Texas (San Marcos, 1948), 16, 18, 20-21.

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