The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 70, July 1966 - April, 1967 Page: 42
728 p. : maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
wheel on his back so that his arms would be free to use his
single-barreled flintlock shotgun in case of an Indian attack. He
put the bench across his lap so that he could throw it aside at
a moment's notice. Rufus carried the head, spindle, and smaller
parts of the spinning wheel. The flintlock holster pistol tied to
the horn of his saddle seemed to afford much less protection than
it had on the way down to Tenoxtitlan. They covered the four-
teen miles of the return journey without mishap, although they
expected to be attacked by Indians every step of the way. And
never was a boy more relieved to see his mother than was little
Rufus when Mrs. King welcomed him home that day."5
Two weeks after that raid, a little one-act play was published
in a Houston newspaper. The scene was laid at a ford on the
Brazos, near Tenoxtitlan. A traveler was standing on the opposite
bank of the river, gazing intently upon the ruined village. A
hunter approached, and in the ensuing conversation it was re-
vealed that Tenoxtitlan had been deserted. One reason for its
abandonment was that the land titles in that area were still in
dispute. The other reason was that President Houston's Indian
policy had left the settlers at Tenoxtitlan completely unprotected."6
So it was that Tenoxtitlan, first founded as a bulwark against
Anglo-American immigration, then converted into a shelter for
those same immigrants, and twice-told dream capital of Texas,
passed into oblivion.
At present, the site is marked by a gray granite marker erected
in 1936 by the Texas Centennial Commission, which bears the
following inscription:
2000 FEET SOUTH
SITE OF
FORT TENOXTITLAN
ESTABLISHED BY THE MEXICAN GOVERN-
MENT IN JULY, 1830, IN AN ATTEMPT TO
STEM ANGLO-AMERICAN SETTLEMENT.
NAMED IN HONOR OF THE AZTEC CAP-
ITOL, NOW MEXICO CITY. ABANDONED
55R. Y. King, "An Indian Story," Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Reunion of
the Old Settlers' Association of Bell County, Held at Belton, Texas, September
27th, 19o0 ([Belton], 19o2).
6Telegraph and Texas Register (Houston), June 2, 1841.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 70, July 1966 - April, 1967, periodical, 1967; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101199/m1/60/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.