The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 49, July 1945 - April, 1946 Page: 75
717 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 24 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The House of Barr and Davenport
furnished the government for Indian presents indicate that the
volume of business in this branch of trade was considerable.
Every time a group of Indians visited Nacogdoches the military
commandant ordered Barr and Davenport to furnish them food
and tobacco.28 Oxcarts and mule trains plodded laboriously from
Natchitoches to Nacogdoches across the Neutral Ground loaded
with supplies for the Indian trade. This merchandise consisted
of tobacco, lead, gunpowder, beads, mirrors, vermillion, flints,
axes, hoes, knives, combs, awls, scissors, wire, sugar, salt,
blankets, handkerchiefs, and clothing materials such as baize,
chintz, and woolen cloth.29 In return for these goods the House
of Barr and Davenport was paid in cash by the government
and in horses, peltries, and furs by the Indians. These horses
were sold in Louisiana or in West Florida and brought the
traders often as much as 2,720 pesos ($3,944) in one trip.30
The House of Barr and Davenport collected for small services
rendered the army. They furnished candles for the army hos-
pital and barracks in Nacogdoches and San Antonio.3x A stone
house in Nacogdoches belonging to the traders was leased to
the paymaster's office from July 15, 1807, to February 25, 1809,
for 193 pesos.32
28See, for instance:
Statement of the amount that, in compliance with orders of Commandant
Don Francisco Viana, we gave to one Indian believed to belong to the Texas
tribe, together with eight braves, five squaws, and three boys, from the
seventh of the current month when they came to this town to this date.
To wit:
Pesos Reales
2 almudes [2.56 bu.] of corn . .... . 6
1 almud of beans .......... 1
lard and salt .......... 1
meat ......... 2
2 tobacco twists ........ 1 4
1 cart-load of wood . . . . . . . . 6
7 0
Nacogdoches, January 7, 1807
Barr y Davenport.
MS., Bexar Archives.
29lnvoice of goods sent by Barr and Davenport to Nacogdoches for the
Indian trade, Murphy, May 25, 1808; Invoice, June 30, 1808; Invoice, June
16, 1808; Invoice, July 20, 1808; Invoice, August 23, 1808. MS., Bexar
Archives.
30The type of horses traded by Indians generally brought about ten
pesos per head.- S. Davenport to Captain Juan de Casas, December 25,
1808, MS., Bexar Archives.
31Barr y Davenport, January 1, 1808, MS., and Mariano Varela to
Manuel de Salcedo, August 20, 1810, MS., Bexar Archives.
32Barr y Davenport, June 6, 1810, MS., Bexar Archives.75
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 49, July 1945 - April, 1946, periodical, 1946; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth146056/m1/86/: accessed March 29, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.