Memorial and Biographical History of Dallas County, Texas. Page: 358 of 1,110
vii, 9-1011 p. incl. ill., ports. : ports. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this book.
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HISTORY OF DALLAS OOUNTY.
evidently the little girl Maria (Mareah)
who was returned to the Indians, under the
authority of President Sam Houston in 1843
by commissioner Joseph C. Eldridge with
Messrs. Thomas Torrey and Hamilton P.
Bee.
General H. P. Bee in his notes of
this expedition, says in substance that this
little Indian girl, named Maria, was taken at
the council house fight, at San Antonio,
March 19, 1840. She had been carefully
trained, spoke English well, and had entirely
lost her own language. Describing the
parting scene of the unsuccessful mission,
General Bee wrote for his children many
years ago: '"Now Captain Eldridge tendered
to the chief little Maria, a beautiful Indian
child, neatly dressed. A scene followed
which brought tears to the eyes of not only
the white men but also of the Delawares.
The child seemed horrified, clung desperately
and imploringly to Captain Eldredge, and
screamed most piteously. It was simply
heart-rending. She was taken up by a huge
warrior and borne away, uttering piercing
cries of despair. For years afterward she
was occasionally heard of, still bearing the
name of Maria (Mareah), acting as interpreter
at Indian councils."
They remained near the village two days,
prospecting for gold in the surrounding
country, and soon afterward left for home,
which was reached at the end of an absence
of nearly two months.
In December, 1850, in Dallas county, Mr.
McCommas married Miss Rhoda Ann Tucker.
His brothers, John and Wm. M., married
sisters of the same lady. She was the daughter
of John S. and Agnes (McNew) Tucker,
natives of Virginia, while their children were
born in Missouri. They settled on a farm in
Dallas county in 1848. Mr. Tucker left thecounty on business and was never heard of.
The widow resides with Mr. McOommas. In
1862, Mr. McCommas volunteered in Company
B., Nineteenth Texas Cavalry, under
Colonel Nat. M. Burford, and served in
Arkansas, Missouri and Louisiana. He was
with Marmaduke's expedition into Missouri,
and in the Red river campaigns later. At
the close of the war, he returned to his farm
in Dallas county-a splendid tract of
270 acres, well improved and commanding
a fine view of Dallas and the
vicinity. Mr. and Mrs. McCommas have
had ten children, eight of whom survive, viz.:
Stephen B. of Hill county; Sarah Ann, who
died at the age of thirty-three years; Alexander,
of Hill county; Lou V., wife of D. B.
White of Hill county; Mary A., now Mrs. B.
F. Burgess of Dallas county; Martha E., wife
of L. B. De Ford of Hill county; Rhoda M.
(deceased), wife of R. L. White; George E.,
Walter G. and Wallic E. are still with
their parents.
Mr. McCommas has been for seventeen
years an active member of the Dallas County
Pioneer Association, and almost continuously
one of its officers, doing all in his power to
make it what such an association ought to
be. He is justly regarded as one of the most
upright, honorable and useful citizens of the
county, in which he' has lived forty-eight
years, and blest with a wife worthy of such
a man, and now at the age of sixty-two appears
as youthful as most men at forty.
C. MoCORD
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Lewis Publishing Company. Memorial and Biographical History of Dallas County, Texas., book, 1892; Chicago, Illinois. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth20932/m1/358/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Dallas Public Library.