Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas Page: 277 of 894
762 p., [172] leaves of plates : ill., ports. ; 30 cm.View a full description of this book.
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246
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
"The opening of the Civil War brought us a new
era of trial and suffering. My husband was a
Union man. He left the country on account of his
views on slavery and secession and remained in the
North until the restoration of peace. My two eldest
sons, aged sixteen and nineteen, were conscripted
into the Confederate Army but, subsequently,
while on a furlough, swam the Rio Grande, made
their escape and joined the Union forces at Brazos
de Santiago, and later went to Washington City,
where they secured positions in the Department of
the Interior and remained until 1868. Most of our
property was swept away during the four years
struggle, some of our losses being caused by
Indians who made frequent incursions into the
country and stole cattle, horses and sheep from
the ranches, sometimes murdering the ranchmen."
"But," said Mrs. Dignowity in conclusion, "in
spite of these unpleasant recollections, San Antonio
is very dear to me and I am every inch a Texian.
During the past twenty years I have traveled extensively
throughout the Union but I cannot say
that I have ever found any place I like better then
this and I have no higher wish than to here pass in
the quiet of my home, surrounded by my childrenand grandchildren, the remainder of the years
allotted to me on earth."
Mrs. Dignowity has living five sons and one
daughter and ten grandchildren, all of whom reside
near her. Very naturally her chief thoughts now
center in these, and she in turn is the recipient of
their unbounded affection. Her time for the past
five years has been devoted to her estate, to her
children and to her taste for the arts in a small
way. She feels, as she says, that with all the trials
her bright days have been more than her dark ones
and that she has much to be thankful for. The
secret of her cheerful disposition and elasticity of
spirits, perhaps lies in the fact that she has passed
much of her time in intimate association with her
children and grandchildren, whose purposes, hopes
and ambitions, she has actively interested herself
in, and in the further fact that she has kept up her
reading habit formed in girlhood and her interest in
art work, thus drawing, as it were, daily inspiration
from tie only real fountain of youth. She has received
from the judges of theInternational State Fair
and the State Art Association two gold medals for
art work and carving; one diploma, one honorable
mention and fifteen premiums from the different
departments.MRS. SARAH ANN BRACHES,
GONZALES COUNTY.Tears, idle tears, I know not wnat they mean,
Tears from the depth of some divine despair,
Rise in the heart and gather to the eyes,
In looking on the happy Autumn fields,
And thinking of the days that are no more.
Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail,
That brings our friends up from the under-world,
Sad as the last which reddens over one
That sinks with all we love below the verge;
So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more.
Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns
The earliest pipe of half awakened birds,
To dying ears, when unto dying eyes,
The casement slowly grows a glimmering square;
So sad, so strange, the days that are no more.
Dear as remembered kisses after death,
And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feign'd,
On lips that are for others; deep as love,
Deep as first love, and mild with all regret;
0, death in life, the days that are no more.
TENNYSON.Mrs. Sarah Ann Braches, who died at her home
on Peach creek, near the town of Gonzales, October
17th, 1894, aged eighty-three years and seven
months, was one of the last survivors of the colonists
who came to Texas in 1831.
Although confined to her bed for a number of
years, she was ever cheerful, and would laugh or
cry with the changing theme as she recounted with
glowing imagery the story of the hardships and
perils through which she passed in her earlier years.
Her memory was remarkably retentive, and her
mind singularly clear, almost up to the moment of
her death. She was the representative of a race
that redeemed the wilderness and won freedom for
Texas. Upon the broad foundation it laid, has
been erected the noble superstructure of later times.
Truly a mother of Israel has passed away. May
the flower-gemmed sod rest lightly above her pulseless
form, and her memory be preserved in grateful
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A history of pioneers in Texas and their confrontations with local American Indians.
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Brown, John Henry. Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas, book, 1880~; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6725/m1/277/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.