Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas Page: 308 of 894
762 p., [172] leaves of plates : ill., ports. ; 30 cm.View a full description of this book.
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266
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
He was laid to rest on the summit of the mountain
beside his beloved wife. He was greatly beloved
by the entire community and the people omitted no
mark of respect to his memory that friendship for
him and admiration for his character could prompt.
He was associated as a brave companion with men
whose deeds have made Texas famous. He maintained
throughout a life marked with many hardships,
vicissitudes and perils a character unsulliedby a single stain. He was modest, truthful, generous
and kind and devoted to his God, his country,
his family and his friends. He accumulated a
handsome fortune. By his last will and testament
he constituted his sister, Miss Susan Tivy, his sole
legatee and she and Judge A. McFarland were
made executors without bond. Mr. Tivy was one
of the noblest representatives of the noblest race of
pioneers that the world has ever known.GEO. W. O'BRIEN,
BEAUMONT.Capt. George W. O'Brien, one of the most widely
known and highly esteemed citizens of Southern
Texas, was born about five miles below the present
town of Abbeville, Vermillion Parish, Louisiana,
May 28th, 1833; and in his seventeenth year
(November, 1848) came to Texas and located at
Galveston, where he made his home, until his removal
in the latter part of 1852, to Beaumont,
where he has ever since resided. At Beaumont,
July 21st, 1854, he was united in marriage to Miss
Sarah E. Rowley, member of another Louisiana
family that had settled in that part of Texas. Of
this union were born seven children, five of whom
are now living, viz.: Mrs. Minnie G. Stark (formerly
Wilson); Mrs. Lillie E. Townsend, wife of
Mr. T. L. Townsend, and Mrs. Emma E. Smith,
formerly wife of A. S. John, Esq., deceased, but
now the wife of Mr. Harvey B. Smith, all now residents
of Dallas, Texas; George C. O'Brien, Esq.,
of Beaumont, recently district attorney of his district
and later a member of the House of Representatives
of the Texas Legislature, and Mrs. Kaleta B. James,
wife of Mr. William James, of Cleburne, Texas.
Capt. O'Brien won the military prefix to his name
by faithful and gallant service under the Confederate
flag, whose waning fortunes he followed until
it was furled forever.
From September 4th to December 10th, 1861, he
served as a privatein Company F. (Capt. K. Bryans),
Fifth Texas Regiment, and afterwards, until the end
of the war, as Captain of a company in what was
first Liken's Battalion, afterwards Speights' Battalion,
and later Speights' Texas Regiment -a mixed
regiment. While not a seeker after political distinction
or preferment, he has been frequently
honored by his fellow-Democrats with importantoffices; has served as a member of many district
and State conventions and has ever been a wellknown
and trusted member of the organized Democracy,
to which he has preserved an unshaken
allegiance, and in whose interests he has helped
plan and fight many successful political battles.
He was a member of the National Democratic
Convention that met at Baltimore in 1872.
In the presidential campaign of that year he
favored the nomination of a sound conservative
Northern Democrat, foretelling that Mr. Greely
would not be accepted as a Democrat North or
South, and that his nomination would result in an
overwhelming defeat. Indeed, in this instance, as
in many others, his cool and dispassionate judgment
was demonstrated by pointing out the true
course to be pursued, and relieved him of personal
responsibility for party failures. For instance,
although always entertaining a great admiration for
Gen. Sam Houston, he did not permit that majestic
leader to draw him into the folly of connecting
himself with the secret oath-bound political organization
that styled itself the American party, but
which is better known to history as the Know-Nothing
party, giving as one of his reasons for refusing
to follow Houston, his belief that the Know-Nothing
party in seeking to proscribe a denomination of
religion, was committed to a policy obnoxious to
the fundamental principles that form the foundation
of our government, and all constitutional freedom
as well. When this party was in its heyday, and
sweeping the country, he predicted its speedy disintegration,
claiming that no organization seeking
to ostracise any class of citizens because of their
peculiar religious faith, could long find favor with
the American people.
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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/m1/308/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.