Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas Page: 344 of 894
762 p., [172] leaves of plates : ill., ports. ; 30 cm.View a full description of this book.
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294
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
fight a tribe of hostile Indians, who were depredating
in the neighborhood of Yorktown. We were
soon mounted and equipped and off for the place
of rendezvous. We reached the Cabesa that same
night, where our troops, consisting of some thirty
men, camped and elected Capt. York as commander,
and Messrs. William Taylor, Jno. Thomlinson and
Rufus Taylor were detailed as spies and skirmishers.
Next morning the company, as organized, started
to meet the foe, whom we encountered about three
o'clock p. m. on the Escondido east of the San
Antonio river, about fifteen miles west of the
present town of Yorktown, just as our company
filed around a point of timber. The Indians,
about sixty to seventy strong, lay in ambush.
Our company was not marching in rank and
file, but in an irregular way, not expecting to meet
the enemy so soon. Capt. York and Mr. Bell were
in front, followed immediately by John Pettus and
myself. The Indians raised the well-known and
hideous war-whoop and immediately opened on us
with a terrible fire of musketry. The majority of
our men took to flight and left not more than ten
or twelve of us, who made a stand, taking advantage
of a little grove near by, where the Texians
returned a sharp fire upon the Indians, who still
remained in ambush, only exposing their heads
now and then as they fired, thus having a decided
advantage over the men who were only protected
by a few thin trees. It was here that Mr. Bell
and Capt. York were killed. The former, a sonin-law
of Capt. York, was shot at the first fire
and mortally wounded, but he was carried along to
the little mott, where Capt. York and myself
bent over him to dress his wounds, but he died in
our hands. At this juncture Mr. Jim York, son of
Capt. York, was shot in the head. Capt. York
called me to assist him in dressing his son's
wounds. I tore off a piece of his shirt and bandaged
his wounds as well as possible. Capt. York,
overcome by grief, ran continually from his son to
his son-in-law, and thus exposed himself to the fire
of the enemy, notwithstanding I kept warning him,
and was soon struck by the fatal ball which
instantly killed him. A counsel of war was now
held by the remaining troops, consisting of eight or
nine men all told, and we decided to proceed to a
little mound or elevation near by, where we might
flank the Indians in their ambush. In attempting
to gain this point the Indians kept up a continuous
fusillade, which we returned, and by the time we
reached the elevation and directed our fire from
behind a cluster of large live oaks on the exposed
flank of the savages, they soon retired from their
position and disappeared from the field. Thusended probably the last Indian fight in Southwest
Texas, and such were the stirring scenes of that
time."
Mr. Kleberg had the good fortune to outlive this
period of romance and adventure, and to see his
adopted State and country developed to grand proportions
in population and wealth under the magic
wand of civilization.
In politics Judge Kleberg was always a consistent
and intelligent Democrat; a strong believer
in State rights and local self-government,
and an ardent admirer of the American system
of government, and in his severest trials as
an early settler, and in the gloomiest hour of
the Republic and State of his adoption he never
faltered in his faith in the free institutions of
this country, and spurned the idea of returning to
a monarchical form of government. In religion he
was free of all orthodoxy and most tolerant to all
denominations; candid and firm in his individual
convictions, yet respectful and considerate of the
opinions of others. Pure and lofty in sentiment,
simple and frugal in habit, honest in motive, and
positive and decided in word and deed, his character
was without reproach, and indeed a model
among his fellow-men.
Mr. Kleberg was a man of deep and most varied
learning. Besides a knowledge of Greek and Latin
he controlled three modern languages and read
their literatures in the originals. Reading and
study were a part of his daily life, and he enjoyed
a critical and discriminating knowledge of ancient
and modern literature. In field and camp and the
solitudes of frontier life his well-trained mind ever
found delight and repose in the contemplation of
its ample stores of knowledge and the graces
of a refined civilization under which it was
developed were never effaced, or even blurred by
the roughness or crudities of border life. A
man of urbane manners and courtly address, his
intercourse with men, whether high or low, educated
or ignorant, was ever characterized by a
plain and noble dignity, free of assumption or
vanity.
The principles which found expression and exemplification
in his long and eventful life rested
upon a broad and comprehensive philosophy of
which absolute honesty of mind was a controlling
element, and when the shadows of death gathered
around him he met the supreme moment with a
mind serene and in peaceful composure. He died
at Yorktown, De Witt County, October 23, 1888,
in his eighty-sixth year, surrounded by his family,
and was buried with Masonic honors. His wife,
Mrs. Rosa Kleberg, and the following children sur
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Brown, John Henry. Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas, book, 1880~; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6725/m1/344/: accessed March 29, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .