Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas Page: 481 of 894
762 p., [172] leaves of plates : ill., ports. ; 30 cm.View a full description of this book.
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404
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Sam Houston. He was the first sheriff of and
built the first cotton gin in Montgomery County.
Samuel H. Smith grew up in Montgomery,
Grimes and Guadalupe counties and in 1857 moved
to Bee County and engaged in stock raising. In
1861 he espoused the Confederate cause and joined
Downley's company, First Texas Cavalry. He
was made Lieutenant of the company, then Assistant
Quartermaster, later Captain and finally Major.
He also served through several campaigns as Commissary
of Buschell's brigade. At the close of
the war he returned to Bee County, where he engaged
in raising, buying and shipping cattle. He
was one of the chief promoters of the enterprise
that resulted in the establishment of a meat-packing
house near Rockport, which for a time did a large
business. In 1867 he located in Aransas County,
in order to secure beef cattle for this packing
house. His operations in stock were on an extensive
and successful scale and he built up a considerable
fortune in ranch lands, cattle and real estate
in and about Rockport, of which thriving little
city he was thereafter (until the time of his death,
which occurred at Rockport, April 25th, 1895), an
esteemed and influential citizen.He took, also, a prominent part in securing
harbor improvements at Aransas Pass and was an
officer of the first company organized for that purpose.
September 15th, 1874, he married Miss Clara
Hynes, daughter of Judge John Hynes, a pioneer
who came to Texas with his father from Ohio, in
1836 and located on Hynes Bay, in Refugio County,
where he was one of the first white settlers. He
served as County Judge of Refugio County and
was for many years an honored and exemplary
citizen of that county, dying there at his home on
Hynes' Bay, in 1887, at sixty-three years of age.
Mrs. Smith was born in Corpus Christi, Texas,
December 29, 1854.
She has seven children: Tiny, John H. and
James H. (twins), William H., and Samuel H.
(twins), Grace and Hynes.
Maj. Smith was for two terms Mayor of the
city of Rockport and was vice-president of the
Aransas Pass First National Bank.
The family are all members of the Catholic
Church. Maj. Smith embraced that faith before
his death.ROBERT M. WILLIAMSON,
(" THREE-LEGGED WILLIE.")Was born in Georgia; in early life was afflicted
with white swelling, which stiffened one of his
knees; moved to Texas and located at San Felipe
in 1827 and engaged in the practice of law; was
Alcalde in 1834; was Captain of a company that
served against the Indians in 1835, and was a member
of a Committee of Safety at Bastrop, where he
then lived; served in the General Consultation of
that year; was District Judge in 1836; was elected
to the Texas Congress in 1840 and until annexation
was re-elected to that body from Washington
County; and for several years represented that
county in the State Senate after annexation. In
1857 he had a severe attack of sickness, which
seriously affected his intellect. " The death of his
wife," says Thrall, " a daughter of Col. Edwards,
of Wharton County, occurred shortly afterwards.
From these combined shocks his mind never entirely
recovered, until the time of his death, which transpired
peacefully and calmly on the 22d of December,
1859, in Wharton County."
Alluding to the one fault, or failing, that he possessed,
one of the " fears of the brave and follies
of the wise," which was to be ascribed to the temper
of the times in which a large portion of his life was
spent, the wild and disorderly state of society then
existing, a biographer in recording his demise closes
the notice with the following sentence:"May
I supplicate for Robert M. Williamson
(who, if he was a great sinner, was also a great
sufferer) the kind charity of all Christians, and
close this article with the following lines, from the
Light-House, which no voice sang so sweetly as his
own:-"'In
life's closing hour, when the trembling soul flies
And death stills the heart's last emotion,
Oh! then may the seraph of mercy arise,
Like a star on eternity's ocean.'"
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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/m1/481/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.