76. Robert Crockett to Smith Rudd, December 30, 1879, Rudd Manuscripts, Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington.
77. Margaret Crockett statement in Gary L. Foreman, Crockett: The Gentleman from the Cane (Dallas, 1986), 41; Stephen L. Hardin, “David Crockett,” Military Illustrated 23 (February-March 1990): 32.
78. Robert Crockett to Rudd, June 15, 1880, Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington.
79. Atlas Jones to Calvin Jones, November 13, 1835, Jones Papers, SHC, UNC.
80. Jones to Edmund D. Jarvis, December 2, 1835, ibid.
81. Davis, Memphis, 140-41.
82. New York Transcript, November 28, 1835, quoting the Jackson Truth Teller, November 13, 1835.
83. Ibid., 139-40. It has been commonly assumed that Crockett took a steamboat from Memphis down the Mississippi, then up the Arkansas River to Little Rock. See for instance Shackford, Crockett, 212; Stanley Folmsbee and Anna Grace Catron, “David Crockett in Texas,” East Tennessee Historical Society Publications 30(1958): 50; and Hutton introduction in Crockett, Narrative, Lincoln, Nebraska edition, xxvii. This is quite incorrect, and probably derives from a misreading of the account in Davis, Memphis, cited here. William T. Avery, whose account Davis published, quite clearly says that they boarded a ferry to cross the river, moreover making the point that there was no steam ferry across the Mississippi at that time. Obviously Crockett was crossing the river, not going down it. This is further supported by simple common sense. If he were taking a steamboat downstream, there would be no need of the flatboat ferry at all, since the steam- boats tied up at the foot of the bluff beneath Memphis, where they still do today. He would simply have walked down to the bluff and aboard a boat. Another source for this misconception is the spurious col. Crockett's Exploits and Adventures in Texas, published after his death. In it he states that he took a steam-boat down the Mississippi from Mill's point (see the version published as Davy Crockett's Own Story [New York, 1955], 243). However, Crockett's son Robert repudiated that statement in his June 15, 1880, letter to Smith Rudd (Rudd Manuscripts, Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington). In addition—as if more evidence were necessary—sources cited below establish that Crockett arrived in Arkansas broke, and on horseback, and with game he had recently killed. One did not shoot game from a steamboat and then expect the captain to pull ashore to collect the kill, especially going upstream. Besides, the one-hundred-mile distance overland from Memphis to Little Rock was only a good two days, and no slower—and probably slightly faster—than the route by water, since it required one hundred miles down the Mississippi, then a wait for an Arkansas River packet that might not be along for hours, even days, for the slower one-hundred-mile trip up to Little Rock.
84. Little Rock Arkansas Advocate, November 13, 1835.
85. Pope, Early Days in Arkansas, 183-84.
86. Little Rock Arkansas Gazette, November 17, 1835.
87. New York Sun,January 29, 1836.
88. Ibid., January 12, 1836.
89. Little Rock Arkansas Advocate, November 13, 20, 1835; Baltimore, Nile's Weekly Register 54, December 5, 1835, 225.
90. Pope, Early Days in Arkansas, 185.
91. New York sun, January 12, 1836.
92. Monroe, La., Ouachita Telegraph, August 25, 1888.
93. Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana (Chicago, 1890), 309, states that Crockett and his party passed through Natchitoches, Louisiana, but this is hardly possible, since it would have been far out of their way and off the known path they took. It also lists a “Matthew Despallie” as being with them, a “villanous bully” from Alexandria connected with the Wells family. This must be a muddled reference to Martin, whose kinsmen—probably his brothers—Charles and Blaz Despallier had already come to Texas. Charles would die at the Alamo. J. Fair Hardin, Northwestern Louisiana, A History, vol. 1 (Louisville, n.d.), 137, also says that Crockett went from Little Rock to Fulton, Arkansas, then sold his horses and took a boat down the Red River to Natchitoches, where he bought more horses and continued overland into Texas. No source is given for this, and the route is completely incomprehensible, adding hundreds of miles to Crockett's verifiable journey for no apparent reason. There is no evidence for him setting foot in Louisiana at all. An article in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat in 1909 made the claim upon which the Hardin account is probably based, and that article in turn probably derives from the fictional account in Col. Crockett's Exploits and Adventures, as found, for instance, in Davy Crockett's Own Story, 263ff.
94. Little Rock Arkansas Advocate, January 1, 1836; Little Rock Arkansas Gazette, November 17, 1835.
95. Isaac Jones to Elizabeth Crockett, [April] 1836, in Baltimore, Nile's Weekly Register 50, August 27, 1836, 432-33; pope, Early Days in Arkansas, 184; Dallas Morning News, October 22, 1933. Jones headed his letter Lost Prairie “Ark's,” suggesting that he certainly thought he lived in Arkansas. However, Albert Pike, in a series of articles in the Little Rock Arkansas Advocate, in the fall of 1835, clearly placed Lost Prairie south of the Red River, and thus in country claimed by both Arkansas and Texas. Thus Pike's location does not really conflict with Jones's, establishing that this must be where Crockett first crossed into what became Texas.
96. Statement of——-Clark, May 21, 1920, James Clark Family Papers, UT.
97. Little Rock Arkansas Gazette, May 10, 1836. It should be noted that this was a Jacksonian newspaper, so it is possible that it exaggerated or even invented Crockett's comment.
98. Crockett to Wiley and Margaret Flowers, January 9, 1836, copy in Samuel Asbury Papers, UT.
99. Bangor, Me., Advertiser, March 19, 1836; New York Morning Courier and New York Enquirer, February 27, 1836; Little Rock Arkansas Advocate, February 19, 1836; Jenkins, General's Tight Pants [7].
It should be noted here that the author is indebted to Thomas R. Lindley for his very thoughtful itinerary of Crockett's trip through Texas. It is based on the same sources used by the author, but has been very helpful in some of its insights and interpolations when it comes to filling the documentary gap.
100. Undated clipping, probably from Dallas Herald, provided by Thomas R. Lindley; Henry McCulloch to Henry McArdle, January 14, 1891, Henry McArdle San Jacinto Notebook, TXSL.
101. Crockett's speech appears in substantially the same version in a number of contemporary newspapers, the earliest being perhaps the Augusta, Me., Age, April 27, 1836. The version in the text is taken from the Little Rock Arkansas Gazette, May 10, 1836. Peter Harper statement, February 9, 1837, Peter Harper File, Audited Military Claims, Record Group 5926, TXSL, definitely places Crockett in Nacogdoches by January 8.
102. Crockett to the Flowers, January 9, 1836, Asbury Papers, UT.
103. Galveston Daily News, January 9, 1898.
104. Morning Courier and New York Enquirer, March 26, 1836.
105. James Gaines to John W. Robinson, January 9, 1836, John H. Jenkins, ed., The Papers of the Texas Revolution, 1835-1836, vol.3 (Austin, 1973), 455 (Jenkins, PTR).
106. Crockett to the Flowers, January 9, 1836, Asbury Papers, UT. This letter has caused a bit of confusion in the Crockett chronology in Texas because in it he states under date of January 9 from San Augustine that “I have taken the oath of the Government and have enrolled my name as a volunteer for six months.” However, as cited below, official records show him taking the oath in Nacogdoches on January 12, and actually apparently signing enlistment papers two days later. This has led some to conclude that Crockett enlisted twice, once on January 8 in either Nacogdoches or San Augustine, and again on the latter dates.
A more likely scenario involves the letter itself. Dated January 9 in San Augustine, the entire first half of it deals with his trip to date, and chiefly his land explorations. He then abruptly says that he has enlisted in the volunteers and will leave “in a few days” for the Rio Grande. In fact he did not leave Nacogdoches to join gathering forces to the south for a full week. Then he discussed his confidence in being elected to the
convention, and follows with a virtual restatement of the announcement made to the San Augustine fathers, “I had rather be in my present position than to be elected to a seat in Congress for Life.” What has likely happened is that Crockett started the letter in San Augustine on January 9, but then stopped after finishing the portion covering the land he liked. He then put the letter aside and did not take it up again until January 12 or 14 in Nacogdoches, after his enlistment, by which time it truly would be “a few days” to his January 16 departure south. Thus he enlisted only once, not twice.
107. Columbia Telegraph and Texas Register, April 28, 1838; John Forbes to Robinson, January 12, 1836, Gulick and Elliott, Papers of Lamar, vol. 1, 296.
confusion also exists over the date of Crockett's enlistment. In his January 12 letter Forbes speaks in the past tense of having given Crockett the oath, presumably that day. However, in Jenkins, PTR, vol. 4, 13, there is the actual statement of enlistments with the oath, and Crockett's name is nineteenth in order of signing, dated January 14, at the end of the list. The most logical explanation is that Forbes kept the list open and undated. Crockett signed on January 12, but more men followed in the ensuring two days, and Forbes only completed and signed and dated the list on January 14 when he had enrolled all the volunteers then available. This is supported by Micajah Autry to Martha Autry, January 13, 1836, Jenkins, PTR, vol. 3, 504, in which he states that “Col Crockett has just joined our company,” a statement made the day before the January 14 enlistment list.
108. Swisher, Swisher Memoirs, 22.
109. New York sun, May 10, 1836; New York Sunday Morning News, March 27, 1836.
110. Statement of enlistments, January 14, 1836, Jenkins, PTR, vol. 4, 13; Amelia Williams, “A Critical Study of the Siege of the Alamo and the Personnel of its Defenders, Chapter IV,” Southwestern Historical Quarterly 37 (January 1934): 167.
111. Micajah Autry to Martha Autry, January 13, 1836, in Jenkins, PTR, vol. 3, 504; statement, February 9, 1837, Peter Harper File, Audited Military Claims, TXSL.
112. Affidavit, January 15, 1836, “schedule of articles belonging to colonel Crockett,” January 15, 1836, David Crockett File, Audited Military Claims, TXSL.
113. A McLaughlin to Committee of Safety, January 18, 1836, Jenkins, PTR, vol. 4, 66.
114. Daniel Cloud to a friend, January 1836, Jackson Mississippian, May 6, 1836.
115. Crockett to the Flowers, January 9, 1836, Asbury Papers, UT.
Chapter 17 Bowie 1833-1835
1. Veramendi v. Hutchins, 88-89, Documents Pertaining to James Bowie, UT; Notary Felix De Armas, Sale of Slave, February 21, 1834. James Bowie to Anatole Cousin, vol. 41, item #70, New Orleans Notarial Archives, establishes that Bowie was in New Orleans as late as February 21, probably selling the slave for money for the return to Texas, meaning he could not have reached San Antonio before early March at best.
2. Testimony of Menchaca, 1879, veramendi v. hutchins, 126-27, Documents pertaining to James Bowie, UT.
3. Smithwick, Evolution, 138. Given the frequent unreliability of the Smithwick memoir, it is possible that this story is either invented, or more likely embellished or borrowed from a recollection of some other Texian and passed off as having happened to Smithwick personally.
4. Travis, Diary, December 15, 1833, 90.
5. Speer and Brown, Encyclopedia, vol. 1, 436.
6. Williams to Spencer Jack, March 26, 1834, Williams Papers, Rosenberg Library, Galveston, Tex.
7. Barker, “Land Speculation,” 78-80.
8. Kate Mason Rowland, “General John Thompson Mason,” Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association 11 (January 1908): 180-81, 193; Barker, “Land Speculation,” 79-80; Williams, Animating Pursuits, 47.
9. Promissory note, July 17, 1834, Gilder-Lehrman Collection, Pierpont Morgan Library, New York. This note covers Bowie's original June 3, 1834, loan from Francis Johnson, done at San Felipe. Since Travis, Diary, June 4, 1834, 180, established that Travis made out passports at San Felipe for Wharton and four others to go to Mexico, it is assumed that Bowie was one of the four. He and Bowie were not sufficiently acquainted at this point for Bowie's name necessarily to be worthy of mention in the diary.
10. Power of Attorney, June 29, 1834, Béxar Archives, UT.
11. Conveyance Record 14, 499, Orleans Parish Courthouse.
12. John T. Mason to Archibald Hotchkiss, June 24, 1834, Alexander Dienst Collection, UT.
13. Barker, “Land Speculation,” 81-82.
14. Brazoria Texas Republican, July 25, 1835.
15. Benjamin Lundy, The Life Travels and Opinions of Benjamin Lundy (Philadelphia, 1847), 146-49.
16. Johnson, Texas, vol. 1, 168; Barker, “Land Speculation,” 86.
17. Harriet Smither, ed., “Diary of Adolphus Sterne,” Southwestern Historical Quarterly 30 (October 1926): 149, January 3, 1839.
18. Bowie to James B. Miller, June 11, 1835, Nacogdoches Archives, TXSL.
19. Barker, “Land Speculation,” 76; Holley, Texas, 329; Houston Telegraph and Texas Register, January 27, 1841.
20. Ham, “Recollections,” UT.
21. Journal of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Texas, Fifth Congress, 1840-1841 (Austin, 1841), 338.
22. Henry Austin to Mary Holley, September 10, 1835, Barker, Austin Papers, vol. 3, 119-20.
23. Spencer Jack, Notes Concerning Trip to Mexico in 1834, etc., Lamar Papers, TXSL.
24. Smither, “Diary of Adolphus sterne,” 307; Johnson, Texas, vol. 1, 195. Perhaps it should be noted here that Mims, Trail, 56, cites the Dictionary of American Biography as saying that Bowie was a member of the “Committee of Safety” at Bastrop on May 17, 1835. The DAB has not been checked for this, as it is not worth checking, since on May 17 Bowie was demonstrably somewhere on the road between Matamoros and Monclova, about 260 miles away. Not a shred of evidence has been found connecting Bowie with such a committee.
25. Cós to the inhabitants of the Eastern Internal States, n.d., Nacogdoches Archives, TXSL.
26. Brazoria Texas Republican, May 9, 1835; San Felipe Telegraph and Texas Register, April 14, 1836.
27. Johnson, Texas, vol. 1,195.
28. Joseph E. Field, Three Years in Texas (Austin, 1935), 12-13.
29. I. T. Taylor Cavalcade of Jackson County (San Antonio, 1938), 379. This Clara Lisle story is possibly nothing more than local legend, and therefore as suspect as any other folklore regarding Bowie. It is included here because it represents the only known indication of the possibility of a resumption of romantic life after Ursula.
30. J. H. Money to Ayuntamiento at Nacogdoches, June 26, 1835, Nacogdoches Archives, TXSL.
31. J. H. C. Miller to Juan W. Smith, July 25, 1835, Béxar Archives, UT.
32. James Kerr to Thomas J. Chambers, July 5, 1835, ibid.
33. Barker, “Land Speculation,” 92.
34. Ugartechea to Cós, June 29, 1835, Béxar Archives, UT.
35. Pedro Ellis Bean to Ugartechea, August 11, 1835, Nacogdoches Archives, TXSL.
36. Brazoria Texas Republican, June 27, 1835.
37. John Forbes to James B. Miller, July 24, 1835, Domestic Correspondence, Record Group 307, TXSL.
38. Henry Rueg to John Forbes, July 26, 1835, Nacogdoches Archives, ibid.
39. Ham, “Recollections,” UT.
40. Bowie to Rueg, August 3, 1835, Nacogdoches Archives, TXSL.
41. New Orleans Louisiana Advertiser, September 16, 1835. The conclusion that Bowie did not return to Nacogdoches is based on this press report, which says that the rumor of his death came from that town. Obviously, if he had come through on his way to Louisiana, people would know the Comanche had not killed him.
42. George Kelley, John J. Bowie, 1787-1859, Arkansas History Commission, Little Rock; Little Rock Arkansas Gazette, August 18, 1835.
43. Sparks, in Ellis, Crockett, 234-36. This account is rather indefinite as to time, and there is no statement that James and anything to do with it, or that he called on John. The two were b
oth well acquainted with Littleberry Hawkins, however.
44. Statement of Angus McNeil, March 18, 1835, on deed of Bowie to Thomas and Eliza McFarland, May 9, 1827, Bowie Family Papers, UT.
45. Conveyance Book 10, 131-37, Book 21, 179, 364, Clerk of the Court, Natchitoches Parish Courthouse, Natchitoches.
46. McNeil testimony in Veramendi v. Hutchins, 140-42, warrant from Record Book B, 126-27, Records for Bonds &c of Colorado County, Texas, in Veramendi v. Hutchins, 128-29, Documents Pertaining to James Bowie, UT.
47. Natchez, Courier & Journal, September 25, 1835.
48. John S. Ford Memoirs, Typescript, II, 332, UT. This, like the episodes covered in an earlier chapter, may be apocryphal, or all may derive from a single episode.
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