What was going on in Texas in 1856?

[Guest]

I recently recieved these images of a letter from my gr gr great uncle to his brother in law, but I'm not sure what they were fighting. This was too late for the Mexican War and too early for the Civil War. Indians, maybe?

The letter is very cool..it was recopied by another relative in the 60's and that's whose hand writing it is in, but I can tell by the names and places that its authentic.

Any ideas?

http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y228/bstockford/Lewis/

Lewis was killed several years later fighting Indians in Idaho.

http://www.ourheritage.net/index_page_stuff/Following_Trails/Chief_Joseph/6_June77/6_1877_Norton_Chamberlain.html

http://www.nps.gov/nepe/shs/chap3.htm

[Art Eatman]

Look at a map of Texas.  From around just west of Ft. worth, draw a line down to not far west of San Antoino, curving a bit out to the west--but not a lot--and then curving back toward corpus Christi.  Unitl after the Civil War, that's about all of Texas that could be said to be controlled by either Texicans or the U.S.  Everything northwest/west/southwest of that line was either Mexican outlaw or Indian territory.

Ranger groups worked the southwest and along the border trying to deal with the bandidos.  Northwest of what's now Fredericksburg. and west of Fort Worth, figure Comanches.  West of the Pecos it was more Apaches and Comances--who fought each other, as well.

The Comanche migration trail runs north-south, mostly from the upper Panhandle (summer territory) down into Mexico for the winter.  They came through my area, crossing the Rio Grande at several points in Big Bend National Park and at Lajitas.  They raided as far south as Monterrey, and once even to near Mexico City.  The northernmost known point is at Dinosaur Monument in NW Colorado.  Helluva horseback trip.  There are still traces of the old trail, between Marathon and the Park mostly visible from the air.

The final Apache conflict in Texas was rather small; only some 15 or 20 of them.  They were killed/captured by soldiers from Fort Davis.  1886, IIRC.

[Perd Hapley]

These are images of the actual paper he wrote on?  I wouldn't have thought they had lined paper then; it looks like it was purchased at Wal-Mart yesterday.

I live in the Saint Louis area, and it surprises me to see St. Charles appear from time to time in history (such as in the journals of Lewis & Clark).  It is a suburb several miles to the west, just across the Missouri River.  I like it because it has about five or six gun stores, including a huge Bass Pro Shop and Graf & Sons Reloading.

Jefferson Barracks is mentioned at the end of the last document, it is somewhere around Saint Louis, I think, although there may be others.

[Sylvilagus Aquaticus]

I saw "Point Isabel" mentioned in a sentence with 'Gavalistan'  as the name of a steamer.

Port Isabel was a modest port and fishing village  on the Texas coast around this time.  There was a lighthouse built there in 1853 at a cost of $7000. During that period of time it was known as Point Isabel.

http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/PP/hgp9.html

The coastal areas of Texas were more 'civilized' than the interior at that time.  Remember, Galveston was second only to New York City in commerce until September of 1900.


Could have been Kiowas or Apaches in the area then. Comanches tended to stay further north than the coastal plains.  Kiowas were reported to have ventured into Central America to seek out and discover new people and kill them.

My great-great grandfather came to what was then Rusk county, Texas in 1855 at age 19. There were a few folks around that part of the state, as it was near Marshall and Jefferson, relatively speaking.  There were abandoned Spanish missions and Nacogdoches to the south.

Texas had been a state for 10 years, but a soverign republic for 9 prior to that.  Since there are no 'truly' navigable rivers in Texas, I'd bet he went down the Mississippi to the Texas coast with a cavalry unit to one of the posts on the US western border, going inland from one of the southern Texas ports, probably to buffer against indian raids and adventuresome Mexican cavalry.

[TarpleyG]

These are images of the actual paper he wrote on?  I wouldn't have thought they had lined paper then; it looks like it was purchased at Wal-Mart yesterday.

it was recopied by another relative in the 60's and that's whose hand writing it is in

[K Frame]

Fistful,

Lined paper was being made in the United States as early as the 1820s, mostly, though, for ledger books and things like that.

[K Frame]

Hey! Look at this from the Crane paper website!

Their timeline company history...

"1873 - W. Murray Crane receives a challenge from Winchester Arms Co. of New Haven, Connecticut, to develop a strong, thin wrapping for repeater rifle bullets. The lucrative contract carries Crane through the recession of the 1870s. Other innovations around this time include a substitute for parchment or sheepskin for diplomas and special thin paper for Bibles."

I had no idea that Crane had been involved in developing paper patching.

[crt360]

Barbara, this might be of some interest:

http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/RiverRats/2000-01/0946954023

[Guest]

Thank you!!

I'm thinking this must have been transcribed wrong. It had to have been 1846 to make any sense. That matches what the link you gave says, and Lewis also had a child that was born in Oregon in 1855, and in the letter makes no mention of his wife. I also can't find anything going on in Texas in 1856 that would have required thousands of organized troops.

There was also family history that his nephew Lewis fought in the Mexican War. Since Lewis was born in 1842 and served in the Civil War, I always wrote it off to a mistake about which war he fought..but that would explain it.

[Guest]

http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/soldiers/details.asp?id=S358836&conflict=Mexican%20War&txtName=day,%20lewis&selConflict=Mexican%20War&txtUnit=&rbBranch=all

Yep, it was 1846. When it was transcribed, she must have gotten the date wrong..not really surprising. She would have been quite old herself by then.

There's a copy of his record there. Very cool. Thank you!

[crt360]

Glad I could help.  Your thread title really got me thinking "was there something important I slept through in the half-dozen or more Texas history classes I must have taken that covered 1856?"  So I did a little searching and came to the same conclusion you did.  It had to be 1846.