The Age, Volume 5, Number 7, June 1984 Page: 1 of 1
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VOL. V
WALLISVILLE, TEXAS
JUNE, 1984
No. 7
THE AGE
Established at Houston, May 15,
1871 by D. L. McGary. Moved to
Wallisville March 15, 1897. Discon-
tinued in 1908. Reestablished by the
Wallisville Heritage Park, December
1, 1979. $1.25 per paper, $15.00 for
one-year subscription.
Wallisville Heritage Park
P.O. Box 16
Wallisville, Texas 77597
NOTE: The following sketch of the
life of a Mrs. Franks is most likely
the wife of either Burrell Franks or
Elijah Franks, two early settlers on
the Texas Gulf Coast. David Levi
Kokernot (see THE AGE, April,
1984) happened upon the home of
Mr. and Mrs. Burrell Franks at
Bolivar after his boat was wrecked in
1831. The article is especially in-
teresting because of its mention of
Jean Lafitte.
GALVESTON DAILY NEWS
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1983
MRS. FRANKS
The First White Woman on
Galveston Island
SPECIAL TO THE NEWS
ALVIN, December lO.-ln 1817
the first white woman, Mrs. Franks,
landed on Galveston island, then a
dreary waste, inhabited only by sand
crabs, "fiddlers" and wild game. This
same lady, now in the sear and
yellow leaf, but hale and hearty for
her years, is a citizen of this place.
She was born in Virginia in 1798,
and in 1817 came to Texas with
Governor San Lewis Aury and land-
ed as above stated. Not being pleas-
ed with the location, men were sent
in to spy out the coast country, and
they reported in favor of Matagorda
bay, and they moved there, but a-
storm coming up, it wrecked five
vessels, and they returned to Galves-
ton island, and Mrs. Franks kept a
boarding house near Lafitte's store-
house. Large rats infested the island,
and Lafitte had his house lined with
tin.
This same lady, Mrs. Franks,
claims to be the mother of the
first white child born on Galves-
ton island. She remained on the is-
land until the United States sent a
vessel to burn Lafitte's buildings. He
asked twenty-four hours time to
move, and stated that he would burn
them himself, which he did at the
Expiration of the time. Soon after
Mrs. Franks moved to Louisiana, and
in 1828 returned to Texas, since
which time she has been a citizen of
this State, and for the last fifteen
years of Matagorda island; and now,
after a lapse of nearly seventy years,
she has settled down to spend the re-
mainder of her days almost in sight
of the historic spot where she first
landed on Texas soil. She has not
been in Galveston for nearly thirty
years. Mrs. Franks can give ample
proofs as to these facts, and is
full of reminiscences of the early
days. Is not some testimonial in
order from the citizens of Galveston?
HOUSTON MORNING STAR
March 9, 1840
A great outcry is made against the
administration for the employment
of blood-hounds in hunting down the
Indians. We are at a loss to discover
any great cruelty in the practice. If
the executive were as innocent in
other measures as in this we should
seldom take occasion to find fault.
The Indians hide themselves in thick-
ets and wildernesses, and the blood-
hounds are used to scent them to
their dens. Here they are attacked
like any other wild and noxious an-
imal, with musket and sword. The
dogs are not let loose and set upon
them, as many suppose, but are held
in leashes while they track the sav-
ages and point out their lurking
places. The fighting is done, not by
the dogs, but by the soldiers, but if
different none would have a right to
blame the made of warfare as cruel
or barbarous. The perforation of a
bullet or the gash of a tomahawk, is
about as cruel and barbarous as the
bite of a dog. If there be any differ-
ence we should say it was in favor
of the bloodhounds, as the most hu-
mane weapon of civilized warfare.
NOTE: Travel in Southeast Texas
prior to the Civil War was an exer-
cise not for the squeamish or faint
of heart. Whether travellers chose to
go by water or by land, it was not
always a simple procedure. One of
the most popular correspondents for
the Galveston Weekly News wrote
the following account of a trip from
Galveston to Smithfield.
GALVESTON WEEKLY NEWS
Tuesday, January 27, 1857
SMITHFIELD, January 15, 1857
DEAR EDITORS—Here we are,
stuck fast till tomorrow, with our
hack broken down, after a series of
mishaps, almost incredible to any
one who has not traveled this section
of the country during the winter sea-
son. We left Galveston on Sunday
evening, on the Betty Powell, and
reached the mouth of the Trinity the
following morning, but soon found
we had to content ourselves with a
snug berth aground, in something less
than two feet of water, opposite the
old town of Anahuac, where the pro-
spect was anything but cheering to
three individuals on board, all intent
upon reaching Palestine by a certain
day. Notwithstanding our disappoint-
ment, there was something in the
entertainment we met with on board
the Betty Powell. The fare was of
the very best, and the courtesy and
attention shown us by the Captain
and his officers were such as to
make us feel we might have been in
a worse fix. Capt. Mauck [probably
William Maucke] is one of those
gentlemen who seems to understand
what everybody on board wants, and
though his attention was pretty
much taken up by the ladies, he
still managed to find time and op-
portunity to see that all the rougher
sex had all they wanted. We spent
an entire day on the bar, occasionally
taking a look out at the ducks and
geese, which seemed to perfectly un-
derstand there was no guns on board,
and quacked accordingly. The time
passed along agreeably, and everbody
on board seemed perfectly contented
with the arrangements. The night
was one, of course, devoted to soci-
ality, as we had no alternative, but
to make the best of our situation.
The next day, about 10 o'clock
A.M., we got under way, and pro-
ceeded up the Trinity in good style,
reaching the landing opposite Lib-
erty at a reasonable hour—say a
little before sundown. We had not
much opportunity for inspecting
the town, but being kindly furn-
ished by Col. Lacy with a couple of
studs, we took a ride around the
most important points. Stopping
to hitch up, on one occasion, where
a number of other mustangs were
tied to a rach, we found some diff-
iculty on our coming out to re-
mount, to discover the horses we
had been riding among a crowd of
others. This must have been owing
to the peculiar similarity existing
among the horses raised on the
Trinity. We found Liberty great
improved since our last visit, some
six years ago, and many evidences of
enterprise, that would lead to the
conclusion should the Betty Powell
continue in the trade, a considerable
town would soon be built up by the
regular communication with Galv-
eston, and the upper country. It
now contains quite a number of good
stores, well supplied with goods. Mr.
Bryan keeps a very comfortable
hotel, which he conducts in a way to
give ample satisfaction to all who
may sojourn with him. He started us
the next morning at an early hour on
what many gentlemen whom we met
at his house termed a perilous
journey, but nothing daunted, we
put out one of our party undertaking
to drive in order we might make a
good exhibit on leaving town. We
had not proceeded many yards from
our hotel, when we came to an
embankment slightly muddy or bog-
gy and here we met our first mishap.
However we got over the diffi-
culty by making a general change all
round and proceeded about a couple
of miles, when we perceived we had
left behind some very important doc-
uments for which it was necessary
one of our party should go back.
This was done without delay, and
after returning we got along without
much interuption, though we had
what might be termed, rather a hard
road to travel. Meeting an old nigger
driving an ox-team, we asked him
how the roads were on ahead—
"Massa," said he, "there ain't no
road—all done gone!" With this
cheering information, we pursued the
uneven tenor of our way till we
reached Grand Cane when we found
it necessary to stop for the night,
though one of our party had gone on
on horseback whom we were anxious
to overtake if possible. I may here
say that through the prudence and
foresight of one of our party, we en-
gaged a saddle horse in addition to
the hack furnished us by Mr. Bryan,
but for which we should have been in
a worse dilemna. After passing a
very comfortable night with Mr.
[Hugh M.] Farrior where we met
with the very best kind of entertain-
ment; we took an early start to catch
up with our friend, but had not pro-
ceeded far before we met with a
check in encountering a creek which
was certainly difficult to cross, from
the fact that it took us about two
hours, good hard work, to make
some five yards of road to be travel-
ed over.
But after breaking sundry sticks,
selected with great care from the
young saplings growing in the vicin-
ity, we at length got out of our diff-
iculties, and kept on at a tolerable
pace, say about a mile an hour, till
we reached the spot where our friend
who had proceeded on was com-
fortably housed, waiting for our
arrival, having very thoughtfully sent
back to learn of our whereabouts,
after hearing of our being stuck in a
mud hole. We then made a change of
animals, substituting a horse for a
mule, after which we traveled along
very slowly, stopping occasionally to
take a view of the country which
was somewhat obstructed by very
tall pine trees, though we were all
satisfied that it would be a fine
country if they only had good roads.
With but little variety, we arrived at
Mr. [John F.] Carr's, where we
found we had incurred some injury
to our carriage, which has caused us
to lay up for the night, and which
will take a blacksmith some hours to
repair. We hope to make an early
start in the morning and reach
someplace before night, though we
have concluded, it is a rather
uncertain country and is a hard road
to travel.
D. R.
NOTE: William Moore (1808-1842)
lived on the Trinity River at Pine
Bluff, the old home of the celebrated
Tory John A. Williams. The place
where Moore and his family lived is
known today as Moore's Bluff.
Moore was an aide-de-camp to Col.
Frank W. Johnson during the Texas
Revolution, having brought his
young wife to Texas shortly after
they married in Baltimore on
August 18, 1835. Charcilla
Cassandra Van Pradelles bore William
Moore two daughters. The first was
Colegate, born in 1836, and the
second was born on June 3, 1838.
Both girls were said to be born in
Anahuac. Colegate died at the age of
20. The second girl, who was named
for her mother, was born on June 3,
1838 and was married in 1866 to
Charles N. Morse. The following
letter was written by William Moore
to his father Lawson Moore,
who lived in Danville, Kentucky. It
is a moving letter that describes the
death of his wife. Moore later mar-
ried his wife's widowed sister, Cole-
gate Van Pradelles Donaldson Moore
died in 1842, and Colegate,
his second wife, died in 1846. He
is buried between his two wives, the
Van Pradelles sisters, at
Moore's Bluff.
ANAHUAC, Nov. 8, 1838
My Dear Father
I received some weeks since your
kind letter of 27th August and I was
rejoiced to learn that you were in
good health & also your family. I,
my Dear Father, have been most
sorely afflicted. Since I last wrote
you it has pleased Almighty God to
leave me most desolate and wretched
in taking from me my dear dear wife.
She died on 20th of August last of
Hemorhage of lungs or stomach, pro-
bably occassioned by an abscess
formed on liver which was diseased.
She left me two little babies, the one
which we had with us in Ky. and an
other two months and some days old
when she died, the latter she had
called Elizabeth Lawson, but I have
since her Mother's death changed her
name and called her for her mother,
and not suppose that the former
name was not and always will be dear
very dear to me.
My family has all been sick this
summer & I myself have had a very
severe attack of fever, and I assure
you that I did and still do feel that I
could confide my children to their
Maker and willingly quit this miser-
able world. My sister Mrs. Donaldson
is with me ana will remain until
spring when, should I live, I will
take her and my children to Mary-
land where I wish them to live and
be educated. We intended to have
gone on this faul but sickness pre-
vented until it has become too late
and cold to travel over the moun-
tains. My dear father I do not feeA
like writting a long letter but be-
lieve me sincerely and truly.
Your affectionate son, & c.
Wm. Moore
MEMORIALS AND DONATIONS
Mrs. Chollye Pugh
Mrs. Lorraine Silva
Mrs. Joseph Hennessy
Miss Charlotte Wallis
Elizabeth C. Wallis
Mr. Harvey Boaz Haynes
Mrs. Tavia Lafour
Mrs. Lorraine Silva
Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Mayes
Mr. Douglas (Tootum) Sullivan
Mr. Billy Jenkins
Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Mayes
Mrs. Madelta Esthay Silva
Mrs. Lorraine Silva
Mrs. Mable Penick Poskey
Mrs. Lorraine Silva
DONATIONS
Mrs. A. D. Hankamer
The Humphreys Foundation
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Wallisville Heritage Park (Organization). The Age, Volume 5, Number 7, June 1984, periodical, June 1984; Wallisville, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth404162/m1/1/?q=%221984~%22: accessed August 15, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Chambers County Library System.