Carole Sikes Artist / Writer in Austin, Texas

WHAT DO YOU KNOW about the Battle of Plum Creek? In 1838, Mirabeau Lamar, the second president of the new nation of Texas, moved the capital from the boggy bayou near Harrisburg (Houston’ choice) to the settlement of Waterloo with its hills, creeks, canyons and Comanche Indians. Edwin Waller laid out new streets in a grid and the village was renamed Austin. President Lamar wanted to exterminate all Indians and expand the new nation to the U.S. West Coast. Houston’s volunteer army, the militia and the men under San Antonio’s Mayor Sam Maverick’s company of Rangers (1) were occupied with fighting the Indians in this battle ending near Plum Creek in central Texas. = new paragraph= This on-going battle with several Indian tribes began in San Antonio, moved to the Gulf Coast town of Linnville where U.S. Custom Houses were located, then back through Victoria and ended along a creek near Lockhart, Texas.= = It was January 9, 1840, three Comanche Chieftains road into San Antonio to talk peace....

1.From my book, Hudson Bend and the Birth of Lake Travis, Publisher: History Press, S.C. 2014 2.Texian is the term for Anglo colonists in Texas. 3.From a Texas History by Stephen Harrigan entitled Big Wonderful Thing. 4.For comparison: total number of Texans killed at the Goliad massacre and at the Alamo in San Antonio is 800 5.ANA is probably the correct spelling of the name although many prefer Santa Anna I HAVEN'T RESOLVED THE ELIMINATION OF PARAGRAPHS WHEN I COPY AND PASTE FROM MY ORIGINAL DOCUMENT TO THE BLOG. I'm so sorry. Carole Sikes

WHAT DO YOU KNOW about Sam Houston, controversial Texas hero? He was stereotypical of a tall, powerful, get-it-done-my-way man. Picture actor John Wayne or perhaps Donald Trump (say it as you think it) or Lyndon Johnson (get in your face to say it). Houston was a tough, heavy drinking Tennessean very different from Texas hero Stephen F. Austin who as a boy went to private school in Connecticut and as a Texan was eager to get along with Mexico. For Sam it took his second wife Margaret to civilize him. Houston had been Governor of Tennessee before becoming a Texan. Our son married a Tennessee girl. Her handsome Memphis grandfather once said, in his wonderful southern drawl, “From Texas? You know the story about folks heading west from Virginia? If they could read and write they stopped in Tennessee, if not they went on to Texas.” (1) I thought truth be told because I have seen several old real estate deeds with an “X” for a signature. May 1836, a convention at Washington on the Bra...

Note: Once again the Google Blogger has eliminated the indentions on paragraphs in my current blog. Again please accept my apology for a difficult read. Thanks, Carole

September 3, 2020 Stephen F. Austin was an entrepeneur and a diplomat, a cut above the public figures on the frontier both in education and political instinct. He took up his late father's (1) work as a land developer in Texas. He attempted to work with the Mexican government, and did with some success, until Texas won its independence from Mexico in 1836. A few years later the village of Waterloo was renamed after Stephen F. Austin who became the new nation's first Secretary of State. Spanish missionaries were the first white men attempting unsuccessfully to deal with the Native American tribes. Austin made treaties with the friendlier eastern tribes in Texas. The Karankawa Indians along the east Texas coast killed many colonists so militias were formed to drive the threat away. Spain accepted Mexican Independence from Spain in 1821. Mexicans living in Coahuila y Tejas, called Tejnos, settled north of the Rio Grande River, mostly around and in San Antonio de Bexar. It was 1...