Hello I am working on my family tree and found out I had a great grandfather named Eulogio Gonzales. I found his name on your website under names of the Mexican soldiers. Do you have anymore information on this man, and if you do how can I obtain it?

Thank you for your time,
Anna Harmon
Mesa,AZ

I am pleased that you are researching your Hispanic ancestry!  Unfortunately, with the exception of a few notable individuals, there is very little to go on.

The name of Eulogio Gonzales, who was Colonel, adjutant for the vanguard under Mexican general Sesma, appears on the "List of Mexican Officials who died (or were captured) in the action of San Jacinto, the 21 of April of 1836."  He is listed as a prisoner of war and not as one who was killed.  His age was given as 34, which would place his year of birth at around 1802.

Genealogical research presents a unique set of problems when the records of the person in question are somewhere in a foreign country, in this case Mexico. I suggest you try the Church of Latter Day Saints. Their genealogical database is extensive and they have actually microfilmed many of the church and civil records of Mexico.

If any of our readers have genealogical information to share, I hope they'll post it in this forum.

In regards to the positioning of the cannon in the rear area or eastern part. Most maps and drawings show three cannons, 12-pounders by some account, facing in three directions: North, East, and South pointing over the top of the wall. When I visited the Alamo Chapel, I noticed three windows through which cannons could have been pointed in each of the above directions. My question is, were these window/openings there during the siege or where they later added in the 1850's when the U.S. Army took the Alamo over?

^P.S. What about photos taken of the Alamo and Alamo grounds during the 1850s? The 1849 picture was great...but what about other early pictures? Thanks.

Charles J. Erion
Nevada City, CA.

An earthen ramp, raised at the rear of the church by the Mexican Army, would have obscurred any windows that might have been there. Any cannon placed in this position would have fired in a barbette or over the wall.

It's unlikely that there were windows in this location. They aren't seen in period drawings from the 1830s and 40s. So, most likely, they were added by the U.S Army at the same time the two windows were added to the front of the church.

Our earliest visual record of the Alamo comes from artists who possessed varying degrees of ability. Photographically, the 1849 daguerreotype is the earliest known photo of the Alamo. However, the photographic record markedly improves after the 1850s.

We recommend you read George Nelson's The Alamo: An Illustrated History. It is an excellent book showing early drawings and photographs (not to be confused E.P. Hoyt's book of the same name.)

I'm looking for information on George D. Butler from Missouri. My Dad's grandpa had the same name and we live in Missouri. He is 83 and [I'm] interested where his grandpa came from or if we are even kin, or [If you can]direct me to Where I can find any information.

Thank you,
Dave Hopkins
Sedalia, Missouri

Unfortunately, George D. Butler is one of those enigmatic defenders of which little is known.

According to the New Handbook of Texas, he was born in Missouri in 1813 and traveled to Texas by way of New Orleans. During the Texas Revolution he served in the Alamo garrison and died in the battle of the Alamo on March 6, 1836.

Subject: Solomon W. Brill
Date: 01/16/00
From: Utah Carroll Rogers

This article was published in THE SEGUINENTERPRISE on February 5, 1937.

Another veteran of the Texas Revolution who came to Seguin soon after the Battle of San Jacinto, was Solomon Brill. When he first came here he was a house guest of Juan N. Seguin for whom this town is named. It is likely that for this reason he was selected by Juan Seguin to help gather the remains of officers killed at the Alamo. As stated before Mr. Brill, with several men from our town-then called walnut Springs -were commissioned by Juan N. Seguin, the military commander of the Bexar District, to perform this last service for the martyrs of the Alamo. Mr. Brill was an expert casket maker, and , he with his helpers constructed this walnut casket and in it they placed the five skulls and other bones which they! believed to be those of leaders, because of metal insignia adjacent to 'these bones.! This casket was buried twenty paces from the southeast corner of the Alamo. Until Mr. Brill's death in 1891, he kept the secret of the exact location, and at that time he confided to his son-in-law the above stated facts. It is likely that for some particular reason the location of this burial spot was kept a secret. Juan Seguin in after years deserted the Texas cause. He believed injustice and discrimination had been heaped upon him because of his nationality. He lived in Mexico after the year 1842. If Mr. Brill contributed no other service to the Republic of Texas, he should have a warm spot in the memory of all Texans. Mr. Brill received bounty certificate No.2952 for 1280 acres of land for having served in the Army of Texas from October 25 1835, to October 17, 1836.

In 1842 he was a member of Captain Mathew Caldwell's company in the Battle of Salado Creek near San Antonio. Mr Brill married Hepsibah Day, daughter of Jonathan and Sarah Emery (HEMBREE) Day. He was a charter member of the Texas Veterans Association, on having attended the first meeting in Houston in 1873. Mrs James Damon of Seguin has a framed collection of his veteran badges and a certificate of membership signed by Moses Austin Bryan as secretary of the association when it was organized. In this same frame is a certificate of membership in the Texas Veterans' Association for Mrs Hepsibah Day Brill, wife of Solomon Brill It is evident from this, that the wife of a veteran was also eligible for membership.

Mr. Brill was born in Poughkeepsie New York, and had attended a medical school in New York. At the time of the epidemic of yellow fever in the early eighteen-thirty's, Mr..Brill volunteered to come, to New Orleans for service in the work against the terrible scourge. it was here that he not only gave his service as a physician but became an expert in the making of caskets. (This may also be a reason for his selection by Juan Seguin to make the casket for the martyrs of the Alamo.) New Orleans had so few to render aid to the dead and dying that those there learned to perform many different kinds of work. At New Orleans he enlisted with company who came out to help Texas fight for her independence.

Mr. Brill and his wife are buried in marked graves, three miles east of Sequin, in sight of State Highway 3-A (renamed 90-A).

There is a concrete wall which encloses the family burial grounds south of highway. This land was a part of the original grant to Solomon Brill and is still in the possession of his descendants. This is located in the files of the DAR Library at the Alamo in San Antonio.

Solomon served the Republic of Texas in the army; made coffin with the name on lid for purpose of burial of bones of hero of the Alamo; in Quartermaster Department, assisted in building first capital in Austin.

In the army he was of the volunteer company under Captain Earle from New Orleans.

He was in the Battle of Salado. Listed in Company B Muster roll of 11/1/1837 - 1/1/1838 name S.W. Brill Private at Camp Johnson Oct 23 1836.

Utah Carroll Rogers
Arlington, Texas

Solomon W. Brill's service to the Republic of Texas as well as his award of a bounty land grant can indeed be confirmed in several sources. Andrew Jackson Sowell, who wrote "From Rangers and Pioneers of Texas" in 1884 also confirms his service at Salado Creek under Caldwell (Sowell doesn't mention his rank).

From here, things get a little sticky.

I might have believed that the story of the casket was true, but the authoress raises doubt with several of her statements. The mention of Seguin and others placing "five skulls and other bones" into the casket does not agree with the accepted record of those events. There was nothing left but ashes and a few bone fragments.

Also, the location of the defender's ashes was never a closely guarded secret as Ms. Weinert would have us believe. In 1837, Juan Seguin left us a detailed account of the disposition of the remains. There was never a marker placed at the location and it was eventually forgotten. It could be that Brill DID make the casket, but better evidence than a well-intentioned newspaper article is needed to prove it.

Subject: James C. Gwynne
Date: 01/16/00
From:Torrey Hunter

At the risk of being disappointed yet again, I am interested in any information regarding the Alamo defender James C. Gwynne (Gwin). He is listed on the monument at the capitol and on the Alamo grounds, also on a bronze plaque inside the Alamo. He is not, however, shown on any muster roll, nor is there any pay record or land claim other than the claim to which all single men were entitled. I have been in touch either by phone or letter with Bill Groneman and Tom Lindley. Bill Groneman placed Gwin in Carey's Artillery Company which would square with the scant known facts, however he was unable to tell me how he came to place Gwin in Carey's Company. Tom Lindley was of the theory that Gwin was not in the Alamo at all but died of illness in Washington Co. prior to the battle. Either conclusion, satisfactorily proved would be excellent. I remain curious about how a man with no relations in Texas (creditors claimed his land) could go about getting his name on a monument. If anyone has any information regarding this man, whose name shows variously as James C. Gwynne, Joséph C. Gwin, James C. Gwin and James Groyn, please feel free to contact me. After years of looking, I am no stranger to controversy,thus my feelings will not be injured by what you have to say, even if your position is that he was never in Texas at all.

Thank you.

Torrey Hunter
Amarillo, Texas

Back in the 1960's, my family and I visited the Alamo and learned about my great, great, great Uncle, John Purdy Reynolds, who was a doctor at the time of the battle of the Alamo. We saw some of the books that he wrote laid open in a glass case display. All we know about him is that his mother was a Purdy but our family would like to know all you can find for us about his life and family history.

Claudia Purdy Weaver
Collinsville, Alabama

According to the New Handbook of Texas, John Purdy Reynolds was the son of Judge David and Mary (Purdy)Reynolds,and was born at Cedar Springs, Mifflin County, Pennsylvania,on March 7, 1806. He graduated from Jefferson Medical College,Philadelphia, in 1827 and practiced medicine in Mifflin County for seven years. Reynolds traveled to Texas in 1835 with William McDowell, and the two joined the Volunteer Auxiliary Corps of Texas on January 14, 1836, at Nacogdoches. They then went to San Antonio de Béxar as members of Capt. William B. Harrison's company, which included David Crockett. They arrived at Bexar on or about February 9, 1836. It is not known if Reynolds worked as a surgeon in the Alamo garrison. He died in the battle of the Alamo on March 6, 1836.