SONS OF DEWITT COLONY TEXAS Citizens of "The Free State of
Lavaca"
In August, 1836, the son, John Himes Livergood was commissioned a lieutenant in the Missouri Militia. He was assigned to Captain Baker's Company, 2nd Battalion, 25th Regiment, 4th Brigade, 2nd Division. Whatever service he saw apparently did not change his vocation; in July, 1837, he purchased a tract of forty acres, intent on "making it on his own." Shortly thereafter, and only after discussing it with his mother but not heeding her remonstrances, he left for Texas, By October, he was in the Zumwalt settlement on the Lavaca, where "green from the States" he none the less kept "his feet on the ground" and tackled the problems of pioneer life in the new-born Republic of Texas. Not long after his arrival at the settlement, he joined a company of thirteen settlers in the pursuit of a band of Indians, who had attacked and killed a settler north of there, James Lyons, and had taken his son Warren captive. They pursued the Indians northward into the mountains where they struck another Indian trail going south. They took this trail and it led them nearly home. They came upon the Indians on the Big Brushy, near where the City of Yoakum is now located. A battle followed; the settlers lost one of their number, Jacob T. Stiffler, but killed four Indians and recovered thirty-two horses. Livergood made his home with Captain "Black" Adam Zumwalt; he had known the Zumwalts, as well as others in the settlement, back home in Missouri and it became his second home. In the years that followed Livergood became deeply attached to the Zumwalt family, particularly Captain Zumwalt. One day in 1838, when he and others went to the field to fetch some melons, they encountered a small Indian raiding party, but were able to make it back to the house. The next day, when a company of fifty-six took the trail, Livergood learned how fortunate they had been. Young Archibald Smothers and a companion named Nunnelly were killed in their camp near the Hallet settlement. Again in 1838, Livergood while with a party headed by Joe Smith, a surveyor, had another close call. While encamped on Sandies Creek near the Castleman's Ranch in Gonzales County, Livergood and another Missourian, Benjamin Boone, went deer hunting. Livergood, not far from camp, came upon a deer and killed it. Without reloading his gun, Livergood immediately started to dress his kill. He had hardly started when he saw some Indians coming upon him. Dropping his knife, he picked up his rifle and ran, crying out to Boone while he made tracks. Boone heard the shot, then Livergood's call for help soon thereafter. He was on his way to Livergood when he, in turn, came upon the Indians. Seeing he was outnumbered, Boone turned back to camp and ran for help. The party was just on its way, when Livergood broke out of the brush, running for dear life. On two more occasions, all while in the Zumwalt settlement, Livergood had narrow escapes with Indians. One he "dusted" out of the chimney; the other, he met on a turkey hunt but bluffed his way out; this time with a "loaded" rifle. Livergood, at the Zumwalt fireside, learned the story of the Texas Revolution, the Alamo, the butchery at Goliad, and the panic on the "runaway scrape" headed by Captain Zumwalt. From this, and what was to follow, Livergood developed a Texan's dislike for the "greaser." In March, 1842, when General Vasquez with his Mexican forces captured San Antonio, Livergood was one of the first to join the citizen's army that mobilized at San Antonio, drove the invaders out of Texas, and then disbanded. Livergood, Jacob Woodward, Mason B. Foley, Beverly C. Greenwood, Isaac Zumwalt, Amos Moore, D. H. Lyons, Henry Bridger, John W. Hinch, Hutson Greenwood, W. Hudgeons, and Hiriam S. Foley, all settlers from the Lavaca, remained in the service of Captain John C. "Jack" Hay's Spy Company on the Medina River, where they maintained a watch for the Mexican invaders. After six weeks of duty, they were all furloughed and sent home until they received certain intelligence that the enemy has invaded the country. Early in September, they had the news; the enemy was back and San Antonio had fallen again, this time to General Adrian Woll. Again a citizens army rallied to its defense, including a company of forty-three men from the Lavaca under Captain Zumwalt., Livergood was elected one of its lieutenants, The company served under Colonel Mathew Caldwell, who engaged the Mexican army and turned them with severe losses at Salado, six miles east of San Antonio. Livergood's company did well in the battle, but once it was over, the company was detached from the fighting forces and was dispatched with the wounded to San Antonio. Livergood was one of the thirty men who responded in November to President Sam Houston's call for two regiments. He served in the Somervell Expedition to Laredo in Captain Charles K. Reese's Company. When this force disbanded on the Rio Grande, he, Wilson Clark, Isaac Zumwalt, and Henry Bridger, all from the Zumwalt settlement, joined the march on Mier, where they were taken prisoners. Livergood was one of the more fortunate and survived the march to Mexico City, drew a white bean, and eventually landed in the prison at Peyote . While in prison, he sent word of his plight to Adam Zumwalt and asked that Zumwalt send word to his mother in Missouri. The mother wrote her brother, George W. Himes in Concord, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and he, in turn, on April 9, 1844, wrote General Andrew Jackson to intercede in behalf of his nephew, saying his letter was "incited by the sighs and tears of the widowed mother for the release of her son." In September, 1844, Livergood was one of the hundred and six men released, and by November, Livergood, Clark, Zumwalt, and Bridger were back in the Zumwalt settlement on the Lavaca. The fire in Livergood's blood was not cooled by the long stint in prison. He took one more shot at his old foes. When General Zachary Taylor in 1846 was dispatched with his forces to Rio Grande following the annexation of Texas, he concentrated his forces on the east side of the river opposite Matamoras. Among his forces was a regiment of Texans commanded by Colonel Jack Hays, and among these was Livergood. They served as scouts for Taylor's command. Livergood served in Captain James Walker's Spy Company. After the defeat and retreat of the Mexican forces under General Arista at Palo Alto, Walker's Company moved out in the direction of Fort Brown to locate the enemy. Creed Taylor, a member of the company, and later to figure prominently in the Sutton and Taylor feud in DeWitt County, met Livergood and a companion, Bate Berry, early in the morning of the day following the battle. Livergood and Berry had been out during the night, had crawled through the brush close to the pickets of the Mexican army, and had discovered that Arista's army had taken a strong position on the Resaca de la Palma. The scouts, their clothes literally torn to shreds, their faces and bodies covered with innumerable scratches, were a pitiful sight, "sad sacks" indeed, but their report proved invaluable. Later that day, based in part on Livergood's and Berry's report, Taylor stormed the positions and soundly defeated Arista's army. Soon thereafter, Hay's Regiment was discharged, and with this, Livergood, for the time being, called it quits. Once back in the Zumwalt settlement, Livergood learned of the developments on the Lavaca. A new county, Lavaca, had been created out of the lands on the headwaters of the Lavaca and the Navidad, and the county town of Petersburg had been established on the east bank of the Lavaca, not far from the Zumwalts. Livergood, back in January, 1846, had bought a tract of five acres, a part of the Adam Zumwalt Headright, and its location put him close to all the county's activities. It was about this time, Livergood returned to Missouri and visited with his mother and brothers. As fate would have it, he found a new interest in Missouri---he developed a tremendous "crush" on one of its fair daughters, Sarah Ann Perkins. As a result the visit was prolonged and culminated in their marriage, February 25, 1847, in Point Labeydee Bottom in Franklin County. Sarah Ann, born May 4, 1828, was a native of Virginia, the daughter of D. A. Perkins. The young couple's departure for Texas precipitated a crisis. The bride's father, as was the custom among the folks of some means, had given her a girl of about the same age, a slave named Eveline. Eveline, too, had a sweetheart, a slave named Jim, and now she was about to lose him. Livergood, moved by her tears, and perhaps given to a great understanding by his own marriage, advanced the money and made arrangements for the purchase of the slave, Jim. When the four reached the Lavaca, Sarah Ann selected the site for her new home near two giant live oaks. A "house raising" by the neighbors, combined with the labors of Livergood and Jim, soon had a comfortable log cabin erected. It was to stand for nearly seventy years. Livergood and his help then turned to the fields on the new lands he had purchased adjoining his first tract. Blessed with good seasons and a happy home, Livergood's hard labor produced good crops; he prospered and rose in stature in the settlement and in the county. On September 21, 1850, he was elected Chief justice of the county. His administration was a good one, but was marred by the bitter county seat war waged by the rival settlements on the Lavaca---Petersburg and Hallettsville. In the election to determine the site of the county government, Livergood was caught between the warring factions. As Chief Justice of the county, be received the results of the election boxes, nine in number, certified to and returned by the presiding officers, and tabulated them. The partisans supporting Petersburg prevailed on Livergood not to announce the results until they had filed a petition contesting the votes of a number of voters supporting Hallettsville. As Chief justice, he granted their request, and to determine the validity of their protest, he instructed the presiding officers to send in the ballots for his examination. On July 6th, 1852, the date set for the hearing, while Livergood was investigating the charges, a mob of Petersburg partisans stormed his office, overturned the table, and destroyed the ballots. Livergood, in consequence, was unable to certify the results; in the next few days, he resigned. On August 24th, just prior to the September election, he made an affidavit reciting the tabulation of the election box returns, and filed it with the court. In the year that followed, the tabulation was the basis for a judicial finding that Hallettsville. was the legally constituted seat of justice for the county. While the people on the headwaters of the Lavaca waged their private war over the "county town," the state of Texas had problems of its own-the Indians and the frontier. Putting aside, for the moment, their feud, the Lavacans rallied to the defense of the state. George Tankersly in August, 1852, petitioned Governor P. H. Bell for a commission as Captain of the Rangers; he proposed to recruit the company in the county. Tankersly had served on the frontier in Captain J. S. Sutton's Company of Rangers. William Smothers, the Lavaca settler who had killed the Comanche chief near Linnville in 1842, also, sought a commission; he informed the governor, he had a company of one hundred men raised in the county, ready for service on the state's call. C. C. Herbert, Columbus, Texas, intervened for General Augustus Jones, a resident of Lavaca County. Jones thought another war with Mexico was imminent, and was anxious to raise a company. Herbert described Jones as "a gentleman and as brave a man as ever lived." At the time, Jones was the owner and operator of a "certain house known as the old Tavern Stand" at Petersburg. It was Livergood, however, who mustered the support of the people in the county. Turner Roundtree, George Walton, R. R. Walton, J. M. Henderson, Michael Murphy, Bosman Kent, William Byas, G. B. Tankersly, B. L. Tankersly, G. W. Tankersly, E. W. Williams, Gabriel Zumwalt, John Long, Andrew Zumwalt, Seth M. Baldridge, H. Dunham, H. Harless, M. T. Dunham, Jesse Robinson, David Coal, John Nolen, W. B. Davis, P. S. Nolen, John Nolen Sr., A. G. Nolen, T. J. Livergood, Arthur Sherrill, Henry K. Judd, B. F. Stribling, and Allen Jones, all settlers in and about Petersburg, supported Livergood. The petition addressed to Governor Bell stated that there were "many young men in this county who want to enter the Ranger Service." John Hemphill, Chief justice of the Supreme Court and still later a member of the United States Senate, 1857-1861, interceded for Livergood. Hemphill had served with Livergood in Hay's Company in 1842 and found "him a gentleman of superior intelligence," and in the military service "discharged his duties faithfully, honorably, zealously and intelligently." It was all to no end; the Legislature failed to provide for the state military organization, and Squire Livergood, instead of bivouacing on the trail of the lawless and the Indians, tended the fires at the Twin Oaks on the Lavaca. In 1854, he returned to politics and submitted his name as justice for the Petersburg precinct in the forthcoming election. He was elected without opposition and served in that capacity for several terms. With the outbreak of the Civil War, he was elected Captain of Beat No. 3 Company, Lavaca County, Texas State Troops, and was commissioned as such by Governor F. R. Lubbock. The Lone Star Guards, as the county unit was called, were commanded by Major J. F. Spears. In 1863, while he still commanded the Beat No. 3 Company, Livergood enlisted as a private in Spears' Company, Company C, 24th Regiment, Texas State Troops, for six months; on September 25, 1863, he enlisted for another six months period in Company D of the same regiment commanded by Captain John R. Borden, and trained at Camp Terry in Jackson County.
The Livergood family was listed in the 1850 census of LavacaCo: LIVERGOOD: Jno H. 36, m PA; Sarah A. 21, f VA; Lucosy G. 2, f TX; Lucy M. 1, f TX; HANLY: Mary 12 f TX. MITCHELL. Isaac Newton Mitchell (1809-1853) came to Texas from Alabama in 1838 (born in SumterCo, AL in 1810) according to author John Henry Brown who was an early area resident from Mustang Creek. He purchased land three miles north of the Hallett settlement. According to descendants, Mitchell came from Alabama from South Carolina over 150 years ago and settled near the present site of Hallettsville. Mitchell was with Col. John H. Moore's force which was primarily from Fayette and Bastrop counties that pursued Comanches up the Colorado to near where current Colorado City stands. Along with the group were Lavaca River valley men Mitchell, Mason B. Foley, Joseph Simmons of Texana, Nicholas J. Ryan and Peter Rockefeller. Col. Moore's troop caught the Comanche camp by surprise at dawn in October on a frosty morning and killed 130 warriors sparing only old men and one or two young warriors who surrendered. Women fought as bravely as men according to eyewitnesses and some were killed despite attempts to spare them. Isaac Mitchell was mounted on a mule in the attack and his bridle broke in the rush such that his mount uncontrollably penetrated the middle of the Indian camp where surrounded the mule "sulked" and would not move. In author John Henry Brown's words
He was at the Battle of Salado in 1842 with Capt. Zumwalt's Company, but along with Stewart Foley and Horace Eggleston, he arrived after the battle was over according to author Judge Paul Boethel. He commanded as Captain a combined company of Lavaca and Navasoto County men in the Somervell Expedition and returned following orders to San Antonio along with other LavacaCo men John Henry Brown, Joshua D. Brown, Beverly Greenwood, William M. Phillips, Shaffer Powell, M.C. Rountree, Jonathan Scott and O.H. Stapp. Mitchell's company was commissioned to build a bridge over the flooded Nueces River on the Expedition. He was an appointed Commissioner of the LavacaCo Court, along with Phillip Howard and A.G. Foster, to "view, mark out, and open a road to run from the crossing on Navidad River near Thomas Chaudoin's thence nearest and best route to Petersburg." Tax records of 1846 indicated that Mitchell owned 30 slaves and a valuable piano. According to Boethel, Mitchell was a "wealthy planter" and was involved in a six year long dispute over the death of a 16 year slave girl Mahala who was hired out by Henry Mims to Mitchell just at the time of the Woll invasion. The girl Mahala disappeared carrying notes by Mitchell that were her pass back to Mims and another calling for men to aid against Woll on the way to San Antonio. Her body and personal effects were found near a waterhole near Mim's place. Marks of violence were found on the body and later Mitchell's abusive overseer, M.C. Roundtree, admitted he had whipped the girl at previous times, one as recent as the day of her departure. The prolonged suit at Columbus revolved around Mim's attempt to recover compensation for loss of the girl even though Mitchell had paid with stock and cash to try to compensate for both her loan and loss. Finally, the Mims estate collected $679 in damages. On 27 Jul 1843, Mitchell married 21 year old Mary Margaret Kerr (1822-1884), the surviving daughter of Major James Kerr who came with him to Texas from Missouri in 1825. The Mitchell family was known as prosperous and cultured planters of the area and period and were supported by at least thirty slaves. The family maintained a summer residence on Lavaca Bay where in 1853 Capt. Mitchell was accidentally killed by a discharge of his own gun on a turkey hunt. The widow Mary Kerr Mitchell subsequently married J.C. Sheldon with whom the Mitchell children did not get along. Isaac and Mary Kerr Mitchell had a daughter, Angeline Genevieve Mitchell (1845-1924) and sons described below. Isaac Newton and Mary Mitchell had two sons I.N. Mitchell II, and Daniel by his wife Mary Margaret. After his accidental death, his two sons took over and soon purchased 400 acres of land on Carancahua Bay. I.N. then bought out his brother and built a large house there. This is where he brought his bride, Callista A. Stapp (1853-1942) in 1872. Callista is a descendant of Elija Stapp, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. Callista's Grandmother was a Rice (Founder of Rice University in Houston). I.N. Mitchell III was born 1-1-1873 and died Sept. 16, 1935, married to Mary Fromme, now deceased. They had three sons, I.N. Mitchell IV, Hugh C. Mitchell and Alfred Mitchell. I.N. Mitchell IV married Zatella Fields and had 2 children, Mary Katherine and I.N. Mitchell, V. Their daughter Mary Katherine still lives on Mitchell property. I.N. V. lives in New Braunfels. Mary Katherine has four children, one of which still lives with her on the ranch. I.N. V. has two sons. Hugh C. Mitchell married Ethel Parnell and has one son, Michael who has two sons, Michael V. and Stephen Hugh. Ethel still lives on the Mitchell Ranch. Also A.C. Mitchell married Mildred Sterling. They had no children. So you see, the Mitchell heirs are still ranching and farming. Times have changed but the love of cattle and nature are too strong to keep us away. The way of ranching has changed, cattle have changed, but the Mitchell's have not. Mrs. Hugh Mitchell and Son. (From The History of DeWitt County, Texas. Reprinted by permission of Curtis Media Company) 2005: Descendants report that Isaac Newton Mitchell IV and wife Zatella Creigh (Field) Mitchell, their daughter Mary Katherine (Mitchell) Dickey, Hugh C. Mitchell and wife Ethel (Panell) Mitchell, and their son Michael Weldon Mitchell are deceased. Isaac Newton Mitchell V has a ranch in the Smithsons Valley area of Comal County, Texas. Janet (Shade) Mitchell, Michael Weldon Mitchell's wife, lives in Edna,Texas. Mary Katherine's daughter, Susan, is living on the Mitchell ranch just south of Lolita, Texas. Janet Mitchell and sons Vance and Steve continue the ranching tradition of the Mitchell family in the Lolita area on lands purchased in 1854 by I. N. Mitchell II. SCARBOROUGH. Paul Scarborough came to Texas in 1830 and attended the meeting along with other residents including John Alley, James G. and Archibald White and Andrew Kent of the Lavaca and Navidad River area at Millican's Gin near Edna on 17 Jul 1835. He served in Capt. Moseley Baker's Infantry Company D, 1st Regiment Texas Volunteers at San Jacinto and participated in the Mier Expedition in 1842. He received land one third league of land for service awarded by the JacksonCo Board of Land Commissioners. TURNER
In late 1836, Col. Turner was transferred to regimental headquarters on the Lavaca River in Jackson County, but settled on Galveston Island where he established a plantation on Cedar Bayou, Oakland, but it did not prove stably successful and he moved to LavacaCo in Sep 1847 after annexation on the west bank of the Navidad River at Scotts Crossing on the road from Columbus to Gonzales. In Galveston Turner served as Officer in the Customs Service of the Republic following leaving the service. He was known as part of the "Custom House Click" and campaigned for Nicolas Lynch in his run against Moseley Baker at one time. Turner represented LavacaCo in the state legislature in 1850-51 and senate 1852-53. During the Civil War he was provost-marshal of LavacaCo and moved to Gonzales after the war. He died there 21 Jul 1877 and is buried in the Gonzales Masonic Cemetery. Amasa and Julia Morse Turner had children George, Marcellus and Julia. Within the Turner family Sam Houston was known as "Pa's implacable enemy." Turner's reasons for dislike of Houston are not totally clear, but it is believed it was simply a general aversion to Houston's "high-handed tactics coupled with his personal vanity and folly." Houston was the political enemy of multiple close friends of Col. Turner. In his book Colonel Amasa Turner: The Gentleman from Lavaca and other Captains at San Jacinto, LavacaCo author judge Paul C. Boethel quotes Col. Turner's description of the moments that were the basis for later accusations that Gen. Houston prematurely ordered a halt during the Battle of San Jacinto. Although Turner may have had aversion to Houston's personality, his description appears honest and in defense of Houston on the battlefield of San Jacinto:
Louisa W. Zumwalt (7 Sep 1824 MO-1906) and George W. Walton had children, George D., Andrew B., Luther, John and William. In addition to stockraiser and farmer, Walton was a freighter and during the Civil War participated in supply lines that kept the fragile economy of the Lavaca River area alive. According to author Boethel
Walton encountered and surmounted numerous difficulties in encounters with unscrupulous traders and the military forces both during the war and reconstruction under the chaotic conditions of the period. Walton was mustered into service as private in Captain T. W. Barnett's company, Barnes' Regiment of the Provisional Army of the Confederate States. The family was listed in the 1850 census of LavacaCo: WALTON: G.W. 32 m MO; Louisa M. 25 f MO; George D. 3 m TX; Andrew B. 2/12 m TX; HAMM: Harriet 12 f. LA. (Photo courtesy of LaHonda Morgan and Shirley Reynolds) WILLOUGHBY. Leaper Willoughby served in Capt. John Austin's Company at the Battle of Velasco in 1832 and was a signer of the petition for an independence Consultation at Brazoria. He served in the Texas Republican Army 16 Mar to 19 Sep 1836 as a private, corporal, sargeant and captain. At San Jacinto, he served in Capt. David Murphree's 4th Infantry Company, 2nd Regiment and died in LavacaCo in 1874. SONS OF DEWITT COLONY TEXAS |
Colonel Amasa Turner. was born in Massachusetts 9
Nov 1800, moved to Mobile, AL in 1825 and was in the lumber and construction business. In
1827 he married Julia Morse also from MA. In spring 1833 after a bout with yellow fever,
he made a trip with others to Texas. The party floundered in the Gulf of Mexico and
finally landed on Galveston Island. Most of the party returned to Mobile, but Turner
migrated to Mina after meeting surveryor Bartlett Sims. In 1835, Turner enlisted in Capt.
Robert Coleman's militia company. In Nov 1835 he was appointed an infantry Lieutenant. in
the regular army of the provisional government of Texas. Turner participated in the Siege
and Battle of Bexar and the Grass Fight and appointed as a recruiting officer and traveled
to New Orleans by boat in Dec 1835 where he recruited about a hundred men and arrived back
in Velasco in Jan 1836. At Velasco, he continued to recruit from the pool of new arrivals
from the US. He recruited enough men to form two companies, one under his command and
another under first John Hart and later Captain Richard Roman. Capt. Turner arrived in
Gonzales 27 Mar 1836 where he joined the Republic of Texas army forming under Houston
which began the retreat to San Jacinto. After San Jacinto in Aug 1836, Capt. Turner was
promoted to Lt. Colonel of infantry and later a Colonel. After the battle of San Jacinto
Capt. Turner and his command were placed in charge of prisoners which they transported
down Buffalo Bayou on the steamboat Yellowstone to Galveston and later Velasco under the
command of Col. James Morgan where he was occupied with providing for the army and
prisoners and fortification of the coast in case of further attack. He was instrumental in
prevention of attempts, in which he disobeyed orders from military superiors, on 