421
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1836
been checked with the copies in Brown, Wortham, Linn, Johnson-Barker, «nd the Arkansas Gctzette. All these sources give the same report, with here and there a slight variation in punctuation and capitalization. Para- graph di_vision differs considerably. 2 Sidney Sherman (July 23, 1805-August 1, 1873), son of Micha and Susanna Sherman, was born in Marlboro, Massachusetts. He came of revolutionary ancestry. When he was eighteen years old, then an orphan, he entered a mercantile house in Boston, but after a year or so, moved to New York. In 1831, he removed from New York to Cincinnati, where he formed a company for the manufacture of cotton bagging, and erected his factory buildings at Newport, Kentucky. On April 27, 1835, he married Catherine, the oldest daughter of Jacob and Maria Fenwick, of Frankfort, Kentucky. At the call of volunteers for the aid of Texas, he abandoned his business, raised and equipped a company of fifty men and sent them into camp where he helped to drill them. At this time Sherman himself held a commission from Governor James T. Morehead, as captain of a vol- unteer company of Kentucky militia. On December 18, 1835, his company, still in Kentucky, was enrolled into the Texas Army. Sherman's land cer- tificate No. 1858, for 1,280 acres, shows that he served in the Texas Army from December 18, 1835, to December 16, 1836. He sold this certificate to Abner Johnson for $160. On March 12, 1836, the first regiment of Texas volunteers was organ- ized with Edward Burleson, colonel, and Sidney Sherman, lieutenant colonel. When the second regiment was organized Sherman was made colonel of it. Strangely enough it happened that Sherman's Kentucky company which he had brought to Texas was placed in the first regiment under Colonel Burleson. Sherman served as colonel from April 8, to August 5, and as colonel of cavalry from August 5, 1836, to December 17, 1837. (See Comp- troller's 11'Iilita1·y Ser·vice Recorcls, Texas State Library.) After the Battle of San Jacinto, Sherman remained with the army in the west for several months, but finding that the enemy did not return he asked permission to return to Kentucky for his family. At this time he tendered his resigna- tion, but President Burnet would not accept it; instead he gave Sherman a commission as colonel in the regular Texas army. Before Sherman left for Kentucky, the Secretary of \Var presented him with the standard of colors which he had brought to Texas, saying that the Government of Texas presented those colors to Mrs. Sherman as a testimonial of her husband's gallant conduct on the field of San Jacinto. In January, 1837, Sherman returned to Texas with his family, and set- tled at Crescent Place on San Jacinto Bay, now the site of La Porte. He represented Harris County in the House of the Seventh Congress (November 4, 1842-January 17, 1843). On September 4, 1843, he was elected major general of the Texas Army, a position he held until tho annexation of Texas to the United States. In 1846, he undertook tho project of rebuilding Harrisburg, which had been destroyed by the l\foxi- cans in 1836. He bought 4,000 acres of land including the old townsitc, and with the assistance of Major John Williams, laid out the new town. He also conceived the idea of building a railroad from Harrisburg west- ward, and went to Boston to interest the necessary capital. He put all
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