4,78
WRITINGS OF SAM HousToN, 1836
of Indians now assembled on the Trinity, I have thought proper to nominate the Hon[ora]ble Adolfo Sterne 3 and Isaac W. Burton" in conjunction with Nathaniel Robbins/ whose nomination was yesterday confirmed by the Senate; giving to any two of them powers, as Commissioners, to act on the subjects which may be embraced in their instructions from the War Department. Sam Houston 1 "Messages of the Presidents," Congressioncil Pa.pers, Texas State Library. E. W. Winkler (ed.), Sec1·et Journals of the Semite, Republic of Texas, 1886-1845, 20-21. This copy is made from the Secret Jounwls of the Senate. 2 John M. Dor. See Houston to the Senate, November 8, 1836. 8 Adolphus Sterne (April 15, 1801-1852) was born in Cologne, Germany. His father was a Jew, his mother, a Lutheran. When the youth was six- teen he emigrated from Germany to America, landing at New Orleans, in which city he resided for several years. At New Orleans he clerked in a store and studied law at odd times. He moved to Texas in 1826 (Original Titles, 26, 361-366, Svanish A1·chives, General Land Office), and gave 'l'ennessee as the State of his last residence. During the Fredonian Rebel- lion, Sterne sympathized with the Edwards party, and smuggled stores and supplies as well as munitions in to them. This smuggling being discovered by the Mexicans, Sterne •was tried by a military court and was sentenced to be shot, but the Masonic order, of which he was a member, interceded in his behalf and he was granted a parole. It was this parole that pre- vented his taking an active part with the Texans in 1832-1833. Never- theless, he was allowed to hold public office, and from 1831 to 1833 he was successively second and first 1·egidor, alcalde interino, and holder of the municipal funds at Nacogdoches. At the outbreak of the revolution, Sterne as a Texan agent at New Orleans, raised and equipped one of the com- panies known in Texas as the "New Orleans Grays." His claim for $820 thus expended was approved by the Comptroller in 1837 ( Comptroller's Military Se1"Vice Reco1·ds, Texas State Library). One June 28, 1828, at Nacogdoches, Sterne was married to Miss Eva Catherine Rosine Ruff. Mrs. Sterne was a devoted .Catholic, and it was at her house, in 1835, that Sam Houston was baptized according to the rites of the Roman Church, Mrs. Sterne standing sponsor as godmother. In 1925, Mr. Charles Adolphus Sterne, of Palestine, Texas, presented to the Texas State Library a diary that his father had kept from November, 1838, to the time of his death jn 1852. This diary edited by Harriett Smither, has been printed in the Southwestern Historical Quarterly. This diary, and a sketch of Sterne's life wi·itten as a footnote, 139-140 of Vol. XXX, are the best biographies that exist of this man. "Isaac Watts Burton ( , 1805-January, 1843), was born in Clarke County, Georgia, but was reared and educated near Augusta in Richmond County. He entered West Point Military Academy in 1822, but withdrew from that institution on May 25, 1823. Concerning his withdr~wa.1, ~fr; Burton wrote in his journal, "I proved unworthy and left the rnst1tution nt West Point on February ensuing my admission-not, however, for lack ~f capacity, but from utter want of application and perfect recklessness
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