WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1837
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4 James Gaines, brother of General Edmund P. Gaines (See Sam Houston Dixon, Men Who Made Texas Free, 303; Thrall, History of Texas, 540; Z. T. Fulmore, The History and Geogra-phy of Texas as Told in County Names, 75), was born in Culpeper County, Virginia, in 1779. He went with the United States troops to Natchitoches and vicinity in 1805, and established a mercantile business and a ferry across the Sabine near the northeastern corner of what is now Shelby County. He remained there in business until 1812, at which time he joined the Mexicans in revolt against Spain. He joined the Republican army under Gutierres and Magee, but resigned from the army after the defeat of Elisondo at San Antonio. He then returned to Gaines Ferry and resumed his business. James Gaines had had scant opportunities for a formal education, a fact he seems to have felt keenly (See E. C. Barker, Life of Stephen F. Austin, 120-121), but he had learned economic independence in the hardships of life, had a somewhat mean and spiteful disposition, and was always ready to make trouble in public matters in which he had even a slight personal interest. We find him displeased with Stephen F. Austin's land system (see E. C. Barker, Life of Stephen F. Austin, 120-121); and being a brother-in-law of Samuel Norris, the Alcalde of Nacogdoches deposed by the Haden Edwai-ds party, he took sides against the Fredonians in 1825 (For a clear account of the so-called Fredonian War, see E. C. Barker, Life of Stephen F. Austin, 168-202). But he en- tered heartily into the Texas Revolution of 1836, and was elected to go as a delegate to the Convention which met at Washington on the Brazos, March 1-17. There he attended all the sessions of the Convention and was appointed on the committee to draft a constitution for the Republic. We find his name signed to both the Declaration of Texan Independence and to the Constitution. He was a Senator from the District of Shelby, Sabine, and Harrison to the 4th, 5th, and 6th Congresses. See E. W. Winkler (ed.), Secret Journals of the Senate, Republic of Texas, 1896-1845, pp. 134, 182, 204. After gold was discovered in California in 1849, Gaines moved to that State, and was associated with John C. Hays in some of his development enterprises. James Gaines died in Oakland, California, in 1855. Gaines County, Texas, is named in his honor. See Z. T. Fulmore, The History of Texas as Told in County Names, 75-76. S. H. Dixon, The Men Who Made Texas F1·ee, 304-306. E.W. Winkler (ed.), Sec1·et Jounials of the Senate, Republic of Texas, 1836-1845, pp. 48, 49, 204. William C. Binkley, Official Co1-respondence of the Texan Revolution, I, 188, 231, 282, 622, II, 651, 656, 759. To THE TEXAS SENATE, NOMINATING NAVAL 0FFICERS 1 Executive Department, City of Houston, 22nd May, 1837. Gentlemen of the Senate: With pleasure I present you the following' names for officers of the Navy, viz: James Gardiner Hurd, Lieutenant 2 James D. Boylan, Master Commandant 3
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