37
WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1837
2 Robert Anderson Irion (July 7, 1806-1861) was born at Paris, Ten- nessee. He was educated for a physician, graduating in medicine from Transylvania University in March, 1826. He moved to Vicksburg, Missis- sippi, to establish himself in his profession, and there he practised medicine until 1832, when he decided to go to Texas. After surveying various sections of Texas for an advantageous location, he settled at Nacogdoches. After Texas had become a Republic, the district of Nacogdoches sent him as its representative to the First Texas Congress. On June 13, 1837, Houston appointed him Secretary of State, a position he held until 1840. When Houston was elected to the Presidency for a second term (1841) he again offered the position of Secretary of State to his friend Irion, but it was refused, because Irion had decided to retire permanently from public affairs and give his entire time and attention to the practise of his pro- fession. In April, 1840, he married Anna Raguet, the eldest daughter of Colonel Henry Raguet of Nacogdoches. They had four children-two boys and two girls-who grew to adult life. Dr. Irion died at his home in Nacogdoches in 1861; his wife lived until Novmeber, 1883. See letters of Mrs. J. R. Irion to Amelia Williams, June 7 and 28, 1834. Johnson-Barker, Texas and Texans, III, 1533-1534. Z. T. Fulmore, The History and Geogmphy of Texas a.s Told in County Names, 186. 3 John Alexander Newlands was a lawyer of Nacogdoches, Texas, who devoted his attention especially to land sales and land litigation of various kinds. He was the attorney and land agent for Dr. James Grant, and sold for this man more than one hundred one-league claims in Nacogdoches municipality during the years 1828 to 1836 (see "Diary of Adolphus Sterne," The Southweste1'1i Historical Qum·terly, XXXI, 202). He and Houston were friends, and from 1833 to 1835 often practised in the same courts, sometimes as associates, often as opponents. See Adolphus Sterne's Diary. The original document is in the Texas State Library. It has been edited and printed in The Southweste1'1i Historical Quarterly, Vols. 30-37. See also, E. W. Winkler (ed.), Secret Jou1'1ials of the Senate, Republic of Texas, 1836-1845, 114-116. 4 Colonel Bowls, more often called, "The Bowl," was the war chief of the Cherokees. tiWilliam Goyens (the name is found spelled variously Guyons, Goynes, Goyans, etc.) was a general trader who lived in northeast Texas. He was a negro with some white blood, and was married to a quadroon-Indian with admixture of negro and white blood-who was a woman of intelligence and some education. Goyens himself owned negro slaves (see "Diary of Adolphus Sterne," The Southwestern Historical Quarte1·ly, XXXI, 721). This source tells that he lost a court verdict at Nacogdoches which con- cerned some of his slaves. He was also the mouthpiece for the Indians of the northern sections of Texas, and the southern part of Arkansas. He was a friend to Texas; and during the Revolution did much to keep the Indians, under his influence, quiet. In his Memoirs, 116, Benjamin Lundy says that William Goyens was a free negro living in Nacogdoches as early as 1832, that he had a white wife who was a native of Louisiana, and that l\Irs. Goyens had two brothers who came to visit her during his (Lundy's) stay at her house, and that these brothers seemed to be congenial with their negro brother-in-law, although they had not been previously acquainted with him. As a fact, as stated above, Goyens had white blood as well as negro and Indian blood, and his wife had negro and Indian blood as well as white
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