WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1837
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[Endorsed] : Sam Houston Prest Letter & Order His Ex. Prest. Houston Order to Exchange Cattle Mar. 1st 1837 1 Army Papers, Texas State Library. 2 Andrew Neill, or Neal. Andrew Neill a Scotchman by b:rth, came to Wellsburg, West Virginia in early youth. He became a lawyer, and began his practice at Natchez, Mississippi, where he served as probate judge. In 1836 he came to Texas, captain of a volunteer company, under General Felix Huston. This company arrived just after the battle of San Jacinto, but was at once placed on special duty; especially was Captain Neill active in valuable service until the Texas Army was disbanded in 1837. Neill then located as a lawyer, settling first at Gonzales, and later at Seguin, where he res:ded from 1840 to 1866, at which time he moved to Galveston. In 1876 he again moved his residence, this time to Austin. Andrew Neill was .long identified with the struggles of the southwestern pioneers; he was often a participant in battles with Indians and Mexicans, and was always at the front of his band. He was distinguished for gallantry at the Battle of Plum Creek, August 12, 1840, at San Antonio, March 6, 1842, and took part in nearly all the fights and raids of 1842, and was severely wounded in a bloody fight with Indians in 1843. On September 11, 1842, at San Antonio, he was captured, along with other members of the Court, by General Adrian Woll, and was carried a prisoner to Mexico. He succeeded in making a very remarkable escape from his captors. Upon his return home he was commissioned a Brigadier General in the Texas Army by President Houston. While his military activities alone have been recounted, Andrew Neill was equally energetic in civil and professional affairs. In 1844 he was married to Agnes Brown of Gonzales, but she died of yellow fever in 1866, and he then married Jennie Chapman of Virginia. See Encyclopedici of the New West (The United States Biographical Publish- ing Company, 1881, Vol. I, Texas), p. 582. 3 In The Telegraph and Texas Register, November 30, 1836, Thomas Cayce advertized his place-a few miles above Matagorda-for sale. He said, "Cayce's Ferry is too well known to require description, for it is there that the Great National Road crosses the Colorado, and it will continue to cross at that place." The issue of the Teleg1·aph of January 11, 1837, carried the announcement of the marriage of Mary Ann Cayce, daughter of Thomas Cayce of Matagorda, to D. Davis D. Baker, on January 3, 1837. PROCLAMATION, MARCH 4, 1837 1 Executive Department, Columbia, Texas, March 4, 1837 PROCLAMATION concerning the Improvement of Unoccupied Lands. Being the general conservator of the public interests of mY fellow citizens, I feel it my duty to notify them that information from various sources has reached me, that many individuals, either under an erroneous construction of law or from an in- tentional design to delude the stranger and unwary, have of late
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