WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1859
388
While opposed to secession with all the fervor of his being, once Texas had actually withdrawn from the Union, he bowed to the will of the majority and cast in his lot with the Confederacy, and throughout the four years' strife, rendered the South active service in organizing and preparing companies of the State for the battle front. At the close of the war, he formed a partnership with E. H. Cushney, editor of the Houston Teleg,·a71h, and engaged in the book and stationary business in the city of Houston; but after a few years, he grew tired of the inactivity of mercantile life, and sold out his interest in the business. In 1869, Charles Morgan, of New York, owned the Direct Navigation Company at Houston. Mo1·gan and Cave had been schoolmates and friends in early manhood; it was, therefore, natural that Morgan should appoint his old friend manager of this Texas company. For the next five years Cave actively managed the affairs of this company, during which time he became deeply interested in a ship canal from Houston to Galveston. He made a close, intensive study of the subject, and acquired a fund of practical information that was of great value to all succeeding efforts, both on the part of citizens of Houston, and the National Government, in promoting this great enterprise. In 1874 the Houston and Texas Central Railroad had fallen into financial difficulties, and application for its receivership had been filed in the Federal Court at Austin. But in the meantime, Charles Morgan, of New York, had bought the majority of the stock of this road, and came forward reporting that he stood ready to meet all the obligations of the railway; whereupon, the Federal Court denied the application of receivership, and dismissed the case. Immediately, Morgan appointed Cave treasurer of the road, and later made him director also, positions that Cave held to within two or three years of his death. During his twenty-five years' connection with this railroad he was an important factor in directing all its policies. But for all his intensive labor for the welfare of this railroad, his life dream, and constant ambition and study, was for deep-water navigation at Houston. Mrs. Cave died in 1872, and was buried in Glenwood Cemetery, Houston, Texas. During the latter days of January, 1904, Cave fell, or rather, was knocked down, as he stepped from a moving street car. He apparently received no great physical injury, but he had a nerve shock that developed nervous prostration and gradual decline until death came. His funeral cortege was one of the largest ever seen in Houston. He was buried beside his wife in Glenwood. See Houston Post, March 31, April 1, 1904; San Antonio Express, April 1, 1904; Fort Worth Record, April 1, 1904; William DeRyee, Texas Albu1n of the Eighth Legislature, 5-7; the gravestone in Glenwood Cemetery, Houston, Texas; and many other sources for Texas history. 2 James Hall Bell (January 21, 1825-March 13, 1892), son of Josiah and Mary Evaline (McKenzie) Bell, was born in a tent at Bell's Landing on the Brazos--now Columbia-Brazoria County, Texas. His father was the trusted friend and assistant of Stephen F. Austin in the establishment ~f the first American colony in Texas. In 1837 young Bell entered St. Joseph_s College, Bardstown, Kentucky, but returned to Texas on the death of liis father in 1838. In 1839, he entered Center College, Danville, Kentucky, but was compelled to return to Texas in 1842, before finishing his studies, on account of the unrest occasioned by the capture of San Antonio by General Woll. Bell served in General Somervell's command in expelling the Mexicans.
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