WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 184,2 .
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To OWEN O'BRIEN 1 Executive Department, City of Houston, March 20th, 1842. To Mr. Owen O'Brien Sir, You will proceed forthwith to Pine Island, and thence to Oliver Jones\ Esq.'s, on the Brazos. You will show this to Doctor Anson Jones, and request that he will.come to me as soon as possible. You will then proceed on to where you will find Col- onel George W. Hockley, Secretary of War, and W. D. Miller, Esq., my Private Secretary, and let them know that I desire them to come to me. If Colonel Hockley is usefully employed in the army, and he should think his presence necessary there, he may remain, until I can learn more of our situation. No express has been received from any of the forces, nor does the Executive know what is to be depended upon. Rumors are arriving hourly and daily, but no authentic facts. I ,vish my Secretary and all the officers of the Government. Let the archives be brought here immediately. Expresses have been sent to the East for all the troops to be in readiness. I desire to hear all the news, and to know the authentic state of the army, or the forces in the field. Sam Houston [Rubric] 1 "Houston's Private Executive Record Book," p. 78, courtesy of Mr. Franklin Williams. !Oliver Jones was born in New York City. He fought in the War of 1812-1814, and was taken prisoner by the British, and was so disgusted at the indifference of the United States government in obtaining release for himself and other prisoners, that he vowed never again to live under such a government, so went to Mexico when he was at last at liberty. In Mexico he met Stephen F. Austin, with whom he returned to Texas, and on August 10, 1824, he received a title to a sitio and a labor of land in Austin's first colony. This land was in Brazoria and Austin Counties. Thus, Oliver Jones became one of the early settlers of Stephen F. Austin's colony, and in 1129 was made sheriff in Austin's municipality. In the same year he led an expedition against the troublesome Caranchua Indians. In 1834 he was one of the Texas representatives to the Legislature of Coahuila-Texas at Monclova, and after the Texas Revolution, he served as senator from his district in the 3rd, 4th, 6th, and 7th congresses. He died in Houston, on September 17, 1866, and is buried beside his wife in the Episcopal and Masonic Cemetery of that city. For the best biography of Oliver Jones and his wife, Rebecca, see Mrs. Adele B. Looscan's sketch in The Q1w1·te1·ly, Texas State Historical Association, X, 172-180; see also Bake1·'s Texas Scrap Book, 280; E. C. Barker, The Life of Ste7,hen F. Austin, 366, 467, and A11stin Papers, III, 32; E. W. Winkler (ed.), Secret Jom'1ials of the Se1iate, Republic of Texas, 1836-1845, 327; Lcimcff Pa71ers, I, 148, 170; Ill, 427.
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