GCHC NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 2015

Grimes County Historical Commission

Issue 1 Volume 1 October 2015 Meetings of the Grimes County Historical Commission are held on the Second Monday of the Month at 7:00 pm in the Courthouse Annex in Anderson, Texas Contact Information Russell Cushman 403 Holland Navasota, TX 77868 (936) 825 8223 rcush403@aol.com Visit us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Grime sCountyHistoricalCommission Online Website (coming soon) www.grimescountyhistoricalcom msion.com

Photo of the Month

Grimes County Historical Commission Executive Board Chairman Russell Cushman Vice Chairman Joe King Fultz Secretary Rebecca Duff Treasurer Malcom Green

COMMITTEES Historic Markers Denise Upchurch Cemetery Markers Denise Upchurch Steinhagen Log Cabin - Built before 1860. Log walls are unspliced. Slaves hand-hewed the timbers, stones, made doors, window shutters. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1965

Historic Preservation Sarah Nash Newsletter & Publicity Vanessa Burzynski

GRIMES COUNTY HISTORICAL COMMISSION NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 2015

October 28-30, 2015 - Lanterns and Legends October 31, 2015 - Trunk or Treat in Anderson November 3, 2015 – Election Day 7am-7pm November 7, 2015 – “Night of the Star” at Washington on the Brazos State Park 7-9 pm November 7, 2015 – Veteran’s Day Parade 10:30am November 11, 2015 – Veterans Day November 9, 2015 – GCHC Meeting @ 7pm November 26, 2015 – Thanksgiving

LANTERNS& LEGENDS: NAVASOTA’S OAKLAND CEMETERY “FOREIGN BORN IMPORTED SPIRITS” Lanterns & Legends 2015 has been pushed back one week. It will be Thurs., Fri. and Sat., Oct.29, 30 and 31, in Navasota's Oakland Cemetery. Guided Tours begin at 6:30 p.m. in groups of 15 every 15 minutes. Last scheduled tour each day is 7:45 p.m.

Wear comfortable shoes, bring a flash light and insect repellant. Tickets are $10 per person.

Dig deeper into the history of the men and women who walked the streets of Navasota, settled here from faraway places, created businesses and families and impacted our history. Travel from grave to grave with the light of a lantern as history comes alive with costumed actors telling the tale behind the tomb. Tours last a little over an hour and visit the actual gravesites of our "Imported Spirits."

Join us as we raise a toast to Navasota's diverse immigrant community.

The prospect of heavy rain and thunderstorms made us mindful of "safety first," for performers and audience alike. We look forward to bringing this year's stories to life one week later than originally planned.

Presented by the Navasota Theatre Alliance and City of Navasota.

You can make reservations by phone at 936-8253195 (leave a message as to requested date, time and number of tickets) or online at http://www.navasotatheater.org.

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It is estimated that there are roughly 50,000 cemeteries in Texas. These range from single, isolated and often unmarked graves to expansive cemeteries spanning hundreds of acres and reaching up to hundreds-of-thousands of burials.

Many of these cemeteries are endangered due to lack of historic context and knowledge of their presence or exact location. Efforts to identify, locate, protect, and preserve these endangered cemeteries remains a goal of the Texas Historical Commission (THC) and our many partners around the state.

The THC’s Cemetery Preservation Program offers technical assistance to assist concerned citizens and local and regional organizations with their cemetery preservation efforts. The program administers the Historic Texas Cemetery (HTC) designation process to record and protect historic cemeteries across the state. Participation can lead to a strong and long-lasting preservation effort.

The THC offers guidelines to aid in the preservation of the state’s historic cemeteries. However, this information alone is not enough to protect them; preservation starts with you. Individuals and groups interested in saving these irreplaceable cultural resources of Texas’ heritage are the driving force in long-term preservation.

Cemeteries are among the most valuable of historic resources. They are reminders of various settlement patterns, such as villages, rural communities, urban centers, and ghost towns.

Cemeteries can reveal information about historic events, religions, lifestyles, and genealogy. Names on grave markers serve as a directory of early residents and reflect the ethnic diversity and unique population of an area. Cultural influence in grave marker design, cemetery decoration, and landscaping contribute to the complete narrative of Texas history. Established in large part for the benefit of the living, cemeteries perpetuate the memories of the deceased, giving a place character and definition. Unfortunately, historic cemeteries do not necessarily remain permanent reminders of our heritage. Across Texas, they are threatened by development and expanding urban areas, natural forces such as weathering and uncontrolled vegetation, lack of fences to keep cattle from toppling headstones, and vandalism and theft, including removal of headstones and objects.

Neglect accelerates and compounds the process. If not recorded and cared for, these reminders of early settlements could be lost forever.

GRIMES COUNTY HISTORICAL COMMISSION NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 2015

Welcome to the official newsletter of our spectacular Grimes County history. You have just tapped into the soul of one of the best places on Earth. As you scroll through this newsletter you will get a taste of what lies in store as we discover it together.

I have spent the majority of my life digging into the legends and lore of Grimes County. Unaided by many historical markers, I was first stirred by her whispers while a teenager looking for a place to call home. My family took a drive through the county back in 1972 and every nook and cranny seemed to beckon me. Ancient moss-laden cemeteries gave haunting tribute to the very fathers of Texas. Oh my gosh! This WAS the very ground called Austin's Colony! There were still stagecoach inns and cotton gins standing, and folks still hitched up the mule and drove a wagon to town on Saturdays. People still sold the produce of their farms along the highway. The place was teaming with stories of Texas pioneers. As an artist and history lover, I knew I had found a place rich in the things which gave me inspiration. I am very proud today to help lead our County in the preservation of these things.

We need YOU. We need your interest, your ideas and your help to preserve our heritage and present it to the world. The Grimes County Historical Commission is the official State mandated, County funded organization whose sole purpose it is to serve this community in its specific preservation goals. And number one on that list are historical markers, which stand in defiance of encroachment from urbanization. Our heritage is our number one asset in our county identity and economic development. Inevitably, we are going to grow. It is my opinion that the only smart or responsible thing to do then is to manage that growth. How we package and educate the world about our heritage decides a great deal about the kind of folks we attract as we grow. This county was established and built by hard-working people with basic values of family and entrepreneurial spirit. Preserving and honoring their legacy will attract others like them.

Education will help them love and respect this ground as they develop it.

In the past my family and many others came here to get away from the city and all the chaos associated with it. And more and more we are becoming the refuge of others escaping places like Houston.

Whether we like it or not, we are going to explode in population in the next decade, and unless we fiercely preserve and tell our stories... know and live our cultural identity, protect our historic places, they will be paved over and become like so many

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nameless “improved” tracts, long forgotten, south of here. Our ancestors and the heritage they left us deserves better than that, and with your support of our commission and its projects we can keep Grimes County what it has been for ages... a special place with enviable charm and beauty...“a land of milk and honey.” Grimes County is a lovely, historic place. In fact it was in the heart of the Texian homeland the Alamo defenders shed blood for.

Today it is where happy people live, and the fathers and mothers of Texas rest in peace. But that is not enough. Beyond our own quality of life, we can leave a rare legacy to the next generation. Join us as we work together to share the powerful stories that make this ground hallowed ground, and one of the best places on earth.

We are looking for ideas for special projects for the Grimes County Historical Commission. Our goal is to erect several historical markers throughout the county this year and next year. Please be looking for buildings, locations, communities, churches, cemeteries and historical places that we can commemorate with a Texas historical marker.

Especially the “undertold” stories. This marker program will highlight the lesser known areas of our county and the immigrants that came to this county.

If there is an old building that needs to be saved please let us know about it. Our history is quickly disappearing before our eyes. We need to preserve our history and our heritage for future generations.

We must preserve and protect our cemeteries from encroachment by utility companies and future road and high speed rail construction.

Please contact Denise Upchurch concerning historical markers. She will help you with the marker application process. It can take up to 2 years to apply and obtain a historical marker. If you know of a historical marker that has been damaged or is in need of repair please let us know. Let us know what you would like to see done.

We are also looking for volunteers to help catalog our artifacts and to work on various special projects. If you are interested in volunteering your time to help us out it would be greatly appreciated.

Contact Russell Cushman for more information. We need volunteers like you to keep this organization going. Thank you for your valuable time. It is greatly appreciated.

GRIMES COUNTY HISTORICAL COMMISSION NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 2015

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from taking the New Orleans and Galveston route, declaring that the Fall and not the Winter, season is the proper time for emigration to Texas and the land route the only safe one.

New York Times March 13, 1854 Cholera in Texas - Awful Fatality in a family of Georgia Emigrants- from the Columbus (GA) Citizen Through the politeness of Col. P.S. Holt of this city, we are enabled to lay before our readers, the following particulars of an awful calamity, which has recently befallen the family of Mr. George Moore, late of Crawford Co., GA who removed to Texas but a few weeks ago. The scene of disaster is Grimes County, Texas, near Anderson and the writer of the letter to Col. Holt is Mr. J.W. Barnes, formerly of Hancock Co., GA. The family of Mr. Moore consisted of himself and wife; his son-in-law, Mr. Crute and wife; children and grandchildren to the number of 15 whites and about 60 blacks. They left New Orleans for Galveston on one of the steamships plying between the two places, sometime about the last of January or first of February, in company with over 400 other emigrants. On arrival at Galveston, Mr. Moore’s family took up their line of march for Grimes County, where he had a planting interest and whither his son, George Moore Jr., had preceded him a year ago. After passing Houston, the cholera broke out among the negroes, several of whom died on their way to Grimes County and several more after their arrival in the neighborhood. The disease was thus communicated to the white family, of whom 15 in number, all were attacked but Mrs. Crute and infant child, and of all attacked, on the 15th of February, the last date of the letter of Mr. Barnes. Twelve had died or all but a lad named “Gus” presumed to be “Augustus” but whether the son of Mr. Moore or an adopted child does not appear from the letter of Mr. Barnes. Of the negroes, 50 out of the 60 had been attacked with the disease, of whom about 20 had died, at the time of the writing and the disease has communicated to the family of negroes who had previously been in Texas, one of whom “Bill” was dead and the disease still unsubdued. Mr. Barnes does not state whether George Moore Jr. was one of the victims of the cholera, but we presume he was not or Mr. Barnes would have particularly mentioned it. Mr. Barnes attributes this awful calamity to the fact of the emigrants being too crowded on the steamship, and to the filthy state of the negroes, department on board, together with their exposed situation after landing and during their winter traveling, destitute of the necessary medical attention and comforts of life, and he urgently warns his friends in Georgia

The following extract from the letter of Mr. Barnes, gives an appalling picture of the death-bed scene of that ill-fated family. “The white family were all confined in a log house on the place above mentioned, about 16 x 18 feet, but well-finished and tight, and on yesterday, my heart was made to bleed, indeed, at the awful scenes around me. I was requested by Moore to write his will and drew near where he was lying to give him my undivided attention while he was performing this important duty; and immediately after I began to write, he remarked to me, ‘to condense the matter as much as possible, for my time is short’ and true, it was, though his mind was clear and collected, he grew worse very fast and more than once asked ‘to condense’ and the Doctor told me to do what I did quickly and just here the groans and ejaculations of a dying grandson (some twelve years of age) were uttered in tones too tender and pitiful to be unheeded by any in the range of his shattered voice, and among these cries was a request by his mother to ‘pray that I may die easy’ and again ‘Oh! Mother, meet me in heaven; Oh! mother, write to my aunt in Georgia, I am going to heaven; all of you must meet me in heaven’ ‘mother, are all of my little brothers and sisters gone in Heaven but me! All but my baby son! Well, ma, you must come and father, too.” The strain was kept up for more than an hour and besides this, here lay two sons, one on each side of a dying father, writhing with the agonies of “cramp” peculiar to cases, just before going into a collapse, and now and then would come up the deep and fervent prayer from an old and sainted mother and lamentations that would not fail to bring tears from a strangers eyes. Imagine the groans and half suppressed prayers of a daughter, whose father, brothers, and child were all dying about her, and she not hope left but that of herself, her mother and husband would soon be grappling with that ‘monster’ which could not be stayed and you will have a faint idea of Mrs. Crute’s situation at this juncture. Pardon me, my dear sir, if I have trespassed upon your feelings by communicating such unwelcome tidings and my apology is that I can think of nothing else, talk of nothing else, write of nothing else. My feelings and sympathies have been so much engaged for this poor family, I can think of but little else.

GRIMES COUNTY HISTORICAL COMMISSION NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 2015

A Hanging in Anderson Fort Worth Daily Gazette Sunday, May 27, 1888 The Hanging of William H. Roe at Anderson and the Crime for Which he Died An Offense of Peculiar Enormity He Poisoned His Wife, a Sweet and Most Worthy Woman Special to the Gazette NAVASOTA, TEX, May 26 – “William H. Roe the murderer of his wife, by poisoning was hanged at Anderson the county seat of Grimes County, Tex today at ten minutes after 3 o’clock. The death warrant was read to him in his cell by W. S. Neblett, deputy sheriff. At 3 o’clock accompanied by Sheriff Scott and deputies he was all conducted to the scaffold one mile south of town. He was perfectly calm and persistently declared his innocence to his spiritual adviser, Rev. Dr. Pharrar, who read his statement upon the scaffold.

His statement reviewed the chief points brought to bear in the court of conviction and determinedly and positively declared his innocence. He appealed to God in the presence of the vast audience present to testify to the truth of his words.

After prayer by Rev. Dr. Pharrar and the question as to whether he was guilty or not, to which he deliberately answered “no” the black cap was adjusted and at 3:29 he was jerked into eternity. The drop was seven feet and his neck was instantly broken. Death ensued in twenty minutes and he was given over to friends and relatives who took charge of the remains and laid them to rest in the Anderson cemetery. Roe’s dying declaration that he was innocent created no little excitement and sympathy and expressions in the matter are as various as they are peculiar. He met death bravely and calmly and conversed with his minister and the sheriff to the moment of his death. Over six thousand spectators witnessed the execution. He had previously prepared a private letter to his son, one of the two children who survive him, in which he asserts his innocence and warns his boy to brave the aspersions of a critical public.

The drop was sprung by Deputy Sheriff Upchurch and Sheriff Scott. Deputy Sheriff Kelly and Rev. Pharrar were the last to bid him goodbye. Roe’s execution terminates a remarkable case in the criminal history of Texas and if his dying declarations should prove true, will end in one of its most remarkable and regretted tragedies.

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HISTORY OF THE CRIME The offense for which Roe was convicted was committed April 7, 1886 and the peculiar enormity of the deed was intensified by the fact that his wife was a sweet and worthy woman, much liked by all who knew her. The fact that she died from strychnine poison was so clearly demonstrated that no attempt to deny or cast doubt upon it was attempted and neither he nor his counsel plead mistake or accident, but based the entire defense on the ground that he did not have and had not bought any strychnine, but that she was poisoned by two negroes, a man and a woman, the main state’s witnesses. But no possible motive for the crime on the art of these parties could be shown, while it was proved , and not denied that her life was insured in his favor for $2,000, the premi8um of assessment on which he had paid a day or so after it was due, and a day or so only before the poison was administered. Roe was raised in Walker and Grimes Counties, and was born in one or the other of the counties.

He has some very wealthy connections in both counties. He served as convict guard for a long while and during the time was indicted in Wood County for the murder of one, and probably two convicts at the same time, but was not convicted. He served on e or more terms as City Marshal of Huntsville, and was defeated for the office the day preceding the murder of his wife, and was shown to be without employment and out of money. He is a smooth faced, light hared man about thirty years of age and has two children, being the fruits of his marriage with the wife of whose murder he was convicted.”

Note: The trial originally was set to be held in Huntsville where the murder took place but the defense asked for a change of venue for fear that he would not get a fair trial as there had been threats of lynching from citizens and family members. The principal witness mentioned in the article was Lewis Cotton, a negro who purchased the strychnine for Mr. Roe and was later told not to mention it to anyone. The other witness was Annie Deary who testified that she saw Mr. Roe give the substance to his wife, telling her it was quinine and that after she drank it she immediately went into convulsions and died.

William H. Roe had served as a deputy sheriff and jailer for Walker County Sheriff W. D. Adair.

Historians have claimed that Roe was the first lawman to be legally executed in Texas. Roe is buried at Odd Fellows Cemetery in Anderson in an unmarked grave.

GRIMES COUNTY HISTORICAL COMMISSION NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 2015

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ODD FELLOWS CEMETERY Each month we will feature a different cemetery in Grimes County. This month we are featuring the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Anderson, Texas. This cemetery is located off of Hwy 149 1 mile west of Anderson. The cemetery consists of 6 acres of land. This property once belonged to the family of John F. Martin and his wife Caroline Hadley Martin.

Caroline Hadley was the daughter of Joshua Hadley who settled in Grimes County in the early 1800’s.

After the death of John Martin in 1846 he was buried on the family farm in Anderson. After the death of Mr. Martin his widow married O. H. P. Hill.

A section of that property was given to the Odd Fellows for a Cemetery. There are many notable persons buried in this cemetery. There are over 75 confederate soldiers buried there including Confederate General James Green McDonald and two sons of John F. Martin, William A. Martin and Winston T. Martin, O.H.P. Hill, Dr. John T. Montgomery, and Rev. Anderson Buffington.

Other notable families include names such as Buchanan, Campbell, Cawthon, Cone, Crute, Hair, Haynie, Hobbs, Johnston, Kelley, Kennard, McDaniel, McDonald, Montgomery, Neblett, Moore, Meachum, Parks, Peteet, Perry, Rogers, Schumacher, Scott, Roe, Steinhagan, Thomas, Throop, White, Wilson, and Womack.

There are 3 persons buried there who were victims of a shooting in Anderson on November 7, 1900 in which after the election the sheriff refused to step down and a standoff ensued at the jail and a shootout erupted in the streets of Anderson in front of the Courthouse.

Sheriff Garrett Scott was wounded in the leg. His brother Emmett Scott and William McDonald were killed in a street duel and store owner John Bradley was also killed in the crossfire. Bullet holes still exist in the courthouse wall. The Texas Rangers were brought in and took Sheriff Scott to Houston for treatment and safety.

Also buried there is William H. Roe who was hung in Anderson in 1888 for the murder of his wife in 1886.

He was accused of putting strychnine in her coffee.

His killing by legal sentence marked the only execution in Grimes County history.

Tombstone of George Moore, his wife Rachel and their 5 year old child Bobbie. A total of 12 family members died within a few days of each other from a Cholera outbreak. They are all buried in the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Anderson, Texas.

The Central Texian dated January 24, 1857 “We are pleased to learn that Col. Geo. Moore has removed the bodies of his family and Mrs. Mathews, from the old burying ground to the appropriate and beautiful site selected by the I.O.O.F of our town, and has also erected monuments over them, alike creditable to him as to the builders. The head and foot stones and devices are beautiful being made of fine Italian marble from the marble yard of Amiss & Co. Memphis, Tenn. Job Wright, Esq. is the agent for the firm in this County and State.”

GRIMES COUNTY HISTORICAL COMMISSION NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 2015

OBITUARY FOR CAROLINE HADLEY HILL Mrs. Caroline [Carolina] HADLEY HILL departed this life at Anderson, Grimes County, Texas, on April 28, 1899, and her mortal remains were buried in the Odd Fellow's cemetery beneath nature's virgin oaks in the family burial ground, beside the graves of her beloved, who had gone before, which graveyard is a perpetual monument in memory of the virtuous woman who donated same to the people - by whom she was loved - in which to bury their dead. She was born on the 22nd day of December, 1823, at Augusta, Georgia; but as early as 1833, she joined the company of brave men and courageous women, who wended their way through the western wilds and established for themselves homes and a notion in the land of flowers, wresting their beautiful country from the Indians and Mexicans. Among all the daughters of these pioneers, none were fairer or more beautiful to look upon than she; and everywhere she was recognized as one of the belles of Texas. This remarkable beauty she preserved until the last; and in her casket she reposed as one in sweet slumber.

At the early age of fourteen she was married to Maj. John MARTIN, one o f the heroes of the TexasMexican war. This union was blessed with four children: Wm. A. MARTIN, John F. MARTIN, Winston Travis MARTIN and Mrs. Margaret WILSON, the three last of whom survive her. Mrs. MARTIN, the widow of said Wm. A. MARTIN, resided with and comforted her in her declining years. After Maj. MARTIN - who served his country in war and peace, amid trials, sufferings, and dangers of the early settlement of Texas, honored by his fellowmen, had been laid to rest - the first person buried in what is now the Odd Fellow's graveyard.

Mrs. Caroline MARTIN was married to Hon. O. H. P. HILL, Rev. A. BUFFINGTON performing the marriage ceremony, at Anderson, Texas, November 3rd 1847. Of him, it was truly said, "Her husband is known in the gates where among the elders of the land." During the War Between the States in 1864 he was gathered to his Fathers, and his remains interred in the family plot in the Odd Fellow's Cemetery. Nine children were born to them, two of them died while infants, and two others, Mrs. Alice JENNINGS and Paul HILL preceded her to the other shore. Five children, viz., Gibbs HILL, Joshua HILL, Reuben P. HILL, Benjamin J. HILL and Mrs. Mary HARISON survive her. Her descendants are numerous, including six great-grandchildren. Her children rise up and call her blessed. The Christian religion shone as a b right light in her character from early youth to hoary age. She nurture d her children in the admonition of the Lord, and they

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have all filled honorable positions among their fellowmen. Youth and age gathered at her hospitable house and went away refreshed by the quiet example of her life, and endearing words of encouragement to walk in the paths of duty. She is believed to be the last woman in Grimes County to survive what is known in Texas history as the run away escape to the Sabine, when Santa Ann a invaded Texas in 1836, at which time all the women and children fled for their lives and endured untold hardships .

Her Bible was her constant companion in her last days and when the Master came she answered: "I am Glad". A vast throng attested their sincere affection by paying the last tribute to her memory by joining in the burial services while the pall bearer s F. BRIGANCE, J. M. SIDDALL, T. C. BUFFINGTON, Joel T. SMITH, W. W. MEACHUM and John H. KENNARD, bore, with careful hands, her body to the grave. Rev. J. R. CASON delivered, at the grave, an eloquent tribute to the virtues of the deceased; and weeping women covered with fragrant flowers her last resting place. A mother in Israel had passed from death unto life eternal, not as the heathen without hope, but with the blissful assurance of a home in heaven, and celestial glory.

May God bless her children and descendants to the latest generation; and help them to feel that their temporal loss is her eternal gain, and that following in her footsteps, 'they shall meet her in the New Jerusalem, to part from her no more forever'. [signed] W. W. M."

GRIMES COUNTY HISTORICAL COMMISSION NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 2015

MCDONALD, JAMES GREEN, SR. (1824–1903).

James Green McDonald, Sr., Texas legislator, judge, and Civil War general, was born in Carthage, Smith County, Tennessee, on September 20, 1824, the son of Henry Brown and Mary (Crowder) McDonald. He studied law in Lebanon, Tennessee, and after graduating established a practice there.

About that same time he married Julia T. Davis, a graduate of the National Female College in Nashville, Tennessee; this couple had ten children, eight of whom lived to adulthood. In 1851 the family moved to Anderson, Texas, and McDonald quickly became one of Grimes County's most prominent citizens. He established an apparently lucrative law practice and also became a leading member of the local Democratic party. During the 1850s he was elected to serve as a district attorney and in 1860 was elected to the state legislature. By 1860, according to the U.S. census, he owned $4,825 in real property and $5,170 in personal property, including four slaves. He supported secession in 1861, and after the Civil War began, he was appointed as a brigadier general of the Seventeenth District, Texas State Troops.

An "impaired physique," however, prevented him from serving in the field, and in 1863 he was elected again to the state legislature.

The Civil War and its aftermath dealt severe blows to Grimes County's slaveholding elite; the emancipation of the slaves evaporated much of their wealth, and by 1870 land there was worth about a third of its 1860 value. General McDonald also saw his fortunes decline precipitously in the late 1860s. In 1870 the census reported that he owned only $700 in real estate and just $400 in personal property. By that year the McDonald family also appears to have moved to another home in Anderson. In 1860 their neighbors included other lawyers, county officials, and a chief justice; in 1870 the McDonald's neighbors included a lawyer but also a black barber, a schoolteacher, a carpenter, and a mulatto store clerk. General McDonald continued to practice law and stayed active in politics. In 1872 he was elected district attorney and served for four years; in 1882 he was elected to the Texas Senate. But his financial fortunes never recovered from his postwar losses. In 1891 he owned four town lots in Anderson (together worth $1,200 that year), a horse or mule worth $50, and $160 in cash. His fortunes continued to decline; in 1901, two years before his death, he owned only $500 in real property, and his personal property was assessed at only $15. Gen. James McDonald, Sr. died at his son's home in Anderson on March 11, 1903, and is buried in Anderson's Odd Fellow Cemetery.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY: E. L. Blair, Early History of Grimes County (Austin: 1930). Dallas Morning News, March 14, 1903.

Grimes County, Texas Census Records (http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~txgrimes/), accessed March 10, 2009. Frank W. Johnson, A History of Texas and Texans (5 vols. Chicago and New York: American Historical Society, 1914; rpt.

1916).

Tombstone of Gen. James Green McDonald

GRIMES COUNTY HISTORICAL COMMISSION NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 2015

STEINHAGEN, CHRISTOPHER FRIEDERICH CARL (1814–1893). C. F. Carl (Charles) Steinhagen, early Texas cabinetmaker, was born on December 21, 1814, at Warkstorf (Warekstoff, Warckdorff), Mecklenburg, Prussia, and was baptized in the Evangelican Lutheran Church at Goldebee, the son of Hans Heinerich and Maria Dorothea (Behncke or Benecke) Steinhagen. In 1844 Carl was a wagon and wheelwright apprentice in KÜnigsberg, Prussia.

He arrived in Galveston from Bremen aboard the Galliott Flora on May 21, 1849, and was naturalized in Anderson, Texas, on April 13, 1855. He was a wheelwright by trade but made wagons for the Confederacy during the Civil War. Charles Steinhagen and Emma Friedericke Schatz were married on November 27, 1850, in Houston and settled in Anderson, where he built his home in 1853. Twelve children were born, three died young, and the surviving children were educated to speak and write in English and attended churches of their choice. B. A. Steinhagen Lake in Tyler County bears the name of his eldest grandson. C. F. Carl Steinhagen died on February 19, 1893, and was buried on February 21, 1893, in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Cemetery at Anderson, where his monument still stands.

The University of Texas Winedale Properties at Roundtop was founded by Miss Ima Hogg in 1965 to reflect the cultural influence of early Texas immigrants who settled in that area, and the restoration of the McGregor-Grimm House was completed in 1973. The house is furnished with pieces collected largely by Miss Hogg to represent the many Anglo-American and German cabinetmakers in the mid-nineteenth century.

Particularly notable are the parlor and bedroom suites by Carl Steinhagen, who made furniture for his family as a hobby. In the parlor is his 1850 upholstered sofa with a pair of sturgeons across the back rail and swan's heads for armrests, an 1870 upholstered rocker with matching armrests, an elaborate drum table with an acanthus-leaf carved pedestal, and two candle stands. The sofa and rocker are reminiscent of the 1830 bourgeois Biedermeier style of furniture in Prussia. The bedroom holds his 1850 four-post bed with leafcarved posts and large acorns for finials, a walnut wardrobe with leaf-carved pilasters, and a trundle bed. An 1861 wardrobe, in the home of a descendant, matches the four-post bed with freestanding, acanthus-leaf columns and claw feet of bois d'arc wood. The furniture was found in the homes of his heirs, and Miss Ima Hogg described C. F. Carl Steinhagen as "one of the most outstandingif not the finest-cabinetmaker who came to early Texas."

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GRIMES COUNTY HISTORICAL COMMISSION NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 2015

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GOODRICH, BENJAMIN BRIGGS (1799–1860).

Benjamin Briggs Goodrich, signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, son of John Goodrich, was born in Brunswick County, Virginia, on February 24, 1799. After the family moved from Virginia to Tennessee, Goodrich went to Maryland, where he graduated from a medical college in Baltimore and began to practice medicine. He later practiced in Vicksburg, Mississippi; Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Tallahassee, Florida; and again in Alabama, where he served one term in the state legislature. Goodrich and his brother, John Calvin Goodrichqv, arrived in Texas on April 30, 1834. Dr. Goodrich purchased a lot in Washington on December 16, 1835. As one of the four representatives from the Municipality of Washington at the Convention of 1836 he signed the Declaration of Independence. While attending the convention he secured from each delegate present his age, place of birth, and the name of the state from which he emigrated to Texas.

Goodrich married Serena Corrothers, a native of Kentucky; they were parents of nine children.

Sometime after 1836 he settled near the site of present Anderson in Grimes County. He died on November 16, 1860, and was buried in the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Anderson, where the state of Texas erected a joint monument at the graves of Goodrich and his wife in 1932.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:Louis Wiltz Kemp, The Signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence (Salado, Texas: Anson Jones, 1944; rpt. 1959). Thomas L. Miller, "Texas Land Grants to Veterans of the Revolution and Signers of the Declaration of Independence," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 64 (January 1961).

Texas House of Representatives, Biographical Directory of the

Texan Conventions and Congresses, 1832–1845

(Austin: Book Exchange, 1941).

Benjamin Goodrich Signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence.

Benjamin Goodrich was born in Brunswick County, Virginia. Little is known of his early life other than that he graduated medical school in Baltimore and practiced medicine in several southeastern states; he was presumably very respected as he served a term in the Alabama State Legislature during his second trip there. In 1834, Goodrich and his brother John arrived in Texas, purchasing a plot of land near Washington the following year. He was elected one of the four delegates to represent Washington Municipality at the Convention of 1836 to discuss the coming secession and war with Mexico, was put in charge of the roll of members and signed the Texas Declaration of Independence. It was at the convention that he was notified that his brother John had been killed fighting at the Alamo. He wrote his family to tell them of the unfortunate news, stating that he was going to join the Texas army; but it is not known if he was able to before the war ended. After Texas had won its independence, he married Serena Corrothers and moved to Grimes County, where he lived the rest of his days.