The Long Strange Journey of Hiram Williams
Hiram Williams has a well defined marker in Camptown Cemetery, a military marker. The story of his life, or at least particulars of it, are actually fairly well documented. To a large extent this documentation comes from newspaper accounts, most of them related to his run-ins with the law. Nonetheless, he is an interesting example of just how much can be learned from such documentation about various aspects of life in and around Camptown. The incident of his being swept up by the police after a near fatal assault on an officer in Hell's Half Acre provides interesting insights into Brenham's red light district.
The story of his life also allows a little light into the life of Rhoda Williams, nee Rodgers, also buried in Camptown Cemetery. She and Hiram seem to have actually been married twice, and it is reasonable to speculate that the first marriage suffered from his affairs in Hell's Half Acre, and their second marriage (after her previous marriage to Jordan Johnson and his death) may indicate a change in Hiram's lifestyle which made their marriage more amenable the second time around.
Bringing such stories back to life reinforces the concept that Camptown Cemetery is not just a place where dead people went but a place where people who were once alive are.
This article was originally printed in the March 2016 issue of the Bay Area Genealogical Society Journal.
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The
Long Strange Journey of Hiram Williams
by Charles Swenson
(photo courtesy of Amy the Spirit Seeker)
Hiram was born into bondage in Louisiana to Malissa and Clark Williams.1 Little is known about his early childhood, his parents or how he came to arrive in Texas. His first appearance in the records is the 1870 Census, at which time his living with his mother next door to Wiley Hubert, a well-to-do carpenter and one of the prominent black citizens of the Camptown area of Brenham.2 Although his father is not mentioned in this census (his name only appears on his death certificate), he was a mulatto, which always brings up uncomfortable questions of parentage for those born into slavery. In 1894 a reporter for the Galveston Daily News described him as “rather a good looking man, almost white, with black curly hair.”3 His mother is listed as a mulatto 39 years of age, as well as all of his siblings. She owned her own house worth $200, as well as personal property listed with a value of $200. Also in the home were four other siblings; Mary, a 17 year old laborer and the only child born in Texas, Pierce, a 15 year old news boy, Henry 7, and another sister whose name is not clear in the census. Hiram is listed as employed as a domestic servant, and having attended school within the past year, with later records indicating his education only reached to the third grade.
Hiram's first appearance in the Brenham papers came with the announcement of his marriage to Rhoda Rodgers on December 12, 1878.4 This marriage did not last long, and seems to have ended with some acrimony, since in the 1880 Census, 18 months after their marriage, Hiram is listed as widowed, with a ten year old son, Clark Williams.5 However, it does seem that they were able to resolve whatever differences they had, and they were eventually remarried some forty years later.
Shortly after Hiram's marriage, a black military company of Texas volunteer guards was formed in Brenham, in accordance to the then current militia laws. They were called the Brenham Blues, and after filing bond were granted the 48 members received the Springfield rifles that had belonged to a former militia group, the Brenham Greys. Under the leadership of Captain C.C. Coleman, Hiram was made 1st Lieutenant. Around 10 at night on July31, 1880, he and the rest of the company paraded under torchlight down the streets of Brenham, accompanied by a brass band. The procession proceeded to Camptown, where they gathered at the school house for a fund raising dinner which helped acquire uniforms.6 It is not clear how long Hiram remained in the militia, but the Brenham Blues disbanded within a year of their participation in Emancipation Celebration parade (in full uniform and with muskets) in 1881. 7
Following this account, newspaper reports regarding Hiram reveal a darker side of his nature. From 1880 to 1881 alone there are at least eight articles in the Brenham Banner his fights or court cases for fighting, assault, being drunk and disorderly or use of abusive language. Most were with fellow blacks, such as Dick Riley, Bill Price or Injun Bill, but Hiram was not beyond carrying the fight to whites.8 A Galveston newspaper later reported “(h)e was raised in Brenham, and from early youth his name has been frequently found on the criminal dockets of the courts. Having a little education he was always stirring up mischief between the races, and never hesitated to show his enmity for the white people.”9 At the Central Railroad passenger depot in January of 1881 he got into a fight with a white man who insulted a black woman. Another white man pulled a gun on him and although it “for a time looked as if it might become interesting”10 the police stepped in to prevent the an early end to the story of Hiram Williams.
Larger problems were looming on the horizon for him, as he continued broaden his horizons. His travels frequently took him to Houston, where he once again became well known to the police. But in April of 1882 he was arrested in Waco for involvement in the robbery and murder of a white man.11 He was still being held there in 1883 when he and two other “jail birds”attempted an escape. They had nearly cut their way through their prison bars with files made from a kitchen knife and a pocket knife before they were caught.12 Although still in jail in Waco as late as June of 1884, eventually Hiram was released and found his way back to Brenham, where he was once again found himself in legal hot water, despite his increasing skill in getting back out of it.13
The Brenham Banner reported that December 11, 1884 “was a day that will long be remembered by the colored sports of the city. The police went fishing for them; they set hoop nets, trammel nets, wing nets and also draw a long seine; when the nets had all been taken up and the seine drawn it, it was found that fifteen able-bodied colored gamblers had been caught.” Two had their case continued and twelve of the fifteen were fined, although five of them used their winnings to pay “$5 and trimmings each.” Seven others were confined to jail to work off their fines working on street repairs. But only one case, that of Hiram Williams, was dismissed. “Hiram proved that he was so sharp a gambler that no one would play with him, consequently he had done no gambling.”14
Hiram was once again frequenting one of the most notorious areas in Brenham, Hell's Half Acre. Most cities of any size at this time Brenham had a similarly named red light district, specializing in drink, gambling and prostitution. It's exact location was unclear and probably somewhat fluid, though it seemed to center around several blocks south of the town square, bounded on the south by the Buzzard's Roost15 and on the west by Coon Flats.16 It's general proximity to the railway depot assured a ongoing stream certain clientele looking for a good time and colorful but shady characters willing to make them think they could find it there, providing a ready way into town which it was thriving and a quick way of leaving during the period attempts to clean it out. It was also convenient located near to the calaboose, or city jail, a which was located on Quitman Street, behind the county jail.
One of the earliest references to Brenham's version of Hell's Half-Acre is found in a Galveston newspaper from 1876 and tells of a number of black and white citizens who had been arrested there for gambling.
“These
prisoners have all been committed in due course of law, and it is the
duty of the Sheriff to keep them safely in jail until lawfully
released; but the Banner is informed by the night policemen that a
number of the gambling gentlemen have been turned out after dark and
allowed to go where they please. A policeman says on Saturday night
he saw four or five of these prisoners around town generally, a party
of them in their old tramping ground – Hell's half-acre; and that
with some difficulty he succeeded in capturing one of them – a very
bad one - and succeeded in landing him in the city bastile. As the
case stands, these men are simply being boarded at the expense of the
county and allowed unrestricted liberty going and coming at will.”17
The
city fathers were periodically felt the pressure to attempt to clean
up the area, especially when other newspapers began to give it
unwelcome publicity, such as that found in an Austin paper, The
Weekly Democratic Statesman. “Fanny Watson, a dusky
queen of the Hell's Half Acre of Brenham, was fatally shot Friday
night...Jim Simpson, colored, is the head devil of hell's Half Acre
at Brenham...It was too cold for “Hell's Half-Acre” in Brenham to
bubble up very fiercely Christmas week, and even whisky froze in some
of the dens of the ghastly suburb.”18
From January to October of 1877
alone there were at least three separate (and apparently
unsuccessful) efforts to clear out the “denizens of this
sink of iniquity,” usually by
offering the choice of jail or leaving town.19
But Hell's Half-Acre turned out to be uncommonly difficult, at least partly because of the continuing appeal of it's illicit pleasures to so many of the local citizens. The color line did not seem too high a bar, as is found in this account of a white visitor in February of 1885.
Thursday
an old man named Tom Flippen, who formerly lived in this county, was
robbed of $130... Flippen was drunk and fell into the hands of
thieves. He was steered to a negro bagnio in Hell's Half acre, a
notorious locality and later to another house of the same character
in Coon valley, a settlement two or three squares south of the union
depot. He went to bed in one of the houses after dark and after
staying two or three hours he emerged only to find that his wealth
had vanished. A copper colored negro named Frank Brown aged about 25
years, acted as steersman and run Flippen into the dens. After the
“loot” had been obtained the accountant of the mob divided it up
by long division, he obtaining a liberal share. He was first robbed
of his silver at Caroline Sweetning's in Hell's Half acre, and later
of his currency at Becky Vaughn's in Coon flat. Late on Friday
evening, Rena Vaughn, Becky Vaughn's daughter, was caught in an
up-town saloon with Flippen's fine plain gold ring ornamenting one of
her dingy and left fingers. Frank Brown, the pilot, Becky Vaughn,
the bagnioist, and Ed Shelby, a one legged white man, who has for
some time been gate-keeper at the union depot, were arrested
Friday... After dark Caroline Sweetning and Rena Vaughn were arrested
and jailed. There seems to have been an organized band of colored
hyenas, who for a long time have been preying on unwary strangers who
had picniced on rifle whiskey, and who after they had been robbed
would rather stomach their losses than to “squeal.”20
Murder
was not an uncommon occurrence in Hell's Half Acre, leading one
Galveston newspaper to comment that “(t)he mere fact that
one negro has shot and killed another is so common as to excite no
more comment than the wringing of a chicken's neck by the family
cook.”21
But an underlying hostility towards attempts at law enforcement in
the area were growing. In February of 1887 Jim Smith, a particularly
dangerous character was murdered there, possibly as the result of “a
conspiracy...by five or six negro prostitutes and three or four negro
men to make away with Smith.”
There was an effort to blame the murder on Ed Inge, a black policeman
in Brenham who had killed a number of other blacks in the line of
duty, though he was cleared by the results of a post mortem
examination.22
(The
Galveston Daily News, October 3, 1887 p1)
“As
soon as assistance could be procured, Lockett was removed, and all
that the combined medical skill of the city could do was at his
service. He could not speak and Marshal Swain immediately started in
search of the his assailants with such clues as he could get.
Strangely enough one of the negroes whose name Lockett afterwards
gave as one of his assailants offered his services very officiously
to the Marshal and was very certain that he could render valuable
assistance in hunting down the perpetrators of the outrage. As soon
as he was able the wounded man with blood streaming from his hands
traced the names of Hiram Williams and Sam Rucker as two of the men
and described the other one fully not knowing his name. They were
soon found and taken in. The third one calls himself Henry Bassett,
and was identified by Lockett . He is a strange negro. Hiram
Williams is a gambler and one of the most vicious and dangerous
negroes in town. He figured in a killing in Waco a year or two ago
and has been in innumerable scrapes in various places.”23
Talk
of lynching the prisoners quickly began to circulate and the Sheriff
moved the prisoners to Bellville in Austin County for their own
protection.24
“...(H)ad not wise precaution been taken by the sheriff of the
county to remove the wretches charged with the cowardly crime; the
good name of this county might have again suffered at the hands of
Judge Lynch.”25
This was a very real possibility since less than a year earlier
three black prisoners being held in the Washington County jail were
abducted and lynched in the middle of the night by a crowd of
outraged citizens, as part of what came to be known as the Election
Outrage of 1886 in later Senate investigations.26
A week after the attempted murder indictments had been handed back by a grand jury against Rucker, Williams and Bassett. Hiram lawyered up early with two attorneys and within two weeks had filled a motion of continuance on the grounds of “...absence of witnesses, by whom the defense proposed to prove, that Hiram Williams was elsewhere when the assault was committed, that in fact another person, viz. Ben Hill committed the assault, that the razor found near the scene of the assault was Ben Hill's razor, that immediately after the assault Ben Hill fled the country and is now a fugitive from justice, and various other facts and circumstances.”27 Within three weeks Henry Bassett had been convicted in a separate trial and sentenced to the maximum penalty, seven years in the penitentiary, and was on his way to prison.28
Hiram and his lawyers kept up their legal maneuvering early, seeking to avoid the indictment being served because of the omission of the phrase “make an assault' in the copy.29 At one time they even managed to have the original indictment thrown out on the grounds that the ground jury had thirteen jurors instead of twelve. There were even reports of threats being made against witnesses in the case.30 Although he had been offered bail earlier and decided it was safer to remain in jail, after remaining in jail in Bellville for over fifteen months his bond of $500 was finally secured by Mr. Ellis, a local banker.
Hiram jumped bail the day before his trial and disappeared for the next five years.
In August of 1893, a curious letter arrived at the Houston office of George Ellis., the sheriff of Harris County. It was from Sheriff Matthews, the sheriff in Tacoma, Washington, “inquiring as to who wants a negro man, Hiram Williams, for murder committed about four years ago. Williams, he says, is understood to have escaped from jail somewhere in Texas, may be had if wanted for he is evidently in a safe place, though a long way from home.” 31 But no further mention is found of this near arrest of Hiram, and he apparently managed to evade arrest for the next ten months.
(The
Morning Call, San Francisco, May 26, 1894)
In May 16, 1894 James Martin, a part owner of a barber shop in Los Angeles, California, was arrested. This turned out to be an alias being used by Hiram Williams, although the details of his arrest are unclear from newspaper accounts. A local paper states that he was arrested on a “minor charge” and detectives, “profiting from a remark of the prisoner, began an investigation and found he was wanted in Texas.”32 According to a Brenham paper, the arrest was the result of “information from a negro woman there, who gave away his identity.”33 Either way it was clear that Hiram knew his life on the run was over, though not if he could help it.
Williams
made an attempt the other day to gain his freedom. He secreted a
long iron in his cell in the city prison, with which he intended
striking the jailer when opportunity presented. The weapon was
discovered in time to prevent its use.34
Regardless
of the events surrounding his apprehension, two days later Washington
County Sheriff Teague received notice of it and, determined not to
let him slip away again, quickly sent his under-sheriff, W.L. Sallis
by train to pick up Hiram.35
On May 24, after a four day train trip Sallis arrived in Los
Angeles, and went around to identify Hiram the next morning. “He
recognized Mr. Sallis and asked him about some of the people of
Brenham, and if he intended to take him back.”36
It took several more
days for the extradition paperwork to arrive from Sacramento, during
which time which time Sallis toured San Francisco and Los Angeles.
He also took time to composed a lengthy travelogue letter describing
his journey which was later printed in its entirety in the Brenham
Banner.
This letter also describes his encounters with Hiram, who apparently made no further attempts at escape, while at the same attempting to justify his flight from trial five years earlier.
In
regard to the prisoner, who is known here as being a desperate negro
of bad character, I want to state that I found him to be as obedient
and docile a prisoner a s I ever went after. He never caused a
particle of trouble or uneasiness on the whole trip. The handcuffs
on his wrists made them sore, but he never complained, and in
changing cars, and in getting off to eat he avoided making any more
trouble than was absolutely necessary.
Hiram
said to Mr. Sallis after they had turned toward home that he was glad
that he had not got a lawyer to prevent his return, as he was tired
of being a fugitive from justice, and that it had always been his
intention to return to Brenham if he could have ever made enough
money to pay a lawyer to defend him and get him bond, that he had
been afraid of the prejudice against him him, unless prepared for it,
and for this reason had evaded arrest...He has been a constant
reader of the papers and was thoroughly posted as to what had been
going on during his absence, even to being able to tell about the
Brenham city elections here during his absence. He protests his
innocence of the crime of which he is charged and believes that with
a fair trial he will be acquitted.37
Shortly
after being re-incarcerated in Brenham, Hiram was visited in his cell
by a reporter from The Galveston Daily News, who found him sitting
up on a top bunk, “smoking a cigar and reading a copy of The News.”
He seemed to relax into being the center of attention after so many
years of hiding who he was, and launched into a lengthy account of
his years on the run.
I
was kept in jail at Bellville for fifteen months and was then
released on bond. I was afraid of being killed by some on or lynched
by a mob if I came back to Brenham, because I was warned by a number
of friends that it would not be safe for me and I had no money to pay
a lawyer to defend me, so I thought best to leave. I first went to
El Paso and then to Piedras Negras, Mexico. I was there two weeks
and left for Chihuahua, where I also spent two weeks. I came back to
El Paso, spent a day and a half and went to Silver City, N.M., where
I remained ten days, then went to Los Angeles, Cal, by way of Deming
N.M. I was in Los Angeles only two days when I concluded to go
further north, so I left for Portland, Ore., and after nine days went
to Seattle, Wash., where I remained a month. I then crossed the
strait to Vancouver island and spent two weeks at Victoria. From
there I went to Winnipeg in the Northwest territory, remained two
months and returned to Victoria and then down to San Francisco,
remaining only four days at the Golden Gate. I went east again to
Gallup, N.M., on the Atlantic and Pacific railroad, and remained
there three months. I returned after this to Seattle, where I went
to work as second steward on a steamship on Puget sound. I held this
job about a year and then going to Vancouver I took passage on a
steamer for Honolulu. I remained don the islands for three months,
then returned to San Francisco. After spending three months there I
went back to Seattle and Tacoma, Wash.; was there a month; then back
to San Francisco for a three month's stay. After this I went to
Fresno and remained for a month, I then left Fresno and went to Los
Angeles, arriving February 22 of this year. I had bought an interest
in a barber shop, and was doing pretty well when I was arrested by
the California officers on May 17. I staid in the Los Angeles jail
until June 1, and at 8:30 o'clock on that morning I left in charge of
Deputy Sheriff Sallis for Texas. Arrived in Houston Sunday night and
reached the Brenham jail at 2 o'clock in the morning.38
He
took the opportunity to not only protest his innocence, but to
announce that it had always been his “intention
to come back and stand my trial whenever I could get money enough to
pay a lawyer. I have been warned time and again that the Texas
officers would get me and I would be brought back, but I came to the
conclusion that they did not want me bad enough to spend all the
money necessary to bring me back, so I was not much afraid I would be
brought back until I got ready. I haven't any doubt about my being
able to establish my innocence. All I want is a fair trial by an
impartial jury.”
He had already an ex-judge from Dallas and his judge to represent
him, showing he still a man of enough means to hire competent
attorneys. Their advice was probably instrumental in his requesting
a clarification of his account of his activity on the night of the
assault.39By the end of the month Hiram had once again released on bond, which “was made in Houston and brought here for his release, and was secured through the instrumentality of his brother.”40 This was likely his brother Henry, who at the time of the 1900 Census was married and living with his wife, aunt, uncle and cousin in Houston's Third Ward. Interestingly enough, his brother was also a barber.41 Despite speculation in the press that he would once again flee, Hiram did stand trial for assault for murder. His case was heard in September of 1894, but the case was ultimately held over until March of 1895 when it was dismissed in District Court, though for reasons not made clear in the newspapers.42
(General
Index Card for War with Spain, Hiram Williams)
In 1898 the Spanish American war had stirred the patriotic spirit in many Americans, and many volunteer militias throughout the country were answering McKinley's call in late May for 75,000 volunteers to serve. Although hundreds of black Texans were ready to volunteer after the heroic performance of the army's four black regiments, including the state's black militia units, Governor Charles Culberson refused to accept them in fulfilling the state's volunteer quota. A similar situation existed in all but four other states, with the only opportunity for black citizens to serve being enlistment in one of the regular army's black regiments. This barrier to service was circumvented with the authorization by Congress of ten federal “immune” regiments.44
As in all wars, disease was a major source of casualties, and there was an erroneous but widely accepted misconception that blacks were naturally immune to the tropical diseases that were devastating the troops in Cuba. Galveston's republican House Representative Robert Hawley, was instrumental in the formation of one of these immune regiments, and the company formed there was referred to as the Hawley Guard or the Hawley Rifles in his memory. This was Company G, of the 9th Volunteer Infantry, which Hiram enlisted in on June 29, 1898. There were 75 men in Company G, and when they when they left for New Orleans there was a crowd of 700 blacks and whites at the train station to see them off.
In New Orleans Hiram's company met the other black Texas volunteers, Company I (the Ferguson Rifles) from Houston, received their Springfield rifles and improvised marching ditties such as “Colonel Crane has arranged a plan, To fight old Spain with a nigger man.” The Immunes moved to Georgia for further training at Camp Thomas before setting out for Cuba, arriving in Santiago on August 22. The fighting had come a close in Cuba, and the Immune's first assignment to relieve the soldiers at San Juan hill who had been guarding the several thousand Spanish prisoners there. The regiment that had been guarding them had been devastated by tropical disease. Within several weeks the Immunes showed they weren't immune and began suffering losses to these diseases also, with over thirty enlisted men and one lieutenant eventually dying from those same diseases, including three in Company G.
Hiram was one of those who suffered from disease while serving in the Ninth Volunteer Infantry, first falling ill less than a month after enlisting and before even leaving New Orleans. He may well suffered from disease more than this, although the roster listing his “Date of First Illness” seems to indicate that recurring illness was not uncommon.45 The Immunes remained in Cuba until April 26, when they left Santiago for Staten Island, where they were kept in quarantine for another two days before proceeding on to Camp Meade in Pennsylvania for mustering out. Hiram was discharged on May 25, 1899 and may have returned to Galveston; there is a Hiram Williams living at the same address listed in the 1899 City Directory.46 The same name appears in various city directories in Houston, Waco and Fort Worth, but nothing is certain in the public record about him for nearly three decades.
On November 23, 1927, Hiram Williams was married once again in Washington, this time to a Rhoda Johnson.47 Since Hiram listed himself as widowed in the 1880 Census, it is not unreasonable that this was either a misunderstanding on the part of the census taker or self justification on the part of a recently divorced and disgruntled Hiram whose later behavior makes it clear that he was probably far less than a perfect husband during this period of his life. There is a marriage record of Rhoda Rogers to Jordan Johnson, who worked at a cotton compress, in October of 1884,48 and they lived together on Bragg Street; Jordan died of dysentery in 1919, his death certificate listing "impure water" as a contributory cause.49 It seems this is the same Rhoda Rodgers that Hiram married in 1878, and she appears as his wife in the 1930 and 1940 Census.50 The 1930 records indicate that they had been married while she was 18 and he was 20, which hints that her given age of 60 may have been abbreviated in deference to the prerogative of feminine vanity.
Further evidence that this is the same Rhoda Rodgers he originally married is the mention in the 1930 Census is that Alex Rodgers is listed as a brother-in-law living in the same household. Alex was Rhoda Rodger's sister, and is listed in the 1880 Schedule of Defective, Dependent and Delinquent Classes as an “Idiot,”51 defined as “a person the development of whose mental faculties was arrested in infancy or childhood before coming to maturity.” Rhoda was possibly helping to care for her brother with diminished mental capacity, although in 1910 he had lived alone as the head of a house on Bragg Street.
Their residence at 223 Parker; this street was one street east of Bragg Street and the same lots faced on both Bragg and Parker; this may have been the same home Rhoda had been living in for some time. Interestingly enough, the maiden name of Rhoda's mother was Jane Bragg. In 1930 it was valued at $1000, and $500 in 1940. Hiram's occupation is listed as “none”, Rhoda (her name is given as Rosa in this Census) was listed as a “laundress” (the same as in the 1910 census when she was living with Jordan Johnson) whose place of work was “in and out.” Alex's occupation is given as “laborer” working at “odd jobs.”
Ten years later, the Williams were still on Bragg Street, and had been there for at least the past five years. Alex is no longer living with them, but boarding with a Louisa Brown. Although the census indicates that neither had worked over the past year, Hiram is listed as having unspecified other sources of income. One of these may have been as a cook, since this is listed as his occupation on his death certificate three years later. But the indignities of old age were finally beginning to catch up with Hiram. He had been suffering from prostatitis for over a year, and his kidneys began to fail him him in February of 1943. At 4 o'clock on Tuesday morning, March 1, 1943, the long, strange journey of Hiram Williams came to a close.52
(US
Headstone Application for US Military Veterans, Hiram Williams)
(photograph courtesy of Amy the Spirit Seeker)
(photograph
courtesy of Amy the Spirit Seeker)
1Texas
Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Standard
Certificate of Death for Hiram A. Williams
21870
United States Census, Washington County, Brenham, Precinct 3
3The
Galveston Daily News, June 6, 1894
4Brenham
Weekly Banner, December 13, 1878
51880
United States Census, Washington County, Brenham, ED 145
6The
Daily Banner, August 1, 1880
7Brenham
Daily Banner, June 19, 1881; The Galveston Daily News, December 21,
1882: Austin Weekly Statesman, February 25, 1886
8The
Daily Banner, June 16, 1880; The Daily Banner, October 5, 1880; The
Daily Banner, October 6, 1880; Brenham Daily Banner January 8, 1881;
Brenham Daily Banner, January 13, 1881; Brenham Daily Banner,
January 29, 1881; Brenham Daily Banner, August 5, 1881 (two
articles)
9The
Galveston Daily News, October 3, 1887
10Brenham
Daily Banner, January 8, 1881
11The
Waco Daily Examiner, April 8, 1882; Brenham Daily Banner, April 16,
1882
12The
Galveston Daily News, February 7, 1883
13The
Waco Daily Examiner, June 8, 1884
14Brenham
Daily Banner, December 12, 1884
15Brenham
Daily Banner, July 21, 1886
16Brenham
Daily Banner, November 23, 1884
17The
Galveston Daily News, September 7, 1876
18Weekly
Democratic Statesman, October 19, 1876; Weekly Democratic Statesman,
November 9, 1876;
Weekly Democratic Statesman, January 4, 1877
19The
Daily Brenham Banner, January 20, 1877; The Daily Brenham Banner,
March 10, 1877; The Daily Banner, October 14, 1877
20Brenham
Daily Banner, February 21, 1885
21The
Galveston Daily News, February 5, 1887
22Brenham
Daily Banner, February 2, 1887
23Brenham
Daily Banner, October 4, 1887
24The
Galveston Daily News, October 3, 1887
25Brenham
Daily Banner, October 4, 1887
26Shook,
Robert W., The Texas “Election Outrage” of 1886, East Texas
Historical Journal, Vol. 10, Issue 1, 1972
27Brenham
Daily Banner, October 21, 1887
28Brenham
Daily Banner, October 28, 1887; Brenham Daily Banner, October 30,
1887
29Brenham
Daily Banner, October 25, 1887
30Brenham
Daily Banner, October 30, 1887
31The
Galveston Daily News, August 18, 1893; Brenham Daily Banner, August
19, 1893
32The
Herald (Los Angeles), May 26, 1894
33Brenham
Daily Banner, June 6, 1894
34The
Herald (Los Angeles), May 30, 1894
35The
Southern Mercury ( Dallas), May 24, 1894
36Brenham
Daily Banner, June 6, 1894
37Brenham
Daily Banner, June 6, 1894
38The
Galveston Daily News, June 6, 1894
39The
Galveston Daily News, June 6, 1894; The Galveston Daily News, June
7, 1894
40Brenham
Daily Banner, June 24, 1894
411900
Census, Harris County, Houston Ward 3, District 0076
42Brenham
Daily Banner, September 21, 1894; Galveston Daily News, September
23, 1894; Brenham Daily Banner, March 30, 1895.
431898
Galveston City Directory
44The
information on the Ninth Volunteers Infantry Regiment and Company G
comes from Roger Cunningham's excellent article, “'A Lot of Fine,
Sturdy Black Warriors'; Texas's African American 'Immunes' in the
Spanish-American War,” found in Brothers to the Buffalo Soldiers;
Perspectives on the African American Militia and Volunteers,
1865-1917, edited by Bruce A. Glasrud, University of Missouri Press,
2011.
45Coston,
W.Hilary, The Spanish-American War Volunteer; Ninth United States
Volunteer Infantry Roster and Muster, Biographies, Cuban Sketches,
pulished by the Author, 1899 (2nd Edition)
461899
Galveston City Directory
47“Texas
Marriages, 1837-1973,” Database, FamilySearch
(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FXMX-9X2 : accessed 24 June
2015)
48Marriage
Record, Washington County, Texas, No. 1689, Page 351
491910
United States Federal Census, Washington County, Brenham Ward 2, ED
0101; Texas State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics,
Standard Certificate of Death for Jordan Johnson
501930
United States Federal Census, Washington County, Brenham, ED 239-8;
1940 United States Federal Census, Washington County, Brenham, ED
239-8
511880
United States Federal Census, Washington County Enumeration
District, Schedule of Defective, Dependent and Delinquent Classes
52Texas
Department of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Standard
Certificate of Death for Hiram Williams
53Application
For Headstone or Marker, War Department O.G.M.G. Form No. 623, for Hiram Williams
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