Galveston: A History of the Island

Chapter 7

7 DURING WHAT came to be known as the Texas Revolution, Galveston Island was the capital, and nearly the final retreat for General Sam Houston and his ragtag army. Except for a decisive battle across the bay, on the banks of the San Jacinto River, Galveston might have gone down in history as the second Alamo, and Texas might be part of Mexico. If ever a man seemed destined to lead a rebel army, it was Sam Houston. A man of intrigue and daring, Houston was intemperate, grave, and deeply committed to democratic visions of his own design . He mixed statesmanship with theatrics, and when sweet reason didn't work, he used bullying force. As governor of Tennessee, Houston had been the focus of a marvelous scandal when his bride of a few months suddenly ran home to her parents. Houston offered no public explanation, and threatened to kill any man indelicate enough to stain his wife's honor with speculation. He resigned his office in disgrace, and for years lived among the Cherokees, who knew him as "Big Drunk." Like many other outcasts of his generation , Houston ended up in Texas. He was exactly the sort of man to rally an army of rowdies and misfits, and settlers rushed to join up. While Houston was putting together an army, Samuel May Williams was in New York selling stock for his proposed bank.. When Williams heard that Texas was forming a republic and getting ready to fight, he hurried to Baltimore and worked out a deal to supply 64 Gary Cartwright anns and equipment. Using his brother's credit, Williams also purchased the 125-ton schooner Invincible and dispatched it to Galveston . The pending war with Mexico did not deter immigration. In the years between 1831 and 1836, the population of Texas grew from about seven thousand to nearly fifty thousand. Many of the colonists came from Europe, especially from Gennany, where petty tyrants and feudal laws dominated the political and social systems, and where liberty consisted mainly of the freedom to leave. The European immigrants were mostly educated and cultured, traits that put them at odds with many of the Anglo-American settlers: for example, most Europeans opposed slavery. They brought with them books, paintings, music and an intellectual curiosity. One of the most interesting families was a group of Prussian aristocrats from Westphalia named Von Roeder. Rosalie Von Roeder Kleberg, who had married a young Gennan lawyer named Robert Kleberg, brought the first piano to Texas. That the piano arrived at all was a small miracle. The ship carrying the Kleberg and Von Roeder party sank three days before Christmas 1834, in shallow water near Galveston's East Beach. Why the ship sank was a mystery: Robert Kleberg suspected the crew intentionally scuttled it. As the ship foundered, Kleberg and the others threw their goods-including the piano, crates of books, oil paintings, and engravings-over the side. All the passengers and most of their possessions made it safely to shore. Using the sails, mast, and beam from the wrecked schooner, the Gennans constructed a large tent with separate apartments for women and children. There was plenty of deer and fowl on the Island, and the group survived fairly comfortably while Robert Kleberg made his way to the mainland to seek assistance. Robert Kleberg was both a lawyer and an idealist. He had learned of Texas almost by accident, from a letter describing the generous land grants offered by the government of Mexico. "We were enthusiastic lovers of Republican institutions," Kleberg wrote. "Full of romantic notions and ideas, believing to find in Texas, in preference to all other countries, the blessed land of our sanguine hopes." What he found was a land in revolt. Leaving his wife and other members of his party on the Island, Kleberg went to San Felipe. He carried letters of introduction to Stephen Austin and Sam Wil- GALVESTON 65 liams, and arranged to charter a sloop to rescue those who had waited in Galveston and bring them up Buffalo Bayou to Harrisburg , now part of the city of Houston. Harrisburg was soon to be the capital of the Republic of Texas. Though Kleberg's small colony of German aristocrats had no intention of settling in Harrisburg, they built cabins and fenced off fields for planting. By the winter of 1836, Santa Anna and his army of five thousand had pushed across...