Indian Agent: Peter Ellis Bean in Mexican Texas

Chapter 10. Brief Interlude at Fort Ter

O n september 25, 1831, Piedras wrote Commandant Elozúa that Bean had left the day before with twenty dragoons and ten foot soldiers to set up a post on the Neches. It would be called Fuerte de Terán in honor of the man who had suggested and implemented the fortification of Texas against U.S. designs.1 The site chosen was on the west bank of the Neches above its confluence with the Angelina, about forty-five miles south of Nacogdoches, and it was intended to facilitate communication with Fort Anáhuac on Trinity Bay. Fort Terán was astride a much-used crossing of the Neches, a pivotal location from which roads radiated upward to Nacogdoches and Ayish Bayou (called San Augustine after 1833), southward to the Indian villages on the Trinity and below to Liberty and Anáhuac, and—most important —eastward to the Anglo settlement of Bevil and beyond to Louisiana . Since Terán’s objective was to cut off unauthorized entry to Texas by North Americans, Bean’s fort was ideally situated to accomplish this goal. The spot is still in a very remote area, and although some debate continues on which side of the river Fort Terán stood, the evidence is fairly clear that it was on the west bank in present Tyler County, not on the opposite bank in Angelina County.2 The number of men stationed at Fort Terán under Bean fluctuated according to circumstances at Nacogdoches. Samuel Belt, who soon opened a store or trading post nearby and maintained a ferry across the Neches, gave the garrison as fifty strong with “Martinez” as Bean’s second-incommand . Lt. Gavino Aranjo is also mentioned as a soldier at the post, and this was possibly when Bean talked him into selling his eleven-league grant. Aranjo had received the grant from the governor of Coahuila y Texas on March 17, 1831, and Bean obtained power of attorney over it from the lieutenant on October 27—a month after they had marched out of Nacogdoches to establish Fort Terán. Close to five leagues from the Chapter 10 Brief Interlude at Fort Terán Aranjo grant were later located in the general vicinity of the fort—but to the west, on the boundary of modern Polk County. This was by title issued on March 17, 1834.3 Land acquisitions were much on Bean’s mind at this time, as hinted at by one of his visitors, George W. Smyth: “Early in 1832 I went to Fort Teran, situated on the Neches in what is now Tyler County. Here Col Peter Ellis Bean was stationed with a few Mexican soldiers. I remained a few weeks under the hospitable roof of the col. and was invited to Nacogdoches to do some surveying.”4 For Bean, one suspects. [156] Chapter 10 Map of surveys, ca. 1834, showing Fort “Terran” on the River “Neaches” and roads. Courtesy Galen Greaser. Fort Terán quickly grew into something of a small settlement with eight or ten houses around it. Bean himself was in charge of its construction , no doubt with lumber from his own sawmill—the same that Piedras bought from Bean, on credit, when building a new and larger cuartel for his troops at Nacogdoches. (The citizens charged that Piedras diverted these materials to build a private residence for himself, known as the Red House.) In April 1832 Piedras noted that he was still in search of a bricklayer to complete work at Fort Terán. Traces of such work at the actual site are hard to find, indicating that it was not a fortified place built of brick or stone but rather an observation point constructed mostly of perishable wood.5 Bean did not expect to have to repel an armed invasion from the United States so much as monitor the influx of unauthorized settlers from across the Sabine. With growing unease he observed the escalating tensions between these people and the Mexican government. What would his position be if open conflict resulted, he a soldier in the National Army of Mexico yet with sympathies to many of the new Anglos coming in? Men such as George W. Smyth, who had useful talents? As always, Bean’s situation was unenviable. There is not much documentation available on what Colonel Bean was doing at Fort Terán, except for...