The Robertsons, the Sutherlands, and the Making of Texas

Chapter 2. Writing as a Tradition

chapter 2 Writing as a Tradition In 1936 Texas celebrated its centenary anniversary. As part of the commemoration , the state decided to rebury its early heroes in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin. The bodies of Judge William Menefee and his wife, Agnes Sutherland Menefee, were laid to rest there,1 and empresario Sterling Clack Robertson was transported from his lonely grave on the Brazos River in Robertson County for reburial as well. Robertson’s interment was a big event, attended by numerous Robertsons. With four granddaughters, twenty-eight great-grandchildren, and countless greatgreat -grandchildren milling around, no one could corral everyone in one place long enough to make an accurate count. In addition, all of the members of the Sterling C. Robertson Chapter (Waco) of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas had voted to attend the service.2 As one of the great-great-grand children, my father wrote a poem for this hundred-year anniversary of Texas: The Texans They fell down dead at Goliad, Their luck ran out at Mier; And when the Indian came and fled, They lay in blood that turned to red The lonely prairie here. But who can say a man is dead Who conquers when he dies? The Texans took this long, sweet land Of rivers, woods, of brush and sand And here their domain lies. And tall and thick their towers stand And strong their engines go— Six million Texans they begot To hold a land where they were shot A hundred years ago. by thomas shelton sutherland iv, 19363 Writing as a Tradition 11 Home, family, and Texas were not the only topics of my father’s poetry. Like all of his ancestors, he also felt strong ties to the land and often spoke about the Robertson homestead in Salado, the land and the house where he grew up. I asked him why that land was so important to him that he would never sell it. His response was another poem: Here on these rolling acres of land I first looked on God’s day and drank the air And did what boy alive does anywhere— All that I know is Texas dirt and sand: It is the only place I understand, And oak trees or mesquite or prickly pear Belong to me like my own sandy hair, They are the same to me as my big-jointed hand. This is the many-cornered piece of dirt My father sweated on and mother hurt. My mother used to look at me and tell About the first of us who wandered here; They fought to have the wild acres that year And gave me something I couldn’t sell. thomas shelton sutherland iv, date unknown4 My father learned the practice of writing poems from his mother, Mary Elizabeth Robertson Sutherland, who also was an amateur poet. Writing was and is a long-standing family tradition that, along with storytelling, has shaped our identity. In my family, reflecting on the past has always been a way to help us grasp the present. Early in life I heard stories of Texas’ painful shot in the heart at the Alamo and Goliad, culminating in the David-againstGoliath victory at San Jacinto. Tales were told of the precarious existence of my pioneering forefathers as Indian fighters, revolutionaries, merchants, and farmers. Then there were the mothers who lost their husbands and children to war and disease and suffered so terribly in the Runaway Scrape. These chronicles often took on the narrative style of “origin myths,” patterned stories that describe where people came from, what it took to get there, and who they are now. They are of course grounded in truth, but they go beyond being a report of historical events to become metaphorical accounts of identity and place. The tales of those pioneer experiences, narrated to later arrivals in Texas as origin myths, reveal a reverence for their ancestors ’ sacrifices. Phrases such as “the First Three Hundred,” the muster rolls of every battle, and the shrine of the Alamo are all part of the process of giving meaning to the history. 12 chapter 2 Texans of the years of the republic (1836 –1845) wrote the first histories of the “pioneer years,” as they called them. The express purpose of their chronicles was to record the heroism and glory of those Texans who fought and suffered for independence. These first accounts...