Rosalie Hart Priour Autobiography "Adventures of a Family of Emigrants" with notes and commentary by historian Frank Wagner (indicated in green).
Chapter 16
In about six weeks after mother's marriage, the emigrants became very much dissatisfied with the Mexican government. Our contract with them was we were to have one league and one labor of land [4428 acres] for each family, and one quarter of a league [1114 acres] for every young man over eighteen years of age. We were also to import goods free of duty for five years. They gave us the land, but the second year after our arrival in the country, we sent to New Orleans for such things as were required for our own use, when they came to the custom house the officers charged one hundred per cent on every article imported. The consequence was that the white people revolted and decided to declare themselves free.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The land given the Irish colonists was sufficient to awe anyone back in Ireland, where 50 acres amounted to a rich farm, and only magnates held as much as a thousand acres.
The dispute over import tariffs centered around the personality of Juan Davis Bradburn, one of the most controversial personalities of the Texas Revolutionary War period. He was uniformly hated by the Texans, but he presented a reasoned case in his own interest. See Margaret Swett Henson's book, Juan Davis Bradburn/A Reappraisal of the Mexican Commander of Anahuac (Texas A & M University Press, College Station, 1982)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Mr. Demmit [Philip Dimitt] raised the first company of soldiers and marched to Laberdee [La Bahia]. My stepfather joined Demmit's company before he was six weeks married, and helped to raise the flag of independence in Laberdee, as it was then called.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - John James joined Dimmitt's company of volunteers after only 6 weeks of marriage. A certain resentment can be inferred from the text in that the widow Hart had no sooner married James to have a father about to help raise her children than he marched off to La Bahia. Being exhausted, she was susceptible to pneumonia and laryngitis. Mertha Cullen was a cousin of Mrs. Hart who had been educated for the priesthood, but married and came to Texas with Power's Colony. Though the text indicates he was from Philadelphia, rather he migrated to Philadelphia after settling in Texas. Reference is to Cross-Interrogatory X-14 of the Priour deposition.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Mother had his two children and her own two to take care of, and William, who was more trouble than all the rest and of no service whatever. She had several cows in the pen, and one evening she found them so contrary, that she was as wet with sweat as if she had fallen in the river. She did not stop to change her clothes until she had finished milking the cows, and her work done up for the night. She did not feel the effect of the evening's work that night, but the next -day she was taken down with pleurisy and remained speechless.
There was no doctor in the place, but her cousin Murthu [Mertha] Cullen from Philadelphia had studied medicine, and although he did not practice was a splendid doctor, but unfortunately he was lying very sick at his niece's, Mrs. Synot's [Mrs. John Sinnott], and everyone had their houses fastened up and were afraid to leave their houses.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Mrs. John Sinnott is given in the text as a niece of Mertha Cullen. John Sinnott was the name of the agent hired by the government of Mexico, at the outset of the war with Mexico, to solicit Irish Catholic deserters from the U.S. Army, the "San Patricios". The "San Patricios" distinguished themselves in every engagement against the U.S. Army where they fought. Few were captured, but some of the prisoners were executed as deserters and others only flogged and branded on the cheek with the letter D. Letter of Guerra to Hacienda, 2 Dec. 1846 and a letter of Guerra to Santa Anna, Dec. 5, 1846 cite the name as Juan Sinnott (Mexico, Archivos: Guerra y Marina). Sir Richard Pakenham's diplomatic correspondence [Archivos: Guerra y Marina (Mexico), dated 12 October, 1845] is the source of this information. It would be interesting to find how British diplomatic correspondence got into the Mexican archives. The valor of the San Patricios is attested in a letter of Caryton to Lambert, September 1, 1847, among the Admiralty Papers: Archives of Great Britain. With the exception of the commanding officer, Francisco Rosendo Moreno who was born in Florida, none of the San Patricios were from Texas and none were native-born citizens of the United States. Indeed, at least two of them were unable to speak English being of German origin, and they required an interpreter at their trials. John Sinnott was considered still a subject of Great Britain. A definitive examination of the role of Catholics in the San Patricios is given by Sister Blanche Marie McEniry, American Catholics in the War with Mexico, Washington, D.C. 1932, Catholic University of America.
The U.S. Army had a similar organization of Mexican deserters called the "Mexican Spy Company" made up chiefly of men from around Puebla, led by Manuel Dominguez, a weaver. In spite of rich offers of money and lands by Santa Anna, the entire company and all their dependents accepted the offer of $20 and free passage from Veracruz to Galveston. Sixty-eight women and children accompanied them. Nothing is known of their subsequent history in Texas. Cf. E.A. Hitchcock, Fifty Years in Camp and Field, ed. W.A. Croffut, New York, 1909; W. S. Henry, Campaign Sketches of the War with Mexico, New York, Harper & Bros., 1847; An American Artillery Officer in the Mexican War, 1846-1847: Letters of Robert Anderson (Reproduction of 1911 edition, edit. by E. Lawson) Arno, New York, 1974. Anderson has the most detailed published information regarding the "Mexican Spy Company". Anderson is better known as commander of Fort Sumter at the beginning of the Civil War.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - My mother was speechless for two weeks and the only thing I could do for her was to keep her mouth wet with tea. I had heard that certain herbs which grew across the river from our house were medicinal and I made it a rule to go over every day and gather what I thought I would need, with those herbs I made tea and wet her lips with it every few minutes.
On the thirteenth day, a lady came to the house and asked me what I was doing for' mother. I told her that I could do nothing but keep her lips moist with tea. She told me my mother was dying, and I was only making her suffer more, and not doing any good. I sat down by the bed and began to cry. I do not know how long I was there for I was in despair and took no notice of time.
When Mr. Cullen entered the room, and finding me in that condition, inquired what was the matter. I explained everything to him, and repeated what the lady said. After examining mother, he said, "Had I been able to come when you mother was first taken sick, I could have prevented all this suffering by bleeding her, but unfortunately I was confined to my bed, and this is the first time I have been able to leave the house, and it is now too late, but pay no attention to what anyone says to you, but continue the same treatment and by this time tomorrow she will be able to speak to you." His predictions were true and I heard her voice at the time he said I would, the next day, for the first time in fourteen days.
Chapter 15 - Chapter 17