“I am glad to be with you here today on this beautiful day in January of 1917. My name is Alexander Madison Erskine, the father of Mary Browne, or Mary B., Erskine and I am honored to tell you the little tale of my life to date.**
I do believe I have met most of you now. … I am 85 and I trust that you won’t mind my using some notes to jog my memory and also hope that you can clearly understand my slight southern drawl. Moreover, I need to recognize my daughter Mary as having helped me to prepare this morning. As an excellent educator, she stressed that I need some visual displays to aid the audience in absorbing what I am trying to get across, as well as to help my failing memory. Perhaps Miss Mary B. will stop by later.
Okay! Let’s get started! … My roots after Scotland on my father’s side, are the southern states … the South. I was born the ninth of 10 children in 1831, the year social reformer William Lloyd Garrison published the first issue of his abolitionist journal.
That year former slave Nat Turner led an uprising against human bondage. Faraday demonstrated the first electric transformer. Louisiana and Arkansas were the first states to recognize Christmas as a holiday. Edgar Allan Poe was booted out of West Point. And Charles Darwin began his revolutionary, evolutionary voyage from Great Britain to South America … and around the world … on the ship the Beagle.
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My Father Michael was a successful farmer and stockman and when I was a very young child he moved us from Alabama to Mississippi and then to Port Lavaca, Texas in 1839. Port Lavaca at that time had a population of 200 free men and 80 slaves. Why … in 1836 the year of Texas Independence & not be long before our family arrived in Texas, all of the nation of Texas had only about 30,000 whites, 14,000 Indians, 5,000 Negroes, and 3,500 Mexicans.
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What we mostly saw as we crossed the coastal plains of Texas was an abundance of native grass like this little blue stem, an ‘ice cream’ of forages that cattle really love, sideoats grama and some native prickly pear cactus and Chile pequins. But also, we saw mesquite … and in Gonzales, Texas an abundance of peach trees. … And we also witnessed numerous bands of wild horses running across the grassy coastal plains of Texas. (I might also mention that when we traveled & found lodging, we were generally served cornbread & bacon for every meal, with perhaps some buttermilk if our hosts had a milk cow.)
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After a brief time of living in the Port Lavaca area we moved to El Capote Ranch 12 miles southeast of Seguin … where Father Michael Erskine and two of my brothers eventually owned and managed thousands of acres of land. Father and these brothers Andrew and John were more adventurous souls than I and at one point in 1849 brother Andrew and Father began to get California gold fever. Concerned … I wrote them from where I was in school in Lewisburg, Virginia, and I’ll read some excerpts from that letter:
‘Brother have you really any intention of going to California in search of gold? Are you willing to hazard your life for the gain of a little shining dust? Already in your fancy you’re a rich man! You already have gold in abundance more than you can make use of, but go to California and your glorious dream, your golden visions will dissipate like mist before the coming of the bright king of day. … You have a wife. What will you do with her? Certainly not take her with you. Remain at home!’ … Also ‘use all your endeavors to persuade Father from going to California. He is too old to undertake such a wild adventure.’
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Back at El Capote while I was studying in Virginia, sportsman Andrew was doing some hunting of various wildlife … including bear!!! However, cattle raising and marketing were his and Father’s top priority. And in 1854 they even drove cattle for sale all the way to California and later made several cattle drives to New Orleans.
At 17 my brother Andrew joined the Texas Rangers and served under Jack Hays. He was wounded in both the Battle of Bandera Pass and the Battle of Salado. Brother John and Andrew eventually took over management of El Capote. (Father died in Louisiana after a cattle drive in 1862.) Also, Andrew and John were involved in surveying Castro’s Colony back in 1847.
In their agriculture ventures, John and Andrew did use some slaves. In 1846 historian and traveler Ferdinand von Roemer wrote that every Texas farmer wished for slaves. If you wanted some real U.S. dollars and desired to accumulate wealth you needed to grow some cotton. And growing substantial acres of cotton took slaves.
Now … speaking of slavery, Andrew and I joined Company D of the Confederate Army in 1862. Andrew was killed at Antietam at the age of 36 … and I was wounded there at Antietam in my left arm, and twice in my side.
After the war I settled into a life of surveying and working on realizing the City Plan of Seguin. Surveying has been my livelihood for supporting my family but more than this is that I’ve had a wonderful life simply living in Seguin with my lovely wife of 59 years.
My wife, Elizabeth and I had 5 children. Our old maid of a daughter Mary Browne (And I’m just teasing about her choice not to marry.) … anyway, daughter Mary Browne became an excellent and dedicated teacher and role model here in the early school system in Seguin.
Last year, 1916, was a very active year for the United States. The United States was preparing to enter the Great War. It seems we’re always at War … with Indians, Mexicans, abolitionists of slavery, … . Last year in our ‘war’ against anarchist Emma Goldman, we people of the U.S. threw her in jail for her positions on birth control.
Now we’re in the first month in the year of 1917. Our family and family interests have crossed paths with many colorful characters William Bollaert, Ferdinand von Roemer, Frederick Law Olmsted, French Smith, Jack Hays, the illustrious Mr. King, Judge Leroy Denman and Theodore Roosevelt. … At this moment right now, I feel a bit feverish and fear pneumonia. This could be the year I die.
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Well … at this time, despite my ill health, I will try to answer any questions you might have.”
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*Dress: Light khaki shirt, thin tie, suit pants and vest, dress shoes, felt hat
Props: Surveyor tripod, Sextant, Waywiser, measuring tapes, level, plumb bob. Prickly pear cactus, Chile pequin bush, little bluestem clump, sideoats grama. Basket of peaches, cornbread, bacon.
**”I wish to give special thanks to Diane Gesick for researching my life and helping me recollect various details.”
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pbm
[7 Ss / VV->^^ ]
