Henry William Munson

     Henry William Munson was born on 15 January 1793 in the Natchez District of New Spain at Villa Gayoso, a satellite administrative center north of Natchez built by Spanish Governor Manuel Gayoso (now Wilkinson County, Mississippi).¹ He was the son of Jesse Munson. He married Ann Binum Pearce, daughter of William Pearce and Sarah Bray, on 12 May 1817, probably at Lunenburg, the Pearce plantation, near Cheneyville, Rapides Parish, Louisiana.² He died intestate on 6 October 1833 at Oakland Plantation, Gulf Prairie, Austin's Colony, Coahuila and Texas, Republic of Mexico, at age 40.¹ He was buried at Peach Point Cemetery, Austin's Colony, Coahuila and Texas, Republic of Mexico.³ The estate of Henry W. Munson and William B. Munson was partitioned as ordered by the Probate Court of Brazoria County, Texas, on 21 September 1848.⁴
     
     Henry William Munson probably grew up on the family farm near Bayou Sara in what is now West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana. Although his father was poor and illiterate, it appears that Henry William was well educated. His later success in business and his standing in the community, coupled with his known high regard for education, makes this assertion probable.

     He was in the Magee-Gutierrez Expedition and fought in the Battle of Medina, the bloodiest battle ever fought on Texas soil, on 18 August 1813. The Magee-Gutiérrez Expedition was the first major effort to free Texas from Spanish control. It is not known when Henry William joined the expedition, but he was probably one of the reinforcements that joined in its last month. The battle was fought twenty miles south of San Antonio in a sandy oak forest region called el Encinal de Medina between the republican forces of the Magee-Gutiérrez expedition under General José Álvarez de Toledo y Dubois and a Spanish royalist army under General Joaquín de Arredondo. After a furious four hour battle involving infantry, cavalry, and artillery, the republicans broke ranks and ran. Most of those not killed on the battlefield were caught and executed during the retreat. The republicans were decimated. Less than 100 were able to escape alive. Of these, no more than twenty have thus far been identified. Henry William was injured and escaped with the aid of a Spanish officer named Mordella. In appreciation, the name was given to the first Munson son born in Texas (later changed to Mordello).^3,5

     Apparently, Henry William Munson was appointed administrator of his father's estate in late 1815 or early 1816. An appraisal order made in Wilkinson County, Mississippi Territory, dated April 1816, directs the appointed appraisers to "appraise the goods and chattel rights and credit of Jesse Munson, late of said County, deceased, which shall be known to you by Henry W. Munson of the same..." Then on 20 December 1816, he signed as administrator the inventory and return. Little more is known of him until he married Ann Binum Pearce in 1817.⁶

     The first seven years of marriage were spent in Rapides Parish, where their first four children, all sons, were born. Henry Munson appeared on the 1820 U.S. Census in Bayou Beouf, Rapides Parish, Louisiana. In his household were one male, 16 through 25 years [Henry William]; 1 female, 18 through 25 years [Ann]; 10 male slaves and 5 female slaves. Their first born son Samuel had died the year before].⁷ In 1824, between February and September, all of Jesse Munson's known descendants and their families moved to the Trinity River in the Atascosito (also written "Atascosita") District of Mexico, now Liberty County Texas. That is, Henry William, Ann, and their only surviving son, William Benjamin; Micajah B. Munson, his wife Elizabeth and daughters Ann Eliza and Martha Caroline; Jesse P. Munson, half-brother to Henry William and Micajah. The approximate date of their move to Texas comes from a letter dated "february 28th — 1825", the oldest document in the Munson family collection, written by Delia Pearce Dunwoody, Ann Munson's sister, from Bayou Beouff, Rapides Parish, Louisiana, to Mrs. Nancy B. Munson, Trinity River, Texas. (Ann was called "Nancy" by her family and even signed some legal documents with this name.) In the letter, Delia wrote, "I feel sorry that my letter which was rote in september [1824] did not go to you." Therefore, the time of their move can be established as between February 24, 1824, when William Benjamin was born in Louisiana, and September 1824, when Delia's letter went astray.¹ Cheap Mexican land was the probable reason for the Munsons' move to Texas. The new Mexican land grant policy awarded one league to each family. However, obtaining a title was often a lengthy process. While living in the Atascosito District, two more children, Mordello and Amanda Caroline, were born to Henry and Ann.

     Thurmond Williamson writes:

Events of the following few years show Henry William Munson to have been one of the leaders of the Trinity community. A continuing problem was that while Mexican authorities were granting land titles to settlers in Austin's Colony, no action was forthcoming to grant titles to homesteads in Atascosito. The distance from San Antonio and from the new capital of Saltillo was far, the district had no established government nor single leader, and the Mexican administration moved slowly in such matters. This continued to plague the residents and finally contributed to Henry William Munson's decision to leave the area for Austin's Colony on the Brazos.⁸

     In 1824 at the Trinity settlement, Henry William and his brother Micajah had staked claims to adjacent plots of 4,428 acres each on the west bank of the Trinity River. Their land was just south of the Coushatta Indian village and the river crossing of the Old Atascosito Road from Louisiana to La Bahia. The exact location of these plots can easily be identified today. Henry William never received title to his claim. Title to Micajah's claim was finally granted by the Mexican Government to his widow in 1831.

     Evidently, they were not happy with their situation on the Trinity almost from the outset. On 29 January 1825, from "Sanja Cinto", a letter was sent from J. Ilams to Stephen F. Austin on their behalf expressing dissatisfaction with their settlement on the Trinity and inquiring on whether they can be admitted into Austin's Colony and obtain a title of land on Cedar Bayou. Ilams described them as "men of respectability having each a family and about 17 Slaves each with good stock of Cattle etc. etc." No move was made subject to this inquiry.

     A new problem for the Atascosito citizens arose when the Edwards brothers, Haden and Benjamin, arrived in Texas and established themselves in Nacogdoches. Haden Edwards received an empresario contract in April 1825 to introduce 800 colonists into East Texas for a fee. He and Benjamin demanded that early settlers who could not produce a clear title pay them for the land or else they would sell it to someone else. Apparently this included the Trinity settlement at Atascosito. Many Spanish families had lived there for decades without land titles, and new American settlers had come expecting to claim 4,428 acres of free land under Mexico's colonization law, but no titles had been issued. On 28 February 1826 from "Mr. Munson's Trinity" Haden Edwards wrote a letter to Stephen F. Austin about rumors that Austin was planning to "present a memorial against me to the government for asking my colonists more than the government tax on the lands..." Edwards justifies his position by writing, "...one colonist that is willing and able to pay for the lands, as offered, is worth fifty of those indolent idlers who barely live to exist, and have no ambition or enterprise further." Although there were two Mr. Munsons living in the District, "Mr. Munson" is almost certainly Henry William rather than Micajah, as the latter is not mentioned in records as having taken any political role in the affairs of the District. Edward's exact business in the Trinity settlement on that visit is not known, but one thing is clear: Atascosito citizens had been made aware that their claims were being challenged.

     During 1826, possibly as a result of this new threat, Atascosito citizens organized their district under the Mexican colonization laws. Henry William Munson and his neighbor George Orr were elected joint alcaldes (chief municipal officers), a census was taken, boundaries were set, and an election was held to determine the preference of the population on joining the Austin Colony or the Nacogdoches District. Williamson writes, "During this period, Henry William Munson served as an examining judge for the district and was at times referred to in documents as Judge Munson. It is obvious that he had a good education, and his involvement and leadership leads one to believe that he might have had some legal training between 1813 and 1817."

     All of the Munsons appear on the famous Atascosito Census of 31 July 1826, and alcaldes Henry William Munson and George Orr signed the document. According to the census, he was a 33 year old farmer and stockraiser who was born in Mississippi and owned fifteen slaves, the largest number in the district.⁹ He also appears on the list of citizens dated 10 September 1826, who voted on the issue of the district becoming attached to either Austin's Colony or the Nacogdoches District. He voted in favor of joining Austin's Colony, and as alcalde, signed the document. The final tally was 37 in favor of Austin's Colony and 21 in favor of Nacogdoches. Then on 28 September 1826, he signed a letter to the Chief of the Department of Texas reporting that the citizens of the Atascosito District had voted to request that the district be attached to the colony of Colonel Stephen F. Austin.¹⁰ On the same day, George Orr and, Henry William Munson wrote to Stephen F. Austin under the mistaken assumption that all was in order and that the district would become attached to Austin's Colony. They asked that Austin and the commissioner call on the district soon to "put us in a way to know where our lands are." He followed up in a letter to Austin, dated 15 November 1826, defining the limits of the Atascosito District as agreed upon by the inhabitants.¹¹

     Meanwhile in Nacogdoches, Haden Edwards had not backed off his position to invalidate the claim of any early settler who could not produce a clear title. He and his followers, mostly new settlers, called themselves "Fredonians," and declared a free and independent Republic of Fredonia. At the suggestion of Austin, a militia of thirty-one men from the Atascosito District was formed 16 January 1827. Henry William Munson is listed as a lieutenant, second in command, on the Muster Roll of Captain Hugh Blair Johnston's Atascosito Company.⁵ In that capacity, Henry William Munson was a participant in suppressing the Fredonian Rebellion in January 1827.³

     By orders from Austin, the Atascosito Company proceeded up the Trinity River. On January 26, they joined with Colonel Peter Ellis Bean, Mexico's Indian Agent for Texas. Bean led the men, about seventy in all, toward Nacogdoches. Finding no Fredonians remaining there, they pursued the rebels, unsuccessfully, to the Sabine. Thus ended the Fredonian Rebellion, but it aroused fears of widespread Anglo-Texan revolt among Mexican leaders. Williamson writes,

Historians report that a number of prominent colonists were present when the main Mexican army occupied Nacogdoches, and that they aided in the protection of all who remained in the town. It is presumed that Stephen F. Austin and Henry William Munson were among these men. Atascosita men may have remained for some days, as they were not discharged until February 17... This may have been the occasion when Austin and Munson became personally acquainted and discussed Munson's future move to the Austin Colony.¹²

     In November 1827, Henry William Munson was one of the signers of a petition to Don Bustamente, Commander General of Internal States (of Mexico), again asking to be part of Austin's Colony as the settlers in the Atascosito District could not obtain title to their lands. The experiences in the Fredonian fiasco had probably emphasized the need for good titles, and failure of action here must have been the last straw. Family tradition tells that Henry and Micajah both planned to move their families to Austin's Colony, but that Micajah died (possibly before the Fredonian Rebellion), and his wife, Elizabeth, decided to remain behind with her two daughters.¹³

     On 27 August 1828, at the plantation home of future neighbor, John McNeel, Henry William Munson signed an agreement with Stephen F. Austin to buy land on Gulf Prairie in the Austin Colony and to move there within four months. This land was in Austin's fourth and last empresario contract (dated on maps as May 31, 1828). For the first time, it allowed empresario settlements within ten leagues of the coast. The agreed upon terms were for "one dollar per English acre, payable one year from the first day of January next." The land straddled the headwaters of Jones Creek just west of the Brazos River and about eight miles from the Gulf of Mexico. The general area was called Peach Point because of the many wild peach trees that bloomed there each spring. Although not stated in the contract, this was apparently a 354 acre tract. This assumption is based on an 1832 purchase of 200 acres of adjoining property, and the partitioning of the land in 1848 which gives the size as 554 acres. The contract bears the signatures of Henry W. Munson and Stephen F. Austin.¹

There followed in November of 1828 the barge trip taken by Henry William, Ann, William Benjamin, Mordello Stephen, Amanda Caroline, and twenty slaves down the Trinity, across Galveston Bay and the Gulf to the Brazos River, and up the Brazos to the area of Jones Creek. Amanda Caroline died en route and was buried at sea. And thus the Munsons of Texas arrived at their home in the future Brazoria County.¹⁴

     Two primary sources document the family's arrival in the Austin Colony: In his register of families, Austin wrote that Henry W. Munson, a farmer from Louisiana, had arrived in the Colony in 1828 with a wife, three male children and nineteen other dependents (slaves).¹⁵ The other source, an entrance certificate to Austin's Colony, dates the month of their arrival. The certificate dated 9 December 1829, states that the family consisting of 24 persons (four family members and twenty slaves) arrived in November, 1828. The certificate is in Spanish and bears the signature of Estevan F. Austin.¹

     Henry and Ann named their new home "Oakland" and they built it into a successful cotton and cattle plantation. Over the years, its other major money products were hogs, sugar and molasses. Products were mostly shipped to markets in New Orleans. Oakland was nearly self-sufficient "with chickens, hogs, sheep, beef and dairy cattle, corn, vegetables, and fruit from the plantation; and from the natural surroundings there was an abundance of pecans, blackberries, fish, oysters, clams, ducks, geese, turkey, rabbits, squirrel, deer, and other game." At Oakland, the Munsons had two more sons, Gerard Brandon and George Poindexter.⁵

     In the colony of Colonel Stephen Fuller Austin, the Munson family prospered. One of the primary reasons that Austin was the most successful of all the empresarios in Texas is that he was able to secure good titles for the settlers he introduced into his colony. While the purchase of Oakland was a private transaction in which Munson bought land that Austin had reserved for himself, within two years of his arrival in Austin's Colony, Henry William finally received a Mexican land grant. On 8 October 1830, a survey was made and field notes taken on land situated in the current county of Jackson on the west bank of the Navadad River.¹⁶ On 22 October 1830, Henry William Munson presented himself to Commissioner Samuel M. Williams at the town of Austin [San Felipe de Austin] and requested that he be put in possession of a league of vacant land that he had chosen with the permission of Empresario Austin.¹⁷

     The title to one league of land on the west bank of the Navidad River was issued to Henry W. Munson on 2 November 1830. It was obtained through Stephen F. Austin's third empresario contract, also known as the "Coast Colony" contract. One league was the amount generally allocated to heads of household under the provisions of the 1825 Colonization Law of the Mexican state of Coahuila and Texas that governed the issuance of this title. The document is in Spanish and bears the signatures of Henry W. Munson and Estevan F. Austin. (What Henry William planned to do with this land is not known. The title stipulates "that within one year he shall construct permanent landmarks at each corner of the tract, and that he shall settle it and cultivate it according to the requirements of the law." Henry William never lived on this land which lies in the current county of Jackson, but it was still in the family as late as 1848).¹⁷

     In 1830, the Mexican government, under the contentious rule of Anastasio Bustamente, reversed existing immigration laws, established a customs system and levied taxes on imports. Further immigration from the United States was forbidden, and the following year, all Gulf ports except Anahuac were closed to colonists. Garrisons were established and forts erected at various points in Texas, including Anahuac and Velasco, to enforce the new laws. Mexican troops were supported by custom receipts and other taxes levied on the colonists. It amounted to taxation without representation.

     The situation was particularly untenable at Anahuac where 150 Mexicans under Juan Davis Bradburn built and occupied a fort. Almost daily, they harassed the colonists. When some prominent Texans, among them, lawyers William B. Travis and Patrick C. Jack, were imprisoned at Anahuac, a rescue force of perhaps 200 men from the Brazos was organized. According to family tradition and the New Handbook of Texas, Henry William Munson was among them. They reached Turtle Bayou, six miles north of Anahuac on 9 June 1832. On their way, they captured Bradburn's entire cavalry force of nineteen men and held them hostage, planning to exchange them for Travis and Jack and a couple of others Bradburn had arrested. After a day of skirmishing, an exchange was arranged by the rebels, most of whom withdrew to Turtle Bayou, where they released the captured cavalrymen. When Bradburn discovered that not all the insurgents had evacuated as they had promised, he refused to release his prisoners and instead announced that he would fire on the town. After a skirmish between Bradburn's men and the remaining Anglos, the latter also fell back to Turtle Bayou to await the arrival of artillery. William J. Russell and John Austin left for Brazoria to secure a cannon to enforce their demands. On their return to Anahuac, Austin and Russell were stopped by the garrison at Velasco commanded by Domingo de Ugartechea who refused to allow the gun to pass.¹⁸

     A committe of thirteen men that included Henry William Munson and James P. Caldwell were appointed on 20 June 1832 to decide whether to attack Fort Velasco. The committee, meeting at Brazoria, agreed by 10 o'clock the following night that it was necessary to reduce Fort Velasco, and appointed "a rendezvous on the east side of the river armed and equipped for the combat" at 10 o'clock the morning of the 22nd. The 112 volunteers were organized into three companies — forty-seven men under John Austin, the senior officer; forty-seven under Henry S. Brown, second in command; and eighteen men in the marines under William J. Russell who was appointed lieutenant in command of the schooner Brazoria and ordered to bombard the Mexicans from the Brazos River. Henry William Munson was with Russell among the marines. James P. Caldwell was in Austin's company.^19,5

     On June 25, the Texians were in position to attack the fort at Velasco. The battle began about midnight and lasted until daybreak. By nine o'clock, more than two-thirds of Ugartechea's men were dead or wounded. John Austin demanded surrender of the fort and Ugartechea agreed under the conditions that his officers be allowed to keep their side arms and that the survivors be allowed to peacefully leave the country. These concessions were made and the fort was surrendered. In the Battle of Velasco, seven Texians were killed and twenty-seven wounded, one of whom was James P. Caldwell. Henry William took him home to Oakland where Ann nursed him back to health. Forty-two Mexicans were killed and seventy wounded.

     Meanwhile, the party on Turtle Bayou composed and signed the Turtle Bayou Resolutions which explained their rebellion against Bradburn as part of the reform movement of Federalist general Antonio López de Santa Anna who had recently won a victory over administration forces at Tampico. This brought about the removal of Bradburn and release of the prisoners. With the successful outcome at Anahuac, there was no need for the Texians at Velasco to proceed, and they returned to their homes.

     At the battle of Velasco, on 26 June 1832, Russell is said to have fired the first shot of the Texas Revolution and the confrontations at Anahuac and Velasco are often considered the first battles, — the Lexington and Concord — of the Texas Revolution.^20,21

     After moving to Austin's Colony, Henry William Munson continued to acquire large tracts of land, including a 200 acre addition to Oakland Plantation. In November 1832, the land was surveyed and field notes taken.¹ According to the title dated 14 January 1833, he bought this land from Austin for $1000, or $5.00 per acre – five times the amount paid per acre for the original Oakland property. With this acquisition, Oakland Plantation increased in size to 554 acres. The original document is in Spanish.

     In 1833, the esteemed Thomas J. Pilgrim contracted with Henry Munson and James F. Perry, husband of Austin's sister, Emily, and owner of the neighboring Peach Point Plantation, to "render his services...in the capacity of teacher...(for) as many scholars as shall be sent to him, and in such a house as they shall construct for him on the Prairie between Thomas Westalls and James F. Perrys obligating himself to teach every other week six days, the other five, and as many hours each day as they shall think proper..." The two men bound themselves in this agreement "to construct a comfortable house for the accommodations of the School and to dig a well which shall be completed by the 1st of Sept next and in remuneration for his services, to furnish (Pilgrim)...board and washing and to give him the amount of tuition but Should such tuition not amount to five Hundred Dollars all deficiency they promise to make up at the expiration of the year..." Apparently, the school opened for the 1833 school year, just a month before Henry William's death, and the three Munson boys, aged nine, eight, and four, were enrolled. Total tuition expense paid to Pilgrim by Munson was $95.66 for each child, and this appears to have been for two years.²²

     Henry William Munson died at Oakland in 1833, "The Year of the Big Cholera." That is surely what claimed his life, although family tradition says he died of yellow fever. Both diseases were often referred to as "the fever." That year was unusually wet, and flooding conditions persisted for weeks. The bacteria that causes cholera thrives in these conditions, and the epidemic of 1833 is the most severe ever recorded in Texas and Mexico. Stephen F. Austin was in Mexico City at the time. His brother-in-law, James Franklin Perry, wrote to Austin that he would find "a great vacuam" in the ranks of the settlement at large. He mentioned the deaths of "Mr McNeel (fever) Mr. Westall, James and Emeline (Westall) (cholera) and Mr Munson (fever) which leves a very considerable vackancey here in Brazoria." Henry William Munson's last words to his wife were, "Please educate my children." Thus ended the life of a wealthy and prominent citizen of Austin's Colony whose history in Texas was one of community leader and successful planter and stockman.^23,5

     Henry William was buried in the Peach Point Cemetery in a casket bought for $16.00 from Haley and Carson. His grave was unmarked until the Munson Cemetery Association successfully negotiated in the late 1980s or early 1990s to have a headstone placed near the tomb of his friend, Stephen F. Austin, where family tradition says he was buried. A state historical marker stands near the entrance to the cemetery to honor this early Texas pioneer.³

     Mordello S. Munson petitioned the Probate Court of Brazoria County, Texas, on 27 March 1848 to have the estates of Henry W. Munson and William B. Munson partitioned. Henry William died intestate in 1833, "possessed of considerable property and leaving a widow, Ann B., who has since intermarried with James P. Caldwell, and four children, viz. William B., George and Gerrard and your petitioner." Henry William's estate had never been divided. This action was probably prompted by the untimely death of William Benjamin only nine days earlier, who died "intestate and without issue, possessed of some property, real and personal..." The petition also asks to have guardians appointed to "defend the interests of said minors in this suit..." This included the two children of James and Ann B. Caldwell. Henry B. Andrews was appointed guardian "as litera." He and Ann B. and James P. Caldwell replied to the petition, all joining "in the prayer for the partition of said estate," Ann stating that she was entitled to half of the community property.

     On 21 September 1848, James F. Perry, Joseph M. McCormick and William J. Bryan met at the house of James P. Caldwell and proceeded to "appraise and partition the Estate of Henry W Munson and William B Munson between Ann B Caldwell and her children..." The estate was appraised at $26,825.00, including 9,699 acres of land as follows:

          554 acres at Oakland Plantation
          2,479 acres bought from William J. Bryan at $3.00 per acre
          2,222 acres on the Bernard in the Gray & Moore League
          4,444 acres on the Navidad.

The estate was divided into 64 shares for purposes of partition. Those receiving shares were Ann B. Caldwell (36), Mordella Munson (9), Gerrard Munson (9), George Munson (9), Robert and Mary Caldwell (1).⁴