Austin is the Capital of Texas. Maybe those of you who are citizens of the U.S. learned that in school. (I still have trouble remembering the Capitals of other states. Montpelier, Vermont always sticks in my mind but I've not tarried long in Vermont in my life.) This picture was taken on Congress Avenue. It is dedicated to Angelina Eberly who fired a cannon at Sixth and Congress to thwart Texas Rangers sent by Sam Houston to take the state records off to Houston, further east and, he thought, a more appropriate capital for the young nation. Yes, this was 1842, so Texas was an independent nation. Oh, she missed the Rangers but 'aroused the populace' according to this page. Folks chased down the Rangers and retrieved the archives. Lest you think her cannon wasn't loaded...she blew a hole in General Land Office building, three blocks north. Such are Texas heroines. Well, Austin heroines, I guess. I guess Houston would like to be our Capital City, but that seems so wrong.Photo was taken at night using my Nikon Coolpix P4 and enhanced a little on the computer.
Sadly, the story of Angelina and the cannon is a complete and utter myth. Official documentation on file in the Texas General Land Office (the site of the Archives War) dispells that story completely. Yet it persists, year after year, in spite of facts to the contrary.
ReplyDeleteThe REAL story of the Archives War is the tale of a collection of Austin rowdies who tried to assassinate a government employee -Texas Land Commissioner Thomas William Ward - while he was attempting to discharge the duties of his office. No heroic woman with a cannon was ever involved. No rangers. None of it. It didn't even happen at night.
The real story is a far more interesting tale of real estate politics, government intrigue, free flowing whiskey, and perceived frontier justice. Unfortunately, that black spot on our fair city's history is persistantly mis-remembered. Austinites have no clue what really happened - as such we lack a true appreciation of why our city is the capital.
That may all be so. But you don't give any references where we can see the official documentation online and you are anonymous. That isn't how myths get dispelled, is it? I tried to get the info to support your version of the "black spot on our fair city's history." (I don't know why it's such a black spot, but whatever. Because there was an attempted murder, I guess, and the folks were from Austin that you accuse of same?) But I'm not really willing to go to the Land Office and research it. Because, after all, the statue is there and I was trying to just take a picture of it. I suppose I should just leave the history I provide to the anonymous experts!
ReplyDeleteHi, Anonymous-- I have sometimes tried to append my corrections to stories I think are wrong, but I have always been willing to sign my name with my comments.
ReplyDeleteFact is, anyone in their right mind knows that legends get a lot of fuzz on them after 150 years or so go by.
I have heard a much more elaborate version of the Angelina story told by Mayor Will Wynn at an Austin History Center Association luncheon-- I think in 2005-- and I didn't see anyone walking out in protest -- I feel sure that if you'd file a version of your story with Sue Soy at the Austin History Center, she'd open a file on it.
Best,
Forrest Preece
Folks - I apologize for having to post anonymously, but, unfortunately, I will have to remain as such. I can, however, offer a few items of clarification. First off, the mayor and the members of CAST have been briefed on the true story of the Archives War. The story they wanted to tell was the story that the statue presents - in this case, history falls to folklore as the result of a conscious effort.
ReplyDeleteThere have been several things written about the Archives War - a thesis, a book (THE LADY CANNONEER), half a dozen papers, and Handbook of Texas Entry. If you trace their source for Mrs. Eberly's involvement it comes from a single newspaper article written in the 1850's. That's it!
There's an excellent article on the subject that came out a few years back called "THAT DAMN CANNON." It is not online.
But I happen to have copies of the original correspondence over the Archives War at my fingertips, and just for fun I'll tell the story as it happened - in brief.
On Friday morning December 30, 1842 Maj. Thomas S. Smith and Capt. Eli Chandler arrived at the General Land Office with 24 teamsters with ox carts. They had orders from Pres. Houston to collect the Archives of the Land Office and transport them to Washington-on-the-Brazos.
This crew, along with help from Land Office staff, spent the day loading the wagons, unassaulted. People came and went and no one got after them. The party then left Austin, headed for Washington. They made it to Kenny's Fort and set up camp.
In the mean time, the local Austin vigilance committee (about 80 men) discovered that the archives were missing. Taking charge of the local arsenal, they attacked Commissioner Ward while working in the land office. They fired a cannon into his home while he sat inside, unarmed, in an attempt to kill him. His friends in the town came to his defense and the crowd withdrew, taking off after the archives.
The vigilance committee, with cannon in tow, caught up with the archives. Smith and Chandler presented the mob with their orders and the mob threatened to kill the men if they didn't immediately allow the return of the archives back to Austin. This was then done.
Once the mob returned to Austin with the papers, the records state that they were stored for a time in the boarding house of a Mrs. Angelina Eberly, before being removed to another address on Pecan Street. That's the extent of Angelina's involvement in the story.
Remember, the members of the vigilance committee were all local land owners and town business men. If the capital were moved elsewhere then they stood to lose a fortune invested in the new city of Austin. Also, remember, the orders weren't to remove the papers to Houston but, rather, to Washington - the city designated as capital by the Republic's constitution.
The version of the story that is oft told, is the one from the later newspaper account - and that has become our town gospel. It's a good story and people like that. This has all been published before, but, as I've stated, every time this story gets told it gets bigger and bolder and further from the truth. That is that nature of myth, I suppose!
And your picture is very nice, by the way!!
Thanks for all the good info. Please don't accuse me of embellishing the story, however. I simply quoted what I found online. Austin Daily Photo isn't on a quest for truth, but we love the truth and now this entry contains different accounts. Original correspondence, of course, is just someone's version of the truth, told at the time. Not that I'm in the cannon lady's camp. It seemed pretty suspicious to me the setting off of cannon but your version has a cannon, too. Fired into a guy's home. That is some frontier behavior!
ReplyDeleteI did notice that you called the gang 'rowdies' at first and then 'local businessmen and landowners.' Ha!! Which is it? Oh. You think they are the same!
Anyway, getting at the truth about the nineteenth century in Austin seems hard. (And we won't even talk about current city dealings!) I remember when they had to replace Lady Liberty and no one seemed to know how she got on the Capitol in the in the first place. Probably not with a helicopter crane!
anonymous--thanks for the account. I have always thought that the Angelina Eberly story sounded like it had some serious embellishment to help "Keep Austin Weird."
ReplyDeleteYour account sound much more plausible. If you ever want to compare notes on other shootings around Austin, like the Whitman incident -- say, about what got out in the press and what really happened, maybe someday we can do that.