Eight counties named after heroes with disabilities

HISTORICAL ARTWORK COURTESY TEXAS STATE LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES COMMISSION

George Bernard Erath

Eight counties are named after Texans with disabilities, the Governor's Committee on People with Disabilities noted recently in a publication celebrating its 50th anniversary.

Research in the Handbook of Texas history text confirms that assertion. While each of these men were distinguished by an array of personal accomplishments, they also confronted life with handicaps that ranged from missing limbs to mental illness.

Trained in the law as a youth in Georgia, farmer Mathew Duncan Ector settled in Henderson in 1842 and was admitted to the Texas Bar in 1851. Four years later he became editor of the Henderson Democrat and then represented Rusk County in the Legislature. In the Civil War, he was promoted to brigadier general but battles in his native Georgia left him wounded three times at Chickamauga and again at Atlanta, where a wound to the left leg required an amputation just below the knee. After the war, he returned to the law and served as district judge, appeals judge and presiding judge of the appeals court.

Born in Vienna, Austria, trained surveyor George Bernard Erath moved to Texas in 1832 at age 20. He rangered against the Indians and fought at San

Strapped to his saddle when necessary, Hood fought on until relieved of his command at his own request.

Jacinto before surveying the towns of Caldwell, Waco and Stephenville. After two terms in the Republic's Congress, he was elected to the first Legislature as a representative and later served as a state senator, where he led efforts to raise a frontier force of 100 Texas Rangers in 1858. In 1886, he dictated to his daughter his memoirs, now regarded as an important source regarding the pioneer days. "Although Erath was 'seventy-three years of age, in very poor health and blind' at the time he dictated his memoirs, his daughter maintained that his mental vigor 'was the same as it had always been,'" the Handbook asserts.

Born into a prominent Virginia family, Peter Wagener Grayson was known as an attorney, poet, diplomat, cabinet officer and presidential contender. But in his 30s, he suffered serious mental illness. "Temporary recovery came by 1830, when he received a league of land in Stephen F. Austin's Texas colony," the Handbook reports. After service in the Revolution, he was named attorney general, first by President ad interim David Burnet and then by new President Sam Houston. In 1838, he "reluctantly agreed to be the Houston party candidate for president" but took another post in Washington, D.C. before the election. On July 8, 1838, he "wrote of the terrible mental 'fiend that possessed me' and bemoaned his acceptance of the presidential nomination, which had led to falsified, bitter campaign charges against him." The next morning, he shot himself.

West Point graduate John Bell Hood sustained an arrow wound to his left hand in fighting Comanches near the headwaters of the Devil's River in 1857. A Kentuckian by birth, he disdained the state's neutrality in the Civil War and declared himself a Texan. Quickly rising to the rank of major general, his leadership of Hood's Texas Brigade was noted for his efforts at Second Manassas, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg and Gettysburg. It was at Gettysburg that Hood received a severe, incapacitating wound to his left arm. Then at Chickamauga, he was shot in the upper right thigh, which resulted in his leg's amputation. Four months later he was promoted to lieutenant general and six months after that he received a battlefield promotion to full general. Strapped to his saddle when necessary, Hood fought on until relieved of his command at his own request in January 1865.

Known as the "Architect of Annexation," Anson Jones was a medical doctor who served in the Congress of the Republic of Texas and as Texas' minister to the United States. In Washington, he worked at Sam Houston's direction to craft a strategy that encouraged recognition of the

Admired as a spy, messenger and scout, Smith played a key role in the Texas Revolution. William B. Travis considered him the "'Bravest of the Brave' in the cause of Texas."

Republic by European nations, to enhance the Republic's bargaining position in its negotiations over annexation. Elected President of the Republic in 1844, he presided over the dissolution of the Republic two years later. His desire to be elected U. S. Senator was rebuffed by the new Legislature and, brooding, he retired to a plantation near Washington-on-the-Brazos, where an

Erastus 'Deaf' Smith

injury disabled his left arm in 1849. In 1857, he again tried for the Senate but received no legislative votes. The following January, he committed suicide.

A childhood disease cost Erastus Smith his hearing and as an adult he was known as Deaf Smith. Admired as a spy, messenger and scout, he played a key role in the Texas Revolution. William B. Travis considered him the "'Bravest of the Brave' in the cause of Texas.'" He was known as the bearer of the bad news from the Alamo and then at San Jacinto, General Houston ordered Smith to take an ax to Vince's Bridge, which prevented the retreat of the Mexican army. At the end of the war he commanded a company of Texas Rangers that defeated a band of Mexicans at Laredo in February 1837. When he died 10 months later, Houston wrote to a friend "My Friend Deaf Smith, and my stay in darkest hour, Is no more!!! A man, more brave, and honest, never, lived. His soul is with God, but his fame and his family must command the care of his Country!"

At the siege of Bexar in 1835, Thomas William Ward lost his leg to a cannonball but after a brief trip to New Orleans to be fitted with a peg leg, he was back in Texas as captain in the Revolutionary Army a few months later. Hence known as Peg Leg Ward, he won the contract to build the Texas Capitol in Houston and then served as chief clerk of the House of Representatives when the Congress moved to Austin. There he served intermittent terms as mayor and as the new nation's second Land Commissioner. "Early on, the commissioner discovered that the job of land commissioner could be quite hazardous to one's health," the Handbook notes. "In 1841, he lost his right arm when a cannon misfired during the official celebration of San Jacinto Day." He later served as consul to Panama, Austin mayor (for the third time) and as Corpus Christi's customs collector.

A childhood disease caused Robert McCalpin Williamson's right leg to be drawn back at the knee but he walked anyway with the aid of a wooden leg from the knee down. Known from then on as "Three Legged Willie," young Williamson devoted his ill time to reading and was admitted to the practice of law at 19. A cavalry rider in the Revolution, he later served on the Republic's Supreme Court, convening an outdoor session under a large oak tree next to the lot where the Colorado County Courthouse was constructed in 1837. He also served in the Republic's Senate. "As judge and lawmaker," the Handbook" reports, "Williamson became the subject of numerous legends inspired by his personal characteristics, his unique decisions, his adroitness as a campaigner, his amusing legislative manipulations and the succinctness of his oratory."