Hendrick Arnold interests me, partly on account of he was one of those unsung guys that provide so many back stories behind the main event, but also because I've seen the remains of the old mill near Mission San Juan for years, not knowing whose it was. Interesting to note that that particular terrain was also home to the likes of a Smith and a Hendrick.
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/far15 Hendrick Arnold, guide and spy during the Texas Revolution, emigrated from Mississippi with his parents, Daniel Arnold, apparently a white man, and Rachel Arnold, who was apparently black, in the winter of 1826.
The family settled in Stephen F. Austin's colony on the Brazos river. Hendrick is referred to as a Negro, although his brother Holly was regarded as white; both were apparently considered free, although there is no evidence that they were ever formally freed by their father. In July or August of 1827 Hendrick and an Arnold slave named Dolly had a daughter, Harriet. Hendrick held Harriet as a slave. There are any number of legal practicalities as to why Arnold would formally own his own daughter, perhaps if nothing else to keep his kin from claiming her.
By the fall of 1835 Arnold had settled in San Antonio and married a woman named Martina (Mar�a), a stepdaughter of Erastus (Deaf) Smithq. Arnold had a second daughter, Juanita, who may have been Martina's child.
While Arnold and Smith were hunting buffalo in the Little River country north of the site of present Austin, Mexican forces under Gen. Mart�n Perfecto de Cos occupied San Antonio.
On their trip home Arnold and Smith came upon Stephen F. Austin's encampment at Salado Creek. Arnold, and soon thereafter Smith, who considered remaining neutral because of his Mexican wife, offered their services as guides to the Texans. In October Arnold took part in the battle of Concepci�n. Just how competent Arnold was percieved to be can be inferred from the following. The Battle of Bexar developed into prolonged and vicious hand-to-hand fighting through Old Town San Antonio, both Smith and Hendrick serving under another old Texas hand Ben Milam, Milan being felled during the action by a sniper bullet to the head, Smith, standing alongside, seriously wounded in that same exchange of fire....
When Edward Burleson, who had replaced Austin as commander, called a council of officers on December 3, 1835, the council decided to postpone an attack on San Antonio, explaining that Arnold was absent and that the officers of one of the divisions refused to march without him. Arnold's whereabouts during his absence are now unknown.
When he returned, Benjamin R. Milam called for an attack, which was subsequently called the siege of Bexar. Arnold served as the guide for Milam's division. Francis W. Johnson, leader of the other division, wrote the official report of the battle for himself and Milam, who was killed during the siege.
Johnson acknowledged the bravery of all the Texan forces and cited Arnold specifically for his "important service." Likewise the trust between Arnold and Smith....
On January 3, 1836, Arnold arrived in San Felipe de Austin with his family and that of Erastus Smith. On January 4 he successfully petitioned the General Council of the provisional government of Texas for relief for their families and noted Smith's service for Texas and his wounds suffered in battle. Arnold continued to support the revolution and served in Smith's spy company in the battle of San Jacinto.Arnold is listed alongside Hays in at least one major 1838 rangering expedition north of San Antonio, and both men likely served together on the earlier Laredo Expedition.
In the end, germs proved to be no respecter of courage. Smith passed away, quite suddenly it seems, in 1837, age fifty.
Cholera was always the scourge of San Antonio, most of the population drawing water from the fifty miles of old Spanish Mission irrigation ditches (AKA acequias) that hade made the town a doable concern in the first place.
An 1833 episode may have been the one that killed Jim Bowie's wife, reportedly leaving him heartbroken, this episode did kill Deaf and Guadelupe's young son Travis.
Cholera came again in '49, the same epidemic that decimated the Comanches, also carrying off in San Antonio Guadelupe, her and Smith's daughter Susan, and Hendrick Arnold.
One has to wonder if the devastating epidemic that year may have been instrumental in Jack Hays' decision to hang up his Ranger badge and head for California.
Birdwatcher
