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nsdasOFF THE BEATEN TRAILTheTwoPhNolans/BothWithoutBy ED SYERSRemember Philip Nolan? If so, which one?Almost anybody can tell youthat Nolan was “The Man Without a Country”. In the book, he was a treasonous, tragic American pawn, condemned to live out his last 50 ycars-far at sea-with never another word, written or spoken, of his homeland.Strangely, there are two Philip Nolans: the fictitious one. a traitor: the real one, a stalwart of the Bowie-Crockett stamp and the first American to tight and diefor Texas.More incredible, the Nolan we remember was the man literally dreamed-up by Boston author, Edward Everett Hale, in a booklet, hoax-written to sound true. It was convincing enough. It destroyed a hero, left him without country or memory.The true Philip Nolan was killed by Spanish cannon, March 21, 1801. and is buried in the rolling vast ness north of Waco in a yet-unmarked grave.HANDSOME IRISHMANThe real Nolan first.It is 1790, Washington’s restless★ ★★town talkBy C. L. McClish★★★urdayhisSO t flit does seem that even the HAPPIEST occasions that arise in this world can cause someone a bit of trouble. For example, there’s the case of that handsome young man, 4-year-old GeorgeHarral, son of !V1r. and Mrs. G.A. Harral of Fort Stockton, and grand-son of Kerrville’s Mrs. Harry Chidsey. Well, young George and his parents were driving to Kerrville to attend that perfectly beautiful wedding ceremony ofMiss .Meredith Chidsey and Larry Hester, and George became durious to know the details of just what this trip to Kerrvillewas all about!“Well, honey,” said George’smother, ‘‘your dear Aunt Meredith is getting married and we’re going to Kerrville to attend the wedding!”. Young George brightened up, and exclaimed, “Oh! We re going to see it, huh? Do you already have the tickets for it?”. But the part that occasioned George a bit of trouble was after the family arrived at the Chidsey home here in Kerrville. George, as Ringbearer at the approaching wedding, was required to go through a couple of rehearsals on the evening before the wedding, which was on Sat-evening. Sept. 1st. So George went through with the rehearsels, AND the wedding ceremony, then, as Sunday night approached, George, in an exhausted tone of voice asked mother, “Do we have to through that wedding againnight?”That radiant young charmer Judy Williams, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Barney K. Williams,when asked what she likes best about school, surprised several of us by replying, “I like the teachers best of all!’’. When I asked Judy (who is ’seven, going on eight’) if she was sure she didn’t like the recess periods best of all,she declared emphatically thatshe DID NOT, that, she likes the teachers and the study periods best.And Judy confided to me that she has, “A boy friend!”. I pressed her for the fortunate young man’s name and she said she would give me his name if I would promise to keep it a deep secret. I promised, and Judy sat down and wrote THIS on a piece of paper: “My boy freind is (—). hes eight”. Where the line appears in the foregoing quotes, Judy gave her ‘freinds’ name, but I shall NOT violate the ethics of journalism by revealing anything J had vowed not to E. C, Fisk telling of the time, when our State Tax first went into etfect, and a certain old Hill Country rancher purchased some baby diapers from one of the salesladies at Schreiner's, purchased them for his grandchild. The saleslady wrapped up the purchase, and told him, “That will be $3.00, plus tax-”. The old rancher says, “Wei that’s alright, but I won’t need the tacks, we’ll fasten them on the baby with safety pins!Red Early swears he and Eliza Ik-th once owned a Persian cat that could whistle through its teeth, would wink one eye at Red when he came up with a parti-cularily convincing story to Liz, as to why he arrived home so late the night before, and swears this Persian cat once caught and ate a mcter-reader!Ben Jackson’s definition of Steam: “Steam,” says Ben, “is water that is crazy with the heat!”. And Gus Seeker brings an old, old quotation up to date thusly: “If you be Penney-wise, says Gus, “then you can’t posi**»Countryyoung America is probing west. A handsome, adventurous Irishman appears on frontier’s fringe — Kentucky, then Nachez, New Orleans, even Nacogdoches. At 19. he has Erin’s charm, plus brawn. One-handed, he can heft a barrel. Also he has the sponsorship of yet-untarnished American General James Wilkinson. He can come and go in New Spain at will.A year later, he is across into upper-central Texas, genially horse-trading with Indians —from Waco's Caddo villages to Red River. Two years, thus. He has Sam Houston’s delicate at-home-ness with the wilderness people.Now. it is 1797 and two longexpeditions later. He has been commissioned by Territorial Governor Carondelet to venture the lands which Spain knows only a crazy man would ride. She dares not garrison that wild country which Nolan explores, bartering for mustang cavalry mounts. He roams south to Bexar, first Anglo seen there. He brings home more than a thousand horses.TEXAS IS GOOD LANDMore than that, he brings back sharply accurate topographical reports, rough maps. Texas is rare, good land.He is called to Washington City by Vice-President Thomas Jefferson in mid-1799. The upcoming president is almost ready to dicker with Napoleon for the Louisiana Purchase — everything west to Rio Grande at Santa Fe. Is Texas worth the argument? Will Nolan ride back once more? Will he report, immediately upon return?Philip Nolan saddles up the last time, mid-December, 1800. About 20 men ride out for “horses Accosted beyond the Sabine, he shows Governor Carondelet’s visa. He docs not know or care if Spain's wind is up and there are standing orders at Nacogdoches, from deep Spanish Mexico, for Nolan — preferably dead.March 4. 1801, Jefferson is .president and Spanish Lieutenant Musquiz mounts a hundred troopers and a mule-drawn swivel cannon. He pursues from Nacogdoches. He catches up at early sun, March 21, somewhere north of Waco.BLOODY COMBATThe fight that followed was typical of the bloody struggles to come for this contested ground. Ordered to surrender, Nolan brandished his “free passage” and, in salty Irish, told the Spaniards to come take him. He held to his crude, log embrasure and pitted his rifles against overwhelming odds and cannon.Almost the first Spanish cannon shot killed him. It was no longer important that some of his own men had defected, the last — with Nolan's own rifle.Survivors, in hopelesly out-9 9numbered rightin'! retreatfinally to the desperacy of a cor- , neied cave — surrendered some hours later to Spain’s guarantee of “safe conduct”. They were the first Americans to learn — in dungeon — the meaning of that guarantee.But Philip Nolan, buried where he fell, was first to learn it — dying.FICTIONAL TRAITORThen why the contrived and traitorous pawn, Philip Nolan, of Hale’s “Man Without a Country’?The Boston author, born 21 years after Nolan died, knew of the maneuvers for Texas: Jefferson’s, by government acquisition: Burr’s fer personal empire. Decades later, Hale wrote his booklet while Gettysburg and Vicksburg were in the balance. He sought another “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” to bolster sagging Union spirits and to moralize — as he later admitted — against men in defiance of central government.He selected the tenuous conned ion between General Wilkinson and traitorous Aaron Burr. He needed a tool for his point. He soys he invented “Philip Nolan”. never dreaming there was a real American by that name. It doesn't wash!In truth, he took a gallant man who rode out for Jefferson. It was Hale who hooked Nolan to Burr. He killed the man who went out to explore Texas for U. S. A.HIS GRAVE UNKNOWNI have tried to find exactly where Philip Nolan made his forgotten last stand. Historians differ.’ Some figure it Tehuacana —the ancient one above Mexia —where Indians’ camps stood forages.Seventy miles west is the other site. It is near sleepy Blum, on the Hillsboro to Cleburne road. Houston's Lynn Bellah has it pinpointed there, either side of the Santa Fe tracks, below the school-house. It is on the family road of Jim Carmichael, Hillsboro editor, who — as a legislator — declined to claim the spot, because he wasn’t sure. Neither is aide Waco historian Ray Walter.Where Philip Nolan died — which is what I started out to find — is far less important than why and how he died. You North-Central Texans gather your geography: or Bostonian Hale will have written false epitaph on agallant Texan.Mark both places:“Near here passed Philip Nolan. intrepid first American in Texas. Not “The Man Wthout a Country” as heretofore branded. Instead, the first hero who died like Travis, Bonham, Crockett and Bowie — that Texas be free!’BRIEF BYWAYS:Some months ago, OBT took a a considered look at old Helena, near Kenedy, south of San Antonio. Ghostly Helena, with its short knite, wrist-bound duels, had been “toughest town on earth.”1’here is another which rivals old Helena. It is in the same brush country — that which nurtured John Wesley Hardin. This is Oakville. You skim it near Three Rivers.At Oakville’s prime, outlawry was so popular that the jail and the oak trees couldn't hold all the captives. Oakville determined on the finest courthouse-jail in the State and achieved it. Even then, brush-country fad demandedthat the whoop-it-uppers ride down by night and shoot up those barred inside. Kings-X on the ones swinging from the oaks.The two-story, square rock building is still formidably there. It is comfortable home to tall, amiable W. H. “Slim” Rosebrock. Visit him at his Sinclair station, north of town.WHAT’S IN A NAMESergeants Jasper (William) and Newton (John) were a kind of South Carolina Damon and Pythias who almost made it through the Revolutionary War. They were seldom apart.Newton watched Jasper run the historic cannonade to retrieve the shot-down colors at Fort Sullivan. He saw Jasper die, trying to plant the flag on the Savannah parapets, 1779. Newton died the following year at Charleston.They are still very close. They are adjoining counties and towns in deepest East Texas — a little above Beuamont.Model ClubFlybThe Kerrville Model Club willhold a public demontration and flying exhibition of u-controlled and free flight of model airplane at 3 p.m. Sunday at the W. J. Cass place. The Cass place is located about one mile past the entrance of Kerrville State Park on Farm Road 689.Club members will demon-trate stunting and combat flying. Some of the members who will participate are Paul Cass, Tommy Cralt, Terrell Hodges, Gary Har-rel, Pat and Bobby Morrison.The model club • is sponsored by the Opitmist Club.CommissionersTo Meet MondayThe Kerr County Commissioners Court will hold a regular meeting at 10 a.m. Monday in the commissioners courtroom. CountyJudge Julius Neunhoffer will preside.WWI VeteransTo Meet TodayVeterans of World War I willmeet at the home of Mrs. Peggy Cole at 500 Washington St. Sunday at 3 p.m., according to L. A. Faust, commander. Faust said all members of the veterans group and auxiliary are invited to attend.LI.£ j:»»illSBltlS!END - OFSUMMERPOWERLAWNMOWERS!MOWERSCLOSING OUTAT COST.pmaLawn - Flightti:;vxKu-v ■ ■ vx2 RIDERS2 SELF-PROPELLED\ Pm 71#T;■“ J*V*5Moore's Store•V.Hardware Dept.INGRAM, TEXASEM 7-2300
Newspaper Details
Kerrville Daily Times
Kerrville, Texas, US
Sun, Sep 09, 1962
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Butt-Holdsworth M.
Texas, USA 04 Dec 2021
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