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OFF THE BEATEN TRAILTheBothTwoPhnsWithoutNolaCountryBv 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 years-far at sea-with never another word, written or sfioken, of his homeland.Strangely, there are two PhilipNolans: the fictitious one, a traitor: the real one, a stalwart of the Bowie-Croekett 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 vastness north of Waco in a yet-unmarked grave.HANDSOME IRISHMANThe real Nolan first.It is 1790. Washington’s restless★ ★★town talkBy C. L. McClish★★★It 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 George Harral. son of !V1r. and Mrs. G. A. Ilarral 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 Kingbearer at the approaching wedding, was required to go through u couple of rehearsals on the evening before the wedding, which was on Saturday 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 his mother, ‘‘Do we have to goyoung 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 long expeditions 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, 18(H). 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 outnumbered fighting retreat — finally 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 thatthe ancient one above Mexia — where Indians’ camps stood for ages.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 thanwhy 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 aa considered look at old Helena,near Kenedy, south of San Antonio. Ghostly Helena, with its short knife, wrist-bound duels, had been ‘‘toughest town on earth.”I’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 demanded that thewhoop-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 Club SlatesFlying ExhibitionThe Kerrville Model Club will hold a public demontration and
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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