Texas Roots, C. Lee McKenzie, and Being Thankful

Today is the 181st anniversary of the fall of the Alamo which occurred on March 6th 1836.  

This post is longer than usual.

I have deep roots here in Texas. It is thought that my great-great grandfather may have been with a group of men who were responsible for destroying bridges across various rivers, preventing Santa Anna's army from retreating. I'm not sure how much of that is true, but he was an early settler.

James Thomas Miller

James Thomas Miller, at the age of 15 or 16, arrived alone in Texas from Scotland, before 1836. (fact)He was given land grants  to land in present day Houston, grants that were only given to those people who participated in the Texas Revolution. He abandoned the land and, it is believed, headed north with a Major Bird and other men on a surveying expedition, ending up in the small outpost settlement of Dallas.  (fact)There he got new land grants and met the beautiful Sarah Haught.

Sarah Haught Mil

(fact) James and Sarah were the second couple to be get a marriage licence in the settlement of Dallas. Sarah came from a large family who settled in Texas from somewhere in the east. (fact)A couple of her brothers ended up settling in the Hill Country near where I live.  (fact)Sarah and James's only surviving child, James Munro Miller, was born at Porter's Bluff, Texas in 1847. (fact)In 1850 they sold the land to make the long and dangerous journey to California. Because of debts they owed, a contract was written explaining that once the land was sold the money would be used to repay the debts. What is very interesting and unusual is that Sarah is included in the contract, in that it states she understands what will happen and agrees. She then signed it! (I have held the original grants and the contract in my hands and have copies.) Family stories say they traveled to the Gulf of Mexico, and got on a ship that took them to Cuba where they spent upwards of a year waiting for another ship to take them to the Panama. With young James Munro in tow (he would have been somewhere between three and five years old) the family walked across the Isthmus, surviving all kinds of dangers, from deadly snakes to deadly diseases. Once on the Pacific side they got on a ship and sailed to California. Sarah had three other children, but none of them survived.

(fact)When fortune in the goldfields was not to be found, Sarah and James moved to Victoria on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. (fact)Their son, James Munro and Eliza Vincent were married, probably in San Francisco as they owned and operated a bookbinding and printing business there. When a horse thief was hung from their second floor sign they decided the city was too rough a place to be raising a family and moved to Victoria. Eliza had nine children. My father's mother, Sarah Eliza being the youngest, was born when Eliza was a 42 years old, a scandalous age! 

James Munro Miller and Eliza Vincent Miller

My great-great grandfather James Thomas died around 1864. In 1865 Sarah married Simeon Duck. In 1920 at the age of 91 Sarah, who drove sulkies quite late into her life, died from breast cancer. My father, born in 1916, had memories sitting on her lap.

I wish I had known their history years ago. I wish I were younger as I believe Sarah and James's story to be a romantic historical novel on a grand scale. To write it, though, would take a great deal of research, and I just don't have the time or energy... 

***

This month I am honored, thrilled, and delighted to be the Featured Follower on C. Lee McKenzie's blog The Write Game. Each week she will be posting something about me and my books. At the end of the month some lucky person will win an ecopy of one of my books. The winner gets to choose between: 

Anansi and Company

A Lizard's Tail

OR

The Bowl and the Stone

Hope to see you at Lee's! 

***

Being Thankful

Today I'm thankful for the blogging community. For all the support I get, please know I'm open to supporting you as well. If you have a book to promote or a cover to reveal, I'd be happy to give you a shout out here on my blog, Facebook, and/or Twitter. Let me know!

***

What are you thankful for? How far back can you trace your ancestry? Are you interested in genealogy? Do you follow Lee?

A Visit to Sacred Sites

Things happen for a reason. My Puerto Rican cousin Frances, was in San Antonio at a week-long psychology convention. She has a PhD in Educational Psychology and teaches at the University of Puerto Rico.

Frances (right) and me at a restaurant on the River Walk. Me in mid-sentence. You can tell we look kind of related. Same nose. :)

Hubby and I decided, almost at the last minute, to treat ourselves and spend a couple of days in the city. We haven't been to SA in a loooong time, like 15 maybe even 20 years. We decided to stay at the hotel where we spent our honeymoon 31 years ago, The Emily Morgan,which was built in 1924. Emily Morgan was taken captive by Santa Anna six weeks after the fall of the Alamo. It is believed she was "distracting" him when Sam Houston attacked which led to the Mexican army being defeated and Santa Anna being captured. (An aside here. Santa Anna made his way down to St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands and built a villa there -- which still bares his name. Great little history about it HERE.)

Hubby and me at the entrance to The Emily Morgan.



At right, her tower and flag flying.

The Emily as seen from the across street.

And across the street from The Emily is this place.

 That's right, The Alamo. It turned out to be special as February 23 through March 6th marks the 181st anniversary of the siege and fall of the Alamo. Although I didn't get any pictures, enactments and readings were/and are happening each day. Every time I walk through those doors I get covered up with goosebumps. There's a special energy inside that is tangible to those open to it. Heroes died within these wall, their blood soaked into the soil beneath the flagstone floors. 

A model of how The Alamo looked after the siege.

What was left of the actual mission building.

The back wall of The Alamo.

 

After The Alamo, we took Frances to Mission San Jose, 

the construction of which was begun in 1724.

 The mission walls enclose an area of about four acres. (Outside the wall.) The walls and the mission have undergone extensive reconstruction and restoration.

Inside the walls.

 The walls are actually rows of small rooms where the Spanish missionary monks endeavored to get the Native American peoples to live.

Mission San Jose. The dome and much of the walls has been restored or rebuilt.

Originally the entire building was plastered and painted with geometric designs that had a decidedly Moorish feel to them.  Only a small section has survived. 

The front entrance. The section of painted plaster that remains

 is on the right wall that is bathed in sunlight.

The famous Rose Window. From the National Park page: "La Ventana de Rosa, the Rose Window, is located on the south wall of the church sacristy. The window has been described as the site where the Host was shown to gathered mission celebrants during the Feast of Pentecost. The window, sculpted ca. 1775, has been the object of both legend and admiration. It is considered one of the finest examples of baroque architecture in North America. The meaning behind the name is currently unknown, but legend has it named for Rosa, the betrothed of Juan Huizar who many believe created the window."

 It was a nice visit. We couldn't have asked for better weather. 

As for Being Thankful, this is it.

***

What are you thankful for? Every been to The Alamo? Is it a place you'd like to visit? Do you enjoy visiting old churches and buildings?