Thursday, December 2, 2021

Thomas Jefferson Rusk

BIRTH	5 Dec 1803 Pendleton, Anderson County, South Carolina, USA
DEATH	29 Jul 1857 (aged 53) Nacogdoches, Nacogdoches County, Texas, USA
BURIAL	Oak Grove Cemetery Nacogdoches, Nacogdoches County, Texas, USA

US Senator. He practiced law in Georgia, and invested heavily in gold mining operations in the mountains of the northern part of the state. In 1834, the managers of a company in which he had invested embezzled a large sum of money and fled to Mexican Texas. Rusk pursued them to Nacogdoches, but never recovered the money. He decided to stay in Texas and became a citizen of Mexico in 1835. He became involved in the movement for Texan independence and raised and organized troops to accomplish that goal. As a delegate from Nacogdoches to the Convention of 1836, he signed the Texas Declaration of Independence and chaired a committee to revise the Constitution for the Republic of Texas. The ad interim government named him as Secretary of War of the Republic and he became commander-in-chief of the forces of the Republic from May to October of 1836. After Texas gained its independence, President Sam Houston appointed Rusk to be Secretary of War. He held the position for only a few weeks and resigned to take care of pressing domestic matters. In December of 1938, the Texas Congress elected Rusk to be Chief Justice of the Republic's Supreme Court - a position that he retained until 1840. In the early 1840s, he supported the growing movement for annexation to the United States and was President of the Convention of 1845, which accepted annexation terms. The first state legislature appointed him to the United States Senate and he served from 1846 until 1857. He supported President Polk on the necessity of the Mexican War and the acquisition of California. He was an early advocate of a southern transcontinental railroad through Texas and supported the Gadsden Purchase to accomplish that end. President James Buchanan offered him the position of United States Postmaster General in 1857, but Rusk turned it down. During the special session of March 1857, the Senate elected him president pro tempore. When he returned home to Nacogdoches, despondent over the death of his wife and himself suffering from cancer, he committed suicide with a self-inflicted gunshot wound on July 29, 1857.

Dietrich Anton Wilhelm Rulfs

Deidrich Anton Wilhelm Rulfs

BIRTH	6 Mar 1848 Oldenburg, Stadtkreis Oldenburg, Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen), Germany
DEATH	14 Feb 1926 (aged 77) Shreveport, Caddo Parish, Louisiana, USA
BURIAL	Oak Grove Cemetery Nacogdoches, Nacogdoches County, Texas, USA

Master Architect. Diedrich Anton Wilhelm Rulfs received notoriety as a German-born American architect, who designed many of the buildings in Nacogdoches, Texas. A dozen of these buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. He built huge private homes for wealthy clients as well as neighborhoods of shotgun houses for the train porters, maids and gardeners that served the affluent citizens of the city. He designed the downtown district, an apartment building, and an office building. In the 21st century, there are fifty of his buildings remaining. Besides the buildings in Nacogdoches, he built in other cities such as Lufkin, Garrison, San Augustine, Crockett, and Rusk. He trained as an architect and married in Germany before emigrating to the United States. John Schmidt, a long-time German friend that had settled in Nacogdoches, invited the Rulfs family to join him in Texas. In 1879, Rulfs, his wife Emilie Helene Wilhelmine Boeschen, his older three of six children, mother-in-law, and brother-in-law entered the United States through the New Orleans, Louisiana port. A daughter Emily had died young in Germany. Later, a half-sister and a half-brother joined him. The half-brother was a carpenter, who helped with the constructional aspects of his business. First, he built his family's home and then three rental properties for income for his family. He started building in the flamboyant Victorian Queen Anne style, which is characterized by asymmetrical floor plans, bay windows, gables, stained glass, and gingerbread details. Later, he built other styles such as Gothic, Greek Revival, Bungalow, and Prairie. To maximize air flow in the heat of Texas summers, he placed windows for cross ventilation. He used the materials that were available to him locally. He remodeled several homes. He transformed a historicTexas frontier town into a sophisticated modern city. In 1902 he built Christ Episcopal Church, and for his African-American friend, he built Zion Hill Baptist Church in 1914. Rulfs also made furniture. He became a naturalized American citizen in 1887. He died at his daughter's home in Shreveport, Louisiana. A life-sized bronze statue of Rulfs is located in front of the Jones House in Nacogdoches. The 2014 book “Diedrich Rulfs: Designing Modern Nacogdoches” authored by Jere Johnson with photography by Christopher Talbot tells his story with beautiful photographs.

Bio by: Linda Davis

Karle Wilson Baker Grave

Karle Wilson Baker

BIRTH	13 Oct 1878 Little Rock, Pulaski County, Arkansas, USA
DEATH	8 Nov 1960 (aged 82) Nacogdoches, Nacogdoches County, Texas, USA
BURIAL	Oak Grove Cemetery Nacogdoches, Nacogdoches County, Texas, USA

Poet. The 3rd person to be named a fellow to the Texas Institute of Letters. She was the daughter of Kate Florence Montgomery Wilson and William Thomas Murphey Wilson. She attended the Little Rock Academy, and Ouachita Baptist College. When she was nineteen, she enrolled at the University of Chicago where she studied under poet William Vaughn Moody and novelist Robert Herrick. For two years during the long term she taught at a girl's school in Bristol, Virginia. The final "e" in her first name was added in 1893 to help avert mistakes in gender, but her name continued to be mistaken for a man's throughout her life by fans and reviewers. A volume of her poems, Dreamers on Horseback, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. Some of her other titles include Star of the Wilderness, Two Little Texans and Family Style. In 1897, her father's wholesale grocery business in Little Rock failed and he decided to start a grain and feed company in Nacogdoches and moved the family there. Karle first came to Nacogdoches in 1901. She was supporting herself with her earnings shortly before she married Thomas Ellis Baker, a Nacogdoches banker. They had two children, Thomas Wilson born in 1908 and Charlotte born in 1910. Her son became a banker and the daughter, now Charlotte Baker Montgomery, is author and illustrator of numerous children's books and two adult novels. Karle died in Nacogdoches.

Bio by: flgrl

Oak Grove Cemetery

The cemetery is located northeast of the square on North Lanana Street, a location that was once empressario and Fredonian Rebellion leader Hayden Edwards's land grant. The oldest section of the cemetery lies north of the main gate and was set aside for a cemetery from Hayden Edwards original land grant from the Mexican government. The earliest marked burial in Oak Grove Cemetery is that of Franklin J. Starr who died in 1837. Additional land for Oak Grove Cemetery was purchased in sections. In 1858, Bishop Odin purchased a piece of land for twenty-five dollars from Hayden Edwards and this area was cared for by the Catholic Church.[6] Doctor F.C. Ford deeded the back section of land, which he had acquired from Peyton Edwards, to the City of Nacogdoches. Ford deeded another section of land to the cemetery association in 1902.

Oak Grove Cemetery did not receive its current name until 1900 when a group of "civic minded women" formed the cemetery association. The cemetery association lasted fifty years when in 1950 the association deeded the cemetery over to the City of Nacogdoches. After the association disbanded, all of its records were lost. There are no written records of burials prior to when the city took ownership of the cemetery in 1950. The only information that can be gleaned about burials in the early years of the cemetery comes from the grave markers. However, a study of the history of cemeteries in American society allows one to place the early founding and subsequent changes of Oak Grove in their historic context.

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The Flag of the Kingdom of Spain 1519 to 1821

The Spanish Flag of Castile and Leon flew over Texas for three hundred years. Spanish involvement in Texas began with Alonzo Alverez de Pineda's mapping of the Texas coast in 1519. Then, in 1542 Luis de Moscoso came to Nacogdoches and East Texas with the remnants of the Hernando de Soto expedition that had begun four years earlier in Florida. Spain's claim to Texas went back to the DeSoto-Moscoso Expedition, which claimed all of southeastern United States as Spanish Florida. Spain's occupation of Texas began in 1690 with the founding of Mission San Francisco de los Tejas on the Neches River. It continued in 1716 with the founding of six missions from the Neches River to Los Adaes in Western Louisiana, and 1721 with the founding of Presidio Nuestra Señora de Pilar de los Adaes----near present day Robeline, Louisiana. Los Adaes was the first capital of the Province of Texas. Texas was under the Spanish flag until Mexico gained its independence from Spain in 1821. Interestingly, the first flag used by the Spanish to claim Texas was not the familiar flag of Castile and Leon; it was a banner that had the Virgin of Guadalupe on one side and the crucified Christ on the other.

The Flag of the Kingdom of France 1685 to 1689

France's claim to a part of Texas went back to 1682, when Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, explored the Mississippi and claimed all the land in its drainage for France. For some mapmakers and politicians, this included Texas. He named this land Louisiana. La Salle came to Texas in 1685, after he accidentally sailed past his destination at the mouth of the Mississippi. He established Fort St. Louis and a French settlement on Garcitas Creek off Matagorda Bay. The settlement was ill fated from its beginning. LaSalle was murdered by his own men near Navasota in 1687, and the settlers and soldiers who remained at Fort St. Louis were killed or captured by the Indians in 1689. The Spanish found Fort St. Louis and burned it to the ground in 1690. This French intrusion into Spanish territory caused the Spanish to begin the occupation and settlement of East Texas to prevent further French invasions.

The Flag of the Gutiérrez-Magee Expedition 1812 to 1813

Bernardo Gutiérrez and Lieutenant Augustus Magee flew their green flag of the new Republic of Texas over the Stone Fort in Nacogdoches in August of 1812. The Republican Army of the North, as these filibusters called themselves, had come from Natchitoches to Nacogdoches to recruit and train troops with the help of Samuel Davenport. They stayed for two months, drilled an army of over five hundred men, and then marched on to capture Goliad and San Antonio. Magee died at Goliad, and his place was taken by Samuel Kemper. Kemper and Gutiérrez captured San Antonio and issued a Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Texas on April 6, 1813. This brief time of Texas Independence was over when the Spanish general Joaquín de Arredondo destroyed the remains of the Republican army at the Battle of Medina on August 18, 1813. Augustus Magee and Samuel Davenport, who were in charge of the militia in Nacogdoches, were both Irishmen. That might have governed their choice of the Emerald Green flag as the Republican army's standard.

The Flag of the Dr. James Long Expedition 1819 and 1821

Some Americans believed that Texas was part of Louisiana as claimed by LaSalle in 1682 and should have been included in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. One of those was Dr. James Long of Natchez, Mississippi, who came to Nacogdoches in June of 1819. Dr. Long proclaimed himself the president of his newly declared Republic of Texas. Dr. Long's red-striped Lone Star flag flew but briefly over the Stone Fort and his Republic of Texas. The Spanish caught Long when he went to Galveston, where he was seeking the assistance of pirate Jean Lafitte. There they defeated him and his meager army and chased him back to Louisiana. Dr. Long returned to Texas with a small army in 1821 and quickly captured the poorly manned garrison at Goliad. However, he was soon under siege by Spanish troops from San Antonio, who recaptured Goliad and took him captive. Dr. James Long was taken to Mexico City, jailed, then freed, and then murdered under mysterious circumstances by a Mexican soldier.

The Flag of the Mexican Federal Republic 1821 to 1836

Spanish Nacogdoches came under the Mexican flag in 1821, when Mexico finally won its independence from Spain. Mexico, in order to prove its ownership of Texas, began settling its eastern parts with the Anglos as early as December 1821. In that year Stephen F. Austin was allowed to bring the first of his Old Three Hundred Settlers into his grant on the Brazos. Thereafter, Americans poured through Nacogdoches, the Gateway to Texas, in search of cheap land. By the time of the Texas revolution in 1836, Anglos greatly outnumbered the Spanish-Mexican population. The Mexican flag that flew over Nacogdoches and still flies over Mexico was adopted in 1825. It has three vertical green, white, and red fields of equal width. In the center of the white field is the Mexican eagle sitting on a nopal cactus holding a snake in its beak. In Mexican legend, this was a sign to the Aztecs that they had reached the land that was to be their home.

The Flag of the Fredonia Rebellion 1826 to 1827

For a brief while, the flag that flew over Nacogdoches was the red-and-white banner of Haden Edward's thirty-seven-day Fredonia Rebellion. Edwards had obtained a grant from Mexico to settle eight hundred families in East Texas in the Nacogdoches area. Unfortunately for him, most of the land had already been settled---legally and illegally---by the early Spanish, by Indians, and by Anglo squatters. His intrusion caused such a disturbance that the Mexican government revoked his grant. Disappointed over the loss of his grant, on December 16, 1826, Haden and his brother Benjamin rode into Nacogdoches, planted their flag in front of the Stone Fort, and proclaimed the Republic of Fredonia. They had formed an uncertain alliance with the Cherokees, thus the reason for the red and white colors of the flag. The flag carried the words "Independence Freedom and Justice" and the Signatures of sixteen of the original Fredonians. The Fredonian army consisted of no more than thirty men, the Cherokees never joined them, and Stephen F. Austin raised a militia to put down the East Texas rebellion. The Fredonians gave up their cause on January 22, 1827, and retreated eastward across the Sabine.

The Flag of the Republic of Texas 1836 to 1846

Mexican Texas became the Republic of Texas after Sam Houston defeated Santa Anna on the plains of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836. The first official flag was a white upside-down star on a blue background with T-E-X-A-S written between the points of the star. This flag never flew. The second flag of the Republic was adopted by the first Texas congress in December 1836. It bore a single, large gold star on a blue field. This flag was the same design as the "Bonnie blue flag that bears a single star" that was so popular among the Southern troops during the Civil War. The Lone Star flag that we now use was designed by Texas Senator William H. Wharton and was officially adopted by the Senate under President Mirabeau B. Lamar in 1839. The new flag kept the white star on the blue field, but now the blue field was a vertical stripe which occupied one-third of the flag, and it was balanced by horizontal white and red stripes, on the other two-thirds. This Texas flag has been prominently displayed for over 150 years.

The Flag of the Confederate States of America 1861 to 1865

For four years, the Stars and Bars flew over Nacogdoches and Texas. After years of conflicts of interest between the North and the South over states rights, slavery, and the right of secession, the Civil War began in March of 1861. Texas seceded and joined the Confederate States of America. It sent its Texas brigades into battle, and suffered for four years with the rest of the Confederacy before General Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865. The most enduring of the Confederate flags during the War was the Stars and Bars with the square of blue holding a circle of the seven original seceding states. Texas was the seventh star. Because the Confederate Stars and Bars and the Union Stars and Stripes were easily confused in the heat of battle, General P. G. T. Beauregard introduced a Confederate battle flag. This was a square red flag with a white-bordered blue cross running diagonally from corners to corners. The cross contained thirteen stars representing the eleven Confederate states plus Kentucky and Missouri. This battle flag became the flag most closely identified with the Southern cause. The Confederate Stars and Bars came down in Texas after April 1863 and Appomattox, and the United States Stars and Stripes have been flying over this State ever since.

The Flag of the United States of America since 1846

On February 19, 1846, the Lone Star flag was lowered over the Texas state capitol in Austin, and the Stars and Stripes was raised. The Republic of Texas had become the State of Texas. From the beginning of the Republic in 1836, the majority of the Texians, most of whom had come directly from the States, had wanted Texas to join the Union. But many in the Union did not want Texas in the United States. Some did not want one more Southern slave-holding state, and some were afraid of causing a war with Mexico. Nevertheless, on July 4, 1845, the Texas congress voted to accept the articles of annexation offered by United States President James K. Polk, and on December 29, 1845, the congressional resolution proclaiming Texas as a state in the Union was signed by President Polk. The Old Glory that was raised above the Texas state capitol on the following February 19, 1846, had twenty-eight stars in four rows of seven stars each. Except for the four years of the Civil War, 1861 to 1865, these Stars and Stripes have since 1846 flown over the State of Texas.

Nacogdoches Texas USA

Nacogoches

Thursday, December 2, 2021

Thomas Jefferson Rusk

Thomas Jefferson Rusk

Dietrich Anton Wilhelm Rulfs

Deidrich Anton Wilhelm Rulfs

Karle Wilson Baker Grave

Karle Wilson Baker

Oak Grove Cemetery

Wednesday, December 1, 2021

Banita Creek

Water tower behind Dairy Queen on North Street (2021)

Nacogdoches City Hall (29 Nov 2021)

2026 Nacogdoches Garden Club Tour of Homes