The Munsons of Texas — an American Saga

Chapter Twelve

ANN "NANCY" MUNSON, JAMES P. CALDWELL, AND THE CALDWELL FAMILY
1835 — present

SUMMARY
Henry William Munson died at Oakland in 1833, leaving Ann with the plantation and four young sons. In 1835 she married Major James P. Caldwell, whom she had nursed back to health after his injury at the Battle of Velasco in 1832. They lived at Oakland Plantation until 1852, when they moved, for health reasons, to San Marcos, Texas. James Caldwell died in the yellow fever epidemic of 1856 at the home of Mordello Munson while on a visit to Brazoria County. Ann died in San Marcos in 1865. Their son, Robert Milam Caldwell, married Mary Elizabeth House and they raised six children. Two of their sons married Munson sisters who were their half-first cousins. From all of these Caldwell children have come the large family of the Caldwells of Texas.



Ann Pearce (Munson) and James P. Caldwell

In the fall of 1833, Ann Munson was left a widow in a revolutionary frontier area of Mexico with a 554 acre cattle and cotton plantation, several dozen slaves, and four young sons. She very probably had a close and supportive friend in James Caldwell, whom she had nursed back to health after the Battle of Velasco just one year earlier. On May 12, 1835, James Caldwell and Ann "Nancy" Binum Pearce Munson were married by a "statement of intent", and he became proprietor of Oakland Plantation and "father" to the four young Munson boys. A document on file in the Brazoria County Courthouse records the marriage as follows [1]:


Department of Brazos
Jurisdiction of Columbia

     Be it known that we, the parties Jas. P. Caldwell and Nancy B. Munson , of lawful age, of said Jurisdiction, and State of Coahuila and Texas, wishing to unite ourselves in the Bonds of Matrimony, and there being no Priests to celebrate the same; therefore I, Jas. P. Caldwell, do agree to take and by these presents do take, Nancy B. Munson, to be my lawful wife, and as such to love, cherish, support, and protect her, forsaking all others, keeping myself true and faithful unto her alone; and I, Nancy B. Munson, do hereby agree to take, and by these presents do take, James P. Caldwell, to be my lawful husband, as such to love, honor, and obey him, forsaking all others, keeping myself true and faithful unto him alone, and we both bind ourselves mutually to each other in the sum of $10,000.00 to have our marriage celebrated by the Priest of this Colony, or by some other person authorized so to do as soon an opportunity offers, all of which the parties promise in the name of God, in the presence of the subscribing witnesses and of Silas Dinsmore, Primary Judge of the Jurisdiction.
     In testimony whereof we have this day set our hand and seal this 12th day of May, 1835.

Jas. P. Caldwell
N. B. Munson

Witness:
A. Brigham
P. D. Grayson
Sterling McNeel
S. Dinsmore

James Peckham Caldwell was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on January 6, 1793, just nine days before the birth of Henry William Munson in Mississippi. He migrated from Baltimore to Kentucky, and in 1831, as a 38-year-old widower, he moved to the Austin Colony with his sister, Jane Caldwell Calder, and her son, Robert J. Calder Jr. A letter from James P. Caldwell to Stephen F. Austin dated May 10, 1831, reads: "To Mr. S. F. Austin Empresario I have emigrated to this Colony. . .  James P. Caldwell 36 years of age widower A native of Kentucky. Jas P. Caldwell" [2]. The location of his Texas residence is not known, but it appears to have been in what is now Brazoria County. It is reported in Caldwell family tradition that he became a "bosom friend" of Stephen F. Austin.

In 1830 Henry Austin, a cousin of Stephen F. Austin, came to Texas and settled on a league of land on the east side of the Brazos River about ten miles above Bell's Landing. He laid out a town to be called Bolivar. The town never developed, but his plantation and the area retained that name for some years. A few years later his widowed sister, Mary Austin Holley, spent some years with him. Her published letters and diary contain valuable descriptions of the frontier conditions of that time. After meeting James Caldwell at Peach Point in 1838, Mrs. Holley wrote in her Diary that she had known Major Caldwell in Hopkinsville, Kentucky — "a genteel man" [3].

Although only a new arrival, James Caldwell took an active part in the conflicts with the Mexican authorities in the following year. On June 20, 1832, he was appointed a member of a committee, along with Henry William Munson, William H. Wharton, and others, to prepare recommendations for steps to be taken against the oppressive Mexican authority at the Velasco fort. On June 21, on the orders of Alcalde John Austin, Caldwell, with Messrs. Westall, Reese, and McKinstry, terminated the operations of the Mexican customs office at Brazoria, disarming Senor F. Duclor and relieving him of his duties. On June 22, signing as adjutant, he informed John Austin that Jacob Ramesburgh of Brazoria had two fine rifles that he refused to furnish to the militia. On June 25, the day before the Battle of Velasco, he enlisted as #153, and his nephew, R. J. Calder, enlisted as #158 on the muster roll of men in camp near the mouth of the Brazos.

James Caldwell was in John Austin's Company at the Battle of Velasco in 1832 [see Chapter 11]. This was the company which assaulted the fort from the north with wooden ambuscades, met withering fire, and took shelter under the shadow of the walls of the fort. This company was the most exposed and suffered the most injuries, and Major Caldwell suffered an injury to his leg. After the battle, on June 28, James P. Caldwell was listed on the roll of "men in camp". As Caldwell may have lived alone, friend Munson took him to his home for recovery, and Nancy Munson nursed him back to health. James Caldwell retained a limp from this injury for the remainder of his life.

On November 8, 1834, James Caldwell served as secretary at a meeting in Brazoria called to consider sending a delegate to a planned convention in San Antonio de Bexar the following week. Caldwell voted "no" with the majority, and no delegate was sent [4].

In March of 1835 Caldwell was one of the six men who set in motion the organization of the Holland Lodge which, unlike the earlier attempts of Stephen F. Austin and Joel Poinsett, survived Mexican opposition and the turmoil of the Revolution of 1836 to become the foundation of Freemasonry in Texas.

On May 12, 1835, James Caldwell and Ann Munson were married, and their first child, Robert Milam Caldwell, was born on June 25, 1836, just two months after the Battle of San Jacinto.

No records have been found showing Ann and James Caldwell's activities during the battles of the Texas Revolution, which included campaigns near Oakland Plantation in the spring of 1836. Family tradition tells that because of his injured leg, James Caldwell remained at home as an "official" of the Texian revolutionary government to look after the women and children.

In April of 1836, General Santa Anna, pursuing the ragtag Texian troops with supreme confidence, moved out ahead of his own large army. He led a contingent of choice troops across the Brazos River at Fort Bend (now Richmond) and proceeded toward the San Jacinto River en route to the fort at Anahuac. From there he planned to consolidate his position and expel all remaining Anglos from Texas. General Vicente Filisola, second in command, was left with the main army on the west bank of the Brazos. General Urrea's army, under orders from Santa Anna, was marching from Matagorda Bay along the gulf coast to Brazoria and Columbia, presumably passing within a few miles of Oakland Plantation. These military actions, together with wildly circulating rumors of pending disaster, so frightened the settlers that most of them hurriedly packed their belongings in wagons and fled eastward toward Louisiana in the famous Runaway Scrape. When the news of the victory at San Jacinto [see Inset 12] on April 21, 1836, reached them, they drifted back to their homes. Ann and James Caldwell had been married for less than a year and Ann was seven months pregnant. Their four Munson sons were twelve, ten, six, and three. Whether the family joined the retreat, participated in the conflicts, or remained at Oakland is not known. The Handbook of Texas records that Guy M. Bryan, then 15 years old, accompanied his mother, Emily Austin Bryan Perry, from Peach Point Plantation on the Runaway Scrape, so it could be expected that their Caldwell neighbors probably joined them.



Henry William Munson lived at Oakland Plantation for only five years, and James Caldwell was proprietor for about seventeen. He built it into a successful cotton, sugar, cattle, and hog plantation. In the late 1830s and early 1840s the plantation owners of Brazoria County, who had depended mostly on cotton as their cash crop, began to successfully grow sugar cane. From time to time they had tried numerous other cash crops, including corn, wheat, figs, oranges, and indigo, but with little success . James Caldwell was a leader in the experimental cultivation of sugar cane, and had one of the first sugar mills in the area. Oakland Plantation, along with many other plantations in the county, became a leading sugar plantation of Texas during the decade of the 1840s. It was once referred to as "the best sugar plantation in Brazoria County" [5]. James Caldwell's tax rendition for 1840 included town lots in Velasco and Columbia, thirty-three slaves, thirty horses, 1,200 cattle, a four-wheel carriage, a gold watch, and a wooden clock [6].

A large, two-story, white, frame house was built, either by Munson or Caldwell. A red brick sugar-house was built near the center of the plantation, with a row of slave houses nearby. The location of the sugar-house is easily identified today by a large pile of collapsed bricks, its only remains, and a large pit from which the bricks were made. The plantation home burned at an unknown date (one family tradition says about 1858), but the current Caldwell owners of Oakland can identify the locations of the plantation house and slave quarters. In 1847 James Caldwell enlarged the plantation by the purchase of about 200 acres from his neighbor, the widow of Andrew Westall. This brought Oakland to its present size of 770 acres, and none of it has ever been sold.

Like many of the early settlers, James Caldwell had a penchant for acquiring large tracts of land. In the southwest corner of Brazoria County there are two surveys named "J. P. Caldwell Survey", but, for reasons not understood, these are not recorded in the list of original land grants on record in the Texas General Land Office. One of these parcels, 1,010 acres on Cedar Lake Creek on the Brazoria-Matagorda County line, is recorded in the Brazoria County land records as "Abstract No. 165 - J. P. Caldwell original grantee". It is swampy coastal land and the entire parcel, still intact, in now owned by the United States of America as part of the San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge. The other parcel is a half league, 2,214 acres, on the beach between the Brazos and the San Bernard Rivers. The confirmation of this grant was not made until 1870, to his heirs, whose descendants still own the land today.

Records indicate that James Caldwell also acquired other tracts during these years, but they also indicate that he was not always careful with his records. An ad in The Planter in Brazoria, Texas, in 1834 reads, "Lost - deed to one-half league of land in Brazoria County, Certificate No. 58 - J. P. Caldwell." Then in 1857, soon after the death of James Caldwell, Mordello Munson contracted with J. Douglas Brown as follows:


     . . .to locate, survey and obtain title to one-half league of land in Brazoria County granted to James P. Caldwell by the Board of Land Commissioners on January 25, 1838, Certificate No. 28. The payment for successful Patent of Title of said land to be paid by Munson and heirs of J. P. Caldwell to be one-third of such land patented. Witnessed by Guy M. Bryan and Stephen S. Perry.

Either or both of these could have been the beach land on which the grant was not confirmed until 1870.

And further, an 1866 document reads: "Mordello S. Munson hires R. C. Doon of Jasper County to locate, survey and obtain title to one-half league of land in Jasper County in the name of J. P. Caldwell. Pay will be deed for 177 acres of said land." Jasper County is on the Louisiana border north of Beaumont. Also in later years, James Caldwell and his son, Robert Milam Caldwell, after moving to Hays County near San Marcos, acquired numerous large ranches in central Texas.

Just as Henry William Munson and James Caldwell had a strong love for ownership of land, so many of their children, their grandchildren, and their great-grandchildren have retained that love to this day. Almost all of Henry William Munson and James Caldwell's Oakland Plantation, the Caldwell's Rosharon Plantation, and Mordello S. Munson's Ridgely Plantation are still owned by their great-grandchildren or their great-great-grandchildren today.

At Oakland, James Caldwell became stepfather to the four Munson boys, ages 2 to 11. He was apparently a loyal, loving father and a strict disciplinarian. Many years later Mordello told the story to his grandchildren that he never wanted to see any of his sons or grandsons whipped "because he had received enough whippings as a youth to serve for several generations" [7]. Mordello's brother, William Benjamin, wrote to Mordello in 1847: ". . .you spoke of Mr Caldwell wanting you to study law in Lexington - and no where else - he wants you without reference to expense to go and study where you can do best - his only motive is your prosperity and success - and if you think you can do better elsewhere - he says go. . .he will send you money in a short time - he has been all that I could have expected of a Father to me and I shall ever feel grateful to him. . ." [8]. As evidence of his feelings, Mordello, after naming his first son Henry William, named his second son George Caldwell Munson.

James Caldwell also carried out the dying wish of Henry William Munson — "Educate my children." He provided the Munson boys with as fine an education as was available at that time, at much effort and expense to himself. All their descendants can be forever thankful to him for this. His letter to Lexington, Kentucky, dated October 8, 1846, reads:

Dear Mordello
I. . .will write you more fully soon. I will send you a Dft for $100 during this month.
     I am pleased to learn that you have gone into the College. You will know, Mordello, that anything I have said to you in my letters has been from the purist motives - your own happiness, success and prosperity in the world. . .
     My cane crop is fine - my cotton nothing - corn fine - I own Mr. Talbert's fine dun horse, Boots, which you rode when here, and which you shall have. . .Let me know how you get along. Do ask Rv. H. B. Bascum to show you my letter. I never did write him on my life - but of you. . .
     Mother has been very sick but may be recovering again. I will send you more money in Jany - We all give our love to you, mother especially.

Jas. P. Caldwell


It is of interest that the above-mentioned "Rv. H. B. Bascum" is the only known reference to a name similar to "Bascom" in any Munson records or memories. It may be the origin of this name in the family — Mordello named his seventh child Walter Bascom, and this name became common for sons in the family.



James Caldwell and Ann had two children of their own. Robert Milam Caldwell was born on June 25, 1836, at Oakland, and Mary Jane Caldwell on August 12, 1841, at Velasco, probably while the family was spending the summer at the beach. Mary Jane died near San Marcos in Hays County on June 4, 1858, at the age of 16. Robert Milam married Mary Elizabeth House of Houston, became a successful rancher in Hays County, and raised a family of six children. Five of these married and had families of their own, thus forming the large family of the Caldwells of Texas.

James Caldwell was a devout and active Methodist and established the first Methodist Church in Brazoria County. This church stood at the same location as the Presbyterian Church now stands next to the Peach Point Cemetery. Caldwell was active in the establishment and operation of the first college in Texas in 1840, the Methodist sponsored Rutersville College near La Grange. Three of his Munson stepsons attended this college during its early years. In some of his letters, every person is referred to as "Brother". This is apparently his correspondence with other Methodist lay leaders.

On or about April 16, 1852, James Caldwell and Ann with their two children moved from Oakland Plantation to the "Valley of the San Marcos" in Hays County, Texas. It is written that they moved for reasons of Ann's failing health. For some years prior, many letters referred to Ann's illnesses. She had endured fifty-two years of rough frontier life and had given birth to ten children. Gerard was in his early twenties and was named "manager" of Oakland Plantation. Mordello, married and living at Bailey's Prairie, was named "curator". George P., almost twenty, apparently stayed at Oakland and helped with its operation. James Caldwell frequently wrote letters of advice and encouragement.

Little is known of the Caldwells' activities in Hays County, but they returned to Brazoria County for visits. In October of 1856, Ann, James, and Mary Jane Caldwell left their Hays County home on a visit to their families in Brazoria County, driving through the country (by wagon, no doubt) by way of Houston. It is assumed that they had come to attend the wedding of Gerard and Ann Eliza Westall on October 13, 1856. While on this visit, James Caldwell became ill with yellow fever and died at the home of his stepson, Mordello Munson, at Bailey's Prairie, on November 16, 1856, at the age of 63. He was buried in the Peach Point Cemetery across the road from Oakland Plantation beside the graves of his friends, Henry William Munson and Stephen F. Austin.

George Poindexter Munson accompanied his mother and half-sister on their trip back to San Marcos, arriving there on December 19, 1856, "being the ninth day after leaving home" [9]. The Caldwell family continued to live in Hays County. Mary Jane died there on June 4, 1858, just two months before her seventeenth birthday, and Ann Pearce Munson Caldwell died there on September 6, 1865, at the age of 65. Ann and Mary Jane are buried in San Marcos. Her obituary is a worthy tribute to a gallant pioneer woman. Comments in old letters and diaries are most complimentary of her fine character and personality.

The Descendants of James P. and Ann Munson Caldwell


Milam & Mary House Caldwell

Robert Milam Caldwell I, the son of James and Ann Caldwell, was the only child to perpetuate the Caldwell family. He grew up in Hays County and married Mary Elizabeth House in Houston on March 18, 1860. They resided near San Marcos all of their lives. Mary House was the daughter of the Houston banker and mayor, T. W. (Thomas William) House, with whom Mordello Munson did much banking business during the 1850s and thereafter. The Houses also owned a large ranch in Fort Bend County. Mary House's brother, Edward M. House, became a national figure as the personal advisor to U. S. President Woodrow Wilson throughout World War I. Mary House's mother was born Mary Shearn; her parents were Charles Shearn and Mary Pode. Charles Shearn was Chief Justice of Harris County for six years. He was primarily responsible for the building of the first Methodist Church in Houston, named the Charles Shearn Methodist Church.

Robert Milam Caldwell I acquired several large ranches in central Texas and became a successful and wealthy rancher. Robert Milam and Mary House Caldwell had six children, all born in or near San Marcos, Texas, as follows:


  1. James Pearce Caldwell
  2. Thomas William Caldwell I
  3. Mary House Caldwell
  4. Mordella "Della" Caldwell I
  5. Georgie Caldwell
  6. Robert Milam Caldwell II

Robert Milam Caldwell I died in San Marcos on October 18, 1884, at the age of 48. His will is recorded in Hays County with the inventory of his lands, cattle, carriages, etc. His wife, Mary Elizabeth House Caldwell, died January 7, 1885, in San Marcos.

Chart 6, Chart 7 and Chart 8 show all known descendants of the Caldwells of Texas.



James Pearce Caldwell was born October 4, 1864, and died on November 15, 1935, at Coleman, Texas. He married Fanny Ellen Scofield and they raised a family of four children. James Pearce Caldwell was a successful Texas rancher and operated the San Marcos Ranch and the Blanco Ranch at Coleman, Texas.


Thomas W. Caldwell I

Maud Munson Caldwell

Thomas William Caldwell I was born on June 7, 1867, and died on April 29, 1927, at Velasco, Texas. He married Mordella Stephen "Maud" Munson, a daughter of his father's half-brother, George Poindexter Munson I, hence his own half-first cousin. There is a curious difference in the records regarding the name of Maud Munson Caldwell. Most records and most members of the family state that her name was Mordella Stephen Munson, and that she adopted the name "Maud" and was universally known by that name. However, her marriage license on file in Houston, Texas, dated February 29, 1896, shows her name as Miss Maudella Munson, and a legal affidavit on the entire Caldwell family prepared by a niece, Mary Elizabeth Caldwell Merrem, and filed in 1968 in the Brazoria County records, records her name likewise. The reason for this difference is not known. Some descendants feel that Maudella might have been a name or nickname, used by her or her fiance, combining Maud and Mordella, while others feel that it was a recording error.

Thomas William and Maud Caldwell first lived at the T. W. House plantation in Fort Bend County, where he managed the plantation, and later in Velasco. On the death of Ann Caldwell in 1865, Oakland Plantation was left to George P. Munson I, who was then living at and managing the plantation. Gerard had been killed the year before, and Mordello owned the large Ridgely Plantation at Bailey's Prairie. On the death of George P. Munson I without a will in 1878, Oakland was presumably left to his three children: George P. Munson II, Maud Munson Caldwell, and Sarah Munson Caldwell. Following many difficult years of unprofitability, mortgages, near defaults, and family disputes, ownership eventually went to Maud and "Will" Caldwell and then to their descendants, who still own it today. Maud and Will Caldwell raised a family of four children in Velasco, all of whom married and raised families. There are now many grandchildren and great-grandchildren [see Chart 7].

Mary House Caldwell was born on February 20, 1869, and died on August 24, 1930, in Velasco, Texas. She attended college in Boston, Massachusetts, where she met and married Ernest Dean Dorchester. They returned to Texas to live, and Dean Dorchester held various jobs in Houston and Velasco.

Velasco was a popular summer, beach resort, and there were many resort property owners there, including Mordello Munson. It is reported that Dean Dorchester and his brother, Craig, who worked for the local railroad company, took it upon themselves to completely replat the "new" town of Surfside right over the old plan of Velasco. With new streets, blocks, and lots, the previous land owners were largely ignored. In the early 1900s the sons of Mordello Munson brought a formal complaint against this confiscation of their land, and in settlement of their claims they were awarded about a dozen Surfside town lots that their descendants still own today. Some of these lots have been identified as the site of the Mexican fort at Velasco and the Battle of Velasco in 1832. A Texas historical commission is endeavoring at this time to obtain ownership of this land for the purpose of reconstructing a model of the fort and creating a state park.

The Dorchesters raised two children: Ernest Dean II and Muriel. Their descendants include Ernest Dean Dorchester III and Ernest Dean Dorchester IV.

Mordella "Della" Caldwell I was born on March 31, 1870, and died on March 2, 1908, in Mineral Wells, Texas. She married Edmund G. Minor and they raised three children. Their oldest son, Edmund G. Minor II, married Lola Murray, a granddaughter of Mordello Munson. They both had Ann Munson Caldwell as a great-grandmother. Daughter Julia Minor married William Wesley Young and they raised four children. There are now many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Son Milam Caldwell Minor married Mary Margaret Lee and they have two children and four grandchildren, including Edmund G. Minor III and Edmund G. Minor IV.

Georgie Caldwell, the youngest daughter of Robert Milam I and Mary House, did not marry.


Sarah, Milam, & Billy Caldwell,
George P. Munson II (holding guitar)

Youngest son Robert Milam Caldwell II, born May 20, 1875, was only nine years old when his parents died. He moved to Houston with the House family and attended the Sherman Military School in Houston. He first married Effie Frost, who died at the time of the birth of their first child, Effie Caldwell, in about 1900. Effie Caldwell grew to adulthood, married Thomas Marsh, and lived in San Antonio. They have one son and two grandchildren.

Robert Milam Caldwell II then married the sister of the wife of his brother, Thomas William. She was Sarah Kimbrough Munson III, the second daughter of George Poindexter Munson I, and again her husband's half-first cousin. Sarah was single and was living with her sister, Maud, and T. W. Caldwell on the T. W. House Plantation in Fort Bend County. Milam and Sarah caught a train to Houston and were married in 1903 by a Presbyterian Minister named Rev. Caldwell. In 1905 they bought a ranch at Sandy Point, near Rosharon, and had their house moved from Fort Bend County, near Juliff, to its present location. They lived and ranched at the Sandy Point Plantation where they raised four sons and a daughter. Robert Milam Caldwell II died in Brazoria County on February 8, 1937.

Milam and Sarah Caldwell hired a governess, Miss Gussie Eastman from New Orleans, for the children, who then included Edmund and Julia Minor, who were living at the ranch after their mother's death. Miss Gussie remained with the family until the family moved to Houston in 1915. This move was made so that the children might enter school there. The family continued to spend weekends and summers on the ranch at Sandy Point. Several members of the family still reside there today, and Sarah Mordella "Della" Caldwell Hanly proudly retains a hickory doll-bed given to her by Miss Gussie and a poster-bed used by James and Ann Caldwell. [see Chart 8].

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