St Edwards University - Tower Yearbook (Austin, TX)

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eeeadaeaperteetngenrnanR Mem eee 2 ne Austin’s early days were difficult. In May, 1839, when construction was begun on the streets and governmental buildings, workmen were protected from Indians by armed guards. The first capitol, a drafty, one-story structure called the Hall of Congress, erected that summer on the site now occupied by city hall, was surrounded by a stockade eight feet high, with loopholes. Edwin Waller, later the first mayor, directed development of the town. The Gazette, Austin’s first newspaper, appeared in October. In the 1840’s, it was reported that, because of Indians, “you were sure to find a congress- man in his boarding house after sundown.” Another Austin resident wrote: “The Indians are stalking through the streets at night with impunity. They are as thick as hops about the mountains in this vicinity, and occasionally they knock over a poor fellow and take his hair.” The stockade remained around the capitol as late as 1845. By 1840 Austin was an incorporated town of 856 persons. Many nationalities and creeds were represented, and it was a lively place polit- ically. President Lamar lived in a pretentious two-story building, while his political enemy, Sam Houston, resided in a shanty with a dirt floor on Congress Avenue, where he received men of affairs and hurled derision at the Presi- dent and his followers. Another newspaper, the Texas Sentinel, came into being that year. The town’s most pressing problem was transportation. Under the most favorable con- ditions freighting wagons, drawn by oxen, re- quired a month to make the round trip from Houston or Port Lavaca. Mail arrived once a week by pony express. Most of the routes followed the early Indian and old Mexican trails. River transportation was attempted, small flat-bottomed boats floating downstream with the current and returning by sail when the wind was favorable. But this was far from successful. In 1841 a line of accommodation coaches was established between Austin and Houston, carrying mail and passengers. The year 1842 was a critical chapter in the history of Austin. Following the invasion by a Mexican army which occupied San Antonio, and the rumor that a detachment was heading for the capital, many families abandoned Austin and the seat of government was hur- riedly removed to Houston. From this situation developed the historic Archives War. Feeling that Austin was no longer safe from Mex icans or marauding Indians, President Sam Houston dispatched James B. Shaw comp- troller, who rode Captain Buck Pettus’ fine blooded mare, to the nearly deserted capital for the Republic’s supply of stationery. The citi- zens, believing that Shaw had come to Austin to remove the archives, and fearing that their removal would mean the final abandonment of the city as the capital, sheared the mane and tail of Shaw’s mount and sent him back with- out the supplies. On December 30, an effort was made to remove the records secretly, but Mrs. Angelina Eberly, a hotel proprietor, saw them being loaded on a wagon in the alley back of the land office and spread the alarm. Citizens followed the wagons to Brushy Creek, about 18 miles north, and the following day succeeded in retrieving the records and returning them to Austin. The Mexican threat subsided, and after a three-year interval during which the govern- ment was conducted at Washington on the