The owner of the Taos Trading Post, John A. Rowland, paid sixty dollars in silver for the return of nine-year-old Fayette Smith. The boy...

On April 14, 1841, Elnora Van Cleve was born in a cabin near Sixth and Congress in Austin, Texas. She would be recorded as the first...

Searching for my earliest Austin family roots, I discovered this Austin Gazette article dated Jan 27, 1841. The old news story from...

This is a letter that Sam Houston wrote to his wife, Margaret the day after Fayette Smith was captured by Comanche Indians. Sam Houston...

While researching my earliest ancestors in Texas, I discovered a series of letters in the archives of “The Center for American History at...

Lorenzo Van Cleve arrived in the spring of 1839, months before the town of Austin was founded. Newly elected President Mirabeau Lamar had...

Taos merchant, John A. Rowland, paid $60 in silver to Mexican Comancheros, to barter with Comanche Indians for the return of...