Writer's explanation:
This entry in the seemingly never ending roll-out of commentary by your humble writer is of particular importance. What I considered to be a high honour and complement, an individual of high note, and deservedly so, gave me the charge to write a few notes concerning what would be good words or short phrases to describe one of the very most important figures in the establishment and impulse of progress in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas. As a Texan, it was not only my pleasure but certainly my obligation to render opinion to this man who is a direct descendant of Henry Clay Reeves Davis - Man of Adventure, Man of Noblesse Oblige, and Man of Humility
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Allow me to just point out a few views Henry Clay Davis gives my "inner understanding" of that incredibly fascinating individual.I. AdventurerThe first notion I had was the title of Adventurer. Any person who would have travelled from the refined and established place such as Kentucky, striking out for a wilderness such as Texas had to be a person who would have be willing to endure discomfort, adapt to different races and ethnicities never before encountered, eat strange concoctions, endure weather and climatic extremes, and so forth…to the extent that most people of that time preferred frankly to "stay home". Much is said about those who pressed westward, it is true. But the fact is that the huge majority of people in America at that time were satisfied where they were.Therefore, I would classify any person who travelled from Kentucky into the wilds of Texas, considering all of the challenges and changes to be confronted, and to stay in Texas successfully…would certainly qualify that person as an adventurous soul.* An "Adventurer" is the person who qualifies for the title, not so muchby wandering around and having personal fling. The adventurer is a person who a history of taking that chance, and striving for that goal that proves a man (or woman) worthy of being known as an "Adventurer" because of accomplishment of a positive goal. It is not a task for one who relaxes upon his experiences of little import and less accrued success.
* Henry Clay Reeves Davis went from Georgia to Kentucky...then into theessentially unknown and unpredictable area little known or understoodduring those times. Texas was foreboding, marauding and fierce Indians of various nations, a foreign type of government was the source of law, and the certainty of information was largely shrouded in misty portraits.*Its description could have been styled as the old story about the four blind men trying to identify a camel by the touch of their fingers. The truth of the conditions in Texas had to be experienced and not fantasied.
* As one studied the nature of Henry Clay Davis, it was apparent his"adventurous nature" always seemed to have purpose. He was the kind of man who understood that adventure was a matter of gaining knowledge, and taking great risks with one's life and lucre. And...in my opinion...a true adventurer values his / her life and lucre while conquering and adapting to different challenges of geography as well as the cultures*Henry Clay Davis certainly had positive impact upon his companions and associates as well as upon his possessions and upon the land wherein he dwelt._______________*II. Noblesse
Equal to the title "Adventurer", my impression of Henry Clay Davis is of a person who carried a streak of "Nobility"...of service and deference, even as he was striving to establish a significant presence in his new settings. We do not include the pretentious presence that reveals only a shallow sense of formality by watching men with "flair" and "courtly manners".
* Henry Clay Davis found himself involved with people of his own kind...people of a Southern culture which included non-Southern people who enry Clay Davis developed a comfortability with people of his own stripe as well as others of different ethnicities and races. Many folks might have thought that Davis must have been a good student and learned Spanish from books and stern schoolmarms. But such was not the case!
* His mother was actually a lady by the name of Catarina Regdon de Fuerte who married Amos Davis early in the 1800's. Amos lamentably died at a very young age, but thankfully he had the opportunity to bring forth a son about whom we write at this time. La Señora Catarina came to America as an indentured servant, although it was noted that she was obviously well-schooled and poised in the nature of civility and manners. It was said that she came from a good family but had left home to avoid an arranged marriage she did not want.* When she married and subsequently bore this remarkable son, she taught him the elaborate and educated Spanish that she herself spoke as well-studied and exhibited the style of a person who was well cultured. She taught her son the language of her native Spain and it is certain that she was also polylinguistic.* Therefore, one might assume, and correctly so, that Henry Clay Davis took the choice of going to Texas at a time that many folks would have thought the area to be too dangerous. While in Texas, Davis quickly learned the ropes and the best route to adventure and prosperity. He joined the formal militia...an army so to speak, and was involved in engagements with the likes of the Comanche, Kiowa, Kickapoo, and Apache among others.* His flexibility caused him a few problems as well as considerable solutions. For instance, during the Winter of 1842, and during the Somerville expedition, chasing General Adrian Woll back to Laredo on the Rio Bravo (Grande), the Texians learned quickly that they had made an error in judgement. The town was fairly active and it was heavily garrisoned with Mexican reserves. It was also within one to three days of over 1,200 active infantry and cavalry, leaving the Somervelle's overall command structure grossly at the disadvantage.
* During the time there on the Rio Grande, Davis had occasion to become involved in a fight of sorts wherein he had called down some Texiansoldiers who were harassing Mexican soldiers and civilians while hangingaround uselessly, with no orders of any import, he determined to abandon the pointless hanging around in Laredo. He struck out, heading downriver along the course of the Rio Grande (Rio Bravo del Norte to the Mexicans). One thing led to another, and finally, after learning about the supposedly perpetually verdant farms downriver, he struck out, heading east.* He was actually moving, alone and once again, totally surrounded by literally thousands of regular and national guard type Mexican soldiers of mediocre to excellent order. These soldiers were spread over six or seven Texas- sized counties. Davis considered his "jaunt" just a self-guided tour of the Rio Grande downstream. He was leaving and heading downriver to see what he could see.
* Simultaneously, a ranking Texian officer, Col. Tom Green and a body ofsome 300 effectives, began a drive down the Rio Grande, looking for some kind of worthwhile fight. It was apparent that Henry Clay Davis had parted company with the Texian armed forces at a propitious moment…being two weeks removed from the Tom Green Folly.
* Riding alone, and well outside of the military Zona de Trequa (temporary treaty zone), Davis was in jeopardy. Somewhere between Camargo, Mier, and a place named San Felipe de Jesus de China (to-day known as China) our friend Henry Clay Davis was detained by a column of Mexican cavalry. He was transferred to a town named San Fernando, centre'd in the very middle part of the State of Tamaulipas. (All of this area had been part of Nuevo Santander Province the later stages of the Spanish Colonial times).
* San Fernando had significant Mexican lancers, artillery, and infantry and Henry Clay Davis wound up there with his "escort". It was the Mexican military's reconnaissance that the Texian rump-group coming into Mier, back up on the Rio Grande (known as the Rio Bravo del Norte to the Mexicans), had assaulted various small towns as they went down the Rio Grande.* It wasn't long, however, before the Mexican military learned that theTexians had engaged Mexican Army units in the city of Mier, about 80 miles downstream from Laredo. During a bitterly cold Christmas battle, lasting about two days, the Texians, numbering 303 actives, were reduced by one third (depending on the counts). It was a catastrophe caused by arrogance and, frankly, by the Texian military leadership.
* The remainder were made prisoners of war, and trekked to the dreaded Castillo Perote, deep into the distant mountainous precincts in Vera Cruz State. The location was not far from the precincts of the famously notorious Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, the general and politician who famously tormented the Mexican condition for many years. * Luckily for Henry Clay Davis the Mexican military authority admonished the "wandering soul" and ordered him to return to where Camargo is to this day and to continue back to Texas. As the days and months would go by, Henry Clay Davis did return, but in keeping with his nature, he took careful note of the people and *the settlers, their activities and crops and all such things that entertain a man with a lively eye and discerning ability of observation. His capture had turned out to be, truly, a blessing in disguise.
* This trek back to the north caused a series of events to be put in place. Davis passed by the mouth of the San Juan River where it emptied into the Rio Grande. Davis thought deeply about making a regional complex with river transport, large stretches of tillable, fertile land and great extensions of rangeland fit for both rough and fine cattle. Manufacturing could be brought in due to the ready ability of the population to learn mechanics and such. Almost all were literate in Spanish, and a significant number could speak, read, and write English as well.** Incredibly enough, the War with Mexico beginning in 1846 and ending in 1848 crossed over the lands and peoples Henry Clay Davis had been considering forming into his great new Garden of Eden. His idea included the development of a commercial centre tying together two nations and essentially forming a North American entity that would rival Europe's complexity. Davis had also fortuitiously married a woman with a considerable dowery, named Hilaria de la Garza Falcon. She held several large "porciones" (extensive "long-lots" sometimes exceeding 10,000 acres or more).
* All the porciones fronted on the Rio Grande, mainly on the Texas side of the river. The watercourse had an almost permanent flow, helped a bit by the tributary from Mexico named the Rio San Juan. Davis began almost immediately building a family as well as changing the land known as Carnestolendas (Shrove Tuesday) into an urban and agricultural centre almost overnight.
* Luckily, with the Mexican - American War underway, most of theactivity passed on through, with the American forces winding up marking time in Monterrey, having suffered a blunting by Mexican forces just beyond Saltillo.
* With the peace treaty in place by 1848, the bellicosity came to an official end, the area around Carnestolendas (Rio Grande City - Camargo complex) could worry about bandits and political "generals" like Juan Nepomuceno Cortina Gosencochea, ...or just "Cortina"(b. 1824 - d. 1894) in the vernacular of the locals. He styled himself a "general" and at times was actually commissioned by proper Mexican authority, more or less. Henry Clay Davis was integral in the effort to neutralise the volatile trouble-maker.
* My oldest brother, and I, his helper, spent much time Starr County back in 1965 taking advantage of interviewing various of the old timers. It is said that Cortina came to the home of Davis, and threatened his wife Hilaria, declaring that he was going to kidnap her. Hilaria ran him off, some said with her pistol, and it is said, she did so lamenting ever having been known to be his second cousin. Davis had a good laugh at that one.
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III. Humble (Humility)Finally, we employ the noble word "Humble" in the sense of putting good things first, of providing for his own and others. My aforementioned brother Milton, who did his Master's Thesis titled "Certain Aspects of the Political History of Starr County", collected many old timers' remembrances concerning Henry Clay Davis's acts of generosity and service.* There was one little old lady who showed us pictures of Dona Hilaria and documents of Davis...as she droned on and on about how he helped this old lady here, and aided in rebuilding a damaged home of an old man there…etc. Her collection and memories of her forbearers was fascinating, especially since she had so many pictures and letters. Considering that she had never known Davis, who died in 1866, it was as if she were clairvoyant, or so it seemed to us.* I shall end, humbly, by not droning on pertaining to this very special characteristic that pertained to Henry Clay Davis. His many acts speak for themselves. My time is done, the issue is yours to do your pleasure or application to the topic.*
Thanks for the opportunity to be involved a bit in the matters pertaining to a truly significant figure in the history of the Lower Rio Grande Valley, of Nuevo Santander, and of the Republic and State of Texas.David Christian Newton3 February 2021Mission, Texas______________________
