Fifty years ago, when I would mention that there were Anglo / Irish in Texas who supported the Mexican Centralist governing body represented by Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna there would be raucous guffaws and scoffing, and even threats. If I were to point out that these folks were dead-set in opposition to the Texian 1824 Republican Constitution defense movement endorsing State sovereignty, there were times various of the bullies in the class wanted to beat me up.
But what I said was true. The true truth of the Truth never rusts. It can be buried, but it does not rust. My skeptics and doubters became further infuriated when I woud tell them than many of the defenders of the Alamo were Spanish/Mexican and that "Buddy Ebsen" was actually Juan N. Seguin (a chief supporting actor at the Alamo).
Colonel Juan Sequin Also the Eulogist of the ashes of those revered Defenders of the Alamo who were immolated....he gave the funeral oration at San Fernando Cathedral, a few blocks from the Alamo, a little less than a year after the Victory at San Jacinto, where Sequin also served as executive officer of the small but very effective contingent of Texian Cavalry.
We include a passage that more or less (mostly more) correctly explains this episode of the internment, its symbolic if not sacramental validity, and the places involved. That which follows is subject to considerable re-interpreatations. Those explanations and interpretations that I have reviewed, studied, compared, and discussed with people for whom I have the profoundest respect almost always lead away from what is the most probable script to write concerning the Eulogy of the Heroes. Please reserve judgement while reading the next passage, and please pay particular attention to the last paragraph. To wit:
"ON FEBRUARY 23RD AFTER MASS, WE WILL PAY FINAL RESPECTS TO OUR FRIENDS WHO DIED AT THE ALAMO. JUAN SEGUIN, COMMANDER LT. COL.
As well as could be done, Seguin had the bones and ashes placed in a large coffin. With an eulogy that began, "These remains, which we have had the honor to carry on our shoulders, are the remains of those valiant heroes who died at the Alamo...," he laid the bodies to rest with full military honors.
Supposedly, the site chosen for interment was a beautiful patch of earth in a nearby peach orchard outside the village and only a few hundred yards from the Chapel. But with the passage of time and without any marker on the burial site, the location of the grave became lost. It’s completely hidden by the city of San Antonio, which totally surrounds the Alamo compound, and irrecoverably lost to history.
But, is this peach orchard theory really the way Colonel Seguin conducted the burial? Or is it a description of the burial conducted by the Rangers, Big Foot Wallace, or Francisco Ruiz? Or by someone else as yet unidentified? One of the most asked questions is how did Colonel Seguin manage to find the ashes after they reposed on the Texas prairie for a few days short of one year? Were the remains, as some claim, already collected and preserved by some good Samaritan just waiting for an authority like Colonel Seguin to come along and formalize the ceremony? Incredibly, no one knows.
That fact is that although Colonel Seguin respectfully buried his fallen friends while Antonio Oroche softly whistled the tune, Will You Come to My Bower?, he did not adequately mark the ultimate grave site. He even complicated the issue shortly before his death when he responded to an inquiry about the burial site. He wrote that the ashes were found in three places and that the two smallest piles were placed in a coffin with the names of Travis, Bowie, and Crockett carved inside the lid. This would also lend credence to the Big Foot Wallace account of finding a pile of the remains when he visited the city in 1838.
Seguin further wrote that ‘I placed them in an urn and buried it in the Cathedral of San Fernando immediately in front of the alter---that is in front of the railing near the steps.’ At the time, Seguin’s version of the interment was largely dismissed as the ramblings of an old man with a frail memory, especially since it was known that he had the funeral ceremony conducted in the Cathedral. Everyone suspected that he had confused the funeral ceremony with the burial ceremony.
But then in July 1936, a coffin was unearthed in the Cathedral at the exact same spot that Sequin had suggested! Inside the rotting old casket were charred remains, some bones, and even uniform fragments. In the excitement that followed, many thought that the remains of the Alamo defenders had finally been located---until astute historians pointed out that the men of the Alamo did not wear uniforms. Although a burial certainly took place in the Cathedral and Sequin was aware of it, the identity of the person or persons who were buried remains a mystery."
Vindication is a sweet wine. We also observe that Seguin was always modest. He signs the announcement simply, although at that moment he was the head of both civil and military government in San Antonio and the very large district included in the designation of Bexar (pronounced 'Bay - Are with no dominant syllable)
We also point out that William Barrett Travis and Captain Dickenson did have a semblance of uniform, as did many of the New Orleans Greys. Some of the Latins also had elements of uniform from their militia organisation, almost certainly.
Colonel Juan Sequin Also the Eulogist of the ashes of those revered Defenders of the Alamo who were immolated....he gave the funeral oration at San Fernando Cathedral, a few blocks from the Alamo, a little less than a year after the Victory at San Jacinto, where Sequin also served as executive officer of the small but very effective contingent of Texian Cavalry.
We include a passage that more or less (mostly more) correctly explains this episode of the internment, its symbolic if not sacramental validity, and the places involved. That which follows is subject to considerable re-interpreatations. Those explanations and interpretations that I have reviewed, studied, compared, and discussed with people for whom I have the profoundest respect almost always lead away from what is the most probable script to write concerning the Eulogy of the Heroes. Please reserve judgement while reading the next passage, and please pay particular attention to the last paragraph. To wit:
"ON FEBRUARY 23RD AFTER MASS, WE WILL PAY FINAL RESPECTS TO OUR FRIENDS WHO DIED AT THE ALAMO. JUAN SEGUIN, COMMANDER LT. COL.
As well as could be done, Seguin had the bones and ashes placed in a large coffin. With an eulogy that began, "These remains, which we have had the honor to carry on our shoulders, are the remains of those valiant heroes who died at the Alamo...," he laid the bodies to rest with full military honors.
Supposedly, the site chosen for interment was a beautiful patch of earth in a nearby peach orchard outside the village and only a few hundred yards from the Chapel. But with the passage of time and without any marker on the burial site, the location of the grave became lost. It’s completely hidden by the city of San Antonio, which totally surrounds the Alamo compound, and irrecoverably lost to history.
But, is this peach orchard theory really the way Colonel Seguin conducted the burial? Or is it a description of the burial conducted by the Rangers, Big Foot Wallace, or Francisco Ruiz? Or by someone else as yet unidentified? One of the most asked questions is how did Colonel Seguin manage to find the ashes after they reposed on the Texas prairie for a few days short of one year? Were the remains, as some claim, already collected and preserved by some good Samaritan just waiting for an authority like Colonel Seguin to come along and formalize the ceremony? Incredibly, no one knows.
That fact is that although Colonel Seguin respectfully buried his fallen friends while Antonio Oroche softly whistled the tune, Will You Come to My Bower?, he did not adequately mark the ultimate grave site. He even complicated the issue shortly before his death when he responded to an inquiry about the burial site. He wrote that the ashes were found in three places and that the two smallest piles were placed in a coffin with the names of Travis, Bowie, and Crockett carved inside the lid. This would also lend credence to the Big Foot Wallace account of finding a pile of the remains when he visited the city in 1838.
Seguin further wrote that ‘I placed them in an urn and buried it in the Cathedral of San Fernando immediately in front of the alter---that is in front of the railing near the steps.’ At the time, Seguin’s version of the interment was largely dismissed as the ramblings of an old man with a frail memory, especially since it was known that he had the funeral ceremony conducted in the Cathedral. Everyone suspected that he had confused the funeral ceremony with the burial ceremony.
But then in July 1936, a coffin was unearthed in the Cathedral at the exact same spot that Sequin had suggested! Inside the rotting old casket were charred remains, some bones, and even uniform fragments. In the excitement that followed, many thought that the remains of the Alamo defenders had finally been located---until astute historians pointed out that the men of the Alamo did not wear uniforms. Although a burial certainly took place in the Cathedral and Sequin was aware of it, the identity of the person or persons who were buried remains a mystery."
Vindication is a sweet wine. We also observe that Seguin was always modest. He signs the announcement simply, although at that moment he was the head of both civil and military government in San Antonio and the very large district included in the designation of Bexar (pronounced 'Bay - Are with no dominant syllable)
We also point out that William Barrett Travis and Captain Dickenson did have a semblance of uniform, as did many of the New Orleans Greys. Some of the Latins also had elements of uniform from their militia organisation, almost certainly.
___________________
Returning to the Irish question:
Community leader foresees her own death
October 20th, 1874
On this day in 1874 Susanna O'Docharty, pioneer woman and community leader, asked a priest to prepare her for death. Although she was ill, the padre saw no signs of death. "This is why I sent for you, I die tonight," she told him curtly, which she did.
The Indiana native, born in 1804, moved with her husband to Texas sometime before 1831 to join the McMullen-McGloin colony, where they helped establish the town of San Patricio. Susanna helped establish a meeting between the people of Matamoros and the San Patricio colonists in 1832 at Banquete Creek. This grew into an annual festive occasion called El Lugar del Banquete.
Mrs. O'Docharty became a leader of a group of San Patricio residents loyal to the Centralist Mexican government and influenced several other families to move with her family to Matamoros, where they lived until 1845, when Gen. Zachary Taylor's army brought a semblance of law and order back to the old city of San Patricio.
Upon her family's return, she returned to her role of community leader and began teaching in her home when the community school closed. She gave her two sons a basic law background that enabled them to become respected lawyers and judges in San Patricio and Nueces counties.
Tales of her strong character still exist, including that of how she retrieved her infant daughter's remains from Mexico. About a year after returning to Texas, she enlisted the aid of twelve-year-old Hubert Timon, and the two disappeared early one morning riding south. Two weeks later they reappeared with Susanna balancing a small coffin on her saddle horn.
(From an Article by the Texas State Historical Association)
Credit and acknowledgements:
Susanna Dougharty O'Docharty, article from the TSHA...
McMullen-McGloin Colony, article from the TSHA...
San Patricio, Texas, article from the TSHA...
