Refugees to Texas

See also Refugeed Slaves, massey1964, sternhell2012.

Named Refugees

Primary Entries

Brazos County

This list is taken from baum2008:

  • Daniel E. Batte (Texan)
  • William A. Bell
  • Louis B. Benefield
  • Thomas Boone
  • James B. Durant (Texan)
  • Joel Evans
  • William H. Farner
  • Malcolm Gandy (Texan)
  • A. C. L. Hill
  • Richard W. Lovett
  • Thomas F. Lovett
  • William C. Lovett
  • Thomas M. Neal
  • Willis C. Pollard
  • Watson Reed
  • James M. Turner
  • Andrew J. Allen (Texan)
  • John Burrows
  • John Collins (Texan)
  • K. David Stevens
  • Dr. Blackman (mentioned in Tyler Reporter)

Other Counties

Notes on other potential refugees to Texas are in these spreadsheets:

Mentioned by Kate Stone

See also stone1995:

Miscellaneous

  • Andrew Wilson of Rosalie Mansion in Natchez1
  • Gerard Brandon of Mississippi
  • Sarah Dorsey of Tensas Parish, who mentions slaves been “stolen” by “jayhawkers” and guerillas and taken to Texas for sale, and also describes her refugeeing experience and the origins of the term “to refugee” on p. 251.
  • Robert C. Myers, mentioned in baum2012
  • Frances E. Harding, mentioned in Pendleton Murrah papers
  • James B. C. Thornton, mentioned in Pendelton Murrah papers
  • J. A. Crawford, mentioned in Andrew Jackson Hamilton papers
  • L. P. Burnett, mentioned in Weeks family correspondence and possibly the Burnett listed in Van Zandt County Tax Rolls
  • Samuel Dorsey, according to scarborough2003, p. 367
  • Slaves of Edward Lloyd, according to scarborough2003, p. 367
  • Dr. McLeod of Thibodaux, went to Houston by early 1864, according to letter from William F. Weeks
  • “Colonel Pine” who reportedly moved from Louisiana to Huntsville during the war with some slaves
  • John Randolph and Franklin A. Hudson of Iberville, mentioned in sitterson1953.
  • W. Waters, who writes to Thomas O. Moore on January 6, 1865, that he has located from Rapides to Anderson County, Texas, near Crockett.2
  • See Lidell Family Papers

Refugee Complaints

Upon arrival in Texas, many refugees complained about what they found there. In July 1863, Kate Stone had barely been in Texas for a week and she was “already as disgusted as I expected to be” (223). She argued that “there must be something in the air of Texas fatal to beauty,” complaining that “we have not seen a good-looking or educated person since we entered the state” (224). Eliza McHatton likewise lamented that even the better sort of planter “with large tracts of land and abundant supply of workmen, often suffered for the necessaries of life other than those they could raise on the plantation” (97).

Mollie Littlejohn, daughter of William Littlejohn, expressed similarly dim views of Texas, writing that her father was “completely disgusted with ‘T,’ and the ‘T’s.’” She signed her letter “Gloomy Hollow.”3

Littlejohn also complained that the Texans “have more respect for money than truth,” sounding another frequent theme in refugee correspondence. Many, including John Moore, accused Texans of charging extortionary prices for needed goods.

Others, however, including John Leigh and, to some extent, William F. Weeks, became boosters for the state.

  1. Phone conversation with Mimi Miller on May 13, 2015.↩

  2. Thomas O. Moore Papers, LSU, Box 1, Folder 15.↩

  3. Mollie Littlejohn to R.C. Martin, Sr., September 7, 1863, Martin-Pugh Papers, NSU, Item 377.↩