LA GRANGE, FAYETTE COUNTY, TEXAS
Footprints of Fayette article and photographs by Gary E. McKee:
Monument Hill
On a high bluff overlooking the Colorado River bottom in La Grange, Texas stands a tall limestone shaft. At the base of the shaft is a gray granite crypt containing the remains of heroes of the Republic of Texas. The following is the story of how this beautiful oak covered promontory came to be a shrine to freedom.
Twas six years since the smoke from the funeral pyre of the men of the Alamo had darkened the sky over the town of Bexar. Mexico still refused to recognize the independence of the land north of the Rio Grande.
In September of 1842, the Mexican government sent another wall of eagles and serpents sweeping into Texas to reinforce their claim. The force surrounded Bexar, making surrender the only viable option for the Texian officials holding court in the town later to be known as San Antonio.
When the news of the Mexican invasion reached the town of La Grange in Fayette County, the local militia, led by Nicholas Dawson, mustered under the oak tree on the town square. About fifteen men left the square on horseback and crossed the Colorado riding towards Bexar. Along the way, Dawson enlisted men until a total of fifty-three men arrived at Salado Creek a few miles northeast of the Alamo.
Dawson’s party had traveled one hundred miles in just under two days, quite a feat at that time. Their horses were exhausted and the men had dismounted to prepare for battle. A Mexican patrol discovered Dawson, split into two pincers and surrounded the small band of Texians. At the center of the Mexican force were two cannon loaded with grape and canister shot. As Mexican lead poured into the Texians, more than half their number fell in the first few minutes. Seeing only two choices, death or surrender, Dawson surrendered. The silence of death and the cries of the men on the verge of death filled the air. The dead thirty-eight Texian heroes were left for the scavengers as the Mexican army headed back to the border. Fifteen men from Dawson’s command and the captives from Bexar courtroom were with them.
Other companies of militia from Fayette County arrived too late to assist Dawson. Captain William M. Eastland, Dawson’s cousin, commanded one of the militia units. The dead were buried on the banks of the Salado where they had fallen. The militia units returned to their homes to mourn their dead and plan their revenge.
Retribution began in November of 1842, when a group of 750 men left Bexar to avenge the death of their neighbors and relatives. Freezing weather, desertion, and the sacking of Laredo by the Texian force soon forced the Texian commander to order a return to Bexar and disband. Those still seeking revenge elected officers who wished to carry on.
On Christmas Day, a force of 261 men crossed the Rio Grande and attacked the town of Mier. Once again, a larger Mexican force surrounded the town, causing the Texians to surrender, mistakenly figuring they would be treated as prisoners of war and released. The Mexican government viewed the Texians as a band of rebels, and it was decided to march the able bodied prisoners deep into Mexico and imprison them.
Enroute, the Texians made numerous plans to escape that culminated in a mass breakout at the Hacienda Salado on February 11, 1843. After escaping the Hacienda, the Texians then broke into groups trying to return to Texas. The harsh terrain caused the majority to be recaptured. Three men managed to walk the three hundred mile trip to Texas. Two of these men were Fayette County men.
To teach the unruly Texian rebels a lesson, President Santa Anna ordered that the men be decimated. Decimation, a Latin word meaning to select one out of ten, has been used by armies since the time of Julius Caesar. One tenth of the 176 Texian rebels would be executed by firing squad.
A death lottery was organized, and an earthen jar was filled with one hundred fifty nine white beans and seventeen black beans. The prisoners were lined up to draw their own fate. Drawing a black bean meant death. All the officers drew first, and all drew a white bean with the exception of Captain Eastland, Dawson’s cousin from La Grange. The Captain was the first man to draw a black bean.
The enlisted men then drew the rest of the beans. The executions were carried out with full military ceremony. The bodies were left in a pile for four days before being moved to the nearest cemetery in the town of Cedral.
The surviving prisoners of what became known as the Mier Expedition were marched to Perote Prison near Mexico City where they met the Bexar/Dawson prisoners that were still alive. Utilizing various methods such as escape, bribery, foreign intervention, death and the “generosity” of Santa Anna, all of the men had left Perote Prison by September 16, 1844 and returned north of the Rio Grande.
After the annexation of Texas by the United States, a border dispute triggered the Mexican-American War. The Texians once again had their opportunity to seek revenge upon Mexico. Hundreds of Texians volunteered for service in the American army.
After the American invasion force had pacified the Mexican Army, a regiment of Texian Rangers under Major Walter P. Lane were stationed near Hacienda Salado and the town of Cedral. One of the Mier Expedition survivors, Captain Dusenberry asked permission to take a detail into Cedral and retrieve the bones of his comrades. Lane could not officially authorize such a violation of the truce; he just merely ignored the request.
A troop of Texians left under the cover of darkness with at least three Fayette County men in the small troop. They brazenly entered the town and impressed several “volunteers” to commence digging in the graveyard under the complaints of the priest. The bones were excavated and packed into four boxes and strapped to mules. By this time, the Mexican cavalry had been alerted and the Texians beat a hasty retreat back to their lines with a Mexican patrol in pursuit.
The boxes were returned to Texas and stored in the Fayette County courthouse. La Grange was chosen as the final resting place of the Mier men, to honor the only officer and first man to draw a black bean which sealed his fate, Captain William Mosby Eastland.
The return of the remains galvanized the community to retrieve the bones of Dawson’s men and a citizens’ group brought the bleached bones back to La Grange from the banks of the Salado. Veterans and citizens held meetings and decided to entomb the men on the commanding bluff to the south of La Grange. On September 18, 1848, a somber procession left the town square where six years before, Nicholas Dawson had hastily assembled a squad of men to protect their families and rode off into history. A befitting ceremony was held with proper respect being rendered.
At first, a simple sandstone vault was the tomb of these patriots. A committee was organized to raise money for a more befitting monument. The Monumental Committee decided upon starting a newspaper to fund a proper monument.
The paper existed for four years during which its purpose shifted from funding a monument to the Dawson and Mier men, to a monument to all Texas heroes to establishing a “Monumental College”. The Texas Monument paper failed because in the hope of attracting money, its editorial policy limited news that would not offend any potential donor.
So the heroes of Texas remained in their crude sandstone crypt on the bluff overlooking La Grange.
When the decision to bury the men on the bluff was made, the burial plot was on a league granted in1832 to David Berry. David Berry was over seventy years old when he joined Dawson’s band and was killed at Salado Creek. The land went through several owners. When H.L. Kreische purchased the land, the burial plot was not reserved on the deed. In 1850, to correct the oversight he offered to sell 10 acres surrounding the tomb under certain conditions to which the Monumental Committee consented. The conditions being that when a cornerstone was laid, he would be paid one hundred dollars. However, if nothing occurred in fifteen years the deed was null and void. The Monumental Committee folded and in1857, Kreische built his house adjacent to the tomb and claimed the land in 1865.
In 1904, the Kreische descendants, tired of unfulfilled promises by numerous groups to maintain the crypt, demanded the removal of the vault and its contents. They supposedly threatened to throw the remains over the bluff into the river if action wasn’t taken quickly. This drastic measure prompted the Daughters of the Republic of Texas chapter in La Grange to contact the state government and the land was purchased for $350.
In the early 1930s, when a state official visited the site with the purpose of moving the remains to the new state cemetery in Austin, it was surrounded by a rusty, neglected barbed wire fence. A tree growing out of the side floor of the tomb with cactus and other plants growing indiscriminately around it showed the neglect. Before leaving La Grange, the official mentioned that the remains were to be relocated to Austin.
This announcement spurred the creation of the Monument Hill Memorial Association. When the state returned to begin the move it found that “the ground around the vault cleared off clean as a whistle...the cracked walls repaired and an iron fence with a concrete curb erected around it.” Within two months a fitting granite cover was built over the old sandstone tomb. The 1936 Centennial was a boon for Texas history as the state spent large amounts of money to honor and preserve its heritage. Ten thousand dollars was appropriated for a monument to be placed next to the tomb. The forty foot shaft with the bronze angel at the base was soon completed on the small plot.
In 1957, Fayette County residents raised money to purchase the 3.54 acres around the tomb and donated the land to Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to use as a state park.
Today, Monument Hill-Kreische Brewery State Historical Site contains the tomb, monument, and a historically accurate mural of the execution of the Mier men.
