He was an active member of the General Dick Taylor Confederate Camp.
Mr. Ballauf died in 1910. The business established by him has continued through these 69 years and is today successfully operated by his grandchildren under the name of Eugene Meyer and Son.
Robert Potter
March 3, 1843, Senator Robert Potter, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence and first secretary of the Navy of the Republic, was murdered at his home on Caddo Lake.
He was born in Gainesville, North Carolina, in 1800. Served in the U. S. Navy from 1815 to 1817, then he returned home and studied law and in 1826 he moved to Halifax and practiced law. He served in the legislature in North Carolina; was elected to the House of Representatives of the 21st United States Congress as a Jackson Democrat. His course was brilliant and improving.
His brilliancy, connected with the fact that he had been a midshipman, led to his appointment in the Cabinet of President Burnett as the first secretary of the Navy of the Republic. He was expelled from the House of Representatives of the Legislature of North Carolina for cheating at cards.
Potter later moved to a place twenty-five miles northeast of Jefferson, Texas, now known as Potter’s Point.
A feud arose between Potter and a Captain William Pickney Rose, who was known as the “Lion of the Lakes.” The feud arising from the claims that Potter had prevailed upon President Lamar to offer a reward for Rose.
The widow of Rose’s brother settled on a league of land claimed by Potter. This was intensified when Rose espoused the candidacy of John B. Denton, who was defeated for a seat in the Senate by Potter.
Potter, who lived on a bluff overlooking Caddo Lake organized a posse of about twenty-five men, surrounded the home of Rose with the intention of capturing, chastising and probably killing Rose.