Stephen F. Austin died in December, 1836. “Among the touching episodes connected with the death of General Austin was the presence with him in the hour of death of perhaps his oldest friend, Major James Kerr, of Lavaca, who had served with him in the territorial legislature of Missouri, twenty years before, and who had ever been his warm and confidential friend in Texas.” What this friendship meant to Austin none but the readers of Texan history, or those who took part in the stirring events of the period, can determine.
Among the commanders in the new Texan navy was Capt. J. D. Boyland, and among the members of the second congress were Patrick J. Jack, James Power, John Boyd, John J. Linn, Collin McKinney, Thomas H. Brennan and John Dunn. In the third congress were Holland Coffee, James Kerr, Richard Roman, Benjamin Odlum, John J. Linn and Anthony Butler, the latter afterwards United States minister to Mexico.
Austin, the capital of Texas, was laid out and building begun in 1839. Before November of that year, it was said to contain fifteen hundred souls, and this was written of it: “Certainly in no settlement where defence against savages depended upon the members of every household, was there ever more enlightenment and refinement.”
Among the prominent residents at this period were Martin Carroll Wing, Col. Hugh McLoud, A. C. McFarland, William H. Murrah, James Burke, H. Mulholland, John D. McLoud and Richard F. Brennan. Among the killed and wounded in an affair with the Indians at San Antonio in March, 1840, were a Mr. Casey and Private Kelley. In an engagement brought about by an Indian raid on Victoria and Linnville, in August, 1840, the following took part: John H. Moore, Capt. Matthew Caldwell, Capt. Thomas William Ward, Capt. Andrew Neill and W. H. Magill.
One of the three commissioners accompanying the expedition to New Mexico, under command of Gen. Hugh McLoud, in June, 1841, was Dr. Richard F. Brannan, “as gallant a gentleman as was ever born on the soil of Kentucky,” and accompanying him was a Mr. Fitzgerald. This expedition, partly owing to the treachery of one of its officers, was obliged to surrender to the Mexicans. Many were taken captives to the City of Mexico, and were treated in the most inhuman manner by those having them in charge. One of them, John McAllister, being unable to march, was shot dead by the brutal commander, who cut off his ears as trophies.
Among other officers in the Texan navy, were Captains Brennan and McKinney, Lieutenant Gallaher and Doctor Quinn. James Morgan and William Bryan were appointed commissioners by President Houston to take possession of vessels of the Texan navy on the Mississippi, in 1843. During Houston’s second term, James Reilly was minister to the United States, and Captain Thomas William Ward was commissioner of the land office.
William Bryan represented Texas as a local agent in New Orleans in 1835. It was through his influence largely that the services of the New Orleans Grays were secured. M. A. Bryan was secretary of legation at Washington under the presidency of Lamar, 1838 to 1841. James Reilly was one of four commissioners to effect a foreign loan under the same administration, and two of the United States ministers to Texas during the same period were William H. Murphy and George H. Flood, both of whom died in Galveston.
In the movement to repel the attack of Vasquez on San Antonio, in 1842, the following took a prominent part: Capt. John C. Hayes, Cols. Matthew Caldwell and John H. Moore, Capt. James H. Callahan, John R. Cunningham, John Twohig, James Dunn, Capt. Andrew Neill, James P. Kincannon, Stewart Foley, Maj. James Kerr, Matthew Talbott, John J. Linn, David Murphy, John Sweeney and M. A. Bryan. The name of Capt. William M. Ryan appears as the commander of a company for the invasion of Mexico about the same period. Among others were Capt. S. McNeill, Capt. John C. Hayes, Maj. David Murphree, John Sweeney, Edward Linn, Lieut. M. A. Bryan, Jr., and Adjutant Thomas A. Murray.
Among the “doomed seventeen” Texans shot by the Mexicans after their surrender at the Battle of Mier were P. Mahoney, Henry Whaling, J. L. Cash, W. N. Cowan and Martin Farrell Wing. Among those shot in the City of Mexico was Capt. Ewen Cameron, a “Highlander” native of Scotland. He had been the loved and trusted leader of his band of Rangers for seven years. Among the others killed or butchered, connected with this expedition, were James Urie, W. J. McIllrea, Dr. Richard F. Brennan, A. Fitzgerald, Patrick Lyons, L. L. Cash, Patrick Mahan, William Rowen and James Neely. Among those who died in prison were W. B. C. Bryan, John Irvin, Mr. McDade, John Owen and Patrick Usher. Among the prisoners who survived were Nathan Mullin, Jerry Lehan, Thomas A. Murray, Patrick Doherty, John Fitzgerald, John Morgan, Major McQueen, John Canty, —— Donnell, John Brennan, Thomas Burke, Frank Hughes, Edward and Richard Queen, John Lacy, Patrick and S. G. Lyon, P. M. Maxwell, William Moore, G. McFall, John McGinley. Charles McLaughlin, —— McMath, James McMicken, John McMullin, James B. and H. Neely, Francis Kelly, A. J. Rourk, William M. Ryan, Daniel C. Sullivan, John Twohig, Andrew Neill and Francis McCoy.
In January, 1842, Henri De Castro received authority from President Houston to settle a colony west of the Medina, and before his labors were completed, he had introduced over five thousand emigrants from the Rhenish provinces of France. Castro and his colony are spoken of in the highest terms by all Texan writers. They received a cordial welcome from the Texans, many of whom visited them in person. These new immigrants, added to the others preceding them, furnished the new republic with a most composite population. In the convention of 1845, which voted for annexation to the United States, among others were: Philip M. Cuney, John Caldwell, A. S. Cunningham, Spearman Holland, H. L. Kinney, Andrew McGowan, John T. McNeill, Francis Moore, James Scott and James Power.