|
Letters to the Editor of The Galveston News
from Stephen Green
Stephen Green was the first-born son of Reason Green, born in Liberty County in 1828. These two letters from Stephen Green were published on page 4 of The Galveston Daily News on 21 Oct 1895. In the second letter, he tells a little about the "runaway scrape" that occured in southeast Texas at the end of the Texas war for independence.
Three of the facts found in these letters contradict information we have published previously about Reason Green and his family. First, Stephen states in the second letter that Reason and wife Martha (Rodgers) moved to Texas in 1825. We had previously reported this date as 1822, based in part on the account of Freeman D. Green, Reason's third son, as seen in his memoirs published on this site.
Second, Stephen states in his first letter that he was born in Liberty County. We have previously recorded his place of birth as Bolivar Point in Galveston County, based on information from the first Green family tree that we obtained years ago.
Third, Stephen states that Reason was detailed to provide beef to Sam Houston's army during the final days of the war. We have previously reported that Reason led families to the Sabine River in the "runaway scrape", as reported again in Freeman's memoirs, but Stephen specifically notes in his second letter below that this was not the case.
The two letters are transcribed here:
OLD SUBSCRIBERS OF THE NEWS
Mr. Stephen Green a Reader of The News More Than Fifty Years
Liberty, Tex., Sept. 9 - To The News: I saw a notice on The News that you wish to know of all people that have been reading The Galveston News for forty years or over. I will state that I have been a constant reader of The News for over fifty years, except in war times. When I was a boy my father, Reason Green, took the paper from the time it was published up to his death in 1868, and I think I have been a subscriber to the paper for thirty-five years myself. I am 66 years old and was born in Liberty county, and was raised in the county. As for office, I have had some of the county offices, and that was when a candidate did not have to buy the office. Now from constable up to president the office has to be bought.
STEPHEN GREEN
Liberty, Tex., Sept 20. - To The News: I send you, as you requested, my photograph, and the only one that I have had taken in my life. It was taken about twenty years ago. You will have to whiten the beard, as I have grayed since that was
taken. There is no artist in Liberty, and it is fifty miles from where I live to Houston, or I would have another one taken. My father, Reason Green, took the paper from the time it was first published, with two sheets and sometimes a supplement when there was extra news. You might say that I partly learned to read from The Galveston News, as books were not plentiful in those days in this part of Texas. My father moved to Texas in 1825, when there were no wagon roads and they moved on pack horses and traveled in Indian trails from one village to another, and the Indians treated them kindly. I was born in 1828 in the Trinity river bottom, in a big cane brake. Liberty county was then under Mexican government. In 1836, in what we old Texans called the "runaway scrape," I heard the cannon when the decisive battle of San Jacinto was fought. We were on the road to the Sabine River, and never stopped until we got to the Sabine river, when my father overtook us and stopped us, and told us that we had whipped the Mexicans badly. My father was detailed to drive beeves to our army. There were three or four families in the crowd that my mother and three children were in, and there was not a grown white man in the caravan - all women, children and negroes. I could tell you more about the "runaway scrape", but it takes up too much space. As for our civil war, I was never in actual service. I had some details in the home guards. The Galveston News is the best newspaper in the south and is gaining favor every year. I will soon be 67 years old. I am the oldest white man living that was born in Liberty county. Hoping your paper will prosper in future as it has in the past.
STEPHEN GREEN
|
