Richard Henry Chisholm bio from ancestry member

Richard Henry Chisholm

The earliest record that I have found of Richard H. Chisholm is in the 1826 Atascosita Census of Texas. He was an unmarried 27 year old blacksmith from Georgia. The following information is from the “DeWitt Colony Biographies of Texas.” The people who knew Richard or heard the stories about him said that he came to Texas with a sister, Lourena, and a brother, Richard A. Chisholm, and that they came from Scotland. Since we have been unable to find any records before the 1826 census, we do not know how many generations back it may have been that our ancestors came from Scotland.

After the War of 1812, the East had become over populated and expansion West was inherent. Treaties with the Indians had opened new lands for settlement and the serious economic depression after the war caused westward migration to increase rapidly. Although Texas was still a part of Mexico, many American settlers moved there because land could be bought for 12 ½ cents an acre and in the United States it was selling for $1.25 an acre and more. Mexico encouraged the settling of Texas by giving land grants to certain individuals to form colonies. The leaders of these colonies were called Empressrio.

In the DeWitt County Land Records, Richard (Dick) H. Chisholm received a sito of land on the west bank of the Guadalupe River in February 1829. He was registered as having a family of four. Since he was married October 7, 1827, it seems logical that his sister and brother were living with him as a part of his household. His first son, Thornton, was not born until 1831.

His sister, Lourena, married James Hallmullen on March 15, 1849. On a trip to Goliad for supplies, she mysteriously disappeared and was never found. Brother, Richard A. Chisholm, was mentioned in some of the records but I have not found the date of his death. When Thornton was settling the estate of his father, they were also dividing the property that Richard A. had owned. His holdings were given to the six children of Thornton.

In the year of 1828, Richard H. was admitted by Empressrio DeWitt Green to settle the land of his colony in accordance with the State Colonization Law. On September 6, 1831, Richard received title and full ownership of a league of land on the southwest margin of the Guadalupe River.

In the 1970’s when I was researching our family history, I became well acquainted by mail with Louise Robertson, who lived in San Antonio. She made many trips to Cuero to search records for me. On August 7, 1970, she wrote to say she had found where Richard H. Chisholm had received a Bounty Land Grant for 1280 acres on December 7, 1838 and that he had sold the certificate. She did not say when he sold it, but it is another interesting item on how he bought and sold land.

Most of the following information is from the “Handbook of Texas.” As a cattle rancher, Richard registered his brand H C in Gonzales County in 1832, one of the first to register a brand in Texas. On October 7,1846, he and his son, Thornton, both registered their brands in Clinton, DeWitt County.

Richard decided to live on the banks of the Guadalupe River where he started the Town of Clinton, named for Empressrio DeWitt’s son. He and DeWitt must have become very good friends. He soon opened a store and a horse driven gristmill that was used by settlers from as far away a Myersville.

On January 1, 1847, Richard rented land from Joseph Tomlinson and Mr. Neill for a ferry landing on the east side of the Guadalupe River for three years. Rent for the land was $75 payable in equal portions of years rent. The document was recorded before the clerk, James Smith.

The founders of the Town of Clinton wanted to be an important part of the new area. Richard gave land for the town center and five acres for the courthouse and jail. He and his wife, Hardina, made a sworn statement donating the timberland for the town of Clinton. After several locations, the Courthouse finally moved to Clinton on November 28, 1850 and remained there until the 1870s. On the 27th of July, R. H. Chisholm did subscribe to and take the oath of the office as Magistrate for the Precinct No.1 for DeWitt Co. State of Texas done at the office of V.V. Poinsett.

Along with all the politics and other enterprises, Richard was also a blacksmith. He cast the first cannon ball in the Texas Revolution. This is from the book: “Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas.” He served in the Texas Revolution as Capt. Richard (Dick) Chisholm. According to the 1850 Federal Census of DeWitt County, Richard was worth $15,000. That was no doubt a nice sum in those days.

The Town of Clinton prospered and became a good sized community until the war was over. Traditional interpretation says, bad times contributed to the notorious Sutton-Taylor feud which started on Christmas Eve 1868 and ended in Clinton in 1875. The feud developed into the longest and most bloody in Texas History. Many residents moved away. The most significant cause of the town’s decline was the extension in 1875 of the Gulf Western Texas and Pacific Railway to Cuero.

When I visited Clinton in the 1960s, you would have never known there had ever been a town there. There was a house that had been built by our cousin, Fannie G. Chisholm, and, of course, the Old Chisholm Cemetery was close by. Fannie and some of her family are buried there. Fannie was very dedicated in researching the history of our Chisholm ancestors.

One very important thing I learned from Brice Willis of Safford, Arizona, was that he had found, in some of the court house records, that Richard’s middle name was Henry.

The author, Uncle Nathan Boone Burkett, in his memoirs, “Early Days in Texas” was a good friend of Capt. Dick Chisholm. He relates a story of an encounter of Richard’s with Indians from which he escaped unharmed.

Robert Hall in his memoirs, “Life of Robert Hall” in the “DeWitt Colony Biographies” related this somewhat exaggerated version of Burkett’s story.

“About the time the Comanches were trying to make a treaty with the Texans they spared another man’s life. Old man Chisholm was a blacksmith at Old Washington. He was a funny little old man, and regarded by everyone as the ugliest and most harmless man in the world. He was at Old Washington first, and was a great favorite with Gen. Houston and all other prominent men. He was a little dried-up old man and would not have weighed much over a hundred pounds; but his muscles were of iron and his sinews of steel, while he had the heart of a lion. After the capital had been moved from Old Washington, old man Chisholm concluded he would go out west, where there was some chance of having a little fun occasionally. He had some fun. He was riding his old pony along the trail headed for Col. King’s ranch, when suddenly looking around, he saw an army of warriors almost at his heels. He knew his old pony could not run, but he spurred him into a gallop and managed to keep ahead of his pursuers for two or three hundred yards. The warriors rode up on him and dragged him off of his horse and then cut his saddle off and threw it on the ground.”

“They began to jabber among themselves, little dreaming that he understood their language. All at once they began to clap their hands and laugh. One had said, “D--n him, he is too ugly to kill.’ Another said ‘He is too ugly to eat; he would give an Indian the belly-ache.’ They danced around him and laughed a great deal. Finally they put him back on his pony, bareback, with his face towards the animal’s tail, and then two led the pony and the balance set up a shout and whipped him with quirts all the way to camp. When they got into camp they all surrounded him and laughed as if they would kill themselves. They got an old silk plug hat and put it on him, and then they would pry open his eyes and blow in them and ask him how he came to be so awful ugly. Some said, ‘Maybe he is the devil’. The squaws and the little Indians stuck arrows in him and said to him, ‘They won’t hurt you; you are too ugly.’ After they had exhausted themselves with laughter, the chief told the warrior that they might decide what should be done with the old man. There were twenty-five Comanches and fifteen Wacos in camp. The Wacos wanted to burn him, but the Comanches voted to spare his life. They still jokingly said he was too ugly to kill, but the real fact was the Comanches were becoming alarmed at the growing power of Texas, and they were afraid of being driven entirely out of the country and they wanted to make a treaty of peace. They had another frolic around old man Chisholm; the squaws pulled his nose, and the boys blew in his eyes. Then they told him to ‘get on his pony and vamoose to h--l, where he belonged.”

As youngsters some of us were told the following story, I do not know if it is a part of the above story. We were told that, “Richard H. was once captured by the Indians and since he had bright red hair they tried to wash the red color out. When they could not remove the color, they let him go saying he was too brave to die and too poor to eat. He was raw boned and homely.”

We can’t leave this tale as an ending to our story. In what we call the early days, the Chisholms never found their existence dull. As a youngster and even older, you think about your big robust pioneer ancestors, tall and handsome who helped conquer the west. Now I long to see a picture of Richard in his younger days. At least Hardina Taylor thought he was a prize, they married and raised four children one of whom helped to bring many of us into this world.

One of the many good deeds of Richard H. Chisholm was: in 1848 he was appointed guardian to Pleasant L. and Bartley S. Gilbert, the young children of Sarah E. and Jasper L. Gilbert. Jasper L. Gilbert filed a petition to be appointed Guardian to the minor heirs of him and his wife, who were under the age of fourteen. Documents found in the DeWitt County filed September 13, 1847 in the Sarah E. Gilbert file gave the Guardianship to Richard H. Chisholm. It takes a good and honest person to be entrusted with someone’s children and to manage their money.

I am thankful for my courageous men and women ancestors whom I have learned to love and respect through my research of them.

Zenna Chisholm Snowden

November 2006