BIOGRAPHIES
By William Wallace Mills
BENJAMIN S. DOWELL
On previous pages I have mentioned this
character as "Uncle Ben" Dowell, the postmaster. He was a
Kentuckian, who served through the war with Mexico, and at its close
settled at El Paso in the "forties" and married at Ysleta.
He was an illiterate man, but of great force of
character. One day in the early "fifties" he did good work by
killing, in a street fight, a desperado who was known to have broken
into the Customs House and robbed the safe and who, with a party of
men like himself, was defying the authorities. Dowell and I became
friends, but when the question of secession arose he went wild on
that subject and was, in part, responsible for my arrest as an
"abolitionist," and we were bitter enemies for several years.
He left El Paso with the retreating Texans just
before we (the Union troops) took possession of that place in 1862.
He returned to Juarez, and we met there several times but did not
speak to each other. Finally Dowell wrote me a letter (printed
below) which led to a renewal of our friendship, which continued
till his death:
"Paso Del Norte
(Juarez), Mexico, October I2th, 1864.
"Mr. W. W. Mills: Dear Sir—You may think
strange to receive a communication from me, but as circumstances
alter cases I will proceed with my subject. I left Sherman, Texas,
on the 27th, day of December last with the intention of making my
way, if possible, to El Paso, as I did not think my life safe in
Texas out of the
Confederate ranks, which service did not suit
me. I came here with the full intention of crossing over to El Paso
to live, if I could get admission by complying with all that might
be required of a citizen. But when I arrived here I commenced to
talk with some old friends, and changed my notion for a time. I am
now tired of living a dog's life, and I wish to live on your side of
the river.
"I hope you will pass over in forgetfulness any
hard feelings you might have entertained toward me, and report
favorably to the commanding officer at your post. Please let me hear
from you by the bearer, and let this communication be confidential,
and oblige, yours, etc.,
"B. S. Dowell."
This letter was brought to my office by Uncle
Ben's little daughter Mary, and I immediately replied that I would
be his friend, and without consulting the commanding officer, Col.
George W. Bowie, I invited Dowell to come to my house. He came the
next day, bringing his very valuable race mare, the apple of his
eye, and he told me that his brother "Nim," whom I also knew, was a
Union man and had attempted to escape from Texas and had been
followed and killed by the Confederates.
While we were talking over old times and
thinking no harm a file of the guard appeared at my door and
informed me that they had orders to take Dowell to the guard house
and his mare to the Government corral. I was, of course, indignant.
What? Federal bayonets shoved into my door after all that I had gone
through? In this frame of mind I called on Colonel Bowie and gave
him what in these days might be called "a song and dance." I told
the Colonel that Dowell was ready to take the oath prescribed in
President Lincoln's amnesty proclamation, but he replied that he
would not permit his adjutant to administer the oath, but out of
consideration for me he would permit my friend to return to Mexico
with his mare. He went, but the following day I wrote out the proper
paper for Dowell and he swore to it before Henry J. Cunniffe, United
States Consul at Juarez, and I took my friend and introduced him to
Colonel Bowie as a fully fledged American citizen!
The Colonel gracefully acknowledged that he was
beaten, and Dowell remained with us. Dowell owned some desirable
town lots in El Paso, which were saved from confiscation by his
timely oath of allegiance. These lots were of little value at the
time, but he managed to hold them till the advent of the railroads
and the first El Paso boom, so that he lived poor and died wealthy.
The Dowell race mare proved useful; and here I
state some facts of which I am neither proud nor ashamed. Uncle Ben
assured me that she could outrun any quarter nag that would come to
El Paso, and we formed a partnership under which he furnished the
animal and the "horse sense" and I the money for the stakes. The
race track was nearly along the line of West Overland street, the
outcome being at its junction with El Paso street. Race animals were
brought from California, New Mexico and Colorado to contest with us,
and in four years we won several thousand dollars without losing a
race.
I withdrew from the partnership and quit all
such .business after my marriage in 1869.
BRAD.
DAILY
While the hostile Texans were approaching Fort Craig I was a lieutenant
arid aide-de-camp to the commanding officer at that post, Gen.
B. S. Roberts. The General directed me to try to find some
intelligent, faithful citizen acquainted with the country to go
as a spy to El Paso (from whence I had escaped) and bring him
reliable information of the Texan forces in that vicinity. Brad.
Daily, whom I had known well at El Paso, was at the time wagon
master in charge of Ochoa's train, and in camp near the post. He
was an old frontiersman, an Indian fighter, and had often been
employed as a guide by United States army officers. I knew that
he was a Southerner, but I knew that when a man of that class
took the Union side he could be trusted, and I knew that he
possessed every other qualification for the dangerous service. I
visited his camp and asked him casually what he thought about
the war. He replied that while he was a Southern man "Uncle Sam"
had always treated him right and that he would stand by the
Government. I then told him what was wanted, and he agreed to
undertake the enterprise. I took him to the General and vouched
for him, and he was supplied with two good horses and plenty of
gold, and at midnight he started on his mission. I, of course,
gave him no letters but referred him to two of my friends, whom
he also knew very well, Don Jose Ma. Uranga, then Prefect of
Juarez, and my former employer, Mr. Vincente St. Vrain, a
merchant of El Paso. Daily entered Juarez in the night and went
to the Prefeet's house, where he remained concealed for a week
or more, only going out at night. He met St. Vrain and other
Union men at the Prefect's house, and he actually prowled
through Fort Bliss of nights disguised as a Mexican peon, and
came away as well informed about the number of troops and other
matters at that post as the Texas officers themselves. He
brought an unsigned letter which I knew to be in St. Vrain's
handwriting, giving wholesale military information. This letter,
had its contents been known to the Confederates, would have cost
my friend St. Vrain his life. Said letter has been published by
the United States Government in the "Records of the Rebellion."
On his return Daily rode in the dark into a camp of Indians and
came into Fort Craig with an arrowhead in his shoulder. He was
paid $2,500 for his two weeks' work, which he deposited with the
Quartermaster, and was employed as a guide during the campaign
which ensued. This man Daily was at times addicted to drink, and
when intoxicated would gamble. One night an officer awakened me
and informed me that Daily was at the sutler's store drunk and
gambling and being robbed. I went to the store and found him in
company with some gamblers (camp followers) vainly trying, with
their help, to sign his name to an order on the Quartermaster
for two thousand dollars. I tore the paper into bits and took
Daily away. The next morning I reported the facts to General
Roberts, and he directed me to take a file of the guard and
destroy all the intoxicating liquor at the store, place all
loafers I found about the store in the guard house, and lock the
store and bring the key to him. The order was executed. About a
dozen "loafers" were provided with quarters in the guard house;
barrels of whisky were rolled out and the heads driven in and
hundreds of bottles were smashed. Some of the soldiers scooped
up whisky in their hands and drank it. After the campaign Daily
with his savings became a respectable and successful merchant of
Las Cruces, N. M., and twenty years later was sued for that two
thousand dollar debt. I was interrogated as a witness, and
testified to the facts as I have written them above. Daily won
the suit.
JOHN LEMON.
In 1861 John Lemon, a gentleman of about my own a'ge, resided with
his wife and children at La Mesilla, N. M., fifty miles north of El
Paso. I was not then acquainted with Mr. Lemon, but soon after my
escape to Fort Craig from the Confederates at Fort Bliss in 1861,
and after the Confederates had taken possession of La Mesilla, Lemon
and one Jacob Applezoller and a Kentuckian named Critendon Marshall,
were arrested and placed in the guard house as "Union men." One
midnight these three were taken from the guard house by the guard
and a party of citizens to a bosque and Marshall was hung by the
neck until he was dead. Applezoller was also suspended by a rope,
but for some reason was cut down before death ensued, and I believe
is still living in New Mexico. Lemon and Applezoller were taken back
to the guard house and some time later Lemon made his escape and
joined the Union people at Fort Craig, as I had done a few weeks
earlier. There we two refugees met for the first time, and there
commenced an intimate friendship which continued to the time of his
death by assassination, which occurred at La Mesilla about ten years
later. After the Confederates were driven from the frontier Mr.
Lemon returned to his home, where he acquired wealth and popularity,
being repeatedly elected County Judge. One night in 1865 an express
came to my house at El Paso with a note from Lemon requesting me to
come immediately to La Mesilla, but without intimating why. I went
at once, and Lemon explained that he had been slandered by Col.
Samuel J. Jones (a neighbor) and that he was determined to make
Jones retract or kill him. I called on Jones as Lemon's friend, and
he referred me to a young frontier lawyer then almost unknown but
who has since become very wealthy and very prominent in the politics
of the nation, attaining the very highest offices excepting only
those of President and Vice President.
This gentleman acted as Jones' friend, and it was due to his
fairness and firmness that Jones signed a retraction and a fight was
avoided. I am proud to say that this friend of Jones' became my
friend, and remains so to this day. This was Stephen B. Elkins. Of
all the men of the frontier with whom I have been associated I liked
John Lemon best, and I think him the most admirable character of
them all. He possessed all the best qualities of the frontiersman
with none of their vices. He was with us, but not of us. He was
strictly temperate, perfect in habits and morals, and yet a genial,
sympathetic companion and faithful friend, and behind a manner
almost as modest and quiet as a Quaker's there rested a personal
courage and resolution equal to that of Andrew Jackson. In 1870 Mr.
Lemon's party (the Republicans) had gained a county election, and
while he was going to join the procession which was celebrating he
was struck in the head with a bludgeon from behind and died a few
days later.
"BOB" CRANDALL AS A DAMPHOOL.
While I was collector of customs at El Paso a good friend of mine,
Captain Crandall, had been honorably discharged from the Union army
and had located at Tucson.
Crandall came to El Paso and stopped at my house and informed me
that his father had died in Indiana and that he ("Bob") was en route
there to get his portion of the estate, and he hoped to return
pretty well fixed. After several months Bob returned, and came to my
house looking dejected and rather seedy. He told me that others had
administered on his father's estate before he arrived and had got
away with it all and that he was destitute.
I asked my friend what he proposed to do? He said he would work his
way back to Tucson and commence life anew. The next morning I asked
him to accompany me to my office, and as we walked I said: "Bob, as
soon as we get to the office I will write your appointment as deputy
collector of customs at Tucson at a salary of $1,800 a year, and I
will advance you a month's salary." My friend paused and when he
spoke there were tears in his voice. "Mills," he said, "do you know
that I am a Democrat?" "Yes," I replied, "but is that any reason why
you should be a damphool?" "Well," replied the Captain, speaking
slowly, "I don't know that it is, but sometimes it appears to me
that it amounts to about the same thing." He got the appointment and
years later died at Tucson. I told this story to a mixed audience in
a political speech at the Court House in El Paso, and feel sure that
it did not offend even the most enthusiastic Democrat.
source: Forty years at El Paso, 1858-1898:
John Elbert Steadman
John Elbert Steadman is a young lawyer of Denmark,
a community in which he has spent practically all his life, and in
which he is highly esteemed as a citizen. He was born there August
9, 1891. The Steadmans came to South Carolina during the
Revolutionary war. His grandfather was a native of Lexington County,
and he took part in the War Between the States. His father is John
E. Steadman, who was born in Lexington County and was a merchant and
died in his seventy-seventh year. He was a second lieutenant in the
War Between the States, and was wounded. The mother, Sarah Merritt,
was born in Lexington County and is still living, a resident of
Denmark. Her parents were from Alabama. John Elbert Steadman was the
sixth child and third son in a family of eight children, all living.
He has three brothers in Denmark. Boyce, and Elmore were in the
World War, Elmore a finance officer at El Paso, Texas, and Boyce was
in the quartermaster's department at Bordeaux. Gordon is with the
Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. He was well educated, spending one
year in Clemson College and taking the law course in the University
of South Carolina, where he graduated in 1915. He was admitted to
the bar in June of the same year, and at once opened his office at
Denmark, specializing in commercial law. In addition to his growing
and substantial law practice he represents some of the leading fire
insurance companies, and is also owner of a farm in Bamberg County.
In 1919 he married Miss Dessie Hungerpiller, a daughter of J. E.
Hungerpiller, of Elloree, South Carolina. They are planters and
South Carolinians. [History of South Carolina, Volume 5, Edited by
Yates Snowden and Harry Gardner Cutler, 1920 � Transcribed by AFOFG]
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