From Clement to the Alamo

I know a lot of people are not into history. I suppose it’s because history is so irrelevant to today, or so they think. To them what’s on Facebook, or reality television, is so much more interesting. But, many times, history can give perspective to the world we live in today. And it can be interesting.

Recently, I read an interesting book about the beginnings of the Civil War. Erik Larson’s “The Demon of Unrest” deals primarily with the fall of Fort Sumter, the people of Charleston, and the total lack of understanding of where the country at that time was heading.

In the book, Larson shows that the attitude in the South was that the North would let them secede with little or no conflict. The attitude in the North was that the South would quickly come to their senses and come back to the fold. They both would realize how wrong they were after four bloody years of war and over 600,000 deaths. It makes you wonder if we Americans don’t understand the possible implications of our actions and where we may be headed.

A few years ago, Terri’s mother, Mrs. Micki, gave me another historically related item that was interesting. Well, at least to me. She was a member of the Sampson County Historical Society and she gave me a copy of their monthly periodical, “Huckleberry Historian.” The periodical contains interesting articles and historical information about Sampson County. The feature article in that edition was on Micajah Autry. I remembered he was killed at the Alamo and they did an outdoor drama about him for a few years over in Autryville, so I thought Joel Rose’s article would be a good read. According to Joel’s article, Micajah Autry was born in Sampson County, and was one of the 258 men killed at the Alamo in 1836.

As I read on, the article became very interesting. Joel wrote, “It appears that Micajah’s family may have lived near the intersection of today’s Welcome School Road and Maxwell Road in the Clement community.” Wait a minute! That’s only a couple hundred yards from where I was raised. So a hero of the Alamo, as a young child, may have played in the same woods and roamed the same fields as my childhood neighbor and buddy Jerry and I did while growing up. See, history can be interesting. The article continues stating how Micajah Autry headed west and ended up in Tennessee. Through his friend, Davey Crockett, he became involved in the battle for Texas independence from Mexico. Autry traveled to Texas and met his fate on March 6, 1836, when 4,000 Mexican troops overran the Alamo and killed all the Texan soldiers. But the story doesn’t end there. Texas granted 1,920 acres of land in Texas to Micajah Autry’s heirs for giving his life at the Alamo. Autry’s grandson, James L. Autry Jr., moved to Texas in 1876 in order to manage the property. The grandson was a lawyer and local businessman. One of the businesses he was involved in was a water-well company. In 1894, instead of finding water, Autry’s water-well company discovered the first large oil field west of the Mississippi River. He and his partners established the Texas Fuel Company, which later became the Texaco Oil Company. Yep, that Texaco Oil Company.

So a hero of the Alamo, whose grandson was one of the founders of Texaco Oil Company, was born just down the road from my family’s homeplace. That’s interesting, at least to me. Who knows, maybe I have some rich relatives living in Texas. OK, probably not, but our roots did come from the same neighborhood.