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SANTA ANNA'S
TEAPOT
by Bob Bowman | |
In
a home at Rancho Sante Fe, California, rests one of the rarest reminders of Antonio
Lopez de Santa Anna, the Mexican dictator whose defeat led to the rise of the
Texas Republic.
Dorothy Perkins, a pleasant, smiling housewife whose
family lineage reaches all the way to early 19th century East Texas, owns a teapot
once owned by Santa Anna. But the story of how she obtained it is filled with
nuggets of history.
Let's begin when Alfred Marion Truit, a native of
North Carolina, came to Shelby County, Texas, in 1839, became a merchant at Truit's
Store, struggled through the Regulator-Moderator
War along the Texas-Louisiana border, and enlisted as a soldier with the outbreak
of the Mexican War, serving two stints with Texas volunteers.
On his
second enlistment, Captain Truit joined up with Jack Hays, a fellow Texan, and
eventually became a major and second in command of Hays' regiment. In January
of 1848, they were camped outside Mexico City when they were ordered by General
Joseph Lane to hunt down Santa Anna.
After losing to Sam Houston's rag-tag
Texas volunteers at San Jacinto in 1836, Santa Anna had made his way back to Mexico
and became a dictator again in the l840s. In 1846, following a series of battles
between Mexico and the U.S., American troops were ordered into Mexico.
An informant told Truit and Hays where Santa Anna was hiding, but he also warned
Santa Anna that the Texans were hot on his trail.
When they arrived at
the home where the one-time dictator was hiding, they found trunks of clothing,
correspondence, food on the table and candles. Among his possessions were a silver
teapot and tray, a snuff box, Santa Anna's jacket, and an elaborate cane he had
used since losing his leg in a battle defending Mexico from France in 1838.
Hays' adjutant, Rip Ford, took the jacket and supposedly returned it to Santa
Anna at a later date. Truit kept the silver service, including the teapot, a snuff
box, and Santa Anna's cane. The cane was said to have been stolen, but Truit,
while serving in the Texas Senate, may have given it to his friend, Sam Houston.
The teapot and several other items remained in the Truit family for years
during his service in the Texas Senate and while serving as a Confederate general
during the Civil War.
When Truit died in 1864 at White Cottage in Shelby
County and his wife Susan passed away a year later, their daughter, Susan Morris,
ended up with all of the Santa Anna possesssions, including the teapot. When she
passed away in 1894, her husband Elijah remarried.
Around 1894, Elijah
borrowed some money from Joaquin banker Luke Motley and offered the teapot and
other property as collateral. All of the property was forfeited to Motley when
Elijah couldn't repay the loan in 1916. The silver teapot, standing only four
inches tall, eventually fell into the hands of Luke Motley Jr. His wife sold it
to Dorothy Perkins, a descendant of Alfred M. Truit, in 2003.
Today,
Santa Anna's teapot holds an honored place in the Perkins home -- a unique reminder
of the smashed fortunes of the man who called himself the Napoleon of the West. |
All
Things Historical
July 18-24, 2004
Published with permission
Distributed by the East Texas Historical Association. Bob Bowman of Lufkin is
a former president of the Association and the author of 30 books about East Texas. |
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