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Washington’s East Texas Cousin Alexander Hamilton Washingtonby
Bob Bowman | |
Alexander
Hamilton Washington, a cousin of George Washington, cut a wide swath through Polk
and San Jacinto counties before and after the Civil War, but finding any physical
reminder of his 28 years in East Texas is almost impossible.
Born in 1805
on a farm near Berryville in Virginia, Washington moved to Vicksburg, Mississippi,
in 1838 to practice law while living with his sister, Mary Herbert Beazley and
her family, A.G.A.
When the Beazleys gave Washington money and land to
invest in the Republic of Texas, he exchanged the property for the William Logan
League, now in San Jacinto County, and took the title in his own name with the
intention of giving the property to his sister. A will in 1860 established his
intent.
Settling at Drew’s Landing on the Trinity River in the 1840s, Washington
developed one of the area’s largest plantations in a great horseshoe bend of the
river. As he was building his home on the river, Washington also supervised the
construction of a road from Drew’s Landing to Lynchburg, a shipping point on Galveston
Bay, with the recognition that the export of cotton would stimulate East Texas’
economy.
Washington’s home was similar to the plantation homes of the
Old South. Enhancing the home’s beauty was a formal flower garden, a favorite
hobby of Washington. As a lawyer, Washington had a large library filled with law
books and two indoor bathrooms with hot water furnished by a boiler, a rarity
on the Texas frontier. The home also contained a room for his Coushatta Indian
friends--who lived in a village on Washington’s plantation--with pictures of paintings
of Indians and horses. The Coushattas’ customary dress of long deerskin shirts
prompted riverboat travelers to call the place “Shirt Tail Bend.”
Known
for his eccentricity, Washington had a personal worth of almost $75,000 in real
and personal property before the Civil War, but he was always behind in paying
his taxes.
There were rumors at Drew’s Landing that Washington, a bachelor,
buried a large cache of gold on his plantation. Another story is that he lost
his fortune in a New Orleans bank failure.
When
the Civil War erupted, Washington volunteered for service in 1862, and was commissioned
an aide under Major General John B. McGruder, commander of the military district
of Texas, Arizona and New Mexico.
Washington was assigned to supervise
government works in a wide area of East Texas, to defend the lower valley of the
Trinity River, and to enlist his Indian friends in the South’s war efforts.
At the end of the war, Washington was nearly bankrupt and in declining health.
Though he held 51 slaves in 1864, he had to take large loans after the war to
keep his plantation in operation.
Washington sold his plantation to William
B. Denson, who moved into the house with Washington. In 1868 Washington wrote
a will giving all of his assets to Denson in return for settlement of his debts.
He died on June 30, 1868, and was buried in his flower garden. Denson
disputed Washington’s first will to his sister, but in 1873 she established that
the will was valid.
As the year’s passed, Washington’s grave was lost,
but his descendants placed a tombstone in the Davidson Cemetery, near Drew’s Landing,
defining his Confederate service.
The passage of decades has left the
cemetery unmarked, entangled in forest growth, and--like Washington’s final resting
place--difficult to find. |
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