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  • Texas | Columns | Lone Star Diary

    Mystery of
    Lavaca River Cannon
    Remains Unsolved

    by Murray Montgomery
    Murray Montgomery
    The story goes that the old cannon was discovered by a group of kids searching for a good place to swim in the Lavaca River – at least that’s the way I heard it shortly after moving to Gonzales in 1984.

    I’ve written about the cannon more than once, the first time being some 14 years ago when I was working for The Gonzales Inquirer – that original column brought folks out of the woodwork providing me with more information than I could ever have imagined. People from
    Gonzales and Lavaca counties contacted me with their versions of the tale – information that had been passed down to them by their parents, grandparents, and various acquaintances over the years.

    Also, I would like to note that after my original column was published, I faxed a copy to the Texas Historical Commission – evidently the THC wasn’t interested because I never heard from them.

    Most folks are of the opinion that this cannon belonged to Mexican Gen. Santa Anna’s army. Legend has it that the cannon was dumped into the Lavaca River or some nearby stream because it was becoming a burden on the Mexican army. After the fall of the Alamo, Santa Anna was attempting to move swiftly and catch the retreating Texas army being led by Gen. Sam Houston.

    What stirred me to write about the cannon again, is that; first of all, there is no doubt in my mind that it exists, somewhere, and secondly because I’ve recently found another article about people who were searching for it in March of 1971.

    The report from the March 30, 1971, issue of the Hallettsville New Era-Herald contained information about a group using metal detectors that would register things below the water as deep as 27 feet. They were searching in a location known as Sycamore Pool; the article implied that there may have been two cannons in that vicinity. To make a long story short, however, they were either unsuccessful in their search or somebody has it and is not going to give it up.

    I am going to share a bit of information from that very first article that I wrote years ago. While researching Gonzales Inquirer newspapers from 1932, I came across three different articles from October and November of that year which mentioned the old cannon in Lavaca County. The articles had originated in the San Antonio Express-News and were picked up by the Inquirer.

    One fellow named W.G. Leazer of Kerrville responded to the article, published in 1932, and was quoted as saying: “… I know there is an old brass cannon in a large creek some 30 miles east of
    Gonzales. This cannon was found by boys in swimming. They tried to pull it out with a horse, but could not.”

    Another man responded to the Express-News article; Eric Brunkenhoefer, of San Antonio, wrote, “I knew a man at Moulton, Jacob Tomasko, now dead, who had knowledge of a buried cannon in that part of the state. In 1923 or 1924 he wanted myself to go with him to this place and try to recover this cannon, but I don’t think it was ever attempted.”

    Jacob Tomasko’s son, W.J. Tomasco of Shiner, wrote a letter saying that his father lived in the town of Moravia and had found a cannon on a small creek known as North Fork which empties into the Lavaca River. Tomasco also said his father (Jacob) told him the cannon was protruding from a sand bar. Jacob Tomasco told his son that he sat on the barrel of the cannon to eat his lunch.

    Phil Hemmi, of Hallettsville, said that his dad, Urban Hemmi, told him that his (Urban’s) father, Jahannes John Hemmi, came to Lavaca County in 1885 at the age of 16; it seems that Jahannes also talked about this cannon and how he used it as a diving board. He said it was about 100 yards from an old iron bridge.

    Another article from the Inquirer in 1932 stated that some
    Hallettsville businessmen were interested in retrieving the cannon. Once again it was mentioned that the weapon was located at Sycamore Pool two miles above Hallettsville on the Lavaca River. There was another report that a cannon had been seen at a place known as Santa Anna crossing about one mile southeast of Breslau on the Lavaca.

    In my research, so many locations are mentioned that we might possibly surmise that there is more than one cannon out there. Let’s see, there’s Sycamore Pool, North Fork, Robber’s Hole, Santa Anna crossing, Cotton Grove, Witting, Breslau, and Moravia, just to name a few, and I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if there aren’t more family stories out there that have the cannon or cannons in other locations.

    But of one thing I’m certain, the cannon does exist – perhaps it has already been found and just kept secret – maybe we’ll never know for sure, but too many people have seen it for the story not to be true.


    © Murray Montgomery
    September 9, 2011 column
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