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THADIUS W. HUNTER
Claims to Be the Oldest Male Child Born in Texas
Weimar, Tex., July 27.—To The News: I claim to be the oldest male child born in Texas, dead or alive. I was born in S. F. Austin’s colony in September, 1823, at Morgan’s Point, Tex. (now La Porte), and lived there seven years. While there we planted cotton and my mother spun and wove the first crop that was woven in Texas. In 1820[sic] we moved to Oyster creek, Fort Bend county, where we engaged in farming and stock raising. The first year we burned off the cane brakes and planted corn with axes and hand sticks. We put in the corn and covered it with the foot. We made 60 to 75 bushels per acre by keeping bears and javelinas, or Mexican hogs, out of the corn. Everything went on all right until 1836, when the Mexican army, under Santa Anna, made us skedaddle or run for our lives. We loaded up the wagon with bacon and meal and some bedding, and rolled out. We took with us 650 head of fat cattle and drove them to the San Jacinto or battle ground one or two days before the battle, which supplied the army with beef before and after the battle. When the Mexicans got too close we crossed the bayou at Lynch’s ferry and had the river between us. After the battle we went home. I must right here say that the mothers of Texas get no thanks or praise for their deeds of bravery and privations. It was never too cold, too hot or too wet for my mother to get up and administer to the wants of a wounded soldier and watch the wild Indians prowling around. There never lived a better mother than our mother. In 1845 I went to school at Seguin, Tex., to T. J. Pilgrim, who organized the first Sunday school in Texas. I went seven months. In 1854 I married a Joahana McCrabb of Houston. We had five children. She died in 1868. I married a Miss Conner. We had one boy. My wife died. I married a Miss Glaze. We had four children. All this time I was farming, except four years I sold goods in or near Weimar, Colorado county. I left Oyster creek in 1861 and moved to Colorado county, where I am today. I omitted to state while at Seguin I had several rounds with the Comanche Indians on their thieving expeditions. In 1844 I was bitten by a rattlesnake, which I think has caused me to be lame off and on ever since. I now have to walk on crutches. Have done so for thirty years. I am now, like all the old Texans, broke, and living on the interest of the money I owe.
I also omitted to state that mother raised ten children, four of whom are still living. Their names and residences are herewith given: Robert H. Hunter. aged 83, Flatonia; Thomas J. Hunter, aged 75, Richmond; Thad. W. Hunter, aged 73, Weimar, and Wm. Hunter, Houston, aged 66.
Thadius W. Hunter
--Galveston News
Weimar Mercury, August 8, 1896, page 4
[T. W. Hunter married T. J. Conner on October 27, 1869, Colorado County Marriage Book E, page 163;
T. W. Hunter married Nannie A Glass[Glaze] on December 15, 1875, Colorado County Marriage Book C2, page 89]
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