Early Settlers and Indian Fighters of Southwest Texas

A sweeping firsthand chronicle of the Texas frontier, from the Alamo and San Jacinto to the Texas Rangers, Big Foot Wallace, and the Mier Expedition.

Originally published in 1900, Early Settlers and Indian Fighters of Southwest Texas is A. J. Sowell’s extraordinary collection of biographies, recollections, and frontier episodes drawn from the lives of the people who helped shape early Texas.

Rather than offering a distant retelling of history, Sowell preserves the memories of surviving pioneers, veterans, rangers, settlers, and their families. His pages introduce readers to Benjamin F. Highsmith, who fought in the Texas Revolution and rode with Jack Hays; Captain John Tom and Captain James W. Winters, veterans of San Jacinto; Mrs. Hannah Berry, whose life touched some of the most dramatic moments of early settlement; and William “Big Foot” Wallace, ranger, prisoner in Mexico, and one of the legendary figures of the Texas frontier.

The book recounts battles and raids, ranger pursuits, pioneer settlements, captivity narratives, the defense of frontier families, the founding of communities such as Castroville and D’Hanis, and the desperate ordeals of Texans captured after the Mier Expedition.

Rich in names, places, personal memories, and dramatic incidents, this volume is an essential historical source for readers interested in Texas history, the Texas Rangers, the Alamo, the Republic of Texas, the Old West, and nineteenth-century American borderlands.

Because this work was written in 1900, it preserves the terminology, assumptions, and viewpoints of its era, particularly in its descriptions of Native peoples and frontier conflict.