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Monday, April 16, 2018
Texas History Minute What is the line between fame and infamy? Many figures in American History have blurred the borders between those ideas, Dr. Ken leading to endless Bridges speculation about their character and their impact. Jacob Brown was one such figure. He was a veteran of two wars, a leading financial figure in early Arkansas, a defender of early Texas, and one of the chief officials directing the Trail of Tears. Brown’s life took him through some of the darkest chapters in American History.
Though popular among many in Arkansas, he soon became the focus of intense criticism by his successor at the Removal and Subsistence Office. Captain Richard Collins accused Brown of feeding the Native Americans rotten food. Others began to criticize Brown for holding two positions at once, through the army and through the bank. Stung by the criticisms, Brown stepped away from both positions. He continued with other army positions, rising to the rank of major by 1843.
The army reassigned Brown. With the admission of Texas into the Union and Mexico’s accompanying threat of war Jacob Brown was born in against the United States if Texas Massachusetts, probably around were so admitted forced American 1789. His father had fought in the planners to reinforce the American American Revolution. Little is claim. The situation was known about his early life, but as a complicated by conflicting claims young man, he enlisted in the as the U. S. claimed the Rio army early during the War of Grande as the southern border for 1812. Texas while Mexico claimed it was further north at the Nueces River. Brown’s war service was Gen. Zachary Taylor arrived on the otherwise respectable. He stayed scene to enforce the American in the military after the war and claim and established Fort Texas slowly moved up the ranks as on the Rio Grande in March 1846 peacetime promotions in the just across from Matamoros. greatly-reduced army of that time Brown was given command of the were rare. From about 1818 to fort while Taylor rushed up and 1825, his infantry unit was down the Lower Rio Grande assigned to the area along the Valley preparing to defend borders of Missouri and the American positions. Arkansas Territory to keep the peace between the settlers and the After Mexican forces attacked an Native American tribes of the area. army patrol on the north side of the Rio Grande on April 25, Brown In 1831, at the insistence of readied Fort Texas for attack. On President Andrew Jackson, May 3, Mexican artillery in Congress passed the Indian Matamoros opened fire on the Removal Act, stating that the fort. Brown directed his own southeastern tribes would be artillery as he was slowly moved from their ancestral lands. surrounded. On May 6, one shell Removal of the tribes was to be struck inside the fort and the responsibility of the army. exploded. Shrapnel wounded Tens of thousands of people were Brown, but the wounds were too removed from their homes and severe to treat. Taylor charged to marched at gunpoint to the Indian relieve the fort, temporarily Territory (present-day Oklahoma) blocked by the Mexican Army at where the federal government had the Battle of Palo Alto on May 8. set aside land for tribal After sweeping aside Mexican reservations. Countless forces, Taylor was able to reach individuals died on the way. the fort and break the siege later that day. Reinforcements poured To facilitate these removals, a in. Brown died just hours later on branch of the Office of Removal May 9, one of only two fatalities at and Subsistence was established in the fort defending American soil. Little Rock, and Brown eventually The United States declared war on came to lead it. His role in this Mexico on May 13. office was to coordinate removal of tribes through the area and their After Brown’s death, Taylor movements from Arkansas into the ordered Fort Texas renamed Fort Indian Territory and also to make Brown. The city of Brownsville, sure they were fed. Once the founded in 1848 next to the fort, tribes were at their reservations, was named in his honor. Today, it Brown’s office would continue to is a city of 183,000 on the send food. By 1835, all tribal southernmost tip of Texas. Fort claims in the Arkansas Territory Brown itself is a National Historic were extinguished, but removal of Landmark with tours of the site other tribes further east was still available. The Jacob Brown taking place. Auditorium in on the campus of Texas Southmost College near the In 1837, a year after Arkansas site of the old fort. statehood, Brown was named president of the Real Estate Bank, Dr. Bridges is a Texas native, a bank established by Arkansas writer, and history professor. He legislators specializing in real can be reached at estate loans and investments. drkenbridges@gmail.com.
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