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HENRY
R. GREEN:
FAKE OBITUARY
IDENTIFIED
BEAUMONT'S
EARLY SCHOOL
TEACHER-HISTORIAN
By
W. T. Block
Reprinted
from Beaumont
ENTERPRISE,
May 27, 1977.
Sources:
"Letters of
Hal,"
Galveston
WEEKLY NEWS,
Sept. 30, 1856
to Nov. 9,
1859, most of
which are
reprinted in
"Beaumont in
the 1850s: The
Writings of H.
R. Green,"
TEXAS GULF
HISTORICAL AND
BIOGRAPHICAL
RECORD, XI
(Nov., 1975),
49-78, as
researched,
compiled, and
edited by W.
T. Block.
Buried
deep in the
old files of
the Galveston
"Weekly News"
are about
fifty
delightful
letters
bearing dates
between 1856
anfd 1859 and
signed only
with the
pseudonym of
"Hal." Almost
every letter
is datelined
Beaumont, and
collectively,
they depict
antebellum
social life in
the Neches
River sawmill
town and some
neighboring
villages in a
manner not
previously
revealed.
Except
for a prank,
the world
probably would
never have
known who the
author was,
for H. R.
Green never
revealed his
identity in
any of his
letters. In
1857, the
"News"
reported the
sudden death
of its
Beaumont
correspondent,
Henry R.
Green, whose
identity as
"Hal" was
known only to
a few intimate
friends. Two
weeks later,
the "News"
printed a
retraction,
stating that
the 'obituary'
was a
thoughtless
prank of a
fellow
correspondent,
and that Green
was still
alive and
reporting from
his post in
Beaumont.
Nothing
is known of
Green's life
except during
his stay in
Jefferson
County. Where
he came from
and where he
went to when
he left
Beaumont about
January 1,
1860, are
still
mysteries. His
editor had
commissioned
the young
writer to
visit and
report from
various towns
throughout
East Texas,
and he had
already been
in most of the
river ports
along the
Trinity River
valley before
arriving in
Beaumont on
Sept. 11,
1856.
At
first, the
young
correspondent
considered the
town on the
Neches as only
another stop
along his East
Texas jaunt.
But soon
finding the
frontier
freshness of
the sawmill
hamlet very
much to his
liking, Green
decided to
settle down
and wager his
future there.
And without a
doubt, it was
an offer to
him to take
over as
schoolmaster
at the Pine
Street school
that surely
must have
affected his
decision.
From
the date of
his first
letter, Green
revealed a
superb ability
to communicate
in a witty,
folksy, and
humorous vein,
and his
characterization
of people was
often without
peer. Shortly
after crossing
Pine Island
Bayou en route
to Beaumont
from Sour
Lake, he met
an elderly
couple of the
present-day
Voth
neighborhood,
not identified
by name, whom
he described
as follows:
"He
was a good old
man and had a
good old wife.
They have
lived there
(Voth or
Rosedale?) for
37 years. The
old gentleman
has acquired a
fortune merely
by the
assistance of
nature, as
hundreds of
cattle and
much land and
cotton
testify. I
could but
smile at the
simple-hearted,
good man when
he spoke of
the
accomplishments
of his two
daughters,
whom he loved
much, and who
had just
returned from
some
fashionable
boarding or
finishing
school at one
of our
fashionable,
inland towns."
"'Here's
my two gals,'
said our
friend,
'that's jest
come home from
school, and
I'm afeered
they've larned
more divilment
than I kin
physic out of
'em in a year.
When they left
here, they was
just plain,
honest country
gals, and now
they've come
back with a
ring on every
finger, and so
much jewelry,
figameries
(?), . . .
flaps and
hoops that it
is impossible
for 'em to get
in at the
door'"
"Well,
I seed inter
the thing
arter a while,
and as they
was gettin'
tollable
costive (?)
and it took a
sight of money
to keep 'em a
guine, so I
concluded to
fetch 'em home
until all sich
high-collared,
fashionable
watering
places die out
. . ." The
young
correspondent
agreed that at
some frontier
Texas schools,
jewelry was
'certainly
worshiped
more' than
school books.
Henry
R. Green was a
26-year-old,
urbane
bachelor when
he arrived in
Beaumont.
Unfortunately,
his writings
disclose very
little about
the author's
personal life,
but they do
reveal a young
man who was
educated far
beyond the
average for
that period of
frontier
Texas. Quite
obviously an
outgoing and
extroverted
personality,
he blended in
well in all
aspects of
Beaumont's
early social,
religious, and
political
life.
Green
soon became
headmaster of
Beaumont's
only school of
75 pupils,
which was
located in the
mill area on
the Woodville
Road, now Pine
Street. Nearby
were the new
Phillips
sawmill and
the Ross and
Alexander
mill, the
latter erected
only two
months after
Green's
arrival.
Shortly after
Green began
teaching, a
second school
was located in
the "Corn
Street
neighborhood,"
with Henry G.
Willis as its
headmaster. In
December,
1857, Green
reported that
Beaumont's
schools
numbered "two
in full blast,
with a goodly
number of
pupils, and if
all should
attend, there
would be
enough
(students) for
three."
Green
received $2
for each
month's
tuition for
each student.
Each semester
he also was
reimbursed
from county
school funds
for those
students from
indigent
families. In
1857, he
reported that
a "spirit of
rivalry,
jealousy, and
opposition"
existed
between the
patrons of his
school and
those of the
Corn Street
school. Green
considered the
animosity
between them
as a threat to
education in
the frontier
village, but
he did not
elaborate
concerning the
exact causes
or effects.
The
early
correspondent-teacher
was also a
proponent of
law
enforcement,
church
attendance,
political
activity, and
the social
arts and
graces, and he
engaged
himself
wholeheartedly
in every
community
activity. A
good social
mixer, it's
quite obvious
that he was a
capable dancer
and a social
drinker, but
he always
cautioned his
readers
against
intemperance
or extremism
of any kind.
He was also
president of
the Beaumont
Debating
Society.
His
personal
exception was
politics. A
secessionist
long before
his time,
Green was an
uncompromising
Southern
Democrat and
states' rights
advocate,
always in
conflict with
the Unionist
philosophies
of then-Sen.
Sam Houston.
Green's most
vicious
political
diatribes were
directed
against Gen.
Houston during
the latter's
gubernatorial
campaigns of
1857 and 1859.
Eventually it
would be his
same political
persuasions
that would
result in his
fall from
grace and
quick retreat
from the local
scene.
It
is also
apparent that
the young
teacher was a
man quite
ready to
exchange his
unwanted
bachelorhood
for wedded
life, but fate
was not to
smile upon him
in that
respect
either.
Perhaps he
fell in love
in Beaumont
and was
rejected, or
otherwise
experienced an
unhappy love
affair.
Wherever he
went, he
always
commented on
the
pulchritude of
the local
belles,
regretting
only that all
were either
married or
betrothed.
During the
1850s, there
was a
considerable
number of
young,
unmarried men
arriving in
Jefferson
County from
the eastern
seaboard
states,
creating an
excess of
eligible males
by about a
three to one
margin.
In
1858, Green
wrote that one
shouldn't come
to Jefferson
County "to
hunt up a wife
-- the race is
nearly
extinct; but
in about three
years an
abundant crop
will be
gathered. We
have about a
dozen young
ladies in the
county, some
of them quite
beautiful,
while the
others are --
quite
handsome."
In
many East
Texas
counties,
Green had
encountered
much local
church
opposition to
ballroom
dancing, but
not so at
Beaumont.
Between 1858
and 1860, two
dancing
schools were
taught there
at different
intervals by
James C.
Clelland and
William
Harris. Green
noted that
Clelland's
school was in
session three
nights weekly,
dedicated to
the "total
eradication of
double-shuffle,
go-along,
thump-ta-bump
movements of
ancient
times." Green
noted that the
dancing
students were
attending
school
"tri-weekly."
In 1860, after
Green's
departure,
William Harris
was charging a
total of $10
for a series
of dancing
lessons for
"Beaumont
gentlemen."
During
the summer of
1859, Green
was appointed
district clerk
of Jefferson
County, and
the court
records for
the remainder
of that year
contain many
entries in his
handwriting.
It
was during the
quarterly
sessions of
the district
and county
courts that
early Beaumont
came alive,
its hotel
filled to
capacity, and
overflowing
into the
private homes
with visiting
jurors,
lawyers,
litigants, and
others, and
the town's
social life
really
blossomed. The
rural families
especially
always
combined the
rare
opportunity
for church
attendance,
dancing, and
social
gatherings.
In
December,
1858, the
correspondent
devoted an
entire column
to a quarterly
court session
and the
weekend
preceding it
when "there
was dancing on
hand
everywhere."
Apparently
tiring of the
drinking that
accompanied
such
occasions,
Green added
that he was
"sicker of
eggnog than
the whale was
of Jonah."
Thanks
to Green,
early history
has a complete
record of
Beaumont's
early Ross and
Alexander
sawmill and
its subsequent
destruction by
fire; the
trial and
execution of
Jack Bunch
(which was
antebellum
Beaumont's
most
celebrated
criminal case
and the
county's first
legal
execution);
some of the
early
steamboats,
education,
statistics,
and even
cattle and
agricultural
history. Green
also wrote
three long
letters about
antebellum
Orange and two
about Sabine
Pass, which
remain as the
best accounts
of those
cities written
in pre-Civil
War days.
The
school teacher
loved to
travel by
steamboat or
other water
conveyance,
and it was on
such occasions
that he wrote
his glowing
accounts of
the
neighboring
cities. In
fact, one such
letter of
Orange could
almost be
labeled
'poetic
prose,' and
one cannot
read Green's
description of
his first
sight of
Orange and
ever forget
it. He also
described the
presidential
election of
1856 when
Beaumonters
celebrated
President
James
Buchanan's
victory with
"the firing of
guns,
hilarity, good
cheer, and
good-humored
free drinking,
a franchise
apparently
indispensable
to liberty."
From one of
his Orange
letters, he
described
frontier
religion in
action, when
"shrieks,
sobs, groans,
shouts, and
loud amens
rent the air,"
and about "the
talent of
squalling
infants,
terrible
enough to
carry away the
shrouds and
sails and even
the human soul
itself . . ."
In
December,
1858, Green
left what is
probably the
only
description of
an early-day
Christmas in
Jefferson
County. As the
holiday guest
of the
prominent
McGuire
Chaison
family, he
shared in all
of the family
activities,
one of which
was that
"inseparable
concomitant of
jubilation --
great
chit-chat and
glorious gab."
(Note: the
Christmas tree
had been
introduced in
Ohio only a
few years
earlier and
did not reach
Southeast
Texas until
about 1875.)
The
holiday may
have been
devoid of
frills by
modern-day
standards, but
thanks to a
chicken
dinner,
popcorn,
fiddling,
dancing,
conversation
and eggnog, it
was still a
gala occasion
of merrymaking
and a scene of
gentle family
tranquility.
The
headmaster
also noted
that there
were very few
criminal cases
in Jefferson
County, a
social
phenomenon
that existed
as early as
1847
(criminality
ran rampant
under the old
Texas
Republic). He
recorded
cattle
movements
along the old,
unsung
Opelousas
Trail, which
crossed the
Neches River
at Beaumont.
Shortly before
his arrival in
1856, over
3,000 New
Orleans-bound
steers swam
the Neches at
Beaumont, and
during the
succeeding two
months another
15,000 heads
arrived from
the Brazos,
Colorado, and
Guadalupe
River regions.
Apparently
Green's
greatest
mistake was to
desert his
school house
for the court
house, and
politics
turned out to
be Green's
'Achilles
heel.' The
schoolmaster
who was so
easy-going,
extroverted,
and humorous
in every field
except
politics was
probably
short-tempered
and hostile to
any political
opinion which
differed with
his. In
November,
1859, the
county's
criminal
docket book
bore a new
indictment
that was not
in Green's
distinctive
handwriting,
the State of
Texas versus
Henry R.
Green, for
assault and
battery.
Since
no conviction
exists, one is
left to
surmise that
the "News"
correspondent's
political
activism
finally
resulted in
personal
conflict with
some prominent
Jefferson
County figure,
probably an
elected
official at
the court
house, and in
a moment of
temper, a fist
fight.
Certainly, not
everyone
shared Green's
low opinion of
Gen. Sam
Houston, for
men such as
William
McFaddin,
Benjamin
Johnson, and
Jacob Garner
had fought in
Houston's army
at, or near,
San Jacinto.
The district
attorney's
Galveston
"News"
articles
ceased very
abruptly, and
it appears the
former
headmaster
considered it
expedient to
migrate to
greener
pastures.
Nothing
about Green's
subsequent
life is known,
and he was not
enumerated in
the county's
1860 census.
He was an
ardent
secessionist,
however, and
probably
welcomed the
advent of the
American Civil
War. In fact,
he probably
enlisted with
the first call
for volunteers
to the
Confederate
ranks. The
only clue to
his fate
indicates that
Green was dead
by 1865, and
most probably
died in action
or of disease
while in the
Confederate
service. On
Jan. 26, 1867,
the
commissioners
court minutes
carried the
following
notation: "It
is ordered by
the court that
the account of
H. R. Green,
deceased,
against the
County of
Jefferson be
rejected."
Even
Green explodes
for all time
the myth that
frontier
Beaumont was
only a
two-gun, one
saloon cowtown
of no
redeeming
worth,
possessing
nothing of
cultural value
or the fine
arts prior to
Spindletop. In
1858, Beaumont
did have one
saloon and a
lot of
cowpokes
passing
through town,
but it also
had two
religious
denominations,
the Beaumont
Debating
Society,
dancing
schools, law
enforcement
and judicial
departments,
as well as
many schools,
to combat the
encroachment
of the
frontier. And
of course, the
records of the
1880s and
1890s shoot
that myth into
the bread
basket with
one round of
the musket.
How
sad that
readers are
left with no
knowledge of
the eventual
fate of
Beaumont's
early
headmaster and
its first
historian, who
may well have
died in battle
in defense of
the Southland
that he loved!
In later
years, there
were many
early
Beaumonters
who fondly
recalled that
it was Henry
R. Green who
had drummed
the first
rudiments of
knowledge into
their heads as
well as the
seats of their
trousers. This
was indeed a
tribute to the
young school
teacher,
"News"
correspondent,
and district
attorney who
remained only
3 1/2 years,
but loving
Beaumont the
way that he
did, has left
posterity a
great legacy
of Southeast
Texas in his
writings.
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