Texas Trivia (Waco, Wichita Falls, Spring: homes, tornado, subdivisions)

[jtur88]

This happened in the 1600s. Only six children were spared in a massacre, five of them from one family. They were rescued after about 5 years in captivity, and their knowledge proved to be of great value to anthropologists.

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by jtur88

This happened in the 1600s. Only six children were spared in a massacre, five of them from one family. They were rescued after about 5 years in captivity, and their knowledge proved to be of great value to anthropologists.

Ahh, thank you for the hint. You are talking about LaSalle's unfortunate settlement on Matagorda Bay, Fort Saint Lous. I definitely was not thinking that early. That was a slow end to a voyage that was fraught with disaster. To begin with LaSalle was looking for the mouth of the Mississipi River when he blundered his way into Matagorda Bay. So his navagation was off by about 500 miles. His voyage was fraught with misfortune and ended with his death.

The indian tribe was the Karankawa. The five children's last names were Talon.

La Salle departed France and returned to America with a large expedition designed to establish a French colony on the Gulf of Mexico, at the mouth of the Mississippi River. They had four ships and 300 colonists. The expedition was plagued by pirates, hostile Indians, and poor navigation. One ship was lost to pirates in the West Indies, a second sank in the inlets of Matagorda Bay, and a third ran aground there. They founded Fort Saint Louis, on Garcitas Creek in Victoria County, Texas.

The colony lasted only until 1688, when Karankawa-speaking Native Americans killed the 20 remaining adults and took five children as captives. Tonti sent out search missions in 1689 when he learned of the settlers' fate, but failed to find survivors.

LA SALLE EXPEDITION | The Handbook of Texas Online| Texas State Historical Association (TSHA)

At his settlement site La Salle had left hardly more than twenty persons, with the crippled Gabriel Minime, Sieur de Barbier, in charge. They consisted of women and children, the physically handicapped, and those who for one reason or another had incurred La Salle's disfavor. Jean Baptiste Talon, who provides the only eyewitness account, relates that after La Salle's departure peace was made with the Karankawas, whose enmity the leader had incurred at the outset; the Indians, learning of La Salle's death and the disunity among the French, attacked the settlement by surprise around Christmas 1688, sparing only the children. Madame Barbier and her babe at breast—the first white child of record born in Texas—were saved temporarily by the Indian women, only to be slain when the men returned from the massacre. The women succeeded in saving four Talon children and Eustace Bréman, the paymaster's son, who were adopted into the tribe.
...

The ruined settlement site was discovered on April 22, 1689, by Alonso De León, who had led a march from San Francisco de Coahuila, now Monclova. Two Frenchmen living among the Hasinais, Jean l'Archevêque and Jacques Grollet, gave themselves up. The following year, when De León returned with Franciscans to establish the mission San Francisco de los Tejas, he captured Pierre Meunier and Pierre Talon, also from among the Hasinais, and Talon informed him that among the Karankawas were his three younger brothers and one sister, whom De León went to rescue. Jean Baptiste and Bréman remained to be rescued by the 1691 expedition of Terán de los Ríos. The children were taken to Mexico to live as servants in the house of the viceroy Conde de Galve. Also taken from the Karankawas to be imprisoned in San Juan de Ulúa's dungeon, according to the Talons, was an Italian who, strangely, is not mentioned in any of the Spanish accounts.

The Talon Children: TALON CHILDREN | The Handbook of Texas Online| Texas State Historical Association (TSHA)

Lucien and Isabelle (Planteau) Talon, who joined the La Salle expedition in 1684, brought six small children to the Texas shore, where they experienced the wilderness and its natives as few Europeans ever did.

That link above gives a very detailed and interesting account of the Talon children and what became of them.

[CptnRn]

I'm pretty confident that answer is correct, so here is a new question. Speaking of La Salle's Expedition...

Over 300 years after the LaSalle expedition, the remains of one of the expedition members were recovered.

Where were his remains recovered and where was he later buried?

[jtur88]

Yes, it is the Talon Children. The Karankawa tribe is, arguably, the most fascinating story that can be told about any American Indians, yet it remains in obscurity, even in Texas..

KARANKAWA INDIANS | The Handbook of Texas Online| Texas State Historical Association (TSHA)

[jtur88]

Originally Posted by CptnRn

I'm pretty confident that answer is correct, so here is a new question. Speaking of La Salle's Expedition...

Over 300 years after the LaSalle expedition, the remains of one of the expedition members were recovered.

Where were his remains recovered and where was he later buried?

I don't think the man has been identified, but that would be on a ship in Matagorda Bay, and moved to the Texas state cemetery in Austin.

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by jtur88

I don't think the man has been identified, but that would be on a ship in Matagorda Bay, and moved to the Texas state cemetery in Austin.

Yes, your turn. He was found on one of La Salle's ships, the Belle, sank in Matagorda Bay in 1686. "The ship, estimated to be 80 feet long, was found in 1995 in Matagorda Bay buried beneath sand and silt 12 feet below the water's surface about 12 miles northeast of Port O'Connor."

Texas Historical Commission

Belle Sailor honored at special funeral.

"He died more than 300 years ago and no one is certain of his name, but because of his contribution to Texas history, a 17th-century French sailor was buried in the Texas State Cemetery on February 3, 2004. The Texas Historical Commission (THC) hosted the event, and the French Ambassador to the United States, Jean-David Levitte, attended. Associate Pastor of St. Mary's Cathedral in Austin, Rev. Albert LaForet, conducted the service.

THC archeologists discovered the sailor's skeletal remains during the 1996 excavation of French explorer Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle's ship the Belle, which sank in Matagorda Bay in 1686. Near the skeleton, discovered in the bow of the ship on a coil of rope, was a pewter cup with the inscription "C. Barange," and a small water cask. Archeologists know from historical documents that the crew of the Belle ran out of fresh water awaiting the return of La Salle from his search for the mouth of the Mississippi River, and they believe the sailor may have died of thirst before the ship sank.

La Salle and his crew had hoped to challenge Spanish control over the Gulf of Mexico and lay claim to Louisiana, but problems plagued the colonists. One of La Salle's four ships was lost, another ran aground, and a third returned to France. La Salle and the remaining crewmembers established Fort St. Louis near what is now Victoria. The Belle and its supplies sank off the Texas coast in a violent storm."

[jtur88]

What name has been used by two different Texas counties? (Not at the same time, of course.)

[jtur88]

Here are some hints. The current county so-named claims to be the originator of Chicken Fried Steak. The counties were named after a commander who waved a white flag when outnumbered 10-1 by Mexicans, but firing continued, killing him and most of his troops. A baseball hall-of-famer has the same last name.

[die Eichkatze]

Originally Posted by jtur88

Here are some hints. The current county so-named claims to be the originator of Chicken Fried Steak. The counties were named after a commander who waved a white flag when outnumbered 10-1 by Mexicans, but firing continued, killing him and most of his troops. A baseball hall-of-famer has the same last name.

Dawson County? I know Lamesa claims to be the orgin of the chicken fried steak (although there are many who claim this), and Andre "The Hawk" Dawson is in the hall of fame....

[jtur88]

Originally Posted by die Eichkatze

Dawson County? I know Lamesa claims to be the orgin of the chicken fried steak (although there are many who claim this), and Andre "The Hawk" Dawson is in the hall of fame....

Yup. That's it. The present Dawson county was formed in 1876. But there had previously been a Dawson County, formed in 1858, which was absorbed by neighboring Kinney and Uvalde counties in 1866.