Letter from President David G. Burnet to John Sutherland, April 3, 1836

 

 

John Sutherland, Jr. was born 11 May 1792, near Danville, Pittsylvania County, Virginia. He married Diana Kennedy in Knox County Tennessee on 31 December  1816. For a few years he ran a store and a bank in Decatur, Alabama ca. 1824. His wife, Diana, died 17 February 1827. He and his brother George and other family members received land grants to the Austin Colony in Texas, December 1829, but John did not come to Texas at that time. He attended medical school learning the Samuel Thomson’s method, a botanical method of healing. He moved to San Antonio in December 1835. Having been injured in a fall from his horse and unable to fight, Travis sent Sutherland to bring help from Gonzales. He returned to funeral pyres. He became an aide and envoy for President Burnet. After the Texas Revolution, Sutherland returned to Tuscumbia, Alabama. After his father died, he moved to Egypt, Texas in 1837. 

He married Ann Bryant Lane on 26 January 1838, who died in 1840. He then married Ann Margaret Dickson in 1841.He had a falling out with his brother George and moved inland, purchasing the Treviño Grant on the Cibolo in 1849. He treated patients at his home, which became a stop on the road from San Antonio to Port Lavaca known as Sutherland Springs. It became a Post Office in 1851.He had the town of Sutherland Springs platted and sold lots, sponsored the construction of a school and a Methodist Church, served as Justice of the Peace and a School Board Member. In 1860 Sutherland Springs became the provisional seat of Wilson County. He wrote his account of The Fall of the Alamo, which was published posthumously by his granddaughter in 1936. He died on 11 April 1867 and is buried in the Sutherland Springs Cemetery.

 

 

Here is a bit of the genealogy I have worked out about the Sutherland Family. I welcome corrections and additions. John Sutherland’s children are: David, Sarah, John James, George, Levin, Jack, Margaret, Mary, William (who served as the County Surveyor of Wilson County for many years), and Alexander Hamilton.

 

 

John William Sutherland, who was the son of Jack Sutherland, married Callie Cordelia Duncan, the daughter of Marian Frances Duncan and Margaret Sable Gobble. They did not have any children. However, Callie’s sister, Bessie Pearl Duncan married Dick Hoke and they had a daughter named Margaret Hoke, who married Harrie McFarland. They had a son, Weldon McFarland, who inherited his great aunt’s papers and gifted them to the Sutherland Springs Historical Museum.

 

 

The gift is an amazing collection of artifacts, letters, manuscripts, newspapers clipping, photographs, books, journals, and memorabilia. I have processed the collection, preserving and organizing the letters, manuscripts,  newspaper clippings, photographs, and memorabilia in mylar sleeves and acid free folders. I have secured safe housing for the artifacts, books, and journals. I have also produced a finding aid for all the items so that anyone searching for an items will be able to locate it. The Sutherland Family Papers finding aid is online, along with the photographs.

 

The collection contains 85 letters written between 1836 and 1983.

 

Following is a letter from President of the Texas Republic, David G. Burnet, written to Dr. John Sutherland on April 3, 1826, after the fall of the Alamo, but before the Battle of San Jacinto. President Burnet is asking John Sutherland to assist the families crossing the Brazos River at Groce’s Crossing during the Runaway Scape. You can see that part of the letter is missing. I found the letter in its entirety online. This is the original. Perhaps Burnet made a draft of the letter. This is the letter that John Sutherland carried in his pocket that wet April as he helped families in the chaos of war. You can see the creases where he folded it into a tiny note and how the end of the note, which is the middle might have gotten torn away.

 

 

[Harrisburg]

3 April 1836

 

Dr. John [Sutherland]

                  Sir

 [I have] written to Mr. McLaughlan to repair to [this place] as soon as he is through [with the] press of business at the ferry [and to le]ave two confidential men in ch[arge] of the ferry to assist the passage [of o]ther families coming on …

                  [You wil]l please return here as so[on as] your presence at the ferry [can be] dispensed with — You will [take care] that the families which are [still on] the road be enabled to [cross] with as little delay as possible [for] we entertain a hope that [as soon] as these are in a place [of sa]fety — the men will turn [their fac]es to the enemy and then [he will] soon be routed and push[ed across] the Rio Grande —

                                                                                                                 In haste

                                                                                                                Your obt srvt

                                                                                                                David G. Burnet

                                                                                                                President of the Republic

 

[Envelope address]

                                    Dr. John Sutherland

                                    Crossing at

                                    [Groce’s Ferry]

 

What an amazing piece of history to be gifted to the Sutherland Springs Historical Museum!