Guadalupe County Texas Archives Biographies.....Scull, Amanda Dorsett November 4, 1822 - 
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Nan Starjak http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006329 November 1, 2008, 12:44 pm

Author: A. J. Sowell

MRS. AMANDA L. SCULL.
Came to Texas in 1825.

     Mrs. Amanda Scull was born in Jackson County, Mississippi,
November 4, 1822, and was the daughter of Capt. Theodore
Dorsett. She came to Texas with her father in 1825, and first
settled in the Red lands on Irish Bayou, near Nacogdoches.
Mrs. Scull is one of the few who still survive and can tell of
the times of W. B. Travis, Patrick Jack, and Monroe Edwards,
and of San Jacinto --  a connecting link between the past and
present. The writer had the pleasure of meeting and conversing
with Mrs. Scull in April, 1900, at the house of her son, Mr. Gambia Scull, near
Lavernia, Wilson County, but the residence
of Mrs. Scull was in Guadalupe County.
     Mrs. Scull passed through those troublesome times in eastern
Texas called the Fredonian war, and the Regulators and Moderators.
Her father, Captain Dorsett, commanded a company
in the Fredonian war.
     The American settlers in east Texas and the Mexican population
in the years from 1830 to 1835 were not on the best
terms with each other and often open ruptures occurred, and
during these times three prominent Americans, namely, W. B.
Travis, Patrick Jack, and Monroe Edwards, were placed in
prison at Anahuac. Now, at the time of their arrest they were
boarding with Captain Dorsett, and he obtained the contract
of feeding them while in confinement. Also in prison at the
time was a man called "Jawbone Morris," and it seems that
one particular Mexican guard had charge of him, and Morris
finally commenced negotiations with him in the way of a bribe
for escape. The price of $10 was agreed upon for the guard
to let Morris escape, but he was not possessed of that amount
of money in the prison, but had an empty pocketbook of well-
dressed leather. In the town at this time Morris had a friend
named W. D. Scull, whom the subject of this sketch afterwards
married, and he was allowed to converse with the prisoners, but
no notes were allowed to pass between them, nor were the guards
allowed to carry anything but verbal messages to anyone. Mr.
Scull and Morris, however, had an agreement that in case the
Mexican guard brought the pocketbook to Mr. Scull he was to
pay him $10 and keep the book. This was all accomplished
a few days after, and Morris escaped and was never seen or
heard of by Mr. Scull afterwards, but he kept the pocketbook
and wrote on it the date of the transaction, which was the 5th
day of April, 1832. It is now in possession of his son, Mr.
Gambia Scull, and was shown to the writer, and the writing,
which was with ink, is still very plainly visible.
     Mr. Scull during these times acted in the capacity of messenger
from place to place, going most of the time in a boat
from point to point around Galveston Bay, and was a member
of a company commanded by Captain Erskine. Colonel Travis
and Mr. Scull were schoolmates at Mobile, Ala., and he said
that Travis was the brightest boy in school, was tall and manly
in appearance, and had no difficulty in getting his lessons; even
Latin was easy for him. Mrs. Scull says she can remember him
as a very handsome man,-- tall, well proportioned, light hair.
blue, smiling eyes, broad white forehead, nice rounded chin and
mouth, and it seemed to her like he ought to have been a
woman. Their families were acquainted before they came to
Texas, and Travis used to wait on her sister Ellen. He married
in Alabama but his wife did not accompany him to Texas, and
he often spoke tenderly and with great solicitude about a little
son he had back there, saying he hoped some day to be able
to do something for him in the way of lands and property.
When he and the others were released from prison they came
direct to Captain Dorsett's house, where they had formerly
boarded, and greatly surprised the family, and at the same time
rejoiced them, as they were very popular among all of the
American settlers.
     Mrs. Scull, then a girl, saw them approaching the house and
exclaimed, "Oh, mamma ! Yonder comes Mr. Travis, and Mr.
Jack, and Mr. Edwards." The mother, not having any idea
the Mexicans had released them, or were going to do so, soon
replied, "Amanda, hush; what makes you want to talk that
way?" In a few moments the three distinguished gentlemen
entered the door and were warmly welcomed, and ate their first
meal with the family after getting out of the prison. They remained
here several days, and William Jack, brother to Patrick,
came and carried him to his home on the Brazos. Travis and Edwards 
also went away, and that was the last time Mrs. Scull
saw Travis, and all grieved sincerely when they heard of his
tragic death in the Alamo. Monroe Edwards went to New Orleans
and she saw him no more.
     During the retreat of the families from Santa Anna Captain
Dorsett went to Galveston, and Mrs. Scull says there was no
town there then, only one house on the island, but many people
in tents, and a brig anchored near by was a boardinghouse. The
Dorsett family, with their tent, occupied some mounds that were
thrown up by the pirate Lafitte and his men, and one of them
named Campbell was still there. When rumors came of the near
approach of the Mexicans, Captain Dorsett took his family in a
boat and went out into the bay and plainly heard the cannon
when the battle of San Jacinto was being fought, and Mrs. Scull
can remember how the artillery sounded, and with what great
anxiety they listened to it, for they knew that the fate of Texas
was at issue, and that before the sun went down Texas would
be free or lost. Next morning the news of the great victory
was announced to all the people, and loud shouts and great rejoicing
was heard.
     Captain Dorsett went to the battleground and viewed the
scene of the terrible slaughter, and then went to Gen. Houston's
camp in the timber on Buffalo Bayou. Mrs. Scull says that a
widow named McCormick lived near the battleground, and a
little boggy branch over which the Mexicans had to pass, and
in which so many of them mind and were killed in the retreat,
was called McCormick's Creek.
     While Captain Dorsett was in the camp of the Texans he
learned a strange and unique feature of the war. The Mexican
prisoners, 700 in number, were being given away to anyone that
wanted them to work for them, and the captain took three.
Their names were Hosea, Martines, and Bibee. This one was
called "Baby" by the Dorsett family. Martines was wounded
in the leg, the leaders being cut by a ball so that he could not
walk, and Captain Dorsett did not want to take him, but he
cried and begged until he did so for pity. He said he could
do a great many things on the place if he was hurt in the leg;
that he could shell corn and feed chickens, etc. When the
Mexicans were brought home Mrs. Dorsett told the captain that
he ought not to have brought the wounded one, but he said, 
"If you had been there and heard him cry and beg to be taken,
you would have done as I did."
     Captain Dorsett moved from Galveston Island when things
began to be settled again and went to Liberty County, and the
Mexicans worked for him there on a farm. Martines died there
on the 19th of August, 1843, of fever.
Miss Amanda Dorsett married Mr. W. D. Scull on the 8th
of January, 1840, at her father's farm on the Trinity. Colonel
Bradburn acted as godfather to Mrs. Scull when she was baptized.
     Mrs. Scull says that in 1835, when hostilities commenced with
Mexico and men were concentrating and marching upon San
Antonio, three Taylor brothers, all boys or youths, were picking
cotton for her father, and as soon as they finished the job made
preparations to go to the war, and many neighbors came in to
see them off. Their names and ages are as follows: Edward,
21 ; James, 17; George, 15. These gallant boys died with Travis
in the Alamo.
     The mother of Mrs. Scull died in Liberty County in 1843,
and in 1851 Mr. Scull came to Guadalupe County and settled
on the Cibolo. In the following year Captain Dorsett came and
lived with them until he died.
     In 1855 the Indians made a raid down the Cibolo valley and
killed Lewis McGee, young son of Rev. John S. McGee. and a
negro girl 14 years old, named Lucy, who belonged to Mr. W. R.
Elam. All this occurred in about two and a half miles of
Mr. Scull's house, and the news was brought to them by Ed.
Tarver. Most of the people in the settlement were gone to a
barbecue at Seguin and but few men could be raised to follow
the Indians, and great excitement prevailed. Mr. Scull, Jim
Umphreys, and Silas Harmon loaded their guns and went to
hunt the Indians, and Mr. Scull's family and others started
to Seguin on foot. In this party were Mrs. Scull and her
family, William, Mary, Sarah, Gambia, and Charley, Mr. Pat-
ton's negroes and his wife, Julia Shaw, her sister, Monroe Dor-
sett and his wife and four children, and three or four negroes.
The word had come that a large body of Indians were coming
down the valley and for the people to leave their homes. Mrs.
Scull and her party only went about one half mile from the
house, and then all entered a deep gully at the head of a ravine
and hid. Captain Dorsett had remained behind to get the
horses, and joined them here with a negro boy named Homer
and another negro, bringing the horses along. Guns were heard
while here, and the people thought sure the Indians were close
upon them. A messenger now arrived and told the people to
fort up at the house of Mr. James Newton, and many of them
went there and spent a wakeful, uneasy night. Major Montgomery
loaded his wagon that night with the intention of starting
back to Mississippi when daylight came, but changed his
notion, and is here yet. On the following morning Mrs. Scull
brought her family back home, and in a few days Mr. Scull came
back and said the Indians were all gone out of the country and
there was no more danger. They had followed the Indians to
the Sabinal River, in Uvalde County.
     The negro girl who was killed was a house girl and had been
raised by Mrs. Elam, who thought a great deal of her. At the
time that she met her death at the hands of the savages she
was carrying water to work hands in the field of Robert Floyd.
There was a small stream near by called Lipan Creek, near the
Cibolo, and it was from this place she was coming with a bucket
of water on her head when the Indians came upon her. She
thought they were cowboys and stopped to look at them, and
they at once surrounded her. The first thing the painted
rescals did was to rope the bucket and jerk it off of her head.
They then began to rope at her, but she threw the rope off several
times, but they finally succeeded in fastening her, and her
screams was answered by the men in the field. The Indians
tht n lanced her and cut her across the bowels, and left. It was
evident they intended to capture and carry her along, but her
resistance and screams caused them to fatally wound her. She
lived several hours, was perfectly conscious, and told all about
the circumstance, but Mrs. Elam, her mistress, never saw her
alive any more, but gave her a nice burial. Mr. Elam was at
Floyd's, and was soon upon the scene and assisted the poor unfortunate
as best he could, and sent young Tarver to warn the
people below.
     In 1859 Mr. Scull moved to the San Antonio River and settled
five miles below Floresville. On the 13th day of July, 1861, 
the Indians made a raid and killed one of Captain Wayman's
negroes and carried off another. Mr. Gambia Scull saw the
dead negro and helped to bury him. He had four or five arrows
in him. One had struck a joint of the back bone, and was the
one that killed him. The others were in the shoulders. All
of the horse stock in the country had been rounded up by the
Indians, but they had stampeded and many of them were shot
with arrows and some recaptured and carried off. Among these
were the entire lot of John Peters. This was the last bad raid
made in that part of the country. West of there, on the Lucas,
the cow hands, among whom was Gambia Scull, were nearly
rounded up by a large body of Indians, but the boys scattered
and got away.
     When the Civil war broke out William Scull, brother of Gambia,
joined the regiment of Terry rangers in the company of
Capt. William Houston, and was killed in the battle of Murfreesboro.
     The elder Scull, father of Gambia, died on the 4th day of
January, 1886. Mrs. Amanda Scull now lives with her
daughter, Mrs, Emma Mattox, two miles from Lavernia, and
near her son Gambia. There are four boys and two girls still
living, all married, and all near by. Mrs. Mary Ellen Richardson,
a daughter, lives in Lavernia. Mr. Gambia Scull has a
fine farm near the old road along which marched the army of
Santa Anna after the fall of the Alamo, when he was marching
to the conquest of the balance of Texas. They encamped on the
Cibolo River, near the present home of Mr. Scull, and many
things have been found there from time to time, among which
was a large chunk of lead weighing several pounds. 


Additional Comments:
source:
Early Settlers and Indian Fighters of Southwest Texas,
by A. J. Sowell
Austin, Texas: Ben C. Jones & Co., Printers, 1900

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