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Post by sloanrodgers on Sept 5, 2007 19:38:11 GMT -5
Recently I found a document that lists a variety of items that were housed in a Alamo store operated by John W. (el Colorado) Smith in early '36. I alluded to it elsewhere and received little interest. I think that the Smith report deserves its own thread. This may not be new information to some of you experts, but I find the descriptions and item totals quite fascinating. I printed out the basic list below, but you'll have to get the totals from the provided link. I apologize for any mispelled wordds. 1. Muskets, carabins, etc. 2. Barrels of carabins, etc. 3. Blunderbuses 4. Bayonets 5. Cartridges 6. Aparajos 7. Lances 8. Boxes musket balls, etc. 9. Camp horns 10. Doubletrees 11.Troughs and canales 12. Leather hooks 13. Round brushes 14. Cases instuments 15. Boxes buckles, etc. 16. Lots of cartridge boxes 17. Drum hoops 18. Case bottles 19. Chunk bottles 20. Trails 21. Flag staffs. 22. Bullet molds 23. Balls for cannon 24. Small shells 25. Small bags of powder 26. Old hoes 27. Framer for lamps 28. Boxes gun locks 29. Swords 30. Pieces iron & steel 31. Iron in square bars 32. Iron in round bars 33. Bundles round bars of iron 34. Bags salt 35. Wool hats 36. Socks 37. Kegs powder 38. Shoes 39. Shirts 40. Pieces domestic, distributed in yards 41. Frying pans 42. Pounds of thread 43. Spades 44. Axes 45. Bags coffee 46. Lances 47. Pigs of lead 48. Bars of lead 49. Bags of flints 50. Rifles Republic Claim 130-215 - James W. Smith - Bejar - Feb. 3, 1836 tslarc.tsl.state.tx.us/repclaims/130/13000215.pdf
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Post by TRK on Sept 5, 2007 20:11:22 GMT -5
RangerRod, Todd Hansen included a transcript of that list in The Alamo Reader, pp. 668-70, but thanks for posting the info here, along with the link to a scan of the actual document, which is very interesting to see.
Anybody know what a "chunk bottle" was?
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Post by sloanrodgers on Sept 5, 2007 21:41:03 GMT -5
Do tell. I thought I checked that book for references to John W. Smith. Oops!!!! All that typing for almost nothing. Oh well. Thanks TRK.
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Post by cougar on Aug 14, 2009 15:09:52 GMT -5
To TRK, as near as I can remember on the definitions--a "chunk bottle" was a short, thick bottle. A "case bottle" was one of a group of bottles (4, 8, ect) that fit into a case. A sort of early six pack. A "doubletree" you can see in westerns where you have four or six horses or mules or oxen hitched up to a wagon. The doubletree can be seen from the side and is that wooden or metal crossbar that seperates each group of two animals that is hitched up.
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Post by TRK on Aug 14, 2009 17:18:45 GMT -5
Thanks for the definition, Cougar!
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Post by Paul Sylvain on Aug 16, 2009 6:27:44 GMT -5
Your efforts wasn't wasted on me. I hadn't seen this before now, so I appreciate you posting this interesting list.
Paul
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Post by Kevin Young on Aug 16, 2009 10:18:03 GMT -5
It is interesting to compare this list with that of the items captured from the Mexican Army at the Alamo in Decemeber, 1835. I wonder why a private merchant suddenly has so many military items in stock...
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Post by TRK on Aug 16, 2009 10:52:19 GMT -5
Kevin, Smith wasn't running a "store" per se but was showing how the "public stores" that Smith had listed in his report of December 31, 1835, had been "disposed of." (See the link in Ranger Rod's first post in this thread.) I'm pretty sure all of these goods were captured by the Texans in the Siege of Bexar.
(p.s., after posting my reply, I went in to edit it, or "thought" I did, and evidently wound up modifying your post instead. My apologies; I believe the crux of your original message still remains intact.)
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Post by Kevin Young on Aug 16, 2009 13:57:32 GMT -5
Kevin, Smith wasn't running a "store" per se but was showing how the "public stores" that Smith had listed in his report of December 31, 1835, had been "disposed of." (See the link in Ranger Rod's first post in this thread.) I'm pretty sure all of these goods were captured by the Texans in the Siege of Bexar. (p.s., after posting my reply, I went in to edit it, or "thought" I did, and evidently wound up modifying your post instead. My apologies; I believe the crux of your original message still remains intact.) And there you have it, for I have seen this list presented as Smith's private stock...which always seemed to confuse people, since it does in fact, represent the public stores in Bexar. Thanks for the clarification...
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Post by alamonorth on Aug 16, 2009 17:24:09 GMT -5
Just as a point of information, An appendix in Chester Newell's 1838 History of the Revolution in Texas provides a copy of the official inventory of military stores surrendered to the Texans after the fall of Bexar.
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Post by Kevin Young on Aug 16, 2009 20:28:44 GMT -5
Just as a point of information, An appendix in Chester Newell's 1838 History of the Revolution in Texas provides a copy of the official inventory of military stores surrendered to the Texans after the fall of Bexar. You can also find an original broadside version in the Streator Collection Microfilm.
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Post by sloanrodgers on Aug 17, 2009 17:50:48 GMT -5
Thanks Paul. I'm also happy to learn from TRK that J. W. Smith wasn't a unscrupulous arms and salt dealing Bexar shop-keeper. I thought the list might have been printed somewhere, but I was not sure of the location.
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Post by TRK on Aug 17, 2009 18:21:36 GMT -5
Smith signed himself "P.S.K."-- Public Store Keeper. (Bet you don't see anybody appending that lofty abbreviation to their signature these days, R.R.!) This was an appointive office, and applied to someone whose job was to oversee and keep accounts on government-owned goods and property in warehouses, etc. The Laws of Texas have some references to public store keepers in 1840s contexts; maybe earlier too.
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Post by cougar on Aug 19, 2009 16:17:19 GMT -5
Glad to be of help, trk. There's one more to add, a "trail" was some kind of a sled used for carrying supplies.
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Post by cougar on Aug 19, 2009 16:36:39 GMT -5
A fast question. Any idea what an "aparajo" or "aparejo" is? I haven't been able to find anything on it.
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