Post by Stan Bacon on May 10, 2018 11:55:21 GMT -5
My colleagues and I would appreciate any help you can give us on this question.
From George Bonnell’s book we know for certain that Mount Bonnell had been named at least by April 1840. The visit by Sam Houston and “Three Legged Willie” earlier in 1840 would serve to confirm that. William Bollaert’s assertion that Edward Burleson named it in 1838 was discredited by George’s own diary.
Then consider Secretary of War Johnston’s April 21, 1839 letter to George Hancock of Louisville, KY stating, “My agent will set off in a few days to commence the building of the city of Austin at the foot of the mountain on the Colorado.” The agent was general contractor Edwin Waller. Johnston was familiar with the terrain and he knew Burleson well. Had “the mountain on the Colorado” had a name by then, would he not have used it?
That leads us to a bracket between April 1839 and April 1840 in which the naming likely took place, which in turn leads us back to Johnston organizing Austin’s defenses and naming key terrain features as control measures for deploying and maneuvering his troops. Mount Bonnell covered two major Indian trails into the construction site, and as the senior government official on the ground in a frontier setting Johnston had the means, motive and opportunity to name the peak. But so far this is all circumstantial, still no conclusive evidence, no “smoking gun.”
Any ideas? Maybe an 1839 Ranger's field map labeling Mount Bonnell by name? Or some participant's memoir somewhere? Stephen Moore's, Savage Frontier: Rangers, Riflemen, and Indian Wars in Texas, Volume II, 1838-1839, was instrumental in providing rosters of the four participating volunteer mounted ranging companies. Running down the officers ans NCO's has so far been a dry hole.
From George Bonnell’s book we know for certain that Mount Bonnell had been named at least by April 1840. The visit by Sam Houston and “Three Legged Willie” earlier in 1840 would serve to confirm that. William Bollaert’s assertion that Edward Burleson named it in 1838 was discredited by George’s own diary.
Then consider Secretary of War Johnston’s April 21, 1839 letter to George Hancock of Louisville, KY stating, “My agent will set off in a few days to commence the building of the city of Austin at the foot of the mountain on the Colorado.” The agent was general contractor Edwin Waller. Johnston was familiar with the terrain and he knew Burleson well. Had “the mountain on the Colorado” had a name by then, would he not have used it?
That leads us to a bracket between April 1839 and April 1840 in which the naming likely took place, which in turn leads us back to Johnston organizing Austin’s defenses and naming key terrain features as control measures for deploying and maneuvering his troops. Mount Bonnell covered two major Indian trails into the construction site, and as the senior government official on the ground in a frontier setting Johnston had the means, motive and opportunity to name the peak. But so far this is all circumstantial, still no conclusive evidence, no “smoking gun.”
Any ideas? Maybe an 1839 Ranger's field map labeling Mount Bonnell by name? Or some participant's memoir somewhere? Stephen Moore's, Savage Frontier: Rangers, Riflemen, and Indian Wars in Texas, Volume II, 1838-1839, was instrumental in providing rosters of the four participating volunteer mounted ranging companies. Running down the officers ans NCO's has so far been a dry hole.
