A Re-Typed Newspaper Article about Edward Nixon Gray and his La Gloria Ranch (i.e., “The Glory Ranch”) San Antonio Light, June 25, 1885 A TRUE TEXAS VETERAN THE THRILLING INCIDENTS OF THE LIFE OF CAPTAIN GRAY A Model Texas Ranch, on Which Reigns Peace and Plenty For the past three or four days a pleasant and talkative man was seen about the front of the Southern hotel, always in pleasant conversation with some one. He is about 60 years of age, smooth face, close cut gray hair, light blue eyes, about five feet six inches, and weighing probably 170 pounds, but spry and lively. He word an ordinary black hat, black alpaca coat, and gray pantaloons, and in appearance was a comfortably fixed country merchant. So much for appearance, but in fact Captain Edward N. Gray, is a Texas veteran, than whom none more truly deserve the title nor is prouder to wear it. Those who picture this class of citizen as tall and gaunt, and uncouth manners, simply do not know their subject. That class of men are usually counterfeits, who try to appear what they never can be. Captain Gray is a typical Texan, of correct habits, and does not either drink or smoke, and has seen the infant republic born and helped nurse it in its infancy, and with pride sees its growing and majestic development as a State. While not a native he was brought here by his parents from New York as a mere child, and has been on the frontier ever since, living a life that would fill volumes of the most thrilling romance, and does not mind entertaining appreciative friends with the captivating and interesting tales of border life. At the breaking out of the Texas revolution he was a mere child , but yet his dozen years could be utilized in the infant navy of the budding nation. He served along the Texas coast, and after the independence, and finally the annexation, which he strenuously opposed, he went to work in the Galveston Civilian office as a printer under the veteran journalist, Colonel Hamilton Stewart. The case was too confining for such a free spirit as that of Ed. Gray, and he left his situation of $75 a month and shipped aboard a coast trader at $8 a month. As a sailor he visited all the Gulf ports and many of the West India islands. The war with Mexico broke out and Ed. Gray was hot and eager for the fray. He joined Jack Hays’ battalion and served with that gallant frontier chief to the end, and then participated in the hundreds of Indian battles all over this Western country which fill the brilliant pages of Texas history. Captain Gray had command of the boats that left Ringgold barrack (Fort Ringgold, located at present day Rio Grande City, TX) carrying the United States boundary surveying party which he took to the mouth of the Pecos through a country filled with hostile Indians and not any too friendly Mexicans. The frontier, with all its dangers and hardships, had an irresistible temptation for a free and easy spirit like that of young Gray, and he could not escape it, and was as free as the wind until he fell captive to the soft glances of the luminous black eyes of a senoritas from Camargo, Mexico. He surrendered himself to the ungalling chains of matrimony and has been working in its harness up to the present time, and is now the happy father of 16 children, eight boys and eight girls, many of whom are now men and women. His oldest daughter, married 10 years, is the mother of six boys and one girl. In 1854 Captain Gray, now thoroughly domesticated but still in love with the wild Southwest, settled at Concepcion, Duval County. He served all through the Confederate war, and after the break up returned to his humble ranch and began life anew. Like every one in that section he had his bunch of cattle and horses, and also had a small store. Notwithstanding his large family, he prospered, and a few years ago he sold out at Concepcion and bought the ranch known as La Gloria, 15 miles northwest of San Diego. Here he has concluded to live and die, and has used all his energy, experience and intelligence to make it a fit place wherein a deserving man would wish to end a life full of incidents. La Gloria has some 55,000 acres all under fence, but unlike many Texas ranches, it is something besides a pasture, it is what is known in the North as a farm, and in the South as a plantation, Captain Gray claims that no section of Texas is more capable of a high cultivation than what is about San Diego, as a proof of which he will show what he has done and has growing on his place. He has a successful orchard of several thousand trees of every variety that can be grown in the State, beautiful shrubs and plants without end and variety, and this season has over 500 acres of corn that was assured crop before he left his home three weeks ago. He has plenty of water all over the ranch, which is pumped from wells by wind mills. His stock is composed principally of horses and cattle, the grade of which he is rapidly improving. He is now on his way to a Northern market with 700 head of horses and 1500 cattle, which he is driving, accompanied by one of his sons. While they were passing Castroville the Captain thought that he would like to see “Old Santone” again where he had passed so many happy hours in his youthful days as a ranger under Jack Hays. He could hardly recognize the place with its four and five story business palaces in place of thatched jacals (a simple hut) of the days long gone by. Like most Texans, Captain Gray has the faculty of entertaining friends by pretty tall stories, one of which he told to a circle of eager listeners about the Southern the other evening as an illustration of the wonderful fertility of the soil about San Diego, that the cotton and castor oil bean plant became perennial, and that he had seen 15 men taken refuge in the branches of a cotton tree. On account of its immense growth it is not a profitable crop, as it cannot be picked without the plants being chopped down with an axe. From appearance the hearty veteran is yet good for more than a score of years, and may he realize to the utmost extent his fondest hopes in making his model home.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 06:08:20 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015