I just received this article written by John Adams, Jr., that was sent to the Ross Volunteer Association email distribution list and thought y'all would enjoy it. It's about Shapely Prince Ross, who was Sul Ross' father.
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While many episodes of Texas frontier history involve the exploits of Sul Ross, the pioneer who trained and educated young Sul and his brother Peter, Shapley Ross, was in fact one of the original entrepreneurs to settle Texas. In recent months I have uncovered the life and times of a truly remarkable man. After the end of the Black Hawk War in the upper-Midwest, Shapley, with wife Catherine, Sul (only a few months old), and Peter, arrived in Texas in 1840. The only advance advice they received was to cross the Red River, find the Brazos River and head south. After days of travel they first camped on the banks of the Brazos at a deserted Tonkawa and Waco Indian village with only their wagons, a few livestock, and sparse belongings.
Arriving further downstream at the Nashville Trading Post, just north of present day Caldwell, he applied for and received a 640 acre land grant on the Yegua Creek. Hunting and fishing to feed his family, Shapley soon began to raise horses. His equestrian expertise resulted in joining the Texas Rangers during the mid-1840s, assigned first to the Rio Grande border and then back to central Texas.
Discharged following a number of tours with the Rangers, he was encouraged to consider development of a settlement on the Brazos. By 1850, he returned to his old Indian camp site to be the founding father of what is today Waco, Texas. For his efforts he received the sole right to open the first hotel, a couple hundred acre ranch, and the ownership of the first full-service upper Brazos cross river ferry. By the early 1850s, the majority of new settlers moving westward through East and central Texas crossed the river at Waco.
Leaving his wife in Waco to manage the hotel and ferry, Shapley was recruited to become one of few Indian Agents at the Brazos Indian Reserve up-river in what is today the Young County region. The reservation was divided into two sections: one for the Comanches and the lower section for the less nomadic friendlier Indians.
The challenge of managing the reservation and the constant outside threats from "pushy" white settlers who wanted the land was a tremendous and complex job. However, the level of Shapley's commitment to the improvement of the peaceful settlement of the Indians was reflected in him enrolling Sul, Peter, and sister, Ann, in the Indian reservation school the first Native American school of its kind west of the Mississippi.
Unable to control the growing local hostilities against the reservation Indians, the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington ordered Ross and the agents to relocate all the Indians to the Oklahoma Territory. This was a harsh and bitter sweet end to efforts to settle the Texas frontier, that even after the relocation, hostilities in the West continued into the late 1880s.
A close friend of Governor Sam Houston, Shapley returned to Waco to ranch and manage his businesses. Few are aware of his frontier exploits and his mentoring two future governors of Texas, his son Sul and Richard Coke.
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While many episodes of Texas frontier history involve the exploits of Sul Ross, the pioneer who trained and educated young Sul and his brother Peter, Shapley Ross, was in fact one of the original entrepreneurs to settle Texas. In recent months I have uncovered the life and times of a truly remarkable man. After the end of the Black Hawk War in the upper-Midwest, Shapley, with wife Catherine, Sul (only a few months old), and Peter, arrived in Texas in 1840. The only advance advice they received was to cross the Red River, find the Brazos River and head south. After days of travel they first camped on the banks of the Brazos at a deserted Tonkawa and Waco Indian village with only their wagons, a few livestock, and sparse belongings.
Arriving further downstream at the Nashville Trading Post, just north of present day Caldwell, he applied for and received a 640 acre land grant on the Yegua Creek. Hunting and fishing to feed his family, Shapley soon began to raise horses. His equestrian expertise resulted in joining the Texas Rangers during the mid-1840s, assigned first to the Rio Grande border and then back to central Texas.
Discharged following a number of tours with the Rangers, he was encouraged to consider development of a settlement on the Brazos. By 1850, he returned to his old Indian camp site to be the founding father of what is today Waco, Texas. For his efforts he received the sole right to open the first hotel, a couple hundred acre ranch, and the ownership of the first full-service upper Brazos cross river ferry. By the early 1850s, the majority of new settlers moving westward through East and central Texas crossed the river at Waco.
Leaving his wife in Waco to manage the hotel and ferry, Shapley was recruited to become one of few Indian Agents at the Brazos Indian Reserve up-river in what is today the Young County region. The reservation was divided into two sections: one for the Comanches and the lower section for the less nomadic friendlier Indians.
The challenge of managing the reservation and the constant outside threats from "pushy" white settlers who wanted the land was a tremendous and complex job. However, the level of Shapley's commitment to the improvement of the peaceful settlement of the Indians was reflected in him enrolling Sul, Peter, and sister, Ann, in the Indian reservation school the first Native American school of its kind west of the Mississippi.
Unable to control the growing local hostilities against the reservation Indians, the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington ordered Ross and the agents to relocate all the Indians to the Oklahoma Territory. This was a harsh and bitter sweet end to efforts to settle the Texas frontier, that even after the relocation, hostilities in the West continued into the late 1880s.
A close friend of Governor Sam Houston, Shapley returned to Waco to ranch and manage his businesses. Few are aware of his frontier exploits and his mentoring two future governors of Texas, his son Sul and Richard Coke.
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