Cason, Henry

The following data is extracted from History of Fort Bend County, Texas.

There is an old Negro man of the above name still living at Richmond, who belonged to Captain Randall Jones. He says that Captain Wiley Martin lived with Captain Jones and died there, and that he waited upon him during his sickness, which lasted about three weeks. He also remembers Deaf Smith and when he died, and for many years knew where his grave was, but the spot is lost now. Henry was brought to Texas in 1832 by his master, Joseph Thompson, who sold him to Captain Jones soon after. Thompson came from North Carolina, and old man Henry was born there, but does not remember in what year. The people of Richmond say he is about one hundred years old. He was here, a grown man, in 1836 when the Mexicans came and can remember how they looked. The steamboat "Yellowstone," he says, passed Thompson's Ferry at a terrible rate of speed. The river was high and the captain put on all steam when he discovered that he was among the Mexicans. He says that the boat, in making the turn of the bend below; the ferry, struck the bank several times and turned completely around, and a merchant of Columbia named White, who was aboard, tried to get off on the bank. During this time the Mexicans at the ferry were racing across the bend to cut off the boat at Richmond and try to capture it, and he could hear them shooting rapidly. The family of Captain Jones and the Negroes, he says, stayed at Lake Creek on the Trinity River after the flight. He says General Houston stayed at their house in the bend several weeks, and suffered very much from a wound in the leg. If so, this was after the General's return from New Orleans. Another tall man also, named Johnson, came wounded in the leg and stayed for some time with Captain Jones. This might have been General Albert Sidney Johnston, who was wounded in a duel with General Felix Huston.

Source: History of Fort Bend County, Texas

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