Tuesday, October 4th, 1864

To day the boys are still at work hauling seed cotton from Mrs. Beazley's and made two more loads. I again rode up to the war tax assr. to correct my inventory. Mr. K. Murchison came by and from him I purchased 62 pounds of wool for which I am to pay him 310 lbs of flour. Father [Joshua James Hall] came up & remained for dinner. Three soldiers stopped for supper and 2 others came & staid for the night. Hicks ground 6 bushels of corn. Weather clear & cold with a frost at night being the earliest frost I ever remember to have seen during my residence in Texas.

Friday, April 19th, 1861

To day the river attained its greatest highth, coming within about two feet of the ware house sills and overflowing a large scope of country below and above this point. But little business doing in the way of selling goods. weather clear and pleasant.

August 18th, 1860

The Keeper of the Journal -- James Madison Hall (1819-1866) -- is taking a break from writing of the daily happenings in his life . . . he will take up his pen again in a few weeks . . . on the 6th day of September . . . in 1860 . . . but in the meantime, elsewhere in Texas on this date . . . the 18th day of August . . .

ALAMO EXPRESS [San Antonio, TX], August 18, 1860, p. 2, c. 1. To the Reading Public. — For many reasons we consider good, we present to you the Alamo Express for your inspection and, we hope, approval. We commence this little enterprise under almost the same auspices we did the present Herald of our city some five years ago. In this connection we would say, that the Herald has fallen into speculating hands, has deserted the ways of righteousness and political honesty, and turned down the broad road of political sin. It has turned a complete flip flop into the extreme little end of democracy.

Politically, we are in favor of an opposition to secession and disunion whether headed by Lincoln or Breckinridge. We are for the "Constitution, the Union and the enforcement of the laws," a platform broad enough to hold every American citizen within the borders of our great Republic.

Aside from politics we will advocate everything we think will benefit our State, county and city; education, internal improvements, &c.

We start the "Express" because we believe another paper is needed in this city and surrounding country.

Because there is a sentiment in the country, of no mean pretensions, which we sympathise with, that needs an expression — a medium — the Conservative Union sentiment.

And lastly, because we are a practical printer. It is our legitimate business and we consider we have a right to set up in the community; as much so as any other tradesman.

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BELLVILLE [TX] COUNTRYMAN, August 18, 1860, p. 2, c. 4. Letter from Dallas. [Special Correspondence of the Telegraph.] Dallas, July 25. Ed. Telegraph.—Three negro men, the leaders in the insurrectionary plot, were executed at this place last Tuesday evening. One of them, Pat. Jennings, was the man who applied the torch to the town of Dallas, and one of the most prominent of those who were engaged in the work. Sam. Smith, another and a preacher, was a hardened old scoundrel, and the third — old Cato — has always borne a bad character in this county. They were taken out of jail, escorted to the place of execution by the military, and, in the presence of a large concourse of people, expiated their crimes as justice demanded. They betrayed no discomposure in view of the awful fate before them. Pat positively refused to say anything, and died with as much indifference as if he had been about his ordinary occupation. With unparalleled nonchalance, he retained his chew of tobacco in his mouth, and died with it there. They hung about twenty minutes, Pat dying very hard, and the other two without a struggle — the former by asphyxia and the two latter by dislocation of the cervical vertebrae.

This is a fearful warning to the rest, who yet may share the same fate. In Waxahachie, many important developments have been made, and a large amount of poison found in the possession of negroes. The whole affair will have the most important results. The dangerous sentiments entertained by some people will be shown up in their naked deformity, stripped of all adventitious coloring. Men in high places will find a practical interpretation of their political dogmas in the view taken of them by deluded negroes. The plot to devastate northern Texas is dated from a certain time, and based upon facts calculated to mislead a people no better informed than our negro population. The danger of suffering negroes to go out to celebrations, to hear political speeches and to hold meetings of their own, is rendered apparent by the developments connected with this matter. We have learned a lesson, and will profit by it.

BELLVILLE [TX] COUNTRYMAN, August 18, 1860, p. 3, c. 1. We hear by Ed Tucker who is just from Houston, that it is reported there that the towns of Tyler and McKinney have been burnt up.

Saturday, August 11th, 1860

To day I arrived at the wharf of Galveston at 6 a.m. and stoped at the Tremont Hotel, and left Galveston at 3 P.M. on the Steamer ?. expenses of the day $6.50. weather clear & warm.



YAZOO DEMOCRAT [Yazoo City, MS], August 11, 1860, p. 2, c. 5. The Incendiary Outrages in Texas. -- The Houston True Southern, of the 28th ult., has the following paragraph on this subject: Just as we are going to press, news has arrived here from a reliable source that 22 negroes have been arrested and are to be hung in Waxahatchie to-day.

Our fellow-citizen, Mr. H. L. Cotton, informs us that a letter was received by Thursday's mail, by his niece in this place, from Mrs. Bennett, of Austin, giving an account of a fearful attempt made about the 22d inst., to reduce our capitol to a heap of ashes. The daring experiment was made to set fire to some twenty-five of the principal edifices of the city; fortunately, however, the flames were discovered and extinguished before any serious damage had been sustained. On the night previous, the Austin correspondent to whom we are indebted for the intelligence we are recording, had been keeping vigils over the sick bed of a friend, when she observed a sheet of flame bursting from a neighboring house, which, in consequence of timely warning, the citizens were enable to arrest and save the building from impending ruin.

At present, says Mrs. Bennett, the whole population of the metropolis are under arms, and laboring under the most intense excitement. A police force, consisting of from sixty to ninety men, maintaining the strictest system of vigilance, by night and by day.

In all the counties visited lately by fires, committees to investigate the subject have been appointed, and the most efficient citizen patrols have been established. In Grimes county a meeting of citizens resolved: That there is among the negroes in the county a disposition to revolt and be insubordinate; that this feeling is produced by the influence of certain white persons in the county; that it is time steps be taken to rid the community of these men; that preaching to the negroes in the county be stopped, at least for one year; that Northerners coming into the county under pretence of being ministers, teachers, drummers, &c., are to be regarded with suspicion and received with caution; that a vigilance committee be appointed, patrols organized, and other measures for safety be taken.

A couple of suspicious strangers from Kansas are recollected as having been seen in Dallas two days before the fire, and a day or two afterward. They are thought to have had some agency in the work of destruction.

Thursday, August 9th, 1860

To day I left New Orleans on the Steamship Charles Morgan and had a pleasant run on the gulf which was smooth & beautiful. expenses of day $15 for my passage to Galveston and $3.75 Hotel bill. weather clear and very pleasant.

Thursay, August 2nd, 1860

Thursday, August 2nd, 1860. To day at 6 O'Clock A.M. I left the City of New York on the steamer Richard Stock in route for home and arrived at South Amboy at 9 O'Clock A.M. There I took the cars and arrived in Philadelphia at 12 O'clock ? for dinner. Thence on to the City of Baltimore, and put up at Barnum's Hotel [pictured here]. expenses of the day $5.50. weather clear & warm.

July 19th, 1860

On this date in 1860 . . . the Keeper of the Journal, aka James Madison Hall, is in New York with his father, Joshua James Hall . . . and there are no Journal entries for the rest of the month of July . . . but elsewhere in Texas . . .

150 years later . . . comments on the Texas Troubles of 1860

DAILY GAZETTE & COMET [BATON ROUGE, LA], July 19, 1860, p. 2, c. 1. The Town of Dallas, Texas Consumed. -- The Houston Telegraph gives an account of a destruction conflagation [sic] which visited Dallas on Sunday the 8th inst. With the exception of a few dwelling houses, the entire place is in ashes. The loss is estimated at $300,000.

TEXAS BAPTIST [Anderson, TX], July 19, 1860, p. 2, c. 5. The Drouth. We have just returned from Huntsville. The roads continue dry and dusty. Farmers are much discouraged. Corn crops are about a total failure in many fields, and the best is not half a crop. -- Cotton is now presenting a gloomy prospect, a few very small bolls have matured and are opening. The most of the young bolls and forms will soon fall off unless it rains soon. The cotton crop is likely to be a worse failure than the corn crop, in the counties we have seen. We hope our friends in the northern part of the State will pity us and send us some flour, and some small grain of different kinds to sow for our stock during the winter. We want Barley, Rye, Wheat and oats.

TEXAS BAPTIST [Anderson, TX], July 19, 1860, p. 2, c. 6. Fire at Dallas. -- We are sorry to learn that nearly the whole of the town of Dallas was destroyed by fire on the 7th instant, leaving not a hotel, store, or office hardly remaining. The loss is estimated at between $3000,000 [sic] and $500,000. The fire spread with such rapidity that very little was saved, and part of the goods taken out of some of the buildings were consumed. This will be a severe blow on that growing place, as we understand there was but little insurance. It is supposed to have been the work of abolition incendiaries.

Colonel James Wrigley 1822-1896

Colonel James Wrigley, a retired citizen of Alvarado [in Johnson County], is one of the oldest residents of Texas [as of ca. 1892]. He was born in Johnstown, Montgomery county, New York, in 1822. His father, also named James, was an Englishman, and his mother, whose name before marriage was Sarah Phelps, was of Welsh descent. Edwin Phelps, Commissioner of Agriculture for the State of Michigan, is an own cousin of Col. Wrigley's. The Phelps family is a very large and noted one.


Colonel Wrigley's father was born at Leeds, Yorkshire, England, became a weaver by trade, and emigrated from England to the United States after the Revolution, and before the broadcloth power looms were in vogue. It is recorded by the Pittsfield (Massachusetts) Sun that in 1803 the first piece of broadcloth ever made in the United States was manufactured by James Wrigley, Sr. A man named Schofield came with him from England, bringing the first carding machine, and set it up in Connecticut. Afterward he went into partnership with Mr. Wrigley, the father, in Pittsfield, and with another man named Pomeroy. The war of 1812 came on, and the company failed, after which Mr. Wrigley moved to Johnstown above mentioned.


When our subject was four years of age the family removed back to Pittsfield, where his parents died. Young James was then sent, in 1832, to Pontiac, Oakland county, Michigan; but he was kicked and cuffed about so that he left there, and came to Texas, in 1844, settling at Liberty, Liberty county, where he resided for thirty-one years, engaged most of the time in the mercantile business. At one time also he had a large cattle interest, and an interest in a steamboat line on the Trinity river. From 1852 to 1856 he was a resident of Galveston. He was the first Postmaster of Liberty, after the annexation of Texas in 1845, and in that capacity made the last settlement with the Government in 1856.


His first disaster was the loss of a $10,000 warehouse on the Trinity river in the year 1868 [sic, i.e., 1865]. The next was the loss of the steamer Alice M., during a storm, in which he was a one-third owner. In 1881 his dwelling-house in Liberty was burned, without insurance upon anything, and he lost with the rest all the souvenirs of fifty years' collection. About the year 1858, he was a charter member of a company organized to locate a route for the Trinity Valley railroad, and was elected president of the company; but the war came on too soon for the execution of their enterprise.


During the last war he served four years. He commanded a battalion, which surrendered at Vicksburg in 1863. It was a part of T.N. Waul's Legion of Texas. He first enlisted as a private in a company raised in Liberty county and went to Brazos-Santiago. Afterward he raised a company for E.B. Nichols' regiment, and when that was disbanded he raised a company for Waul's Legion, intended for service in the Mississippi Department under Van Dorn. His experiences on the battle-field in that department were at Coldwater, Mississippi, then on the line of the Tallahachie, Coffeeville, Grenada, Fort Pemberton, Yazoo river, and finally at Vicksburg, under Pemberton. His command marched up as the last to report at the surrender. He and his men had been at Vicksburg forty-seven days. Waul's Legion made up the number to about 33,000 men, and they were all paroled. He and his regiment then came across the river, and he turned to his Texan home, where he remained until exchanged. Then he went to the mouth of the Brazos and re-entered the army, under Magruder, but saw no active service.


Colonel Wrigley has occupied high positions in the Masonic order, being at one time grand Junior Warden of the Grand Lodge of Texas, Grand Generalissimo of the Grand Commandery, and Deputy Grand High Priest of the Grand Chapter. He is a member of the blue lodge in Alvarado and also of the chapter there; and he also belongs to Cleburne Commandery No. 12, of which he has been Captain General. In the Odd Fellows he is now District Deputy Grand Patriarch of the Patriarchs Militant.


For his wife the Colonel married a daughter of Billups Gayle, in Liberty county, Texas. The family were from Alabama, of which State John Gale was at one time Governor, and afterward United States Judge. Mr. Billups Gayle was for seven years cashier of the Mobile State Bank, as early as 1835, etc. The Colonel has four children living.

• The eldest [Lela, b. 1850] is now residing in San Angelo, the wife of E.L. Jones;
  
• the second is John B. Wrigley [1855-1927], now in the confectionery business in Alvarado, a partner of the firm of Colston, Kelsey & Col.;
  
• the third-born is Mrs. George [Ida, b. 1859] Bristley;
  
• and the remaining daughter [Annie Corrine 1864-1951] married Dr. B.G. Prestridge of Alvarado.
  

Luke H. Wrigley, a prominent young attorney of Albion, Nobel county, Indiana, is a nephew of the Colonel; so is also Roy F. Wrigley, who has extensive mining interests in Colorado.

Original data: A Memorial and biographical history of Johnson and Hill Counties, Texas : containing the early history of this important section of the great state of Texas, together with glimpses of its future prospects, also biographical mention of many of the pioneers and prominent citizens of the present time, and full-page portraits of some of the most eminent men of this section. Chicago: Lewis Pub. Co., 1892. [database on-line]. Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005. Pages 572-574.

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Dallas Morning News, 21 May 1896. Wrigley - Alvarado, Texas, May 19 - Col. James Wrigley died very suddenly Saturday night. Col. Wrigley was born in Montgomery County, New York, August 13, 1822. He came to Texas in 1844 and settled in Liberty County, where he resided for forty-one years. He was elected mayor of the city of Alavardo in 1894 and served two years. During the late war he commanded a battalion, it being a part of Waul's Legion. His wife is a daughter of Billups Gayle of Alabama. He leaves four children. He was buried with Masonic honors by the Cleburne commandery.

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1850 Census Liberty County, Texas

• Gayle, Billips 47 M SC
  
• Gayle, Anna A. 42 F Ga
  
• Gayle, Caroline A. 16 f Ala
  
• Gayle, Billips E. 12 M Ala
  
  
  
• Wrigley, James 28 M NY
  
• Wrigley, Anne G. 21 F SC (Ala?)
  
• Wrigley, Lela J. 1/12 F Tex
  
• + 4 boarders
  
  

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1860 Census Town of Liberty Liberty County, Texas 06 June 1860

From 1860 Census

• James Wrigley 37 M Merchant 15,000 2000 New York
  
• Ann E. Wrigley 31 F Alabama
  
• Lela J. Wrigley 9 F Liberty Co.
  
• John B. Wrigley 3 M Galveston
  
• Ida Wrigley 1 F Liberty Co.
  
• Ann P. A. Gayle 49 F Georgia
  
• C. A. Bolling 27 F -- 1500 Alabama
  
• James E Bolling 2 M Liberty Co
  
• B. B Fathine 34 M Physician 500 Mississippi
  
• Danl Cleveland 51 M Town Marshal 5000 500 Vermont
  
• B. F. Rhoads 38 M Stock Driver 1550 240 Tennessee
  

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1870 Census Liberty County, Texas 12 July 1870

• Wrigley, James 47 M W Merchant 250 New York
  
• Wrigley, Annie E. 41 F W Houskeeping 2500 Alabama
  
• Wrigley, John 15 M W 50 Texas
  
• Wrigley, Ida E. 11 F W Texas
  
• Wrigley, Annie C. 6 F W Texas
  
  
  
• Sunday May 11th 1862. Today Capt James Wrigley’s wife was delivered of a female child, slightly hair lipped. (10) I bought from Jim Rogers negro man 200 pues (11) for 7$. River still rising. weather changeable and showery.
  
• Monday May 12th 1862. Today the steamer Ruthven arrived with Capt James Wrigley and Ed. Jones on board. In the evening I assisted Capt Wrigley in burying his dead infant. The boys [are] busy in the ware house. The river [is] still rising. weather changeable with occasional showers of rain.
  
  

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1880 Census Liberty County, Texas Liberty Town

• James Wrigley, 57 WM NY Eng Ma Farmer
  
• Anne E. Wrigley 50 WF Al Al Ga wife (Gayle)
  
• John B. Wrigley 25 WM Tx NY Al Son Oc: Depy Co Clerk
  
• Annie C. Wrigley 16 WF Tx NY Al dtr at home
  
• Ann J A Gayle 73 WF Ga Va Va Mother-in-law
  
• 3 servants