[Republic of Texas]

PROMISSORY NOTE, IN MANUSCRIPT, FROM WM. H. WATTS TO AUGUSTUS STORRS, PORT CABALLO [TEXAS], APRIL 22nd, 1842.

Single sheet, 5 x 8 in., signed by Watts. Docketed on verso, "W.H. Watts to A. Storrs, Note, $51.00, Int. $14.26." Some shallow chipping along bottom edge, not affecting text. The note, in full: "For value received one day after date I promise to pay to Augustus Storrs or his order fifty one dollars par money. Port Caballo April 22nd 1842." Item #65111

Augustus Storrs (1791-1850) was born in New Hampshire, and graduated from Dartmouth College in 1812. After teaching for a couple of years he moved to Missouri, but by 1823 he had joined a caravan headed for Santa Fe. His insights as a trader on the Santa Fe Trail proved invaluable to Thomas Hart Benton as he explored Missouri's options for trade with Mexico, and the protection of both traders and settlers in the area. Storrs was appointed consul at Santa Fe in 1825, and became a Mexican citizen. In 1839, he moved to Texas and had a store at Linnville, near Matagorda Bay until the town was destroyed by Comanche in 1840. Major Hugh O. Watts and his brother William H. Watts had a warehouse in Linnville, and H.O. Watts, also the collector of customs, died in the raid. Storrs later removed to his estate at Carlos Rancho in Refugio County where he died in 1850. [see his brief biography in the Handbook of Texas (Austin: 1986), Vol. 2, p. 676; for the destruction of Linnville, see Walter Prescott Webb's "The Texas Rangers: A Century of Frontier Defense," (Univ. of Texas Pr.: 1965, pp. 58-9)]. Port Caballo, on the tip of Matagorda Peninsula, was the location of the Customs House by 1844 as the area attempted to establish a viable commercial seaport to service the towns of Matagorda Bay.

Price: $500.00