by Celia Yeary
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| GIRL IN SUNBONNET-WINSLOW HOMER-1878 |
Dilue Rose was only ten years old when
she and her family were caught up in the terrible exodus called The Runaway Scrape. They'd moved
to Texas only two years before and had barely settled in near Harrisburg when
word came that Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna and his Mexican army were gathering
on the Rio Grande River. The war between Texas and Mexico had begun.
The residents around San Patricio,
Refugio, and San Antonio began to move east in large groups as early as January.
In March, Sam Houston arrived in
Gonzales and learned of the fall of the Alamo. He decided on retreat to the
Colorado River and ordered all inhabitants to leave everything and accompany
him. People from all over Texas began to move toward Louisiana and Galveston
Island to escape the Mexican Army. This began the Runaway Scrape on a very
large scale.
Like all others, Dilue Rose's parents,
Dr. Pleasant Rose and wife Margaret, were ill-prepared for the long trek east.
In their state of panic, they left food on the table, a fire in the fireplace,
stock to be tended, and chickens left to roam.
No one made proper preparations to
survive on the run. They used any means of transportation available, or none at
all, meaning many walked, including women and children. Babies and toddlers
were carried which made the flight even more difficult.
As a young girl, Dilue followed her
family as all other children did in a desperate attempt to get to Louisiana or
Galveston Island.
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| DILUE ROSE HARRIS |
As an elderly woman, Dilue used her
father's journal along with her childhood memories of the horrors of The
Runaway Scrape to write memoirs of those days. Those pages were used to write
her story in various publications, including a book titled Texas Tears and
Texas Sunshine-Voices of Frontier Women.
Dilue writes:
"We left home at sunset, hauling
clothes, bedding, and provisions on the sleigh with one yoke of oxen. Mother
and I were walking, she with an infant in her arms, while Father rode their one
horse. Brother drove the oxen and my two little sisters rode in the sleigh.
When we got to the San Jacinto River,
there were five thousand people waiting for the Lynchburg Ferry. We waited
three days before crossing.
Our hardships began there. The river was
rising and there were struggles to see who should cross first.
Measles, sore eyes, whooping cough, and
every other disease known to man broke out. We got on the ferry first because
of my little sick sister. The horror of crossing Trinity was difficult to
describe. Once on the ferry, the flood waters broke over the banks above. It
took eight men to get us to safety."
By April 1 the
prairie was a scene of chaos and desolation and death. The spring rains fell in sheets, making every
river crossing a terrifying ordeal. Women floundered waist-deep in mud, babies
in their arms. Some families gave up
running and simply cowered where they were, in the tall prairie grass and
bottomland canebrakes. Many refugees sickened and died along the trail. Children
were abandoned. Thieves stole horses, claiming they were for Houston's Texian
Army.
After weeks of
intolerable conditions, a young man rode toward their camp, shouting,
"Turn back! Turn back! Houston's army has whipped the Mexicans, and it's
safe now. Go home! Turn back!"
They soon
learned that the return trip was just as horrendous as the running away.
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| SANTA ANNA ON LEFT IN RED CAPE. SAM HOUSTON LYING ON GROUND, WOUNDED |
Dilue writes:
"We
crossed the San Jacinto River and stayed late into the night on the San Jacinto
battlefield. A soldier asked my mother to go with him to see Santa Anna as a
captive and the Mexican prisoners, but she would not go, saying she was not
dressed to go visiting. Instead, I got permission to ride there with him.
Earlier, I had
lost my bonnet in the raging river, and Mother made me wear a tablecloth tied
over my head.
But I wouldn't wear the tablecloth again since I would be seeing some of
the young men.
I was on the
battlefield of San Jacinto on April 26, 1836. Two days later I turned eleven
years old.
We left the
battlefield late in the evening. We had to pass among the dead Mexicans, and
once Father had to stop and pull one out of the road so we would not run over
the body.
The prairie
was very boggy, it was getting dark, and now there were thirty families with
us. We were glad to leave the battlefield, for it was a gruesome sight. We
camped that night on the prairie, and could hear the wolves howl and bark as
they devoured the dead."
The family
arrived home after many days of grueling travel. When they arrived, they found
the house ransacked, dishes broken, furniture tossed about and broken, the
floor torn up, and hogs running around in the house. They had practically
nothing, and so the starting over began.
"Father
had hidden some of our better things in a big chest so that no one could find
them. We had left in our better clothes. Now our better clothing was in that
chest, and among them was my old sunbonnet. I was prouder of that sunbonnet
than anything, for I was sorely tired of wearing that tablecloth."
--Dilue Rose
was born in 1825 in St. Louis, Missouri on April 28.
--After the
Texas Revolution, her family moved to the area of Bray's Bayou five miles
outside Houston.
--There, Dilue
attended school.
--At age 13,
she married Ira A. Harris who served with the Texas Rangers.
--They had
nine children.
--Ira died in
1869 at age 53.
--Dilue died
in 1914 at age 89.
NOTE: One of
Dilue's little sisters died during The Runaway Scrape. If you recall reading my
post of a couple of months ago titled, "Mary and a Horse Named
Tormentor," she also was in the Runaway Scrape with her husband and
babies. One of her babies died during the exodus, as well.
Celia Yeary
Romance...and a little bit of Texas
Sources:
The Handbook of Texas On-Line: State Historical Association
Texas Tears and Texas Sunshine: Voices of Frontier Women
Reminiscences of Dilue Rose Harris
Mike Kearby's "Texas"
Wikimedia Commons.
Public Domain Photos
