William B. Travis’s children
In one of William B. Travis’s last letters from the Alamo he pleaded for someone to “take care of my little boy.” Yes, he was the father to a young son and a younger yet daughter.
Many of the early Texans who became historically heroic characters were ‘running away’ from an earlier lifetime. Among those was Travis, the man who is said to have drawn the line in the sand within the walls of the Alamo in early March 1836.
As Joe B. Frantz, head of the University of Texas History Department in the mid-1960s, writing about Travis in the book, “Heroes of Texas,” stated “that Travis was a man of contradictions. He fought in a war that was contradictory, and he achieved his earthly immortality, as well as whatever celestial immortality awaited him, because he defied orders; the order to blow up the Alamo and abandon the area.”
Travis’s story began in what is now Saluda County, South Carolina as the firstborn son of Mark and Jemima Travis; only a few miles from one another would be Texas hero, John B. Bonham. They attended school together, never lost touch with each other and joined each other in death at the Alamo.
The Travis family moved to Alabama when William was nine. A bright student, as well as ambitious, at the age of 20 he was teaching school and studying law to become one of the leading criminal lawyers of Alabama. One of his students was Rosanna Cato. They were married Oct. 26, 1828. They did not live happily very long.
A son, Charles Edward, was born to the Travis couple the summer of 1829. After Travis left his wife for Texas, daughter Susan Isabella was born Aug. 4,1831, when her father was positively pinpointed as a Texan. There is the question that Travis may have killed a man over a question of fidelity with his wife.
Travis’s wife may also have thought she would be joining him in Texas, but no, near four years later she came to Texas requesting that he return with her or “free her.” She left young Charles Edward, about 6, in his custody at San Felipe. A divorce was granted by the Alabama legislature and she would marry a Dr. Samuel B. Cloud.
Following the Alamo, Charles was sent to New Orleans to live with his mother and stepfather. Upon their deaths in 1848, he moved to Brenham, to live with his sister, Susan Isabella, now married to John Grissett.
Charles studied law, became a member of the Texas bar, and was elected to the legislature representing Caldwell and Hays counties in 1853-54. He served briefly as a Texas Ranger, to later have a brief military career interrupted and charged with “slander” and “cheating at cards” as well as being AWOL from camp. One witness said Charles was “a mean fellow with no one respecting or believing a word he says.”
Extended court hearings were held only to declare Charles guilty. He returned to his sister’s home in Washington County to die of consumption in 1860. Travis’s “little boy” is buried in the Masonic Cemetery at Chappell Hill, Texas.
Sister Susan Isabella died eight years later in 1868 at the age of 37 to be buried nearby her brother Charles. She left a daughter and son.
Written by Betty Dunn, Two Rivers Heritage Foundation) Visit www.tworivers heritagefoundation.org for more information or to become a member.