“A gift to the Roos from his famiLEE Made the trip to Grayson CounTEE In the AC library under lock and KEY Now we don’t know where it might BE Davy, Davy Crockett, where is your pocket watch chain?”
Roo Tales are about “ending the isolation” of that small school in Grayson county by tying its faculty, administration and student body to larger events in the world, nation, or the state of Texas. I’ve been having a lot of fun finding Roo ties to numerous Texas institutions from the past. However, for some time I have struggled to find a connection to perhaps the biggest Texas icon there is: The Alamo.
But no longer! Today is March 6th, the anniversary of the fall of Davy Crockett and other Texians at the battle of the Alamo. This is the Alamo Roo Tale of Davy Crockett.
Crockett famously came to Texas by way of Tennessee. According to local legend, he first entered Texas in 1836 not far from Austin College. Residents of what would eventually be Fannin county insist that Crockett took a steamer up the Red River, disembarked, and stumbled upon a grove of trees with spectacular honey-producing bees. The locals say he called the place “Honey Grove,” a name which the town would keep. Every year the town of Honey Grove hosts a “Davy Crockett Festival;” I bet Kangaroo & Honey Grove native JR Ohr has been to a few.
But of course, we do know Crockett’s story after that. He journeyed south, joined the Texian army, and defended the Alamo for 13 days until its fall to Santa Anna’s Mexican army on March 6th. Alamo Scholars are still debating about whether Crockett was killed in battle or executed by Mexican troops. But we do know this. Crockett’s life ended on March 6th, 1836 on the receiving end of a Mexican bullet.
And that’s where this Roo Tale begins.
After the removal of items of value, the bodies of the fallen at the Alamo were cremated by the Mexican army over the days that followed. With Santa Anna moving on to places named Goliad and San Jacinto, family of the deceased Texians left for San Antonio to retrieve what remained of their kin. Davy Crockett family members arrived at the Alamo, and there made a startling discovery. Within the ashes, they identified the chain of Crockett’s pocket watch. Knowing that the chain would have been snatched up by Mexican army regulars had it been visible, Crockett family members made the assumption that the bullet which killed Davy Crockett drove the chain into his body. The Crockett family departed the Alamo with the chain in hand.
Fast forward 20 years.
In 1856, the chain was in possession of Davy Crockett’s cousin, a Mrs. A. S. Wilson. Wilson decided to donate the historically significant relic to the care of a Texas College. Unfortunately for her, there were only two in the entire state. Lucky for her though, one of those colleges was right down the road. Wilson resided in Huntsville, TX. She donated Davy Crockett’s chain to Austin College, and appended a note to document the item:
“Fragment of watch chain worn by Davy Crockett, imbedded in his body by a Mexican bullet, and removed on the morning after his death at the Alamo, March 6, 1836. Given to the Philomathean Society of Austin College by a cousin of the old hero, Mrs. A.S. Wilson of Huntsville, March 1856.”
The chain and attached documentation were placed within an “old Spanish Testament” and left in the Austin College library. And there it stayed hidden. For almost 70 years.
The chain saw many Austin College students leave for war in 1861, and fewer return in 1865. The chain saw AC struggle through both the post-war yellow fever years and the sad end to the democratic experiment known as Reconstruction. The chain even made the trip to Sherman in 1876, and somehow survived the 1913 burning of the library in Old Main. A new library, located in Sherman Hall, became the new home of this Crockett Alamo artifact.
And then on a winter’s day in 1925, it reappeared.
Two visiting Presbyterians reverends just happened to be browsing the AC Library’s collection of old texts, when they stumbled upon it. The chain. The story. The documentation. Both Austin College librarian R.R. Harwell and President Thomas Clyce were dumbfounded and unable to explain the find. They were, however, pretty excited about it. The story appeared in numerous Texas newspapers around the state. The January 4th, 1925 edition of the Marshall News Messenger reported that the “watch chain has become a center of interest in a number of other relics which the college possesses. There is a movement on foot to house the collection and make of it a historical museum, possibly in honor of Stephen F. Austin, for whom the college is named.”
See the comments for this absolutely INCREDIBLE newspaper article about Davy Crockett, Austin College, and this Alamo relic.
My Kangaroo buddy John Talley recently celebrated a birthday in San Antonio. Dianne and I headed down for his birthday lunch, where we toasted JT alongside Jason & Lisa Lindsay Johnson. When it was time to leave, we didn’t immediately return home to Austin. We swung by the Alamo. I had some Roo questions.
We tracked down a member of the Alamo artifacts staff, and told him the story. He said that he vaguely recalled something like we described, but was unsure. He suggested we reach out to the Alamo Curator via email. We did just that, and are currently awaiting a reply. The staffer also wondered whether the chain might be in storage. I asked if the storage was in the Alamo basement. He laughed. “THERE’S NO BASEMENT IN THE ALAMO!” (sorry)
For fun, I also reached out to former Genesis drummer Phil Collins via social media accounts. Collins is one of the biggest Alamo enthusiasts in the world, and recently donated his huge private collection to the Alamo and the State of Texas. Maybe ol’ Phil had the Austin College pocket watch chain at one time! In spite of my efforts to reach out to Collins, I have still received “NO REPLY AT ALL.” (again, sorry)
I’ve spent a good deal of time online trying to track down the relic, without much luck. I’m struggling to find newspaper accounts after 1925, and magazine / book /web searches are not yielding a doggone thing. Hopefully the Alamo curator will get back to me with news soon. But if he reports that he’s never heard of the thing, then we are back to square one again.
Basically, I’m trying to answer the following questions:
(1) Is the chain found in the AC library in 1925 a legitimate Alamo relic? (2) What is the story of the chain since 1925? Was it ever in the hands of a collector? (3) Where in the world is that chain today? Has it been returned to the Alamo?
So that’s where you can lend a hand. If this sounds like fun, you can help me answer the questions above and fill in the gaps. Think of it as a “Roo Tales” alumni Jan Term project.
It’s March 6th. The Roo ties with San Antonio are strong today. AC Women’s Basketball is in San Antonio, playing against Mary Hardin-Baylor in the NCAA Tournament. Today is also the 184th anniversary of the fall of the Alamo, and day #1 of the journey of Davy Crockett’s pocket watch chain from San Antonio to Sherman Hall on the campus of Austin College. Hopefully, the Roos can get the win in the NCAA Tourney. And maybe with a little effort we can figure out just where the heck Davy Crockett’s Austin College pocket watch chain is today. We might even learn that it is already back at the Alamo. Where it belongs.
“A gift to the Roos from his famiLEE Made the trip to Grayson CounTEE In the AC library under lock and KEY Now we don’t know where it might BE Davy, Davy Crockett, where is your pocket watch chain?”
