Collection of Texas Stories

By Dudley Johnson

The book consists of five short stories. They cover a range from treasure hunting to modern day working cowboys. There is a story about two retired gentlemen from South Texas fishing in the Rocky Mountains. One is about deer hunting in central Texas. The treasure hunting story is about a beach comber that lives along the Gulf Coast of Texas. One story is about the Texas revolution in 1836. This book has some factual locations in it. They are all fiction. Some are written with things that happened in my life to me. The story about fishing in the rocky mountains never happened. I do have a friend that owns a farm/ranch in South Texas. We go there sometimes and in the evenings we talk or tell stories. That is as close to actual fact as any one of them get.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Sep 30, 2015
• ISBN: 9781514400678

Dudley Johnson

I am T. Dudley Johnson. I was born in 1943 in Karnes county Texas. My parents were black land farmers. I was raised in the farming and ranching business. At the age of twenty one I switched to the petro-chemical manufacturing business. I spent most of my adult life working in pipeline and underground storage of petro chemical products. When I retired my name and reputation was known on three continents and four countries. I have worked with people from all over the world. At one time I have spoken three languages. I have many stories to tell. It has been my life’s ambition to publish a novel.

Book preview

Copyright © 2015 by Dudley Johnson.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2015913748

ISBN:            Hardcover                           978-1-5144-0066-1

                      Softcover                             978-1-5144-0065-4

                      eBook                                  978-1-5144-0067-8

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 08/21/2015

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Contents

THE BATTLE OF THE AGUA DULCE CREEK AND SAN PATRICIO, TEXAS

1836

Introduction

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Author’s Afterword

LOUIE THE BEACH COMBER

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

The Author’s Afterword

THE CONTRACT COWBOY

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

The Author’s Afterword

THE ELUSIVE BROWN TROUT

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

The Author’s Afterword

THE BATTLE OF THE AGUA DULCE CREEK AND SAN PATRICIO, TEXAS

1836

Introduction

On October 2, 1835, the first shots of the Texas Revolution were fired at Gonzales (Texas), Mexico. It is now the city of Gonzales, Texas. The city is located southwest of San Antonio, Texas.

The dispute was over a cannon that the Mexicans had given the citizens of Gonzales to defend their selves against the Indians who were raiding the settlers.

The Mexican army was afraid that a rebellion was about to begin. They wanted to take it back. The Texans would not give it back to them. There was a battle flag raised that had a picture of a cannon on it and the words come and take it.

The Texans were successful in driving the Mexican army away.

The next major conflict came with the siege of Bexar (San Antonio) and the battle of Concepcion, located south of Bexar.

The siege lasted for over two months. The battle of Concepcion was won by the Texans’ volunteers. General Perfecto de Cos conceded defeat and surrendered. All the Mexican troops were removed from Bexar by December 12, 1835.

Sam Houston had been appointed head of the Texas army at a meeting of all delegates at Washington on the Brazos.

His biggest problem was that he did not have an army. He appointed William B. Travis and James Jim Bowie as officers in charge in Bexar. He appointed James Fannin and Frank W. Johnson in charge at Goliad.

Captain Johnson and James Grant went to South Texas to catch some Mustang horses for the Rebel Texans.

The area in between the Nueces and the Rio Grande rivers was known as the Wild Horse Desert. There was, and still is, very little freshwater between the two rivers.

The community of Banquete, located about ten miles south of the Nueces River, is like an island. It has the Agua Dulce Creek on the west and the Banquete Creek on the north, east, and south. The community itself was named Banquete because travelers would stop and celebrate having survived the long march across the Wild Horse Desert. It is also a crossroads community. The road running from Corpus Christi to the east goes toward Laredo on the west. The road running north and south are between Matamoros and Bexar (San Antonio). They cross at the intersection of State Highway 666.

Our story begins with the meeting of General Houston and Colonel William B. Travis.

Chapter 1

Colonel Travis, you are to meet Mr. Jim Bowie in Bexar and destroy the Mission Valero. Then advance to Goliad. Colonel Fannin and Frank Johnson have five hundred men. We will defend Goliad. Santa Anna will have to stop and fight. He cannot let the Texas Army get behind him.

Travis frowns and says, Sir, Jim Bowie is nothing but a drunk and a knife-fighter. It is my opinion that he is not qualified to lead men.

Colonel Travis, Jim Bowie has been in more fights then you have ever seen. People everywhere know him. He is a natural leader.

Yes, sir.

Travis, I know you have military training and you know how to teach men to follow orders without question. But Bowie can get just as much out men because they respect him and are willing to lay down their lives for him. Do you understand?

Yes, sir, General.

In the meantime I have to train these few men and more, I hope, to be fighters. This whole army is just volunteers. These men are farmers and hunters, not fighting men in an army, Houston told Travis.

"I have sent Colonel Fannin and Frank Johnson to take command of the La Bahia mission outside Goliad. They can stop any army coming from Matamoros and also any troops that land at Copano. When Santa Anna hears his troops are stopped, he will head that way to rescue them.

If you and Bowie sac Bexar and move your men to La Bahia to help Colonel Fannin, you can give me time to build an army out of these men. Do you understand, Colonel Travis?"

Yes, sir, I do. I don’t agree with you, but you are the general.

That evening, General Houston sent a letter to Colonel Fannin instructing him to keep his troops at La Bahia. "The mission at Refugio is too small to defend and the people in that area should join others and head for the United States border. We cannot protect them. We will be leaving Gonzales in the morning. We plan to stop in San Felipe where if necessary we can