ROBERT B. RUSSELL OF ORANGE FOUGHT AT SAN JACINTO
By W. T. Block
In 1971 I found the tombstones of Benjamin Johnson in Sabine Pass Cemetery and Robert B. Russell in Orange's Evergreen Cemetery, but there was no inscription that revealed that both men had fought at the Battle of San Jacinto.
I likewise learned Jacob H. Garner and Niles F. Smith of Sabine Pass and Charles Cronea in High Island Cemetery were also Texas Revolutionary veterans. Garner and Cronea had fought at the Battle of San Antonio under Col. Ben Milam, and Smith had been an engineer in the Texas Army. Eventually when their Texas State Historial markers were dedicated, I was priveleged to make 4 of the 5 dedicatory addresses, and anyone who passes their graves today will know of their military exploits.
R. B. Russell occupied many important posts during his lifetime. He was born at Utica, NY on April 17, 1817; at age 18 in 1835 he accompanied his brother-in-law, Alanson Canfield to San Augustine, Texas. In March, 1836, he enlisted in Capt. Ben. F. Bryant's militia company, which joined Gen. Houston's army at Groce's Plantation about April 1st. Russell fought at the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836, and in July, 1836 he and Canfield served another 90-day enlistment in a Sabine County company.
On June 1, 1841, Russell married Lavina Brownrigg (1821-1899) at San Augustine, and in time they became the parents of several children. In 1840 Canfield bought the San Augustine Redlander, and he built the newspaper into one of the 3 most influential papers in the Texas Republic. Russell learned to set type on the Redlander, and when Canfield moved to Sabine Pass in 1846, he sold out to Russell, who continued the former's astute style of editorship. In 1850 Russell also sold out, after which he too moved to Sabine Pass in Oct. 1850 and bought out Canfield's mercantile business. In 1854 Russell moved to Orange, where he built a hotel and would live for the remainder of his life.
Russell was appointed United States postmaster at Orange on March 4, 1860, and he became Confederate postmaster there on Aug. 5, 1861. He continued in office until 1866, at which time the Reconstruction government evicted him from office.
In 1866 Russell bought the Robert Jackson sawmill at Orange and converted it into a cypress shingle mill; the mill's upright marine steam engine had been salvaged from the sunken steamer Rufus Putnam, which had snagged and sank at Eaves' Plantation in 1841. In 1877, following 11 years of operation, Russell had produced 50,000,000 shingles, which he mostly exported to Galveston on nis 2 schooners. Employing 50 mill hands, Russell's mill cut 75,000 shingles daily at first, but by 1875, his mill's production had been increased to 125,000 shingles daily.
Robert B. Russell was killed in an accident at his mill on November 29, 1880. According to his obituary in Beaumont Enterprise of December 4, 1880 (also in Galveston Daily News of December 9), Russell was crushed between two moving box cars in process of loading shingles at his mill. Russell's sons continued operation of the mill until it burned in June, 1890.
Canfield also served as a captain during the Mexican War of 1846-1847; he too died in Orange in 1873, and his obituary survives in the Beaumont News-Beacon. While I enjoy writing about the aging World War II veterans, it is imperative to remember those who fought in earlier wars, since the Battle of San Jacinto bought us our freedom from Mexico.
W.T. Block. Used with permission.
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