Rusk by Alton Bridges

 

Thomas J. Rusk

By Alton Bridges

[Alton Bridges was born and raised in Lumpkin County.  His family operated a store in Auraria during the gold rush and still lives in the community today. He has written several articles about the gold rush and the people who lived in the area during the days of the gold rush.]

The town of Auraria was situated on a small hill between the Etowah and Chestatee Rivers. The distance between the two rivers is only two miles, which gave the miners easy access to either of these streams for gold mining. With so many people of all classes coming to Auraria, the town soon found a need for lawyers to help settle disputes. When Auraria was at its peak, a dozen of the greatest lawyers of any town its size lived and practiced law there. All would leave the town and become outstanding jurists.

Thomas Jefferson Rusk was an ancestor of Dean Rusk, who was the Secretary of State on the United States under Presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson during the 1960s. He was also a relative of Henry Rusk, one of the "Four Georgians" who founded Helena, Montana. Rusk was born at Ft. Hill, the plantation of John C. Calhoun, which today is the Clemson University campus. (Clemson was an engineer and the son-in-law of Calhoun, who owned gold mines near Auraria). Calhoun taught the youngster law.

When Rusk was a young man, he moved to Habersham County (Ga.) where his family was in the mercantile business. He helped  with the business until admitted to the Georgia bar. (Remember at that time, the counties in North Georgia were Hall and Habersham and Indian, or Cherokee, territory. Clarkesville was the county seat for what is today Forsyth, Gilmer, Dawson, Lumpkin, White, Union, Towns and the counties of this area). In a few months, Rusk followed the gold fever and established an office in Auraria, which had a small courthouse.

At the corner of what is today Ben Higgins Road and Highway 9-E, the United States government built a fort, which was known as “The Station” and “Ft. Floyd,” which was the headquarters of Gen. Winfield Scott when the Cherokees were rounded up for the "Trail of Tears." The commander of “The Station” was Gen. Ben Cleveland, who was a grandson of Col. Benjamin Cleveland, the hero of the Battle of Kings Mountain during the Revolutionary War. Many people in the mountains of North Georgia are descendents of the mountain men and the British who fought at Kings Mountain. Rusk married Mary F. Cleveland, the daughter of Col. Cleveland, in Clarkesville, Georgia in 1828. She was called “Polly” and Rusk was very devoted to her and their family throughout his life.

Rusk practiced law in Auraria and acquired interests in several mining operations in the area. As the gold mines began to decline, Rusk learned that other shareholders absconded with the gold and went to Texas.   Rusk was a brilliant lawyer who showed great promise, but was fast ruining his life by dissipation. One day Dr. George Phillips had a serious talk with his young friend and offered him $100, then told him to go to Texas and make a man of himself.  In 1835 Rusk left Georgia and went to Texas to find his former partners had gambled away their money and were broke. Rusk moved to Nacogdoches, Tx. and began raising cattle and sheep while trying to establish his law practice.

Throughout his life the red-haired, beefy six-foot Rusk was a stable and unflappable leader respected by everyone. Even though Rusk was a recent arrival in Texas, the people of Nacogdoches selected him to be a delegate to the convention which declared the independence of Texas on March 21, 1936. Anson Jones was elected President of the Republic and Rsk the first Secretary of War of the new Republic.

Soon Santa Anna and his brother-in-law, Gen. Cos, began a long march from Mexico to San Antonio to destroy the Texians. At the convention to establish a government and army, Gen. Sam Houston, who was already well-known in Texas and the United States, was chosen as the military leader. Houston did not feel the Texians were ready to fight the well-trained, well-supplied Mexican army and began to lead the citizen-soldiers on a long march from San Antonio to near what is today the city of Houston. Houston ordered the Texians at the Alamo to evacuate the old mission and fort and follow him, but they chose to fight and every Texian at the Alamo was killed and their bodies burned. One woman was allowed to leave the fort to tell of the murder and massacre.

As Houston led his ragged army across Texas, he met Georgia native Col. James Fannin, Jr. and told him not to fight Santa Anna, but Fannin too ignored the order and chose to fight at the little community of Goliad. On Mar. 27, 1836 Fannin surrendered his force of about 400 men to the invaders. The Anglos, including a battalion of soldiers from Georgia, understood they were to be prisoners of war and returned to the United States pursuant to a decree of the Mexican government that foreigners taken on Mexican soil would be returned. Instead they were shot down mercilessly one week after they surrendered and their bodies burned. As the morale of the soldiers and the people of Texas declined, Houston continued to march and avoid a battle with the Mexican army. Pres. David G. Burnet dispatched Rusk to tell Houston to stop fleeing and fight the Mexican army and gave Rusk authority to relieve Houston of command. "The enemy are laughing you to scorn. You must retreat no further," Burnet scolded Houston. "The country expects you to fight. The salvation of the country depends on your doing so."

When Rusk arrived and met Houston, he saw how little food, supplies and arms the army had. Instead of reporting this back to Jones, Rusk stayed with Houston. A few days later, Houston got his opportunity. On April 20 the Texians and Mexican army had a brief skirmish, but about 4:30 the next afternoon while the Mexicans were enjoying a siesta in a little bayou near a river at San Jacinto, the Texians attacked.  

Another Georgian who arrived as the Battle of San Jacinto began was Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar, who was well-educated and from a very prominent Georgia family. Lamar, who had been promoted from private to general because of his bravery in the skirmish the day before, led his horsemen in a charge on the Mexican left flank. Early in the Battle, Houston was shot in the ankle but still was the leader and an inspiration to the troops. Rusk and his brother David helped the semi-conscious Houston from the field after his staggering white charger received its fifth wound and sank to its knees. Rusk took command of the forces after Houston was wounded. Houston attempted to stop the attack after the first volley from the Texians' rifles, but Rusk was not so timid. He rode on to the field shouting, "If we stop, we are cut to pieces! Don't stop - go ahead - give them Hell." The battle lasted less than 20 minutes, but the slaughter lasted longer. Houston, Rusk, Lamar and Edward Burleson lost control of their men. The army became a wild mob in a killing frenzy crying “Remember the Alamo," "Remember Goliad." The blood-thirsty Texians killed until they were too exhausted to continue. The Mexican soldiers not killed fled only to be captured and either killed or kept as prisoners. The entire Mexican army was destroyed. Santa Anna ran and spent a miserable night hiding in a marsh. The next day he was captured dressed in a private's uniform. Later Santa Anna would say, "I never thought that a moment of rest...could be so disasterous."

Rusk retained command of the Texas army until October 1836, when he resumed his duties as Secretary of War. Rusk was again selected by the people of Nacogdoches as Member of the Second Congress of the Republic of Texas. The White Texians claimed the land in east and central Texas and the Cherokees claimed land in west Texas. After the destruction of Santa Anna and his army, the Mexicans began to cause conflict between the Indians and the Texians. Sam Houston had been raised by and maintained very close relations with the Cherokees throughout his life.

In the summer of 1838, Houston dispatched Gen. Rusk to put down the Mexican rebels and their Indian allies, which was done with relative ease. Rusk promised the Cherokee chiefs, The Bowl and Gatunwali, or Big Mush, that an official boundary line would be run between the lands claimed by the Cherokees and the Texians - a first step in guaranteeing the Indians possession of their lands. Rusk surveyed and established the boundary lines. Houston respected and trusted Rusk and told Bowl, "Genl Rusk will protect you. Look to him as a friend."

Texas and the Cherokees maintained the treaty until after the death of Houston and Rusk. Rusk became the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas in 1838 and served until 1842. In 1843, he was appointed brigadier general of militia of the Republic of Texas in 1843. Because of the heavy debts incurred by the Republic of Texas, Texas agreed to become a part of the United States. Rusk was President of the convention that confirmed the annexation of Texas to the United States in 1845. After Texas was admitted to the union on Feb. 19 and Anson Jones resigned as President of the Republic of Texas, J. Pickney Henderson was sworn in as Governor of the state. As the flag of the Old Republic was lowered, the wooden flag pole broke in two.

On Saturday, Feb. 21, the Legislature convened to elect the first U.S. Senators from Texas. Sam Houston received 70 votes and Rusk 69. Rusk and Houston were sworn in as members of the Senate on March 29. The flamboyant Houston wore a vest made of the spotted fur of a Mexican jaguar. Houston was better known that most of the giants in the Senate, which included Clay, Webster, Calhoun, Benton and Van Buren.  Rusk admitted he was neither intellectually nor socially equal to other members of the Senate and was not qualified to be a U.S. Senator, but he turned out to be a great Senator. While Houston was traveling around the country giving speeches, Rusk was establishing a reputation as the working Senator from Texas. Rusk was again united with his mentor, Calhoun. However in Jan. 1849, Calhoun called a caucus of all the Senators and Representatives from the South and produced the Southern Address, which threatened that the South would secede from the Union rather than suffer the imagined wrongs inflicted by the anti-slavery Northern tormenters. Neither Houston nor Rusk signed the Address. On November 26, 1856, Texas lawmakers unanimously re-elected Rusk to another term in the Senate - a year ahead of time. At the same time the legislature condemned Houston, but his term did not expire until March 4, 1859, three years hence.

In 1857, Rusk was elected president pro tempore of the U.S. Senate. Polly became sick and died. Soon Rusk became despondent and grieving over the death of his wife. On July 29, 1857 in Nacogdoches, Rusk took his own life. On Jan. 19, 1858, Houston delivered the eulogy to Rusk in the Senate and asked for a 30-day mourning period for his former colleague.

Rusk was one of the greatest men in Texas history and was a leader in both Texas and the United States from 1835 until his death in 1857.  Rusk, Texas was named for the youngster who came to Auraria to practice law and learned the fine arts of the trade arguing cases against such great lawyers as George W. Paschal, William Dawson, Stephen D. Crane, William Y. Hansel, Seaborn Jones, Eli S. Shorter, William H. Underwood and others.


 

Email from Bill Rusk:

I read on your web site (prepared by Alton Bridges) that Thomas Jefferson Rusk was an ancestor of Dean Rusk. This is commonly believed, but is not true. Dean Rusk was a descendant of James Rusk who was born in Ireland in 1776. Thomas Jefferson Rusk was son of John Rusk (also born in Ireland--between 1750 and 1760). It has been speculated (but without proof) that James and John may have been brothers, but it is doubtful. For Dean Rusk's genealogy, read chapter 1 of "As I Saw It" by Dean Rusk. I am a great-great grandson of David Rusk (T. J. Rusk's brother). My Rusk from Ireland Web Site is located at http://billrusk.home.attbi.com/