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Leman Barker and Elizabeth James Standifer were married on Jan. 11, 1830, in a civil proceeding in Brazoria by posting a bond according to Michael Bailey from the Brazoria Museum.
The Irish-born Catholic priest, Michael Muldoon, had not yet arrived in Texas, and Austin’s Old Three Hundred settlers had no resident priest or pastor. Protestant preachers were not allowed. Austin, himself, is said to have been a Jeffersonian Deist not belonging to an organized church.
John W. Storey in the TSHA wrote, “he earnestly sought to obey Mexico's religious laws. He repeatedly reminded prospective settlers of the law and tried to avoid trouble by keeping Protestant missionaries out of his colonies. Of special concern were the aggressively evangelistic Methodists, whom Austin called ‘excited,’ ‘imprudent,’ ‘fanatic,’ ‘violent’ and ‘noisy.’ Apparently, it was the missionary Henry Stephenson who prompted Austin's outburst that ‘one Methodist preacher would cause more harm for his colony than a dozen horsethieves.’ Austin was probably rightly convinced that if Protestant evangelists could be held at bay, Mexican authorities would probably ignore private worship services in the homes of Protestants.”
The Protestant missionaries likely officiated at marriages and baptisms, but these would not have counted with the Mexican authorities.
Regarding Leman Barker and Elizabeth Standifer, they could have been married in a church. They could have traveled about a hundred miles from Elgin to San Antonio to be married in the Catholic San Fernando Cathedral. The Texas folk hero, James Bowie, married Ursula de Veramendi there on April 25, 1831. The cathedral had been founded in 1731 by families who came from the Canary Islands.
Barker and Standifer could also have been married in San Patricio de Hibernia, about 200 miles from Elgin. According to Keith Guthrie of the TSHA and to Rachel Hebert’s “The Forgotten Colony,” Irish Catholic settlers arrived by sail-powered packet ships, the brig "New Packet" and the schooner "Albion" in late October 1829. They had been recruited by advertisements in New York. They landed at El Copano and Mesquite Landing on the Texas coast. On arrival in Texas, the colonists at San Patricio “put up temporary shelters of poles chinked with mud and grass. Since there was very little timber for log cabins, they built picket houses by digging trenches and standing small tree trunks upright in them. Roofs were made of thatch, and mud filled the cracks in the walls.”
Under the direction of the Rev. Henry Doyle, the colonists established Saint Patrick's Catholic Church about 1830.
Austin's colonists didn't have a resident Catholic priest until the arrival of Michael Muldoon. Michael Muldoon, known as Austin’s priest, was born in about 1780 in County Cavan, Ireland, but was educated and ordained at the Irish College in Seville, Spain. British penal laws prohibited the teaching of the Catholic faith in Ireland. These laws restricted Catholics from holding public office, voting, owning land, leasing land for longer than 31 years, bear arms, own a horse worth more than 5£, marry a Protestant or wear distinguishing clothes. Churches could not have a steeple or display a cross, all had to tithe to the Anglican Church of Ireland, Catholics could not establish schools, and more. Muldoon arrived in Veracruz in 1821 as the priest of Juan O'Donoju, 1762-1821, the last Spanish viceroy of Mexico. O’Donoju was born in Spain, but his parents were Irish. O’Donoju died of pleurisy shortly after arriving in Mexico, but Muldoon remained in Mexico and established connections with the president, Santa Anna, and other leaders.
More about Muldoon next week.
Charlene Hanson Jordan wrote the above narrative as the sixth of a weekly column. Her newest book, “Notes & Recollections, Post Oak Island & Elgin, Texas,” is available at the Elgin Depot Museum where exhibits, photographs, and books on local history are also available. The museum is open on Fridays and Saturdays from noon to 4 p.m. Watch for notices. Every Thursday from 4 p.m to 7 p.m., “Notes & Recollections” may be purchased from the Niswandersat the Elgin Farmers Market at Veterans Memorial Park in Elgin. The book is also available at the Elgin Courier office, 105 N. Main St. in Elgin or 512-285-3333 during business hours all week, or from Charlene directly at [email protected] or 512-856-2562.
