Section 32:  The Mexican War

Pretty soon after the election of James K. Polk in 1844, after the acquisition of Texas, the country got into complications with Mexico about the strip of country between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande resulting in the Mexican War. It was believed by a great many, and with good reason, that this war was precipitated on the country in the interests of slavery. There is little doubt with prudence and a decent regard for the rights of a weaker power this complication might have been amicably adjusted; but the southern states were aggressive and in sympathy with the President. Although believing the war to be unjust, I felt a keen interest in the success of our armies and no man exulted more in the success of General Taylor on the Rio Grande and General Scott in the center of Mexico than I did. There was really a good deal of good generalship and severe fighting in that war. The volunteer troops were principally from the southern states and it was an excellent training school and many of the officers and best fighters that gave us so much trouble in the war of the Rebellion. I kept a file of all the papers containing official reports of the battles fought throughout the entire war, but in the political campaigns of 1848 and 1852 I used them in making speeches through the county and many of them got lost.

One of the early settlers of our town was a half-witted fellow named Henry Gompors.

One spring about the time of the breaking out of the Mexican War, Tom Sutton, B. I. Reid and a passel of the boys, in the spirit of fun and mischief, elected Gompors burgess of the Borough which so inflated him that he was easily persuaded to call a meeting of the citizens to deliberate on the momentous situation of the country in view of the impending war with Mexico.

The meeting was a prodigious success, and the solemnity of the occasion was such that the burgess himself had to preside. Sutton and Reid were on hand engineering the meeting with resolutions prepared which were carried unanimously. I believe the purpose of them was that in view that a marauding band of Mexicans might come along some time and if not protected might sack the town, and recommending the erection of fortifications on graveyard hill to repel any onslaught of the enemy. Well, the boys had their fun and the burgess was dropped out and went back to his saddlers bench.

In 1848 the unfortunate little simpleton joined a company of young men of his native town of Indiana and went to California to dig gold. After being there a year or two he got into a fight with a companion named Spotswood and stuck a knife into him, killing him at once. It was in the days of vigilance committees and the miners immediately called a meeting to determine on the character of the murder and the punishment of the murderer. If he had any defense, he had not sense enough to make it and he was condemned to hang the next evening at sundown. He never tried to escape but spent the hours between the sentence and execution in writing to his father and addressing his prayers to his Heavenly Father and at sundown was hung -- and his bones rest along the foothills of the Sierras. I always felt sorry for the fate of the poor silly fellow. The chances are that he committed the murder in resentment of some dishonesty practiced on him.