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When
Juan Antonio Badillo left East Texas in 1836 and enlisted for six
months service with the new Republic of Texas, he left two legacies.
One, he was one of only a handful of Tejanos - Mexicans born in
Texas - who died at the Alamo
on March 6, 1836. Two, he left a still-standing log cabin that could
be among East Texas' oldest structures.
Badillo -- who is listed among some records as Antonio Padillo --
was apparently a surveyor living around Nacogdoches in the 1830s.
He also owned a few parcels of land, including 520 acres on Little
Elkhart Creek near the present community of Grapeland in Houston
County.
When Badillo decided to fight for Texas' independence, he deeded
the Houston County property to the Sheridan family, with whom he
had become friendly.
On the old Sheridan farm -- now owned by the Musick family -- is
a rambling, two-story house with a native rock chimney. The left
side of the house, although covered in boards, is a log cabin hand-hewn
from native logs a long, long time ago.
No one has yet proven that it was, or wasn't, built in the 1830s.
Except for the land's abstract listing Badillo's one-time ownership,
there are few clues to the Alamo soldier's past.
He
was born in Texas and when he arrived at the Alamo,
he was made a non-commissioned sergeant in a cavalry company raised
by Juan
Sequin, a rancher and Bexar political leader who opposed Santa
Anna.
Badillo fought with Sequin in the siege of Bexar in 1835, which
placed San Antonio in Republic hands. He accompanied Sequin back
to the Alamo in 1836 and died there while Sequin and a fellow soldier
were trying to enlist reinforcement troops in towns surrounding
San Antonio.
After
Badillo's land in Houston County became the property of the Sheridans,
the Musicks bought the property from two Sheridan daughters. Today,
Billie Musick lives on the property, located deep in a hardwood
and pine forest near Grapeland.
The Musick house, an old-fashioned dog-trot farmhouse, has been
remodeled several times since its beginning as a one-room log cabin.
Not far from the old house is a rock-fenced family cemetery where
a tombstone marks the graves of William N. (Bill) Sheridan and his
wife, Mary Calhoun Sheridan. Bill was born in 1826 -- ten years
before the Alamo's fall -- and died in 1918. Mary was born in 1837
and died in 1900. Other graves date back as far as 1889.
We'll
never know if Badillo's story is true or just an interesting family
legend, but we do know he died at the Alamo and was one of six to
ten defenders with Mexican surnames.
Regardless of his past in East Texas, Badillo left a legacy of noble
sacrifice that has contributed to the rich history of Texas.
All
Things Historical
>
March
14-20 , 2004 column
A syndicated column in over 40 East Texas newspapers
Published with permission
(Distributed by the East Texas Historical Association. Bob Bowman
is the author of thirty books on East Texas and a past president
of the Association.)
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