Samuel Maverick
Encyclopedia
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
lawyer, politician, land baron and signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence
Texas Declaration of Independence
The Texas Declaration of Independence was the formal declaration of independence of the Republic of Texas from Mexico in the Texas Revolution. It was adopted at the Convention of 1836 at Washington-on-the-Brazos on March 2, 1836, and formally signed the following day after errors were noted in the...
. His name is the source of the term "maverick," first cited in 1867, which means "independently minded." Various accounts of the origins of the term held that Maverick came to be considered independently minded by his fellow ranchers because he refused to brand his cattle. In fact, Maverick's failure to brand his cattle had little to do with independent mindedness, but reflected his lack of interest in ranching. He is the grandfather of U.S. Congressman Maury Maverick
Maury Maverick
Fontaine Maury Maverick was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from Texas from January 3, 1935, to January 3, 1939. He is best remembered for his independence from the party and for coining the term "gobbledygook" for obscure and euphemistic bureaucratic language...
, who coined the term gobbledygook
Gobbledygook
Gobbledygook or gobbledegook is any text containing jargon or especially convoluted English that results in it being excessively hard to understand or even incomprehensible...
(1944).
Early years
Samuel Augustus Maverick was the oldest son of Charleston businessman Samuel Maverick and his wife Elizabeth Anderson. His MaverickSamuel Maverick (colonist)
Samuel Maverick was a 17th century English colonist in what is now 'Massachusetts,' the United States. Arriving ahead of the famed Winthrop fleet, Maverick became one of the earliest settlers, one of the largest landowners and one of the first slave-owners in Massachusetts...
ancestors had arrived in the New World
New World
The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...
in 1624 before emigrating to Barbados
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
and later to Charleston
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
. After his paternal grandfather died, in 1793 his grandmother, Lydia, married Revolutionary War general Robert Anderson. In October 1802, his father married Anderson's daughter Elizabeth, and nine months later, on July 23, 1803 Maverick was born at his family's summer home in Pendleton District, South Carolina
Pendleton District, South Carolina
Pendleton District is a former judicial district in South Carolina. It existed as a county or a district from 7 March 1789 to 20 December 1826....
. To his family, Maverick was known as "Gus".
Over the next four years the family lived in Charleston, and his mother bore four more children, one, of whom, Robert, lived less than a day. In September 1809, his sister Ann Caroline died of yellow fever
Yellow fever
Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease. The virus is a 40 to 50 nm enveloped RNA virus with positive sense of the Flaviviridae family....
. His father, having watched his ten siblings succumb to the same disease as children, moved his family permanently to Pendleton
Pendleton, South Carolina
Pendleton is a town in Anderson County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 2,966 at the 2000 census. It is a sister city of Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland....
. For the rest of his life, the elder Samuel Maverick would caution his children to always live in a healthful climate so that they would not succumb to the same disease.
While in Charleston, the elder Samuel had operated a successful business importing goods from England, Holland, Germany, Cuba, and France. After moving to Pendleton he gradually withdrew from his Charleston-based ventures and began to operate a small business in Pendleton. In 1814, the Maverick family expanded with the birth of another daughter, Lydia. Four years later, when Maverick was fifteen, his mother died.
It is likely that Maverick's early education took place at home. In early 1822, he travelled to Ripton, Connecticut to study under a tutor. In September of that year he was admitted to Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
as a sophomore. At Yale, he was known as "Sam". After graduating in 1825 Maverick returned to Pendleton and apprenticed under his father to learn business affairs. For the next year, his father deeded him land, and on February 4, 1826 he made his first land purchase, acquiring half a lot in Pendleton.
In 1828, Maverick traveled to Winchester, Virginia
Winchester, Virginia
Winchester is an independent city located in the northwestern portion of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the USA. The city's population was 26,203 according to the 2010 Census...
to study law under Henry St. George Tucker, Sr.
Henry St. George Tucker, Sr.
Henry St. George Tucker, Sr. was a Virginia jurist, law professor, and U.S. Congressman .-Biography:Tucker was born in Williamsburg, Virginia on December 29, 1780. As a young man, Tucker pursued classical studies at the College of William & Mary; he graduated in 1798...
. He became licensed to practice law in Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
on March 26, 1829 and several weeks later received his license to practice in South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
. He soon established a law practice in Pendleton. The following year he ran for a seat in the South Carolina legislature, advocating for a peaceful resolution to the tariff problem and against nullification. This was not a popular strategy, and Maverick placed 9th out of 13 candidates, gathering 1,628 votes.
Maverick relocated to Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
in early 1833, where he unsuccessfully ran a gold mine. He returned home at the end of the year. On January 24, 1834, he left Pendleton for Lauderdale County, Alabama
Lauderdale County, Alabama
-2010:Whereas according to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau:*86.4% White*10.0% Black*0.4% Native American*0.7% Asian*0.0% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander*1.4% Two or more races*2.2% Hispanic or Latino -2000:...
, taking 25 of his father's slaves to operate a plantation his father had given him. They arrived in March. Later that year his widowed sister, Mary Elizabeth, moved to Alabama to live near him with her three children. Maverick did not enjoy running a plantation, primarily because he did not like supervising slaves. On March 16, 1835, he left Alabama to go to Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
.
Texas Revolution
Maverick took the brig Henry from New Orleans and arrived at VelascoVelasco, Texas
Velasco was a town in Texas, United States, that was later annexed by the city of Freeport. Founded in 1831, Velasco is situated on the east side of the Brazos River in southeast Texas. It is sixteen miles south of Angleton, Texas, and four miles from the Gulf of Mexico.The town's early history is...
, at the mouth of the Brazos River
Brazos River
The Brazos River, called the Rio de los Brazos de Dios by early Spanish explorers , is the longest river in Texas and the 11th longest river in the United States at from its source at the head of Blackwater Draw, Curry County, New Mexico to its mouth at the Gulf of Mexico with a drainage...
, in April 1835. His interest in Texas extended back almost ten years, as in 1826 he noted in his journal that Stephen F. Austin
Stephen F. Austin
Stephen Fuller Austin was born in Virginia and raised in southeastern Missouri. He was known as the Father of Texas, led the second, but first legal and ultimately successful colonization of the region by bringing 300 families from the United States. The capital of Texas, Austin in Travis County,...
had received a land grant and that Mexico was quickly being settled. When he arrived, there were fewer than 30,000 people living in the territory, which was then part of Mexico. Maverick immediately set out to buy land, making his first purchase on May 20. To officially transfer the title, Maverick had to go to San Felipe
San Felipe, Texas
San Felipe, also known as San Felipe de Austin, is a town in Austin County, Texas, United States. The town was the social, economic, and political center of the early Stephen F. Austin colony. The population was 868 at the 2000 census.-History:...
, and he spent the next several months traveling up and down the Brazos River from San Felipe looking for more land to buy. After recovering from a bout of malaria, Maverick journeyed to the drier climate of San Antonio
San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...
, which was surrounded by large swaths of unclaimed land. Fifteen days after arriving in San Antonio he began buying large tracts of land
At this time there was much political unrest in Texas, as the colonists did not trust Mexican president Antonio López de Santa Anna
Antonio López de Santa Anna
Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón , often known as Santa Anna or López de Santa Anna, known as "the Napoleon of the West," was a Mexican political leader, general, and president who greatly influenced early Mexican and Spanish politics and government...
to abide by the promises that had been made in the Mexican Constitution of 1824. The Mexican government believed that the colonists were preparing to revolt and hand Texas to the United States. After having been held in a Mexican prison for over 18 months, a newly released Austin returned to Texas with stories of what he had seen in the Mexican capital, and on September 19, 1835 he issued a call to arms. The first shot of the Texas Revolution
Texas Revolution
The Texas Revolution or Texas War of Independence was an armed conflict between Mexico and settlers in the Texas portion of the Mexican state Coahuila y Tejas. The war lasted from October 2, 1835 to April 21, 1836...
soon occurred at Gonzales
Gonzales, Texas
Gonzales is a city in Gonzales County, Texas, United States. The population was 7,202 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Gonzales County.-Geography:Gonzales is located at...
. General Martín Perfecto de Cos
Martín Perfecto de Cos
Martín Perfecto de Cos was a 19th-century Mexican general. He was married to Lucinda López de Santa Anna, sister of Antonio López de Santa Anna.-Background:Cós was born in Vera Cruz in the year 1800, the son of an attorney...
, the commander of the Mexican army in San Antonio, was distrustful of the Anglos in the area, and on October 16 he placed a guard at the door of the home where Maverick was staying. Maverick, his host John Smith, and another boarder, A.C. Holmes, were forbidden to leave the city. The Texan
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
army soon arrived and, by October 24, had initiated the Siege of Bexar
Siege of Bexar
The Siege of Béxar was an early campaign of the Texas Revolution in which a volunteer Texan army successfully defeated Mexican forces at San Antonio de Béxar . Texians had become disillusioned with the Mexican government as President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna's tenure became increasingly...
. Maverick had long kept a diary, which provided a "generally faithful eyewitness record of the events" of the siege. During this time, Maverick and his fellow prisoners sent missives to the Texans with information about the occurrences within the city, with many of them going to his childhood friend Thomas Jefferson Rusk
Thomas Jefferson Rusk
Thomas Jefferson Rusk was an early political and military leader of the Republic of Texas, serving as its first Secretary of War as well as a general at the Battle of San Jacinto. He was later a U.S. politician and served as a Senator from Texas from 1846 until his suicide...
.
On December 1, Cos allowed Maverick and Smith to leave the city. They approached the Texan army, offered their first-hand knowledge of the situation, and urged an attack. The commander of the army, Edward Burleson
Edward Burleson
Edward Burleson was a soldier, general, and statesman in the state of Missouri, the Republic of Texas, and later the U.S. state of Texas....
, recommended a retreat instead. Ben Milam offered to lead an attack, and several hundred men volunteered to accompany him. On the morning of December 5, Maverick guided Milam's detachment into the city, while Smith guided a second detachment under Colonel Frank Johnson. For five days the men fought building-to-building. During the fighting, Milam took a bullet to the head, and Maverick caught his body as it fell. Cos surrendered on the morning of the sixth day, and Maverick attended the surrender ceremony with Burleson and Johnson.
The provisional Texas government had decided in November that all land sales in Texas after August 20, 1835 would be voided, but with the hostilities temporarily over Maverick continued to buy land in and around San Antonio. He remained with the army stationed at the Alamo
Alamo Mission in San Antonio
The Alamo, originally known as Mission San Antonio de Valero, is a former Roman Catholic mission and fortress compound, site of the Battle of the Alamo in 1836, and now a museum, in San Antonio, Texas....
. The garrison was prohibited from voting in the election for San Antonio delegates to the Texas independence convention because they were considered transients. The men held their own election, and chose Maverick and James Butler Bonham, who had worked as a lawyer in Pendleton at the same time as Maverick. Bonham declined to accept his nomination, and Jesse Badgett was elected in his place.
Although Badgett left for the convention, Maverick remained at the Alamo until March 2, the same day the other delegates were signing the Texas Declaration of Independence
Texas Declaration of Independence
The Texas Declaration of Independence was the formal declaration of independence of the Republic of Texas from Mexico in the Texas Revolution. It was adopted at the Convention of 1836 at Washington-on-the-Brazos on March 2, 1836, and formally signed the following day after errors were noted in the...
. By this time the Alamo was surrounded by Mexican troops, and, according to Maverick's children, when Maverick left William Barret Travis, the commander of the Texan forces at the Alamo, urged him to convince the convention to send reinforcements. Maverick arrived at the convention on Saturday, March 5, with his friend Smith, who carried Travis's final missive. The convention was in recess for the weekend, but a special session was called for the following day. By the time the special session concluded, the Battle of the Alamo
Battle of the Alamo
The Battle of the Alamo was a pivotal event in the Texas Revolution. Following a 13-day siege, Mexican troops under President General Antonio López de Santa Anna launched an assault on the Alamo Mission near San Antonio de Béxar . All but two of the Texian defenders were killed...
had concluded, and the Alamo defenders were all dead. Maverick signed the Texas Declaration of Independence the following day, and remained at the convention to help draft the new Texas constitution. Despite his efforts, the new constitution rendered his land claims after August 20 invalid, but it also provided land grants to each resident as of March 2. On March 16, the convention adjourned, having completed a constitution and elected an interim government. Maverick traveled with another delegate to Nacogdoches, where he remained for several weeks while suffering from an illness. After recovering, he returned to Alabama to help his sister.
Marriage and return to Texas
Shortly after returning to Alabama, Maverick met eighteen-year-old Mary Ann AdamsMary Maverick
Mary Ann Adams Maverick , was an early Texas pioneer and author of memoirs which form an important source of information on daily life in and around San Antonio during the Republic of Texas through Civil War periods....
, whom he married within three months. At the beginning of 1837, he sold his Alabama plantation and with his wife moved to New Orleans, both to receive faster news from Texas and to supervise the agent who was conducting mercantile activities on his behalf. In March, Maverick brought his wife to South Carolina to meet his father. The elder Maverick offered to give the newlyweds his plantation, but Maverick refused as he wished to return to Texas. While they were in South Carolina, Mary Maverick gave birth to a boy, Samuel Maverick, Jr..
In October 1837, the new family and seven slaves left South Carolina. After a brief stop in Tuscaloosa, they travelled overland to the Republic of Texas
Republic of Texas
The Republic of Texas was an independent nation in North America, bordering the United States and Mexico, that existed from 1836 to 1846.Formed as a break-away republic from Mexico by the Texas Revolution, the state claimed borders that encompassed an area that included all of the present U.S...
, accompanied by their slaves, Mary's brother Robert, and his three slaves. The party reached Texas near New Year's Day 1838. On February 4, they reached the home of George Sutherland, and the bulk of the travelling party remained as boarders there for the next four months. Maverick continued to San Antonio and began buying headright
Headright
A headright system is a legal grant of land to settlers who lived in Jamestown, Virginia. Headrights are most notable for their role in the expansion of the thirteen British colonies in North America; the Virginia Company of London gave headrights to settlers, and the Plymouth Company followed suit...
certificates using the money he received from the sale of his lands in Alabama. He received his own headright on March 2 after four citizens testified that Maverick had participated in the Texas Revolution.
Maverick's family joined him in San Antonio on June 15, 1838, where they rented rooms in the same home as Mary's brother William. They purchased their own home along the San Antonio River in early 1839, where their son Lewis Antonio Maverick was born in March 1839.
By the end of 1839, Maverick had purchased 41 lots. He assumed that there would be an influx of settlers eager to buy the land, but emigration slowed after 1838. Maverick received his Texas law license in November 1838 and began arguing cases in district court. In January 1839 he was elected the mayor of San Antonio. During his one-year term, he also acted as city treasurer and served as a precinct justice of the peace. For the next several years, Maverick spent a great deal of time away from home, either surveying frontier lands or traveling to New Orleans on business. He narrowly escaped death while on a surveying trip in late 1839. Because he had promised his wife that he would be home on a specific day, Maverick left the surveying camp early. Later that day, Comanche
Comanche
The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Historically, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian...
s raided the camp and killed all but one person, who was scalped.
Comanche raids were frequent in the San Antonio area, and Maverick joined the militia. When an attack was noticed, the church bell would ring, and Maverick and his fellow militia members would have to be ready to leave within 15 minutes. They would chase the raiders with the hopes of recovering captives and any stolen goods. Maverick participated in the Council House Fight
Council House Fight
The Council House Fight was a conflict between Republic of Texas officials and a Comanche peace delegation which took place in San Antonio, Texas, on March 19, 1840. The meeting took place under a truce with the purpose of negotiating peace after two years of war. The Comanches sought to obtain...
on March 19, 1840, as the citizens of San Antonio attempted to capture or kill a band of Indians who had reneged on previous agreements to return captives. Two days after the fight, Maverick left for New Orleans, leaving his family under the protection of his wife's two brothers. During his trip, he collected money from rents on various properties and sold more of his lands in Alabama and South Carolina. He used the money to buy two years of provisions, which he shipped to Linnville. Before he could escort the goods to San Antonio, a band of Indians led by Buffalo Hump
Buffalo hump
Buffalo Hump was a Native American War Chief of the Penateka band of the Comanche Indians...
raided Linnville and destroyed all of the supplies.
In December 1840, his wife's uncle, John Bradley, moved to Texas with his wife and their young children and settled near the Mavericks. By the end of the year, Maverick owned full title to 4605 acres (18.6 km²), with 12942 acres (52.4 km²) under survey. The following year, Maverick became the treasurer of the city council.
Imprisonment
In February 1842, word came that Santa Anna was again sending troops into Texas, which Mexico still regarded as a rebellious province. The Mavericks joined a group of Anglo Texans fleeing San Antonio, an event later known as the Runaway of '42. After a brief stop in SeguinSeguin, Texas
Seguin is a city in Guadalupe County, Texas, in the United States. It is part of the San Antonio-New Braunfels Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 22,011; the July 1, 2009 Census estimate, however, showed the population had increased to 26,842...
, they moved on to Gonzales, and squatted in a house left empty when the owners had fled in the Runaway. Maverick and the other men in the party joined Texan army troops to retake San Antonio, but the Mexican army retreated without a fight, although they caused extensive damage to the homes of the Texas citizens.
Maverick moved his family to LaGrange after several Indian scares in Gonzales, and on April 30 he left for Alabama to retrieve his wife's younger sister, who had been living alone since her mother died the year before. Maverick returned to Texas in July, and the following month he again left his family, this time to go to San Antonio to argue a case before the district court. In early September, San Antonio was surrounded by Mexican troops led by General Adrian Woll
Adrián Woll
Adrián Woll was a French soldier of fortune and mercenary who served as a general in the army of Mexico during the Texas Revolution and the Mexican-American War.-Biography:...
. The approximately 60 Anglo-Texans in town gathered in Maverick's home, but were soon forced to surrender to the army.
On September 15, the Anglos were forced to march towards Mexico with a guard of 150 Mexican soldiers. Two bands of Texans tried to rescue them; neither succeeded, and the second, which included Mary's uncle John Bradley, was also captured and joined Maverick's group in their march. For three months the group marched, finally stopping at San Carlos Fortress
San Carlos Fortress
The San Carlos Fortress is a fort in the city of Perote, in the Mexican state of Veracruz. It is also known as the Fort of San Carlos, Perote Castle, the Castle of San Carlos, Perote Prison, San Carlos de Perote Fortress, and San Carlos de Perote Castle.The fortress was built from 1770 to 1776 by...
in Perote, Veracruz. Although the journey was difficult and the men were often forced to sleep in manure-filled sheep pens, in his journal Maverick wrote that he "'saw and experienced a thousand new thrills.'" On the fifth day after their arrival at the fortress, the men were chained together in pairs. Several days later they were put to hard labor. On behalf of the men, Maverick complained about the almost non-existent food rations and was rewarded with solitary confinement on January 5, 1843.
Despite his imprisonment and the fact that his family now lived in Fayette County
Fayette County, Texas
Fayette County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of 2000, the population was 21,804. Its county seat is La Grange. Fayette is named for the Marquis de la Fayette, a French nobleman who became an American Revolutionary War hero...
, Maverick was elected by the people of San Antonio to represent them in the Seventh Texas Congress. He was unable to attend the legislative session. Maverick was offered his freedom several times, on the condition that he publicly support Mexico's claim to Texas. Maverick responded, "'I cannot persuade myself that such an annexation, on any terms, would be advantageous to Texas, and I therefore cannot say so, for I regard a lie as a crime, and one which I cannot commit even to secure my release.'" The Mexican government finally released him on March 30, the same day his wife gave birth to a daughter, whom she named Augusta. On May 4 Maverick returned home, bringing with him the chain with which he had been bound.
Texas Congress
By June, Maverick had returned to San Antonio on court and land business. He was reelected to the Texas House of RepresentativesTexas House of Representatives
The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the Texas Legislature. The House is composed of 150 members elected from single-member districts across the state. The average district has about 150,000 people. Representatives are elected to two-year terms with no term limits...
, gaining 202 votes, the highest total of the 3 candidates. As part of the 8th Texas Congress
Congress of the Republic of Texas
The Congress of the Republic of Texas was the national legislature of the Republic of Texas established by the Constitution of the Republic of Texas in 1836. It was a bicameral legislature based on the model of the United States Congress...
, Maverick and his colleagues met at Washington-on-the-Brazos rather than at the state capital, Austin
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
, which was vulnerable to Indian and Mexican raids. In his time in office, Maverick helped pass a bill, over President Sam Houston
Sam Houston
Samuel Houston, known as Sam Houston , was a 19th-century American statesman, politician, and soldier. He was born in Timber Ridge in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, of Scots-Irish descent. Houston became a key figure in the history of Texas and was elected as the first and third President of...
's veto, which repealed Houston's ability to grant colonization contracts. Maverick added a clause specifying that previously granted contracts would be forfeited if their terms were not met in the future. As chair of the Enrolled Bills Committee, he helped certify which bills were correctly submitted to the President. He was also a member of the Finance, Public Lands and Indian Affairs committees, as well as the committee on Foreign Relations, which castigated Houston for not providing information to the Congress on his annexation negotiations with the United States.
One may note conflicting reports as to whether Maverick signed the Declaration. While his name is among those omitted from the print published version, his signature clearly appears on page 11 of the hand-written original as "Saml. A Maverick (from Bejar)."
Land baron
Mary Maverick and their children were often ill, and in November 1844 the family sold their land along the Colorado River and moved to Decrow's Point, across from Port Cavallo on Matagorda BayMatagorda Bay
Matagorda Bay is a large estuary bay on the Texas coast, lying in Calhoun and Matagorda counties and located approximately northeast of Corpus Christi, southeast of San Antonio, southwest of Houston, and southeast of Austin. It is separated from the Gulf of Mexico by Matagorda Peninsula and...
. They lived there for three years, where the new climate helped them to stay healthier.
In 1844, the tax rolls showed that Maverick owned 35299 acres (142.9 km²) by title in Bexar County and Bexar Territory, with an additional 20,077 by survey, as well as 21 town lots. The following year he also purchased 11000 acres (44.5 km²) for his father, intended to be an inheritance for Maverick's children and nieces and nephews. Since 1840, Maverick had tripled his land holdings. As he was bringing the land documents home in June 1845, the boat he was in capsized. Maverick barely survived drowning and lost all of his papers.
Later years
After Texas annexation by the United States, he was elected to the Texas LegislatureTexas Legislature
The Legislature of the state of Texas is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Texas. The legislature is a bicameral body composed of a 31-member Senate and a 150-member House of Representatives. The Legislature meets at the Capitol in Austin...
. Fifteen years later, as the Civil War loomed, Maverick supported Sam Houston
Sam Houston
Samuel Houston, known as Sam Houston , was a 19th-century American statesman, politician, and soldier. He was born in Timber Ridge in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, of Scots-Irish descent. Houston became a key figure in the history of Texas and was elected as the first and third President of...
in his call to support the Union. Nevertheless, he voted for secession as a member of the convention. Shortly afterward, he accompanied Philip N. Luckett
Philip N. Luckett
Philip Noland Luckett was an American soldier and physician. He served as a general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War and was most noted for his service in the Trans-Mississippi Theater...
and another Texas commissionary of safety to negotiate with U.S. Army General David E. Twiggs
David E. Twiggs
David Emanuel Twiggs was a United States soldier during the War of 1812 and Mexican-American War and a general of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War...
for the peaceful surrender of Federal garrisons in Texas.
Maverick was not active in politics during the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
but afterward helped John H. Reagan to organize the Democratic Party once more.
He died on September 2, 1870 and is interred at San Antonio City Cemetery No. 1.
Maverick County, Texas
Maverick County, Texas
Maverick County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. In 2000, its population was 47,297. Its county seat is Eagle Pass. Maverick County is named for Samuel Maverick, cattleman and state legislator....
is named for him. U.S. Representative from Texas Maury Maverick
Maury Maverick
Fontaine Maury Maverick was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from Texas from January 3, 1935, to January 3, 1939. He is best remembered for his independence from the party and for coining the term "gobbledygook" for obscure and euphemistic bureaucratic language...
(1896–1954) was his grandson.
Cattle Branding
Maverick steadfastly refused to brandLivestock branding
Livestock branding is a technique for marking livestock so as to identify the owner. Originally, livestock branding only referred to a hot brand for large stock, though the term is now also used to refer to other alternative techniques such as freeze branding...
his cattle. As a result, the word maverick entered the English lexicon, meaning both an unbranded range animal as well as a slang term for someone who exhibits a streak of stubborn independence.
Maverick's stated reason for not branding his cattle was that he didn't want to inflict pain on them. Other ranchers, however, suspected his true motivation was that it allowed him to collect any unbranded cattle and claim them as his own.
Readers of the preceding accounts of Samuel Maverick's ownership and management or lack of management of cattle must make their own judgments upon the accuracy of the various accounts of the facts. Historians, however, generally give precedence to primary sources, albeit also considering any possible motives of those authorities to vary from the absolute truth. In the case of Maverick's cattle, Mary Maverick and George Madison Maverick may be considered as primary sources. They appended to her memoirs certain of her husband's correspondence and an extract of a letter from George, her son and collaborator, to the St. Louis Republic, apparently in response to an appeal to persons having sure information about the matter to convey their accounts to the editor.
George M. Maverick recounted that in 1845, Mr. Maverick acquired some 400 head of cattle that he, whose interest was in real estate, did not want in payment of a debt to him by a neighbor of $1,200, leaving the cattle to be managed by an African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
family. The cattle were subsequently moved from the Gulf coast to the Conquista Ranch on the San Antonio River, still under the management of the same family, and left to multiply, graze, and wander away. Perhaps one-third were branded, and the caretakers apparently made no great effort to keep up with them and may have willfully neglected the branding in order that they might not be readily sold and themselves deprived of their easy position. The wanderings were such that in 1856, the herd could be estimated as numbering the same 400. Others in the area, though being aware that the unbranded estrayed cattle were likely Maverick's, followed the range convention of the time and burned their own brands into the "mavericks," as they had come to refer to the unmarked cattle. Mr. Maverick had little interest in the cattle, and Mrs. Maverick's appendix contains a number of letters advising him of the state of his herd. A Mr. Leo J. Toutant followed up on his own father's earlier offer to purchase Maverick's herd, and in 1856 did so himself. The correspondence relating to the sale appears in the appendix.
There is no evidence that Samuel Maverick ever owned any other cattle and no other stock at all, beyond a few horses. One can reasonably doubt that a man who was not in the cattle business and who did not work with or live near his herd would have been engaged in branding strays. The record suggests that it was nothing more than lack of interest in property he never wanted that led to his name becoming associated with one of the most enduring terms of the Old West and a natural subject for every manner of speculation and inventive tale. The accounts conveyed by other contributors have been left unaltered, to be taken, together with Mrs. Maverick's material, as illustrative of this phenomenon.