"The Quiet Grave of a Hero" Stephen Slater - by Jeanne Williams.Temple Daily Telegram:

The Quiet Grave of a Hero

by Jeanne Williams - Temple Daily Telegram

October 17, 2011

SHARP - Barely legible on Stephen Thomas Slater’s simple concrete grave marker in the

Sharp Cemetery is the plaintive epitaph “Safe in the arms of Jesus” - a fitting eulogy

in stone for a rough-and-ready Texas Ranger and Indian agent commissioned by President

Sam Houston in the infancy of the Republic of Texas.

A Texas Ranger memorial cross adorned with horseshoes was placed at Slater’s grave

during ceremonies in 2006, and is the only link at his burial site that he once served

in the Rangers.

Born Jan. 31, 1815, in Tennessee, Slater arrived in Texas on Christmas Day, 1837, when

the Republic was an untamed nation. His first recorded step into the danger zone was

service in Capt. John Coffee “Jack” Hays elite company of hard-riding, fast-shooting

Texas Rangers during the Snively Expedition, a series of skirmishes with invading

Mexicans, according to the Handbook of Texas On-Line.

Slater’s autobiography recounted where he served as a spy and scout in the Sammervill

or Somervell campaign, described in accounts as “a punitive expedition against Mexico

in retaliation for three predatory raids made by Mexican armies upon Texas in 1842.”

Slater also was part of the Snively expedition, a series of clashes between Texans and

Mexicans in an early period of the Republic.

Slater was discharged from the Rangers in 1843, and earned a commission from Houston as

an Indian agent on Aug. 6, 1844, according to historical documents provided by the

Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum in Waco.

In an Aug. 6, 1844 letter, Houston outlined Slater’s duties as an Indian agent, which

included enforcing laws, visiting villages and encouraging them to observe the

provisions of the treaty with the government, directing them to turn their attentions

toward cultivating the soil and growing corn to improve their lot and generally keep

the peace.

Slater was ordered by Houston to “exclude the use of intoxicating liquors” and to be

particular to expel anyone who was contrary to treaty stipulations “or whom you suspect

of having evil designs.”

“I brought the Comanches in and they made a treaty with the whites, near where the town

of Marlin stands,” Slater wrote. “During my term of service with the Indians there were

less depredations on the frontier than at any time since.”

Slater signed the Tehuacana Creek Treaty as a witness for the Republic of Texas.

How did a Republic of Texas hero wind up with a common grave in the Sharp cemetery in

rural Milam County?

Records indicate the tie that bound him to virtual obscurity in death may have been

marriage. Slater married Mary Gilleland on Nov. 13, 1845, in Montgomery County. His

in-laws were Daniel and Precilla Boatwright Gilleland, one of the front-line families

of Stephen F. Austin’s prestigious Old 300 Colony.

By 1847, the Gillelands were permanently ensconced at a farm along the San Gabriel

River. The Slaters also farmed in Milam County. Mary died in 1852 and is buried in the

Gilleland family cemetery near Rockdale. Slater eventually married again to a woman

identified only as Margaret and had five additional children.

In 1864, Slater was too old for Confederate service but joined the Texas State Troops

under Capt. A.J. Berry in Company C, First Battalion and Second Brigade.

However, because of his value as a skilled wheelwright, he was destined to stay close

to home.

In the book “Milam County Texas in the Civil War” by James E. Williams, residents of

Williamson, Milam and Bell counties petitioned Texas Gov. Pendleton Murrah to detail

Slater from service to make spinning wheels and looms because there was no other person

in the area with those skills. The company muster roll confirms that Slater was

detailed as a wheelwright. He endorsed the petition with the promise to fulfill the

request.

During Reconstruction, Slater was installed as a justice of the peace by Maj. Gen

Joseph Jones Reynolds, 5th Military District commander. Slater worked 100 acres of land

and raised cattle and horses. He was a Mason and in 1873 served in the Davilla Lodge in

Tyler.

Slater died Nov. 2, 1884, and was buried simply - concrete slab covering his plot

etched with the words “our Father,” birth and death dates and the epitaph. Today, a

lone, leather cowboy boot attached to the Texas Ranger memorial adorns the gravesite of

a man who was not only a hero to Texas, but to his family.

jwilliams@tdtnews.com

All articles from the Temple Daily Telegram are published with the permission of the
Temple Daily Telegram.
All credit for this article goes to
Jeanne Williams and the Temple Daily Telegram

The gravesite of Texas hero Stephen Slater - a plain concrete slab with faded markings - was adorned with an official Texas Ranger marker during ceremonies in 2006.

Photo by Jeanne Williams