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The New England Defenders of the Alamo

Among the defenders of the Alamo, at least eight came from New England to start a new life. Those lives were cut short, like all the others besieged for 13 days in the old Spanish mission.

This is the story of those men who traveled from every New England state for a piece of land to support a home and a family.

Gone To Texas

After the Mexican Revolution of 1824, the Mexican government offered very generous land grants to people to come and settle in the region of Texas. The government offered the grants on condition the recipients become Mexican citizens and adopt Catholicism.

This project succeeded so well that within a few years Americans outnumbered Mexicans in Texas. As many as 135,000 U.S. citizens made the move.

In fact, so many left their homes in the States that when they didn’t pay their taxes the tax rolls commonly noted GTT, “Gone to Texas.”

As you will see, many of these men made their way to Texas via New Orleans. They did it because the river network was the easiest way to travel among the states. If you could connect with the Ohio River you could then connect with the Mississippi and then on down to New Orleans and, finally, across into Texas.

The Americans in Texas began to petition the Mexican government to change the requirements for the land grants. When that failed, they really started to agitate.

The Alamo

General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna moved the Mexican Army into Texas to quell the unrest and bring the Americans to heel. It culminated in a 13-day siege at the Alamo, a makeshift fort that had once served as a Spanish mission.

About 100 men had been stationed at the Alamo. Before the siege began, William Travis and James Bowie, who would eventually co-command the fort, arrived with some reinforcements.

The siege began on Feb. 23, 1836, when Santa Anna marched 1,500 Mexican troops into San Antonio. He raised a blood-red flag demanding unconditional surrender. In response, the defenders of the Alamo fired off an 18-pound cannon, which volunteer militiamen – including two from New England — had dragged all the way from New Orleans.

The two sides skirmished for 10 days. Travis knew the garrisoned men couldn’t stand up to the Mexicans, so he wrote letters to Texas and the United States begging for supplies and reinforcements.

He sent his final and most famous appeal for help to the people of Gonzales, Texas, addressed “To the people of Texas and all Americans in the world.”

I call on you in the name of Liberty, of patriotism & everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid, with all dispatch.

New England Defenders of the Alamo

Travis gave the letter to a Rhode Islander named Albert Martin, who commanded the regiment from the town of Gonzales, 70 miles to the east. Martin carried the letter to Gonzales, and then returned to the Alamo with his regiment. Among the men who would earn the title of the ‘Immortal 32,’ was a fellow New Englander, John Flanders.

The Gonzales Regiment sneaked through enemy lines after dark and made it back into the Alamo.

The Mexican Army finally began to move on the Alamo in the early hours of March 6. The defenders fended off two attacks, but couldn’t withstand the third.

Among the last of the Alamo defenders to die were the Invincibles, artillerymen who manned 12-pound cannons from the chapel.

Santa Anna’s army spared none of the defenders of the Alamo. In the end, between 182 and 257 men died in the battle, while about 600 Mexican troops were killed or wounded. The Mexicans spared a few civilians, who told the story of the Alamo.

The Fall of the Alamo, by Robert Jenkins Onderdonk.

Santa Anna’s cruelty inspired more men to join the Texan Army. Less than two months later, the Texans defeated the Mexican Army at the Battle of San Jacinto.

Following are descriptions of the eight defenders of the Alamo.

Albert Martin, Rhode Island

Albert Martin, was born in Providence, R. I. in 1808. He attended the American Literary, Scientific and Military Academy in Connecticut which would later move to Vermont and become Norwich University. He left Rhode Island in 1832 with his family and set up a business in Tennessee. From there he and his family migrated to New Orleans, where they set up yet another family business in 1835.

Albert moved to Texas and set up a branch of their general store in Gonzales, Texas, Martin, Cofflin & Co. While there he joined the Gonzales Rangers and the Old 18. When at the Alamo, he was selected by Col. Travis to carry out his famous letter to Gonzales. In response, Martin and 32 men returned to the Alamo. All perished.

It should be noted that a cenotaph was erected and may still be seen, at the North Burial Ground, in Providence, to Martin and the defenders of the Alamo.

Albert Martin’s grave marker in Rhode Island.

Miles de Forest Andross, Vermont

He was born in 1809, in Vermont. He married Elizabeth Peabody in 1822 and had two children. Later he made his way to Texas and died with the other defenders of the Alamo. His name appears on the Alamo cenotaph in San Antonio, Texas.

Robert Cochran, New Hampshire

He was born in Pembroke, N.H., in 1810. He went to New Orleans and then on to Texas. At the Alamo, he was assigned to Captain William Carey’s artillery company and died among the defenders of the Alamo on March 6. Forty years after his death a tiny county in Texas — Cochran County, pop. 3,127 in 2010 — was named for him.

John Flanders, Massachusetts or New Hampshire

He was born in either Salisbury, Mass., or Newton, N.H., in 1810. Flanders was working for his father when they argued over a mortgage. John Flanders wanted to foreclose on a widow, and his father wouldn’t let him.

John Flanders, too, went to New Orleans and then on to Texas. He joined the Gonzales Rangers and was one of the immortal 32 who sneaked into the Alamo to aid the defenders in response to the plea from Col. Travis.

William D. Howell, Massachusetts

He was a medical doctor and had a practice in New York. He too made his way to New Orleans and joined the New Orleans Greys. They became members of Capt. William Brazeby’s infantry company.

Amos Pollard, Massachusetts

He was born in Ashburnham, Mass., in 1803 and grew up in Surrey, N. H. He graduated from the medical school at the Vermont Academy in Castleton, Vt. Married in 1828 to Fanny Parker, they had one daughter. His wife passed away in 1831.

He served as the chief surgeon at the Alamo and set up a hospital within the compound. Historians say he probably died defending the hospital.

He, William Travis, Jim Bowie and David Crockett were the only defenders of the Alamo to have their portraits painted in their lifetimes.

Gordon C. Jennings, Connecticut

He was born in 1780 or 82 (that too is disputed) in Windham, Conn. But whatever the date, he was the oldest of the defenders of the Alamo. He moved from Connecticut to Missouri then on to Texas. He served as a member of Captain William R. Carey’s artillery company. Carey called his unit the ‘Invincibles,’

William Linn, District of Maine

He lived in Boston for a while and then moved to New Orleans. There he joined the New Orleans Greys, two companies of volunteers who supported Texas independence. The Greys later merged with Balzeby’s Infantry.

Leo Caisse, the author of this story, passed away in 2020. He had published the book, The Civilian Conservation Corps: A Guide to Their Works in Rhode Island. He also published a number of historical articles, including Ears On the World in America in World War II Magazine, October, 2017. Leo earned a B.A. and M.A. in American History from Providence College and lived in East Providence, R.I.

Image of William Martin’s grave marker by Swampyank – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22024069. This story last updated in 2022.

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A Governor’s Son, a French Monster and the Murder of Schoolteacher Marietta Ball

On July 24, 1874, a Friday, schoolteacher Marietta Ball left her St. Albans, Vt., school at 3:30 in the afternoon. She planned to walk a wooded path to a friend’s house. She often spent the weekend and Sabbath with Foster Page before returning to Mrs. Abel’s boarding house for the week.

Illustration from The Trial of Joseph LaPage, the French Monster.

So no one in St. Albans was alarmed when Marietta didn’t show up at her boarding house. And when she didn’t arrive at Foster Page’s house on Friday, he didn’t worry either. She often stayed in town and came later to attend Sunday services. But he made inquiries the next day and soon the people of St. Albans found out their school teacher had gone missing.

A search party set out to locate Marietta, and found her lifeless body in the woods along the path to Foster Page’s house. “Her head was mangled as if beaten with stones and the evidence of outrage to her person was unmistakable,” the newspaper reported.

Rewards and a Manhunt

Marrietta Ball from The Trial of Joseph LaPage, the French Monster

The murder of 20-year-old Miss Ball incensed the town of St. Albans. Immediately a $3,000 reward was offered to anyone who could identify the murderer.

Suspicion fell on a burglar from Boston who robbed a jewelry store in Richmond, Vt., but nothing connected him to the crime.

The town was also reeling from a second murder. Two strangers had accosted and stabbed Joseph Minard, a young man passing through from Holyoke, Mass., to his home in Canada.

Two detectives worked to find out the truth. But as the weeks passed, the case grew colder. The detectives’ bills mounted, approaching $300 by November, and still they hadn’t identified the murderer.

Two hundred days after Marietta Ball’s murder, a St. Albans minister led his congregation to the site where her body was found. And with the winter wind blowing he preached his sermon surrounded by trees draped in black crepe. He urged his congregation to look after their fellow citizens. By May, the reward had been upped to $6000.

A Governor’s Son

Soon gossip began pointing to one young man in town, George Gregory Smith. George Smith’s powerful father, J. Gregory Smith, had served as a senator and governor of the state. His family holdings included a rail car manufacturing factory and he was president of a railroad. He had the means to cover up a murder committed by his son.

J. Gregory Smith

Stories began circulating: George Smith had attended a dance at the hotel in Bakersfield, and he had insulted Marietta Ball there. People had seen him visiting at her boarding house. Someone had seen a coach and team of horses on the night of Marietta’s murder near the crime scene, and could identify it as George Smith’s. One of the detectives in the case had supposedly mentioned his certainty that George Gregory Smith was involved in the murder of Marietta Ball.

The rumors infuriated Smith. In July of 1875, almost exactly one year after the murder, he demanded a public hearing. Witness after witness was called. All had heard the stories about George Smith, but one by one witnesses refuted them. He had not insulted Marietta Ball at a dance (he hadn’t even attended). He had not visited her boarding house. And the person who reported seeing the coach and team of horses said she could not identify who it belonged to. Finally, the detectives in the case told the packed town hall hearing that they had never said they believed George Gregory Smith murdered Marietta Ball.

Another Murder and a Clever Detective

Josie Langmaid from The Trial of Joseph LaPage, the French Monster

With George Smith’s name cleared, at least for the time being, the detectives went back to work on their case. Still, the murder of Marietta Ball might have gone unsolved but for a gruesome discovery on Oct. 4, 1875. That morning, the body of Josie Langmaid was discovered in the woods of Pembroke, N.H.

Josie Langmaid, 17, lived in Pembroke and attended Pembroke Academy. She had left her home at about 8:30 a.m. and headed off on her regular path to school. But she never got there. Along the way, someone attacked her ferociously. When the townspeople found her, they were stunned. She was assaulted and beaten badly, her head cut off. And her face bore the marks of what doctors thought was a heel strike from a boot. The town erected a memorial to Josie that still stands today.

At first, the town suspected a neighbor of attacking Josie. Bill Drew was a layabout. A story circulated that Josie had told her teacher that Bill Drew had “grossly insulted” her. He threatened to kill her and cut her into pieces if she told her father. Bill Drew was arrested, for fear he would flee. But a sharp-eyed detective had a hunch. The attack on Josie Langmaid struck him as suspiciously similar to the attack on Marietta Ball. He began piecing together evidence.

Link to the Marietta Ball Murder

Sure enough, he found that a man linked to the Marietta Ball case named Joseph Lapage now lived in Suncook, N.H. Detectives had detained and questioned Lapage in the Ball murder. He had lived in St. Albans at the time, but they could make no case against him.

In Suncook, Lapage “was known as a sort of wandering crazy person, yet he knew many persons there and frequently chased young girls.”

Joseph Lapage from The Trial of Joseph LaPage, the French Monster

Police arrested Lapage and searched his home. The search turned up an ax and a razor. Doctors identified human blood on some of his belongings.

The French-speaking community in New Hampshire took issue with the arrest. No one witnessed the crime, and some suspected police targeted Lapage because of his French Canadian origins. Coverage of the crime was coarse and xenophobic, with the media branding him “The French Monster.” Some may have even tried to clumsily cover for him.

But over the course of a nine-day trial in a packed Concord, N.H. city hall, an ugly story spilled out. Lapage originally came from Joliette, Quebec. There he had a troubling history. He had departed Canada shortly after his sister-in-law accused him of raping her. He had attacked and raped a cousin in Vermont, and even tried to attack his daughter, but his wife intervened.

His behavior patterns in Pembroke eerily resembled those in St. Albans. He stalked girls, asking where they lived, how they traveled to school and whether they had boyfriends. He carefully observed their movements so he would know just when to strike.

The Trial

After some legal wrangling over how much of his history prosecutors could use against him, a jury convicted Lapage of murder.

One observer of the trial came all the say from St. Albans. He noted: “We wanted to lynch him and sure it would have been a lucky thing for this other unfortunate girl, Josie Langmaid, if we had only hung him up on a tree to feed the crows and buzzards.”

Joseph Lapage had no more victims after Josie Langmaid. The State of New Hampshire hanged him in 1878.

Thanks to: The Trial of Joseph Lapage, the French Monster. This story was updated in 2023.

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The Somnambulism Defense: The Sleepwalking Murderer of Pembroke, N.H.

Doubtless many people are murdered in their sleep. But it’s not often the would-be murderer is asleep, too, suffering from somnambulism. But that was the case in 1833 in Pembroke, N.H., or at least that’s what everyone believed.

In January of 1833, 18-year-old Abraham Prescott, a farmhand living with Sally and Chauncey Cochran, entered their bedroom and bashed them both over the head with an ax. Sally survived with an injury to the cheek. Abraham walloped Chauncey on the side of the head, knocking him unconscious. He lived, however.

Only after striking Chauncey did Abraham come to and realize what he had done, he later told the sheriff. Abraham quickly roused Chauncey’s mother, who lived with the family, and they summoned help.

Somnambulist Murder

In the aftermath, Sally told her neighbor, Lucy Robinson, that she did not blame Abraham for his actions. Abraham had lived with the Cochrans for three years as an apprentice farmhand. “Mrs. Cochran used to say that Abraham ought not to be blamed,” Lucy said. “If he had been awake he’d have hurt himself as quick as them.”

Abraham’s explanation satisfied the sheriff and life continued as usual at the Cochran farm until June 23, a Sunday morning. Sally took Abraham with her to her brother-in-law’s field to pick strawberries. Chauncey stayed home reading until he heard strange noises from the barn. Upon investigation he found Abraham crying.

Colony Farm in West Keene, New Hampshire, James A. French

At Chauncey’s urging Abraham led him to a spot in the field to Sally’s battered body, strawberries strewn around her. Abraham had struck her twice on the head with a wooden stake. She died at just 28.

Abraham could only remember that he had laid down in the field, suffering from a toothache. But blood covered his clothes. No one doubted who killed Sally Cochran.

Somnambulism Defense

Shortly after Sally’s death, two pictures began to emerge of Abraham Prescott. Both Chauncey and Abraham’s family agreed the young man had limited intellect. He had also seemed moodier than usual in the time before the murder.

Abraham’s family said mental illness ran in their family. Abraham’s grandfather had been deranged, everyone agreed, and an uncle was a drunkard who was given a state guardian. Abraham, they said, had suffered fits as a child. A doctor told them his head was too large and they described a long history of treating his mental condition. It included a mix of medications and bizarre physical treatments such as regular cold baths. At one point, they said, they took Abraham to the ocean and dipped him in, believing the cold would somehow improve his condition.

Abraham was a regular sleepwalker as a child, his mother said, and she often had to watch out for him at night to prevent him hurting himself during one of his attacks of somnambulism.

Testimony

An array of doctors gave testimony, including George Parkman of Boston, whose own murder several years later would shock Boston society. Insanity, these doctors said, would include symptoms of somnambulism, and it was definitely inheritable.

Abraham’s own doctor said he had no recollection of any insanity involving Abraham. Chauncey, meanwhile, said he knew nothing of Abraham’s claims of somnambulism. The young man, he said, was a happy, content farmhand, but he had been moodier than normal. He had to scold him for beating the cows too hard.

“I believe the devil got full possession of him,” Chauncey said.

The jailer testified that he had quizzed Abraham about the murder and that Abraham confessed he had made an improper advance toward Sally. She had rebuked him and said she intended to tell Chauncey about it. Abraham figured he was headed to jail for this, and so he killed Sally. He would rather be hanged then locked up in jail.

Abraham later said he just made up his confession to get the jailer to stop interrogating him.

Two Juries, Two Trials

Late in 1834, Abraham came to trial. The jury heard the story and, without much debate, did not buy the somnambulism defense. They found Abraham guilty.

Abraham’s lawyers, however, were able to win him a second trial. The jurors had discussed the case in public while drinking at the bar at Concord’s Eagle Hotel and at a barber shop.

In 1835, Abraham’s case was repeated, and the result was the same. The second jury concluded he was responsible for his actions and was not insane.

By now public opinion was running high both for and against Abraham. The governor was under pressure to commute his sentence to prison rather than hanging. With the execution scheduled for December 23, Governor William Badger was pressed to at least delay the sentence until the state’s executive council could convene to take up the matter.

Badger was an opponent of the death penalty, but he said he didn’t like the idea of overturning the decisions of two juries. He agreed to delay the hanging, however, until the executive council could meet in January of 1836.

Mob Scene

Not knowing of the delay, a crowd of thousands came to Hopkinton, N.H., on December 23^rd expecting to witness an execution. When they learned of the delay, they went wild. Members of the crowd first tried to pressure the jailer into handing Abraham over to them. When he refused, they hanged Abraham in effigy from a limb in front of the Perkins Hotel.

When January 6 arrived, there would be no second delay. The executive council had declined to intervene and Abraham Prescott was hanged in front of a large crowd. He had feared, he said, that his body would be given over to a college for medical research since he was poor and had no money to arrange for a burial. Townspeople ponied up the necessary funds, however, and buried Abraham in Rumney, N.H.

Abraham Prescott never denied killing Sally Cochran. His motives, however, were unclear. The best explanation that could be found was that he mistakenly assumed if he killed the Cochrans he would own their farm.

After the execution, Chauncey Cochran moved to East Corinth, Maine, where he became a storekeeper and legislator.

Thanks to Report of the trial of Abraham Prescott, for the murder of Mrs. Sally Cochran and Life and Times in Hopkinton, N.H. By Charles Chase Lord. This story was updated in 2022.

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