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Austin Woman Saves The Capital
By Chandra Moira Beal
Published in austinwoman magazine, March 2004In 1842, six years after the Republic of Texas won its independence from Mexico, Austin was still an isolated village on the western frontier, subject to frequent Comanche attacks and a rough and tumble place to hang your hat. In fact, President Sam Houston thought Austin was too vulnerable a location for the capitol, and he campaigned to relocate it to a city he found more to his liking-Houston.
When the Mexican army captured San Antonio, Houston sent word to Austin insisting on moving the state archives, which in essence were the capitol, out of danger immediately. The Texas Legislators refused. In the style of true Texas politics, Houston ordered the Texas Rangers to steal the archives on December 30, 1842.
The Rangers would have succeeded if not for a fiery local innkeeper named Angelina Eberly, who heard them loading their wagons in the middle of the night. Still in her nightgown, she hurried down to the corner of Sixth and Congress and, using her cigar to light the fuse, fired off a Howitzer cannon, missing the Rangers but blowing a hole in the General Land Office.
The cannon fire roused the town residents who formed a posse and chased down the Rangers, recovering the archives the next day at Kitty's Fort near Brushy Creek. If not for Angelina's impulsive gesture, Houston would now be the capital of Texas. In a very real sense, Angelina Eberly was the savior of Austin.
But most people have never heard of her. Born Angelina Payton in 1798, she married her first cousin, Jonathan, when she was 19 and the couple lived in New Orleans, Matagorda, and then San Felipe where she operated an inn and tavern.
Angelina knew Sam Houston personally and apparently had a thorny relationship with him. During the Runaway Scrape, the panic that set in after the fall of the Alamo, Houston ordered San Felipe burned to keep it from falling into the hands of the advancing Mexican army. One of the buildings that burned with it was Angelina's inn--and livelihood.
When Jonathan died in 1824, Angelina remarried Jacob Eberly and moved to Austin in 1839. She opened a new tavern and inn on Congress Avenue, but Jacob died soon after.
Despite her personal setbacks, Angelina's inn thrived and she rubbed elbows with many famous Texans that stayed in her guesthouse, even serving dinner to the newly-elected president of the Republic, Mirabeau B. Lamar, and his cabinet.
Later, in 1841, when Sam Houston was inaugurated as President, he actually moved into Angelina's inn, rather than living in the official presidential home. This act didn't earn him any favors with Angelina, as he would later find out.
The story of Angelina Eberly is being brought to light, thanks to Capital Area Statues, Inc. a nonprofit organization founded in 1992 to celebrate the history and culture of Texas through public sculpture. "Cities are made great by the monuments they choose to express their identity," says Board Member and Texas Monthly writer Lawrence Wright. "Statues are a binding force that can help draw the citizens of Austin into a shared understanding of our city's past."
Other CAST directors include musician Marcia Ball, writer Stephen Harrigan, Elizabeth Avellan (producer and wife of filmmaker Robert Rodriguez), and Bill Witliff, screenwriter of Lonesome Dove. This dynamic group is also responsible for Philosopher's Rock, installed in 1994 at Barton Springs celebrating three Austin writers: J. Frank Dobie, Roy Bedichek, and Walter Prescott Webb.
The artist behind the Angelina Eberly statue is Pat Oliphant, the most widely syndicated cartoonist in the world and a veteran of political irreverence. Oliphant, who resides in Austin's Sister City of Adelaide, Australia, is also a Pulitzer Prize winner, painter, and sculptor.
"Oliphant is a genius of gesture," says Wright. Although no photos of Angelina exist, his dynamic statue captures her impulsive act brilliantly, her mouth gaping open and her night clothes billowing behind her as she hurries to light the fuse. One can just imagine what colorful words were escaping her mouth at that moment, no doubt including a few for Sam Houston.
CAST provides statues as gifts to the city, raising money independently through individual donations and foundations. To make the Angelina Eberly statue a reality, they've raised $175,000 out of a $225,000 goal. Mayor Will Wynn has been a CAST supporter from the beginning. "He helped make this project a reality," said Wright. "He was right there from the start, researching the history on his own. He is truly a mayor for the arts."
At a fundraiser for the statue, Mayor Wynn enchanted the crowd with lively stories of Angelina Eberly. "This woman and this statue are crazy, irreverent, and whimsical, just like our city," he said. "And in Austin, politics and irreverence go hand in hand."
Angelina Eberly left Austin for Port Lavaca in 1846. Despite Houston's objections, Austin was made the permanent capital of Texas in a statewide vote in 1850. Although Angelina wasn't allowed to cast a ballot, we all know where her loyalty was. In 1851 she moved to Indianola, where she died in 1860.
Angelina Eberly will be immortalized in bronze on the northeast corner of Sixth and Congress, close to where she fired the cannon that saved Austin. CAST hopes to install the statue on March 2, 2004, Texas Independence Day, and ironically, Sam Houston's birthday.
Contact Details
La Luna Publishing
Brighton, England
Tel: 44 (0) 1273 236436
E-mail: laluna@chandrabeal.com