The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1881-03-03
HEROINE OF TIRE ALAMO.
She is Tenuesseean and Halls from
Bolivar.

Correspondence San Antonio E2prcss.l
Texans confess keen interest in facts af-
fecting the history aad fortunes Of David
Crockett. san Antonio is indebted for much
OF its fame TO that Of the heroic martyr 70
liberty. who fell In the thickest of the fight
within the Alamo Have Won listened TO
the simplest recital of the facts given by
Mrs. Hanlng, formerly Mrs Dickersan, nee
Wilkerson, in Green county Georgia? She
went. when very young 10 Bolivar. Har-
deman county, Tenn. When hardly sixteen
she married Dickinson, New England
tradeSman and, ia 1880 went % Texas.
When the revolt occurred and Mexican iu-
vasIon was threatened, Dickinson removed
has youthful wife to san Antonio.
When santa Anna appeared before the
little city one bright spring morning in
1880, Dickinson. who was lieutenant or cap
tain IN local company, mounted ON "a
mustang, and his wife was seated behind
with a child of six months iu her lar. He
entered the Alamo. He and his wife had
an apartment given them iu the basement
OF the stone church Crockett occupied am
adjoining room. Here, when not engaged
IN loading and firing "a sort OF "luug Tom"
a primitive eighteen FOUNDER. he was accus-
toned to saw his fiddle and abhor conhue-
ment within stone walls. lie was Impatient
OF imprisonment and especially anxious TO
have fight with the Mexicans In an open
field, where he might use hls native weapon.
Betsy his old-fashioucd soap stick ride
Through ten days Mrs Haniug was with
IN the Alamo, encounterng Crockett almost
hourly till the last day of the siege when
the massacre occurred. That fatal morning
Dickinson, long before the sun rose. came
to his wife and bid her adicu / have
heard her tell the story with fearful eyes
43 years after the sun went down on the
terrible day. She saw Dickinson but once
aiterward. He was then fighting. sword in
hand, at the doorway OF her apartment.
Men rushed into her room. There was a
volley of musketTy. When consciousness
was restored her room was full of gunpow-
der smoke. A bullet had pierced her leg
just below the knee. She was lying ON the
bed, her infant, SIX months old, beside her.
and richly dressed Mexican officer stand
ing near.
She remembers, as l forgot 20 state that
simultaneously with the hand to hand Fight
between her husband and the Mexicaus at
the doorway, two little boys, sons OF a Ger
man gunner, ran into her room. They were
pursued by MeXicans, shot down and bay
oneted in her presence, the smoke from the
guns hlling her room and enabling her To
escape observation. AlmOntc was educated
in New Orleans. lie interposed when the
Mexlcans sought to take her life. and caused
ANi W nc AhAtl 10 santa ANNA. TINS
sought to induce her to accompany him tn
Mexico. When she refused, he concluded
TO send her to sam Houston, that the terri-
ole story she wonld tell might iutmidate
The little band of Texas patriots.
Wounded rs she was she set out alone ON
1 mustang, with her child in her lap. across
he open prairies for Gonzales. She, her in
ant, and the negro Ben, the servant Of Tray
=, who was in command were the sole SUR
vivors. But San Antonio should hear Mrs.
daning, now growing old, tell the story az
nave heard it, She would tell, too Of her
light accompanied by the negro of the iu-
ervention of Deaf Smith, who saved her.
when almost dying OF thirst, fatigue and of
he pain caused by her wound Hear her
with Houston aud how the hero
# Texan Independence used story to exas-
'erate his followers
She told him that when she was leaving
San Antonio, the town aud country were
with orders arising from the
holocaust made of the bodies of those who
ell within the Alamo. She beheld the
lanes that consumed the body of her
husband and Of Crockett and Travis and
vas instructed by Santa Anna TO describe
he horrible scene to Houston and his
blowers. She executed the order with
care. The effect WAS little
lreamed of by the bloody Mexican leader.