Family Connection

A Woods Family Legacy

Milvern Harrell, grandson of Texas pioneer Zadock Woods, was one of the few survivors of the Dawson Massacre and ultimately became its last surviving participant.

Harrell was born March 24, 1824, in Troy, Missouri, to William Harrell and Minerva Woods Harrell, a daughter of Zadock Woods. As a young boy, Milvern followed his family to Texas, where they settled in Fayette County near present-day West Point and Woods’ Fort. Life on the Texas frontier exposed him to danger at an early age, and by his teenage years he was already accustomed to the hardships of frontier life.

In September 1842, when Mexican general Adrián Woll occupied San Antonio, 18-year-old Milvern joined his grandfather Zadock Woods, his uncle Norman B. Woods, and other relatives and neighbors in the volunteer company commanded by Nicholas Mosby Dawson. The company rode toward San Antonio to reinforce Texian forces gathering against Woll.

On Sept. 17, Dawson’s company encountered a much larger Mexican force near Salado Creek. The resulting Dawson Massacre devastated the company. Thirty-six Texians were killed, including Milvern’s grandfather Zadock Woods. Milvern was wounded but survived and was among the men taken prisoner.

His captivity became an extraordinary ordeal. While being held near the Rio Grande, Milvern joined several other prisoners in an attempt to escape. They slipped away at night and tried to reach Texas by swimming the river. Two of his companions drowned, and Milvern, exhausted and unable to overcome the current and severe weather, was forced back onto the Mexican side. He was recaptured and eventually marched deep into Mexico.

Harrell was ultimately imprisoned at Perote Castle, where he remained until March 1844. His experiences there later became an important firsthand source for the history of the Dawson expedition and the treatment of Texian prisoners in Mexico.

After returning to Texas, Harrell continued a life of public and military service. By May 1848, he had volunteered with Bell’s Regiment of Texas Mounted Volunteers during the Mexican War. In 1849 he married Malinda Dixie Pettit, and by 1850 the couple was farming in Gonzales County. When the Civil War began, Harrell again volunteered, serving with a company of Texas State Troops from Gonzales County.

He later moved to Caldwell County, where he spent the remainder of his life.

More than six decades after the Dawson Massacre, Harrell recorded his memories of captivity and the events surrounding the battle. His reminiscences were published in the Dallas Morning News on June 16, 1907, preserving the testimony of a man who had personally witnessed the deaths of Zadock Woods and many of their Fayette County companions.

Milvern Harrell died in August 1910, at the age of 86. At the time of his death, he was recognized as the last survivor of the Dawson Massacre. He was buried in Waelder Cemetery in Gonzales County.

Harrell’s importance to the history of the Woods family extends beyond his survival. As Zadock Woods’ grandson and an eyewitness to his grandfather’s final battle, Milvern became one of the principal links between the pioneer generation of Zadock Woods and later generations of the family. His recollections helped preserve details of the Woods family’s participation in the Dawson expedition that otherwise might have disappeared from the historical record.