Chapter V                                                                                                                   Page 40.  

A Retreat From Paradise

     Frank McMullan and his colonists experienced a feeling of immense relief as the steamer North America arrived, on may 25, 1867, in Rio de Janeiro. Five months, almost to the day, had passed since the had sailed from Galveston. Not only were they close to their new home, but they were also free of the deplorable conditions they had endured on the ships. Carrying their few remaining possessions, they eagerly walked down the gang plank to shore.

     The new arrivals were met by North Americans already in Rio de Janeiro who escorted them to the accommodations provided by the government of Don Pedro II. Managed by Charles M. Broome, and one-legged Confederate veteran from Fairfield district, South Carolina, the "Emigrant Hotel," a reminder of a plantation mansion in the ante-bellum south, was an "elegant old residence, surroun-ded by formal gardens,"  that had been converted for the use of the emi-grants. McMullan’s Texans were shown to their rooms by Broome, who did his best to make his guests feel "at home." For the first time since they left the United States, they relaxed with a feeling of com-plete security.

     Within days, the McMullan colonists received word that they were to be visited by Emperor Dom Pedro II. On the appointed day, the ruler, with his entourage of lesser officials, was met by McMullan and Charles Broome. Pedro was described by one colonists as a splendid looking man, dressed at the time in a "plain looking suit of black cloth, with nothing to designate his rank except a star on his left breast, thereby showing his appreciation for…(their) poverty-stricken condition." The Emperor, in company with McMullan, "called on every family, and was profuse  in his many expressions of good-will and solicitations for our future happiness in his domain."  Don Pedro then visited the "dining and storerooms, kitchen, etc. To see that the new Brazilians were comfortable.

     Regardless of their comfort, none of the colonists wished to linger at the Emigrant Hotel. Within days, preparations were complete for departure on the final two-hundred miles to Iguape, São Paulo Province, at the mouth of the Ribeira River, where their sea voyage would terminate. Once again on Rios docks, the North Americans boarded the Marion, a government owned packet steamer.

      In Iguape, the Brazilian government was not as lavish with its preparations as it had been in Rio de Janeiro. No hotel had been provided, and most colonists had to camp in the streets. A few families managed to find unoccupied houses; some others, including the J. F. Smith family, attracted the atten-tion of Brazilians who invited them to share their homes. The remainder of the colonists, however, did the only thing that they could-- they proceeded to cook, eat, and sleep in the humid open air of Iguape.

     William and Victoria Moore, who were among those fortunate enough to find a house, asked George Barnsley to stay with them. Both Moore and Barnsley were penniless, and Barnsley was down-cast. Moore encouraged  Barnsley to" hold up a while" and, after a breakfast of bananas and water, left without telling anyone his destination. Returning home late that night, he brought candles, bread, and a hat full of ”denups” (copper coins). The money, said Moore, had been won "gambling with a party Brazilians at the club." This turn of luck, said Barnsley, "started our wheels to grinding."

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                                                                                                                                                 Page 41.

     Frank McMullan, meanwhile, went up river to see if William Bolin, with government help, had made preparations for housing at the grant. Upon his return, McMullan reported that a temporary "government colony house" had been constructed for the emigrants. Anxious to get to the lands for which they had long-awaited, the Tex-ans quickly prepared to go up-river. They loaded their belon-gings into a government-sponsored, "makeshift" steamboat and began a shuttle. Repeatedly, the little boat carried passengers and their baggage for 50 miles up the river to the fall line( the junction of the Ribeira and Juquia rivers) where it’s cargo was "unceremoniously dumped."

     When the last shuttle arrived, the colonists boarded sixty-foot long canoes for the trip to the plan-tation of a wealthy rice planter where they were to spend the night. The men boarded one canoe and the women another, and native boat-owners polled them up the river. Before reaching their destin-ation, the  sun sank below the horizon; soon darkness, except for rays of moonlight that filtered through the trees, shrouded the travelers.

     Soon, even the moonlight faded. Clouds moved in and rain began to fall. A light shower turned into a torrent, and the emigrants and their valuables were drenched. After arrival at the plantation, the Texans groped in the darkness for their soaked belongings and made their way to the house. Again, accommodations were insufficient, but the women and children were allowed to sleep on a huge pile of rice in the "main hall."

     The next morning the steady downpour continued. Nonetheless, the colonists got into the canoes for the final leg of the river trip. Fin-ally, in a driving rain, the colonists arrived at the large, primitive building constructed for their use. The natives pulled the boat’s onto the ”capin” grass on the river’s edge, and the new arrivals made their way to the house, "if such could be called a house"-- covered with palm leaves, with walls of palm slats set up picket fashion, three inches apart, no windows, no inside divisions, only a door at each end. Furthermore, it was much too small. Those who had tents, pit-ched them in the nearby open square cut in the dense forest.

     Realizing that the meager food supplies near the campsite would last only a few days, Bowen had made arrangements for government assistance. Every Saturday, the colonists were allowed to draw from a government commissary "like soldiers in a camp."

     Eventually, after a few days, the rain ceased and the sun came through the clouds-- for the emig-rants a symbolic sign. McMullan and Bowen began the difficult task of allotting  the plats of land. With the help of Brazilian neighbors, the new inhabitants started building homes, using local materials such as were used in the government colony house. Almost all agreed that McMullan and Bowen had not been excessive in their lavish praise of the lands. Fields were cleared and crops of rice, corn, and sugarcane were planted. Hopefully, a bumper crop was anticipated.

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     With worries about transportation of crops to market looming in the future, McMullan and Bowen must have made repeated inquiries to the government about the fulfillment of its promise to construct a road to the coast. Finally, a contract was awarded and construction began. But difficulties soon arose; the task was greater than the con-tractor had anticipated. Removal of trees, construction of grades, and employment of qualified personnel presented insurmountable problems. Construction finally halted. According to George Barnsley, the result was scarcely lucrative to the contractor, much less to the emigrants.

                                                                                                                                                    Page 42.

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     The brief period of optimism was over. In addition to the problems of the road, Frank McMullan was seriously ill. The exposure during the five-month trip from Texas to Brazil was too great for his constitution, already weak from the ravages of tuberculosis. In his efforts to make McMullan more comfortable, William Bowen constructed for him a rude shelter. Two months later, McMullan was moved to Iguape. Here, too late, he received some medical treatment. On November 23, 1867, the Anglo-Brazilian Times editorially reported his death;” We regret to hear that Major Frank McMullen (McMullan’s death. He and Colonel Bowen were the founders of the San Lourenco (Sao Lourenco))  settlement in the Ribeira de Iguape district, and he had, after struggling with ship wreck and disaster, just succeeded in bringing the first installment of settlers to their new Brazilian homes.

     Because he was not a Roman Catholic, Frank McMullan could not be buried in an established cemetery. Hearing of the predicament, a German immigrant who lived in a Iguapea offered the use of a corner of his orchard. Since no Protestant minister was available, George Barnsley read an Episco-pal service over his grave. We all felt," said Barnsley in his later writings, "that for us, eternity had come. Over his tomb II read the service of the Episcopal Church, and as I said "Dust to dust", we heaped the fresh earth over him. The light of a noble soul faded into night." There, said Barnsley, the rank grass would rise "as if any hurry to hide his grades from the on hallowed eyes of a nation’s fanaticism…."

     In a flowery but sincere eulogy written about 1915, George Barnsley praised McMullan as being "gifted by talents of no inferior order, of a warm and generous nature, enthusiastic as a poet, and as usual in such character (,) a shadow of melancholy pervades his whole life. In-capable of swerving from the path of honor and rectitude, he knew no guile and was as far removed from….all that came with him to this country as is selfishness is from virtue and grandeur of the soul. He deceived no one but himself; he worked with unceasing energy for the benefit of those who surrounded him."

     During McMullen’s illness and following his death, conditions on the Juquia worsened. Neither Bowen nor Judge Dyer provided the leadership or exerted the influence that was needed. Before the first crop was harvested, the government stopped its commissary opera-tion, and food supplies became critical. A delegation of colonists went to Iguape for help. There, they implored George Barnsley, who had stayed on the coast in an effort to start a medical practice, to aid them. Barnsley described the following events in this way:

     The only recourse was to ask the Camara (city board) to help, which this did to some extent. I was asked to help; as was making scarcely enough to feed myself, I was audacious enough to ask the citizens of Iguape to contribute. We filled up two or three canoes. I made out this list so that the food should be equally divided, and got the men of the colony to see to it. This remission seemed to quiet the people up the country for a time. There were some of the colonists who had money. Their food stuff was given to the needy. Gradually day after day men dropped down the river to Iguape seeking a new outlet. My house became a sort of ranch and it was all I could do to keep going, as I never refused to help.  

Barnsley, erroneously, thought that all of the McMullan colonists moved away within months. Those of the McMullen (McMullan) staid (sic) some months, but as they could not dispose of their crops, they gave away, bargained, and sold to the Brazilians for almost nothing what they had and all moved away.

                                                                                                                                                    Page 43.

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     Some, nevertheless, did not abandon the McMullan colony. Since farming, because of a lack of a road to market, was impractical, Judge Dyer and his new son-in-law, Columbus Wasson, went into the lum-ber business. A good market existed in Rio de Janeiro for fine furn-iture woods, and an abund-ance of excellent timber was available. Dyer and Wasson ordered the equipment necessary for a sawmill, and signed a $60,000 contract with a Rio de Janeiro company. As soon as the machinery arrived, they began operation. The major problem developed, however, that threatened the business. They were unable to procure boats to transport the lumber to Rio. Because of the sand-bars, many owners refused, regardless of prices offered, to take the risk.

(Richardson, Adventuring With a Purpose, p. 5,   Columbus Wasson was one of the original McMullan colonists.  He had gone to school with Frank McMullan at McKenzie College at Clarksville, Texas.  It was during this time that he probably first was acquainted with Harriett Ann Dyer, Judge Dyer's daughter, who became his wife.)

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     Dyer and Wasson were faced with a crisis. They had to find another way to get the lumber to market or default on their agreement. They chose the first option. Using their contract for lumber as collat-eral, they purchased a steamboat from an English company for $60,000, with final payment to be made when all of the wood was delivered. After the arrival of the new boat, lumber was again shipped on schedule.

     Just as it appeared that all was going well, bad luck cast another shadow on their lives. The mort-gaged steamboat hit a bar, capsized, and sank. Regardless of the entreaties, no boat owners could be induced to haul their lumber. Unable to meet their indebtedness, Dyer and Wasson turned their timberland over to the English company.

     Concluding that without timber the sawmill was of no further use, Dyer gave it to ”Steve," a former slave who had insisted on accompanying his ex-master to Brazil. George Barnsley later said that Steve worked his mill, made money enough to live on, had as many wives-….As a tolerable well-off Turkish Pasha, and died highly respected. If he had been educated, he might have turned out a Barao (Baron ) of Brazil." Obviously, Steve was willing to devote two qualities to the business that Dyer and Watson were not -- time and patience. Lumber was available from other sources at low prices. Dyer and Wasson, with typical North American impatience, wanted to get rich quick.

     Several other colonists also remained on the McMullan grant. Alfred F. Smith, a professor of music and an old friend of Frank McMullan in Texas, traveled, with his family, to the colonies edge. The Smiths lived like true pioneers, eking out a living by growing “rice, corn, sugar cane, bananas, and manioca.” Remarkably successful, they built a sugar press from logs, a rice mill, and tobacco press. They even built an "American-style house" hewing all of the lumber by hand.

     Other families who settled near the Smiths included the B. F. Tarver with six members, the William Bowen with seven, and the C.. F. Quillen was eight members. Parson Quillen held occasional reli-gious services which acted as a centripetal force which period-ically drew the American families together. But, by 1870, Smith and Quillen were the only families that remained in the settlement, and they, too, felt the need to move to a more civilized area. In 1871, George Barnsley reported to the New Orleans Times that the Ribeira "had been deserted by the last of the American immigrants."

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                                                                                                                                                 Page 44.

     The failure of the McMullen colony was not unique. Nearly all of the colonies accounted problems of one kind or another. Lizzieland, Ballard Dunn's colony downriver from McMullan’s, suffered a similar fate, but for different reasons. On January 30, 1867, four days after the sailing of the Derby, the ad-vance party of Dunn's colony left on the Talisman, and ten weeks later, the Marmion had sailed with a second group of nearly three hundred  immigrants. Once in Brazil, however, many of Dunn's recruits, instead of going to Lizzieland, went instead to William Grandioson Gunter’s colony on the Rio Doce or elsewhere in the Empire. Those loyal to the New Orleans parson went first to Iguape, then up the river by steamer and canoe to their new homes. Unlike McMullan’s colonists, Dunn's settlers were not gen-erally happy with their new surroundings. Dunn had not chosen in his lands wisely. George Barnsley describe the colony site as "extremely picturesque, but with the slight defect of being without good lands and in the rainy season half underwater."  Realizing his mistake, Dunn mortgaged his own property for $4,000 and returned to the United States. He was never seen again in Brazil. Soon after Dunn's departure, Lizzieland was inundated by flood waters that wiped out virtually every permanent improvement, as well as the first year’s crops. The colonists thereupon scattered in every direction, some going up river to McMullan’s colony.

(Dunn's next project was a war against Mormonism in the Utah Territory.  He wrote a book entitled The Twin Monsters; and How National Legislation May Help To Solve the Mormon Problem -- New York: American News Company, 1877.)

     James McFadden Gaston’s colonists, who had arrived with Mc-Mullan’s Texans on the North America, and continued to the site selected for them near Xiriricaa, in São Paulo Province. This colony seemed to have all the ingredients necessary for success; Gaston was financially solvent, and he pro-vided good, honest leadership. The lands were lush, with fertile loamy soil. Nevertheless, the colony did not succeed. In this case, once again, the cause was a failure of the Imperial government to meet its obligations. Land titles were not clear; Brazilian nationals claimed the property, perhaps rightfully, and regarded the North Americans as trespassers. Abandoned by the government and unwilling to fight the Brazilians in court, Gaston and his followers scattered. Gaston first moved to the town of Apiehy, where he developed a lucrative medical practice, and later to Santa Barbara, a relatively suc-cessful settlement begun in 1865 by William H. Norris and his son.

     Some disenchanted colonists, regardless of the area  in which they originally settled, gravitated to the larger cities of Brazil, looking for ways to support themselves and their families. They often took any jobs available. A writer for the New York Times claimed to have been accosted by a miserable, ragged, and squalid looking object, who implored him, "for God’s sake, give me only a vinte (less than a quarter of a cent), to get something to eat."  The beggar was supposedly a graduate of Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. Another former Confederate, "the remains of a man who was once the mayor of one of the principal cities of the United States, was running an establishment called the 'Dixie Free and Easy Saloon' in Rio de Janeiro. There, said the New York Times, the former mayor was surrounded by "lewd women and dispensing the commonest native liquors to as vile a set of scoun-drels as ever cut a throat."  " No doubt." said the Times, "there are thousands who would gladly return home, had they the means to do so."

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                                                                                                                                                                                        Page 45.

     The official attitude of the United States government towards dis-affected Southerners was neg-ative. No help was offered are given to those who want to return to their old homes. Apparently a sizable number, unhappy and often desperate, asked United States consulates for aid and passage on ships. Finally, in 1869, "the minister at Rio was informed that the Secretary. of the Navy had instruc-ted the commander of the South Atlantic squadron to order his returning vessels to stop at Brazilian ports when possible and take in United States emigrants who at that time found themselves in dist-ress. Over the next few years, many unfortunate Southerners found passage home on the Guerriere, the Kansas, the Portsmouth, the Quinnebaug, and other…. vessels.

     Evidently, however, women and children without men with them were not allowed on the men-of-war, for in January, 1872, James R. Partridge, the chief the United States legation in Brazil, wrote to  Secretary of State Hamilton Fish that he would like to help "those (women and children ) who came from those Southern States to Brazil, after 1865, and still remain chiefly in the province of São Paulo, simply because they have lost everything and are without employment or the means of returning….I am aware," continued Partridge, "that this is asking the government to relieve persons, or rather their widows and children, from the consequence of their deliberate folly and leaving the country in the vain hope of finding a better one; and if the men alone were concerned, I would be silent." To this admonition, Fish replied, on March 22, 1872, that "there is no appropriation from which to defray the passage of these persons to the United States…."

     The Dyers and the Wasons were not in dire financial straits even though the sawmill enterprise had not been successful. Judge Dyer continued to receive a small income from property in Hill County, Texas. Columbus Wasson found a job, teaching English, that provided well for himself,. Harriett Ann, and the two children. Judge Dyer’s wife, Amanda, died on July 4, 1869, and the  Judge was no longer inte-rested in building the home that two had planned. His sons, Wiley S. and James E. Dyer, although enjoying the wild life roaming the jungles, yearned for their old friends in Texas.

     Nancy McMullen also owned property in Texas and was far from being destitute. After Frank’s death, however, she no longer had any desire to remain in Brazil. Then, when her daughter, Lou, died of typhus, Nancy became very anxious to return to Texas. John O’Dell, her son-in-law (Lou’s husband), also desired to see Hill County again. William and Victoria Moore, like other members of the family, were not happy. The loss of a child on board ship had saddened their initial efforts in Brazil, and their struggles for progress and position had been lackluster. Perhaps only Ney McMullan, now eighteen years old, had any qualms about abandoning a project in which was invested the dreams and most of the finances of the family.

(Nancy McMullan still owned much of the 640 acres in downtown Hillsboro that had been purchased by her husband.)

      Nevertheless, by April, 1872, the decision had been made. The McMullan’s, the Dyers, the Moores, the Watsons, and John O’Dell were returning to Texas. Columbus Wasson would remain only long enough to complete a teaching contract. Soon, the families were say-ing goodbyes to their friends who remained behind. They took a small packet steamer from Iguape to Rio de Janeiro, a distance of our hun-dred miles, and there a larger ship for the United States.

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                                                                                                                                                                                        Page 46.

     From the time they sailed until they arrived in Hill County, Texas, no information regarding the returnees has been found. The name of the ship on which they sailed, the date of departure from Brazil and arrival in the United States, the port of entry, and how and when they reached Hill County all remain an unsolved mystery. When next heard of, the Dyers and Wasson’s were located in Hill County, and Nancy and, Ney were in Attala County, Mississippi, at the home of Virginia George Clark, Nancy’s daughter and son-in-law.

     In 1870, Georgia Barnsley was still in Brazil. Although he wanted to return to his native Georgia, he could not accumulate enough money to pay passage for himself and his family. "God only knows," he wrote his sister, Julia, "how I could hug those old oaks at the front gates…, And shake the hands of such as one left (at home)." Later that year, Barnsley painted a dreary picture of the family situation in Brazil. "Lucien", he said went to Rio…(and) he waited there until he and his family almost starved… His wife is sick. Murray (one of Barnsley’s nephews who married Barnsley’s wife’s sister), I suppose, is still drinking whiskey in Rio. Times are getting harder and harder."

(In 1869, Barnsley had married Mary Laniera Emerson, the daughter of the Reverend William Emer-son.  See Barnsley "Information about Emigrants.")

     By 1879, Barnsley, still regretting his mov to Brazil, seemingly had resigned himself to his fate. He continually moved around the country, going from the cities and towns in southern Brazil to Rio de Janeiro and into the interior. His failure to make money in medicine led him to try mining, to tend a drugstore, and even to promote a transcontinental railroad. None of his enterprises was successful. Feeling that he would never be able to return to Georgia, he wrote, concerning Woodlands and his father’s grave, "as long as you keep the old gentleman’s grave clean it is a matter of no great impor-tance to me wherever I am here or there -- if I ever return home drive a stick down close to the old gentleman’s dust and write on it --  G.S.B. Co. A, 8th Ga ….C.S.A." recalling his instability and failure to stay with one profession until it paid off, Barnsley lamented, " it was the greatest mistake of my life, except that of coming to Brazil… Oh Julia, what a sad mistake Lucien and I made by coming to this country and worse by continuing. I frankly say that after so many years of residence in Brazil and intimate contact with them I am at  part less a Brazilian today than I was a year after my arrival."

     Even more financial setbacks caused Barnsley to renew his desire to return to United States. He wrote letter after letter to his sister and his brother-in-law in Georgia, asking them to send money, even if it meant the mortgage of Woodlands. In February 1883, Barnsley sent this appeal:

       Disastrous affairs have reduced to me and also Lucien into utter poverty; we have no means to return to Wood-lands at present. If you can’t find any way to send out $2-$5000 to aid us to return it would be well to do so at once. If so much money cannot be raised, make some sort of contract with any of the sailing or steam vessels from New Orleans to Rio for our passage.

     It is not known why passage money was not sent to the Barnsley brothers. Perhaps it could not be raised. It is possible, too, that the family in Georgia did not feel that they would ever be repaid, in light of the lack of financial acumen shown by either George or Lucien. Be that as it may, in 1887, George Barnsley, in a vehement letter to his sister, revealed that with or without her help he was determined to return to the United States.

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                                                                                                                                                                                        Page 47.

       It is impossible that you should have hesitated on raising the money for my expenses. I am here in an interior town and everything amiss for you did not reply. Get back, you better believe I will… I will at least prove that I am not lost on the des-erts of Egypt. I am here in Pirrasunga (Pirassununga)..

This letter, written from an interior town in São Paulo Province, may have had some effect, for in the following year, George Barnsley fin-ally returned to Woodlands. Ironically, he was disappointed with the changes that had occurred, and before many months had passed, he and his family were back in Brazil.

     After her return from Brazil to Texas, Nancy McMullen lived for several years in Fowler with her son, Ney. When Ney's marriage was imminent, she decided to return to Towash, her old home, where she lived until about 1885. That year, she moved to Claiborne, Texas, where she could still be close to medical care and yet be near (to) her two surviving children. Ney continued to live in Hill and Bosque Counties, living alternately at Fowler, Whitney, and Iredell, and Martha Ann, her daughter, lived in Towash. Judge Dyer, her brother, made his home in nearby Morgan Community in Bosque County. The other member of her "family," Jasper McMullen, the former slave, visited her in her home in Claiborne in 1886 a few months before her death at the age of 71.

     By 1895, Ney McMullAn, always an incurable romantic, yearned to see, once again, the lands that his brother had tried to colonize. They went to Brazil that year and "spent eight months traveling over the country, returning to Texas the latter part of October." Two years later, in 1897, Ney, his wife, Maggie, and their children Dana, Lauren, and Caskey left, Texas, for Brazil. They took all of their possessions with them, intending to make Brazil their permanent home. On their arrival, they went directly to Santa Barbara, where Wiley Dyer Mc-Mullan, the fourth son, was born a few days later.

(Wiley Dyer McMullan, E. N. McMullan's son, Sao Paulo, Brazil to William C. Griggs, Lubbock, Texas, June 27, 1973,  Wiley Dyer McMullan is a dentist in Sao Paulo.)

     Probably influenced by Ney's glowing reports of Brazil, Ilieta Wil-liams Hudgeitz, John B. And Martha Ann William's daughter, and her husband, Swan Hudgeitzs, sailed for South America with their chil-dren Lucia, Rie, and Coon C., In 1897. Another child, Swan, Jr., was born soon after their arrival. Accompanying the Hudgeitz family was Eugene "Monk" Williams, Ilieta's brother. All settled in São Paulo.

     Only two members of the Williams family remained in Texas. Coon Williams, a son of John B. and Martha Ann Williams, lived in Claiborne, Texas, where he was agent for Northern Breweries, and Walter Pierce (Waters- Pierce) Oil Company. After his mother’s death in 1894, Coon was the sole support of his pretty young sister, Nannieta. With the rest of the family in Brazil, Coon decided that he and Nan-nieta also should go there. Just when preparations had been com-pleted, Coon unexpectedly died of a heart attack. The family, not wan-ting Nannieta to travel alone, sailed to the states to be with her.

(Patsy Miles to Thelma Griggs, March 8, 1973.  In all likelihood, the Hudgeitz family used Coon's death as an excuse to leave, otherwise, they would have made arrangements for someone to accompany Nan-nieta o Brazil.)

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                                                                                                                                                                                        Page 48.

     Ney McMullan, who after the death of his mother in 1896 and his sister, Martha Ann, in 1894, was the last of the McMullens, remained in Brazil. To him and his family, the land south of the equator was home. Only rarely did Ney return to Texas. He always felt that his brother's claim on the Juquia could be reestablished, and about 1918 he wrote a letter to members of the family in Texas, asking each branch for $200 that he might "do something about our land."  With the money, said Ney, he could "make millionaires out of all of us." As they had never been successful financially, no one sent the money. Today, all of Ney McMullen’s sons are living in Brazil. Dana, Lauren, and Caskey live in the city of Rio Verde, Goias, Wiley Dyer McMullen and the youngest, Frank McMullan, live in São Paulo.

(Perhaps if they had known that the Bowen family had sold their land on the Juquia for a large amount, they would have been more receptive to Ney's suggestion.  Barnsley, "Information About Em-igrants.")

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                                                                                                                                                                                             Page 49.

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                                                                                                                                                                                            Page 50.

     For a time, the descendants of the original McMullan colonists made an effort to find mates of like race and heritage to retain their national identity. But with passage of time, they are marrying native Brazilians and becoming integrated into Brazilian life. The English language is seldom spoken. Wiley Dyer McMullen, Frank McMullan’s nephew, recently wrote that he lost contact with English-speaking peoples about fifty years ago.

     Nevertheless, the colonists from the former Confederate states of America made an impact on Brazilian life and institutions, particularly in the areas of education and religion. Largely because of the educational methods they introduce, Brazil today has a better school system, particularly on the college and university level. In religion, they were responsible for any major changes. When the emi-grants arrived in 1867, there were no Protestant churches nor Protestant cemeteries. From the small embryo provided by the North American emigrants, Protestantism has grown into a sizable sect.

(No hint has been found as to what church Frank McMullan belonged.  However, Judge Dyer, accor-ding to George Barnsley, "was a religious man, a Baptist, whether of the genus Hardshell or not, I "disremember", as the Judge would say, "Information about Emigrants."  Ney McMullan, according to some accounts, was an atheist.)

     Santa Barbara, where William R. Norris and his son located the colony in 1865,  is the only survi-ving settlement of North Americans in Brazil. A gathering place for displaced emigrants all over the country whose colonies, by 1872, had failed, Santa Barbara, at one time, had over five hundred former Confederates as its citizens. They lived very much as they once had, except for widespread use of slav-ery, in their native land. The name was changed, after the turn-of-the-century, to Villa Americana in recognition of the large numbers of Americans who once lived there. Today, few descendants of the North American emigrants remain in the town, but many who have left desire to be buried in the Americana’s small cemetery, the first for Protestants in Brazil.

(Although some Southerners owned slave in Brazil, the practice was uncommon.  To some, it was rem-iniscent of an old way of life that they wanted to forget; to others, the expense was too great.)

     A unique organization, the Fraternity of Descendants of Americans, oversees the cemetery, a cha-pel, and a small museum. Judith Mc-Knight Jones, a direct descendant of Calvin McKnight of Texas, a McMullan colonists, is the Fraternity’s historian. Every three months, the thirty local members and their families come to meetings in Villa Americana where they reminisce and eat southern fried chic-ken and watermelon. Remarkably noticeable on voices with accents very similar in sound to those spoken by the older rural natives in Alabama, Mississippi, or Texas.

    The fourth of July is still a very special occasion to Villa Americana for the Americans. On that day, descendants of the Confederate colonists return to the little town to "renew memories of America’s South and allegiance to the Confederate flag. Upon entering the little chapel, the visitor will see, care-fully draped over the pulpit, the red, white, and blue "Stars and Bars' of the Confederate States of America, a ceremonious homage to a way of life their ancestors and refused to forgo and they hold in honored memory.

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                                                                                                                                                                                        Page 51.

     Most of the McMullan colonists soon realized that the elusive Eden they sought was no longer att-ainable, and that, despite the political and social revolution that had prompted them to emigrate, making a new life in the communities they had abandoned was preferable to starting anew in a strange land. Those who stayed in Brazil found the answer to their lost dreams but eventually adapting to and making the best of the new frontier, somewhat like their ancestors who with high hopes had left an old way of life in Europe to make a new and better life in America.

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APPENDIX A

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“PARTIAL ROSTER OF THE MCMULLAN COLONY"

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Barnsley, George Scarborough. George Barnsley, a native of Georgia who studied some medicine at Oglethorpe University, soon after the Civil War moved to Texas to recoup the family fortune, but once there he joined the McMullan Colony as its official "doctor." Hoping to obtain a permit to practice medicine, he left the colony on his arrival in Brazil. During the next two decades, he ran the gamut of occupations in an effort to make a fortune, including doctor, miner, railroad promoter, and druggist. In 1888, he returned to the United States, but preferring Brazil, he went back to Sao Paulo where he lived until his death

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Barnsley, Lucian» Lucian Barnsley sailed with his older brother, George Barnsley, to Brazil. Lucian followed more trades than his brother, but the most important were the operation of a rice mill in Iguape which he bought on credit, his practice as a druggist, and his practice of medicine. There is no evidence that he ever left Brazil.

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Beasley, . None of the sources ever mention Beasley's first name, but George Barnsley lists him as a widower with two children, a boy and a girl."

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Bowen, Adam Berry. Adam Berry Bowen was sixteen or seventeen years old when he sailed on the Derby. Nothing is known of his activities after his arrival in Brazil. In 1916, Edwin Ney McMullan said that Adam was living in Babylonia, Comarca de Soa Dom de Prata, Minas Geras, Brazil.

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Bowen, Elizabeth.  Probably named for her mother (whose name was Elizabeth), Elizabeth Bowen married a son of Alfred F. Smith while both were living on the frontier of Brazil on  McMullan Colony lands. Edwin Ney McMullan listed her  address in 1916 as Reboucas, E. de Sao Paulo, Brazil.

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Bowen, Leonidas Sanders. The son of William Bowen, Leonidas Sanders Bowen was named after Colonel Leonidas Sanders, William Bowen's  commander during the Mexican War. According to George Barnsley, Leonidas Bowen "did remarkably well as a farmer, and was highly esteemed by all." He was twenty-three years old and unmarried at the time of the sailing of the Derby in 1867."

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Bowen, Susan. Susan Bowen moved to the perimeter of the colony with her father, William Bowen, and the other members of her family after the failure of the Juquia colony. Afterwards, she married one of the sons of Alfred F. Smith, 12 another of the McMullan colonists. In 1916, she was 13 living in Ventania, east of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

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Bowen, William. William Bowen, the partner of Frank McMullan in the Brazilian colony, was a veteran of the Texas War for Independence, the Mexican War, and the Civil War. He accompanied Frank McMullan in the quest for lands in Brazil in 1866, and remained there while McMullan returned to Texas for the colonists. Bowen's four children were under the supervision of Nancy McMullan during the voyage to Brazil. Bowen, with government help, built a large community house for the colonists before they arrived. When Frank McMullan died in late 1867, Bowen should have taken over the leadership of the colony, but failed to do so. Instead, he moved to the edge of the grant. In later years, Bowen was said to have cut a trail from the interior to the seashore. William Bowen's heirs perhaps were the only, or among the few, families who realized anything from the lands on the Juquia. George Barnsley said that the "heirs of Col. Bowen sold their land on the Juquea [Juquia] to Government or to the Brazilian Railroad 18 for 100 centos or more—say 50 thousand dollars."

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Boyd, . Boyd, whose first name has not been found, was married and had one child, a girl."'

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Braxter, . Braxter, whose first name does not appear on any lists, was married and had one child, a girl.

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Brooks, . Brooks, whose first name has not been found, went to Santos after the breakup of the McMullan Colony.

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Cobb, F. F. Cobb was a married man with two children, both girls.

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Cook, J. T. According to Douglas Grier, J. T. Cook, his wife,  and seven children sailed with McMullan on the Derby. George Barnsley said that he thought "that he moved up to  Santa Barbara, and remained there." Frank Goldman stated that according to his information. Cook went to Santos, Brazil.

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Crawley, . Crawley, whose first name is not given, was listed, without further information, by Frank Goldman as one of  the colonists.

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Demaret, Martin Felix. Although Martin Felix Demaret was not one of McMullan's colonists, his family sailed to Brazil on the  Derby. Demaret had gone to Brazil, presumably on his  own, in 1866 to look for land on which to settle. George Barnsley described Demaret as "a fine gentleman, of the old courteous, gallant, type, and his family, well educated and. thoroughly refined in manners, which latter merits were very much at discount among most of our American emigrants of that epoch." Before the war, Demaret had lived in Louisiana and operated a cotton plantation in Texas. Although he lost most of his fortune, he managed to save some money and purchased land near Santa Barbara. After Demaret's death, the family scattered, some going to Sao Paulo.

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Dillard, . Dillard, whose first name is not mentioned in any of the extant records, sailed on the Derby to Rio de Janeiro. With another young Irish boy named O'Reilly who joined the McMullan party in New York City in search of adventure, Dillard enlisted in the Brazilian army during the war with Paraguay. Both Dillard and O'Reilly collected the large bonuses offered to enlistees, but once on the front lines, they deserted and joined the Paraguayans to collect another bounty. Afterwards, they were captured by the Brazilians, tried by court-martial, and shot.

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Domm, Frank. Domm, Frank. A native of Germany, Frank Domm, with his brother, John, had immigrated to Texas where he sailed with Frank McMullen to Brazil. Domm, John. John Domm accompanied his brother, Frank, to Brazil, After the breakup of the McMullan Colony, he went to Santa Barbara where he worked as a blacksmith. At the time of his death, he was survived by his wife, whose nativity is  unknown, and a daughter.

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Dyer, Amanda Webb. Born on November 1, 1822, Amanda Webb married James Harrison Dyer in Georgia on April 29, 1845, and came to Texas with him in 1847. With her husband, she went with the McMullan Colony to Brazil, where she died on July 4, 35 1869. Her burial place is not known.

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Dyer, Harriet Ann. Harriet Ann was the only daughter of James H. and Amanda Dyer. At age twenty-one, she married Columbus Wasson in Rio de Janeiro. While in Brazil, she gave birth to two children, both boys. Harriet returned to Texas with her father and brothers in 1872, leaving behind her husband to finish a term of school he was teaching. Eventually, Harriet was the mother of six children. She died in Texas in 1917.

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Dyer, James Edwin. James Edwin Dyer, the younger brother of Wylie S. Dyer, and the son of Judge James H. Dyer and Amanda Webb Dyer, returned to Texas with his father in 1872. He married Delia Thompson after his return to Texas but had no  children.

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Dyer, James Harrison. James Harrison Dyer, who moved from Georgia to Texas in 1847, became the first judge of Hill County, Texas. He and his brother, Simpson Cash Dyer, built the first dam and mill ever constructed on the Brazos River. Dyer, with his wife, Amanda, and three children, went with his nephew, Frank McMullan, to Brazil. There he, with his  son-m-law, Columbus Wasson, operated a sawmill. After his business failure, caused by a loss of a steamboat. Dyer returned to Texas. After returning to Hill County in 1872, Dyer became noted for his activities as a lawman and as a breeder of fine, registered cattle. He died in September,  1901, at age seventy-nine years.

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Dyer, Wiley Simpson. Wiley Simpson Dyer was reputedly the first white child born in Hill County, Texas. He sailed for Brazil in 1867 with his father and mother, James H. and Amanda Dyer. In 1869, after his mother's death, Wiley was placed in a Catholic school. Having been reared a Baptist, young Dyer did not agree with some of the doctrinal teachings. For refusing to bow before statues of saints in the church, because he believed the practice to be idol worship, he was expelled. Wiley Simpson Dyer returned to Hill County with his father, brother, and sister in 1872. Afterwards, he married two times, first to Nancy Hill, and second to a Mrs. Swilling, a widow. He died in Hill County in 1921.

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Fielder, C. C. Fielder was married, but no information about his family has been found. When the McMullan Colony failed, he went to Santa Barbara, but later returned to the United  States

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Fielder, L. A single man, L. Fielder, whose relationship to C. Fielder is not mentioned anywhere, likewise went to Santa Barbara after the failure of the McMullan Colony and  afterwards returned to the United States.

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Gill, William. "Billy" Gill, who was married and had one child, a girl, apparently moved to Santa Barbara when the colony  failed.

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Green, A. J. A. J. Green, a widower with five children, three girls and two boys, "went to Santa Barbara and then to other places" after the failure of the McMullan Colony. Afterwards, the family scattered to unknown places through out Brazil.

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Hanny, . This man's first name has not been found, but Frank Goldman, a Brazilian historian, infers that he was a member of the colony and states that he finally settled in Santos, Brazil.

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Hargrove, J. D. J. D. Hargrove was a single man who went with the emigrants to the Juquia, but no other information has been located.

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Haynes, L. F. L. F. Haynes, with his wife and six children, four  boys and two girls, settled on the Juquia.

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Hickman, __. Hickman, whose first name is not recorded, was a single man at the time of emigration.

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Johnson, . Johnson, whose first name is not recorded, was listed by Barnsley as a single man, but at a later date his son tried unsuccessfully to reestablish his father's claim to land on the Juquia.

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Keith, J. M. J. M. Keith, a member of the McMullan Colony, spent his life in Brazil as a prospector, wandering around the interior and staking claims to all kinds of mines. He eventually received title to a large amount of land. In Texas, Keith had been a Texas Ranger. During the Civil War, according to Barnsley, he had been in the Confederacy's Trans-Mississippi Department.

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McAlpine, . McAlpine, also spelled McAlpin, whose first name is not given, was listed by Barnsley as a single man.

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