Memoirs of Mary A. Maverick

Rating:
Summary: An Eloquent Memoir - An Adventurous Life!
Review: Mary Ann Adams married Samuel Maverick, a man fifteen years her senior, bid farewell to her privileged upbringing, and willingly embraced life on the Texas frontier of the 1830s. Mary ultimately prevailed over uncommon diseases, primitive living conditions, clashes with Indians and Mexicans, deaths of loved ones, and the loss of innocence.

Mary and Samuel lived in San Antonio, a town with three discordant cultures: Comanche, Mexican, and Anglo. Samuel was instrumental in cementing Texas' annexation to the United States. He was fiercely independent, a quality matched by Mary, and was placed in postions of trust by his fellow Texans - mayor, judge, and state congressman. Samuel participated in the early defense of the Alamo and was a prisoner of the Mexicans for two years. He was truly a man to admire and Mary did that with a devotion that defied time.

Mary Maverick kept notes, correspondence, and other memoranda during her long life and printed a small booklet many years later for a few family members. No copies of her version (1896) have survived. Her granddaughter Rena Maverick Green later examined Mary's written material and prepared a manuscript for publication in 1921. Reissuing Green's manuscript provides a valuable resource for present day readers of Western Americana.

Mary's bold narrative is preoccupied with Comanche raids and conflicts with the country of Mexico. She writes with sadness about the horrors suffered by a 15 year old Indian captive whose "nose was actually burned off to the bone, all the fleshy end gone; both nostrils wide open and denuded of flesh." Mary vividly describes an Indian battle in her town resulting in the death of forty persons, thirty-three of whom were Indians. She had no problem separating the incidents in her mind - one involved unadulterated sadism, the other a battle between enemies. She always faithfully recorded what she saw and heard.

Every day provided unique and gruesome reminders of life on the frontier. Mary reports a pleasant visit to a friend which was interrupted by a Dr. Widemann who came to the front window with a bloody Indian head, gallantly bowed and said, "with your permission." He was collecting specimens from a nearby Indian battlefield and used the window to store one head while he searched for another.

Widemann later boiled both heads and their respective bodies in a large soap boiler located in his front yard. He emptied the contents, including flesh and some bones, into a large ditch which contained the town's drinking water; the same water also used by townspeople to wash clothing and for bathing. The doctor used a skeleton formed from one of the Indians to guard his garden from hungry birds.

Mary Maverick was a writer of uncommon strength who recounted both good and bad times with vigor and poignancy. Cholera decimated the population of San Antonio. Two of Mary's children died in the epidemic - a sad commentary on the unsanitary water that plauged many frontier communities. Mary possessed a fierce love for her family and the deaths of her beloved children tore her apart. Her description of Agatha's last hours is very moving and engfulfs one with the sadness of an unconsolable loss. Less than a year later, Mary's youngest daughter joined her sister. Mary mourned her daughters until the day she died.

There are matters for one to quibble over as the Mavericks were slave holders and intolerant of Mexican aspirations. (Yet the past endures unchanged regardless of our present day abhorrence toward such matters) In addition, some of Mary's recollections are blurred by fond remembrances and don't measure up to historical reality. Even though her memoirs encompass elements of folklore, it is folklore of the highest quality.

The Mavericks were people of extraordinary ability or they couldn't have surmounted the many obstacles and tragedies in their lives. They blazed the path for others and set a standard of individualism, adaptability, and toughness essential for survival on the American frontier.

There is a majesty, passion, and eloquence in the memoirs of Mary Ann maverick that time cannot erode. After a long, loving, and tempestuous life Mary joined the children she always mourned and her live came full circle. This is a very satisfying book.

Rating:
Summary: An Eloquent Memoir - An Adventurous Life!
Review: Mary Ann Adams married Samuel Maverick, a man fifteen years her senior, bid farewell to her privileged upbringing, and willingly embraced life on the Texas frontier of the 1830s. Mary ultimately prevailed over uncommon diseases, primitive living conditions, clashes with Indians and Mexicans, deaths of loved ones, and the loss of innocence.

Mary and Samuel lived in San Antonio, a town with three discordant cultures: Comanche, Mexican, and Anglo. Samuel was instrumental in cementing Texas' annexation to the United States. He was fiercely independent, a quality matched by Mary, and was placed in postions of trust by his fellow Texans - mayor, judge, and state congressman. Samuel participated in the early defense of the Alamo and was a prisoner of the Mexicans for two years. He was truly a man to admire and Mary did that with a devotion that defied time.

Mary Maverick kept notes, correspondence, and other memoranda during her long life and printed a small booklet many years later for a few family members. No copies of her version (1896) have survived. Her granddaughter Rena Maverick Green later examined Mary's written material and prepared a manuscript for publication in 1921. Reissuing Green's manuscript provides a valuable resource for present day readers of Western Americana.

Mary's bold narrative is preoccupied with Comanche raids and conflicts with the country of Mexico. She writes with sadness about the horrors suffered by a 15 year old Indian captive whose "nose was actually burned off to the bone, all the fleshy end gone; both nostrils wide open and denuded of flesh." Mary vividly describes an Indian battle in her town resulting in the death of forty persons, thirty-three of whom were Indians. She had no problem separating the incidents in her mind - one involved unadulterated sadism, the other a battle between enemies. She always faithfully recorded what she saw and heard.

Every day provided unique and gruesome reminders of life on the frontier. Mary reports a pleasant visit to a friend which was interrupted by a Dr. Widemann who came to the front window with a bloody Indian head, gallantly bowed and said, "with your permission." He was collecting specimens from a nearby Indian battlefield and used the window to store one head while he searched for another.

Widemann later boiled both heads and their respective bodies in a large soap boiler located in his front yard. He emptied the contents, including flesh and some bones, into a large ditch which contained the town's drinking water; the same water also used by townspeople to wash clothing and for bathing. The doctor used a skeleton formed from one of the Indians to guard his garden from hungry birds.

Mary Maverick was a writer of uncommon strength who recounted both good and bad times with vigor and poignancy. Cholera decimated the population of San Antonio. Two of Mary's children died in the epidemic - a sad commentary on the unsanitary water that plauged many frontier communities. Mary possessed a fierce love for her family and the deaths of her beloved children tore her apart. Her description of Agatha's last hours is very moving and engfulfs one with the sadness of an unconsolable loss. Less than a year later, Mary's youngest daughter joined her sister. Mary mourned her daughters until the day she died.

There are matters for one to quibble over as the Mavericks were slave holders and intolerant of Mexican aspirations. (Yet the past endures unchanged regardless of our present day abhorrence toward such matters) In addition, some of Mary's recollections are blurred by fond remembrances and don't measure up to historical reality. Even though her memoirs encompass elements of folklore, it is folklore of the highest quality.

The Mavericks were people of extraordinary ability or they couldn't have surmounted the many obstacles and tragedies in their lives. They blazed the path for others and set a standard of individualism, adaptability, and toughness essential for survival on the American frontier.

There is a majesty, passion, and eloquence in the memoirs of Mary Ann maverick that time cannot erode. After a long, loving, and tempestuous life Mary joined the children she always mourned and her live came full circle. This is a very satisfying book.