The Fearless Fifty-Nine, Elijah Stapp
Elijah Stapp was the 53 year old Jackson representative. Stapp became interested in Texas when he encountered empresario Green DeWitt, who write a letter to Stephen F. Austin on Stapp’s behalf in 1826. After investigating the new land, he moved his wife and children from Missouri to settle in the colony in 1830. He quickly became involved in the Revolution and by July 1835 he provided leadership in a meeting of settlers of Navidad and Lavaca to discuss growing dissatisfaction with the Mexican government. In December of 1835, he was appointed second judge of the new Jackson Municipality by the General Council of the provisional government. After the Convention, Stapp and his family had to flee in the Runaway Scrape. He was elected justice of the piece of Jackson County in 1839 and postmaster in 1840. By 1840, he owned 4,428 acres in Victoria County. Stapp died in March 1843 in Jackson County.
The pictures are of a poem his daughter, Rebecca Margrett Stapp Stukes, wrote in 1882 about their experience during the Revolution and Runaway Scrape. The poem was published in Texas State Historical Association’s The Southwestern Historical Quarterly in 1985.
