Susanna Wilkerson Dickinson

One of the most well-known woman of the Texas Revolution was Susanna Wilkerson Dickinson. She moved to Texas in her early twenties to elope with Almeron Dickinson, a man twice her age. While living in Gonzales in 1835, she survived an assault by “a gang of newly arrived American volunteer troops, who in a drunken and disorderly spree broke into homes in Gonzalez.” After that, her and her family moved to San Antonio where she lived in the boarding house of Don Ramon Muszquirz. Her husband moved her and her young daughter, Angelina, inside the Alamo compound after he was promoted to captain in charge of artillery at the Alamo. After the battle of the Alamo, her and “the surviving women were escorted back to the Musquiz house.” A stray bullet struck her leg while on the way to the house. She received treatment and then brought before Santa Anna. He permitted her release in exchange for delivering a letter to Sam Houston that said “the treatment accorded to the rebels at the Alamo will be the treatment to which the remainder of the country will be subjected.” She and Angelina were given a horse and two slaves and forced to set out to Gonzalez. Once reaching town, she was given shelter but soon joined the mass exodus of the Runaway Scrape. As a widow, Susanna had little means to support herself and remarried several times in an attempt to secure protection. She finally settled in Austin in 1857 with her fifth husband, Joseph William Hannig, where the family prospered.