News from the Lake Creek Settlement: The Ironic Death of a Pennsylvania Dutchman

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, TX -- The earliest Anglo-American settlement in what is today Montgomery County was the Lake Creek Settlement. Several colonists and settlers from the Lake Creek Settlement fought in the Texas Revolution in 1835 and 1836. These soldiers who fought for Texas’ independence from Mexico included Jacob H. Shepperd, Matthew Cartwright, William Cartwright, John Marshall Wade, Thomas Chatham, Evin Corner, James J. Foster, Raleigh Rogers, Jacob Shannon, and A. U. Springer. During the last decade, another Texian soldier from the Lake Creek Settlement was discovered - John Bricker.

Most of the Lake Creek Settlement men who fought in the Revolution were Southerners, but Bricker was from the North. John Bricker was born in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, in 1791. He was trained as a millwright, and he arrived in Austin’s Colony sometime before July 1827. For the colony to grow, the colonists and settlers at San Felipe de Austin desperately needed a grist mill and a sawmill. Bricker built these mills for James Cummins seven miles north of the town of San Felipe on Palmetto Creek, later known as Mill Creek. Some sources indicate that these mills may have been the first mills in Texas operated by waterpower.

It is also important to note that Bricker built a public brick oven at San Felipe. At the San Felipe de Austin State Historic Site in San Felipe, Texas, the Texas Historical Commission has reconstructed a portion of the original town. Villa de Austin is a permanent outdoor exhibit that includes several reconstructed log cabins, a hotel, a newspaper office, a schoolhouse, and a courthouse as they would have appeared when San Felipe was the colonial capital of Texas. A replica of John Bricker's historic brick oven has also been reconstructed as part of the Villa de Austin exhibit.

As we have seen in previous articles, Lake Creek Settlement settler, W. W. Shepperd, was responsible for many Montgomery County “firsts.” He officiated the first marriage and established the first trading post and the first post office. Shepperd was the first postmaster, and he founded the town of Montgomery, the first town in what is today Montgomery County. In 1835, Bricker came to the Lake Creek Settlement to build a cotton gin and a mill for Shepperd on a spring-fed branch of Atkins Creek (later known as Town Creek). Shepperd’s cotton gin was the first in what is today Montgomery County. Bricker began working on Shepperd’s cotton gin and mill in 1835. He worked on both projects until he volunteered for service in the Texas army in early 1836.

On March 29, 1836, the Texas army burned the town of San Felipe. Sam Houston had marched the main body of his army twenty miles north to the Coushatta crossing on the west side of the Brazos River across from Jared Groce’s Bernardo plantation. A small garrison under Captain Mosely Baker remained behind at San Felipe. Baker’s company crossed to the east side of the Brazos and destroyed the ferry to prevent the Mexican army from crossing the river. General Santa Anna arrived shortly thereafter and spent a couple of days trying to reestablish the ferry so that he could cross his army and proceed to Harrisburg where the new government of Texas had relocated following the Convention at Washington-on-the-Brazos. Baker and his small force of men, including Bricker, successfully prevented Santa Anna’s army from crossing the Brazos River at San Felipe. Ultimately, Santa Anna’s army was compelled to advance to the present-day location of Richmond, Texas, in order to cross the Brazos. This delay allowed the Texas government at Harrisburg just enough time to escape.

Bricker was the only man in Baker’s company who was killed defending the river crossing during this “Battle of the Brazos.” In an awful case of irony, Bricker was killed instantly by a canister shot to the head fired from the Mexican’s cannon on April 7, 1836. To protect their cannon and the Mexican cannon crew from the deadly Texian rifles of Baker’s company, the Mexicans had placed their cannon behind a public oven. Yes, this was the very same public oven Bricker had built for the colonists and settlers in the town of San Felipe. The town had been burned, but the sturdy brick oven built by Bricker still stood.

Texas historians credit John Bricker as being the first Texian casualty of the San Jacinto Campaign. There is a marker at San Felipe erected by his relatives in 1935 in anticipation of the Texas Centennial to commemorate Bricker’s military contributions to the history of Texas. Surprisingly, no Texas Historical Commission marker has yet been erected anywhere in Texas to the memory of John Bricker the pioneer millwright and Texian army soldier. For those interested in a more detailed biography of the life of John Bricker, Randolf Bricker, Jr.’s monograph, John Bricker: Texas War of Independence Patriot, is available from Amazon.

Kameron K. Searle is a member of the Montgomery County Historical Commission, a regular contributor to The Handbook of Texas Online, and author of The Early History of Montgomery, Texas. He also served as the historian for the Texas Historical Commission marker for the "Lake Creek Settlement" located at the Nat Hart Davis Pioneer Complex and Museum in Historic Montgomery, Texas.