CAMERON, Texas —
The settlement of Port Sullivan was one of many Texas villages that
dried up and blew away into the chronicles of the Lone Star State's
heritage.It was added to historical marker lists and ghost town
rosters, yet the 19th century settlement in east Milam County claims
important ties to some Utah families and The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints. In 1854, the Mormon
church dispatched elder Seth M. Blair on a mission trip to the outpost
near the confluence of the Little and Brazos rivers. Blair preached the Mormon doctrine and welcomed 50 new converts into
the faith, using the Brazos River for baptisms. Blair also persuaded his
newly acquired flock to make their homes in Salt Lake City, Utah
Territory.Blair, an attorney, veteran of the Texas War for
Independence and celebrated figure in Utah history, was a respected
leader in his church and friend of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints President Brigham Young.Blair led his party of
saints out of Port Sullivan on March 9, 1855, in a wagon train that
moved slowly northward into Falls County purposely to accommodate
latecomers.Among Mormon saints departing
Port Sullivan was Georgia native and former Texas state representative
Nathaniel Hunt Greer, his wife Nancy and their children. Greer operated a
prosperous sawmill in Milam County. The Greers sold their properties in
Milam and Washington counties and bought wagons, oxen and supplies for
their overland wagon train journey to Utah.Blair's journal
recorded his visit to Texas, events in Port Sullivan and the wagon train
to Utah, according to documents at the LDS Church Library in Salt Lake
City.By March 25, the party was six miles north of Marlin. The
weather was dry and windy, stunting grasses needed for livestock forage.
Near Waxahachie, Blair expressed in his diary dismay because envy,
jealousy, worldliness and loss of the spirit had crept in among his
followers.The slow-moving caravan departed Texas on April 22,
crossing the Red River at Preston. They traveled through Choctaw and
Chickasaw land, then joined a larger wagon train of Utah-bound Mormons in Atchison, Kansas Territory.The
overland wagon train of 89 people, 38 wagons, 480 oxen, 21 cows and 40
horses departed Atchison on June 15, only to be stricken with a cholera
epidemic after traveling only 20 miles. In the first 24 hours, a dozen
people died of cholera that eventually claimed 29 victims, 16 from Texas
and 13 others.The train continued leaving in its wake a trail of
graves. Nathaniel Greer was among the casualties. His coffin was made
from a wagon bed and he was buried on a hill close to Grasshopper Creek
in Kansas. Another cholera-stricken Port Sullivan pilgrim wandered away
from camp and was never found."The cry of the dying and shrieks
of the living presented nothing but the true scene, even all the horrors
of death imaginable. The gravediggers were employed both night and
day," Blair wrote in his journal on June 14, 1855. When the party
reached the Big Nemehaw River, many survivors renewed their covenants
through re-baptism.The train continued, but the people had to
deal with a measles outbreak, distention, a few accidents and the threat
of Indian attacks that terrorized travelers but never occurred. They
reported they had fed a few Sioux.Greer's grief-stricken family
plodded on across the plains with the overland train arriving in Salt
Lake City on Sept. 11, 1855.A year later, some of Greer's
offspring, heartbroken over the loss of their father and disheartened
over the loss of cattle during a brutal Utah winter, returned to Texas
and settled in Bosque County. Others stayed in Utah. One of Greer's
granddaughters married Blair.Blair, who had longtime friends in
Texas, was reported to have corresponded with Sam Houston in the early
days of Texas.The Handbook of Texas Online sets Port Sullivan
geographically on a low bluff downstream from a shoal of limestone
boulders in the Brazos River about 25 miles east of Cameron in Milam
County.Officially, the village was christened Port Sullivan on
Dec. 12, 1835, when August W. Sullivan gained title to the property.In
1852, Port Sullivan boasted 200 residents, four stores including one
stocked with New York-bought goods, a sawmill, warehouses, post office
and offices for doctors and lawyers. By 1860, the town had grown to 680
and had its own college.The 1870 census counted 1,423 people, but
a decade later only 123 people remained. By the 1890s Port Sullivan had
reached ghost town status, the unsuspecting victim of a temperamental
river that could only accommodate steamboats during floods, and a
casualty of 19th century transportation when railroads laid tracks at
other sites isolating the village.During its existence, Port
Sullivan recorded some notable events. Robert E. Lee was among soldiers
stationed at Port Sullivan before the Civil War to quell unfriendly
Indian uprisings.The Port Sullivan Cemetery is the resting place
of Thomas J. Anderson, grand master of Masons of Texas who died in
office in 1871. His grave is marked with a 9-foot marble monument. The
site was honored several years ago with a Texas Historical Marker placed
during ceremonies sponsored by the San Andres Masonic Lodge No. 107 in
Cameron.