The Life of Charles Stillman: 2015

Throughout an intensive research from the life of Charles Stillman I offer the story of who created what is now known as the city of Brownsville,Texas and its history. Leading you up to what Brownsville went through in order to developed within the years and how this is still basically a historical culture that citizens of Brownsville look up to and maintain our founder Charles Stillman alive by going through his life time.

Charles Stillman is well-known for the history and creation of Brownsville, Texas. It began in the 18th century when Charles Stillman was born on November 4,1810 Wethersfield, Connecticut .He was the son of Captain Francis Stillman and Harriet Robbins Stillman. He had seven siblings and was the third child,since then he live all his childhood in Wethersfield, Connecticut until he moved on 1828.

In February 1828 Charles had arrived to Matamoros, Tamaulipas and established himself as an entrepreneur of a network of mercantile and industrial enterprises. Although he also had the cotton brokerage, real estate firms, silver mines of Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas, merchandise outlets, a shipping company, warehouses and a transportation company that lead up to Guadalajara. As the years pass the business became prosperous that Stillman expanded his real estate in Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas. Charles was a businessman that would take risky chances when he was given one.Charles had plenty of investments with a high amount of money contribution which was his occupation in life.

Meanwhile from 1845 up to 1848 the Mexican american war was going on when Charles and two other partner Richard King and Mifflin Kenedy joined to the transportation company hauling American troops up the river and supplying them. After the Mexican defeat, Stillman acquire a massive property on the Garza grant north and northwest of Matamoros from the first wife family of Jose Narciso Cavazos but because Narciso remarried he had the heirs to his eldest son Juan N, Cortina whom inherited after his father's death. Stillman knew that he was going to do serious business by buying this property. The purchase of this property lead to a lot of controversial legal fights over the ownership of the land. Yet, Stillman started his own town company and selling lots for as much as $1,500 each and named the place Brownsville, which had a population from around 3,000 and 4,000 concentrated.When the city started to developed the first three streets in Brownsville were St.Charles,Elizabeth St. and St.Francis.Meanwhile after the Mexican war was over they were signing the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 that became part of the state of Texas.Brownsville was given a county name as Cameron County by January 13,1849 and a post office was on operation by February 3,1849.

On August 17, 1849 Charles Stillman married Elizabeth Pamela Goodrich from Wethersfield, Connecticut. When Charles had arrived with his wife at Brownsville, Fort Brown was divided by a brick wall called the Quarter Master’s Fence which divided the fort and the community of Brownsville. Stillman built an extraordinary home in Brownsville for him and his wife Elizabeth to live in.By the 1850 Elizabeth gave birth to their first son James Jewett Stillman he was born on June 9,1850 at Brownsville, Texas. Therefore Stillman left the west of Brownsville to his son James. Stillman also sold the north side to his colleague Kenedy. Which cause many Mexicans to flee to the south of the river and led by Cortina carried out a range war that continued for twenty six years.

In the 1850’s Charles and his associate Jose Morell form a retailing outlet and was one of the first ones to fabricate textile in Monterrey, which was named “Stillman’s Vallencillo mines”. The Stillman’s Vallencillo mines was located between Laredo and Monterrey. With in that same year they had produced more than four million in silver and lead during the 1850's. The costumer's for the Stillman's Vallencillo mines stock were sold to the New York stock exchange.exchange. Stillman and his associate Morell had done a well done investment in this business of textile fabrications that gave them a well amount of profit.

Stillman then helped a bankroll which was attempted of an invasion of Mexico in 1851 by Jose Maria Carbajal for the reason that they settled in the Republic of the Sierra Madre. Elizabeth got pregnant on 1851 and gave birth to Isabel Goodrich Stillman on September 22,1852 in Brownsville, Texas. A year later Elizabeth decides to move with her children up to Connecticut permanently because of the yellow fever breaking out in Brownsville.Although Elizabeth had left on 1853 Charles stayed for a couple of months and would visit his family in the summer.Charles also decided to move out on 1853 and Thomas Carson a long time Brownsville mayor moved in. Throughout the years the Stillman family was continuing to grow so from 1855 and 1860 Charles and Elizabeth conceive three more lovely children, Clara Francis Stillman on March 20,1855 at Hartford, Connecticut, Charles Stillman,Jr. on May 22,1856 at Staten Island, New York, and Bessie Gray Stillman on April 13, 1860 at New York, New York.Besides the birth of Charles children what also took place in 1860 was that Robert E. Lee stationed himself at Fort Brown on a duty to quell border disturbances.

From 1862 and 1865 Charles Stillman,Richard King, and Mifflin Kenedy transported confederate cotton to Matamoros under an agreement for payment in gold.Therefore Stillman had bought plenty of cotton and sent it to the textile complex at Monterrey but he made a negotiation with New York through his mercantile firm ,Smith and Dunning, and he made much more money from it. But the United States government was one of the major purchasers for Stillman. For Stillman's luck he made a one sale at Manhattan his catch was for around $18,851 on a overall of $21,504. Stillman had two cotton buyers in Texas who included George W. Brackenridge and Thomas William house who is also one of his major suppliers. At the end of the war Stillman was one of the richest men in America because of all his well done businesses throughout the years. Although he centralized his investments in the National City Bank of New York.His Son James Stillman would be later on becoming the controlled and the supplier of the Brackenridge with a amount of $200,000 in the 1870’s so they could establish the San Antonio National Bank.By the year 1866 Charles Stillman decided to move back to Connecticut permanently although in another source of the Texas State Historical Association its stated that he moved permanently to New York .Charles had had a longlife that gave him riches. Nine years later Charles Stillman died in New York on December 18,1875.

Manuel Trevino ,Porfirio Diaz and others planned to overthrow the Mexican president Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada,which automatically Porfirio Diaz becomes the new president for Mexico and that he would be until the 1910. When The house of Charles Stillman had been passed year by year by 1958 the Trevino family decides to sell the family home after 100 years standing. That in 1958 Chauncey Stillman a great - grandson of Charles Stillman purchased the home. Chauncey Stillman takes the initiative to repair any details from the house and donates the house to the Brownsville Historical Association so that they can have this memory of who created or basically who was the founder of Brownsville,Texas. By 1960 the Stillman house is opened to the public as a museum. In the museum they tried to leave each and every detail and furniture that was used by Charles Stillman family and those who also lived in that house.Besides the house Harvard University library gathered important pages from a book where Stillman would annotate all his business information and news papers from The Portal to Texas history that include the American Flag which would informed the residents from Brownsville what was going on. In 2004 the Brownsville independent school district dedicated the tenth middle school to Charles Stillman, he was recognized as a successful South Texas Businessman who founded Brownsville as well as the neighboring town of Roma.That he was a man of extraordinary vision ,self discipline and hard work who had a great love for the Rio Grande are. Before Stillman's death he donated land for many public offerings including the land of Annie S. Putegnat Elementary ,Old city cemetery and the Washington park.

Bibliography

Bandera Americana. (Brownsville, Tex.), Vol. 1, No. 21, Ed. 1, Saturday, May 15, 1852, Newspaper, May 15, 1852; (http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth48267/ : accessed October 10, 2015), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, http://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, Austin, Texas.

"Brownsville Historical Association-Stillman House." Brownsville Historical Association-Stillman House. Brownsville Historical Association, n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2015.

"Charles Stillman's Tombstone, Buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in New York City." Charles Stillman's Tombstone, Buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in New York City. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Sept. 2015. <https://familysearch.org/photos/images/15108298>.

Harvard University- Houghton Library/Stillman, Charles, 1810-1875. Account Sales, 1860-1865. Charles Stillman business papers, 1847-1884. MS Am 800.27(113-119). Houghton Library, Harvard University.

John Mason Hart, "STILLMAN, CHARLES," Handbook of Texas Online(http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fst57), accessed November 14, 2015. Uploaded on June 15, 2010. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.

"Life of Charles Stillmanand Elizabeth Pamela Goodrich." Children of Charles Stillman. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2015. Information and data have been obtained from Ancestry.com

Scarborough, E. B., editor. The American Flag. (Brownsville, Tex.), Vol. 1, No. 20, Ed. 1, Saturday, May 8, 1852, Newspaper, May 8, 1852; (http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth78141/ : accessed October 10, 2015), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, http://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, Austin, Texas.