Adam "Red" Zumwalt

The Zumwalts of Alsace, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri. "Red" Adam Zumwalt Sr. was born 1 February 1790 in Virginia (probably Frederick or Pendleton County) to parents John D. Zumwalt (ca. 1724-1851) and Elizabeth Conrad. His father, John Zumwalt, was the son of Alsace-Lorraine immigrant Johann Wilhelm Andres (Andrew) Zumwalt (ca. 1698-1765) and wife Ann Regina who arrived in the port of Baltimore, MD in 1737. Immediate family members migrated sequentially to Pennsylvania, Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri. John Zumwalt served with brothers Jacob, Adam and Christopher under Capt. John McCoy in the Virginia Militia in the Revolutionary War and on 10 October 1774 he was wounded in the arm in the Battle of Point Pleasant. John Zumwalt was the last of six sons of immigrant Andrew Zumwalt to eventually immigrate to the St. Charles District of the Louisiana District of the Indiana Territory, later St. Charles County, Missouri. He apparently remained in Virginia when other siblings moved to the Kentucky frontier prior to moving to Missouri. He and his family moved to the St. Charles District in 1806 where he received land grant no. 1206 for 640 acres in Darst Bottom. On 15 Aug 1808, Nathan Boone sold his interest in Boone Salt Lick in HowardCo, MO to John D. Zumwalt and Alexander Murdock, who lived near the Boones in Matson, MO. The Bill of Sale was issued in Femme Osage and Daniel Boone, Nathan’s father, signed as witness. The Boone Salt Lick was the beginning of the famous California Overland, Santa Fe and Oregon Trails. In 1819, sons of John and Elizabeth Conrad Zumwalt, Andrew and "Red" Adam Zumwalt, owned property in Femme Osage and Darst’s Bottom. The tag "Red" was probably never used by Adam Zumwalt in his lifetime, but assigned by recordkeepers and historians to distinguish him from his prominent and younger cousin in the DeWitt Colony, "Black" Adam Zumwalt Jr. The tag Sr. was probably adopted by him for the same purpose (he had no sons named Adam) since he referred to himself as "Adam Zumwalt Senr." in his will in 1845.

From Missouri to the DeWitt Colony. Adam Zumwalt married Nancy Elizabeth Caton (1795-1886) on 6 May 1813 in St. Charles County, Missouri. The family of nine arrived in the DeWitt Colony at the mouth of the Lavaca River from New Orleans in the same period as the five related extended families of Burket, Kent and Zumwalt in 1829-1830. Adam Zumwalt’s daughter, Elizabeth Zumwalt Mitchell, related an arrival scene to her daughter that was very similar to that related by Nathan Boone Burkett, son of Adam Zumwalt's cousin Mary Ann Zumwalt (Burket):

"…….Adam Zumwalt's family came from Missouri to Gonzales in 1828 being a part of DeWitt's colony. They came by boat and landed in Matagorda Bay. While the men were unloading the boat, the women and children walked along the beach gathering luscious dewberries which they found under a bluff bank. They looked up and saw several Indians in war paint and feathers looking down at them. They ran to the boat, but when they got there she was not with them. She had fainted and the men had to carry her to the boat."

The account above citing 1828 and arrival dates in land archives, although imprecise, suggest that "Red" Adam Zumwalt’s family arrived before the David Burket family and the other Zumwalt and Kent families who arrived around Jun 1830. Land grant records indicated that Adam Zumwalt, married with nine persons (seven children, two males), arrived in the DeWitt Colony 20 May 1829 and was granted a league and labor of land on 28 Jan 1830. On 10 Aug 1831, Adam Zumwalt petitioned as a farmer for title of his labor of 177 acres located just south of and abutting on the Gonzales town tract with the southern boundary on the Guadalupe River (Burket-Zumwalt-DeWitt Cluster). His land was between tracts granted to Green DeWitt, Samuel Highsmith, James Gibson and Esther Berry on the west, David Burket, Charles Braches and Green DeWitt on the east and Francis Berry, John Oliver and Green DeWitt to the south. The tract was surveyed by Byrd Lockhart and was described as "situated in the proximity of Gonzales on the northeast side of the Guadalupe.....north to the boundary of the town tract......following the meanders of the River upward to the place where it began

Honorable Commissioner: I, Adam Zumwalt, a native of the United States of the North, the formalities of the law permitting, appear before you and say that having been admitted by the Empresario, Green de Witt, to settle the lands of his Colony as the Law of Colonization of the State prescribes and as appears on this certificate which I duly enclose, being as I am married and having seven children, two boys, and up until the present time not having the title of possession to the tract that corresponds to me as a settler, by the present petition I entreat that you may put me in possession of one labor, although it only contains 712,400 varas, which is the quantity I have known it to be, and which is localed adjacent to the Commons of this Town on the Guadalupe River, reserving for myself the rith as a stock raiser to ask, by another petition, for the 24 labors of pasture land on the San Marcos River about one league above this Town; in acceding thereto, you shall give me justice. Gonzales, August 10th of 1831. Signed Adam Zumwalt. [From "Red"Adam Zumwalt's petition for land title translated from the Spanish, Texas Spanish Land Grant Archives, vol. 13, pg. 573. For text of a complete land grant, see David Burket Land Grant]

On 15 Nov 1831, Adam Zumwalt as a breeder of stock petitioned Commissioner Jose Navarro for title to his league of 4428 acres in current Gonzales County. The league is about 6 miles north of Gonzales on the east bank of the San Marcos River abutting on the south on the boundary of the town tract.

Honorable Commissioner: I, Adam Zumwalt, a native of the United States of the North, by this second petition, and by means of the formalities of the law make know to you that you having seen fit to acceed to a petition I mae, dated the 10th of last month of August, asking for a fraction of a labor of arable land which, as a famer in this enterprise of Citizen Green de my due, in consideration of my large family and the reaons which I presented on that date, as appears on the witnessed document in my possession; I, by this petition, as a breeder of stock, ask you please to put me in possession of a superficies of 24,000,000 varas which I lack to complete the league and which are entirely vacant on the northeast bank of the San Marcos River adjacent to the boundary line of the land of the Town and about six miles above this Town; in acceeding thereto you will do me justice. Gonzales, November 15, 1831, Signed Adam Zumwalt. [From "Red"Adam Zumwalt's petition for land title translated from the Spanish, Texas Spanish Land Grant Archives, vol. 13, pg. 567. For text of a complete land grant, see David Burket Land Grant. The original grant of a league of land to Adam Zumwalt in Spanish is here and the grant of his labor is here].

On 3 Oct 1834, he was deeded lots 5 and 6 in block 11 of inner Gonzales town by alcalde J.C. Davis. The land was appraised at $15. In 1841 Adam Zumwalt received a land certificate for 320 acres from the Republic of Texas for service from June through September of 1836. The 320 acre plot abutted on the west border of the James Roney league east of the Gonzales town tract.

Source: http://www.tamu.edu/faculty/ccbn/dewitt/redadam.htm