George W. Cottle (Immortal 32 Gonzales Ranger)

The DeWitt Colony Alamo Defenders,

The Immortal 32 Gonzales Rangers:

George Washington Cottle, 25, was born in 1811 (some records say 1798) in Hurricane Twp, LincolnCo, MO and a member of the Gonzales Rangers. He was granted a league of land on Tejocotes Creek and the La Vaca River 28 miles from Gonzales in Fayette County near where current Gonzales, Lavaca and Fayette County lines come together (near David Burket’s League). On his league are some of the headwaters of the Lavaca River. The Cottle family owned multiple properties in the inner and outer Gonzales town tract. They had a home at the corner of St. Louis and St. John Streets. He came to the DeWitt Colony with parents Jonathan and Margaret Cottle from MO on 6 Jul 1829 together with sister and brother Louisa and Almond. His uncle Isaac Cottle (m. Mary Ann Williams) and family also emigrated to the DeWitt Colony where they received a league of land east of Gonzales in Mary Ann Williams name just north of the land granted to Mary Ann's brother, Allam B. Williams. George Washington Cottle married their daughter, his cousin, Eliza, on 7 Nov 1830. They had a daughter Melzina and four months later the marriage was annulled by bond signed by George Washington, Eliza and Eliza’s next husband, James Gibson. George Washington married second Nancy Curtis Oliver on 21 Jun 1835 according to GonzalesCo marriage records. They had twin boys born after his death at the Alamo.

Nancy Curtis Oliver Cottle first married to John Oliver in 1829 was the daughter of James Curtis, a veteran of the War of 1812 from Tennessee and one of The Old Three Hundred of the Austin Colony. James Curtis (b. 1780), also known as "uncle Jimmie" at age 56 was said to be the oldest man at the Battle of San Jacinto which he is said to have joined to avenge the widowhood of his daughter and the death of his son-in-law Wash Cottle who he never got along with well in real life. General Thomas Rusk related in his anecdotes of the battle:

   "On starting out from our camp to enter upon the attack, I saw an old gentleman, by the name of Curtis, carrying two guns. I asked him what was his reason for carrying more than one gun. He answered: 'D---n the Mexicans; they killed my son and son-in-law in the Alamo, and I intend to kill two of them for it, or be killed myself.' I saw the old man again, during the fight, and he told me he had killed his two men, and if he could find Santa Anna, he would cut a razor-strop out of his back." 

Other legends say he accompanied each shot at the Mexicans in the battle with the words "Alamo! You killed Wash Cottle." At the end of the battle as Texan officers began to stop the carnage, Curtis was terrorizing a Mexican officer with a knife and yelling "You killed Wash Cottle. Now I’m going to kill you and make a razor strap from your hide." When Col. Wharton pulled the officer up on his horse stating "Men, this Mexican is mine," Curtis raised his rifle and coolly blasted the Mexican officer off the horse. Col. Wharton reacted with rage, Curtis calmly took a drink of whiskey, turned his back and walked away muttering "Remember Wash Cottle." Uncle Jimmie Curtis' fondness to his jug of 1836 homebrew was also the subject of an earlier episode related by Noah Smithwick in The Evolution of a State and in Kemp's biographies of San Jacinto veterans as the Texans were evacuating Bastrop toward San Jacinto in front of Gen. Cos' forces from San Antonio.

George W. Cottle served as a courier rallying reinforcements for the Battle of Gonzales and, with his brother Almond (one of the Original Gonzales 18) was in the confrontation for the Gonzales cannon 2 Oct 1835. He joined his brother-in-law Thomas J. Jackson in the Gonzales relief force to the Alamo where both died. Descendants say Cottle focused on protection of the garrison's ammunition supply during the battle and died in the magazine room of the Alamo Chapel. Cottle County in northwest TX is named after him. Heirs of Cottle received bounty warrant 9479 for 960 acres in ClayCo for service and death on 6 Mar 1836 at the Alamo, but was lost, another was issued for 960 acres and again lost, but re-issued for 820 acres in ShelbyCo which was patented. 104 more acres were patented soon after. Two tracts of 480 and 160 acres in YoungCo were also patented for his service.

Source 1: http://www.tamu.edu/faculty/ccbn/dewitt/batgonframe.htm

Source 2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cottle_County,_Texas

Source 3: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington_Cottle

Source 4: http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fco81

Source 5: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonzales_Ranging_Company_of_Mounted_Vo...

George Washington Cottle, early Texas colonist and Alamo defender, son of Jonathan and Margaret Cottle, may have been born in Tennessee or in Hurricane Township, Missouri, in 1811. His parents came to Texas on July 6, 1829, to settle in Green DeWitt's colony on the Lavaca River. He married his first cousin, Eliza Cottle, on November 7, 1830, but the marriage was annulled on October 7, 1831. They had one daughter. Cottle received a league of land at the headwaters of the Lavaca River near Gonzales on September 12, 1832. Records indicate that on January 4, 1835, he married Nancy Oliver (Curtis). They had twin sons, born after Cottle's death.

When Mexican troops arrived south of Gonzales in September 1835, Cottle was one of the messengers sent to gather reinforcements. He returned to fight in the battle of Gonzales on October 2. In February 1836 he lent a yoke of oxen to Capt. Mathew Caldwell's company. He enlisted in the Gonzales Company under Lt. George C. Kimbell on February 24 and rode with thirty-two others to the Alamo on March 1. Cottle was killed on March 6, 1836, at the battle of the Alamo, alongside his brother-in-law, Thomas Jackson. Cottle County was named for him.