Runaway slave achieved fame in early Texas

By W. T. Block

Reprinted from the Beaumont Enterprise, Monday January 18, 1999.

NEDERLAND -- Although both an M. A. thesis and a book have been written about William Goyens, much mystery and perhaps misinformation surround the life of that Afro-American pioneer of Nacogdoches County. His residence was at Goyens Hill, 3 miles west of Nacogdoches, near where Aylitos Creek intersects Moral Creek.

Although Handbook of Texas lists his birth year as 1794 in Moore County, South Carolina, early newspaper articles reported that he was a Mulatto, born of a slave mother at some date after 1800. At any rate he obtained passage about 1824 on a merchant vessel, bound for New Orleans, and later he rode a steamer up Red River to Natchitoches, La., before walking 125 miles to Nacogdoches. At first Goyens worked as a wagon freighter, carrying cotton to Natchitoches, but since others in Louisiana tried to enslave him, he soon gave up that lucrative trade.

As a child, Goyens had learned to read and write and somehow he had learned the Cherokee language. Hence he was hired as interpreter by Gens. Sam Houston and Tom Rusk during treaty negotiations with Chief Bowles of the Cherokees, until the Indian War of 1839 expelled that tribe from Texas.

Apparently Goyens faced minimal racial confrontations at Nacogdoches, and despite many lawsuits to try title, he always defended himself successfully. Hence he made many friends among such eminent Texans as Rusk and Houston. He also acquired thousands of acres of timberlands near Goyens Hill, where he operated both a sawmill and grist mill, and owned a wayside inn on the Old San Antonio Road.

Goyens was successful at almost everything he attempted. He owned a blacksmith shop and was also a wagon maker and gunsmith in Nacogdoches. For many years before 1835, he was armorer and gunsmith for the Mexican Army. In April, 1836, he served as armorer and gunsmith for Gen. Rusk at Harrisburg, but he took no active part in the Battle of San Jacinto.

According to H. C. Fuller of Nacogdoches (Galv. Daily News, Dec. 8, 1901), Goyens was actually a runaway slave, whose former master in South Carolina had located Goyens’ place of residence in Nacogdoches and kept track of him for decades. After the Fugitive Slave Act of Sept. 12, 1850, the former owner arrived in Nacogdoches one day, where he told Goyens to prepare to return to South Carolina with him. Instead Goyens succeeded in buying his freedom for $5,000 in cash.

Goyens was a terrific business man, despite the frontier era and racial complexities of the age in which he lived. He married twice, first to Mrs. Mary Pate Sibley, and after her death, to Mrs. Louis Sanchez, a Mexican widow. However, he left no issue from either marriage. Goyens died on June 20, 1856, and is buried beside his wives at the foot of Goyens Hill.

Today the gentle waters of Aylitos Creek flow past the gravesite of the former runaway slave, William Goyens. The gentle murmurs, however, do not reveal that the nearby grave contains all that was mortal of the first Afro-American to attain real eminence in early Texas history. His long biography appears in Handbook of Texas, and in 1936 the Texas Centennial Commission erected a marker at his gravesite.

W. T. Block of Nederland is a historian and author. His website is http://block.dynip.com/wtblockjr/.