One of my favorite Christmas presents is a Shutterfly book filled with 42 pages of photos, mostly of our two young granddaughters, Maddie and Anne-Marie. Their father is a photographer, and they are his favorite subjects. The delightful presentation was full of summer-through-fall activities, showing them sight-seeing, running through parks, splashing in the Gulf, wearing home-school emblazoned tees, mugging for the camera or just looking beautiful.
In the lull after the storm of Christmas activity, I took a few moments to dwell leisurely on the pictures this morning. One puzzled me a little--a monument in front of the Texas state capitol in Austin on which names were engraved, with 6-year-old Anne-Marie pointing one out. "Does that name say 'Summers' or something?" I asked Jamie when I called him about it today. It obviously had some significance, but I couldn't read it.
"Yes! Don't you have your glasses on?" he answered. I did, but they didn't help make out the carved-in-stone letters. It did indeed say "Summers," which I read clearly with a magnifying glass after I hung up. I figured it was a list of Alamo heroes, because I had seen that name on a list when visiting there a few years ago.
Looking up information on line, I found it was the name of one of the defenders of the Alamo, William E. Summers. He was born in Tennessee in 1812, moved to Gonzales, Texas in 1836 where he was mustered into The Gonzales Ranging Company of Mounted Volunteers on February 3 of that year, effectively becoming a Texas Ranger.
Private William E. Summers, marksman, rode with this group on March 1, 1836, to relieve the beleagered fighters at the Alamo. Just 24 years old, he was killed in the massacre on March 5, only five days later. He is included in a list as one of the "Immortal 32," men of valor who showed uncommon bravery when they doubtless knew their chances of survival were practically non-existent.
Since this hero was a single man, there is no chance that our Summers clan could be descendants of William E. Summers. However, my father-in-law's middle name was "Willmon," maybe a distant relative of the family? In one of the geneolgies I read, a grandfather of his was a preacher. That fits...my husband is a preacher, his brother was a preacher, and we have two preacher sons!
This American patriot was on the muster roll of Colonel W.B. Travis. We may admire his bravery and share his name, but our duty is to see that our name is on the heavenly roll, and that we share the name of Christ as Christians! Now that is a family affair!
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