Margaret Darst, Alamo Widow

Joining the Fight for Texas Independence

GONZALES - Playing the character of Margaret Darst, whose husband, Jacob, was killed at the Alamo, Vicki Frenzel of Gonzales fought back tears while telling of the pain and anger she felt after learning her husband was dead.

"You used the word anger, Mrs. Darst, but yet your husband had paid the ultimate sacrifice for all of us in here with his life so that you may be a free Texan, and I may be a free Texan, and all of us may be free Texans. He has given his life for all of us to be free, yet you are angry. How can you possibly be angry?" asked Bob Burchard, the moderator for the play "Gonzales: The Beginning," which tells the story of the founding of Gonzales.

Frenzel's character said her head and heart were telling her different things.

"My head tells me that Jacob did the right thing, but my heart cannot believe that. How could he have gone off and left us?" Frenzel's character asked. "I know that he did it because he wanted us to be able to live free. Jacob convinced me that freedom was worth anything, and I believe in my Jacob. But now he is not here, and I'm angry."

Jacob Darst was one of 32 men - known as the Immortal 32 - from Gonzales and Green DeWitt's Colony who answered Col. William B. Travis's call for help at the Alamo. They joined nine others from Gonzales and Green DeWitt's Colony who were already fighting at the fort in San Antonio.

All 41 were honored Friday during a brief ceremony at Texas Heroes Square in downtown Gonzales in recognition of Texas Independence Day, which was Tuesday.

Burchard, president of the Gonzales County Historical Commission, which sponsored the event along with the Gonzales Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture, read the names of each of the men at the ceremony, which he ended with a prayer.

"They were so young. You look at all the names, and some of them are 16 and 17. Isn't that something? It gives me a lump in my throat," Gonzales resident Olivia Harless said from her seat on a stone bench at Texas Heroes Square where she looked at the 41 Texas flags flying in recognition of each man killed.

Emily Bahlmann, 11, stood at Darst's flag, held her right hand over her heart and recited the Texas Pledge of Allegiance to herself. She said she picked Darst's flag because she heard the name during the play that was put on by the Gonzales historical commission before the ceremony. Others participating in the play included Leon Netardus, who played Green DeWitt, the founder of Gonzales; and Lois Willman, who played Martha McCord, a twice widowed woman.

Margaret Darst, Frenzel's character, also talked about fleeing for her life during what has become known as the Runaway Scrape. That's when Mexican Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna sent armies to Texas to run out the settlers after the fall of the Alamo.

"We were terrified. We were panicked. We knew that Santa Anna's army was on its way from the Alamo. but we didn't know if it was 20 miles away, 10 miles away. It could have been on the banks of the Guadalupe." Frenzel's character said.

She fled with blankets and some food for her and her son, David. Others, though, tried to lug furniture and other belongings, "but we were moving so fast, that they couldn't keep up."

They stopped to rest about 10 miles east of Gonzales at a spot, which today is known as the Sam Houston Oak.

"Someone yelled 'look to the west,' and I turned and I looked and the whole sky was red and glowing. I knew that Gonzales was burning," Frenzel's character said, her voice trailing off. "I fell to my knees, and I cried. I cried for myself. I cried for Jacob. I cried for our children. I cried because all of my belongings were gone, but, mostly, I cried because all of our plans and all of our dreams were gone."

Choking back tears, Frenzel bowed her head and paused. She then apologized, said she couldn't talk about it anymore, and turned around and sat down in a chair near a window in the front of the courtroom.

As Burchard continued with the play, one woman in attendance kept taking off her glasses and wiping away tears with her hands. The woman next to her patted her on the back.

"It gives you goose bumps every time you think about the prices people paid previously so we could lead our lives," said state Rep. Edmund Kuempel, whose district includes Gonzales County. He was one of the 100 or so who attended the play Friday morning.

Later in the day a display of the Runaway Scrape was unvelled outside the Gonzales Memorial Museum. Other activities Friday included a breakfast to raise money for the resoration of the Old Jail Museum, a walking tour of the downtown area, a display of photographs by the Gonzales Camera Club, a Knights of Columbus fish fry and a country music show sponsored by the Gonzales Pioneer Village.

Saturday 6 MAR 2004 - The Victoria Advocate, Victoria, Texas