Roland K. Truitt
Adventures of more than ordinary interest filled the early years of Roland K. Truitt. Hair-breadth escapes formed a part of his everyday experience. Inured to hardships and accustomed to peril, he retained his courage alike on the bloody battlefield and the lonely Indian-haunted prairie. While yet a mere lad he had become accustomed to long journeys, wearisome marches and the deprivation of every comfort ameliorating the adversities of existence. Indifference to personal comfort, a marked characteristic of his youth, fitted him for the vicissitudes of army service and the dangers incident to long and lonely trips across the plains and through the then undeveloped south. The First Texas Cavalry, in which he once rendered gallant service, has now no survivor save himself, the other brave men who once with him shared peril and hunger having long since fought their last fight and fallen before the arrows of the all-conquering enemy, Death.
Roland K. Truitt was born August 23, 1841, near the San Jacinto river, in Texas, where his father had acquired a large grant of land. The father was a native of Kentucky, and the mother who though of Irish descent was a native of Missouri, and numbered among her relatives the famous old doctor Hostetter. During infancy Mr. Truitt was taken to Missouri by his parents and in 1849 they started across the plains with a large expedition of Argonauts. Danger marked the journey from its incipiency. Savages threatened the entire destruction of the party. The members became scattered. They boy, his father and grandfather were left alone on the plains at the mercy of the Indians, with only two yoke of oxen for the transportation of their supplies. Some Cherokees joined them and went with them for a time, apparently friendly, but when they left one yoke of oxen also disappeared. About that time they met other emigrants, so they had company during the balance of the journey and at the expiration of five months and fifteen days they arrived at their destination. The father was the first miner on the American river, where he found gold by the bucket measure during the fall following their arrival. He was one of the first to turn the river and work the bed of it for gold.
Returning in 1851 via Greytown and Havana, Cuba, to New Orleans, the family bought slaves at the traders’ yards in that city and then proceeded to their land grant in Montgomery county, Tex., via Houston. Soon, however, the climate proved so unhealthful that the father sold the slave and in 1856 again started for California. At the Isthmus of Panama the natives attacked the Americans, killing thirty-six and wounding eighteen. This is known as the Panama massacre. By the kindly appeal of the American consul the Truitt family were spared and they then came on to the Pacific coast, settling in Sonoma county on a large and unimproved ranch. Conditions there were not pleasant and the youth of fifteen years, disagreeing with his father, ran away from home, seeking employment with others in the state. During 1860 he returned to Texas and from there journeyed north to Iowa, where he bought a drove of horses to be sold, in the south. For a time he remained with his grandfather on a farm at Danville, Montgomery county, but at the outbreak of the Civil war he left that place and went two hundred miles for the purpose of joining the Federal army, but as the sixty days given him to get out of the Confederate states had expired he was forced to join the Confederate army, in which he served eighteen months. From the ranks he was promoted to be lieutenant in recognition of gallant conduct. Among the sanguinary contests in which he participated none was more memorable than the fall of Vicksburg. The exciting chase in which the young soldier and several comrades were chased by bloodhounds for more than two hundred miles ended on the other side of the Rio Grande river, with the refugees exhausted by the hardships of their long flight to join the Federal army. After many more perils they finally reached Matamoras, Mexico, and from there Mr. Truitt crossed to Brownsville, Tex., after the defeat of the Confederates, where he took the oath of allegiance to the United States in 1863. Immediately afterward he was placed in the First Texas Cavalry, with which he did duty from {Point Isabel to Reno Barracks. As a result of unsavory rations he was taken very ill and a friend secured a furlough, placed him on board a vessel, and started for New Orleans. During the voyage his vitality failed to such an extent that he appeared to be dead and the captain determined to throw the body overboard, but the friend demurred, so he was put off on an island for burial. Fortunately he soon began to show signs of life, but ten days he remained unconscious and his recovery was very slow. When able to be moved he was sent up the river with a shipload of wounded soldiers and for four months he remained at Keokuk, Iowa. On his recovery he returned to the front and was assigned to scout duty, where he had no further trouble except the shooting of his horse under him. Later he was sent with a detachment to reinforce Major-General Thomas at Mobile, Ala., whence he was ordered to New Orleans, and while acting as a scout he received the news of peace, after which he was sent to Mexico in Custer’s division under General Sheridan. Six months after the close of the war he was honorably discharged at San Antonio, Tex., and for some time thereafter he earned a livelihood by ranching in that state.
The marriage of Mr. Truitt and Miss Sina, daughter of Major Brooks of Texas, was solemnized in 1865 in the state where she was born and reared. Four children blessed their union, three now living, namely: Eugene, born in 1866, now a resident of San Francisco; Elliott, born in 1872, now married and living in Hoquiam, Wash.; and Charles, born in 1877, now married and serving on the mounted police force of San Francisco. During the years 1885-86 Mr. Truitt was in the employ of the Wells Fargo Express Company as shotgun messenger, a position which he resigned to look after his other interests, this too after he had been offered a life-long position with the company. Frequently Mr. Truitt has served Sonoma county as a delegate to conventions of the Republican party and as a member of the central committee, besides which he has served as deputy sheriff. For the past twenty-eight years he has had control of the only opera-house in Healdsburg and in addition he owns a stock ranch in the mountains, where for years he operated extensively in stock-raising, but since his retirement from arduous cares he has lived quietly in Healdsburg, enjoying life’s afternoon of peace and plenty after the thrilling adventures of youth, and the memorable experiences of early manhood.
History
of Sonoma County, California
History by Tom Gregory : Historic Record Company, 1891
Los Angeles, Ca. 1911
Transcribed by Roberta Hester Leatherwood
July 5, 2011 Pages 347-351
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