Angelina Eberly
July 2, 1798–August 15, 1860
On Austin’s Congress Avenue stands a striking bronze sculpture of a woman firing a Howitzer cannon. That woman is Angelina Eberly, the heroine of the little-known, but distinctly Texan, Archive War of 1842.
Eberly was born in Tennessee in 1798 and came to Texas as a young woman. By 1839 she was widowed and running a boarding house in Austin. That year, the Texas Congress moved the Republic’s capital from Houston to Austin.
President Sam Houston, however, wanted to keep the capital in the city that bore his name. So when an invading army from Mexico reached San Antonio in 1842, ole Sam took advantage of the alarm to secretly order that government archives be transferred from Austin back to Houston, effectively moving the seat of government.
But as the boxes of land titles and other documents were being stealthily loaded onto wagons, Eberly spotted the activity. She made her way to an armed cannon to defend the city. She fired it, alerting the citizens of Austin. The archive conspirators bolted, but were caught less than twenty miles outside of town, and the vital documents were reclaimed.
The archives remained in Austin, and Austin remained the capital of the Republic—and subsequently of the state, when Texas joined the United States three years later. Eberly died in Indianola in 1860. Her gravesite is lost, but her likeness still stands guard over the streets of Austin.
For More about Angelina Eberly
Pat Oliphant’s Angelina Eberly statue stands at the intersection of Sixth Street and Congress Avenue in Austin, the same spot where Eberly fired her famous cannon shot. Capital Area Statues provides information on Eberly and Oliphant, the sculptor.
The Texas State Library and Archives Commission offers a complete account of the Archives War.
Selected Bibliography
Kemp, Louis Wiltz. "Mrs. Angelina B. Eberly." Southwestern Historical Quarterly 36, no. 3 (January 1933): 193–199.
King, C. Richard. “Eberly, Angelina Belle Peyton.” Handbook of Texas Online.
King, C. Richard. The Lady Cannoneer: A Biography of Angelina Belle Peyton Eberly, Heroine of the Texas Archives War. Burnet, TX: Eakin Press, 1981.
Malsch, Brownson. Indianola: The Mother of Western Texas. Rev. ed. Abilene: State House Press, 1988.
Mary Austin Holley Papers, 1784–1846, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.
Winfrey, Dorman H. “The Texan Archive War of 1842.” Southwestern Historical Quarterly 66, no. 2 (October 1960): 171–184.
Mrs. Eberly Firing off Cannon. Unknown artist. Image courtesy of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
Angelina Eberly statue in downtown Austin by Pat Oliphant. Photo by Humanities Texas.
Letter from Sam Houston to William O'Brian, March 20, 1842, ordering archives be brought from Austin to Houston. A. J. Houston Collection, Archives and Information Services Division, Texas State Library and Archives Commission.