Do pieces of the world-famous Alamo remain in Wilcox County, Alabama?

Famous 'Battle of the Alamo' in 1836

Do pieces of the world-famous Alamo remain in Wilcox County and, if so, where are they?

These are questions that I could not help but ask when I ran across a news story about the Alamo in the Oct. 2, 1913 edition of The Wilcox Progressive Era. In a story, under the headline “Remember The Alamo,” editor and publisher Solomon Bloch reported that Ephraim Ockles Rentz had returned home to Wilcox County from a visit to his sons in Texas. Upon his return, Rentz “brought with him several small stones from the Alamo at San Antonio and some from the old Spanish mission, which were sent to the Editor of this paper by Mr. Joseph R. Rentz, now a resident of San Antonio, Texas.”

Many readers will know that the Alamo was the site of a famous battle during the Texas War for Independence in 1836. A Mexican force numbering in the thousands and led by General Santa Anna laid siege to the fort, and though vastly outnumbered, the Alamo’s 200 defenders, commanded by James Bowie and William Travis and including the famed frontiersman Davy Crockett, held out for 13 days before the Mexican forces finally overpowered them. For Texans, the Battle of the Alamo became an enduring symbol of their resistance to oppression and their struggle for independence, which they won later that year.

The question remains as to what happened to the “small stones” from the Alamo that were sent back to Camden. A close reading of the newspaper story yields only a few additional clues. It went on to say that “these valuable reminders of the bravery of Southerners who died at the Alamo, and the other stone from the Spanish Mission, will be presented by the Editor of the Progressive Era for Mr. Rentz to the Wilcox County High School and the Alabama Girls Technical Institute (present-day University of Montevallo).”

Related to this, it should be noted that more than a few of the Alamo’s defenders had strong ties to Alabama. Col. William Barrett Travis, a legendary figure in Texas history, grew up in Conecuh County and lived at old Claiborne in Monroe County before setting off to Texas. With that said, it should come as no surprise that there are also Wilcox County connections to the defenders of the Alamo.

By way of example, take the case of Mrs. Elbert Mobley, a former resident of Allenton, near Pine Apple. In 1889, her heirs received a legacy from a Mr. O’Neal’s estate in Texas. O’Neal was Mobley’s brother and was among those killed while defending the Alamo.

For this reason, Mobley’s heirs received a “league of land” that was given by the Republic of Texas “to the heirs of each of those brave defenders of that famous fortress. In that massacre were Fannin, Bowie, Crocket, Travis, Bonham, O’Neal and a number of names familiar to Alabamians.”

In the end, I’d like to hear from anyone in the reading audience who might now what happened to the pieces of the Alamo that were sent back to Wilcox County. Also, let me hear from you if you have any additional information about O’Neal or any other Alamo defenders with Wilcox County connections. No doubt, there is likely much more to the story than we already know.