GOD & TEXAS: William Physick Zuber

“I am near my ninety-third year, though my life seems short. All of my old comrades have passed away, and I, the last survivor, am yet spared. I give God the praise.” William Physick Zuber was the last survivor of what?

William was born in Georgia in1820. His Father, Abraham, moved the family often until they established their cotton farm near what is now the town of Shiro, Texas. In 1836, advancing Mexican troops forced the Zuber family to evacuate as part of the Runaway Scrape.

At the age of 15, William joined the Texan army and served in the rear guard positioned at Buffalo Bayou during the Battle of San Jacinto. William was ordered to protect the army supplies and to assist the injured soldiers.

Included with the other combatants, William was awarded a land grant of 640 acres near Shiro. He married Louisa B. Liles and together they had four children. William volunteered in the Confederate Army, and later became a schoolteacher and a Justice of the Peace in Grimes County while establishing his beloved Methodist church.

William enthusiastically wrote and published articles on Texas history and was a charter member of the Texas State Historical Commission. In 1906, he moved to Austin to serve as a tour guide for those visiting the Texas senate. He was proud that his portrait hung in the Senate Chamber.

William was compiling his memoirs into a manuscript when he died in 1913. Titled “My Eighty Years in Texas,” it was finally published in 1971, and presented his viewpoint of the Texas Revolution, Indian campaigns, and the Civil War.

In his manuscripts, William detailed events that happened in the Alamo the day before the final battle. Basing his observations on the dubious testimony of Louis Moses Rose, William tells of Col. William B. Travis drawing a line in the sand and challenging fighters to either step over the line to fight, or to escape before dawn. According to William, Rose escaped and came to the Zuber farm for protection. While many Texas historians reject the Zuber findings, others believe them to be true.

By April 1913, at what would have been a reunion of those soldiers who had participated in the Battle of San Jacinto, all had died except Zuber. The 15-year-old soldier who guarded the baggage and tended the wounded was the last survivor. Even though William did not fight, he earned respect as a soldier.

In a similar situation in the Old Testament, the future King David gave honor not only to the fighters, but also to those who stayed behind the scenes and provided much needed support. David said in 1 Samuel 30:24 NIV, “The share of the man who stayed with the supplies is to be the same as that of him who went down to the battle. All will share alike.”

Shared blessings are a fundamental Biblical precedent where all contributions, great and small, are equally valued by the Lord. Not equal giving, but equal sacrifice.

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