Background
Robert Simpson Neighbors was born on November 3, 1815 in Charlotte County, Virginia, United States. He was the son of William and Elizabeth (Elam) Neighbours.
Robert Simpson Neighbors was born on November 3, 1815 in Charlotte County, Virginia, United States. He was the son of William and Elizabeth (Elam) Neighbours.
He was later educated by private tutors.
He went from Louisiana to Texas, either in 1833 or in 1837; but as there is evidence that he was in the Texas army at San Jacinto the earlier date seems more probably correct.
In January 1840 he was commissioned a lieutenant in the Texas army and in December 1841 was made a captain. He was one of the prisoners taken by the Mexican General Woll in the raid upon San Antonio in 1842 and was confined in Castle Perote, Mexico, for two years. In February 1845 he was appointed sub-agent of the Republic of Texas for the Lipan and Tonkawa Indians. In May 1846 he was a state commissioner to a great council on the upper Brazos at which the United States commissioners, P. M. Butler and M. G. Lewis, made a treaty with the Comanche and other wild tribes. After this he conducted a delegation of Indian chiefs to Washington to visit President Polk.
In 1847 he was commissioned special agent of the United States for the Texas Indians with instructions to go out among the tribes, keep them friendly but away from the settlements, prevent the sale of intoxicating liquors to them, and keep the whites from intruding into the Indian country. This extremely difficult task he performed well, but entire success was impossible since the United States did not extend its Indian intercourse laws over Texas, the state owned the public lands and granted them to settlers who constantly encroached upon the Indian country, and the loose authority of the chiefs could not restrain the warriors from depredations.
He made long visits to the Indians, studied them carefully, and sent in reports that constitute the most reliable information extant of the tribes in Texas, especially of the Comanche, for that period.
He was removed from office by the Whig administration in 1849, and in the spring of that year he led an expedition to locate a route from Austin to El Paso.
Early in 1850 Governor Bell sent him to organize new counties in the El Paso-Santa Fé region; but because of the attitude of the federal authorities, who disputed the jurisdiction of Texas, he could accomplish nothing. His report to the governor caused great excitement in Texas and almost brought about a conflict of arms.
In 1851 he was a member of the Texas legislature from San Antonio, and the next year he was a Democratic presidential elector. In 1853 he returned to his former post as general United States agent for the Texas Indians. His advocacy of reservations for the Indians resulted in an agreement between the state and federal governments for two reservations on the upper Brazos; and, with the aid of Captain Randolph Barnes Marcy, he selected the sites and induced the smaller tribes to settle on one and a portion of the Comanche on the other. However, the experiment proved an unhappy one, for the white settlements soon spread to the neighborhood and the wild prairie tribes continued their depredations. The incensed settlers came to believe the reservation Indians guilty of the raids and, under a group of reckless leaders, threatened to attack them. After trying in vain to settle the difficulty, he recommended that the Indians be removed from Texas into the Indian Territory, and in the summer of 1859 he led the more peaceful tribes to their new homes. The Comanche on the upper reserve returned to the prairies and to the war-path. On his return to Fort Belknap in Texas to wind up the affairs of his agency, he was assassinated by an outlaw.
As a Federal Indian Agent for the Comanches, he spent much time far beyond the then frontier and in the opinion of historians exercised greater influence over the Indians in Texas than any other white man of his generation. Indeed, he was one of the few white men to bother to learn their language and culture.
Neighbors was a man of imposing personality, tall, and notable for his courage, energy, and strength of character.
He left a wife and two small children.
