Robert Neighbors

Robert Simpson Neighbors (November 3, 1815 – September 14, 1859) was an Indian agent and Texas state legislator. Known as a fair and determined protector of Indian interests as guaranteed by treaty, he was murdered for his beliefs by a Texan who disagreed with giving any rights to the Comanches.

Robert Simpson Neighbors was born in Charlotte County, Virginia, on November 3, 1815. He was the sole son of William and Elizabeth (Elam) Neighbours. In later life he chose to drop the u from his last name. He was orphaned at a mere four months old, when both parents died of pneumonia. He was later educated by private tutors, who were retained by his guardian, Samuel Hamner, a Virginia planter.

Neighbors left Virginia at the age of nineteen, and while he stayed briefly in New Orleans, his intention was always to immigrate to Texas, which he did in the early spring of 1836. He joined the Army of the Republic of Texas on 30 January 1839 as a first lieutenant, commanding Fort Travis on Galveston Island before becoming quartermaster on 5 September, and promoted to captain on 15 July 1840 and served until the end of 1841.

On September 15, 1842, as a member of Captain John C. Hays's company of volunteers, Neighbors was in San Antonio attending Judge Anderson Hutchinson's court, when General Adrian Woll made his invasion of Texas and captured the city. Along with approximately fifty-two other individuals, including the officers of the court, he was forcibly marched to Mexico, where he was subsequently imprisoned in San Carlos Fortress.

Neighbors was released on March 24, 1844 and returned to Texas. He briefly operated the Mansion House hotel in Houston before becoming Indian Agent for the Republic of Texas on 12 February 1845. Thomas G. Western, Texas Superintendent of Indian Affairs, and Neighbors as Indian Agent for the Lipan Apaches and Tonkawas, initiated a new policy, the field system; instead of remaining at the agency headquarters and waiting for the Indians to pay him a visit, as was the common practice, Neighbors dealt with them directly in their homelands.

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