Solomon Joseph House with Well

Though this home was built by Solomon Joseph, the land it occupies was once the site of the original Susanna & Almaron Dickinson House. The brick cistern in the front yard, survived the destruction of their home during the Runaway Scrape in 1836 when the family fled the advancing Mexican Army. As the oldest visible land improvement on this tour, it stands as a testament to the resilience of the Dickinsons' original homestead.

Almaron Dickinson, one of the defenders of the Alamo, was born around 1800 in Pennsylvania. On May 24, 1829, he married Susanna Wilkerson in Hardeman County, Tennessee. The couple moved to Gonzales in 1831, where they became part of the burgeoning Texas settlement. As a colonist in Green DeWitt's colony, Almaron purchased a league of land on May 5, 1831, and eventually acquired four lots in Gonzales. He operated a hat factory alongside George Kimbell, who would also become an Alamo defender. The Dickinsons' only child, Angelina, was born in 1834.

Almaron was one of the Old Gonzales Eighteen, the small group of citizens who faced off against Mexican forces over possession of a cannon, marking the start of the Texas Revolution with the Battle of Gonzales. In December 1835, during the Siege of _Bexar, he served as a lieutenant of artillery. He later became an artillery captain during the siege of the Alamo. On the morning of March 6, 1836, as General Santa Anna's forces stormed the Alamo, Almaron ran to his wife to inform her that all was lost, urging her to save herself and their daughter. Though he died defending the fort, Susanna and Angelina survived.

Following the fall of the Alamo, Susanna was sent by Santa Anna with a note to General Sam Houston, whom she met in Gonzales around March 12, 1836. She fled eastward as part of the Runaway Scrape, a harrowing period during which Texan settlers fled the advancing Mexican Army, abandoning homes, livestock, and belongings. They endured sickness, harsh weather, and difficult terrain in search of safety. This desperate exodus would later be seen as a symbol of the perseverance and determination of Texas settlers. After the Texian victory at the Battle of San Jacinto, these families returned to their homes.

Susanna, having lost her husband in the Battle of the Alamo, struggled for much of her adult life. She remarried in 1857 to Joseph William Hannig, a German immigrant who became a prosperous furniture and cabinet maker in Austin. The couple's Austin home, built in 1869, was turned into a museum in 2010 to honor their legacy.

Over the years, Susanna testified on behalf of the families of fallen Alamo defenders, allowing them to claim land granted by the Republic of Texas for their service. Her last known account of the battle was given just before her death in 1883, shortly before the Alamo Church was sold to the State of Texas.

The mural of a woman holding a baby on the Josephine Peck building on the northwest corner of Saint Joseph and Saint George recognizes Susanna, her baby girl Angelina Elizabeth, and her efforts.