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Dance Brothers' Pistols

by Betty Dunn

A few miles north of Anderson on FM 244 off Highway 90 is Texas Historical Marker #8603.  It states: “Site of a munitions factory of the Southern Confederacy, established 1861, in operation until 1865.”

It was here that the J. H. Dance & Brothers Company, maker of firearms, established a Colt-type pistol factory.  They had relocated from Brazoria County in the face of a Union attack on the Gulf Coast. If anyone happens to own one of their less than 500 manufactured pistols they not only have a valuable, sought after and desirable firearm but an historic piece of Texas history.  It is estimated that they manufactured about 350 of the .44 caliber revolvers and about 135 of the .36 caliber.  The factory also produced cannon balls, bayonets, sabers, swords and gun powder.

The Dance brothers first arrived in Brazoria County about 1848 from North Carolina via Alabama. By 1858 they had built a large home at the Brazos River port of East Columbia and established a metal and  woodworking factory named J. H. Dance and Company. The brothers were James Henry, David Etheridge, George, and Isaac.    Early on the company also manufactured gristmills and cotton gins.

At the beginning of the Civil War, though the brothers enlisted with the 35th Texas Cavalry, they were detailed back to their factory because of their metal working skills.  As the Union Army occupied Matagorda Island just off Texas, threatening invasion of the Gulf Coast, the Dance brothers moved to the Anderson area to manufacture firearms for the Confederacy.  It was during this time that brother Isaac died of measles.

It is believed that Otto and Alexander Erichson, sons of famed German immigrant gunsmith Gustav Erichson of Houston, worked at the Dance munitions factory at Anderson.   At least one of the Dance revolvers survives stamped “G. Erichson. Houston. Texas.”

When the war ended the Dance brothers closed the Anderson facility and returned to East Columbia to restore their factory while adding the manufacture of furniture.  The 1900 hurricane ruined the factory. It was never rebuilt.

Thank you.


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