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THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS
AS TOLD IN COUNTY NAMES
BY Z. T. FULMORE
FELLOW OF THE TEXAS STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
COPYRIGHT 1915 By Z. T. FULMORE
Press of E. I .. Steck, Austin
C CIA401048
MAY 15 1915
PREFACE.
Several county names stand out on the map of Texas that were hoary with age a century and a half before the word "Texas" began to develop into geographical significance. These names were probably here before Columbus discovered Amer- ica. At any rate Coronado and the followers of De Soto found them here with a well established local identity within less than fifty years after that event.
The history of the State begins with the year 1528, during that epoch-making period when Henry VIII was laying his plans for a divorce from Catherine; when Luther was trans- lating the Bible into German ; several years before Calvin wrote his Institutes of the Christian Religion, and before Michael An- gelo painted his masterpiece in the Sistine Chapel at Rome.
Queen Elizabeth had not been born, and a quarter of a cen- tury had to come and go before Shakespeare first saw the light.
Comparing it with some of the older dates in American his- tory it was seventy-nine years before the first settlement at Jamestown, ninety-two years before the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock, and more than two hundred years before George Washington was born.
Like the streams on our western confines, the stream of Texas history for nearly three hundred years had an uncer- tain and unsteady flow, but enough sediment in the form of county names has been left upon its banks to indicate the vol- ume and general trend of the stream.
This book undertakes an analysis of that sediment in so far as the same can be done, by the historical interpretation of these names.
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PREFACE
It is made up, in the main, of a series of sketches which out- line the origin and history of the county names of Texas, grouped and correlated in such a way as to indicate their places in a general perspective of the State's history. It is not, and does not purport to be, a history of the different counties of the State, nor does it purport to be a history of the State, except in so far as that is involved in county names.
The body of the text was published in the Galveston and Dallas News, and in the Farm News, in 1912 and 1913, which made it available to more than a hundred thousand readers in and out of Texas. Scores of such readers, a large majority of whom were strangers to the author, wrote letters commend- atory of the work, many expressing a desire to see the same published in book form. Thus encouraged, the author has care- fully revised the sketches and considerably enlarged the entire work, and now gives it to the public in this form.
Especial attention is called to the county diagram, or gene- alogical table of our county system. The use of this as a ref- erence will be of value to the busy lawyer, the abstracter of land titles, and the real estate agent. It also furnishes a con- venient frame work for the political history of every county in the State.
The maps have been compiled with scrupulous regard for decrees, treaties, and laws fixing boundaries, as well as for historical accuracy. They are not copies of other maps, but were drawn by an expert draftsman in the General Land Office of Texas, under the personal supervision of the author with the books defining or creating boundaries constantly before him, and now for the first time they appear in a historical work.
In a work of this character any attempt to give a bibli- ography would be impracticable. Wherever it was deemed proper, this has been given in the body of the text.
To the scores of men and women who have aided in the col-
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PREFACE
lection of data for the work, the author reiterates his grateful acknowledgments.
The work was first undertaken for the purpose of presenting a true picture of the founders and builders of Texas, or, as the father of history so aptly expresses it in the opening paragraph in his great work, "These are the researches of Herodotus of Halicarnassus that the actions of men may not be effaced by time, nor the great and wondrous deeds displayed by both Greek and barbarian be deprived of renown." As the work progressed he was surprised to find so many descendants of the subjects of the sketches, and the pleasure enjoyed in getting in touch with so large and respectable an element of Texas citi- zenship contributed much toward making it a labor of love.
Z. T. FULMORE.
Austin, Texas, January 14, 1915.
INTRODUCTION.
The word "Texas," although in use among the Indians, "from a time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the con- trary," did not begin to develop into a definite, geographical name until about the year 1690. The word signified "allies," "friends," "confederates," and was applied to such tribes as allied themselves or formed leagues for their mutual protec- tion and defense. In 1689 there were ten or twelve such tribes, each with a distinctive name, inhabiting a region embraced within the areas of the present counties of Cherokee, Rusk, Houston, and Nacogdoches, and designated in a general way as the Hainai Confederacy. In 1689 a chief of the Nebedache tribe, representing the Texas, or Confederacy, visited De Leon, who was in command of an expedition in search of La Salle's old fort and settlement, and sought the friendship of the Span- iards.
Of the tribes composing this Confederacy De Leon wrote: "The Texas are a well governed people and plant large quanti- ties of maize, beans, calabashes, cantaloupes, and watermelons. It must contain about eight hundred heads of families, each one having a large, wooden house, plastered with clay and roofed with lime. They are familiar with the fact that there is only one true God, that he is in heaven, and that he was born of the Holy Virgin. The Indian governor asked me for min- isters to instruct them, and it is certainly a pity that people so rational should have no one to teach them the gospel."
In the follownig year (1690) De Leon and Father Masanet returned with a party and reached the Nebedache village in what is now the northeastern part of Houston County, near where the San Pedro Creek empties into the Neches River, and there established the Mission San Francisco de los Texas. That region then began to be called "The Texas Province," and for a quarter of a century the country was known by no other name. When Spain determined to occupy the country, in 1715, making the capital or headquarters at San Antonio, the coun-
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INTRODUCTORY
try was officially designated as "Nuevas Philipinas," in honor of Philip V, but the name "Texas" had become so firmly fixed in the Spanish mind that Nuevas Philipinas soon fell into dis- use and the name Texas has come down to us not only as a geographical term embracing the original territory of Texas, but, following all the changes, political and otherwise, has at- tached itself to all the territory within the present boundaries of the State. For a more detailed account-probably the most satisfactory study of the subject yet made-of how the name Texas established itself in the geographical consciousness of civilization, see Dr. Bolton's "The Native Tribes About the East Texas Missions," Vol. XI, No. 4, of the Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, from which this account is mainly taken.
During the Spanish dominion there was very little devel- opment of any sort in Texas. The whole population, exclusive of Indians, did not exceed five thousand souls when Anglo- American settlement began in 1822, but during that early pe- riod the Spaniards explored practically the whole of Texas south of the thirty-second parallel. They gave names to all the conspicuous features of the gulf shore line from Sabine Pass to the mouth of the Rio Grande,-islands, bays, passes; to all streams emptying into the Gulf and to many of their tributaries; to all the principal mountains, trees, shrubs, flow- ers, and vines peculiar to the region, as also to birds, fishes, and animals. In various ways nearly all of these have become geo- graphical names, most of them in their original form, in the lower half of the State. The Spaniards not only affixed names, but they gave geographical terms which have survived on our map. We have no sounds, inlets, straits, capes, runs, ponds, swamps, gaps, nor even lakes of any importance, but in lieu of these, passes, points, bayous, lagoons, matagordas, and the like.
After the student has gone over the geography of the United States and has familiarized himself with the names of all forms of land and of water in other sections, he encounters a new set of terms as soon as he reaches the southeastern border of the State. He no longer reads of inlets, sounds, runs, straits, and the like, but of passes, bayous, lagoons, etc. As an illustration
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INTRODUCTORY
of the absence of such terms north of the thirty-second par- allel, while the passway through the Guadalupe Mountains is called Bandera Pass, such passages north of the parallel are called gaps, as Buffalo Gap, etc., the one the Spanish term, the other the Anglo-American term, one being a relic of Spanish activities and the other the first impress of the Anglo-Amer- ican.
The faithful priests who followed the expeditions of the Spaniards have left mementos of their faith and devotion in names traceable to the Savior, the Virgin Mary, to Peter and the other apostles, and many names from the long list of their saints and feast days, that have survived all the checkered course of our history. Mingled with these are many Indian names, whose origin and history are known only by the expert ethnologist. With the incoming of the Anglo-American the rapid increase of population brought a corresponding increase in geographical names, most of which are Anglo-American.
The list of the twenty-three original municipalities that ex- isted in 1835 and were later made counties, has grown until the number of counties has reached two hundred and fifty- one. To this list of names the following nations and states have contributed : England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Aus- tria, Spain, Mexico, Canada, and, with the single exception of Rhode Island, every state in the Union east of the Mississippi River. Among these are the names of alumni of nine leading colleges and universities of Europe, twenty-three of America, two of Mexico, and two of Spain.
Four are the names of men who sat on the supreme bench of states before coming to Texas, five of governors of other states before coming to Texas, four of members of the United States Congress, prior to their arrival in Texas. Nine had been members of conventions that framed the constitutions of other states, twenty-five of members of the legislature of other states, while one was president of the convention which framed the first constitution of the Republic of Mexico. Twelve had served under Jackson in his war against the Creeks, and in vanquish- ing the British at New Orleans, and their tracks are plainly marked from the Appalachians to the shores of the Pacific.
CHAPTER I. SPANISH PERIOD OF TEXAS HISTORY.
The following county names are connected with the history of Texas from 1685 to 1821:
Angelina
1690-1730
Aransas
1746-1749
Bandera
1732
Bexar 1730
Galveston
1789-1795
Garza
1730
Goliad
1722-1749
Guadalupe
1689
Hidalgo
1810-1811
La Salle
1685-1687
Medina
1689
Nolan
1797-1801
Presidio
1702
Refugio
1791
San Augustine
1756-1772
San Jacinto
1756-1772
San Saba
1756-1758
Trinity
1690
Uvalde
1790
Victoria
1810-1839
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THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS
MISSION CONCEPCION
ANGELINA.
This word means "Angel," or "Little Angel," and was given to the stream from which the county took its name. How it came to be fixed upon our geography involves an interesting episode in the history of the early Catholic Missions of Texas.
De Leon, on his second entrance into the country (1690), brought with him soldiers, priests, and the necessary equip- ment for the establishment of missions. The first mission es- tablished was San Francisco de los Tejas. While its exact lo- cation has not been fixed, it was somewhere near the northeast corner of what is now Houston County, where San Pedro Creek empties into the Neches River. Further up the country was an Indian settlement known as the Hainai Village, on the west- ern boundary of what is now Nacogdoches County. The holy fathers, in their visits around among the Indian villages, found
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AS TOLD IN COUNTY NAMES
at this place an Indian girl, who became attracted to them and expressed a wish to learn their language. The result was she was invited to come to the mission and receive instruction. She was warmly welcomed by both priests and soldiers, and soon became enamored of her work and environment. Her studious habits and affable ways so charmed both priests and soldiers that they applied to her the pet name of "Little Angel," and called her native village Angelina's Village, and the stream that flowed by, Angelina's River.
In 1693 it was determined to abandon this Texas mission, but Angelina had not progressed in her work enough to enable her to speak and write the language, and she would either have to abandon the work she had set her heart upon, or abandon her people and her home and cast her lot with the Spaniards in their far-off country. She chose the latter and accompanied the priests and soldiers to the Mission San Juan Bautista, on the Rio Grande. Here she remained for over ten years, pur- suing her studies, and became an object of much attention from the explorers and travelers in their journeys back and forth from Louisiana and Mexico. She very naturally became the pride of the church and state dignitaries and famous from Louisiana to Mexico. She grew proficient in the Spanish lan- guage, joined the church and was baptized. She later returned to her native village and doubtless did missionary work among her people, though there is no record of it. It was decided to re-establish the missions of Texas in 1716, and in that year the Mission San Francisco was re-established near the old site, and a new mission was established at Angelina's village, doubtless upon her request, as she actively aided in its estab- lishment, and this was called Purissima Concepcion de Acuna.
In 1719 the French invaded that part of Texas and drove away the priests and soldiers, causing another abandonment of missions, but Angelina remained at her post, as will be seen later on.
It was during this year that Belisle sought her out. Belisle was a distinguished Frenchman, who had been placed in charge of a French colony of about 1,000 persons to settle in Louisi- ana. Like La Salle, thirty-four years before, he sailed too far west
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THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS
and made a landing at Matagorda Bay to procure water for his ships. While the sailors were procuring water, he and four companions went on shore to hunt. They became lost in the woods, and the vessels left them.
When they were reduced almost to starvation, Belisle gave his dog to his companions to eat, but the dog escaped from them and fled to the wilderness. The four companions starved to death, and Belisle was about to share their fate when the dog returned with an opossum in his mouth. After much wandering and suffering he finally reached Angelina's village, half starved, naked and lacerated from the stripes he had received among some of the savages. He immediately went to the house of Angelina, who, in spite of the fact that the French had driven away the fathers from her mission and her country was now at war with France, received him kindly, dressed his wounds, restored him to health and strength and sent him to Louisiana. The last recorded evidence of this woman was in 1721, when the Marquis of Aguayo was formally received by eight chiefs of the Texas Indians, speaking to them through Angelina as their interpreter.
In 1731 it was decided to move these two missions to the San Antonio River. The Mission San Francisco was moved to the river, about twelve miles below San Antonio, and stone buildings were erected. Its ruins are still recognized as the old Mission Espada; while Angelina's Mission was moved fur- ther up the river and is now at the lower suburb of the city of San Antonio, in a fair state of preservation, popularly known as the Mission Concepcion, and bears its silent testimony to the religious zeal of this Indian woman. To Dr. Bolton of the Cal- ifornia State University the author is indebted for the essen- tials of this episode. He gives some interesting facts of her career and the story will be concluded in his words :
"In 1715 St. Denis, while on his way from Louisiana to the Mission San Juan Bautista, accompanied by an escort carrying merchandise, had occasion to stop at the Hainai Indian village, on a stream in what is now East Texas, where he had previ- ously traded. Penicaut, who was with him, and who wrote an account of the journey, says: 'In this village we found a wom-
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AS TOLD IN COUNTY NAMES
an named Angelique, who had been baptized by the Spanish priests. She spoke Spanish very well, and as St. Denis was familiar with that language he employed her as chief inter- preter.' (Margry Deconvertes et Entablissements des Fran- cais V., 405-500, translated in Bolton & Barker's 'With the Makers of Texas'-50.")
From the Spanish we learn that Angelique, called by the Spaniards Angelina, was baptized at one of the missions on the Rio Grande, but when it occurred does not appear. Since An- gelina could speak Spanish well she must have been with the Spaniards some time before the journey of which Penicaut speaks.
Her baptism was evidently the result of the missionary work among the Texas Indians between 1690, when the first mission was established, and 1693, when it was abandoned. Angelina was useful as an interpreter for the Spaniards at the Hainai Village, which stood west of the modern Douglas and the stream that flowed by, which up to 1690 had been called Pascua del Espiritu Santo, soon came to be called Rio de Angelina, or Angelina's River, presumably with reference to this woman. In 1716 the Mission Concepcion was founded at Angelina's Village, and Father Espinosa, who established it, tells of find- ing her there and employing her as an interpreter. (Diary, 1716.)
Belisle, the lone Frenchman, who made his way overland from the Gulf coast to Natchitoches, in 1719, passed through this Hainai Village, and in his narrative tells of his talk with Angelina while there. (Margry VI, 244.)
In 1721 she was still at the village and was one of a party of leading personages, including eight chiefs, who went out to meet the Marquis of Aguayo when he made his famous expedi- tion to East Texas. (Pena, Diary in Mem. de Nueva de Es- pana, XXVIII, 33.)
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THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS
ARANSAS.
The origin of this name dates back to 1746. From Dr. Bolton I have obtained the following account :
"In 1746 Capt. Oribio Basterra made the first recorded Span- ish expedition to the lower Trinity. Passing the Trinity south- westward from Nacogdoches, he named a stream, which seems to be the San Jacinto, in the Orcoquisac country, 'El Rio Nom- brado Nr'a Senora de Aranzazos (the river named Our Lady Aranzazu).' He evidently gave the name himself, and it is ap- parent that Our Lady of Aranzazu was a saint in whose honor he named the stream, just as the Guadalupe was named Nr'a Senora Guadalupe, Bahia Nr'a Senora de Loreto, etc., and he might have added Nr'a Senora Refugio. The reference is 'Dil- igencias Practicades pr Jn Juagn de Oribio Sobre Establiss- ements al Francisces' 1746, entry for February 23.'"
In this connection it is proper to state that "Our Lady" has reference to the Virgin Mary, in whose honor many shrines were raised in various parts of Southern Europe, and in Latin America, and their Texas names, Aransas, Guadalupe, etc., were in honor of the shrine of the Virgin in those places. How the name was shifted to the river now known as the Aransas is only a matter of conjecture. Basterra had been Governor of Texas in 1739 and was afterward a captain in the army, with a fondness for exploring. He was in Texas for more than twenty years, spending much of his time west of the Guada- lupe River.
BANDERA.
This county took its name from Bandera Pass. The word means "flag."
The reason for the application of this name to the pass, which is a natural gateway through the Guadalupe Mountains, is not certainly known. There are three traditions in regard to it, two of which are in entire accord with well-known historical facts and virtually connect themselves with them. The pass is about fifty miles northwest of San Antonio, and was directly on the route from San Antonio to the San Saba Mission.
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AS TOLD IN COUNTY NAMES
For many years it was a strategic point for the Indians. Yoakum's History of Texas informs us that in 1732 an armed force pursued a band of marauding Apaches, who had made one of their numerous forays to San Antonio. That around and near this pass the Indians had their villages, and when they reached this place they made their stand and fought vig- orously, but were severely beaten by the Spaniards. A tradi- tion was current among the old Manchaca and other families in San Antonio a hundred years ago as to this battle, with the added statement that the Spaniards, after they had severely chastised the Indians, left their flags planted upon the moun- tain top as a signal and warning that more punishment would be meted out if they resumed their raids upon the settlements.
We are informed by the histories that the Comanches, a few years later, came down into this region, made war upon the Apaches and soon overcame them. Not content with this, they began their raids upon the settlements, and in 1758 destroyed the Mission of San Saba and its garrison.
The government at the City of Mexico had persistently failed to garrison San Antonio with a sufficient force to pro- tect the settlers. In 1759 they induced the Apaches to join them as auxiliaries and with a force of 500 men, a majority being Apache auxiliaries, marched against the Comanches. Meeting a force of 6,000 Comanches and allied warriors, they retired to San Antonio and disbanded. The only hope for pro- tection of any sort now rested upon their ability to treat with the Comanches, and for this purpose Padre Calahorra and other priests were deputed to make treaties. One of the re- sults was the fixing of a boundary between the regions they were to occupy and the Guadalupe Mountains became the line, and a flag upon the mountain was the sign of the treaty. While the treaty was habitually violated by the Comanches, it af- forded the only protection the settlers had in after years.
The circumstances and facts of the tradition, which refer to this treaty, were related to a party of gentlemen who were traveling through that region in 1867. They encamped for the night at the county site, and while there some thieving Com- anches crept in under cover of the darkness and stole some
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THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS
horses. As soon as it was found out, the sheriff, with a posse, started in pursuit, riding as rapidly as possible to this pass, through which they knew the thieves would attempt to go, but when they reached the pass they found the Indians had pre- ceded them and had left a red flag planted upon the mountain near by. They immediately abandoned pursuit and returned home.
Upon being asked why they abandoned their pursuit they replied that that flag meant a fight with an armed force of Comanches in the event they went beyond; that the Comanches claimed the mountains as a line which set aside to them all the region to the north and west of this pass under an ancient treaty with the Spaniards (evidently the treaty above referred to), and any thieving Indian band, who could get their stolen property safely across that line, was protected by the whole tribe. They relied upon this old treaty to give legal color to their robberies.
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AS TOLD IN COUNTY NAMES
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CATHEDRAL DE SAN FERNANDO
BEXAR.
This name was given in honor of the Duke of Bexar to the presidio, established in 1718, and to the villa, established in 1731, the two forming one settlement on the San Antonio River at the site of the modern city of San Antonio.
Bexar was a town in Spain, about twenty miles south of Madrid, and was long the seat of a dukedom. The nephew-in- law and principal lieutenant of Cortez was a Duke of Bexar in 1521. In 1604 Cervantes dedicated his celebrated work, “Don Quixote," to another Duke of Bexar.
The Duke, in whose honor the present name Bexar was given, was born at Madrid in 1713 and was the second son of Philip V, the then reigning sovereign. Upon the death of his elder brother, Louis, he became Prince of Asturias, heir ap- parent to the throne. His mother died in 1716, and in the
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THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS
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