A Twentieth century history of southwest Texas, Volume I, Part 4

Author: Lewis Publishing Company
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 648

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Church of San Fernando.

On September 27, 1868, the foundation stone of the San Fernando Cathedral was laid. This building as it now stands is a mixture of the old and new styles of architecture. On this site originally stood the parish church of the capital town of San Fernando. That old building was distinctly different from the missions, for it was built to meet the needs of the growing settlement around what is now known as the Main and Military Plazas, a settlement that was eventually to combine with the Presidio and Mission del Alamo and at last become San Antonio de Bexar. Soon after the arrival of the Canary Islanders, who had come with grants and privileges from the King of Spain, there was a demand for a place of worship. On February 17, 1738, the project took definite shape, and the Church of San Fernando was rapidly built. The laying of the corner stone was delayed until 1744. The act is thus recorded. "On the 8th of May, 1744, the corner stone of the new church of San Antonio was blessed, the following Friars being Ministers of the Mission: Fray Mariano Francisco de los Dolores, Fray Diego Martin Garcia, Fray Juan de LosAngeles." For a century and a quarter this church ful- filled the needs of the population; in the mean time the settlement became known as San Antonio de Bexar. The town began to grow rapidly and the need of greater church accommodation was felt. On September 27th, 1868, the corner stone of a new structure was laid, and in order that there should be no interruption in the services, the new church was built around and over the old, which was removed when the new was sufficiently completed. The curious polygonal western portion facing Military Plaza with its moresque dome is all that remains of San Antonio's pioneer church.

The new church was opened on October 6th, 1873, and was then constituted a Cathedral, since in the near future the new diocese of San Antonio was to be erected. This was done on September 3rd, 1874, and the Very Rev. A. D. Pellcer, D. D., was appointed the first Bishop.

HISTORY OF SOUTHWEST TEXAS

Through the researches1 of Mr. I. J. Cox in the Bexar Archives and other contemporary Spanish records, much light has been thrown on the essential character and history of the colony so often referred to in these volumes as the "Canary Island settlers." Many families of San Antonio are directly or collaterally connected with these "first settlers," so-called, and much has been written and said on wrong premises and with an incorrect understanding of the real facts.

The presidio, that is, the military post, of San Antonio de Bexar was established in 1718. About the same time, and in the vicinity of the garrison, was established the Mission San Antonio de Valero. Around, and it might be said, under the auspices of these two establishments a number of persons located whose objects were permanent settlement ; instead of working directly and exclusively for the welfare of the mis- sion, or acting in the capacity of soldiers, they built themselves homes, put a certain amount of land in cultivation, grazed what small flocks they had on the common pasture, and became bona fide colonists. It is prob- able that some of the soldiers, their term of service over, were sufficiently attached to the locality to remain as settlers. It is not known how many of these independent settlers there were, but some years later they asserted claim to being "the true and most ancient inhabitants and conquerors of that territory."

On the basis of several references it is claimed the San Antonio's history begins with 1715. One of these is a petition presented to the governor by the local council in 1787, one passage of which reads as follows: "It is certainly evident and clear that the settlement of this province of Texas was begun in the year 15 of our present century. The province was given this name by the captains who made various expe- ditions into it in times past in obedience to superior orders. In these [expeditions] they had only the satisfaction of reconnoitering the province, but never the pleasure of settling it until the above mentioned year. Then, some bold citizens, from the two neighboring provinces- Nuevo Reyno de Leon or Monterey, and Nueva Estremadura Monclova or Coahuila-which were at that time the last and frontier provinces of Nueva España, desirous of renown or wishing to advance their own private interests, had well authenticated and individual information that the many gentile nations living in these two provinces and in their prin- cipal districts about this time were at peace. [These 'citizens ] conceived the idea [of settling in Texas], and with manly courage set out to seek the famous and much lauded river of San Antonio, on whose banks they formed a settlement very near the point at which our villa San Fernando is planted today. They brought with them not only their wives and children, but all their goods, cattle, horses, goats, sheep, and such other things as they thought necessary for their sustenance, return- ing from time to time to the presidio of San Juan Bauptista del Rio Grande for the comforts of religion. They had no troops for their de- fense except the guard they themselves formed from their own number. There remains at this time only the memory of their coming, of the names of the most prominent men among them-these were Don Mateo

1 "The early settlers of San Fernando," in Tex. Hist. Assn. Quarterly, Vol. V.

HISTORY OF SOUTHWEST TEXAS

Carabajal, Cristobal Carabajal, and Don Francisco Hernandez-and of the survival and increase of the cattle they brought. This memory exists in the minds of their descendants-our relatives, but it is not such as those men deserve as first settlers."

But the colonization of the province being as much a part of the royal plan as its military occupation and the conversion of the Indians, the authorities soon found that emigration to this point did not proceed with satisfactory volume, and in 1722 a royal decree provided that four hundred families from the Canaries should be brought to Texas as set- tlers. None came as a result of this order, and in 1729 it was directed that every vessel leaving the Canary islands for Havana should carry ten or twelve families to be sent to Texas. The company of between fifty and sixty persons that left Santa Cruz, Teneriffe, in the following year became the San Fernando settlement that occupies so prominent a place in early San Antonio history.

Some information about San Antonio as it was just before the com- ing of the Canary Islanders is contained in the instructions to the gov- ernor, Don Juan Antonio Bustillo. The situation of the San Antonio mission (Alamo) should be noted. The governor was instructed "to go, as soon as the families shall arrive, taking such persons of intelligence as may be available, to examine the site a gunshot's distance to the western side of the presidio, where there is a slight elevation forming a plateau suitable for founding a very fine settlement. On account of its location it will have the purest air, and the freshest of waters flowing from two springs or natural fountains situated on a small hill a short distance north- east from the presidio of Bexar. From these are formed, on the east, the San Antonio river, and, on the west, the small river called the Arroya which flows to the south. These two rivers unite eight or nine leagues from their sources, and before joining the Medina river. Between these two streams the presidio is built. East of the river is the mission of San Antonio; while to the west of it is the mission of San Joseph, from which one can go to the presidio without crossing the river; and since there is a church at the presidio which they can visit for that purpose, until a church is built for them, these families may attend the mass and other Catholic services [at that place] without the trouble of crossing the river."

The Canary Islanders.

- The colony arrived at Vera Cruz in June, 1730, and by slow stages proceeded northward, via Guantitlan, San Luis Potosi and Saltillo, ar- riving in San Antonio de Bexar, March 9, 1731. All the expense of this long journey was borne by the royal treasury, and the colony was sup- ported for a year after its arrival. The experiment was a costly one, and was not repeated by the crown. And instead of four hundred families proposed by the royal decree for the colonization of the province, only Sixteen actually came.

Three lists of the persons comprising this emigration have been preserved, from official enumerations made at Guantitlan, in September, 1730, at Saltillo, in January, 1731, and at San Antonio, February 22, 1731. These lists vary as to number of families and names of individuals. The heads of families or single men named in all three lists are :

HISTORY OF SOUTHWEST TEXAS

Juan Leal Goraz Juan Curbelo Antonio Santos Manuel de Niz Salvador Rodriguez

Other names given in the San Antonio list are: Juan Leal Alvarez, Joseph Padron, Antonio Rodriguez, Jose Cabrera, Francisco Arocha, Vizente Albares Travieso, Juan Delgado, Josephe Leal. Names mentioned in either the Guantitlan or Saltillo lists, but not in the San Antonio list, are: Juan Leal el Moso, Maria Rodriguez (widow of Juan Cabrera), Maria Rodriguez (widow of Juan Rodriguez Granadillo), Maria Mel- eano, Phelipe Perez, Joseph Antonio Perez, Martin Lorenzo de Armas, Ignacio Lorenzo de Armas.

Besides these. Canary Islands immigrants, as already stated, many others are to be considered in the class of permanent residents before 1750, including such names as Hernandez, Valdez, Peña, del Valle, Flores, Lopez, Castro, Nuñez, Treviño, Ximenez, Cavo, Menchaca, Urrutia, Gonzales, de los Santos Coy, Martinez, Guerrero, Montes de Oca, San- chez, Monte Mayor, de la Serda, Garza, and others. A considerable number of Tlascalan Indians were added to the settlement, and as the mission Indians finished their course of conversion and instruction un- der the guidance of the friars, some of them became identified with the civil colony.

It is evident that by no means all the old Spanish families of San Antonio trace their ancestry back to the Canary Islanders. The latter class, because of their importation as crown colonists, considered them- selves the aristocracy of the villa, but their claims to being "first settlers" and their many pretensions to superior influence and rights in the colony were vigorously disputed. Discord soon appeared between the "hidal- gos" from the Canary Islands and the other citizens of San Fernando, and, in addition, the relations of villa, presidio and mission were not harmonious.

Main Plaza.

The villa of San Fernando was located between the San Antonio and the San Pedro, the building lots being grouped, for the most part, around the plaza just east of the presidial or military plaza; in other words, the "Main Plaza" as known today was the central point of old San Fernando villa. Besides a lot for residence assigned to each family, there were common pasture lands and a labor for cultivation, irrigated from the waters of the San Antonio or San Pedro. The pasture land lay both north and south of the villa, between the two streams. Dis- putes arose as to the limits of land, for it will be understood that the presidial garrison, and for a time the mission, occupied this space be- tween the streams. The live stock of the different classes got mixed, and this was another prolific source of trouble.

The San Fernando settlers, according to the testimony of De Croix in 1778, "live miserably because of their laziness, captiousness and lack of means of subsistence, which defects show themselves at first sight." Much was due to the environment and to the conditions under which the settlement had been founded. There were no attempts at public

HISTORY OF SOUTHWEST TEXAS

education, and there were no representatives of the learned professions, not even a physician. The parish church, however, had been demanded almost at the beginning, though the mission chapels were conveniently close to the villa. According to the best information, the corner-stone of the San Fernando church was laid about 1738, and was built largely by contribution from the royal treasury.

JUAN F. RODRIGUEZ, residing in San Antonio, his native city, was born in the year 1855 and is a son of Captain Mariano and Josepha (Estrada) Rodriguez. Through Francisco Rodriguez, his paternal grandfather, our subject is connected with the earliest history of San Antonio, for Francisco Rodriguez was a member of one of the sixteen original families from the Canary Islands who colonized the villa of San Fernando de Bexar. Through his enterprise and shrewdness he became a very prosperous man, possessed of large tracts of land lying adjacent to and within what is now the corporate limits of San Antonio. One of his tracts included what is now San Pedro Springs and the beautiful San Pedro Park, constituting the most prominent pleasure grounds of the city at the present time. Francisco Rodriguez' spirit of enterprise led him to construct the first dam and irrigation ditch in San Antonio, extending south from San Pedro Springs. This ditch, al- though now in the heart of the city, is still in use and is made the source of irrigation for a number of the irrigated farms and gardens south of the city. He was also an extensive stockman and sheep man, having large herds over the surrounding country, and he made his head- quarters for this business on the Guadalupe river in what is now Comal county. It is recalled that on one occasion, in order to secure more ready money to carry on his enterprises, he drove a herd of five hundred beeves from the Guadalupe to the city of Mexico and sold them there. He had many thrilling encounters with the Indians and coped with them successfully until in his very old age he was killed by a band of the red men, together with one of his sons, at their home on the Guadalupe, and both father and son were buried there.

Captain Mariano Rodriguez was also born in San Antonio in the days when Texas was a part of Mexico. He was a soldier in the Mexi- can war and prior to the year 1836 was stationed most of the time at this place. During the fighting which preceded and followed the fall of the Alamo he was located with his company at Matamoras and thus was not directly engaged in the battles which brought about Texan independence. Captain Rodriguez went from Matamoras to New Or- leans after the Mexico-Texas war ended, and, sending for his family, lived in the Crescent city for ten or twelve years, subsequent to which time he returned to his old home in San Antonio, where he remained until his death in 1861. His wife, who was also born in this city, died here in 1878.

Juan F. Rodriguez was born and reared in the old family home- stead, a part of which still remains. It is the old adobe building on the northwest corner of Main avenue and Main plaza and is now occupied bv J. E. Muegge & Son, feed and grain merchants. For about twenty-

HISTORY OF SOUTHWEST TEXAS

two years Mr. Rodriguez was in the sheep business, having his ranch in Frio county about eight miles below Pearsall. He was also for some time in the hide business with Bergstrom Brothers of San Antonio. In more recent years he has traded to a considerable extent in cattle and horses and finds this a profitable industry. His home is at No. 612 West Evergreen street, near San Pedro park, his home place being a small part of the land in this vicinity originally owned by his grand- father. He and his father were both the youngest sons of their re- spective generations, which accounts for the close connection with the colonists of 1730. One of his elder brothers, now deceased, Father Jose Rodriguez, was a prominent priest of the Catholic church at Matamoras, Mexico, in the earlier days.

The wife of our subject is also a native of San Antonio and a mem- ber of one of its oldest families. She bore the maiden name of Maria Chaves and to them have been born six children: Raphalita, Lavinia, Aguarila, Maria, Ramon and Juan. The first four mentioned are daugh- ters and all are married. Mr. Rodriguez well deserves representation in these volumes as a member of one of the oldest and most prominent fami- lies of the city and also by reason of the fact that he is an enterprising, capable and successful business man.

CHAPTER V.

TEXAS DURING THE LAST HALF OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

It required only a few brief paragraphs for Bonilla, whose Brief Compendium is dated 1772, to describe the province of Texas and the status of its settlement at that time. This lieutenant of infantry in the Spanish service must have read Thucydides as well as military tactics, for his sentences remind one of no historian so much as that old Greek model. Here is his "brief description of the province :"

"At the Medina river, where the government of Coaguila ends, that of Texas begins ; it ends at the Presidio of Nuestra Señora del Pilar de los Adaes. Its length from south to north is estimated as two hun- dred and forty leagues, and its width from east to west as eighty. To the southeast it borders on the Seno Mexicano [Gulf of Mexico], and to the east-northeast on Luisiana.

"This very spacious region contains the Presidio of San Antonio de Vexar, eight leagues distant from the Medina river, and three hun- dred and seventy from this capital. It has a garrison composed of a captain, a lieutenant, an alferes, a sergeant, two corporals and thirty- nine soldiers. Under its protection are the Villa of San Fernando and five missions, namely : San Antonio De Valero, La Purisima Concepcion, Señor San Josef, San Juan Capistrano, and San Francisco de la Espada. Taking a southeasterly course one finds at forty leagues' distance from the said Presidio of Bexar that of Espiritu Santo, with the missions of Nuestra Señora del Rosario and San Bernardo.

"The Presidio of Orcoquisac used to be situated in the center of the province, and in its immediate neighborhood was the Mission of Nuestra Señora de la Luz. Since it is at present abandoned, however, its garrison, composed of a captain, a lieutenant, a sergeant, and twenty- five soldiers, is to be found in San Antonio de Bexar.

"At a distance of a little more than a hundred and twenty-six leagues from the above-named Mission of Nuestra Señora de la Luz are situated those of Nacogdoches and los Ais.

"The Presidio of Nuestra Señora del Pilar de los Adaes is the capital and most remote settlement of the province. It has adjoining it the mission of the same name. It is seven leagues distant from the Presidio of Nachitoches, which belongs to the government of Luisiana, twenty from the Mission of Los Ais, forty-seven from that of Nacog- doches. one hundred and fifty from the Presidio of Orcoquisac, two hun- dred from that la Bahia, two hundred and forty from that of San An- tonio de Vexar, and six hundred from this capital. Its force consists of a captain,-the governor of the province holds that office,-a lieuten- ant, an alferes, a sergeant, six corporals, and forty-one soldiers.

HISTORY OF SOUTHWEST TEXAS

"At present, therefore, the province contains four presidios, one villa, and eleven missions, and has assigned for its defense one hun- dred and sixty effective troops, including nine officers, whose salary and stipend amount to eighty-eight thousand and ninety-six pesos a year.

These results seem very small when we consider the sacrifices of blood, treasure and missionary zeal during the previous century since La Salle planted his colony on the shores of Matagorda bay. From all the mass of details concerning expeditions, Indian difficulties and changes of government administration, the one fact of most importance to this narrative is the obvious concentration of population, missions and au- thority at San Antonio de Bexar. By the close of the century San An- tonio was Texas, almost literally. It was the capital of the province, contained most of the population, and possessed the only Spanish civiliza- tion that was destined to remain permanent during the revolutionary changes of the following century.

Various governors of the province of the New Philippines suc- ceeded one another, leaving no monumental results in the way of coloni- zation or conquest and so scarcely deserving of mention. The hand of Spain was weak and could only impotently grasp this great prize which a few determined hundreds of another race were destined to wrest away from it. There are cdifying reports of inspectors from the central government, who examined the conditions of mission and colonizing work and made recommendations but which Spain was unable or un- willing to carry out.

And another cause of the slow development of Texas during this period, and one just about able to offset the lame efforts of the Spanish, was the hostility of the Indians, especially of the Apaches and the Comanches, who dwelt to the north and west, and were a constant terror both to the white settlers and the more peaceable natives in the coast regions. One attempt was made to found a mission (San Saba) among the Apaches, but this wild and roving race could not tame their nature so as to live in a pueblo and forget war and the chase, so the enterprise came to a wretched end. Again and again the Indian depredations oc- curred, and it is small wonder that the faithful padres and the colonists made slow progress. The powers at Mexico sent too few soldiers to afford protection, and those that were furnished to guard the missions were brutal, lazy and undisciplined, so that their abuse of the natives and their license and disorder counteracted the benefit of protection.

Says Bancroft: It was not a period of prosperity for any Texas interest except so far as the officers, soldiers and settlers may be said to have prospered in their great work of living with the least possible ex- ertion. Officials as a rule kept in view their own personal profit in handling the presidio funds rather than the welfare of the province. The Franciscans were doubtless faithful as missionaries, but their influence, even over the natives, was much less than in other mission fields. The Texans never became neophytes proper in regular mission communities. It is evident that not one of the establishments was at any time prosper- ous either from a spiritual or a material point of view. At each mission there was a constant struggle to prevent excesses and outrages by the

HISTORY OF SOUTHWEST TEXAS

soldiers, to protect land and water from encroachment by settlers, to guard mission live-stock from Apache raids, to keep the few Indians from running away, and to watch for and counteract ruinous changes projected from time to time by the secular authorities.

In 1763 the treaty of Paris, following what is known in America as the French and Indian war, removed the source of friction between the French and Spanish settlements as to boundary, by the surrender of all the French territory east of the Mississippi to the English and of all that west of the great river to the Spanish, so that the latter, for some forty years to come, had little to fear from foreign aggression upon their province of the New Philippines, and when that encroach- ment did come it signalized the approaching downfall of Latin-American dominion north of the Rio Grande.

The Missions Secularized.

And with this second removal of France from her field of vision, there came, as after La Salle's colony, a subsidence of the colonizing and missionary zeal, and the remaining years of the eighteenth cen- tury indicate 'a steady decline in the affairs of Texas. The Indios re- ducidos, or mission Indians, became more and more wretched; the with- drawal of support from the royal treasury decreased the efficiency of the missions, and in 1794 the order came for the missions to be turned over to the secular clergy, which resulted in the distribution of the lands and dispersion of the Indians and the end of the labors of the Francis- can friars; and thus the Indios bravos, or wild tribes, were once more almost complete masters of the region from the Sabine to the Rio Grande, and political disintegration and economic lethargy were the' pregnant features of Texas history.

There is no accurate information in regard to the conditions, popu- lation, and industrial prospects of Texas at the close of the eighteenth century, although considerable information is derived from a report by the president of the Texas missions. There were some dozen missions in existence at the time of their secularization in 1793, besides the many establishments that had been abandoned. Around eight establishments in 1785 there were some four hundred and sixty Indians. In 1782 the families of soldiers and settlers numbered about twenty-five hundred. The Indians about the pueblos were shiftless and would hardly earn their own subsistence; the stone churches, with their beautiful mural decorations and adornments seemed to belong to a golden age of pros- perity long past ; the settlers were little more energetic than the natives, and the soldiers were supported by the government-hardly a germ of civilization that was likely to reach down its roots and grow and blossom into the fair flower of social unity and strength which the next century was to behold in the land where once the Tejas had dwelt.

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A Twentieth century history of southwest Texas, Volume I, Part 4

Author: Lewis Publishing Company Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 648

Author: Lewis Publishing Company
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 648