USA > Texas > Bexar County > San Antonio > San Antonio de Bexar; a guide and history > Part 16
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"Who was San Antonio ? He was St. Anthony of Padua, he was born in the year 1195 and entered the Franciscan Order in 1221, he died June 13th 1231."
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SAN ANTONIO DE BEXAR.
Interviews with Dr. Cupples-1890.
To Dr. Cupples thanks are due for many valuable hints and suggestions to the compilation of this work. Was the editor at a loss to trace the date of any particular happening of the earlier days after the Texan Declaration of Independence, if Dr. Cupples could not give it out of his excellent memory, in talking over the event, some old and apparently insignificant recollection would be incidentally dropped that would be sure to lead to the elucidation of the point in question. It is interesting to note how closely linked in one's memories are stirring and momentous actions with the commonplaces of every day life. Once was discovered the name of a man who had done some action worthy to be forgotten, but which was not inconsequent to a more important event, by the Doctor remembering that he had cured the man's brother of an extraordinary gall stone. It is the evidence and aid of such witnesses as Dr. Cupples that the historian even of modest pretensions knows how to value. Documentary evidence is one thing in its strength and firmness, but that of the contemporary or eye witness is. another. A dear, musty-smelling, frayed, don't-touch-me-or-I-shall fall-to-pieces kind of document, written all over with the rigmarole of other days in quaint old-fashioned characters and signatures of familiar sounding names and lots of dates, is indeed a treasure and invaluable in the eyes of a searcher. But for that keen interest and enjoyment which is peculiar to triflers with the past, there is nothing to compare with the excitement of hearing that of a truth, such a man looked thus and another did that in this manner at such a moment, when each actor's senses were strained and quivering, and the listener feels that the emotions of men and facts in some momentous doings of the past are being recalled with a vividness that no second hand or written evidence could array.
Dr. Cupples has seen, experienced and endured much in a long, active and useful life, and to his taste for action he has brought the relish of a learned and enlightened observation. The editor here wishes to acknowledge the value to him of many comments by Dr. Cupples, upon notes of his prior to their final preparation for the press.
" I note," said the Doctor, " the curious discrepancy and anachronism in the fac simile drawings of those seals. You see this Royal seal dated 1823, sometime after the secession of Mexico, is on the same document with a Mexican Govern- ment seal of even an earlier date. My explanation would be that in the desire to have the document legal at all hazards, it was thought best in that unsettled period to make sure of having the right seal by using both. I don't know that it was so, but it looks as if it were, does it not ?
"I think you should note that the original settlement of the Canary Islanders was not around the Military and Main Plazas, as is commonly supposed ; that was an after move. The first settlement was at the San Pedro Springs, between the crossing on North Flores street and the head springs. They subsequently removed to the location of those Plazas, concluding that it could be more easily defended against the incursions of hostile tribes than the settlements at the Springs. The Head of the San Pedro had always been a favorite watering place of the Apaches and other hostiles of the hills to the north and northwest.
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INTERVIEW WITH DR. CUPPLES.
. Yes, I remember many of the old erections around the enclosure of the Plaza de Armas (Military Plaza). I knew the man Goodman, you speak of ; I remember him well, and the years of trouble he gave the city before he was finally ousted from the property on the Plaza, just opposite where Kalteyer's drug store is now was the location of the property he claimed. I remember he once came near to killing Ed. Dwyer over that and other matters, that was the late Mr. Dwyer's father, the present boys' grandfather. You say Juan Seguin* is still alive at Laredo-well, I shouldn't wonder ; he wouldn't be so very old. I knew his father very well, Señor Erasmo Seguin, a perfect and courtly old Spanish gentleman. Juan Seguin was Gefe Politico here in 1835 or '36, I believe. Grad- ually, and piece by piece, the city acquired the properties that private citizens claimed on the Plazas, and finally the whole space was cleared. The Bat Cave is a remnant of these old properties and the store owned by the Russis and rented by Dullnig. on the northeast corner of Military Plaza, was the last of all the en- closing buildings to disappear, in 1888. The Plaza de las Yslas or Main Plaza, was similarly afflicted, but the city became possessed of all the Plaza, finally. The Callaghan and Groesbeeck properties were the last to be improved off this Plaza.
"That portion of the city around Market street from Main Plaza, was in ante- Independence days about out of the thickly settled limits. It was called the Potrero, or the place for horses, because that was where all the horses of those who came to town were put for the night. Later, Manuel Yturri, probably the grandfather of the present M. Yturri, (the Yturris' are a family from the Basque Provinces, I believe) built a house on Market street, and-let me see-McGloin lived there, too, the Empresario who settled up the San Patricio country. On the west side of the Plaza de Armas in Spanish and Mexican times, the entries used to be closed at nightfall by rawhides hung on chains tightly stretched across the narrow roads. Behind these the settlers in the Plaza enclosure were safe from sur- prises by Indians and their arrows. The rawhide was arrow-proof.
" And the 'Plaza House' was a prominent institution in its days. This hostelry used to stand just about where the White Elephant was and Wolfson's. It was the starting place of the stages to Seguin, Port Lavaca, Victoria and a number of other places. It belonged to the late Mr. Billy Elliott's father, the present boy's grandfather. It was a two-story building. It was there that old Winchell tried hard to break his neck by falling from the upper gallery. Then Alsbury had the house. I forget who was the last holder of the old place. The Padre Garza. House was another old landmark of which I have a lively recollection.
" I came here on April 27th, 1844, with Castro's Colony. Dr. Herff says he finally settled in San Antonio in 1850. I think the Doctor is mistaken in the year ; it must have been in 1849. I am pretty sure about that. Yes, I was in the First Carlist War. I was Staff Assistant Surgeon to the British Legion in Spain in 1836. Afterwards I went to Paris, where I met Castro and came here. Without knowing it I located the present townsite of Castroville, and I cut the first brush there for the first clearing. On account of the troubles with Mexico and the hostile Indians, it was found impracticable to locate on the Colony's
*Since this was written Juan Seguin has died at New Laredo. It is alleged that he was over 90 years of age
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SAN ANTONIO DE BEXAR.
chosen lands, so Castro bought a league of land, paying the sum of $2000 for it, which he gave to the colonists ; but there were suits brought for the land,- disputed title,-and finally the colonists had to pay for their lots at Castroville twice over to two different claimants, to Illis and to another. Mrs. Cupples, my wife, was a Miss Jaques. Mr. and Mrs. Jaques, her parents, were very old-timers in Texas. They were intimate with Stephen F. Austin and many others of the earlier settlers. My wife still possesses a watch which Austin gave Mr. Jaques as a memento of his gratitude for aid rendered him in liis escape from Mexico in 1835. Mr. Jaques' house was burned by Vasquez in 1842, and again when Woll invested the city he was placed under guard and would undoubtedly have been shot but for the intervention of Colonel Carasco, of General Woll's staff, who pleaded for his life. Colonel Carasco was friendly to Mr. Jaques because of some favor rendered.
"You spoke of the Recapitulation of the Indies," continued Dr. Cupples. " Perhaps I can tell you something about that. It was a kind of code and record of the Council of the Indies. This Council had its seat in Seville, I believe, and its members were appointed by the Crown. It had control and direction of Spain's Colonies in all parts of the world. Recognizing that water was a chief necessity to the existence, not to say success, of a Colony, they devised exhaustive regulations and laws concerning the preservation of water rights, the construction of works of irrigation and the control of such water always to the best public advantage and the division of Suertes of the Regadios to Regadors. The lot on which this house stands" (the Doctor's residence on Soledad street) "is entitled to so many hours of water daily from the San Pedro Acequia. It was formerly considered to be an inalienable right of the property holder. How the city over- ruled the privilege I cannot explain. The importance of land was formerly reck- oned by the hours of water to which it was entitled. One of the rules in the Re- capitulation was that navigable streams should have reserved for public needs, on either bank, a strip of land twelve varas wide. The San Antonio River was con- sidered to be in their sense a navigable stream, and the rule undoubtedly applied to our River. Giraud was right as to this, but he lacked firmness. He was a good man, and had he sufficiently insisted, perhaps the city would be able to-day to boast of a reninant of a splendid possession. Giraud was one of the few who saw the right of the matter clearly."
And now what a book might be written from the Doctor's recollection of the know-nothing movement here, of the great war and of the famous Vigilance Committee troubles. But as Mr. Kipling would say-that is another story.
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115
INTERVIEW WITH DR. FERDINAND HERFF, SR.
An Interview with Dr. Ferdinand Herff, Senior, May 19th, 1890.
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Dr. Herff said, "I came for the first time to America in 1846. I was one of a Socialistic Colony and Society founded by a number of young men of good family and position for the purpose of emigrating to Wisconsin. Our Society made some stir among certain circles, principally the upper in Germany. A few years previous to the organization of our Society an Emigration Association had been formed by a company of noblemen in Germany under the Presidency of Boos-Waldeck. This company had partly purchased, partly obtained by Empresario Grants a large tract of land near San Saba. Prince Solms was the next subsequent president of this company and obtaining further land concessions New Braunfels, named after Prince Solins' German home or castle, was founded. Other presidents of this company were Meusebach and Spies. This Association having heard of our Society and its intention of emigrating to Wisconsin made overtures to us pointing out the advantages that Texas offered and asked us to join them and settle in their territory. We agreed to do so if they could offer us a sufficient number of inducements to make us change our minds, for while at that date Wisconsin was well within the pale of civilization, Texas was a wild, rough and dangerous region. We finally decided to change our destination to Texas. I landed in New York in 1846. The railroad south only reached as far as Wheeling, Va., from whence we staged it to New Orleans and thence by water to Galveston and from Galveston to Indianola which was then the western Texas Port, we arrived at the latter place at the end of April 1847. I was one of the earlier arrivals of the Socie- ty to which I belonged, the bulk of my associates came over in August, 1847. The scheme in the end was not a success and in the course of a year or two I returned to Germany and was there married and re-emigrated on my own account to San Antonio with my wife, arriving at San Antonio early in April 1850, and I perma- nentiy settled there. You see I had frequently been in this city, on visits, before this time, but when I first came to Texas I was settled some two hundred miles from here. Many of our old German citizens came to Texas in those years. All sorts of people came under the auspices of these and similar Societies. Texas has received its population from many sources, this was one and an important one. Any one whom they could induce came. This Society expected to reap a profit of course. Principally by letting out and selling at cheap rates alternate parcels and sections of lands in their settlements and grants, but in the end it came to little more than nothing and the company 'busted up' and the colonists for the most part scattered.
Dr. Herff continued :
"Another important Colony was that of Castro which was one mostly French or rather Alsatian. That was in the days when Alsace, you know, belonged to France. If I remember correctly Dr. Cupples told me he came to Texas with this Colony in 1844. I am not quite sure of these following facts but it is what I think I remember him to have told me. Dr. Cupples was Staff Assistant Surgeon to the British Auxiliary Legion which went to Spain during the first Carlist War there in 1836. He afterwards returned to Paris-he speaks French fluently-it was there I believe that he met Castro who induced him to emigrate to Texas. Castroville was founded by this Colony in 1844, September 3rd.
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SAN ANTONIO DE BEXAR.
An Interview with Mr. John Dobbin-1890.
"Can you tell me when such and such an event happened ?" Is a question that we have had occasion to ask of many an old timer. In the event he were at a loss for the date we could be pretty sure of the answer to come. "Now let me see," would be the meditative reply, "I have forgotten for the moment the date of that, but," and with a smile of perfect satisfaction that the question was as good as answered, " I can tell you who knows more about that than any other man living, just ask John Dobbin, he'll tell you all about it." And if we had not very recently teased Mr. Dobbin about some other knotty question, to him we should go for our information, alway finding him a willing witness of the "golden days" and their eventful hours. They were not alway golden, there was in these early days at times a good deal of lead. But then, pioneer days are long gone by in Texas. If some of our romantic northern friends could only be persuaded of this, there would be less money wasted on "bulldogs" and "frontiers." These ideas are a relic of stormier times, times when the Great West was being opened up, and when all that vast territory was perhaps less quiet and law abiding than it ought to have been. Such episodes as the one narrated here went out of fashion in Texas earlier than in any other part of the wild west. It is an event of '57, and since then it may be fairly said that Western Texas, and without doubt, San Antonio has seen less of lynch law than any section of western country. Mr. Dobbin tells us so and he has been in the best official positions to judge of the matter. This event was the shooting of Bill Hart. Bill Hart was about one of the worst desperadoes to whom Texas ever gave a home. According to all local tradition, "he was a pretty bad man,"-he was,-but 'de mortuis'-and the rest-we may speak of the good work of the V. C.
" I had better write it down," said Mr. Dobbin, "I shall recall the circum- stances more accurately," and forthwith the following graphic account was penned :
" Bill Hart was killed on the 29th day of May, 1857, and along with him his companion Miller and a government teamster named Wood. Fieldstrop also was killed. Fieldstrop was a discharged soldier and had been employed by the Vigi- lance Committee to watch Hart and his party the night previous and when Hart and his friend Miller, passed on their way down Mission street, they were fired upon by Fieldstrop who had a doubled barreled gun. Miller was killed dead, falling in the alley north of the Brewer house. Bill Hart, too, was mortally wounded, his right wrist and left thigh broken, besides having eleven buckshot wounds in the region of his kidney on the left side, nevertheless, such extraordi- nary vitality he had that he reached the Brewer house where he took shelter from his numerous enemies, Fieldstrop having reloaded his gun in Supervielle's house (just behind where Wolf & Marx's store is now, on Alamo street) ap- proached the Brewer house with the intention of giving Hart the coup de grace, when Wood, the government teamster, before mentioned, came out of the door and ordered Fieldstrop off, saying that Fieldstrop had done enough harm already, also that he, Wood, was Bill's friend: "That is enough," replied Fieldstrop raising his gun and firing, killing Wood instantly. At the same moment Hart appeared at the other door supporting himself on an old shovel shaft, with a pistol
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SEÑORA CANDELARIA.
in his left unwounded hand, the right wrist having been, as I say, shattered by Fieldstrop's first shot. Immediately Fieldstrop's gun was aimed at Bill Hart's breast, bat it snapped and missed fire. Hart then instantly fired at Fieldstrop, shooting liim fairly in the centre of the forehead. Hart then retired in a dying condition into the back room of the house. At this crisis Jim Taylor came up, rushed into the house, his head and shoulders well down to lessen the risk of bullets penetrating, they glance from the body quicker that way. Hart shot him in the right breast as he entered the backroom. Taylor, however, got Hart by the hair of the head and dragged him into the backyard, shooting hin repeatedly in the body. Then a horrible sight-everybody, the small street gamins even, coming in at the death by the dozen, discharging their little pops into the dying man, making a perfect lead mine of him. Yes, it was a terrible morning's work. He might have richly deserved his fate, but believe me and I know of what I speak, these matters are best settled by the law. "
Señora Candelaria.
On Saturday, March 17th 1888, St. Patrick's Day: I believe, I went with a friend (who took his Photographic Camera along for lie had the amatuer craze) and Mr. -, who was an acquisition on account of his fluent knowledge of the two languages, Spanish and English, to call on the old, very old, Señora Candelaria. Our interview lasted for upwards of an hour and knowing but little or nothing of Spanish myself I asked her through Mr. - a few questions that I thought would elucidate what some deemed to be obscure pretentions. The result of this and other later interviews are here given, and the reader must judge for himself the value of the statements and evidence. She is at least a very old and interesting person, lively and full of the recollection and reminiscences of the men and the stirring times of the Texan Revolution.
I asked her was she inside the fortifications of the Alamo during the fight? She answered unhesitatingly "Yes." Was she in the Alamo Church building during the last stand ? She replied as before without reflection that she was, in those moments she was nursing Colonel Jamies Bowie who was in bed very ill of typhoid fever, and that as she was in the act of giving him a drink of water the Mexican soldiery rushed in, wounding her in the chin-showing an old scar-and killing Bowie in her arms. She demonstrated this scene in quite an active fashion and showed us exactly how she was holding Bowie, her left arm around his shoulders and a drinking cup in her right hand.
I next asked her what was done with the bodies of the Texans ? She said all were cremated. With the bodies of the dead Mexicans? All were cremated. Were there many American families living in San Antonio then? Some, but they all fled or the men took refuge within the Alamo. Did she know Mrs. Dickinson ? Yes, but not well. She adopted an expression of considerable repugnance at this question, and said with some snap that Mrs. Dickinson hated Mexicans. Perhaps
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SAN ANTONIO DE BEXAR.
Mrs. Dickinson had some reason to do so ! I was particular to ask her about a child of Mrs. Dickinson and she said that the husband of Mrs. Dickinson was fighting as one of the defenders of the Alamo and that when he saw the cause was lost he hastened down from the walls and took his son, a little child, and tied him around his waist in front of him, got to the top of the wall at the front of the Church and jumped down among the fighting Mexicans below and both were killed. This is very dramatic but it is not I believe elsewhere recorded. Being anxious to know about the daughter of Mrs. Dickinson I asked her if she had not heard that such a child had escaped the massacre with her mother. She believed she said, that Mrs. Dickinson had taken a daughter with her in her flight, she had been told so at any rate.
She said that she recollected David Crockett before the fight. But she could not have known him well, for Crockett was only in San Antonio a few weeks before he lost his life in the Alamo. The rest of the Texans she did not know so well. Most of these men came to San Antonio just previous to the siege. She did not know anything of Ben Milam who was killed in the Veramendi House at the storming of San Antonio in December, 1835. She had not heard of him nor was she aware that he was buried on Milam Square, and that there was a stone to his memory there, though her house and jacal were almost within a stone throw of the place.
I then asked her age. The old lady said one hundred years and three months, holding out three very wrinkled fingers. Her hands were large for a Mexican. She looked quite the age she said, or older, for that matter, great deep ridges, wrinkles and furrows of skin on her face and hands as "brown as is the ribbed sea sand." She was almost toothless, very little hair of a light yellowish color. Never suffered any sickness, quite active, alert and quick to perceive and understand. A cigarette smoker. Her eyes she feared were beginning to fail her ; they were rheumish with red circles underneath.
My friend next interviewed her with his camera and took two excellent negatives in different positions. I then asked her a question upon a matter which had puzzled me and which puzzles me still, though she had a ready answer to it as she had for any other asked. She informed me that the water from the Acequia was used constantly by the defenders of the Alamo during the siege. I naturally asked why the besiegers did not cut off the water or divert it and so distress those within ? She said the Indians at the Missions would not have allowed this !
She remembered perfectly that there was a roof formerly to the Alamo Church prior to the siege, but that it was destroyed during the siege by the cannonading.
She had given, when her memory was better, full depositions and statements of all her recollections to Major Teel, and that he held the same. As to Mr. Gentilz's picture that was compiled from her personal descriptions and recollec- tions. It was very good : that it was an exact representation of the Alamo as it .was at the time of its fall, and that it gave a fair idea of the fight.
She mentioned Mr. John Twohig, saying that she knew him "Como mis manos,"-"Like my hands," which is a favorite idiom of the old woman. "Visitors come every day to see me to hear my story of the Alamo."
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COL. FORD'S MEMOIRS.
Returning to the subject of David Crockett, the old Señora said he was one of the first to fall ; that he advanced from the Church building "towards the wall or rampart running from the end of the stockade, slowly and with great deliberation, without arms, when suddenly a volley was fired by the Mexicans causing him to fall forward on his face, dead."
She was quite anxious to remember everything. With reference to a man whom many regard to be an imposter, and of whom no one has ever gleaned anything authentic, Señora Candelaria said she could endorse him as another child of the Alamo. She remembered his frightened condition during the bombardment. "He clutched her dress as children do," trying to hide his face.
Such are her recollections ; the reader must make many allowances. So long and active a life as hers must be crowded-more-overcrowded, and jumbled with the multitude of things to remember.
On other occasions, in April of this year, I revisited her twice with a good interpreter as a companion, and she said : "My maiden name was Andrea Castañon. I was born on St. Andrew's day, in November, 1785, at Laredo. I am 105 years old. I have been twice married ; my first husband was Silberio Flores y Abrigo ; my second was Candelario Villanueva, * but I am called familiarly Señora Candelaria.".
I may add that I read to my companions these interviews at the dates of our visits. I wrote them from notes taken at the time upon arriving home, and my companions subscribed to every particular.
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