USA > Texas > Bexar County > San Antonio > San Antonio de Bexar; a guide and history > Part 3
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14
SAN ANTONIO DE BEXAR.
It was just in this neighborhood that the first battle was fought for Texan Independence, in 1835. After crossing the River, you take what is called the River Road, but you do not catch sight of the River again until you reach the Mission of San José, not four miles from the city. It should be noon by the time that you have done these two Missions thoroughly, so if you choose you can drive down a short distance to the River and water your horse, tie, and at a very pretty spot under the Pecans, take your lunch. You must return to San José to take the road to the Third Mission, passing the Pyron homestead on the left, keeping on between fences until you reach a branch of the road, one towards Berg's Mill, where there are both a bridge and a ford. The Third Mission is on the other side of the River. It will be noted that the Missions are alternately on different sides of the River. The First on the east bank, the Second on the west, the third on the East and the fourth on the West. Leaving the third you return over the bridge a short distance to the branch of the road that you left, and go down abruptly to the wooden bridge over the Piedra creek. Quite close to this bridge to the left is the old aqueduct made by the Franciscan brothers nearly 150 years ago. Alight and examine it. It is indeed a substantial and interest- ing work, a series of low massive arches on the top of which runs the Mission irrigating ditch. Leaving this, follow this branch road to the fourth Mission and return to the City at pleasure.
Mission Concepcion.
"To ruinate proud buildings with thy hours And smear with dust their glittering, golden towers."
In the report of the Viceroy Count Revilla-gigedo, referred to many times in this work, the date of the "ereccion" of this Mission as well as those of the Missions of the Alamo, San Juan and San Francisco de la Espada, is given as 1716. San José is given as being "erected" four years later 1720. This does not mean that the buildings were then erected, but simply that in that year it was determined to establish Missions in suitable localities on Spain's frontiers for the purposes of subjecting, christianizing and civilizing In- dian tribes and of firmly establishing Spain's right to these regions of territory to which she laid a just claim. It was in the year 1730 that the Mission of Nues- tra Señora de la Concepcion Purissima de Acuña was located as the report says on the site that it now occupies in the neighborhood of the Capital Town of the Province. The Church records show that the foundation stone of this Mission was laid March 5, 1731, about the time that the Mission San José was completed, and that taking twenty-one years to build it was completed in 1752. The won-
* Translation from the "Informe Oficial " of Count-Revilla-gigedo, Viceroy of Mexico 1793.
ARTICLE 196. "On the third expedition of the year 1716, nine friars of the College of Santa Cruz of Que- rétaro and of Our Lady of Guadalupe of Zacatecas together with the Superior or President, V. P. Fr. Antonio Margil de Jesus established six missions in the most northerly part of the Province (Texas) and a few years thereafter another was built near the Presidio of Our Lady del Pilar de los Adaes distant seven leagues from the fort of Nachitoches in Louisiana.
ARTICLE 197. In the year 1730, three of these missions. viz, Our Lady de la Concepcion, San Juan Capistrano and San Francisco de la Espada were transferred to the sites they now occupy iu the neighbor- hood of the Capital Town of the Province (San Antonio) and the other three were extinguished in the year 1774 as may be seen by Article 22 of the instructions contained in the Royal Regulations of the Presidios which His Majesty ordered dispatched under date of 10th September 1772."
15
MISSION CONCEPCION.
der is, not that it took so long but that it could be completed in the time by the founders, with materials to find, manufacture and hew, and with the necessity of teaching an intractable people, strange to industry, at once, how to labor and the arts. The reader is referred to the ground plans of the Missions illustrated in this book and he will realize how enormous in the wilderness and with such difficulties was the undertaking.
Mission Concepcion was built like the others for worship, for scholastic pur- poses and for defence. The barracks that surrounded the square have long since disappeared and what was for a period the home of hospitality and the strong- hold and refuge of many wayfarers and travellers and alive with the daily toil of its little community and the quick purpose of its founders, is now quiet and deserted, a relic, and but for the occasional service in the chapel is an institution that has served its day. It is pathetic, realizing that there is no help for these grand old monuments of the past but to fall more and more into decay. Mission Concepcion is the best preserved Mission of Texas. Its "twin towers " and Moorish dome rising out of the brush and small timber in its vicinity arouse within one a mixture of curiosity, a sense of the incongruous and a delight of the picturesque. At the Mission lives a family, which is in charge and some one of them will bring you the key of the chapel and show you what there is to be seen, but it would be useless to try and elicit any information. To them the past of the Mission is as a sealed book and it has no romance for them. The Mission Church fronts due West, and is built in the form of a cross, with the towers forming two wings at the foot of the cross. This design corresponds exactly with that of the Church of the Alamo. The front gateway is worthy of close ex- amination. The upper part of the ornamented facade is not an arch but a simple triangle and the arch of the doorway is, for want of a better definition, a divided polygon. In the division or center of the arch is a shield with arms and devices, and here and there on the portal facade are cross and scroll, and carved relief pillars at the sides ornamented with carved lozenges. In angular spaces over the archway as shown below is the legend:
ASV PATRONA, Y PRINC CON ESTAS ARMAS, ATIE
ESTA
EL
MISSION, Y DEFIENDE PUNTO DE SV PUREZA.
which, being interpreted, is " With these arms be mindful to the Mission's Patron- ess and Princess, and defend (or vindicate) the state of her purity." Over this
16
SAN ANTONIO DE BEXAR.
winds, circling in and out, the flagellum or knotted scourge of the order of St. Francis, realistically carved-" If it wan't for the knots, 'twould be like a hair lariat," as a boy once remarked. It also has an uncanny suggestion of a hang- man's noose. These are again surmounted with other designs, and above all on the summit of the facade is a stone bearing the date 1794, and immediately under- neath this is a shield with the initial, M meaning, "Ave Maria." The only stained glass in all the Missions is the panes of two little windows each side of the upper part of the facade. The front of the Mission Concepcion must have been very gorgeous with color, for it was frescoed all over with red and blue quatrefoil crosses* of different pattern and with large yellow and orange squares to simulate great dressed stones. This frescoing is rapidly disappearing, and from but a little distance the front looks to be merely gray and undecorated stone. The topmost roofs of the towers are pyramidical and of stone, with smaller corner pyramidal cap-stones. The upper stories of the towers have each four lookout windows of plain Roman arches. The tops of the side walls of the Church and the circle wall of the central dome have wide stone serrations in the Moorish character, the points of which around the finely proportioned dome stand out like canine teeth. The towers have belfries, and at their bases, on either side of the entrance are on the right, a baptistry 11x11 feet with massive thick walls, and on the left a similar small chamber used as a vestry. The baptistry walls are fres- coed with weird looking designs, dim and faded, of the Crucifixion and "los dolores." It is quite dark in this room, there being 110 window, and a light must be procured to examine it. "A semi-circular font projects from the south wall, its half bowl carved with what appears to be a symbolical figure with out- stretched arms supporting the rim. It is a rude piece of carving, but is artistic. Inside, the stone roof of the Chapel with its series of arches and central dome, is massive but plain. In each wing of the cross are altars or altar places. In the west end is a choir loft. In the east, an altar gorgeously decked and painted in the Catholic manner, for Mass. The walls, roof, and ceiling are newly white- washed, the floor is "Mother Earth," but some bran new seats have been pro- vided. The Chapel up till recently, was in a very neglected state. To Bishop Neraz belongs the credit of having it restored to its present state of cleanliness and comfort. He it was who re-dedicated it to Our Lady of Lourdes on May 2, 1887.
The mission was frequently used for the quartering of troops, notably in 1835. Santa Anna is said to have expressed surprise that the Alamo was chosen to be defended by the Texans in 1836 rather than the Mission Concepcion, affecting to recognize, more effective military points in the Concepcion Mission as a strong- hold. In 1849 the United States troops were quartered there for awhile and it is said that they cleared the chapel of an immense amount of accumulated rubbish and bat guano. In the holes in the walls outside are to be found the nesting places of owls, pigeons, doves and other birds. To the south of the chapel, westerly, are a series of arches which were formerly cells, chambers and cloisters for the Mission inmates, but now used as storage rooms and stables. To the
* These quatrefoils are repeated over and over again in the carved lozenges of the pillars in relief, and frescoes of this Mission and at San José. Whether there is any' meaning attached to these particular forms of the cross beyond that they are crosses, the editor is unable to discover.
MISSION SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO.3 MISSION,
MISSION SAN FRANCISCO DE LA ESPADA A ** MISSION
GRANARY SAN JOSE MISSION.
BALUARTE OR BULWARKY
HAT ESPADA MISSION.
Moss Em.@
REESE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY = OF CALITU !!!
Miamo
Proper
(abandoned.)
/
d
1
1836.
1890.
6
L
Houston
1
F. Houston Street.
PIO References.
New References.
1. The Alamo Church. a. Federal Building,
2. Convent or Resi- dence of the Padres of the Mission.
Fed. Court House and Post Office.
b. Government Lot.
3. Enclosure or the Plaza of the Mission.c. Maverick Home-
4 and 5. Old Prison and Entrance of the Mission.
stead.
d. Maverick Land Office.
6. Houses and Walls surrounding the Mis- e. Maverick Bank.
sion.
7. Abandoned Aceq'a.
f. Circular Curb of Plaza Garden.
& Schmeltzer's Front. 8 Room used as Pow- der Magazine during g. Grenet or now Hugo the Siege.
9. Cedar post Stock- ade and Earthworks in use during Siege.
5
la Villita
to
3
Convent Yard:
.
>
Front of
Alama Church
1
Acequia
/
Are
a
Are. E.
Alamo mission.
6
REESE
UNIVERSITY
OF THE LIBPARY
1
D' Acequia of the
10
Chancel
D
Iltar
DOME
Altar
Sacristy.
Stairway.
D
A
D
D
T D
D B
C
Cells.
D
D
.
Sculptured Facade.
D
Arcade.
D
A
A
A
D
D
True North
O
Well
-
Concepcion mission.
The shaded part is in ruins. The material is rough stone laid in mortar. B is the baptismal chamber. 'T is the room under the left tower. D stands for door, as A for arch. There is another room above the Sacristy.
The river is towards the west about 14 mile.
Scale, 40 feet to the inch.
In a work published in the Spanish language at Saltillo written by Esteban L. Portillo and entitled "Apuntes para la Historia Antigua de Coahuila y 'Texas," the author on page 305 remarks concerning the Mission Concepcion, apparently deriving his information from Mexican State Records :- "In order to guard it, the Monastery had a stone wall with three gateways, as well as two bronze cannons of an eight-ounce calibre, with a weight of 3 arrobas 8 libras," (83 lbs each). As has been said in our description of this Mission the traces of such walls are to-day hardly to be defined and these defences are not shown in the plan for fear of inac- curacy.
D
Sculptured Facade.
D
Tourer
D
D
ROW OF HOUSES.
Granary.
Windiny Stair.
Road
Ramparts.
Road
Church
DOME
ROW OF HOUSES.
Windou.
Sculptured
Chapel. DOME
D
Scale 300 feet-1 inch.
True North.
DOME
Staircase
D
D
Sculpturen
A
D
D
-
D
W
W.
Cloisters
Cells
D
D
W
W
D
D
D
Well 0
W
/W
W
D
D
D
W
D
This room has ne outlet Below, exceja this smallhole.
W
This is tani upper window.
Over
NOLE
D
W
San Jose mission.
The shaded part is in ruins. D represents door, W window. The dotted lines represent arches or abutments for arches. The front walls are 5 feet thick, others 31/2 and 21/2 feet.
Scale, 30 feet to the inch.
The river is to the north about 3/4 mile, running south of east.
W
Church
.Altar
Irriquting Witch .
Miniature Pland
W
W
-
IRRIGATING
DITCH
F
Dwelling
TT
True
. Vorth.
Adobe wall
F
F
F
F
F
F
San José Granary.
F F F etc. are flying buttresses. The dwelling is two stories high. The adobe wall is modern. The material is rough stone laid in mortar.
The river is towards the north, running south of east. Scale, 20 feet to the inch.
W
Granary.
fuerte
DW WD WD
Repaired Hul.
True North
Gute
Plaza.
Chapel.
-
D
Church
D
Opening.
Next Wall
D
Conrent.
D
D
D
0
Gar 0
Grate.
Well
D
D
D
D)
D
San Juan mission.
Solid lines show existing works, dotted lines, old and ruined ones. The river is to the west about 100 yards, flowing in a southerly direction. D is for door, W is for window. The Granary and Church are partly in ruins.
Scale, 80 feet to the inch.
San Antonio River
Irrigating Ditch.
ENTRANCE.
TRUE NORTH.
T
in wall.
and every + feet Port hotes in end.
Church.
Well.
---
A
1
Road
Conrent Yard.
Church:
Site of un old
Approximate
Entrance
Arched
A
A
1
T
Bastions
Granary.
Espada mission.
Solid lines show existing works, dotted lines, ruined works. T T T are bastions or bulwarks. A A A A. A are. arched doorways.
Scale, 100 feet to the inch.
Entrance.
1 -----
Irrigating Ditch
RIVER
VERAMENDI. Palace and Gardens. BEN. MILAM killed hère 1835.
CREEK
Site of the Priest's House now Orphan's Home.
PADRE MAINES.
RODRIGUEZ
W. COMMERCE ST.
a
6
2
C
3
PLAZA
ST.
NEW
SAN PEDRO
PEREZ.
MILITARY
CITY HALL 1889 90.
PLAZA.
PUBLIC
1
2
DE LAS
COURT
HOUSE
QUARTEL OR MARKET
YSLAS
MARKET ST.
5
5
MONTES.
BUSTILLOS. FLORES.
S. FLORES 'ST.
FLORES.
SALINAS.
QUINTA ST.
ST
: N. FLORES ST.
Zambrano Rous-
ACEQUIA
SOLEDAD
ANTONIO
YTURRI
N
COMMERCE
GRENADOS.
AMARGURA
DE ARMAS
ord Corral.
DOLOROSA ST.
SAN PEDRO DITCH.
.ÇAR.ZA!
ST.
NAVARRO ...
TREVINO.
PLAZA
ST.
SCHOOL
References
Illustrating the Villa Capital de San Fernando, Spanish Garrison, Etc.
I. The old Church of San Fernando.
2. Churchyard Burying Ground, now covered by the Cathedral of 1868-72.
3. The Presidio Garrison Barracks, long since removed.
4. The old Plaza de Armas Dwellings and Ramparts. All 3 and 4 were claimed by the city as city property and in most cases the city substantiated its claims, and, acquiring it, cleared the old buildings away. The lot marked b was the last private property to disappear- 1889. In the '40s and '50s a man named Goodman gave much trouble before he was finally ousted by law by the city. Plats of most of these properties, and the names of claimants, may be found in Book 1, City Engineer's Records. The City Hall of 1850-90, with City Jail, occupied N. W. corner, c d.
5. Properties of N. Lewis, Callaghan, Groesbeeck, et al., on Main Plaza, claimed and cleared by the city similarly to those on Military Plaza (See note 4).
6. The isolated Spanish family names on the plan are those of some of the original property holders.
7. The faintly dotted lines to and from the Veramendi and Garza Houses are the approximate routes to Zambrano Row and to the Priest House taken by the besieging companies under Milam and F. W. Johnston in 1835. The capitulation of Cos to Burleson fol- lowed in 1835.
This plan is about 75 varas to the inch, Rampart Dwellings from 6 to 12 varas wide, Garrison Barracks, 20 varas wide.
1
1
.
17
MISSION SAN JOSÉ.
south forming a wing easterly are other buildings probably the sacristy, superior's vestries and quarters, these have two stories, the upper being ap- proached by a stone stair-case. The square of the Mission at this date, can very hardly be defined, but that the Mission was situated in the southeastern corner of a ramparted square is without doubt. The Mission Square enclosed about four acres. The brothers of the Mission formerly owning about 100 acres. On April 10th, 1794, the lands of Mission Concepcion were partitioned in a simi- lar manner to those of the Alamo Mission, among its Indian dependents, setting aside certain portions of the land for the payment of Government taxes. This was done by an order of the Viceroy dated 1786. The names of the recipients may be found in a document among our County Records. There were 38 souls at that time in the Mission community, namely 16 men, 12 married women, 1 boy, 6 girls and 3 widows. In 1805 a census showed 41 souls.
The name of the Mission refers first to the doctrine of the Immaculate Con- ception of the Virgin which was a new and burning religious question of the day. Acuña it derives from the name of the Marquess Casa de Fuerte, Viceroy of Mexico at the time of the Mission's foundation.
The Mission San Jose.
Mission San José de Aguayo or Second Mission as it is familiarly called, is dedicated to St. Joseph, the husband of the Virgin Mary, and was "erected" or founded in the year 1720, when Marquis San Miguel de Aguayo came to be Gov- ernor of Texas ; hence the name San José de Aguayo. It was probably begun shortly after, during this man's Governorship, for it was the first to be finished and the day of its completion was made the occasion of locating and beginning the Concepcion, San Juan and San Francisco Missions, March 5, 1731. San José Mission is the most beautiful of all, and its carving is surely "a joy forever." The hand that chiseled the wonderful facade at the main entrance of the Church, the doorway, window, and pillar capitals of the smaller Chapel, that now goes by the name of the Baptistry, was one of marvelous cunning. The facade is rich to repletion with the most exquisite carving. Figures of Virgins and Saints with drapery that looks like drapery, cherubs' heads, sacred hearts, ornate pedestals and recesses with their conch-like canopies, and cornices wonderful. The door way, pillar and arch, is daring in its unique ornamentation-showing in its com- bination of form the impression of Moorish outlines. Otherwise the whole facade is rich Rennaissance-figures and hearts alone with anything realistic about them. All other ornamentation is conventional, but with nothing stiff, every curve showing a free hand. The window above the archway is a simple wreath of such acanthus-like curves and conchoids of surpassing workmanship. The south window of the Baptistry is considered by good judges the finest gem of architectural ornamentation existing in America to-day. Its curves and propor- tions are a perpetual delight to the eye, and often as the writer has seen and ex- amined it, it is of that kind of art which does not satiate, but ever reveals some fresh beauty in line or curve. And to think that men can be found who can ruthlessly deface these for the sake of possessing a piece of the material. Was it not that the sculptor saw the perfect statue in the stone? Surely here the fool
18
SAN ANTONIO DE BEXAR.
sees only the stone in the material that has been given a beauty not its own. If stones ever do cry out, it is when they are alive with this touch of genius.
" Do you not know me; does no voice within Answer my cry, and say we are akin ?"
But can these desecrators have any kinship with Art? It is not the Texan or the Mexican who has done these things. Kendall says, writing of '42, "though the Texan troops were long quartered here, (San José) the stone carv- ings have not been injured." And this was in wartime when men are more than usually bent on destruction.
Turn to the foundation plan of San José. It will be seen how extensive these Mission buildings are. They are placed in the northeast corner of the square, running almost due east and west. "The Mission San José consists also of a large square, and numerous Mexican families still make it their residence. To the left of the gateway is the granary." So says Kendall. The gateway is gone to-day. The granary, with its strong and curious flying buttresses and arched stone roof, is still there and in it families make a home. The road still enters the Mission Square just at the right of the granary, where the old en- trance was. Here you are in full view of the facade of the Mission Buildings with the square spreading out to the right or south of the long main building of the Mission. The Mexican families still exist in huts erected upon the ruins of the ramparts of the Mission Square, and in a few years these now hardly to be defined foundations will have been "improved " from the place. At the south- western corner of the Mission buildings is a belfry tower, about sixty feet high. It has four lookout windows and a pyramidical stone roof. Tucked in the angle made by this tower and the south wall of the large Chapel, is a peculiar round tower to accommodate the winding stairway of solid hewn wooden steps to the second story of the belfry tower. From the second story are very curious stairs or ladders made of solid tree trunks notched and dressed with an axe, leading to the upper lookout of the tower. Here, are to be had some fine views of the country. All over the tower chamber's walls are thousands of names of visitors. Only a small portion of the large stone roof of the main Chapel remains and much of the north wall has gone, leaving a great ugly gap on this side and the remnant of the roof very unsafe in appearance. These portions of the Chapel with its dome fell in with a great crash on a stormy night of December, 1868. To the south of the main Chapel is a smaller one, the window and carving of which were referred to above. This is roofed by three domes, the tops of the enclosing walls being serrated, all quite in Moorish style. The entrance to this Chapel is from the east from an ante-chamber or wing of the cloisters. The arch and side- stones of the entry door are beautifully sculptured, and here, there still remain, much chipped, once finely carved, cedar double doors, and although so badly dam- aged they suggest to one's mind what the beauty of the front doors or gates at the facade of the main Chapel might have been. In this little Chapel services are still occasionally held. Its altar is decked with gaudy patchwork of a distinctly Mexican design, and many a little trumpery, by way of offering is placed there by the simple and believing women folk of the place. Some of the details of the capitals of the pillars, the font and other carving of this little Chapel are illustrated in this book. There are two ancient Spanish pictures, one hanging each side of the
19
MISSION SAN JOSÉ.
altar, much the worse for age, scenes from the life of St. Joseph. One is very plainly the " Flight into Egypt." The other, more difficult to make out, is most likely a picture of the Circumcision. The fan-like fluted canopies of the window and recesses have a pretty architectural effect. The cloisters and cells, which were of two stories, are quite extensive with a double series of arches stretching eastwardly from the main building. The outside arches are plain, wide semi- circular arches, and pointed Gothic arches inside and on the second floors. These monastic additions to the Mission had formerly fallen very much into decay, but in 1859 some Benedictine fathers arrived here from St. Vincent's Abbey in the Pittsburg Diocese, Pennsylvania, with the intention of rebuilding these rooms and cloisters for scholastic purposes. The intention was only par- tially carried into effect. The industrious fathers rebuilt many of the upper Gothic arches, as far as can be learned, manufacturing their own red bricks for that purpose and the making of the big oven at the east end. What finally inter- fered with this purpose of the Benedictines it is difficult to discover, but it is more than likely that wars and rumnors of wars and an unsettled epoch had much to do with the abandonment of their project, adding one more unfinished chapter to the heroic history of the Catholic Church in Texas.
Notwithstanding their irrigation ditches and the proximity of the River to all the four Missions, the constructors did not forget one important item-water, in case of the community being confined to the Mission Square. Each of the Missions has a substantially built, serviceable well, sunk close to the main building. San José was erected under more than ordinary difficulty, the builders being under constant fear and expectation of attack by hostiles. Perhaps fear is a word too foreign to the natures of. these brave and religious pioneers who struggled with such pious determination to success. It must have been very disheartening to find that all their faithful labor was in vain, though no record of any such ex- pression is extant. Captain Pike, who in his famous expedition visited this Mission in 1807, relates that the Priest told him that "it appeared to him that the Indians could not exist under the shadow of the whites-as the nations wlio formed the San Antonio Missions had been nurtured and taken all the care of that it was possible, and put on the same footing as the Spaniards ; yet, notwith- standing they had dwindled away until the other two Missions (San Juan Capes- trana [sic] and La Purisima Concepcion)* had become entirely depopulated, and the one where he resided had not then more than sufficient to perform his house- hold labor. From this he had formed an idea that God never intended them to form one people, but that they should always remain distinct and separate." i
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