USA > Texas > The history and geography of Texas as told in county names > Part 2
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same year Philip married his second wife. The intrigues of the young Duke's stepmother to have one of her own children preferred to the throne caused much indignation throughout Spain and France, Philip V being the first Bourbon king of Spain, and in the midst of this general sympathy the settle- ment of San Antonio took place. He ascended the throne as Ferdinand VI (Fernando) in 1746, and died in 1759.
The County of Bexar and the Cathedral San Fernando de Bexar, fronting one of the main plazas of the city, now com- memorate his name and title. It was during this period also that the name Nuevas Philippinas was given to the province of Texas, but the name "Texas" had become a geographical name a quarter of a century previously and the name Nuevas Philippinas soon fell into disuse.
GALVESTON.
There were three distinguished Spaniards of this name, Jose de Galvez, Matias de Galvez, and Bernardo de Galvez.
Jose de Galvez, brother of Viceroy Matias de Galvez, was born of poor parents in Velez-Malega in 1729. He was edu- cated at the University of Alcala, and later became private secretary of Marques de Grimaldi. In 1761, while an intendant in the royal army, he was sent to Mexico as visitador general, with instructions to inspect and reorganize the administration. In 1764 he was given powers superior to those of the viceroy, and before his return to Spain, in 1771, he supervised the ex- pulsion of the Jesuits from Mexico and sent out the Portola expedition to occupy Alta California. He also recommended the establishment of the intendant system in Mexico and the organization of the Provincias Internas, which reforms were carried out after his return to Spain. In 1768 he was made a member of the Council of the Indies, and later became Ministro Universal de Indies, which position he held until his death, in 1787. He was also given the title of Marques de Sonora.
Matias de Galvez, forty-eighth viceroy of Mexico, was a brother of Jose de Galvez. In 1783, after having served as
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AS TOLD IN COUNTY NAMES
governor and captain-general of Guatemala, he was promoted to the vice-royalty of Mexico. He died the next year. In rec- ognition of the services he had rendered, the king decreed that no residencia should be held, or, as we would say in America, public business was suspended in his honor.
Bernardo de Galvez (Conde de Galvez), forty-ninth viceroy. son of Matias de Galvez, forty-eighth viceroy. Before going to Louisiana he had been a dashing soldier in Durango and Chihuahua. (His career in Louisiana can be learned from Gayarre's Louisiana. ) At the time of his father's death, in 1785, Bernardo was captain-general of Havana, as well as of Louisiana and Flor- ida. He reached Vera Cruz May 26, 1785, and took pos- session of his office in Mexico June 17. He was accompan- ied by his young and beauti- ful wife, Felicitas Saint Max- ent, a French woman, a na- tive of New Orleans. His in- auguration was brilliant, as was his whole career.
His short rule was marked by two calamities in the form of a famine (1785) and an epidemic (1786). He instituted im- portant military reforms, continued building the great high- way to Acapulco, and rebuilt the palace of Chapultepec. Be- cause of his great popularity, he was feared at court in Spain, some even predicting that he would make Mexico inde- pendent.
Becoming suddenly ill, on November 8, he delivered the civil rule to the regent, retaining the military command. He died November 30, 1786, after a rule of one year and five months. (Los Gobernantes de Mexico.)
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THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS
During the war between Great Britain and her American colonies he rendered signal service by furnishing supplies, cap- turing Mobile and Pensacola from the British, and in various other ways. As a mark of appreciation of this service his por- trait was presented to the Congress of the United States as one worthy to adorn the capitol, and was accepted in warm words of appreciation. A detailed account of his services to the colonies is given in Winsor's "Westward Movement." The portrait was destroyed by the British when they burned the capitol, in 1814.
GARZA.
This county was named for the Garza family in San Antonio, a family which had been identified with that city for nearly two centuries. On the maternal side they are lineal descend- ants of Madam Rabaina Betancourt, who came with the first settlers in 1731. Geronimo Garza, the paternal ancestor, came later and married a descendant of Madam Betancourt, and from this marriage sprang a long line of this distinguished an- cestry, identified throughout the long history of that city with its civil, military and commercial activities, and is now one of the most highly respected and useful connections of the city.
Their loyalty to Texas as a province of Spain, a State of Mexico, of the United States, and of the Southern Confeder- acy, inspired the Legislature of Texas, in 1876, to erect a mon- ument to the memory of the family by naming a county "Garza."
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AS TOLD IN COUNTY NAMES
GOLIAD.
This word means "gigantic," (large) from Goliath of Gath, the giant of the Philistines. Prior to 1829 the presidio and mission and the little settlements around it were known as La Bahia, meaning "the bay."
In 1722 a presidio and mission was established on the site of La Salle's old fort near the bay. It was given the name "Nuestra Sanctissima Senora Maria de Loreto la Bahia del Es- piritu Santo" (our Most Holy Lady Mary of Loreto of the Holy Ghost of the Bay).
It remained but a few years here, when it was moved up the valley to a spot that is now in Victoria County. In 1749 it was moved over to the San Antonio River, the present site, and in the course of time all of the name, except La Bahia, fell into disuse, but it was now far away from the bay, and in 1829 the Congress of Coahuila and Texas concluded to do away with the paradoxical name and to preserve some trace of the large presidio, named it Goliad.
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THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS
GUADALUPE.
This county was named for the Guadalupe River. This was one of the rivers named by Alonzo de Leon on his first expe- dition to Texas in 1689, as told in the diary of that expedition :
"Thursday, the 14th (April), we moved forward in search of a great river, which the guide told us we should find, and which we reached at 2 in the afternoon. The river has a good ford; its banks are covered with timber. We gave this river the name of 'Our Lady of Guadalupe,' whom we had brought from Coahuila as our protectress, and whom we had painted on our royal standard."
HIDALGO.
This county was named in honor of the patriot priest, Miguel Hidalgo. He was born in the province of Guanajuato, May 8, 1753. At an early age he was sent to the College of San Nicolas, at Valladolid, where he be- came distinguished as a student. He was then sent to the City of Mexico. In 1778 and 1779 he there studied and had conferred upon him the degree of Bachelor of Theology. On his return to Val- ladolid he obtained, by successive appointments as cura, two of the richest benefices of the diocese, and finally became cura of Dolores, with a stipend of $10,000 to $12,000 and devoted himself to a variety of occupations independent of his clerical duties, and studied the sciences, French philosophical works (being a French scholar), political economy, and gave critical study to the doctrines propounded in the unorthodox works. This loos- ened the hold of the church on many of the non-essentials in its doctrines and led him into a detestation of the despotism of the ruling powers.
-
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AS TOLD IN COUNTY NAMES
On the 14th of September, 1810, he issued his famous Grito de Dolores, or war cry for liberty, and launched the revolution which was to free Mexico from the thraldom of Spain. After several victories over the royal troops he was finally defeated in January, 1811, at the battle known as the "Bridge of Cal- deron." Later he himself was captured and executed at Chi- huahua, July 31, 1811. His head was severed from his body, sent to Guanajuato and suspended in an iron cage by the royal- ists, while his body was buried in Chihuahua, where it remained until 1823, when, by order of Congress, it was transferred, with his skull, to the Cathedral in the City of Mexico in the Chapel las Reyes, the famous burial place of the viceroys and later of the Presidents of the Republic of Mexico. In 1823 a monument was erected in Chihuahua in memory of Hi- dalgo and other leaders, and in 1863 Juarez raised Dolores to the rank of a city and ordered erected in the principal square a statue to Hidalgo's memory. In 1873 the Congress of Mex- ico decided that the national flag should be raised on the 8th day of May in commemoration of his birthday, and President. Diaz caused the statue to be erected in 1878 at a cost of $40,000.
LA SALLE.
This county was named for Robert Cavalier Sieur de la Salle, who was born in the village of Rouen, Normandy, November 11, 1643. He was educated for the priesthood, but his aspira- tions turning in another direction, he went to Canada with the object of discovering an overland passage to China.
After spending several years in exploring Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, he returned to France and obtained from the king, to whom Canada had reverted after the dissolution of the West India Company, the grant of Fort Frontenac, the spot where the city of Kingston now stands. On condition of keeping up that fort, he received a grant of a wide circuit of neighboring country and the exclusive right to trade with the Iroquois In- dians, as a check against whom the fort had been built, but his restless disposition was not thus to be satisfied.
He left his fur trade, his fields, his cattle, his Indian depend-
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THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS
ents at Fort Frontenac and again returned to France to obtain a royal commission to discover the Mississippi River, and also a grant of a monopoly of the trade in buffalo skins. Success- ful in this mission he returned to Fort Frontenac with men and stores to prosecute his enterprise, accompanied by Chevalier Tonti, a veteran of the Italian wars, who was to be his lieu- tenant.
This was in the summer of 1678. Before winter he had as- cended Lake Ontario and entered the Niagara River. Passing around the falls, he selected a spot at the east end of the Lake Erie, near where the city of Buffalo now stands. Here he built a boat of sixty tons, called the Griffin. He equipped it with cordage and sails, and on the 17th of August, 1779, she plowed her way up Lake Erie, bearing La Salle, Tonti, Father Henne- pin, and several other friars of the Recollect order. Thirty sail- ors, boatmen, hunters, and soldiers made up the remainder of the company. Having entered Detroit, "the strait" or river at the head of the lake, they passed through it into the limpid sheet of water to which La Salle gave the name Lake St. Clair. Through this they ascended through another strait into Lake Huron, and through the length of that lake by the Strait of Mackinaw into Lake Michigan and into Green Bay, and after a voyage of twenty days cast anchor at its head, thus tracing what is now probably the greatest highway in American com- merce, if we embrace the Welland Canal. From here the Griffin was sent back to Fort Frontenac, loaded with the most valu- able furs, in order that she might bring back supplies, but she was shipwrecked on her homeward passage.
In the meantime La Salle, with his company, proceeded in birch canoes up Lake Michigan to the mouth of St. Joseph's River, where there was a Jesuit mission, and built a fort. He then crossed over to a branch of the Illinois River, down which they descended, and on its banks, below where 'Peoria now stands, they built a second fort, and called it Crevecoeur (heart-break) to signify their disappointment at the non-ar- rival of the Griffin, of which nothing had yet been heard.
La Salle then determined to return to Fort Frontenac on foot, and took with him five attendants. Upon his arrival at
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AS TOLD IN COUNTY NAMES
Fort Frontenac he found things in the greatest confusion, him- self reported dead and his property seized by creditors.
Tonti, in the meantime, had been attacked by an overwhelm- ing force of Indians and had fled back to Green Bay, and the two forts were entirely deserted.
Upon La Salle's return with supplies and recruits, he built another fort, which he called St. Louis, and again returned to Fort Frontenac, encountering Tonti on the way. He collected a new company at Fort Frontenac and returned to Illinois, and in 1682 rigged a small barge in which he descended to the Gulf. When he reached the mouth of the Mississippi he took formal possession in the name of his king and named the country Lou- isiana.
He then made his way back to Quebec, leaving Tonti in charge of Fort St. Louis, and returned to France a third time, whither the news of his discovery had preceded him and cre- ated great expectations.
His wonderful achievements, under so many difficulties and misfortunes, made him a great favorite of the king, in spite of the representations of the enemies he had made by his harsh temper and domineering disposition in his business transac- tions, as well as with his subordinates in his exploring expe- ditions. The king furnished him a frigate and three other ships, on board of which he took five priests, twelve gentlemen, fifty soldiers, a number of mechanics and a small supply of ag- ricultural implements. They were furnished with tools, and in all about four hundred persons designed for a colony at the mouth of the Mississippi River.
Informed of La Salle's departure from France, Tonti left Fort St. Louis, in Illinois, and went down the Mississippi River to the mouth of the Arkansas River.
In sailing for the mouth of the Mississippi La Salle came too far west and landed on the coast at Matagorda Bay, in Feb- ruary, 1685, evidently a mistake in calculating longitude, from defective instruments, Belisle having made the same mistake thirty-four years later. (See Angelina.) He built a fort on Garcitas River, some twelve miles west of Lavaca River, nam- ing it Fort St. Louis, with quarters for his colonists. In the 3
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THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS
vain hope of finding the Mississippi River he made several jour- neys eastward, and in 1687 was killed by some of his own men, and his bones lie in some unknown spot near the present City of Navasota.
For a most interesting and reliable account of the location of the old fort, and the location of La Salle's murder, see Dr. Bolton, in the Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Vol. XIX.
MEDINA.
In writing of De Leon's first expedition into Texas, Bancroft (The North Mexican States, Vol. I, p. 400) says :
"Leon started from Monclova, March 23, 1689. Crossing the Rio Del Norte above the Salado Junction, he crossed and named on his way northeastward the rivers Nueces, Hondo, Medina, and Guadalupe."
The translated diary of De Leon, given in the Quarterly of the Texas Historical Association, Vol. V, tells us that the river was named Medina April 11, 1689, but does not give the person for whom named. The sergeant major of the expedition was one Medina. The author of the tables used in determining lat- itude and longitude on their journey was Medina, and this was probably the reason for the name given to the river.
NOLAN.
The chief interest which centers in this name arises from the exaggerated importance of Philip Nolan's visit to Texas for the purpose of gathering wild horses, and his murder by the Spaniards in March, 1801.
Of his antecedents prior to 1791 we know nothing. Dr. Ed- ward Everett Hale, in "The Real Philip Nolan," quotes an affidavit to the effect that one Leal became acquainted with Nolan in 1791, and a memorandum of a transaction by which General Wilkinson exchanged $2,000 worth of goods for 12,000 acres of land with one Hunt in 1796, through Nolan as his agent, would indicate that Nolan was at least twenty-
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AS TOLD IN COUNTY NAMES
one years old, yet Dr. Hale quotes from a letter received from Hon. Jno. Mason Brown, which stated that Philip Nolan was born in Frankfort, Kentucky. The ground upon which Frankfort is situated was not surveyed until 1773, and Frankfort was not laid out until 1787. The conclusion, therefore, is that Nolan must have been born as early as the year 1764, and was not, therefore, a native of Kentucky, the first settlement in which was not made until 1774.
His connection with General Wilkinson probably began at Lexington, Ky., as early as 1785, when Wilkinson established the first dry goods store in that place. Wilkinson, after the close of the Revolutionary War, resigned his office as brigadier general and went to Lexington. He organized the Lexington Light Infantry, the first military company in Kentucky, which years later became famous. The Indians gave great trouble in that region and he frequently commanded this company in expeditions, going up into Ohio once or twice. His frequent absences from his business necessitated the employment of some reliable, competent manager, and it is altogether probable that Nolan became his manager. The commercial transactions of the region, at that time, were carried on by a system of barter, or exchange of goods for buffalo hides and the skins of fur- bearing animals, bacon, flour, hams, dried meat and other pro- ducts of the region. The only practicable way of disposing of such things was to load them into boats and carry them down the river to New Orleans.
In 1786, although at least one such boatload of products had been captured and confiscated at Natchez, Wilkinson deter- mined to try this method of disposing of his goods, and he suc- ceeded. It is more than probable that he took Nolan with him in the hazardous journey and left him as his representative at New Orleans. While Spain had closed the Mississippi River to American commerce, it seems that both he and Nolan had found favor with the Spanish authorities and that Nolan, without opposition from the authorities, had established the business of bringing horses from Texas and disposing of them.
His experience in such business commended him to Gov- ernor Carondelet, who was then organizing a cavalry regiment
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THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS
at New Orleans, to engage Nolan's services in procuring the horses. Nolan's previous visits to Texas, it seems, did not re- quire him to carry passports, but a permit to enter Texas, signed by the general of the department to which Texas be- longed, would probably exempt him from paying the tax per head then in vogue. Just what were the contents of this so- called passport we shall probably never know, as the document was upon Nolan's person when he was killed, but we are war- ranted in assuming that his authority to re-enter Texas and gather horses was ample. His papers were examined at the in- stance of the Spanish authorities by the proper officers at Natchez, again by the commanding officer at Arkansas Post, and he was adjudged to have the proper authority for re-enter- ing Texas.
Just why Gayoso, the immediate successor of Carondelet, should be so bitterly opposed to Nolan's second expedition, finds its possible solution in the following facts :
The Spaniards, ever since the treaty of 1763, had occupied Natchez and other places on the east bank of the Mississippi by the mere sufferance, first of England, then of the United States. President Adams determined to take possession for the United States, and in 1798, having appointed Wilkinson com- mander-in-chief of the army, he organized the Mississippi Terri- tory and appointed Winthrop Sergeant Governor and gave or- ders to Wilkinson to dispossess the Spaniards from all their posts on that side of the river. This angered the Spaniards and they determined to pursue the retaliatory policy of excluding Amer- icans from Spanish territory, and this was the state of affairs when Nolan was preparing for his second entry into Texas.
His intention to return to Texas was no secret, and armed with the proper documents from the proper authorities he or- ganized an escort, consisting of seven rancheros (Mexican ex- perts in catching wild horses), eighteen young men armed for protection against the savages, and two cooks. Gayoso, with- out offering any resistance to Nolan's so-called invasion of Texas, annoyed him in all sorts of ways, and to get rid of such an- noyance Nolan crossed the river up at Walnut Mills, some dis- tance above Natchez, proceeded on his way to Texas, presented
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his passports to the officers at Arkansas Post and was permit- ted, without molestation, to proceed to his destination.
When he had arrived at a suitable place he erected a block- house for protection against the Indians, built his horse pens and had collected about 300 horses, when early one morning in March, 1801, a squadron of one hundred and fifty men rode up and demanded the surrender of himself and his men. He refused to surrender, and the attack began. He was killed early in the fight.
While on his way to Texas, Nolan was followed by a squad- ron of horsemen at a safe distance in the rear, and while he was stopping at Arkansas Post his trusted guide, one Mordecai Richards, deserted him and returning to Concordia parish made a voluntary affidavit, in which he said Nolan admitted to him that he was going to take his horses back to Kentucky, and as soon as he sold them he would organize a force of men, return and conquer Texas, and upon this flimsy testimony, and Gay- oso's persistent slanders to General de Nava, Nolan was finally murdered.
It is noted that the testimony against Nolan is from Spanish sources alone, except the narrative of Peter Ellis Bean, chiefly devoted to his marvelous exploits in Mexico in later years.
After Nolan's death his rancheros very naturally deserted to the Spaniards. Richards and two others had deserted, and the other members of Nolan's escort were put in irons and finally taken to Chihuahua, where only nine remained, one of whom was executed. No tidings of the fate of the others were ever heard, except of Peter Ellis Bean and David Fero, who rose to the command of regiments in the revolution of Mexico against Spain a few years later.
Nolan's visit has been magnified as the first filibustering ex- pedition in Texas.
The Legislature of Texas, in honor of this, the first American victim in Texas to Spanish treachery, created and named the county for Nolan in 1876.
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THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS
PRESIDIO.
This word means "a fortress garrisoned by soldiers." For the protection of some missions established on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande a presidio was erected. Around this a settlement grew up and the name "Presidio" was attached to it. When the territory on the Texas side of the river was or- ganized into a county, in 1875, the name "Presidio" was given to it.
REFUGIO.
This county was named for the Mission "Our Lady of Refuge," in honor of the Virgin Mary.
It was established in 1791, in what is now Refugio County, about fifteen miles north of Copano Bay. The mission was es- tablished at the instance of Galvez, who desired its establish- ment for the double purpose of Christianizing the coast Indians of that region and to prevent smuggling. As a mission it was a failure, the record showing, in 1793, that there were only sixty-seven Indians there. The buildings were of stone, but it was in ruins in 1835, when the Texans, who were occupying it, made a spirited resistance, killing and wounding about 200 Mexicans. There is scarcely any visible trace of the mission there now.
SAN AUGUSTINE.
In 1756 there was established on the Trinity River a pre- sidio which was called San Augustine de Ahumada, named in honor of Saint Augustine. There was a small mission on Ayish Bayou, which runs south through the modern county of San Augustine, which was connected with the Presidio San Au- gustine de Ahumada. It was abandoned about the same time (1772).
AS TOLD IN COUNTY NAMES
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APOLLO AND HYACINTHUS
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SAN JACINTO.
San Jacinto County was named in honor of the great battle which was fought near the stream of the name, April 21, 1836.
The stream was named in memory of Saint Hyacinth, the anglicised form of San Jacinto. The name is of ancient origin, with a beginning among the myths of ancient Greece in a story which runs as follows:
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THE HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TEXAS
"One day Apollo saw a shepherd boy making sweet music upon a pipe he was playing. He drew near him and asked, 'What is thy name, noble lad?' The lad replied, 'Hyacinthus.' 'Thy name is well suited to thee. Let me play upon thy pipe,' said Apollo.
"Apollo made such sweet music upon the pipe that even the brook that flowed down near-by paused in a quiet pool to listen.
"Apollo finally returned the pipe, saying, 'Hyacinthus, I like you. We will be friends, and you shall go with me to the palace of King Admetus.'
" 'But,' said Hyacinthus, 'what will become of my sheep? I must not leave them. No, no, Apollo, I cannot go with you.'
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