History and legends of the Alamo and other missions in and around San Antonio

Front matter

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COFXRICHT DEPOSm

Foreword

I wish to express my thanks to Mr. Rolla Taylor, an artist of San Antonio, Texas, for copying faded pictures; to Mesdames Adele B. Looscan and Jessie B. Howe, of Houston, Texas, for kindly assistance; to Mr. Fernando M. Urbina, of Mexico City, for copies from the various Mexican archives and to Mrs. Laura V. Grinnan of Austin, Texas, for help in the Spanish translations.

All rights are reserved in new historical matter, legends, and pictures, and nothing herein contained may be used without the express permission of the writer; all of the matter has been specifically copyrighted separately or in combination.

The history of the Alamo is placed first, as it is of the most general interest. Mission San Francisco is given next, because it is the oldest of all and a review of its history will give a better understanding of the rest. Mission San Jose is placed last as it was in reality founded later than the Missions of Concepcion and San Juan, although the latter were not brought to the vicinity of San Antonio until ten years later.

A larger and fuller history of the Important Events of Texas and of the Missions of Texas, will soon be ready for publication.

(Adina De Zavala.)

San Antonio, Texas, 141 Taylor Street.

December 8, 1917.

TEXAS

Empire Majestic, with thy head so proud, Pillowed on mountain heights of snow and cloud; And kingly feet laved by the tepid tide Of Aztec waters, sun-kissed, free and wide! Realm of eternal spring and blessedness, Of flower's breath, and mock-bird songs that cease Not, all the golden months of all the year! Land of cerulean sky, low-dipped, and clear! Oh, praries boundless, breeze-tossed, cattle-nipped! Oh, hidden streams, translucent and deer-sipped! Oh, sweet hills verdant- footed, purple-hazed! Oh, fields of cotton-snow and golden maize, Oh, valleys of low-lying, blue-green wheat, Up where the mesa and the cold waves meet! 'what wonder that men's blood leapt forth, to flow Chivalric, for thee, at the Alamo?

Land of my birth, and soul's intensest love! Dear is thy soil, thy calm, blue sky, above; Dear are thy aims to all my eager heart, And dear thy people, of myself a part.

(Belle Hunt Shortridge in Lone Star Lights.)

"Dear is thy flag, its red and white and blue.

And dear thy "Lone Star," ever pointing true.

Dear are thy Landmarks, — every stone and tree

That tell of love and hearts' blood poured for thee

That Race, and Heir, might ever still aspire —

Their hearts, and souls and minds reach upward! Higher!

Oh may this sacred heritage of martyrs brave.

Demand response, and shame each knave!

Until thy empire, known the wide world o'er,

A Haven prove till time shall be no more."

(Adina De Zavala.)

THE ALAMO

(Mission San Antonio de Valero.)

What the people of the present day speak of as "The Alamo ' ' is known in the ancient records and to the earlysettlers of Texas as Mission San Antonio de Valero.

The locality of ''The Alamo," (Mission San Antonio de Valero,) was suggested as a mission site by Father Damian Manzanet, in 1690, but the mission itself was founded later by the perseverance of Father Antonio de San Buenaventura y Olivares who went alone to the Indians who lived in the vicinity of the present City of San Antonio.

Father Olivares wrote to the Viceroy of New Spain, in 1716, telling him of his hopes and plans for Mission San Antonio de Padua, and urged him to send out families, as settlers, for a pueblo; families who should serve as object lessons to the Indians of the life they were expected to lead. In this same letter he stressed the fact that it was necessary that some of these families should be skilled in the useful arts and industries in order to teach the Indians all that should be required to make them useful and capable citizens.

Father Olivares maintained himself alone at San Antonio for some time after he organized his mission, and gathered together the Payaya Indians who spoke the same language as the Xaramas, near the Rio Grande, where he had established the Mission of San Francisco Solano. He won the love and respect of all the Indians in the locality. He was particularly successful with the tribe who formed a village on the east side of the San Antonio River. Unfortunately, his labors were for a time suspended by a serious accident. While crossing a rude bridge made of logs and covered by earth, the foot of the animal he was riding w^ent through a hole, and the priest, thrown suddenly and violently, had his leg broken. A messenger was sent, at once, to the nearest mission on the Rio Grande, for a Father to come to him, and Padre Pedro M\inoz immediately responded, driving before him on pack animals everything he thought might be needed for the relief of the injured man. He made the journey, without rest, in an incredibly short space of time, administered to his afflicted Brother the consolations of religion and then set his leg.

It was a long time before Father Olivares was able to walk. When he was able to go about again, he changed IMIssion San Antonio de Valero to the other side of the San Antonio River where what is left of it is seen today, and known as ''The Alamo." He lost no time in erecting the mission buildings and perfecting a system of waterworks by which the mission and pueblo were abundantly supplied with water by ditches running frora the river. These ditches also served to irrigate the mission lands on which were grown the needed food supplies.

A certified statement still exists to the effect that on May 1, 1718, Don Martin de Alar con gave to Fray Antonio de San Buenaventura y Olivares possession ' ' of the mission site at the Indian village on the banks of the San Antonio River."

When Alarcon went to establish the Presidio of San Antonio de Bexar, in 1718, he took with him about thirty families, who seem to have been families of members of his company, and settled them in the vicinity of the mission. Father Olivares had some time before this, in obedience to orders, transferred Mission San Francisco Solano to San Antonio de Padua. ]\Iission San

Francisco Solano was originally founded by him in the Valley of the Circumcision on January 1, 1700, and was moved several times before its final transfer to San Antonio.

The first baptismal record extant of Mission San Antonio de Valero w^as entered July 8, 1718. Other interesting records are signed by the Venerable Anthony Margil, founder of most of the Texas missions who visited San Antonio several times and remaiiied at San Antonio de Valero for quite a while after the trouble with the French on the eastern frontier, in 1719.

The Alamo (Mission San Antonio de Valero) was built for a large industrial school to teach, civilize and christianize the Indians of the locality. It was a sort of walled city or fortress, and was composed of several buildings with their courts or patios, and a long rectangular plaza with rows of houses or rooms built along the sides of the walled area, and covering about three acres of ground. All the buildings and the ten-foot wall which surrounded the entire Alamo fortress were of stone. The high wall was needed as a protection against the savage Indians. In this industrial school the Indians were taught to weave coarse cloths, embroidered cotton shawls, blankets, and other needed materials. They were also taught every trade or occupation that was thought useful to them at the period, as husbandry, stock-raising carpentry, blacksmithing, architecture or house construction. They were taught, too, to read and speak Spanish, to w^rite, sing, sew, embroider, draw, carve and paint, each according to his talents. Even their political education was not neglected, they being taught civic government. A governor and alcalde were annually elected by the Indians, and these Indian officials then held authority in the mission pueblo for one year. The full story of the foundation and conduct of this large industrial school under the name of Mission San Antonio de Valero is very interesting. It ceased to be a school and mission somew^here about 1783 or 1785. Contagious diseases, of some kind, wrought great havoc among the Indians at the Alamo in 1763, and greatly depleted their numbers. In fact, it might be said that the establishment declined from the date of the scourge, on account of the loss of so many of its christianized adults. There were no tractable Indians about the vicinity to refill the school and mission, and those brought in from a distance were taken to the missions below, and thus gradually, by reason of the older mission Indians and their children becoming civilized and incorporated with the rest of the population in habits and manners, although still continuing to inhabit the mission and pueblo, this last changed its character and became an ordinary \dllage or pueblo.

The corner-stone of the church of Mission San Antonio de Valero — what is now known as the ' ' Church of the Alamo" or the "Alamo Church" — was laid May 8, 1744, many years after the foundation of the mission and long after the erection of the other buildings of the establishment. The pretty church with its twin towers, arched roof, and graceful dome, was entirely finished about 1757 — when to the great distress of the inhabitants of the mission it began to crack, and finally ''tumbled in" about 1762, — ^the old records say, — "on account of the stupidity of the builder. ' '

They started to rebuild it, but, owing to a frightful scourge which carried off nearly all the adult Indians of the mission, and other causes, it was never done, and the ancient church came down to comparatively modern history filled with the debris of its two towers, arched roof and dome. *

About the year 1849, Major Babbitt, acting Quartermaster of the Eighth Military Department, took possession of the Alamo Buildings in the name of the United States Government to use them as a Quartermaster's Depot. He found the Church of the Alamo "choked vith debris, a conglomeration of stones, mortar and dirt," just as it was left when the twin towers, the dome

* See newspapers of the day and Wm. C'^rner in San Antonio de Bexar.

and the arched roof fell in, (about 1762), and, with the disintegration and injury of nearly one hundred years added. He cleared away some of the rubbish, but it was not until 1878, that it was entirely cleared out. On November 15, 1878, in removing the debris, nearing the original level of the Church, they uncovered among other objects a beautifully carved baptismal font, belonging to the earliest missionary period of the locality.

Occasionally, officers of the Franciscan order came to Texas on a tour of visitation and inspection and made a report on the mission. We hear of it also through the military channels when writers accompanying the military would be interested enough to describe the missions and country visited.

Father Juan Morfi who visited Texas with Don Theodore de Croix, the first commandant-general of the "interior provinces," wrote of the "very decadent condition" of Mission San Antonio de Valero, in 1778, owing to the ' ' small number of Indians who live in it, scarcely enough to cultivate its small area." "The living quarters," he continues, "are beneath an arcade which forms a square with the Church and the residence of the Fathers. The latter has a tower at the principal doorway, where two mortar guns are kept as defense against enemies in case of attack, which is by no means a rare occurrence. In the center of the courtyard there is a well of fine water, although the river is only twenty

Old Font steps away,* it was constructed with the same caution which was responsible for the tower. The residence is uncomfortable and badly kept, showing its age and careless construction."

In the archives of the mission still extisting, we find no burials recorded after 1782, no baptisms after 1783. The last marriage was entered in 1785, however, the leaves following this record are missing and there may have been others. It is plain from a note below signed by Father Valdez, that there were later baptismal records, at least, although it is possible that they were not of the mission proper, but of the pueblo.

On the 25th day of February 1793, some of the people from the m^ission and Presidio of Adaes on the eastern frontier, across the Sabine, were settled about Mission San Antonio de Valero, and land, ''as much as four pecks of seed corn will cover," was given to each who applied, with fee simple title. They are styled in the records, Adaesenos. They were placed "in possession one by one of the ir suertes which were allotted to them quietly and peacefully, .... using and observing all the ceremonies, formalities and requisites which are necessary and which are required by common use and having also ordered them to pull weeds and throw stones, which they executed to the four winds, in fact of having found themselves royally in possession, etc., and by the same it is given to them that they may take it and profit thereby, they, their heirs and successors "

* The walls of the Alamo were on the west side of the buildings now fronting east on the west side of Alamo Plaza, opposite the main building of the Fort. The river came in very close, to what is now Losoya Street, and consequently, was but a short distance away.

Old Manuscript Showing tlie Allotment of the Lands.

Mission San Antonio de Valero was officially secularized in August 1793, that is, the mission and pueblo were transferred from the government of the missionary Fathers to the ordinary eclesiastics and officers.

On the last page of the Book of Baptisms is found the following :

''On the 22nd day of August, 1793, I transferred thiu book of records of the pueblo of San Antonio de Valero to the Archives of the town of San Fernando and presidio of San Antonio de Bexar, by order of the Right Rev. Doctor Don Andres de Llanos y Valdez, the most worthy Bishop of this diocese, dated January 2nd, of the same year by reason of the said pueblo having been aggregated to the curacy of Bexar; and, that it may be known, I sign it.

Fray Jose Francisco Lopez, Parish Priest."

It seems that this same Father was acting parish priest of San Fernando for some time, while in charge of the Mission and Pueblo of Mission San Antonio de Valero.

All the missions in the jurisdiction of Don Pedro de Nava, Commandant-General of the Internal Provinces, were secularized by decree dated April 10, 1794. The Franciscans remained in many instances as pastors of their flocks; but they received their jurisditcion from the Bishops as all other parish-priests, and not from the superior of their order.

Father Lopez transferred the Valero records to his successor as follows:

San Antonio De Bexar, June 14, 1794.

On the day of this date I received from the Rev. Father Jose Francisco Lopez, Avho was Minister of the Mission of San Antonio de Valero, until it was delivered into the hands of the ordinary, this book, in which are set down the records of baptisms pertaining to said mission, and performed up to the year 1783 — noting that the records which may be searched for from the year 1788 may be found in a new book found in parchment; from leaf 2 to leaf 100, together with these that belong to the following year, and which may be entered hereafter. I make this note that it may serve as an index, and I sign it with the same Rev. Father — date as above.

Bachiller Gavino Valdez.

I delivered this book, on the day of date, to the Parish-Priest, Don Gavino Valdez; and that it may be known I sign.

Fray Jose Francisco Lopez.

Father Valdez transferred to his successor in charge of San Fernando as follows:

San Antonio de Bexar, July 11, 1804.

''On this day I received from the Senor Cura, the Bachiller Don Gavino Valdez, my predecessor, this book, pertaining to the new pueblo of San Antonio de Valero; and in testimony, we sign it.

''Jose Clemente Delgado, "Bachiller Valdez."

A Franciscan Father, while any remained in the province, usually acted as chaplain to the troops stationed about Mission San Antonio de Valero, as well as parish priest of the pueblo of San Antonio de Valero, and often as acting parish priest at San Fernando^ hence we find their names signed in such various capacities in the records.

The pueblo of San Antonio de Valero had a separate alcalde up to the year 1809; perhaps later; but under Governor Martinez, it was under the same rule as San Antonio de Bexar.*

On the 2nd day of February 1814, "baptism is noted as being administered in the Church of Bexar by th« chaplain of the company;" (of the Alamo de Parras) but it does not appear that they ceased to use the Chapel of the mission for the administration of the sacraments or religious services "until about the 22nd day August, 1825, when the curate of San Antonio received the records of baptism, marriages, etc., of the company of the Alamo de Parras from the hands of the chaplain."*

In 1822, the beloved Franciscan, Father Jose Antonio Diaz de Leon, who was assassinated in 1834, near San Augustine, Texas, baptised at San Antonio de Valero.

* Yoakum, Appendix, page 461.

Both the civil and eclesiastical jurisdiction of the pueblo of the Alamo seem to have fluctuated considerably.

''The sacred taper's lights are gone,

Gray moss has clad the altar stone,

The holy image is o'erthrown,

The bell has ceased to toll.

The long ribbed aisles are burst and shrunk, The holy shrine to ruin sunk, Departed is the pious monk, God 's blessing on his soul ! "

The famous company known as ''la compania volante del Alamo de Parras," came in 1805, and remained at San Antonio de Valero so long that they are referred to in the archives of Bexar as "the ancient company." The troops were first stationed without the walls of the mission but the depredations of the savages were so frightful and continuous that they were soon compelled to take refuge within the walls. From the long residence of this company in the mission, the mission-fortress finally lost its original and official name and became known, coloquially, to the people about, as "The Alamo." As late as 1831, this same company was in Texas, at Tenoxtitlan, on the Brazos.

During the countless revolutions and uprisings of repoiblicans, royalists, adventurers and Indians, life and property were no longer safe in San Antonio, and near by places. All who could get away did so.

In 1813, when Governor Salcedo surrendered to the Republican Army of the North, the Americans marched into the Alamo Fort and took possession of it, together with all the army stores, the arms, the military chest, etc., liberating seventeen of their countrymen found there and adding them to their ranks. Thus all along the line we find the Alamo in use as a stronghold, first by one party and then the other, during the numerous revolutions which shook this part of New Spain.

After the separation from Spain the troubles incident in the formation of a new government kept the country in a state of unrest for a time.

Then came the settlers from the North American States, and when Santa Anna declared himself dictator, they refused to obey his decrees.

They rose in small bodies all over the province of Texas, captured small forts here and there and under Stephen F. Austin marched to San Antonio.

A detachment of Texans under Colonels Fannin and Bowie defeated a large body of Mexicans at Mission Concepcion, October 28, 1835. After besieging San Antonio for some time, 301 Texans under Colonel Benjamin Milam captured San Antonio under General Cos. INIilam was killed and Colonel Francis Johnson who led the second division succeeded to the command and raised the flag over Bexar. The Headquarters is still in existence, being the old administrative palace on Militar3' Plaza bearing the coat-of-arms over the doorway.

Colonel Johnson was sent to lead an army to the west, and was succeeded in San Antonio by Colonel J. C. Neill. Colonel Neill fully realized the danger of the Texans on the unguarded frontier and sent urgent demands for reinforcements.

The Commander-in-Chief, Sam Houston, sent Colonel Bowie with a small company. Governor Smith sent Colonel William Barrett Travis with the few men the latter could gather. David Crockett and a few others arrived, but all told there were not more than 150 men. In the meantime Colonel Neill had gone home on a leave of absence leaving Travis in command. It was later arranged that both Travis and Bowie should sign all orders until Neill's return. Both Tl-avis and Bowie begged for more men, as did Fannin from Goliad.

Some of the leaders seemed to think that it would be impossible for the IMexicans to reach the settlements before the middle of March, or later. General Houston asked for a furlough and left his command, without notifying or requesting the next officer in rank to take charge. There seemed to be no head at the time of the crisis. The Governor was deposed by the Council of Texas and the Lieutenant-Governor recognized as head by that body. Some continued to address Governor Smith as Governor, others appealed to the Council. The people seemed paralyzed for the time being and failed to realize the urgent need of an immediate rally of men to the front to support Fannin at Goliad and Travis at the Alamo.

When the Texans occupied the Alamo in 1835-1836, the fort was in the same state for defense in which it had been left by General Cos when he surrendered to the Texans in December, 1835. On January 6, Colonel Neill wrote that they had in all about twenty-four pieces of artillery, but that they had ''two distinct fortresses to garrison." He later abandoned the fortifications in Bexar (San Antonio) and moved all the guns to the Alamo. Green B. Jameson was placed in charge of the repairs and improvements needed at the Alamo, and was soon at work erecting batteries, planting cannon and planning for better fortification.

The Church in the Alamo was a ruin, and was still filled with debris from its two towers, dome and arched roof, which fell in about 1762. The rooms on the north side of the Church, and the west tower rooms retained the arched roof, and were therefore free of debris, and the only part of the Church edifice that was free of debris. The main building of the Alamo fort was the long two-story stone building on the east side of the Plaza and described in the old manuscript as a two-story stone building about "fifty yards square, with areaded galleries above and below." It had many doors opening out upon the Plaza or main area; and for the defense of the building, these doors, then, had within a semi-circular parapet, for the use of marksmen, composed of a double curtain of hides, upheld by stakes and filled in with rammed earth. Most of the rooms were also loop-holed. This long ])uilding was the most securely fortified of any within the fort, and in the upper story, on the south end, was the hospital of the fort.

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KEY TO PLAT OF THE ALAMO

(Originally named Mission San Antonio de Valero, and founded as Indnstrtal School and Mission-Fortress.)

OLD REFERENCES— 1836

1. The Church in the Alamo. Corner-stone laid May 8, 1744. Towers, dome, and arched roof fell in previous to or in 1762, and debris remained untouched until about 1850, when much was removed by M^jor Babbitt, U. S. A., in the years he had possession.

2. The fortified main building of the Fort referred to by Potter as 'Hhe long barrack, a two-story stone building." It had, originally, arcaded galleries above and below.*

3. Doors in (2) having within a semi-circular para-

• Documentos para la Historia de la Proyincla de Texas, (MS.) Mexican Archives. Bolton and Barker, With the Makers of Texai.

pet composed of a double curtain of hides upheld by stakes and filled in with rammed earth. Loop-holed.

4. Old Galera or "Prison," also referred to by Potter as the "low barrack."

5. Porte-cochere or entrance to Fort.

6. Stone walls and rooms surrounding Fort.

7. Acequia (ditch) running through Plaza.

8. Rooms used as powder magazines during siege.

9. Cedar post stockade, ditch and earthworks m use

during siege. ,.,-,• i,

10 Hospital upstairs in main Alamo buildmg where

Bowie was killed and above which, in tower room,

a small gun did fine execution. At this corner the

flag of the Alamo floated. 11. Entrance to the court yard and rooms surrounding

it. Originally the principal entrance to mam

building. . ,.,-,. r,

12 Court yard or Patio of the mam building where some of the heroes were burned. Originally, this court yard was surrounded on the four sides by rooms or arcades. .

13. A second court yard existing at an earher period.

14 Old well that was dug or reopened during siege.

15 Ditch was dug connecting the acequias on the south of the Fort, thus completely surrounding the Alamo by canals. Note cannon and batteries.

NEW REFERENCES— 1917.

a. Federal building, Federal court house and Post Office.

b. Government lot. , . » , t^ . c Front of the Main building of the old Alamo Fort.

The Alamo proper, where the heroes died, which together with the Church (1) is all that is left of the original Alamo.

d. Gibbs Building.

e. Swearingen-McCraw Building.

f. Circular curb of Plaza Garden.

Potter and other historians ^ve fourteen as the number of guns used. Mrs. Dickinson said there were eighteen, and Green B. Jameson and Santa Anna placed the number at twenty-one.

But, as Potter states, ''The number has little bearing on the merits of the final defense with which cannon had little to do. These guns were in the hands of men unskilled in their use, and owing to the construction of the works, most of them had little width of range."

*Potter placed the guns as follows: (1) One, a twelve - pounder was mounted on a high platform of earth formed by the fallen dome and roof of the Church, and pointed east through an embrasure roughly notched in the wall; another, (2) was aimed north through a similar notch, (3) was fired over the wall to the south, but all on the same platform. The powder magazines, and the women and children, were in the covered rooms of the Church, the rooms on the north and west left intact when the roof fell in. To protect the women and children and magazines and prevent entrance in that quarter, was the mission of these three guns. Marksmen were also stationed around the roofless Church on the heaped up debris (and on wooden scaffolds where necessary) that they might fire over the roofless walls, using them as parapets. Between the Church and the gate of the Alamo was a battery of four guns, (4, 5, 6, 7,) aV four-pounders, pointing south. The porte-cochere, (the gate of the Alamo) through the low barrack, was covered on the outside by a lunette of stockades and earth, and mounted with two guns (8, 9). In the southwest angle of the large area was an eighteen-pounder, (10) in the center of the west wall was a twelve-poimd carronade, (11) and in the northwest corner of the same area an eight-pounder, (12) and east of this within the north wall, two more guns of the same caliber (13, 14). All the guns of this area were mounted on high platforms

* Andrade changed the fortifications of the Alamo after it's fall. This accounts for some of the difference in the arrangement of the cannon or batteries in the Potter plan.

of stockades and earth and fired over the walls.

Of the four additional guns mentioned by Mrs. Dickinson and others, one, a small gun, was placed in the small tower room over the hospital,* in the south end of the main building of the fort, and did fine work in mowing down the enemy as they swarmed into the large area; three cannon were placed in the west wall of the fort near its north corner; Jameson placed two others on a platform near the southern end of the Plaza of the fort. The platforms on which the cannon were, were composed of stakes on end with rocks and dirt between.

The several barriers were covered on the outside by a ditch, except where such a guard was afforded by the irrigating canal, which flowed on the east and west sides of the fort and through it, and served to fill the fosse with water.*

Copy of a letter sent to General Sam Houston by Engineer Green B. Jameson, with a plan of the Alamo and showing batteries then erected, and those he proposed to erect.