San Antonio, 1846-1861

319 Pages·2015·6.03 MB·English

by  Carland Elaine Crook

£
C
l
R
RICE UNIVERSITY
San Antonio, Texas, 1846-1861
by
Carland Elaine Crook
A THESIS SUBMITTED
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE
REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTER OF ARTS
Thesis Director's signature:
Houston, Texas
May 1964
3 1272 00010 0048
ABSTRACT
The first fifteen years of Texas statehood were
pivotal in the development of San Antonio. Contemporary
chroniclers vividly show how the city grew between 1846
and 1861 from an ancient, crumbling Mexican village to
a large, bustling commercial and military supply center.
The United States Army caused many of the changes
that occurred in the period. During the Mexican War,
1846-1848, San Antonio became the military headquarters
for Texas and a main supply depot for the fighting forces
in Mexico. After the war, members of the Corps of Topo¬
graphical Engineers opened roads from the supply depot
at San Antonio to forts along the Texas frontier. Military
expenditures became the lifeblood of San Antonio's economy;
the forts provided the area with unprecedented protection.
The new roads brought increasing numbers of traders and
travelers to San Antonio and facilitated the city's first
adequate postal system.
More and more newcomers settled in San Antonio to
capitalize upon the expanding opportunities. Between 1846
and l86l the city's population increased more than eight time
from approximately a thousand in 1846 to over eight thousand
in 1861. A heterogeneous group, composed mostly of Anglo-
Americans and European immigrants, the new residents soon
outnumbered the older Mexican inhabitants and became the
new directors of San Antonio's development. They guided
the city through a period of cultural, social, and economic
growth. The first years of Texas statehood saw the
beginnings of projects and organizations that would expand
and become the foundations of metropolitan San Antonio.
Significant developments occurred in both religion and
education. The Roman Catholic Church increased its minis¬
trations, and the first Protestant churches, as well as the
first stable public, private, and parochial schools, were
founded.
The number of firms or individuals grossing $500 or
more each year more than doubled the decade of the 1850's,
and the value of their products increased two and a half
times. San Antonio's first newspapers—English, German,
and Spanish—appeared. To provide rapid transportation
between their city and a coastal port, San Antonians organ¬
ized a navigation company and two railroad companies, one of
which, the San Antonio and Mexican Gulf Railroad Company,
built a track from Port Lavaca to Victoria.
The municipal government consolidated its position and
enlarged its functions. It obtained clear title to city lands
and defined its limits; it built new public buildings; it
kept existing irrigation ditches and streets open and dedi¬
cated new streets; it established the first board of health
and new cemeteries, as well as public schools and a
public park; it aided the first fire companies and
organized the first modern police force.
This thesis attempts to designate and explore in
some depth the highlights of San Antonio’s growth
during the period under survey.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am indebted for the gracious and generous aid of
many people—Mrs. Marie B. Berry of the San Antonio Public
Library; Miss Carmen Perry of the Alamo Library, San
Antonio; Miss Llerena B. Friend, director of the Eugene C.
Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas; Mr. James
M. Day, archivist of the Texas State Library, and his
assistant Mrs. Mary M. Osburn.
Bexar County Clerk James W. Knight and San Antonio
City Clerk J. H. Inselmann and their staffs furnished sturdy
tables and pleasant surroundings for my poring over their
records. The pastors of San Antonio churches, especially
the Very Reverend Peter Caballer, C. M. F., rector of San
Fernando Cathedral, permitted use of their records.
Mr. James Pearson Newcomb, Jr., of San Antonio provided the
pictures, and Mrs. Gardner Wood' of San Antonio furnished
material on commemorations and festivities.
My parents encouraged my interest and facilitated my
research. Mr. Andrew Forest Muir, associate professor of
history in Rice University, suggested the topic and super¬
vised my research and writing.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. Awakening City 1
II. Military Foundations 19
III. City Builders 38
IV. Religious and Educational Development . . 77
V. Economic Growth 121
VI. Municipal Government 146
Notes * . 194-
Essay on Sources . 276
Illustrations
Main Plaza (1846) 306
Main Plaza (1850) 306
Military Plaza (1850) 307
West Commerce Street (1850) . . 307
Courthouse and Jail . . 308
Paine Chapel 308
Ursuline Academy 309
St. Mary's Institute 309
The Casino ....... 310
Maps
San Antonio de Bexar & Its 311
Ancient Wards
Lands Lying Within the Corporation 312
of the City of San Antonio as
Surveyed and Divided in 1852
by W. C. A. Thielepape
CHAPTER I
AWAKENING CITY
In 1846 when the United States government began to
consolidate and nationalize the new and ill-defined state
of Texas, San Antonio had already experienced over a
century of history that can be measured better by growth
and accomplishment than by time.
The settlement had developed around the mission of
San Antonio de Valero—the Alamo—the Spanish had founded
in 1718. Established as a midpoint between the northernmost
outposts of Mexico and the missions of East Texas, it was
located on a broad fertile plain that lay athwart main routes
of travel. The Spanish flag flew over the settlement for
more than a century. During this time the Spanish built four
other missions’*" and the presidio of San Antonio de Bexar to
provide protection to them from Indian attacks. Thirteen
years after the establishment of the first mission, fifty-six
immigrants from the Canary Islands founded the villa of San
Fernando de Bexar, the first civil settlement in Texas recog¬
nized by the Spanish king. The new colony was soon made a
ciudad and capital of Texas.
San Fernando Church, begun in 1738, marked the center
of the village for which it had been named, and its cupola
dominated the surrounding structures. The church stood
2
between two plazas. On the east was Plaza de las Islas
(Square of the Islands), later known as Plaza de la
Constitucion (Constitution Square), and still later as Main
p
Plaza. The one-story courthouse, Casas Reales (the Royal
Houses), stood on its northeast corner. To the west of the
church was Plaza de Armas (Parade Ground) or Military Plaza,
probably so named because it was the site of the Cuartel
(Barracks).
The winding San Antonio River, creeks, and acequias—
gravity-drawn irrigation ditches the Spanish had built to
bring water to the missions and the town—made any gridiron
system of streets impossible. Only a few short streets ran
parallel with the plazas, and from them narrow, crooked, and
irregular lanes led to houses along waterways.
All the business houses and homes were simple one-story,
flat-roofed structures built for defense. Because there was
little timber in the area, buildings were constructed of
adobe or of stone from local quarries. The flat roofs, cov¬
ered with dirt and gravel and with parapets three or four
feet high, were coigns of vantage from which snipers might
safely shoot during attacks. Thick walls, often three feet
in depth, repelled bullets. The few windows were usually
grated to thwart intruders.
San Antonio de Bexar grew slowly but steadily for al¬
most a century, attaining a position of importance as the
3
capital city of Texas as well as the stronghold of Spanish
3
power east of the Rio Grande. Then suddenly all this power
was lost. Bloody battles of the Mexican War of Independence
forced the populace to flee for their lives, and the proud
fortress was captured, looted, and left deserted. After
Mexico gained her independence from Spain, Texas was combined
with Coahuila to form a single state. There was little left
in 1824 of the once flourishing town of San Fernando. Land¬
marks had been reduced to ruins; but, in their land titles,
community property laws, and place names, the Spanish left
their indelible marks. Another of these marks was a special
temperament and character that would always set the community
apart from other American cities.
For a short period after the War of Independence,
Mexicans and a few Americans began to rebuild the town, now
called San Antonio de Bexar or just Bexar. The town became
a battleground again during the Texas Revolution, and two
bloody conflicts erased most of the progress made dinring the
preceding few years of relative peace. Then, in the days of
the Republic of Texas, San Antonio became the target of
Mexican as well as of Indian raiders.
When the United States Congress admitted Texas to the
Union on December 29, 18-45,^ San Antonio de B^xar was a
battle-scarred remnant of the old Spanish muncipality. Its
800 to 1,000 residents still lived in structures built by