C£ Rl 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 4 their Spanish and Mexican predecessors around the two ancient plazas and the parish church. German geologist Ferdinand Roemer noted in 1846 that "the most important settlement ever founded by the Mexicans on the left bank of the Rio Grande . gave the impression of decay,” and a young United States foot soldier, Charles I. Sellon from Pittsfield, Illinois, called the town "an old dilapidated-looking place. The predominantly Mexican population lived among rubble. Musket and cannon shot had perforated the stone and adobe houses. Cannon balls had even severed iron bars on the windows. The fabric of the church belfry was as "full of holes as a honeycomb," and shot had cracked the bells. Roofless and empty houses were used as stables to protect 7 horses from marauding Comanches. Most buildings, including the parish church and the former governor's palace, had dirt floors.