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LC 78-6911
ISBN 0-933164-42-4
© 1979, United Television, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Produced by The University of Texas
Institute of Texan Cultures at San Antonio
jack R. Maguire, Executive Director
Pat Maguire, Director of Publications and
Coordinator of Programs
This publication was made possible, in part, by a
grant from the Houston Endowment, Inc., The
Moody Foundation and the American Revolution
Bicentennial Commission of Texas.
Design and tflustration, Lynn Weiss
Printed in the United States of America
.. . to Heighten Community
Awareness of Our Past ... ·
"Reflections on Texas" was originally
conceived as KMOL-TV's commitment and
contribution to our great country's bicentennial
celebration . Initially intended to provide an
overview of local history to heighten community
awareness of our past, "Reflections" quickly
evolved into a concept of focusing more on the
little known and offbeat moments of our history .
The series consisted of 250, 30-second
vignettes telecast five times per day over an
18-month period . In the year that it took to
produce "Reflections," the staff worked with
hundreds of true Texans, shot over 60,000 feet of
film, and devoted more than 6,000 hours to this
ambitious project.
A very special thank you must be extended to
all those' involved with ''Reflections on Texas''
who put up with the equipment failures,
inclement weather and creative blocks. All without
a whimper!
Jack Carroll, Executive Producer, Michael
Bowie, Producer/ Photographer, SharonJones,
Assistant to the Producer, Marina Pisano, Chief
Wn'ter, Catherine McDowell, Researcher, Esther
MacMillan, Researcher.
Wn'ters: Jim Abbott, Dr. Jimmy Allen,
Bonnie Chism, Ann Dwyer, Donald Everett, T. R.
Fehrenbach, Terry Fitzpatrick-Ross, O'Neil Ford,
Jamie Frucht, MarilynJones, Dorothy Kendall, Dr.
Robert Krause, Jean Lange, Tim Laughter, Christa
Lenk, Margie Mautz, Jim Maverick, Dick
McCracken, Rex Preis and Terrell Maverick Webb.
Music: William Beeley.
Thanks to the staff of the Daughters of the
Republic of Texas Library, the staff of The
Institute of Texan Cultures and the staff of the
Witte Museum who provided information and
illustrations to our researchers and writers.
A special thank you also to five sponsors of
''Reflections'' who enabled this award-winning
series to be brought into the lives of San
Antonians: Frost Bank, Pioneer Flour Mills, Sears
Roebuck & Co ., Southwestern Bell Telephone
Company, and United Services Automobile
Association.
-~
KMOL-TV is very happy to be able to make
the "Reflections on Texas" series available to The ·
University of Texas Institute of Texan Cultures at
San Antonio and through them to the school
children and community of San Antonio and
Texas. It is our sincere hope that our contribution
to this country's bicentennial celebration will
continue to enrich the minds and flourish in
the lives of all peoples viewing or reading
''Reflections on Texas.' '
Edward V. Cheviot
Vice President & General Manager
KMOL-TV 4
v.
A hundred and thirty years ago Samuel A.
Maverick was rated one of Texas's largest
landowners. Though not a rancher , he once took a
herd of cattle in payment of a debt and put them
on his place below San Antonio , where they
thrived, multiplied and wandered away . The calves
were not branded and neighbors said "they're
Maverick's." Today a "maverick" still means an
unbranded calf or an independent person.
f
Pennsylvania-born John Bowen was the first
American postmaster of San Antonio , and the first
under the Republic of Texas. He was born Ralph
William Peacock but changed his name legally
after the deathbed request of his half-brother.
Bowen also owned Bowen 's Island, a peninsula in
the San Antonio River, now the area of the Tower­Life
Building . In his day San Antonio had the
only post office for miles around , and for his
labors Postmaster Bowen received the incredible
salary of twenty-five dollars a month.
-·~
In the 1870's a mortally wounded cowboy
begged not to be buried on the lonely range where
he lay, but his friends had no recourse . Two of
them, however, Pink Burdette and Jesse James
Benton , immortalized him in a mournful song
that became an instant hit. "Even the horses
nickered it and the coyotes howled it ,'' recalled a
cowboy of the 1880 's. The song? Oh, Bury Me
Not on the Lone Prairie .
Some early Texas travelers didn't travel light.
Governor Alacron departed for east Texas in May,
1718, with 52 people, 28 mules laden with
needful things , 219 horses and his silver service .
On the return trip the cook , kitchen and silver
were lost in a swollen creek . Alacron's diary says
that only the cook was recovered .
Cattle Drive.
A vivid first-hand account by Mary Adams
Maverick tells of the cholera epidemic of 1849 that
swept San Antonio . ''Into every house came the
pestilence- in most houses was death and in some
families one-half died. All had symptoms. Men of
strong nerve and undoubted courage shrank in
fear. " According to the priests , in its six-week
duration the cholera epidemic claimed 600 lives .
Bats in the belfry - the saying goes when
someone is slightly crazy. But in San Antonio it
was bats in the Bat Cave on the northwest corner
of Military Plaza. Built in 1850 as a jail and
courthouse, the old building was infested with
bats and soon nicknamed after its nocturnal
inhabitants. In 1879 the building was used to store
archives . The bats lost their home in 1889 when
the Bat Cave was torn down, but on warm nights
they still flitter over the plaza.
-~
In 1915 conservationist Adina de Zavala
noticed a coat of arms above the door of a
dilapidated building in downtown San Antonio.
Curious, she searched through archives and
discovered it was the Spanish Governor's Palace,
seat of the Royal Spanish Government after 17 30.
Miss de Zavala started a campaign to restore the
building , and a former San Antonio eyesore was
transformed into a beautiful and interesting
historic landmark.
-~
R. C. Smith was a handsome man and a
prominent mason of Hondo . He was nicknamed
" Red" for his flaming long locks. Smith's hair
tempted the Indians, and the Comanches
ambushed and scalped him alive in 1864. He died
from his injuries and he lies in the old Masonic
Springs Cemetery east of Hondo . A unique feature
of his gravestone is the Masonic Emblem carved
upside down. Why' Nobody knows! As for his
scalp , friends sewed it back on before they laid
him to rest.
1.
When the United States declared war on
Germany in 1917, San Antonio businesses closed
for a mammoth patriotic demonstration. As the
young men marched off to fight the war , women
spent hours rolling bandages and knitting socks .
At home they baked with "cornserve" -a
wheatless flour. There were 70,000 men in
uniform at San Antonio's military installations,
but none marched as proudly as the little boys of
the city in their Pershing uniforms and Sam Brown
belts. For them, 1917 was a year of adventure.
Soldiers on Maneuvers, Fort Sam Houston.
One of the most factual accounts of the last
hours of the defense of the Alamo was related by a
black man, Joe (also known as Jethro), Colonel
William B. Travis's manservant. Joe , one of the
few Texas survivors, was released unharmed by
Mexican General Santa Anna , to carry reports of
the defeat to Texas forces . Afterward, Joe was
apparently re-enslaved, and a newspaper ad, a year
later , offered a reward for a runaway slave , Joe ,
who had survived the Alamo and stolen a horse to
escape. There is no evidence that either Joe, or the
horse, was ever found .
2.
When New Dealers and President Roosevelt
proposed seizure of oil pipelines and railroads in
1932 , Texans set their teeth. Without a word to
Washington they opened some oil wells and let
them gush out 600,000 barrels of oil. As Baggage
Truck McGregor, Governor Ma Ferguson's
representative. said: " Until hell freezes over , Texas
will resist any effort on the part of the United
States to interfere with its oil business .'' This
action dropped the price of oil throughout the
nation and scuttled the New Deal proposal.
_ _5!
Francois Giraud is probably best remembered
as the builder of the old Ursuline Academy, but
he was also a pioneer in the field of ecology long
before the term came into popular usage. ln 1848
the young Frenchman became San Antonio's first
engineer. In 1852 the farsighted Giraud persuaded
city fathers to reserve land around San Pedro
Springs as a municipal park. It became, after the
Boston Common, the second oldest public
playground in America.
-~
''That which we call a rose by another name
would smell as sweet" - that's Shakespeare. But
consider the names of San Antonio streets. The
religious motif is apparent in Jesus Alley and Santa
Rosa. Mother Nature is reflected in Flores. The
earthy influence is evident in Crap Street. The
one-block street bordering St. Joseph's Church was
originally D-A-M-F-1-N-0. A stranger asked the
name of the street many years ago and was told,
"Damned if I know." The name stuck - and
that's no rose.
Buffalo-tracked paths, Indian trails, cow trails
and wagon trails may have been responsible for
San Antonio's zigzag streets, but only man could
author the titles bestowed upon them. Alderman
C. S. Robertson was considered the silver-tongued
orator of the city council chambers in the old days.
No one could stop him. The story is told that
when one street was to be named , his fellow
councilmen used his initials "C.S." and named it
"Can't Stop." That's the name it bears today . It's
located between Rudolph and Lamar, three blocks
west of New Braunfels .
,.
Francois Girand.
In 1869 three French nuns, the first Incarnate
Word Sisters here , came to San Antonio during a
cholera epidemic to open the city's first civilian
hospital. They had no money , spoke little English ,
and after a three-week ride from Galveston learned
that the building set aside for them had burned
down the day before . Not easily discouraged, two
sisters started over and within a year opened the
Santa Rosa Hospital. It was Texas's first nursing
school and the largest Catholic medical center in
the nation.
Longhorn.
In the 1860 's Longhorns outnumbered Texans
9 to 1. Wild, unpredictable and afraid of no man ,
the cantankerous critters were forced out of the
brush one by one, and on the trails moved as a
long line of individuals, not as a herd. These wily
bovines kept Texas from bankruptcy after the Civil
War, and made heroes out of the cowboys who
drove them up the trails.
f
After the Civil War two young Polish
immigrants with the same last name met at the
Menger Hotel to flip a coin. They agreed that the
loser would change the spelling of his name. Ed
Kotula spelled with a "k" won, so Joe Kotula
changed the spelling of his name to begin with a
"c." Joe Cotulla went on to carve a ranching
empire from Nueces valley brush country, and the
town of Cotulla was later named after him. And if
it hadn 't been for a coin toss, Cotulla today would
be spelled with a "k."
Carved into the intricate scrolls and delicate
blooms of San Jose 's Rose Window is the
bittersweet, romantic legend of Jose Huizar, an
18th century sculptor and surveyor who worked at
the missions. Huizar's dream was to send for his
Spanish sweetheart, Rosa, but en route to her
lover, the beautiful Rosa was lost at sea. Broken­hearted
, Huizar poured his grief and love into his
work of the mission window and dedicated it to
his lost Rosa. They say he never cut another stone.
Rose Window.
In the 1870's Judge Roy Bean , of "Law West
of the Pecos" fame, had a dairy close to the site of
Mission San Jose . The house possibly dates back to
uno. Evidently the good judge watered his
product , and once when a customer complained of
having found minnows in his milk , the good
judge explained. The minnows were there because
his cows licked them up from the waters of the
San Antonio River.
In the early cattle outfits, black hands were
equal in skill to white hands. One black cowboy,
Henry Beckwith, nicknamed "The Coyote" due to
his preference for riding and working the brush at
night, had trained his horse to trail by smell just
like a dog . The two of them chased down many an
invisible maverick in the blind thickets of the
brush . For sustenance, ' 'The Coyote'' drank black
coffee laced with chili juice. With that kind of
liquid fire in him , it's little wonder that he slept
fitfully in small naps .
Army Airplane, Fort Sam Houston.
The world's greatest Air Force had its
beginning right here at Fort Sam Houston.
Benjamin D. Foulois soloed in the Wright Model
Bat Fort Sam in l<JlO . Five yea rs later he
organized the first aero squadron . One year later
Foulois was the first American to fly in combat
during General John Pershing's punitive
expedition agai nst Pancho Villa in Mexico . back
then it was the Army Air Corps. Now it's the
United States Air Force , and it all started at Fort
Sam Houston , Texas.
3.
In the rip roaring years after the Civil War,
Evangelist Dixie Williams denounced San Antonio
as the wicked est city in the union. Gambling
houses, saloons and palaces of sin tempted the
cowboys, traveling salesmen and the local gentry
seven nights a week. One plush bordelo boasted of
a ten -thousand dollar gold bed . By 1911 an
enterprising bawdy house owner had published the
Blue Book. It was a guide to the Red Light
District , listing the names and addresses of painted
ladies and rating them A, B or C.
~~
Ben Thompson was a walking contradiction ,
loyal, mild-mannered, a dandy , but reputed to be
the killer of more than 20 men and hunted by the
law in four states . He was the law in Austin where
he served as town marshall, bringing the crime
rate down drastically. On March 11 , 1884, while
on a drinking spree in San Antonio , he and
outlaw King Fisher were killed in Jack Harris's
vaudeville theater. It was the most notorious
double killing in the city's history at the time.
~
The first official policeman in San Antonio
was appoi nted in 1846 . His title was quickly
changed from "constable" to "marshall, " a
handle that fit the rugged southwest. In 1875 the
first police uniforms were authorized. Made of
grey New Braunfels cloth, they consisted of a
double-breasted coat and matching pants with a
blue outer-seam stripe. Some policemen balked at
wearing the new uniforms , but city council insisted
and added that police shields must be worn on the
outside of the coat . At last , San Antonians could
tell the good guys from the bad guys .
4.
These days it may be easier for Texans to
marry than divorce , but in the pre-Republic period
of Mexican rule, the reverse was true. The loving
couple first appeared before an alcalde and signed
a bond agreeing to marriage by a priest. In areas
with infrequent priestly visits , this meant a delay ,
and the priest's fee could be as much as $25 -
too expensive for some. Divorce, on the other
hand , was swift and free. It was granted by simply
tearing up the marriage bond before an alcalde.
·.
Cigar Store Advertisement.
A building at Round Top , Texas, is almost all
that remains of a once thriving Texas industry,
tobacco growing and cigar making . Frederick Ernst
founded the cigar industry in Texas in the mid-
1880 's . Tobacco growing was a thriving business
until Cuban employees in the early 1900's tried to
form a union. Management denied them , and the
Cubans rolled gun powder into the next batch of
cigars. You might say the cigar industry in Texas
went out with a blast .
Samuel Morse made an offer Texans shouldn't
have refused! As inventor of the telegraph, Morse
offered his invention to the Republic of Texas in
1838. But he was totally ignored , his offer lost in
the bureaucratic shuffle. Twenty two years later, in
1860, in a letter to Governor Sam Houston ,
Samuel Morse withdrew his offer. What would be
the economic situation for Texans today if they
had exclusive rights to the telegraph ? Well , look
what happened to Western Union I
~ ..
Late in the night , two men riding Jim Bowie's
horse left the Alamo. Juan Seguin and Antonio
Cruz y Arocha, because of their knowledge of
Mexican customs and language , were se lected by
Colonel Travis to ride for help . Mexican soldiers
moved slowly outside the walls and as the two
passed near the enemy's camp to cross the rive r,
they were challenged by Santa Anna 's soldiers.
"We are countrymen," they replied and rode
through the enemy ranks not knowing whether or
not each breath might be their last.
·~
On November 9, 1881, the capitol building
in Austin burned . Among the casualties were
historical memorabilia and thousands of bats.
Governor 0 . M. Robert's corn cob pipe was saved,
though law books and 4 50 applications for pardon
were not. A local newspaper rendered the
following eulogy to the burned-out capitol. "The
venerable edifice that bore such a startling
resemblance to a large sized corn crib , with a
pumpkin for a dome , is gone."
Andrea Candelaria was the owner and
operator of a small hotel near the Alamo said to
be a meeting place for Texan leaders during the
Revolution. By nature, a revolutionist herself. after
witnessing the slaughter of over 700 colonists
including her husband in 1831, legend says that
Andrea entered the Alamo to care for the injured
and dying Jim Bowie. Seven times wounded by
bayonet trying to protect Bowie , Andrea
Candelaria survived Texas's most heroic fight, but
she is barely known to present generations.
...M_
Along the banks of the Guadalupe River,
German immigrants came in 1845 with a
slow-rolling wagon train from Indian Point
(Indianola) towards their goal , New Braunfels.
Epidemics and sickness took a heavy toll on the
long journey. Entire families died on the road,
and the course along the Guadalupe was strewn
with countless unmarked German graves. Of four
thousand immigrants, not more than 1200 men,
women and children survived to settle the lands
promised to them when they left Germany.
··~
On March 9, 1731 , aweary band of men,
women and children from the Canary Islands
arrived at the Presidio of San Antonio de Bexar.
Sent by the Spanish Crown to establish the first
civil settlement in Texas, they founded the Villa
de San Fernando. Although given free land and a
daily cash allowance for the first year, they were
allowed little personal freedom . Duties were
minutely prescribed, but little or nothing was said
about rights.
6.
Spindletop.
Environmentalists' complaints against the
Texas oil industry are nothing new. In January ,
1901, outside of Beaumont, Texas , Spindletop
gushed out an incredible 200 foot column of oil.
A neighboring farmer felt the black gold splatter
his clothing and saw a lake of oil begin to form, a
lake that would cover 100 acres before the well
could be capped. He jumped on his horse and
raced toward Beaumont. "It's oil," he yelled to
astonished townspeople, "and the damn stuff's
ruined my home and farm.''
The most imaginative early Texas exploration
into a general market for cattle was the '' meat
biscuit" formulated by Gail Borden Jr. in 1846.
Boiling beef down to an extract, mixing it with
flour, and baking the substance resulted in a
product that resembled a light-colored sugar cake.
Nutritious but tasteless, the biscuit was not a
financial success , despite promotion in England ,
France and the United States. But in the process of
its development , Borden discovered a way to
condense milk in a vacuum.
t
An early Texas desperado was so persistent in
his evil deeds that he managed to be hanged three
times . Leaving the scene of Bill Longely's first
hanging, a jubilant group of vigilantes fired a
volley of shots at the swinging body, but fate was
to intervene and a bullet cut the rope . The second
time was in Giddings, Texas, in 1878. The rope
slipped from the cross beam and Longely landed,
unhurt , on his feet . The sheriff insisted , and the
third time was indeed a charm. --- The first and only mutiny in the Texas Navy
took place at New Orleans in 1842 aboard the ship
San Antonio. While high ranking officers went
ashore to enjoy the creole city, the crew was forced
to remain on ship . When a Marine sergeant asked
for shore leave and was refused by the ship's
officer, he armed himself with a pistol and
hatchet. A general fight broke out leaving two
seamen wounded and the officer dead. Eight of
the seamen finally got their shore leave - in a
New Orleans jail.
The first Polish settlement in America was
founded on Christmas Eve, 1854 , at Panna Maria.
The small band of immigrants had to suffer
through a nine-week voyage to Galveston, then
travel several hundred miles on foot to reach the
oak tree where Father Leopold Moczygemba
celebrated Mass. One night at supper, just as
Father Moczygemba was assuring them the worst
was over , Texas provided another bit of harsh,
frontier reality. A rattlesnake fell from the rafters,
straight into the soup. Poland was never like this.
-~
In 1854 a group of German-Texans gathered
daily for conversation and sociability. Thus began
San Antonio's first social club. In 1857 the Casino
Club was chartered with 109 members. The
building on Market Street formally opened in 1858
with bar, reading room, lounge and a theater.
Open daily for its male members, monthly
entertainment was provided for families. Children
had kinderballs and maskenballs, but the affair
each year was the New Year's Ball with supper
and champagne.
~
The famous poet and musician Sidney Lanier
spent six months in San Antonio in 187 3 and
produced a remarkable sketch of the city. He
described it as a town of ''striking idiosyncracies,
bizarre contrasts and the queerest juxtaposition of
civilizations.'' He encountered not only a wide
variety of nationalities, but a rare assortment of
individuals. He once observed "If peculiarities
were quills, San Antonio de Bexar would be a
rare porcuptne.
Santa Rita, No. 1.
In the early 1900's The University of Texas
consisted of 40 acres, a few thousand students and
some run-down buildings. A young law student
was destined to change all that. Ruford Richter·
obtained, for a penny an acre, the drilling rights
on some 400,000 acres of University land in west
Texas. With his rig, the famous Santa Rita #1, he
drilled the first of thousands of wells that were to
follow, providing The University with over a
billion dollars in black gold.
From the golden sands of Araby to the San
Antonio River is a long way, but that is how far
San Antonio's early water system came. When the
Spanish established the missions, they also
introduced techniques of irrigation they had
learned from the Moors and built seven major
canals they called acequias. Some provided water
for household use; others were for the farms and
fields. In fact, San Juan and Espada Acequias still
serve the fields. These acequias are among the
earliest examples of planned water supply in use in
the United States.
-~-
In 1745, a pile of rubble was converted into a
dwelling that would house one of the two native
Texans to sign the Texas Declaration of
Independence. He was Jose Francisco Ruiz, also
famous as San Antonio's first schoolmaster. The
little house, rubble covered with plaster in a
method typical of the Spanish Colonial Period,
was originally at 420 Doloroso and is now located
on the Witte Museum grounds. Once a pile of
rubble, the historic Ruiz house has been recycled
for posterity.
~'~
On the site of the old Carnegie Library once
stood the home of the Irish empresario. John
McMullen, who in the early 1800's brought many
Irish immigrants to Texas with the promise of land
grants. John McMullen was murdered in his house
about 1853 by a Mexican boy he had adopted. His
ghost is said to have appeared to his son-in-law in
San Palricio, who rode hastily to San Antonio to
find the slaughtered body. The ghost was said to
haunt the house until it was pulled down to make
way for the library.
7.
~
Visitors to San Antonio in 1873 were
intrigued by the tri- lingual traffic signs. At the
Commerce Street crossing over the San Antonio
River the sign read "Walk Your Horse Over This
Bridge or You Will Be Fined." This was for the
Eng lish-speaking and couched in terms of money.
"Schnel les Reiten Uber disese Brucke ist
verboten" was al l that was needed for the
authority-respecting Germans. '' Anda despacio con
su caballo. o teme Ia ley" to ld the Spanish­speaking
to slow down his horse or ''fear the
law." Each phrase was aimed at the temperament
of the person reading.
~.
When General Santa Anna was exiled from
Mexico in 1866 . he set up residence in Staten
Island . New York, and hired a young male
secretary named James Adams. Adams noticed that
the general had a habit of chewing on a strange
tropical substance called chicle. When Santa Anna
left New York . he gave Adams some of it. Adams
mixed it with sugar and flavoring and a new
product was made -chewing gum.
~
The old Beethoven Hall in San Antonio was
built in 1895 for the Beethoven Mannechor, a
popular chorus. Historian Alex Sweet recalls a
conversation between a resident and a visitor one
night when the Beethovens were singing. "Which
one is Beethoven!" the tourist asked. "Don't
know. " said the San Antonian . "I would know
him if I was to see him , but I don 't think he 's up
there . anyhow."
8.
More than a hundred years ago rural residents
of Gillespie County began building small sturdy
houses in Fredericksburg so they could spend
weekends there shopping, attending church and
visiting at social functions. These unique
structures, called "Sunday Houses," were usually
only one room, but large families would add
another room above with the stairs outside. City
dwellers may head for the hills when the weekend
comes, but hill country folk go to town!
,..,
LIBERTY OR DEA1'H ..
johanna Troutman's Flag.
One of the t'arliest flags of the Tt'xas Republic
was designed by a woman who never even visited
Texas. In 1836 Joanna Troutman dt'signed a flag
for the Georgia volunteers headed for Texas.
Months later her new Texas flag flew over Goliad,
proclaiming Texas indept'ndence from Mexico . A
longtime supporter of Texas freedom, Mrs.
Troutman designed the flag with the words
"Whert' Liberty Dwells, There Is My Country,"
and like Betsy Ross before her . earned a place in
hi sto ry . It was not with a sword but a simple
needle and a bit of thread .
Today the French Legation is an historical
showplace in Austin and the reminder of a brief
romance between La Belle France and the rugged
Texans. In 1839, on the recommendation of Count
Alphonse de Saligny, France became the first
European country to recognize Texas. And in 1840
France signed a favorable trade treaty with the
financially and militarily weak, infant republic.
But the romance abruptly ended when Texas
joined the Union in 184 '). Like a disappointed
lover , Saligny went home to sulk .
·~
Early Anglo Texas settlers had to face one
harsh frontier reality. They had to make almost
everything they owned, including their homes.
With little more than an axe and saw they built
crude log cab ins ca lled dog-runs , houses named
after the most popular user of the breezeway ,
never the most sanitary of places . The ave rage dog­run
house provided shelter, not comfort.
Rutherford B. Hayes, passing through Texas , wrote
that he had slept in one dog-run house through
whose sides a cat cou ld be hurled "at random."
-~
In the early 1800's change was so sca rce that
people rut large coms into eight pieces. hence the
expression "two bits." The shortage became so
acute that in 181 7 a silversmith minted the first
Texas coins. These coins incorporated a symbol to
become synonymous with this state, the lone star.
These six cent coins were unearthed along the
banks of the San Antonio River and arc va lued at
more than $17.000 :tpiece.
When H. Gruene settled on the Guadalpue,
in the 18 70's , he patterned his empire after a
medieval feudal state, complete with
sharecroppers. They supplied the cotton for
Gruene's gins and the San Antonio-Austin Road
supplied the customers for his whiskey. But the
boll weev il ate all the cotton and a new road
diverted rhe customers , and Gruene began to
wither on the vine. The fact so depressed one
resident that he chose to end his life along with
thar of his town . He hanged himself from the
community water tower.
-~
Time waits for no man. But so great was their
respect for his ability that the Texans waited one
full day for their guide, Hendrick Arnold, to
return from a hunt before they would begin the
Siege of Bexar in 183 5. He was again in great
military demand, along with renowned guides
Henry Wax Karnes and Deaf Smith, in the spy
company at San Jacinto . In payment for his
distinguished service, Hendrick Arnold became
one of very few black freedmen who received tracts
of land following the Texas fight for freedom.
~
As a young man, Don Pedro Jaramillo vowed
to devote his life to healing the sick. And in 1881
he settled in Olmos, Texas, as an evangelist and
curandero , or healer. At times, as many as 500
people waited at Los Olmos Creek for the healing
prayers, herbs and poultices of Don Pedrito. His
picture still hangs in many Mexican American
homes in south Texas, his grave is still dressed
with fresh flowers , and the suffering still pray that
the lengendary curandero will ease their pain .
10.
In the 1870's railroads were the biggest thing
economically to hit the state since the cow. The
good people of Dallas managed, by scrimping, to
complete a line to Cleburne, a distance of 70
miles. The cream of Dallas society climbed aboard
open flat cars for the inaugural run. A torrential
downpour not only dampened the spirits of the
passengers but also the consistency of the rather
inferior grading. The train track and dignitaries
slowly sank into the black ooze southwest of
Dallas. Thus ended the first and last journey of
the one-way rai lroad .
A hundred years ago when a Texan drilled a
hole in the ground he was looking for pure water,
not oil. George Dullnig drilled over a dozen wells
on his ranch along Salado Creek. But instead of
water, he struck a messy , brownish liquid. His
patience finally gave out when another well
yielded natural gas. The brownish liquid sold for
20' a barrel, so it wasn't a total loss. Oil from the
Dullnig Ranch put Texas in the U.S. petroleum
statistics for the first time in 1889, producing a
meager 48 barrels. No doubt George Dullnig
would have traded it all for one pure water well.
The legendary badmen of the west lived hard
and died hard. Some met death with their boots
on and guns blazing in bloody shootouts with
lawmen. Others remained sullen and mean to the
end, cursing the law and the hangman's rope. But
not the outlaw named Green McCullough . When
he was captured and led to a hanging tree in San
Antonio , he openly admitted his guilt, and as the
noose slipped around his neck , he addressed the
crowd - some of whom he knew - with
resignation and no hard feelings. "I've got to be
hung," said the outlaw almost cheerfully, "and
I'm glad I'm going to be hung by friends."
-~
At the 19 32 Olympics in Los Angeles, a
twenty-one-year-old country-bumpkin from
Beaumont gave Depression-weary Americans
something to cheer about. Mildred " Babe"
Didriksen , the daughter of a Norwegian
immigrant , re-wrote the record books in track. A
powerful, versatile athlete, Babe became America's
greatest woman golfer. She excelled at all sports
and was so dazz ling that Grantland Rice wrote of
her: "You are looking at the most flawless muscle
harmony and physical coordination the world of
sport has ever known.''
--~
In the early 1880's San Antonio 's first
telephone operators were called " hello girls,"
although calls from saloons coming into rhe office
at Houston and Soledad were handled by men.
They saved the girls from "offensive contact."
Boys and men worked the night shift , but by 1884
complaints of poor service and rudeness from the
fifty subscribers resulted in women working 'round
the clock.'
A man from Philadelphia, traveling out west,
disparaged the coon skin caps in vogue. Since he
was a hatter by trade, he decided to make
something better. Armed with a hatchet, a knife
and some crude tools, he fashioned a floppy, big­brimmed
hat out of rabbit skin. Though everyone
laughed, the hatter had the last laugh for that hat
worked. Neither wind, nor rain, nor cold nights
nor hot days could penetrate the hat. It even
doubled as a drinking vessel for horses . The man
and the hat go by the same name - Stetson.
·~
Teddy Roosevelt's "Rough Riders" were
named by a San Antonio newspaper writer who
received a reprimand for assuming this liberty , but
the name stuck . Roosevelt liked it. This was no
cowboy cavalry, but a conglomerate of Americans.
There were millionaires from the East, some
leaders of the 400 cotillion set and followers of the
hounds , and men full of Western spirit, familiar
with broncos and mustangs. They were a collection
of individualists who were as much at home at the
fabulous Menger Hotel as they were at the camp
site.
-~
Hot biscuits with cream gravy or honey have
been a mainstay of Texas appetites for a century
and a half. In fact, the Indians used the
movements of honey bees to judge the
whereabouts of white men's villages. They
discovered that the hives of European-type bees
were always about fifty miles in advance of the
nearest settlement . And many a white settler
would have traded the sting of an Indian arrow for
the less permanent sting of a honey bee.
Colonel Jack Hays, a famous leader of the
Texas Rangers, was a captain at age 2 3, a colonel
at 31 and retired at 34, leaving an unsurpassed
record in Ranger history . So impressive was Jack
Hays that in the gold-rush city of San Francisco,
after leaving the Rangers, he was elected sheriff on
the day he rode into town. He defeated the only
candidate , a leading saloonkeeper who was
"buying drinks" for the voters .
Teddy Roosevelt on a Wolf Hunt.
San Antonio's history as a Christian city
began the day it received its name. But the
Christian spirit did not always prevail, and in the
1800's Protestant ministers suffered persecution
from desperadoes and disinterest by citizens. The
first Protestant service in 1844 was held in the
county clerk's office with approximately 15 people
in attendance. San Antonio was described as
''overrun by a devilish set of men and gam biers.''
By 1846 Methodists and Presbyterians met in the
courthouse on alternate Sundays. In this austere
setting, no doubt there was many a sermon text on
"judge not that ye be not judged."
Today the streets around San Antonio's
Municipal Auditorium are peaceful, but on
August 25, 1939 , they were the scene of
frightening violence. An angry mob of 8,000
people defied appeals to reason, police lines, tear
gas and fire hoses to storm the Auditorium and
break up a meeting of 100 communists. Smashing
windows, tearing up seats and hurling rocks, they
reserved their greatest anger for Mayor Maury
Maverick , Sr., who had permitted the meeting
under the constitutionally guaranteed right of
assembly. When the crowd went home, when the
debris had been cleared and reason returned to
these streets, San Antonians reflected on that long,
dark night. How could such a thing happen here?
~
"If I owned Texas and all hell, I would rent
out Texas and live in hell," wrote General Phil
Sheridan in 1866 following a long , hot and dusty
trip from San Antonio to Galveston . In fact
General Sheridan had a high regard for Texas. In
187 3 Sheridan was instrumental in settling the
question of permanent Texas troops in San
Antonio - a decision which was to make San
Antonio a military capital.
~'~
Raucous and raging in a worn clay pot or
simmering sedately in a fine china bowl, San
Antonio's own chili con carne is a history lesson in
itself. In 1838). C. Clopper, a south Texas settler,
called it a sort of stew ''with nearly as many
peppers as pieces of meat.'' In fact Texans
designed a portable chili in the late 1840's- dried
chili ''bricks'' that could be carried on horse or
wagon and cooked anywhere.
11.
By a strange twist of fate, William Barrett
Travis died as a hero and not at the end of a rope.
His trip to Texas and his stand with the Alamo
defenders were the result of his trial for murder in
South Carolina . Before sentencing , the judge gave
Travis a choice: death or Texas. In so doing,
unwittingly he carried out the unspoken death
sentence against him.
·~
Eighteen-year-old Suzanna Dickenson was one
of the three eyewitnesses to the massacre at the
Alamo. She and her small child were allowed by
Santa Anna to leave to recount the bloody tale ,
including the death of her husband, Lieutenant
Almaron Dickenson . After her role at the Alamo ,
she led a turbulent life , supporting herself and her
baby by taking in wash and running a boarding
house in Houston. It was only after her fourth
marriage to a furniture maker, Joseph Hannig ,
that she settled down happily in Austin.
f
Under the empresario system, Count Henri
Castro, a French Jew , contracted to bring 700
families from a Rhenish province to Texas in 1844 .
Spending at least $100,000 of his own money in
the colonization of Texas, he died poor and
neglected. His colony nearly suffered the same
fate, barely surviving eighteen months of drought ,
locust and Indians. How did they survive? With
Henri Castro's advice , "Begin your day with labor
and end it with laughter."
12.
Eltsabet Ney.
Elisabet Ney came from Europe to become
Texas 's first international artist. Her sculptures
included Schopenhauer, Bismarck, Ludwig II ,
Stephen Austin and Sam Houston. But her
lifestyle was a severe shock to Texans . She married
her "best friend," Dr. Edmund Montgomery, in
1863, after eleven years of companionship, but
insisted upon remaining "Miss Ney ." Elisa bet
Ney's life reflected Texas's first woman libber.
For lack of a gasoline engine not yet invented,
Texas might have been the birthplace of aviation.
In 1865, 40 years before the Wright Brothers,
Jacob Brodbeck, a Fredericksburg schoolteacher,
invented a man-sized machine operated by a giant
spring. On the day of take-off, cheers exploded as
the machine soared upward , treetop high. Inside
the plane , a frantic Broad beck realized too late
that the spring could not be rewound while it was
running down. The plane crashed, but Brodbeck
did fly!
-~
Bigfoot Wallace was no myth. He was a giant
of a man, 240 pounds, 6 foot, 2 inches with an
armspread of 6 feet , 6 inches. He, along with
Crockett and Houston, were influential in
developing the legendary tall Texan image. A
Texas Ranger, Indian fighter and spinner of tall
tales, Bigfoot Wallace projected fantasy, adventure
and realism , but one wonders , why did he call his
rifle "Sweet! ips I"
-~
Devil's rope. Wonder wire . Barbed wire by
any other name would be as strong. John (Bet-a­Million)
Gates, a wire salesman , proved that fact
in 1877 when he constructed a wire corral on
Military Plaza in San Antonio and challenged
ranchers to bring their most ornery steers to test it.
Incited to frenzy by burning torches, 25 longhorns
couldn't break through . The disbelievers became
converts, and orders for the wondrous wire
exceeded supply . The rest is history. Barbed wire
spread like mesquite .
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13.
•
From San Antonio's Alamo Plaza to Sixth
Street and Broadway, east to the Alamo ditch , was
once known as the Irish Flats. It was settled by
immigrants who fled Ireland in the grim 1830's.
They worked and prayed , fiddled and danced , and
told stories of Ireland . Progress has swept away the
shady gardens and chalkstone cottages , but every
St. Patrick's Day, the San Antonio River runs
green with Irish spirit.
-~
Perhaps made internationally famous by the
late President Johnso n's informal entertaining on
the Pedernales River, barbecue has long been part
of Texas 's culinary heritage. Although it has come
to mean almost any dish with a catsup or smoke­inspired
flavor , the name barbecue probably came
from the spanish word, barbacoa, which originally
didn't describe food at all. It was simply a grill­like
arrangement of green sti cks on which to cook
meat over an open fire .
f
A battle over chicken feed claimed one of San
Antonio's finest citizens in the late 1830 's . When
a local badman and his neighbor lady feuded over
her chickens eating his horse's corn , the outlaw
threatened to ' 'shear her bald headed'' unless a
caballero would defend her. He posted the threat
at Don Eugenio Navarro's store and when he
found the notice torn down, shot Navarro through
the heart. Mortally wounded, Navarro avenged
himself by stabbing the murderer , ridding the city
of a scurrilous citizen and saving a lady's honor at
the same time.
14.
Many of San Antonio's Chinese families came
here not to work on the railroads but by military
rescue. When the railroads were completed in the
midsection of the nation, Chinese rail crews
migrated south into Mexico seeking work. They
aided Pershing during his attempt to oust Pancho
Villa from the countryside. In 1917 when Pershing
failed and Villa threatened the entire Chinese
population of Mexico, most of the families were
permitted to journey with Pershing to San
Antonio , where they found jobs at Fort Sam
Houston.
Chinese Coolies Crossing River.
For decades , strategtic bombing has been part
of our military posture. But when Brigadier
General Billy Mitchell , a World War I flying hero ,
proposed such ideas in 1925, he was denounced as
a radical. Mitchell prophesied the attack on Pearl
Harbor, but no one listened. Banished to Fort Sam
Houston, he would not be silent, and in 1925 a
court martial suspended him from rank and pay
for five years. Billy Mitchell died in 1936. For this
brave prophet , the vindication of history arrived
too late.
Mary Eleanor Brackenridge was an early
champion of women 's rights - to receive
education, to vote , to participate in the
mainstream of society. She published a pamphlet
on The Legal Status of Women in Texas. As vice
president of First National Bank of San Antonio,
she was the first woman bank director in the
United States. Aware of social and economic
conditions of the city , she dedicated her life to
improving the welfare of women and children.
Born in 1836 , Miss Brackenridge was indeed a
woman ahead of her time .
__5 1
In 1898 a young , black teacher from North
Carolina, Artemesia Bowden, was named principal
of St. Philip's Normal and Industrial School , a
missionary-founded Saturday afternoon sewing
class for black girls. The school would have
remained small and insignificant but for her
leadership. What started as a sewing class became,
in 1 ')27, a junior college serving the needs of
education-hungry blacks. On the strength of one
woman 's vision , St. Philip's future was
" sewed up. "
~
Before the 1880 's in the era of the open
range , cattle branding was necessary to keep stock
separated. Even after fences were built , theft was
widespread and branding continued. But the
famous western cattle brands weren 't the only ones
in Texas. Spanish American ranchers used
elaborate and decorative designs, sometimes
covering the entire side of a steer. Their
complicated curlicues made them hard for Texans
to read, so they were called " Quien Sabes,"
meaning in Spanish : ' 'Who Knows.''
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No picture of life in the old southwest would
be complete without the saloon . It was in the local
watering hole that cowpokes and townspeople
downed everything from Sarsaparilla to Red-Eye
for any reason , or no reason at all. In 1839 a
diarist named Frederick Maryatt wrote: "If you
meet, you drink ; if you part, you drink; if you
quarrel, you drink . Americans drink because it is
hot ; they drink because it is cold." Some old
Texas customs haven't changed.
Bic Saloon, Shiner.
Even in the pioneer aviation days of 1924 San
Antonians were used to seeing aircraft overhead.
But on April 23 of that year , the skies were filled
with an unusual and colorful sight as the country's
finest balloonists took off in the National
Elimination Balloon Race . For the winning two­man
balloon, which traveled 1, 100 miles in 44
hours, the race yielded $1,000 in prize money.
16.
San Antonio's wheels of progress were not
without violence in the early 1850's. Before
railroads pushed into Texas, freight was moved by
Mexican ox carts with huge wheels. As civilization
flooded westward , the ox cans were joined by
Anglo freight wagons pulled by horses or mules.
There was fierce competition between the two ,
with the wagons offering faster , but more
expensive hauling. It was not until after "the cart
war ," in which more than 50 drivers were killed,
that citizens hanged several aggressors to conclude
the controversy.
_5;!
Remember vaudeville 's Dead-Eye Dick? He
was none other than Ad Toepperwein from
Boerne , Texas. No man in history has equalled his
marksmanship . During a 10-day rifle shooting
marathon in 1907 in San Antonio, Toepperwein
fired 72,500 times at 2 1/4 -inch wood blocks tossed
into the air and missed only nine .
f .
If you can find some flat lips , they could be
valuable - especially if they meet a flat lid and
are next to horseshoe handles . That would be a
good sign that you 're holding a pottery vessel
crafted by H. Wilson & Co. of Capote, near
Seguin. Having entered Texas as the slave of a
potter and preacher, Hiram Wilson opened his
own pottery in 1872 to help fill a critical need for
stoneware jugs , jars , churns and cisterns
throughout central and western Texas. All thrown
by hand , these historical pieces are collectors'
items today.
San Antonio in 1926 was a decade removed
from the Great War and thousands of miles from
the battlefields of France. However, this area
became the locale for an epic film of World War I
air power called Wings. The stars , Buddy Rogers
and Richard Arlen , came from Hollywood. But the
planes, 45 of them, came from Kelly Field . From
Fort Sam Houston 5,000 troops were marched to a
recreated trench-cut battlefield at Camp Stanley.
All converged to play their parts in a film that was
to be the first recipient of an academy award .
·~
One of the entertainment spectaculars of San
Antonio more than a century ago was the popular
bullfight. The first bullring, looking much like the
charreada arena , was just south of San Pedro Park
near the springs. The restless Indian tribes
frequently raided the aficionados during the fight,
so the arena was moved closer into the downtown
area. One of the highlights was a lady bullfighter,
of whom it was written, "As well as bulls, the
lady torreador also killed several men. "
Bullfight Scene.
James Bonham, one of the heroes of the
Alamo, would have felt right at home in the
college demonstrations of the 1960's. The son of
wealthy South Carolinians, Bonham was sent to
the University at Columbia in 1824, only to
become a campus radical. After organizing a
student rebellion over dormitory food and
administration policies, Bonham was expelled in
1826. Ten years later, Jim Bonham would stage his
final protest- a "fight-in" for Texas at
the Alamo.
james Butler Bonham.
The Southern Pacific, an engine and two
coaches, steamed into San Antonio on February
19, 1877, to mark the beginning of a new
economic era . Next to a stampede, it was the first
rapid transit system of the city. No longer would
bad roads, stubborn mules and mud holes deter
the shipping of commodities, and more travelers
would be lured to San Antonio. 01 ' Dobbin had
been replaced by the iron horse .
Ben Milam and Jim Bowie, two of the most
revered heroes in Texas history, were not above
bending the law a little to acquire land . In the
1830's the Mexican government began selling off
11-league parcels of public land at dirt-cheap
prices . But only Mexican citizens were supposed to
be eligible . Bowie and many other Texans got
around that by having Mexicans buy the land and
transfer it to them . Corrupt officials looked the
other way . Our history-book heroes were flesh and
blood after all.
-~·
When Charles Lindbergh made his historic
flight over the Atlantic in 1927, he became a hero .
But his luck had almost run out two years earlier
in a little known drama played out in the skies
over San Antonio. Lindbergh, a flying cadet at
Kelly Field, collided in mid-air with another
training plane . Fortunately the Lone Eagle floated
to safety , but only because his was the first unit to
use parachutes. That's where he got the name
"Lucky Lindy ."
-~
In 1838 Samuel Colt was in a fix. He had
invented the most significant weapon of his
century, the Colt revolver, and nobody wanted it.
The military thought it was too small to be
effective, and it had to be dismantled into three
parts for reloading, an almost impossible feat on
horseback . But it shot five times , and Texans,
eager for any edge in a brutal , hostile land,
overlooked its faults and saved the Colt company
from bankruptcy.
Many a tall Texas tale has been told about the
prowess of Texas lawmen, but none taller than this
one . It seems that back in the thirties a riot broke
out in an oil boom town, and the frightened
citizenry appealed to the Texas Rangers . Gathered
at the railroad depot, they gasped in disbelief as
one Ranger calmly stepped off the train . "You
mean the Governor sent only one Ranger? "
someone asked. "Well," the big Ranger answered,
"you've only got one riot , haven't you?"
Lindbergh and His Airplane.
..
Colt Pistol Advertisement.
17.
-
Every western hero who ever stalked the silver
screen is only a distillation of the original western
hero, John Coffee Hays. He was a captain of the
Texas Rangers at age 23 and for the next decade
would fight Mexicans , Indians and outlaws with
deadly enthusiasm. A Mexican General Oxle
offered $500 reward for Hays. Texans gleefully
replied "that was a lot of coin for a 5' 10" youth
who weighed about 160 pounds. ''
-~
In the 1880's when Carl Harnisch opened an
eating establishment in San Antonio, he won
instant recognition by protecting his food in glass
cases. For 37 years this immigrant , who introduced
the pound cake to America, operated the Harnisch
Restaurant on Commerce Street. In an atmosphere
of old world elegance , European-trained chefs and
waiters unleashed the wonders of continental
cuisine upon the palates of San Antonio.
f
The six-shooter wasn't the only device used in
the winning of the West. In the 1870's , harnessing
the wind to draw water to arid lands became
common practice with the adaptation of the
European windmill. The windmill opened up
prime land to the homesteader and allowed
expansion of the cattle industry into areas where
lack of surface water had made ranching
impossible. The gentle creaking of an isolated
windmill is reassuring music to those who know
the meaning of drought.
18.
On Easter Eve in 1846 Indian campfires were
aglow on hillsides around Fredericksburg.
Frightened children asked if the Indians would
attack. To soothe them, mothers explained that
Easter fires were being built by the Easter Rabbit
and his helpers to heat kettles for dyeing Easter
eggs . On Easter morning children awoke to find
colored eggs in nests of bluebonnets. Rabbit fires
still light Fredericksburg hillsides every Easter.
Armadillo.
Legend tells us that the word ''gringo' '
evolved from the marching song Green Grow the
Lilacs, sung by American soldiers during the
Mexican War. From this, the Mexicans supposedly
concocted " gringo" and applied it to all English­speaking
Americans. Actually, the truth is
somewhat less colorful. "Gringo" is derived from
the Spanish word Griego or Greek. In Spain, for
centuries, anyone speaking an unfamiliar language
was speaking Griego or unintelligible gibberish.
It was a Texas beauty that introduced the
striptease to the stage more than a century ago.
Her name was Adah Menken and as a stage-struck
young girl who ran away from home, she ended
up on Broadway in 1860. Cast in the title role of a
play called Mazzepa, she stripped to apparent
nudity and rode a horse off the stage. Actually ,
she wore skin colored tights , but the shock was so
great and the illusion so good, the play was a
scandal and hit simultaneously.
-'~ The armadillo is rapidly becoming one of the
unofficial symbols of Texas, but actually the
armored creature didn 't arrive until the last
century, migrating from South America. The first
armadillo ever seen in San Antonio was hauled
triumphantly through the city streets on January
22, 1879. It had been found by a woodcutter in
Atascosa County and hundreds of citizens
surrounded his wagon to just stare at the strange
animal. The asking price for the beast was $50 . ·-·- Hollywood westerns depicted her as frail,
young and pretty . Fresh off the stage from the
East, she could charm a tough cowboy right off his
horse . But on the Texas frontier, a schoolmarm
had to be pretty tough herself. Working under
primitive conditions, and often armed with little
but McGuffy 's Reader, the schoolmarm taught as
many as 30 children, of all ages and all abilities.
For all her hard work, she was sometimes paid in
baskets of food rather than cash. In a rugged,
lonely frontier, the schoolmarm needed more than
book learnin' to survive . She needed old-fashioned
true grit.
Helena is not exactly a ghost town , but it is a
shadow of its former self. Back in the 1880's it was
a boomtown , county seat of Karnes County .
Helena was not a peaceful place to live, however .
As a matter of fact, one gunfighter too many
killed this town. A stray shot killed a young
passerby who just happened to be the son of the
area 's most powerful rancher. He vowed to kill the
town and gave his land , far to the west , to the
railroad . Karnes City and Kenedy were born and
Helena went into a coma.
_ _{!
In 1883 over 300 north Texas cowboys went
on strike for higher wages. After forming the
Cowboys' Association, they informed the ranch
owners that they wanted a raise from $30 to $50 a
month. Unfortunately, their plan had one fatal
flaw - strike headquarters was near the sinful city
of Tascosa. After a couple of days in the dance
halls and casinos , hunger overcame principle and
all were home on the range once again .
~
Among the forty German intellectuals who
founded the short-lived Bettina colony in 1847 was
a brilliant young physician named Ferdinand von
Herff. One day an old, blind Indian chief was
brought to the colony where Dr. Herff surgically
removed the cataracts and restored the Indian's
sight. Sometime later, the chief rode back with
grateful payment - Lena, a young Indian girl.
Not wanting to offend the giver, Herff accepted
the gift. Dr. Herff became one of San Antonio's
most distinguished citizens, but never would his
fee be paid with anything as bizarre or as attractive
as Lena.
20.
juan Seguin.
In the Texas Revolution , in the state senate
and the San Antonio mayor's office, Juan Seguin ,
a member of one of the city's oldest Spanish
families, proved himself a brave and loyal patriot.
Yet , sadly , his good name was clouded by
suspicion and accusation from the so-called
American families. In 1842 when the invading
Mexican General Vasquez declared Mayor Seguin a
friend , public opinion was aroused. A mob
plundered and burned Seguin 's ranch. The mayor
resigned, fleeing to Mexico with other refugees.
There General Santa Anna forced him · to join
General Woll' s invasion of San Antonio . Seguin
died in Mexico in 1889. As historians lifted the
cloud around Seguin, a lot of Texans had to ask :
Was ever a hero treated so shabbily?
By 1854 the German settlers had become an
energetic and important core in San Antonio life .
And in June that year the first German newspaper,
a weekly called the Zeitung , appeared on the
streets. It was ably edited by Adolph Donai, a
staunch abolitionist . The story goes that an irate
Texas Ranger once bounded up the steps of the
paper's office ready to teach the editor a lesson.
But Donai proved he was as effective with his fists
as the printed word, and the Ranger came down
the stairs with a new respect for an old saying:
' 'Never underestimate the power of the press. ''
·~
The idea of parking meters dates back to 1809
when the city, needing money to keep streets and
plazas clean, established a hitching zone behind
the church on Main Plaza. The cost was 25'. The
fine for parking your horse outside this zone was
two pesos.
··~
In the wild frontier days of San Antonio the
most colorful entertainment in town was the wild
and fiery fandango. In saloons , halls and even
tents, passions and violence often erupted during
the dance, but not even murder could stop the
fandango dancers for long . One night, a tall
American fell dead in the middle of a crowded
dance floor. Another man lay wounded. The
music was stopped, the corpse hauled off, the
wounded man carried away. Then the dancers
raced back to the fandango . It took a city council
prohibition to do what death could not. In 1876
the last fandango establishment was finally
shut down.
..
=--.:.:::-==-:_ __ ....:.__~---
Most people are aware that six flags have
flown over Texas , but for a brief time there was a
little known seventh flag that men died for . In
1812, two soldiers of fortune and a rag-tag army
invaded Texas to liberate it from Spanish rule . Jose
de Lara , a Mexican rebel and Augustus Magee, a
West Point graduate, actually captured San
Antonio and renamed the state The Republic of
the West. They were defeated by the Spanish at
the Battle of Medina River, but for almost a year a
little known solid green flag Hew over the Alamo.
_51
Legend tells us that long ago the Indians of
the southwest suffered a bitterly cold winter and
severe drought. With no crops , they would surely
face starvation. One night, to appease the Great
Spirit with a sacrifice, a little Indian girl burned
her dearest possession, a doll. Miraculously, the
next morning beautiful bluebonnets had sprung
up among the ashes. The drought lifted, the crops
grew. The bluebonnets , born of a little girl 's love ,
signaled the rebirth of life.
__.M_
On a pleasant evening in 1915 a young
bachelor officer strolled over to the Fort Sam
Houston Officers' Open Mess to join some friends .
Before the evening was over, Second Lieutenant
Dwight David Eisenhower had surrendered his
heart to a pretty, young girl from Denver, Mamie
Doud. Eisenhower's courtship strategy was swift
and direct and on July 1, 1916, they were married.
There would be grander addresses in the brilliant
future of the newlyweds, including 1600
Pennsylvania Avenue . But none was as special as
688-B, Infantry Post , Ike and Mamie Eisenhower's
very first home.
22 .
On a quiet June afternoon in 1901, Karnes
County Sheriff Harper Morris, tracking a horse
thief, stopped at the ranch of Gregorio Cortez.
Speaking Spanish, Cortez denied any guilt. Morris
misunderstood, guns were drawn and Cortez killed
the sheriff. Fleeing, the handsome, young vaquero
covered 520 miles in ten days, eluding a small
army of Rangers and posse members. Captured, he
was tried for three murders, but convicted of only
one. The governor pardoned him in 1913. In the
cantinas, Mexican-Americans sang El Comda de
Gregorio Cortez - the heroic victim of
Anglo injustice.
Just as the American War for Independence
had its Lexington and Concord , the Texas War for
Independence had its Gonzales. When the
Mexican commander, Ugartechea , ordered the
citizens of Gonzales to surrender its small, brass
cannon, the Texans angrily hoisted a petticoat flag
made from a silk wedding dress, daring the
Mexicans to "Come and take it ." On October 2,
1835, in what was the first shot of the Texas
Revolution , the townspeople loaded the cannon
with iron scraps and fired at Mexican troops,
driving them back to San Antonio. From
Gonzales, the shot heard 'round Texas 'roused the
fight for liberty.
At the turn of the century, when feathers
were the height of fashion, the Hot Wells Hotel
was the site of San Antonio's Ostrich Farm. On
Sunday afternoons genteel ladies would come out
to select plumes for their latest coiffures. The
unsuspecting birds would run to the fence to greet
visitors who paid a 2 )C charge . The children were
entertained with ostrich cart rides and the
gentlemen with races. But alas, the new style of
beads and ribbons outmoded feathers and the
farm closed around 1920.
-~-
During the two years that Medina Dam was
under construction, 1, 3 50 laborers lived in
campsite barracks with their families. The camp­city
had electricity, a hospital, movies and baseball
teams . A steady stream of whiskey peddlers,
gamblers and prostitutes tried to separate the
workers from their pay - $1.25 for a ten-hour
day. Medina was completed in 1912. It was the
largest dam in Texas, but not before 70 men,
women and children had died of accidents,
sickness and violence .
-:~
In the early 1900 's when Hollywood was still
a citrus grove, an imaginative Frenchman came to
San Antonio to make movies. Gaston Melies
moved his film company into the famed Hot
Wells Hotel in 1911. Using the picturesque south
side of the city, they produced over 60 popular
and exciting one reelers . For one of his films,
Melies rounded out his company of players with
extras recruited from the Peacock Military College.
They were to play soldiers in The Immortal
Alamo. That brief film became the first of many
dramatic movies to recreate that fateful moment
when a few brave men fought for Texas liberty.
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Did you know that a man from Bexar County
wrote the words to the song, The Eyes of Texas?
John L. Sinclair wrote it in 1903 for a minstrel
show in Austin. He received the idea from the
president of The University of Texas who closed
his speeches to the student body by saying, "The
eyes of Texas are upon you." The famous song has
united Texans in times of war, at sporting events
and other spirited occasions.
t
In 1528 Cabeza de Vaca and remnants of the
Narvaez Expedition were washed up on the Texas
coast and enslaved by the Karankawa Indians. The
Spaniard eventually became a respected medicine
man, healing the natives as he traveled inland. In
15 3 5 he performed primitive surgery, removing an
arrowhead from an Indian and closing the incision
with deer bone. Fortunately, the patient lived. If
Cabeza de Vaca had botched the operation, it
would have cost him his life.
·~
In the 1870's photographers were something
of a rarity in small Texas towns. Everyone wanted
a portrait - especially the outlaws. One Texas
Ranger went on an undercover picture-taking
mission to capture the most wanted desperados on
photographic glass. The talkative Ranger always
took an extra shot and copied names and
information on the back. After a three-month
tour, 15 Rangers moved out with snapshots in one
hand and pistols in the other. Over a hundred
outlaws were shot again, but this time in an
entirely different way.
24.
When Sam Bass drifted into Texas in 1870,
he was a seventeen-year-old horse thief, but he was
destined to become a legend and Texas's first
"beloved" outlaw. He maintained a Robin Hood
image by robbing only the rich, mostly corporation
payrolls carried aboard trains . It was Sam Bass that
introduced train robbing to Texas. But in 1878,
Ranger John B. Jones brought the outlaw's short­lived
career to an abrupt halt outside the freshly
robbed bank in Roundrock . At 25, Texas 's
notorious outlaw had lived fast and died young.
A hundred years ago there were two things
that would draw a crowd in any Texas town -a
hanging or the arrival of the traveling dentist.
These itinerate tooth tuggers would set up shop on
Main Street and in no time draw a crowd of
spectators and patients alike. With nothing more
than a shot of red -eye for the pain, even the
bravest of men were entertaining . One home
remedy book of the time promised relief from the
toothache by picking the offending tooth with
either a coffin nail or the middle toe of an owl.
A young opera singer from Texas changed his
name and style to become the first star of country
music . His real name was Marion Slaughter, and
he was recording light opera in 1916 when hillbilly
music began to catch the public ear. Adopting a
rural accent, and the names from two Texan
towns, he became Vernon Dalhart, superstar. His
first record was The Wreck of the Old 97 and it
sold more than 25 million copies. Unfortunately,
he never copyrighted any of his songs and died
without a song on the charts or a penny in
his jeans.
~
After World War I when quicksilver was
discovered in Big Bend, a New Yorker showed up
in Terlingua hoping to make a fortune from some
unwitting rancher. At the first ranch he visited, he
found no quicksilver and almost no grass, only
acres of century plants which he thought were a
new kind of giant asparagus. The rancher assured
him that this was the only place in the world that
produced 12-foot stalks of asparagus, but Texans
would not eat the stuff. Visualizing a vast new
market for Texas-size asparagus, the Yankee
bought the ranch on the spot.
~~
On many a cool , autumn night, you can find
them here by the thousands, the fanatical football
fans. San Antonio's passion for this rugged sport is
deeply rooted in history. It was here in 1891 that
the first football team in Texas was formed. They
called themselves the "San Antonios" and they
played to big crowds ... 2,000 watched them play
a spirited, final game against the " Mission
Athletes" that season.
In 1920 a better idea came, not out of
Detroit, but from Fort Worth. It was the Texan, a
five-passenger touring car that sold for $1,495 . For
his money the astute buyer obtained a car that was
typical of the age, powered by a 40 horsepower, 4
cylinder engine . The Texan had a top speed of
about 50 miles per hour. Of the two other makes
of cars manufactured in the state, the Texan was
the most successful .. . the company lasted two
years, folding in 1921.
-:~
In 1862 one of the most notable victories in
Mexican history was won as Mexican troops
soundly defeated an invading French army.
Traditionally, San Antonians , especially Mexican
Americans, have marked Cinco de Mayo with
ceremony and celebration, for the city has a special
link with the famous battle . The victorious
Mexican General Ignacio Zaragoza was born in
Texas and his mother was a member of a
prominent San Antonio family, the Seguins.
Battle of Puebla.
26.
Edward Grenet.
Throughout history, artists have gone
unhonored in their own land . In the late 19th
century, a starving young artist named Edward
Grenet found that his portraits and landscapes
were ignored and unappreciated by San
Antonians. Yet when he sailed to Paris to study,
his works drew critical praise. Grenet's paintings
were soon hanging iri the most prestigious galleries
in Europe.
In 1685 La Salle sailed from France in a ship
named the Belle, leading a group of settlers. La
Salle landed at Matagorda Bay on the Texas coast.
He thought that it was the Mississippi River. La
Salle built Fort St. Louis. On March 20, 1687, two
of his men murdered him . But because of
La Salle's bravery many Texans have
French ancestors .
La Salle Landing on the Texas Coast.
Sometimes a fake can be more valuable than
the real thing . A good example is the Baron de
Bastrop, a Dutch imposter who invented his title
when he moved to Texas in 1805 . This charming
international con man had himself appointed
second alcalde of the city council at Bexar with
hopes of promoting American immigration into
Texas . In fact, Moses Austin was granted
colonization papers from the Mexican governor at
San Antonio only because of intervention by the
real "mayor pro-tem" ... the fake
Baron de Bastrop.
When delegates gathered in Austin in 1845 to
decide whether to join the Union, the vote was
unanimously in favor - almost. Richard Bache of
Galveston cast the only dissenting vote , not out of
distrust of the Union, but out of spite to his
estranged wife. She was the sister of the vice
president of the United States, and Bache
explained , he would never vote to bring Texas into
the Union as long as any member of her family
had anything to do with the administration of
the country.
Cynthia Ann Parker.
When a group of Indians raided Parker 's Fort
in 1836, they captured a young girl named
Cynthia Ann Parker. Later they traded her,
and for 24 years Cynthia lived among the
Comanches, marrying a chief, Peta Nocona, and
bearing him a future chief, Quanah . Her captors
became her people. And when Cynthia was
"rescued" in 1860, she found herself a stranger in
white man's society. After several unsuccessful
attempts to return to the Indians she loved,
Cynthia died in 1864. She had lived in two
worlds , but she could live happily in only one .
Quanah Parker.
Quanah Parker, the last great chief of the
Comanches, was the child of two cultures, the son
of Chief Peta Nocona and a young, white captive
named Cynthia Ann Parker. Driven to the edge of
starvation by the white man's wanton slaughter of
buffalo, the Indians made a last, desperate fight
for survival in 1874. It was Quanah who led 700
warriors in an unsuccessful attack on a hunting
camp at Adobe Walls. After bravely leading his
people in bitter battle, Quanah wisely led them in
the time to follow : the bitter peace of life on the
reservation.
The first television program in the State of
Texas lasted exactly 49 minutes and the star was
the President of the United States. On the
afternoon of September 27, 1948, WBAP-TV
televised the arrival of President Harry Truman at
the Fort Worth railway station . The viewing
audience was estimated at only 2,000 people.
Actually more people saw the President in person
than over the tube because in 1948 there were
only 400 TV sets in all of Dallas and Fort Worth .
Amval of a Ferry.
The first public transportation in San Antonio
wasn ' t a wagon or a cart, but a boat . The Bexar
Archives show that in 1786, the Spanish governor
granted a boat owner, Francisco Guadalupe
Calaorra, a piece of land along the river and the
right to run a ferry service between the Mission de
Valero and the town. What's more, the governor
paid Calaorra for providing the ferry . No mention
is made of the fare charged . But without a bridge ,
the good friars and citizens had no choice. It was
either pay or swim.
27.
In 1901 over 10,000 people jammed into the
San Antonio International Fair Grounds to witness
a sight that many had heard of but few had seen.
Separated by almost a mile of track , two 30-ton
steam locomotives stood poised to engage in the
destruction derby of the century . Promoter "Head­On"
Joe Connally gave the signal and moments
later the Sunday calm was split with the sound of
exploding boilers and ripping of metal. "Head­On''
Joe Connally and his wild iron horses had
struck again.
~
Prior to the Civil War, Texas sports fans
crowded in the plazas on religious feast days to
watch an unusual game - El Gallo Corriendo, the
Running Rooster. Mounted on a fast horse, a rider
would race off carrying a ribbon-bedecked rooster.
Other riders chased after him trying to pull the
rooster away. In the mad scuffle of chase and pull ,
many riders were thrown and injured . As for the
game rooster, it generally ended up broken ,
bloody and dead . It was not a sport for the weak
of stomach . In the summertime the riders played
it cool. Instead of a bird, they chased and pulled a
fat, ripe watermelon .
-~
In 1914 a shy San Antonio schoolgirl was the
second woman pilot in the nation - and the
youngest licensed pilot in the world. By strapping
flashlights on her plane's wings, this sixteen-year­old
became history's first skywriter. She was the
first womari to loop an airplane and the first to
own her own flying school. She and her family
rose to such heights in the infant world of aviation
that the city gave them their own landing field in
1915. Her name was Katherine Stinson and her
namesake is Stinson Field.
28.
What a strange place to find camels, the
Texas Hill Country. Jefferson Davis, as U.S.
Secretary of War, ordered camels brought from
Asia Minor to Port Lavaca and herded across Texas
to Camp Verde in Kerr County by Armenian
camel drivers in 1856. They were used for
transportation and hauling supplies until the fort
surrendered to the Confederacy. After that the
camels were sold to area ranchers and the fort
was evacuated .
~·· . .fL: ;.; .
Camels in San Antonio.
When the Fredericksburg and North Railroad
connected Fredericksburg to the outside world in
1913, it was a joyous occasion, but it was the
tunnel that created the most excitement. It wasn't
believed that engineers could dig at both ends and
meet in the middle, and numerous wagers were
made as to how far off the two shafts would be.
One year and 800 yards later, Texas had its first
railroad tunnel and the holes were only inches off.
The tracks were scrapped in 1942 for the war
effort, but the tunnel remains today, 14 miles
south of Fredericksburg.
When Texas 's President Lamar visited San
Antonio in June 1841 , a grand ball was given in
the Yturri home. Mrs . Yturri looked lovely , but
she had to keep dashing into the bedroom to
lossen her tight corsets and breathe. And - in a
comic opera touch - three Texas Rangers had to
share one dress coat. While one wore the coat and
danced, the other two waited their turn in the
hall, impatiently shaking their fists. It was the
biggest party the city had ever seen. But San
Antonio society was still a little rough around
the edges.
- -~-
Bandera Pass is a mountain gap between
Bandera and Kerrville . In 17 32 Apaches and
Spaniards had a battle there. After the battle,
both groups signed a treaty . The Apaches and
Spaniards agreed not to cross the boundary.
"Bandera" means flag . A red flag was placed at
the pass as a reminder of the treaty . Today,
Highway 17 3 runs through the pass.
f .
For centuries they thundered over the western
plains. And for centuries the Indians hunted the
buffalo to live . Food, clothing, and shelter- the
Indians had 7 5 different uses for these mammoth
creatures. Between 1871 and 1874 white men
killed over three and a half million buffalo,
skinning them for their hides and leaving their
flesh to rot. Indian uprisings failed to stop the
slaughter. The buffalo herds were decimated and
the Indians were confined to the reservations. In
the white man's civilized west there was no room
for the wild and the free .
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FOR P/lOi~E fNFORf."!A 1!0N 0!\! !NS1TfUTE PUOU!Ct. TIONS:
WRffi: OR CAU. FOR A ~[{f.t; C:ATAf.OG:
THE iNSTITUTE OF TEXAN CULTURES
P. 0. BOX 1226, SAN ANTONIO, TX 78294
512/226-7 651
ILLUSTRATION CREDITS
Harper 's Weekly , 1874.
Hornaday Collection, Texas State Archives, Austin .
San Antonio Conservation Society.
Andy Adams, His Ltfe and Wn"tings.
San Antonio Conservation Society.
Hornaday Collection, Texas State Archives, Austin.
Mrs. Hazel Ledbetter, Round Top .
Texas State Archives, Austin.
Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin.
Santa Rita.
Alamo Heights Junior School , San Antonio.
Courtesy Amon Carter Museum, Ft. Worth.
DRT Library at the Alamo, San Antonio.
Mr. & Mrs. Thomas D. Anderson, Houston .
Bartlett Cocke Sr. , San Antonio.
Panhandle Plains Museum, Canyon.
Kuhlman Collection, Texas State Archives , Austin .
The Wire That Fenced the West.
Harper's Weekly, 1870.
Marcos de Fuego de las Antiquas Bibliotecas Mexicanas and Panhandle ­Plains
Historical Review.
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Dr. Pat Wagner, Shiner.
Frank Leslie 's Illustrated Newspaper, 1880.
Texas State Library, Austin .
Kelly Air Force Base (#7297 1069) , San Antonio.
Armsmear: the Home, the Arm and the Armory of Samuel Colt.
Institute of Texan Cultures, San Antonio .
Mrs . Anita McLean, San Antonio.
Hoblitzelle Collection , Humanities Research Center, University
of Texas at Austin.
Texas State Archives , Austin.
Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, 1859.
DRT Library at the Alamo , San Antonio.
Harper's Weekly, 1878.
Elementos de Histona General de Histona Patria.
Ms . Peggy Webb, San Antonio .
The New Discovery ofa Vast Country.
The Texas Collection, Baylor University , Waco.
The Texas Collection, Baylor University, Waco.
Harper's Weekly, 1879.
DRT Library at the Alamo , San Antonio.
Harper's Weekly , 1872.
The ''Reflections on Texas'' TV Series was produced by KM OL-TV and was
sponsored by Frost Bank, Pioneer Flour Mzils, Sears Roebuck & Co., Southwestern
Bell Telephone Company and United Services Automobzie Association.
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The University of Texas
Institute of Texan Cultures
at San Antonio
801 South Bowie Street
at Durango Boulevard
San Antonio, Texas 78205
Gtshtuto-'"
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