San Antonio, Texas - San Antonio De Bexar : a Guide and History (part 5 of 5)

Dr. Herff said, "I came for the finst time to America in islc. I was one of a Socialistic Colony and Society founded by a number of young men of good family and position for the purpose of emigrating to Wisconsin. Our Society made some stir among certain circles, principally the upper in Germany. A few years previous to the organization of our Society an Emigration Association had been formed by a company of noblemen in Germany under the Presidency of Boos-Waldeck. This company had partly purchased, partly obtained by Empresario Grants a large tract of land near San Saba. Prince Solms was the next subsequent president of this company and obtaining further land concessions New Braunfels, named after Prince Solms' German home or castle, was founded. Other presidents of this company were Meusebach and Spie?. This Association having heard of our Society and its intention of emigrating to Wisconsin made overtures to us pointing out the advantages that Texas offered and asked us to join them and settle in their territory. We agreed to do so if they could offer us a sufficient number of inducements to make us change our minds, for while at that date Wisconsin was well within the pale of civilization, Texas was a wild, rough and dangerous region. We finally decided to change our destination to Texas. I landed in New York in 1846. The railroad south only reached as far as Wheeling, Va., from whence we staged it to New Orleans and thence by water to Galveston and from Galveston to Indianola which was then the western Texas Port, we arrived at the latter place at the end of April 1847. I was one of the earlier arrivals of the vSociety to which I belonged, the bulk of my associates came over in August, 1847. The scheme in the end was not a success and in the course of a ^-ear or two I returned to Germany and was there married and re-emigrated on my own account to San Antonio with my wife, arriving at San Antonio early in April 1850, and I permanently settled there. You see I had frequently been in this cit3^ on visits, before this time, ])ut when I first came to Texas I was settled some two hundred miles from here. Many of our old German citizens came to Texas in those years. All sorts of people came under the auspices of these and similar Societies. Texas has received its population from many sources, this was one and an important one. Any one whom they could induce came. This Society expected to reap a profit of course. Principally by letting out and selling at cheap rates alternate parcels and sections of lands in their settlements and grants, but in the end it came to little more than nothing and the company 'busted up' and the colonists for the most part scattered.

"Another important Colony was that of Castro which was one mostly French or rather Alsatian. That was in the days when Alsace, you know, belonged to France. If I remember correctly Dr. Cupples told me he came to Texas with this Colony in 1844. I am not quite sure of these following facts but it is what I think I remember hini to have told me. Dr. Cui>i'»les was Staff Assistant Surgeon to the British Auxiliary Legion which went to Spain during the first Carlist War there in 1886. He afterwards returned to Paris - he speaks French fluently - it was there I believe that he met Castro who induced him to emigrate to Texas. Castroville was founded by this Colony in 18-14, September .'5rd.

"Can von k-ll hk- wlicii such and sncli an e\x-nl happened?" Is a question that we ha\e had occasion to ask of many an old timer. In the event he were at a loss for the date we couhl l)e pretty sure of the answer to come. ' ' Now let me see, ' ' would he the meditative reply, " I have forgotten for the moment the date of that, but," and with a smile of perfect satisfaction that the question was as good asanswered, " I can tell you who knows more about that than any other man living, just ask John Dobl^in, he'll tell you all about it." And if we had not very recentlyteased Mr. Dobbin about .some other knotty question, to him w^e should go for our inlormation, alway finding him a willing witness of the "golden days" and their eventful hours. They were not alway golden, there was in these early days at times a good deal of lead. But then, pioneer days are long gone by in Texas. If some of our romantic northern friends could only be persuaded of this, there would be less money wasted on "bulldogs " and " frontiers." These ideas are a relic of stormier times, times when the Great West was being opened up, and when all that vast territory was perhaps less quiet and law abiding than it ought to have been. Such episodes as the one narrated here went out of fashion in Texas earlier than in any other part of the wild west. It is an event of '57, and since then it may be fairly said that Western Texas, and without doubt, San Antonio has seen less of lynch law than any section of w^estern country. Mr. Dobbin tells us so and he has been in the best official positions to judge of the matter. This event was the shooting of Bill Hart. Bill Hart was about one of the worst desperadoes to whom Texas ever gave a home. According to all local tradition, "he was a pretty bad man," - he was, - but 'de mortuis' - and the rest - we may speak of the good work of the V. C.

" I had l)etter write it down," said Mr. Dobbin, " I .shall recall the circumstances more accurately," and forthwith the following graphic account was penned :

" Bill Hart was killed on the 2'-M\ day of May, 1857, and along with him his companion Miller and a government teamster named Wood. Fieldstrop also was killed. Fieldstrop was a discharged soldier and had been employed by the Vigilance Committee to watch Hart and his party the night previous and when Hart and his friend Miller, passed on their way down Mission street, they were fired upon bv Fieldstrop who had a doubled barreled gun. Miller was killed dead, falling in the alley north of the Brewer hou.se. Bill Hart, too, was mortally wounded, his right wrist and left thigh broken, besides having eleven buckshot wounds in the region of his kidney- on the left side, nevertheless, .such extraordinary vitality he had that he reached the Brewer house where he took shelter from his numerous enemies Fieldstrop having reloaded his gun in Supervielle's house (just behind where Wolf & Marx's store is now, on Alamo street) approached the Brewer house with the intention of giving Hart the coup de grace, when Wood, the government team.ster, before mentioned, came out of the door dnd ordered Fieldstrop ofif, saying that Fieldstrop had done enough harm already, also that he, Wood, was Bill's friend: "That is enough," replied Fieldstrop raising his gun and firing, killing Wood instantly. At the same moment Hart appeared at the other door supporting himself on an old shovel shaft, with a pi.stol in his left unwoundcd hand, tlic right wrist having been, as I say, shattered by Fieldstrop's first shot. Immediately F'ieldstrop's gun was aimed at Bill Hart's breast, bat it snapped and missed fire. Hart then instantly fired at Fieldstrop, shooting him fairly in the centre of the fc^reliead. Hart then retired in a dying condition int(j the l)ack room of the hou.se. At this crisis Jim Taylor came up, ru.shed into the house, his head and shoulders well down to less-n the risk of bullets penetrating, they glance from the body quicker that way. Hart shot him in the right breast as he entered the backroom. Taylor, however, got Hart by the hair of the head and dragged him into the backyard, shooting him repeatedly in the body. Then a horrible sight - everybody, the small street gamins even, coming in at the death by the dozen, discharging their little pops into the dying man, making a perfect lead mine of him. Yes, it v^^as a terrible morning's work. He might have richly deserved his fate, but believe me and I know of what I speak, these matters are best settled by the law. "

On Saturday, March 17th 1SS8, St. Patrick's Day: I believe, I went with a friend (who took his Photographic Camera along for he had the amatuer crazej of the two languages, Spanish and English, to call on the old, very old, Senora Candelaria. Our interview lasted for upwards of an hour and knowing but little that I thought would elucidate what some deemed to be obscure pretentions. The result of this and other later interviews are here given, and the reader must judge for himself the value of the statements and evidence. She is at least a very old and interesting person, lively and full of the recollection and reminiscences of the men and the stirring times of the Texan Revolution.

I asked her was she inside the fortifications of the Alamo during the fight ? She answered unhesitatingly "Yes." Was she in the Alamo Church building during the last stand? She replied as before without reflection that she was, in those moments she was nursing Colonel James Bowie who was in bed very ill of typhoid fever, and that as she was in the act of giving him a drink of water the Mexican soldier>' rushed in, wounding her in the chin - -showing an old .scar - and killing Bowie in her arms. She demonstrated this scene in quite an active fashion and showed us exactly how she was holding Bowie, her left arm around his shotilders and a drinking cup in her right hand.

I next asked her what was done with (.he bodies of the Texans ? She said all were cremated. With the bodies of the dead Mexicans ? All were cremated. Were there many American families living in vSan Antonio then ? Some, but they all fled or the men took refuge within the Alamo. Did she know Mrs. Dickinson ? Yes, but not well. She adopted an expression of considerable repugnance at this question, and said with some snap that Mrs. Dickin.son hated Mexicans. Perhaps

Mrs. DickinsDU had soihl- reason to do so I I was i)articular to ask hur aljout a child of Mrs. Dickinson and she said that the hus])and of Mrs. Dickinson was fi^htinj^ as one of the defenders of the Alamo and that when lie saw the canse was lost he hastened down from the walls and took his son, a little child, and tied him around his waist in front of him, got to the top of the wall at the front of the Church and jumped down among the fighting Mexicans below and both were killed. This is very dramatic but it is not I believe elsewhere recorded. Being anxious to know about the daughter of Mrs. Dickinson I asked her if she had not heard that such a child had escaped the massacre with her mother. She believed she said, that Mrs. Dickinson had taken a daughter with her in her flight, she had been told so at any rate.

She said that she recollected Daxid Crockett before the fight. l)Ut she could not have known him well, for Crockett was only in San Antonio a few weeks before he lost his life in the Alamo. The rest of the Texans she did not know so well. Most of these men came to San Antonio just previous to the siege. She did not know anything of Ben Milam who was killed in the Veramendi House at the storming of vSan Antonio in December, ISoo. She had not heard of him nor was she aware that he was buried on Milam Square, and that there was a stone to his memor}' there, though her house and jacal were almost within a stone throw of the place.

I then asked her age. The old lady said one hundred years and three months, holding out three very wrinkled fingers. Her hands were large for a Mexican. She looked quite the age she said, or older, for that matter, great deep ridges, wrinkles and furrow^s of skin on her face and hands as ' ' brown as is the ribbed sea .sand." She was alnio.st toothless, very little hair of a light yellowish color. Never suffered any sickness, quite active, alert and quick to perceive and understand. A cigarette smoker. Her eyes .she feared were beginning to fail her ; they were rheumish with red circles underneath.

My friend next interview^ed her wath his camera and took two excellent negatives in different po.sitions. I then asked her a question upon a matter which had puzzled me and which puzzles me still, though .she had a ready an.swer to it as she had for any other asked. She informed me that the water from the Acequia was used constantly by the defenders of the Alamo during the .siege. I naturally asked why the besiegers did not cut off the water or divert it and .so distress those within ? vShe .said the Indians at the Missions would not have allowed this !

She remembered perfectly that there was a roof formerly to the Alamo Church prior to the siege, but that it was destroyed during the siege by the cannonading.

She had given, wdien her memory was better, full depo.sitions and statements of all her recollections to Major Teel, and that he held the same. As to Mr. Gentilz's picture that was compiled from her personal descriptions and recollections. It was very good : that it was an exact rei)resentation of the Alamo as it was at the time of its fall, and that it gave a fair idea of the fight.

She mentioned Mr. John Twohig, saying that she knew him " Como mis manos," - "Like my hands," which is a favorite idiom of the old woman. " Visitors come everv dav to .see me to hear mv story of the Alamo."

Col. Fords Mkmoirs

Returning to the subject of David Crockett, the old vSenora said he was one of the first to fall ; that he advanced from the Church building "towards the wall or rampart running from the end of the stockade, slowly and with great deliberation, without arms, when suddenly a volley was fired by the Mexicans causing him to fall forward on his face, dead."

vShe was (juite anxious to remember everything. With reference to a man whom many regard to be an imposter, and of whom no one has ever gleaned anything authentic, Seiiora Candelaria .said .she could endor.se him as another child of the Alamo. vShe remembered his frightened condition during the bombardment. " He clutched her dress as children do," trying to hide his face.

Such are her recollections ; the reader must make many allowances. So long and active a life as hers must be crowded - more - overcrowded, and jumbled with the multitude of things to remember.

On other occa.sions, in April of this year, I revisited her twice with a good interi^reter as a companion, and she said: "My maiden name was Andrea Castaiion. I was born on St. Andrew's day, in November, 17S5, at Laredo. I am 105 years old. I have been twice married ; my finst hu.sband was Silberio Flores y Abrigo ; my .second was Candelario \'illanueva.* but I am called familiarh" Seiiora Candelaria."

I may add that I read to my companions these interviews at the dates of our visits. I wrote them from notes taken at the time upon arriving home, and my companions subscribed to every particular.

" I do solemuly swear that I was a resident citizen of Texas at the date of the declaration of Independence. That I did not leave the country during the Campaign of the spring of IHiH to avoid participation iu the War, aud that I did not aid nor assist the Euemy ; that I have not previously received a title for my quantum of land, and that I couceive myself to be justly entitled under the Constitution and laws to the quantity for which I now apply. April29th, 1S87. Candelario Villanteva."

The following description of the fall of the .-Vlamo is from the memoirs of Col. Kord, a gentleman mentioned many times iu this work - a pioneer, an Indian fighter, a Texan. The iuformation he gives is derived first hand from iuformauts he well kuew:

In 1835 General Santa Anna overturned the republican form of government in Mexico and violated the constitution of 1<S24. This instrument the colonists oi Texas had sworn to support. He reduced the number of militia in each state oi Mexico to one for every five hundred inhabitants, and issued a decree to disarm the remainder. The people of Texas though numbering less than 100,000, saw the meaning and intent of these movements. They prepared for resistance. They sent troops to invest San Antonio. It was surrendered by General Cos on December 10, is;]."), to the Texans under (^.eneral ICdward Burleson.

The Texas troops were dislxinded and went to their homes, except a small force left in San Antonio, commanded In- Colonel Xeill. General Cos .and his com-

The body known as tlie "Consnltation" reassemhletl at San h'elipe de Anstin November 1, ls;!.'i. They formnlated a provisional .government, elected Henry Smith, governor ; James \V. Robinson, lientenant-governor ; vSam Houston, commander-in-chief, and elected five of their members to remain and assist the gov ernor in the discharge of his duties. The "Consultation" adjourned to meet at Washington, on the Brazos, March 1, 1S3(). The five members remaining at San Felipe de Austin took it upon themselves to control the governor and General Houston. Deposed the governor, advocated the invasion of Mexico, appointed officers to command, and had a large number of troops in the west where they were beaten in detail.

Colonel Bowie aided General Houston in his efforts to concentrate the Texas troops. He came to San Antonio, saw Colonel Neill, who soon after left, with a view% as many affirm, to procure transportation to move the artillery and munitions of war. He carried Deaf Smith with him. He left Colonel James Bowie in command. Bowie fell sick. In a few days Colonel Travis arrived and assumed command. Juan N. Seguin sent a cousin of his to Laredo with orders to report the appearance of a force from Mexico of sufficient strength to invade Texas. He returned and affirmed that General vSanta Anna had crossed the Rio Grande with an ami}'. He forced General Cos and his men to violate their parole, and to take service against the Texans.

When the report was made at San Antonio, the Texans refused to believe it. They remained too near the town to learn what was transpiring outside. A sentinel was placed in the church on the west side of the river. One day he reported Mexican troops westward of the town. A man ascended to him and was unable to see any armed men. The sentinel was accused of reporting falsely. Eventually Travis ordered Dr. John Sutherland and J. W. Smith to go out on horseback and ascertain the truth. They proceeded to the top of Prospect Hill, and found themselves within 150 yards of the Mexican army. They started back at a run. Sutherland's horse gathered mud on his feet, turned a somersault, crippled Sutherland and broke his gun. Smith dismounted and relieved Sutherland. When they reached town and reported all was in commotion. Travis marched the Texans to the Alamo. On the way they found twenty or thirty beeves, which they drove into the fort. All was activity now. The first thing was to place the building in a position to stand the seige. That night they tore down a number of "jacales" (huts) not far from the Alamo, and brought in the wood for cooking. Men were told what part of the walls they were to defend. David Crockett and his twelve brave Tennesseeans were allotted a conspicuous point to cover. Every man was at his post and ready for duty. This is learned from Dr. vSutherland who wrote an article on the fall of the Alamo, full of information. He was too badly hurt by the fall of his horse to do good duty, and for that reason Col. Travis directed him to proceed to Gonzales and procure reinforcements, a duty he performed properly and promptly.

Gen. Santa Anna reached San Antonio February 'I'Ind or 2ord. Two nights previously he encamped on the Medina where he learned the Texans were attend- injr a fandango. He formed the idea of reaching and attacking them hefure day- Hght. He was encamped (jn both .sides of the Medina. His animnnition wagons were on the west l)ank. A rain had fallen and the river had risen snddenly and he fonnd it impossible to get ready. A norther was ijlowing. Under the circnm- .stances he gave up the movement.

He was of the opinion that the Texians would occupy the Mission Concepcion. He .said it afforded more facilities for defense by a small force than the Alamo.

Dr. Sutherland mentions the sending of a couple of officers, under a white flag to demand a surrender of the Alamo. Colonel Travis di.spatched Major Morris and Captain Martin to meet them. They had a conference on a foot-bridge just above the present bridge on Commerce street. Colonel Travis answered by a cannon shot.

General Santa Anna intended crossing the river below the Alamo, out of reach of Colonel Travis' guns. He directed General Castrillon, with two companies of the battalion of Matamoras, to gather timbers to make a bridge from houses on the Alamo side. They were in reach of the rifles of the Texians. Within a few minutes thirty of the Mexicans were killed. General Castrillon requested General Santa Anna to order their withdrawal, if he wished to save their lives. They were withdrawn at once.

On the third day of March, Travis addressed a last appeal to the president ot the convention at Washington on the Brazos. He said that "the blocd red banners which waved on the church at Bexar and in the camp above him were tokens that the war was one of vengeance against rebels." To a friend in Washington county he wrote: "Take care of my little boy. If the country should be saved I may makeliim a splendid fortune, but if the country should be lost and I should perish, he will have nothing but the proud recollection that he is the .son of a man who died for his comitry."

On February 2ord Travis wrote to Fannin at Goliad, asking for assistance. Fannin attempted to march to San Antonio on the '28th, but failed for want of transportation. This was the last chance apparentl\- available to aid the defenders of the Alamo.

On March ord Tolsa reached San Antonio. General Santa Anna began to prepare for the final assault on the Alamo. On the ')th day of March, Santa Anna issued an order for an assault on the Alamo, naming the oflicers to take charge of the four attacking colunnis, the columns to be in reatline.ss at 4 o'clock a. m., and to move at the sound of the bugle at the north battery, where he would be stationed.

"The troops under General Castrillon moved in silence. They reached the fort, planted scaling ladders and commenced ascending, .some mounted upon the shoulders of ()lhcr>. A tcrriMc lire 1)l-1c1h.-cI troin the interior. Men fell from the scaling ladders by the score, many pierced throui^h the head l)y l)alls, otliers felled by clubbed guns. The dead and woinided ccjvered the ground. After half an hour of fierce conflict, after the sacrifice of many li\-es, the column ofCreneral Castrillon succeeded in making a lodgment in the upper part of the Alamo to the northeast. It was a .sort of outwork. I think it is now used as a lot or a courtyard. This seeming advantage was a mere prelude to the desperate struggle which ensued. The doors of the Alamo building were barricaded by bags of sand as high as the neck of a man; the windows also. On the top of the roofs of the different ajxartments were rows of sandbags to cover the besieged.

troops, inspired b\- success, continued tlie attack with energy and boldness. The Texians fought like dc\-ils. It was at short range - muzzle to muzzle, hand to hand, musket and rifle, bayonet and bowie knife - all were mingled in contusion. Here a squad of Mexicans, there a Texian or two. The crash of fire arms the shouts of defiance, the cries of the dying and the wounded, made a din almost infernal. The Texians defended desperately every inch of the fort - overpowered by numbers they would l;e forced to abandon a room. They would rally in the next, and defend it until further resistance became inipo.s.sible.

"General Tolsa's command forced an entrance at the door of the church building. He met the same determined resistance without and within. He won by force of numbers and a great sacrifice of life.

"There was a long room on the ground floor. It was darkened. Here the fight was bloody. It proved to be the hospital. A detachment of which I had command had captured a piece of artillerj-. It was placed near the door of the hospital, doubly charged with grape and canister, and fired twice. We entered and lound the corpses of fifteen Texians. On the outside we atterward found forty-two dead Mexicans.

"On the top of the church building I saw eleven Texians. They had some small pieces of artillery and were firing on the cavalry and on those engaged in making the escalade. Their ammunition was exhausted and they were loading with pieces of iron and nails. The captured piece was placed in a po.sition to reach them, doubly charged, and fired w'ith .so much effect that they ceased working their ])ieces." * * * '-'^ * * * * vSergeant Kecera was of opinion that the two last men killed were Travis and Crockett, though he admitted he did not know them personally and might be mistaken as to their identity.

"General Santa Aiuia directed Colonel Mora to send out his cavalry to bring in wood. He ordered that they should make prisoners of all the inhabitants they might meet, and force them to pack wood to the Alamo. In this manner a large quantity of wood was collected. A large i)ile was rai.sed. It consisted of layers of wood and layers of corpses of Texians. It was set on fire. The bodies of those brave men who fell fighting that morning, as men have seldom fought, were reduced to ashes before the siui was set. It was a melancholy sjiectacle."

Mr. Nagle, an Englishman, inscribed their names on a stone of the Alamo. It has an in.scription: "Thenn()])yke had her me.ssenger of defeat, but the Alamo had none." That memorial is at Austin.

The number of Texians who fell cainiot be accurately ascertained. Dr. Sutherland placed it at 172. About twenty Mexicans joined them. But four of these remained to be massacred.

Eight or ten Mexican ladies were in the Alamo when it fell. Mrs. Alsbury, an adopted daughter of Governor \'eramendi and her little sister, Seiioras Candelaria, Losoyo and others were present at the end of the siege. Seiiora Candelaria was nursing Bowie, sick of typhoid fever. She says she raised his head to give him water, when the Mexican soldiers came in bayoneted him and gave her a wound in the face. Mrs. Alsbury told Mrs. Maverick that the Mexican soldiers hoisted Colonel Bowie's body on their bayonets until the blood covered their clothes. A Mexican colonel rushed to them and stopped them.

"There was an order to gather our ow^n dead and wovinded. It was a fearful sight. Our lifeless soldiers covered the ground surrounding the Alamo. They were heaped inside the fortress. Blood and brains covered the earth, the floor, and had spattered the walls. The ghastly faces of our comrades met our gaze. We removed the bodies with despondent hearts. Our less in front of the Alamo was represented at two thousand killed, and more than three hundred wounded. The killed were generally struck on the head. The wounds were generally in the neck or shoulders, seldom below that. The firing of the beseiged was fearfully precise. When a Texas rifle was leveled at a Mexican he was considered as good as dead. All this indicates the dauntless bravery and the cool .self-possession of the men who were engaged in a hopeless conflict with an enemy numbering more than twenty to one. They inflicted on us a loss ten times greater than they sustained. The victory of the Alamo was dearly ])ought. Indeed the price in the end was well nigh the ruin of Mexico."

Tin.' inomiiiiL-nl of tin.' Alamo at Austin, has Travis on the South front, Bowie on tlic Mast trout, Crockett on the North trout anil Honhani on the West trout. Heueath these, iuscrihecl on the North and South fronts, 1)y Mr. Nagle, are the tollowini; uanie.s :

* It is also designed to rear a shaft in the centre of Alamo Plaza, to coniineinorate, in marble or in granite, the incidents of the fight of the Alamo, and of other contests of the revolution against Mexico; the ground for this monument has already been set aside by the city council of .San .Antonio.

The expression "luinting- it up in the records" is an apt phrase. It must have been coined l)y a man who could appreciate the similarity of the keen feeling of the chase with that ardor that an elusive fact arouses in one when it is traced and followed from document to document until - ping ! and you have it on the pomt of your Faber. It is almost like the pig sticking of India - for "facts are stuljborn things," Many an enjoyable ' 'run" has been made in the County \'ault, with what measure of success we leave the reader and critic to judge. If our bag is not full and we fail to obtain a mede of admiration for good sport, we still have the relish of the pursuit, not to .speak of the remembrance of the encouragement and help that has ever generously been accorded by that Nimrod of the records. Mr. Thad. Smith. To him our thanks are due for many a hint. His aid was found invaluable. His intimate knowledge of the vast amount of writing stowed away enabled us to take many a short cut. The ta.sk we set ourselves is all but completed and .space only allows of the merest mention of so much that would make the most interesting reading if intelligently edited and compiled. vSuffice it to say that there is material enough and to .spare to weave either hi.story or romance interminable. Romance of real events and life, stranger than the strangest fiction. Deeds, documents, proclamations, letters, wills, statements, di.spatches, grants and agreements, in fine every form of documentary evidence relating to the doings of Bexar and its restless children for a hundred and fifty years.

Here, a document relating to deep water on the coast - not by any means a new question it appears for it .s])eaks of the ex])loration of Matagorda and Aranzuzu Bays, by the Conde de Galvez in KiUO, one expedition going by land and another bj^ sea, when it was reported among other things that "the i)ort of Matagorda has a good depth." Again, in June, 1S()4 an ex])edition went forth to explore, and the explorers had to anchor, we are told, for three days in ICsjiiritu Santo ba}-. Other papers endorsed "Geograi)hicar' are doubtless of historical interest. Here, are papers relating to the partition of the Mission Concepcion lands, with the names, sexes and condition oftlie recipients, dated A. I). ITNO,

The next paper is a descri]>tion of a disastrous flood of the vSan Antonio river and ditches which destroyed much property, with a list of drowning casualties, July Sth, 1819. Following is a royal decree making vaccination compulsory, dated May 20th 1804. Another cen.sus of the Missions. Decrees of Coahuila and Texas, 1808. Census of the Alamo, Dec. -"Jlst, 1808. City ordinances 1S27-28. Boundaries of Texas. Anglo-Americans and their doings. De.scrijJtion of jail and barracks built by Ri])perda in 177."'>. Then an intensely interesting letter from Antonio Morales, from New Orleans just after the battle in 181.5, concerning the pirates of the gulf coast and the part they took in the fight. Ordinances of L,a \'illa Capital de vSan Fernando founded XovemI)er 28th, I7-">'> by Antonio de Aviles, or rather the growing settlement was then erected into a Royal Presidio. Large numbers of military papers, rosters and rolls of the Spanish armies. Papers relating to American colonists and their " uprisings" - jirisoners of war.

Mi:.M. - Ill tlif County Records may be seen a power ol atloriiey to Domingo Hiistillo from James Bowie, to administer James Howie's properly and the property Ijelonging to James Howie's deceased wife, I'rmla <le Veranienili. during liis, the said James Howie's absence from San Antonio, Dated June '_lKh, ls:;l.

On pages 208 et seq., of the work "Apuntes para la Historia Antigua de Coahuila y Texas," por Esteban L. Portillo, already mentioned in a note appended to the plan of Mission Concepcion, are some interesting passages of earliest San Antonio histor\-. The author, Portillo, gives at length a document which he says is to be found in the City Records of Saltillo concerning certain aid and assistance rendered by Don Mathias de Agujrre to the sixteen families of Canary Island emigrants when on their way through Saltillo to the Presidio of vSan Antonio de Bexar. The document as it stands is not quite lucid, at least not from the modern reader's point of view. It recjuires .some explanation here and there, and the editor regrets that for the present he is unable to inspect the original document, to see if there is not "more to it." For instance, these sixteen Canary Island families, numbering, as the document a\-ers, fifty-six persons, arrived in San Antonio according to accepted history and tradition, on November "iSth, 17o0, and here apparenth', are fifteen persons representing sixteen families, four of whom represent one family of themselves, * already (Jan. 29th, 1731), back in Saltillo, witnessing to this voucher of substance delivered to them, all in order that Don Mathias de Aguirre may be paid. Are we to suppose that these men made the long weary journey back to Saltillo just for this purpose and nothing more, or was Saltillo the early trading post of this new Texas Territory and did they visit vSaltillo for these two or more purpo.ses ? The reader must answer for himself this and other questions that will naturalh- arise ujion the perusal of the following most interesting matter :

" By a Royal decree of 10th May, 1723, the King of Spain ordered that four hundred families from the Canary Islands should emigrate (pasaran) to populate Texas.

" I think it opportune that the names of the founders of Bexar should be known, after having remained forgotten for .so many years. In an official document existing in the Archives of the Town Hall of this cityt is to be found a valuable record leading back to the >-ear 17'')1."

In the town of vSantiago del vSaltillo de la Nueva Vizcaia, on the twenty-niath of January, 1781, appeared present before me the Notary Public and the undersigned witnesses :

Juan Leal Goraz, Juan Leal the boy, Antonio Santos, Salvador Ro<lrij<uez, Josephe Cabrera, Manuel de Niz, I'rancisco Aroclia, Vicente Alvarez, Juan Delgado, Marino Melano, Juan Curbelo, and Phelipe Perez, Josephe Antonio, Martin Lorenzo, Ij^nacio Lorenzo. These last four comprise one family. They are sixteen families, althouf^h the Derrotero counted but fifteen. It was resolved here by Captain Don Mathias de Aguirre, at the request of the above named parties, to adjust (or regulate) for sixteen families, numbering altogether fifty-six persons, and these families declared that having presented and represented in writing to Captain Mathias de Aguirre that they came without provisions of any kind and were with neither mules nor horses, as stated to his Honour (or to his Worship i and proved by the fact that the horses they had exchanged were unable to continue the journey, and the mules had been returned to their owners ; that in order that they might be enabled to continue the journey to the Presidio of San Antonio de Vejar * they were given what was most convenient and necessary, namely : Kighty-six horses, as stated in detail in the account of the repartition that was made to each one of the families ; also, .seventj'-seven mules loaded with provisions for their maintenance during the journey from this town to San .Antonio; also, twenty-seven mules moreover to carrj' biscuit, meat and everything needed and necessary ; also, four mules employed to carry four panier loads (cargas de arganas), making in all the number alluded to, seventy-seven t mules. Also, sixteen yokes of oxen. But His Excellency ordered Captain Don Mathias de Aguirre to give only fifteen yokes, yet there was added one yoke for the four single men who make up a family, adding to said yoke the necessary ploughshare, an axe and a pickaxe. In the same manner they declared having received from the said Captain sixteen metates J with their grinding stones, as His Excellency had ordered the said Captain. And they said that the said Captain had delivered faithfully and without fault in the said Presidio de San Antonio de Bejar the sixteen yokes of oxen. All of which contained in aforesaid arrived as expre.ssed (or stated). They confessed and acknowledged to have received conformably all the above-mentioned, remaining satisfied, renouncing the laws of the delivered (las leyes de la t-iUrega) and the proof of the receipt contained in them. Leaving the payment of the amount to the will and convenience of His Excellency the Viceroy, (iovernor and Captain General of this New Spain, which amount the said Don Mathias de Aguirre will give in detail to the officials of the Royal Treasury in the City of Mexico, and to his Attorney, in order that he be paid the sum that would be equivalent to the above named in conformity with that which His Ivxcellency would be pleased to determine and order to be executed, and in order that all agreed upon remain as expressed in the above named contents, they signed it, the witnesses being

Joseph Ramon Ramos, Diego de los Santos and Augustin de Imenarrieta, present, anil neighliors of this said town, and who signed it at the request of those who could not sign, and those that could sign for themselves before me, the present Notary, I certify

Juan Leal Goraz, Francisco Arocha, Bisente Alvarez, Francisco Antonio Santo. Juan Delgado, at request of Juan Curbelo, Manuel de Niz, Juan Leal the boy, Jo.sephe Cabrera, Salvador Rodriguez, Jo.sephe Padron, and the four that comprised the extra faniily ; and for the widows INIaria Rodriguez and Maria Meleano. (^Witnesses) Diego de los Santos, Josephe Ramon Ramos, Augustin Imenarrieta. Before me, Ji'an" Sanchez de T.\c.i.E.

"At that L'poch the Marqtiis of Casa Ftierte was Governor in Xcw vSpain, it wa.s he who ordered General Don Mathias de Aguirre to provide the settlers of San Antonio de Bejar with necessaries to enable them to continue their expedition to the said Presidio.

"Cicncral Aj^uirrc dicil before the \'icei"es;al Government liad paid him the \ahie of the animals and provisions that he had furnished from his own resources. For this reason Senora Ana Maria de Ahnandos, wife of the defunct Aguirre executed a power in Saltillo on the first of Octol)er, of the year 17^52, before the Public Notary Dn. Juan Sanchez, de Tagle, in favor of l)n. h'ernando de ITj^arte, of the \icinity of the Capital of Mexico, in order to attend Ijcfore the \'iceroy to the pa\ nient which was due her defunct husband.

"The four liundred families, that the Kin.y; had ordered to be transported to Texas instead of ha\-ing ])een sent direct to tliat province, were disembarked at the Port of Vera Cruz so that they might arrive at their destination overland, and we .see that only sixteen families arrived in Ik-xar and the}- were the founders of San Fernando contiguous to the Mission of San Antonio."

January

Mr. W. G. ToI)in shows his great skill as a pistol nuirksmaii by shooting an apple, at a distance of thirty feet, off the head of Thomson (Ireen of New York, at a shooting gallery here 1858

An Act to incorporate the town of Nacogdoches and other towns (in which is included San Antonio) herein nameil, by the Republic of Texas (2nd document t l'nil)rella China '1' ices arc introduced 1)_\ Mr. C. I., l.t-gt-, Senior. lie jilants Iwo on North I-'lores street as an experiment. Nearls all San Antonio rnihrella China trees have been j)ro])a^ated from these two (are still standing, iSyo) ...'... 1863

A County election for the Pierce Railroad subsidy of f3oo,ooo. County vote polled 2694. Vote recjuired 2636. 5S Majority. This vote procured the Sun.set Road for San Antonio 1876

This Hall was never finished, it was afterwards used as a wholesale commission store and was burned out. In the meanwhile it was transferred to J. H. Kampimm. Four handsome stores were erected on this lot in March, iS^o. . ...

February

C lUmendorf, a prominent Xew Hraunfels immiifrant of '44 dies in San Antonio . 1878 Very cold and very slippery with ice. Telephone wires and trees break with the

Resolution adopted in the City Council to donate forty acres to the General G«)vernment for army purposes in the eastern jjortion of the City, on the site of the Government corral, near the present site of the Tost 1870

Marshall HaL Gosling shot and instantly killed on the train at New IJraunfels by Pitts and Yeager. Pitts and ]Mrs. Downes are kille(L Rosa Yeager and Charles Yeager are wounded. Yeager jumps with Pitts from the train, train going at forty miles an hour, Yeager mashes with a stone Pitts' dead hand and escapes. Deputy Marshall Manning, who had made a brave fight almost alone, is wounded in U\L- places 1885

The Month Op March

Yoakum, in his History of Texas, says, funeral honors were accorded the ashes of the heroes of the Alamo. "The dead had been Inirnt in three piles. The ashes were collected and placed in a neat black coffin, and interred by Juan Seguin by

M Arch The Month Of March

T. J. Devine, a much respected old citizen of San Antonio, having occupied many high public offices, came to San Antonio in 1843, identified with nearly all the best interests of the city, dies at the age of 78 1890

A bloody battle with Comanche Indians on the Main and Military Plazas; o7 Indians killed, 7 whites killed. Mrs. M. A. Maverick was an eye witness of this battle from a place of vantage in the original Maverick Home at the corner of Main Street and Soledad Street 1840

Battle of Salado. after the death of Magee. the .\niericans under Kemper and Mexican Republicans under Menchaca, i "Rebels" i with some Indian bands, are victorious over the San Antonio Royalist troops under the officers in the command of Governor Salcedo 1813

Incident in the "Magee Kxpedition" (see March 28): Governor Salcedo, Governor Herrera of New Leon, Ex-Governor Cordero and twelve officers of the defeated Royalist troops are murdered a few miles from San Antonio in revenge by the .son of Colonel Delgado and other.s. Kemper and the .\mericans leave disgusted at this barbarity 1813

Thk Month Of April

Col. Frank W. Johnson, one of the most famous Texas veterans, President of the Texas Veteran Association since its inauguration, second in command under Milam and who assumed command at the death of Milam at the storming of San Antonio, dies at Agua Calientes, Mexico 1884

Rear enlargement of the Maverick Hotel begun. iSee also Sept. lo, '77, and Feb. 1^, 'S2. il883 Joseph Jefferson plays Rip Van Winkle at llie opera house 1888

A home market for wool is established, first wool bought and warehoused here .... 1859 Capt. King, the great cattleman and land owner, dies in 1885

Myriads of grasshoppers are seen overhead flying in a northwesterly direction . . . 1858 The German English school is enlarged to accommodate 500 pupils about this date . . 1870

Susan J. Hannig (widow of Lieutenant Al. .Marion Dickin.son, who was killed in the Alamo) revisits the Alamo with H. B. Andrews, Bishop Quintard of Tennessee, and some early Texan friends. She and her daughter were the sole white survivors of the fall of the Alamo 1881

The removal of the Alamo Mission "San Jose del Alamo " is ordered by the Marquis \'alero, viceroy of New Spain, from the Rio Grande to its present site, and named "San Antonio de Valero." (This Mission was ori,i(inally founded on the Rio Grande in ITOH.^ 1718

The Month Of May

The Grenet Alamo property is sold for $40,200 to Hugo & Schmeltzer. (This property was condemned by the City Council on the same date 1889.) 1884

General Worth died at the James residence on Conunerce vStreet. ^ His remains were taken to Greenwood Cemeterj-, thence to New York. His monument is jjrominent on Madison Square, New York.) 1849

The first foundation stone of San Fernando Church, between Main and Military Plazas, was laid. (It was rebuilt and reopened with much ceremony October

New Braunfels is founded b}' Prince Solnis and a numl)er of German families . . . 1845 Van Dorn has another great fight with Indians on the Wichita expedition in which fifty Indians are killed. Fitz-Hugh Lee was reported mortally wounded in

The sale of the AlaiiU) Churc-li is linally consunimated al Austin for $20,000. iNejjotiations had been j)en<linji since February 18, ISHM, when the committee of tht-

.Much buildin)4 ^tiinj^ on at this date in San .\ntonio. Stuniberg's, Winslow's, and Kainptnaiin's (op])ositc the Maverick Hotel), and other new blocks of stores goin^ up on Houston Street. Keal estate transactions have been very active this si-riuK. 1890

Terrible hailstorm or shower of ice ; pieces weighing 2 '/2 pounds fall, doing upwards of JIOO.ODO worth of damage in the city and neighborhood, besides ruining crops 1868

DWlarconne, Spanish Governor of Texas, writes to De la Harpe, French Representative, claiming all the lands West of the X'assonites. (See July Sth.) . . . . 1719

.\n election held to decide if bonds for $50,000 shall be issued for additional school buildings and other facilities for education, the income of permanent fund to go to the sinking fund of bonds. The proposition is carried by a majority of 329 . . 1885

Archbishop Odin died at Ambiech, France. (He was formerly Bishop of Galve.ston and this district, and took a lively interest in vSan Antonio and Texas - an old Texas Bishop.) 1870

Bill Hart, a notorious gambler and desperado, was killed with two of his companions on Alamo Street in the Superveille House, behind Wolf & Marx's store, by the Vigilance Committee, headed by Fieldstrop, w^ho was also killed. Bill Hart, Miller, Wood killed on one side ; Fieldstrop killed and Taylor wounded on the Vigilance Committee side. No killing, perhaps, in San Antonio, ever created .so much excitement as this 1857

Belknap Rifles take third prize for company drill, San Antonio Rifles take fourth prize, Staacke, of San Antonio Rifles, takes first prize for best drilled man, all at Washington, D. C 1887

June

An Indian fight takes place near Hondo ; two whites and several Indians killed. The Indians are found to possess breech-loading rifles, which "had been exchanged for stolen horses" 1872

McDaniels, the robber, makes a marvelous escape from the County Jail in broad daylij^ht, cuttintj his shackles with a saw made of a bootspring. (vSee July 1 and -May 14) . .' ". . . . 1858

Beautiful I'arhelia are seen. "First a halo of prismatic colors, afterwards an immense red belt that stretched from North to vSoutli of equal width all along" . . . 1870

Skeleton of Frank Harris unearthed in the Robber's Cave at Helotes. His saddle and remains are identified. This is a last chapter in the history of the notorious robber gang 1886

The Month Of June

Mrs. M. A. Maverick came to San Antonio. (Mrs. Maverick is the widow of one of the best known old time Texans, S. A. Maverick. Mr. Maverick came to Texas before the fall of the Alamo, and narrowly escaped perishing with Travis' devoted hand and he took an active part in man}- stirring incidents of the city's history) . 1838

Menger Hotel foumlations are now being begun Ijy Wm. A. Menger. Hotel to cost #16,000, J. FI. Kampmann Iniilder. Many additions have l)een made to this Hotel since this date 1858

Foundation laid of St. Mary's Street Iron Foot Bridge. (This street was widened at Commerce Street end in January, ISiH), it being merely an alley at that point before) 1869

Work on the (Juartermaster's Depot and Water Tower is Ijegun by Hraden & Angus. Height of Tower 88 feet. United States Congress had appropriated $100,000 for work on this Depot 1877

San Antonio Street Railroad is formally opened by a party of gentlemen under the leadership of Colonel Belknap. They leave in a car at Northwest corner of Alamo Plaza for San Pedro Springs, Colonel H. B. .-\dams acting as driver of car No. 1 . 1878

July

McDaniels, escaped convict and highwayman, is shot and killed by Deputy United States ALarshals Van Riper and Stevens at Ben Coffee's goat catnp about eight miles from Boerne. in Bexar County, whither he had gone to see his sweetheart. He wrote a threatening letter to the Daily Express on June 19th. (See also June o and May 14.1 1885

A luinule of the City Records this day reads as follows: "In cousequeuce of the Council and citizens generally being engaged in making preparations to repel the aggressions of the Indians there was no meeting of the Corporation this da>-. Signed, W. P. Delmour Secretary, July lind'" 1838

The building which preceded the new Kampmann bank building and took the place of tlie original Maverick House, corner of Main and Soledad streets, is now V)eing

August

The Alamo Rifles resolve to disband, but did not tlo so until a short time afterwards . . 1878 Openingof the Confederate and Federal re-union at San Pedro Springs 1888

The Month Of Ai'Oust. 1.53

The "Great August Storm;" wind from the northeast; many thousands of dollars damage done to roofs and houses in the city, and the people are badly scared 1886

Vance & Bros, give one lot of land, for the erection of an Episcopal place of worship, to St. Mark's congregation. Mr. vS. A. Maverick also donates four city lots for church purposes 1858

Hcnrv Karnes, ouv of the old reniarkal)le trappers and ])ioneers, raised in Tennessee, anil was at the battle of Concepeion, dies in the month of An^nst in San Antonio. iKarnes County i;els ils nanu- liomhim.i 1840

The Month Of September

Stephen F. Austin returns to Texas about this date, after a prolonged enforced detention since April or May, 1833, in Mexico. (He is shortly elected General of the Forces at Gonzales, 1835, and says : " I fully hoped to have found Texas at peace and in tranquility, but regret to find it in commotion * and threatened

Bob Augustin, who came up from Goliad with others of his ki<hiey to join Sibley's Brigade, is arrested by Wni. Lyons for disorderly conduct, upsetting and overriding the chile stands on Main Plaza (see September Hth ) 1861

Bob Augustin is released by the Mayor, but is taken in charge In- a tletermined mass of citizens and one of the most exciting lynchings in the historj- of the citv follows. Bob is hanged on a tree at the southeast corner of Military Plaza at the entrance of Fl ores street (this tree was grimly named *La hey de Mondragon) at the hands of a vigilance committee and by the unanimous consent of a large mass of citizens, who had concluded that Bob was a bad man (see September 7, 1861) . . . 1861

At an eleetion held this day ( 1 ")(»() votes for and 4t) aifainst) the Colnnihusor "Sunset" route is subsidized hy the oity and county $o(l(), (1(1(1. (This did not materialize, see January L>)»lh 1873

While yellow fever is raging at Houston and (ialveston there is none in San Antonio 1867 The San Antonio Daily Herald is sold by auction 1878

General H. P. Bee came to Texas via Galveston, on the lirst trip of the Morgan line of steamers, steamship Columbia, Captain Wright. (The General took part in the Indian battle at Plum Creek between ,San Antonio and Austin, in 184(>, and he finally came to San Antonio in 18-42, during the Vasquez campaign. He served with distinction in many Indian cani])aigns, and in the invasion of Mexico by the ITnited .States 1837

A wrangle over the " Head of the River "' is now going on in the city, all to little ])urpose, since the city had sold its birthright securelv and legally 1886

The first regular trip in San Antonio of an electric motor car was made on the Alamo Electric Street Railway Company's track from Navarro Street to the International Fair Grounds, south of the city (Thompson-Houston system). Since this date, all the main street car lines have adopted electric motor cars of this and the vSprague system 1890

The Governor of Texas issues a proclamation of a severe character against fence cutters; also against persons unlawfully enclosing land by fences ... . . 1883

Skirmish at Gonzales between Texans and Mexicans over the possession of the Gonzales cannon. The Texans are victorious ; this opens the War of Texan Independence

The mail from San Antonio arrives at San Diego, Cal., in 26>< days. " Fastest time on record ; complete triumph of the Southern route." (It is afterwards done in

Indians kill three boys and a girl named Dowdy, above Kerrville, on the Guadalupe 1878 Grenet begins the inartistic wooden building for a grocery store adjoining the Alamo

Mrs. Hannij<, who was a survivor of the storming of the Alamo, and was the wife (jf Lieutenant Dickinson who was killed there, dies. (Mrs. Dickinson was the mother of "The Child of the Alamo.") 188^

City authorities are talking of widening Commerce street, along hy Groos' bank . . 1 867 Ground I^roken for the new vSan Antonio National Bank building, Commerce street. . . 1 88&

J. Ernest vSnutli, express messenger, is given a rousing reception for having so effectually disposed of train robbers on the Southern Pacific Railroad near \\\ Paso . . 1887

Case of Rhodes v. Whitehead et al. is decided in favor of defenchnit. This suit was to test certain ri.s^hts to use the ohl Coni'e])cioii ditch. This ditch was afterwards al)andoned ; it ran ah)nj^ Gartkn slucl from llu oM dam, now tlie Lewis mill dam. and was constructed ahoul tlie linu- i)( tlic foundiuL; of ilic Concepcion Mission, pR)bably about the year 17l".t, and it watcrcil the linids <if Ih.it Mi;.sion. This case was decided 1858

IJattle of Concepcion between Fannin's force of !Mi Texans and the Mexican troops from San Antonio, under Cos. The latter are driven back to the city. Richard Aiulrews is killeil, tlie first in this camjiaitn 1835

First Convent fool-hriilge is luiilt liy sul scri})iic-n ; it is afterwards wasliedaway .... 1868 Cardinal Gibbons is here, and next day he olTiciates at San PVrnando Cathedral . . . 1887

One thousand Texans under Austin at Mission Concepcion. iMany of them dis]>erse sh< rtly afterwards to escape the severity of the weather. Having been hastily summoned, they came unprepared to winter 1835

November

Corner stone of Cyerman Catholic Church of St^ Joseph laid with great ceremonv . . . 1868 The new building of the San Antonio National Bank, on Commerce street, is occupied. J886

Giraud, City Engineer (afterwards Mayor), begs the City Council to reserve the lots and head springs at the head of the river, and to re.serve a strip of land on the east

"Deaf," or Erastus Smith, a celebrated scout and pioneer of Texas rcvolutionarv times, was born April 19, 1787. He took an active part in the preparation of the defense of the Alamo, but was absent on duty during the seige, and shortly afterwards did good service at the battle of vSan Jacinto; dies 1836

The population of the City of San Antonio is reported about this date by tlic assessor as 7142. (It is supposed to be incorrectly estimated on Auj^ust Ki, isr),s, as City of San Antonio. o2«l ; County of Bexar, 4.S97. ) 1856

The Month Of December

Act of incorporation of the City of vSaii Antonio. (This is the third document of incorporation. See Jaiiuaiy, 173o and 178-4. Also January 1837) 1837

Kit Carson's letter published in the vSan Antonio Daily Herald, dated from Taos, New Mexico, saying that a little Texas bo\' had been recovered from the Indians and lie wishes him to be advertised 1859

The first Fair of the Agricultural and Industrial Association of Western Texas is opened 1868 I'ourteen thousand dollars is appropriated by the United States Congress to purcha.se

A city election is held to consider the advisa!)ility of takin<^ .stock in the San Antonio and Mexican Gulf Railroad ; 2fi7 votes ca.st, of which were in favor of the J.")(l,(»(l(l subscri])tion 1850

We have the most populous cit}' oi Texas, three main railroad lines, a perfect system of water works, the purest water, wood block-paved ])lazas and streets, several electric street car systems, the prettiest Opera and Club House in the South, beautiful public buildinjis.jiood electric lighting and gas systems, good hotels, a lovely river, a cliuiate second to none on this continent, efficient schools, three daily newspapers, the most important military post in the United .States, immense markets for horses, cattle, wool and cotton, a progressive mayor, a history inexhaustible in interest, and a magnificent future 1890

Advertising Appendicle

The property in the iieighborhood of the head waters of the vSaii Antonio River has always held an undisputed reputation of being the Garden vSpot of Texas. The River rises here, almost full-grown j within the distance of a quarter of a mile, from great mysterious springs bubbling in translucent pools of limpid water. Around and above this, the land is luxuriant to a degree with fine trees and sylvan greener}-, and, while enjoying all the attractions of a well timbered river bottom, it yet stand's high and above the low lands and the city, with exquisite views of the fertile valley below and of the mountains and hills reaching away to the north. Giant Pecans, Live Oaks, Hackberry, Elm, Box Klder, and many other noble trees are here in profusion, with a rich sprinkling of the beautiful Mountain I^aurel, an evergreen which in the Spring-time blooms in purple dress among the myriads of wild flowers with which the neighborhood teems at certain seasons of the year. Such in brief is an unexaggerated description of the propert}' acquired over a year ago by

And, up to the date of the pviblication of this work, not a lot has been placed upon the market, but, under the management of Mr. W. J. B. Patterson, the designs of Mr. R. R. Salter, C. E., of Denver, have Vjeen assiduously carried out. For a year or more a large force of men has been busily eniplo3'ed to make this place the most desirable residence property of our attractive and historic city. Landscape engineering as a science has been brought to tone a naturally beautiful locality. Wide streets, 80 to 100 feet, with 12-feet sidewalks, have been graded and graveled- Drives and roads have been constructed upon the contour lines of the land, insuring a natural drainage of all lots. Parks have been laid off and trimmed, and here the picturesque arroyos, which dip down to the Olmos creek, have been put to very effective purpose. This creek runs in an unbroken stretch of nearly a mile on the west side of this property- and empties itself into the River, just below..

A magnificent drive has been constructed from the city to the Alamo Heights Property by the City Council, a bonus having been provided by the Company towards this work. Along this drive, starting from the Federal Building, an Electric Street Car Line is rapidly being laid to this Suburban Addition, winding through and around. Five miles of track, standard gauge, are already under construction. The system will be Thompson-Houston. Cars will start every fifteen minutes and transit will be rapid - twenty or twenty-five miles being counted upon as the usual rate of travel.

N. B. - Five or six big springs, and fifty or sixty minor springs make this ])roperty a perpetual paradise, and insure the purest of drinking water.

Establishment

Is always replete with choice pure goods, and purchasers may rely on getting honest value for their money. j^ Mr. Holland is an expert in Teas, and personally

The Health Resort Of America

Kenville, on the Guadalupe river the queen of Texas rivers, is the terminus of the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway, and is seventy-one miles northwest of vSan Antonio. It has an altitude of l,6o0 feet above sea level, is 1,07(1 feet hij^her than San Antonio, and -T'jO feet higher than Roerne. It has a mean annual temperature of O-") degrees. Six degrees above zero is the lowest temperature ICVKR registered, and its degrees tlie highest. Rainfall 27 inches, with a dry, invigorating and health-restoring mountain air. George Wilkins Kendall wrote to his paper, the New Orleans Picayune, that if the sick people in the I'nited States could know of the health-giving qualities of this mountain air, there would liardlv be .standing room in our lovely green vallevs.

Kerrville is entirely surrounded by a circle of mountains and hills, which are clothed from base to summit with vegetation. The Guadalupe is of incomparable beauty. Here it winds along the foot of the hills, and its banks are fringed with trees; cedar, oak, pecan, etc., in summer affording a delightful shade for fishing, boating, or a stroll along its peaceful marge, innumerable creeks empty into it near Kerrville. Along the river, above and below town, and in the valleys, are numerous farms, producing cotton, corn, wheat, millet, sorghum, etc., and in the fields and meadows rich gras.ses grow in luxuriance. Kerrville is the trading and shipping point for an almost limitless scope of country for wool, hides, cattle, sheep, horses, mules and hogs. Much attention lately has been paid to the introduction of blooded stock.

The San xAntonio and Aransas Pass Railway has neat and commodious depot buildings here. The Fort Worth and Rio Grande railway is heading for Kerrville, and ere many months we shall liecome a railroad center and have a grand central depot.

The completion of the S. A. & A. P. railway to Kerrville, was the of>eit scsavie to this beautiful region with its fine farms and ranches, its alternation of rounded hills and l)road vallevs, its leaping, sparkling water courses ; its broad, gentl}- flowing river, its emerald and golden lights, and its vitalizing air. Air in constant and gentle motion. Al).sence of high winds ; bright; sunshiny days, and cool, breezy nights, even m midsummer, and the loveliest of landscapes, make Kerr county the sanitorium par excellence of America, especially for invalids suffering from consumption and pulmonary troubles.

The rich, alluvial soil of our valleys and plains back from the rivers, is adapted to the successful growth of the cereals, corn and cotton, and the acreage being cultivated is steadily on the increase.

Kerr county has a population of some 3,700. Kerrville, with her 1,200 inhabitants, is the count}- site, a little city set upon a plateau on the east bank of the Guadalupe in an amphitheatre of lovely hills.

Men of moderate means, and the will to succeed, can get along in Kerr county, (iood lands can be bought at prices and upon terms within the reach of all. This is destined to become a famous live stock region, and especially desirable for the rearing of horses and mules. With its nutritive native grasses, its pure water and rolling surface, strength of limb and hardness of hoof are as.sured. Cattle and sheep do well, and stock is being graded up. (rOod schools are maintained throughout the country. Churches are in a thriving condition ; the P^nscopalian, IJaptist, Methodist (South I, Presbyterian and Christian have congregations and houses of worship with resident ministers. The Catholics will erect a church at Kerrville this year. Private enterprise has given us flouring and saw mills and cotton gins. Kerr county has a water power unsurpassed bv any in Texas. We have fuel and building material in abundance and accessible. To the business man overcome by disease, who is seeking a new lease of life, we would sav, "stand not on the order of your coming," but come at once, before the enemy has effected a lodgment, and come to stay. Bring your cajiital with you. Do not fear that you will iim! no profitable investment for your mouey.

Men who have made some money in other jiarls will come here to gain health. With health restored, and enamored of the beautiful country, they will embark in those pursuits for which this section is best adapted

The most that we have said of the transcend'.Mit healthful ness of this lovely valley may l)e claimed for the entire country upon the head water of our west Texas .streams.

To that "somebody's darling" whose life is so infinitely dear to the loved ones at home, and so feebly held bv the frailest of tenure, we would say : Come to the mountains of Texas; come to the region of pure air and clear, limpid water ; come before hope and strength are too far gone, and come with a confidence that in this vitalizing atmosphere you will experience a feeling unfelt before,

Correspondence Solicited

Meerschcidt HiothtTs have been hij^hly successful with their three urcvious sulxlivisions ill this city, l)ecause they have dealt fairly and squarely with their customers, and in no instance have they misrepresented the attractions of their properties, and liave sold valuable jiroperty at prices and upon terms to suit the pockets of home-seekers.

They arc now layin);f out a lovely river subdivision, one mile south of the center of the ;'ity, within one block of the street car track, with j^raded streets and with water from the I'ily waterworks, and with the first chance at the y)ure gulf breeze. It is beautifully wooded along the river bank with giant pecan and hackberry trees. The lots are exceptionally large and long, and are eminently adapted for villa and clu)ice residences. Within a short distance of this desirable place

Their Prospect Hill property is still in the market. This alscj is an airy and desirable place in which to live, and is built up with nice houses of influential citizens. I^lectric street cars.

Meer.scheidt brothers al.so do a general investment and real estate bu.siness, have had a vast experience, and are well accjuainted with the safest properties of the Southwest. They own - for sale to actual settlers - farm lands in bulk or small portions in Frio county. All terms will be made ea.sy and satisfactory to meet the wants of their customers. They refer to any banker of the cit\- dud to their former ctisfotners.

New-York-And-Texas

Between New York, all Hasterii Cities, lun'ope and Texas. Try it and be convinced. THIS IS THE ONLY LINE that can offer a ticket COVERING ENTIRE EXPENSES to or from New York.

Martin & Schryver

vSTRANtiKRS should not fail to visit this I'aradise of Tropical Plants. Three vStories of Airy Galleries. Regular Musical Evenings. Kxqnisite String and Bra.ss Hand. Electric Service and Lights. Frequented by the best families. Card Tables, Lunch Stand, and most complete Billiard Rooms in the city.

Branch Yards At Comfort, Texas

For the care aud treatment of DISEAvSES OF WOMEN, of the CHEST, and of CHRONIC, NON-CONTAGIOUS DISEASES. Good diet, home influences, modern appliance.s, treatment medical and surgical, and constant siipervision, are important features of this institution.

James Duryee Stevenson

THE KAMPMANN BUILDING. take elevator. Speciai^Ties: Commercial Law, Collections, and Real Hstate Law in all its branches. I refer (without permission) to United States and State Judges and Court Officers in the Western District of Texas, and to all Banks and Bankers of the city.

Angora Skins And Other Pelts P. Railway Map

IS FOUND AMONGST THE HILLS AND FERTILE VALLEYS ON THE LINE OF THE SAN ANTONIO AND ARANSAS PASS RAILWAY, NORTH OF SAN ANTONIO. SEE S. A. & A. P. RAILWAY MAP. I have Fiirms and Raiiolies for sale in Kendall and Bandera <'<>nnties, and City Property in

Geo. Dullnig Block

( )ccupies the third floor of this large and handsome building, and is, without doubt to the knowing, the only absolutely first-class institution of its kind in the State of Texas.

Its illustrated catalogue is a master-piece of art and beauty, and should be in every household a.s an index to a School of Business and Xormal training, whose influence and popularity are felt and recognized throughout the land.

Tailor-Made Clothing

part of the Globe. Bric-a-Brac, Cut Glassware, Silverware, Cutler3\ Lamps, Gas Fixtures, Mantels, Fire-place Goods, Wrought Iron Goods, Japanese and Chinese Goods. Household articles. Gasoline vStoves, Kitchen utensils, Tinware, Woodenware, Brushes, Washing Machines and General Laundry articles, etc., etc.