Soy de Duval

Well, I finally went and did it. I am not from the social media generation but more and more people of my age are getting on Facebook so I took the plunge. It will afford me the opportunity to reach more people for this blog and also gives me an avenue to share historical tidbits that may not lend themselves to a blog posting. For example, I shared this story, which has a history of the Freer Rattlesnake Roundup , and this piece on the 1914 fire that razed the Duval County Courthouse . Feel free to visit me on Facebook by using the link at left.

As the Ford rangers were pulling out of the Trans Nueces, the Bourland and Miller Commission was pulling into Corpus Christi to begin hearings on land titles in the region. The Texas Legislature created the commission with the intent of certifying ownership to the land grants made by Spain and Mexico up to the time of the establishment of the Republic of Texas on March 2, 1836. The commission met with initial disdain from area residents who feared it as a ploy by the legislature to take their lands and make it available to speculators. Commissioners Bourland and Miller were able to quiet these fears by affirming ownership to a number of titles with due haste. In August or September of 1851, the Commission arrived in Nueces Country. In 1852, the Commission confirmed Francisco Cordente’s ownership of Santa Cruz de la Concepcion.   The following year, District Surveyor for Starr County R. C. Trimble, along with chain carriers Agapito Garza and Crispín González resurveyed the Santa Cru...

In 1848, the Nueces County Commissioners Court appointed William L. Cavanaugh agent and commissioner to lay out a road between Corpus Christi to Laredo. Late that year, Col. Henry Kinney opened a similar trail to Laredo, 138 miles away, through Los Angeles. William Manning of Corpus Christi surveyed Kinney’s road, which was laid out by affixing a plough share to a wagon to turn a furrow the whole distance to the Rio Grande. This served as “a clear and perceptible trail until a permanent road” was cut. The road covered a distance is 145 miles and had an upper branch that split off to Mier and a lower branch to Rio Grande City and Camargo. The return of peace and the new roads, gave rise to increased business between Mier and Corpus Christi. Traders from Mier traveling through Duval County brought in some 90 to 100 wagons to Corpus Christi to purchase some $40,000 worth of lumber and other supplies for both sides of the Rio Grande. While there was considerable trade between Corpus C...

Some of the earliest mention of San Diego as being more than a ranch came in 1844-1845. A Texas state surveyor named Capt. John J. Dix is reported to have done work in the vicinity of San Diego in 1844 and reported that the “settlement” of San Diego contained some 25 families. Other sources say that in 1845 San Diego was a trading post. It was about this time that the Republic of Texas was making its decision to enter the United States and things would again change for the landowners and residents of the Nueces strip. In 1845, Lt. W. B. Gray was second in command under H. Clay Davis, of a Republic of Texas ranger company stationed in Corpus Christi Rangers, which no doubt would have made forays into San Diego. Ponciano Villareal was the only Spanish-named ranger included in the company. Gray’s family members would later move to Duval County and play a significant role in its organization and development. In addition to the ranger company, Gen. Zachary Taylor of the union army also esta...

While the state of Tamaulipas continued to make grants in the area claimed by the new Republic of Texas, a new uncertainty exploded unto the scene. General Antonio Canales and Antonio Zapata launched a revolt against the Central government in Mexico and declared the Republic of the Rio Grande as a new and independent nation. Canales, who had threatened rancheros in the trans Nueces with treason if they remained in the region, was now cozying up to the Texians with whom he shared Federalist tendencies. Throughout most of 1840, Federalist leaders engaged in open revolt against Mexico and much of their military maneuvers took place in the brush country of South Texas. Their ranks swelled to a 1,000-member Army that was bivouacked in Lipantitlan and San Patricio. This prompted the Central government to send mounted troops to police the area north of the Rio Grande as far as the Nueces. This then prompted Texas President Mirabeau B. Lamar to also send troops into the area. Some 400 voluntee...