Soy de Duval

In 1871, San Diego had a bank, two hotels, a weekly newspaper, general store and a number of cattle raising and farming operations. There were 135 legal voters in Nueces County voting Precinct 6, which included mostly San Diego. It also had a school with one teacher and as many assistants as were required. Nueces County voters elected James O. Luby Justice of the Peace in Precinct 3 and later as county commissioner. He served in these positions until 1876 when voters promoted him to be the first county judge of Duval County. Judge Luby went on to earn the nickname of the famous “fighting Republican”. Luby, a Select Master in the Masons, married Mary Hoffman in 1871. They went on to have five children. Another Duval County politician to arrive in San Diego in 1871 was J. Williamson Moses. He succeeded Luby as Duval County Judge and played an important role in the county’s early political history. In 1872, Luby reported that Kickapoos made three raids near San Diego. Citizens sent scouts...

From 1870 to 1880 sheep raising was the most profitable industry in Duval County. There were more than a million sheep in Duval and Nueces counties. Land was cheap and, unlike other sections of Texas, sheep owners and cattlemen had a good relationship. Many of the sheep men purchased land for as little as 12 cents an acre; often it was originally a Spanish land grant. The sheep yielded a better clip than usual in excellent range conditions. All stock was doing well. The population of San Diego was 1,083. N. G. Collins operated a store in San Diego where he traded in hides, wool, sheep, mutton, horses, mares, etc. Not everything was peachy in the sheep business, however. On December 27, 1870, attorneys  Løvenskiold  and McCampbell sold at auction 2,500 head of sheep and 1,000 head of goats belonging to Diego Garza. The auction was held at San Diego Rancho in front of the Collins store. The sale was to satisfy a promissory note Garza gave from Alfred Moses on June 13, 1869 for $...

Following is the Flores family tree shared with us by Eddie Garcia. The Flores family were the original grantees of the San Diego de Arriba and San Diego de Abajo land grants. Theresa Alvarado-Cunningham | February 16, 2019 at 5:50 pm | Reply (Edit) I am a decendant of Jose Antonio Ibáñez and was interested in looking at the Ibáñez lineage compiled by Eddie Garcia. I clicked on the link but was unable to open the file. Has the link expired? cardenas.ae@gmail.com | February 18, 2019 at 9:41 am | Reply (Edit) Sorry but there are no links to each family. Mr. Garcia’s email address does appear on the post so you may want to contact him directly. FYI my wife is an Ibanez but we are not great genealogists and have only a little information, but it does not go that far back. Good luck with your search. Alfredo E. Cardenas | October 29, 2013 at 12:49 am | Reply (Edit) Joe, Eddie sent me a file on the Ibanez family. He said" The Ibanez lineage is not only connected with the Flores Fam...

In 1868 and 1869, Duval County residents spent much time clearing titles to their lands. On May 27, 1868, Starr County Judge Samuel Stewart directed County Surveyor Felix Blucher to survey the five leagues of land at Concepcion originally granted to Francisco Cordente, which Juan Manuel Ramirez purchased from Cordente’s widow. On June 18-24, Blucher, with the help of chain crew Joseph Dunn and Edward H. Harney, conducted the survey of the Santa Cruz de la Concepcion.  Four months later, on September 12, 1868, Judge Stewart certified that the owners had paid taxes through 1868 on Santa Cruz de la Concepcion. El Senor de la Carrera grant was resurveyed in March 1868 and a judgment and decree was issued to Benito Gonzales Garcia on October 31, 1868. Garcia had first filed suit on May 21, 1864 in the 14th District Court in Nueces County presided over by E. B. Carpentier. Garcia sued under “an act to ascertain and adjudicate certain legal claims for land against the state, situated betw...

In April 1861, Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter. This was the start of the War Between the States, more commonly known as the Civil War. Within a year, the war had reached San Diego. In March 1862, men met at the home of E. N. Gray in San Diego, and chose 50 year-old Clemente Zapata, a native of Zapata County, as captain of Company B in the Confederate Army. Zapata was an experienced fighter having taken part in a number of battles along the border. He later left the Confederate Army and enlisted in the Union forces. Both Confederate and Union armies were desperate for soldiers and sent recruiters into the brush country looking for draftees. Many local men got around from conscription by proclaiming Mexican citizenship. On a visit to Duval County area ranchos of Los Olmitos, Concepción, San Diego, and Amargosa, recruiter I. W. Engledow found that “nearly every other man I met claimed to be a citizen of Mexico and, therefore exempt from conscription.” This ploy did not work with ...

The prevailing issue in Nueces County in 1860 was land. No other issue concerned the Mexican American community and the old time settlers. Juan Cortina’s raids or the looming clouds of secession may have distracted the newcomers, but land was the central focus for the old-timers, both Mexicans and Anglos. The owners of the land grants, their families, and their ranch hands were vitally interested in ensuring that the land stayed in Mexican hands. This solidarity among Mexicans of all classes was described by a later writer as a yearning “for membership in a community that exerted …pressure on individuals to think in group terms and contribute to collective goals through political action. Solidarity thus came to be viewed as a key resource for political engagement…”  Candidate John McKinney’s role in the Saviego case was not lost on the Mexican American of Duval County – Charles Lovenskiold and Felix Blucher must have made sure of that. The Saviego case illuminated to Mexican ...