Soy de Duval

The economy in East Texas in October 1899 was having an adverse affect in Duval County. Don Placido Benavides returned from a horse selling trip to East Texas with his entire herd. He could hardly give away a horse, money was so scarce. Daniel Gonzalez had a little better trip to East Texas; he sold all his mules, but had to bring his horses back. Adding insult to injury, Don Placido’s son Ysidro had a horse and saddle stolen in Benavides. Smugglers were very active in the area. Rangers jailed three smugglers caught with horses and mescal. Three smugglers escaped into the brush. Many blamed the smugglers and transient Mexican labor for the hard times. Some 5,000 Mexicans were allowed into the country to help with the cotton crop. Five hindered passed through Duval County on their way back to Mexico. Cotton had become an important crop with cotton gins operating 24-hours a day during the picking season in all three communities of San Diego, Benavides and Concepcion. Cotton replaced ca...

On the Monday morning, Aug. 7, 1809, Jose Faustino Contreras began the survey of the Santa Cruz de la Concepcion grant of Francisco Cordente. The survey got underway under the direction of presiding judge Jose Antonio Guerra. Also on the survey team were witnesses Jose Ygnacio Ibanez and Jose Ypolito Pena. In accordance with custom, Guerra directed surveyor Contreras and his men to prepare the instruments. Contreras took a staff of ample size and strength and tied to it at one end with a cord prepared for this purpose. Then he measured off 50 varas and then tied that end of the cord to another staff, the same size as the first. Contreras placed his compass at the foot of a hill located in a small grove of mesquite trees and called this place San Pedro. He moved from south to north to measure the west side of the survey. The surveyors extended the cord 200 times, came to a large mesquite near Laguna de Retamas, and named it Mesquite del Cuervo. The survey party stopped for the noon hou...

In doing research into the past, it is sometimes difficult to nail down what you read and reconcile it with what you think you know. It has been my belief that the cities of San Diego and Benavides incorporated in the 1930s, and yet in the Corpus Christi Caller of 1888, we read about city officials in Benavides leading the city’s celebration of Cinco de Mayo . To complicate matters further, the newspaper provides no names of these officials. In any case, on May 6, 1888 a 21-gun salute started the festivities as citizens raised both the U. S. and Mexican flags at the center of the main plaza. Another tidbit that raises a question is whether Benavides had or has more than one plaza. In San Diego we know that the main plaza is across the Catholic Church, as it is in Benavides, and that a second plaza, Alcala, is located on the Freer highway. But where is the second plaza in Benavides; perhaps our Benavides readers can clear this up for a non-native. Martial music and shouts from the ...