Fourth of July was big celebration in San Diego

On July 2, 1887, The Corp Christi Caller reported that Moritz Cohn of E. Morris & Co. was delivering quite a number of ready-made suits to boys in San Diegoy. William Hubbard, meanwhile, reported that the well digging at N. G. Collins’ place was not going well. A foul air was being encountered at 150 feet and scarce water was found.

Judge Wright bound Pancho Bazan (?) to grand jury for allegedly stealing pair of boots. The accused failed to post bond and was jailed. There were 16 prisoners in the county jail.

E. E. Denner married Johanna Nathan.

The following week, the jail’s population had grown to 19 as the district court opened its session. A disturbance in the town’s west side the previous Saturday night resulted in one man charged with assault to murder and carrying firearms and another was held for assault.

Avelino Perez’ ranch, two miles from town, had grass in abundance and 40 acres of cotton and watermelons. Rev. Sutherland of San Diego planned to make prohibition speech in San Diego.

San Diego celebrated the Fourth of July in grand style. In the afternoon, the Gun Club assembled “in brilliant array.” The grounds were decorated with American flags, tents were put up, lemonade and beer were handed out to the ladies and visitors, and a band of musicians played.

A great crowd enjoyed the festivities. A Mr. Tibilier raised an Irish flag among the American and Texas flags. There was also a Mexican flag, “As no American could be more enthusiastic than were the Mexicans in celebrating the day,” the newspaper reported.

Gun Club members included Charley Hoffman, M. C. Spann, Ferdinand Tibilier, George Bodet, Frank Gravis as well as new members, Avelino García Tovar, Eusebio Martínez, and Antonio Rosales. W. B. Croft and John Buckley were also present.

On entering the grounds, the Gun Club formed a procession with the band of musicians. Everyone went to serenade J. O. Luby, club president, who had to attend to business in his law office and could not attend the celebration. Some anti England comments were made, which may have been the real excuse or the native Englishman’s absence, the newspaper said in jest.

Over in Benavides the Fourth of July was celebrated on a small scale with 13 guns fired. An excursion train, meanwhile, ran over a cow and cut off the tail of one of Mrs. Villarreal’s pigs, “to the delight o the boys.”

The county attorney had a “purely Mexican” case at Benavides where the jury, witnesses, defendant, nor opposing counsel spoke English. And the audience was all Mexicans. The newspaper expressed surprise that even under these circumstance the jury fined the defendant $5, which he paid along with court costs. And “they say Mexicans don’t want law enforced,” reported the correspondent named Jeffreys.

E. L. Feuille of San Diego made photo enlargements of crayon size, 20 x 24 and 32 x 36 in fine gilt frames for $25. His offer was good for only couple of weeks.

Alfredo E. Cardenas | September 20, 2014 at 9:28 pm | Reply (Edit) Thanks for this information. Glad you are enjoying the blog. Please suggest to others who may have an interest in Duval County. Anonymous | September 20, 2014 at 9:26 pm | Reply (Edit) Johanna Nathan Dennery is also buried in that cemetery in Corpus Christi. Bertha Nathan married Julius Henry. Given the date of birth of the two Nathan women, I suspect they were sisters or maybe cousins. E.E. Dennery was listed in helping to settle the affairs of Paul Henry when he died. I found that information when I did a search on E.E. Dennery. Lisa Montague Alfredo E. Cardenas | September 9, 2014 at 1:40 pm | Reply (Edit) Thank you Chista for your memories. Unfortunately, I do not have any more information than what I have here. Perhaps someone else will help us out. Rene Garcia | September 9, 2014 at 1:39 pm | Reply (Edit) Hello…Alfredo… I was reading some of your posts and ran across were you memtioned La Motta de Olmos. I know it was located south of Gonzalitos store in Cruz Calle. My aunt Zulema Valadez was the teacher at the one room school house there when I was like 3 years old. I remember everything about the school and the old fort looking house that stood in front of the school and the old couple that lived on the south west side of the school but can't remember were the exact location of where the school was. Would you happen to know where it stood. Note: For some reason Masedono comes to mind as the name of the old man that lived by the school. The property were the school stud could have been his. I could be way off on the name though… There was a dry creek that ran west side of the school and the old couples house. I remember going to a school party held on the creek. It must have been around 1955… Thanks Rene Garcia (Chista)