Sneak peek of: Soy de Duval, the Nineteenth Century History of Duval County, Texas

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Caballada, Eduardo Amorim, 2007

I am currently writing my next book, which will be my first non-fiction book. The book is tentatively titled Soy de Duval, the Nineteenth Century History of Duval County, Texas. From time to time I will be sharing snippets from the manuscript. Here is my first, which is a follow-up on last week’s blog; this is “the rest of the story.” Stay tuned in future blog posts for more information on my upcoming book.

Los Indios

On April 14, 1878, according to witness accounts, a gang of thirty to forty Kickapoo Indians accompanied by several Mexicans and a couple of white outlaws crossed the Río Grande forty miles north of Laredo. After raiding several ranchos and killing three men and wounding numerous others along the Río Grande in Webb County, the band headed inland. 

In a letter sent to United States Secretary of State William F. Evarts, a committee of local officials and leading citizens, none of which were Tejanos, described the raids in detail, giving some picturesque background. They wrote:

The time was demonically selected as propitious for such fell work. Few were abroad to note the progress of these raiders. The grass gave them abundant provender, and water, lately fallen, refreshed them everywhere. During the day the fruitful umbrage of the newly leaved trees screened them from observation, and the growing moon lighted their way by night.

The Indians killed two vaqueros employed by Justo and Prospero Guerra at Apache Hill, as well as Jorge García near his rancho. They also killed an unnamed shepherd in the employ of Jesús Ramírez at the Rancho Cerrito Prieto in Webb County. At the Palo Alto Ranch in La Salle County, they killed John Steele, who was unarmed; two children, Richard, eight, and George Taylor, twelve; Martín Martínez and Florentino Leo; and wounded Ventura Rodríguez. Mrs. George Taylor, however, had the presence of mind to swim across the Nueces River and escaped with her other children. 

From Palo Alto, the Indians rode towards Duval County. On the way, they killed Frederick B. Moore at San Ygnacio, where the attackers crossed the line into Duval County. Moore and his cousin E. Chapman Moore, who survived the attack, spent the previous night at the ranch of A. Labbe in Duval County. Labbe’s rancho was twenty-five miles north of San Diego, where the surviving Moore cousin said they had received “true and kind-hearted French hospitality.” Chapman Moore added that there were four white men in the raiding party. 

The raiders’ next target was the Rancho Toribio, where they killed Vicente Robledo and took or destroyed everything they encountered. The brigands wounded and thought they had killed Tomas Zuniga. On April 18, they then changed course and headed to the Rancho Soledad, thirty miles north of San Diego. At this rancho, they killed Guadalupe Bazan, and an unnamed shepherd and his wife. A small child witnessed their killing, telling investigators that “their bodies were tied together, dead, and swung upon a horse, and which was turned loose.” 

The Indians took off shortly after noon to Charco Escondido, a rancho owned by Richard Jordan about thirty miles northwest of San Diego, arriving at five o’clock. There they killed Jordan’s nineteen-year-old son John and his elderly friend Antonio Valdez. Jordan’s other son Samuel rode to seek help at the Gravis brothers’ ranch six miles east of Charco Escondido. 

Frank Gravis had received a message from his neighbor Jorge Alaniz, who lived four miles away, that Alaniz was gathering a posse to go to Rancho Soledad to find the trail of the Indians and pursue them. Alaniz asked Gravis to assemble some men and join him. Gravis sent word to Edward Caldwell, at Rancho Borjas, informing him of the situation and asking him to spread the word to other neighbors and ask them to join the posse. 

From the Rancho Muñoz, Gravis sent a runner to alert the commanding officer of the U.S. troops in San Diego of the activities underway, asking them to pursue the plunderers. He followed it with a second note informing the Army commander as to which way the Indians had gone. Richard Jordan had also sent a message to the troops at San Diego, delivered to County Judge James O. Luby, who, in turn, shared it with the troop commander. The commander informed the judge that he was aware of the goings-on and had sent out a company of ten men, which he said: “was a sufficient force to whip the fifty Indians.” 

Jordan, the bereaved father, stayed at his ranch for twenty-five days and never saw any Army troops pass by to chase the raiders. At daylight on April 19, Gravis and a party of nineteen followers pursued the Indians who had run into Margarito Rodríguez about ten miles west of Charco Escondido in the unorganized county of Encinal and mortally wounded him. Before his passing, Rodríguez told Gravis that a white man led the Indians, and they were pushing a large herd of horses. The Indians split up into small groups, causing havoc as they went. 

The Indians then attacked a wagon train and killed a mule and then shot and killed a shepherd, José María Canales, at Quijotes Gordos, and threw his body upon a campfire. Gravis was still in pursuit but realized he was closer to Laredo and sent a message to Major Sellers, Commander at Fort McIntosh. Sellers asked local businessman Felix von Blücher to serve as a guide for a detachment that the commander ordered to look for the raiders. 

The Indians continued on their rampage, driving ahead of them a great caballada taken from the ranchos. The Gravis posse caught up with the Indians eighteen miles from the Río Grande. The militia charged on the attack, but the more significant force of Indians forced them to retreat. The Army troops got there too late, as the plunderers had already crossed to safety in Mexico. 

When he returned from the pursuit, Gravis heard stories from many of the men who had joined him from the neighboring ranchos about Indians that they killed. The names of these heroic hombres, as were those of Mexican ranch hands and shepherds who died in the raids, were not reported to the Secretary of State, and they remain known only to themselves, their loved ones, and their maker. 

On April 19, 1878, the Indian party crossed back into Mexico at Rancho Dolores, twenty-five miles south of Laredo, and escaped with an estimated 100 stolen horses. Dix, the Duval County Surveyor, lamented the actions, or lack thereof, by the Army troops in both San Diego and Laredo. He said he had more confidence in a company of Texas Rangers than he did on Army troops. Indeed, the Army troops in South Texas, unlike their comrades in other parts of the country, played an almost inconsequential role in addressing the Indian threat. 

This incursion, however, proved to be the last major one by Indians into Duval County. It happened at the time when Indian raids throughout the United States were diminishing. It marked the end of an era; it was

Less an elimination of a military threat than an eradication of a way of life…

Following are some of the books I consulted for this chapter that are still available to buy:

  

24 COMMENTSON "SNEAK PEEK OF: SOY DE DUVAL, THE NINETEENTH CENTURY HISTORY OF DUVAL COUNTY, TEXAS"

  1. Susanna Goodman | February 5, 2021 at 1:03 pm | Reply

    I just ran across your blog by accident. My great-great grandparents were probably living in San Diego by 1878 and would have been frightened by the raid. He was definitely a doctor there in the 1880s. My great grandfather was the Hugo Heldenfels who built your 1879 courthouse. I plan to keep following your blog and look forward to your book.

    • cardenas.ae@gmail.com | February 5, 2021 at 4:31 pm | Reply

      Good to have you onboard Susanna. Who was your great-great-grandfather who was a doctor? There were three doctors in San Diego during those years.

  2. David Smith | September 25, 2020 at 11:31 pm | Reply

    Smittysez. (David Smith)
    Isn’t this the same raid on, detailed by capt. Edward Nixon Gray who ranched there? (April14,1878).
    **I did not see his name mentioned. It is my understanding, A young boy was killed by an arrow there,mr. Gray’s son, he’s buried there near the county road 101 (old fitzimmons/stagecoach road). Gray petitioned for years,the government for livestock losses, I reckon they were indeed upset.
    There’s a historical marker nearby placed by efforts of the Temple and Gray families.
    https://www.jstor.org/stable/30242662

    • cardenas.ae@gmail.com | September 26, 2020 at 10:31 am | Reply

      Smitty, I’m not sure this was the same raid. I believe this was the last Indian raid in the area, but there were many raids. I am curious, however, on your reference to the stagecoach road. I have never run across any substantive references to the stagecoach that ran through Duval County. Do you have more info on this? Is this in the Borjas area? I remember attending a historical marker dedication some years ago in that area. Any info you have would be appreciated.

  3. Juan Guerra | September 22, 2020 at 7:22 am | Reply

    Always look forward to your history lessons. My grandfather and his family (Perez) lived in San Diego, Duval County, in 19th century thru early 20th and look forward to reading more from your writings. Thank you and can’t wait for your new book.

  4. Salinas family | August 12, 2020 at 6:01 am | Reply

    Wow! Can’t wait to get a copy for my father;grew up in Concepcion, TX.

  5. Robert Cox | August 10, 2020 at 10:48 am | Reply

    Great read of the snippet. Look forward to your book.
    Born and raised in South Texas (Webb & Frio Co.); currently now in East Tx. Lots of E.Tx history; we’re short on South Tx history. Keep it up!!

  6. Rose Flores | August 8, 2020 at 12:42 pm | Reply

    Very interesting history of Duval county.

  7. Ramiro RJ Molina | August 7, 2020 at 6:03 pm | Reply

    A very nice read and even better than the other articles that I’ve read about the South Texas 1878 Indian raid. As I was reading it, I felt like I was watching a western movie or a TV episode, the difference was that it really happen. If only the western movies and TV conveyed more Tejanos as ranchers and good citizens as you just did Mr Cardenas.
    I learned from you that the unestablished Encinal county existed longer that I had earlier thought. The area ranchers had tried to establish a Texas county for decades (could not meet the legislature standards) until the area merged with Webb County.
    Keep up the excellent work and best wishes to you and your family.

    • cardenas.ae@gmail.com | August 7, 2020 at 10:05 pm | Reply

      Thank you, RJ. History often holds surprises and it always holds back something that will be revealing to someone.

  8. Leopoldo Perez | August 7, 2020 at 1:44 pm | Reply

    Thank you Mr. Cardenas, looking forward to
    reading more of your awesome history stories.

  9. Luis N Martinez | August 7, 2020 at 9:49 am | Reply

    Enjoyed reading your “snippet” Alfredo. Keep them coming.

  10. Dr. Manuel Flores | August 7, 2020 at 8:23 am | Reply

    Señor Cardenas, muy interesante. Enjoyed it. Want to see more. Hope you are well. Take care y cuidate.

  11. Dr.James Ross Richardson Picquet | August 6, 2020 at 8:30 pm | Reply

    Very well recorded, sir. I look forward to more. My famaly were early ranchers 20 miles South of Freer on the Rancho Encinos and at the Rancho Reyes between Freer and San Diego. We had Richardson family in Alice, Bishop, Hebronville, McMullen County, and just North of Premont.

  12. Ramiro C. Salinas | August 6, 2020 at 7:22 pm | Reply

    Loved it. Great history in Duval and surrounding area

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