Benavides: The Town And Its Founder, 1880 (Part 4 - The End)

 

 by Arnoldo De Leon

Arnoldo De Leon

Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus, Angelo State University

In 1880, when the railroad company asked his permission to locate a depot on property that belonged to him, he quickly granted the request. Thus the erection of the depot on Placido Benavides’ property symbolizes the beginning of Benavides the town.¹⁸

The following year, the founder generously donated eighty acres of his property to the community developing around the little railroad station.¹⁹ After that, the town named after him and situated less than a mile from his ranch house grew steadily so that newspaper reporters mentioned the town matter-of-factly within the year.²⁰ Don Placido took an active interest in the politics of the pueblo. In 1888, for example, he served as a delegate to the county convention meeting in San Diego.²¹ As before, Don Placido continued tending to his stock at his ranch and selling horses throughout the state.²² In the mid-1880s, he joined other ambitious planters around the Benavides area in experimenting with cotton planting.²³

At that time, Benavides, Texas, was a rising town with a little plaza that served as the gathering point for social functions such as the Diez y Seis de Septiembre celebration.²⁴ Hard-working businessmen included José Vaello (a Spaniard), the firm of Vera and Company, and Ramrez and Roman.²⁵ These were the beginnings of a community that would enjoy a promising future within its founder’s lifetime. When Don Placido passed away in 1919, the town named after him continued to experience prosperity and a prominent place in the affairs of Duval County.

The End

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Appendix

Ysidro Benavides, the younger brother of Placido Benavides, came to the Duval County region in the 1850s when the family moved from Victoria. The Nueces County tax rolls for 1869 show him paying taxes on 160 acres of land. According to those tax records, which list him for the period 1869-1876, Ysidro Benavides’ taxable belongings included:

The census for 1880 indicated that he headed a household of eight people, including his wife Reyes and five children: Carlos (age eight), Matiana (age six), Antonia (age four), Josefa (age two), and Jose María (six months old). A servant also made up the household.

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Footnotes 

¹⁸ Benavides interview, March 17, 1980, Hebbronville, Texas.

¹⁹ Ibid. Sadly, Texas history has credited Captain Placido Benavides, the Victoria grantee, and hero of the Texas Revolution, as the founder of Benavides, the town. For just two examples of this kind of misinformation, see Webb et al., Handbook of Texas, I, p. 146, and Corpus Christi Caller, Corpus Christi, Texas, March 18, 1980, p. lB. How could a man who died in 1837 have donated land (and to whom) in the unpopulated South Texas chaparral? Moreover, none of the standard sources on Captain Placido Benavides (sometimes called the “Paul Revere of the Texas Revolution”) record that he had any land holdings in that section of the state. Nor could it have been a son who founded the town, for the old grantee had none, just daughters. According to Leopoldo Benavides, there has been someone named Placido and Ysidro in every generation since the Benavides family originally came to the Victoria, Texas, area. See the genealogy charts. 

²⁰ San Antonio Express, July 21, 1882, p. l; June 13, 1888, p. 7; October 4, 1888, p. 3. 

²¹ Ibid., June 13, 1888, p. 7. 

²² Corpus Christi Weekly Caller, September 1, 1893, p. 7; October 27, 1899, p. 1. 

²³1bid,, March 21, 1886, p. 4; Nay 2, 1891, p. 8. 

²⁴ San Antonio Express, September 21, 1886, p. 6. 

²⁵ Ibid., August 8, 1888, p. ____________________________________________________________________________________

Books by Arnoldo de Leon