Soy de Duval

POSTED BY:  CARDENAS.AE@GMAIL.COM   AUGUST 19, 2020 In 1768, Spanish authorities sent Fray Gaspar José de Solís to Texas to inspect the Spanish missions. After arriving at Laredo, he took the well-traveled road to Nuestra Señora del Espíritu Santo in Goliad. On his trek, he spent four days in northern Duval County. He arrived at the San Casimiro Creek northwest of present-day Freer on February 18, 1768, “where there were neither woods nor slopes.” But there was “fairly good water.” On the way, the priest had seen many “rare snakes,” no doubt the predecessors to the rattlers that gave birth to the Freer Rattlesnake Roundup. While at San Casimiro, a strong norther blew in with rain and snow. Since there was nowhere to take cover at that place, Father Solís and his party moved on through the bad weather. He soon passed La Retamita and finally came to the place called Señor San Joseph. While uninhabited, a grove of  mesquite, huisache , and  nopal  provided adequate...

POSTED BY:  CARDENAS.AE@GMAIL.COM   AUGUST 13, 2020 Another preview of my upcoming book,  Soy de Duval . There are several localities in South Texas with evidence of habitation attributed to a time prior to 11,000 years ago…there were claims some decades ago for the association of artifacts and mid-Ice Age fossils in the so-called “Equus beds” of Duval County… Thomas R Hester,  Digging into South Texas Prehistory: A Guide for Amateur Archaeologists To think of Duval County, Texas, is to imagine whitetail deer grazing in the brush along the roadways or maybe javelina skirting nopal. Perhaps it is envisioning a stretch of highway with mesquite and huisache here and there with palomas flying out of the brush. In some county roads, one may still come upon a vaquero on horseback. Now and then, a driver may spot an older woman wearing a gorra surrounded by children picking agrito berries along a roadside. They are placing them in her delantal and she will use the berries t...

POSTED BY:  CARDENAS.AE@GMAIL.COM   JULY 31, 2020 My friend John Koenig recently sent me a clipping from the Refugio Timely Remarks of September 4, 1941, which I am including below in its entirety. I am adding additional information  [in brackets in red]  from an article, “The Mexican and Indian Raid of ‘78,” that appeared in  The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association  in 1902. Freer, Texas.- The recent court case in McMullen county for possession of 734 acres of land out of the Pugh ranch, 25 miles from Freer, was a dry one in all its legal terms, but to know about the Pugh ranch is to hear stories of Indian and bandit raids, hidden gold and early pioneer life which is anything but dull. James Thomas Pugh settled on his 3,000-acre ranch in 1900. It was 50 miles from the nearest town of San Diego. Here for a few brief years, he herded wild mustangs into blind traps or up blocked canyons until they were captured and their wild free life over. B...