Colonial France, Spain and Native America in the New World.This historical overview covers the period of French and Spanish Colonization of Louisiana and Texas to roughly the period of the Republic of Texas. (1550-1840)
Tableau de Content
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History of Our Land; History
of Our People
This is a very brief overview of
the history of the geographical region of Colonial France and Spain in
the New World. As many of our ancestors are aboriginal peoples, I have
taken care to note what little history I could concerning the various tribes
of the Louisiana region as well. This is by no means a comprehensive
study and the human race would be better for each of you taking time to
read more history. A short bibliography follows at the end. ©
Evelyn Carroll 1999
The Mississippi River has been known by many names, a few are listed below:
Native American : Mississippi (probably Alonquian, meaning roughly "Father of Waters")
Spanish:
Rio Grande
(BIG River)
Rio del Espirito Santo (River of the
Holy Spirit)
Palizada
(for the Palisades-like mud formations at the mouth)
French:
St. Louis
(for the seemingly indestructable Sun King)
Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle came from
the north via canoe from the intersection of the Illinois and
Mississippi rivers. Among his group was his friend and ally, Henri
de Tonti, an Italian soldier of fortune. They arrived at the Gulf
of Mexico on April 9, 1682. He named the land Louisiane in honor of King
Louis XIV, the Sun King. He obtained permission (but not funding
) to return to the New World to set up a colony but was unable to find
Louisiane again upon his return.
In 1687 he was murdered by his own men when he
tried to make his way back up to Canada. La Salle and de Tonti, who
had sailed down river from Illinois had planned to meet at an Indian camp
between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. When de Tonti failed to locate
Las Salle he left a letter for him with a chief of the Bayougoulas. The
chief kept the letter for twelve years and presented it to the French explorers
who came later.
La Salle is credited with establishing the
French foothold in Louisiana and for naming the territory, but the man
recognized as the founder of Louisiana was Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur
d’Iber-ville a 37-year-old-war hero.
Pierre and Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne were two of
eleven sons of Charles Le Moyne.
The founder of Louisiana
Pierre LeMoyne ,d’Iberville (3rd eldest son) had
distinguished himself in the Hudson Bay campaign of King William’s War
and was a celebrated naval war hero. In 1699 King Louis XIV sent
Iberville and a group of explorers, including his brother Jean-Baptiste
LeMoyne {Bienville} and about 200 settlers to follow through on La Salle’s
earlier claims to territory on the Gulf of Mexico.
They settled forts in Biloxi (MS), Mobile
(AL), Dauphine Island (AL). In the early 1700’s Dauphine Island (in
Mobile Bay) became the Louisiana Territory’s equivalent of Ellis Island
. Iberville died suddenly of an unspecified illness in Havana in
July of 1706, on the eve of a major expedition he was to lead against the
British in the War of Spanish Succession. After his death charges
flew from all directions, all leveled against Iberville, charges
which caused much resentment among the Le Moyne family. He was charged
with embezzlement, the carrying out of illegal trade, and evasion of taxes
Born in 1661 at Ville-Marie (Montreal), Pierre
Le Moyne (Sieur d'Iberville) received his early education at the Sulpician
seminary, Montreal., Iberville, and two of his brothers were sent off to
the French Navy. Iberville returned to Quebec, a young French naval officer,
ready to serve his king in the French cause, one early conflict being that
between France and England upon the Hudson Bay. The English and the French
saw vast profits in the cold northern rivers and the finest animal
pelts Europeans had ever seen. In 1686, the French determined to go overland
in order to capture the English outposts which had been established on
the Hudson Bay. The Iberville brothers, including Pierre, were to
play a principal part in this raid upon the English in the north. During
the winter of 1687-88, we find Iberville back in France impressing both
the royal court and the French market of the importance of the northern
fur trade. The following summer, Iberville was back at James Bay in the
French war ship, Soleil d'Afrique. His intention was to load the collected
pelts and sail out, but plans had to be changed when three English ships
arrived on the scene. The confrontation turned into a stand off and before
any of the vessels could make a run for it cold weather took over and everyone
was frozen in for the winter. Iberville, presumably still aboard the Soleil
d'Afrique, was able to clear James Bay in the spring of 1690, and, capturing
English vessels en route, arrived at Quebec, his ship loaded with English
prisoners, booty, and bundles of the finest northern furs: his fame continued
to spread throughout the colony. At Quebec Iberville
was recruited by Frontenac to help put down the Iroquios. Iberville
was to take a part in the expedition, in the winter of 1690 "which destroyed
Schenectady and massacred its inhabitants." By 1691, Iberville was
once again at Hudson Bay with Bonaventure. They evidently cleared Hudson
Bay and carried their rich fur cargo to the shores of France. In the spring
of 1692, Iberville was to set out in command of one of two French war vessels:
the Envieux and the Poli. These armed vessels, in 1692, convoyed 12 merchant
vessels to New France. He followed a seasonally routine trek between France
and New France at least until 1696 when he became heavily engaged in battling
the English. He first put his fighting skills to use in Acadia, in the
Bay of Fundy and he led a successful French attack by sea against Fort
William Henry on the present day coast of Maine. In the same year
Iberville proceeded to Newfoundland where he practically wiped out the
English presence. In 1697, he successfully attacked Fort Nelson in the
Hudson Bay. By 1698 Iberville had left the north -- not to return
again. In 1703, Iberville was named the first governor of Louisiana.
In 1706, Iberville, again shifting his attentions to another part of the
new world, laid waste the islands of Nevi and St. Christopher in
the West Indies.
Jean-Baptiste LeMoyne , de Bienville, became acting
Governor of the Louisiana Territory for the next 6 years (1706-1712).
In 1712, a wealthy Parisian, Antoine Crozat was granted a 15 year royal
charter to operate the Louisiana Territory. Crozat dismissed Bienville
and named the founder of Detroit, Antoine de Lamothe Cadillac as the new
Governor. Cadillac appears to have alienated everyone with whom he
came into contact, especially the Indians. Within 5 years (1717)
Crozat saw the disaster of his making and asked to be relieved of his responsibility.
Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville would countinue to be
cast in an ongoing role in the historical drama of the territory that we
know as the Louisiana Purchase.
France was in financial distress, the King was
Louis XV and his regent, Philippe II, duc d’Orleans.
A younger first cousin of the Le Moyer family,
Louis Juchereau de St. Denis was operating a trading concession in the
swaps on Bayou St. John (now in the heart of downtown New Orleans) in 1710.
He had been with Bienville at the forts in both Mobile and Biloxi. He was
educated in France and fluent in several Native American dialects as well
as Spanish and most probably Latin. Natchitoches was founded in 1714
by Louis Juchereau de St. Denis while enroute to Mexico on a trade mission.
When he reached the village of Natchitoches Indians on the Red River, he
built two log huts and left a small number of French Canadians here. This
became the first permanent European settlement in the territory later known
as the Louisiana Purchase. In 1716, the Sieur Charles Claude Dustine
was sent here to build a garrison and outpost to prevent the Spaniards
in what is now east Texas from advancing into French Louisiana. This strategic
post was named Fort St. Jean Baptiste de Natchitoches.
A detailed drawing made in 1733 by the French
architect-engineer Ignace Francois Broutin shows the improvements to Fort
St. Jean Baptiste. In August 1732, Broutin came here to strengthen the
fort and to add barracks, a small warehouse and a house for the warehouse
keeper. The fort continued to serve as a French frontier outpost until
1762 when France's defeat by England in the French and Indian War forced
her to cede the Louisiana colony to Spain. Under Spanish rule, the fort
served as a trade center. Since its original purpose of protecting a territorial
boundary no longer applied, the Spanish allowed the fort to deteriorate.
The fort was in such ruins by the time the United States acquired the Louisiana
Purchase in 1803 that the Americans could no longer use it and so built
Fort Claiborne nearby. The site obtained for the reconstruction of Fort
St. Jean Baptiste is located on Cane River a few hundred yards south of
the original fort site. Based upon Broutin's plans and extensive archival
research, reconstruction began in 1979. Building materials were obtained
locally and many 18th century techniques were employed in the reconstruction.
John Law
John Law, a Scotsman who fled England after killing
a man in a duel, a gambler who somehow made his way into the glamorous
French court . In 1716 John Law established the Banque Generale,
a bank that had the authority to issue notes and in 1717 he organized the
Company of the West, later known as the Company of the Indies. The
bank and the company soon merged and Mr. Law finagled complete control
over all of France’s colonial trade and finances, including the minting
of French money and the collecting of taxes. For all practical
purposes, the Louisiana Territory WAS the Company of the Indies, and each
inhabitant in some way an employee of the state.
In 1762 , the English had gained control of New
France (Canada) and the Acadians began arriving in Louisiana, having
been exiled by the British from their homes in what is now Nova Scotia.
Their number would be variously estimated between 5,000 and 10,000.
In 1763, it looked as though Spain was going to loose Florida to the English,
then ,by secret treaty (Fontainebleau treaty) , King Louis XV ceded Louisiana
to his cousin, King Charles III, of Spain. Keeping it all from the
English, keeping it all in the family and relieving France of a financial
burden. With the signing of the Treaty of Paris, France lost all North
American colonies, including Canada, all of the lands South of the Great
Lakes and east of the Mississippi except for the Isle d’Orleans which,
with the rest of Louisiana had already become property of Spain.
And thus ended the French and Indian wars.
The new-comers to the land sensed the restless
spirit of the land and chose no side. The spirit of the land was
wild and free. The people who live there could not be bound by the rulers
who tried to tame the wild spirit. The white rulers from the land
they called Europe came and fought the battle of the braves, fought for
the land. And when the land became one nation, even then they separated
the brothers. And more than even the great river, in the fullness of time,
even the white man knew to keep them apart, for there has been war on the
land from one city to the other. And the chief was a wise man,
his vision true to the creator, for this land from that day forward was
called No Man’s Land.
E.Carroll
Major Diego Ramon, who led the expedition which
resulted in the placing of the Mission San Juan Bautista five miles south
of the Rio Grande, was an extraordinary person. He was a native of
the parish of Santiago de Queretaro*. Ramon’s name is first found in connection
with the history of the mission movement on the northern Mexico frontier
in 1674 when he was a young officer. He was in charge of Governor Alonzo
De Leon’s post at Santiago de la Monclova in 1687. After DeLeon died, Ramon
served as interim governor of Coahuila. He led the expedition which
founded Mission San Francisco Xavier forty miles northwest of Monclova.
His name was connected with San Juan Bautista (May 1701) until his
death in 1724.
Notes: (baptism record (1670-92) for Juana, daughter
of Diego Ramon and Maria de los Rios <what is HER relationship to Don
Domingo Teran de los Rios, first governor of Texas ??? >
Authors to Watch for:
Weddle, Robert S.
Genealogical Material:
Ericson: Nacogdoches: Gateway to Texas
This work would not be possible without the
input of numerous fellow family researchers. You may contact 52 researchers
(at this printing) by addressing your e-mail to rambin@egroups.com
There is also a listing of researchers at http://www.egroups.com
under the RAMBIN group
heading. Thank you all. EC
Native
Americans roamed the lower Mississippi valley for at least 12,000 years
before European contact. There are several important archaeological
sites in Louisiana. Some of the mounds found in Louisiana date to
4,000 years before Christ and are among the oldest in North America.
The two mounds located on the Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge
date back to 3,000 years before Christ. Poverty Point in northeastern
Louisiana is one of the Nation’s most important archaeological sites and
dates to 1200 B.C. , one of the mounds there being 7 stories high.
Findings at Poverty Point show that it was once a major trading center
for the entire Mississippi Valley. Items unearthed had been
traded from as far away as the Great Lakes and the Appalachian Mountains.
At the time the French arrived (1600’s) there were about 15,000 Native
American inhabitants in the lower Mississippi valley, including the following
tribes:
The Caddo tribe were described as being of dark
complexion and medium height. They pierced their noses, wore rings in them
and practiced tattooing. (Not unlike teenagers of today?) Their grass
lodges were conical-shaped. Originally of the Red River section of Louisiana,
the Caddo moved to the extreme Southern Plains area, where they became
buffalo hunters. They were the leading tribe of what the white man termed
the Caddo Confederacy which included the Wichita, Kichai, Tawakoni and
Waco. They obtained horses early from the Spaniards and traded these
animals as far north as Illinois. At one time the Caddo were known
to the Spaniards as the TEJAS, but this term was applied to many tribes
in the Southwest as it meant simply "friends". The Caddo remained
loyal to the Federal Government during the Civil War and sought refuge
in Kansas. In 1902 each man, woman and child was given an allotment
of land and was also made a citizen of the United States. The name
has been given to a Parish in Lousiana; a county in Oklahoma; to Caddo
gap in Arkansas; villages in Oklahoma and Texas and to Caddo Mills in Texas.
CADDOAN FAMILY refers to a language family group of nine tribes scattered
over the states of Texas , North Dakota and Nebraska.
The Chickasaw are a tribe of the Muskhogean family
closely related to the Creek and Choctaw in the early days. They are noted
as one of the warlike tribes of the Gulf area and the one tribe encountered
by the spaniards who came nearest to destroying DeSoto’s army in 1451.
They formerly ranged an area which is now portions of Mississippi and Tennessee.
They were a slaveholding people, but when the Civil War ended they freed
their slaves and adopted them into the tribe. They became members
of the Five Civilized Tribes after they were moved to Oklahoma by the US
Government. The Chickasaw language similar to that of the Mobile
Indians served as a means of commercial and tribal intercourse for all
tribes along the Mississippi River. Their chiefs were called "mingos"
Today they are in Oklahoma. There are towns of the name in Alabama and
Ohio and a Chickasha in Oklahoma.
The largest tribe belonging to the southern branch
of the Muskhogean family, they were farming Indians formerly (before 1700)
of the middle and southern sections of what is now Mississippi, Alabama
and tennessee.. Their name is said to have come from the Spanish
word chato-which means FLAT- because of the custom of flattening
their heads. The Choctaw are the most widespread and visible of the tribes
of American Indians in St. Tammany Parish today, but according to
historical records, they were not residents of the area in any great numbers
before the coming of the European settlers. The Choctaw have always been
a farming people, and when De Soto first came to their settlement at Mobila
in 1540, he reported that there were large houses and a highwall made of
tree trunks. This first meeting between the Choctaw and the Spanish ended
badly, however, because De Soto hesitated about releasing Chief Tuscaloosa
who was being held hostage. The Choctaw attacked the Spaniards and drove
them from the city, but in the end the Spanish forces destroyed Mobila
and killed somewhere between 6,000 and 11,000 of the Choctaw people.
They were friendly to the French settlers of the Louisiana Territory
and were always at peace with the US Government. They began to migrate
to the Indian Territory in 1835 when they ceded their land to the US Government.
Some neighboring peoples called them "long hairs" because their men customarily
wore their hair long. During World Wars I and II the Choctaw language was
used as a code language by intelligence officers. The tribe has furnished
the name for counties and settlements in Alabama, Mississippi , Arkansas
and Oklahoma .
Another Muskhogean family who were the largest
and strongest on the lower Mississippi River at the time Louisiana was
settled by the French. Called the Natches,Teches and Tejas, the Natchez
were noted for their type of government, being ruled by a chief called
the "Great Sun" who, like a KING, had the power of life and death
over his subjects. When the "Great Sun" died all of his wives were
executed. The society had it’s equivalent aristocracy of "Suns" "Nobles"
, "Honored people" (aristocrats) , "stinkers" (common people). The
Natchez were Mound Builders when first encountered by the French. The center
of their nation was near the great Emerald Mound in Mississippi.
This tribe was first mentioned in narratives of LaSalle’s descent of the
Mississippi River in 1682 when it was located a little east of the present
city of Natchez. Relations between the French and Natchez were
hostile for a time and then peace was made until the 1720’s.
In 1724, the Natchez Indians, provoked by the
commandant of Fort Rosalie, slaughtered between 200-300 French settlers.
In retaliation, the French joined with the Choctaw and virtually annihilated
the Natchez Indian nation. The costs incurred caused the Company
of the Indies to petition the French Crown to relieve it of its responsibilities.
In 1731 Louisiana reverted to the French Crown. At this time, the
population was only 7,000. (5,000 "white" settlers and 2,000 African Slaves-
the Native Americans were not counted) Today a few Natchez are identified
with the Creek and Cherokee in Oklahoma. Their name has been preserved
in Natchez, Mississippi and in villages in Alabama, Louisiana and Indiana.
A tribe of Indians who at one time lived in southern
Louisiana. They were noted for peculiar customs which were similar to those
of the Natchez. The early French reported that they practiced human
sacrifice. Their name was given to a Parish, River and Bayou in Louisiana
and to a village in Alabama. The tribe is believed to be extinct.
A leading tribe of the Tunica group of Indians
who lived on the lower Yazoo River in Mississippi. They were prominent
in early history especially for their faithful service to the French in
fighting the Natchez and their allies. Their name is preserved in
Tunica County and Tunica Oilfields in Mississippi and in a village in Louisiana.
There was only one known Tunica Indian alive in 1930.
Alonso de Pineda claimed to have reached the
mouth of the Mississippi, calling it Rio del Espiritu Santo (River of the
Holy Spirit) in 1519. Hernando de Soto and his explorers landed near
present day Tampa Bay, Florida in 1539. They were in search of
elusive gold, but the treasure they did find on May 21, 1541, was
the mouth of the Mississippi River. Less than one year passed before
he died of fever on the banks of a Louisiana River. His comrades buried
him in the bank of the Mississippi River so that the Indians whom
he had treated so cruel would not know of his death, for fear of their
own lives. {Genealogical NOTE: de Soto married in Spain just prior
to his departure to the new world- within a year- I do not know if that
marriage produced a child}
Five years before Hernando de Soto set foot in
Florida, Jacques Cartier, a French seaman sailed into the Gulf of St. Lawrence
and claimed New France for Francis I. (1534) In 1603 Samuel de Champlain
founded the first French colony in North America in modern-day Nova Scotia.
The Micmac tribe native to the area called it Acadia and that is the name
adopted by the French. Quebec was established in 1608. It was at about
this time that the first English settlers were struggling to survive at
Jamestown.
At the age of 15, a boy from Normandy, Charles
Le Moyne sailed from France to the new world as an indentured servant
of the Jesuits. Le Moyne was to rise from an odd jobs man at the Jesuit
missionary to being one of the "wealthiest citizens of Montreal"; all,
it would appear, because of his fur trading activities. Charles and his
wife Catherine were to have two girls and 11 boys.
("Sieur", roughly translates as "Lord",
a title conferred upon a commoner by the crown. The Spanish equivalent
is "Don".)
which were due to the king and the admiral. His
family, in the last of these years were to be located in France residing
on a French country estate which Iberville had bought just outside of Rochefort..
The founder of New Orleans, Biloxi and Mobile
("Sieur", roughly translates as "Lord",
a title conferred upon a commoner by the crown. The Spanish equivalent
is "Don".)
was effectively in control. A charter was granted
to the shady character of John Law, founder of the Company of the
Indies. He picked Bienville to be Governor of the Louisiana Territory once
again and instructed him to establish a settlement in the Territory to
be called la Nouvelle Orleans, after his friend Philippe II, duc d’Orleans,
the regent. In 1717, New Orleans was born. (NOTE on Immigration to
New Orleans: The second wave of immigrants were criminals and prostitutes
were forced to immigrate by Philippe duc d’Orleans.) The first group
of slaves arrived by 1720. (I am assuming that the numerous texts are speaking
of slaves of Carribean and/or African origin, as the local
Indian tribes had already begun selling their Native American captives
as slaves to the French and Spanish prior to this date. Slavery seems
to have been relatively common among southern Indian nations prior
to French arrival.) in 1721 La Nouvelle Orleans and it’s surrounding area
had a population of almost 1750, including slaves. In 1727 the Ursuline
nuns arrived in the colony from Rouen. The twelve Sisters of St.Ursula
built a convent on the same site as the Old Ursuline Convent (built 1745)
that now lies on Chartres street in the French Quarter. This is the oldest
building in the lower Mississippi valley, and the only structure that still
exists from the date of Bienville’s original colony.
Des Allemands , the Germans, arrived in the early
1720’s. Approximately 2,000 German immigrants settled up river from New
Orleans in an area that became known as the German Coast and to the southwest,
where their descendants still live in the place called Des Allemands. The
Capital of the Louisiana Territory was moved in 1723 from Mobile to la
Nouvelle Orleans in part because of the German immigrants an Bienville’s
bent to bring stablity to his colony by the addition of this hard working
group of farmers. Bienville remained as Governor of the Louisiana Territory
until 1743. He traveled often to France and retired there.
Louis Juchereau de St. Denis
The first WORLD WAR ????
The French and Indian wars were actually the
French and British War with Indians on both sides.
The wars were actually one long (74 year) war
with few breaks between battles. The battle was over colonial holdings
from Canada all the way down to the Caribbean. This period also saw a series
of world wide territorial wars that involved Spain, Austria, France, England
and rebellious soon-to-be-Americans.
Natchitoches, Louisiana - Nacogdoches, Texas
Common legend tells us that there were two Caddo
Indian brothers fighting for control within their tribe. The chief, their
father, woke from a vision with the solution to the long standing feud.
He took the brothers to the banks of the river we call Red and said to
them, " Each of you, take those that will follow you." And they did as
they were told, gathering from among the men the braves that would follow
them. The great chief said, " My vision has told me that this land is no
man’s land. Now each of you turn, one facing east, the other facing west.
You will leave this place as the sun lights the sky in the morning.
Each of you are to walk for three sun rises. At the end of the third day,
you and your party may begin to build your new home." And so it came to
pass that the cities we know as Nacogdoches and Natchitoches stand today
where they have stood since long before the white settlers came.
Nacogdoches calls itself the oldest town in Texas.
It is the center of one of the most historic areas in the State of Texas.
The name of the town comes from the name of the Caddo Indians found living
here in the first days of Spanish settlement. Several Indian mounds, have
been found within the city limits. The French explorer LaSalle may
have been the first European to set foot here in 1687. Louis Juchereau
de St. Denis was indirectly responsible for the establishment of the first
Spanish outpost in Nacogdoches. The Spanish settlement grew up around
Mission Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe de los Nacogdoches. Built circa 1716,
the settlement was abandoned between 1718 and 1721, then again from 1762
to 1779.
Nacogdoches was established as a European colony
first in 1716 by Domingo Ramon, uncle of Louis Juchereau de St.Denis' wife,
Manuela. It was established again in 1779 by Gil Y'barbo.
What is interesting to Rambin Researchers
is that Josephine Flores (1878-1944) was a great great great grand-niece
of Gil Y'barbo. She married Marcel Augustus Rambin (1873-c.1940) who was
the great great great grand nephew of Domino Ramon. This marriage makes
the descendants of their 10 children (born in Rambin, Louisiana) related
to BOTH founders of Nacogdoches, Texas!
Nacogdoches, circa 1880
Y’barbo’s "Old Stone Fort"
Antonio Gil y Barbo (known as Gil Y'Barbo)
led a party of settlers back to Nacogdoches in 1779. Y’barbo built
the stone house that came to be known as the Old Stone Fort. It was from
this building that a smuggling trade with the French is reported to have
taken place. The building has now been re-located on the grounds
of Stephen F. Austin State University. The Stone Fort originally
stood on the square at Fredonia and Main Street. The building was a headquarters
for the Gutierrez-McGee Expedition in 1812, and it was a base for the James
Long Expedition in 1819. Both of those expeditions were intended to help
the Mexicans fight the Spanish. (Both were probably actually expressions
of US interest in taking over the territory.) The Gutierrez-McGee
expedition captured San Antonio and the Long expedition proclaimed a Republic
of Texas. But both were defeated by 1819. Dr. Long’s widow, Jane
became part of Austin’s colony in Brazoria County. In 1821
Mexicans won their independence from Spain and took over Nacogdoches.
Benjamin Edwards took over the Old Stone Fort and proclaimed independence
of what he called the "Fredonia Republic". In 1832, the commander
of Nacogdoches, Jose de las Piedras, ordered area settlers to turn in their
arms. They refused and demanded that Piedras declare in favor of the reform
movement led by Gen. Santa Anna. He refused to do so and was attacked.
The company withdrew to San Antonio. Many people believe this incident
helped make the Texas revolution possible.
Vincente Cordova, a local Mexican settler, led
a rebellion against the Republic of Texas. He persuaded some Cherokee Indians
and some Mexican settlers (including Manuel Flores and other Flores and
Cordova family members) to help him overthrow the new Republic in August
of 1838. The uprising was scattered and the Cherokees expelled. The
records from the area were confiscated by the Texas Republic after the
battle of San Jacinto and are now housed in State Archives in Austin and
at the Stephen F. Austin University. There are copies on file at the University
of Texas at Austin as well.
Runs roughly from the banks of the Red River
on Highway 21 to San Antonio. It is also called the Old San Antonio Road.
Roughly from Natchitoches, Louisiana to Nacogdoches, Texas then through
Bryan to San Antonio and on to San Juan Bautista, Presidio del Norte (Saint
Jean Baptiste, Fort of the North) in Guerrero,Mexico, this route was built
upon earlier Indian trade routes. The same route would have then followed
into Saltillo, Mexico and beyond. The road was described as a ‘hard-beaten
path as wide as any in Europe’ when the Europeans first came.
After the coming of the Spanish and then the French -with a lot of help
from two of our ancestors on either end of this vast highway (Ramon and
St.Denis) , it became the trade route of the French and Spanish in modern-day
Mexico, Texas and Louisiana. From San Antonio to San Diego, California
and another El Camino Real- The King’s Highway runs to Mexico City, the
capitol.
San Juan Bautista : Presidio del Norte
Home of Manuella Sanches de Navarro, wife
of Louis Juchereau de St. Denis. The commandant of this post was either
her grandfather or step grandfather. There is much argument and many published
items that are being disputed. Much argument regarding her name stems
from the naming practices of the Spanish during that period in history.
But she WAS part of the Ramon family of San Juan Bautista and Presidio
del Norte. She was probably the daughter of Diego (Jr) Ramon's wife from
a previous marriage. She was raised as Diego Ramon, Jr.'s daughter in the
home (Presidio: San Juan Bautista) of his father, Don Diego Ramon.
It was common to choose either your mother’s
surname or your father’s surname. {A good example of this is Cabeza de
Vaca who chose his maternal grandmother’s name because of a famous forefather.----I
have often wondered if the French "dit" names were not much the same.}
The fact that St.Denis was married to a close relative of Diego Ramon -a
powerful --- at one time acting as Governor of All of Spanish Texas (which
included a large part of Mexico)---played an important role in Texas, Louisiana
and Mexico’s history.
A persistent priest named Francisco Hidalgo
was based in San Juan Bautista. He and the Ramons built the missions from
Mexico all the way to Nacogdoches. Domingo Ramon and a company that
included his brother Diego (II) and his brother-in-law, St. Denis,were
sent to colonize along the Nueces River and to build missions. In 1718,
the San Antonio de Bejar and de Valero churches were built wherethe city
of San Antonio is located today. The chapel in the Bejar mission was called
El Alamo.
At the age of fifty, Ramon , one -time lieutenant
of Alonso de Leon , is a historical enigma…appears to have been dedicated
to the cause of Christianizing the Indians…at the same time, however,
he evolved a lucrative business for himself and his sons …contraband trade
with the French. A complete list of Spanish Presidios
and Missions in Texas. (under construction)
St. Denis (Don Luis de San Dionis / Louis Juchereau
de St.Denis) is said to have led a French expedition up the Red River as
early as 1700. He claimed that he had crossed Texas in 1705 and made contact
with the Spaniards at San Juan Bautista. (The Spaniards left no record
confirming this.) There is record of a later contact "Relacion hecha por
Don Luis de San Dionis y Don Medar Jalot de viaje que ejectaron desde
la movila hasta el Presidio de Diego Ramon"- Is his companion possibly
JOLY???? St. Denis was the commandant of Biloxi when Cadillac issued him
a passport on September 12, 1713. He was to take 24 men and as many Indians
as necessary to go in search of the mission of Father Hildago. He was to
purchase cattle and horses for the French province of Louisiana. The party
set out from Mobile in late September. They built a log fort at what is
now Natchitoches, traded for cattle and horses. All but four of the company
returned to Mobile.
St. Denis, Penicault, Pierre Largen and Medar
Jalot continued to the Colorado River, accompanied by Chief Bernardino
and twenty five braves of the Tejas nation. After a victorious battle with
Karankawa Indians on the Colorado, twenty-one braves returned home and
the party continued to San Juan Bautista on the Rio Grande. St. Denis arrived
impeccably dressed in tailored linen on July 19,1714 and was placed under
house arrest- not to leave the home of Ramon. According to Weddle on page
104 of San Juan Bautista, "The known facts are sufficiently dramatic to
belong in a novel.* (*There was one= "Ride the Red Earth" by P.I.Wellman
copyright 1958).
While ‘imprisoned’ at San Juan Bautista he wooed
and won the heart of the seventeen year old grandaughter of Diego Ramon.
She was lovely, dark-haired Manuela, daughter of Diego Ramon II.
" St. Denis and Jalot <where are the others?>
were later taken to Mexico City to prison with Manuela’s uncle, Domingo
Ramon, in escort. After his eventual release, Manuela and Louis married
in 1715. The marriage had far reaching implications on the development
of the frontier and on the relations between France and Spain. With this
marriage a trade route (although still officially illegal) was opened across
the Texas frontier.
The first new comers to Coahuila were prospectors
searching for precious metals and indeed dome silver mines were opened
in Moncolva, Coahuila, such as the Santa Rosa. But the diggings were
sparse and most of the attention was soon turned to agriculture and livestock.
Motivated by the need to provide foodstuffs and livestock to the rich mining
regions to the south, the first royal mercedes (land grants) were granted
to Spaniards in the fertile valleys of Monclova, just south of the present
Mexican-Texas border.
Diego Ramon was in charge of Governor Alonzo
De Leon’s post at Santiago de la Monclova in 1687.
Spaniards in the northeast brought Tlaxcalan
Indians to provide labor for their haciendas. Many of these enterprising
natives established themselves as artisans in Saltillo and acquired a reputation
as excellent weavers and silversmiths. Many of the modern inhabitants of
Cohuila and immigrants to Texas from this area are descendants of the Tlaxcalans.
Capitol of the Mexican State of Coahuila; Once
Capitol of Texas. Guachichil and Borrado Indians densely populated the
area until the Spanish came in 1577.
The original settlement was called Santiago del
Saltillo del Ojo de Agua (Sainted Saltillo of the Eye of the Water) The
first Spanish residents dedicated themselves to the capture and sale of
Amerindian slaves for use in Spanish mines. This practice was condoned
by the mission system. The natives responded with rebellions and
attacks, destroying the first Franciscan mission in 1582 and forcing colonists
to flee to the south. By early in the 1600’s the Spanish viceroy
sent a group of "civilized" Tlaxcaltecas Indians to found San Esteban
de Nueva Tlaxcala (Saint Steven of the New Tlaxcala). They were able to
grow wheat, build flour mills and establish vineyards and cattle ranches.
San Estban expanded east to include the old settlement at nearby Saltillo.
Saltillo acquired great importance because it served as an entrepot between
the livestock-raising areas to the north and the silver and mercantile
communities to the south. In the 1700’s a new dynasty of kings (Both French
and Spanish) the Bourbons, initiated reforms that led to a revitalization
of the silver industry. As a consequence, by 1767 Saltillo had become a
prosperous commercial hub with a population of over two thousand and as
new settlers arrived to colonize the northeast, they filtered through this
beautiful colonial city. Large sprawling haciendas with huge herds
of cattle and sheep characterized the economy and society of northeastern
Mexico by 1800. The biggest landholding belonged to the Sanchez-Navarro
family. It was sixteen million acres in size. It took in almost half
of the province and its mainstay was sheep raising. The Comanche
learned that raiding the livestock regions was more prosperous than hunting
buffalo and the Spanish government was provoked into establishing buffer
zones across the Rio Bravo (Rio Grande). In 1824 Satillo was made
the capital of the state of Coahuila Y Texas which included the present
day states of Texas, Coahuila, Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon. In 1847 a decisive
battle in the Mexican American War less than 20 miles from Satillo at Buena
Vista where a US force of 4500 men defeated Santa Anna’s force of over
20,000.
Mexico City is higher than Denver, Colorado.
It was once the Aztec City of Tenochtitlan (Tea-Nok-Teet-Lon). The ruins
of the Mayan city of Teotihuacan (Tay-OH-Tea-Wick-ON) are still being excavated
and the language that pre-dates the Aztec is still being deciphered. Before
the Mayans at Teotihuacan, a settlement stood in the area of Mexico city
that dates to 1200 BC at Pedregal Copilco. The ruins are being excavated
from beneath a lava flow from nearby Xictle Volcano. This city has been
inhabited for thousands of years, each invading culture building on-top-of
the ruins of the defeated culture. The Palacio Nacional (National Palace)
stands on the site of Montezuma’s castle.
The flames of the Spanish inquisition once devoured
the so-called "heretics" in Mexico City. Catedral Metropolitan (the
Archbishop’s Cathredral) was begun in 1573, consecrated in 1667 and
completed in 1813.. The Basilica de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe (Our Lady
of Guadalupe) was built in 1709. Iglesia de San Juan Bautista was built
in 1589 on what is called Plaza Hildago, one of Cortes’ homes is behind
it.
St. Denis was arrested for illegal trading and
imprisoned in Mexico City (circa 1713) prior to his marriage.
Weddle: San Juan Bautista Gateway
to Spanish Texas
Garrison: TEXAS (copyright 1903)
Phares: Cavalier in the Wilderness
Wellman: Ride the Red Earth (Fiction dealing
with St.Denis and Ramon families-copyright 1958)
Badger and Clayton: Alabama and the Borderlands
Simons and Hoyt; A guide to Hispanic Texas
Banca Confia : All About Mexico
Kanellos: The Hispanic Almanac
Kennedy: Orders from France
Lyon: Louisiana in French Diplomacy
Schama: Citizens A Chronical of the French Revolution
Cotterill: The Southern Indians
Grant: Concise Encyclopedia of the American
Indian
Roberts: History of the World
Miller, Ray: Eyes of Texas Travel Guide (quick
overview of local history and how to get there)
Higginbotham: Old Mobile, Fort Louis de la Louisiane
1702-1711
Lemee, Patti
Ericson, Carolyn Reeves
Nardini: My Historic Natchitoches
Desoto & Ewing: Our DeSoto Family
Mills, Elizabeth: NUMEROUS BOOKS
Sacremental Records of the Catholic Church
Cenus Materials
The Natchitoches Genealogist
The Southern Historical Quarterly
Lemee, Patti: numerous published articles.
Rambin
Family: Colonial Louisiana Pioneers
©Evelyn Carroll
1999
