Educational Affairs - "The Father of Texas" - The Treaty of Cordova - The Constitution of 1824 - The Fredonian Rebellion - Coming of the Irish - Troubles at Anahuac - Enter Sam Houston - "The Departmentof Bexar" - Modern Educational Principles - The Storming of Bexar.

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     While there were taking place in Mexico the swift changes from colonial dependency to independent monarchy, there is a wonder that a government of any sort should have existed in Texas.  San Fernando for eight years succeeding the desolation wrought by Arredondo and his men, remained well-nigh voiceless in her woe.  There were those among her people who regretted that the capital was so completely devoid of a treasury as to be unable to provide funds for the erection of buildings of public utility and adornment, and for the education of its youth - but no efforts could be made to remedy the condition.

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Rear View of Mission San Jose, showing remains of arches.

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summation of this project, to his son, Stephen Fuller Austin, he left this heritage as one of his last injunctions.  On the 12th of August, 1821, "The Father of Texas" arrived at San Antonio accompanied by the first of the "Three Hundred" who were to become Austin's first colonists.
     On August 24th, 1821, there was promulgated the Treaty of Cordova, which brought renewed strength and prosperity to Texas.  Lieutenant-General Don Juan O'Donoju, sent out by the reformed government of Spain as captain-general and political chief of Mexico, together with General Iturbide late emperor and usurper of the Mexican government, on this date at Cordova, Mexico, substantially perfected the separate government of Mexico from the mother country, thus putting an end to the royalist cause in New Spain.  With the spread of this intelligence, the republicans and other exiled citizens returned to San Antonio.  Furthermore, the Americans who had composed part of the following of Gutierres had spread favorable reports of the country, and a tide of emigration swept into Texas.  In 1823 San Antonio is said to have had once more a population of 5,000.
     The following year there was issued the famous "Constitution of 1824," making of Coahuila and Texas one state, and decreeing that when Texas should possess the necessary elements for that purpose, she should be admitted into the Mexican union as a separate state.

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     On Feb. 1st, 1825, Texas was made a "Political Department" with a local officer, who was called the "Political Chief of the Department of Texas"  ("Department of Texas" was the term used for the "District" or "Department of Bexar") and was appointed by the governor.  He was required to reside at Bexar, and had general political, judicial, and military supervision over the country, subject to the governor of the state.  Jose Antonio Saucedo was the first political chief in Texas, - a malignant Mexican whose rule was very distasteful to the American colonists.
     In 1824 the first trading expedition to Santa Fe passed through San Antonio.   The pack animals having been stolen by Indians some distance from town, they soon secured carts and oxen in San Antonio and continued with their goods to Santa Fe where they were disposed of at a tremendous profit.  In December, 1826, there advanced from San Antonio to Nacogdoches by order of Saucedo, political chief, some two hundred Mexican soldiers under command of Colonel Mateo Ahumada, to put down the Fredonian Rebellion.  The colonists under Empresario Edwards had been charged by Governor Blanco, among other things, with ingratitude.  "We were invited to a desert," they replied, "we came and found it inhabited by Indians, and these of such audacity that even in San Antonio where the Mexicans mostly lived, they compelled the citizens and soldiers in the

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place to hold their horses while they paraded about the town."  But the time was not ripe for Texas to proclaim liberty.  Six weeks after leaving the capital the troops returned victorious to San Antonio.
     The Mexican government, doubtless in order to show some consideration for the growing Anglo-Saxon colony in San Antonio, established the first American school in Texas in 1828, referred to as the ''McClure" school, in a document in the Bexar County Records, dated July 5th of that year.  At this time there also existed a Spanish public school on the east side of Military Plaza near the Cathedral.  After this, until 1839, education in San Antonio received almost no attention.
     In 1829 two venturesome and energetic Irish Catholics, James McGloin and John McMullen, entered into a contract to bring two hundred families of their race and religion as settlers to Texas.  The rich valley land lying betwen the San Antonio and Nueces Rivers was set aside for them as a colony grant by the Mexican authorities.  These empresarios landed with about forty families the latter part of 1829.  From this year until 1833, valuable additions were received by the Irish colonists.  It was during these same years that many of them located in San Antonio.  The original leaders themselves had homes here, McGloin living in the Yturri house on Market Street  - the Yturris were settlers from the Asturias, an ancient

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Historic Veramendi Palace - now destroyed

province of Spain, - and McMullen becoming a prominent San Antonian.
      The first part of the year 1830 passed quietly in Texas and at Bexar, its capital.  But a sudden change of Mexico's policy toward the colonists became apparent when Bustamente, who had usurped the presidential chair of Mexico, became undisputed master of Texas.  A decree of April 6th forbade the people of the United States from settling as colonists in Texas, and provided for the etsablishment of custom houses, in the interior at Bexar and Nacogdoches, and at Copano, Velasco, at the head of the Brazos, and Galveston, or rather Anahuac at the head of the bay,

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where taxes were to be collected on all goods not bought in Mexico.  Forces were placed at Nacogdoches, at Anahuac and Velasco, with two presidial companies at Bexar and Goliad, to force submission to these arbitrary and obnoxious measures. Don Ramon Musquiz presided as political chief at Bexar.
     In September, 1830, Don Juan Martin Veramendi, San Antonian and a man of liberal principles, was elected vice-governor of Texas, which indicated a favorable disposition toward the colonists.  But the despotic course of Colonel Bradburn, stationed at Anahuac, so infuriated the colonists that fighting occurred at that place in 1832, followed by a battle at Valasco, - the first breath of revolution.
     On March 2nd, 1831, the brothers, Rezin P. and James Bowie, started out from San Antonio with the expedition which they had organized in search of the old reputed silver mines of the San Saba mission.
     Early in 1833 there arrived at Bexar the individual who was to become the father of Texas Independence.  Sam Houston, the man of destiny for that particular period in our history, after having partaken of Christmas dinner at San Felipe, had set out for San Antonio with Colonel James Bowie.  Here he met Veramandi, vice-governor of the state, and father-in-law of Bowie, also Ruiz, the Mexican commandant.  The object of this visit was to hold a consultation with the Comanche chiefs, to the end that they might be induced to return to the United States and meet commission-

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ers at Cantonment Gibson, there to enter into a treaty of peace.
     In the memorial issue by the colonists in convention assembled, Apr. 1st, 1833, to the General Congress of the United Mexican States, praying for dissolution of Texas from Coahuila, a union in every way incompatible, it was stated:  "Bexar, the ancient capital of Texas, presents a faithful and glaring picture of her general want of protection and encouragement.  Situated in a fertile, picturesque and healthful region, established a century and a half ago (within which period populous and magnificent cities have sprung into existence), she exhibits only the decrepitude of age, sad testimonial of the absence of that political guardianship which a wise government should always bestow upon the feebleness of its exposed frontier settlements . . . Bexar is still exposed to the depredations of her ancient enemies, the insolent, vindictive and faithless Comanches.  Her citizens are still massacred, their cattle destroyed or driven away, and their very habitations threatened by a tribe of erratic and undisciplined Indians whose audacity has derived confidence from success, and whose long-continued aggressions have invested them with a fictitious and an excessive terror.  Her schools are neglected, her churches desolate, the sounds of human industry are almost hushed, and the voice of gladness and prosperity is converted into wailing and lamentation by the disheartening and multiple evils which surround her defenceless population."

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     In 1834, Colonel Juan N. Almonte, commissioned by Santa Ana to visit Texas and report on its readiness for statehood, said in his description of the journey:  ''The most disagreeable part is the space that intervenes between the Rio Grande and Bexar, still an unsettled wilderness - the roaming ground of the Lipans and Apaches - as had been reported a century before."  Concerning schools, Almonte stated, ''In Bexar there exists one, supported by the Ayuntamiento, but as it appears its funds have become so reduced that not even this useful establishment has been able to survive.  What will be the lot of these unfortunates who live in the midst of barrenness without the hope of education?"*
     The constitution for the dual State of Coahuila and Texas had required that the system of education be uniform throughout the State and that to facilitate matters, congress should form a general plan for public instruction.  In view of the limited educational exhibit so far made, the law seemed very comprehensive, but there were few beneficent results from the fact that the State had no public money to be used for schools and never had during the union of Coahuila and Texas.  In a letter dated Jan. 31st, 1826, from Political Chief Saucedo to Rafael Gonzales, governor of the dual State, he reported the establishment of a school in the city of San Fernando on the 15th

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     * From I. J. Cox's article in Volume VI, No. 1, of Texas State Historical Association's Quarterly, "Early Education in San Fernando de Bexar.

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of the month, funds to be raised by private subscription, and asked congress for the gift of a building merited by the community which owing to the scarcity of money it could not obtain for itself.  But congress withheld the donation, there not being sufficient assurance that the school work would be continued!
     During the year 1831, the State Congress had inaugurated an educational policy promising successful results - that of allowing each community to attend to the matter of education within its own limits and to provide funds for this purpose by allowing it the proceeds of the sale of its public lands.  While nothing definite came of this at the time, the fact remains that upon these two principles the present school system of San Antonio has been founded.
     The first strictly revolutionary meeting in Texas was held at Bexar, Oct. 13th, 1834.  But it was not a success, much caution and conservatism being necessary with Stephen F. Austin still a prisoner in Mexico, to which country he had been sent to take the congressional documents relative to the separation of Texas from Coahuila.  Upon his return from imprisonment early in September, he told the people the time had come for war.  They believed him, knowing him to be a man of peace.  At his ringing call to every man in Texas to seize arms and prepare to defend the rights of the Texans and their country, the colonists made ready and the clash of battle was not long delayed.

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Rear view of Mission Nuestra Señora de la Comcepcion

     Soon followed the first shot, fired at Gonzales, Oct. 25th, 1835, from which volley the Mexicans fled in terror.  Report spread that Colonel Ugartechea, stationed at San Antonio by Santa Ana, was coming toward Gonzales with 500 men.  But he failed to appear and the loyal Texans, swelled in number by eager volunteers, decided to march boldly to San Antonio.  They appealed to weary Austin at San Felipe to take command.  He consented, and on October 11th was elected commander-in-chief.  Two days later the little army began its slow march, its force daily augmented until, before the end of the month, it num-

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bered more than 500.  On October 28th, occurred the remarkable victory at Mission Concepcion in San Antonio 's environs.
     But Austin preferred a long siege to a sudden attack upon the forces of the enemy entrenched at San Antonio.  After a month of inactivity the famous scout, Deaf Smith, dashed into camp with the announcement that a hundred soldiers
were approaching San Antonio with horses loaded down with silver to pay the Mexican troops.  "Wild excitement prevailed.  In a flash, Bowie at the head of a hundred men, crying "Ugartechea," was galloping off to intercept them.  The whole army of volunteers followed, while the Mexican garrison hurried out to join in the lively skirmish which soon occurred.  The Mexicans lost some fifty men and many of their bags.  These latter, however, to the intense disappointment of the Texans, were filled with grass instead of silver.  The Mexican army had sent out a foraging party to bring in sacks of grass to feed
the horses in the garrison.  Hence, "The Grass Fight" of history, in which no Texan's life was lost.
     The day before this fight Colonel Austin had resigned the position of commander-in-chief, having been appointed one of three commissioners to the United States to ask aid for oppressed Texas.  General Edward Burleson was elected to succeed him.  When Austin left, the volunteers still camped near San Antonio, became restless and discontented at the

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enforced and prolonged period of delay in attacking the fortifications of the enemy, now under General Cos - his predecessor having been ordered to Goliad.  At the critical moment a brave man suddenly crystallized the loose mass of discordant men and opinions, into one compact force and one keen purpose, by stepping forth and asking peremptorily, ''Who will go with old Ben Milam into San Antonio?"  That night three hundred and one eager volunteers met at the Old Mill to perfect arrangements for the attack.
     The next morning, December 5th, these same men started forth.  General Burleson agreeing to hold his position until he heard from them.  Colonel Milam marched into and along Acequia Street with his party, Colonel F. W. Johnson, second in command, with his along Soledad Street.  Where these two streets open into Main Plaza, Cos had thrown up breastworks and placed working batteries.  The columns marched parallel along the quiet streets.  Presently as Johnson came nearer the Veramendi House, a Mexican sentinel fired.  The fire was returned by Deaf Smith and the sentinel fell.  The Mexicans pricked up their ears, then pricked into their cannon cartridges; the Plaza batteries opened, the Alamo batteries joined in; spade, crowbar, rifle, escopet, all were plied.  The storming of Bexar was on.*  Four days passed, the battle raging with the greatest fury while Milam and his brave companions fought their

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     * Sidney Lanier, "San Antonio de Bexar.

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way from house to house, gradually approaching the center of the Mexican position, but not before brave Milam was struck by a rifle ball just as he was entering the yard of the Veramendi House to give an order.  He fell expiring instantly, and for him all Texas mourned.  Finally the Priest's House commanding the Plaza was gained, which meant victory for the Texans.  Early on the morning of the 9th, General Cos sent a flag of truce to Burleson asking to surrender. On the 10th formal and honorable articles of capitulation were entered into. General Cos and his men being allowed to keep their arms and march away.  To the Texans fell the possession of the fort with all its cannon and military supplies.

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