Entrance to the Alamo
San Antonio
From a village of Tejas Indians has grown the modern city of San Antonio ... not completely modern, for there still remain many evidences of the past, even though towering skyscrapers mark the city as progressive and prosperous. San Antonio is filled with picturesque charm and interesting contrasts. Off busy downtown streets one will find in bold relief buildings, as well as customs, that date back to times when the city was settled by Spanish conquistadors.
The Spanish, fearing encroachment in Texas by the French in the late seventeenth century, set out to make good their original claims by establishing forts and missions in East Texas. Captain Don Domingo Teran de los Rios was named governor of the new Spanish dominion and, in 1691 during a journey across Texas accompanied by Father Damian Massanet, missionary and explorer, paused here at an Indian Village. Mass was said on the site, a great many salutes were fired, and the place was named “San Antonio”.
No permanent settlement was established, however, but later other expeditions passing this way encamped here. The French explorer and trader, Louis Juchereau de Saint Dennis, claiming his interest to be the establishment of trade relations between Louisiana and Mexico, stopped near the headwaters of the San Antonio River in 1714, admired the charms of the place, and declared the location to be an ideal spot for founding a permanent community. St. Dennis’ activity in the area aroused the Spanish authorities. Rivalry for the possessions of Texas broke out anew.
In 1718 the Spanish viceroy, desiring a point midway between the East Texas Missions and the Spanish Presidio of northern Mexico, established here as a fortress the Royal Presidio of San Antonio de Bejar, and founded the mission San Antonio de Valero (The Alamo).
This step marked the real founding of San Antonio. Within the next thirteen years the building of four more missions got under way. King Philip of Spain began colonization of the province, when in 1731 sixteen Canary Island families arrived and settled in San Antonio. This settlement was known as the “Villa de San Fernando”, and it is on the site of this original settlement that the Old San Fernando Cathedral stands today. This little villa in the wilderness formed the nucleus about which San Antonio gradually developed. Many prominent citizens today are descendants of these early settlers.
Progress for the community during the next half century was slow, for San Antonio was on trails seldom traveled and was brought into little contact with the outside world. The missions established earlier in the century prospered, expanded and then declined. In 1793-94 they were secularized and ceased to function as church settlements. Then followed a period of waning Spanish religious and political influence. In 1811 Mexico revolted against Spain and San Antonio was occupied several times, alternately by Mexican Revolutionists and Spanish Royalists.
In 1820 Moses Austin, a Connecticut Yankee living in Missouri, left his home and traveled to San Antonio, seeking permission of the Spanish authorities, still in power, to establish a colony of Americans in Texas. After Austin’s death from hardships encountered during his trip, approval was granted his plan and it was carried out by his son, Stephen F. Austin. The years 1821 to 1836 saw a flood of Anglo-American immigration pouring in.