Juan Nepomuceno Seguín

Only one company of Houston's assembled troops at San Jacinto were composed of native Texians (Tejanos). These men were under the command of thirty-year-old, Captain Juan Seguín.

Seguín’s company participated in the ouster of General Cos from San Antonio in December 1835 and entered the Alamo with Travis and others in February 1836. Seguin left the Alamo as a courier on February 25 escaping the fate of seven of his men. ( Image - Juan Nepomuceno Seguín)

After the battle, it fell to Seguin to inter the ashes of the heroes of the Alamo.

At San Jacinto, Seguín and his company were attached to Sidney Sherman's Second Regiment and wore white pasteboard in their hats to distinguish themselves from enemy combatants during the battle.

Seguín served in the Second, Third, and Fourth Congress of the new republic as a senator, he was the only Tejano Texian in the legislature. In 1841, Seguin was elected Mayor of San Antonio. The city of Seguin in Guadalupe County, Texas is named after Juan Nepomuceno Seguín.

Mike Kearby's Texas copyright 2010

Enrique Esparza

In the late afternoon of February 23, 1836, José María ‘Gregorio’ Esparza, a tejano soldier in the Plácido Benavides’ company, brought his wife, Ana Salazar Esparza, his step-daughter, María de Jesús Castro Esparza, his oldest son, Enrique, and two younger sons, Francisco and Manuel, to the Alamo for protection. Enrique was eight-years-old at the time of the siege. Sixty-six years later, as the only remaining living survivor of the Alamo, Enrique’s recollections were told for the first time in the San Antonio Light after being interviewed by Adina de Zavala, granddaughter of the first vice-president of the Republic of Texas, Lorenzo de Zavala. (Illustration -Mack White - Austin, Texas)

Enrique spent most of his time during the thirteen day siege in the church with his mother and siblings. One of Enrique’s recollections involved a young Anglo boy, about his age, that awoke during the storming of the church. As the boy rose to his feet, he gathered a blanket around his shoulders and was immediately shot and killed by advancing Mexican soldiers.

Enrique’s father, Gregorio, was killed during the battle. His uncle, Francisco, fought on the Centralist side. In the battle’s aftermath, Francisco obtained permission from Santa Anna to bury Gregorio’s body in the local cemetery, San Fernando Campo Santo. Gregorio was the only defender at the Alamo to avoid cremation in the funeral pyres that burned on either side of the Alameda.

Later, Enrique, Francisco, and Manuel moved to Atascosa County to farm and ranch on the land grant given the family for Gregorio’s service to the Republic. The brothers were responsible for the construction of the church in San Augustine, Texas.

Mike Kearby's Texas copyright 2010

The Cowboy Code

The cowboy "code" is a mixture of principle and honor that can be found in literature dating from medieval times. The “code” is a descendent of the chivalry practiced by the Knights of the Round Table which still stands as a standard for good behavior.

During the cattle drive period in American history, the “code” was a necessary and guiding rule for cowboys. These were men who more often than not worked in isolated and dangerous conditions. The “code” guaranteed help and protection to any cowboy riding for a brand who was of a need. Unfortunately, during the rise of the cowboy and those early cattle towns, the “code” also protected bad behavior. A cowboy’s first obligation was to his fellow cowboy, no matter that cowboy’s disposition to his own desires and no matter the rules of conventional society.

In 2005, authors, James P. Owen and David R. Stoecklein wrote, Cowboy Ethics: What Wall Street Can Learn from the Code of the West. Some of the “code” rules to live by listed in the book are: (1) Be tough, but fair. (2) Ride for the brand. And (3) Do what has to be done.

Today, many ranches in the West still practice the “code”. Code cowboys of the twenty-first century still work cattle as their predecessors did in the nineteenth century, from rounding up cattle on horseback, to the use of lariats and branding irons in the field.

Mike Kearby's Texas copyright 2010

Nancy Hill's Hanging

The Texas frontier, distantly removed from most societal institutions, became a refuge for people of 'suspect character'. As lawlessness grew on the frontier, secret groups formed with the express purpose of ridding their communities of these unwanted types. Lord Acton's words, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." rang true in his time, and certainly spoke true of most vigilante groups who more often than not degenerated over time to administering self-serving vengeance. In some Texas communities, counter-vigilante groups emerged to watch over the vigilance committees.

In 1873, a vigilante group operating in Parker County pursued and hanged horse thief, Nancy Hill in Montague County. Hill is notable as the only woman ever hanged in Montague County. After Hill's demise, vigilantes grabbed Nancy's sisters, Katherine and Martha and hung both three miles south of Springtown. The vigilantes then proceeded to burn the Hill farm and pursue the remaining family members. Nancy's mother, Dusky, and sisters, Adeline and Eliza, were captured, shot, and killed.

Due to the violence shown the Hill family, most historians believe their murders were the result of prejudices that labeled the family as "Yankee Sympathizers." Father, Allen Hill, was killed ten years earlier over the considered prejudices and eldest brother, Jack Hill, was killed in early 1873 after an argument with Aaron Bloomer.

Only the two youngest Hill children, Belle, (12) and Allen Jr. (11) were spared the mob's wrath. Belle and Allen Jr. were turned over to "Good Samaritan" citizens in Springtown, Texas. After that, both Belle and Allen Jr. become lost in history.

None of the murdered Hill women were buried as citizens feared the vigilante mobs who had hanged or shot the family. Sometime later, it was reported that former Texas Rangers, Al Thompson and Dock Maupin defied the watchmen and buried the decaying bodies of the women in Springtown.

Mike Kearby's Texas copyright 2010

Charles Stillman

In 1849 Charles Stillman, a steamship magnate who founded Brownsville, challenged one south Texas ranchero, Rafael Garcia Cavazos, an heir to the 1781 Spanish grant, El Agostadero del Espiritu Santo, in court. Stillman claimed land title based on his purchase of squatter's land in the Espiritu Santo grant. After years of legal battles, Cavazos prevailed, but was forced to sell to Stillman's lawyers several months later after the attorneys threatened to appeal the court verdict. Cavazos relented, as he could not finance further legal battles. Stillman later purchased the disputed land from his attorneys.

The Espiritu Santo litigation was indicative of the struggles of many Hispanic landowners in south Texas. Most historians believe that Juan Nepomuceno Cortina's rise as a bandit was a direct result of the Espiritu Santo court battle. Cortina's mother was one of the heirs to the El Agostadero del Espiritu Santo grant. Cortina protested the loss of Mexican land to Anglos by rustling cattle from ranches in south Texas. Cortina, a common thief to Texans, and a hero to Mexicans, was also known as, "the Red Robber of the Rio Grande"

In 1850, the Bourland-Miller Commission was established to consider all claims in the Nueces Territory and establish procedures for claimants. By 1852, the legislature approved the majority of claims in favor of the Spanish and Mexican applicants.

Stillman's son, James, had two daughters, both of whom married into the William Rockefeller family.

Mike Kearby's Texas copyright 2010

The South Texas Plains

The brush country of south Texas, also referred to as the brasada, is home to numerous and varied species of plant life, each equipped with its own armament of thorns and barbs. The brasada of 1878 was thick with prickly-pear, cats-claw, Spanish dagger, black chaparral, twisted acacia, all-thorn, wild currant, and mesquite. Photo- Longhorns in the South Texas Brasada

The brasada required that a brush cowboy’s equipment be suited to working in these dense and dogged thickets. Every brush hand’s armor included toe-fenders on his stirrups, leather leggins that covered his legs all the way to his waist, (no respectable brush cowboy ever referred to his leggins as chaps), gloves that extended past his wrists, and a wide-brimmed hat that could be tied around his chin.

J. Frank Dobie wrote in A Vaquero in the Brush Country, that, “In running in the brush a man rides not so much on the back of the horse as under and alongside. He just hangs on, dodging limbs as if he were dodging bullets, back, forward, over, under, half of the time trusting his horse to course right on this or that side of a bush or tree. If he shuts his eyes to dodge, he is lost. Whether he shuts them or not, he will, if he runs true to form, get his head rammed or raked. Patches of the brush hand’s bandana hanging on thorns and stobs sometimes mark his trail. The bandana of red is his emblem.”

The brasada was also home to Texas and Mexican bandits and desperadoes. In the parlance of the time, they were known as owl hoots, bad men who rustled, robbed, and murdered at their own will. Texas and Mexican bandits used the brasada as an exchange point. The Texas rustlers often had Mexican cattle to dispose of that carried no known state brand and contrariwise.

Mike Kearby's Texas Copyright 2010

The First Caudillo

The word, caudillo, as used in Mexico, came to mean a political-military leader. Caudillo, translated into English as “leader,” or “chief,” but as in most peasant societies, the word came to express a dictator or potentate. The Merrimam-Webster dictionary defines caudillo as “a Spanish or Latin-America military dictator.” Image -
Agustín Cosme Damián de Iturbide y Aramburu

One of the best known caudillos in Mexican history was José Doroteo Arango Arámbula, also known as Pancho Villa. Villa was a provisional governor of the Mexican state of Chihuahua from 1913-1914.

Villa led a 1916 raid on Columbus, New Mexico, which resulted in a year-long expedition by General John J. Pershing to find the “bandit.” Pershing’s pursuit proved unsuccessful.
Pancho Villa was assassinated in 1920 by seven gunmen outside of Hidalgo del Parral, Chihuahua, Mexico.

Other historically famous Mexican caudillos were Antonio López de Santa Anna Pérez de Lebrón, Agustín Cosme Damián de Iturbide y Aramburu, José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori, and Álvaro Obregón Salido.

Iturbide marched troops into Mexico City on September 27, 1821. The following day, Mexico was declared an independent empire. Iturbide is known as Mexico’s first caudillo.

Mike Kearby's Texas copyright 2010