San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1886-03-05
SAN ANTONIO.
An Old Texan Speaks Of the Early His
tory Of the State.
rom the ClnrksyilIc stnndnrLl.

From the Clarksyille STANDARD.
PHILADELPHIA. Feb. 20, 1856.
Dear Standard-I find in your Table
column the following note and comment.
The LIGHT. Of San Antonio, is a hand
some sheet, and very truthfully says in
answer to the Waco Examiners claim
OF priority for a city: "San Antonio was
the principal city OF the Southwest, and
was known the wide world over before
the site OF Houston had other inhabit-
ants than the alligators and snakes OF
buffalo bayou"
To this you reply thus:
"This is certainly true to our knowl-
edge. San Antonio was the only city OF
Texas in 1896, neither Houston nor Gal
weston had any existence except waste
land. Houston had not even a name"
Your statement to my knowledge Is
correct. In 1886 Houston had no eX-
istence except waste land. After the
battle of San Jacinto had been fought
and won, and the fame OF General
Houston, the Texan commander, was
spreading abroad; with the adrOitness
peculiar 10 Northern men, New Yorker
purchased league of land on which he
founded the city Of Houston. The
exact sum he paid for the land, at this
late day | fail to remember, but | am
confident 1t did not exceed $500. In
these days this may be considered
3 very small amount of money for
four square miles OF land, but at that day
1t was considered q fair price. lie
founded the city of Houston on IN agni-
ficent scale. The seat of government
was temporarily located here, and in the
space OF two or three years the solitary
grove skirting Buffalo Bayou and the
wild grandeur Of the prairie had given
place to a town, with several hundred
Inhabitants.
| was In Houston when its inhabitants
were living and doing business in tents,
and shanties. With q man from the
single making region OF the State of
New York, went into the business OF
manufacturing clap. boards on White
Oak bayou. With an old yawl we trans
ported our merchandise to Houston,
which was then in great demand and
brought a high price, there being no
other roofing or boarding ma
terial. At that time all the buildings in
Houston were constructed by setting
poles in the ground and siding them up
and roofing with clap-boards. The pros
porous business of manufacturing clap
boards however was of short continu-
ance, as vessels from New Orleans COM
menced arriving with cargOes of lumber
OF all kinds and all manner of building
material, and soon "Othello's occupa-
ton was gone"
The SAN ANTONIO LIGHT can Justly
claim its city's priority. Before the city
of Houston was thought Of. San Antonio
was city with population of about
1000 or 5000. 1t is truly the ancient
town of Texas. Spanish settlements
were made here as early as 1892. In 1888
had the pleasure of visiting those ven
cradle piles, the Spanish missions, where
nearly 200 years before the standard Of
the crags was first planted in Texas.
There on the San Antonio River settle
msnts were first made. The missions, to
my gaze, in 1898, presented solemn and
gloomy grandeur. The venerable piles
were monuments which told of by-gone
days. The entrance to the buildings
was through a magnificent arched gate
way which led into a spacious court, and
thence into large arched-rOofed apart
ment sufficiently comm0di0us to accom-
modate several hundred persons.
Among the most important of those
venerable monuments Of past ages, the
Missions of Conception, San Jose, San
Juan and ElspadO, were the most i'm
pOrtant. None OF them, however, were
at the time of my visit, occupied for the
purpose designed by their pious foun-
ders. My first visit to these first settle
ments Of Texas excited emotions within
me which cannot now be described.
Everything that met the eye. spoke Of a
by-gone race. A melancholy change
had taken place. The plaintive notes OF
Christian devotion which were once
chanted in them were heard no more,
silent all, the Christian instructor and
the savage warrior were sleeping the
sleep of death. to awake no more until
the nations OF the earth are summoned
to their final accounts. There had the
pious Fathers of the Catholic church
gathered in the savage red men Of the
forests and prairies and taught them the
more acceptable way OF wOrshiping the
Great Spirit.
San Antonio at that day presented in
its houses system OF defence. The
houses generally built Of stone and gen.
orally but one story high, with fiat roofs
and parapet or strong wall above the
roof which was pierced for fire arms, as
we'll as the walls below. In the town
stood the celebrated fortress, the Alamo,
one of the Spanish Missions building
which everything connected with was
interesting "a building which every
true-hearted American who gszes upon
it, will drop tear to the memory Of the
$50 who were slain within its walls.
The LIGHT is correct in claiming
priority for San Antonio. 1t has an an
cient and heroic fame as compared with
all other towns in Texas. The heroes
Of the Alamo are distinguished above all
others of modern times. The Alamo
distinguishes San Antonio above all
otoer towns for the acts Of which it was
the theatre. G. NELSON SMITH.