Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1912-04-25
RICH HERITAGE
LEFT To ". 1fs;; ny; s::::;iI
Remember the Alamo! Re-
member Goliad! Should
Not be Forgotten.
PRICE OF LIBERTY DEAR
Interesting Historic Letter
From A. D. Dorset, For
merly of Baraboo.
PRICE OF LIBERTY DEAR

Llano, Texas, April Is, 1912.-Al-
most every state has some character
istic feature or bit of history that indi-
viduaIizes it from all the rest. Massa-
chusetts has It's Bunker Hill, Indi-
ana its writer's and poets, California
its golden sunsets and Wisconsin its
Robert M D., but Texas has something
greater than any of them-its Alamo.
Read of Texas, ye students of history,
if you would know of the rich heritage
left to our people by such men rs
Crockett and Bowie and Travis. The
records of America hold nothing else
to compare with the defense of the
Alamo made by these brave men and
their companions. 1t alone stands
out with Thermopylae in the glorious
deeds of the past.
Outside of Texas few people have
cared or taken the trouble to study
Texas wonderful history. [ wonder
BaIaboo know The meaning of the
word "texas?" 1t is the Spanish
VOID for spider, pronounced tayhas) !,
and the name was given TO the cJuLt y
by the early Spanish explorers be-
cause of the great number OF spiders
they found here,
First settlements were made in east
Texas by the Spanish missionaries un-
der Capt. Diego Ramon in 1915 They
were 500 miles from the nearest Span
ish settlement in Mexico and were sur
rounded by many indians who mig ht
at any time become hostile. The
Ffenca, too, were likely to appear at
any time and drive them out. To
forestall the French in the occupation
of the country, another settlement was
made little later on the San Antonio
river and a fort was built on the pres
ent site of the San Antonio and was
called San Antonio de BeXar. The
settlement grew very slowly and
seventy years later il had but 40
houses and almost every one of them
one-storied and one-rOomed. Several
mission churches OF stone and mud
were built in and near the town aud
these are still standing and are objects
of great interest to the traveller today.
Here the fathers won the friendship
of the Indians by giving them pres
ents and then taught them religion
and instructed them in domestic arts.
The fathers kept them busy herding
goats and tilling the land for they
knew that was the best way 10 keep
them out of mischief. The Indians
were very lazy and the fathers com
plained that it took four Indians to do
the work of one Spaniard. The Span
ish settlers that came in were lazy and
ignorant, too, and little progress was
made in the many years that Spain
ruled the country.
When Mexico made herself free
from Spain, Texas became one of the
states Of that country and remained SO
until 1885. For some time reviouS to
that year America settlers, attracted by
the fertility of the soil and the mildness
of the climate, had gradually encroact-
ed upon the land and had become dis
turbing factor to the Mexican govern
ment. These Americans became rest
less under Mexican rule because they
were denied the right OF representa-
tio0, they were made to give up their
firearms, their charters to the lands
were taken away, their contracts were
repudiated, and they were denied the
right to hold slaves. Such conditions
could not bring anything else but
trouble and it eliminated in the
Americans declaring the independence
Of Texas from the mother country.
This declaration was made good by
the force of arms and the Mexican
general, Cos, was driven out of San
Antonio on December IA, 1885, and
Texas was free.
This freedom did not last long, how
ever, for few months later the coun-
try was invaded by a Mexican army
un ler Santa Ana who soon appeared
at San Antonio with about 5000 men
His approach was made known by q
sentinel, who had be- n stai-ned in the
bell tower of the San Fernando cathe
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