Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1928-02-12

cinto did Texas definitely assert title
to the great expanse Of land between
the Nueces and Medina on the East
and the Rio Grande on the West. The
dispute over this territory was made
the immediate occasion of the war,
between the United States and Mex
leo, Of 1886, after Texas had been an
nexed to the United States. But the
colonial and Texas Revolutionary Pc
riod Of the Lower Rio Grande Valley
was not without historic interest and
presents a rich source of local re-
search work. In one sense. il might
be called the romantic period; in an
other, the tragic period.
After the parts of Anahuac, Harris
burg, the mouth of the Brazos Mata-
gorda, Copano and Corpus Christi
had bern opened up by the Anglo
American ~colonist, beginning about
1926 and extending to the revolution;
q large trade by ox-carts was carried
on with the interior Mexican towns
on the Western banks Of the Rio
Grande. A part Of this was legiti-
mate, but much Of IL was by snug
| glers evading the Mexican revenue
Laws. Many of the smugglers en-
gagged in this trade with the hazards
Of meeting the Indians and evading
Mexican event officers are men
toned by Noah Smithwick in his
Evolution OF a State" John j. Linn
in his "Remsniseense of Fifty Years
in Texas" and particularly in the
historical romance. Mustang Gray
by the Hon. Jeremiah Clemens. This
trade was especially in voUge and
comparatively safe between Mata-
moros, Mier, Reynosa and Rancho d.
Wis. subsequently Rio Grande City,
on the West and the ports of Copano,
st. Marys and Corpus Christi on the
Gulf Of Mexico. Most Of the ira
ditions of buried ~treasurers, so pre-
valent in Texas, were supposed to be
from these smugglers, hiding their
money under marked trees OF near
land marks. when threatened by In
dams or Mexican soldiers.
One Of the three highways from
Mexico to the interior of Texas BEG
gan at Matamoros, crossed the W
ces at San Patricio, the San
river at Golidad, the Guai 1t
Victoria, the Colorada~ Atlas,
N&AN1 1921
lds of the old
was along this
route that occurred the massacre of
Santic adventures.
In ~cCSison with other Next
can towns, kpros is Of compara-
lively recent It is a part OF
an original granc~ the Crown
- C-... - 49, 80
do. c2Stajning six hundreo forty
~Egues, equivalent to mil
Non. eight hundred and fifty Iou-
sand acres and fronting the u
Grande river one hundred miles
the stream from its mouth. TIN
was given the count to compensd
him for financing the province Of
Nueva Santander and to bring to this
section priests to teach the gospel
of the holy cross.
In IVA the count sold to the first
settlers one hundred leagues at the
price of ten dollars per league
(442s). These leagues fronted the
river up 70 the Reynosa porciones on
the south side of the river. In 1921
Matamoros was organized as a vii.
Iage.
Between 1927 and 1885 the state
Of ~Tamaulipas allotted to prominent
Mexican citizens and soldiers. who
had served in battles Of their coun.
try. all vacant lands then found as
such, between the Rio Grands and
the Nueces rivers. These were all
large grants and some Of them
notably the Espiritu Santo. the San
Juan de Carricitos and the San Sal.
vador del Tulle contained from $780,
COO to 100000 acres each. Browns
! vile is located on the Espiritu Ssnto