ESTÉFANA GOSEASCOCHEA CEMETERY

P. G. Cavazos Great-great grandson of Doña Estéfana

San Pedro, Texs February, 2006

" Doña Estéfana by which name she was known the length and breadth of this extensive border was not only one of the first families that settled on this border, but was right honorably descendant from pure Spanish blood. There is not a hamlet from the Nueces to the Sierra Madre in which the name of Doña Estéfana is not a house word."¹

Doña Estéfana was directly connected with and related to a great number of the best known families on the Rio Grande and was universally regarded with high esteem by the whole people of this country.2

De La Garza married Gertrudes De la Garza Falcón, only daughter of Capt. Blas María De la Garza Falcón IV.4 In 1767 De la Garza had been granted Porcíon #88 (5,756.89 acres) in what is today Starr County, Texas. Later, De la Garza needing more grazing land, relocated his family about the year 1770, established a ranch on the north bank of the Rio Grande near the mouth, named it RANCH VIEJO, becoming the first white settlement in the area near Brownsville, Texas ( the site is today marked by a state historical marker placed by the Texas Historical Society - 1936). 5

De la Garza died soon after obtaining the Espíritu Santo Grant, leaving his wife to care for their three children. One of his daughters, MARÍA XAVIERA DE LA GARZA, married CAPT. JOSÉ MANUEL GOSEASCOCHEA (1768-1813) on February 27, 1787 in Cd. Camargo, Mexico. Goseascochea, a native of Lequito, Vizaya, Spain, was the highest ranking officer of the Calvary Militia in the province and along the frontier. He was murdered along with Governor Manuel Salcedo and other officers on April 1, 1813, by Salado Creek near San Antonio, Texas by renegades of the De Lara Gutierrez Expedition. Evidence indicates their remains are buried under the altar of the Sacred Heart in the San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio, Texas.7

Two children, Feliciana and ESTÉFANA, were born of this marriage, Feliciana married Juan José Tijerina, a descendant of Andres Fernandez de Tijerina of Monterrey, Mexico. ESTÉFANA first married José María Francisco Cavazos born in Cd. Camargo in 1795, three children were born from this union: SABAS, MARÍA DEL REFUGIO and MARÍA SECUNDINA, who died in infancy.

After the death of Francisco Cavazos, Doña Estéfana married Trinidad Cortinas on November 11, 1823, an attorney and alcalde (1841-1842) from Camargo. Three children were born from this marriage. JOSÉ MARÍA, CARMEN, and JUAN NEPOMUCENO CORTINAS. José María was elected tax assessor of Cameron County, Texas. The family name was changed from Cortinas to Cortina, though the name is still often written Cortinas.8

The old ranch and the present community are the roots of CARMEN AVENUE which proceeds northward into the community of RANCHO VIEJO, established and settled by her grandfather, José Salvador De la Garza. Other "ranchos" under her jurisdiction included SAN PEDRO, LA GLORIA, and LA PUERTA. La Gloria and La Puerta were later abandoned for unknown reasons. Doña Estéfana’s eldest son, SABAS CAVAZOS, a successful businessman, rancher and highly respected citizen of the Rio Grande Valley, ultimately settled the community of San Pedro.12

Perhaps the following account will give the reader an idea of what was taking place in Brownsville, Texas during these litigations years and how my great-great-grandmother Doña Estéfana and other members of my family were victimized by the law. They suffered not only personally but also were to lose their properties.

The conditions that prevailed at the time of these litigations will give you a better understanding of the history of Brownsville and Cameron County.13

After the treaty along came American rule to the area and with it aggressive, sometimes greedy, Americans eager to seize by right of conquest and by get-rich-quick schemes some of the "vacant" land, which they saw as public acreage under Texas law. Unfortunately, many such as Charles Stillman, Robert N. Hord, the Mussina Brothers, Richard King, Mufflin Kennedy, James Wells, and other robber barons profited at the expense of the new American citizens.

Dr. Walter Prescott Webb in his book, " The Texas Rangers", published in 1935 wrote: "Not only were the Mexicans bamboozled by the political factions, but they were victimized by the law. One law applied to them and another, far less rigorous, to the political leaders and the prominent Americans. The Mexicans suffered not only in their persons but in their properties. The landholding Mexican families found their titles in jeopardy and if they did not lose in the courts, they lost to the American lawyers."

Such was the case of Doña Estéfana, members of her family and their grant. In 1852, Charles Stillman, after taking over a valuable portion which included the 1,500 acres in the present city of Brownsville and Fort Brown, from the Espíritu Santo Grant, continued his assault on the Espíritu Santo Grant, leading to the Cortina raids, the worst border disturbances in Texas history.

Juan N. Cortina is one of the most disputed figures in border history. Because Doña Estéfana’s son would not submit to intolerance and had the courage to stand against tyranny and oppression, he was branded a bandit (especially by his enemies) and by others a Latin Robin Hood. A military figure who once captured Brownsvile and held it for 36 hours when he became incensed at American treatment of Mexicans whose lives were being destroyed by the post Mexican War occupation. It was in this climate that the Mexican people of the area were ripe for a hero, one who would stand for their rights. As Walter Prescott Webb wrote:" one who would throw off American domination, redress grievance, and punish their enemies and just such a champion arose in the person of Juan N. Cortina."

He served as governor of Tamaulipas and was promoted to brigadier general by Mexican President Benito Juarez, who relied on Cortina’s control of the Custom House at Puerto Bagdad to continue the resistance to Maximilian and the Imperialists.

"Whether you like him or not, he (Cortina) was one of the most important persons in South Texas." said Jerry D. Thompson (an authority on the history of the Rio Grande Frontier) on November 7, 2004 at the Brownsville Heritage Museum, during an afternoon of history and book signing.

Doña Estéfana and the families filed suit to defend their title against Stillman’s Land Company. On January 15, 1852, Judge J. C. Watrous ruled in favor of the heirs of the Espíritu Santo Grant, giving them title to the land on which Brownsville was being built. Somehow, in the legal maneuvering which followed, Stillman ended up without his partners and with the deed to the Cavazos land. Doña Estéfana, her families and her son, Juan N. Cortina, suspected that the lawyers had worked together against the heirs of the grant. Their suspicions seemed well founded. There are indications that it was a series of clever, legal maneuvers that gained Stillman the land and the Cavazos families had to sacrifice to obtain even a measure of justice. Owners of the land grant had to sacrifice the land on which Brownsville stood, and a league of land (4,428 acres) from Doña Estéfana was paid to attorneys in order to get them to secure her title to the rest of the grant. Proof of ownership was something the owners of the land grants had to do over and over.14

After gaining confirmation of title to the other fifty-eight leagues that made up the grant, Doña Estéfana gave up her title to the Brownsville land for one dollar. Fighting Stillman and company might have cost Doña Estéfana and her family the entire Espíritu Santo Grant, so the compromise was probably a wise decision. Concerning the litigation, many Americans felt that the whole Espíritu Santo Grant should have been thrown out on grounds that the owners were Mexicans.15

With her land in their secure possession, Doña Estéfana and family continued to adjust to their lives quietly but as cautiously as ever.

In his Memoirs Col. John S. (Rip) Ford relates his encounters with Doña Estéfana’s family. She was ever regarded by the Americans as a faithful friend. During the Civil War, Ford was in charge of the defense of the Rio Grande Valley until the arrival of Col. Robert E. Lee on January 29, 1863. During the Cortina raids, Doña Estéfana moved temporarily from her ranch to Matamoros where she had other properties. In 1859 and soon after her return to Texas, on February 2, 1860, Col. Ford after a short patrol near Brownsville, with a small body of rangers and Don Sabas Cavazos, half-brother of Juan N. Cortina, arrived at Doña Estéfana’s ranch, El Carmen. Don Sabas invited the officers in the house, and they were introduced to Doña Estéfana.

Ford assured her that he and other Americans would do all they could to protect her and her property. Ford remembers what Doña Estéfana was like the day they met: "She was a small woman, not weighing more than one hundred pounds, being at the time over seventy years of age. She was very good looking, had a pretty face, bright black eyes and very white skin. She was a lady of culture and indicated as much in her actions and had all the politeness of a well-bred Mexican."

On April 1864, Col. Ford moved his family to Matamoros, Mexico in order that his wife might be near her mother who lived in Brownsville. Soon after her arrival in Matamoros, Sabas Cavazos and his half-brother Gen. Juan N. Cortina, then governor of Tamaulipas, called on Mrs. Ford and offered any assistance or financial aid which she might need. They were probably returning one of the courtesies which Ford had shown their mother.16

The cemetery, established by Doña Estéfana prior to 1867 for her use, is said to be the oldest of the ranch cemeteries on the river road. The site probably sustained some damage during the hurricanes of October 6, 1867 and September 4-5, 1933, which devastated he Valley. The devastation caused severe flooding of the area and prompted the U. S. International Boundary Water Commission to build a levee along the Rio Grande. The construction of the levee, however, left the cemetery site on the south side of the levee and completely obscured it from view and made it practically inaccessible. It remained unnoticed for decades. Locals hardly recall burials at this site after the construction of the levee and the hurricane and, if there were any burials, they were few and unnoticed.

Her cemetery is located on what was once her property, Rancho El Carmen (El Carmen Ranch) in Cameron County, Texas, within what is known as the Espíritu Santo Grant. Part of that grant was her allotted portion of the grant. The site is in Precinct 2 in Rancho El Carmen, a community established and settled by Doña Estéfana in early 1840’s about four miles west of Brownsville on the Old Historic Military Telegraph Road (US Hwy.281).

When Doña Estéfana fell ill in the summer of 1867, one of her concerns was the wellbeing of two orphans, Abel and Leandro, whom she had raised since childhood. In her will she named her son, Sabas Cavazos, their tutor and guardian for the boys. Her compassion for others in need is well known and knew no bounds.

MARÍA ESTÉFANA GOSEASCOCHEA de CAVAZOS y de CORTINA was born in 1792 in Ciudad Camargo, Nuevo Santander, Mexico and died November 10, 1867 at her ranch, Rancho El Carmen, Texas at the age of seventy-five. To fulfill her request she was buried in her "CAMPO SANTO QUE YO TENGO EN ESTE RANCHO DE MI PROPIEDAD" (cemetery that I have on this ranch of my property), near where her home once stood. Her funeral was largely attended.17

The cemetery, which once was a large dedicated cemetery, is all but gone. A single headstone still standing, is obviously endangered, as the top has been chipped off. Mr. Guadalupe Becerra, whose father’s headstone is the only one standing, remembers the very, very old cemetery in the early 1950s. He recalls fifteen to twenty graves still visible at the site, and some graves had markers. His father, Erasmo Becerra, died in 1924. Headstones and markers were torn or pulled away from the graves and scattered away from the site. Larger ones, as the one recovered (no markings) from the water canal, were pushed away from the graves apparently with heavy equipment and piled into the canal. Smaller pieces of markers lay about the graves.18

Encroachment is quite evident and unfortunately the exact boundaries of the cemetery cannot be identified. It appears, after a period of time, vandals may have deliberately and with a purpose completely removed all evidence of burials and covered up the existence of this historic cemetery. Sadly, the poor souls buried at this site have been denied their own identities. IT IS FOR REASONS OF RETALIATION BY HER SON’S POLITICAL ENEMIES FAMILY MEMBERS BELIEVE THAT DOÑA ESTÉFANA’S GRAVE SITE WAS EVENTUALLY DESECRATED AND OBLITERATED. Her burial site, like many of the details of her extraordinary life, may have been largely ignored, but her life story and legacy endures. Unfortunately, local historians continue to omit her name... she is simply called "the mother of Juan N. Cortina."

Our ancestors, as well as our heritage, are part of the very events that have shaped this part of Texas. The journey of our family to South Texas and the Rio Grande Valley was of colonization, as our family history is rooted in the Spanish era that preceded the State birth.

It was a long journey, a journey into the unknown where pioneers, able to face enormous obstacles and survive the hardships, were later victimized by the law, suffering not only personally but in their properties. Doña Estéfana and her family endured and today we carry with pride the ancestry we can trace back to the lands granted to our forefathers by the King of Spain as well as their contributions in the colonization and settling of South Texas. The footprints left by our descendants are still vividly visible; unfortunately, their histories have been largely ignored. My family is well aware of our heritage and the contributions of our ancestors.

We must continue to document and record some of our history now, otherwise the roots of our past may soon vanish and join the shameful roster of everything else that has been destroyed and/or heretofore ignored of our Spanish/Mexican heritage in South Texas.

From a historical standing, recognition is overdue. It is time to put her to rest with a well-deserved honor. MAY SHE REST IN PEACE.

Prajedis G. Cavazos

Great-great-grandson of Doña Estéfana Great-grandson of Sabas Cavazos Great-grandnephew of Juan N. Cortina Great-great-great-grandson of José Salvador De La Garza Great-great-great-great-grandson of Capt. Blas Ma. De La Garza Falcón IV

7555 Old Military Road Brownsville, Texas 78520 956/542-1724

February 2006

NOTES

1 " Brownsville Daily Ranchero" (Obituary), November 13, 1867

2 Ibid

3 Volume 1, of "Publicacíones del Archivo General de la Nacíon XIV Estado General de las Fundaciones Hechas por Don José Escandon en la Colonia del Nuevo Santander, Costa del Seno Mexicano," published in Mexico City in 1929 by Talleres Graficos de la Nacíon.

"Capt. Blas María De La Garza Falcón, Colonizer of South Texas" by Clotilde

P. Garcia, M.D., 1984, 1988, pp. 44, 5, 26, 34, 35.

"El Potrero del Espíritu Santo Grant", dated September 26, 1781. Filed for record January 14, 1848, in Nueces County, Texas, and transcribed to Cameron County, Texas Records on November 24, 1883, Recorded: Book Supp’ 1 "G" pp. 206-222.

4 Genealogy of Gertrudis De La Garza Falcón; "Capt. Blas María De La Garza Falcón, Colonizer of South Texas" by Clotilde P. Garcia M.D., p. 34.

Will of Gertrudis De La Garza Falcón, Camargo Archives, Libro Numero 20, 1747-1809, pp. 108-111. Copy of the Will is in my possession.

5 The first white settlement in the area was named "Rancho Viejo", established and settled by José Salvador De La Garza. The Texas Historical Society placed a marker at the original site.

Another monument was erected by the State of Texas to commemorate the arrival of Cabeza de Vaca, José Escandon and others in Texas and the settlement in Cameron County by José Salvador De La Garza.

"Juan N. Cortina 1824-1892: A Re-Appraisal", by Charles W. Goldfinch, June 1949; pp. 8, 10, 11.

6 Spanish grant, dated September 26, 1781

7 "De La Garza Falcón, Colonizer", by Dr. Garcia, pp. 28, 29. Copy of the Marriage Certificate is in my possession, dated February 27, 1787.

Austin Papers (Austin, Texas Archives Library), pp. 199-200. José Goseascochea was killed in the Delgado Massacre, April 1, 1813. After General Salcedo and his staff had been taken prisoners by the Republican Army of the North in the first effort Texas made to free herself of foreign rule, Capt. Antonio Delgado, by a ruse, was placed in charge of the prisoners and cut their throats in retaliation for the execution of his father by General Salcedo. H. Yoakum, "History of Texas" (1856), p. 169.

The Houston Chronicle, March 10, 1996, Allan Turner reported, "Some scholars believe the bones unearthed in 1936 were those of Spanish Gov. Manuel María de Salcedo and a group of his soldiers who were buried near the cathedral’s altar in 1813. Salcedo and his men were captured by Mexican, Indian and American revolutionaries in the March 1813 Battle of Rosalia near San Antonio and later executed. That battle resulted in the establishment of the first, short-lived Republic of Texas. The controversy over the identity of the remains dates back to when workmen digging into the floor of the old cathedral - parts of the building date to 1749 unearthed bones and what appeared to be shreds of military uniforms. "That floor is full of burials," said Waynne Cox with the University of Texas at San Antonio’s Center for Archaeology. "When they found military accoutrements with the remains, they made a leap-frog jump of faith."

8 Genealogy Chart José Salvador De La Garza (Gertrudis De La Garza Falcón), "De La Garza Falcón, Colonizer", by Dr. Garcia, P. 34..

Last Will and Testament of Estéfana Goseascochea de Cavazos y de Cortina, dated 1867, No. 49, Filed for Probate on the 15th day of December AD, 1867, Clause 3 and 4, Cameron County Clerk. Copy of the Will is in my possession.

"Juan Cortina and the Texas-Mexico Frontier", by Jerry D. Thompson, p. 8.

"Juan N. Cortina 1824-1892: A Re-Appraisal," by Charles W. Goldfinch, June 1949; p. 17.

Abstract of Title, op. Cit., p. 43. Trinidad Cortina signed his name Cortinas. Juan N. Cortina later dropped the "s" but his name is often written Cortinas.

9 "Juan N. Cortina-Bandit or Patriot?" by J. T. Canales an address before the Lower Rio Grande Valley Historical Society, at San Benito, Texas October 25, 1951; p.6.

Abstract of Title to 200 acres of land, Part of Portion Share No. 1 of Espiritu Santo Grant, Cameron County, Texas (Brownsville, Texas, Skelton Abstract Co.) pp. 15, 16

According to Abstractor’s note of the Skelton Abstract Co. states in part; Doña Estéfana and her sister Feliciana Goseascochea executed the partition deed of 1853, by which the upper or western one-sixth of the grant (Espíritu Santo) was set apart to Doña Estéfana.

10 Ibid.

11 Letter of Mr. Gregory Free is in my possession.

12 "Capt. Blas María De La Garza Falcón, Colonizer," by Dr. Garcia pp. 28, 29.

13"Juan N. Cortina-Bandit or Patriot?" by J. T. Canales, October 25, 1951, p. 9.

14 Ibid. p. 7.

Jerry D. Thompson-Professor of history at Texas A&M, International University, Laredo, Texas, author of several books and many articles in historical journals and magazines.

"Juan N. Cortinas 1824-1892; A Re-Appraisal by Charles W. Goldfinch, June 1949; pp. 35, 36, 37, 38.

"The Lone Star, A History of Texas and the Texans" by T. R. Fehrenbach 1968; 510, 511

"Brownsville Daily Ranchero", February 22, 24, 26; March 1, 15; April 19, 21, 1870

"The Texas Rangers", by Walter Prescott Webb - 1935, pp. 175, 176.

Abstract of Title, City of Brownsville, Texas by Skelton Abstract Co., Brownsville, Texas, No. 53367, dated Dec. 6, 1926.

"The Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas", 1518-1953, by J. Lee Stambaugh and Lillian J. Stambaugh, pp. 102,103, 104.

"The American Flag", Brownsville, Texas, August 20, 1856; that the Texas population was "divided into two classes, Americans and Mexicans" and called it "well-known" that the latter (were) unquestionably more exposed to wrong than the former."

"The Brownsville Herald", Brown, Stillman, Cameron were high on list of rogues by Juan Montoya; February 17, 1995.

For comparisons of the high-handed methods used of the utter disregard for civil rights and fair dealings, see "STOLEN HERITAGE: A Mexican-American’s Rediscovery of his family’s lost land Grant," by Abel Rubio (Thomas H. Kreneck) - 1986.

15 "Cortina" by Goldfinch; p. 36.

16 "Rip Ford’s Texas," John Saloman Ford, 1963, pp.281, 282.

(I declare that at the hour of my death it is my will and desire that my cadaver be buried in the cemetery that I have on this ranch of my property.) On early maps, Rancho El Carmen is frequently referred to as "Rancho de Doña Estéfana". Copy of the will is in my possession.

"Brownsville Daily Ranchero", November 13, 1867 reported Doña Estéfana died at the advance age of eighty-five; most people had questioned her exact age, however. The Cameron County Census, November 15, 1850, Vol. 1, page 332, #837, shows Doña Estéfana being fifty-eight years old. She died seventeen years later, indicating she was seventy-five years old at the time of her death, being born in 1792 not 1782 as historians have erroneously been reporting her year of birth.

18 Mr. Frank Zavala, long time resident of San Pedro, vividly recalls the old cemetery. He remembers picking cotton at the site during the early 50s and walking around the cemetery as not to disturb the graves. He recalls several graves at the site. Zavala remembers an incident about a ghostly figure of a woman dressed in white appearing to Clemente Castillo and Domingo Rincones while they were working at the El Carmen Gin near the cemetery. She approached the men, asked for a match and walked away toward the levee. The two men never saw her face and realizing something unusual, they followed the woman but she disappeared before they knew it. There were other incidents of sights.

Mr. Frank Treviño, retired school teacher, raised in El Carmen Ranch, now living in Brownsville, relates when his father leased and farmed the land at the site in the early 50s. He recalls how his father was always careful not to disturb the cemetery site.

19 Formal complaint filed with the Cameron County Sheriff Department, November 23, 1998 to Deputy R. B. Rodriguez, Case No. 98-16606. Copies attached.