Zavala County History

PRESENTATION ON ZAVALA COUNTY HISTORY 1st Quarterly Meeting SouthWest Texas Genealogical Society - SWTGS Batesville, Texas September 6, 1986 By Robert S. Crawford, Jr. Source: "Branches and Acorns" SWTGS Quarterly - Vol. II, No. 2, pp. 5-10 - December 1986 (Robert S. Crawford, Jr. was born in Batesville and in 1926 moved with his parents to Laredo. In 1927 the Crawford family returned to Zavala County, settling in Crystal City where his father practiced law with Grover C. Jackson. The elder Crawford was joined in his law practice in 1949 by Robert Jr. In 1961 Robert, Jr., moved his law practice to Uvalde, where he was joined by his father in 1964. William Tomas Childress, Mr. Crawford's maternal grandfather, organized his first abstract and title company at Batesville in 1900, later moving it to Crystal City when the county government moved.) Contrary to popular myth, there are no human creatures native to the New World. Every race which settled here came as invaders. Also contrary to popular myth, the first invaders were not Asian or Mongoloid but Caucasoid. They were more unlike American Indians than present day Caucasians are unlike the Chinese, "and may have been a Caucasoid race that roamed out of Central Asia in unrecorded history. These early invaders are referred to as the Paleo-Americans or the Old Americans. The date of this first invasion cannot be precisely fixed. It is known, however, to have been tens of thousands of years (probably at least 40,000 years ago) before the dawn of recorded history, during the last great Ice Age. Immense glaciers covered the Northern Hemisphere and there was only limited drainage to replenish the rivers, the seas, and the oceans. As a result the oceans shrank, and a land bridge arose out of the northern seas to connect Asia and Alaska. Undoubtedly the first humans to set foot on the North American continent was a small group of men, women, and children who made their way across this narrow strip of land located where the Bering Sea is today. Seeking the sun, the Paleo-Americans passed through the unglaciated valleys of the North. They reached the Pacific and the Atlantic, but their true home was on the High Plains (from Nebraska southward). Like all Pleistocene, or Ice Age, men they were hunters, using spears (flint points attached to sticks) to fell their game. The Paleo-Americans roamed across the High Plains, leaving their tools of stone and bone in an area ranging from Clovis, New Mexico, to Abilene, Texas, and from Abilene east to the Pedernales River. One of their favorite hunting grounds was the Llano Estacado (the Staked Plains), which was also the home of the ancient American elephant. Other animals on which the Paleo-Americans preyed were the Columbian elephant, the mammoth, the mastodon, the ground sloth, and the ancient bison (which was four times larger than modern buffaloes). They left their greatest concentration of relics and fire sites on the limestone plateaus of Texas. Relatively recent carbon-14 dating techniques have a range of 37,000 years. Remains of the oldest evidence of the Paleo-Americans in Texas exceeded the range of carbon-14 dating. Man in Texas was not a late arrival, nor was his favorite companion the horse. Alongside bones of the early man were found bones of the Pleistocene horse. The Paleo-Americans were true men; the skulls were long - more long-headed then the skulls of any race of modern man. They wandered across the plains for thousands of years. When the great ice sheets retreated in the North, the Pleistocene Age ended. The Old Americans as well as the animals they hunted - the Columbian elephant, the mammoth, the mastodon, the ground sloth, and the ancient bison - vanished and left only their bones and middens as evidence of their sojourn in the New World. While the Paleo-Americans are believed to have come in a single invasion, the new invaders, whom we now call Indians, came in a series of invasions that did not cease until historic times. Each series of invaders who followed the Old Americans were, however, almost identical, physically and racially, to each other. They were Asian or Mongoloid. Lest we attempt to justify the later invasion of North America by our European ancestors, let us envision our response to a present day invasion by the British, who after all were here nearly 200 years before our independence from England. By 5000 BC this second wave of invasions was in full swing. Some of the invaders stayed in the North; others migrated all over North and South America. They first used spears, then atlatls with darts (throwing spears), and finally, around 500-800 AD, they developed the bow and arrow, a feat the Old Americans never achieved. The new invaders developed their cultures in New Mexico and northward and in areas of East Texas. Their cultures developed in Mexico and southward to Central America and on to South America. They bypassed most of South Texas, which was dry, dusty, and almost without water - a virtual desert. It has been said that, when the tremendous Amerind invasion migrated, it could more readily have marched through the southern part of Hell than to have crossed South Texas. South Texas was first peopled by Coahuiltecans. Because of the extreme heat, bison seldom came below the Balcones Scarp and this region was one of the least hospitable for primitive man. Their culture was one of grubbing and digging. According to the Spanish explorer, Cabeza de Vaca, they ate pear apples, nuts, spiders, ant eggs, lizards, snakes, worms, insects and rotting wood. Through necessity, they utilized every plant, roasting mesquite beans and making mescal from cactus. They camped along the creeks, catching fish and digging mussels. A favorite campsite for these early residents was Tortuga Creek. The original settlers of Zavala County had a tough existence, as did the first Europeans to arrive and finally settle the area. In traveling to San Antonio from the presidios, the Spaniards crossed the land that is now Zavala County as early as the 1700's. A Spanish friar described the Nueces as "not running", with stagnant pools and signs of alligators and Lipan Apaches. Although the area was technically a part of the Municipality of Bexar, which was created in 1836, probably the first Anglo to live in what is today's Zavala County was Ed Westfall, who in 1856 came from Fort Inge and built a cabin seven miles south of Batesville. Evidence of his campsite is still visible on Mike Howitt's place. In 1858 Zavala County was formed out of Maverick and Uvalde counties in an effort to strengthen of claim of Texas to the Rio Grande. The county was named for Lorenzo de Zavala, hero of the Texas Revolution and the first Vice President of the Republic of Texas. The first real settlement in the county was Muelo (quickly corrupted to Murlo) in the northwest corner of Zavala County on the road from Uvalde to Eagle Pass. Old Johnnie Fenley, who had settled first, in 1852, in the Sabinal Canyon and then moved to Montell, decided to move even farther west with his sons and a couple of neighbors. Thus, in 1867, Johnnie Fenley, his wife Edie, and four sons (Joel C., Dempsey, James T., and Monroe), together with Henry Packenham and John Langford, moved from the northern part of Uvalde County to the northwest corner of Zavala County. They preempted the land they were able to obtain in one large block, fenced lanes leading into it, and outwitted the Indians who, fearing a trap, would not enter a fenced lane. John and Edie Fenley kept a stage stand, store, and post office, and a stage came through from each direction every day. There were passengers who stopped for a meal and visitors who came for lengthy stays. Soon there was need for two blacksmith shops, a school house, and a church. Freighting was done by wagon, and many wagon trains came through, unloading supplies at the new settlement. The community lasted for 35 years, and even now its remnants can be seen. In about 1869 Elijah Bates brought his family to the area. He built a dam on the Leona River forming Bates Ditch as a means of irrigating his 500-acre tract. Recognizing the need for neighbors, he sold 2-acre plots along the Ditch, laid out the town of Batesville, and built a school. J. B. Winfield built the first store, which was of brick. Anderson Bates built a small hotel. Among other early settlers, the Vivian family arrived about 1867 in Cometa area; around 1871 King Fisher moved in. He married one of the daughters. Mont Woodward arrived in 1868. In 1878 the Adams family and the A. D. Everett family settled in Loma Vista. In 1880 Cometa, headquarters for the T. A. Coleman ranch, was a community. The Gates family and William Cassin arrived in the 1880's. In 1882 the Holdsworth family moved from England into the Loma Vista area, where Thomas K. Holdsworth taught school. The Loma Vista post office was established in 1884. The first wire fences were built in the 1880's. Zavala County was organized 25 February 1884. The county seat was to be located at either Loma Vista or Bates Ditch. In the elections held, Bates Ditch barely carried over Loma Vista as the site for the courthouse, with the following county officials elected: P. M. Downs, County Judge J. B. Ross, Co. & Dist. Clerk J. F. Ragsdale, Sheriff F. Seward, Treasurer J. H. Sawyers, Tax Assessor Ab Luce, Surveyor John Speer, Constable The jail and a courthouse, made of Batesville brick, were quickly raised, and on 12 May 1884 the first session of court met. Roads to the adjacent county seats were laid out and all able-bodied men between the ages of 18 and 45 were summoned to work on the roads. Failure to appear for road work resulted in a fine of $1.00. There was daily mail service to Uvalde, and a weekly pony service to Loma Vista. Some of the early ranchers in Zavala County were: Ike T. Pryor, Ab and John Blocker, Sam Neil, William Cassin, William Ottenhouse, Mont Woodward, George West, Charlie Mundine, J. D. Powell, E. B. Flowers, S. H. Blalack, A. D. Everett, William Gates, Holdsworth, Peace & Harrison, Erskine Brothers, O. A. Mills, Wolff, C. A. Brown, Day, Davidson, Whitecotton, Carmichael, Hemphill, Baxter, Hal Mangum, Gunter Hardy, Dobe and Willie Van Cleve, Ware, Matthews, and Kincaid. Landmark dates not previously mentioned are: 1895 - the first full school was established in Batesville; the first superintendent of schools was W. T. Childress, aged 19 1900 - at Cometa artesian water was found at 1,000 feet; first abstract company established 1907 - Cross-S Ranch was subdivided and Crystal City laid out with settlers coming from nearly every state in the USA 1908 - Pryor Ranch was subdivided and La Pryor laid out with the majority of settlers being from out of state 1909 - the SAU&G railroad was built, bypassing Batesville; impetus for population growth shifted toward Crystal City; development of the farming industry encouraged by presence of railroad and development of irrigation techniques; first telephone company, based in Batesville 1912 - A motion to move the county seat from Batesville to Crystal City failed, but only barely 1928 - Zavala County seat was moved from Batesville to Crystal City with a vote of 938 to 446. Of 812 votes cast in Crystal City, only 3 voted against moving the county seat. In 1896, the following county officials were elected: George C. Herman, County Judge Jack Ross, County Clerk J. H. Sawyer, Tax Assessor J. A. Williams, Sheriff _____ McNins, County Treasurer George Myers, County Surveyor In 1900, the county officials were: O. A. Mills, County Judge W. T. Childress, Co. & District Clerk T. H. Taylor, Sheriff H. C. Allen, Treasurer County Commissioners: E. C. Rutledge Henry Holdsworth J. F. Pace Leas Oden Other later county officials: Sheriff: Eb Riggs, Willis Pond, Everett Anglin, Jesse Jones, E. B. English, C. L. Sweeten Judges: N. H. Hunt, A. C. Mogford, R. S. Crawford, Jack Pegues, Irl Taylor, Angel Gutierrez, Ron Carr Commissioners: J. O. Ivey, E. B. Ross, Roy Davidson, O. F. Rutledge, Harry Reynolds, R. S. Crawford, George Brice, Charles Busey, Buck Simpson, Bernard Brown Early Families: Batesville Herman Mills Maddux Peace Ross Childress West Crawford Hunt Harrison McAllister Hooper Klein Prado Flores Bragg Calicut Hargraves Price Hinton Postell Sawyers Shearer Vollintine Carl White Monroe Martin Wilson Mary Young Hemphill Brown Baxter Bates King Ottenhouse West Cassin Simpson Ivey Day Andrus Flowers Blackmon Nicholson Bredthauer Rumfield Rhodes Spring Bros. Hunter Bennett Jones Pace Pope Childs Loma Vista Holdsworth Everett Day Arthur Davidson Wolff Gates Neal Carmichael Howett Adams Johnson Brice Paysinger Barnes Whitecotton Butler Mangum Powell Rumfield Byrd Simmons Cometa Van Cleve Ware Harris Green Vivian King Fisher Hobbs Davidson Coleman La Pryor Hibdon Bond Salmon Lamb Park Parr Hope Perkins Dr. Otis King Clark Cornett Busby Dietrich Jessee Kral Gilbert Reynolds Theo Gonzales McHazlitt Grant Pryor Grelle Kite Chapin Kane Thompson Cox Richey Hargraves Johnson Scott Stanphill Terpening Trees Waddell Walker Wampler Crystal City Jackson McGinnis Carr Pulliam Williams Wagner Fly Lunz Taylor Galvan McNiel Fontaine Wilmoth Rice Rutledge Butler Urban Donnell Cowan Upchurch Zimmerman Crawford Speedy Jarratt Busby Milan Pegues Hardy Hinburgh Nash Laird Harkey Juvenal Peters Sims Ramsey Gardner Addison Price Lowe Volz English Arthur Huffman Turk Barnes Osborn Broadhurst Miller Johnson Hall Bishop Sparks Day Wilcox Curtis Templar Bookout Peek Pipes Robinson Eubank Sloan [Submitted by Amanda Jowers]

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