Mary Margaret McAllen Amberson - I Would Rather Sleep in Texas: A History of the Lower Rio Grande Valley and the People of the Santa Anita Land Grant

I WOULD RATHER SLEEP IN TEXAS

I Would Rather Sleep in Texas

A History of the Lower Rio Grande Valley and the People of the Santa Anita Land Grant

Mary Margaret McAllen Amberson,
James A. McAllen and Margaret H. McAllen

Texas State Historical Association Denton

Copyright 2003 by the Texas State Historical Association, Denton, Texas. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Amberson, M. Margaret McAllen

I would rather sleep in Texas: a history of the lower Rio Grande valley and the people of the Santa Anita Land Grant/ M. Margaret McAllen Amberson, James A. McAllen, and Margaret H. McAllen.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-87611-242-4 (alk. paper)

1. Lower Rio Grande Valley (Tex.)History. 2. Santa Anita Land Grant (Tex.)History. 3. Frontier and pioneer lifeTexasLower Rio Grande Valley. 4. PioneersTexasLower Rio Grande ValleyBiography. 5. Lower Rio Grande Valley (Tex.)Biography. 6. Lower Rio Grande Valley (Tex.)History, Local. I. McAllen, James A. II. McAllen, Margaret H. III. Title.

F392.R5 A48 2003

976.4'492dc21 2002073956

First paperback printing, 2010

Published by the Texas State Historical Association in Cooperation with the University of North Texas.

Design by David Timmons.

The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, Z39.481984.

: John McAllen surrounded by his family, 1910, San Juanito. Back row, left to right: Louis Rohde, Martha Krausse, Martha Rohde, Carolina (China) Trevio, unknown. Middle row, left to right: Marianna Rohde, Margaret Rohde McAllen, unknown, James Ball McAllen. Front row, left to right: Eldred E. McAllen, John McAllen, and Mildred M. McAllen. Courtesy McAllen Ranch Archives.

ISBN 978-1-62511-022-0 (ebook)

I am a steward for my heirs, but the land is mine. It has belonged to each generation of my family in turn. I wouldnt freely trade or sell it like the cattle. My respect for past generations comes from the fact that they tended to things, held things together, and sacrificed for this land and their heirs.

Henry Clay Koontz, IV (19341985)
Rancher and friend of James A. McAllen

Happy the man whose wish and care

A few paternal acres bound

Content to breathe his native air

In his own ground.

Alexander Pope, Ode on Solitude

EX PROMISE KEPT

Acknowledgments

A GREAT DEBT OF THANKS goes to Dr. Jerry Thompson, dean of the College of Arts and Humanities and professor of history at Texas A&M International University, who edited the whole of this book. As one of the most knowledgeable and prolific writers on Texas borderland history, his innate feel for the subject matter made this a much more complete study. Thanks also to Dr. George Ward of the Texas State Historical Association for his interest in the concept and content of this book, and to Dr. Ron Tyler, whose leadership of the Association has furthered the study of South Texas and Northern Mexico in unprecedented fashion.

Also, many thanks go to Jon Christian Amberson. Without his help and support, this book could not have been completed.

In Linn, special thanks are extended to: Frances W. McAllen, Melissa McAllen and Enrique Guerra III, Elizabeth McAllen Roberts, James A. McAllen Jr., Stephanie McAllen Moore, and Enrique E. Guerra; in McAllen: Baldomero Vela Jr., Natalia Arroyo de la Vega, and Dr. Romn Garza; at the Santa Fe Ranch: Evelyn East; in Edinburg: Laurier B. McDonald, Joe Ponce, Bobby Ponce, The Honorable Eloy Pulido; and most of all, David Mycue at the Margaret H. McAllen Archives, Hidalgo County Historical Museum; in Pharr. Hermina Ball Chavana; in Weslaco: Claudia Sanchez; in Kingsville: Stephen (To) Kleberg, Bruce Cheeseman, Lisa Neely, King Ranch Archives; in College Station: Dr. Armando Alonso; in Premont: Gus T. Canales; in Brownsville: Anthony Knopp, Milo Kearney, Berta Young Uvalde, Agnes Browne, Mildred Goodrich, Augustin Celaya, Rita and Henry Krausse, Frances Pinkerton, Chula Griffin, Chickie Henggler, Joe Guerra, Dorothy H. Martin, Rod Bates, MarionYturria Kimbro, and FaustoYturria Jr.; in La Sara: Max Dreyer; in Aguilares: Gene S. Walker; in San Antonio Viejo: Robert East; in Corpus Christi: Margaret Rose, at the Public Library; in San Antonio: Dr. Flix D. Almarz Jr.; in Austin, Donaly E. Brice at the Texas State Library and Archives, Janette Schaleben Cook for adding to our research, the hours of dedication of editor Janice Pinney at the Texas State Historical Association, Mary M. Standifer, who has edited parts of this book, David Timmons for his beautiful design of book and dustjacket and for the myriad ways he went the extra mile, and Dr. Pedro Alonso; and in Houston: Janis Parsley at the University of Houston, School of Pharmacy.

In Washington, D.C., I am grateful to Jeff Flannery, Manuscript Department, and Bonnie Coles, Senior Searcher Examiner at the Library of Congress; and Milt Gustafson, who time and again found the most difficult details on Fort Brown and various border raids at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland. In New York and Massachusetts, many thanks to John Sterling Stillman and his son Nathaniel Stillman. In Mexico City, Sarah Young Fricks Rendon; in Derry (Londonderry), Ireland: Flora Donnell, Magdalen Donnelly, Joanne Evans and Sister Ursula McHugh; in Linz, England: Diane Rainford. In addition, posthumously: Vera McDonald, A. A. Champion, Frank Dugan, Arcadio Guerra, Sam Griffin, Vernon B. Hill, Esq., W.W. Jones, Tom Lane, Closner Ramsey, Florence Johnson Scott, Salvador Gutirrez, Avelino Garza, Bertha Young Ivaldi, Ursula Wood, Ramon Young and Mary Wilde. Also the research centers of the New York Public Library, New York, New York; Butler Library, Columbia University; Houghton Library, Harvard University; Manhattan College Archives, Riverdale, New York; Burgos Church Records, Burgos, San Luis Potos, Mexico; Catholic Church Records, at H. Matamoros, Reynosa and Camargo, Tamaulipas, Mexico; Casa Mata Archives, H. Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico; Mier Church Records, Camargo, Tamaulipas, Mexico; Dublin Genealogical Centre, City of Dublin, Ireland.

Mary Margaret McAllen Amberson

Foreword

I Would Rather Sleep in Texas is a captivating book that chronicles the life and times of some of the most remarkable people in the long and often violent history of the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Recalling the history of the Valley and the rugged individuals who came to be associated with the Santa Anita land grant, Mary Margaret McAllen Amberson, with the able assistance of family members including her father, James A. McAllen, has thoroughly researched almost two hundred years of exciting history. Relying on uncounted primary sources, many of them in the McAllen Ranch Archives, as well as a wide array of secondary sources, Amberson gives us a rich and remarkable history.

Written with compassion and objectivity and meticulously researched, I Would Rather Sleep in Texas is the extraordinary story of several unique familiesthe Gmezes, Hinojosas, Domnguezes, Balls, and McAllenswho came to assimilate, adapt, and acculturate in the small villages and ranches that were once part of Jos de Escandns remote province of Nuevo Santander. The drama of the Santa Anita first took root on the banks of the Rio Grande in 1749 in the Villa de Nuestra Seora de Guadalupe de Reynosa, the second of Escandns river villages, and in 1790, when the grant was awarded to a merchant, Jos Manuel Gmez. This book is not only the story of tough and sturdy men who eked out an existence in a foreboding and hostile environment, but of remarkable women such as Doa Rosa Mara Hinojosa de Ball, Mara Gregoria Domnguez y Gmez, Salom Ball, and Margaret Rohde McAllen. Their experiences are woven through the larger and comprehensive history of the Valley to reveal new insights.