The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 8, July 1904 - April, 1905 Page: 288
xiii, 358 p. : ill., maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Texas Historical Association Quarterly.
occupation was most strongly emphasized; and, as has been shown,
a modified form of the civil settlement-the colony of citizen sol-
diers-had already been used. The plan, however, of settling
families other than soldiers, and granting them municipal rights
was not tried until all other means had failed. How gradual was
the development of the plan of employing the purely civil settle-
ment may be seen from an examination of the various efforts of
the government to strengthen its hold on the country from 1718,
when the first soldiers with their families were settled in the coun-
try, to 1731, when the fully matured plan was carried out in the
founding of the villa1 of San Fernando de B6xar.
Even as early as 1691, Padre Francisco de Jesus Maria had sug-
gested the settlement of families among the Asinais Indians,2 but
it was not until about 1716 that the plan seems to have been
urged upon the authorities. In July of this year, the.missionaries
had suggested the placing of families on the eastern frontier. In
the same year, they had asked that fifty men be settled in the Cado-
dachos country, and fifty among the Texas Indians. In 1716, also,
Padre Olivares, in writing to the viceroy of his plans for founding
the mission of San Antonio de Padua on the San Antonio River,
asked that families be sent in addition to the soldiers he had
thought necessary. The first settlers, however, sent into Texas
by the government were those brought out by Alarc6n in 1718.3
The sending of these families may have been the direct outcome
of the request of Padre Olivares.
The next step taken toward the settlement of families was in
1In Texas, the term villa seems to have been applied exclusively to cor-
porate towns. San Fernando, the only settlement possessing a municipal
government during the period of Spanish rule, was the only place thus
designated. To the end of the eighteenth century, Nacogdoches, which was
governed by the commander of the military force stationed at that point,
was always referred to as a pueblo. Compare Blackmar's statement as
to the use of the term in California. (Spanish Institutions of the South-
west, 153.)
'Relacion, 113.
'Four of the soldiers taken out by Ram6n were accompanied by their
wives. (Innforme dado d S. Ema., in Memorias de Nueva Espaa, XXVII,
132 vta. 133 vta.) Their presence, however, can hardly be taken as in-
dicating a policy of the government.288
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 8, July 1904 - April, 1905, periodical, 1905; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101033/m1/295/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.