Day 5 Mission Trail
The Missions of San Antonio is today’s history lesson. Those closest to me were waiting for the blog
when I start blathering about the history of the area. Here it is!
I find it interesting why the missions existed. Spain lacked
the people to colonize their claimed territories so the missions served to turn
the natives into Spanish settlers to legitimize its claims. Sneaky.
Kind of like having dead people voting in a South Texas election.
Merrily and I dropped off the kids at their Uncle’s and we
were off to the Southern part of the city. It’s so odd to drive up to a large
historical landmark and find it’s across from H.E.B and Whataburger.
The first mission we visited was Mission
Concepcion. It was finished in 1755. All
the missions were run by Franciscan friars.
They were considered hunter, gatherers.
They hunted and gathered about a 1000 natives to stock their missions.
Next was Mission San Jose.
I believe Frances Scott used this as inspiration for the Star Spangled
Banner (“Jose Can You See…”). Okay I got
that wrong. The church here was
completed in 1782. It was the most
productive of all the missions and stocked the other missions with provisions. |
| I needed to add some character to the photo... unfortunately I didn't find any. |
 |
| Merrily's a barrel of laughs! |
On to Mission Espada.
It was the most isolated and exposed of all the missions. In the war for
Texas Independence Bowie and Fannin took over the mission with 100 men and
successfully defended it against 200 Mexican soldiers who tried to dislodge
them from their positions.
The last on our journey is Mission San Juan. By 1794 the mission had dwindled to almost
nothing. Of the large herds of the past
they were down to a mule, a mare, 2 horses, 4 yokes of oxen and 55 head of
cattle.
And the most famous of them all we didn't see. Oh well, maybe another time.
And this ends Day 5 and your first Texas history lesson…
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