Founding of the Presidio of Elizario
presidio
Founding of the Presidio of San Elizario – 1789
by Rick Hendricks
In 1765 Charles III sent José de Gálvez to New Spain with the title of inspector general and with authority to administer reform of the viceroyalty. As part of the re-organization effort, the king appointed the Marqués de Rubí to inspect all the presidios on the northern frontier and make recommendations to improve the presidio system. Rubí's journey lasted twenty three months and covered almost 3,000 leagues, or more than 7,600 miles. Rubí's basic recommendation was that Spain provide a single cordon of presidios–spaced about a hundred miles apart. Rubí noted that the El Paso area communities had a population of 5,000 and could provide for its own defense. The El Paso presidio should be removed from New Mexico to Carrizal, in Nueva Vizcaya. Rubí also recommended that the presidio of Guajoquilla, which was located near present day Jiménez, Chihuahua, be moved to the valley of San Elceario on the banks of the Rio Grande, near present-day Porvenir, Chihuahua.
The presidio of El Paso was relocated to Carrizal in 1773. This meant that the El Paso area had to rely on locally raised militia companies to defend itself from an implacable foe–the Apaches. Of the numerous Apache groups, by far the most troublesome for the El Paso settlers were the Gileños west of the Rio Grande, the Faraones in southern New Mexico, and the Mescaleros east of the Rio Grande. During the course of the eighteenth century, increased pressure from the Comanches forced the Apaches into closer proximity of settlements on the northern frontier. Apaches preyed on livestock. They considered the flesh of horses and mules the sweetest and tastiest of meats and aggressively sought it out. They preferred to raid and plunder towns and ranches, often carrying off women and children captives. The Apaches struck quickly and retreated even more rapidly. After a century and a half of conflict, the Spaniards had proven to be unable to defeat the Apaches militarily.
The viceroy of New Spain, Bernardo de Galvez, revealed a dramatic new Indian policy in a document known as the Instrucción of 1786. The Instrucción incorporated much of Spain's traditional Indian policy, but it embraced new ideas as well. One such concept was the plan to settle Indians who sought peace near the presidios and make them dependent on the Spaniards by providing them with gifts, supplies, food, alcohol, firearms, and ammunition. Crucial to the functioning of the system was the fact that the weapons would be poorly made and would soon be in need of repair or replacement. This reliance on Spanish weaponry would wean the Indians from their traditional bows and arrows. Gálvez's "peace by deceit" policy governed Spanish–Indian relations on the northern frontier for the remainder of the colonial period. "A bad peace," he remarked, "was better than a good war."
On 14 February 1789 the inspector and Captain Diego de Borica, informed Francisco Javier de Uranga, lieutenant governor of El Paso, that he was ordering Lieutenant Colonel Francisco Martínez and Captain Juan Antonio de Arce to Los Tiburcios to select the new location for the presidio of San Elizario. The roots of the agricultural community of Los Tiburcios stretched all the way north up the Camino Real to the Sandia area where Francisco de Ortega and his wife, Isabel de Zamora, lived. Ortega was a mulatto who had been born in Zacatecas around 1615. By the mid-1640s he was living in New Mexico. In about 1650 Francisco married Isabel, and together they had at least two known children: Pablo and Tiburcio, the latter born around 1655. After the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, Tiburcio and his wife, Margarita de Otón, remained with the New Mexico colony-in-exile in El Paso.
Although it is not certain when the ranching complex at Los Tiburcios got its start, it is known that in 1724 maestre de campo Luis Granillo sold land south of El Paso to Antonio Tiburcio Ortega, one of Tiburcio's sons. When the bishop of Durango, Benito Crespo, visited New Mexico in 1730, he did not mention Los Tiburcios. Marriage records for 1737 refer to Indian servants of Antonio Tiburcio de Ortega and similar sacramental records for 1739 clearly indicate that Antonio's ranch was in operation, although a census conducted that year for the governor of New Mexico, Gaspar Domingo de Mendoza, did not list Los Tiburcios as a separate community among the towns in the El Paso area. Fray Miguel de Menchero's 1744 map, does however; show the hacienda of Los Tiburcios.
The agricultural operation was formally known as Nuestra Señora de la Soledad de los Tiburcios. From the outset it was operated by Tiburcio de Ortega's extended-family network. By the 1750s all of his heirs and their families were active at Los Tiburcios. Antonio Tiburcio de Ortega's children were united in marriage with the Guerra and López families. The Durán, and Luján families were closely related to Ortegas. All of these families had many members living and working at Los Tiburcios.
Los Tiburcios was located on the major spur of the Camino Real that passed through the El Paso's lower valley. Branching off from the direct road south, the spur road ran south and east along the Rio Grande through the mission communities of San Lorenzo, Senecu, Ysleta and Socorro. Freight wagons leaving El Paso for the south over the Camino Real chose from two routes. Lighter wagons usually traveled due south for the Ojo de Samalayuca. Heavy wagons took the branch of the Camino Real that followed the river. At the ranch of Nuestra Señora de la Soledad de Los Tiburcios, present-day San Elizario, Texas, the Camino Real turned sharply to the southwest, eventually rejoining the main route at the Ojo de Samalayuca. When travelers arrived at the turnoff of the river route of the Camino Real at Los Tiburcios, they were in the agricultural heartland of the El Paso region.
By the mid-1780s, Los Tiburcios was in decline. It is difficult to determine a single factor leading to the fall of the agricultural community, but one important factor is related to the removal of the El Paso presidio to Carrizal. While El Paso may have been able to fend for itself with militia companies, Los Tiburcios was too far south and too vulnerable to Apache raiding, which increased markedly in tempo after the presidio troops departed. Whatever the case, the once thriving community was essentially abandoned by the spring of 1787. In April Colonel José Antonio Rengel proposed to the Commandant General of the Interior Provinces, Jacobo de Ugarte y Loyola, that Los Tiburcios become the site of a Mescalero Apache peace camp.
Preparations for construction of the new presidio were under way by August 1788 when Lt. Governor Uranga wrote area pueblos to inform them that workers would be needed for construction of the presidio of San Elizario. The presidio located in Los Tiburcios was to be modeled on the one at Carrizal. Had this model been followed, the presidio of San Elizario would have been made of adobe and more or less rectangular in shape. There would also have been one or two diamond-shaped bastions. The walled perimeter, measuring approximately two hundred varas by one hundred varas, would have enclosed quarters for officers and men; a parade ground; various work- and storerooms; a chapel; and pens for livestock.
In San Elizario the eventual construction did not follow the Carrizal model. It had some features that were different from most other frontier presidios. Extant drawings indicate that the presidio was enclosed by two walls. This feature is unusual and perhaps unique in presidio design. The presidio's outer wall enclosed some twelve hundred square feet. The inner wall enclosed the officers' quarters, barracks, the chapel, a magazine, and other buildings. The stables were located between the two walls. There were two towers, both located on the inner wall. The walls were of adobe construction, were more than four feet thick and approximately eighteen feet high. All the presidio buildings were made of adobe. There is no mention of the outer wall in the extant construction documents for the presidio of San Elizario. This suggests that it might have been a later addition. The apparent purpose of the outer wall was to protect livestock, presumably from Apache raiders. The move to Los Tiburcios must have taken place by April 1789 when Indians from Socorro delivered 1,500 adobes for use in construction. Records indicate that construction continued until at least 1794.
In the first year of operation at San Elizario, the presidial company reached its full complement: a captain, often called commandant; a lieutenant; two alfereces, ensigns or second lieutenants; a chaplain; an armorer, a person responsible for making or repairing small arms or armor; a drummer; and sixty-six other soldiers, including two sergeants, two corporals, and four riflemen. In early 1790 the proposed Apache peace plan began in earnest when three Mescalero leaders came to the presidio seeking peace. Over the course of the next thirty-one years, until Mexican independence from Spain was realized, life at San Elizario swung between administering the peace plan by distributing goods to the Apaches in a attempt to make them dependant on the Spaniards and more "civilized" and arduous campaigns against hostile Apaches, Comanches, and Navajos.
At their highwater mark, the peace camps associated with San Elizario counted more than a thousand Apaches living in the area. At other times, word reached San Elizario that Apaches who purported to be living at peace at the presidio were actually wreaking havoc all over New Mexico. During some years the troopers of the presidio of San Elizario were out campaigning every month and at times for months on end. Despite some early successes, the peace program produced ambiguous results. For every Apache leader and his people who accepted peace terms and settled among the El Paso area communities, another defiantly refused to give up the traditional nomadic existence. Monthly reports listing no enemy activity vied for attention of superiors with correspondence documenting almost constant raid and retaliation. The fact that the presidio was located so far south meant that travel on the Camino Real through the unpopulated region north of El Paso was particularly hazardous, and presidial troops had to perform routine escort duty as far north as Santa Fe. The same danger prevailed to the south, and presidial soldiers accompanied those journeying to Chihuahua as well.
The presidio of San Elizario played an important role in the protection of New Mexico from foreign interlopers in the early part of the nineteenth century when Anglo Americans began to venture into the colony. Ellis Bean, the lone survivor of Philip Nolan's 1800 expedition to eastern Texas, was jailed in San Elizario. After Spanish officials arrested Captain Zebulon Montgomery Pike of the United States Army on the headwaters of the Rio Grande above Santa Fe and charged him with entering Spanish territory illegally, he was brought down the Camino Real in March 1807 and held at the presidio of San Elizario. In 1808 Napoleon had deposed the King of Spain, Charles IV, and placed Joseph Napoleon on the throne. In May 1810 Commandant General Nemesio Salcedo, fearful of Joseph Napoleon, ordered the interim governor of New Mexico to arrest all foreigners and send them to the presidio of San Elizario. Seven men from the Upper Louisiana Territory arrived in Santa Fe that year only to have their goods seized. The men were sent to San Elizario where they were held for two years. The same punishment awaited a larger group of men in 1812.
During the war for Mexican independence in 1810, San Elizario emerged as the most important link in the defensive chain between Santa Fe and Chihuahua. Military authorities recognized the need to keep the presidio of San Elizario at full strength to ensure secure communication north and south. Moreover, the presidio of San Elizario furnished its counterpart in Santa Fe with soldiers, arms, horses, and supplies. In 1818 the New Mexico Detachment was established. Its function was to transport food, clothing, arms, and ammunition from San Elizario to the military garrisons in the north. In 1819 fully a third of the complement of the presidio was on active duty upriver n New Mexico a sergeant, a corporal, two riflemen, and twenty eight privates. Every year from 1818 to 1821 the New Mexico Detachment traveled up the Camino Real to Spanish garrisons in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and Taos delivering food, clothing, and gunpowder. Following Mexican independence in 1821, San Elizario, along with the four other area settlements of El Paso, San Lorenzo, Senecú, Ysleta, and Socorro became part of the nation of Mexico and the state of Chihuahua.
Sources Used:
Hendricks, Rick. "Camino Real at the Pass: Economy and Political Structure of the Paso del Norte Area in the Eighteenth Century." In coords. José de la Cruz Pacheco and Joseph P. Sánchez. Memorias del Coloquio Internacional El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro. Mexico City: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, 2000, 126.
Hendricks, Rick, and W. H. Timmons. San Elizario: Spanish Presidio to Texas County Seat. El Paso: Texas Western Press, 1998.