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Almost everyone has heard about the Alamo, but why the Mission San
Antonio de Valero was given this nickname is not so clear. In Spanish,
Alamo means "poplar," referring to a type of tree, which
probably also included the cottonwood. Apparently, cottonwood trees
flourished along the river in the area surrounding the mission, and
in fact there are still a few of these trees in the gardens behind
the existing Alamo chapel. In the patio of the adjacent Menger Hotel,
there used to be cottonwood trees, but all that remains now is a plaque
dedicated to "this noble cottonwood." The eastward extension
of what is now Commerce Street was called the Alameda, and at the
time of the great battle, it was described as a broad and spacious
irregularly shaped place flanked on both sides by huge cottonwood
trees. Alameda in Spanish means "poplar grove."
A more likely origin for the name has to do with a group of soldiers
that were stationed at the mission. In the early 19th century, Spain
was forced to fortify its northern territories against foreign expansion,
and the Spanish Colonial government created light, mobile troops called
"flying companies." One such company of one hundred mounted
lancers was recruited in a Coahuilan town called San José y
Santiago del Alamo de Parras, a village known for its grapevines (las
parras) and cottonwood trees (los alamos). This unit arrived in 1803
to bolster the existing San Antonio garrison stationed at the Mission
San Antonio de Valero. For the next 25 years or so, the names Valero
and Alamo were apparently used interchangeably, but eventually the
name Alamo prevailed.
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Founder of the San Antonio National Bank and the First National Bank
of Austin, developer of the city's first water system, railroad investor,
and major philanthropist, George Washington Brackenridge (1832-1920)
was clearly one of San Antonio's most important figures. His estate
at one time included what is now a major portion of Alamo Heights,
the campus of Incarnate Word, part of the Olmos flood control project,
and Brackenridge Park. In 1899 he gave 320 acres of his land adjoining
the San Antonio River to the city for the park, and his close friend
Ludwig Mahncke (p. 43), as the first City Parks Commissioner, was
largely responsible for designing the seven miles of roads that wind
through the trees and along the river. Brackenridge's gift to the
city came with several rigid stipulations including total prohibition
of alcohol on the park premises. In the early years of the 20th century,
Brackenridge Park gradually replaced San Pedro Park (p. 49) as the
center for recreational activity in the city.
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The local brewers eventually got their revenge on Brackenridge's ban
on alcohol in his park when the widow of a prominent local beer baron
acquired a tract of land adjacent to the park and gave it to the city
with the provision that malt liquors could be sold and consumed there.
In the early 1900's, the San Antonio Brewing Association, makers of
Pearl Beer, was the largest brewery in Texas, and its president was
Otto Koehler. When he died in 1915, his widow Emma acquired some land
adjacent to Brackenridge Park and donated it to the city specifically
to thwart Brackenridge's restriction that alcohol could never be sold
or consumed in his park. To this day, the only place in Brackenridge
Park where beer can be consumed legally is in Koehler Pavilion.
Emma Koehler succeeded her husband as chief executive, and under her
shrewd management of producing near beer, bottling soft drinks, and
operating other businesses, Pearl was the only brewery in Texas to
survive prohibition.
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Started in the basement of St. Mary's Catholic Church in 1984 and originally called the Downtown Youth Center, this is one of six San Antonio Youth Centers whose purpose is to provide a safety net for young people at risk . It was renamed in 2004 for the man who helped keep it alive financially for 20 years by hosting an annual golf tournament and otherwise cajoling his many friends to contribute to its upkeep. Dan Cook (1926- ) was for several decades the most recognized and best loved TV sportscaster and journalist in this city. In his 51 years with the San Antonio Express News, Cook racked up numerous awards and honors from the public and his peers, serving twice as president of both the San Antonio Press Club and the Texas Sports Writer's Association, and was among the second round of inductees into the San Antonio Sports Hall of Fame in 1996. With personal contacts in the sports world too numerous to count, Cook always seemed to have the inside "scoop" on any and all pending changes in the world of athletics, and if he predicted that something was going to happen, it usually did. He wrote with marvelous humor, but also with genuine honesty and humility. If he was ever mistaken in stating the facts, which was rare, his apology and a correction would be printed as soon as he knew the true story.
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On December 7, 1941, Dorie Miller was a cook on the battleship USS
West Virginia, which was lying at anchor in Pearl Harbor. For heroism
displayed during the Japanese attack that Sunday morning, Miller
was award the Navy Cross by Admiral Chester Nimitz. Miller is played
by Cuba Gooding, Jr. in the movie Pearl Harbor. A native of Waco,
where he was a high school football star, Miller was killed later
in the war when his ship was torpedoed and sunk by a Japanese submarine.
Family members say that his given name was Doris, but apparently
he went by Dorie in the Navy because Doris was considered too feminine
for a sailor.
The Navy Cross is the Navy's second highest medal for bravery, but
of the 452 Medals of Honor awarded during World War II, none was
to an African American. In 1996, the Army retrospectively awarded
seven Medals of Honor to Blacks for heroism during World War II,
but the Navy has not revised its wartime decorations. Recent efforts
by citizens and congressional representatives to upgrade Miller's
citation to the Medal of Honor have not been successful.
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Not long after Henry A. Guerra Jr. (1918-2001) graduated from Central Catholic High School, he took a job with WOAI radio on two conditions: a work schedule that allowed him to finish his degree at St. Mary's University and the right to use his surname. He thus became the first Hispanic announcer to use his own name at a major English language radio station in Texas, and later he was the city's first Hispanic television announcer. Guerra became San Antonio's best loved local historian, and his deep resonant voice was instantly recognizable. The most popular of his many stories was "Thirteen Days of the Alamo," which was broadcast in the spring of every year (Fig. 65). He is said to have considered himself neither Hispanic nor American, but a Tejano. In 1957 he help found the Mexican American Friendship Committee to strengthen business ties between the United States and Mexico.
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The first Protestant church services in San Antonio were held by
Presbyterian missionary John McCullough (1805-1870) and Methodist
missionary John W. DeVilbiss in 1844. (A bronze plaque marks the
location on what is now the corner of West Commerce and Soledad
streets, where the river bypass flows under Commerce Street.) The
following year, McCullough accepted an assignment from the Presbyterian
Board of Foreign Missions (Texas was not part of the United States
at that time) and returned to San Antonio, where in 1846, he organized
the First Presbyterian Church and opened a day school for Mexican
children, thus laying the foundation for the first free school system
in the city. Life was tough for a man of the cloth in early San
Antonio, and there was at least one attempt on his life, which prompted
McCullough to leave the city in 1849 and never come back.
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In 1842, twenty-one German noblemen organized the Adelsverein, ("Society
for the Protection of German Immigrants in Texas") for the express
purpose of solving the distressing poverty of the overcrowded German
states by assisting hundreds to emigrate to Texas. Although it was
poorly organized, uninformed, and woefully under funded, the Society
was nonetheless quite successful in sending many Germans to Texas.
One of the group, Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels (1812-1875), was
appointed commissioner-general for the first colony. His initial task
was to make an inspection tour of Texas, which he did in July 1844.
He located a suitable piece of property along the Comal River, which
he at once purchased and signed a peace treaty with its only inhabitants,
a tribe of Lipan Apaches. After establishing a port of debarkation
on Matagorda Bay that he called Karlshafen, later re-named Indianola
(p. 9), he led the first wagon train into the interior of Texas. Reaching
a fertile tract of land near the confluence of the Comal and Guadalupe
rivers on March 21, 1845, he named the settlement for the Solms family
ancestral castle on the Lahn River in Germany, an estate known as
Braunfels. The following month, he laid the cornerstone for "Fort
Sophia" (Sophienburg), which he deemed necessary for protection
of his new colony, in honor of his wife Lady Sophia, Princess of Salm-Salm.
Although the fort was never completed, her memory has been preserved
by the Sophienburg Memorial Museum on the site where the fort was
to be built.
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Probably no one ever dominated the home building of any city in America the way that Ray Ellison (1917-2005) did in San Antonio. A local boy who attended Fox Tech High School, he started out as an auto and aircraft mechanic, but soon turned his attention to building homes. Beginning with Valley Hi near Lackland and Kelly AFBs in 1955, Ray Ellison Homes and Rayco built more than 50,000 homes in more than 40 subdivisions over the next four decades (Fig. 17). During that time, these companies built 45 to 60% of the new homes sold in San Antonio each year, preferring in his later years to limit new construction to "only" 2500 per year for the sake of consistency and predictability of both costs and profits. Along the way he founded two banks and the largest private water/sewer utility in Texas, and donated land for branch libraries and for Air Force Village. He received virtually every accolade given to builders on the state and local levels, and in 1980 he was named National Builder of the Year by Professional Builder Magazine. He sold the company to a California corporation in 1998.
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Aside from the Alamo, perhaps the San Antonio name most recognizable
to people in other parts of the country is the city's basketball team,
the 1999 NBA champion Spurs. In 1971, after four years of struggling
in the old ABA as the Dallas Chaparrals, the franchise was bought
by a group of San Antonio investors led by Angelo Drossos and B.J.
"Red" McCombs (see Empire Theater, p. 85). A citywide naming
contest was held, but the final decision was made by a selection committee,
who chose to honor McCombs' suggestion that it be a short, catchy
name. Not surprisingly, then, the committee came up with the name
of McCombs' hometown -- Spur, Texas.
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As the second oldest airport in continuous operation in the nation, Stinson Field is a true San Antonio landmark. It also has the distinction of being named for a family rather than for an individual. (Fig. 81). Although the most famous was Katherine, everyone in the family was an aviator. The Stinson School of Flying was originally located on the parade grounds at Fort Sam Houston, but when the Army started its own aviators' school in 1915, the Stinson School moved to 750 acres southeast of town, where they trained Canadian Air Force pilots. All three of Stinson's siblings were renowned pilots. While Katherine toured the world to raise money and set flight records, sister Marjorie was chief instructor at the school. Brothers Jack and Eddie also held aviation records, and Eddie founded the Stinson Aircraft Company. Serving as the city's main airport when commercial air traffic first came to San Antonio in the 1920s, it was briefly named Winburn Field in honor of William D. Winburn, a young San Antonio Light city hall reporter who died in an ill conceived publicity flight in 1927. That name seems not to have been widely used, and the name was officially changed to Stinson Municipal Airport in 1936.
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Terrell Hills was probably named for Dr. Frederick Terrell (1856-1940),
but it was his father, Brig. General Charles Milton Terrell (1832-1904),
who started it all. General Terrell acquired the property, which was
approximately one section of land (640 acres), around 1880 while stationed
at Ft. Sam Houston as paymaster. For some 60 years it was the family
farm, referred to by later descendents as the Terrell dairy farm.
The General's physician son, Dr. Frederick Terrell, was a graduate
of Harvard Medical School and a highly respected practitioner for
some 20 years in San Antonio, but he gave up the practice of medicine
in 1900, presumably to pursue his business interests. He was president
of the City National Bank, and fulfilled many community and civic
responsibilities, including being president of the city school board
(there was only one school district at that time) and serving for
three months as mayor pro tem of San Antonio (in 1903).
In 1920, Dr. Terrell began selling land out of the farm, a practice
continued by his daughter Sarah (Engelke) after his death. The town
of Terrell Hills was established in 1920, but it was not incorporated
until 1957, in response to a growing threat of annexation from the
city of San Antonio.
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The first half of this combination was named for the family who not
only owned the famous Vance House downtown (p. 14), but also had a
ranch northwest of San Antonio and speculated in land all over this
area. William Vance (1813-1878) originally came to San Antonio along
with his father and brothers James and John as commissary agents for
General Zachary Taylor during the Mexican War in 1846. The brothers
stayed on after the war and built the first army barracks in San Antonio.
A two-story building adjacent to the barracks was later converted
into the Vance House, and they were active in many other business
ventures.
Born in New York State but raised in Kentucky, William H. Houston
Jackson (1803-1888) came to San Antonio in 1849 to establish a ranch
on the Emanuel Leal grant of 640 acres, which was located "about
7 miles northwest (from downtown) as the crow flies." During
the Civil War, he saw action in many battles including Vicksburg against
Grant, attaining the rank of Brigadier General. After the war he was
a Justice of the Peace in Bexar County, but his major interest appears
to have been raising cattle.
Since it was customary to name a road for the properties it ran between,
it is reasonable to assume that Vance and Jackson owned adjacent lands
in the northwest part of the city.
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Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784) was the first Black woman poet of note
in the United States. Taken to Boston on a slave ship in 1761 at
approximately age eight, she was purchased by a tailor named John
Wheatley to be a personal servant for his wife. The Wheatleys recognized
her considerable talents and gave her privileges unusual for a slave.
Learning to read and write, she mastered not only English, but Greek
and Latin as well.
Opened in 1933 as a segregated school for black students, Wheatley
High School was closed in 1970. The name was later given to a new
high school that opened in 1974 on the site of the old Brackenridge
High School, but in 1988 Brackenridge replaced Wheatley as the name
of this high school, and Emerson Middle School was renamed Wheatley
Middle School. The bottom line is that today there is a Wheatley
Middle School but no longer a Wheatley High School.
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In 1904, William Wurzbach, along with his father-in-law Gustav Schmeltzer,
bought 1400 acres in northwest San Antonio. A homestead was built
in 1909 in a pasture where the HEB store at IH 10 and Wurzbach now
stands. The family built a road so they could get around the farm,
and the original road extended up the hill as far as what is now
Fredericksburg Road. Wurzbach was an attorney and also County Judge.
The family subsequently deeded the road to Bexar County, and when
the proposed Wurzbach Parkway is finally completed across the city
north of Loop 410, the name will extend far beyond the original
family property.
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