While this isn’t EXCTLY Somerset, Texas history, it is a history of the land that became part of early Bexar County then Texas. This was originally published in the Somerset Historical Society’s historical newsletter, Crossings, the November 2015 edition.
SPANISH FAMILIES BEGIN THEIR JOURNEY NORTH
Juan Oñate, born in 1550 in Zacatecas, New Spain, of a prominent Spanish family ( his wife was the granddaughter of Hernan Cortez), was awarded land along the northern Rio Grande Valley where the Pueblo Indians lived. Here he expected to find gold like his father who had made a fortune in silver in Zacatecas. In the summer of 1597 he, with more than 500 followers, including 400 soldiers, of whom 130 brought their families of wives and children, and several religious, began the journey north from Santa Barbara, the last outpost of the Spanish Empire of New Spain at that time. The king, Phillip II of Spain, himself decreed the northern lands were to be explored, pacified, and colonized. That task was given to Juan Oñate. With his sight set on the land promised to him he moved his expedition northward. They traveled with 83 wagons and 7000 head of livestock intending to support their colony in this northern area.
THE JOURNEY BECOMES LIFE THREATENING
To say “the journey was difficult” is to forget the problems inherent with desert travel. The fifty days spent crossing this desert began with a week of torrential rains followed by weeks of dry, hellishly dry travel. A brief, spring rain shower saved the travelers, but the last five days of travel nearly killed everyone when they ran out of food AND water. These resourceful travelers dug for and ate desert roots and other plants. Oñate’s people and horses were nearly mad with thirst and hunger.
When the party reached the Rio Grande, the records tell of horses dying from drinking so much water at once that their stomachs burst while two other horses drowned trying to get to water to drink. And this was just the first half of their journey the Northern Rio Grande Valley.
Their journey was not yet over. Their next step to their promised land took them across the well known Journada del Muerte basin to reach what is today Santa Fe, New Mexico. Also shown on this map is the Pueblo of Acoma that was “pacified” so brutally by this expedition. It is to be found southwest of Santa Fe on this map.
WATER AND RELIEF AT LAST!
Ten days later on April 30, 1598, at a site called San Elizario, about 30 miles “downstream” from modern El Paso, Oñate ordered a day of thanksgiving. Spanish soldiers and area natives, possibly Pueblos, harvested the bounty of the river valley’s wild game and fish, Spanish Franciscan priests offed a mass giving thanks for safe arrival. Here also Juan Oñate read La Toma, the declaration announcing to all that this land, “drained by the Great River to be in the possession of King Philip II of Spain.” Spain was in the area to stay.
OTHER CLAIMS TO “THE FIRST” EUROPEAN THANKGIVIN IN NORTH AMERICA
Some 23 years later and 2400 miles away, some British colonists, of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, also needed to give thanks to their Lord for their survival in a new land. But, that is another story. Suffice to say, most of us who observe “Turkey Day” do so recreating that other feast said to have taken place in that New England colony.
Texas, being the unique place that it is, can say that this first recorded celebration in Texas, of giving thanks to God for life and hope for the future, happened among these 16th-17th century Europeans near what was El Paso del Río del Norte, Nueva España, or just plain El Paso, today. Floridians claim the “First” such feast with Native Americans happened with Spanish explorer’s landing in Florida in 1565, but that and the claim of those Massachusetts Pilgrims, are, for now, just other precious stories. Texas’s first Thanksgiving celebration was on the Rio Bravo/Rio Grande at San Elizario.
SOURCES FOR THIS ARTICLE AND FOR MORE INFORMATION
Kingston, Mike, Ed. (1990). “The First Thanksgiving?” Texas Almanac (1990-1991), Texas Historical Association. Accessed June 21, 2015, available on line <http://texasalmanac.com/topics/history/timeline/first-thanksgiving>
Manning, Patrick. (November 11, 2011). “Travel The El Paso Mission Trail: Where The Real First Thanksgiving Took Place” Huffington Post, online. Accessed June 21, 2015. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/17/travel-the-el-paso-mission-trail-real-first-thanksgiving_n_1015842.html>
Timmons, W. H. (June 15, 2010), “Onate Expedition,” Handbook of Texas Online published by the Texas Historical Association. Accessed June 21, 2015, available online <https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/upo02>
Names of those first colonists available: Onate Expedition’s First Colonists. http://www.entrada 1598.com/mdia/onatenames.pdf
