Thanksgiving; Thanksgiving 1598

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 […]