Mapping Texas: From Frontier to the Lone Star State — Bexar County
In the nearly three hundred years that it took for Texas to take its current shape, the space changed from an extensive, unexplored and sparsely settled frontier under the Spanish Crown to its iconic and easily recognizable outline. Mapping Texas: From Frontier to the Lone Star State traces the cartographic history of Texas from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, from contested imperial claims that spanned the continent to individual rights of ownership all with the understanding that in order for a place to be claimed, it needed to be mapped.
All Boundaries Are Local: San Antonio and Bexar County
The settlement and development of Texas changed the boundaries surrounding San Antonio de Béxar from a Mexican jurisdictional district, to a land district that encompassed nearly half of present-day Texas and finally to the county we know today. Spanning nearly 50 years, this section Mapping Texas: From Frontier to the Lone Star State explores the cartographic shifts of Bexar County. The maps from the Texas General Land Office also demonstrate the further categorization of the county into individual tracts issued through the land grant process.
Augustus Koch’s panoramic views of San Antonio demonstrate the rapid growth of the city between the 1870s and the mid-1880s. The allocation of funds for railroads along with the founding of Fort Sam Houston in 1876 dramatically increased the economic development of the city. While the earlier version of the map focuses primarily on San Antonio’s cultural and religious locales, the latter edition adds on the many new commercial establishments, including trading posts, hotels, banks, and factories.[1]
Prior to the establishment of a drafting department at the Texas General Land Office in 1846, the task of identifying the original land grants in the counties fell on the district and county surveyors. William Lindsey’s 1839 map of Bexar County sought to identify all of the grants issued in the county, from the Frío River in the south to the “Imaginary Course of the Guadalupe” in the north. The area near San Antonio included many of the roads leading to the city and original Spanish and Mexican land grants. This map is one of the earliest to depict the Lone Star flag of Texas.[2]
François Giraud, the District Surveyor for the Bexar Land District, drew this sketch from the district records of Bexar County and from information collected from “old inhabitants.” The map shows the limits of the city of San Antonio, the relative position of the irrigable lands (labores) of Missions Concepción, San José, San Juan, and Espada, and the names of those who received the land as part of the secularization of the missions. Also listed are original grantees who had located their lands near the mission lands.
John Rullmann’s Map of Bexar County shows the county’s current borders, established after the creation of Wilson County in 1860. His work identifies all the original land grants issued in Bexar County; given its location, the map includes nearly every type of grant, including those from Spain, Mexico, the Republic, and state of Texas. The map also indicates the various railway lines in the county as well as the ranges and lots within the San Antonio town tract.
Can’t make it to San Antonio? You can view the majority of the maps in this exhibit in high definition on the GLO’s website where you can also purchase reproductions of the maps and support the Save Texas History Program.
As part of the 7th Annual Save Texas History Symposium, you will have the opportunity to see this exhibit by registering for the evening reception, which will be held in the Robert J. and Helen C. Kleberg South Texas Heritage Center at the Witte Museum. Support the Save Texas History program, visit with other Texas history enthusiasts, and check out this acclaimed exhibit before it closes in late September. Shuttles will be provided between the Menger Hotel and Witte Museum. Registration for this reception is $50.
[1] For more information on the mapping of US cities in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries see John W. Reps, Views and Viewmakers of Urban America: Lithographs of Towns and Cities in the United States and Canada, Notes on the Artists and Publishers, and a Union Catalog of Their Work, 1825–1925 (Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1984).
[2] For more information on the Texas state flag see https://www.tsl.texas.gov/ref/abouttx/flagdes.html
