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© St. Petersburg Times, published November 7, 2002
SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- Remember the Alamo?
The Daughters of the Republic of Texas want to make sure you don't forget the 185 men who fought valiantly in a futile attempt to stave off an assault by Mexican Gen. Santa Anna and his force of 4,000. The DRT operates a genealogical center at the Alamo complex where it keeps a file on each defender. (For information, go to www.drtl.org or call (210) 225-1071.)
Before you dismiss this treasure trove of information as irrelevant to your personal quest, consider this: Fewer than 10 percent of those who perished were Texans. At least 30 percent came from Tennessee. Others hailed from Virginia, Pennsylvania, Scotland, Ireland and Germany, to name a few.
During a recent visit, I browsed through some records. One file featured Maj. Robert Evans, the ordnance officer, who was responsible for maintaining firearms and munitions. A "stout, tall man of 36 with merry blue eyes and black hair, typical of the Irish," Evans emigrated from Ireland, landing in New York and continuing on to New Orleans before arriving in Texas. He was 36 when he died. His heirs got 1,920 acres of land in Wichita City, according to a bounty land warrant. The data came from research conducted by the DRT and from contributions of family members.
The focus of the DRT library is on the revolution and the creation of the Texas Republic. In addition to brief biographies on those who fought at the Alamo, the library has muster rolls of the Texas Revolution, state bounty and donation land records, Texas county histories, state census reports, maps, photographs and cemetery information, said Madalene Morgan, a library assistant.
The DRT evolved from the Daughters of the Lone Star Republic, founded in 1891 to perpetuate the memory of Texas pioneer families and soldiers of the Republic of Texas. To become a member, you must provide proof of lineal descent from a man or woman who was a Texas colonist, who lived in Texas prior to 1846, served as an officer or private in the service of the Colonies or the Republic of Texas, or who was a recipient of a Texas land grant.
But back to the Alamo. It began life in 1718 as Mission San Antonio de Valero, according to an article in Home & Away magazine. This outpost for Spanish Catholicism -- and representative of the Spanish Empire -- originally stood along the banks of San Pedro Creek. It was later uprooted and moved to the banks of the San Antonio River.
The Alamo served as home to missionaries and their Indian converts for nearly 70 years, according to the brochure published by the DRT. In 1793, Spanish officials secularized San Antonio's five missions and distributed the land to the remaining Indian residents, who farmed it. In the early 1800s, the Spanish military stationed a cavalry unit at the former mission, which the soldiers called Alamo (Spanish word for cottonwood) in honor of their hometown, Alama de Parras, Coahuila.
San Antonio and the Alamo played a critical role in the Texas Revolution. In December 1835, Ben Milam led Texian and Tejano volunteers against Mexican troops quartered in the city. After five days of house-to-house fighting, they forced Gen. Martin Perfecto de Cos and his soldiers to surrender. The victorious volunteers then occupied the Alamo and strengthened its defenses. On February 2, 1836, the arrival of Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna's army outside San Antonio nearly caught them by surprise. Undaunted, the Texians and Tejanos prepared to defend the Alamo together. They held out for 13 days. The final assault came before daybreak on March 6 when Santa Anna's forces stormed the Alamo. By sunrise, it was over. And the rest, as they say, is history.
-- rootscolumn@yahoo.com welcomes your questions about genealogy and will respond to those of general interest in future columns. Sorry, she can't take phone calls, but you can write to her c/o Floridian, St. Petersburg Times, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731, or e-mail her at rootscolumn@yahoo.com . You can read her column online at www.sptimes.com. Type rootscolumn@yahoo.com in the search box.