The Garcia Story
Jose Guadalupe Ramirez Garcia
and his descendants:
Jose Guadalupe Ramirez Garcia was born
on Oct. 21, 1841 in Mier, Tamaulipas, Mexico
Parents: Jose
Alejandro Ochoa Garcia and Maria Josefa Ramirez
Note: Maria Josefa
was descendant of Cristobal Ramirez and Matiana Hinojosa
who were founders of Mier, Tamaulipas, Mexico and grantees
of Spanish land grants.
Jose Guadalupe’s Siblings:
Maria Eulalia b. Feb. 14, 1830
Maria Antonia b. Mar. 9, 1832
Jose Trinidad b. Mar. 29, 1834
Jose Ramon b. May 15, 1836
Maria del Refugio b. Apr. 19, 1839
Jose Manuel b. Sep. 28, 1844
Jose Francisco b. Jan. 16,
1848
Jose Vidal b. May
1, 1849
Jose Guadalupe Ramirez Garcia
married Lucia Gonzales Garza in 1866 in Mier,
Tamaulipas, Mexico. Lucia Gonzales De La Garza was daughter of
Bruno De
La Garza and Antonia Gonzales
Note: Bruno Garza
was descendant of Jose Juan Garza Montemayor, grantee
of the Casa Blanca Land Grant, the first land grant issued
by Spain in what is now
Nueces County, Texas.
Jose Guadalupe and Lucia Garza’s children were:
Vicente
Martin
Ramon
Mariana
Alejandra
Viviana
Secundino
Bruno
Jose Guadalupe died in 1922 and is buried in the Catholic
Cemetery in Poth, Texas.
Lucia Garza died in 1924 and is also buried in the Catholic Cemetary in Poth, Texas.
The Stories (Las Estorias):
These are some of the stories that we have
gathered through our visits with relatives,
through documentations, and especially the
stories we obtain when we met new relatives.
Our descendants were originally from
Spain. In 1767, the King of Spain had issued our ancestors
about 6,000 acres in Texas but conflicts for
the lands and the change of governments
resulted in that some of my ancestors had
lost their lands. According to our court
documentation, Porcion 19, Zapata County, had
passed from Maria Josefa Guerra to
Jose Santiago Ramirez. Apparently,
there was a dispute between the two families
regarding the ownership of the lands.
Jose Sanitago Ramirez was a son of Cristoval
and Matiana Hinojosa Ramirez. Our documentation showed that Jose Santiago
owned the land in question which he had
distributed among his children.
The history of the Garcias started when Jose
Alejandro Garcia married Maria Josefa Ramirez.
It was through his wife that their children
had inherited about 190 acres in Zapata County.
Jose Alejandro and Maria Josefa Garcia's
children were: Ramon, Mauricio, Guadalupe,
Vidal, and Eulalio Garcia. The
daughters were not listed but they were: Maria Antonia,
Maria Eulalia and Maria Del Refugio.
There are unanswered questions as to why some
records show Eulalio and other records
mentioned Maria Eulalia. Also, Mauricio is named
in some documentation and Jose Manuel in
other records. Only time will tell if these people
are actually the same people.
Before the 1870 census, Jose Guadalupe Ramirez Garcia and Lucia De La Garza had
already left
their lands in Zapata County, Texas, maybe to
look for more fertile lands and a better life.
Zapata County is located on U.S. Highway 83,
south of Laredo in the Rio Grande Plain region
of South Texas. The county is named for local
rancher Antonio Zapata. City of Zapata
is
the county seat which is on the Rio Grande at
the intersection of U.S. Highway 83 and State
Highway 16.
Some of the towns include San Ygnacio, Ramireño, Escobas, Falcon, and
Lopeño.
Our ancestors owned land in the Lopeno
area. We believe that our ancestors
left their land in
charge of out relatives because around 1935,
a geologist named, Thor Warner, went looking
for the heirs of the area in Zapata County,
to obtain signatures for permission to drill for gas.
Guided by Divine Destiny, the Garcias were
compelled to leave the lands in spite of having to face
the unknown and leaving the comfort of being
around relatives. Eventually, they
found out
what happened to this particular area.
After World War II, Zapata County went
through some important changes such as the construction
of the massive International Falcon Reservoir
on the Rio Grande. The project was designed to
protect the lower Rio Grande valley from
flooding when it was going through the planning
stages in the late 1940s. The International
Boundary and Water Commision was formed to
oversee the project. A line was drawn between
Zapata and Starr counties as the site for
the new dam which meant that more than
115,000 acres of land in Zapata County would
be flooded.
This decision would force the evacuation of 3,000 people and affect
three
of the county's largest towns, Zapata, Falcon,
and Lopeño. The United States Government
planned to located the disposed residents to
a new site. In 1954, the residents that
chose to stay on their land were force into a
immediate evacuation when the Rio Grande
flooded and filled the reservoir three years
earlier than the projected date. As a
result,
the disposed residents had to move into new
towns that did not yet have water systems,
schools, or much housing since they were
still under development. The government
offered compensation to those who were forced
to move which created numerous problems.
Before the flood, the IBWC came to be
known as "I Bully Widows and
Children Commission,"
when they were going about assessing the
value of land and homes that were to be purchased
by the government for the Reservoir. Residents were paid the fair market value
rather
than replacement value for their property and
what was worst about the situation was
that many families lost their lands that had
been in their families for generations. Some
families lost mineral rights. Some residents
were allowed to retain mineral rights for their
original property but they were not granted
mineral rights for their new land. As a result,
residents filed a lawsuit against the United
States government for just compensation
and Hearings lasted from 1954 until
1962. The court ruled that the
plaintiffs should be
paid additional money for their lost of
homes, land, and accrued interest.
Back to our ancestors that chose to move, by
the 1870 Census, we found that
Alejandro Garcia then, age 70, with this
wife, Maria Josefa Ramirez Garcia, age 63,
listed as Chipita, were already in Duval
County area, which was considered Nueces
County back then. In the 1880’s census, we found the Guadalupe and Lucia
living in the Amargoza Area. According Texas Handbook, Amargosa is a mile
off of
Hwy 281.
It was the area known as 8 miles northwest of Alice, TX and
northwestern,
Jim Well County. It was a ranch settled on Amargosa Creek that was owned by
Manuel Barrera of Mier, Tamaulipas,
Mexico. He received title to the Tinaja
de Lara grant
on September 28, 1836. By 1849 Amargosa was a
well-known South Texas ranch that
was well-stocked with sheep, goats, and
horses. There were also commercial
dealings in
wool and hides. Through our research, we learned that my relatives lived in
ranches
where they helped with the ranch labor or
farm labor. It was during the
particular
time that communication was lost with
Guadalupe Garcia’s other brothers, Jose Ramon,
Jose Trinidad, Jose Francisco, Jose Vidal,
Jose Manuel and the Garcia women.
Through another source, we also learned that we even lost contact other cousins like the
De La Garzas and Ramirezes.
Guadalupe’s eldest son, Vicente and his wife
Eulogia Alaniz Garcia whom he had married
in San Diego, TX, in 1896, left the Duval
County Area and then the Amargoza area, to
live in Poth, TX. Since Vicente was the eldest son, his father, Guadalupe and
Lucia,
followed him into the Poth,TX, Wilson, County
area. Vicente’s other brothers and sisters,
Martin, Viviana, Secundino, Ramon, Bruno,
Mariana, and Alejandra also moved into the
Poth area. Poth is at the intersection of
U.S. Highway 181 and FR 427 and 541,
seven miles southeast of Floresville, TX, in
southeastern, Wilson County. It was
established in 1886, as a switch on the San
Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway.
The community was first called Marcelina but
in 1901, it was later renamed Poth,
after, A. H. Poth, who established a gin
there.
Vicente’s oldest son, Clemente Garcia was
born in San Diego, TX, in 1898, and his
second son, Eulogio was born in 1903, in
Floresville, TX. Eulogio Garcia married
Carmen
Prieto in Floresville, TX, in 1924. After the death of Vicente Garcia in 1928,
Elugio
and his wife and Vicente’s widow, Eulogia,
moved to the Odem area where they
continued to reside until their deaths. Communication was lost with cousins from the
Guadalupe’s family until the 1980’s when a
branch of the Garcias, Viviana Garcia and Jose
Bruno Garcia and his descendants started the
first Garcia Family Reunion in San Antonio.
Word spread like wild fire across Texas and
neighboring states when the Garcias decided
to get together in Poth, TX, where attendance
in the Garcia Family Reunion reached
about 1,500 in the early 1990’s.
Special thanks goes to Susie Garza from San
Antonio, TX, who was instrumental in
gathering the Vicente Garcia’s family
together. Guadalupe Garcia from San
Antonio,
who through the Internet found distant
cousins from the Jose Ramon Garcia’s Family
Line through Lionel Trejo of Bishop, TX. Lionel was originally from San Diego,
TX, but now lives in Bishop, TX. Also through
the Internet other distant cousins were
found, through, Roy Sanchez, who represented
the Jose Manuel Garcia Family Line.
Through attendance to the Jose Manuel
Garcia’s Family Reunions which was held in
Sinton, TX, and then in Odem, TX, the
following year, we met Roy’s brothers and
sisters who were Odem High School
graduates: Ilda Ruiz from Kingsville,
TX, Jose
A. Sanchez, from San Antonio, TX, Teodoro
Sanchez from Odem, TX, Sister
Lucelia, from San Antonio, TX, Alberto
Sanchez from Edroy, TX, Valdemar Sanchez
Kingsville, TX, and Alfredo Sanchez, from San
Antonio, TX.
Incidentally, it was in one of Family Reunion
meetings that we met a distant cousin like
Arthur De La Garza Hinojosa and his wife,
Lola, from Jose Vidal Garcia ‘s Family Line.
He had heard about the Garcia’s Reunion and
he came to find out whether there was
a family connection between his family and
the Garcias. A family connection was
made.
Jose Vidal Garcia was a brother of Jose
Guadalupe Garcia. It was through De La
Gaza
Family Reunions that were held in Sinton,
Texas, that we met with the Hinojosas Family.
In one of our visit of JoseVidal’s
granddaughter, Antonia Hinojosa Mendoza, she shared
that her grandfather use to own a Horse Race
Track between area of San Diego and Alice, TX.
Source: Texas Handbook Online
(Info for Zapata,
Amargosa, and Poth)