Recently Restored at Goliad?
By Sticks Stahala.
San Antonio Express newspaper, August 9, 1936, Sunday.
A mile south of the historic little city of Goliad a group of workmen are digging. Day after day, the digging goes on like an endless chain as warm, moist earth is turned skyward. Men with picks and shovels. And men with maps and blueprints. Everyone works slowly, one observes, and one wonders why this is so. Even the fresh earth, it was fresh and moist but a few moments before as it left the workman's shovel, is now dry and powdered and seems old and tired. One looks above at the hot, Texas sun and at the men in the trenches using their shovels in a slow rythmn but it is not the sun, it is like something of another world, and one feels as though on the threshold of a weird experience.
The men are honeycombing the ground with trenches, some are shallow while others are deep, all are crazily patterned, criss-crossing at spaced intervals, and then, siz-zagging suddenly to the left or to the right, and one is confused.
And then one remembers that if a contractor were to build a building he would probably dig trenches like these, trenches for a foundation.
But the men are not building, you are told. They are merely digging, digging for a foundation of a structure already built, and destroyed, a building whose foundation was laid some 200 years ago.
"We are excavating the foundation and ruins of the early Spanish mission, Espiritu Santo de la Bahia (The Holy Spirit of the Bay) which was located on this site during the Spanish and Mexican dominion of Texas" a workman informed me.
"But that is Espirito Santo" I replied, pointing to a reconstructed church building less than 10 feet from where I stood. the tower-like frontage and the cross on top certainly seemed to strengthen my ascertain, I thought.
"That," my informant stated, " is a mistake!"
To clarify the workman's statement that the imposing church building, standing within the area of excavation, was a mistake, it is necessary to go back into history briefly and begin with the founding and life of the original mission itself.
Mission Espiritu Santo de La Bahía, located on the north bank of the winding San Antonio River and at one end of a giant horseshoe curve, was established in 1749, however it already possessed a heritage dating back to a few years after the attempt of La Salle to establish a settlement on the Texas coast. In 1687, too, De Leon is credited with having visited the site and in 1718, a squalid settlement was begun near the future mission grounds but it remained until 1749 when the mission was established under the projection of Domingo Teran, who founded many of the Texas missions.
The establishment of Espiritu Santo de Goliad was the result of chiefly two things: to convert the Karakanwa Indians into the realm of Christianity and to escape the harassing of these same Indians. The mission was first established on the Texas coast in 1722 on the site of La Salle's earlier attempt at settlement and was established to firmly entrench Spanish authority and convert the cannibalistic Karakanwa Indians thereabouts. The mission at that time was named Espiritu Santo de Zuniga.
It might be stated here, too, that a presidio (fort) named Nuestra Senora de Loreto, was established at the same time to give protection to the mission, and with the subsequent removal of the mission, the presidio followed in wake. The presidio was called "Bahia" for short.
The Karakanwa Indians, however, were in no mood for conversion and found the life of the mission to their liking. They disliked civilization of any kind, and were as a rule, turbulent in disposition. Within a few months after the founding of the mission only 40 families of Indians had attached themselves to the good padres, and soon afterwards these killed a Captain Domingo Ramon, a Spanish soldier, and fled from the confines of the walled mission. For a generation afterwards, the Indians harassed the mission people and the Missionaries were forced to give up the establishment and move to another location.
The Mission was then moved ten leagues inland to what was afterwards referred to as "Mission Valley." The presidio followed the Mission to the new site and the padres of the church began looking for new Indian converts, and to some extent were successful in their quest. The Karakanwas were yet to be reckoned with however, and hardly had the new Mission established itself when that tribe again began making life difficult for the converts and Missionaries alike.
Once again the Mission found it necessary to move and again the move was ten leagues inland, this time to the present site of Espiritu Santo at Goliad. Again, too, the presidio soon followed and set up. The presidio was built a half mile to the south of the new Mission and has since become a shrine of Texas history. It was from the walls of this presidio that Colonel Fannin and his men were marched on that red Palm Sunday and massacred in cold blood.
It was in the year of 1749 that Espiritu Santo and the presidio were established in Goliad and the few years to come were to prove more successful for the Spanish padres in their attempt to convert the neighborhood Indians. It was the Aranama Indians, however, this time, and this tribe of Texas Indians proved to be adepted to the will of the Missions. The Aranamas were a cultured tribe, having tribal laws, an alphabet, form of home ownership and are credited with having glass window panes in their adobe huts. The Mission prospered and Espiritu Santo de Bahia took its place as one of Texas' foremost Missions.
Espiritu Santo was in continuous use as a place of Christian worship and conversion until 1814 when it was abandoned by the good padres and decay and ruin its only future. In 1814, however, the City Council of Goliad made an appropriation to repair the Mission building for school purposes, and later the Mission became a part of the once famous Aranama College, one of the earliest chartered colleges of Texas.
But time marched swiftly on and even the educational aspect of the Mission failed to save it from desecration and ruin. Its walls crumbled beneath the wind and sun of Texas and its once majestic background seemed destined to fade rapidly into history.
The 42nd Legislature of Texas in 1931 passed a special act which to some extent placed a wreath of honor around the fallen walls of the old Mission when that august body created the Goliad State Park. Some 230 acres comprised the park, which embraced the Mission site, and Espiritu Santo acknowledged the compliment by raising its fallen head skyward again but the gesture was indeed a sad one, as the old Mission no longer resembled anything suggesting its former glory.
Four crumbling walls of a small building remained of what was thought to have been the Mission proper. Later, patriotism and local sentiment worked hand in hand to adding bits of stone and wood to make an improvised shelter from the remnants of this once powerful Texas Mission, but it remained nevertheless, nothing more than a cattle stall, a lowly status for this heritage of the Texas frontier.
The City of Goliad, however, took one more look at the decaying remains and decided that something would be done. Not that the good people of Goliad ever forgot the historic site, far from it. The eyes of Goliad have been glued for years on the rapidly decaying walls of the Mission, and especially the eyes of one man, Judge J. A. White of Goliad, justly called the "Father of the Goliad State Park," for his untiring efforts in bringing about the realization of his dreams, the creation of the park.
It was simply a problem of money, of lot of money. About this time the giant Civil Works Administration came into existence, unloosened its pocketbook in the form of relief checks and money was soon forthcoming with which to restore Espiritu Santo to its former glory. Local and state relief monies aided along with the restoration process and workmen were engaged daily in resurrecting the river bank Mission.
And this is where the mistake was committed, although as honest mistake error and a blunder which has since redeemed itself through the simple process of focusing deserved attention on a noteworthy project.
When the restoration work was commenced under the CWA program, all that remained of the Mission was the improvised shelter constructed from the portions of the walls of a single remaining building. Working under the assumption that the remaining walls arose from the foundations of the original Mission building, the re-construction work progressed rapidly and the building rushed to completion. It might be stated here, too, that the CWA funds appropriated were exhausted at this time also, but the building was finished and once again Espiritu Santo reached her tower and Christian cross toward the blue of the Texas sky.
And the City of Goliad was pleased, but the ecstacy of their pleasure was to be short-lived. The true Espiritu Santo yet remained below the soil resting on its rock foundation. Only a small portion had been resurrected, and an unimportant portion at that. It was soon discovered that the building that had been reconstructed and a cross placed on top, was not the church building of Espiritu Santo. What had been rebuilt was further revealed as a granary or a warehouse once attached to the Mission. Espiritu Santo itself lay yet slumbering the sleep of 200 years beneath the soil of Goliad.
Not until 1935 was the sleep of the true Mission disturbed by the pick and shovel of the excavator. In that year the Goliad State Park commission of the National Park Service, moved in to take a hand at exploring around the Mission grounds. The man power was already there as the government had established a Civil Conservation Corps camp within the State Park and approximately 150 men were in the camp.
A squad of draftsman, architects and landscape artists followed next and R. E. Heard, National Park Service archaeologist, assigned the archaeological task.
Sam Vosper, Sr. of National Park Service is superintendent of the project and Raiford Stripling, of the same service, serving as architect. Capable assistant are aiding these men in accomplishing the splendid work being done at the present time.
"Not all the digging involved in excavation work of this nature is done with a pick and shovel," one official told me. "A great deal of it is done with the aid of a whisk broom. When sufficient dirt has been removed to get down to something we want to find, the idea is to proceed slow from there on out, and a whisk broom comes in handy for this delicate work. It is especially adapted to removing dirt from around a buried object which we want to take out intact. And that dirt which I mentioned is removed with pick and shovel," the official continued, "is valuable dirt until it has been sifted through a screen. Innumerable small objects of value to the archaeologist are found in this manner. Small beads, coins and other trinkets of Indian and Spanish culture."
Already a good quantity of these object have been found, we were told, including several brass bells. Objects of Indian pottery, too, have been uncovered and it is interesting to note the methods used in restoring pottery to the original design. When found, pottery is usually found in hundreds of small pieces. These small pieces have to be put together in the same manner that one puts together a jig-saw puzzle, an intricate and delicate job.
The bones of human beings who were buried beneath the Mission grounds have also been uncovered. To date, we learned, some 12 skeletons have been found. It is believed that the skeletons are those of buried Indians. Two skeletons, one of a woman and one of a small child, which had been found buried together, have been removed and preserved in a wooden frame in their original resting place and coated with varnish or shellac.
Espiritu Santo de La Bahía was generous in size in its original form. The church proper extended some 100 feet in length and over 21 feet in width. It was surrounded by numerous small buildings used to house the Indians, for warehouse purposes; and as quarters for the Catholic priests. A nine foot wall surrounded the entire mission and was built to protect the mission from the treacherous Comanche and Lipan Indians who infested the country side and who at intervals were prone to raid the mission stock and promote a campaign of general warfare against the mission.
The mission was slightly larger than the Concepcion Mission of San Antonio and its success among the Aranama Indians justified the founding of the mission, however, it proved of little value in converting the Karakanwas who still lived outside the mission walls. Numerous attempts were made to bring this cannibalistic and barbarous tribe with the folds of the mission but to no avail. They were dishonest and treacherous and even though pacified by the good fathers for brief periods, they would run away and would have to be brought back, if possible, by means of persuasion and gifts. Finally the padres gave up in despair and abandoned the site in 1814. When Stephen F. Austin visited Goliad in 1821, all that remained was a squalid settlement and a few Spanish soldiers.
The success of the Spanish padres with the Aranama tribe of Indians and the equal failure with the Karankawa Indians at Espiritu Santo had one effect on the missionaries, the erection of a mission devoted exclusively to the conversion of the Karankawa tribe. Mission Senora del Rosario was consequently built for this purpose. The padres were unwilling to abandon the Karankawa altogether. Rosario was established across the river from Espiritu Santo and the presidio, about four miles to the west. It was established some time between 1754 and 1758.
Rosario prospered for a short time, but in 1785, there were but 116 Indians in the mission. Across the river at Espiritu Santo some 500 persons lived within the walls of the mission and presidio.
Mission Rosario, like the presidio, is not located within the confines of the Goliad State Park as is Espiritu Santo. Its ruins rise ghostly from the ground in solitary commemoration of a last effort of the Spanish padres to convert a ruthless, cannibalistic tribe of Indians, the Karankawas.
The Goliad State Park, in which the present excavating work on Espiritu Santo is being made, is unique among State Parks in Texas, in that it is strictly locally governed. Although it is being constructed with State appropriations and Federal aid, it does not come under the jurisdiction of the State Park Board and its full administrative powers are vested with a local park commission consisting of Judge J. A. White, chairman, Mrs. R. R. LeMaster and W. E. Fowler.
State Highway No. 29 extends through the park, crossing the San Antonio river within a few hundred yards of Fort Bahia. This highway will extend from Austin through Gonzales. Goliad and Refugio to the coast, and because of the important historic points it touches, has been referred to as the "Centennial Highway."
Goliad State Park, embracing ancient architectural ruins of romantic and historic importance, beautiful natural setting of a mile and a half of river front, trees and flowers on soil hallowed by tragic events of history, will for generations to come be a point of great interest to Texans, a beautiful memorial auditorium will be constructed near Espiritu Santo Mission Park Service is digging up the remains of old Espiritu Santo, uncovering its untold secrets and daily shedding light on events which took place behind those mission walls 200 years ago. It is interesting to observe this excavation work and still more fascinating to think that one day, if contemplated plans materialize, the mission will once again rise above ground complete in every detail.
And Goliad, with Presidio La Bahía, Mission Rosario, and
now Espiritu Santo rapidly gaining its just recognition as an important
center of centuries old missions and memories of Spanish padres when Texas
was young.
