The Junior Historian, Volume 15, Number 1, September 1954 Page: 1
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* THE JUNIOR HISTORIAN
*
VOL. XV, No. I AUSTIN, TEXAS SEPTEMBER, 1954
THE FIRST RANCH NORTH OF THE RIO
GRANDE-NUESTRA SENORA de DOLORES
by ROBERT HODGES
Edinburg High SchoolFOUR years ago, on August 22,
1950, the Rio Grande Valley cele-
brated the bicentennial of the found-
ing of the first settlement north of the
Rio Grande between El Paso and the
Gulf of Mexico. The settlement was
Nuestra Sefiora de Dolores, founded in
1750 by Jose Visquez Borrego.
Don Jose Vasquez Borrego was a
wealthy cattle baron of Coahuila, who,
in order to escape the heavy taxation
and raiding Indians, offered to estab-
lish a settlement north of the Rio Gran-
de in return for an exemption from all
dues for a period of ten years. Borrego
sent his son with a proposition for set-
tlement to Don Jose de Escand6n, the
originator and administrator of the
plan for settlement of the Rio Grande
Valley. Since Borrego's proposal fitted
in so well with his own plans of settle-
ment, Escand6n accepted the proposed
terms with alacrity, granting him fifty
sitios de ganado menor (five square
leagues).
The settlement of Dolores soon be-
gan to have a major part in the plans
of the Spanish colonizers. One of Escan-
d6n's major projects, in keeping with
Spanish policy, was the settlement of
the area around the mouth of the Nueces
River, for from the Nueces, La Bahia
del Espiritu Santo could be reached
readily. Dolores, Laredo, and El Cn-
taro were the three Rio Grande cross-
ings through which the Spanish coloni-
zation officials hoped to draw traffic and
settlers from northern Mexico to the
Nueces, and Escand6n hoped to estab-
lish a through road from Dolores to the
Nueces settlements. This may explain
why Escand6n was so careful of theDolores interests and why he spoke so
glowingly of Dolores in a report to the
viceroy in January, 1753. In this report
he said:
This man [Borrego] has fullfilled his con-
tract to the letter, both in the number of
families and the number of horses and cattle
that he has transported to this place. And he
has prospered. This settlement, Your Ex-
cellency, I am informed is the only one on
the north bank of the Rio Grande, with the
exception of El Paso, forty-eight leagues
from Chihuahua. Only a man of valor, de-
voted to the Royal service would have dared
to settle among the many nations of Indians
that live along the banks of the lower river.
Borrego's original group of settlers
was composed of thirteen families, all
of whom were his employees or ranch
hands. In the beginning only a ranch
headquarters was set up, although, un-
der the terms of the agreement with
Escand6n, a villa or settlement was to
be established.
In the beginning Borrego's grant was
a source of much confusion, for, as in
many cases, the boundaries were not
clearly defined. This led to many dis-
putes with the neighboring villas, or
jurisdictions, of Mier, Sabinas, and Re-
villa. As a result of these disputes, the
engineers of the Cuervo expedition were
asked to survey the boundaries of the
Borrego grant. Because of an error made
by the engineers of the Cuervo expedi-
tion, Escand6n extended Borrego's
boundaries and gave him twenty-five
more sitios. The grant was then listed
as having fifty sitios for small stock and
twenty-five for large stock. One armed
surveying group was unable to finish its
work, especially on the north and west
boundaries, because of hostile Indians.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Junior Historian, Volume 15, Number 1, September 1954, periodical, September 1954; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth391347/m1/3/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Texas State Historical Association.