Antonio Gil Y’Barbo, known as the Father of Nacogdoches, Texas, was born in 1729 at the Presidio of Los Adaes, New Spain. His parents, Spanish colonists Matheo Antonio Y’Barbo (b. 1698) and Juana Luzgarda Hernandez (b.1705), both born in Spain, were early arrivals to the Los Adaes Presidio, located on the northeastern frontier of New Spain from 1729 to 1770. Serving in the Spanish military, Brevet Lieutenant Matheo Antonio Y’Barbo was deployed by the Spanish Royal Crown to Los Adaes to defend New Spain against French expansion.
The Los Adaes Presidio also included a mission, Nuestra Señora del Pilar de Los Adaes. Now a historic national monument, Nuestra Señora del Pilar de Los Adaes is located in present-day Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana. The marriage registry of the mission church of San Antonio de Valero (the Alamo) documents the date of marriage for Matheo Antonio Y’Barbo and Juana Luzgarda Hernandez as April 28, 1723.
Following his father’s example, Antonio Gil Y’Barbo served in the Spanish military, yet also became involved in cattle ranching, where he established a cattle ranch near Lobanillo Creek, located in present-day Sabine County, Texas. Antonio Gil Y’Barbo married Maria Davila Padilla, his first wife, and had four children. Antonio Gil Y’Barbo stated in his will dated May 19, 1800:
“I had two male children and two female children by my first wife, namely Mariano, Marcos, Maria Antonia, and Maria Josefa, of the following, are now dead; the first two, and the last, who have a legitimate issue as she is still living.”
The Los Adaes Presidio, initially established to counter French intrusions into Spanish territory, became nonessential at the close of the French and Indian War in 1763. Louisiana was then ceded to Spain as part of the terms included in the Treaty of Paris in 1763, which concluded the Seven Years’ War. In the same year of the 1763 Peace of Paris agreement, the Marqués de Rubí was then appointed to oversee the inspection of the northeastern frontier of New Spain. Marqués de Rubí executed the Royal Order of 1772 by the King of Spain, which closed the presidios and missions on the northeast frontier.
With little time to prepare, the military garrison, their families, and other colonists, numbering around 500 at the time, were ordered by the Spanish Royal Crown to abandon the post and relocate to San Antonio de Bexar. Antonio Gil Y’Barbo emerged as the de facto leader of the colonists even before the departure from Los Adaes, as he had the confidence of Baron Juan Maria Vicencio de Ripperda, Governor of Tejas, who entrusted him with the administration of government funds for purchasing supplies for the Presidio of Los Adaes.
In the summer of 1773, the departure to San Antonio de Bexar posed extreme hardships for the colonists and their families. Lieutenant Jose Gonzales, the commander of the expedition, led the colonists back to San Antonio de Bexar and died on July 30, 1773, from the hardships of the three-month walk imposed upon them. The colonists at this point appointed Antonio Gil Y’Barbo to lead them for the remainder of the withdrawal back to San Antonio. By summer’s end, after harsh conditions, exposure to famine, and fatigue, Antonio Gil Y’Barbo successfully led 167 disheartened, tired, and health-broken colonists into San Antonio de Bexar.
The arrival of the Los Adaes colonists was just the beginning of their discontent with their new location, and Antonio Gil Y’Barbo made repeated efforts on behalf of the colonists, petitioning authorities at Bexar to allow their return to the northeastern frontier. Baron Juan Maria Vicencio de Ripperda, Governor of Tejas, suggested to Antonio Gil Y’Barbo to carry their petition to the Viceroy of New Spain, Antonio Bucareli, for approval. As a result, the Viceroy approved the colonists to move to a new site on the Trinity River.
The Trinity site appeared to be a reasonable location for a new outpost. Trinity provided a way station between Bexar and the then-Spanish presidio at Natchitoches, serving as a base for relations with the friendly Bidai Indians in the area. Additionally, it would act as a haven for disenchanted colonists, serving as a checkpoint against illicit trade. Potentially, this was also a strategy to prevent the British from freebooting Spanish ships from the upper coastal bend of Texas. A factor that loomed, however, was Spain’s alignment with the American Revolutionaries’ cause against Britain, which had developed.
During this period of the American Revolutionary War, Spaniards like Y’Barbo raised and sold cattle in Tejas for feeding the army of Gen. Bernardo de Galvez (b.1746). Gálvez sent his emissary, Francisco García, with a letter in hand to Tejas Governor Domingo Cabello y Robles, requesting the delivery of Tejas cattle to Spanish forces in Louisiana. General Galvez was instrumental in supporting the American Revolutionaries, providing food provisions and other necessary supplies that were delivered up the Mississippi River to feed and arm the American Revolutionaries in the East.
Without the support of the Spanish crown as a silent and active partner before and after 1779 in the American Revolutionary War, the outcome of the American Revolutionary War would have been bleak for American Revolutionaries in Yorktown and the Gulf Coast region. The Spanish crown provided much-needed provisions and money.
Spanish silver and gold reales fueled the American Revolution after 1779, bankrolling trade, paying the salaries of Spanish and French soldiers and sailors, purchasing uniforms, arms, ammunition, and supplies, and supporting the Spanish’s numerous engagements in fighting the British on behalf of the American Revolutionaries. The Queen Sophia Institute in New York City estimates that Spain provided roughly $5 billion in material, financial, and military support to the American Revolutionaries.
The American Revolutionary War battles fought under the command of Spanish General Bernardo de Galvez are notable in British West Florida and on the Gulf Coast, including the Capture of Fort Bute, the Battle of Baton Rouge, the Battle of Fort Charlotte, and the Battle of Pensacola. Galvez’s Louisiana army included American Indians, formerly enslaved people, and Spaniards.
In August 1774, Antonio Gil Y’Barbo and the colonists departed from San Antonio, arriving at their new settlement location six months later, in February 1775. By June of 1775, fifty wooden houses with corrals, fields, roads, and improved river crossings came to fruition at the Bucarelli settlement. According to the Spanish census at the time, the new settlement recorded 347 inhabitants. All went reasonably well until 1779, when a series of Comanche Indian raids and a devastating Trinity River flood significantly diminished the opportunity to occupy the settlement any longer.
Sometime in late Spring of 1779, Antonio Gil Y’Barbo again seized the initiative, reasserted his leadership abilities, and set out for East Texas without official sanctions. Captain Antonio Gil Y’Barbo led 300 to 350 weary former Adaesanos into the little valley between two flowing streams in East Texas, which later became known as Nuestra Señora del Pilar de Nacogdoches. It was here that the former Adaesanos found a sense of place among the pines of East Texas. Antonio Gil Y’Barbo’s persistence, action, and diplomacy successfully mitigated the effects of the Royal Order of 1772.
With the establishment of Nacogdoches, a new page was created in the history of Spanish settlements in Texas, as Nacogdoches became the center of trade rather than Los Adaes. The request for trading with the Indians was now granted, and Y’Barbo quickly became among the Indians of Northeast Texas the most influential Spaniard of the day. The officials in San Antonio de Bexar and Mexico City recognized his unique talents in holding the colonists together during the difficult transition, established successful relationships with the Indians of the region, and kept useful diplomatic correspondence with the French and the Americans to the East, which led to his promotion to Lieutenant Governor of Nacogdoches.
Antonio Gil Y’Barbo quickly went to work in the region, establishing a commodity-based economic system with the Indians, establishing a blueprint of a civil design of Nacogdoches with blocks and streets following the traditional Spanish pattern of a central plaza surrounded by religious, government, military, and other centers. Nacogdoches became a viable trading center on the El Camino Real, a vibrant town, and a cultural center. On special occasions, residents “walked around the square speaking an assortment of languages and wearing clothing designating a variety of ethnic backgrounds.” By the beginning of the 1800s, Nacogdoches had become the second-largest settlement in Texas.
Antonio Gil Y’Barbo governed Nacogdoches for ten years and tendered his resignation as civil Governor in 1790. In 1791, formally accused of smuggling contraband and trading with the Indians for horses stolen from the Spanish, Antonio Gil Y’Barbo was found acquitted and cleared of all charges brought against him. In his eightieth year, about 1809, Antonio Gil Y’Barbo died at Rancho La Lucana and was buried in the Old Spanish Cemetery in Nacogdoches. The distinguished historian of Spanish Texas, Carlos E. Castaneda, describes Antonio Gil Y’Barbo as “One of those remarkable leaders of men which pioneer communities sometimes engender.”
Credits and Primary Sources:
- Carolyn Reeves Ericson and Linda Ericson Devereaux, Antonio Gil Y’Barbo, The Father of Nacogdoches, 1995, pages i-xv
- Linda Ericson Devereaux, Y’Barbo and Mora Families, (Nacogdoches, Ericson Books, 1994)
- Frederick C. Chabot, With the Makers of San Antonio, (San Antonio; Privately Published, 1937)
- Carlos E. Castaneda, Our Catholic Heritage in Texas – 1519 to 1936, (New York, Arno Press, 1976, reprint edition, seven volumes, Vols. IV and V).
- Robert Bruce Blake, B. Blake Research Collection, Texas History Center
- Ralph W. Steen Library, Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, 85 volumes
- Shirley Seifert, By the King’s Command, (Philadelphia, J.B. Lippincott Company).
- Bexar Archives, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, the University of Texas at Austin
- Barbara A. Mitchell, America’s Spanish Savior: Bernardo de Gálvez, HistoryNet
- Granville W. and N.C. Hough, Spain’s Texas Patriots in its 1779-1783 War with England During the American Revolution, Part 5 of Spanish Borderlands Studies, SHHAR Press, Society of Hispanic and Ancestral Research. 2000
- Texas State Historical Association, Handbook of Texas, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/galvez-bernardo-de
All Rights Reserved, Antonio Gil Y’Barbo – Pioneer, Deal Maker, and Father of Nacogdoches © Richard Anthony Peña 2021