History of My Hometown: Floresville

The town of Floresville was settled by a Canary Island immigrant, Don Fracisco Flores de Abrago. He established a ranch headquarters six miles northwest of the present site of Floresville in the eighteenth century. In 1833 the center of the town included the Flores home, a chapel, and a graveyard. The community of Floresville was called Lodi, at first, it served as as the Wilson County seat from 1867 to March 1871. Then it served as the seat from July 1871 to 1873. Floresville picked the name, from the Flores family it included the part of the communtiy known as Lodi. In the early 1870’s they surveyed a townsite. A prominent citizen, Andrew G. Pickett, who owned a ranch with irrigation systems, started raising peanuts. Floresville got a post office in 1872. In November 1873, Floresville was again elected or voted to be the county seat. In the 1870’s Floresville’s Academy offered several levels of education. And by 1885 Floresville had two hotels, several stores, and a weekly paper called the “Floresville Chronicle”, two steam cotton gin gristmills, and a population of four hundred people. Floresville was incorporated in 1890, when the population was reported to have 1,500 people. Floresville had a five-teacher school, which was in operation by 1896, when it had an enrollment of 206 students. Floresville continued to grow as we entered the twenieth century. The growth was supported by both the cotton and livestock industries. By 1910 Floresville had two banks and a population of 1,800 people. Peanuts were the cash crop in Floresville and the surrounding region, in 1915 and in later years Floresville was nicknamed the “Peanut Capital of Texas”. The town grew steadily between 1930 and 2000, and it has 342 businesses. The town is a makret for peanuts and other small grain. Floresville is known best for it’s annual Peanut Festival, which was established in 1938. It is usually held on the second weeked of October.
The plans for the first Peanut Festival was July 29, 1938, this was to celebrate the farming and harvesting of the peanut crop. The name given at first was designated as the “Floresville Peanut Pow Wow”, it was soon changed to the Peanut Festival. The Peanut Festival constists of a parade, carnival, and other such things like food booths, and arts and crafts booths. Every year students in the senior class are picked or elected on by the Peanut Festival Board for the court. They are picked on their achievements in school and also by what their parents do the for the school, for example I got in the court because my mother was the vice president of the athletic booster club, and I also was honor student so that little achievement helped me out a whole lot. The Peanut Festival is a lot of fun with all the events they have going on.
The Wilson County Courthouse was built in 1873, it was one large room thirty feet by sixty feet and it also had two small offices in the rear of the building. Ten years after it was built it burned down, the records were all saved though(Truxaw, Sheree PAC Student). A new courthouse was built in 1883 on the public square a block from the old courthouse. Colonel Pickett’s son A.G Pickett Jr. donated land to pay the new courthouse(Truxaw, Sheree). Two famous movies were filmed in Floresville, “The Sugerland Express”, filmed in 1973, and “Battle Creek Brawl”, which was filmed in 1980, in the courthouse bell tower(Truxaw, Sheree). My grandfather’s friend’s daughter works in the new courthouse under Judge Marvin Queeny as his secretary, and she told me it is still an old small town country courthouse, when I asked her how it was working in this historical building, she also told me the doors were always open to the courthouse, but now I think they keep them closed, because they had an Air Conditioning unit put in so the doors are closed now.
The Wilson County Jailhouse was built in 1887 at a cost of $14,000 dollars. This building is a two story building made out of white limestone. The front of the first floor and the entire second floor is where the sheriff and his family resided in. The rest of the building, were where the jail cells were. The jailhouse is inactive and it is a museum. The cell blocks still are the same they were when it was built, and it is still in the same spot it was built. I asked my grandfather, William Koenning how long it has been inactive, and he told me he didn’t remember the exact year, but he was still in High School when it was still in active condition, and he graduated from high school in 1958. I couldn’t find any information on the exact year that it became inactive, but I think it was in the 1970’s. There is a lot of history behind this jailhouse, but it is not enough information to write a full article on it. Even the people who work at the museum didn’t have enough information for a article. This project was fun to work on, I have learned a good amount of historical information, that I haven’t heard before. I suggest everybody learn a little about the history of there hometown.
Word Count: 1008

Conjunto Music and Its Influences

Conjunto music came from the influence of classic rock, and jazz, and also from blues. It started around here in South Texas, in the mid 1900’s. Conjunto music is different from other genres of music because most of the music is played with accordion. It is not my kind of music, I mostly listen to Texas Country, and older rock and roll. But it has a good beat to it but I just don’t understand the words from the songs. Conjunto music and the accordion has came along because of the way it is played and how the music sounds. The important insights I picked up from the video was where the music started at and how it started. I also learned about when it started and why it started. I also learned how the accordion is used in the music and what the music was about, and how it is a form of country music speaking in another since of language. It is just sang in another language, but it is basically country music sang in a Tejano way. But I learned a lot of information about the music and the type of music it is, but it is not my kind of music, because I don’t understand what they are saying. It was still fun to learn about the music of South Texas.

My Art Choices

The title of the first piece of art work that I found at and he San Antonio Museum of Art, is called “Passing Storm over the Sierra Nevada’s.” It was painted in 1870 by Albert Bierstadt who was born in 1830 and passed away in 1902. This particular painting was oil based colors painted on canvas. What I found most striking in this painting was the colors he used, and also the texture of the painting, for example the shadow of the trees on the water. My overall impression of this work is, the peacefulness in the painting it looks very still almost like there is no wind blowing, it is just a very calm looking calm. I just like the paintings color and how he painted the trees and the clouds, he made it look very realistic. The advantage of seeing the painting in person is that, in person you could see the texture and colors better then you could over the internet. The disadvantage of going to the actual Museum is the drive from Floresville to San Antonio. It was also hard to find this Museum, I am not very good at driving here in San Antonio. The title of my second painting interested me is “Double Scramble.” It was painted in 1968, by Frank Stella, who was born in 1936. It is fluorescent alkyd painted on canvas. What struck me on this painting was the bright colors used, he used a bright yellow green, and blue. In this painting he used a good amount of color, and he also used symmetry, and lines, another element used I shape and form. My overall impression of this piece of art work was whoa it looks very bright, it looks very intense with the bright colors, and the way Ilooks almost like a maze of different bright colors. I just had these impressions because it caught my eye very quick like, as I was walking through the museum. Another word that suits my impression of this is ooh, that is bright, too bright for my taste. In this case the advantage of walking through the museum and studying this painting was seeing the bright colors in person, are way better then looking at the over the internet. But one disadvantage again was the travel up to the museum from Floresville, but it was still worth the drive to study this piece of art. This is what I saw in these two pieces of art work.

Wilson County Courthouse

The place I made a visit to, was the Wilson County Courthouse. This building has been standing on Main Street for many years. It has been there since the early 1930’s. It still has the bell in the bell tower at the top of the building. This building is located in downtown Floresville. It’s artistic structure is what caught my eye for this project, just how the court house looks and also how old the building itself is. The court house has a steeple, it kind of reminds me of a church with the steeple and the bell tower. In the court yard there is the old jail house which has some artistic features itself, it is a two story building that has a few jail cells in it. It is also a museum now. The court yard also has a peanut made out of some kind of rock with a plaque on the bottom of the peanut. Inside the court house it has been refinished, but is still looks the same that it did seventy years ago. This was a unique assingment, but it was kind of cool, I am not really into the artistic side, so therefore I am not interested in the artistic way of things. But I learned a lot about the history of the Wilson County Court House, and I also learned a lot about the old Wilson County Jail House. That is what interested me the most.

What I learned from “Losing Ground”

The article in the Express News, “Losing Ground”, basically talked about the vested rights law or another word for it is grandfather clause. This is a law made where big time real estate developers go around the city and other people or organizations. One of these organizations would be AGUA. This organization protects the Edwards Aquifer. It protects the aquifers recharge zones which is one of the most important parts of the aquifer, this is where water is put back into the aquifer. This was a ordinance made in 1995, that they can also find a way to get around with this vested rights issue. One important aspect I picked up from this article is that most people in the San Antonio area are against this vested rights law, but the real-estate developers sure enjoy it. Because it makes their job a whole lot easier than going to a city council meeting and having them vote yes or no on the development. Another fact that I have learned by reading this article is that a lot of land has been torn to shreds or the pastures have been bulldozed to about nothing in the Hill Country, this I don’t agree with why rip and tear up all that land for just a little country development. If people want to live in the country let them experience what the country is really like, with dirt roads and miles and miles of trees around.
I believe it help the readers better understand what developments are going up and also how much land it is ripping up also. But in my opinion it is mostly talking about this vested rights clause, and how it helps real estate developers get around these city ordinances we have, for example the tree ordinance, and also some organizations for example AGUA. This article is basically explaining the clause, it doesn’t really go in to detail on the developments and just basically explains what this law is and how the developers are using it. I don’t really understand this vested rights issue because it is just an easier way for some big time developers to do some big time damage to our environment which is already in trouble anyway due to all the developments already built here in San Antonio. I don’t think we need any more developments, we already have enough here in San Antonio. In my opinion we could get rid of some of these developments here in San Antonio. Or we could just stop adding out and keep what we got, cause what they are doing is tearing up our country sides. I even see this out in Floresville, where the town just keeps growing, I don’t like to see my hometown being stretched out. This is what I think about the article itself, I don’t think it really gives us a great detail about the developments, but about the laws made to get around our ordinances we have for the protection of the city of San Antonio.

Word Count:517

AGUA Vistior

On Friday, October 19, 2007, we had a speaker come in from AGUA, this is a organization trying to protect the aquifer. When class first began she had a slideshow presentation that she showed to the class, and she explained the slides. She explained to the class what it is she does for the AGUA organization, which is representing cases to the city council of San Antonio. She also showed us some slides about developments being built on or around the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone. This is where water is put back into the underground aquifer. Building on these recharge zones is a little hazardous due to the fact of pollution, anything on the ground in the recharge zone will end up back in the aquifer. She also showed us some maps of where the recharge zone is located at. She also showed us some maps of where they wanted to put these developments at. Which in some cases, in my opinion is a little on the crazy side, because they want to develop right over the recharge zone. When she finished with here presentation. She had the class break up into groups, and she had us present a mock presentation, after we talked to our group, each group explained their version on the case and gave it a yes or a no, it was a good learning experience. I learned a great deal of credible information about the Edwards Aquifer from her presentation. She also gave me a better understanding on what the recharge zones are and what the purpose of the zones are.

My Neighborhood: Floresville

My neighborhood is in a small town about thirty miles south of San Antonio down Highway 181. Floresville is home to a little over five thousand people, it is mostly country side, but my family and I live in the town of Floresville on A Street right off of Highway 181. I am about a mile from downtown Floresville where the old courthouse still stands. In the courthouse square there is an old jailhouse which is now a museum for tourist who come to visit. In town there is the town square and a American Legion Hall, which is used by the people for parties and other celebrations, but it is mainly used by the veterans for their meetings. Although the old jailhouse is not used anymore due to the lack of cells inside it still stands there in front of this jail house is a buried time capsule, that is supposed to be dug up in the year 2020, it was buried there in the early 1950’s don’t know an exact date.
Floresville is famous for the Peanut Festival, which is a fair on the second weekend of October, so it was just recently, people come from all over to see the parade on Saturday, after the parade they go to the carnival and eat the food from the food booths. The parade has gotten bigger and bigger since I moved down here from San Antonio. When I was a senior I was involved in the Peanut Festival, to be involved your parents have to be involved with the school, and you have to maintain a B average in all your classes, it is fun though because you get to miss a lot of school due to the other parades you travel to. This year the Peanut Festival made more money then it has ever made, due to the dances being free, everybody came down and went to the dances and spent more money on the food, and carnival rides for the kids.
My neighborhood is in the heart of downtown Floresville, we own a corner house at the end of the block and my house is located right across the street from a daycare center, and one house we have a young husband and wife that live there, the other two houses at three houses at the end of the block belong to my aunt and my cousin, she is renting one of the houses out to another young couple. Across the street from us my great aunt owns the brightest house on the street. That is pretty much it with my neighborhood.
Another big thing in Floresville is high school football, during football season every Friday night there is at least three thousand people at the football game watching, a lot of the little shops here in Floresville shut down at about seven o’clock to go and watch the Tigers play this is what I liked when I played football even though we weren’t the best football team people still cam and watched us play. Now since they are undefeated there seems to be a lot more people at the games watching them play. This is pretty much how it is here in Floresville, not much happens here except for around this time with the Peanut Festival happening.
Word Count:561

The Alamo: Fact or Fiction

The movie I watched was, “The Alamo”, that was filmed in 1960, starring John Wayne as David Crockett. In the video the Battle of the Alamo lasted for about thirteen days, that was a truthful depiction according to historians the battle did last for thirteen days. There were one hundred and eighty-five men who fought and defended the Alamo, that too was an actual depiction shown to us in the movie. In the movie it shows that General Sam Houston didn’t like Colonel William B. Travis, but trusted him with the Republic of Texas. In actual facts I didn’t find anything on the conflict. The video also showed us another conflict between characters, it showed that Colonel William B. Travis and Colonel Jim Bowie weren’t the best of friends either, but I could not find anything on this conflict on the web or in the books. The movie doesn’t agree with what Dr. Winders told us about the position of the Alamo, the movie shows us the Alamo out in a rural area, when it was actually close to the town of San Antonio right across a bridge coming from the city. The movie, “The Alamo” was filmed a few miles from the actual location of the Alamo, it was filmed in Texas. The movie shows that Jim Bowie lived in Texas, when in actual fact he came from Kentucky to help General Sam Houston, or the to help defend the Alamo. The movie also showed that David Crockett and the Tennessee Volunteers came down to Texas to hunt and get drunk, but Davy Crockett, had a girl write a letter to himself, and pretended like General Antonio Lopez De Santa Anna wrote it to him asking him to “get out of Texas they were not welcome and it is not there fight”, this just made the Tennessee Volunteers mad and made them agree to stay and fight, but in the books and on the web historians said he came down here to fight from the get go, and the Tennessee Volunteers came down here knowing what was going on and came down here to fight too.
In my opinion, I don’t think the movie, “The Alamo“, presented a balanced view of events, from what I heard from Dr. Winders on our tour at Alamo. He told us that Davy Crockett survived the battle, but was executed after he was caught by the Mexican Army (between five thousand to seven thousand troops). In the movie it shows the Mexican Army coming over the walls of the Alamo in the daylight hours, when they actually according to historians they came over the walls before daylight. So movie kind of strays off the actual facts from historians about this fateful thirteen confrontation for Texas to become a free Republic. This Battle held Santa Anna and his troops off long enough for General Sam Houston to pull his troops together and get them ready, and a few weeks later Sam Houston’s army beat the Mexican Army at the Battle of San Jacinto for our freedom from a tyrant.
Word Count: 528

Rediscovering The Alamo

Some of the important insights I have gained from our tour and lecture from Dr. Winders, on our tour of the Alamo on September 22, 2007 was that there were two theories on the Battle of the Alamo. One was that General Antonio Lopez De Santa Anna decides to overthrow the Mexican Government and invades Texas. Santa Anna killed or executed all of the defenders of the Alamo, along with the heros were Davy Crockett, William B. Travis, and James Bowie. These were people of mixed cultures and they came from different parts of the world and United States. They also had some local Tejanos on the list of defenders.
General Antonio Lopez De Santa Anna arrived in San Antonio on February 23, 1836, the Texians, and the Tejanos banded together to defend the Alamo. Willam B. Travis was the commander of the Alamo, he sent couriers out to send for help. On the eight day thirty-two volunteers from Gonzales arrived at the Alamo. On the final assualt came on March 6, 1836 before daybreak. The Mexican Army scaled the walls of the Alamo and took over, killing every defender that fought, it was said Davy Crockett survived, but was executed by Santa Anna and the Mexican Army. It helps me better understand what happened at the Alamo, and how we gained independence from Mexico. It also gave a better depiction then any of the movies on the Alamo.

Espada Dam

We all know about Mission San Francisco De Espada. We know it’s history and some other facts about the mission. Just a little over a mile up the road is the Espada Dam. The Espada Dam was constructed in 1745, it was used to divert water from the San Antonio River and the San Pedro Creek to the missions grounds and also to the surrounding fields at the missions through the acequia systems, also know as the irrigation ditches. This was used to irrigate the fields around the missions, and brings water to the mission grounds. The dam was used this way so the missionaries wouldn’t have to manually transport water from the river to the fields at the missions and to the mission grounds. This dam shows that just because they didn’t have the technology we have today, that it was still possible to construct something we still use to this very day. This is just a example of what they were able to do construct out of rock and mud. It looked like they used some kind of sediment rock like limestone or something similar to that kind of rock, and for the cement and filling they used what looked like mud, that they put between each layer of rock that they put down.
The Espada Dam is still used today at this day and time when technology is the way it is. You would think that the Espada Dam would have been replaced by a dam of today’s technology. Today the Espada Dam is used to irrigate the fields around the river and around Mission Espada. So it is basically used the same as it was when it was used in the missionary times. The dam itself doesn’t look in to terrible of condition, it still looks like it could withstand the pressure of the flowing San Antonio River. On the bank by the Espada Dam is a plaque, giving the history and what the dam was used for and when it was built and what it was built of.
This was a exciting project to work on, I learned a great deal about the Missions of San Antonio, and about the Espada Dam. I learned what the missions were truly used for and how the Spanish missionaries turned the Native Americans into civilized human beings. I also learned a great deal about the Espada Dam, and what it was used for and the history behind the Espada Dam.

San Francisco De Espada

I learned that Mission Espada’s roots lie in East Texas, where Spain founded the Mission San Francisco de los Texas in 1690. Mission San Francisco De Espada was established along the San Antonio River Banks on March 5, 1731. The word Espada means “sword”. Mission Espada is the furthest mission south of the other missions, so more than likely it was one of the first missions to be established by the Spairnards. Mission Espada is one of the missions with the acequias or in other words irrigation ditches. I learned that the door of the church has a broken arch, the mystery to the door it is said that one of the stone mason’s fled from the mission grounds one night before he could finish putting the stones up in the door arch, so that is why the door is like it is where it looks like it has a broken arch and it is not as wide as it should be. If the door arch was completed it would have been a little bit wider than what it is. The Mission was built on the banks of the San Antonio River and the water was brought in by the acequias systems, or the irrigation ditches. This looked really neat, because I would have never thought of that if I was there in that time period. The visit to the mission helped me understand that life back in that time period was not easy. The acequias is what amazed me the most.