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IMany San Antonians] Freighted Treasure and Merchandise Over Terii-! ous Route Which Was Put | On Map at Heavy Cost inj Blood and Labor.
By R. TRANK BIX H ALB.
TOM C11KWNING. a farmer.
plowing in his field near Benton, Mo., last winter, turned up a few old Spanish gold and silver coins. Feverishly digging, he soon I unearthed a f ortunc of them—i .400, valued at about $40,000. A i real "ending of the rainbow" for "hewning, but all those reading j of the happy event wondered how j the treasure happened to be in that j particular locality.
i ISOS Spain experienced the rliifiar. in a series of disasters, when Napoleon deposed the weak j Spanish monarch and placed his brother Joseph on the throne. The j Spanish colony of Mexico sympathized with the mother country and sent huge sums of gold and silver to the royal family, part of whom were then in exile in Italy. But the coast of Mexico was blockaded bv enemy warships and they were compelled to send this money through the American colonies for resliipment to Europe.
Accordingly, three pack trains, laden with approximately $1 50,000. were dispatched in July, ISOS for .St. Louis. Leaving Chihuhaua. they came through San Antonio to Nacogdoches, then northward to the Traunels Trail to Cherokee Crossing and then through about where Little Rock now stands, to St. Louis.
After being on the road three weeks a, revolution broke out in j Mexico and a, detachment was pent j in bring the. treasure back. Two j of the trains were overtaken and t returned, but the other, with its i SIP.non. was lost in Central Mis- j souri and never heard of again, it was doubtless thi« treasure that Tom Chewning found.
This, though, was not the beginning of the Chihuahua Trail. For nearly a hundred years a strong trade had flourished between the cities of Monterrey, Chihuahua. /Tamaulipas. Coahtiila and the more northern towns of San Antonio, Refugio and La Bahia. This trade.
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a populaion of about eight thousand. most of whom were engaged in ranching, growing cotton and previous to 1S09, was conducted by | susar cane. Till this time the
means of pack animals, in that year, however, the first of the Mexican carts was seen in San Antonio.
Prosperous Times.
Chihuahua City, in 1700,
(country was a vast prairie, the growth of any kind of trees was prevented by great prairie fires that swept over the country killing all young shrubbery. Ranching great prosperous Spanish strong- kept the grass down, preventing hold in Northern Mexico. Larger)fires, and the mosquito tree came than New York, it contained more j into its own.
Europeans and Americans than! Trade had been carried on beany other city in the country. Th" j tween Chihuahua, and Snma Fc great mines in the vicinity were In ; since a. very early date, and in the fabulous production. Nuggets of' year of 1S22 was opened to Jnde-gold had been found worth $25,000. j pendencc. Mo., over the famous At one time miners were paid! Santa Fe Trail. In order to on-$2,000 for a day’s work. An ordi- courage trade, and to find a short-nary horse sold for $10,000 and j ep trail from Chihuahua to the was generally shod with silver j frontier on Red River, the Mexican shoes,	(government reduced duties
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furnish an escort of dragoons for traders attempting this route.
Trail Blazed in 183ft Dr. 7-T. Connelly, an American merchant, and a. number of Mexi-
can Antonio, at the time, had ‘ very low level and promised to cans of means, undertook this trip
and left Chihuahua on April 3, IGralc at Presidio Del Norte, 1$.*>9, with one hundred men, no- jrophead crossing on the upper com pan led by 50 dragoons. This j Por, nnd cut diagonally across train consisted of seven wagons
and carried $300,000 in specie and bullion. They crossed the Rio ^on 1
i to Fort Towson—near joro, Ark., now stands.
where
They
returned, after to Chihuahua.
While this expedition was not a financial success, it served to divert trains from the Santa Fe Trail to the now route so that by the end of 1S49 the great Chihuahua Trail was firmly established and pouring its ever-increasing stream of merchandise, gold and silver across Texas.
This trail developed into equally used routes: one from huahua crossing the. Rio Gran
the shorter way i by Castro ville, Uvalde. Fort Clark I and San Felipe Springs. This route
•	crossed Devils River and the Pecos ‘ just above the present bridge of I ilie Southern Pacific—north, up the
west bank and joined the old trail | at Horsehcad Crossing. Freight-
•	ers used this route exclusively j throughout the war, and after that I conflict it developed into that
•	mighty artery of commerce—the
•	Chihuahua Trail.
Mexican ox-carts were used for ; freighting till John Monie i duced mules and the schooners" just before the war. j These wagons were imported by ! Mr. Staaoke. who ran an imple-I ment and vehicle store on West j Commerce street. These prairie j schooners had wheels about sig j feet high in rear and five feet, in | front. Tires wore of solid iron,
I five inches wide and an inch thick, j Their axles were three inches in diameter. The bed was 2 1 f«ct l?ng. four and a half feet wide and i five feet high. A heavy canv.03 j passed over the top hows and fastened to the side, making it watev-j proof. When pulled by 10 mules
in. i-ouis, mo route luuovea me cm ^an An- j—me average team—a wagon could
haul
tonio Road to Nacogdoches
In 1330, Henry Skillman was awarded a contract for the first San Antonio-121 Paso mail route.
The first run on this route was made in a Concord Coach guarded by IS men under Big Foot Wallace. Due to the fact that traveling was dono only in daytime and with wild mules, it took just thirty days to make the Initial run of G75 two I miles. This time was steadily cut Chi- I down, and by 1RS7 the trip to San! ndo at j Francisco was made in less than a !
Presidio, through Boon Water rnonth. And to K1 Paso in six days. I Hole: Horsohoad Crossing to the i	Prairie Schooners
headwaters of the Concho River, j In 1S59 a stage route was placed
T-lero the trail split, one branch in operation between San Antonio I ima^inod_______	|}
turning south to San Antonio, while j and Eagle Pass, hut was abandoned - ' ‘	1,1	e	a
the other continued to Fort Tow- In 1S61 when the Civil War can-j son by way of the Copper Mines on celled the mail contract. By this i the Brazos, the Waco village and) time the northern route through
000 pounds of freight.
As stated, the great ox-carts were the common conveyor of freight along the trail. They were huge, two-wheeled affairs, made entirely of wood. Not a particle of metal was used in their construction. Even the seven-foot wheels were cut from three pieces of flat timber, and fastened together in a crude circle by wooden buckskin thong
Early-Day Freighters.
These carts had a hole cut in the center of the wheel, through which passed the wooden axle. As no lubricant was used, the screceh-and yowling they made can rds
use that can describe it. When
pins
son by
the Brazos, the Waco village and J time the northern route through! to the northeast. The San Anto- Fort Concho was practically elimi-‘
c so great that the axle be-, Continued vn Page 6-D I