The Descendents of Don Martin de Veramendi

The Descendents of Don Martin de Veramendi

and Dona Benita de Olagrie

Compiled by John D. Inclan

Generation No. 1

1. MARTIN¹ DE VERAMENDI He married BENITA DE OLAGRIE.

Child of MARTIN DE VERAMENDI and BENITA DE OLAGRIE is:

2. i. FERNANDO² VERAMENDI, b. 1743, Pamplona, Spain; d. 31 May 1783, San Juan Bautista del Rio, Coahuila, Mexico.

Generation No. 2

2. FERNANDO² VERAMENDI (MARTIN¹ DE VERAMENDI) was born 1743 in Pamplona, Spain, and died 31 May 1783 in San Juan Bautista del Rio, Coahuila, Mexico. He married MARIA-JOSEFA GRANADOS-CASTRO 17 Apr 1776 in San Fernando, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, daughter of JUAN-FRANCISCO GRANADOS-Y-BETHENCOURT and MARIA-ISABEL CASTRO-HERNANDEZ. She was born 16 Oct 1759 in San Fernando Catholic Church, San Antonio, Texas, and died in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

Notes for FERNANDO VERAMENDI:

Veramendi was on a business trip to Mexico City when he was killed by Mescalero Apaches near the presidio of San Juan Bautista, Coahuila, on May 31, 1783.

Children of FERNANDO VERAMENDI and MARIA-JOSEFA GRANADOS-CASTRO are:

i. JOSE-MARIA-FERNANDO-GREGORIO³ VERAMENDI-GRANADOS, b. 10 Jul 1777, San Fernando Catholic Church, San Antonio, Texas; m. MARIA-ANTONIA DE-LOS-SANTOS-COY-URRUTIA, 09 Jun 1802, San Fernando, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; b. 1780.

Notes for JOSE-MARIA-FERNANDO-GREGORIO VERAMENDI-GRANADOS:

Brother to Don Juan Martin del Carmen Veramendi Granados. From September 18, 1832 to September 1833 Don Juan Martin served as Governor of Coahuila and Texas.

3. ii. JUAN-MARTIN-DEL-CARMEN VERAMENDI-GRANADOS, b. 25 Nov 1778, San Fernando, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; d. Sep 1833, Died of cholera at Monclova, Coahuila, Mexico.

iii. MARIA-JOSEFA-VICENTA VERAMENDI-GRANADOS, b. 07 Jun 1780, San Fernando Catholic Church, San Antonio, Texas.

iv. FERNANDO-RAMON-NEPOMUCENO VERAMENDI, b. 08 Sep 1782, San Fernando Catholic Church, San Antonio, Texas; d. 02 Apr 1816, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; m. MARIA-ANTONIA-LUISA FLORES-MENCHACA, Abt. 1807; b. 22 Jan 1792, San Fernando, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

v. MARIA-JOSEFA-DE-LOS-DOLORES VERAMENDI, b. 24 Jan 1784, San Fernando Catholic Church, San Antonio, Texas.

Generation No. 3

3. JUAN-MARTIN-DEL-CARMEN³ VERAMENDI-GRANADOS (FERNANDO² VERAMENDI, MARTIN¹ DE VERAMENDI) was born 25 Nov 1778 in San Fernando, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, and died Sep 1833 in Died of cholera at Monclova, Coahuila, Mexico. He married MARIA-JOSEFA-CANDIDA NAVARRO-DE-RUIZ Abt. 1810, daughter of JOSE-ANGEL NAVARRO and MARIA-GERTRUDIS-JOSEFA RUIZ-DE-LA-PENA. She was born 24 Apr 1792 in San Fernando, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, and died Sep 1833 in Died of cholera at Monclova, Coahuila, Mexico.

Notes for JUAN-MARTIN-DEL-CARMEN VERAMENDI-GRANADOS:

He and his family are listed on the 1830 Census of San Antonio, Texas.

Source:1830 Citizens of Texas by Gifford E. White. Page 98.

From September 18, 1832 to September 1833, Governor of Coahuila and Texas, son of María Josefa Granados and Fernando Veramendi, was born in San Fernando de Béxar (San Antonio) on December 17, 1778. He married Josefa Navarro; they became the parents of seven children. Veramendi and Juan José Erasmo Seguínq met Stephen F. Austinqv at Natchitoches, Louisiana, on June 21, 1821, and accompanied him to Bexar. In 1822-23 Veramendi served in Bexar as collector of foreign revenue, from which office he was elected as alternate deputy of the Texas Provincial Deputation to the Mexican National Constitutional Congress on September 8, 1823. In 1823 Veramendi obtained a grant of five leagues of land from the ayuntamiento, but when he discovered that the land lay within Green DeWitt's colony, he petitioned for a grant under the colonization law of March 24, 1825, so that he would not be classified as a colonist of the empresario DeWitt. After he renewed his petition for land around 1827, he received a grant of eleven leagues. Veramendi was the first alcalde of Bexar in 1824 and 1825. He was elected vice governor of Coahuila and Texas on September 6, 1830, and was confirmed by the legislature on January 4, 1831. Upon assuming his duties as vice governor, he moved with his family from Bexar to Saltillo. In April 1831, his daughter, Dona Ursula María de Veramendi, married James Bowie. Bowie and Veramendi formed a partnership to establish cotton mills in Saltillo, and Veramendi began to divide his time between Texas and Coahuila. He assumed the office of governor upon the death of José María Letona in 1832 and served until 1833. His administration was favorable to the Anglo-American colonists and therefore unpopular with many of the Mexican groups. In the summer of 1833, while at his summer home at Monclova, he died in a cholera epidemic.

Children of JUAN-MARTIN-DEL-CARMEN VERAMENDI-GRANADOS and MARIA-JOSEFA-CANDIDA NAVARRO-DE-RUIZ are:

i. MARIA-URSULA-FRUCTUOSA⁴ VERAMENDI-NAVARRO, b. 01 Nov 1811, San Fernando, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; d. 10 Sep 1833, Died of cholera at Monclova, Coahuila, Mexico; m. COLONEL JAMES BOWIE, 25 Apr 1831, San Fernando, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; b. 10 Apr 1796, Spring Creek, Kentucky; d. 06 Mar 1836, Alamo, San Antonio, Texas.

Notes for COLONEL JAMES BOWIE:

SAN ANTONIO - A rare signature by James Bowie, one of the leading martyrs of the Alamo, has been found on what amounts to a prenuptial agreement filed with Mexican authorities five years before he was killed by Santa Anna's troops.

The scarcity of Bowie signatures in existence would make this John Hancock worth at least $50,000, according to several historians. Not that the owner, Bexar County, has any plans to test its value in the open market.

"It's a one-of-a-kind," county clerk Gerry Rickhoff said. "It needs to be preserved so people 100 or 200 years from now can see this document."

Bowie, raised in Louisiana, came to San Antonio as a land speculator in 1828 when Mexico still controlled Texas. He later joined the Texas independence fight and was among the most prominent of those killed in the Battle of the Alamo in March 1836.

The prenup was recently dug out of Bowie's probate file, which for more than 160 years has been buried in the county's extensive archives of Spanish-language papers.

The April 22, 1831, marriage contract was penned in Spanish in an ornate hand and is chockful of legalese.

In its four pages, Bowie, famed knife fighter and entrepreneur, claims sufficient assets to provide a dowry of 15,000 pesos to Maria Ursula de Veramendi, 19-year-old daughter of the Mexican provincial governor.

"That would be a fair sum of money," Alamo curator Bruce Winders said.

By comparison, he said, a typical horse sold for about 40 pesos in those days.

Bowie's rough-handed signature, in fading brown ink, is near the bottom of the fourth page, and is underscored by a series of horizontal swirls that resemble a tornado sketch, wide at the top and tapering down.

In the document, Bowie claims assets worth nearly 150,000 pesos, the vast majority being money owed to him by the U.S. government and various business partners. He also listed 50,000 acres of land in Arkansas.

The couple was wed within days of the signing, but the union didn't last long, in 1833, while Bowie was away on business, Ursula and their two young children died in a cholera outbreak.

"This is such an unusual document," said Guimarin, whose shop stands across a narrow street from the Alamo. "The fact that this is Bowie, he died at the Alamo, that he has this romantic, adventurous life. He was a true frontier hero."

ii. MARIA-JUANA-GERTRUDIS VERAMENDI-NAVARRO, b. 28 Dec 1812, San Fernando, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

iii. MARCO-ANTONIO VERAMENDI-NAVARRO, b. 1817, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

iv. MARIA-JOSEFA-DE-LA-CONCEPCION VERAMENDI-NAVARRO, b. 29 Nov 1820, San Fernando, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; m. JOSE-RAFAEL-CALIXTO DE-LA-GARZA-RIVAS, 01 Dec 1838, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; b. 24 Oct 1818, San Fernando, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; d. 1849.

Notes for JOSE-RAFAEL-CALIXTO DE-LA-GARZA-RIVAS:

He was elected justice of the peace for Bexar County on August 15, 1839, and he served in the House of Representatives of the Seventh Congress from Bexar County in 1842. He was elected district clerk of Bexar County on February 3, 1845, and held this office until at least January 1846. In March of 1845 Garza sold two leagues of land on the Comal River, known as the Comal tract, to Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels, for the intended resettlement of German immigrants. Garza died three years later in San Antonio.

Marriage Notes for MARIA-JOSEFA-DE-LA-CONCEPCION VERAMENDI-NAVARRO and JOSE-RAFAEL-CALIXTO DE-LA-GARZA-RIVAS:

Marriage Source:Bexar County Courthouse Record, Vol. A Page 14.

v. JUAN-MARTIN VERAMENDI-NAVARRO, b. 1823.

vi. JOSE-PRIMO VERAMENDI-NAVARRO, b. 1824.

vii. MARIA-ANTONIA VERAMENDI-NAVARRO, b. 1827; m. JOSE-RAFAEL-CALIXTO DE-LA-GARZA-RIVAS, 11 Oct 1846, San Fernando, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; b. 24 Oct 1818, San Fernando, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; d. 1849.

Notes for JOSE-RAFAEL-CALIXTO DE-LA-GARZA-RIVAS:

Marriage Notes for MARIA-ANTONIA VERAMENDI-NAVARRO and JOSE-RAFAEL-CALIXTO DE-LA-GARZA-RIVAS:

Marriage Source:Bexar County Courthouse Record, Vol. A Page 66.

Date on record, November 15,1844.

viii. EUFEMIA VERAMENDI-NAVARRO, b. 1829.

ix. MARIA-TERESA-DE-JESUS VERAMENDI-NAVARRO, b. 26 Jun 1830, San Fernando, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; m. JOSE-DE-JESUS CANTU-GORTARI, 26 Aug 1846, San Fernando, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas; b. 30 Oct 1824, San Fernando, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

Marriage Notes for MARIA-TERESA-DE-JESUS VERAMENDI-NAVARRO and JOSE-DE-JESUS CANTU-GORTARI:

Marriage Source:Bexar County Courthouse Record, Vol. A Page 102.