San Ygnacio, Texas

María Ygnacia (Ignacia) Gutiérrez de Lara Uribe, pioneer, ranch owner, and mother, was born to Juan José Gutiérrez de Lara and María Manuela Villarreal in Revilla, Nuevo Santander. Following the Mexican War of Independence , the Spanish province of Nuevo Santander became the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, and in 1827 the city of Revilla was renamed Guerrero in honor of Vicente Guerrero . Ygnacia Gutiérrez de Lara was baptized on August 25, 1783. She married José Dionisio Uribe, who was a cousin of José Bernardo Maximiliano Gutiérrez de Lara , Mexican revolutionary and the first governor of Tamaulipas, and grandnephew of Tomás Sánchez de la Barrera y Garza , founder of Laredo, Texas. They subsequently had six children. Ygnacia Uribe's husband owned property on the north side of the Rio Grande, and she inherited the land following his death. In 1822 she crossed the Rio Grande to move to her new property around five miles northwest of present-day Zapata, Texas. The crossing occurred only a few years after American Indian raids forced the abandonment of Nuestra Señora de los Dolores Hacienda further upriver. Amazingly, Uribe relocated across the Rio Grande alone except for two of her young children, Blas María and Juan Martín. She endured environmental hardships and the constant threat of robbery or violence. The story of her courageous crossing was well-remembered by descendants and by residents of Zapata County. Uribe established and successfully managed her own ranch, which she named El Uribeño. By 1830 Jesús Treviño, a wealthy Revilla merchant, had established Rancho San Ygnacio about ten miles upriver from El Uribeño. The settlement grew into the city of San Ygnacio, Texas. In 1832 Uribe's oldest son, Blas María, married Treviño's eldest daughter, Juliana. By then Ygnacia Uribe had died. Following Treviño's death in 1842, Blas María Uribe took over the San Ygnacio ranch and became a successful businessman and leader of San Ygnacio. He expanded the ranching operations and established a freight business. He enlarged Treviño's fortified ranching compound, which was located on the Old San Antonio Road and was named a National Historic Landmark in 1998. By the time of his death in 1895, Blas María Uribe had obtained more than half of the San Ygnacio subdivision of the Vásquez Borrego land grant ( see VÁZQUEZ BORREGO, JOSÉ ), amounting to roughly 100,000 acres across Webb and Zapata counties. Juan Martín Uribe took over El Uribeño, which was managed by the Uribe family until it was submerged along with area communities and homes by the International Falcon Reservoir in 1953.

In the late 1820s, Jesús Treviño bought land and a hacienda from the heirs of José Vásquez Borrego. Treviño and his family, as well as several residents from nearby Revilla, Mexico (Guerrero), established a ranch and settlement and named it for Revilla's patron saint, San Ignacio de Loyola. In 1830, Treviño moved the ranch upriver, and for his headquarters he constructed a building of native sandstone. In 1851, his son-in-law, Blás María Uribe, had José Villarreal build and place a sundial on the entrance. Uribe later added other structures, forming the compound known today as Fort Treviño, or El Fuerte. Uribe also joined in discussions surrounding the formation of the Republic of the Río Grande. He and his brothers-in-law, Vicente Gutiérrez and Manuel Benavides García, were active leaders in San Ygnacio, which became a regional trade center, with access to land and river routes. In 1873, Uribe deeded land for Nuestra Señora del Refugio Catholic Church. Largely populated by farmers and laborers, and following many years as a duty-free border zone, San Ygnacio continued to prosper late into the 19th century. The settlement, bypassed by the railroad in the 1880s, remained viable through its farming and ranching enterprises. Throughout the years, the area was often involved in political and military operations. In the early 1950s, plans for Falcon Reservoir posed a threat to the historic townsite. A committee headed by Mercurio Martínez successfully petitioned government officials to spare the community. Despite flood damage incurred in 1954, San Ygnacio has remained intact. Today, it is a unique example of a mid-19th century Texas border town, with numerous native sandstone structures, and is considered the oldest inhabited settlement in Zapata County. (2005)

Oldest Spanish settlement on north bank of the Rio Grande. Founded August 22, 1750 by Jose Vasquez Borrego, Lieutenant of Jose de Escandon. Erected by the State of Texas 1936

Jesus Trevino, founder of San Ygnacio, built this home in 1830, forting up family and neighbors here during frequent Indian raids. Later Blas Maria Uribe, his son-in-law, built the loopholed fort and in 1851 had a native stone made into a polished sundial and set into the north wall of the fort.

Medina is at the intersection of State Highway 16 and Farm Road 337, twelve miles northwest of Bandera in central Bandera County. As early as 1865 a sawmill had been built in the area, and several families were settled nearby. The Medina post office was established in 1880, and by the end of the next decade the community had a gin, a corn mill, a hotel, a private bank, two churches, three general stores, and a population of 150. Many area residents raised stock as their primary occupation. By 1914 Medina had a population of 400; it fell to 250 in the early 1930s, when the Great Depression caused many residents to move away in search of jobs. The community recovered fairly rapidly, however, and had a variety of businesses, four churches, and 475 residents by the late 1940s. Most of the area land was devoted to livestock and to recreational hunting leases until the 1980s, when apple farming was introduced to the area. Baxter Adams, Jr., started an experimental orchard of dwarf apple trees in 1980, and the first apples were ready for sale in 1984. The dwarf trees produced regular-sized apples that were 40 percent sweeter than large-tree varieties and proved to be an extremely efficient use of the land, with 1,000 to 2,500 trees an acre. In 1989 the Texas Department of Agriculture declared Medina the Apple Capital of Texas. The 300,000 trees in the Medina area produced 100 tons of fruit in 1990, and more orchards were being planted each year. The annual Medina Apple Festival, held on the last Saturday of July, attracted 20,000 visitors in 1990. The population of Medina was listed as 515 in 1990, but the actual number of residents in Medina proper was closer to 250. By 2000 the population had more than doubled to 515 residents.