The Spanish influence in Pecos County

There is a great line in the movie giant…

where Rock Hudson tells Elizabeth Taylor, “You folks think all of the glory was back east.”

It is a fitting summation of the emphasis of the history of the English colonies along the eastern seaboard (Jamestown, Plymouth) in most of our U.S. history books. The English were the primary colonists in Virginia, Massachusetts and New York. Because England and Spain were intermittently at war from 1585 to 1808, most U.S. history texts take the side of the winners, in this case the English, over the Spanish. There was also a religious bias against Spain’s Catholic faith by the English Protestant churches. However, much of this bias ignores the fact that nearly 80 years before Jamestown, the Spaniards were in Texas, led by Conquistadores such as Francisco Vazquez de Coronado, Cabeza de Vaca, Mendoza and other Spanish explorers.

In 1540, Coronado led an expedition that traveled from Mexico on up into what is now New Mexico and Texas. Years earlier, Cabeza de Vaca had traveled through Texas and Pecos County in 1528. Historians are fairly certain that de Vaca camped by the famed Comanche Springs in Fort Stockton.

The Conquistador who spent the most time in Pecos County was Juan Dominguez de Mendoza. In 1683 he led an expedition that traveled through Pecos County, on to Comanche Springs, then northward to Horsehead Crossing on the Pecos River. Because Mendoza kept a detailed diary of his journey, almost every landmark he visited has been located. Near Comanche Springs Mendoza recounts the killing of three buffalo bulls—one of the few times buffalo were sighted in the Big Bend. (Very few were seen west of the Pecos River.)

The Spanish influence in Pecos County continued on into the “modern” era when Saint Gall (now the city of Fort Stockton) was established in 1859. According to the 1870 census, the population of Saint Gall was 582, More than half (298) were foreign born, with 261 of those coming from Mexico.

In early 1870, Cesario Torres, Bernardo Torres and Felis Garza constructed 2,885 yards of hand-dug ditches six feet wide and three feet deep to establish the first irrigation district in Pecos County. Fed by the runoff from Comanche Springs, it expanded with more and more canals until by 1955 the irrigation district had nearly 5,000 acres in cultivation tilled by almost 150 families. Born in 1837, Cesario Torres, had been a prominent resident of San Antonio before moving west across the Pecos River. He had graduated from St. Phillips College with a degree in civil
engineering. After he moved west he surveyed land for the government; for every square mile surveyed, he would be awarded an acre of public land.

In 1868 and 1869 the men had preempted 160 acres each and
built an irrigation ditch 1,885 yards long to their holding from Comanche Creek under the name Torres Comanche Creek Irrigation Company. Through 1874 they constructed several thousand more yards of canal and lateral ditches. There, the brothers did make money selling goods, grain and animal fodder to the U.S. Army. By the mid-1870s, the brothers were prominent citizens of Fort Stockton. And in 1881 Cesario and Bernardo supervised the election in which the town Fort Stockton received its name.

When Pecos County was organized on March 9, 1875, Ceasario Torres and Hipolito Carrasco were both elected Justices of the Peace, marking the presence of Hispanics as the earliest officials of Pecos County.

Cesario Torres is one of the men responsible for turning saloon-keeper Roy Bean into the judge known as the Law West of the Pecos. Torres held the position of Pecos County’s County Commissioner Precinct #2 (from 1875 to 1886) when the territory west of the Pecos River was still under the jurisdiction of that county. The Commissioners Court heeded the call of the Texas Rangers at Vinegarroon that a court was needed onsite and appointed their recommended candidate—Roy Bean.

In 1869 Cesario Torres took up land in Pecos County. Late in that year and throughout 1870 Torres, his brother, and his father-in-law, Félix Garza, dug a large irrigation ditch with wooden shovels to improve the land. In 1875 the state issued conditional land grants to them. If they maintained the ditches for ten years, the men would receive thirty-seven sections of land. Torres and Garza upheld their agreement and received the land. The land belonging to Torres became known as the Seven-D Ranch. By 1875, the Torres Brothers owned eleven sections in Pecos County, and were among the largest landowners in the county. Their old ranch house, part of the 7-D Ranch, is still standing on 7-D Road just east of Fort Stockton. Later this would become the 7-D Farms that were irrigated by the runoff from Comanche Springs.

Today the Spanish influence continues, with about 67.3% of the population of Pecos County being Hispanic or Latino.