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🕯 @amuleto.bsky.social · 18m

OH lmao I forgot to describe *why* it replaced it; it replaced it because indiana limestone is stronger than austin limestone, you can hold more weight on it

though, one of my geologist guides remarked "though it's stronger, it's not that pretty, at least to my geologist sensibilities"

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🕯 @amuleto.bsky.social · 8h

Also something else neat I learned from looking into the missions more recently; there was a ranchera named Ana María del Carmen Calvillo who supposedly "dressed like a man and could shoot and rope like one"

(cont.)

🕯 @amuleto.bsky.social · 9h

Like Mission San Juan and Mission Espada used a lot of sandstone and some gravel stones, and Espada sits over a claystone deposit, so it was the only mission of the 5 to use decorative fired bricks

Mission Concepción used a lot of tufa and adobe; San José also used a lot of tufa

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🕯 @amuleto.bsky.social · 8h

To add to that quote from her grandson, "she dressed like a man and could shoot & rope like one. On one occasion, a surveyor spent tedious hours astride a horse, marking off, measuring her lands. Calvillo rode along, seeing to her interests that it were properly [measured]. Nobody dared cross her."

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🕯 @amuleto.bsky.social · 2h

(it replaced it because the railroad had finally arrived in San Antonio in 1877; a great time to be a New York socialite who had only read about this 'exotic' town in accounts like Frederick L. Olmsted's visitation)

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🕯 @amuleto.bsky.social · 6h

The "Vote NO" I saw was hanging from the Wittigs building at the intersection of Avenue B and East Josephine; visible from 281 heading north actually

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🕯 @amuleto.bsky.social · 7h

I DO support Prop A because it'll make infrastructure adjustments that were promised by the Spurs moving over there in the first place, but Prop B really is just a way for the Spurs management to rack more money out of the city; as much as I love the land-bridge idea.

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🕯 @amuleto.bsky.social · 7h

I really don't care if the Spurs leave town, actually. I think there was no oversight on making sure the Eastside actually got development last time and the Spurs management will keep fucking the city into getting what they want by dangling the team over peoples head

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🕯 @amuleto.bsky.social · 7h

I have only seen one "Vote NO to Prop B" sign in all of the city, but like 50 "Vote YES to Prop A & B" signs across the city, but particularly around affluent areas like the Pearl and downtown businesses.

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🕯 @amuleto.bsky.social · 8h

To add to that quote from her grandson, "she dressed like a man and could shoot & rope like one. On one occasion, a surveyor spent tedious hours astride a horse, marking off, measuring her lands. Calvillo rode along, seeing to her interests that it were properly [measured]. Nobody dared cross her."

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🕯 @amuleto.bsky.social · 8h

But after 1851 she was declared "non compos mentis" (effectively, insane, and unable to manage her own affairs)

She would die five years later on January 15th, 1856. Born July 9th, 1765.

I do hope I worded this well enough to read-through. I hope to work her into a story one day.

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🕯 @amuleto.bsky.social · 8h

By 1851 Calvillo would have a representative appear for her in court, and I am not sure whether this is due to the much more fucked up English common law that Anglo-Americans practiced, where women had little rights and were seen as property; or due to a true deterioration of ability–

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🕯 @amuleto.bsky.social · 8h

Of course, she was also scandelous for being such a ardent individual in the face of social pressures. Even though Spanish law treated the woman as an individual, social pressures still wanted her to be a homemaker, not a rugged ranchera and businessperson.

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🕯 @amuleto.bsky.social · 8h

She was also perhaps a participant in smuggling operations between Louisiana and Texas (Spanish Texas prohibited imports from outside the empire, and Mexican Texas heavily curtailed it), as a relative of hers was a successful smuggler, and her own ranch lied between two major roads at the time

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🕯 @amuleto.bsky.social · 8h

She is recounted as scandalous, having paid tribute during a period of time to some local raiders (most likely Lipan Apache since they were known to heavily raid the area of San Antonio including Native settlements) in turn for protection of her property

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🕯 @amuleto.bsky.social · 8h

Throughout her life she expanded her fortune, building a sugar mill, granary, and further field irrigation; having 2000 heads of cattle at one point, as well as employing a shepard, tailor, 8 laborers, and a personal servant, with them and their families living on her land.

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🕯 @amuleto.bsky.social · 8h

With my own knowledge of how brutal the Spanish reprisals were on anyone even suspected of helping the rebels (particularly their own spouses), I suspect she may have divorced him in hopes of avoiding reprisals like seizure of property and being beaten and starved

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🕯 @amuleto.bsky.social · 8h

She married in 1781 but divorced sometime between 1811-1814, during the Mexican War of Independence. Her husband was fighting for the local Republican Army of the North (an alliance of Tejanos, Anglo-Americans, and local Indigenous Americans like Coahuiltecans)

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🕯 @amuleto.bsky.social · 8h

She was born in 1756 and died in 1856. She lived through Spanish Texas, the Mexican War of Independence, the Republic of Texas, and into the United States. (Aged 91~)

She inherited Rancho de las Cabras from her father, who had acquired it from Mission Espada in turn

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🕯 @amuleto.bsky.social · 8h

Also something else neat I learned from looking into the missions more recently; there was a ranchera named Ana María del Carmen Calvillo who supposedly "dressed like a man and could shoot and rope like one"

(cont.)

🕯 @amuleto.bsky.social · 9h

Like Mission San Juan and Mission Espada used a lot of sandstone and some gravel stones, and Espada sits over a claystone deposit, so it was the only mission of the 5 to use decorative fired bricks

Mission Concepción used a lot of tufa and adobe; San José also used a lot of tufa

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🕯 @amuleto.bsky.social · 9h

Austin limestone was also almost entirely or entirely used for building Mission San Antonio de Valero (Alamo) and other downtown limestone buildings well into the 1800s until indiana limestone replaced it in many cases after

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🕯 @amuleto.bsky.social · 9h

(the reconstruction of San José done by the CCC in the 1930s uses a lot of sandstone, however, imported from somewhere else)

Whenever there is carved decorative rock, it is likely austin limestone, a deposit that is soft and thus good for carving.

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🕯 @amuleto.bsky.social · 9h

Like Mission San Juan and Mission Espada used a lot of sandstone and some gravel stones, and Espada sits over a claystone deposit, so it was the only mission of the 5 to use decorative fired bricks

Mission Concepción used a lot of tufa and adobe; San José also used a lot of tufa

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🕯 @amuleto.bsky.social · 9h

rather, that's why that rock mound they used for building was there in the first place.

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🕯 @amuleto.bsky.social · 1d

And there's still so many geologic mysteries still not solved with the area too. There may have been a major spring at Mission Concepción at one point, that uplifted large amounts of rock with it; and that may have been where the rock for M. Concepción came from

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🕯 @amuleto.bsky.social · 1d

I learned from two geologists today that it's apparently kind of strange in a cool way that there's so many different geologic formations in the San Antonio area. The missions of SA, despite being close to each other, have considerable variety ot rock used to build them; corresponding to their area.

🕯 @amuleto.bsky.social · 1d

Haha :)

In actuality, it's the Geological Society of America. I've been enjoying having them in town. I've been going on their field trips and learning a lot about local geologic processes :)

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