Leonard Garza Biography

Leonard Garza, the distinguished gentleman who is the subject of this sketch, is a direct and lineal descendant of the original pioneers of Texas and founders of the city of San Antonio.
The first settlement of a colony of Spanish, or Europeans, in Texas, was made in 1731. Prior to that time, the Catholic Church had penetrated the country with her missions, but the only colony of genuine, bona fide settlers up to that time, was composed of about thirteen families from the Canary Islands; and this colony was headed by a woman, Maria Robaina Betancourt, a direct descendant of Baron Jean de Betancourt, the discoverer of those Islands.
The Viceroy of Mexico, Juan de Acuna, Marquis de Casa Fuerte, in 1723, attempted to induce four hundred families from the Canary Islands to emigrate to Texas, and he prepared vessels for their transportation, but the scheme did not meet with favor; the Spanish settlements in America having been so unfortunate that the country had acquired the pseudonym of “La Lumba de Espana,” or, The Tomb of Spain.
But in 1730, this magnificent woman, with the blood of the knightly chivalry of Spain flowing in generous currents through her veins, fired by the spirit of romance and adventure, signified to the Viceroy her willingness to organize and transport such a colony from her native isle of Lanzarotte. Hundreds flocked to her standard, but the Viceroy had given up in despair of ever accomplishing the object, and the vessels he had collected for the purpose had been dismissed with one exception, and that was placed at her service. With thirteen families and two young unmarried men, this noble woman, Maria Robaina Betancourt, arrived at the present site of San Antonio, and locating there, named the town, in honor to the heir of the crown, San Fernando; but after the war between Mexico and Spain, and the establishment of the independence of Mexico, everything savoring of royalty was so distasteful to the popular sentiment that the name of the place was changed to San Antonio.
The Viceroy, who was said to be one of the best Mexico ever had, was very grateful to Madame Betancourt; and on her arrival she was met by an envoy from him, conveying his expressions of regard and welcome, and suitable presents, as such a name as hers had given great éclat to his scheme. Some of these presents are still in possession of her descendants. The Viceroy, also, stood sponsor, by proxy, to one of her children, who was named in honor of him, Juan de Acuna.
The Plaza, now known as the Main Plaza in San Antonio, was named by her “Plaza de las Islas,” in honor of her native islands, and around this square the first buildings were erected.
When Robaina Betancourt came to America, she was a widow with a large family of children, and by a large majority, they were sons. She was styled “La Pobladora,” the Foundress.
Soon after the arrival of the colony, she married Lorenzo de Armas, one of the young men accompanying the colony. A daughter from this marriage, Antonia de Armas, was the grandmother of Maria Josefa Mancaca, who was the mother of Leonard Garza, the subject of this sketch.
The first one of the Garza family in San Antonio was Geronimo de la Garza, who built the historic house on the corner of Acequia and Veramendi streets, so often mentioned in the history of the capture of Bexar. In 1734, he married Maria Jesusa Cantu, a Canary Islander, by whom he had several sons and daughters, among them, Leonardo de la Garza, the father of Leonard Garza.
The father of Leonard Garza was the first man to coin money in Texas, by permission of the government, and the first to use the “Lone Star” as an emblem. He owned an immense-landed property and was universally known and respected, proverbially hospitable and charitable, and whose word was trusted with the same faith as his bond. Garza County was named in honor of this pioneer Texan. The engraving of the coin is given: One side has the initials of Jose Antonio de la Garza, and the reverse has stamped upon it the “Lone Star,” just as it was and is used as an emblem of Texas nationality.
Maria Josefa Mancaca Garza, the mother of Leonard Garza, was a worthy descendant of the Betancourt family, and for more than half a century, contributed the noble example and influences of a good woman, wife and mother to her children and grand children. She died in 1879, in the 74th year of her age, honored by all who knew her, and loved tenderly by her extensive progeny. She left one son, three daughters, thirty-eight grandchildren, and three great grandchildren -- the latter being also the only grandchildren of the late Edward Miles, the celebrated Texas Veteran, lately deceased.
Descending, as Leonard Garza did, from parents remarkable for intelligence and all the virtues that adorn humanity, independent in fortune, hospitable and liberal in all the charities of a frontier life, it is not remarkable that he should be a man of high character, strictly honest and upright in all his dealings with his fellow-men, polite and courteous in his manners, and a refined and educated gentleman in all his associations.
Leonard Garza was educated primarily in Massachusetts, at Falmouth on the Cape, among the pilgrim sons of the Winslows, Websters, Aldens, Carvers, Crockers, etc., and was graduated from William’s College, same state, where the name of the revered martyr, President James A. Garfield, will always remain fresh and a noble example for the emulation of its students.
The incident, by which Mr. Garza received his education in Massachusetts, will be interesting, not only to his own people, but to the descendants of another man who became famous in Texas history, to-wit: the late Nat. Lewis.
In the early part of the century, Nat. Lewis left his home, in Falmouth, Massachusetts, when a youth, and with the spirit of his pilgrim ancestry, shipped in a whaling vessel. He was shipwrecked and taken to South America, from thence to New Orleans, and then to Matagorda Bay, --at Port Lavaca, where he landed, and wandered forth aimless and homeless. On this ramble, he met with Rafael Calistro Garza; and engaging in conversation, and the latter finding that Lewis had no particular object or home, invited him to mount behind him and go home with him, which Lewis readily and willingly consented to do. It was thus, in charge of Mr. Garza’s brother, who died in 1869 that the celebrated Texan soldier and patriot, Nat. Lewis, landed in San Antonio. He became prosperous and very rich, and joined in the Texan war for independence, and was at the Alamo just before the siege, but escaped and went to the Garza ranch, at the confluence of the Medina and San Antonio Rivers, but returning after the fall of the Alamo, he was recognized and sentenced to be shot, but Don Antonio de la Garza interfered and saved his life.
Mr. Lewis had been intimate with the Garza family, and, of course, this strengthened his obligations and affections for them, and he offered to send the youngest son, Leonard, after his father’s death, to school in Massachusetts for three years.
Donna Josefa de la Garza accepted the offer, and although then it was a formidable journey from San Antonio to Massachusetts, where was the ancestral homestead of Mr. Lewis, the youngster, Leonard, was too rejoiced at the opportunity to obtain such an education, to be deterred by distance. Mr. Lewis faithfully carried out this offer; and it was from the accident of this meeting of two young men on Matagorda Bay, that Leonard Garza received his education in New England.
After the three years was completed, Mrs. Garza continued the education of her son at her own expense, until the Civil War interrupted communication between the two sections, and Mr. Garza was unable to obtain funds from home to prosecute his studies, and it was just at this crisis of his life that the true metal of the man was exhibited. He was in a strange land and at college, without the means to meet his expenses. His pride forbade his applying to Mr. Lewis’ relations, and he determined to avail himself of circumstances to continue his educational course. The war opened up that opportunity in one way, while it had cut it off in another. He joined the Medical Department of the United States Navy, where he was enabled to earn and lay up a small sum of money with which he returned to his studies at Williams College, and was graduated therefrom with the class of 1865. Some evidence of his self-denial may be gained by the statement of the fact that he had only one hundred and twenty-five dollars to pay his tuition and feed and clothe himself for one year. He spent the severe New England winter, especially severe in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, having on a pair of thin Navy flannel pants, no drawers or stockings, and low quarter shoes, without bed or bedding, and sleeping under the cover of newspapers only. President Mark Hopkins, (who was an honor to American manhood,) often asked him whether he needed anything, and delicately offered his aid, but the proud boy, self-reliant and self-denying, concealing as well as he could, his destitution, always answered these offers with thanks and the assurance that he had everything he needed, and no one knew his circumstances or the hardships he endured that winter on the bleak hills of a New England coast, with the frosty teeth of a northeastern gale biting at his very vitals, but it was an experience that did him a vast amount of good and proved his ability to stand any siege of fortune to which the vicissitudes of life often subject the most prudent. It is such incidents in the lives of men that make biography the most useful reading to the rising youth of the country, and teaches them that there is no obstacle in the way of indomitable purpose of a young man that he may not hew out and clear from the track of his progress.
In justice to his Falmouth friends, it is proper to state that they did not know where he was, or else they would have forced him to accept everything needful that ample means could secure for his comfort.
Leonard Garza, at an early age exhibited a specimen of pluck and perseverance doubtless inherited from that adventurous ancestress, who, a widow and with a large family of young children, ventured into the wilderness, among the most hostile and treacherous tribes of Indians, to-wit: the Lipans, Comanches and Musquites, to rehabilitate her fortunes and establish for her sons, homes equal in area and magnificence, to the lovely domains of their ancestors.
Fortunately, about the time he graduated, a letter reached Williamstown addressed to Leonard Garza. This letter contained a draft on an English bank for forty pounds sterling. This was truly fortunate, and seemed to come as a reward for perseverance and to verify the declaration that when temptation is resisted, the tempter will leave and angels will minister to hose whose good purpose was not shaken. This draft brought the gold, and that happening in 1865 to be at a high premium, greenbacks sufficient was obtained for it to enable him to travel to his home in Texas in as comfortable a condition as the disjointed affairs of the country at that time, would allow, and he arrived at home taking his mother so much by surprise that for a moment she thought it was a brother, Lieut. Joseph R. Garza, who had been killed gallantly leading his company in a charge at the battle of Mansfield. It is due to the memory of his brother, to say that disinterested parties asserted that it was the bold stand taken by Lieutenant Garza, who was that day in command of the company, the Captain being absent, that saved the day to Southern arms, and for a long time prevented the invasion of Texas by the Union armies.
The resemblance between the brothers Garza was very notable, but in point of fact, the elder had fought his last battle and gone to that home from which no traveler returns.
From this time the love of Mrs. Garza for her living son seemed to have increased, and she gave him all the assistance in her power to make him successful and happy. After remaining with this kind and loving mother for one year, Leonard Garza made a leisurely tour of Europe, occupying a year, visiting its historical localities, its consecrated spots, its monuments, its churches, examining and studying its architecture and its history, and more especially, studying human nature, mankind, its ambitions, its passions, and its manners and tone, bent and scope of thought, in all its social and political conditions.
Storing away these topics of meditation, Mr. Garza returned to his old homestead, in which he still lives, and which was occupied respectively by his great-grandmother, his grandfather and his father, and began the pursuits of life.
As prelude to what has been his greatest earthly happiness, he married, in 1868, Carolina Callaghan, daughter of the successful merchant and useful citizen, Bryan Callaghan, of San Antonio, Texas.
From this union, nine children have been born to these parents, named respectively according to age, Josephine, Leonard, Bryan, Rodolph, Carolina, Claud, Jose Antonio, and the twins, Edward and Raphael, all of whom are living and cluster like the olive around happy old homestead.
Mr. Garza has been the pioneer and founder of many useful public enterprises, to-wit:
“Abstract of title office for Bexar County,” founder, manager and owner of the first Savings Bank in San Antonio; President of the Occidental Land Company; President, manager and chief owner of the San Antonio Safe Deposit and Trust Company, the first of the kind in San Antonio; first President of the Cross Town Railroad Company, and a number of other useful and business enterprises that have contributed to the growth and prosperity of his native city.
In religion, Mr. Garza is a Catholic, and in politics, a Democrat. He is not a member of any secret society. He takes no other interest in politics, than to warrant intelligent action in the affairs of the country.
He still owns some of the ancestral acres left by his father, and is in possession of an ample fortune to educate his children and maintain a refined style of living in accordance with his tastes and acquirements.
He has been highly blessed in his married relations, and in a home of every luxury, surrounded by a growing and contented family, with the respect and esteem of his neighbors and friends and acquaintances, and with a consciousness that he has acted his part in this world in an honest and manly manner, he calmly and serenely awaits the inevitable hour when he shall enter that haven where all is peace and love.