Greed, Race and Salt: The El Paso Salt War

 

Salt is Life, and Money

For centuries, salt was an essential part of daily living. Before refrigeration, salt was needed to dry-cure meat and fish to prevent spoilage, especially during winter months when game wasn’t readily available or when feeding large bodies of people on the move, such as an army or a cattle drive. It was also used to cure animal hides, provide a dietary supplement, and add spice to a bland meal. During times of drought in northern Mexico and the crop failures that followed, salt was a source of income. Resourceful Mexican villagers, braving desert heat and marauding Apaches, gathered salt from the salt lakes a hundred miles east of present day El Paso. The salt lakes were shallow lakes with high concentrations of salts at the base of Guadalupe Peak. The salt was poured into barrels, loaded on to wagons, and then peddled in the villages of Mexico’s interior. Mexicans firmly believed the salt lakes were communal property, open to all free of charge, and regardless of the U.S.-Mexico boundary. American businessmen in El Paso felt otherwise. 

Luis Cardiz and Charles Howard

Enter The Gringo

In 1877, El Paso was called Franklin and its sister city south of the Rio Grande was called El Paso del Norte, later changed to Juarez. The expanse of the West Texas desert isolated this narrow point of the Rio Grande Valley to where it was more a part of New Mexico than a part of Texas. Only 80 non-Mexican residents lived among the over 5,000 Mexicans, who spoke no English and had little understanding of American laws and customs, especially the concept of private property. In their minds, they were Mexican, not American nor Texan, with no compunction to adapt.

Into this troubled mix stepped Charles H. Howard, a Confederate veteran and lawyer from Missouri seeking wealth and political stature in El Paso. A Democrat in a mostly Republican region, Howard was a formidable presence with the physique and condescending attitude to match. To get the political power he craved, he needed the Mexican vote. That could only come from two men: a Texas state representative from El Paso County named Luis (or the more honorable Don Luis) Cardis and a Mexican priest with a lingering contempt for Americans - Father Antonio Borajo. 

Cardis, an Italian immigrant, spoke excellent Spanish and had lived in El Paso since 1864. Rotund, nattily dressed, and supporting a black mustache and chin whiskers, he enjoyed the support of the Mexican community on both sides of the border, and more important, the support of Father Borajo, who often used his position to shield himself from public scrutiny and issued church canons to attain personal ends, especially when it came to money.

 

Through the influence of Cardis and Borajo, Howard won the El Paso County election for district attorney followed later by an appointment to the office of district judge. Cardis was elected to the state legislature. This political coupling came to a crashing demise over ownership of the salt lakes near Guadalupe Peak.

Exit the Calm

The fight over the El Paso salt lakes began in the late 1860’s when El Paso businessmen and locals W. W. Mills, Albert J. Fountain, Luis Cardis, and Father Borajo tried to acquire title to the salt lakes.  Known collectively as “The Salt Ring,” they seemed to have the inside track in getting a title but were stymied when Fountain tried to gain title for himself and the El Paso community. In response, Cardis and Mills formed “The Anti-Salt Ring.” If things weren’t bad enough, Howard sought title through his father-in-law, former Confederate officer Major George Zimpleman, an influential Texas statesman and businessman who once owned the LBJ Ranch. After Zimpleman obtained title, Howard became his agent-in-charge. In no time at all, Howard publicly announced the salt was no longer free. Needless to say, the Mexican community exploded. Even more so when Howard had two men arrested in the town of San Elizario for vowing to gather salt without paying him. Things only grew worse from there. 

Mob Law

One of the arrested men admitted guilt in vowing to take salt before being turned over to Sheriff Charles Kerber in Ysleta - the county seat of El Paso County. A mob of 400 to 500 armed Mexicans from both sides of the border gathered in San Elizario and demanded the county judge and justice of the peace issue a warrant for the arrest of Charles Howard.  With no arrest forthcoming and having no understanding of the Texas legal process, the mob arrested the county judge and justice of the peace instead. Advancing on Ysleta, the mob arrested Sheriff Kerber and Howard, who was found hiding in Kerber’s house. Among the mob members, a junta was formed led by the influential Francisco “Chico” Barela. In return for his life, the burly Howard was forced to sign a document promising he would open the salt lakes to all until a court ruling was passed, not prosecute his abductors, and leave Texas in 24 hours - never to return. To guarantee these promises, Howard had to post a $12,000 bond backed by local merchants in San Elizario. Enraged, he departed for Mesilla, just across the New Mexican border. He believed Cardiz supported the junta and was responsible for his arrest. Needless to say, Howard wanted him dead.

  

Residents of Mesilla and El Paso began to fear an invasion from Mexico was forthcoming. Texas Governor Richard B. Hubbard was pressured to send troops, but few were available since nearby Fort Bliss had been abandoned for the past nine months. Those available were thirty African American cavalrymen guarding a detail erecting a telegraph line from Mesilla to El Paso. Under Lieutenant Louis H. Rucker, twenty of the cavalrymen were dispatched to San Elizario to prevent any armed incursions from Mexico. During a meeting with the junta, Rucker was assured there would be no further disturbances, and the judge and justice of the peace would be released. The unrest seemed to be subsiding. Contemptuous of any Mexican threats, Charles Howard, however, kept fanning the flames.

The Death of Cardiz

On October 7, 1877, Howard rode into El Paso accompanied by Rucker’s twenty troopers. Armed with a double-barreled shotgun, he strode into Solomon Schulz’s general store. Upon seeing Howard, a startled Don Luis Cardiz rose from his rocking chair before Howard fired two loads of buckshot into his stomach and chest. By killing Cardiz and breaking his bonded pledge, Howard reignited the uprising. Once again, El Paso County was approaching anarchy. This time Governor Hubbard contacted the Texas Rangers.

Major John B. Jones

Ersatz Rangers

Major John B. Jones didn’t look like your typical Texas Ranger. Short and dapper, he looked more like a Wall Street financier than a weather-beaten Texas frontiersman. What he lacked in physical appearance, he made up for with efficiency and a knack for mediation. Although he garnered wide acclaim for cleaning up crime ridden Kimble County, he entered the salt fray at a decisive disadvantage - inexperienced and unreliable local manpower to assist him. Working alone, he tried negotiation instead. Shortly after arriving in El Paso by railroad and stagecoach through three different states, Jones set out for San Elizario on November 7, 1877. He found a town in turmoil. The local merchants that had put up the bond money for Howard’s release were fortified in a store, surrounded by an angry mob of Mexicans from both sides of the border demanding collection of the bond money and the arrest of Howard for murdering Cardiz. Jones assured the Junta that he would arrest Howard, and a court would try him as well as settle the dispute over the salt lakes. He also informed them that he was going to raise a Ranger company, which totally irked the Junta. They claimed no Mexican would serve in his company but, they wouldn’t stir up any more trouble. The Ranger company Jones raised was mostly inexperienced as well as unqualified, men more interested in a paycheck than protecting Texas from an armed insurrection. Their leader, Lieutenant Johnny B. Tays, was a local handyman whose only qualities were honesty and willingness. He would need more than that in San Elizario.   

Jones arranged for Howard to come to El Paso and submit to arrest. On November 16, 1877, Howard appeared before the local justice of the peace who set bail at $4,000 and commanded him to appear at the district court in El Paso in March,1878. Meanwhile, some forty Mexicans drove their carts to the salt lakes.  Howard foolishly set out to intercept them and serve legal papers to sequester the salt they gathered. Accompanied by ten of Tays’ Rangers, he arrived in San Elizario only to be forced to shelter in Charles Ellis’ store.   

Lt. Johnny Tays

Tays’ Dilemma

Needing assistance, Tays alerted the local federal army officer, Captain Thomas Blair, who had recently replaced Rucker.  Captain Blair and twenty African American cavalrymen set out for San Elizario, only to be turned back by armed Mexicans and unfounded assurances from the growing mob that every Mexican present was a resident of the county and not Mexico. Therefore, it was up to local and state authorities, not Federal troops, to quell the uprising. Meanwhile, Charlie Ellis tried to reason with the Mexicans after leaving the safety of his store. A man on horseback threw a lasso around him and then dragged him down the street. Not satisfied with an extended dragging, the rider dismounted and slashed Ellis’ throat. Hays made his way to the nearby Ranger quarters where Tays and his men were barricaded. The Rangers positioned themselves on the roof and nearby corral.

Texas Rangers

The Salt War Erupts

On December 13, 1877, the Rangers awoke to an enraged, well-armed force of mounted and unmounted Mexicans. Merchant John Atkinson arrived with $11,000 for Howard’s bond. He told the Rangers they had three hours to surrender Howard or they would be attacked. While patrolling the town, Ranger Sergeant Charles E. Mortimer was shot in the back before being carried back to the Ranger quarters. He died that evening.  A gun battle began in earnest. Four of the attackers were shot down. After five days, the gunfire subsided when Howard decided to surrender himself to the mob.  "I will go," he said, "as it is the only chance to save your lives, but they will kill me." Taking their cue from Howard, Tays’ Rangers also surrendered; the only time in the Texas Rangers’ storied history that a detachment of Rangers surrendered. Howard, his agent John E. McBride, and local merchant John G. Atkinson were shot by a firing squad. A mass looting of San Elizario's’ stores followed.

The Salt War Ends

Within a few days several detachments of troops and a posse of mostly freebooters, if not outlaws, from Silver City, New Mexico descended on San Elizario.  More interested in looting and plundering, the freebooters killed four men, wounded several others, and committed a number of outrages along the way. The leaders of the mob and many of their followers fled to Mexico. No one was arrested and no trials were held. A congressional investigation was conducted, but no action followed except the reestablishment of Fort Bliss, which remains a major U.S. Army base today. The salt, with no objections nor uprisings, was no longer free. 

El Paso Salt Flats

Check It Out

Check out the book "The El Paso Salt War,1877" by C.L. Sonnichsen. This is a short but good account of the El Paso Salt War. What makes this subject so fascinating is the conflict between centuries-old Spanish customs and practices versus good ole U.S. business greed.  

The Three Sides of Adrian Vidal

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Adrian Vidal

Loss and Isolation

In a civil war of diverse personalities, ranging from larger than life to barely mentionable, one of the most unusual was a Tejano Confederate officer named Adrian Vidal.  Born in 1838, in Monterey, Mexico, to the eighteen-year-old daughter of a Mexican provincial governor and a forty-one-year-old officer in the Mexican army, Vidal grew up in the northern Mexico town of Matamoros, located on the Rio Grande River across from Brownsville, Texas. His father, Luis, died from cholera and his grandfather was accidently killed by Lipan Apaches. Fortunately, Vidal’s mother, Petra, inherited the fortunes of her late husband and her father.  Now well-off, she and her eight children moved to Brownsville, where she met wealthy rancher and entrepreneur Mifflin Kenedy.  Raised a Quaker and of Irish descent, Kenedy was smitten with the attractive Petra and married her in 1852 at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Brownsville. Being in a new family amidst a growing Anglo population was difficult for Adrian. Having a schoolmaster that referred to Mexicans as “vermin on the skirts of civilization – a complete pest to humanity” didn’t help his attitude toward school, much less his Anglo neighbors. With his mother occupied with a new husband, and bearing his children, Adrian was becoming isolated and resentful.

Serving The Confederacy

Under the guidance of his stepfather, Vidal became a steamboat pilot on the Rio Grande. During that time, he gained valuable knowledge on both sides of the river that would serve him well during the Civil War. When he wasn’t helming a steamboat, he was a habitual gambler and drunkard who spent many hours at the Miller Hotel in Brownsville, running up his debt. At twenty-one, Vidal enlisted in the Confederate army as a private. He quickly rose through the ranks to become captain of a calvary unit. Mostly Mexican, they became known as Vidal’s Partisans, assigned to guard the mouth of the Rio Grande. Vidal became frustrated at the lack of supplies (made worse by a severe drought in South Texas), obtaining supplies, and the problem he had communicating with fellow officers in English. Problems aside, he managed to capture a Union gunboat in July 1863, gaining praise for his bravery.  Nevertheless, a lingering frustration with the lack of supplies and prejudice against his Tejano command boiled over into rage.

 

Serving The Union

Aware of an approaching Union invasion force and the possibility the Rio Grande valley would fall under Union control, Vidal and his men mutinied. On October 6, 1863, the Confederate commander of Brownsville, General Hamilton Bee, dispatched two men, Private D.H. Dashiel (son of the Texas Adjutant General) and Private Jerry Literal, to find Vidal and order him and his men to Brownsville to assist in defending, and more likely evacuating the city.  Upon finding Vidal, they were invited to supper at his camp. Instead, they were shot, killing Dashiel and wounding Litteral in the face. Litteral barely managed to ride his horse to Brownsville, bearing the unfortunate news about Vidal. Too wounded to talk, he scribbled on a piece of paper on what he discovered. Bee panicked at the news before dispatching Lt. Jack Vinton and ten men from Brownsville to find Vidal and ascertain his intentions. Heading toward the Gulf Coast, they encountered him and one hundred of his fellow mutineers, now referred to as “Vidalistas.” Vinton exchanged fire with Vidal and then retreated back to within a mile from Brownsville. It became obvious that Vidal was going to attack Brownsville. Crying “Muerte a los Americanos,” they instead diverted to the west of Brownsville, plundering ranches and killing ten along a nine-mile stretch of the Rio Grande. Three companies of the 33^rd Texas Cavalry arrived in Brownsville on October 29. They were immediately ordered to pursue Vidal. Before they could reach him, Vidal and his men crossed the Rio Grande into Matamoros.  Confused and furious over the weird turn of events, Bee claimed Vidal was acting under the orders of the U.S. Consul in Matamoros and had formed an alliance with Texas Unionists in Mexico. Even worse, he may have teamed up with Juan Cortina, a disgruntled Mexican rancher, politician, and folk hero, known for his ongoing war against Anglo politicians, and law enforcement officials that committed injustices against Tejanos. Known as “The Robin Hood of South Texas,” Cortina had once occupied Brownsville before the war, until he was driven out by the U.S. Army and Texas Rangers.

In November 1863, Union troops invaded the Texas coast near the mouth of the Rio Grande.  Brownsville was occupied along with the length of the Rio Grande to Laredo. Weeks later, Vidal enlisted in the U.S. Army and commissioned a captain in the Union 2^nd Texas Cavalry Regiment. On February 27, 1864, Vidal married Ana M. de Chavero at the Immaculate Conception Church in Brownsville. Now in command of the newly formed Vidal’s Independent Partisan Rangers, Vidal carried his anger and frustration over to the Union side.  In May 1864, he attacked a column of cotton wagons in Mexico but was repulsed by Mexican troops guarding the column.  Scouting duty didn’t help his moral when he was ordered to fill out his activity reports in English, a language he couldn’t speak nor write.  Vidal wrote, “I find myself incompetent to carry on the company books as I do not understand nor have anybody in my company to understand the English language for this purpose.”

 

Serving Juarez

 

Resentful of having to serve under Anglo officers and wanting to spend more time with his wife, he sought a discharge. When it wasn’t forthcoming, he deserted, along with many of his men. Vidal was now a deserter from the Confederate and Union armies. Eventually he became a Juarista, serving alongside his mentor - Cortina. French troops under the Imperial Mexican Emperor Maximillian were approaching Matamoros. If Matamoros fell, Cortina, who supported Benito Juarez and his reformist government, would likely be executed.  Known for switching sides when it best suited his survival, Cortina approached U.S. Consul in Matamoros, Leonard Pierce. In return for capturing Brownsville, he asked to be commissioned a brigadier general in the U.S. Army. The Federals refused his offer. Instead, he sided with the Imperialists. Vidal left Matamoros to continue fighting for Juarez. Unfortunately, he was captured by the imperialists. Charged with treason, he was shot by a firing squad and later buried at Matamoros.

 

Check It Out

Check out the book “Vaqueros in Blue and Gray” by Jerry D. Thompson. It’s a badly needed study on the contributions of Hispanics during the Civil War. Thompson is the leading  authority on South Texas during the Civil War.

The Failed Colony of Delores

Early Texas Colony

Sarah’s Dream

Like many Europeans, Sarah Ann Horn believed a better life awaited in the New World. Born and raised in industrial England, she married John Horn, a lowly mercantile worker with whom she had two children. During the 1830’s, a number of British circulars and newspapers advertised for colonists to settle in a burgeoning region of Mexico - Texas. Induced by the offer of 177 acres, John, Sarah, and their two infant sons set sail for New York, arriving on August 27, 1833. Ten weeks later, the Horns and fifty-five fellow colonists sailed from New York to Texas on the two-masted ship Amos Wright. The colonists were a mixed lot of Americans, British and Germans. They couldn’t have imagined the hardships they were about to face.

Rio Grande River

Dr. Beales’ Colony

Since 1823, English physician Dr. John Charles Beales was the company doctor for a British-backed mining company in Mexico. He later established a private practice in Mexico City.  On August 3, 1830, he married María Dolores Soto y Saldaña, the widow of Richard Exeter, an English merchant and land speculator. Exeter left his wife two enormous land grants in northwest Texas, southeast Colorado, and eastern New Mexico. Beales took over the management of those grants. From there, he and various partners acquired several colonial grants totaling more than 50 million acres. Most of them were sold and transferred over to New York based land companies. Beales, and his partner James Grant, helped form the Rio Grande and Texas Land Company after acquiring two tracts in the Texas region between the Rio Grande and Nueces Rivers. Based on the terms of his grant, Beales and 800 families were to settle there.

The Empresario Game

All of the Texas land grants were the result of the Mexican Federal Colonization Law of 1824. Enacted by the Mexican State of Coahuila and Texas, the purpose was to bring in settlers that would stimulate the economy in the areas they settled and act as a buffer against marauding Comanches. For a modest fee, a settler could obtain free land, provided he lived on it and improved it. Empresarios, such as Stephen F. Austin, could receive five leagues (22,140 acres) of grazing land and five labors (885 acres) of farmland for each 100 families brought to their grants within six years. The challenge was to find the colonists, find a suitable site (preferably near fresh water) for the colonists to settle on, and find the funds for purchasing supplies and the means to transport them.

Oxcart

The Colonists Arrive

On December 12,1833, Beales and his fellow colonists set up camp at Copano on the Texas coast. From there, they would travel to Goliad followed by San Antonio and ending at Las Moras Creek, in present day Maverick County, near the Rio Grande River.  The trip would be made by oxcart; an extremely slow means of travel made slower by incessant rain that turned dirt roads into quagmires. Beale’s grant was reached the following year on February 28. Unfortunately, the grant was mostly a desert region until they reached Los Moras Creek. No sooner had they reached the creek when a thunderstorm struck and blew away the tents they had erected for shelter. It was the beginning of a series of misfortunes that would plague the new colony. Nevertheless, on March 30,1824, the colonists, having laid out the streets and placing a cornerstone for a church, took an oath to Mexico and its constitution. The town was christened Dolores, in honor of Beales' wife.

Rattlesnake

Blues for Delores

As the days passed, it became evident that Beales was totally unfamiliar with the region his grant included.  To begin with, the dry terrain and climate offered little to sustain a colony. The area was infested with rattlesnakes. The high temperatures meant little rain for crops unless irrigation was utilized. Until crops were harvested and supplies transported in, the colonists subsisted on the shelled corn they had brought with them. Boiled into a palatable mush, it was served with corn bread and corn coffee. The occasional deer and wild turkey from hunting were welcome additions. All other food items had to be purchased 70 miles west across the Rio Grande at San Patricio. Another deficiency was the lack of wood to build homes. Most of the wood was mesquite, suitable for campfires but totally unsuitable for building homes. Cedar was available forty miles away, but couldn’t be hauled back in large loads. If things weren’t bad enough, there were the Comanches. Unlike the other colonies, Delores was too remote from the protective umbrella offered by East Texas settlers and their muskets. As fate would have it, Delores was established on an invasion route used by Comanches to invade and pillage northern Mexico.    

The Need for a Buck

The most vexing problem was money.  Drafts issued by Beals' land company could not be cashed because of the lack of specie in Texas. Shortly after their arrival, Beales had to journey to Matamoros and New York to seek more funds, leaving the colony in the hands incompetent subordinates, who tried to regiment the colonists but only increased their ire. The potential sale of the colony’s produce wasn’t possible because the soil was too poor to grow crops.  Even worse, the Rio Grande was too shallow for steamboats to transport Delores’ produce to markets downriver.

German Settlers

The Problem with the Germans

Matters came to a head when the German colonists threatened to leave Delores. In order to entice the Germans to go to Texas, Beals offered to pay for their transport if they would agree to work for the colony five days a week, which included building defensive structures to hold off any Comanche attacks, This left them with only two days a week to work on their new homes. The German’s leader, Ludecus, argued with colony officials over the lack of pay and the Germans’ working hours which the officials always tried to increase. Added to the heated arguments were warnings of Comanche attacks from Mexican troops that accompanied the colonists. 

Santa Anna

The Fall of Delores

By October 1834, most of the colonists had packed their ox carts and left Delores. Beales brought in more colonists. Saw and grist mills were established while fields for planting crops were plowed and seeded. Hopes for success were dashed in February 1836 with the news of Santa Anna’s invasion of Texas. Fearing his relentless advance against Anglo settlers, the colonists departed in several groups. Some went across the Rio Grande to San Patricio, only to be called rebels by the Mexican authorities, who confiscated their possessions. Others traveled back to Copano on the Texas coast or joined up with Sam Houston’s army. 

Beales never made the fortune he hoped to make from his land grants. He returned to the medical profession, setting up a practice in New York City. He died on July 25, 1878. His wife Delores died earlier in 1873.

Comanche Warrior

Sarah’s Nightmare

One wagon train, which included the hapless Sarah Horn, was captured and massacred by the Comanches. Horn’s husband was killed and her two sons were adopted by the Comanches. Sarah became a slave, preparing buffalo hides and sewing garments under the watchful eyes of abusive Comanche women. She later wrote about the hardships faced by Comanche woman, “At the camp, she has to do it all; to provide the fuel, to fetch the water, to dress the buffalo skins, to dig the grave, and bury the dead. Her lordly master will seldom so much as turn himself, to get a drink of water, or to get his moccasins, or indeed anything he might please to want. In all of the above, he speaks, and is instantly obeyed.” After a year and six months, she was purchased by New Mexican traders. In August 1838, Sarah joined a trading caravan out of Taos that was heading for Missouri. She never saw her sons again and later died in Independence, Missouri from the effects of her captivity. 

Check It Out

Check out the book “Comanche Bondage” by Carl Coke Rister (University of Nebraska Press). I doubt there has ever been a colony more poorly placed and at such a bad time than Delores.