Show SAN A N ANTONIO ON THIRD CENTURY CEN Fully texas city claims municipal P al existence equaled in length by few washington san antonio texas city of population lias has ju juar r celebrated the passage of year since it was founded with a hand band fui fill of colonists as a villa or civil settlement of king ferdinand III of nf spain only se sean cities of tilt tha united states that have reached the JOO population mark cau can claim such a long period of municipal existence according to a bul letin from the nati national onal geographic society the little spanish and mexican town was so remote from the american communities along the atlantic coast and their extensions extension into the mississippi valley say says S the bulletin that it nas existed under its alcade and council for three quarters of a century almost unk unknown to people of the united states slates before the forts that hat grew into natalo and chicago blu ago we were re es en the texas had approximately half a century of history behind it when the first settlements were made at san francisco and los angeles the settlement at the SI site te of san antonio really camp came into being 13 years before the municipality was established so that the corn com has existed tor for years the first white while men came to live there here in 1718 the same year in which new orleans was born these pioneers were franciscan friars who tramped overland across deserts and wilderness for miles from settled communities in me mex leo ico they established their mis slon sion on the banks of nabat ft hat Is now the san antonio river ond some years later built on the spot the tl e mission church of san antonio de valero ny by a strange fate this church lost its name and became the historic alamo cut but its name on the other hand was passed on to the river city of today tod ay iy alamo Is shrine the alamo still stands in sin san antonio facing its palm shaded plaza it is owned by the state government and is a shrine to tex tes ans because during the war of texas independence against me mes fco its entire garrison of texan soldiers refusing to surrender were annihilated buffering bif differing fering from most american communities the lie settlement tha became san antonio had in the early days a threefold aspect religious ligi ous military and civi the settlements tle ments were actually separate al a though within a few thousand yards of each other the mission of san antonio de valero the presidio or fort of san antonio de baxer and the villa or town of san fernando eventually th the three ethree settlements were merged all three names are preserved today sa san n antonio in the city and river bexar in the county and san fernando in the beautiful twin cathedral of spanish architecture that rises above the main plaza for the first century and a quarter of its existence san antonio was almost wholly a spanish and mexican town its better buildings were low flat roofed mud brick adobe structures and its poorer ones were jacala Ja cals the humble stick and mud and straw shelters of the poorer poorer mexicans tins immigration set in after texas joined tle the united states stales in 1845 and by the outbreak of the civil war the population tinn was v 8 S approximately one third mexican one third american and one third german up to tills this time san antonio had been on the frontier beyond was a wilderness of mesquite esquite rn bushes after the civil war this wilderness ild erness was opened up by ranchers for great herds or cattle with the arrival of railways in the late seventies and early eighties of the past century the city began a rapid growth that has eradicated most of the marks of mexican vil lage and cow town and has trans formed it into a modern amerl can city where one sairy adobes acobes stood the city now has its hundreds hundred of eight and ten story buildings and a fewer fenner number of st structures ruptures ruc tures that tower tover thirty odd stories above the adobe level form link with past strung out to the south down the san antonio liver valley for nine line anlie is a series 0 of f tour four nils slon sion churches partly ruined that thai we were re built about the time lime of the erection of the alamo about enci of these cling legends ot of the jays days when spanish padres beamed ot of christianizing the savage indians of texas and malting making them into communities of agri agriculturists cult urlet S the san antonio river meandering through the heart of the city gives to san antonio a flavor all its own a flavor more dutch than spanish As this clear little streams winds along it Is cr crossed osted by more than four score bridges traversing the busiest streets the pedestrian will ond find many times nu an unexpected glimpse to the right or left of lush lawns set with tr trailing alling willows sloping down to a narrow ribbon of water the sin san antonio river springs full grown from great springs within the city limits it Is a small sh stream earn and has been supplied with will a cement bed and banks throughout most of the business district local drat drainage inage Is carefully excluded from it and its little valley shaded by semi rem trop ical foliage and brightened by beds of lowers flowers forms a continuous park |