Chapter 4: San Angelo, Texas
The
drive from Austin’s Bergstrom-International
Airport to San Angelo took Father Mark and his
friend over six hours, including a stop in Fredericksburg. Fortunately, a member of his
diocese had business in Austin that morning and had
volunteered to pick him up at the airport. Images of
Vrindavan, Rama, and his new friends were still
fresh in Father Mark’s mind—the exotic flavors of the food,
smells and sounds all pleasant memories.
photo by:
Gopak devi dasi
photo by:
Gopak devi dasi
photo by:
Gopak devi dasi
Vrindavan, India
photos by: Tulasi-Tosika d.d.
and Purusottam das
visit:
www.kadamba.net
photo by:
Gopak devi dasi
photo by:
Gopak devi dasi
photo by:
Gopak devi dasi
From
Fredericksburg their car headed on a
straight line due west, but in fact, highway 87 also
meanders its way north—slowing to a crawl at times
through little towns such as Mason, Brady and
Eden.
After Eden, the last 45 minutes of their journey
witnessed the end of the Texas Hill Country, sending
their car down into a massive plain, filled mostly
with mesquite trees, cotton fields, an occasional farm house,
and of course, cotton gins. Some of the farms
are abandoned—remnants of long forgotten homesteads from the
Great Depression. As
far as the eye can see the land is mostly flat.
Start of the elevation drop from the Texas Hill Country
into
the San Angelo Valley
photo by: The Author
Cotton Gin, San Angelo, Texas
photo by: The Author
Times Gone By
photo by: The Author
Even
though Father Mark was a history teacher, eighteen
months ago he wouldn’t have even known that the
earliest history of San Angelo could be traced to
the start of the 17th century, penned by
a Franciscan monk who reported that in 1632, ten
thousand Christianized Indians were gathered within
the present day city limits of San Angelo
asking to be baptized! That piece of history he had
discovered right before his trip to India and inwardly he was still reeling
from it. Why was that never taught to me?
Mark had asked himself that at least a half dozen times.
No, instead of going back that far in history, Father Mark started his classes on far more familiar
ground, telling his students that in 1867 the United
States government established Fort Concho to
protect the frontier from the savage Indians. That
was where his official lesson-planner started. Next
he would have mentioned how the fort became famous
for its Black Cavalry, known as the Buffalo Soldiers.
Buffalo Soldier, 9th Calvary
Wikipedia
Actual Ruins of a Fort Concho Barracks
photo by: The Author
Fort Concho Barracks (Reconstructed)
photo by: The Author
Fort Concho Headquarters (reconstructed)
photo by: The Author
Fort Concho Soldiers buried in San Angelo, Texas
photo by: The Author
Following the establishment of Fort Concho,
the first proper buildings in San Angelo began to appear and
the city soon underwent rapid expansion after the
arrival of the Santa Fe Railway in 1888.
Main Street became famous for its brothels, saloons
and gambling. Then during the 20th
century, the small city saw continued growth,
spurred on by various influences. For example,
a tuberculosis
outbreak across America brought about another influx
in her population as people moved into San Angelo’s
dry climate for a cure. This was followed in
1928 by the
establishment of San Angelo College
and after that, Goodfellow Air Force Base.
Before long, large deposits of natural gas and oil were also
discovered, triggering even more growth. Actor Fess
Parker grew up on a ranch near San Angelo and
the country music giant, Ernest Tubb lived and worked
there for several years.
Rare Historical Photograph of Downtown San Angelo,
Texas (1880s)
photo by: The Author
Santa Fe Train Station, San Angelo, Texas
photo by: The Author
Actual Location of Saloon and Brothel (San Angelo, Texas)
photo by: The Author
The
history of San Angelo with her dashing young
officers at Fort Concho is certainly colorful but
as Father Mark discovered, nothing about this West Texas City can match the
story of the original inhabitants, who lived there long before the
fort was ever built. Even the two Spanish
priests who first visited San Angelo were amazed at what they saw
and
surely, they, too, wondered what had really
happened there. After all,
this
vast area is considered by most historians as being unexplored until
the late 1650s when Hernan Martin and Diego del
Castillo first arrived.
Unless,
of course, nearly one hundred years earlier, Francisco
Vasquez de Coronado (1510–1554) and his expedition
to Texas
had visited San Angelo but had forgotten to
mention it—but
that is highly unlikely.
Regarding Martin and Castillo, their
interests were rather unique and were strictly focused on the freshwater mussel
shells of the Rio Concho River and the pink colored pearls that can be pried out of them. These
two men
were in San Angelo strictly for the
money. In fact, Concho pearls from this era
can still be found in the possession of Spanish royalty back in Spain
and today, if you take a walk along Main Street,
inside the Legend Jewelry store you can still buy a
pair of pearl earrings, harvested from the same
freshwater mussels that were discovered in San
Angelo over 350 years ago.
Rio Concho River, San Angelo, Texas
photo by: The Author
Authentic
Concho Pearls and Mussel Shell found in the Rio
Concho River
Compliments of:
Legend Jewelers
photo by: The Author
No, what makes this story so interesting is that instead of the incomplete history that most people
read about, Father Mark had
accidently discovered that a more accurate account
is that the first Spaniard to step foot in San Angelo were
not
the two pearl merchants—and
not even the two Spanish
padres mentioned earlier, who were the honored guests of the Jumano
Indians.
No, there was another person involved and
this was a great mystery that had to be solved.
Again referring to Spanish records, not only did the Indians from this
unexplored territory (San Angelo) know
the exact location of
the San Agustin Mission in New Mexico
and the priests who
lived there,
they also knew about water baptism and the basics of
Catholicism—and
they all carried small wooden crosses.
Even more astounding, they also spoke lovingly about
their spiritual guide—but
that
was a
person who would have been strictly forbidden by
Spanish law to be living anywhere in the New World. So this is
a short introduction to the actual history of San Angelo that had shaken Father Mark to his very core—and the first
person to ever visit it.
Everyone else came later.
Mr.
Penrose—Mark’s father—sat in his favorite chair
next to his phone at the Rio Concho Manor where he
had moved to after his wife, and Mark’s mother, had
passed away. As an only child, his son was really
all that he had left in the world, besides a few
acquaintances at The Manor and around town. When
you reach 81, going on 90, most of your family and
friends have passed away.
View from The Manor's 9th Floor
photo by: The Author
But
Mr.
Penrose
considered himself one of the lucky ones. Other
than the constant ringing in his ears from all the
years he had been around aircraft, Mark’s dad felt
that he was still in pretty good shape. He also
felt that selling his large house on South Harrison
had turned out to be a great decision, freeing him
from all the headaches involved when you own your
own home at an old age. Plus it gave him more than
enough money—plenty to pay for his son’s trip to
India.
For
less than five hundred dollars a month Mr. Penrose
had everything at The Manor he needed, without
any of the clutter—bills paid and two square meals
a day. Downtown was literally a five-minute walk
from his front door and
with his binoculars, the rectory where Mark
lived was clearly visible from the windows of his 9th
floor apartment.
And to get around town and beyond, Mr. Penrose could
always rely on his 1989 Isuzu Trooper.
photo by: The Author
Rectory is to the right of bell tower
photo by: The Author
Checking his watch, Mr. Penrose expected his son to
knock at any moment. He had not seen Mark since he
had left for India and they had a lot to talk about. It had
been a long time since Mr. Penrose had been so excited
to see anyone. The knock on his door came about
4:30 in the afternoon.
