Jose Antonio Navarro Ranch
N 29° 38.424 W 097° 58.026
14R E 599980 N 3279385
Jose Antonio Navarro owned a ranch nearby where his family stayed during the time he was gone fighting in the Texas Revolution. He was a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence.
Waymark Code: WMZRYD
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 12/30/2018
Views: 4
Jose Antonio Navarro was a man of action, along with several of his immediate family members! His father was a successful San Antonio merchant who was elected for a term as its Mayor. As a teenager, Jose Navarro joined the Gutierrez-Magee expedition that tried to free Mexico from Spanish rule, but failed. For several years, Navarro fled to the United States until safe to return. When he got back in 1821, he became friends with Stephen F Austin who was settling a land grant with 300 families.
Navarro became a politician when he won a seat to the legislature of the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas. Later, he won a seat to the Mexican National Congress! While there, he promoted colonization of Texas and its statehood with Mexico. However, in 1836, Navarro broke with Mexico and supported the Texas Independence movement. He was one of three Mexicans to sign the Texas Declaration of Independence and was one of the authors of the Constitution of the Republic of Texas.
During the Republic of Texas era, Navarro became a representative of the Texas Congress and voiced the concerns for his fellow Tejanos. He was a supporter of Mirabeau B. Lamar. In 1941, Navarro was appointed as a commissioner of a disastrous expedition to develop trade between the Republic of Texas and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Jose Navarro was arrested by Mexican authorities and charged with treason. He was jailed under horrid conditions in Vera Crus, NM but managed to escape and returned to the Republic of Texas.
By 1845, Navarro was again politically active and was the only Tejano at the Convention of 1845, where he helped draft the first State Constitution as Texas joined the United States. However, by 1861, Navarro and his four sons supported secession from the US and all of them joined the Confederate Army. He survived the Civil War but died on January 13, 1871 at the age of 76.
Marker Number: 2852
Marker Text:
Born in San Antonio, Jose Antonio Navarro (1795-1871) held several offices in the Mexican government before becoming an active participant in the movement for Texas independence. Owner of numerous land holdings in this part of the state, Navarro purchased land along Geronimo Creek (approx. 1.2 mi. E) for farming and ranching activities in 1834. The ranch house served as a haven for his family during his captivity by the Mexican militia in 1841 until his return to the ranch in 1845. A signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, Navarro owned the ranch until 1853.
(1986, 1998)
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